She is a most sweet lady. Boyet. Not unlike, sir, that may be. [Exit Long. Biron. What's her name in the cap? Boyet. Rosaline, by good hap. Biron. Is she wedded or no? adieu. Boyet. To her will, sir, or so. you. lord: Not a word with him but a jest. Boyet. And every jest but a word. Prin. It was well done of you to take him at his word. Boyet. I was as willing to grapple as he was to board. Mar. Two hot sheeps, marry. Boyet. And wherefore not ships? No sheep, sweet lamb, unless we feed on your lips. Mar. You sheep, and I pasture: shall that finish the jest? Boyet. So you grant pasture for me. Mar. [Offering to kiss her. Not so, gentle beast: My lips are no common, though several they be. Boyet. Belonging to whom? To my fortunes and me. This quibble (repeated in Two Gentle men, i. 1. 72 f., Com. of Errors, iv. 1.) was somewhat easier in Shakespeare's day, the i in ship being probably the short ee of Fr. fini, not the modern Eng. i. 210 220 223. several, private, enclosed land, as opposed to the common land. Maria means 'my lips are no common pasture though they are, to be sure, a private one' (with a quibble on the sense of several separate). 452680 Prin. Good wits will be jangling; but, gentles, agree: This civil war of wits were much better used On Navarre and his book-men; for here 'tis abused. Boyet. If my observation, which very seldom By the heart's still rhetoric disclosed with eyes, Prin. With what? Boyet. With that which we lovers entitle affected. Prin. Your reason? Boyet. Why, all his behaviours did make their To the court of his eye, peeping thorough desire: press'd, Proud with his form, in his eye pride express'd: Did point you to buy them, along as you pass'd: 236. like an agate, from the figures carved upon agates in rings. 238. impatient to speak and not see, provoked at being merely 230 240 able to speak, and not to see, like the eye. 245. point, prompt. 246. His face's own margent, etc., an allusion to the practice of giving quotations in the margin. An you give him for my sake but one loving kiss. I only have made a mouth of his eye, By adding a tongue which I know will not lie. Mar. He is Cupid's grandfather and learns Ros. Then was Venus like her mother, for her father is but grim. Boyet. Do you hear, my mad wenches? 250 Enter ARMADO and MOTH. Arm. Warble, child; make passionate my sense of hearing. Moth. Concolinel. [Singing. Arm. Sweet air! Go, tenderness of years; take this key, give enlargement to the swain, bring 249. disposed, 'inclined to somewhat loose mirth.' Boyet affects to understand the term in its usual sense. 3. Concolinel. This is probably only the title of Moth's song, possibly taken from its burden, or opening words. him festinately hither: I must employ him in a letter to my love. Moth. Master, will you win your love with a French brawl? Arm. How meanest thou? brawling in French? Moth. No, my complete master: but to jig off a tune at the tongue's end, canary to it with your feet, humour it with turning up your eyelids, sigh a note and sing a note, sometime through the throat, as if you swallowed love with singing love, sometime through the nose, as if you snuffed up love by smelling love; with your hat penthouselike o'er the shop of your eyes; with your arms crossed on your thin-belly doublet like a rabbit on a spit; or your hands in your pocket like a man after the old painting; and keep not too long in one tune, but a snip and away. These are complements, these are humours; these betray nice wenches, that would be betrayed without these; and make them men of note-do you note me?-that most are affected to these. Arm. How hast thou purchased this experience? 6. festinately, quickly. 9. French brawl, a dance (O. Fr. bransle) 'wherein many (men and women) holding hands, sometimes in a ring, and other whiles at length, move all together' (Cotgrave). 12. canary. A rapid and sprightly dance said to have been introduced from the Canary Islands. Cf. All's Well, ii. 1. 77. 17. penthouse-like, overhanging. 'Pentices' overhung the shops in the London streets. To sit thus was thought to be a 'mark of the judicious.' Cf. 10 20 Induction to Every Man out of his Humour a gallant of this mark, Who, to be thought one of the judicious, Sits with his arms thus wreath'd, his hat pull'd here. 19. thin-belly doublet, opposed to one with a great belly,' the latter being fashionable, the former suggestive of the leanness of men in love. 24. nice, coy. 27. purchased. Moth plays on the double sense of the words acquired and bought. Moth. By my penny of observation. Arm. But O,—but 0,— Moth. The hobby-horse is forgot.' Arm. Callest thou my love 'hobby-horse'? Moth. No, master; the hobby-horse is but a colt, and your love perhaps a hackney. But have you forgot your love? Arm. Almost I had. Moth. Negligent student! learn her by heart. Moth. And out of heart, master: all those three I will prove. Arm. What wilt thou prove? Moth. A man, if I live; and this, by, in, and without, upon the instant: by heart you love her, because your heart cannot come by her; in heart you love her, because your heart is in love with her; and out of heart you love her, being out of heart that you cannot enjoy her. Arm. I am all these three. Moth. And three times as much more, and yet nothing at all. 30 40 Arm. Fetch hither the swain: he must carry 50 me a letter. Moth. A message well sympathized; a horse to be ambassador for an ass. Arm. Ha, ha! what sayest thou? Moth. Marry, sir, you must send the ass upon the horse, for he is very slow-gaited. But I go. 28. penny of observation. Probably in allusion to the wellknown tract, A Pennyworth of Wit. 30. hobby-horse. The figure of a horse, manipulated by a boy, was a favourite feature in the May-day Morris - dance. After the Reformation the hobby horse was discouraged, and its omission provoked a lost ballad often alluded to: 'But O! but O! the hobby-horse is forgot! Cf. Hamlet, iii. 2. 140. 31. hobby-horse was also a term for a loose woman. So hackney below. |