Vow, alack, for youth unmeet, And deny himself for Jove, This will I send and something else more plain, Would from my forehead wipe a perjured note; Long. [advancing]. Dumain, thy love is far That in love's grief desirest society: You may look pale, but I should blush, I know, King [advancing]. Come, sir, you blush; as his your case is such ; 120 130 You chide at him, offending twice as much; One, her hairs were gold, crystal the other's eyes: 125. perjured note, stain of perjury. 142. one, etc., The hair of one was gold.' F2 amends the metre by omitting one, Walker, less idiomatically, by substituting one's for one, her. [To Long.] You would for paradise break faith and troth; [To Dum.] And Jove, for your love, would in- What will Biron say when that he shall hear Ah, good my liege, I pray thee, pardon me! O, what a scene of foolery have I seen, Of sighs, of groans, of sorrow and of teen! 164. teen, vexation. 166. transformed to a gnat, i.e. to an insignificant creature that makes a sound-a mere minstrel. 150 160 170 167. gig, a kind of top. 169. push-pin, a child's game, in which pins were pushed alternately. 170. critic, cynical. Where lies thy grief, O, tell me, good Dumain? King. Too bitter is thy jest. Are we betray'd thus to thy over-view? Biron. Not you to me, but I betray'd by you: To break the vow I am engaged in ; When shall you see me write a thing in rhyme ? Will praise a hand, a foot, a face, an eye, King. Soft! whither away so fast? A true man or a thief that gallops so? Biron. I post from love: good lover, let me go. Enter JAQUENETTA and COSTARD. Jaq. God bless the king! King. What present hast thou there? What makes treason here? Cost. Some certain treason. Cost. Nay, it makes nothing, sir. If it mar nothing neither, The treason and you go in peace away together. 180. This line has never been satisfactorily emended. Dyce's 'with men like you, men of inconstancy,' gives the evident sense in a somewhat lame form. 185. a state, bearing' when at rest, as gait, when in motion. Cf. a 'Sonnet' of W. Browne's: For her gait if she be walking, Be she sitting I desire her For her state's sake. 180 190 This shows that state does not mean standing, as Steevens explained it. 189. present, document for presentation. Jaq. I beseech your be read: grace, let this letter Our parson misdoubts it; 'twas treason, he said. King. Biron, read it over. Where hadst thou it? Jaq. Of Costard. [Giving him the paper King. Where hadst thou it ? Cost. Of Dun Adramadio, Dun Adramadio. [Biron tears the letter. King. How now! what is in you? why dost thou tear it? Biron. A toy, my liege, a toy: your grace needs not fear it. Long. It did move him to passion, and therefore let's hear it. name. Dum. It is Biron's writing, and here is his [Gathering up the pieces. Biron. [To Costard] Ah, you whoreson loggerhead! you were born to do me shame. Guilty, my lord, guilty! I confess, I confess. King. What? Biron. That you three fools lack'd me fool to make up the mess: He, he, and you, and you, my liege, and I, Are pick-purses in love, and we deserve to die. 200 O, dismiss this audience, and I shall tell you more. 210 Dum. Now the number is even. Cost. Walk aside the true folk, and let the traitors stay. [Exeunt Costard and Jaquenetta. Biron. Sweet lords, sweet lovers, O, let us embrace ! As true we are as flesh and blood can be: Biron. Did they, quoth you? Who sees the heavenly Rosaline, That, like a rude and savage man of Inde, At the first opening of the gorgeous east, Bows not his vassal head and strucken blind Kisses the base ground with obedient breast? What peremptory eagle-sighted eye Dares look upon the heaven of her brow, That is not blinded by her majesty? King. What zeal, what fury hath inspired thee now? My love, her mistress, is a gracious moon; She an attending star, scarce seen a light. Do meet, as at a fair, in her fair cheek, Fie, painted rhetoric! O, she needs it not: 280 230 240 |