Biron. This fellow pecks up wit as pigeons pease,
And utters it again when God doth please:
He is wit's pedler, and retails his wares
At wakes and wassails, meetings, markets, fairs;
And we that sell by gross, the Lord doth know,
Have not the grace to grace it with such show.
This gallant pins the wenches on his sleeve;
Had he been Adam, he had tempted Eve;
A' can carve too and lisp: why, this is he
That kiss'd his hand away in courtesy ;
This is the ape of form, monsieur the nice,
That, when he plays at tables, chides the dice
In honourable terms: nay, he can sing

A mean most meanly; and in ushering
Mend him who can: the ladies call him sweet;
The stairs, as he treads on them, kiss his feet:
This is the flower that smiles on every one,
To show his teeth as white as whales bone;
And consciences, that will not die in debt,
Pay him the due of honey-tongued Boyet.

King. A blister on his sweet tongue, with my heart,

That put Armado's page out of his part!

Biron. See where it comes! Behaviour, what wert thou

Till this madman show'd thee? and what art thou now?

Re-enter the Princess, ushered by BOYET; ROSA-
LINE, MARIA, and KATHARINE.

King. All hail, sweet madam, and fair time of day!

315. This fellow pecks up wit, etc. This was proverbially said of children.

320

323. carve, use affectedly courteous language.

328. mean, tenor. VOL. I

330

332. whales bone, the walrus' tusk. Its whiteness was proverbial. The -es of the possessive and plural was sometimes syllabic in verse before 1600, as the -ed continued to be. H

97

Prin. 'Fair' in ‘all hail' is foul, as I conceive.
King. Construe my speeches better, if you may.
Prin. Then wish me better; I will give you
leave.

King. We came to visit you, and purpose now

To lead you to our court; vouchsafe it then. Prin. This field shall hold me; and so hold your

VOW:

Nor God, nor I, delights in perjured men.
King. Rebuke me not for that which you pro-

voke :

The virtue of your eye must break my oath. Prin. You nickname virtue; vice you should

King. How, madam!
Prin.

have spoke ;

For virtue's office never breaks men's troth.
Now by my maiden honour, yet as pure
As the unsullied lily, I protest,

A world of torments though I should endure,
I would not yield to be your house's guest;
So much I hate a breaking cause to be
Of heavenly oaths, vow'd with integrity.
King. O, you have lived in desolation here,

Unseen, unvisited, much to our shame.
Prin. Not so, my lord; it is not so, I swear;

We have had pastimes here and pleasant game: 360 A mess of Russians left us but of late.

Russians!

Ay, in truth, my lord;
Trim gallants, full of courtship and of state.
Ros. Madam, speak true.

It is not so, my

lord:

My lady, to the manner of the days,
In courtesy gives undeserving praise.
We four indeed confronted were with four
In Russian habit: here they stay'd an hour,
And talk'd apace; and in that hour, my lord,

340

350

They did not bless us with one happy word.
I dare not call them fools; but this I think,
When they are thirsty, fools would fain have
drink.

Biron. This jest is dry to me.

Fair gentle

sweet,

Your wit makes wise things foolish: when we

greet,

With eyes best seeing, heaven's fiery eye,
By light we lose light: your capacity

Is of that nature that to your huge store
Wise things seem foolish and rich things but poor.
Ros. This proves you wise and rich, for in my

eye,

Biron. I am a fool, and full of poverty.

380

Ros. But that you take what doth to you
belong,

It were a fault to snatch words from my tongue.
Biron. O, I am yours, and all that I possess !
Ros. All the fool mine?

Biron.

I cannot give you less. Ros. Which of the vizards was it that you wore?

Biron. Where? when? what vizard? why demand you this?

Ros. There, then, that vizard; that superfluous case

That hid the worse and show'd the better face.

King. We are descried; they'll mock us now downright.

Dum. Let us confess and turn it to a jest. Prin. Amazed, my lord? why looks your highness sad?

370

Ros. Help, hold his brows! he'll swoon!
Why look you pale?

Sea-sick, I think, coming from Muscovy

390

Biron. Thus pour the stars down plagues for perjury.

Can any face of brass hold longer out? Here stand I lady, dart thy skill at me;

Bruise me with scorn, confound me with a flout;

Thrust thy sharp wit quite through my ignor

ance;

Cut me to pieces with thy keen conceit; And I will wish thee nevermore to dance,

Nor never more in Russian habit wait. O, never will I trust to speeches penn'd,

Nor to the motion of a schoolboy's tongue, Nor never come in vizard to my friend,

Nor woo in rhyme, like a blind harper's song! Taffeta phrases, silken terms precise,

Three-piled hyperboles, spruce affectation, Figures pedantical; these summer-flies

Have blown me full of maggot ostentation: I do forsweat them; and I here protest,

By this white glove,-how white the hand,
God knows!—

Henceforth my wooing mind shall be express'd
In russet yeas and honest kersey noes:
And, to begin, wench,—so God help me, la !-
My love to thee is sound, sans crack or flaw.
Ros. Sans sans, I pray you.

400

410

Biron.
Yet I have a trick
Of the old rage: bear with me, I am sick;
I'll leave it by degrees. Soft, let us see:
Write, 'Lord have mercy on us' on those three;
They are infected: in their hearts it lies;
They have the plague, and caught it of your eyes ;

420

407. three-piled, superfine.

413. kersey, a coarse cloth.

419. Lord have mercy on us, the words written on the doors of plague-stricken houses.

These lords are visited; you are not free,
For the Lord's tokens on you do I see.

Prin. No, they are free that gave these tokens

to us.

Biron. Our states are forfeit: seek not to undo us.

Ros. It is not so; for how can this be true, That you stand forfeit, being those that sue? Biron. Peace! for I will not have to do with

you.

Ros. Nor shall not, if I do as I intend.
Biron. Speak for yourselves: my wit is at an

end,

King. Teach us, sweet madam, for our rude transgression

Some fair excuse.

And were you well advised?

Prin. The fairest is confession. Were not you here but even now disguised? King. Madam, I was. Prin. King. I was, fair madam. Prin. When you then were here, What did you whisper in your lady's ear? King. That more than all the world I did respect her.

Prin. When she shall challenge this, you will reject her.

King. Upon mine honour, no.

Prin. Peace, peace! forbear: Your oath once broke, you force not to forswear. King. Despise me, when I break this oath of

440

mine.

Prin. I will and therefore keep it. Rosaline,

425. states, estates.

427. sue, in the double sense

430

of (1) bring an action, (2) en

treat.

440. force, care.