# Love's Labour's Lost (1925) Yale/Text/Act IV

Notes originally placed at the bottom of each page appear below, following Act IV. Where these notes gloss a word in the text, the gloss can also be found by hovering over the text.
Where these notes refer to an end note (cf. n. = confer notam; "consult note"), a link to the accompanying end note is provided from the Footnotes section. The end notes accompanying Act IV begin on page 114 of the original volume.
Layout 2
ACT FOURTH
Scene One
[The King of Navarre's Park]
Enter the Princess, a Forester, her Ladies, and her Lords.
Prin. Was that the king, that spurr'd his horse so hard Against the steep uprising of the hill?
Boyet. I know not; but I think it was not he.
Prin. Whoe'er a' was, a' show'd a mounting mind. 4 Well, lords, to-day we shall have our dispatch; On Saturday we will return to France. Then, forester, my friend, where is the bush That we must stand and play the murtherer in? 8
For. Hereby, upon the edge of yonder coppice; A stand where you may make the fairest shoot.
Prin. I thank my beauty, I am fair that shoot, And thereupon thou speak'st the fairest shoot. 12
For. Pardon me, madam, for I meant not so.
Prin. What, what? first praise me, and again say no? O short-liv'd pride! Not fair? alack for woe!
For. Yes, madam, fair.
Prin. Nay, never paint me now: 16 Where fair is not, praise cannot mend the brow. Here, good my glass.—[Gives money.] Take this for telling true: Fair payment for foul words is more than due.
For. Nothing but fair is that which you inherit. 20
Prin. See, see! my beauty will be sav'd by merit. ​O heresy in fair, fit for these days! A giving hand, though foul, shall have fair praise. But come, the bow: now mercy goes to kill, 24 And shooting well is then accounted ill. Thus will I save my credit in the shoot: Not wounding, pity would not let me do 't; If wounding, then it was to show my skill, 28 That more for praise than purpose meant to kill. And out of question so it is sometimes, Glory grows guilty of detested crimes, When, for fame's sake, for praise, an outward part, 32 We bend to that the working of the heart; As I for praise alone now seek to spill The poor deer's blood, that my heart means no ill.
Boyet. Do not curst wives hold that self-sovereignty 36 Only for praise' sake, when they strive to be Lords o'er their lords?
Prin. Only for praise; and praise we may afford To any lady that subdues a lord. 40
Enter Clown [Costard].
Boyet. Here comes a member of the commonwealth.
Cost. God dig-you-den all! Pray you, which is the head lady?
Prin. Thou shalt know her, fellow, by the 44 rest that have no heads.
Cost. Which is the greatest lady, the highest?
Prin. The thickest, and the tallest.
Cost. The thickest, and the tallest: it is so; truth is truth, 48 ​An your waist, mistress, were as slender as my wit, One o' these maids' girdles for your waist should be fit. Are not you the chief woman? you are the thickest here.
Prin. What's your will, sir? what's your will? 52
Cost. I have a letter from Monsieur Berowne to one Lady Rosaline.
Prin. O thy letter, thy letter! He's a good friend of mine. Stand aside, good bearer. Boyet, you can carve; Break up this capon.
Boyet. I am bound to serve.— 56 This letter is mistook; it importeth none here: It is writ to Jaquenetta.
Prin. We will read it, I swear. Break the neck of the wax, and every one give ear.
Boyet. [Reads.] 'By heaven, that thou art fair, 60 is most infallible; true, that thou art beauteous; truth itself, that thou art lovely. More fairer than fair, beautiful than beauteous, truer than truth itself, have commiseration on thy heroical vas- 64 sal. The magnanimous and most illustrate king Cophetua set eye upon the pernicious and indubitate beggar Zenelophon, and he it was that might rightly say veni, vidi, vici; which to 68 anatomize in the vulgar—O base and obscure vulgar!—videlicet, he came, saw, and overcame: he came, one; saw, two; overcame, three. Who came? the king: Why did he come? to see: Why 72 did he see? to overcome: To whom came he? to ​the beggar: What saw he? the beggar. Who overcame he? the beggar. The conclusion is victory: on whose side? the king's; the captive 76 is enriched: on whose side? the beggar's. The catastrophe is a nuptial: on whose side? the king's, no, on both in one, or one in both. I am the king, for so stands the comparison; thou 80 the beggar, for so witnesseth thy lowliness. Shall I command thy love? I may: Shall I enforce thy love? I could: Shall I entreat thy love? I will. What shalt thou exchange for rags? robes; 84 for tittles? titles; for thyself? me. Thus, ex- pecting thy reply, I profane my lips on thy foot, my eyes on thy picture, and my heart on thy every part. 88 Thine, in the dearest design of Industry, Don Adriano de Armado.
Thus dost thou hear the Nemean lion roar 'Gainst thee, thou lamb, that standest as his prey: 92 Submissive fall his princely feet before, And he from forage will incline to play. But if thou strive, poor soul, what art thou then? Food for his rage, repasture for his den.' 96
Prin. What plume of feathers is he that indited this letter? What vane? what weathercock? did you ever hear better?
Boyet. I am much deceiv'd but I remember the style.
Prin. Else your memory is bad, going o'er it erewhile. 100
​Boyet. This Armado is a Spaniard, that keeps here in court; A phantasime, a Monarcho, and one that makes sport To the prince and his book-mates.
Prin. Thou fellow, a word. Who gave thee this letter?
Cost. I told you; my lord. 104
Prin. To whom shouldst thou give it?
Cost. From my lord to my lady.
Prin. From which lord, to which lady?
Cost. From my lord Berowne, a good master of mine, To a lady of France, that he call'd Rosaline. 108
Prin. Thou hast mistaken his letter. Come, lords, away. Here, sweet, put up this: 'twill be thine another day.
Exeunt [Princess and Train].
Boyet. Who is the suitor? who is the suitor?
Ros. Shall I teach you to know?
Boyet. Ay, my continent of beauty.
Ros. Why, she that bears the bow. 112 Finely put off!
Boyet. My lady goes to kill horns; but, if thou marry, Hang me by the neck if horns that year miscarry. Finely put on! 116
Ros. Well then, I am the shooter.
Boyet. And who is your deer?
Ros. If we choose by the horns, yourself: come not near. Finely put on, indeed!
​Mar. You still wrangle with her, Boyet, and she strikes at the brow. 120
Boyet. But she herself is hit lower. Have I hit her now?
Ros. Shall I come upon thee with an old say- ing, that was a man when King Pepin of France was a little boy, as touching the hit it? 124
Boyet. So I may answer thee with one as old, that was a woman when Queen Guinever of Britain was a little wench, as touching the hit it. 128
Ros.'Thou canst not hit it, hit it, hit it, Thou canst not hit it, my good man.
Boyet.'An I cannot, cannot, cannot, An I cannot, another can.' 132
Exit [Rosaline].
Cost. By my troth, most pleasant: how both did fit it!
Mar. A mark marvellous well shot, for they both did hit it.
Boyet. A mark! O mark but that mark; a mark, says my lady! Let the mark have a prick in 't, to mete at, if it may be. 136
Mar. Wide o' the bow hand! i' faith your hand is out.
Cost. Indeed a' must shoot nearer, or he'll ne'er hit the clout.
Boyet. An if my hand be out, then belike your hand is in.
​Cost. Then will she get the upshoot by cleaving the pin. 140
Mar. Come, come, you talk greasily; your lips grow foul.
Cost. She's too hard for you at pricks, sir: challenge her to bowl.
Boyet. I fear too much rubbing. Good night, my good owl.
[Exeunt Boyet and Maria.]
Cost. By my soul, a swain! a most simple clown! 144 Lord, lord, how the ladies and I have put him down! O' my troth, most sweet jests! most incony vulgar wit! When it comes so smoothly off, so obscenely, as it were, so fit. Armado, o' the one side, O! a most dainty man. 148 To see him walk before a lady, and to bear her fan! To see him kiss his hand! and how most sweetly a' will swear! And his page o' t'other side, that handful of wit! Ah! heavens, it is a most pathetical nit. Shout within. Sola, sola! [Exit running.]
Scene Two
[The Same]
Enter Dull, Holofernes the Pedant, and Nathaniel.
Nath. Very reverend sport, truly: and done in the testimony of a good conscience.
Hol. The deer was, as you know, sanguis, in blood; ripe as the pomewater, who now hangeth 4 like a jewel in the ear of cælo, the sky, the welkin, ​the heaven; and anon falleth like a crab on the face of terra, the soil, the land, the earth.
Nath. Truly, Master Holofernes, the epithets 8 are sweetly varied, like a scholar at the least: but, sir, I assure ye, it was a buck of the first head.
Hol. Sir Nathaniel, haud credo.
Dull. 'Twas not a haud credo; 'twas a pricket. 12
Hol. Most barbarous intimation! yet a kind of insinuation, as it were, in via, in way, of ex- plication; facere, as it were, replication, or, rather, ostentare, to show, as it were, his inclina- 16 tion,—after his undressed, unpolished, unedu- cated, unpruned, untrained, or, rather, un- lettered, or, ratherest, unconfirmed fashion,—to insert again my haud credo for a deer. 20
Dull. I said the deer was not a haud credo; 'twas a pricket.
Hol. Twice sod simplicity, bis coctus! O thou monster Ignorance, how deformed dost thou look! 24
Nath. Sir, he hath not fed of the dainties that are bred in a book. He hath not eat paper, as it were; he hath not drunk ink: his intellect is not replenished; he is only an animal, only sensible in the duller parts: 28 And such barren plants are set before us, that we thankful should be, Which we [of] taste and feeling are, for those parts that do fructify in us more than he; ​For as it would ill become me to be vain, indiscreet, or a fool: So were there a patch set on learning, to see him in a school: 32 But, omne bene, say I; being of an old Father's mind, Many can brook the weather that love not the wind.
Dull. You two are book-men: can you tell me by your wit, What was a month old at Cain's birth, that's not five weeks old as yet? 36
Hol. Dictynna, goodman Dull: Dictynna, goodman Dull.
Dull. What is Dictynna?
Nath. A title to Phœbe, to Luna, to the moon.
Hol. The moon was a month old when Adam was no more; 40 And raught not to five weeks when he came to five-score. The allusion holds in the exchange.
Dull. 'Tis true indeed: the collusion holds in the exchange.
Hol. God comfort thy capacity! I say, the 44 allusion holds in the exchange.
Dull. And I say the pollusion holds in the exchange, for the moon is never but a month old; and I say beside that 'twas a pricket that the 48 princess killed.
Hol. Sir Nathaniel, will you hear an extem- poral epitaph on the death of the deer? and, to humour the ignorant, [I have] call'd the deer the 52 princess killed, a pricket.
​Nath. Perge, good Master Holofernes, perge; so it shall please you to abrogate scurrility.
Hol. I will something affect the letter; for it 56 argues facility. 'The preyful princess pierc'd and prick'd a pretty pleasing pricket; Some say a sore; but not a sore, till now made sore with shooting. The dogs did yell; put L to sore, then sorel jumps from thicket; 60 Or pricket, sore, or else sorel; the people fall a hooting. If sore be sore, then L to sore makes fifty sores one sorel! Of one sore I a hundred make, by adding but one more L.'
Nath. A rare talent! 64
Dull. [Aside.] If a talent be a claw, look how he claws him with a talent.
Hol. This is a gift that I have, simple, simple; a foolish extravagant spirit, full of forms, figures, 68 shapes, objects, ideas, apprehensions, motions, revolutions. These are begot in the ventricle of memory, nourished in the womb of pia mater, and delivered upon the mellowing of occasion. 72 But the gift is good in those in whom it is acute, and I am thankful for it.
Nath. Sir, I praise the Lord for you, and so may my parishioners; for their sons are well 76 tutored by you, and their daughters profit very ​greatly under you: you are a good member of the commonwealth.
Hol. Mehercle! if their sons be ingenuous, they 80 shall want no instruction; if their daughters be capable, I will put it to them. But, vir sapit qui pauca loquitur. A soul feminine saluteth us.
Enter Jaquenetta and the Clown [Costard].
Jaq. God give you good morrow, Master parson. 84
Hol. Master parson, quasi pers-on? And if one should be pierced, which is the one?
Cost. Marry, Master schoolmaster, he that is likest to a hogshead. 88
Hol. Of piercing a hogshead! a good lustre of conceit in a turf of earth; fire enough for a flint, pearl enough for a swine: 'tis pretty; it is well.
Jaq. Good Master parson [giving a letter to 92 Nathaniel], be so good as read me this letter: it was given me by Costard, and sent me from Don Armado: I beseech you, read it.
Hol. Fauste, precor gelida quando pecus 96 omne sub umbra Ruminat, and so forth. Ah! good old Mantuan. I may speak of thee as the traveller doth of Venice: —Venetia, Venetia, 100 Chi non te vede, non te pretia. Old Mantuan! old Mantuan! Who under- standeth thee not, loves thee not. Ut, re, sol, la, mi, fa. Under pardon, sir, what are the con- 104 tents? or, rather, as Horace says in his—What, my soul, verses?
​Nath. Ay, sir, and very learned.
Hol. Let me hear a staff, a stanze, a verse: 108 lege, domine.
Nath. 'If love make me forsworn, how shall I swear to love? Ah! never faith could hold, if not to beauty vow'd; Though to myself forsworn, to thee I'll faithful prove; 112 Those thoughts to me were oaks, to thee like osiers bow'd. Study his bias leaves and makes his book thine eyes, Where all those pleasures live that art would comprehend: If knowledge be the mark, to know thee shall suffice. 116 Well learned is that tongue that well can thee commend; All ignorant that soul that sees thee without wonder; Which is to me some praise, that I thy parts admire. Thy eye Jove's lightning bears, thy voice his dreadful thunder, 120 Which, not to anger bent, is music and sweet fire. Celestial as thou art, O pardon love this wrong, That sings heaven’s praise with such an earthly tongue!'
Hol. You find not the apostrophas, and so 124 miss the accent: let me supervise the canzonet. Here are only numbers ratified; but, for the elegancy, facility, and golden cadence of poesy, caret. Ovidius Naso was the man: and why, 128 indeed, Naso, but for smelling out the odori- ​ferous flowers of fancy, the jerks of invention? Imitari is nothing; so doth the hound his master, the ape his keeper, the tired horse his 132 rider. But, damosella virgin, was this directed to you?
Jaq. Ay, sir; from one Monsieur Berowne, one of the strange queen's lords. 136
Hol. I will overglance the superscript. 'To the snow-white hand of the most beauteous Lady Rosaline.' I will look again on the intel- lect of the letter, for the nomination of the party 140 writing to the person written unto: 'Your lady- ship's, in all desired employment, Berowne.'— Sir Nathaniel, this Berowne is one of the votaries with the king; and here he hath framed a letter 144 to a sequent of the stranger queen's, which, acci- dentally, or by the way of progression, hath mis- carried. Trip and go, my sweet; deliver this paper into the royal hand of the king; it may 148 concern much. Stay not thy compliment; I forgive thy duty: adieu.
Jaq. Good Costard, go with me. Sir, God save your life! 152
Cost. Have with thee, my girl.
Exit [with Jaquenetta].
Nath. Sir, you have done this in the fear of God, very religiously; and, as a certain Father saith— 156
Hol. Sir, tell not me of the Father; I do fear colourable colours. But to return to the verses: did they please you, Sir Nathaniel?
​Nath. Marvellous well for the pen. 160
Hol. I do dine to-day at the father's of a certain pupil of mine; where, if before repast it shall please you to gratify the table with a grace, I will, on my privilege I have with the parents 164 of the foresaid child or pupil, undertake your ben venuto; where I will prove those verses to be very unlearned, neither savouring of poetry, wit, nor invention. I beseech your society. 168
Nath. And thank you too; for society—saith the text—is the happiness of life.
Hol. And, certes, the text most infallibly con- cludes it.—[To Dull.] Sir, I do invite you too: 172 you shall not say me nay: pauca verba. Away! the gentles are at their game, and we will to our recreation. Exeunt.
Scene Three
[The Same]
Enter Berowne, with a paper in his hand, alone.
Ber. The king he is hunting the deer; I am coursing myself: they have pitched a toil; I am toiling in a pitch,—pitch that defiles: defile! a foul word! Well, sit thee down, sorrow! for so 4 they say the fool said, and so say I, and I the fool: well proved, wit! By the Lord, this love is as mad as Ajax: it kills sheep: it kills me, I a sheep: well proved again o' my side! I will not 8 love; if I do, hang me; i' faith, I will not. O ​but her eye!—by this light, but for her eye, I would not love her; yes, for her two eyes. Well, I do nothing in the world but lie, and lie in my 12 throat. By heaven, I do love, and it hath taught me to rime, and to be melancholy; and here is part of my rime, and here my melan- choly. Well, she hath one o' my sonnets al- 16 ready: the clown bore it, the fool sent it, and the lady hath it: sweet clown, sweeter fool, sweetest lady! By the world, I would not care a pin if the other three were in. Here comes one 20 with a paper: God give him grace to groan!
He stands aside [or climbs into a tree].
The King entreth.
King. Ay me!
Ber. [Aside.] Shot, by heaven! Proceed, sweet Cupid: thou hast thumped him with 24 thy bird-bolt under the left pap. In faith, secrets!
King. 'So sweet a kiss the golden sun gives not To those fresh morning drops upon the rose, 28 As thy eye-beams, when their fresh rays have smote The night of dew that on my cheeks down flows. Nor shines the silver moon one half so bright Through the transparent bosom of the deep, 32 As doth thy face through tears of mine give light: Thou shin'st in every tear that I do weep; No drop but as a coach doth carry thee: So ridest thou triumphing in my woe. 36 Do but behold the tears that swell in me, And they thy glory through my grief will show: But do not love thyself; then thou wilt keep ​My tears for glasses, and still make me weep. 40 O queen of queens! how far dost thou excel, No thought can think, nor tongue of mortal tell.' How shall she know my griefs? I'll drop the paper.— Sweet leaves, shade folly! Who is he comes here? 44
Enter Longaville. The King steps aside.
What, Longaville! and reading! listen, ear.
Ber. Now, in thy likeness, one more fool appear!
Long. Ay me! I am forsworn.
Ber. Why, he comes in like a perjure, wearing papers. 48
King. In love, I hope: sweet fellowship in shame!
Ber. One drunkard loves another of the name.
Long. Am I the first that have been perjur'd so?
Ber. I could put thee in comfort: not by two that I know: 52 Thou mak'st the triumviry, the corner-cap of society, The shape of love's Tyburn, that hangs up simplicity.
Long. I fear these stubborn lines lack power to move. O sweet Maria, empress of my love! 56 These numbers will I tear, and write in prose.
Ber. O! rimes are guards on wanton Cupid's hose: Disfigure not his slop.
Long. This same shall go. He reads the Sonnet. 'Did not the heavenly rhetoric of thine eye, 60 'Gainst whom the world cannot hold argument, Persuade my heart to this false perjury? ​Vows for thee broke deserve not punishment. A woman I forswore; but I will prove, 64 Thou being a goddess, I forswore not thee: My vow was earthly, thou a heavenly love; Thy grace, being gain'd, cures all disgrace in me. Vows are but breath, and breath a vapour is: 68 Then thou, fair sun, which on my earth dost shine, Exhal'st this vapour-vow; in thee it is: If broken, then, it is no fault of mine: If by me broke, what fool is not so wise 72 To lose an oath to win a paradise!'
Ber. This is the liver-vein, which makes flesh a deity, A green goose a goddess; pure, pure idolatry. God amend us, God amend! we are much out o' the way. 76
Long. By whom shall I send this?—Company! stay.
[Steps aside.]
Enter Dumaine.
Ber. All hid, all hid; an old infant play. Like a demi-god here sit I in the sky, And wretched fools' secrets heedfully o'er-eye. 80 More sacks to the mill! O heavens! I have my wish. Dumaine transform'd: four woodcocks in a dish!
Dum. O most divine Kate!
Ber. O most profane coxcomb! 84
Dum. By heaven, the wonder of a mortal eye!
Ber. By earth, she is not, corporal; there you lie.
Dum. Her amber hairs for foul have amber quoted.
Ber. An amber-colour'd raven was well noted. 88
​Dum. As upright as the cedar.
Ber. Stoop, I say; Her shoulder is with child.
Dum. As fair as day.
Ber. Ay, as some days; but then no sun must shine.
Dum. O that I had my wish!
Long. And I had mine! 92
King. And [I] mine too, good Lord!
Ber. Amen, so I had mine. Is not that a good word?
Dum. I would forget her; but a fever she Reigns in my blood, and will remember'd be. 96
Ber. A fever in your blood! why, then incision Would let her out in saucers: sweet misprision!
Dum. Once more I'll read the ode that I have writ.
Ber. Once more I'll mark how love can vary wit. 100
Dumaine reads his Sonnet.
Dum. 'On a day, alack the day! Love, whose month is ever May, Spied a blossom passing fair Playing in the wanton air: 104 Through the velvet leaves the wind, All unseen, can passage find; That the lover, sick to death, Wish'd himself the heaven's breath. 108 Air, quoth he, thy cheeks may blow; Air, would I might triumph so! But alack! my hand is sworn Ne'er to pluck thee from thy thorn: 112 Vow, alack! for youth unmeet, Youth so apt to pluck a sweet. Do not call it sin in me, That I am forsworn for thee; 116 ​Thou for whom e'en Jove would swear Juno but an Ethiop were; And deny himself for Jove, Turning mortal for thy love.' 120
This will I send, and something else more plain, That shall express my true love's fasting pain. O would the King, Berowne, and Longaville Were lovers too! Ill, to example ill, 124 Would from my forehead wipe a perjur'd note; For none offend where all alike do dote.
Long. [Advancing.] Dumaine, thy love is far from charity, That in love's grief desir'st society: 128 You may look pale, but I should blush, I know, To be o'erheard and taken napping so.
King. [Advancing.] Come, sir, you blush: as his your case is such; You chide at him, offending twice as much: 132 You do not love Maria; Longaville Did never sonnet for her sake compile, Nor never lay his wreathed arms athwart His loving bosom to keep down his heart. 136 I have been closely shrouded in this bush, And mark'd you both, and for you both did blush. I heard your guilty rimes, observ'd your fashion, Saw sighs reek from you, noted well your passion: 140 Ay me! says one; O Jove! the other cries; One, her hairs were gold, crystal the other's eyes: [To Longaville.] You would for paradise break faith and troth; [To Dumaine.] And Jove, for your love, would infringe an oath. 144 ​What will Berowne say, when that he shall hear Faith infringed, which such zeal did swear? How will he scorn! how will he spend his wit! How will he triumph, leap and laugh at it! 148 For all the wealth that ever I did see, I would not have him know so much by me.
Ber. Now step I forth to whip hypocrisy. [Descends from the tree.] Ah! good my liege, I pray thee, pardon me: 152 Good heart! what grace hast thou, thus to reprove These worms for loving, that art most in love? Your eyes do make no coaches; in your tears There is no certain princess that appears: 156 You'll not be perjur'd, 'tis a hateful thing: Tush! none but minstrels like of sonneting. But are you not asham'd! nay, are you not, All three of you, to be thus much o'ershot? 160 You found his mote; the king your mote did see; But I a beam do find in each of three. O what a scene of foolery have I seen, Of sighs, of groans, of sorrow, and of teen! 164 O me! with what strict patience have I sat, To see a king transformed to a gnat; To see great Hercules whipping a gig, And profound Solomon to tune a jig, 168 And Nestor play at push-pin with the boys, And critic Timon laugh at idle toys! Where lies thy grief? O! tell me, good Dumaine. And, gentle Longaville, where lies thy pain? 172 And where my liege's? all about the breast: ​A caudle, ho!
King. Too bitter is thy jest. Are we betray'd thus to thy over-view?
Ber. Not you by me, but I betray'd to you: 176 I, that am honest; I, that hold it sin To break the vow I am engaged in; I am betray'd, by keeping company With men like [men,] men of inconstancy. 180 When shall you see me write a thing in rime? Or groan for Joan? or spend a minute's time In pruning me? When shall you hear that I Will praise a hand, a foot, a face, an eye, 184 A gait, a state, a brow, a breast, a waist, A leg, a limb?—
King. Soft! Whither away so fast? A true man or a thief that gallops so?
Ber. I post from love; good lover, let me go. 188
Enter Jaquenetta and Clown [Costard].
Jaq. God bless the king!
King. What present hast thou there?
Cost. Some certain treason.
King. What makes treason here?
Cost. Nay, it makes nothing, sir.
King. If it mar nothing neither, The treason and you go in peace away together. 192
Jaq. I beseech your Grace, let this letter be read: Our parson misdoubts it; 'twas treason, he said.
King. Berowne, read it over. He [i.e. Berowne] reads the letter [in dumbshow]. Where hadst thou it? 196
​Jaq. Of Costard.
King. Where hadst thou it?
Cost. Of Dun Adramadio, Dun Adramadio.
[Berowne tears the letter.]
King. How now! what is in you? why dost thou tear it? 200
Ber. 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.
Dum. [Picking up the pieces.] It is Berowne's writing, and here is his name.
Ber. [To Costard.] Ah, you whoreson loggerhead, you were born to do me shame. 204 Guilty, my lord, guilty; I confess, I confess.
King. What?
Ber. That you three fools lack'd me fool to make up the mess; He, he, and you, and you my liege, and I, 208 Are pick-purses in love, and we deserve to die. O dismiss this audience, and I shall tell you more.
Dum. Now the number is even.
Ber. True, true; we are four. Will these turtles be gone?
King. Hence, sirs; away! 212
Cost. Walk aside the true folk, and let the traitors stay.
[Exeunt Costard and Jaquenetta.]
Ber. Sweet lords, sweet lovers, O! let us embrace. As true we are as flesh and blood can be: The sea will ebb and flow, heaven show his face; 216 ​Young blood doth not obey an old decree. We cannot cross the cause why we were born; Therefore, of all hands must we be forsworn.
King. What! did these rent lines show some love of thine? 220
Ber. '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, strooken blind, 224 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? 228
King. What zeal, what fury, hath inspir'd thee now? My love, her mistress, is a gracious moon; She, an attending star, scarce seen a light.
Ber. My eyes are then no eyes, nor I Berowne. 232 O, but for my love, day would turn to night! Of all complexions the cull'd sovereignty Do meet, as at a fair, in her fair cheek; Where several worthies make one dignity, 236 Where nothing wants that want itself doth seek. Lend me the flourish of all gentle tongues,— Fie, painted rhetoric! O she needs it not: To things of sale a seller's praise belongs; 240 She passes praise; then praise too short doth blot. A wither'd hermit, five-score winters worn, Might shake off fifty, looking in her eye: ​Beauty doth varnish age, as if new-born, 244 And gives the crutch the cradle's infancy. O 'tis the sun that maketh all things shine!
King. By heaven, thy love is black as ebony.
Ber. Is ebony like her? O wood divine! 248 A wife of such wood were felicity. O who can give an oath? where is a book? That I may swear beauty doth beauty lack, If that she learn not of her eye to look: 252 No face is fair that is not full so black.
King. O paradox! Black is the badge of hell, The hue of dungeons and the school of night; And beauty's crest becomes the heavens well. 256
Ber. Devils soonest tempt, resembling spirits of light. O, if in black my lady's brows be deck'd, It mourns that painting [and] usurping hair Should ravish doters with a false aspect; 260 And therefore is she born to make black fair. Her favour turns the fashion of the days, For native blood is counted painting now; And therefore red, that would avoid dispraise, 264 Paints itself black, to imitate her brow.
Dum. To look like her are chimney-sweepers black.
Long. And since her time are colliers counted bright.
King. And Ethiops of their sweet complexion crack. 268
Dum. Dark needs no candles now, for dark is light.
Ber. Your mistresses dare never come in rain, For fear their colours should be wash'd away.
​King. 'Twere good yours did; for, sir, to tell you plain, 272 I'll find a fairer face not wash'd to-day.
Ber. I'll prove her fair, or talk till doomsday here.
King. No devil will fright thee then so much as she.
Dum. I never knew man hold vile stuff so dear. 276
Long. Look, here's thy love: [Showing his shoe.] my foot and her face see.
Ber. O, if the streets were paved with thine eyes, Her feet were much too dainty for such tread.
Dum. O vile! then, as she goes, what upward lies 280 The street should see as she walk'd overhead.
King. But what of this? Are we not all in love?
Ber. Nothing so sure; and thereby all forsworn.
King. Then leave this chat; and good Berowne, now prove 284 Our loving lawful, and our faith not torn.
Dum. Ay, marry, there; some flattery for this evil.
Long. O some authority how to proceed; Some tricks, some quillets, how to cheat the devil. 288
Dum. Some salve for perjury.
Ber. O, 'tis more than need. Have at you, then, affection's men-at-arms! Consider what you first did swear unto: To fast, to study, and to see no woman; 292 Flat treason 'gainst the kingly state of youth. Say, can you fast? your stomachs are too young, And abstinence engenders maladies. And where that you have vow'd to study, lords, 296 In that each of you hath forsworn his book, Can you still dream and pore and thereon look? ​For when would you, my lord, or you, or you, Have found the ground of study's excellence 300 Without the beauty of a woman's face? From women's eyes this doctrine I derive: They are the ground, the books, the academes, From whence doth spring the true Promethean fire. 304 Why, universal plodding poisons up The nimble spirits in the arteries, As motion and long-during action tires The sinewy vigour of the traveller. 308 Now, for not looking on a woman's face, You have in that forsworn the use of eyes, And study too, the causer of your vow; For where is any author in the world 312 Teaches such beauty as a woman's eye? Learning is but an adjunct to ourself, And where we are our learning likewise is: Then when ourselves we see in ladies' eyes, 316 Do we not likewise see our learning there? O we have made a vow to study, lords, And in that vow we have forsworn our books: For when would you, my liege, or you, or you, 320 In leaden contemplation have found out Such fiery numbers as the prompting eyes Of beauty's tutors have enrich'd you with? Other slow arts entirely keep the brain, 324 And therefore, finding barren practisers, Scarce show a harvest of their heavy toil; But love, first learned in a lady's eyes, Lives not alone immured in the brain, 328 But, with the motion of all elements, ​Courses as swift as thought in every power, And gives to every power a double power, Above their functions and their offices. 332 It adds a precious seeing to the eye: A lover's eyes will gaze an eagle blind; A lover's ear will hear the lowest sound, When the suspicious head of theft is stopp'd: 336 Love's feeling is more soft and sensible Than are the tender horns of cockled snails: Love's tongue proves dainty Bacchus gross in taste. For valour, is not Love a Hercules, 340 Still climbing trees in the Hesperides? Subtle as Sphinx; as sweet and musical As bright Apollo's lute, strung with his hair; And when Love speaks, the voice of all the gods 344 Make heaven drowsy with the harmony. Never durst poet touch a pen to write Until his ink were temper'd with Love's sighs; O! then his lines would ravish savage ears, 348 And plant in tyrants mild humility. From women's eyes this doctrine I derive: They sparkle still the right Promethean fire; They are the books, the arts, the academes, 352 That show, contain, and nourish all the world; Else none at all in aught proves excellent. Then fools you were these women to forswear, Or, keeping what is sworn, you will prove fools. 356 For wisdom's sake, a word that all men love, Or for love's sake, a word that loves all men, Or for men's sake, the authors of these women; Or women's sake, by whom we men are men, 360 Let us once lose our oaths to find ourselves, ​Or else we lose ourselves to keep our oaths. It is religion to be thus forsworn; For charity itself fulfils the law; 364 And who can sever love from charity?
King. Saint Cupid, then! and, soldiers, to the field!
Ber. Advance your standards, and upon them, lords! Pell-mell, down with them! but be first advis'd, 368 In conflict that you get the sun of them.
Long. Now to plain-dealing; lay these glozes by: Shall we resolve to woo these girls of France?
King. And win them too: therefore let us devise 372 Some entertainment for them in their tents.
Ber. First, from the park let us conduct them thither; Then homeward every man attach the hand Of his fair mistress: in the afternoon 376 We will with some strange pastime solace them, Such as the shortness of the time can shape; For revels, dances, masks, and merry hours Forerun fair Love, strewing her way with flowers. 380
King. Away, away! no time shall be omitted, That will betime, and may by us be fitted.
Ber. Allons! allons! Sow'd cockle reap'd no corn; And justice always whirls in equal measure: 384 Light wenches may prove plagues to men forsworn; If so, our copper buys no better treasure.
Exeunt.
Footnotes to Act IV
Scene One
​9 coppice: thicket 10 stand: hunter's station 17 fair: beauty 18 my glass: mirror, i.e. the Forester 20 inherit: possess 21 merit: good deeds ​22 heresy; cf. n. 23 giving: generous 30 out of question: undoubtedly 32 outward part: extraneous quality 36 curst: shrewish 41 commonwealth: i.e. common people 42 dig-you-den: give you good evening 48 The thickest, etc.; cf. n. ​56 capon: love-letter; cf. n. 57 importeth: concerns 65 illustrate: illustrious 67 indubitate: indubitable Zenelophon: Penelophon (in the old ballad) 69 anatomize: analyze, explain ​85 expecting: awaiting 89 Industry: gallantry 91 Nemean lion; cf. n. 94 from forage: abandoning rapacity 96 repasture: repast 97 plume of feathers: featherhead 99 but: unless 100 erewhile: just now ​101 keeps: lives 102 phantasime: fantastic fellow Monarcho; cf. n. 110 sweet: i.e. Rosaline be thine: be of use to thee 112 continent: container, repository bears the bow; cf. n. 113 put off: turned aside 115 horns; cf. n. ​120 still: ever 123 King Pepin; cf. n. 133 fit it: make their points 136 prick: point in the center of the target mete: measure, aim 137 Wide . . . hand: too far to the left 138 clout: white mark of cloth in the center of the target ​140 upshoot: upshot, leading shot in a competition pin: wooden pin holding up the clout 141 greasily: grossly 142 bowl: bowling 152 pathetical nit: pleasing little fellow
Scene Two
​4 pomewater: a kind of apple ​10 first head: fifth year 11 haud credo: I do not think so 12 pricket: buck of the second year 15 facere . . . replication: to make reply 19 unconfirmed: ignorant 23 sod: sodden bis coctus: twice cooked, insipid 30 Which we: we who than he: i.e. than in him ​32 patch: clown, fool; cf. n. 33 omne bene: all's well 34 Cf. n. 37 Dictynna: a name given to Diana; cf. n. 41 raught: reached 42 allusion: jest, riddle; cf. n. 50 extemporal: extemporary ​54 Perge: proceed 56 affect the letter: make use of alliteration 59 sore: a deer of the fourth year 60 sorel: a deer of the third year 65 talent: talon 66 claws: scratches pleasantly, flatters 70 ventricle: a division of the brain here called pia mater ​80 Mehercle: a small oath 82 vir sapit, etc.; cf. n. 86 pierced: pronounced 'persed' 89 Of: in reference to 96–98 Fauste . . . Mantuan; cf. n. 100, 101 Venetia . . . pretia; cf. n. 103, 104 Ut . . . fa; cf. n. 105 Horace; cf. n. ​109 lege, domine: read, master 114 his bias: i.e. its natural tendency 124 apostrophas: apostrophes; cf. n. 126 numbers ratified; cf. n. 128 caret: it is wanting 129 Naso: from 'nasus,' nose ​131 Imitari: to imitate 136 queen's lords; cf. n. 137 superscript: superscription, address 139 intellect: i.e. signature 145 sequent: follower 147 Trip and go; cf. n. 149 Stay . . . compliment: do not pause for ceremony 158 colourable colours: false pretexts ​160 pen: technical skill 166 ben venuto: welcome 170 the text; cf. n. 173 pauca verba: few words
Scene Three
​2 pitched a toil: set a net 3 pitch: i.e. Rosaline's black eyes 7 Ajax; cf. n. ​20 in: i.e. in love 25 bird-bolt: blunt arrow for killing birds ​48 perjure: perjurer papers: papers on the breast describing a perjurer's offenses 53 triumviry: triumvirate corner-cap: biretta, three-cornered cap, of a Catholic priest 54 Tyburn: triangular gallows at Tyburn, London 58 guards: trimmings 59 slop: loose trousers ​74 liver-vein: i.e. style of a man in love (the liver being the supposed seat of the affections) 78 All hid: i.e. as in the game of hide and seek 82 woodcocks: proverbially silly birds 87 quoted: set down, regarded ​89 Stoop; cf. n. 97 incision: blood-letting 98 saucers: receptacles for the blood misprision; mistake ​118 Ethiop: i.e. black as a negro 122 fasting: hungry, longing 124 example: furnish a precedent for ​150 by: about 158 like of: like 160 o'ershot: wide of the mark 161 You: i.e. Longaville his: i.e. Dumaine's 164 teen: grief, pain 166 gnat: a singing insect 167 gig: top 168 tune: play, or hum 169 push-pin: a child's game with pins 170 critic: cynic toys: trifles ​174 caudle: a warm gruel, containing wine and spice, for the sick 180 Cf. n. 183 pruning: adorning 185 state: attitude, pose 189 present: paper to be presented 190 makes: does 194 misdoubts: suspects ​207 mess: four persons at one table 212 turtles: turtle-doves, lovers sirs; cf. n. ​218 cross . . . born: i.e. hold out against love 219 of all hands: on all hands, in any case 223 the first . . . east: i.e. the rising of the sun 224 strooken: struck 226 peremptory: determined, bold 236 I.e. several beauties make one surpassing beauty 238 flourish: enhancement 239 painted: showy, artificial ​255 school of night; cf. n. 256 Cf. n. 257 resembling: taking the form of; cf. n. 259 usurping: false 262 favour: face 267 counted: accounted 268 crack: boast ​275 then: i.e. at doomsday 288 quillets: quibbles 290 affection's: love's 297 In that: in as much as book: true book, i.e. woman's face or eyes; cf. line 319 ​299–304 Cf. n. 304 Promethean: divine 305 poisons up; cf. n. 306 arteries; cf. n. 321 leaden: heavy, dull 322 numbers: verses, poems 324 keep: remain in ​336 Cf. n. 338 cockled: inclosed in a shell 341 Hesperides: i.e. the garden of the Hesperides 344 voice: i.e. responsive voice 358 loves: cherishes, benefits ​364 Cf. n. 369 sun: advantage of position 370 glozes: sophistries 382 betime: betide, chance 383 Sow'd cockle; cf. n. 386 copper: base coin