For wisdom's sake, a word that all men love;
Or for love's fake, a word that moves all men;
Or for men's fake, the author of these women;
Or women's fake, by whom we men are men;
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 fulfills the law;
And who can sever love from charity?

King. Saint Cupid, then! and, foldiers, to the field !

Biron. Advance your standards, and upon them, lords;
Pellmell, down with them! but be first advis’d,
In conflict that you get the sun of them.

Long. Now to plaindealing; lay these glosses by:
Shall we resolve to woo these girls of France ?

King. And win them too'; therefore let us devise
Some entertainment for them in their tents.

Biron. First, from the park let us conduct them thither;
Then, homeward, every man attach the hand
Of his fair mistress ; in the afternoon
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.

King. Away, away! no time shall be omitted,
That will be time, and may by us be fitted.
Biron. Allons! Allons ! sowed cockle reaps no corn,

And justice always whirls in equal measure:
Light wenches may prove plagues to men forsworn;

If so, our copper buys no better treasure. [Exeunt.

ACT

Hd

HOL OF ERNE S. Atis quod fufficit.

Nath. I praise god for you, sir; your reasons at dinner have been sharp and sententious; pleafant without scurrility, witty without affectation, audacious without impudency, learned without opinion, and strange without herefy: I did converse this quondam-day with a companion of the king's, who is entitled, nominated, or called, don Adriano de Armado. Hol. Novi hominem tanquam te.

His humour is lofty, his discourse peremptory, his tongue filed, his

tongue filed, his eye ambitious, his gait majestical, and his general behaviour vain, ridiculous, and thrasonical. He is too picked, too spruce, too affected, too odd, as it were, too peregrinate, as I may call it. Nath. A most singular and choice epithet !

[ draws out his tablebook. Hol. He draweth out the thread of his verbofity finer than the staple of his argument. I abhor such fanatical phantasms, such insociable and point-devise companions, such rackers of orthography, as do speak, dout, fine, when he should say, doubt; det, when he should pronounce debt;. d, e, b, t; not d, e, t: he clepeth a calf, cauf: half, hauf: neighbour vocatur nebour; neigh, abbreviated ne: this is abominable, which we would call abhominable, it insinuateth to me of insany: ne intelligis, domine? to make frantick, lunatick?

Nath. Laus deo, bone intelligo.

Hol. Bone ? bone for benè ; Priscian a little scratch'd, 'twill ferve.

SCENE

SCENE II.

Enter Armado, Moth, and Costard.
Nath. Videsne quis venit ?
Hol. Video, Te gaudeo.
Arm. Chirra !
Hol. Quare chirra, not firrah?
Arm. Men of peace, well encountred.
Hol. Most military fir, falutation.

Moth. They have been at a great feast of languages, and stole the scraps.

Cost. o, they have liv'd long on the almsbasket of words. I marvel, thy master hath not eaten thee for a word, for thou art not so long by the head as honorificabilitudinitatibus : thou art easier swallow'd than a flapdragon.

Moth. Peace ! the peal begins.
Arm. Monsieur, are you not letter'd ?

Moth. Yes, yes, he teaches boys the hornbook :
What is A B spelt backward with the horn on his head ?

Hol. Ba, pueritia, with a horn added.
Moth. Ba, most filly sheep with a horn. You hear his learning.
Hol. Quis, quis, thou consonant?

Moth. The third of the five vowels, if you repeat them, or the fifth, if I.

Hol. I will repeat them, a, e, i, -
Moth. The sheep; the other two concludes it, o, u.

Arm. Now, by the salt wave of the Mediterraneum, a sweet touch, a quick venew of wit ; snip, snap, quick and home; it rejoiceth my

intellect ; true wit.
Moth. Offer'd by a child to an old man : which is wit-old.
Hol. What is the figure? what is the figure ?
Moth. Horns.
Hol. Thou disputest like an infant; go, whip thy gig.

Moth. Lend me your horn to make one, and I will whip
about
your infamy circum circa, a gig of a cuckold's horn.

Coft.

Coft. An I had but one penny in the world, thou should'st have it to buy gingerbread; hold, there is the very remuneration I had of thy master, thou half-penny purse of wit, thou pigeon-egg of discretion. O, an the heav'ns were so pleased, that thou wert but my bastard! what a joyful father wouldst thou make me? go to, thou hast it ad dunghil, at the finger's ends, as they say.

Hol. O, I smell false latin, dunghil for unguem.

Arm. Arts-man, præambula ; we will be singled from the barbarous. Do you not educate youth at the charge-house on the top of the mountain ?

Hol. Or, mons, the hill.
Arm. At your sweet pleasure, for the mountain.
Hol. I do, sans question.

Arm. Sir, it is the king's most sweet pleasure and affection, to congratulate the princess at her pavilion, in the posterior of this day, which the rude multitude call, the afternoon.

Hol. The posterior of the day, most generous sir, is liable, congruent, and measurable for the afternoon: the word is well cull d, choice, sweet, and apt, I do assure you, sir, I do assure.

Arm. Sir, the king is a noble gentleman, and my familiar, I do assure ye, my very good friend; for what is inward between us, let it pass — I do beseech thee, remember thy courtesy; I beseech thee, apparel thy head—and among other importunate and most serious designs, and of great import, indeed, too that pass—for I rnust tell thee, it will please his grace, by the world, sometime to lean upon my poor shoulder; and with his royal finger thus dally with my excrement, with my mustachio; but, sweet heart, let that pass — by the world, I recount no fable; some certain special honours it pleaseth his greatness to impart to

Armado, a soldier, a man of travel, that hath seen the world; but let that pass — the very all of all is but, sweet heart, I do implore secrecy that the king would have me present the princess, sweet chuck, with some delightful oftentation, or show, or pageant, or antick, or firework. Now, understanding that the curate and your fweet self are good at such eruptions, and

sudden

- but let

fudden breaking out of mirth, as it were, I have acquainted you withal, to the end to crave your assistance.

Hol. Sir, you shall present before her the nine worthies. Sir, [to Nathaniel] as concerning some entertainment of time, some show in the posterior of this day, to be render'd by our assistance at the king's command, and this most gallant, illustrate, and learned gentleman; before the princess: I say, none so fit as to present the nine worthies.

Nath. Where will you find men worthy enough to present them?

Hol. Joshua, yourself; this gallant gentleman, Jadas Maccabeus; this swain, because of his great limb or joint, shall pass for Pompey the great; and the page, Hercules.

Arm. Pardon, fir, errour: he is not quantity enough for that worthy's thumb; he is not so big as the end of his club.

Hol. Shall I have audience? he shall present Hercules in minority: his enter and exit shall be, strangling a snake; and I will have an apology for that purpose.

Moth. An excellent device! so, if any of the audience hiss,
you may cry, well done, Hercules ! now thou crushest the snake!
that is the way to make an offence gracious, though few have
the
grace

to know it.
Arm. For the rest of the worthies ?
Hol. I will play three myself.
Moth. Thrice worthy gentleman !
Arm. Shall I tell you a thing?
Hol. We attend.
Arm. We will have, if this fadge not, an antick. i befeech

Hol. Via! goodman Dull, thou hast spoken no word all this while.

Dull. Nor understood none neither, sir.
Hol. Allons! we will employ thee.

Dull. I'll make one in a darice, or fo: or I will play on the
tabour to the worthies, and let them dance the hay.
Hol. Most Dull, honest Dull, to our sport away.

[Exeunt. Vol. II.

SCENE

you, follow.

S