ACT I.

SCENE I. The KING OF NAVARRE'S Park.

Enter the KING, BEROWNE, LONGAVILLE,

and DUMAINE.

King. Let fame, that all hunt after in their lives,

4

Live register'd upon our brazen tombs,
And then grace us in the disgrace of death;
When, spite of cormorant devouring Time,
The endeavour of this present breath may buy
That honour which shall bate his scythe's keen
edge,

And make us heirs of all eternity.

Make rich the ribs, but bankrupt quite the wits.
Dum. My loving lord, Dumaine is mortified:
The grosser manner of these world's delights 29
He throws upon the gross world's baser slaves:
To love, to wealth, to pomp, I pine and die;
With all these living in philosophy.

Ber. I can but say their protestation over;
So much, dear liege, I have already sworn,
That is, to live and study here three years.
But there are other strict observances;
As, not to see a woman in that term,
Which I hope well is not enrolled there:
And one day in a week to touch no food,
And but one meal on every day beside;

Therefore, brave conquerors, -for so you are, 8 The which I hope is not enrolled there:

That war against your own affections

And the huge army of the world's desires, -
Our late edict shall strongly stand in force:
Navarre shall be the wonder of the world;
Our court shall be a little academe,
Still and contemplative in living art.

32

36

40

And then, to sleep but three hours in the night,
And not be seen to wink of all the day, --

When I was wont to think no harm all night 44 12 And make a dark night too of half the day, Which I hope well is not enrolled there. O! these are barren tasks, too hard to keep, Not to see ladies, study, fast, not sleep. King. Your oath is pass'd to pass away from these.

You three, Berowne, Dumaine, and Longaville,
Have sworn for three years' term to live with me,
My fellow-scholars, and to keep those statutes
That are recorded in this schedule here:

18

Your oaths are pass'd; and now subscribe your

48

These earthly godfathers of heaven's lights 88 endure such public shame as the rest of the

King. Great deputy, the welkin's vicegerent,
and sole dominator of Navarre, my soul's earth's
God, and body's fostering patron,
Cost. Not a word of Costard yet.
King. So it is,-

221

This child of fancy, that Armado hight,
For interim to our studies shall relate
In high-born words the worth of many a knight

Cost. It may be so; but if he say it is so, he

From tawny Spain lost in the world's debate. is, in telling true, but so.

How you delight, my lords, I know not, I; 173
But, I protest, I love to hear him lie,
And I will use him for my minstrelsy.

Ber. Armado is a most illustrious wight, 176
A man of fire-new words, fashion's own

knight.

Long. Costard the swain and he shall be our sport;

And, so to study, three years is but short.

King. Peace!

225

Cost. Be to me and every man that dares not

fight.

King. No words!

228

Cost. Of other men's secrets, I beseech you. King. So it is, besieged with sable-coloured melancholy, I did commend the black-oppressing humour to the most wholesome physic of thy health-giving air; and, as I am a gentleman, betook myself to walk. The time when? About the sixth hour; when beasts most graze, birds best peck, and men sit down to that nourishment which is called supper: so much for the time when. Now for the ground which; which, I mean, I walked upon: it is ycleped thy park. Then for the place where; where, I mean, I did encounter that most obscene and preposterous event, that draweth from my snowwhite pen the ebon-coloured ink, which here thou viewest, beholdest, surveyest, or seest. But to the place where, it standeth north-north-east and by east from the west corner of thy curiousknotted garden: there did I see that low-spirited swain, that base minnow of thy mirth, - 249 Cost. Me.

King. that unlettered small-knowing soul,-
Cost. Me.

252

196

King. that shallow vessel, -
Cost. Still me.

King. which, as I remember, hight Cost

ard,

256

200

Cost. O me.

Ber. Well, sir, be it as the style shall give us

cause to climb in the merriness.

King. sorted and consorted, contrary to prosperity! Affliction may one day smile again; thy established proclaimed edict and continent and till then, sit thee down, sorrow! [Exeunt. canon, with-with-0! with but with this I

passion to say wherewith,

Cost. With a wench.

262

King. with a child of our grandmother Eve, a female; or, for thy more sweet understanding, a woman. Him, I, as my everesteemed duty pricks me on,-have sent to thee, to receive the meed of punishment, by thy sweet Grace's officer, Antony Dull; a man of good repute, carriage, bearing, and estimation.

269

Dull. Me, an't please you; I am Antony Dull. King. For Jaquenetta, so is the weaker vessel called which I apprehended with the aforesaid swain,-I keep her as a vessel of thy law's fury; and shall, at the least of thy sweet notice, bring her to trial. Thine, in all compliments of devoted and heart-burning heat of duty, 276 DON ADRIANO DE ARMADO.

Ber. This is not so well as I looked for, but

the best that ever I heard.

King. Ay, the best for the worst. But, sirrah, what say you to this?

280

Cost. Sir, I confess the wench.
King. Did you hear the proclamation?
Cost. I do confess much of the hearing it, but

little of the marking of it.

ment to be taken with a wench.

284

King. It was proclaimed a year's imprisonCost. I was taken with none, sir: I was taken with a damosel.

288

King. Well, it was proclaimed 'damosel.'
Cost. This was no damosel neither, sir: she

was a 'virgin.'

King. It is so varied too; for it was proclaimed 'virgin.'

293

Cost. If it were, I deny her virginity: I was taken with a maid.

297

King. This maid will not serve your turn, sir.
Cost. This maid will serve my turn, sir.
King. Sir, I will pronounce your sentence:
you shall fast a week with bran and water.

Cost. I had rather pray a month with mutton and porridge.

King. And Don Armado shall be your keeper.
My Lord Berowne, see him deliver'd o'er:
And go we, lords, to put in practice that
Which each to other hath so strongly sworn.

304

spirit of a tapster.

sir.

44

Moth. You are a gentleman and a gamester,

Arm. I confess both: they are both the varnish of a complete man.

48

Moth. Then, I am sure you know how much the gross sum of deuce-ace amounts to. Arm. It doth amount to one more than two.