King. What, did these rent lines show some love of thine?

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, stricken blind,

Kisses the base ground with obedient breast? 55

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 inspir'd thee now?

My love, her mistress, is a gracious moon,

She, an attending star, scarce seen a light.

Biron. My eyes are then no eyes, nor I Biron.

0! but for my love, day would turn to night. 56
Of all complexions the cull'd sovereignty
Do meet, as at a fair, 57 in her fair cheek;
Where several worthies make one dignity,
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; 58
She passes praise; then praise too short doth blot.
A wither'd hermit, five-score winters worn, 59
Might shake off fifty, looking in her eye:
Beauty doth varnish age, as if new-born,
And gives the crutch the cradle's infancy.
O! 't is the sun, that maketh all things shine!

King. By heaven, thy love is black as ebony.
Biron. Is ebony like her? O wood 60 divine!

A wife of such wood were felicity.

O! who can give an oath? where is a book? 61
That I may swear beauty doth beauty lack,

55) Eine Anspielung auf die Sonnenanbeter unter den Wilden, welche beim Aufgang der Sonne ihre Andacht verrichten. Eine gleiche Verehrung nimmt auch Rosaline für sich in Anspruch, da ihr Anblick die Anbeter ebenso blendet, wie die Sonne.

56) Der Nachdruck liegt auf my: wenn meine Geliebte nicht wäre und nicht wie eine Sonne am Himmel leuchtete, so würde der Tag zur Nacht werden.

57) Wortspiel zwischen fair = Jahrmarkt, Verkehrsplatz, und fair = schön. Der Plural do meet steht wegen des Plurals of all complexions.

58) So in Sh.'s Sonnets (21) I will not praise, that purpose not to sell.

59) ein Klausner, der hundert Jahr lang abgenutzt, verschlissen wurde.

60 wood verbesserte Theobald das word der Q. und Fol.

61) Biron sieht sich nach Jemandem um, der qualificirt ist, ihm einen Eid abzunehmen, und nach einer Bibel, auf die er solchen Eid leisten kann. So in K. Henry IV. First Part (A. 2, Sc. 4) I'll be sworn upon all the books in England.

If that she learn not of her eye to look:

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 scowl of night; 62
And beauty's crest becomes the heavens well.

Biron. 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; 63
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,
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.
Dum. Dark needs no candles now, for dark is light.
Biron. Your mistresses dare never come in rain,

For fear their colours should be wash'd away.

King. 'T were good, yours did; for, Sir, to tell you plain,
I'll find a fairer face not wash'd to-day.

Biron. I'll prove her fair, or talk till doomsday here.
King. No devil will fright thee then 64 so much as she.

Dum. I never knew man hold vile stuff so dear.

Long. Look, here's thy love: my foot and her face see. [Showing his shoe.
Biron. 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
The street should see, as she walk'd over head. 65

King. But what of this? Are we not all in love?
Biron. O nothing so sure; and thereby all forsworn.

62) scowl ist Warburton's Conjectur für school der Q. und Fol. Andere lesen stole of night, was Theobald vorschlug. Dyce dachte an soil (in alter Orthographie soyle). Im Gegensatz zu solchem Schwarz, das die Farbe der Hölle ist, steht dann beauty's crest = der Gipfel oder der Helmschmuck der Schönheit, die höchste Schönheit, welche hell glänzen muss wie der Himmel.

63) Anspielung auf die Sitte, dass Damen ihrem dunkeln Teint eine helle Schminke gaben

und falsches blondes Haar trugen. Ueber solchen Betrug trauert gleichsam in der Farbe der Trauer, in Schwarz, die brünette Rosaline. Die Q. und Fol. lassen hinter painting das and weg, das erst die zweite Folioausg. supplirt.

64) then geht auf doomsday den Tag des jüngsten Gerichts, wo Rosaline schwärzer aussehen wird, als alle Teufel, welche die Verdammten in die Hölle schleppen.

65) Wenn die Pflastersteine auf der Strasse aus lauter Augen beständen, so würde die Strasse indiscreter Weise die höher gelegenen Reize der Rosaline, welche der Anstand verhüllt, von unten anschauen.

King. Then leave this chat: and, good Biron, now prove
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, 66 how to cheat the devil.
Dum. Some salve for perjury.

Biron.

O! 't is more than need.

Have at you then, affection's men-at-arms: 67
Consider, what you first did swear unto;

To fast, to study, and to see no woman:

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,
In that each of you have 68 forsworn his book,
Can you still dream, and pore, and thereon look? 69
For when would you, my lord, or you, or you,
Have found the ground of study's excellence,
Without the beauty of a woman's face?

From women's eyes this doctrine I derive:

They are the ground, the books, the academes, 70
From whence doth spring the true Promethean fire.
Why, universal plodding prisons up 71

The nimble spirits in the arteries,

As motion, and long-during action, tires

The sinewy vigour of the traveller.

Now, for not looking on a woman's face, 72
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,

66) quillets

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73

Advokatenkniffe, um den Teufel zu prellen, dessen Beute sie sonst wegen ihres Wortbruches werden.

67) Passt denn auf, ihr bewaffneten Krieger der Liebe.

68) So Q. und Fol. mit Sh.'scher Construction, welche have auf den Plural of you, das folgende his wieder auf den Singular each bezieht.

69) Dyce streicht nach Capell's Vorgange die folgenden sechs Verse bis inclusive Promethean fire, weil theilweise dieselben Gedanken nachher, ähnlich ausgedrückt, noch einmal wiederkehren. Biron resümirt emphatisch die Punkte, die er in seinem Vortrag beweisen wollte, nachdem er sie bewiesen hat.

70) Vgl. A. 1, Sc. 1, Anm. 6.

71) prisons verbessert Theobald das poisons der Q. und Fol.

Warburton bemerkt

dazu: In the old system of physic they gave the same office to the arteries as is now given to the nerves.

12) Was nun das betrifft, dass Ihr nicht das Angesicht eines Weibes sehen wollt, so habt Ihr darin u. s. w.

73) Capell und Dyce lassen die folgenden acht Zejlen bis inclusive our books wiederum aus. Vgl. Anm. 69.

74

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,
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,
In leaden contemplation have found out
Such fiery numbers, 75 as the prompting eyes
Of beauty's tutors have enrich'd you with?
Other slow arts entirely keep the brain,
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,
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.
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,

76

77

When the suspicious head of theft is stopp'd: 78
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,

Still climbing trees in the Hesperides? 79

Subtle as sphinx; as sweet, and musical,

As bright Apollo's lute, strung with his hair;

74) Die Q. und Fol. lassen auf diesen Vers eine unmetrische und für den Sinn überflüssige Halbzeile With ourselves folgen, die offenbar aus Versehen hier in den Text gekommen ist.

75) such fiery numbers sind die verliebten Verse, welche sie vorher, Einer vom Andern belauscht, vorgelesen hatten.

16) Andre leidenschaftlose Künste und Wissenschaften behaupten das Gehirn als ihren Sitz, den sie nicht verlassen.

77) power ist in dieser Zeile jedes körperliche Organ und in der folgenden dessen Vermögen oder Thätigkeit.

78) Die Commentatoren streiten darüber, ob das argwöhnische Ohr des Diebes gemeint sei oder das Ohr desjenigen, der den Diebstahl argwöhnt. Die erstere Erklärung, welche theft personificirt thief fasst, scheint die natürlichere zu sein.

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79) Hesperides soll Sh., nach der Meinung der Ausleger, für den Namen der Hesperidengärten gehalten haben, wahrscheinlich verstand er die Insel der Hesperiden selbst darunter. So in Pericles (A. 1, Sc. 1) Before thee stands this fair Hesperides.

From women's eyes this doctrine I derive:
They sparkle still the right Promethean fire;
They are the books, the arts, the academes,
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.
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 83 of these women,
Or women's sake, 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 fulfils the law;

And who can sever love from charity?

82

King. Saint Cupid, 84 then! and, soldiers, to the field! Biron. Advance your standards, and upon them, 85 lords! Pell-mell, down with them! but be first advis'd,

In conflict that you get the sun of them. 86

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

Some entertainment for them in their tents.

80) So Q. und Fol., weil der Plural gods eben vorherging. Vgl. oben Anm. 68. Wenn Amor spricht, so fallen alle Götter in seinen Gesang ein und wiegen damit den Himmel in süsse Träume.

81) Warburton strich die folgenden fünf Verse. Vgl. oben Anm. 69 und 73. 82) that is pleasing to all men erklärt Malone mit Recht.

83) authors verbesserte Johnson das author der alten Ausgg.

Saint Cupid ist das vom Könige gegebene Schlachtgeschrei für den beginnenden Liebeskrieg, scherzhaft gebildet nach Saint George, dem Schlachtgeschrei der Engländer und Saint Denis, dem Schlachtruf der Franzosen.

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85) upon them auf die Feinde los, drauf! obgleich kein Substantiv vorhergeht, auf das sich them beziehen liesse.

66 Das Bild von der Schlacht wird fortgesetzt: sie sollen sorgen, dass ihnen im Kampf mit den Damen nicht die Sonne ins Gesicht scheine und sie blende. Zugleich liegt, wie Longaville's nächste Rede zeigt, ein frivoles Wortspiel zwischen sun und son vor, wie auch upon them, down with them als Zweideutigkeiten zu fassen sind.