Ros. Look, what you do; you do it still i' the dark. KATH. So do not you; for you are a light wench. Ros. Indeed, I weigh not you; and therefore light. KATH. You weigh me not,-O, that's not for me. you care Ros. Great reason; for, Past cure is still past care.a PRIN. Well bandied both; a set of wit well But, Rosaline, you have a favour too: Ros. The numbers true; and, were the numb'ring too, I were the fairest goddess on the ground: Ros. Much, in the letters; nothing in the praise. My red dominical, my golden letter: © But, Katharine, what was sent to you from fair MAR. Ay, or I would these hands might never part. PRIN. We are wise girls to mock our lovers so. Ros. They are worse fools to purchase mocking So. That same Biron I'll torture ere I go. O, that I knew he were but in by the week! ° PRIN. None are so surely caught, when they are catch'd, As wit turn'd fool: folly, in wisdom hatch'd, Hath wisdom's warrant, and the help of school; And wit's own grace to grace a learned fool. Ros. The blood of youth burns not with such excess, As gravity's revolt to wantonness.† MAR. Folly in fools bears not so strong a note, As foolery in the wise, when wit doth dote; Since all the power thereof it doth apply, To prove, by wit, worth in simplicity. Enter BOYET. PRIN. Here comes Boyet, and mirth is in his face. BOYET. O, I am stabb'd with laughter! Where's her grace? PRIN. Thy news, Boyet? Prepare, madam, prepare!— Arm, wenches, arm! encounters mounted are Did he not send you twain? Against your peace: Love doth approach dis KATH. Madam, this glove. KATH. Yes, madam; and moreover, A huge translation of hypocrisy, MAR. This, and these pearls, to me sent The letter is too long by half a mile. PRIN. I think no less: Dost thou not † wish in heart, The chain were longer, and the letter short? (*) First folio omits not so. (†) First folio omits not. a Past cure is still past care.] The old editions transpose the words cure and care; but Rosaline is quoting a familiar adage,— "Things past cure, past care." b 'Ware pencils, Ho!] The elder copies read, Ware pensals. How? Mr. Dyce has shown that, in books of the period, Ho! is frequently printed How? but he is wrong in saying that all editions have hitherto, retained the old reading. Sir Thomas Hanmer, in his edition, 1744, gives the lection in the text. My golden letter:] Rosaline was a "darke ladye;" Katharine fair and golden haired; and, as in the early alphabets for children, A was printed in red, and B in black, ink, the taunting allusions are sufficiently expressive. guis'd, Arm'd in arguments; you'll be surpris'd: Muster your wits; stand in your own defence; Or hide your heads like cowards, and fly hence. PRIN. Saint Dennis to Saint Cupid! What are they, That charge their breath against us? say, scout, say. (*) The quarto and first folio have device. (+) The quarto and first folio read wantons be. d And I beshrew all shrows !] To beshrew, is to imprecate sorrow, or evil, on any person or thing, to curse, &c. He were but in by the week!] To be in by the week, i.e. for a fixed period, was a frequent saying in former times; and is supposed to be taken from the custom of hiring servants, or operatives, generally. f So portent-like-] The old copies have pertaunt-like. Hanmer first suggested portent-like; and he has been followed by most of the subsequent editors. Toward that shade I might behold address'd I should have fear'd her had she been a devil. With that all laugh'd, and clapp'd him on the shoulder; Making the bold wag by their praises bolder. With that, they all did tumble on the ground, PRIN. But what, but what, come they to visit us? thus, Like Muscovites, or Russians, as I guess. PRIN. And will they so? the gallants shall be task'd: For, ladies, we will every one be mask'd; a To check their folly, passion's solemn tears.] Mr. Collier's annotator, for "solemn tears," reads "sudden tears," which is, at least, a very plausible suggestion. But whether we have sudden, or solemn tears, I cannot help believing the line should run,To check their folly's passion, &c. Hold, take thou this, my sweet, and give me thine; So shall Biron take me for Rosaline. And change your favours too; so shall your loves Woo contrary, deceiv'd by these removes. Ros. Come on then; wear the favours most in sight. KATH. But, in this changing, what is your intent? PRIN. The effect of my intent is, to cross theirs: They do it but in mocking merriment ; And mock for mock is only my intent. Their several counsels they unbosom shall To loves mistook; and so be mock'd withal, Upon the next occasion that we meet, With visages display'd, to talk and greet. Ros. But shall we dance, if they desire us to 't? PRIN. No; to the death we will not move a foot, Nor to their penn'd speech render we no grace: But, while 't is spoke, each turn away her* face. BOYET. Why, that contempt will kill the speaker's heart, And quite divorce his memory from his part. PRIN. Therefore I do it; and, I make no doubt, The rest will ne'er come in, if he be out. There's no such sport as sport by sport o'erthrown; To make theirs ours, and ours none but our own: So shall we stay, mocking intended game; And they, well mock'd, depart away with shame. [Trumpets sound within. BOYET. The trumpet sounds; be mask'd, the maskers come. [The ladies mask. BOYET. They will not answer to that epithet, You were best call it, daughter-beamed eyes. MOTH. They do not mark me, and that brings me out. BIRON. Is this your perfectness? begone, you rogue! Ros. What would these strangers? know their minds, Boyet: If they do speak our language, 't is our will BOYET. What would you with the princess? BOYET. Nothing but peace, and gentle visitation. Ros. Why, that they have; and bid them so be gone. * KING. Say to her, we have measur'd many miles, To tread a measure (2) with her on the grass. BOYET. They say that they have measur❜d many a mile, To tread a measure with you on this grass. Ros. It is not so; ask them how many inches Is in one mile: if they have measur'd many, The measure then of one is easily told. BOYET. If, to come hither, you have measur'd miles, And many miles, the princess bids you tell, steps. BOYET. She hears herself. Ros. How many weary steps, Of many weary miles you have o'ergone, Our duty is so rich, so infinite, That we may do it still without accompt. Ros. My face is but a moon, and clouded too. KING. Blessed are clouds, to do as suchclouds do! Vouchsafe, bright moon, and these thy stars, to (t) First folio, keeper's. (*) First folio, you. (†) Old editions, doth. a she is the moon, and I the man.] An allusion to a stage character, with whom the audience of Shakespeare's day was perfectly familiar-the Man in the Moon. Ros. Since you are strangers, and come here by chance, We'll not be nice: take hands;-we will not dance. KING. Why take we hands, then? Ros. Only to part friends :Court'sy, sweet hearts, and so the measure ends. KING. More measure of this measure; be not nice. Ros. We can afford no more at such a price. KING. Prize yout yourselves: What buys your company? Ros. Your absence only. That can never be. Ros. Then cannot we be bought: and so adieu; Ros. In private then. I am best pleas'd with that. [They converse apart. BIRON. White-handed mistress, one sweet word with thee. PRIN. Honey, and milk, and sugar; there is three. BIRON. Nay, then, two treys (an if you grow Metheglin, wort, and malmsey.-Well run, dice! PRIN. BIRON. One word in secret. Let it not be sweet. BIRON. Thou griev'st my gall. PRIN. BIRON. Gall? bitter. Therefore meet. [They converse apart. DUM. Will you vouchsafe with me to change a word? MAR. Name it. DUM. MAR. Fair lady, KATH. Then die a calf, before your horns do LONG. One word in private with you, ere I die. BOYET. The tongues of mocking wenches are As is the razor's edge invisible, Above the sense of sense: so sensible Fleeter than arrows, bullets, wind, thought, swifter things. Ros. Not one word more, my maids; break off, break off. BIRON. By heaven, all dry-beaten with pure scoff! KING. Farewell, mad wenches; you have simple wits. [Exeunt KING, Lords, MOTH, Music, and Attendants. PRIN. Twenty adieus, my frozen Muscovits.Are these the breed of wits so wonder'd at? BOYET. Tapers they are, with your sweet breaths puff'd out. Ros. Well-liking wits they have; gross, gross; fat, fat. PRIN. O poverty in wit, kingly-poor flout! Say you so? Fair lord, Will they not, think you, hang themselves to Take that for your fair lady. DUM. Please it you, As much in private, and I'll bid adieu. [They converse apart. KATH. What, was your visor made without a tongue? LONG. I know the reason, lady, why you ask. KATH. O, for your reason! quickly, sir; I long. LONG. You have a double tongue within your mask, night? Or ever, but in visors, show their faces? And trow you what he call'd me? KATH. Yes, in good faith. by a transposition. Kingly-poor, I suspect, is no other than a printer's error for poor-lyking. Rosaline, in irony, speaks of their visitors having rich, well-liking, i. e. good-conditioned, wits; to which the Princess replies: "O poverty in wit, poor-liking flout!" Liking, of old, was spelt, indifferently, liking, or lyking. c No point,-] See note (c), p. 62. |