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He, he, and you, and you, my liege, and I,
Are pick-purses in love, and we deserve to die.
O, dismiss this audience, and I fhall tell you more.
Dum. Now the number is even.

Biron. True true; we are four :-
Will these turtles be gone?

King. Hence, firs; away.

Coft. Walk afide the true folk, and let the traitors stay. [Exeunt Coftard and Jaquenetta. Biron. Sweet lords, fweet lovers, O let us embrace!

As true we are, as flesh and blood can be:
The fea will ebb and flow, heaven will fhow his face;
Young blood doth not obey an old decree :

"We cannot crofs the caufe why we were born;
Therefore, of all hands muft we be forfworn.

King. What, did these rent lines fhew some love of thine?,
Biron. Did they, quoth you? Who fees the heavenly

Rofaline,

That, like a rude and favage man of Inde,

At the first opening of the gorgeous east, Bows not his vaffal head; and, ftrucken blind, Kiffes the bafe ground with obedient breast?

What peremptory eagle-fighted 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 ftar, fcarce feen a light.

Biron. My eyes are then no eyes, nor I Biron:
O, but for my love, day would turn to night!

Of all complexions the cull'd fovereignty

Do meet, as at a fair, in her fair cheek;

and you, and you,]-Coftard and Jaquenetta, whom he ftiles turtles just below.

y We cannot cross the caufe why we were born;]-We must continue the fpecies.

Where

Where 2 feveral worthies make one dignity.;

Where nothing wants, that want itself doth feek. Lend me the flourish of all gentle tongues

Fye, painted rhetorick! O, fhe needs it not: To things of fale a feller's praife belongs;

a

She paffes praife; and praise too fhort doth blot. A wither'd hermit, fivefcore winters worn,

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, 'tis the fun, that maketh all things fhine!
King. By heaven, thy love is black as ebony.
Biron. Is ebony like her? O wood divine!

A wife of fuch wood were felicity.
O, who can give an oath? where is a book?
That I may fwear, beauty doth beauty lack,
If that he learn not of her eye to look?

No face is fair, that is not full fo black.
King. O paradox! Black is the badge of hell,
The hue of dungeons, and the ftole of night;
And beauty's creft becomes the heavens well.

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Biron. Devils fooneft tempt, refembling fpirits of light. O, if in black my lady's brow be deckt,

It mourns, that painting, and ufurping hair, Should ravifh doters with a falfe afpect;

And therefore is fhe 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 difpraife, Paints itself black to imitate her brow.

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Dum. To look like her, are chimney-fweepers black.

feveral worthies make one dignity;]-feveral charms combine to form one fupreme beauty.

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a then. bftole]-robe, drefs-fcowl. Spirits of light ]-arrayed

beauty's creft]-fupreme fairness.

in white garments.

favour]-complexion.

Long.

Long. And, fince her time, are colliers counted bright. King. And Ethiops of their fweet complexion crack. Dum. Dark needs no candles now, for dark is light. Biron. Your mistreffes dare never come in rain,

For fear their colours fhould be wash'd away.
King. 'Twere good, yours did; for, fir, to tell you plain,
I'll find a fairer face not wash'd to-day.

Biron. I'll prove her fair, or talk till dooms-day here.
King. No devil will fright thee then so much as fhe.
Dum. I never knew man hold vile stuff so dear.
Long. Look, here's thy love; my foot and her face fee.
[fhewing bis fboe.

Biron. O, if the streets were paved with thine eyes,
Her feet were too much dainty for fuch tread!
Dum. O vile! then as fhe goes, what upward lies
The street should fee as fhe walk'd over head.
King. But what of this? Are we not all in love?
Biron. Nothing fo fure; and thereby all forfworn.
King. Then leave this chat, and, good Biron, now prove
Our loving lawful, and our faith not torn.

Dum. Ay, marry, there;-fome flattery for this evil.
Long. O, fome authority how to proceed;
Some tricks, fome & quillets, how to cheat the devil.
Dum. Some falve for perjury.

Biron. O, 'tis more than need!

h

Have at you then, " affection's men at arms:
Confider, what you firft did fwear unto ;-
To faft,-to ftudy,-and to fee no woman ;-
Flat treafon 'gainst the kingly state of youth.
Say, can you faft? your ftomachs are too young;
And abftinence engenders maladies.

And where that you have vow'd to study, lords,
In that each of you hath forfworn his book:

crack]-boaft. quillets,]-fubtle evafions. men ut arms: J-Cupid's band of foldiers.

h affection's

where]-whereas.

Can

Can you still dream, and pore, and thereon look?
For when would you, my lord, or you, or you,
Have found the ground of ftudy's excellence,
Without the beauty of a woman's face?
Why, univerfal plodding prisons up
The nimble fpirits in the arteries;

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As motion, and long-during action, tires
The finewy vigour of the traveller.
Now, for not looking on a woman's face,
You have in that forfworn the use of eyes;
And study too, the caufer of your vow:
For where is any author in the world,
* Teaches fuch beauty as a woman's eye?
Learning is but an adjunct to ourself,
And where we are, our learning likewife is.
Then, when ourselves we fee in ladies' eyes,
Do we not likewife fee our learning there?
O, we have made a vow to study, lords;
And in that vow we have forfworn our books:
For when would you, my liege, or you, or you,
'In leaden contemplation, have found out
Such fiery numbers, as the prompting eyes
Of beauteous tutors have enrich'd you with?
Other flow arts entirely keep the brain;
And therefore finding barren practisers,
Scarce fhew 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 fwift as thought in every power;

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* Teaches]-Gives fuch a notion of, furnishes fo perfect an idea of. 1 In leaden contemplation, have found out &c.]-By a dull pursuit of your studies have attained fuch poetical fire, fuch spritely lays.

keep-are confined to.

And

And gives to every power a double power,
Above their functions and their offices.
It adds a precious feeing to the eye,
A lover's eyes will gaze an eagle blind;
A lover's ear will hear the lowest sound,
When the "fufpicious head of theft is stopp'd:
Love's feeling is more foft, and fenfible,
Than are the tender horns of cockled fnails;
Love's tongue proves dainty Bacchus grofs in tafte:
For valour, is not love a Hercules,

Still climbing trees in the Hefperides?
Subtle as fphinx; as fweet, and musical,

As bright Apollo's lute, ftrung with his hair;
And, when love fpeaks, the voice of all the gods
Makes heaven drowfy with the harmony.

Never durft poet touch a pen to write,
Until his ink were temper'd with love's fighs;
O, then his lines would ravish favage ears,
And plant in tyrants mild humility.
From women's eyes this doctrine I derive:
They sparkle ftill the right Promethean fire;
They are the books, the arts, the academes,
That fhew, contain, and nourish all the world;
Elfe, none at all in aught proves excellent :
Then fools you were, thefe women to forfwear;
Or, keeping what is fworn, you will prove fools.
For wifdom's fake, a word that all men love;

Or for love's fake, a word that 'loves all men ;

n

fufpicious head of theft]-of the thief, or head fufpicious of theft that fears robbing.

• favour.

P Hefperides ?]-the gardens of the Hefperides.

the voice of all the gods &c.]—the voice makes all the gods of heaven drowy-he charms all his hearers with his harmony.

loves-is agreeable to-leads all men hath a powerful influence

over them.

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