Dum. O vile! then as fhe goes, what upward lies

The street should fee as she walk'd over head. King. But what of this? Are we not all in love? Biron. O, nothing so 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 ;—some 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!
Have at you then, affection's men at arms :
Confider, what you first did fwear unto ;—
To fast,-to study,—and to see no woman;-
Flat treafon '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 hath forfworn his book :
Can you ftill dream, and pore, and thereon look?
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,
From whence doth spring the true Promethean fire.
Why, univerfal plodding prisons up

The nimble spirits in the arteries;

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 likewise see our learning there ?
O, we have made a vow to ftudy, 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 practifers,
Scarce fhow a harvest of their heavy toil:
But love, firft 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;
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 found,
When the fufpicious head of theft is stopp'd;
Love's feeling is more foft, and fenfible,
Then are the tender horns of cockled fnails;
Love's tongue proves dainty Bacchus grofs in taste :
For valour, is not love a Hercules,

Still climbing trees in the Hefperides ?

Subtle as fphinx; as sweet, and musical,

As bright Apollo's lute, ftrung with his hair; And, when love speaks, 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 fparkle ftill the right Promethean fire;
They are the books, the arts, the academes,
That show, contain, and nourish all the world;
Elfe, none at all in aught proves excellent:
Then fools you were, these 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;
Or for men's fake, the authors of these women;
Or women's fake, by whom we men are men;
Let us once lofe our oaths, to find ourfelves,
Or else we lofe ourselves to keep our oaths:
It is religion, to be thus forfworn:
For charity itfelf fulfils the law;

And who can fever love from charity?

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

In conflict that you get the fun of them.

Long. Now to plain-dealing; lay thefe glozes by: Shall we refolve 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 thi

ther;

Then, homeward, every man attach the hand

Of his fair mistress: in the afternoon

We will with fome strange pastime folace them,

Such as the shortness of the time can shape;

E 4

For

For revels, dances, masks, and merry hours,
Fore-run 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!-Sow'd cockle reap'd no corn;
And justice always whirls in equal measure:

Light wenches may prove plagues to men forfworn;
If fo, our copper buys no better treasure.

[Exeunt.

ACT

ACT V. SCENE I.

Another part of the fame.

Enter HOLOFERNES, Sir NATHANIEL, and DULL.

Hol. Satis quod fufficit.

Nath. I praise God for you, fir: your reasons at dinner have been sharp and fententious; pleafant without fcurrility, witty without affection, audacious without impudency, learned without opinion, and ftrange without herefy. I did converfe this quondam day with a companion of the king's, who is intituled, nominated, or called, Don Adriano de Armado.

Hol. Novi hominem tanquam te: His humour is lofty, his difcourfe peremptory, his tongue filed, his eye ambitious, his gait majeftical, and his general behaviour vain, ridiculous, and thrafonical. He is too picked, too spruce, too affected, too odd, as it were, too peregrinate, as I may call it.

Nath. A moft fingular and choice epithet.

[Takes out his table-book. Hol. He draweth out the thread of his verbosity finer than the staple of his argument. I abhor fuch fanatical phantafms, fuch infociable and point-devife companions; fuch rackers of orthography, as to speak, dout, fine, when he should fay, 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 abhominable, (which he would

call