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C. It pleafed them, to think me worthy of Pompion the great for mine own part, I know ax the degree of the worthy; but I am to ftand" for him.

F. Go, bid them prepare.

[fome care. Caf. We will turn it finely off, fir, we will take Ag. Biron, they will fhame us, let them not ap-" proach. [Exit Coftard. Biros. We are shame-proof, my lord; and 'tis fome policy

To have one how worfe than the king's and his company.

Kg. I fay, they fhall not come.

[now;

Pris. Nay, my good lord, let me o'er-rule you
That sport beft pieafes, that doth leatt know how:
Where zeal strives to content, and the contents
Dies in the zeal of that which it prefents,

[Big," Caft. I Pompey am, Pompey furnamed the Dum. The great.

Caft. It is great, fir:-" Pompey furnam'd the great;

That oft in field, with targe and shield, did make my foe to fweat;

And, travelling along this coaft, I here am come by chance;

And lay my arms before the legs of this sweet

lafs of France."

[done If your ladyship would fay, Thanks, Pompey, "I had Prin. Great thanks, great Pompey.

Goff. 'Tis not fo much worth; but, I hope, I was perfect: I made a little fault in, great. Biron. My hat to a half-penny, Pompey proves the best worthy.

Enter Nathaniel for Alexander. Nath. "When in the world I liv'd, I was the world's commander;

conquering might:

There form confounded makes molt form in mirth;" By caft, weft, north, and fouth, I spread my
When great things labouring perish in their birth.,
Boron. A right description of our sport, my lord.
Enter Armado.

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He fpeaks not like a man of God's making. Arm. That's all one, my fair, fweet, honey moEarth: for, I proteft, the fchool-matter is exceedng fantaftical; too, too vain; too, too vain: Butt we will put it, as they say, to fortuna della guerra. I with you the peace of mind, moft royal couple

ment !

"My 'icutcheon plain declares, that I am Alifander." Bayet. Your nofe fays, no, you are not; for it itands

too right 5.

Biron. Your note fmells, no, in this most tender-
fmelling knight.

Prin. The conqueror is difmay'd: Proceed, good
Alexander.

Nath. "When in the world I liv'd, I was the
world's commander:"-

Boyet. Moft true, 'tis right; you were so, Alifander. Biron. Pompey the great,Coft. Your fervant, and Coftard. ffander. Biron. Take away the conqueror, take away AliCoft. O, fir, you have overthrown Alifander the Ang. Here is like to be a good prefence of wor- conqueror! [To Nath.] You will be scraped out : He prefents Hector of Troy; the fwain, of the painted cloth for this: your lion, that holds Pompey the great; the parish curate, Alexander; his poll-ax fitting on a clofe-tool, will be given Amalo's page, Hercules; the pedant, Judas Mac- to A-jax 7; he will then be the ninth worthy. A conqueror, and afeard to fpeak! run away for And if these four worthies in their first show thrive, shame, Alifander. [Fxit Nath.] There, an 't thall These four will change habits, and prefent the other pleafe you! a foolish mild man, an honeft man, B. There is five in the first show. [five. look you, and foon dafli'd! He is a marvellous King. You are deceiv'd, 'tis not fo. good neighbour in footh; and a very good bowler:

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* Meaning, we are not fools; our next relations cannot beg the wardship of our persons and forLanes. One of the legal tefts of a natural is to try whether he can number. 2 Novum was an old game at dice. 3 A phrafe ftill in ufe among gardeners. 4 This alludes to the old heroic habits, which on the knees and fhoulders had ufually, by way of ornament, the refemblance of a leopard's eron's head. To relish this joke, the reader fhould recollect, that the head of Alexander was briquely placed on his shoulders. Alluding to the arms given to the nine worthies in the old hif tury7 A paltry pun upon Ajax and a jakes,

but,

but, for Alifander, alas, you fee, how 'tis ;-a little) o'erparted:-But there are worthies a-coming will fpeak their mind in fome other fort.

Biran. Stand afide, good Pompey.
Enter Holofernes for Judas, and Moth for Hercules.
Hol. Great Hercules is prefented by this imp,"
"Whofe club kill'd Cerberus, that three-headed
66 canus;

And, when he was a babe, a child, a fhrimp,
"Thus did he Arangle ferpents in his manus:
Quoniam, he feemeth in minority;

"Erg, 1 come with this apology.—'

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Arm. Peace! "The armipotent Mars, of lances "Gave Hector a gift, the heir of Ilion! [yea,

[To Moth.] Keep fome state in thy exit, and vanish." A man fo breath'd, that, certain, he would fight,

Hol. "Judas I am,—”

Dum, A Judas!

Hol. Not Ifcariot, fir.

Judas I am, ycleped Macchabæus.”

[Exit Moth.

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"From morn till night, out of his pavilion.

"I am that flower,-"

Dun. That mint.

Long. That columbine.

Arm. Sweet lord Longaville, rein thy tongue. Long. I muft rather give it the rein; for it runs against Hector.

Dum. Ay, and Hector's a greyhound.

Arm. The fweet war-man is dead and rotten; fweet chucks, beat not the bones of the buried: when he breath'd, he was a man-But I will forward with my device; [To the princess] fweet royalty, bestow on me the sense of hearing.

Prin. Speak, brave Hector; we are much delighted.

Arm. I do adore thy fweet grace's flipper.
Boyet. Loves her by the foot,
Dum. He may not by the yard.

Arm. "This Hector far furmounted Hannibal,—” Coft. The party is gone, fellow Hector, the is gone, fhe is two months on her way.

Arm. What mean'it thou?

Goft. Faith, unlets you play the honest Trojan,

Biron. Ay, and worn in the cap of a tooth-the poor wench is caft away: fhe's quick; the

[tenance.

drawer: And now, forward; for we have put thee in coun

Hol. You have put me out of countenance. Biron. Falfe; we have given thee faces. Hol. But you have out-fac'd them all. Biron. An thou wert a lion, we would do fo. Boyet. Therefore, as he is, an ass, let him go. And fo adieu, fweet Jude! nay, why doft thou stay? Dum. For the latter end of his name. Biron. For the afs to the Jude; give it him :-Jud

as, away. [ble. Hol. This is not generous, not gentle, not humBoyet. A light for monfieur Judas; it grows dark,

he may ftumble.

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child brags in her belly already; 'tis yours.

Arm. Doft thou infamonize me among potentates? thou shalt die.

Coff. Then shall Hector be whipp'd, for Jaquenetta that is quick by him; and hang'd, for Pompey that is dead by him.

Dum. Moft rare Pompey.!

Boyet. Renowned Pompey!

Biron. Greater than great, great, great, great Pompey! Pompey the huge! Dum. Hector trembles.

Biron. Pompey is mov'd:-More Ates, more Ates 5; ftir them on, ftir them on!

Dum. Hector will challenge him.

Biren. Ay, if he have no more man's blood in's belly than will fup a flea.

Arm. By the north pole, I do challenge thee. Coft. I will not fight with a pole, like a northern man: I'll flash; I'll do't by the fword :-1 pray you, let me borrow my arms again. Dum. Room for the incenfed worthies,

Ceft. I'll do it in my shirt.

Dum. Moft refolute Pompey !

6

Moth. Mafter, let me take you a button-hole lawer Do you not fee, Pompey is uncafing for the combat

2 That is, a foldier's powder-horn

A cittern was a mufical inftrument of the harp kind. 3 A Trojan, in the time of Shakspeare, was a cant term for a thief. 4 An orange fuck with clave appears to have been a common new-year's gift. 5 Ate was the heathen goddefs who incited blood fled. 6 Meaning the weapons and armour which he wore in the character of Pompey,

Wh

What mean you? you will lofe your reputation. Arm. Gentlemen, and foldiers, pardon me; I ali not "combat in my shirt.

Das. You may not denyit; Pompey hath made the challenge.

Arm. Sweet bloods, I both may and wil.
Brun. What reafon have you for't?

All wanton as a child, skipping, and vain ;
Form'd by the eye, and, therefore, like the eye,
Full of ftraying fhapes, of habits, and of forms,
Varying in fubjects as the eye doth roll
To every varied object in his glance :
Which party-coated prefence of loose love,
Put on by us, if, in your heavenly eyes,

Am. The naked truth of it is, I have no fhirt; Have mifbecom'd our oaths and gravities,

I go woolward for penance.

Boyet. True, and it was enjoin'd him in Rome for want of linen: fince when, I'll be fworn, he wore none, but a difh-clout of Jaquenetta's; and that a wears next his heart for a favour. Enter Mercade.

Mer. God fave you, madam!

Priz. Welcome, Mercade;

Bx that thou interrupt'ft our merriment.

Mer. I am forry, madam; for the news I bring, k heavy in my tongue. The king your father Pris Dead, for my life.

Mer. Even fo: my tale is told.
Bire.Worthies, away; the scene begins to cloud.
. For mine own part, I breathe free breath:
I have feen the days of wrong through the little
bule of difcretion, and I will right myself like a
Ader.
[Exeunt Worthies.

King. How fares your majesty?
Pria. Boyet, prepare; I will away to-night.
Kg. Madam, not fo; I do befeech you, ftay.
Pr. Prepare, I fay.-I thank you, gracious lords,
For all your fair endeavours; and entreat,
Out of a new-fad foul, that you vouchsafe
In your rich wifdom, to excufe, or hide,
The liberal 2 oppofition of our fpirits:
If over-boldly we have borne ourselves
In the converfe of breath, your gentleness
Was guilty of it.-Farewell, worthy lord!
A heavy heart bears not an humble tongue :
Excufe me fo, coming fo fhort of thanks
For my great fuit fo eafily obtain'd.

E

Thofe heavenly eyes, that look into thefe faults,
Suggested 3 us to make: Therefore, ladies,
Our love being yours, the error that love makes
Is likewife yours: we to ourselves prove false,
By being once falfe for ever to be true
To thofe that make us both, fair ladies, you;
And even that falfhood, in itself a fin,
Thus purifies itfelf, and turns to grace.

Prin. We have receiv'd your letters, full of love;
Your favours, the embassadors of love;
And, in our maiden council, rated them
At courtship, pleafant jeft, and courtesy,
As bombaft 4 and as lining to the time :
But more devout than this, in our respects,
Have we not been; and therefore met your loves
In their own fashion, like a merriment. [than jest.
Dum. Our letters, madam, fhew'd much more
Long. So did our looks.

Ref. We did not quote them fo.

King. Now, at the latest minute of the hour, Grant us your loves.

Prin. A time, methinks, too fhort

To make a world-without-end bargain in :
No, no, my lord, your grace is perjur'd much,
Full of dear guiltinefs; and therefore, this,
If for my love (as there is no fuch caufe)
You will do aught, this fhall you do for me:
Your oath I will not truft: but go with speed
To fome forlorn and naked hermitage,
Remote from all the pleatures of the world;
There ftay, until the twelve celeftial figns
Have brought about their annual reckoning:

K. Theextreme parts of time extremely forms If this auftere infociable life
All cares to the purpose of his speed;
And often, at his very loofe, decides

T which long process could not arbitrate:
And though the mourning brow of progeny
Furned the fmiling courtesy of love

Te body fuit which fain it would convince;
let, fince love's argument was firft on foot,

Let out the cloud of forrow juftle it

Change not your offer made in heat of blood;
If frofts, and fafts, hard lodging, and thin weeds,
Nip not the gaudy bloifoms of your love;
But that it bear this trial, and laft love;
Then, at the expiration of the year,
Come challenge, challenge me by these deferts,
And, by this virgin-palm, now kiffing thine,
I will be thine: and till that inftant, shut

From what it purpos'd; fince, to wail friends loft, My woeful felf up in a mourning-house;

Laut by much fo wholesome, profitable,
As to rejoice at friends but newly found.

Fri. I understand you not, my griefs are double.
Bron. Honeft plain words best pierce the ear of
And by these badges understand the king. [grief;-
For your fair fakes have we neglected time,
Pad foul play with our oaths; your beauty, ladies,
Hath much deform'd us, fashioning our humours
Even to the oppofed end of our intents:
And what in us hath feem'd ridiculous,
As love is full of unbefitting strains;

Raining the tears of lamentation,
For the remembrance of my father's death.
If this thou do deny, let our hands part;
Neither intitled in the other's heart.

King. If this, or more than this, I would deny;
To flatters up these powers of mine with reft,
The fudden hand of death close up mine eye!
Hence ever then my heart is in thy breast.
Biron. And what to me, my love? and what to me?
Rof. You must be purged too, your fins are rank;
You are attaint with fault and perjury:

1 To go woolward was a phrase appropriated to pilgrims and penitentiaries, and means, that he was floathed in wool, and not in linen. 2 Liberal here fignifies, as has been remarked in other places, Je to excess. 3 That is, tempted us. 4 Bombuft was a stuff of loofe texture used formerly to wch the garment, and thence ufed to fignify bulk, or fhew without folidity. 5 That is, to fouth. Therefore,

Therefore, if you my favour mean to get,
A twelve-month fhall you spend, and never reft,
But feek the weary beds of people fick.

Dum. But what to me, my love? but what to
me?
[nefty;
Kath. A wife !a beard, fair health, and ho-
With three-fold love I wish you all these three.
Dum. O, fhall I fay, I thank you, gentle wife?
Kath. Not fo, my lord;--atwelve-month and a day
I'll mark no words that smooth-fac'd wooers say:
Come when the king doth to my lady come,
Then, if I have much love, I'll give you fome.
Dum. I'll ferve thee true and faithfully till then.
Kath. Yet fwear not, left you be forfworn again.
Long. What fays Maria?

Mar. At the twelve-month's end,

I'll change my black gown for a faithful friend.
Long. I'll stay with patience; but the time is long.
Mar. The liker you; few taller are to young.
Biron. Studies my lady? mistress, look on me,
Behold the window of my heart, mine eye,
What humble fuit attends thy anfwer there;
Impose fome fervice on me for thy love.

Ref. Oft have I heard of you, my lord Biron,
Before I faw you, and the world's large tongue
Proclaims you for a man replete with mocks;
Full of comparifons, and wounding flouts;
Which you on all eftates will execute,
That lie within the mercy of your wit:

To weed this wormwood from your fruitful brain;
And therewithal, to win me, if you please,
(Without the which I am not to be won)
You shall this twelve-month term from day to day
Vifit the fpeechleis fick, and ftill converfe
With groaning wretches; and your task thall be,
With all the fierce endeavour of your wit,
To enforce the pained impotent to mile. [death?
Biron. To move wild laughter in the throat of
It cannot be; it is impofible:

Mirth cannot move a foul in agony."

Rof. Why, that's the way to choak a gibing spirit,
Whofe influence is begot of that loofe grace,
Which fhallow laughing hearers give to fools:
A jeft's profperity lies in the ear

Of him that hears it, never in the tongue
Of him that makes it: then, if fickly ears,
Deaf'd with the clamours of their own dear? groans,
Will hear your idle fcorns, continue then,
And I will have you, and that fault withal;
But, if they will not, throw away that ipirit,
And I fhall find you empty of that fault,
Right joyful of your reformation.

Biron. A twelve-month? well, befal what will befal,

Til jeft a twelve-month in an hospital.

Prin. Ay, fweet my lord; and fo I take my leave. [To the King.

King. No, madam; we will bring you on your

way.

[play;

Biron. Our wooing doth not end like an old Jack hath not Jill: thefe ladies' courtesy Might well have made our fport a comedy.

Birm. That's too long for a play.
Enter Armado.

Arm. Sweet majefty, vouchfafe me,→→
Prin. Was not that Hector?

Dum. That worthy knight of Troy.

Arm. I will kifs thy royal finger, and take leave I am a votary; I have vow'd to Jaquenetta to hold the plough for her fweet love three year. But, most efteemed greatnefs, will you hear the d alogue that the two learned men have compiled, in praife of the owl and the cuckow? it fhould have follow'd in the end of our show.

King. Call them forth quickly, we will do fo.
Arm. Hoila! approach.→→

Enter all, for the fong.

This fide is Hiems; winter.
[owl,
This Ver, the fpring; the one maintain'd by the
The other by the cuckow.
Ver, begin.

SO N G.
SPRING.

When daizies pied, and violets blue,
And lady-fmocks all filver-white,
And cuckow-buds of yellow bue,

Do paint the meadows with delight,
The cuckow then, on every tree,
Mocks marry'
y'd men, for thus fings be,
Cuckow;

Cuckow, cuckow,―0 word of fear,
Unpleafing to a married ear!
When shepherds pipe on oaten flrars,
And merry larks are plowmen's clockt,
When turtles tread, and rooks, and daws,
And maidens bleach their fummer jmuks,
The cuckow then, on every tree,
Mocks married men, for thus fings be,
Cuckow;

Cuckor, cuckow,—0 word of fear,
Unpleafing to a married car!

WIN Τ E R.
When icicles bang by the wall,

And Dick the jhepherd blows bis nail,
And Tom bears Ings into the ball,

And milk comes frozen home in pail,
When blood is nipt, and ways be foul,
Then nightly fings the flaring owl,
To-who;

Tu-whit, to-who, a menny note,
While greafy Joan doth keel the pot 3.
When all aloud the wind doth blow,
And coughing drowns the parfan's far
And bids it brooding in the (now,

And Marian's nofe looks red and rate,
Iben roalled crabs bifs in the bowl,
Then nightly fings the flaring owl,
To-wis;

Tu-shit, to-who, a merry note,
While greafy Joan doth keel the pot.

Arm. The words of Mercury are harsh after th King. Come, fir, it wants a twelve-month and a fongs of Apollo. You, that way; we, this way.

And then 'twill end.

[day,!

[Exeunt orc

1 Fierce here means vehement, rapid. 2 Dr. Johnfan thinks, that dear fhould here, as in many othe places, be dere, fad, odious. 3 i. e. Scum the pot. The word is yet ufed in Ireland. 41. e. his difcof MIDSUMME

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Other Fairies attending their King and Queen: Attendants on Thefeus and Hippolita.
SCENE, Athens, and a Wood not far from it.

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ACT I.

The Palace of Thefeus in Athens.

Ence Toeas, Hippolita, Pbilofirate, with Attendants.
TOW, fair Hippolita, our nuptial hour
Draws on apace; four happy days
bring in

NOW

Another moon: but, oh, methinks, how flow
Ihs old moon wanes! fhe lingers my defu es,
Like to a ftep-dame, or a dowager,
Long withering out a young man's revenue.
Hip. Four days will quickly steep themselves
in nights;

Four nights will quickly dream away the time;
And then the moon, like to a filver bow
New bent in heaven, fhall behold the night
Of our folemnities.

The Go, Philoftrate,

Hippolita, I woo'd thee with my fword,
And won thy love, doing thee injuries;
But I will wed thee in another key,
With pomp, with triumph, and with revelling.
Enter Egeus, Hermia, Lyjander, and Demetrius.
Ege. Happy be Thefeus, our renowned duke!
The. Thanks, good Egeus: What's the news
with thee?

Ege. Full of vexation come I, with complaint.
Against my child, my daughter Hermia.-
Stand forth, Demetrius ;--My noble lord,
This man hath my consent to marry her :
Stand forth, Lyfander ;—and, my gracious duke,
This man hath witch'd the bosom of my child:
Thou, thou, Lyfander, thou haft given her rhimes,
And interchang'd love-tokens with my child :
Thou haft by moon-light at her window fung,
With feigning voice, veries of feigning love:
And ftol'n the impreffion of her fantasy
With bracelets of thy hair, rings, gawds', conceits,
Knacks, trifles, nosegays, sweet-meats, mellengers
Of strong prevailment in unharden'd youth :
[Exit Phi. With cunning haft thou filch'd my daughter's heart;

Ser up the Athenian youth to merriments;
Awake the pert and nimble fpirit of mirth;
Tarn melancholy forth to funerals,

The pale companion is not for our pomp.

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