King. Ay, that is study's godlike recompense.
Biron. Come on then, I will swear to study so,
To know the thing I am forbid to know :
As thus,-To study where I well may dine,
When I to fast expressly am forbid ;a
Or study where to meet some mistress fine,
When mistresses from common sense are hid:
Or, having sworn too hard-a-keeping oath,
Study to break it, and not break my troth.
If study's gain be thus, and this be so,

Study knows that which yet it doth not know :
Swear me to this, and I will ne'er say, no.

King. These be the stops that hinder study quite,

And train our intellects to vain delight.

Biron. Why, all delights are vain; and that most vain,

Which, with pain purchas'd, doth inherit pain:
As, painfully to pore upon a book,

To seek the light of truth; while truth the while
Doth falsely blind the eyesight of his look:

Light, seeking light, doth light of light beguile :
So, ere you find where light in darkness lies,
Your light grows dark by losing of your eyes.
Study me how to please the eye indeed,
By fixing it upon a fairer eye;

Who dazzling so, that eye shall be his heed,
And give him light that it was blinded by.

Study is like the heaven's glorious sun,

That will not be deep-search'd with saucy looks; Small have continual plodders ever won,

Save base authority from other's books.

Forbid was a very ancient mode of making bid more emphatical. Biron will study to know what he is forbid to know; he uses here forbid in its common acceptation. But he is expressly for-bid to fast-expressly bid to fast; and he will receive the word as if he were forbidden-bid from fasting.

These earthly godfathers of heaven's lights,
That give a name to every fixed star,
Have no more profit of their shining nights,
Than those that walk, and wot not what they are.
Too much to know is, to know nought but fame;
And every godfather can give a name.

King. How well he 's read, to reason against reading!
Dum. Proceeded well, to stop all good proceeding!
Long. He weeds the corn, and still lets grow the
weeding.

Biron. The spring is near, when green geese are a breeding.

Dum. How follows that?

Biron.

Dum. In reason nothing.
Biron.

Fit in his place and time.

Something then in rhyme.

King. Biron is like an envious sneaping frost,

That bites the first-born infants of the spring.

Biron. Well, say I am; why should proud summer boast,

Before the birds have any cause to sing?

Why should I joy in any abortive birth?

At Christmas I no more desire a rose,

Than wish a snow in May's new-fangled shows;
But like of each thing that in season grows.

So you, to study now it is too late,

Climb o'er the house to unlock the little gate.

King. Well, sit you out; go home, Biron; adieu! Biron. No, my good lord; I have sworn to stay with you :

And, though I have for barbarism spoke more,
Than for that angel knowledge you can say ;
Yet, confident I 'll keep what I have swore,
And bide the penance of each three years' day,
Give me the paper,-let me read the same;
And to the strictest decrees I'll write my name.

King. How well this yielding rescues thee from

shame!

Biron. [Reads.]

Item, That no woman shall come within a mile of my courtHath this been proclaim'd?

Long. Four days ago.

Biron. Let's see the penalty. [Reads.]

-On pain of losing her tongue.—

Who devis'd this penalty?
Long. Marry, that did I.

Biron. Sweet lord, and why?

Long. To fright them hence with that dread penalty. Biron. A dangerous law against gentility. [Reads.] Item, If any man be seen to talk with a woman within the term of three years, he shall endure such public shame as the rest of the court shall possibly devise.

This article, my liege, yourself must break;

For, well you know, here comes in embassy The French king's daughter, with yourself to speak,— A maid of grace, and complete majesty,—

About surrender-up of Aquitain

To her decrepit, sick, and bed-rid father: Therefore this article is made in vain,

Or vainly comes th' admired princess hither. King. What say you, lords? why, this was quite forgot.

Biron. So study evermore is over-shot;

While it doth study to have what it would,

It doth forget to do the thing it should:

And when it hath the thing it hunteth most, "T is won, as towns with fire; so won, so lost.

King. We must, of force, dispense with this decree; She must liea here on mere necessity.

a Lie-to reside.

Biron. Necessity will make us all forsworn

Three thousand times within this three years' space:

For every man with his affects is born;

Not by might master'd, but by special grace.
If I break faith, this word shall speak for me,
I am forsworn on mere necessity.-

So to the laws at large I write my name: [Subscribes.
And he that breaks them in the least degree
Stands in attainder of eternal shame:

a

Suggestions are to others, as to me;
But, I believe, although I seem so loth,
I am the last that will last keep his oath.
But is there no quick recreation granted?

King. Ay, that there is our court, you know, is haunted

With a refined traveller of Spain;

A man in all the world's new fashion planted,
That hath a mint of phrases in his brain:
One who the music of his own vain tongue
Doth ravish, like enchanting harmony;
A man of complements, whom right and wrong
Have chose as umpire of their mutiny:
This child of fancy, that Armado hight,

For interim to our studies, shall relate,
In high-born words, the worth of many a knight
From tawny Spain, lost in the world's debate.
How you delight, my lords, I know not, I;
But, I protest, I love to hear him lie,

And I will use him for my minstrelsy.

Biron. Armado is a most illustrious wight,

A man of fire-new words, fashion's own knight.

Suggestions-temptations.

b Complements-a man versed in ceremonial distinctions, in punctilios-a man who brings forms to decide the mutiny between right and wrong.

• Fire-new and bran-new-that is, brand-new-new off the irons have each the same origin.

Long. Costard the swain, and he, shall be our sport; And, so to study, three years is but short.

Enter DULL, with a letter, and COSTARL

Dull. Which is the duke's own person?
Biron. This, fellow. What wouldst ?

Dull. I myself reprehend his own person, for I am his grace's tharborough :a but I would see his own person in flesh and blood.

Biron. This is he.

Dull. Signior Arme-Arme-commends you. There's villainy abroad: this letter will tell you more.

Cost. Sir, the contempts thereof are as touching me. King. A letter from the magnificent Armado.

Biron. How low soever the matter, I hope in God for high words.

Long. A high hope for a low heaven:b God grant us patience!

Biron. To hear? or forbear hearing?*

Long. To hear meekly, sir, and to laugh moderately; or to forbear both.

Biron. Well, sir, be it as the style shall give us cause to climb in the merriness.

Cost. The matter is to me, sir, as concerning Jaquenetta. The manner of it is, I was taken with the manner.c Biron. In what manner?

Cost. In manner and form following, sir; all those three I was seen with her in the manor-house, sitting with her upon the form, and taken following her into the park; which, put together, is in manner and form

Tharborough-thirdborough, a peace-officer.

b Heaven. The heaven here mentioned is the heaven of the ancient stage the covering, or internal roof. The "high words" expected in Armado's letter were associated with " low heaven," as the ranting heroes of the early tragedy mouthed their lofty language beneath a very humble roof.

a

e Manner. A thief was taken with the mainour when he was taken with the thing stolen-hond-habend, having in the hand.