And I to be a corporal of his field,

And wear his colors like a tumbler's hoop! 200
What! I love! I sue! I seek a wife!

A woman, that is like a German clock,
Still a-repairing, ever out of frame,
And never going aright, being a watch,
But being watch'd that it may still go right!
Nay, to be perjured, which is worst of all;
And, among three, to love the worst of all;
A whitely wanton with a velvet brow,
With two pitch-balls stuck in her face for eyes;
Aye, and, by heaven, one that will do the deed,
Though Argus were her eunuch and her guard:
And I to sigh for her! to watch for her!
To pray for her! Go to; it is a plague
That Cupid will impose for my neglect
Of his almighty dreadful little might.
Well, I will love, write, pray, sue and groan:
Some men must love my lady, and some Joan.

212

[Exit.

200. "Colors"; it was once a mark of gallantry to wear a lady's colors. It appears that a tumbler's hoop was usually dressed out with colored ribands.-H. N. H.

202. Clocks, which were usually imported from Germany at this time, were intricate and clumsy pieces of mechanism, soon deranged, and frequently "out of frame." Ben Jonson, in The Silent Woman, Act iv. sc. 1, thus describes a fashionable lady: "She takes herself asunder still when she goes to bed, into some twenty boxes; and about next day noon is put together again, like a great German clock."-H. N. H.

ACT FOURTH

SCENE I

The same.

Enter the Princess, and her train, a Forester, Boyet, Rosaline, Maria, and Katharine.

Prin. Was that the king, that spurr'd his horse so hard

Against the steep uprising of the hill?

Boyet. I know not; but I think it was not he.
Prin. Whoe'er a' was, a' showed a mounting mind.
Well, lords, to-day we shall have our dispatch:
On Saturday we will return to France.
Then, forester, my friend, where is the bush
That we must stand and play the murderer in?
For. Hereby, upon the edge of yonder coppice;

A stand where you may make the fairest shoot. Prin. I thank my beauty, I am fair that shoot, 11

And thereupon thou speak'st the fairest shoot. For. Pardon me, madam, for I meant not so. Prin. What, what? first praise me, and again say no?

O short-lived pride! Not fair? alack for woe!

1-4. These lines, as Spedding pointed out, were most probably introduced in the corrected copy. "It was thus that Shakespeare learnt to shade off his scenes, to carry the action beyond the stage.” -I. G.

For. Yes, madam, fair.
Prin.
Nay, never paint me now:
Where fair is not, praise cannot mend the brow.
Here, good my glass, take this for telling true:
Fair payment for foul words is more than due.
For. Nothing but fair is that which you inherit. 20
Prin. See, see, my beauty will be saved by merit!
O heresy in fair, fit for these days!

A giving hand, though foul, shall have fair
praise.

But come, the bow: now mercy goes to kill,
And shooting well is then accounted ill.
Thus will I save my credit in the shoot:
Not wounding, pity would not let me do 't;
If wounding, then it was to show my skill,
That more for praise than purpose meant to
kill.

And, out of question, so it is sometimes,
Glory grows guilty of detested crimes,

30

When, for fame's sake, for praise, an outward part,

We bend to that the working of the heart;

As I for praise alone now seek to spill

The poor deer's blood, that my heart means 10 ill.

Boyet. Do not curst wives hold that self-sovereignty

Only for praise sake, when they strive to be
Lords o'er their lords?

Prin. Only for praise: and praise we may afford
To any lady that subdues a lord.

40

Boyet. Here comes a member of the common

wealth.

Enter Costard.

Cost. God dig-you-den all! Pray you, which is the head lady? •

Prin. Thou shalt know her, fellow, by the rest
that have no heads.

Cost. Which is the greatest lady, the highest?
Prin. The thickest and the tallest.

Cost. The thickest and the tallest! it is so; truth is truth.

An your waist, mistress, were as slender as my wit,

One o' these maids' girdles for your waist should

be fit.

50

Are not you the chief woman? you are the

thickest here.

Prin. What's your will, sir? what's your will? Cost. I have a letter from Monsieur Biron to one Lady Rosaline.

Prin. O, thy letter, thy letter! he's a good friend of mine:

Stand aside, good bearer. Boyet, you can

carve;

Break up this capon.

41. The Princess calls Costard "a member of the commonwealth," because he is one of the attendants on the king and his associates in their new-modeled society.-H. N. H.

42. "God dig-you-den," a corruption of God give you good even.— H. N. H.

56. "Break up this capon," that is, open this letter. The Poet uses this metaphor as the French do their poulet; which signifies both a young fowl and a love-letter. To break up was a phrase for to carve. -H. N. H.

Boyet.

I am bound to serve.

This letter is mistook, it importeth none here;
It is writ to Jaquenetta.

Prin.

We will read it, I swear. Break the neck of the wax, and every one give

ear.

Boyet [reads]. By heaven, that thou art fair, 60 is most infallible; true, that thou art beauteous; truth itself, that thou art lovely. More fairer than fair, beautiful than beauteous, truer than truth itself, have commiseration on thy heroical vassal! The magnanimous and most illustrate king Cophetua set eye upon the pernicious and indubitate beggar Zenelophon; and he it was that might rightly say, Veni, vidi, vici; which to annothanize in the vulgar,-O base and obscure vulgar! 70 -videlicet, He came, saw, and overcame: he came, one; saw, two; overcame, three. Who came? the king: why did he come? to see: why did he see? to overcome: to whom came he? to the beggar: what saw he? the beggar: who overcame he? the beggar. The conclusion is victory: on whose side? the king's. The captive is enriched: on whose side? the beggar's. The catastrophe is a nuptial: on whose side? the king's: no, on 80 both in one, or one in both. I am the king; for so stands the comparison: thou the beggar; for so witnesseth thy lowliness. Shall I command thy love? I may: shall I enforce thy love? I could: shall I entreat thy love?