Dull. Nor understood none neither, Sir.

Hol. Allons! we will employ thee.

Dull. I'll make one in a dance, or so; or I will play

On the tabor to the Worthies, and let them dance the hay. 39
Most dull, honest Dull. To our sport, away!

Hol.

SCENE II.

Another part of the Same. Before the Princess's Pavilion.

Enter the PRINCESS, KATHARINE, ROSALINE, and MARIA.

Prin. Sweet hearts, we shall be rich ere we depart,

If fairings come thus plentifully in:

A lady wall'd about with diamonds! 1

Look you, what I have from the loving king.

Ros. Madam, came nothing else along with that?

Prin. Nothing but this? yes; as much love in rhyme,

As would be cramm'd up in a sheet of paper,
Writ on both sides the leaf, margin and all,
That he was fain to seal on Cupid's name. 2

Ros. That was the way to make his godhead wax;

For he hath been five thousand years a boy.

Kath. Ay, and a shrewd unhappy gallows too. 4

3

Ros. You'll ne'er be friends with him: he kill'd your sister.
Kath. He made her melancholy, sad, and heavy;

And so she died: had she been light, like you,

Of such a merry, nimble, stirring spirit,

She might have been a grandam ere she died;

And so may you, for a light heart lives long.

Ros. What's your dark meaning, mouse, of this light word?
Kath. A light condition in a beauty dark. 5

3) hay

hay

[Exeunt.

ein Rundtanz, aus Frankreich eingeführt. Den dreifachen Reim play away ignoriren die meisten Hgg.

1) Unter a lady etc. versteht die Prinzessin sich selbst und den Diamantschmuck, den ihr der König gesandt hat.

1

2) Der König hatte das Papier mit seinen Versen so ganz vollgeschrieben, dass er das Siegel auf keine leere Stelle, sondern auf den Namen Cupido's, der in dem Gedichte vorkam, drücken musste.

3) Wortspiel zwischen wax

Siegelwachs, und to wax wachsen. his godhead ist

Licht,

der scherzhafte Ehrentitel Amors, nach Analogie von his majesty etc. 4 unhappy ungerathen, bösartig. gallows Galgenschwengel. 5) An das Wortspiel zwischen light in seinen verschiedenen Bedeutungen leicht, und = leichtfertig, das bei deres mit dark dunkel, und Lichtschnuppe, und

=

snuff aufnehmen.

Sh. überall wiederkehrt, knüpft sich hier ein andunkelfarbig vom Teint, sowie ein drittes mit Verstimmung. to take in snuff Etwas übel

Ros. We need more light to find your meaning out.
Kath. You'll mar the light by taking it in snuff;
Therefore, I'll darkly end the argument.

Ros. Look, what you do, you do it still i' the dark.
Kath. So do not you, for you are a light wench.
Ros. Indeed, I weigh not you, and therefore light.
Kath. You weigh me not? O! that 's you care not for me.
Ros. Great reason; for, past cure is still past care.
Prin. Well bandied both; a set of wit well play'd.
But, Rosaline, you have a favour too:

Who sent it? and what is it?

Ros.

-

I would you knew:

An if my face were but as fair as yours,
My favour were as great: be witness this.
Nay, I have verses too, I thank Biron.
The numbers true; and, were the numbering
I were the fairest goddess on the ground:
I am compar'd to twenty thousand fairs.
O! he hath drawn my picture in his letter.
Prin. Anything like?

9

8

too,

Ros. Much in the letters, nothing in the praise.
Prin. Beauteous as ink: a good conclusion.

Kath. Fair 10 as a text B in a copy-book.

6

Ros. 'Ware pencils! ho! 11 let me not die your debtor,

My red dominical, my golden letter:

O, that your face were not so full of O's! 12

Prin. A pox of that jest! and I beshrew all shrows!

But, Katharine, what was sent to you from fair Dumaine? 13

6) Q. und Fol. haben past care is still past cure, was Theobald, dem auch sonst vorkommenden Sprichwort gemäss, umänderte.

7) a set = ein einmaliges Ballspiel. So in K. Henry V. (A. 1, Sc. 2) play a set || Shall strike his father's crown into the hazard.

Zählung, ein Wortspiel mit numbers true = richtig gemessene Verse,

findet seine Erklärung in dem folgenden twenty thousand fairs.

9) Rosalinens Bild ist ähnlich in den Buchstaben des Gedichts, d. h. sie ist so schwarz, wie die Buchstaben, aber unähnlich in dem Lobe, das sie nicht verdient.

10) fair blond, hellfarbig, schön, steht hier ironisch, da das B in dem Vorschriftenbuch so schwarz ist, wie die übrigen Buchstaben.

11) Die Q. und Fol. haben Ware pensals. How?

Rosaline warnt die Katharine vor

den Pinseln, mit denen man zur Vergeltung ihr Bild malen könnte, und vergleicht dann ihr blondes, helles Gesicht mit den rothen oder goldenen Buchstaben, mit welchen die Sonntage im Kalender bezeichnet sind.

12) O eigentlich ein kreisförmiger Fleck, hier eine Anspielung auf die Pockennarben, die Katharine im Gesicht hat. Darauf bezieht sich a pox, ein gewöhnliches Verwünschungswort. not so fehlt in der Fol.

13) Von diesen beiden Zeilen ertheilen die meisten Hgg. nach Theobald's Vorgange die erste der Katharine zu.

Kath. Madam, this glove.

Prin.

Did he not send you twain?

Kath. Yes, madam; and, moreover, Some thousand verses of a faithful lover: A huge translation of hypocrisy,

Vilely compil'd, profound simplicity.

14

Mar. This, and these pearls to me sent Longaville: The letter is too long by half a mile.

Prin. I think no less. Dost thou not wish in heart,
The chain were longer, and the letter short?

Mar. Ay, or I would these hands might never part.
Prin. We are wise girls to mock our lovers so.
Ros. They are worse fools to purchase mocking so.
That same Biron I'll torture ere I go.

0! that I knew he were but in by the week! 15
How I would make him fawn, and beg, and seek,
And wait the season, and observe the times,
And spend his prodigal wits in bootless rhymes,
And shape his service wholly to my hests, 16

And make him proud to make me proud that jests! 17
So portent-like 18 would I o'ersway his state,

That he should be my fool, and I his fate.

Prin. None are so surely caught, when they are catch'd;

As wit turn'd fool: folly, in wisdom hatch'd,

Hath wisdom's warrant, and the help of school,

And wit's own grace to grace a learned fool.

Ros. The blood of youth burns not with such excess,

As gravity's revolt to wantonness. 19

Mar. Folly in fools bears not so strong a note,

As foolery in the wise, when wit doth dote;

Since all the power thereof it doth apply,

To prove, by wit, worth in simplicity.

14) profound simplicity eine Einfalt, die sich das Ansehn von Tiefsinn giebt. 15) Wüsste ich nur, dass ich ihn auf acht Tage in Dienst und Lohn hätte!

to be in by the week kommt in diesem figürlichen Sinne für eine Zeit gefesselt, dienstbar sein, auch sonst vor.

16) Q. und Fol. haben unmetrisch und reimlos wholly to my device, wofür die zweite Fol. setzte all to my behests. hests für behests ist Dyce's Emendation.

17) Ich würde ihn darauf stolz machen, dass er mich stolz und spröde macht, da ich nur spotte über ihn... Die zweite Fol. hat with jests für that jests.

18] portent-like emendirt Hanmer das perttaunt like der Q. und pertaunt like der Fol. 19) Das jugendliche Blut lodert nicht so unmässig, wie die Ehrbarkeit, wenn sie einmal zur Ausgelassenheit abfällt. wantonness emendirt die zweite Fol. das wantons be

der Q. und Fol.

Enter BOYET.

Prin. Here comes Boyet, and mirth is 20 in his face.

Boyet. O! I am stabb'd with laughter. Where 's her grace?
Prin. Thy news, Boyet?

Boyet.

Prepare, madam, prepare!

Arm, wenches, arm! encounters mounted are

Against your peace. Love doth approach disguis'd,
Armed in arguments: you 'll be surpris'd.

Muster your wits; stand in your own defence,

Or hide your heads like cowards, and fly hence.

Prin. Saint Dennis to saint Cupid! 21 What are they,
That charge their breath against us? say, scout, say.
Boyet. Under the cool shade of a sycamore,

I thought to close mine eyes some half an hour,
When, lo! to interrupt my purpos'd rest,
Toward that shade I might behold addrest 22
The king and his companions: warily

I stole into a neighbour thicket by,
And overheard what you shall overhear;
That by and by disguis'd they will be here.
Their herald is a pretty knavish page,
That well by heart hath conn'd his émbassage:
Action, and accent, did they teach him there;
,,Thus must thou speak, and thus thy body bear:"
And ever and anon they made a doubt,

Presence majestical would put him out;

23

Yet fear not thou, but speak audaciously."

The boy replied, „An angel is not evil;

I should have fear'd her, had she been a devil."

With that all laugh'd, and clapp'd him on the shoulder,
Making the bold wag by their praises bolder.

One rubb'd his elbow, thus, 24 and fleer'd, and swore,

20) is fehlt in der Fol.

21) Saint Dennis

St. Dionys, der Schutzheilige Frankreichs, ist das Schlachtgeschrei der französischen Damen gegen Saint Cupid. Vgl. A. 4, Sc. 3, Anm. 84. Das Geschütz der angreifenden Feinde betrachtet die Prinzessin als blossen Hauch, blosse Worte (breath).

auf zugehend. 23) Sie befürchteten immer wieder, dass die Erscheinung der Majestät, d. h. der Prinzessin, ihn aus der Fassung, aus dem Concept bringen würde.

2) to rub the elbow sich den Elbogen reiben, als ein Zeichen von innerlichem Behagen; so in K. Henry IV. First Part (A. 5, Sc. 1) poor discontents || Which gape and rub the elbow at the news || Of hurly-burly innovation.

To check their folly, passion's solemn tears.

Prin. But what, but what, come they to visit us?
Boyet. They do, they do; and are apparel'd thus,
Like Muscovites, or Russians: 26 as I guess,
Their purpose is, to parle, to court, and dance;
And every one his love-feat 27 will advance
Unto his several mistress; which they'll know
By favours several which they did bestow.

Prin. And will they so? the gallants shall be task'd;
For, ladies, we will every one be mask'd,
And not a man of them shall have the grace,

Despite of suit, to see a lady's face.

Hold, Rosaline, this favour thou shalt wear,
And then the king will court thee for his dear:

Hold, take thou this, my sweet, and give me thine,
So shall Biron take me for Rosaline.

And change you favours, 28 too; so shall your loves

Woo contrary, deceiv'd by these removes.

Ros. Come on then: wear the favours most in sight.
Kath. But in this changing what is your intent?

25) ridiculous spleen Ausbruch einer lächerlichen Stimmung, Lachkrampf, ist dem passion's solemn tears = schwermüthige Thränen eines tiefen Affekts, entgegengesetzt. appears ist das von tears abhängige Verbum, das im Singular steht, weil das Subject im Plural erst später folgt.

26) Ritson citirt aus Hall's Chronik ein Beispiel solcher Verkleidung, die einmal am Hofe Heinrichs VIII. Statt fand: At a banquet made for the foreign ambassadors in the parliament - chamber at Westminster came the lord Henry, Earl of Wiltshire, and the lord Fitzwater, in two long gowns of yellow satin traversed with white satin, and in every bend of white was a bend of crimosine satin after the fashion of Russia or Russland, with furred hats of grey on their heads, either of them having an hatchet in their hands, and boots with pikes turned up.

27) love-feat

Heldenthat in der Liebe, in Uebereinstimmung mit dem schon vorher durchgeführten Bilde, das die Galanterie des Königs und der Höflinge mit einem kriegerischen Angriffe vergleicht. love-suit, wie Dyce mit Collier's altem Correc

tor liest, ist wahrscheinlich entlehnt aus dem bald folgenden despite of suit. 2) Katharine und Maria sollen auch mit den Liebeszeichen wechseln, die sie von ihren Verehrern erhalten haben.

haber.

Die Fol. hat your favours. your loves

Eure Lieb