Imágenes de páginas
PDF
EPUB

In fpending thus your wit in praise of mine.
But now to task the tafker,-Good Boyet,
You are not ignorant, all-telling fame
Doth noife abroad, Navarre hath made a vow,
Till painful study fhall out-wear three years,
No woman may approach his filent court:
Therefore to us feemeth it a needful course,
Before we enter his forbidden gates,

To know his pleasure; and, in that behalf,
Bold of your worthinefs, we fingle you
As our beft-moving fair folicitor:

Tell him, the daughter of the king of France,
On ferious bufinefs, craving quick dispatch,
Importunes perfonal conference with his grace.
Hafte, fignify fo much; while we attend,
Like humble-vifag'd fuitors, his high will.

[ocr errors]

Boyet. Proud of employment, willingly I go. [Exit. Prin. All pride is willing pride, and yours is fo. Who are the votaries, my loving lords, That are vow-fellows with this virtuous duke? Lord. Longaville is one.

Prin. Know you the man?

[ocr errors]

Mar. I knew him, madam; at a marriage feast, Between lord Perigort and the beauteous heir Of Jaques Faulconbridge folemnized, In Normandy faw I this Longaville: A man of fovereign parts he is efteem'd; Well fitted in the arts, glorious in arms: Nothing becomes him ill, that he would well. The only foil of his fair virtue's glofs, (If virtue's glofs will ftain with any foil) Is a fharp wit 3 match'd with too blunt a will; Whofe edge hath power to cut, whofe will ftill wills It should none fpare that come within his power. Prin. Some merry mocking lord, belike; is't fo?

2 Well fitted

-3

-] is well qualified. JOHNSON.

3 match'd with is combined or joined with, JOHNSON,

[ocr errors]

Mar

Mar. They fay fo moft, that most his humours know. Prin. Such fhort-liv'd wits do wither as they grow. Who are the reft?

Kath. The young Dumain, a well-accomplish'd youth,

Of all that virtue love for virtue lov'd:

Moft power to do moft harm, leaft knowing ill;
For he hath wit to make an ill fhape good,
And shape to win grace though he had no wit.
I faw him at the duke Alençon's once;
And much too little, of that good I saw,
my report to his great worthiness.

Is

Rofa. Another of these students at that time
Was there with him, as I have heard a truth;
Biron they call him; but a merrier man,
Within the limit of becoming mirth,
I never spent an hour's talk withal:
His eye begets occafion for his wit;
For every object that the one doth catch,
The other turns to a mirth-moving jeft;
Which his fair tongue (conceit's expofitor)
Delivers in fuch apt and gracious words,
That aged ears play truant at his tales,
And younger hearings are quite ravifhed;
So fweet and voluble is his difcourfe.

Prin. God bless my ladies! are they all in love; That every one her own hath garnifhed

With fuch bedecking ornaments of praife?
Mar. Here comes Boyet.

Re-enter Boyet.

Prin. Now, what admittance, lord?

Boyet. Navarre had notice of your fair approach;

And he and his competitors in oath

Were all addrefs'd to meet you, gentle lady,

66

4 Were all addrefs'd] To addrefs is to prepare. So in Hamlet: -it lifted up its head, and did addrefs "Itfelf to motion." STEEVENS.

VOL. II.

Dd.

Be

Before I came. Marry, thus much I have learnt,
He rather means to lodge you in the field,
(Like one that comes here to befiege his court)
Than feek a difpenfation for his oath,

To let you enter his unpeopled house.
Here comes Navarre.

Enter the King, Longaville, Dumain, Biron, and Attendants.

[ocr errors]

King. Fair princess, welcome to the court of Na

varre.

Prin. Fair, I give you back again; and, welcome I have not yet: the roof of this court is too high to be yours; and welcome to the wide fields too bafe to be mine.

King. You fhall be welcome, madam, to my court. Prin. I will be welcome then; conduct me thither. King. Hear me, dear lady; I have fworn an oath. Prin. Our Lady help my lord! he'll be forfworn. King. Not for the world, fair madam, by my will. Prin. Why, will fhall break it; will, and nothing elfe.

King. Your ladyfhip is ignorant what it is.

Prin. Were my lord fo, his ignorance were wife, Where now his knowledge muft prove ignorance. I hear, your grace hath fworn-out houfe-keeping: "Tis deadly fin to keep that oath, my lord,

5 And fin to break it:

But pardon me, I am too fudden bold;
To teach a teacher ill befeemeth me.

Vouchfafe to read the purpofe of my coming,.
And fuddenly refolve me in my fuit.
King. Madam, I will, if fuddenly I may.

5 And fin to break it :] Sir T. Hanmer reads:

Not fin to break it.

I believe erroneously. The princefs fhews an inconvenience very frequently attending rafh oaths, which, whether kept or broken, produce guilt. JOHNSON.

1

Prin. You will the fooner, that I were away; For you'll prove perjur'd, if you make me ftay. Biron. Did not I dance with you in Brabant once? Rof. Did not I dance with you in Brabant once? Biron. I know, you did.

Rof. How needlefs was it then To ask the question!

Biron. You must not be fo quick.

Rof. 'Tis long of you, that fpur me with fuch questions.

Biron. Your wit's too hot, it speeds too faft, 'twill

tire.

Rof. Not till it leave the rider in the mire.

Biron. What time o' day?

Rof. The hour that fools should ask.
Biron. Now fair befall your mask!
Rof. Fair fall the face it covers!
Biron. And fend you many lovers!
Rof. Amen; fo you be none.

Biron. Nay, then will I be gone.

King. Madam, your father here doth intimate
The payment of a hundred thousand crowns;
Being but the one half of an entire fum,
Difburfed by my father in his wars.

But fay, that he, or we, (as neither have)
Receiv'd that fum; yet there remains unpaid

A hundred thousand more, in furety of the which,
One part of Aquitain is bound to us,
Although not valued to the money's worth.
If then the king your father will restore
But that one half which is unfatisfy'd,
We will give up our right in Aquitain,
And hold fair friendfhip with his majesty.
But that, it seems, he little purposeth,
For here he doth demand to have repaid
An hundred thousand crowns; and not demands,

and not demands,

On

On payment, &c.]

Ddz

The

On payment of a hundred thousand crowns,
To have his title live in Aquitain;

Which we much rather had depart 7 withal,
And have the money by our father lent,
Than Aquitain fo gelded as it is.

Dear princefs, were not his requests so far
From reafon's yielding, your fair self should make
A yielding, 'gainst some reason, in my breast,
And go well fatisfied to France again.

Prin. You do the king my father too much wrong,
And wrong the reputation of your name,
In fo unfeeming to confefs receipt

Of that which hath fo faithfully been paid.
King. I do proteft, I never heard of it;
And, if you prove it, I'll repay it back,
Or yield up Aquitain.

Prin. We arreft your word :-
Boyet, you can produce acquittances,
For fuch a fum, from fpecial officers
Of Charles his father.

King. Satisfy me fo.

Boyet. So pleafe your grace, the packet is not

come,

The former editions read:

and not demands

One payment of a hundred thousand crowns,
To have his title live in Aquitain.

I have restored, I believe, the genuine fenfe of the paffage. Aquitain was pledged, it feems, to Navarre's father, for 200,000 crowns. The French king pretends to have paid one moiety of this debt, (which Navarre knows nothing of) but demands this moiety back again: inftead whereof (fays Navarre) he should rather pay the remaining moiety and demand to have Aquitain redelivered up to him. This is plain and eafy reafoning upon the fact fuppos'd; and Navarre declares, he had rather receive the refidue of his debt, than detain the province mortgaged for fecurity of it. THEOBALD.

7

depart withal] To depart and to part were anciently fynonymous. So, in K. John:

"Hath willingly departed with a part." STEEVENS.

Where

« AnteriorContinuar »