Long. Ah me! I am forsworn.

Biron. Why, he comes in like a perjure, wearing

papers.

[Aside.

King. In love, I hope; Sweet fellowship in shame!

[Aside.

Biron. One drunkard loves another of the name.

[Aside.

Long. Am I the first that have been perjur'd so? Biron. [Aside.] I could put thee in comfort;

not by two, that I know:

Thou mak'st the triumviry, the corner cap of so

ciety,

The shape of Love's Tyburn that hangs up simpli

city.

Long. I fear, these stubborn lines lack power to

move:

O sweet Maria, empress of my love!

These numbers will I tear, and write in prose.

Biron. [Aside.] O, rhymes are guards on wanton

Cupid's hose:

Disfigure not his slop.1
Long.

9

This same shall go.

[He reads the sonnet.

Did not the heavenly rhetorick of thine eye
('Gainst whom the world cannot hold argu-
ment,)

Persuade my heart to this false perjury?
Vows, for thee broke, deserve not punishment.
A woman I forswore; but, I will prove,
Thou being a goddess, I forswore not thee:
My vow was earthly, thou a heavenly love;
Thy grace being gain'd, cures all disgrace in

me.

- he comes in like a perjure,] The punishment of perjury

is to wear on the breast a paper expressing the crime.

Disfigure not his slop.] This alludes to the usual tawdry dress of Cupid, when he appeared on the stage.

Vows are but breath, and breath a vapour is : Then thou, fair sun, which on my earth dost shine,

Exhal'st this vapour vow; in thee it is :

If broken then, it is no fault of mine; If by me broke. What fool is not so wise, To lose an oath, to win a paradise? Biron. [Aside.] This is the liver vein, which

makes flesh a deity :

A green goose, a goddess: pure, pure idolatry. God amend us, God amend! we are much out o'the

way.

Enter DUMAIN, with a paper.

Long. By whom shall I send this?-Company!
stay.
[Stepping aside.
Biron. [Aside.] All hid, all hid, an old infant
play :

Like a demi-god here sit I in the sky,
And wretched fools' secrets heedfully o'er-eye.
More sacks to the mill! O heavens, I have my wish;
Dumain transform'd: four woodcocks in a dish!

2

Dum. O most divine Kate!

Biron.

O most prophane coxcomb! [Aside.

Dum. By heaven, the wonder of a mortal eye! Biron. By earth she is but corporal: there you lie. [Aside. Dum. Her amber hairs for foul have amber

coted.4

Biron. An amber-colour'd raven was well noted.

[Aside.

- the liver vein,] The liver was anciently supposed to be the seat of love.

3 All hid, all hid,] The children's cry at hide and seek.

4

amber coted.] The word here intended, though mispelled, is quoted, which signifies observed or regarded, both here and in

Biron.

Her shoulder is with child.

Dum.

Bum. As upright as the cedar.

As fair as day.

Biron. Ay, as some days; but then no sun must

Stoop, I say;

[Aside.

shine.

[Aside.

Dum. O that I had my wish!

Long.

And I had mine!

Aside.

King. And I mine too, good Lord!

[Aside.

word?

[Aside.

Biron. Amen, so I had mine: Is not that a good

Dum. I would forget her; but a fever she Reigns in my blood, and will remember'd be.

Biron. A fever in your blood, why, then inci

sion

Would let her out in saucers; Sweet misprision!

[Aside. Dum. Once more I'll read the ode that I have

writ.

Biron. Once more I'll mark how love can vary

wit.

Dum. On a day, (alack the day!)

Love, whose month is ever May,
Spied a blossom, passing fair,
Playing in the wanton air :
Through the velvet leaves the wind,
All unseen, 'gan passage find;
That the lover, sick to death,

Wish'd himself the heaven's breath,

[Aside.

every place where it occurs in these plays; and the meaning is, that amber itself is regarded as foul, when compared with her hair.

Would let her out in saucers;] It was the fashion among the young gallants of that age, to stab themselves in the arms, or elsewhere, in order to drink their mistress's health, or write her name in their blood, as a proof of their passion.

Air, quoth he, thy cheeks may blow;
Air, would I might triumph so!
But alack, my hand is sworn,
Ne'er to pluck thee from thy thorn:

Vow, alack, for youth unmeet;
Youth so apt to pluck a sweet.

Do not call it sin in me,

That I am forsworn for thee :
Thou for whom even Jove would swear,
Juno but an Ethiop were;
And deny himself for Jove,
Turning mortal for thy love.-

This will I send; and something else more plain,
That shall express my true love's fasting pain.
O, would the King, Biron, and Longaville,
Were lovers too! Ill, to example ill,
Would from my forehead wipe a perjur'd note;
For none offend, where all alike do dote.

Long. Dumain, [advancing.] thy love is far from

charity,

That in love's grief desir'st society:
You may look pale, but I should blush, I know,
To be o'erheard, and taken napping so.

King. Come, sir, [advancing.] you blush; as his

your case is such;

You chide at him, offending twice as much :
You do not love Maria; Longaville
Did never sonnet for her sake compile;
Nor never lay his wreathed arms athwart
His loving bosom, to keep down his heart.
I have been closely shrouded in this bush,
And mark'd you both, and for you both did

blush.

I heard your guilty rhymes, observ'd your fashion ; Saw sighs reek from you, noted well your pas