1334Bero. The King he is hunting the Deare,

1335I am coursing my selfe.

1336They haue pitcht a Toyle, I am toyling in a pytch,

1337pitch that defiles; defile, a foule word: Well, set thee

1338downe sorrow; for so they say the foole said, and so say

1339I, and I the foole: Well proued wit. By the Lord this

1340Loue is as mad as Aiax, it kils sheepe, it kils mee, I a

1341sheepe: Well proued againe a my side. I will not loue;

1342if I do hang me: yfaith I will not. O but her eye: by

1343this light, but for her eye, I would not loue her; yes, for

1344her two eyes. Well, I doe nothing in the world but lye,

1345and lye in my throate. By heauen I doe loue, and it hath

1346taught mee to Rime, and to be mallicholie: and here is

1347part of my Rime, and heere my mallicholie. Well, she

1348hath one a'my Sonnets already, the Clowne bore it, the

1349Foole sent it, and the Lady hath it: sweet Clowne, swee-

1350ter Foole, sweetest Lady. By the world, I would not care

1351a pin, if the other three were in. Here comes one with a

1352paper, God giue him grace to grone.

1354Kin. Ay mee!

1355Ber. Shot by heauen: proceede sweet Cupid, thou hast

1356thumpt him with thy Birdbolt vnder the left pap: in faith

1357secrets.

1374How shall she know my griefes? Ile drop the paper.

1375Sweet leaues shade folly. Who is he comes heere?

1377What Longauill, and reading: listen eare.

1378Ber. Now in thy likenesse, one more foole appeare.

1379Long. Ay me, I am forsworne.

1380Ber. Why he comes in like a periure, wearing papers.

1381Long. In loue I hope, sweet fellowship in shame.

1382Ber. One drunkard loues another of the name.

1383Lon. Am I the first y^t haue been periur'd so?

1384Ber. I could put thee in comfort, not by two that I (know,

1385Thou makest the triumphery, the corner cap of societie,

1386The shape of Loues Tiburne, that hangs vp simplicitie.

1387Lon. I feare these stubborn lines lack power to moue.

1388O sweet Maria, Empresse of my Loue,

1389These numbers will I teare, and write in prose.

1390Ber. O Rimes are gards on wanton Cupids hose,

1391Disfigure not his Shop.

1392Lon. This same shall goe. He reades the Sonnet.

1407Ber. This is the liuer veine, which makes flesh a deity.

1408A greene Goose, a Coddesse, pure pure Idolatry.

1409God amend vs, God amend, we are much out o'th'way.

1411Lon. By whom shall I send this (company?) Stay.

1412Bero. All hid, all hid, an old infant play,

1413Like a demie God, here sit I in the skie,

1414And wretched fooles secrets heedfully ore-eye.

1415More Sacks to the myll. O heauens I haue my wish,

1416Dumaine transform'd, foure Woodcocks in a dish.

1417Dum. O most diuine Kate.

1418Bero. O most prophane coxcombe.

1419Dum. By heauen the wonder of a mortall eye.

1420Bero. By earth she is not, corporall, there you lye.

1421Dum. Her Amber haires for foule hath amber coted.

1422Ber. An Amber coloured Rauen was well noted.

1423Dum. As vpright as the Cedar.

1424Ber. Stoope I say her shoulder is with-child.

1425Dum. As faire as day.

1426Ber. I as some daies, but then no sunne must shine.

1427Dum. O that I had my wish?

1428Lon. And I had mine.

1429Kin. And mine too good Lord.

1430Ber. Amen, so I had mine: Is not that a good word?

1431Dum. I would forget her, but a Feuer she

1432Raignes in my bloud, and will remembred be.

1433Ber. A Feuer in your bloud, why then incision

1434Would let her out in Sawcers, sweet misprision.

1435Dum. Once more Ile read the Ode that I haue writ.

1436Ber. Once more Ile marke how Loue can varry Wit.

.

1458This will I send, and something else more plaine.

1459That shall expresse my true-loues fasting paine.

1460O would the King, Berowne and Longauill,

1461Were Louers too, ill to example ill,

1462Would from my forehead wipe a periur'd note:

1463For none offend, where all alike doe dote.

1464Lon. Dumaine, thy Loue is farre from charitie,

1465That in Loues griefe desir'st societie:

1466You may looke pale, but I should blush I know,

1467To be ore-heard, and taken napping so.

1468Kin. Come sir, you blush: as his, your case is such,

1469You chide at him, offending twice as much.

1470You doe not loue Maria? Longauile,

1471Did neuer Sonnet for her sake compile;

1472Nor neuer lay his wreathed armes athwart

1473His louing bosome, to keepe downe his heart.

1474I haue beene closely shrowded in this bush,

1475And markt you both, and for you both did blush.

1476I heard your guilty Rimes, obseru'd your fashion:

1477Saw sighes reeke from you, noted well your passion.

1478Aye me, sayes one! O Ioue, the other cries!

1479On her haires were Gold, Christall the others eyes.

1480You would for Paradise breake Faith and troth,

1481And Ioue for your Loue would infringe an oath.

1482What will Berowne say when that he shall heare

1483Faith infringed, which such zeale did sweare.

1484How will he scorne? how will he spend his wit?

1485How will he triumph, leape, and laugh at it?

1486For all the wealth that euer I did see,

1487I would not haue him know so much by me.

1488Bero. Now step I forth to whip hypocrisie.

1489Ah good my Liedge, I pray thee pardon me.

1490Good heart, What grace hast thou thus to reproue

1491These wormes for louing, that art most in loue?

1492Your eyes doe make no couches in your teares.

1493There is no certaine Princesse that appeares.

1494You'll not be periur'd, 'tis a hatefull thing:

1495Tush, none but Minstrels like of Sonnetting.

1496But are you not asham'd? nay, are you not

M1 All

1497All three of you, to be thus much ore'shot?

1498You found his Moth, the King your Moth did see:

1499But I a Beame doe finde in each of three.

1500O what a Scene of fool'ry haue I seene.

1501Of sighes, of grones, of sorrow, and of teene:

1502O me, with what strict patience haue I sat,

1503To see a King transformed to a Gnat?

1504To see great Hercules whipping a Gigge,

1505And profound Salomon tuning a Iygge?

1506And Nestor play at push-pin with the boyes,

1507And Critticke Tymon laugh at idle toyes.

1508Where lies thy griefe? O tell me good Dumaine;

1509And gentle Longauill, where lies thy paine?

1510And where my Liedges? all about the brest:

1511A Candle hoa!

1512Kin. Too bitter is thy iest.

1513Are wee betrayed thus to thy ouer-view?

1514Ber. Not you by me, but I betrayed to you.

1515I that am honest, I that hold it sinne

1516To breake the vow I am ingaged in.

1517I am betrayed by keeping company

1518With men, like men of inconstancie.

1519When shall you see me write a thing in rime?

1520Or grone for Ioane? or spend a minutes time,

1521In pruning mee, when shall you heare that I will praise a

1522hand, a foot, a face, an eye: a gate, a state, a brow, a brest,

1523a waste, a legge, a limme.

1524Kin. Soft, Whither a-way so fast?

1525A true man, or a theefe, that gallops so.

1526Ber. I post from Loue, good Louer let me go.

1528Iaqu. God blesse the King.

1529Kin. What Present hast thou there?

1530Clo. Some certaine treason.

1531Kin. What makes treason heere?

1532Clo. Nay it makes nothing sir.

1533Kin. If it marre nothing neither,

1534The treason and you goe in peace away together.

1535Iaqu. I beseech your Grace let this Letter be read,

1536Our person mis-doubts it: it was treason he said.

1537Kin. Berowne, read it ouer. He reades the Letter.

1538Kin. Where hadst thou it?

1539Iaqu. Of Costard.

1540King. Where hadst thou it?

1541Cost. Of Dun Adramadio, Dun Adramadio.

1542Kin. How now, what is in you? why dost thou tear it?

1543Ber. A toy my Liedge, a toy: your grace needes not

1544feare it.

1545Long. It did moue him to passion, and therefore let's

1546heare it.

1547Dum. It is Berowns writing, and heere is his name.

1548Ber. Ah you whoreson loggerhead, you were borne

1549to doe me shame.

1550Guilty my Lord, guilty: I confesse, I confesse.

1551Kin. What?

1552Ber. That you three fooles, lackt mee foole, to make

1553vp the messe.

1554He, he, and you: and you my Liedge, and I,

1555Are picke-purses in Loue, and we deserue to die.

1556O dismisse this audience, and I shall tell you more.

1557Dum. Now the number is euen.

1558Berow. True true, we are fowre: will these Turtles

1559be gone?

1560Kin. Hence sirs, away.

1561Clo. Walk aside the true folke, & let the traytors stay.

1562Ber. Sweet Lords, sweet Louers, O let vs imbrace,

1563As true we are as flesh and bloud can be,

1564The Sea will ebbe and flow, heauen will shew his face:

1565Young bloud doth not obey an old decree.

1566We cannot crosse the cause why we are borne:

1567Therefore of all hands must we be forsworne.

1568King. What, did these rent lines shew some loue of

1569thine?

1570Ber. Did they, quoth you? Who sees the heauenly (Rosaline,

1571That (like a rude and sauage man of Inde.)

1572At the first opening of the gorgeous East,

1573Bowes not his vassall head, and strooken blinde,

1574Kisses the base ground with obedient breast?

1575What peremptory Eagle-sighted eye

1576Dares looke vpon the heauen of her brow,

1577That is not blinded by her maiestie?

1578Kin. What zeale, what furie, hath inspir'd thee now?

1579My Loue (her Mistres) is a gracious Moone,

1580Shee (an attending Starre) scarce seene a light.

1581Ber. My eyes are then no eyes, nor I Berowne.

1582O, but for my Loue, day would turne to night,

1583Of all complexions the cul'd soueraignty,

1584Doe meet as at a faire in her faire cheeke,

1585Where seuerall Worthies make one dignity,

1586Where nothing wants, that want it selfe doth seeke.

1587Lend me the flourish of all gentle tongues,

1588Fie painted Rethoricke, O she needs it not,

1589To things of sale, a sellers praise belongs:

1590She passes prayse, then prayse too short doth blot.

1591A withered Hermite, fiuescore winters worne,

1592Might shake off fiftie, looking in her eye:

1593Beauty doth varnish Age, as if new borne,

1594And giues the Crutch the Cradles infancie.

1595O 'tis the Sunne that maketh all things shine.

1596King. By heauen, thy Loue is blacke as Ebonie.

1597Berow. Is Ebonie like her? O word diuine?

1598A wife of such wood were felicitie.

1599O who can giue an oth? Where is a booke?

1600That I may sweare Beauty doth beauty lacke,

1601If that she learne not of her eye to looke:

1602No face is faire that is not full so blacke.

1603Kin. O paradoxe, Blacke is the badge of hell,

1604The hue of dungeons, and the Schoole of night:

1605And beauties crest becomes the heauens well.

1606Ber. Diuels soonest tempt resembling spirits of light.

1607O if in blacke my Ladies browes be deckt,

1608It mournes, that painting vsurping haire

1609Should rauish doters with a false aspect:

1610And therfore is she borne to make blacke, faire.

1611Her fauour turnes the fashion of the dayes,

1612For natiue bloud is counted painting now:

1613And therefore red that would auoyd dispraise,

1614Paints it selfe blacke, to imitate her brow.

1615Dum. To look like her are Chimny-sweepers blacke.

1616Lon. And since her time, are Colliers counted bright.

1617King. And AEthiops of their sweet complexion crake.

1618Dum. Dark needs no Candles now, for dark is light.

1619Ber. Your mistresses dare neuer come in raine,

1620For feare their colours should be washt away.

1621Kin. 'Twere good yours did: for sir to tell you plaine,

1622Ile finde a fairer face not washt to day.

1623Ber. Ile proue her faire, or talke till dooms-day here.

1624Kin. No Diuell will fright thee then so much as shee.

1625Duma. I neuer knew man hold vile stuffe so deere.

1626Lon. Looke, heer's thy loue, my foot and her face see.

1627Ber. O if the streets were paued with thine eyes,

M1v Her

1628Her feet were much too dainty for such tread.

1629Duma. O vile, then as she goes what vpward lyes?

1630The street should see as she walk'd ouer head.

1631Kin. But what of this, are we not all in loue?

1632Ber. O nothing so sure, and thereby all forsworne.

1633Kin. Then leaue this chat, & good Berown now proue

1634Our louing lawfull, and our fayth not torne.

1635Dum. I marie there, some flattery for this euill.

1636Long. O some authority how to proceed,

1637Some tricks, some quillets, how to cheat the diuell.

1638Dum. Some salue for periurie.

1639Ber. O 'tis more then neede.

1640Haue at you then affections men at armes,

1641Consider what you first did sweare vnto:

1642To fast, to study, and to see no woman:

1643Flat treason against the Kingly state of youth.

1644Say, Can you fast? your stomacks are too young:

1645And abstinence ingenders maladies.

1646And where that you haue vow'd to studie (Lords)

1647In that each of you haue forsworne his Booke.

1648Can you still dreame and pore, and thereon looke.

1649For when would you my Lord, or you, or you,

1650Haue found the ground of studies excellence,

1651Without the beauty of a womans face;

1652From womens eyes this doctrine I deriue,

1653They are the Ground, the Bookes, the Achadems,

1654From whence doth spring the true Promethean fire.

1655Why, vniuersall plodding poysons vp

1656The nimble spirits in the arteries,

1657As motion and long during action tyres

1658The sinnowy vigour of the trauailer.

1659Now for not looking on a womans face,

1660You haue in that forsworne the vse of eyes:

1661And studie too, the causer of your vow.

1662For where is any Author in the world,

1663Teaches such beauty as a womans eye:

1664Learning is but an adiunct to our selfe,

1665And where we are, our Learning likewise is.

1666Then when our selues we see in Ladies eyes,

1667With our selues.

1668Doe we not likewise see our learning there?

1669O we haue made a Vow to studie, Lords,

1670And in that vow we haue forsworne our Bookes:

1671For when would you (my Leege) or you, or you?

1672In leaden contemplation haue found out

1673Such fiery Numbers as the prompting eyes,

1674Of beauties tutors haue inrich'd you with:

1675Other slow Arts intirely keepe the braine:

1676And therefore finding barraine practizers,

1677Scarce shew a haruest of their heauy toyle.

1678But Loue first learned in a Ladies eyes,

1679Liues not alone emured in the braine:

1680But with the motion of all elements,

1681Courses as swift as thought in euery power,

1682And giues to euery power a double power,

1683Aboue their functions and their offices.

1684It addes a precious seeing to the eye:

1685A Louers eyes will gaze an Eagle blinde.

1686A Louers eare will heare the lowest sound.

1687When the suspicious head of theft is stopt.

1688Loues feeling is more soft and sensible,

1689Then are the tender hornes of Cockled Snayles.

1690Loues tongue proues dainty, Bachus grosse in taste,

1691For Valour, is not Loue a Hercules?

1692Still climing trees in the Hesporides.

1693Subtill as Sphinx, as sweet and musicall,

1694As bright Apollo's Lute, strung with his haire.

1695And when Loue speakes, the voyce of all the Gods,

1696Make heauen drowsie with the harmonie.

1697Neuer durst Poet touch a pen to write,

1698Vntill his Inke were tempred with Loues sighes:

1699O then his lines would rauish sauage eares,

1700And plant in Tyrants milde humilitie.

1701From womens eyes this doctrine I deriue.

1702They sparcle still the right promethean fire,

1703They are the Bookes, the Arts, the Achademes,

1704That shew, containe, and nourish all the world.

1705Else none at all in ought proues excellent.

1706Then fooles you were these women to forsweare:

1707Or keeping what is sworne, you will proue fooles,

1708For Wisedomes sake, a word that all men loue:

1709Or for Loues sake, a word that loues all men.

1710Or for Mens sake, the author of these Women:

1711Or Womens sake, by whom we men are Men.

1712Let's once loose our oathes to finde our selues,

1713Or else we loose our selues, to keepe our oathes:

1714It is religion to be thus forsworne.

1715For Charity it selfe fulfills the Law:

1716And who can seuer loue from Charity.

1717Kin. Saint Cupid then, and Souldiers to the field.

1718Ber. Aduance your standards, & vpon them Lords.

1719Pell, mell, downe with them: but be first aduis'd,

1720In conflict that you get the Sunne of them.

1721Long. Now to plaine dealing, Lay these glozes by,

1722Shall we resolue to woe these girles of France?

1723Kin. And winne them too, therefore let vs deuise,

1724Some entertainment for them in their Tents.

1725Ber. First from the Park let vs conduct them thither,

1726Then homeward euery man attach the hand

1727Of his faire Mistresse, in the afternoone

1728We will with some strange pastime solace them:

1729Such as the shortnesse of the time can shape,

1730For Reuels, Dances, Maskes, and merry houres,

1731Fore-runne faire Loue, strewing her way with flowres.

1732Kin. Away, away, no time shall be omitted,

1733That will be time, and may by vs be fitted.

1734Ber. Alone, alone sowed Cockell, reap'd no Corne,

1735And Iustice alwaies whirles in equall measure:

1736Light Wenches may proue plagues to men forsworne,

1737If so, our Copper buyes no better treasure. Exeunt.