PERSONS REPRESENTED.

SCENE,-NAVARRE.

Neither the quarto edition of 1598, nor the folio of 1623, contains any List of Characters.

SCENE I.-Navarre. A Park, with a Palace in it.

Enter the KING, BIRON, LONGAVILLE, and DUMAIN.

KING. Let fame, that all hunt after in their lives,
Live register'd upon our brazen tombs,
And then grace us in the disgrace of death;
When, spite of cormorant devouring time,

Th' endeavour of this present breath may buy

That honour, which shall bate his scythe's keen edge,
And make us heirs of all eternity.

Therefore, brave conquerors!-for so you are,

That war against your own affections,
And the huge army of the world's desires,-
Our late edict shall strongly stand in force:
Navarre shall be the wonder of the world;

Biron. In all the old copies this name is spelt Berowne. In Act IV., Scene 3, we have a line in which Biron rhymes to moon. We may, therefore, suppose the pronunciation to have been Beroon. Boswell says that all French words of this termination were so pronounced in English; and that Mr. Fox always said Touloon (for Toulon) in the House of Commons.

Our court shall be a little Academe,

Still and contemplative in living art.

You three, Biron, Dumain, and Longaville,

Have sworn for three years' term to live with me,
My fellow-scholars, and to keep those statutes
That are recorded in this schedule here:

Your oaths are pass'd, and now subscribe your names;
That his own hand may strike his honour down,
That violates the smallest branch herein:

If you are arm'd to do, as sworn to do,

Subscribe to your deep oatha, and keep it too.
LONG. I am resolv'd: 't is but a three years' fast;
The mind shall banquet, though the body pine:
Fat paunches have lean pates; and dainty bits
Make rich the ribs, but bankerout the wits.
DUM. My loving lord, Dumain is mortified.

The grosser manner of these world's delights
He throws upon the gross world's baser slaves:
To love, to wealth, to pomp, I pine and die;
With all these living in philosophy.
BIRON. I can but say their protestation over,

So much, dear liege, I have already sworn,
That is, to live and study here three years.
But there are other strict observances :
As, not to see a woman in that term;
Which, I hope well, is not enrolled there:
And, one day in a week to touch no food,
And but one meal on every day beside;
The which, I hope, is not enrolled there:
And then to sleep but three hours in the night,
And not be seen to wink of all the day;
(When I was wont to think no harm all night,
And make a dark night too of half the day;)
Which, I hope well, is not enrolled there:

O, these are barren tasks, too hard to keep;
Not to see ladies,-study,-fast,-not sleep.
KING. Your oath is pass'd to pass away from these.
BIRON. Let me say no, my liege, an if you please;

I only swore, to study with your grace,

And stay here in your court for three years' space. LONG. You swore to that, Biron, and to the rest.

⚫ Oath. The original copies have oaths.

So the folio. The quarto of 1598 reads "bank'rout quite.

• With all these. To love, to wealth, to pomp, Dumain is dead; but philosophy, in which he lives, includes them all.

BIRON. By yea and nay, sir, then I swore in jest.

What is the end of study? let me know.

KING. Why, that to know, which else we should not know.
BIRON. Things hid and barr'd, you mean, from common sense?
KING. Ay, that is study's godlike recompense.

BIRON. Come on then, I will swear to study so,

To know the thing I am forbid to know:
As thus,-To study where I well may dine,
When I to fast expressly am forbid⚫;
Or, study where to meet some mistress fine,
When mistresses from common sense are hid:
Or, having sworn too hard-a-keeping oath,
Study to break it, and not break my troth.

If study's gain be thus, and this be so,

Study knows that, which yet it doth not know:
Swear me to this, and I will ne'er say, no.

KING. These be the stops that hinder study quite,
And train our intellects to vain delight.
BIRON. Why, all delights are vain; and that most vain,
Which, with pain purchas'd, doth inherit pain:
As, painfully to pore upon a book,

To seek the light of truth; while truth the while
Doth falsely blind the eyesight of his look:

Light, seeking light, doth light of light beguile:
So, ere you find where light in darkness lies,
Your light grows dark by losing of your eyes.
Study me how to please the eye indeed,

By fixing it upon a fairer eye;

Who dazzling so, that eye shall be his heed,
And give him light that it was blinded by.

Study is like the heaven's glorious sun,

That will not be deep-search'd with saucy looks;

Small have continual plodders ever won,

Save base authority from others' books.

These earthly godfathers of heaven's lights,
That give a name to every fixed star,

Have no more profit of their shining nights,

Than those that walk, and wot not what they are. Too much to know is, to know nought but fame;

And every godfather can give a name.

• Forbid. The old copies read "to fast expressly am forbid." This appears, at first, to be the converse of the oath. But for-bid was a very ancient mode of making bid more emphatical. Biron will study to know what he is forbid to know;-he uses here forbid in its common acceptation. But he is expressly for-bid to fast-expressly bid to fast; and he will receive the word as if he were forbidden-bid from fasting. With this view of Biron's casuistry we restore the old word fast.

KING. How well he's read, to reason against reading!
DUM. Proceeded well, to stop all good proceeding!
LONG. He weeds the corn, and still lets grow the weeding.
BIRON. The spring is near, when green geese are a-breeding.
DUM. How follows that?

KING. Biron is like an envious sneaping frost,

That bites the first-born infants of the spring.

BIRON. Well, say I am; why should proud summer boast,
Before the birds have any cause to sing?

Why should I joy in anya abortive birth?
At Christmas I no more desire a rose,

Than wish a snow in May's new-fangled shows;
But like of each thing that in season grows.

So you, to study now it is too late,

Climb o'er the house to unlock the little gate.
KING. Well, sit you out; go home, Biron; adieu!

BIRON. No, my good lord; I have sworn to stay with you :
And, though I have for barbarism spoke more,
Than for that angel knowledge you can say;

Yet, confident I'll keep what I have swore,

And bide the penance of each three years' day, Give me the paper,-let me read the same;

And to the strictest decrees I'll write my named.

KING. How well this yielding rescues thee from shame!
BIRON. [Reads.]

Item, That no woman shall come within a mile of my court

Hath this been proclaim'd?

LONG. Four days ago.

BIRON. Let's see the penalty. [Reads.]

-On pain of losing her tongue.

Who devis'd this penalty?

LONG. Marry, that did I.

BIRON. Sweet lord, and why?

LONG. To fright them hence with that dread penalty.

• For any Pope gave us an. Why? The freedom of dramatic rhythm was no part of his system of versification.

So the quarto of 1598. The folio has

"That were to climb o'er the house t' unlock the gate."

Sit you out. The folio has "fit you out."

It is usual to close the sentence at "three years' day;" but the construction requires the rejection of such a pause.