No woman may approach his silent court:
Therefore to us seemeth it a needful course,
Before we enter his forbidden gates,

To know his pleasure; and in that behalf,
Bold of your worthiness, we single you
As our best-moving fair solicitor:

Tell him, the daughter of the king of France,
On serious business, craving quick despatch,
Impórtunes personal conference with his grace.
Haste, signify so much; while we attend,
Like humbly-visag'd suitors, his high will.

Boy. Proud of employment, willingly I go. [Exit. Prin. All pride is willing pride, and yours is so,Who are the votaries, my loving lords,

That are vow-fellows with this virtuous duke? 1 Lord. Longaville is one.

?

Prin. Know you the man Mar. I know him, madam; at a marriage feast, Between lord Perigort and the beauteous heir Of Jaques Falconbridge, solémnized In Normandy, saw I this Longaville: A man of sovereign parts he is esteem'd; Well fitted3 in the arts, glorious in arms: Nothing becomes him ill, that he would well. The only soil of his fair virtue's gloss (If virtue's gloss will stain with any soil), Is a sharp wit match'd with too blunt a will; Whose edge hath power to cut, whose will still wills It should none spare that come within his power. Prin. Some merry mocking lord, belike; is't so? Mar. They say so most, that most his humours know.

Prin. Such short-liv'd wits do wither as they grow.

Who are the rest?

2 i. e. confident of it. VOL. II.

3 Well fitted is well qualified.

FF

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

Of all that virtue love for virtue lov'd;

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

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

Prin. God bless my ladies; are they all in love; That every one her own hath garnish'd

With such bedecking ornaments of praise?

Mar. Here comes Boyet.

Prin.

Re-enter BOYET.

Now, what admittance, lord?

Boyet. Navarre had notice of your fair approach; And he, and his competitors in oath,

4

Were all address'd5 to meet you, gentle lady, Before I came. Marry, thus much I have learnt, He rather means to lodge you in the field

(Like one that comes here to besiege his court), 5 Prepared.

4 Confederates.

Than seek a dispensation for his oath,
To let you enter his unpeopled house.
Here comes Navarre.

[The Ladies mask.

Enter KING, LONGAVILLE, DUMAIN, BIRon, and Attendants.

King. Fair princess, welcome to the court of Navarre.

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 wild fields too base to be mine.

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

King. Your ladyship is ignorant what it is.

lord so,

Prin. Were my his ignorance were wise, Where now his knowledge must prove ignorance.

6

I hear your grace hath sworn-out house-keeping:
'Tis deadly sin to keep that oath, my lord,
And sin to break it:

But pardon me, I am too sudden-bold;
To teach a teacher ill beseemeth me.

Vouchsafe to read the purpose of my coming,
And suddenly resolve me in my suit.

[Gives a Paper.
King. Madam, I will, if suddenly I may.
Prin. You will the sooner, that I were away;
For you'll prove perjur'd, if you make me stay.

6 Where is here used for whereas. So in Pericles, Act i. Sc. 1. 'Where now you're both a father and a son.'

See also K. Henry VI. Part II. passim.

Biron. Did not I dance with you in Brabant once? Ros. Did not I dance with you in Brabant once? Biron. I know you did.

Ros.

To ask the question!

Biron.

How needless was it then

You must not be so quick.

Ros. 'Tis 'long of you that spur me with such questions.

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

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

Biron. What time o' day?

Ros. The hour that fools should ask.
Biron. Now fair befall your mask!
Ros. Fair fall the face it covers!
Biron. And send you many lovers!
Ros. Amen, so 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 sum, Disbursed by my father in his wars.

But say, that he, or we (as neither have),
Receiv'd that sum; yet there remains unpaid
A hundred thousand more; in surety 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 unsatisfied,
We will give up our right in Aquitain,
And hold fair friendship with his majesty.
But that, it seems, he little purposeth,
For here he doth demand to have repaid
A hundred thousand crowns; and not demands,
On payment of a hundred thousand crowns,
To have his title live in Aquitain;

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

Dear princess, were not his requests so far

From reason's yielding, your fair self should make
A yielding 'gainst some reason, in my breast,
And go well satisfied to France again.

Prin. You do the king my father too much

wrong,

And wrong the reputation of your name,
In so unseeming to confess receipt
Of that which hath so faithfully been paid.
King. I do protest, I never heard of it;
And, if you prove it, I'll repay it back,
Or yield up Aquitain.

Prin.

We arrest

your

Boyet, you can produce acquittances,
For such a sum, from special officers

Of Charles his father.

King.

Satisfy me so.

word:

Boyet. So please your grace, the packet is not

come,

Where that and other specialties are bound;
To-morrow you shall have a sight of them.

King. It shall suffice me: at which interview, All liberal reason I will yield unto.

Mean time, receive such welcome at my hand,

7 To depart and to part were anciently synonymous.

8 This phrase appears to us unseemly to a princess, but it was a common metaphorical expression then much used. Perhaps it was no more considered offensive than it would be now to talk of the castrations of Holinshed. It was not peculiar to Shakspeare. In the Return from Parnassus, Act iii. Sc. 1, we find : 'He hath a proper gelded parsonage.' And Bishop Hall in the second Satire of Book iv.

plod it at a patron's tail,

To get some gelded chapel's cheaper sale.'

It appears to have been synonymous with curtailed.