will sup714 a flea.
ARMADO By the north pole, I do challenge thee.
COSTARD I will not fight with a pole, like a northern man;716 I'll
slash, I'll do it by the sword. I pray you let me borrow my717
arms again.
DUMAINE Room719 for the incensed Worthies.
COSTARD I'll do it in my shirt.
DUMAINE Most resolute Pompey!
To Armado
MOTH Master, let me take you a buttonhole722
lower. Do you not see, Pompey is uncasing723 for the combat.
What mean you? You will lose your reputation.
ARMADO Gentlemen and soldiers, pardon me. I will not
combat in my shirt.
DUMAINE You may not deny it. Pompey hath made the
challenge.
ARMADO Sweet bloods729, I both may and will.
BEROWNE What reason have you for't?
ARMADO The naked truth of it is, I have no shirt: I go
woolward732 for penance.
BOYET True, and it was enjoined him in Rome for want733 of
linen. Since when, I'll be sworn he wore none but a dishclout734
of Jaquenetta's, and that he wears next his heart for a favour735.
Enter a Messenger, Monsieur Marcade735
MARCADE God save you, madam!
PRINCESS Welcome, Marcade,
But that thou interrupt'st our merriment.
MARCADE I am sorry, madam, for the news I bring is heavy in
my tongue. The king your father--
PRINCESS Dead, for my life!
MARCADE Even so: my tale742 is told.
BEROWNE Worthies, away! The scene begins to cloud.
ARMADO For mine own part, I breathe free breath. I have seen744
the day of wrong through the little hole of discretion, and I
will right746 myself like a soldier.
Exeunt Worthies
KING How fares your majesty?
PRINCESS Boyet, prepare. I will away tonight.
KING Madam, not so. I do beseech you, stay.
PRINCESS Prepare, I say. I thank you, gracious lords,
For all your fair endeavours, and entreat
Out of a new-sad soul that you vouchsafe
In your rich wisdom to excuse or hide753
The liberal opposition754 of our spirits.
If over-boldly we have borne ourselves
In the converse of breath, your gentleness756
Was guilty of757 it. Farewell worthy lord!
A heavy heart bears not a nimble tongue.
Excuse me so759, coming too short of thanks
For my great suit so easily obtained.
KING The extreme parts of time extremely forms761
All causes to the purpose of his speed,
And often at his very loose763 decides
That which long process could not arbitrate764.
And though the mourning brow of progeny765
Forbid766 the smiling courtesy of love
The holy suit which fain it would convince767,
Yet, since love's argument was first on foot768,
Let not the cloud of sorrow justle769 it
From what it purposed: since to wail friends lost770
Is not by much so wholesome-profitable771
As to rejoice at friends but newly found.
PRINCESS I understand you not: my griefs are double773.
BEROWNE Honest plain words best pierce the ear of grief,
And by these badges775 understand the king.
For your fair sakes have we neglected time,
Played foul play777 with our oaths: your beauty, ladies,
Hath much deformed778 us, fashioning our humours
Even to the opposed end779 of our intents.
And what in us hath seemed ridiculous --
As love is full of unbefitting strains781,
All wanton as a child, skipping and vain782,
Formed by the eye and therefore, like the eye,
Full of straying shapes, of habits784 and of forms,
Varying in subjects as the eye doth roll
To every varied object in his786 glance:
Which parti-coated presence of loose787 love
Put on788 by us, if in your heavenly eyes
Have misbecomed789 our oaths and gravities,
Those heavenly eyes, that look into these faults,
Suggested us to make791. Therefore, ladies,
Our love being yours, the error that love makes
Is likewise yours. We to ourselves prove false793
By being once false forever to be true794
To those that make us both795 -- fair ladies, you.
And even that falsehood, in itself a sin,
Thus purifies itself and turns to grace.
PRINCESS We have received your letters full of love,
Your favours, the ambassadors of love,
And in our maiden council rated800 them
At801 courtship, pleasant jest and courtesy,
As bombast and as lining to the time.802
But more devout than this in our respects803
Have we not been, and therefore met804 your loves
In their own fashion, like a merriment.
DUMAINE Our letters, madam, showed much more than jest.
LONGAVILLE So did our looks.
ROSALINE We did not quote808 them so.
KING Now, at the latest minute of the hour,
Grant us your loves.
PRINCESS A time, methinks, too short
To make a world-without-end812 bargain in.
No, no, my lord, your grace is perjured much,
Full of dear814 guiltiness, and therefore this:
If for my love, as there is no such cause815,
You will do aught816, this shall you do for me:
Your oath I will not trust, but go with speed
To some forlorn and naked818 hermitage,
Remote from all the pleasures of the world,
There stay until the twelve celestial signs820
Have brought about their annual reckoning.
If this austere insociable822 life
Change not your offer made in heat of blood,
If frosts and fasts, hard lodging and thin weeds824
Nip not the gaudy825 blossoms of your love,
But that it bear this trial and last826 love,
Then at the expiration827 of the year
Come challenge me, challenge me by these deserts828,
And, by this virgin palm now kissing thine,
Gives him her hand
I will be thine. And till that instant shut
My woeful self up in a mourning house,
Raining the tears of lamentation
For the remembrance of my father's death.
If this thou do deny, let our hands part,
Neither entitled in835 the other's heart.
KING If this, or more than this, I would deny,
To flatter up837 these powers of mine with rest,
The838 sudden hand of death close up mine eye!
Hence, hermit, then -- my heart is in thy breast.
BEROWNE // And what to me, my love? And what to me? //840
ROSALINE // You must be purged too, your sins are rack'd: //
// You are attaint with faults and perjury. //
// Therefore, if you my favour mean to get, //
// A twelvemonth shall you spend and never rest, //
// But seek the weary beds of people sick. //
DUMAINE But what to me, my love? But what to me?
KATHERINE A wife? A beard, fair health and honesty:
With three-fold love I wish you all these three.
DUMAINE O, shall I say 'I thank you, gentle wife'?
KATHERINE Not so, my lord. A twelvemonth and a day
I'll mark no words that smooth-faced851 wooers say.
Come when the king doth to my lady come,
Then if I have mu
ch love, I'll give you some.
DUMAINE I'll serve thee true and faithfully till then.
KATHERINE Yet swear not, lest ye be forsworn again.
LONGAVILLE What says Maria?
MARIA At the twelvemonth's end
I'll change my black gown for a faithful friend858.
LONGAVILLE I'll stay859 with patience, but the time is long.
MARIA The liker you, few taller860 are so young.
BEROWNE Studies861 my lady? Mistress, look on me.
Behold the window of my heart, mine eye:
What humble suit attends863 thy answer there.
Impose some service on me for thy love.
ROSALINE Oft have I heard of you, my Lord Berowne,
Before I saw you, and the world's large tongue866
Proclaims you for a man replete with867 mocks,
Full of comparisons and wounding flouts868,
Which you on all estates will execute869
That lie within the mercy of your wit.
To weed this wormwood871 from your fruitful brain,
And therewithal872 to win me, if you please,
Without the which I am not to be won,
You shall this twelvemonth term874 from day to day
Visit the speechless sick and still converse875
With groaning wretches, and your task shall be
With all the fierce877 endeavour of your wit
To enforce the pained impotent878 to smile.
BEROWNE To move wild laughter in the throat of death879?
It cannot be, it is impossible:
Mirth cannot move a soul in agony.
ROSALINE Why, that's the way to choke a gibing882 spirit,
Whose influence is begot of that loose grace883
Which shallow laughing hearers give to fools.
A jest's prosperity885 lies in the ear
Of him that hears it, never in the tongue
Of him that makes it. Then, if sickly ears,
Deafed with the clamours of their own dear888 groans,
Will hear your idle scorns, continue then,
And I will have you and that fault withal890.
But if they will not, throw away that spirit,
And I shall find you empty of that fault,
Right joyful of your reformation.
BEROWNE A twelvemonth? Well, befall what will befall894,
I'll jest a twelvemonth in an hospital.
To the King
PRINCESS Ay, sweet my lord, and so I take my leave.
KING No, madam, we will bring897 you on your way.
BEROWNE Our wooing doth not end like an old play:
Jack hath not Jill. These ladies' courtesy899
Might well have made our sport a comedy.
KING Come, sir, it wants a twelvemonth and a day,
And then 'twill end.
BEROWNE That's too long for a play.
Enter Braggart [Armado]
To the King
ARMADO Sweet majesty, vouchsafe me--
PRINCESS Was not that Hector?
DUMAINE The worthy knight of Troy.
To the Princess
ARMADO I will kiss thy royal finger and take
leave. I am a votary: I have vowed to Jaquenetta to hold the908
To the King
plough for her sweet love three years.-- But, most
esteemed greatness, will you hear the dialogue that the two910
learned men have compiled in praise of the owl and the
cuckoo? It should have followed in the end of our show.
KING Call them forth quickly: we will do so.
ARMADO Holla! Approach.
Enter all [Holofernes, Nathaniel, Moth, Costard, Jaquenetta and others. They stand in two groups]
This side is Hiems, Winter. This Ver, the Spring. The one maintained916 by the owl, th'other by the cuckoo. Ver, begin.
[THE SPRING GROUP Sings] the song
When daisies pied917 and violets blue
And cuckoo-buds of yellow hue
And lady-smocks919 all silver-white
Do paint920 the meadows with delight,
The cuckoo then on every tree
Mocks married men922; for thus sings he:
'Cuckoo,
Cuckoo, cuckoo.' O word of fear,
Unpleasing to a married ear.
When shepherds pipe on oaten straws926
And merry larks are ploughmen927's clocks,
When turtles tread, and rooks and daws928,
And maidens bleach their summer smocks,
The cuckoo then, on every tree,
Mocks married men, for thus sings he:
'Cuckoo,
Cuckoo, cuckoo.' O word of fear,
Unpleasing to a married ear.
[THE WINTER GROUP sings]
When icicles hang by the wall
And Dick the shepherd blows his nail936
And Tom bears logs into the hall
And milk comes frozen home in pail,
When blood is nipped and ways be foul939,
Then nightly sings the staring owl:
'Tu-whit, tu-whoo.'
A merry note,
While greasy Joan doth keel943 the pot.
When all aloud the wind doth blow
And coughing drowns the parson's saw945
And birds sit brooding946 in the snow
And Marian's nose looks red and raw,
When roasted crabs hiss in the bowl948,
Then nightly sings the staring owl:
'Tu-whit, tu-whoo.'
A merry note,
While greasy Joan doth keel the pot.
ARMADO The words of Mercury are harsh953 after the songs of
Apollo. You that way; we954 this way.
Exeunt [separately]
TEXTUAL NOTES
Q = First Quarto text of 1598
F = First Folio text of 1623
F2 = a correction introduced in the Second Folio text of 1632
Ed = a correction introduced by a later editor
SD = stage direction
SH = speech heading (i.e. speaker's name)
// // probable authorial first thoughts that should have been cut from the early printed editions
List of parts = Ed
1.1.27 quite = Q. Not in F 62 feast = Ed. F = fast 72 and = F. Q = but 111 That were to = F. Not in Q gate = F. Q = little gate 112 sit = Q. F = fit 129 SH BEROWNE = Ed. F and Q continue speech to Longaville 132 court shall = F. Q = Court can 153 speak = Q. F = break 184 tharborough = F. Q = Farborough 250 continent = Q. F = Continet 262 keep = Q. F = keeper 280 SH KING = F (Fer.). Q = Ber. 299 until then, sit down = F. Q = till then sit thee downe sorrow
1.2.3 SH MOTH = Ed. F = Boy. (throughout) 4 SH ARMADO = Ed. F = Brag. or Bra. (throughout) 10 senor = Ed. F = signeur 13 epitheton = F2. F = apathaton 27 ingenious = Q. F = ingenuous 39 fits = F. Q = fitteth 46 call = F. Q = do call 86 maculate = Q. F = immaculate 94 blushing = F2. F = blushin 118 let him take = F. Q = suffer him to take 122 SH JAQUENETTA = Ed. F = Maid. (throughout) 128 that = Q. F = what 133 SH COSTARD = F. Some eds reassign to DULL, ignoring his exit at line 98 136 SH COSTARD = Ed. F = Clo. (throughout) 141 SH ARMADO = Q. F = Clo. 150 to be too = Q. F = to be 158 Samson was = F. Q = was Sampson
2.1.13 SH PRINCESS = F2. F = Queen (F has a redundant "Prin." at line 21) 45 parts = F. Q = peerelsse 54 SH MARIA = Ed. F = Lad. 1 57 SH KATHERINE = Ed. F = 2. Lad. 61 he = Q. F = she 66 if = Q. F = as 81 SH MARIA = F. Q = Lord 90 unpeopled = F. Q = unpeeled 116 SH ROSALINE = F. This and next six speeches assigned to Kath. in Q 144 repaid = Q. F = repaie 146 On = Ed. F = One 171 would I = F. Q = I will 175 in = F. Q = within 178 fair = Q. F = farther 180 we shall = F. Q = shall we 186 SH BEROWNE = Q. This and next five speeches assigned to Boy[et] in F 188 fool = Q. F = soule 193 Non point = Ed. F = No poynt 199 Katherine = Ed. Q/F = Rosalin 216 Rosaline = Ed. Q/F = Katherine 219 You = F. Q = O you 226 SH MARIA = F. Q = Lady Ka. 227 SH BOYET = Q. Placed at next line in F 244 did = Q. F = doe 254 whence = F. Q
= where 261 SH BOYET = Q. F = Bro.
3.1.1 SH ARMADO = Ed. F = Brag. or Bra. 9 master = Q. Not in F 10 your feet = F. F = the feete 11 eyelids = Q. F = eie 13 through the nose = F2. F = through: nose 51 Thy = F. Q = The 70 O = Q. F = Or 80 sain = Q. F = faine 120 honours = F. Q = honor 125 One penny = Ed. F = i.d. 127 French = Q. F = a French 163 Signior Junior = Ed. F = signior Iunios 186 sue and = F2. F = shue
4.1.1 SH PRINCESS = F2. F = Qu. (throughout) 14 again = Q. F = then again 70 overcame = Ed. F = covercame 85 Armado = F2. F = Armatho 135 hit it = Ed. F = hit 141 pin = F2. F = is in 149 Armado o'th't'other = Ed. F = Armathor ath to the side 153 SD Shout = F2. F = Shoote
4.2.3 SH HOLOFERNES = Ed. F = Ped. 11 'auld grey doe' = Ed. F = haud credo 27 of = Ed. Not in F 32 by = F. Q = me by 34 Dictynna = Ed. F = Dictisima 48 called I = Ed. F = call'd 61 SH HOLOFERNES = Ed. Q/F reverse speech headings of Holofernes and Nathaniel in this and their next seven speeches 64 pia mater = Ed. F = primater 72 ingenious = Ed. F = ingennous 74 sapit = Ed (Q2). F = sapis 77 pierce-one = Ed. F = Person 87 Fauste = F2. F = Facile 93 loves thee not = Q. Not in F 99 SH NATHANIEL = Ed. Not in F 114 Here = Ed. (continuation of Holofernes' speech). Q/F assign to Nath. 123 SH HOLOFERNES = Ed. Q/F = Nath. 126 writing = Ed. F = written 132 hand = F. Q = royal hand 136 SH NATHANIEL = Ed. F = Hol. 143 before = Q. F = being
4.3.80 of = F. Q = in 91 I = Ed. Not in F 100 ever = Q. F = every 140 One = Q. F = On 153 coaches = Ed. F = couches 166 tuning = F. Q = to tune 172 caudle = Q. F = candle 175 to ... by = Ed. F = by ... to 179 men like you, men = Ed. F = men, like men 221 show = Q. F = will shew 223 are = F. Q = were 254 wood = Ed. F = word 264 and = Ed. Not in F 366 authors = Ed. F = author 390 Allons! Allons! = Ed. F = Alone, alone
5.1.1 quod = Ed. F = quid 20 d, e, t = Ed. F = det 23 insanie = Ed. F = infamie 25 bone = Ed. F = bene 26 Bone? ... 'bene' = Ed. F = Bome boon for boon 54 venue = Ed. F = vene we 62 manu = Ed. F = unum 82 choice = F2. F = chose 87 important = Ed. F = importunate 104 Nathaniel = Ed. F = Holofernes (Shakespeare confuses the names again) 111 Judas ... Hector = Ed. F transposes order of phrases and omits Hector 134 Allons = Ed. F = Alone
5.2.46 not so = Q. Not in F 58 not wish = Q. F = wish 77 wantonness = F2. F = wantons be 82 is in = Q. F = in 143 mocking = F. Q = mockerie 152 her = Ed. F = his 153 speaker's = Q. F = Keepers 182 princess spelled Princes in F 189 you on the = F. Q = her on this 214 vouchsafe but = F. Q = do but vouchsafe 255 Take you that = F. Q = Take that 258 SH KATHERINE = Ed. F = Mari. or Mar. (throughout this exchange) 336 pecks = Q. F = picks 337 Jove = F. Q = God 345 kissed ... hand = F. Q = kist his hand, a way 355 due = Q. F = dutie 372 men's = Q. F = men 373 unsullied = F2. F = unsallied 390 Russian = Q. F = Russia 395 Fair gentle = F2. F = Gentle 408 was = Q. F = what 412 are = F. Q = were 430 affectation = Ed. F = affection 458 you not = F. Q = not you 510 manage = Ed. F = manager 545 least = F. Q = best 548 There = Ed. F = Their 571 prick = F. Q = picke 588 SH PRINCESS = F2. F = La. 663 Hector = F. Q = Hectors 686 When ... man = Q. Not in F 688 SD Costard = Ed. F = Berowne (probably error for Clowne, who is about to confront Armado over Jaquenetta's pregnancy) 657-58 set as SD in F 717 pray = F. Q = bepray 737 SH PRINCESS = F2. F = Qu. (throughout rest of scene) 751 entreat = Q. F = entreats 758 nimble = Ed. F = humble 759 too = Q. F = so 774 ear = Q. F = ears 803 this in our = Ed. F = these are our. Q = this our 839 hermit = Ed. F = euer. Q = herrite 864 thy = Q. F = my 909 years = F. Q = yeere 953 SH ARMADO = F. Not in Q, where the Mercury/Apollo speech is set in large type with no speaker 954 You that way = F. Not in Q