William Shakespeare: The Complete Works 2nd Edition (151 page)
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Authors: William Shakespeare
Tags: #Drama, #Literary Criticism, #Shakespeare
BOOK: William Shakespeare: The Complete Works 2nd Edition
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Let fame, that all hunt after in their lives,
Live registered 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.
Our court shall be a little academe,
Still and contemplative in living art.
You three—Biron, Dumaine, and Longueville—
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 passed; and now subscribe your names,
That his own hand may strike his honour down
That violates the smallest branch herein.
If you are armed to do as sworn to do,
Subscribe to your deep oaths, and keep it, too.
Live registered 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.
Our court shall be a little academe,
Still and contemplative in living art.
You three—Biron, Dumaine, and Longueville—
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 passed; and now subscribe your names,
That his own hand may strike his honour down
That violates the smallest branch herein.
If you are armed to do as sworn to do,
Subscribe to your deep oaths, and keep it, too.
LONGUEVILLE
I am resolved. ‘Tis 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 bankrupt quite the wits.
The mind shall banquet, though the body pine.
Fat paunches have lean pates, and dainty bits
Make rich the ribs but bankrupt quite the wits.
He signs
DUMAINE
My loving lord, Dumaine 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.
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.
He signs
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.
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 passed 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.
I only swore to study with your grace,
And stay here in your court, for three years’ space.
LONGUEVILLE
You swore to that, Biron, and to the rest.
BIRON
By yea and nay, sir, then I swore in jest.
What is the end of study, let me know?
What is the end of study, let me know?
KING
Why, that to know which else we should not know.
BIRON
Things hid and barred, you mean, from common sense.
KING
Ay, that is study’s god-like 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 feast 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.
To know the thing I am forbid to know,
As thus: to study where I well may dine
When I to feast 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.
And train our intellects to vain delight.
BIRON
Why, all delights are vain, but that most vain
Which, with pain purchased, 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 heavens’ glorious sun,
That will not be deep searched 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 naught but fame,
And every godfather can give a name.
Which, with pain purchased, 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 heavens’ glorious sun,
That will not be deep searched 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 naught but fame,
And every godfather can give a name.
KING
How well he’s read, to reason against reading!
DUMAINE
Proceeded well, to stop all good proceeding.
LONGUEVILLE
He weeds the corn and still lets grow the weeding.
BIRON
The spring is near when green geese are a-breeding.
DUMAINE
How follows that?
BIRON
Fit in his place and time.
DUMAINE
In reason nothing.
BIRON
Something then in rhyme.
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 any 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.
Before the birds have any cause to sing?
Why should I joy in any 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 sworn,
And bide the penance of each three years’ day.
Give me the paper. Let me read the same,
And to the strict’st decrees I’ll write my name.
And though I have for barbarism spoke more
Than for that angel knowledge you can say,
Yet confident I’ll keep what I have sworn,
And bide the penance of each three years’ day.
Give me the paper. Let me read the same,
And to the strict’st decrees I’ll write my name.
KING (
giving a paper
)
giving a paper
)
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 proclaimed?
reads
) ‘Item: that no woman shall come within a mile of my court.’ Hath this been proclaimed?
LONGUEVILLE Four days ago.
BIRON Let’s see the penalty. ‘On pain of losing her tongue.’ Who devised this penalty?
LONGUEVILLE Marry, that did I.
BIRON Sweet lord, and why?
LONGUEVILLE
To fright them hence with that dread penalty.
BIRON
A dangerous law against gentility.
‘Item: if any man be seen to talk with a woman within
the term of three years, he shall endure such public
shame as the rest of the court can possible devise.’
This article, my liege, yourself must break;
For well you know here comes in embassy
The French King’s daughter with yourself to speak—
A maid of grace and complete majesty—
About surrender-up of Aquitaine
To her decrepit, sick, and bedrid father.
Therefore this article is made in vain,
Or vainly comes th’admirèd Princess hither.
‘Item: if any man be seen to talk with a woman within
the term of three years, he shall endure such public
shame as the rest of the court can possible devise.’
This article, my liege, yourself must break;
For well you know here comes in embassy
The French King’s daughter with yourself to speak—
A maid of grace and complete majesty—
About surrender-up of Aquitaine
To her decrepit, sick, and bedrid father.
Therefore this article is made in vain,
Or vainly comes th’admirèd Princess hither.
KING
What say you, lords? Why, this was quite forgot.
BIRON
So study evermore is overshot.
While it doth study to have what it would,
It doth forget to do the thing it should;
And when it hath the thing it hunteth most,
’Tis won as towns with fire—so won, so lost.
While it doth study to have what it would,
It doth forget to do the thing it should;
And when it hath the thing it hunteth most,
’Tis won as towns with fire—so won, so lost.
KING
We must of force dispense with this decree.
She must lie here, on mere necessity.
She must lie here, on mere necessity.
BIRON
Necessity will make us all forsworn
Three thousand times within this three years’ space;
For every man with his affects is born,
Not by might mastered, but by special grace.
If I break faith, this word shall speak for me:
I am forsworn on mere necessity.
So to the laws at large I write my name,
And he that breaks them in the least degree
Stands in attainder of eternal shame.
Three thousand times within this three years’ space;
For every man with his affects is born,
Not by might mastered, but by special grace.
If I break faith, this word shall speak for me:
I am forsworn on mere necessity.
So to the laws at large I write my name,
And he that breaks them in the least degree
Stands in attainder of eternal shame.
He signs
Suggestions are to other as to me,
But I believe, although I seem so loath,
I am the last that will last keep his oath.
But is there no quick recreation granted?
But I believe, although I seem so loath,
I am the last that will last keep his oath.
But is there no quick recreation granted?
KING
Ay, that there is. Our court, you know, is haunted
With a refined traveller of Spain,
A man in all the world’s new fashion planted,
That hath a mint of phrases in his brain.
One who the music of his own vain tongue
Doth ravish like enchanting harmony;
A man of complements, whom right and wrong
Have chose as umpire of their mutiny.
This child of fancy, that Armado hight,
For interim to our studies shall relate
In high-borne words the worth of many a knight
From tawny Spain lost in the world’s debate.
How you delight, my lords, I know not, I;
But I protest I love to hear him lie,
And I will use him for my minstrelsy.
With a refined traveller of Spain,
A man in all the world’s new fashion planted,
That hath a mint of phrases in his brain.
One who the music of his own vain tongue
Doth ravish like enchanting harmony;
A man of complements, whom right and wrong
Have chose as umpire of their mutiny.
This child of fancy, that Armado hight,
For interim to our studies shall relate
In high-borne words the worth of many a knight
From tawny Spain lost in the world’s debate.
How you delight, my lords, I know not, I;
But I protest I love to hear him lie,
And I will use him for my minstrelsy.
BIRON
Armado is a most illustrious wight,
A man of fire-new words, fashion’s own knight.
A man of fire-new words, fashion’s own knight.
LONGUEVILLE
Costard the swain and he shall be our sport,
And so to study three years is but short.
And so to study three years is but short.
Enter a constable, Anthony Dull, with Costard with a letter
DULL Which is the Duke’s own person?
BIRON This, fellow. What wouldst?
DULL I myself reprehend his own person, for I am his grace’s farborough. But I would see his own person in flesh and blood.
BIRON This is he.
DULL Senor Arm—Arm—commends you. There’s villainy abroad. This letter will tell you more.
COSTARD Sir, the contempts thereof are as touching me. KING A letter from the magnificent Armado.
BIRON How low soever the matter, I hope in God for high words.
LONGUEVILLE A high hope for a low heaven. God grant us patience.
BIRON To hear, or forbear laughing?
LONGUEVILLE To hear meekly, sir, and to laugh moderately, or to forbear both.
BIRON Well, sir, be it as the style shall give us cause to climb in the merriness.
COSTARD The matter is to me, sir, as concerning Jaquenetta. The manner of it is, I was taken with the manner.
BIRON In what manner?
COSTARD In manner and form following, sir—all those three. I was seen with her in the manor house, sitting with her upon the form, and taken following her into the park; which put together is ‘in manner and form following’. Now, sir, for the manner: it is the manner of a man to speak to a woman. For the form: in some form.
BIRON For the ‘following’, sir?
COSTARD As it shall follow in my correction; and God defend the right.
KING Will you hear this letter with attention?
BIRON As we would hear an oracle.
COSTARD Such is the simplicity of man to hearken after the flesh.
KING (reads) ‘Great deputy, the welkin’s vicegerent and sole dominator of Navarre, my soul’s earth’s god, and body’s fostering patron’—
COSTARD Not a word of Costard yet.
KING ‘So it is’—
COSTARD It may be so; but if he say it is so, he is, in telling true, but so.
KING Peace!
COSTARD Be to me and every man that dares not fight.
KING No words!
COSTARD Of other men’s secrets, I beseech you.
KING ‘So it is, besieged with sable-coloured melancholy, I did commend the black-oppressing humour to the most wholesome physic of thy health-giving air, and, as I am a gentleman, betook myself to walk. The time when? About the sixth hour, when beasts most graze, birds best peck, and men sit down to that nourishment which is called supper. So much for the time when. Now for the ground which—which, I mean, I walked upon. It is yclept thy park. Then for the place where—where, I mean, I did encounter that obscene and most preposterous event that draweth from my snow-white pen the ebon-coloured ink which here thou viewest, beholdest, surveyest, or seest. But to the place where. It standeth north-north-east and by east from the west corner of thy curious-knotted garden. There did I see that low-spirited swain, that base minnow of thy mirth’—
COSTARD Me?
KING ‘That unlettered, small-knowing sout’—
COSTARD Me?
KING ‘That shallow vassal’—
COSTARD Still me?
KING ‘Which, as I remember, hight Costard’—
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