word is well cull'd, chose; sweet and apt, I do assure you, fir, I do assure.

ARM. Sir, the king is a noble gentleman; and my familiar, I do assure you, very good friend :- For what is inward between us, let it pass :-I do beseech thee, 'remember thy courtesy; I beseech thee, apparel thy head: -and among other importunate and most serious designs, and of great import indeed, too ;-but let that pass : for I must tell thee, it will please his grace (by the world) fometime to lean upon my poor shoulder; and with his royal finger, thus, dally with my excrement, with my mustachio : but sweet heart, let that pass. By the world, I recount no fable; some certain special honours it pleaseth his greatness to impart to Armado, a soldier, a man of travel, that hath seen the world: but let that pass. The very all of all is, but, sweet heart, I do implore secrecy, that the king would have me present the princess, sweet chuck, with fome delightful oftentation, or show, or pageant, or antick, or fire-work. Now, understanding that the curate, and your sweet self, are good at such eruptions, and sudden breaking out of mirth, as it were, I have acquainted you withal, to the end to crave your afsistance.

Hoz. Sir, you shall present before her the nine worthies. Sir Nathaniel, as concerning some entertainment of time, fome show in the posterior of this day, to be render'd by our assistance, the king's command, and this most gallant, illustrate, and learned gentleman, before the princess; I say, none so fit as to present the nine worthies.

NATH. Where will you find men worthy enough to present them? Hoz. Joshua, yourself; myself, or this gallant gentle

man, Judas Maccabæus; this swain, because of his great limb or joint, shall pass Pompey the great; the page, Hercules.

ARM. Pardon, fir, error: he is not quantity enough for that worthy's thumb : he is not so big as the end of his club.

HOL. Shall I have audience? he shall present Hercules in minority: his enter and exit shall be strangling a snake; and I will have an apology for that purpose.

Morn. An excellent device! so, if any of the audience hiss, you may cry: well done, Hercules! now thou crushest the snake! that is the way to make an offence gracious; though few have the grace to do it. ARM. For the rest of the worthies ?

HoL. I will play three myself.
Мотн. Thrice-worthy gentleman!
ARM. Shall I tell you a thing?

HOL. We attend.

ARM. We will have, if this fadge not, an antick. I beseech you, follow.

HOL. Via, goodman Dull! thou hast spoken no word all this while.

DULL. Nor understood none neither, fir.
HOL. Allons! we will employ thee.

DULL. I'll make one in a dance, or fo; or I will play on the tabor to the worthies, and let them dance the hay. HOL. Most dull, honest Dull, to our sport, away.

SCENE II. Another part of the fame.
Before the PRINCESS'S Pavilion.

[Exeunt.

Enter the PRINCESS, KATHARINE, ROSALINE, and

PRIN. Sweet hearts, we shall be rich ere we depart,

If fairings come thus plentifully in:

A lady wall'd about with diamonds!

Look you, what I have from the loving king.

Ros. Madam, came nothing else along with that?

PRIN. Nothing but this? yes, as much love in rhyme,

As would be cramm'd up in a sheet of paper,
Writ on both fides the leaf, margent and all;
That he was fain to seal on Cupid's name.

Ros. That was the way to make his god-head wax;
For he hath been five thousand years a boy.

KATH. Ay, and a shrewd unhappy gallows too.
Ros. You'll ne'er be friends with him; he kill'd your

KATH. He made her melancholy, sad and heavy;

And so she died: had she been light, like you,
Of fuch a merry, nimble, stirring spirit,
She might have been a grandam ere she died :
And so may you; for a light heart lives long.
Ros. What's your dark meaning, mouse, of this light
KATH, A light condition in a beauty dark.
[word?
Ros. We need more light to find your meaning out.
KATH. You'll mar the light, by taking it in snuff;

Therefore, I'll darkly end the argument.

Ros. Look what you do, you do it still i' the dark.
KATH. So do not you; for you are a light wench.
Ros. Indeed, I weigh not you; and therefore light.
KATH. You weigh me not, O, that's you care not

for me.

Ros. Great reason; for, Past cure is still past care.
PRIN. Well bandied both; a set of wit well play'd.

But Rosaline, you have a favour too :
Who fent it? and what is it?

Ros. I would, you knew:
An if my face were but as fair as yours,
My favour were as great; be witness this.
Nay, I have verses too, I thank Birón :

The numbers true; and, were the numb'ring too,
I were the fairest goddess on the ground:
I am compar'd to twenty thousand fairs.

O, he hath drawn my picture in his letter!

PRIN. Any thing like ?

Ros. Much, in the letters; nothing, in the praise.
PRIN. Beauteous as ink; a good conclufion.

KATH. Fair as a text B in a copy-book.

Ros. 'Ware pencils! How? let me not die your debtor,

My red dominical, my golden letter:

O, that your face were not so full of O's!

KATH. A pox of that jest! and beshrew all shrows ! PRIN. But what was sent to you from fair Dumain? KATH. Madam, this glove.

PRIN. Did he not send you twain?

KATH. Yes, madam; and moreover, Some thousand verses of a faithful lover :

A huge tranflation of hypocrify.

Vilely compil'd, profound simplicity.

MAR. This, and these pearls, to me sent Longaville; The letter is too long by half a mile.

PRIN. I think no less; Dost thou not wish in heart, The chain were longer, and the letter short ?

MAR. Ay, or I would these hands might never part.
PRIN. We are wife girls, to mock our lovers so.
Ros. They are worse fools, to purchase mocking fo.
That same Birón I'll torture ere I go.

O, that I knew he were but in by the week!
How I would make him fawn, and beg, and seek;

1

And wait the season, and observe the times,
And spend his prodigal wits in bootless rhymes;
And shape his service wholly to my behests;
And make him proud to make me proud that jests !
So portent-like would I o'ersway his state,

That he should be my fool, and I his fate.

PRIN. None are so surely caught, when they are catch'd, As wit turn'd fool: folly, in wisdom hatch'd, Hath wisdom's warrant, and the help of school; And wit's own grace to grace a learned fool.

Ros. The blood of youth burns not with such excess, As gravity's revolt to wantonness.

MAR. Folly in fools bears not so strong a note,

As foolery in the wife, when wit doth dote;
Since all the power thereof it doth apply,
To prove, by wit, worth in fimplicity.

Enter BOYET.

PRIN. Here comes Boyet, and mirth is in his face. BOYET. O, I am stabb'd with laughter! Where's her

grace ?

PRIN. Thy news, Boyet?

BOYET. Prepare, madam, prepare !

Arm, wenches, arm! encounters mounted are -
Against your peace: Love doth approach disguis'd,
Armed in arguments; you'll be furpris'd :
Mufter your wits; stand in your own defence;
Or hide your heads like cowards, and fly hence.
PRIN. Saint Dennis to faint Cupid! What are they,
That charge their breath against us? say, scout, say.
BOYET. Under the cool fhade of a sycamore,
I thought to close mine eyes some half an hour:
When, low! to interrupt my purpos'd reft,
Toward that shade I might behold addrest