Dum. I would forget her; but a fever she

Reigns in my blood, and will remember'd be. Biron. A fever in your blood! why, then inci

sion

100

Would let her out in saucers: sweet misprison! Dum. Once more I'll read the ode that I have writ.

Biron. Once more I'll mark how love can vary

wit.

Dum. [reads]

On a day-alack the day!—

Love, whose month is ever May,
Spied a blossom passing fair
Playing in the wanton air:
Through the velvet leaves the wind,
All unseen, can passage find,
That the lover, sick to death,
Wish himself the heaven's breath.
Air, quoth he, thy cheeks may blow;
Air, would I might triumph so!
But, alack, my hand is sworn
Ne'er to pluck thee from thy thorn;
Vow, alack, for youth unmeet,
Youth so apt to pluck a sweet!
Do not call it sin in me,

110

That I am forsworn for thee;

Thou for whom Jove would swear

120

Juno but an Ethiope were;

111. "Wish," so the Quartos and first Folio; in the Passionate Pilgrim "wish'd"; similarly in line 115 "thorn" is due to the version printed in England's Helicon; the other editions read "throne." Rowe first proposed the change.-I. G.

And deny himself for Jove,

Turning mortal for thy love.

This will I send and something else more plain,
That shall express my true love's fasting pain.
O, would the king, Biron, and Longaville,
Were lovers too! Ill, to example ill,

Would from my forehead wipe a perjured
note;

For none offend where all alike do dote. Long. [advancing] Dumain, thy love is far from charity,

That in love's grief desirest society:

130

You may look pale, but I should blush, I know,
To be o'erheard and taken napping so.

King. [advancing] Come, sir, you blush; as his your case is such;

You chide at him, offending twice as much;
You do not love Maria; Longaville

Did never sonnet for her sake compile,
Nor never lay his wreathed arms athwart
His loving bosom, to keep down his heart.
I have seen closely shrouded in this bush 140
And mark'd you both and for you both did
blush:

I heard your guilty rhymes, observed your
fashion,

Saw sighs reek from you, noted well your passion;

Aye me! says one; O Jove! the other cries;

One, her hairs were gold, crystal the other's

eyes:

145. The second Folio omits one. Walker's suggestion "One's" makes the line rhythmic.-I. G.

70

You would for paradise break faith and troth;
[To Long.
And Jove, for your love, would infringe an
oath.
[To Dum.
What will Biron say when that he shall hear
Faith infringed, which such zeal did swear?
How will he scorn! how will he spend his wit! 150
How will he triumph, leap and laugh at it!
For all the wealth that ever I did see,

I would not have him know so much by me.
Biron. Now step I forth to whip hypocrisy.
[Advancing.
Ah, good my liege, I pray thee, pardon me!
Good heart, what grace hast thou, thus to re-

prove

These worms for loving, that art most in love?
Your eyes do make no coaches; in your tears
There is no certain princess that appears;
You'll not be perjured, 'tis a hateful thing; 160
Tush, none but minstrels like of sonneting!
But are you not ashamed? nay, are you not,
All three of you, to be thus much o'ershot?
You found his mote; the king your mote did

see;

But I a beam do find in each of three.

O, what a scene of foolery have I seen,
Of sighs, of groans, of sorrow and of teen!
O me, with what strict patience have I sat,

149. "Faith infringed," the reading of the Quartos and the Folio; "faith so infringed" seems the most satisfactory emendation proposed.-I. G.