How you delight, my lords, I know not, I; } Biron. Armado is a moft illuftrious wight; A man of fire-new words, fashion's own knight. Long. Coftard the swain, and he, shall be our sport; And so to study three years are but short. Enter Dull, and Coftard, with a letter. Dull. Which is the king's own perfon? 7 Dull. I myself reprehend his own perfon, for I am his grace's tharborough: but I would fee his own person in flesh and blood. Biron. This is he. Dull. Signior Arme,-Arme-commends you. There's villainy abroad; this letter will tell you more. Coft. Sir, the contempts thereof are as touching me. King. A letter from the magnificent Armado. Biron. How low foever the matter, I hope in God for high words. 8 Long. A high hope for a low having; God g us patience! 7 Which is the king's own person ?] In former editions: Dull. Which is the duke's own person? rant Biron. The king of Navarre is in feveral paffages, thro' all the copies, called the duke: but as this must have fprung rather from the inadvertence of the editors, than a forgetfulness in the poet, I have every where, to avoid confufion restored king to the text. A bigh hope for a low having ;] In old editions: A high hope for a low heaven; THEOBALD. A low heaven, fure, is a very intricate matter to conceive. I dare warrant, I have retrieved the poet's true reading; and the meaniug is this. Tho' you hope for high words, and should have "them, Biron. To hear? or forbear hearing? Long. To hear meekly, fir, to laugh moderately; or to forbear both. Biron. Well, fir, be it as the ftile fhall give us cause to climb in the merrinefs. Coft. The matter is to me, fir, as concerning Jaquenetta. The manner of it is, I was taken with the manner.9 Biron. In what manner? Coft. In manner and form, following, fir; all those three. I was feen with her in the manor house, fitting with her upon the form, and taken following her into the park; which, put together, is, in manner and form following. Now, fir, for the manner: it is the manner of a man to speak to a woman: for the form, in fome form. Biron. For the following, fir? Coft. As it fhall follow in my correction; and God defend the right? King. Will you hear the letter with attention? Coft. Such is the fimplicity of man to hearken after the flesh. King. [Reads.] Great deputy, the welkin's vice-gerent, and fole dominator of Navarre, my foul's earth's God, and body's foft'ring patron them, it will be but a low acquifition at best." This our poet calls a low having: and it is a fubftantive which he uses in feveral other paffages. THEOBALD. It is fo ufed in Macbeth, acti. great prediction "Of noble having, and of royal hope." STEEVENS. -taken with the manner.] The following question arifing -taken in the manner. from these words thews we should read, And this was the phrafe in ufe to fignify, taken in the fact. Só Dr. Donne, in his letters, But if I melt into melancholy while I write, I shall be taken in the manner; and I fit by one, too tender to thefe impreffions. WARBURTON. With the manner, and in the manner, are expreffions, ufed indifferently by our old writers. STEEVENS. Coft. Coft. It may be fo: but if he fay it is fo, he is, in telling true, but fo, fo. King. Peace Coft. Be to me, and every man that dares not fight! King. No words Coft. Of other men's fecrets, I beseech you. King. So it is, Befieged with fable-coloured melancholy, I did commend the black oppreffing humour to the most wholesome phyfick of thy health-giving air; and, as I am a gentleman, betock myself to walk. The time, when? About the fixth bour; when beasts most graze, birds beft peck, and men fit down to that nourishment which is call'd fupper. So much for the time, when. Now for the ground, which; which, I mean, I walk'd upon: it is yclep'd, thy park. Then for the place, where; where, I mean, I did encounter that obfcene and most prepofterous event, that draweth from my fnow-white pen the ebon-colour'd ink, which here thou vieweft, beholdeft, furveyeft, or feeft. But to the place, where; It ftandeth northnorth-eaft and by east from the west corner of thy curiousknotted garden. There did I fee that low-fpirited fwain, that bafe minow of thy mirth,' (Coft. Me?) that unletter'd small-knowing foul, (Coft. Me?) that shallow vaffal, (Coft. Still Me?) which, as I remember, hight Coftard; (Coft. O me!) forted and conforted, contrary to thy established proclaimed editi and continent canon, with, with-O with, but with this, I paffion to say wherewith: Coft. With a wench. King. With a child of our grandmother Eve, a female; or, for thy more understanding, a woman. Him, I (as 1 bafe minnow of my mirth,] A minnow is a little fifh which can not be intended here. We may read, the base minion of thy mirth, JOHNSON. my my ever-esteemed duty pricks me on) have fent to thee, to receive the meed of punishment, by thy fweet grace's officer, Anthony Dull: a man of good repute, carriage, bearing, and eftimation. Dull. Me, an't fhall please you: I am Anthony Dull. King. For Jaquenetta, (fo is the weaker vessel call'd which I apprehended with the aforefaid fwain) I keep ber as a veffel of thy law's fury; and fhall at the leaft of thy fweet notice bring her to trial. Thine, in all compliments of devoted and beart-burning heat of duty, Don Adriano de Armado. Biron. This is not fo well as I look'd for, but the best that ever I heard. King. Ay; the best for the worst. But, firrah, what say you to this? Coft. Sir, I confess the wench. King. Did you hear the proclamation? Coft. I do confefs much of the hearing it, but little of the marking of it. King. It was proclaim'd a year's imprisonment to be taken with a wench. Coft. I was taken with none, fir, I was taken with a damofel. King. Well, it was proclaimed damofel. Coft. This was no damofel neither, fir, fhe was a virgin. King. It is fo varied too, for it was proclaim'd virgin. Coft. If it were, I deny her virginity: I was taken with a maid. King. This maid will not ferve your turn, fir. King. Sir, I will pronounce fentence; you fhall faft a week with bran and water. Coft. I had rather pray a month with mutton and porridge. King. And Don Armado fhall be your keeper, Which each to other hath fo ftrongly fworn. Coft. I fuffer for the truth, fir: for true it is, I was taken with Jaquenetta, and Jaquenetta is a true girl; and therefore, welcome the four cup of profperity! affliction may one day fmile again, and until then, fit thee down, forrow! [Exeunt SCENE II. ARMADO's HOUSE. Enter Armado and Moth. Arm. Boy, what fign is it, when a man of great fpirit grows melancholy? Moth. A great fign, fir, that he will look fad. Arm. Why, fadnefs is one and the self-fame thing, dear imp." Moth. No, no; O lord, fir, no. Arm. How can't thou part fadness and melancholy, my tender Juvenal ? Moth. By a familiar demonftration of the working, my tough fignior. Arm. Why, tough fignior? why, tough fignior? 2 dear imp] Imp was anciently a term of dignity. Lord Crom, well in his last letter to Henry VIII. prays for the imp his fon. It is now used only in contempt or abhorrence; perhaps in our au thour's time it was ambiguous, in which flare it fuits well with this dialogue. JOHNSON. Piftol falutes king Henry V. by the fame title. STEEVENS. |