King. Biron is like an envious sneaping frost 100 That bites the first-born infants of the spring. Biron. Well, say I am; why should proud summer boast Why should I joy in any abortive birth? At Christmas I no more desire a rose 105 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, That were to climb o'er the house to unlock the gate. IIO King. Well, sit you out: go home, Biron: adieu! And bide the penance of each three years' day. 115 Give me the paper; let me read the same; 120 106. shows] Qq, Ff; earth Theobald; mirth 109. That . gate] Ff, Q 2; Climb o'er the 110. sit] Qq, Ff 2, 3, 4; fit F 1. 104. any] Qq, Ff; an Pope. S. Walker conj., Globe. house to unlock the little gate Q 1. sworn] Qq, F 1; swore Ff 2, 3, 4, Cambridge. 100. Sneaping] biting, nipping. Compare Lucrece, 333, and The Winter's Tale, 1. ii. 13. Seems to be a rare word outside Shakespeare. Ray gives it as North country. It occurs in the Second Maiden's Tragedy (Hazlitt's Dodsley, x. 428). See snape, Halliwell's Dictionary. IOI. infants of the spring] buds just opening. Compare Hamlet, 1. ii. 39. Craig refers to Lodge's Phillis, Song v. (1593): "Pale and dying infant of the spring." ... 105, 106. At Christmas snow in May] Gabriel Harvey has the same sentiment in one of his familiar letters to "Immerito (Spenser): "shall I nowe by the way send you a Januarie gift in Aprile: and as it were shewe you a Christmas Gambowlde after Easter?" (Grosart, i. 78 [1580]). "Christmas gambold" is in The Taming of the Shrew. 114. 106. new-fangled shows] open - air festivities freshly and expressly fashioned for the merry month of May. In order to make rhyme (Theobald and Walker would read "earth" or "mirth," an unwarrantable license in either case. 107. like of] occurs several times in Shakespeare. Compare Rosalynd's Madrigal" in Lodge's Euphues Golden Legacie : "Then sit thou safely on my knee, And let thy bower my bosome be; Lurke in my eies, I like of thee." 112. barbarism] intellectual ignorance; lack of culture. Nashe and Harvey both use the word in 1589. Compare Dekker, Gull's Horn Book, 1609 : "You shall never be good Graduates in these rare Sciences of Barbarisme and Idiotisme." Long. Four days ago. Biron. Let's see the penalty-on pain of losing her tongue. Who devised this penalty? Long. Marry, that did I. Biron. Sweet lord, and why? 125 Long. To fright them hence with that dread penalty. 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 shall possibly 130 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 bed-rid father: Or vainly comes the admired princess hither. 135 Therefore this article is made in vain, King. What say you, lords? why, this was quite forgot. 140 While it doth study to have what it would, It doth forget to do the thing it should; 'Tis won as towns with fire; so won, so lost. 145 King. We must of force dispense with this decree; Biron. Necessity will make us all forsworn Three thousand times within these three years' space; Not by might master'd, but by special grace. 127. Biron] Theobald; Qq, Ff assign this to Longaville. Q2; can Q I, and edd. possibly] Ff, Q 2; possible Q 1. 127. gentility] good manners. 145. won as towns with fire] For some historical parallels, the reader may refer to Montaigne's Essays, bk. ii. chap. iii. (Florio's trans. Temple Classics, vol. ii. pp. 49-50). 147. lie] dwell, stay. 150. affects] affections. See Othello, 1. iii. 264. Compare Lodge, Euphues Golden Legacie (Shakes. Lib. 1875, p. 150 130. shall] Ff, 133): "Nature working effects by her secret affectes" (the words are transposed in my edition). 151. by might master'd] Biron's thoughts are, perhaps, justifying his "affects." 'Might masters right" was a familiar saying, occurring twice in G. Whetstone's Promos and Cassandra, 1578. If I break faith, this word shall speak for me, So to the laws at large I write my name; 155 I am the last that will last keep his oath. But is there no quick recreation granted? 160 King. Ay, that there is. Our court, you know, is haunted A man in all the world's new fashion planted, In high-born words the worth of many a knight 170 154. Subscribes and gives back the Paper.] Capell; Subscribes. mod. edd. 157. others] Ff, Q 2; other Q I. 162. refined] Qq, F 1; conceited Ff 2, 3, 4. 165. One whom] Ff 2, 3, 4; On who Q 1; One who F 1. 156. Stands in attainder of] is condemned or sentenced to, by the second "item" of the proclamation. Shakespeare has the word "attainder" elsewhere several times with the simple sense of stain, soil. Compare Nashe, Have With You, etc. (Grosart, iii. 38), 1596: "Gabriell Scurveis witles malicious testimony of thee . is an attainder that will sticke by thee for ever." 157. Suggestions] temptations. The usual sense in Shakespeare. 161. haunted] frequented or visited by. Compare Sidney's Arcadia, bk. i. (repr. 1898, p. 10): "a man who for his hospitality is so much haunted that no news stir but come to his ears." From tawny Spain, lost in the world's debate. 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. Long. Costard the swain, and he shall be our sport; And so to study-three years is but short. Enter DULL with a letter, and COSTARD. Dull. Which is the duke's own person? 175 180 Biron. This, fellow. What would'st? Dull. I myself reprehend his own person, for I am his grace's tharborough: but I would see his own person in flesh and blood. Biron. This is he. Dull. Signior Arm-Arm-commends you. There's Enter 177. fire-new] fire, new F 1. stable with Costard with a letter Qq, Ff. Theobald. 183. tharborough] tarborough Q I. at this time, so that the choice lies between high-birth and high-bearing. But the compounds of born" are abundant. 66 172. tawny Spain] the colour of the people given to their country, sunburnt clime. Compare Greene, Never Too Late (Grosart, viii. 200): "Flora in tawnie hid up all her flowers. . . upon the barren earth." Elsewhere Greene applies the epithet to autumn leaves, and to eyes. world's debate] warfare. The thought may have been suggested by the disasters of the recent Spanish Armada or Armado. In this sense Lyly uses it in The Woman in the Moone, II. i. (ante 1580): "What telst thou me of love. Fyre of debate is kindled in my hart." 177. fire-new] fresh from the mint. The expression appears again in Richard III., Twelfth Night and King Lear. It appears to be a Shakespearian coinage. Craig gives a later 185 Costard] Malone; Enter a Con180. duke's] Qq, Ff; King's example in his note to King Lear (Arden edition, p. 235). 182. reprehend] represent. See note at "pollusion," Iv. ii. 44; and see v. ii. 500, 502, and line 188 below. 183. tharborough] thirdborough; a petty constable. In Blount's Glossographia (1656) the term is used interchangeably with "headborough." But Ben Jonson in his Tale of a Tub (1633) discriminates these officers, high constable, headborough, petty constable and thirdborough. He places these on the stage, the lowest in rank being the thirdborough, a tinker. See The Taming of the Shrew, Induction. 188. contempts] Slender is credited with a similar confusion in The Merry Wives of Windsor, 1. i. 258. 189. magnificent Armado] This form of the magnificent Armada of Spain occurs twice in Greene's Spanish Masquerado, 1589; and in the second part of Marlowe's Tamburlaine, I. ii. "Magnificent" here refers to his language. Biron. How low soever the matter, I hope in God for 190 high words. Long. A high hope for a low heaven: God grant us patience! Biron. To hear? or forbear hearing? Long. To hear meekly, sir, and to laugh moderately; or 195 to forbear both. Biron. Well, sir, be it as the style shall give us cause to climb in the merriness. 200 Cost. The matter is to me, sir, as concerning Jaquenetta. The manner of it is, I was taken with the manner. Biron. In what manner? Cost. 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 205 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? Cost. As it shall follow in my correction; and God defend 210 the right! King. Will you hear this letter with attention ? Biron. As we would hear an oracle. Cost. Such is the simplicity of man to hearken after the flesh. 192. heaven] having Theobald. laughing Capell and modern edd. 'Standinge altogither uppon termes of honour and exquisite formes of speeches, karriinge a certayne brave magnificent grace and majestye with them" (G. Harvey, Letter to Spenser [Grosart, i. 122], 1580). 194. hear or forbear] See Ezekiel ii. 5. 200. taken with the manner] more properly "mainour," i.e. hand-work, an old form of " manœuvre." Taken in the act. Palsgrave's Lesclaircissement (1530) has "I take with the maner, as a thefe is taken with the thefte, or a person in the doyng of any other acte, Je prens sur le faict." A legal expression. 205, 206. in manner and form follow 215 194. hearing] Qq, Ff, Steevens (1793); ing] Another set expression of the time. 210, 211. God defend the right] See Richard II. 1. iii. 101; 2 Henry VI. II. iii. 55; and Greene, Euphues to Philautus, 1587: "I say therefore God and our right; and with that catching a strong staffe," etc. (Grosart, vi. 258). |