ACT II....SCENE I.

Another part of the same.

A Pavilion and Tents

at a distance.

Enter the Princess of France, ROSALINE, MARIA, KATHARINE, BOYET, lords, and other attendants.

Boyet. Now, madam, summon up your dearest spirits:" Consider who the king your father sends;

To whom he sends; and what's his embassy:
Yourself, held precious in the world's esteem;
To parley with the sole inheritor

Of all perfections that a man may owe,
Matchless Navarre: the plea of no less weight
Than Aquitain; a dowry for a queen.
Be now as prodigal of all dear grace,
As nature was in making graces dear,
When she did starve the general world beside,
And prodigally gave them all to you.

Prin. Good lord Boyet, my beauty, though but mean,
Needs not the painted flourish of your praise; 8
Beauty is bought by judgment of the eye,

Not utter'd by base sale of chapmen's tongues:9

7 your dearest spirits:] Dear, in our author's language, has many shades of meaning. In the present instance and the next, it appears to signify-best, most powerful. Steevens.

8 Needs not the painted flourish of your praise;] Rowe has borrowed and dignified this sentiment in his Royal Convert. The Saxon Princess is the speaker:

"Whate'er I am

"Is of myself, by native worth existing,
"Secure, and independent of thy praise:

"Nor let it seem too proud a boast, if minds
"By nature great, are conscious of their greatness,
"And hold it mean to borrow aught from flattery."
"Fucati sermonis opem mens conscia laudis
"Abnuit.” Steevens.

9 Beauty is bought by judgment of the eye,

Not utter'd by base sale of chapmen's tongues:] So, in our author's 102d Sonnet:

"That love is merchandiz'd, whose rich esteeming

"The owner's tongue doth publish every where." Malone. Chapman here seems to signify the seller, not, as now com

I am less proud to hear you tell my worth,
Than you much willing to be counted wise
In spending your wit in the praise of mine.
But now to task the tasker,-Good Boyet,
You are not ignorant, all-telling fame
Doth noise abroad, Navarre hath made a vow,
Till painful study shall out-wear three years,
No woman may approach his silent court:
Therefore to us seemeth it a needful course,
Before we enter his forbidden gates,

1

To know his pleasure; and in that behalf,
Bold of your worthiness, we single you
As our best-moving fair solicitor:

Tell him, the daughter of the king of France,
On serious business, craving quick despatch,
Impórtunes personal conference with his grace.
Haste, signify so much; while we attend,
Like humbly-visag'd suitors, his high will.
Boy. Proud of employment, willingly I go. [Exit.
Prin. All pride is willing pride, and yours is so.—

Who are the votaries, my loving lords,

That are vow-fellows with this virtuous duke?

1 Lord. Longaville is one.

Prin.

Know you the man?

Mar. I know him, madam; at a marriage feast, Between lord Perigort and the beauteous heir

Of Jaques Falconbridge solémnized,

In Normandy saw I this Longaville:

A man of sovereign parts he is esteem'd;3

monly, the buyer. Cheap or cheaping was anciently the market; chapman therefore is marketman. The meaning is, that the estimation of beauty depends not on the uttering or proclamation of the seller, but on the eye of the buyer. Johnson.

1 Bold of your worthiness,] i. e. confident of it. Steevens.

2 Longaville-] For the sake of manners as well as metre, we ought to read-Lord Longaville -. Steevens.

3 A man of sovereign parts he is esteem'd;] Thus the folio. The first quarto, 1598, has the line thus:

"A man of sovereign peerlesse, he 's esteem'd."

I believe, the author wrote:

"A man of,-sovereign, peerless, he 's esteem'd."

A man of extraordinary accomplishments, the speaker perhaps would have said, but suddenly checks herself; and adds." sove

Well fitted in the arts, glorious in arms:
Nothing becomes him ill, that he would well.
The only soil of his fair virtue's gloss,
(If virtue's gloss will stain with any soil)

Is a sharp wit match'd with too blunt a will;
Whose edge hath power to cut, whose will still wills
It should none spare that come within his power.

Prin. Some merry mocking lord, belike; is 't so? Mar. They say so most, that most his humours know. Prin. Such short-liv'd wits do wither as they grow. Who are the rest?

Kath. The young Dumain, a well-accomplish'd youth, Of all that virtue love for virtue lov'd;

Most power to do most harm, least knowing ill;
For he hath wit to make an ill shape good,
And shape to win grace though he had no wit.
I saw him at the duke Alençon's once;

And much too little of that good I saw,

Is my report, to his great worthiness.

reign, peerless, he 's esteem'd." So, before: "Matchless Na

varre.

Again, in The Tempest:

but you, O you,

"So perfect, and so peerless, are created."

In the old copies no attention seems to have been given to abrupt sentences. They are almost uniformly printed corruptly, without any mark of abruption. Thus, in Much Ado about Nothing, we find both in the folio and quarto: "—but for the stuffing well, we are all mortal." Malone.

Perhaps our author wrote:

"A man, a sovereign pearl, he is esteem'd."

i. e. not only a pearl, but such a one as is pre-eminently valuable. In Troilus and Cressida Helen is called-"a pearl," and in Macbeth the nobles of Scotland are styled "the kingdom's pearl.”— The phrase "a sovereign pearl" may also be countenanced by "captain jewels in a carcanet," an expression which occurs in one of our author's Sonnets.

Sovereign parts, however, is a kin to royalty of nature, a phrase that occurs in Macbeth. Steevens.

4 Well fitted in the arts,] Well fitted is well qualified. Johnson. The, which is not in the old copies, was added for the sake of the metre, by the editor of the second folio. Malone.

5

·match'd with —] Is combined or joined with. Johnson. • And much too little &c.] i. e. And my report of the good I is much too little compared to his great worthiness. Heath.

saw,

Ros. Another of these students at that time
Was there with him: if I have heard a truth,
Biron they call him; but a merrier man,
Within the limit of becoming mirth,
I never spent an hour's talk withal:
His eye begets occasion for his wit;
For every object that the one doth catch,
The other turns to a mirth-moving jest;
Which his fair tongue (conceit's expositor)
Delivers in such apt and gracious words,
That aged ears play truant at his tales,
And younger hearings are quite ravished;
So sweet and voluble is his discourse.

Prin. God bless my ladies! are they all in love;
That every one her own hath garnished

With such bedecking ornaments of praise?
Mar. Here comes Boyet.

Prin.

Re-enter BoOYET.

Now, what admittance, lord?

Boyet. Navarre had notice of your fair approach;
And he, and his competitors in oath,7

Were all address'd to meet you, gentle lady,
Before I came. Marry, thus much I have learnt,
He rather means to lodge you in the field,
(Like one that comes here to besiege his court)
Than seek a dispensation for his oath,
To let you enter his unpeopled house.
Here comes Navarre.
[The ladies mask.
Enter KING, LONGAVILLE, DUMAIN, BIRON, and

attendants.

King. Fair princess, welcome to the court of Navarre. Prin. Fair, I give you back again; and, welcome I have not yet: the roof of this court is too high to be yours; and welcome to the wild fields too base to be mine.

7

competitors in oath,] i. e. confederates. So, in Antony and Cleopatra:

"It is not Cæsar's natural vice to hate

"Our great competitor." Steevens.

• Were all address'd-] To address is to prepare. So, in Hamlet:

It lifted up its head, and did address

"Itself to motion." Steevens.

King. You shall be welcome, madam, to my court. Prin. I will be welcome then; conduct me thither. King. Hear me, dear lady; I have sworn an oath. Prin. Our lady help my lord! he 'll be forsworn. King. Not for the world, fair madam, by my will. Prin. Why, will shall break it; will, and nothing else. King. Your ladyship is ignorant what it is.

Prin. Were my lord so, his ignorance were wise, Where now his knowledge must prove ignorance. I hear, your grace hath sworn-out house-keeping: 'Tis deadly sin to keep that oàth, my lord,

And sin to break it:1

But pardon me, I am too sudden-bold;
To teach a teacher ill beseemeth me.
Vouchsafe to read the purpose of

my coming,
And suddenly resolve me in my suit. [Gives a paper.
King. Madam, I will, if suddenly I may.
Prin. You will the sooner, that I were away;
For you 'll prove perjur'd, if you make me stay.
Biron. Did not I dance with you in Brabant once?
Ros. Did not I dance with you in Brabant once?2
Biron. I know, you did.

Ros.

To ask the question!

9

Biron.

How needless was it then

You must not be so quick.

Ros. 'Tis 'long of you that spur me with such questions. Biron. Your wit's too hot, it speeds too fast, 'twill tire. Ros. Not till it leave the rider in the mire.

Biron. What time o' day?

Ros. The hour that fools should ask.

Biron. Now fair befal your mask!

Where-] Where is here used for whereas. So, in Pericles,

Act I, sc. i:

"Where now you're both a father and a son."

See note on this passage. Steevens.

1 And sin to break it:] Sir T. Hanmer reads:

"Not sin to break it:"

I believe erroneously. The princess shows an inconvenience, very frequently attending rash oaths, which, whether kept or broken, produce guilt. Johnson.

2 Ros. Did not I dance with you in Brabant once? Thus the folio. In the first quarto, this dialogue passes between Katharine and Biron. It is a matter of little consequence. Malone.