durance; and in lieu thereof, impose on thee nothing but this:-[Giving a letter.] Bear this 136 significant to the country maid Jaquenetta. [Giving money.] There is remuneration; for the best ward of mine honour is rewarding my dependents. Moth, follow. [Exit.] Moth. Like the sequel, I. Signior Costard, adieu. Exit. Cost. My sweet ounce of man's flesh! my incony Jew!

Now will I look to his remuneration. Remuneration! O that's the Latin word for three far- 144 things: three farthings, remuneration. 'What's the price of this inkle?' 'One penny.' 'No, I'll give you a remuneration': why, it carries it. Remuneration! why, it is a fairer name than 148 French crown. I will never buy and sell out of

this word.

Enter Berowne.

Ber. O my good knave Costard, exceedingly well met!

Cost. Pray you, sir, how much carnation ribbon may a man buy for a remuneration?

Ber. What is a remuneration?

Cost. Marry, sir, halfpenny farthing.

Ber. Oh! Why then, three-farthing-worth of silk. Cost. I thank your worship. God be wi' you!

Ber. O stay, slave; I must employ thee. As thou wilt win my favour, good my knave, Do one thing for me that I shall entreat.

137 significant: token, i.e. letter

142 incony: fine

147 it carries it: it carries off the palm

158 wi': with

152

156

160

139 ward: guard

146 inkle: tape 148 name: word

Cost. When would you have it done, sir?
Ber. O, this afternoon.

Cost. Well, I will do it, sir. Fare you well.
Ber. O, thou knowest not what it is.
Cost. I shall know, sir, when I have done it.
Ber. Why, villain, thou must know first.
Cost. I will come to your worship to-morrow
morning.

Ber. It must be done this afternoon. Hark, slave, it is but this:

The princess comes to hunt here in the park,

And in her train there is a gentle lady:

164

168

172

When tongues speak sweetly, then they name her

name,

And Rosaline they call her: ask for her

And to her white hand see thou do commend

176

This seal'd-up counsel. [Gives him a shilling.] There's thy guerdon: go.

Cost. Gardon, O sweet gardon! better than remuneration; a 'leven-pence farthing better. 180 Most sweet gardon! I will do it, sir, in print. Gardon! remuneration!

Ber. O! And I,—

Forsooth, in love! I, that have been love's whip;

A very beadle to a humorous sigh;

A critic, nay, a night-watch constable,

A domineering pedant o'er the boy,
Than whom no mortal so magnificent!

This wimpled, whining, purblind, wayward boy,
This senior-junior, giant-dwarf, Dan Cupid;
Regent of love-rimes, lord of folded arms,

178 counsel: private communication
181 in print: precisely

Exit.

184

188

guerdon: reward
185 beadle..

sigh; cf. n.

188 magnificent: pompous, overbearing

189 wimpled: veiled

The anointed sovereign of sighs and groans,
Liege of all loiterers and malcontents,
Dread prince of plackets, king of codpieces,
Sole imperator and great general

192

Of trotting 'paritors: O my little heart!

196

And I to be a corporal of his field,

And wear his colours like a tumbler's hoop!

What! I love! I sue! I seek a wife!

A woman that is like a German clock,

200

Still a-repairing, ever out of frame,
And never going aright, being a watch,

But being watch'd that it may still go right!
Nay, to be perjur'd, which is worst of all;
And, among three, to love the worst of all;
A whitely wanton with a velvet brow,

With two pitch balls stuck in her face for eyes.
Ay, and, by heaven, one that will do the deed,
Though Argus were her eunuch and her guard.
And I to sigh for her! to watch for her!
То pray for her! Go to: it is a plague
That Cupid will impose for my neglect
Of his almighty dreadful little might.

Well, I will love, write, sigh, pray, sue, groan:
Some men must love my lady, and some Joan.

204

208

212

[Exit.]

cod

194 plackets: petticoats, or slits in petticoats or skirts pieces: baggy appendages to the front of breeches 196 paritors: apparitors, officials of the ecclesiastical court 198 like hoop: like the flaunting ribbons attached to a tumbler's 201 frame: order

...

hoop

206 whitely: pale-skinned

209 Argus: a monster having a hundred eyes

215 Joan: stock name for a peasant wench; cf. IV. ii. 182 and

V. ii. 928

ACT FOURTH

Scene One

[The King of Navarre's Park]

Enter the Princess, a Forester, her Ladies, and her Lords.

Prin. Was that the king, that spurr'd his horse so hard

Against the steep uprising of the hill?

Boyet. I know not; but I think it was not he.

Prin. Whoe'er a' was, a' show'd a mounting mind. 4 Well, lords, to-day we shall have our dispatch; On Saturday we will return to France. Then, forester, my friend, where is the bush That we must stand and play the murtherer in? For. Hereby, upon the edge of yonder coppice; A stand where you may make the fairest shoot.

Prin. I thank my beauty, I am fair that shoot, And thereupon thou speak'st the fairest shoot.

8

12

For. Pardon me, madam, for I meant not so. Prin. What, what? first praise me, and again say no? O short-liv'd pride! Not fair? alack for woe!

For. Yes, madam, fair.

Prin.

Nay, never paint me now: 16
Where fair is not, praise cannot mend the brow.
Here, good my glass.-[Gives money.] Take this for
telling true:

Fair payment for foul words is more than due.
For. Nothing but fair is that which you inherit.
Prin. See, see! my beauty will be sav'd by merit.

9 coppice: thicket
17 fair: beauty
20 inherit: possess

20

10 stand: hunter's station 18 my glass: mirror, i.e. the Forester

21 merit: good deeds

O heresy in fair, fit for these days!

A giving hand, though foul, shall have fair praise.

But come, the bow: now mercy goes to kill,
And shooting well is then accounted ill.
Thus will I save my credit in the shoot:
Not wounding, pity would not let me do 't;

If wounding, then it was to show my skill,

That more for praise than purpose meant to kill.
And out of question so it is sometimes,
Glory grows guilty of detested crimes,

24

28

When, for fame's sake, for praise, an outward part, 32 We bend to that the working of the heart;

As I for praise alone now seek to spill

The poor deer's blood, that my heart means no ill. Boyet. Do not curst wives hold that self-sovereignty

Only for praise' sake, when they strive to be

Lords o'er their lords?

Prin. Only for praise; and praise we may afford To any lady that subdues a lord.

Enter Clown [Costard].

36

40

Boyet. Here comes a member of the commonwealth. Cost. God dig-you-den all! Pray you, which is the head lady?

Prin. Thou shalt know her, fellow, by the 44 rest that have no heads.

Cost. Which is the greatest lady, the highest?
Prin. The thickest, and the tallest.

Cost. The thickest, and the tallest: it is so; truth