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.

Ros. Another of these students at that time
Was there with him if I have heard a truth,
Birón 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 BOYET.

Now, what admittance, lord ?

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

Were all address'd 2 to meet you, gentle lady,

* First folio, she.

9 And much too little, &c.] i. e. And my report of the good I saw, is much too little compared to his great worthiness. HEATH. COMPETITORS in oath,] i. e. confederates. So, in Antony and Cleopatra:

"It is not Cæsar's natural vice to hate
"Our great competitor." STEEVENS.

2 Were all ADDRESS'D] To address is to prepare. So, in Hamlet:

1

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.

KING. You shall be welcome, madam, to my

court.

PRIN. I will be welcome then; conduct me thi-
ther.

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.

3

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 oath, my lord,

And sin to break it *:

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it lifted up its head, and did address "Itself to motion." STEEvens.

3 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.

4 AND sin to break it :] Sir T. Hanmer reads:
"Not sin to break it:

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 5? BIRON. I know you did.

Ros.

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 befall your mask!

Ros. Fair fall the face it covers!

BIRON. And send you many lovers!

Ros. Amen, so you be none.

BIRON. Nay, then will I begone.

KING. Madam, your father here doth intimate The payment of a hundred thousand crowns; Being but the one half of an entire sum, Disbursed by my father in his wars.

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

5 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.

But say, that he, or we, (as neither have,)
Receiv'd that sum; yet there remains unpaid

A hundred thousand more; in surety of the which,
One part of Aquitain is bound to us,

Although not valued to the money's worth.
If then the king your father will restore
But that one half which is unsatisfied,
We will give up our right in Aquitain,
And hold fair friendship with his majesty.
But that, it seems, he little purposeth,
For here he doth demand to have repaid

6

An hundred thousand crowns; and not demands,
On payment of a hundred thousand crowns,
To have his title live in Aquitain ;

Which we much rather had depart withal',

6

and not demands,

ON payment, &c.] The former editions read :

"One payment of a hundred thousand crowns,
"To have his title live in Aquitain."

I have restored, I believe, the genuine sense of the passage. Aquitain was pledged, it seems, to Navarre's father, for 200,000 crowns. The French king pretends to have paid one moiety of this debt, (which Navarre knows nothing of,) but demands this moiety back again: instead whereof (says Navarre) he should rather pay the remaining moiety, and demand to have Aquitain re-delivered up to him. This is plain and easy reasoning upon the fact supposed; and Navarre declares, he had rather receive the residue of his debt, than detain the province mortgaged for security of it. THEOBALD.

The two words are frequently confounded in the books of our author's age. So, in Antony and Cleopatra:

66

In which I bind,

"One pain of punishment the world to weet
"We stand up peerless."

Again, in Troilus and Cressida, 4to. 1609:

"As if his foot were one brave Hector's breast."

See also a note on King John, Act III. Sc. III. MALONE.

7

- DEPART withal,] To depart and to part were anciently synonymous. So, in King John:

"Hath willingly departed with a párt.” Again, in Every Man Out of his Humour :

And have the money by our father lent,
Than Aquitain so gelded as it is.

Dear princess, were not his requests so far
From reason's yielding, your fair self should make
A yielding, 'gainst some reason, in my breast,
And go well satisfied to France again.

PRIN. You do the king my father too much wrong,

And wrong the reputation of your name,

In so unseeming to confess receipt

Of that which hath so faithfully been paid.
KING. I do protest, I never heard of it;
And, if you prove it, I'll repay it back,

Or yield up Aquitain.

PRIN.

We arrest your word:

Boyet, you can produce acquittances,

For such a sum, from special officers

Of Charles his father.

KING.

Satisfy me so.

BOYET. So please your grace, the packet is not

come,

Where that and other specialties are bound;
To-morrow you shall have a sight of them.

KING. It shall suffice me: at which interview, All liberal reason I will yield unto.

Mean time, receive such welcome at my hand,
As honour, without breach of honour, may
Make tender of to thy true worthiness:

8

"Faith, sir, I can hardly depart with ready money." STEEVENS.

gelded-] To this phrase Shakspeare is peculiarly attached. It occurs in The Winter's Tale, King Richard II. King Henry IV. King Henry VI. &c. &c. but never less properly than in the present formal speech, addressed by a king to a maiden princess. STEEVENS.

Mr. Malone has observed that this was a common metaphorical expression in Shakspeare's age. It was probably no more considered as offensive then, than it would be now to talk of the castrations of Holinshed. Boswell.

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