Mar. I am sorry, madam; for the news I bring

Is heavy in my tongue. The king your fatherPrin. Dead, for my life!

Mar. Even so: my tale is told.

Biron. Worthies, away! The scene begins to cloud.
Arm. For mine own part, I breathe free breath.

I have

seen the day of wrong through the little hole of dis-
cretion, and I will right myself like a soldier.

King. How fares your majesty?

710

[Exeunt Worthies.

Prin. Boyet, prepare: I will away to-night.
King. Madam, not so; I do beseech you, stay.
Prin. Prepare, I say. I thank you, gracious lords,
For all your fair endeavours; and entreat,
Out of a new-sad soul, that you vouchsafe
In your rich wisdom to excuse or hide
The liberal opposition of our spirits,
If over-boldly we have borne ourselves

715

720

In the converse of breath; your gentleness
Was guilty of it. Farewell, worthy lord!

725

wrong] right Warburton.

713. day] days Warburton's note. entreat,] entreat: Q1; entreats: Ff; intreats: Q 2.

712-714. I have seen ... soldier] Armado's character receives in this speech a pathetic touch to his credit that has not been noticed. He has been publicly insulted, and his sinfulness has found him out; and he resolves to reform and do justice to himself and Jaquenetta as a soldier, a man of honour, should. See for the result his next speech, as evidence of his reformation (at line 871): "I am a votary I have vowed to Jaquenetta to hold the plough for her sweet love three years.' This is what Armado refers to; there is no renewal here of the preceding paltry quarrel; his thoughts were as much deeper as they were more creditable. "The little hole of discretion " may be made clearer if we give Sense 2, New Eng. Dict., "judgment of others," to the word "discretion," a not uncommon early use.

713. seen the day... little hole] An "old saw," equivalent to "I am no fool." Armado's application is, as might be

719.

expected, somewhat stilted. Compare Heywood's Proverbs (ed. Sharman, p. 45), 1546: "I see day at this little hole. For this bood [bud] sheweth what fruite will follow "; and North, Doni's Philosophie (Jacobs' ed. p. 196), 1570: 'My L. Mayor that had many times put his finger in the fire before

and that could spie day at a little hole"; and Gabriel Harvey, Letters (Grosart, i. 138), 1573-1580: "being on that can as soone as an other spye lighte at a little hole"; and Lyly, Euphues and his England (Arber, p. 318), 1580: "I can see day at a little hole, thou must halt cunningly if thou beguile a Cripple"; and as late as Ravenscroft, Canterbury Guests, v. 5 (1695), and Tom Browne's Works, ed. 1708, iii. 27 (Pleasant Letters, 1700). Frequent in the early seventeenth century writers.

724. converse of breath] intercourse of breath, conversation. Compare Othello, Iv. ii. 5.

A heavy heart bears not a humble tongue.
Excuse me so, coming too short of thanks
For my great suit so easily obtain'd.

King. The extreme parts of time extremely forms
All causes to the purpose of his speed,

And often, at his very loose, decides

That which long process could not arbitrate:
And though the mourning brow of progeny
Forbid the smiling courtesy of love

The holy suit which fain it would convince;
Yet since love's argument was first on foot,
Let not the cloud of sorrow justle it

From what it purpos'd; since, to wail friends lost

Is not by much so wholesome-profitable

As to rejoice at friends but newly found.

Prin. I understand you not: my griefs are double.

726. not] but Collier MS. a humble] Qq, F 1; an humble, Ff 2, 3, 4 ; a nimble Theobald, Cambridge. 729. parts] past Theobald; haste Singer; dart Staunton conjecture. 732. process] process of time Ff 3, 4. 739. wholesome] holdsome Q 1. 741. double] Qq, Ff; deaf Capell; dull Collier MS., Dyce, Craig; hear dully Staunton conjecture.

Biron. Honest plain words best pierce the ears of grief;
And by these badges understand the king.

For your fair sakes have we neglected time,

Play'd foul play with our oaths. Your beauty, ladies, 745
Hath much deform'd us, fashioning our humours

Even to the opposed end of our intents;
And what in us hath seem'd ridiculous,-
As love is full of unbefitting strains;
All wanton as a child, skipping and vain;
Form'd by the eye, and therefore, like the eye,
Full of straying shapes, of habits, and of forms,
Varying in subjects, as the eye doth roll
To every varied object in his glance:
Which party-coated presence of loose love
Put on by us, if, in your heavenly eyes,
Have misbecom'd our oaths and gravities,

750

755

Those heavenly eyes, that look into these faults,
Suggested us to make. Therefore, ladies,
Our love being yours, the error that love makes
Is likewise yours: we to ourselves prove false,
By being once false for ever to be true
To those that make us both,-fair ladies, you:

760

742. ears] Ff 1, 2, Q 2; ear Q 1; cares Ff 3, 4. Coleridge conjecture, Knight; strange Capell et seq. becom bd Q 1. 759. make] make them Pope. 749. strains] tendencies.

752. straying] Capell's emendation, strange, is generally accepted. In support of it, the Cambridge editors write : "In the Lover's Complaint (ed. 1609), 1. 303, 'strange' is spelt straing'; and in Lyly's Euphues (Arber, p. 113), ‘straying 'is a misprint for 'straunge." "The n may have been dropped for the mark of elision, which was often afterwards dropped in its turn. But compare Promos and Cassandra (Shakes. Lib. 1875, p. 228), iii. 1: "O straying effectes of blinde affected Love, From wisdomes pathes, which doth astraye our wittes," etc. Halliwell quoted the first line here, with the simple remark that " straying was the same misprint for strange." The context shows it is not a misprint, and invalidates the whole argument in favour of Capell's alteration. Shake

752. straying] Qq, Ff; stray 757. misbecom'd] mis

speare has expressions many times from Promos and Cassandra. See my edition of Measure for Measure, Appendix. No doubt "straying should be pronounced as a monosyllable. Compare Lyly's Woman in the Moone, II. i. (circa 1580): "But well I see that every time thou strayest, Thy lust lookes for strumpet stars below" (to Jupiter). The context is again conclusive.

753, 754. subjects. . . object] A kind of antithesis the Euphuists delighted in. "You shall not be as objects of warre, but as subjects to Alexander" (Lyly's Campaspe, 1. i. [1584]).

753. eye doth roll] Compare A Midsummer-Night's Dream, v. i. 14.

755. party-coated] in motley, like a fool. See note at "patch," Iv. ii. 30. 759. Suggested] tempted. See Othello, II. iii. 364 (Arden edition).

And even that falsehood, in itself a sin,
Thus purifies itself and turns to grace.

Prin. We have receiv'd your letters full of love;
Your favours, the ambassadors of love;
And, in our maiden council, rated them
At courtship, pleasant jest, and courtesy,
As bombast and as lining to the time.
But more devout than this in our respects

Have we not been; and therefore met your loves

In their own fashion, like a merriment.

Dum. Our letters, madam, show'd much more than jest.
Long. So did our looks.

765

770

We did not quote them so.

775

Ros.
King. Now, at the latest minute of the hour,

Grant us your loves.

Prin.
A time, methinks, too short
To make a world-without-end bargain in.
No, no, my lord, your grace is perjur'd much,
Full of dear guiltiness; and therefore this:
If for my love, as there is no such cause,
You will do aught, this shall you do for me:
Your oath I will not trust; but go with speed
To some forlorn and naked hermitage,
Remote from all the pleasures of the world;
There stay, until the twelve celestial signs
Have brought about their annual reckoning.
If this austere insociable life

767. the] omitted Q 1.

780

785

771. this in our] Hanmer; this our Q 1; these are our Ff, Q 2; these are your Tyrwhitt conjecture. 772. been] seen Tyr775. quote] Hanmer, etc.; cote, coat, coate old editions.

whitt conjecture.

787. their] Ff, Q2; the Q1, Cambridge.

770. bombast] stuffing of wool for padding clothes. See Othello, 1. i. 13 (Arden ed. p. 4). 778. world-without-end] Compare Sonnet lvii. Nashe uses the expression in Foure Letters Confuted (Grosart, ii. 275), 1592-1593: "When I parted with thy brother in Pierce Pennilesse I left him to be tormented world without ende of our Poets and writers about London." Occurs in the Te Deum and in Isaiah xlv. 17, where the Wyclif reading is "everlasting."

Change not your offer made in heat of blood;

If frosts and fasts, hard lodging and thin weeds,

Nip not the gaudy blossoms of your love,

But that it bear this trial and last love;

Then, at the expiration of the year,

Come challenge me, challenge me by these deserts,

And, by this virgin palm now kissing thine,

I will be thine; and, till that instant, shut

My woeful self up in a mourning house,
Raining the tears of lamentation

For the remembrance of my father's death.
If this thou do deny, let our hands part;
Neither intitled in the other's heart.

King. If this, or more than this, I would deny,

To flatter up these powers of mine with rest,
The sudden hand of death close up mine eye!
Hence ever then my heart is in thy breast.

Biron. And what to me, my love? and what to me?
Ros. You must be purged too, your sins are rack'd:

796. instant] Ff, Q 2; instance Q 1. 801. intitled] Ff 1, 2, 3; intiled Q 1; intituled F 4. 803. flatter] fetter Hanmer (Warburton). 805. Hence ever] Hence herrite Q 1. 806-811. Included in brackets by Theobald and Globe; omitted by Hanmer and Dyce. 807. rack'd] rank Rowe.