<SPEECH 1><ACT 1><SCENE 1><1%>
<BEROWNE>	<1%>
	I can but say their protestation over;
	So much, dear liege, I have already sworn,
	That is, to live and study here three years.
	But there are other strict observances;
	As, not to see a woman in that term,
	Which I hope well is not enrolled there:
	And one day in a week to touch no food,
	And but one meal on every day beside;
	The which I hope is not enrolled there:
	And then, to sleep but three hours in the night,
	And not be seen to wink of all the day,—
	When I was wont to think no harm all night
	And make a dark night too of half the day,—
	Which I hope well is not enrolled there.
	O! these are barren tasks, too hard to keep,
	Not to see ladies, study, fast, not sleep.
</BEROWNE>

<SPEECH 2><ACT 1><SCENE 1><1%>
<BEROWNE>	<2%>
	Let me say no, my liege, an if you please.
	I only swore to study with your Grace,
	And stay here in your court for three years' space.
</BEROWNE>

<SPEECH 3><ACT 1><SCENE 1><1%>
<BEROWNE>	<2%>
	By yea and nay, sir, then I swore in jest.
	What is the end of study? let me know.
</BEROWNE>

<SPEECH 4><ACT 1><SCENE 1><2%>
<BEROWNE>	<2%>
	Things hid and barr'd, you mean, from common sense?
</BEROWNE>

<SPEECH 5><ACT 1><SCENE 1><2%>
<BEROWNE>	<2%>
	Come on then; I will swear to study so,
	To know the thing I am forbid to know;
	As thus: to study where I well may dine,
	When I to feast expressly am forbid;
	Or study where to meet some mistress fine,
	When mistresses from common sense are hid;
	Or, having sworn too hard-a-keeping oath,
	Study to break it, and not break my troth.
	If study's gain be thus, and this be so,
	Study knows that which yet it doth not know.
	Swear me to this, and I will ne'er say no.
</BEROWNE>

<SPEECH 6><ACT 1><SCENE 1><2%>
<BEROWNE>	<3%>
	Why, all delights are vain; but that most vain
	Which, with pain purchas'd doth inherit pain:
	As, painfully to pore upon a book,
	To seek the light of truth; while truth the while
	Doth falsely blind the eyesight of his look:
	Light seeking light doth light of light beguile:
	So, ere you find where light in darkness lies,
	Your light grows dark by losing of your eyes.
	Study me how to please the eye indeed,
	By fixing it upon a fairer eye,
	Who dazzling so, that eye shall be his heed,
	And give him light that it was blinded by.
	Study is like the heaven's glorious sun,
	That will not be deep-search'd with saucy looks;
	Small have continual plodders ever won,
	Save base authority from others' books.
	These earthly godfathers of heaven's lights
	That give a name to every fixed star,
	Have no more profit of their shining nights
	Than those that walk and wot not what they are.
	Too much to know is to know nought but fame;
	And every godfather can give a name.
</BEROWNE>

<SPEECH 7><ACT 1><SCENE 1><3%>
<BEROWNE>	<4%>
	The spring is near, when green geese are a-breeding.
</BEROWNE>

<SPEECH 8><ACT 1><SCENE 1><3%>
<BEROWNE>	<4%>
	Fit in his place and time.
</BEROWNE>

<SPEECH 9><ACT 1><SCENE 1><3%>
<BEROWNE>	<4%>
	Something then, in rime.
</BEROWNE>

<SPEECH 10><ACT 1><SCENE 1><3%>
<BEROWNE>	<4%>
	Well, say I am: why should proud summer boast
	Before the birds have any cause to sing?
	Why should I joy in an abortive birth?
	At Christmas I no more desire a rose
	Than wish a snow in May's new-fangled mirth;
	But like of each thing that in season grows.
	So you, to study now it is too late,
	Climb o'er the house to unlock the little gate.
</BEROWNE>

<SPEECH 11><ACT 1><SCENE 1><3%>
<BEROWNE>	<4%>
	No, my good lord; I have sworn to stay with you:
	And though I have for barbarism spoke more
	Than for that angel knowledge you can say,
	Yet confident I'll keep to what I swore,
	And bide the penance of each three years' day.
	Give me the paper; let me read the same;
	And to the strict'st decrees I'll write my name.
</BEROWNE>

<SPEECH 12><ACT 1><SCENE 1><4%>
<BEROWNE>	<5%>
	Item, That no woman shall come within a mile of my court. Hath this been proclaimed?
</BEROWNE>

<SPEECH 13><ACT 1><SCENE 1><4%>
<BEROWNE>	<5%>
	Let's see the penalty. On pain of losing her tongue. Who devised this penalty?
</BEROWNE>

<SPEECH 14><ACT 1><SCENE 1><4%>
<BEROWNE>	<5%>
	Sweet lord, and why?
</BEROWNE>

<SPEECH 15><ACT 1><SCENE 1><4%>
<BEROWNE>	<5%>
	A dangerous law against gentility!

	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 can possibly 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:
	Therefore this article is made in vain,
	Or vainly comes th' admired princess hither.
</BEROWNE>

<SPEECH 16><ACT 1><SCENE 1><4%>
<BEROWNE>	<5%>
	So study evermore is overshot:
	While it doth study to have what it would,
	It doth forget to do the thing it should;
	And when it hath the thing it hunteth most,
	'Tis won as towns with fire; so won, so lost.
</BEROWNE>

<SPEECH 17><ACT 1><SCENE 1><5%>
<BEROWNE>	<5%>
	Necessity will make us all forsworn
	Three thousand times within this three years' space;
	For every man with his affects is born,
	Not by might master'd, but by special grace.
	If I break faith this word shall speak for me,
	I am forsworn 'on mere necessity.'
	So to the laws at large I write my name:
<STAGE DIR>
<Subscribes.>
</STAGE DIR>
	And he that breaks them in the least degree
	Stands in attainder of eternal shame:
	Suggestions are to others as to me;
	But I believe, although I seem so loath,
	I am the last that will last keep his oath.
	But is there no quick recreation granted?
</BEROWNE>

<SPEECH 18><ACT 1><SCENE 1><6%>
<BEROWNE>	<6%>
	Armado is a most illustrious wight,
	A man of fire-new words, fashion's own knight.
</BEROWNE>

<SPEECH 19><ACT 1><SCENE 1><6%>
<BEROWNE>	<7%>
	This, fellow. What wouldst?
</BEROWNE>

<SPEECH 20><ACT 1><SCENE 1><6%>
<BEROWNE>	<7%>
	This is he.
</BEROWNE>

<SPEECH 21><ACT 1><SCENE 1><6%>
<BEROWNE>	<7%>
	How long soever the matter, I hope in God for high words.
</BEROWNE>

<SPEECH 22><ACT 1><SCENE 1><6%>
<BEROWNE>	<7%>
	To hear, or forbear laughing?
</BEROWNE>

<SPEECH 23><ACT 1><SCENE 1><6%>
<BEROWNE>	<7%>
	Well, sir, be it as the style shall give us cause to climb in the merriness.
</BEROWNE>

<SPEECH 24><ACT 1><SCENE 1><6%>
<BEROWNE>	<7%>
	In what manner?
</BEROWNE>

<SPEECH 25><ACT 1><SCENE 1><7%>
<BEROWNE>	<8%>
	For the following, sir?
</BEROWNE>

<SPEECH 26><ACT 1><SCENE 1><7%>
<BEROWNE>	<8%>
	As we would hear an oracle.
</BEROWNE>

<SPEECH 27><ACT 1><SCENE 1><9%>
<BEROWNE>	<10%>
	This is not so well as I looked for, but the best that ever I heard.
</BEROWNE>

<SPEECH 28><ACT 1><SCENE 1><10%>
<BEROWNE>	<10%>
	I'll lay my head to any good man's hat,
	These oaths and laws will prove an idle scorn.
	Sirrah, come on.
</BEROWNE>

<SPEECH 29><ACT 2><SCENE 1><20%>
<BEROWNE>	<21%>
	Did not I dance with you in Brabant once?
</BEROWNE>

<SPEECH 30><ACT 2><SCENE 1><20%>
<BEROWNE>	<21%>
	I know you did.
</BEROWNE>

<SPEECH 31><ACT 2><SCENE 1><20%>
<BEROWNE>	<21%>
	You must not be so quick.
</BEROWNE>

<SPEECH 32><ACT 2><SCENE 1><20%>
<BEROWNE>	<21%>
	Your wit's too hot, it speeds too fast, 'twill tire.
</BEROWNE>

<SPEECH 33><ACT 2><SCENE 1><21%>
<BEROWNE>	<21%>
	What time o' day?
</BEROWNE>

<SPEECH 34><ACT 2><SCENE 1><21%>
<BEROWNE>	<21%>
	Now fair befall your mask!
</BEROWNE>

<SPEECH 35><ACT 2><SCENE 1><21%>
<BEROWNE>	<21%>
	And send you many lovers!
</BEROWNE>

<SPEECH 36><ACT 2><SCENE 1><21%>
<BEROWNE>	<21%>
	Nay, then I will be gone.
</BEROWNE>

<SPEECH 37><ACT 2><SCENE 1><22%>
<BEROWNE>	<23%>
	Lady, I will commend you to mine own heart.
</BEROWNE>

<SPEECH 38><ACT 2><SCENE 1><23%>
<BEROWNE>	<23%>
	I would you heard it groan.
</BEROWNE>

<SPEECH 39><ACT 2><SCENE 1><23%>
<BEROWNE>	<23%>
	Sick at the heart.
</BEROWNE>

<SPEECH 40><ACT 2><SCENE 1><23%>
<BEROWNE>	<23%>
	Would that do it good?
</BEROWNE>

<SPEECH 41><ACT 2><SCENE 1><23%>
<BEROWNE>	<23%>
	Will you prick't with your eye?
</BEROWNE>

<SPEECH 42><ACT 2><SCENE 1><23%>
<BEROWNE>	<23%>
	Now, God save thy life!
</BEROWNE>

<SPEECH 43><ACT 2><SCENE 1><23%>
<BEROWNE>	<23%>
	I cannot stay thanksgiving.
</BEROWNE>

<SPEECH 44><ACT 2><SCENE 1><24%>
<BEROWNE>	<24%>
	What's her name, in the cap?
</BEROWNE>

<SPEECH 45><ACT 2><SCENE 1><24%>
<BEROWNE>	<24%>
	Is she wedded or no?
</BEROWNE>

<SPEECH 46><ACT 2><SCENE 1><24%>
<BEROWNE>	<24%>
	You are welcome, sir. Adieu.
</BEROWNE>

<SPEECH 47><ACT 3><SCENE 1><31%>
<BEROWNE>	<31%>
	O! my good knave Costard, exceedingly well met.
</BEROWNE>

<SPEECH 48><ACT 3><SCENE 1><31%>
<BEROWNE>	<31%>
	What is a remuneration?
</BEROWNE>

<SPEECH 49><ACT 3><SCENE 1><31%>
<BEROWNE>	<32%>
	Why then, three-farthing-worth of silk.
</BEROWNE>

<SPEECH 50><ACT 3><SCENE 1><31%>
<BEROWNE>	<32%>
	Stay, slave; I must employ thee:
	As thou wilt win my favour, good my knave,
	Do one thing for me that I shall entreat.
</BEROWNE>

<SPEECH 51><ACT 3><SCENE 1><31%>
<BEROWNE>	<32%>
	O, this afternoon.
</BEROWNE>

<SPEECH 52><ACT 3><SCENE 1><31%>
<BEROWNE>	<32%>
	O, thou knowest not what it is.
</BEROWNE>

<SPEECH 53><ACT 3><SCENE 1><32%>
<BEROWNE>	<32%>
	Why, villain, thou must know first.
</BEROWNE>

<SPEECH 54><ACT 3><SCENE 1><32%>
<BEROWNE>	<32%>
	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:
	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
	This seal'd-up counsel. <STAGE DIR>
<Gives him a shilling.>
</STAGE DIR> There's thy guerdon: go.
</BEROWNE>

<SPEECH 55><ACT 3><SCENE 1><32%>
<BEROWNE>	<32%>
	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,
	The anointed sovereign of sighs and groans,
	Liege of all loiterers and malecontents,
	Dread prince of plackets, king of codpieces,
	Sole imperator and great general
	Of trotting 'paritors: O my little heart!
	And I to be a corporal of his field,
	And wear his colours like a tumbler's hoop!
	What I! I love! I sue! I seek a wife!
	A woman that is like a German clock,
	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 wightly 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!
	To 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, and groan:
	Some men must love my lady, and some Joan.
<STAGE DIR>
<Exit.>
</STAGE DIR>

</BEROWNE>

<SPEECH 56><ACT 4><SCENE 3><45%>
<BEROWNE>	<46%>
	The king he is hunting the deer; I am coursing myself: they have pitched a toil; I am toiling in a pitch,—pitch that defiles: defile! a foul word! Well, sit thee down, sorrow! for so they say the fool said, and so say I, and I the fool: well proved, wit! By the Lord, this love is as mad as Ajax: it kills sheep: it kills me, I a sheep: well proved again o' my side! I will not love; if I do, hang me; i' faith, I will not. O! but her eye,—by this light, but for her eye, I would not love her; yes, for her two eyes. Well, I do nothing in the world but lie, and lie in my throat. By heaven, I do love, and it hath taught me to rime, and to be melancholy; and here is part of my rime, and here my melancholy. Well, she hath one o' my sonnets already: the clown bore it, the fool sent it, and the lady hath it: sweet clown, sweeter fool, sweetest lady! By the world, I would not care a pin if the other three were in. Here comes one with a paper: God give him grace to groan!
<STAGE DIR>
<Gets up into a tree.>
</STAGE DIR>

</BEROWNE>

<SPEECH 57><ACT 4><SCENE 3><46%>
<BEROWNE>	<47%>
<STAGE DIR>
<Aside.>
</STAGE DIR> Shot, by heaven! Proceed, sweet Cupid: thou hast thumped him with thy bird-bolt under the left pap. In faith, secrets!
</BEROWNE>

<SPEECH 58><ACT 4><SCENE 3><47%>
<BEROWNE>	<48%>
	Now, in thy likeness, one more fool appear!
</BEROWNE>

<SPEECH 59><ACT 4><SCENE 3><47%>
<BEROWNE>	<48%>
	Why, he comes in like a perjure, wearing papers.
</BEROWNE>

<SPEECH 60><ACT 4><SCENE 3><47%>
<BEROWNE>	<48%>
	One drunkard loves another of the name.
</BEROWNE>

<SPEECH 61><ACT 4><SCENE 3><47%>
<BEROWNE>	<48%>
	I could put thee in comfort: not by two that I know:
	Thou mak'st the triumviry, the corner-cap of society,
	The shape of love's Tyburn, that hangs up simplicity.
</BEROWNE>

<SPEECH 62><ACT 4><SCENE 3><47%>
<BEROWNE>	<48%>
	O! rimes are guards on wanton Cupid's hose:
	Disfigure not his slop.
</BEROWNE>

<SPEECH 63><ACT 4><SCENE 3><48%>
<BEROWNE>	<49%>
	This is the liver-vein, which makes flesh a deity;
	A green goose a goddess; pure, pure idolatry.
	God amend us, God amend! we are much out o' the way.
</BEROWNE>

<SPEECH 64><ACT 4><SCENE 3><48%>
<BEROWNE>	<49%>
	All hid, all hid; an old infant play.
	Like a demi-god here sit I in the sky,
	And wretched fools' secrets heedfully o'er-eye.
	More sacks to the mill! O heavens! I have my wish.

</BEROWNE>

<SPEECH 65><ACT 4><SCENE 3><48%>
<BEROWNE>	<49%>
	O most profane coxcomb!
</BEROWNE>

<SPEECH 66><ACT 4><SCENE 3><48%>
<BEROWNE>	<49%>
	By earth, she is but corporal; there you lie.
</BEROWNE>

<SPEECH 67><ACT 4><SCENE 3><49%>
<BEROWNE>	<49%>
	An amber-colour'd raven was well noted.
</BEROWNE>

<SPEECH 68><ACT 4><SCENE 3><49%>
<BEROWNE>	<50%>
	Stoop, I say;
	Her shoulder is with child.
</BEROWNE>

<SPEECH 69><ACT 4><SCENE 3><49%>
<BEROWNE>	<50%>
	Ay, as some days; but then no sun must shine.
</BEROWNE>

<SPEECH 70><ACT 4><SCENE 3><49%>
<BEROWNE>	<50%>
	Amen, so I had mine. Is not that a good word?
</BEROWNE>

<SPEECH 71><ACT 4><SCENE 3><49%>
<BEROWNE>	<50%>
	A fever in your blood! why, then incision
	Would let her out in saucers: sweet misprision!
</BEROWNE>

<SPEECH 72><ACT 4><SCENE 3><49%>
<BEROWNE>	<50%>
	Once more I'll mark how love can vary wit.
</BEROWNE>

<SPEECH 73><ACT 4><SCENE 3><51%>
<BEROWNE>	<52%>
	Now step I forth to whip hypocrisy.
<STAGE DIR>
<Descends from the tree.>
</STAGE DIR>
	Ah! good my liege, I pray thee, pardon me:
	Good heart! what grace hast thou, thus to reprove
	These worms for loving, that art most in love?
	Your eyes do make no coaches; in your tears
	There is no certain princess that appears:
	You'll not be perjur'd, 'tis a hateful thing:
	Tush! none but minstrels like of sonneting.
	But are you not asham'd? nay, are you not,
	All three of you, to be thus much o'ershot?
	You found his mote; the king your mote did see;
	But I a beam do find in each of three.
	O! what a scene of foolery have I seen,
	Of sighs, of groans, of sorrow, and of teen;
	O me! with what strict patience have I sat,
	To see a king transformed to a gnat;
	To see great Hercules whipping a gig,
	And profound Solomon to tune a jig,
	And Nestor play at push-pin with the boys,
	And critic Timon laugh at idle toys!
	Where lies thy grief? O! tell me, good Dumaine,
	And, gentle Longaville, where lies thy pain?
	And where my liege's? all about the breast:
	A caudle, ho!
</BEROWNE>

<SPEECH 74><ACT 4><SCENE 3><51%>
<BEROWNE>	<52%>
	Not you to me, but I betray'd by you:
	I, that am honest; I, that hold it sin
	To break the vow I am engaged in;
	I am betray'd, by keeping company
	With men like men, men of inconstancy.
	When shall you see me write a thing in rime?
	Or groan for Joan? or spend a minute's time
	In pruning me? When shall you hear that I
	Will praise a hand, a foot, a face, an eye,
	A gait, a state, a brow, a breast, a waist, leg, a limb?—
</BEROWNE>

<SPEECH 75><ACT 4><SCENE 3><52%>
<BEROWNE>	<53%>
	I post from love; good lover, let me go.

</BEROWNE>

<SPEECH 76><ACT 4><SCENE 3><52%>
<BEROWNE>	<53%>
	A toy, my liege, a toy: your Grace needs not fear it.
</BEROWNE>

<SPEECH 77><ACT 4><SCENE 3><53%>
<BEROWNE>	<54%>
<STAGE DIR>
<To Costard.>
</STAGE DIR> Ah, you whoreson logger-head, you were born to do me shame.
	Guilty, my lord, guilty; I confess, I confess.
</BEROWNE>

<SPEECH 78><ACT 4><SCENE 3><53%>
<BEROWNE>	<54%>
	That you three fools lack'd me fool to make up the mess;
	He, he, and you, and you my liege, and I,
	Are pick-purses in love, and we deserve to die.
	O! dismiss this audience, and I shall tell you more.
</BEROWNE>

<SPEECH 79><ACT 4><SCENE 3><53%>
<BEROWNE>	<54%>
	True, true; we are four.
	Will these turtles be gone?
</BEROWNE>

<SPEECH 80><ACT 4><SCENE 3><53%>
<BEROWNE>	<54%>
	Sweet lords, sweet lovers, O! let us embrace.
	As true we are as flesh and blood can be:
	The sea will ebb and flow, heaven show his face;
	Young blood doth not obey an old decree:
	We cannot cross the cause why we were born;
	Therefore, of all hands must we be forsworn.
</BEROWNE>

<SPEECH 81><ACT 4><SCENE 3><53%>
<BEROWNE>	<54%>
	'Did they,' quoth you? Who sees the heavenly Rosaline,
	That, like a rude and savage man of Inde,
	At the first opening of the gorgeous east,
	Bows not his vassal head, and, strucken blind,
	Kisses the base ground with obedient breast?
	What peremptory eagle-sighted eye
	Dares look upon the heaven of her brow,
	That is not blinded by her majesty?
</BEROWNE>

<SPEECH 82><ACT 4><SCENE 3><54%>
<BEROWNE>	<55%>
	My eyes are then no eyes, nor I Berowne:
	O! but for my love, day would turn to night.
	Of all complexions the cull'd sovereignty
	Do meet, as at a fair, in her fair cheek;
	Where several worthies make one dignity,
	Where nothing wants that want itself doth seek.
	Lend me the flourish of all gentle tongues,—
	Fie, painted rhetoric! O! she needs it not:
	To things of sale a seller's praise belongs;
	She passes praise; then praise too short doth blot.
	A wither'd hermit, five-score winters worn,
	Might shake off fifty, looking in her eye:
	Beauty doth varnish age, as if new-born,
	And gives the crutch the cradle's infancy.
	O! 'tis the sun that maketh all things shine.
</BEROWNE>

<SPEECH 83><ACT 4><SCENE 3><54%>
<BEROWNE>	<55%>
	Is ebony like her? O wood divine!
	A wife of such wood were felicity.
	O! who can give an oath? where is a book?
	That I may swear beauty doth beauty lack,
	If that she learn not of her eye to look:
	No face is fair that is not full so black.
</BEROWNE>

<SPEECH 84><ACT 4><SCENE 3><55%>
<BEROWNE>	<56%>
	Devils soonest tempt, resembling spirits of light.
	O! if in black my lady's brows be deck'd,
	It mourns that painting and usurping hair
	Should ravish doters with a false aspect;
	And therefore is she born to make black fair.
	Her favour turns the fashion of the days,
	For native blood is counted painting now:
	And therefore red, that would avoid dispraise,
	Paints itself black, to imitate her brow.
</BEROWNE>

<SPEECH 85><ACT 4><SCENE 3><55%>
<BEROWNE>	<56%>
	Your mistresses dare never come in rain,
	For fear their colours should be wash'd away.
</BEROWNE>

<SPEECH 86><ACT 4><SCENE 3><55%>
<BEROWNE>	<56%>
	I'll prove her fair, or talk till doomsday here.
</BEROWNE>

<SPEECH 87><ACT 4><SCENE 3><55%>
<BEROWNE>	<56%>
	O! if the streets were paved with thine eyes,
	Her feet were much too dainty for such tread.
</BEROWNE>

<SPEECH 88><ACT 4><SCENE 3><56%>
<BEROWNE>	<57%>
	Nothing so sure; and thereby all forsworn.
</BEROWNE>

<SPEECH 89><ACT 4><SCENE 3><56%>
<BEROWNE>	<57%>
	O, 'tis more than need.
	Have at you, then, affection's men-at-arms:
	Consider what you first did swear unto,
	To fast, to study, and to see no woman;
	Flat treason 'gainst the kingly state of youth.
	Say, can you fast? your stomachs are too young,
	And abstinence engenders maladies.
	And where that you have vow'd to study, lords,
	In that each of you hath forsworn his book,
	Can you still dream and pore and thereon look?
	For when would you, my lord, or you, or you,
	Have found the ground of study's excellence
	Without the beauty of a woman's face?
	From women's eyes this doctrine I derive:
	They are the ground, the books, the academes,
	From whence doth spring the true Promethean fire.
	Why, universal plodding poisons up
	The nimble spirits in the arteries,
	As motion and long-during action tires
	The sinewy vigour of the traveller.
	Now, for not looking on a woman's face,
	You have in that forsworn the use of eyes,
	And study too, the causer of your vow;
	For where is any author in the world
	Teaches such beauty as a woman's eye?
	Learning is but an adjunct to ourself,
	And where we are our learning likewise is:
	Then when ourselves we see in ladies' eyes,
	Do we not likewise see our learning there?
	O! we have made a vow to study, lords,
	And in that vow we have forsworn our books:
	For when would you, my liege, or you, or you,
	In leaden contemplation have found out
	Such fiery numbers as the prompting eyes
	Of beauty's tutors have enrich'd you with?
	Other slow arts entirely keep the brain,
	And therefore, finding barren practisers,
	Scarce show a harvest of their heavy toil;
	But love, first learned in a lady's eyes,
	Lives not alone immured in the brain,
	But, with the motion of all elements,
	Courses as swift as thought in every power,
	And gives to every power a double power,
	Above their functions and their offices.
	It adds a precious seeing to the eye;
	A lover's eyes will gaze an eagle blind;
	A lover's ear will hear the lowest sound,
	When the suspicious head of theft is stopp'd:
	Love's feeling is more soft and sensible
	Than are the tender horns of cockled snails:
	Love's tongue proves dainty Bacchus gross in taste.
	For valour, is not Love a Hercules,
	Still climbing trees in the Hesperides?
	Subtle as Sphinx; as sweet and musical
	As bright Apollo's lute, strung with his hair;
	And when Love speaks, the voice of all the gods
	Makes heaven drowsy with the harmony.
	Never durst poet touch a pen to write
	Until his ink were temper'd with Love's sighs;
	O! then his lines would ravish savage ears,
	And plant in tyrants mild humility.
	From women's eyes this doctrine I derive:
	They sparkle still the right Promethean fire;
	They are the books, the arts, the academes,
	That show, contain, and nourish all the world;
	Else none at all in aught proves excellent.
	Then fools you were these women to forswear,
	Or, keeping what is sworn, you will prove fools.
	For wisdom's sake, a word that all men love,
	Or for love's sake, a word that loves all men,
	Or for men's sake, the authors of these women;
	Or women's sake, by whom we men are men,
	Let us once lose our oaths to find ourselves,
	Or else we lose ourselves to keep our oaths.
	It is religion to be thus forsworn;
	For charity itself fulfils the law;
	And who can sever love from charity?
</BEROWNE>

<SPEECH 90><ACT 4><SCENE 3><58%>
<BEROWNE>	<59%>
	Advance your standards, and upon them, lords!
	Pell-mell, down with them! but be first advis'd,
	In conflict that you get the sun of them.
</BEROWNE>

<SPEECH 91><ACT 4><SCENE 3><58%>
<BEROWNE>	<60%>
	First, from the park let us conduct them thither;
	Then homeward every man attach the hand
	Of his fair mistress: in the afternoon
	We will with some strange pastime solace them,
	Such as the shortness of the time can shape;
	For revels, dances, masks, and merry hours,
	Forerun fair Love, strewing her way with flowers.
</BEROWNE>

<SPEECH 92><ACT 4><SCENE 3><59%>
<BEROWNE>	<60%>
	Allons! allons! Sow'd cockle reap'd no corn;
	And justice always whirls in equal measure:
	Light wenches may prove plagues to men forsworn;
	If so, our copper buys no better treasure.
<STAGE DIR>
<Exeunt.>
</STAGE DIR>

</BEROWNE>

<SPEECH 93><ACT 5><SCENE 2><70%>
<BEROWNE>	<72%>
	'Their eyes,' villain, 'their eyes.'
</BEROWNE>

<SPEECH 94><ACT 5><SCENE 2><71%>
<BEROWNE>	<72%>
	'Once to behold,' rogue.
</BEROWNE>

<SPEECH 95><ACT 5><SCENE 2><71%>
<BEROWNE>	<72%>
	Is this your perfectness? be gone, you rogue!
</BEROWNE>

<SPEECH 96><ACT 5><SCENE 2><71%>
<BEROWNE>	<72%>
	Nothing but peace and gentle visitation.
</BEROWNE>

<SPEECH 97><ACT 5><SCENE 2><72%>
<BEROWNE>	<73%>
	Tell her we measure them by weary steps.
</BEROWNE>

<SPEECH 98><ACT 5><SCENE 2><72%>
<BEROWNE>	<73%>
	We number nothing that we spend for you:
	Our duty is so rich, so infinite,
	That we may do it still without accompt.
	Vouchsafe to show the sunshine of your face,
	That we, like savages, may worship it.
</BEROWNE>

<SPEECH 99><ACT 5><SCENE 2><73%>
<BEROWNE>	<74%>
	White-handed mistress, one sweet word with thee.
</BEROWNE>

<SPEECH 100><ACT 5><SCENE 2><73%>
<BEROWNE>	<75%>
	Nay then, two treys, an if you grow so nice,
	Metheglin, wort, and malmsey: well run, dice!
	There's half a dozen sweets.
</BEROWNE>

<SPEECH 101><ACT 5><SCENE 2><74%>
<BEROWNE>	<75%>
	One word in secret.
</BEROWNE>

<SPEECH 102><ACT 5><SCENE 2><74%>
<BEROWNE>	<75%>
	Thou griev'st my gall.
</BEROWNE>

<SPEECH 103><ACT 5><SCENE 2><74%>
<BEROWNE>	<75%>
	Therefore meet.
</BEROWNE>

<SPEECH 104><ACT 5><SCENE 2><75%>
<BEROWNE>	<76%>
	By heaven, all dry-beaten with pure scoff!
</BEROWNE>

<SPEECH 105><ACT 5><SCENE 2><77%>
<BEROWNE>	<78%>
	This fellow pecks up wit, as pigeons pease,
	And utters it again when God doth please:
	He is wit's pedlar, and retails his wares
	At wakes and wassails, meetings, markets, fairs;
	And we that sell by gross, the Lord doth know,
	Have not the grace to grace it with such show.
	This gallant pins the wenches on his sleeve;
	Had he been Adam, he had tempted Eve:
	He can carve too, and lisp: why, this is he
	That kiss'd his hand away in courtesy;
	This is the ape of form, monsieur the nice,
	That, when he plays at tables, chides the dice
	In honourable terms: nay, he can sing
	A mean most meanly, and in ushering
	Mend him who can: the ladies call him, sweet;
	The stairs, as he treads on them, kiss his feet.
	This is the flower that smiles on every one,
	To show his teeth as white as whales-bone;
	And consciences, that will not die in debt,
	Pay him the due of honey-tongu'd Boyet.
</BEROWNE>

<SPEECH 106><ACT 5><SCENE 2><78%>
<BEROWNE>	<79%>
	See where it comes! Behaviour, what wert thou,
	Till this man show'd thee? and what art thou now?
</BEROWNE>

<SPEECH 107><ACT 5><SCENE 2><79%>
<BEROWNE>	<80%>
	This jest is dry to me. Fair gentle sweet,
	Your wit makes wise things foolish: when we greet,
	With eyes best seeing, heaven's fiery eye,
	By light we lose light: your capacity
	Is of that nature that to your huge store
	Wise things seem foolish and rich things but poor.
</BEROWNE>

<SPEECH 108><ACT 5><SCENE 2><80%>
<BEROWNE>	<81%>
	I am a fool, and full of poverty.
</BEROWNE>

<SPEECH 109><ACT 5><SCENE 2><80%>
<BEROWNE>	<81%>
	O! I am yours, and all that I possess.
</BEROWNE>

<SPEECH 110><ACT 5><SCENE 2><80%>
<BEROWNE>	<81%>
	I cannot give you less.
</BEROWNE>

<SPEECH 111><ACT 5><SCENE 2><80%>
<BEROWNE>	<81%>
	Where? when? what visor? why demand you this?
</BEROWNE>

<SPEECH 112><ACT 5><SCENE 2><80%>
<BEROWNE>	<81%>
	Thus pour the stars down plagues for perjury.
	Can any face of brass hold longer out?—
	Here stand I, lady; dart thy skill at me;
	Bruise me with scorn, confound me with a flout;
	Thrust thy sharp wit quite through my ignorance;
	Cut me to pieces with thy keen conceit;
	And I will wish thee never more to dance,
	Nor never more in Russian habit wait.
	O! never will I trust to speeches penn'd,
	Nor to the motion of a school-boy's tongue,
	Nor never come in visor to my friend,
	Nor woo in rime, like a blind harper's song,
	Taffeta phrases, silken terms precise,
	Three-pil'd hyperboles, spruce affectation,
	Figures pedantical; these summer flies
	Have blown me full of maggot ostentation:
	I do forswear them; and I here protest,
	By this white glove,—how white the hand,
	God knows,—
	Henceforth my wooing mind shall be express'd
	In russet yeas and honest kersey noes:
	And, to begin, wench,—so God help me, la!—
	My love to thee is sound, sans crack or flaw.
</BEROWNE>

<SPEECH 113><ACT 5><SCENE 2><81%>
<BEROWNE>	<82%>
	Yet I have a trick
	Of the old rage: bear with me, I am sick;
	I'll leave it by degrees. Soft! let us see:
	Write, 'Lord have mercy on us' on those three;
	They are infected, in their hearts it lies;
	They have the plague, and caught it of your eyes:
	These lords are visited; you are not free,
	For the Lord's tokens on you do I see.
</BEROWNE>

<SPEECH 114><ACT 5><SCENE 2><81%>
<BEROWNE>	<82%>
	Our states are forfeit: seek not to undo us.
</BEROWNE>

<SPEECH 115><ACT 5><SCENE 2><81%>
<BEROWNE>	<82%>
	Peace! for I will not have to do with you.
</BEROWNE>

<SPEECH 116><ACT 5><SCENE 2><81%>
<BEROWNE>	<82%>
	Speak for yourselves: my wit is at an end.
</BEROWNE>

<SPEECH 117><ACT 5><SCENE 2><83%>
<BEROWNE>	<83%>
	Neither of either; I remit both twain.
	I see the trick on't: here was a consent,
	Knowing aforehand of our merriment,
	To dash it like a Christmas comedy.
	Some carry-tale, some please-man, some slight zany,
	Some mumble-news, some trencher-knight, some Dick,
	That smiles his cheek in years, and knows the trick
	To make my lady laugh when she's dispos'd,
	Told our intents before; which once disclos'd,
	The ladies did change favours, and then we,
	Following the signs, woo'd but the sign of she.
	Now, to our perjury to add more terror,
	We are again forsworn, in will and error.
	Much upon this it is: <STAGE DIR>
<To Boyet.>
</STAGE DIR> and might not you
	Forestall our sport, to make us thus untrue?
	Do not you know my lady's foot by the squire,
	And laugh upon the apple of her eye?
	And stand between her back, sir, and the fire,
	Holding a trencher, jesting merrily?
	You put our page out: go, you are allow'd;
	Die when you will, a smock shall be your shroud.
	You leer upon me, do you? there's an eye
	Wounds like a leaden sword.
</BEROWNE>

<SPEECH 118><ACT 5><SCENE 2><83%>
<BEROWNE>	<84%>
	Lo! he is tilting straight. Peace! I have done.

</BEROWNE>

<SPEECH 119><ACT 5><SCENE 2><84%>
<BEROWNE>	<84%>
	What, are there but three?
</BEROWNE>

<SPEECH 120><ACT 5><SCENE 2><84%>
<BEROWNE>	<85%>
	And three times thrice is nine.
</BEROWNE>

<SPEECH 121><ACT 5><SCENE 2><84%>
<BEROWNE>	<85%>
	Is not nine.
</BEROWNE>

<SPEECH 122><ACT 5><SCENE 2><84%>
<BEROWNE>	<85%>
	By Jove, I always took three threes for nine.
</BEROWNE>

<SPEECH 123><ACT 5><SCENE 2><84%>
<BEROWNE>	<85%>
	How much is it?
</BEROWNE>

<SPEECH 124><ACT 5><SCENE 2><84%>
<BEROWNE>	<85%>
	Art thou one of the Worthies?
</BEROWNE>

<SPEECH 125><ACT 5><SCENE 2><84%>
<BEROWNE>	<85%>
	Go, bid them prepare.
</BEROWNE>

<SPEECH 126><ACT 5><SCENE 2><85%>
<BEROWNE>	<85%>
	We are shame-proof, my lord; and 'tis some policy
	To have one show worse than the king's and his company.
</BEROWNE>

<SPEECH 127><ACT 5><SCENE 2><85%>
<BEROWNE>	<86%>
	A right description of our sport, my lord.

</BEROWNE>

<SPEECH 128><ACT 5><SCENE 2><85%>
<BEROWNE>	<86%>
	Why ask you?
</BEROWNE>

<SPEECH 129><ACT 5><SCENE 2><86%>
<BEROWNE>	<86%>
	There is five in the first show.
</BEROWNE>

<SPEECH 130><ACT 5><SCENE 2><86%>
<BEROWNE>	<87%>
	The pedant, the braggart, the hedgepriest, the fool, and the boy:—
	Abate throw at novum, and the whole world again
	Cannot pick out five such, take each one in his vein.
</BEROWNE>

<SPEECH 131><ACT 5><SCENE 2><86%>
<BEROWNE>	<87%>
	Well said, old mocker: I must needs be friends with thee.
</BEROWNE>

<SPEECH 132><ACT 5><SCENE 2><87%>
<BEROWNE>	<87%>
	My hat to a halfpenny, Pompey proves the best Worthy.

</BEROWNE>

<SPEECH 133><ACT 5><SCENE 2><87%>
<BEROWNE>	<88%>
	Your nose smells 'no,' in this, most tender-smelling knight.
</BEROWNE>

<SPEECH 134><ACT 5><SCENE 2><87%>
<BEROWNE>	<88%>
	Pompey the Great,—
</BEROWNE>

<SPEECH 135><ACT 5><SCENE 2><87%>
<BEROWNE>	<88%>
	Take away the conqueror, take away Alisander.
</BEROWNE>

<SPEECH 136><ACT 5><SCENE 2><88%>
<BEROWNE>	<89%>
	A kissing traitor. How art thou prov'd Judas?
</BEROWNE>

<SPEECH 137><ACT 5><SCENE 2><88%>
<BEROWNE>	<89%>
	Well follow'd: Judas was hanged on an elder.
</BEROWNE>

<SPEECH 138><ACT 5><SCENE 2><88%>
<BEROWNE>	<89%>
	Because thou hast no face.
</BEROWNE>

<SPEECH 139><ACT 5><SCENE 2><89%>
<BEROWNE>	<89%>
	A death's face in a ring.
</BEROWNE>

<SPEECH 140><ACT 5><SCENE 2><89%>
<BEROWNE>	<89%>
	Saint George's half-cheek in a brooch.
</BEROWNE>

<SPEECH 141><ACT 5><SCENE 2><89%>
<BEROWNE>	<89%>
	Ay, and worn in the cap of a toothdrawer.
	And now forward; for we have put thee in countenance.
</BEROWNE>

<SPEECH 142><ACT 5><SCENE 2><89%>
<BEROWNE>	<90%>
	False: we have given thee faces.
</BEROWNE>

<SPEECH 143><ACT 5><SCENE 2><89%>
<BEROWNE>	<90%>
	An thou wert a lion, we would do so.
</BEROWNE>

<SPEECH 144><ACT 5><SCENE 2><89%>
<BEROWNE>	<90%>
	For the ass to the Jude? give it him:—Jud-as, away!
</BEROWNE>

<SPEECH 145><ACT 5><SCENE 2><90%>
<BEROWNE>	<90%>
	Hide thy head, Achilles: here comes Hector in arms.
</BEROWNE>

<SPEECH 146><ACT 5><SCENE 2><90%>
<BEROWNE>	<90%>
	This cannot be Hector.
</BEROWNE>

<SPEECH 147><ACT 5><SCENE 2><90%>
<BEROWNE>	<90%>
	A lemon.
</BEROWNE>

<SPEECH 148><ACT 5><SCENE 2><91%>
<BEROWNE>	<92%>
	Greater than great, great, great, great Pompey! Pompey the Huge!
</BEROWNE>

<SPEECH 149><ACT 5><SCENE 2><91%>
<BEROWNE>	<92%>
	Pompey is moved. More Ates, more Ates! stir them on! stir them on!
</BEROWNE>

<SPEECH 150><ACT 5><SCENE 2><92%>
<BEROWNE>	<92%>
	Ay, if a' have no more man's blood in's belly than will sup a flea.
</BEROWNE>

<SPEECH 151><ACT 5><SCENE 2><92%>
<BEROWNE>	<92%>
	What reason have you for't?
</BEROWNE>

<SPEECH 152><ACT 5><SCENE 2><93%>
<BEROWNE>	<93%>
	Worthies, away! The scene begins to cloud.
</BEROWNE>

<SPEECH 153><ACT 5><SCENE 2><94%>
<BEROWNE>	<94%>
	Honest plain words best pierce the ear 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,
	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 stray shapes, of habits and of forms,
	Varying in subjects, as the eye doth roll
	To every varied object in his glance:
	Which parti-coated presence of loose love
	Put on by us, if, in your heavenly eyes,
	Have misbecome our oaths and gravities,
	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:
	And even that falsehood, in itself a sin,
	Thus purifies itself and turns to grace.
</BEROWNE>

<SPEECH 154><ACT 5><SCENE 2><96%>
<BEROWNE>	<96%>
	And what to me, my love? and what to me?
</BEROWNE>

<SPEECH 155><ACT 5><SCENE 2><97%>
<BEROWNE>	<97%>
	Studies my lady? mistress, look on me.
	Behold the window of my heart, mine eye,
	What humble suit attends thy answer there;
	Impose some service on me for thy love.
</BEROWNE>

<SPEECH 156><ACT 5><SCENE 2><97%>
<BEROWNE>	<97%>
	To move wild laughter in the throat of death?
	It cannot be; it is impossible:
	Mirth cannot move a soul in agony.
</BEROWNE>

<SPEECH 157><ACT 5><SCENE 2><98%>
<BEROWNE>	<98%>
	A twelvemonth! well, befall what will befall,
	I'll jest a twelvemonth in a hospital.
</BEROWNE>

<SPEECH 158><ACT 5><SCENE 2><98%>
<BEROWNE>	<98%>
	Our wooing doth not end like an old play;
	Jack hath not Jill; these ladies' courtesy
	Might well have made our sport a comedy.
</BEROWNE>

<SPEECH 159><ACT 5><SCENE 2><98%>
<BEROWNE>	<98%>
	That's too long for a play.

</BEROWNE>

