The Illustrated Works of Shakespeare/Illustrated Works of Shakespeare, The (1990)(Animated Pixels)[!][CDTV-PC].iso/shakes/text/14/02_01

Text File | 1991-04-10 | 13KB | 392 lines

Another part of the Park.
 A Pavilion and Tents at a distance.
 Enter the PRINCESS OF FRANCE, MARIA, KATHARINE, ROSALINE,
 with BOYET and two other LORDS.

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 Aquitaine, 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.

Princess    Good Lord Boyet, my beauty, though but mean,
    Needs not the painted flourish of your praise.
    Beauty is bought by judgment of the eye,
    Not uttered by base sale of chapmen's tongues.
    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 outwear three years,
    No woman may approach his silent court.
    Therefore to's seemeth it a needful course,
    Before we enter his forbidden gates,
    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 dispatch,
    Importunes personal conference with his grace.
    Haste, signify so much; while we attend,
    Like humble-visaged suitors, his high will.

Boyet    Proud of employment, willingly I go.

Princess    All pride is willing pride, and yours is so.
                                                            [Exit BOYET.
    Who are the votaries, my loving lords,
    That are vow-fellows with this virtuous duke?

1st Lord    Lord Longaville is one.

Princess                                Know you the man?

Maria    I know him, madam. At a marriage-feast
    Between Lord Perigort and the beauteous heir
    Of Jaques Falconbridge, solemnizd
    In Normandy, saw I this Longaville.
    A man of sovereign parts he is esteemed;
    Well fitted in 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 matched with too blunt a will,
    Whose edge hath power to cut, whose will still wills
    It should none spare that come within his power.

Princess    Some merry mocking lord, belike; is't so?

Maria    They say so most that most his humours know.

Princess    Such short-lived wits do wither as they grow.
    Who are the rest?

Katharine    The young Dumaine, a well accomplished youth,
    Of all that virtue love for virtue loved;
    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 Alenon's once,
    And much too little of that good I saw
    Is my report to his great worthiness.

Rosaline    Another of these students at that time
    Was there with him, if I have heard a truth.
    Berowne 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 agd ears play truant at his tales,
    And younger hearings are quite ravishd,
    So sweet and voluble is his discourse.

Princess    God bless my ladies! Are they all in love,
    That every one her own hath garnishd
    With such bedecking ornaments of praise?

                             Re-enter BOYET.

1st Lord    Here comes Boyet.

Princess                        Now, what admittance, lord?

Boyet    Navarre had notice of your fair approach,
    And he and his competitors in oath
    Were all addressed 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, BEROWNE, LONGAVILLE, and DUMAINE.

King    Fair princess, welcome to the court of Navarre.

Princess    '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 wide fields too base to be mine.

King    You shall be welcome, madam, to my court.

Princess    I will be welcome then. Conduct me thither.

King    Hear me, dear lady; I have sworn an oath.

Princess    Our Lady help my lord! He'll be forsworn.

King    Not for the world, fair madam, by my will.

Princess    Why, will shall break it; will and nothing else.

King    Your ladyship is ignorant what it is.

Princess    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.
    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.
                                                            [Giving him a paper.
King    Madam, I will, if suddenly I may.

Princess    You will the sooner that I were away,
    For you'll prove perjured if you make me stay.

Berowne    Did not I dance with you in Brabant once?

Rosaline    Did not I dance with you in Brabant once?

Berowne    I know you did.

Rosaline    How needless was it then to ask the question!

Berowne    You must not be so quick.

Rosaline    'Tis 'long of you, that spur me with such questions.

Berowne    Your wit's too hot, it speeds too fast, 'twill tire.

Rosaline    Not till it leave the rider in the mire.

Berowne    What time o'day?

Rosaline    The hour that fools should ask.

Berowne    Now fair befall your mask!

Rosaline    Fair fall the face it covers.

Berowne    And send you many lovers!

Rosaline    Amen, so you be none.

Berowne    Nay, then will I be gone.

King    Madam, your father here doth intimate
    The payment of a hundred thousand crowns,
    Being but the one half of an entire sum
    Disbursd by my father in his wars.
    But say that he, or we - as neither have-
    Received that sum, yet there remains unpaid
    A hundred thousand more, in surety of the which,
    One part of Aquitaine is bound to us,
    Although not valued to the money's worth.
    If then the king your father will restore
    But that one half of which is unsatisfied,
    We will give up our right in Aquitaine,
    And hold fair friendship with his majesty.
    But that, it seems, he little purposeth,
    For here he doth demand to have repaid
    A hundred thousand crowns, and not demands,
    On payment of a hundred thousand crowns,
    To have his title live in Aquitaine,
    Which we much rather had depart withal,
    And have the money by our father lent,
    Than Aquitaine, 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.

Princess    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 Aquitaine.

Princess                            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.
    Tomorrow you shall have a sight of them.

King    It shall suffice me; at which interview
    All liberal reason I will yield unto.
    Meantime, receive such welcome at my hand
    As honour, without breach of honour, may
    Make tender of to thy true worthiness.
    You may not come, fair princess, within my gates,
    But here without you shall be so received
    As you shall deem your self lodged in my heart,
    Though so denied fair harbour in my house.
    Your own good thoughts excuse me, and farewell.
    Tomorrow shall we visit you again.

Princess    Sweet health and fair desires consort your grace!

King    Thy own wish wish I thee in every place!
                                                            [Exit.
Berowne    Lady, I will commend you to mine own heart.

Rosaline    Pray you, do my commendations; I would be glad to see it.

Berowne    I would you heard it groan.

Rosaline    Is the fool sick?

Berowne    Sick at the heart.

Rosaline    Alack, let it blood.

Berowne    Would that do it good?

Rosaline    My physic says 'Ay'.

Berowne    Will you prick't with your eye?

Rosaline    No point, with my knife.

Berowne    Now God save thy life!

Rosaline    And yours from long living!

Berowne    I cannot stay thanksgiving.
                                                            [Withdraws.
Dumaine    Sir, I pray you, a word. What lady is that same?

Boyet    The heir of Alenon, Katharine her name.

Dumaine    A gallant lady. Monsieur, fare you well.
                                                            [Exit.
Longaville    I beseech you a word. What is she in the white?

Boyet    A woman sometimes, an you saw her in the light.

Longaville    Perchance light in the light. I desire her name.

Boyet    She hath but one for herself; to desire that were a shame.

Longaville    Pray you, sir, whose daughter?

Boyet    Her mother's, I have heard.

Longaville    God's blessing on your beard!

Boyet    Good sir, be not offended.
    She is an heir of Falconbridge.

Longaville    Nay, my choler is ended.
    She is a most sweet lady.

Boyet    Not unlike, sir; that may be.
                                                            [Exit LONGAVILLE.
Berowne    [Advancing.] What's her name in the cap?

Boyet    Rosaline, by good hap.

Berowne    Is she wedded or no?

Boyet    To her will, sir, or so.

Berowne    You are welcome, sir. Adieu.

Boyet    Farewell to me, sir, and welcome to you.
                                    [Exit BEROWNE. The ladies unmask.

Maria    That last is Berowne, the merry madcap lord.
    Not a word with him but a jest.

Boyet                                    And every jest but a word.

Princess    It was well done of you to take him at his word.

Boyet    I was as willing to grapple as he was to board.

Katharine    Two hot sheeps, marry!

Boyet                            And wherefore not ships?
    No sheep, sweet lamb, unless we feed on your lips.

Katharine    You sheep, and I pasture: shall that finish the jest?

Boyet    So you grant pasture for me.
                                                            [Offers to kiss her.

Katharine                                    Not so, gentle beast;
    My lips are no common, though several they be.

Boyet    Belonging to whom?

Katharine                            To my fortunes and me.

Princess    Good wits will be jangling; but, gentles, agree.
    This civil war of wits were much better used
    On Navarre and his bookmen, for here 'tis abused.

Boyet    If my observation, which very seldom lies,
    By the heart's still rhetoric disclosd with eyes,
    Deceive me not now, Navarre is infected.

Princess    With what?

Boyet    With that which we lovers entitle 'affected'.

Princess    Your reason?

Boyet    Why, all his behaviours did make their retire
    To the court of his eye, peeping thorough desire.
    His heart, like an agate, with your print impressed,
    Proud with his form, in his eye pride expressed.
    His tongue, all impatient to speak and not see,
    Did stumble with haste in his eyesight to be;
    All senses to that sense did make their repair,
    To feel only looking on fairest of fair.
    Methought all his senses were locked in his eye,
    As jewels in crystal for some prince to buy,
    Who tend'ring their own worth from where they were glassed,
    Did point you to buy them, along as you passed.
    His face's own margent did quote such amazes,
    That all eyes saw his eyes enchanted with gazes.
    I'll give you Aquitaine, and all that is his,
    An you give him for my sake but one loving kiss.

Princess    Come, to our pavilion. Boyet is disposed.

Boyet    But to speak that in words which his eye hath disclosed.
    I only have made a mouth of his eye,
    By adding a tongue which I know will not lie.

Maria    Thou art an old love-monger, and speak'st skilfully.

Katharine    He is Cupid's grandfather, and learns news of him.

Rosaline    Then was Venus like her mother, for her father is but grim.

Boyet    Do you hear, my mad wenches?

Maria                                No.

Boyet                                    What then - do you see?

Maria    Ay, our way to be gone.

Boyet                            You are too hard for me.
                                                            [Exeunt.