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 purposed; since, to wail friends lost Is not by much so wholesome-profitable As to rejoice at friends but newly found. PRINCESS I understand you not: my griefs are double. BIRON 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 strange 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 misbecomed 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. PRINCESS We have received 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. DUMAIN Our letters, madam, show'd much more than jest. LONGAVILLE So did our looks. ROSALINE We did not quote them so. FERDINAND Now, at the latest minute of the hour, Grant us your loves. PRINCESS A time, methinks, too short To make a world-without-end bargain in.
No, no, my lord, your grace is perjured 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 the annual reckoning.
If this austere insociable life 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 entitled in the other's heart. FERDINAND 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. DUMAIN But what to me, my love? but what to me? A wife? KATHARINE A beard, fair health, and honesty;With three-fold love I wish you all these three. DUMAIN O, shall I say, I thank you, gentle wife? KATHARINE Not so, my lord; a twelvemonth and a day I'll mark no words that smooth-faced wooers say:
