Now by my maiden honour, yet as pure

As the unsullied lily, I protest,

A world of torments though I should endure,

I would not yield to be your house’s guest,

So much I hate a breaking cause to be

Of heavenly oaths, vowed with integrity.

KING

O, you have lived in desolation here,

Unseen, unvisited, much to our shame.

PRINCESS

Not so, my lord. It is not so, I swear.

We have had pastimes here, and pleasant game.

A mess of Russians left us but of late.

KING

How, madam? Russians?

PRINCESS

Ay, in truth, my lord.

Trim gallants, full of courtship and of state.

ROSALINE

Madam, speak true.—It is not so, my lord.

My lady, to the manner of the days,

In courtesy gives undeserving praise.

We four indeed confronted were with four

In Russian habit. Here they stayed an hour,

And talked apace, and in that hour, my lord,

They did not bless us with one happy word.

I dare not call them fools, but this I think:

When they are thirsty, fools would fain have drink.

BIRON

This jest is dry to me. Gentle sweet,

Your wits 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.

ROSALINE

This proves you wise and rich, for in my eye—

BIRON

I am a fool, and full of poverty.

ROSALINE

But that you take what doth to you belong

It were a fault to snatch words from my tongue.

BIRON

O, I am yours, and all that I possess.

ROSALINE

All the fool mine!

BIRON

I cannot give you less.

ROSALINE

Which of the visors was it that you wore?

BIRON

Where? When? What visor? Why demand you this?

ROSALINE

There, then, that visor, that superfluous case,

That hid the worse and showed the better face.

KING (aside to the lords)

We were descried. They’ll mock us now, downright.

DUMAINE (aside to the King)

Let us confess, and turn it to a jest.

PRINCESS

Amazed, my lord? Why looks your highness sad?

ROSALINE

Help, hold his brows, he’ll swoon. Why look you

pale?

Seasick, I think, coming from Muscovy.

BIRON

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 nevermore to dance,

Nor nevermore in Russian habit wait.

O, never will I trust to speeches penned,

Nor to the motion of a schoolboy’s tongue,

Nor never come in visor to my friend,

Nor woo in rhyme, like a blind harper’s song.

Taffeta phrases, silken terms precise,

Three-piled 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 expressed

In russet yeas, and honest kersey noes.

And to begin, wench, so God help me, law!

My love to thee is sound, sans crack or flaw.

ROSALINE

Sans ‘sans’, I pray you.

BIRON

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.

PRINCESS

No, they are free that gave these tokens to us.

BIRON

Our states are forfeit. Seek not to undo us.

ROSALINE

It is not so, for how can this be true,

That you stand forfeit, being those that sue?

BIRON

Peace, for I will not have to do with you.

ROSALINE

Nor shall not, if I do as I intend.

BIRON (to the lords)

Speak for yourselves. My wit is at an end.

KING

Teach us, sweet madam, for our rude transgression

Some fair excuse.

PRINCESS

The fairest is confession.

Were not you here but even now disguised?

KING

Madam, I was.

PRINCESS

And were you well advised?

KING

I was, fair madam.

PRINCESS

When you then were here,

What did you whisper in your lady’s ear?

KING

That more than all the world I did respect her.

PRINCESS

When she shall challenge this, you will reject her.

KING

Upon mine honour, no.

PRINCESS

Peace, peace,forbear.

Your oath once broke, you force not to forswear.

KING

Despise me when I break this oath of mine.

PRINCESS

I will, and therefore keep it. Rosaline,

What did the Russian whisper in your ear?

ROSALINE

Madam, he swore that he did hold me dear

As precious eyesight, and did value me

Above this world, adding thereto moreover

That he would wed me, or else die my lover.

PRINCESS

God give thee joy of him! The noble lord

Most honourably doth uphold his word.

KING

What mean you, madam? By my life, my troth,

I never swore this lady such an oath.

ROSALINE

By heaven, you did, and to confirm it plain,

You gave me this. But take it, sir, again.

KING

My faith and this the Princess I did give.