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. DUMAIN To look like her are chimney-sweepers black. LONGAVILLE And since her time are colliers counted bright. FERDINAND And Ethiopes of their sweet complexion crack. DUMAIN Dark needs no candles now, for dark is light. BIRON Your mistresses dare never come in rain, For fear their colours should be wash'd away. FERDINAND 'Twere good, yours did; for, sir, to tell you plain, I'll find a fairer face not wash'd to-day. BIRON I'll prove her fair, or talk till doomsday here. FERDINAND No devil will fright thee then so much as she. DUMAIN I never knew man hold vile stuff so dear. LONGAVILLE Look, here's thy love: my foot and her face see. BIRON O, if the streets were paved with thine eyes, Her feet were much too dainty for such tread! DUMAIN O, vile! then, as she goes, what upward lies The street should see as she walk'd overhead. FERDINAND But what of this? are we not all in love? BIRON Nothing so sure; and thereby all forsworn. FERDINAND Then leave this chat; and, good Biron, now prove Our loving lawful, and our faith not torn. DUMAIN Ay, marry, there; some flattery for this evil. LONGAVILLE O, some authority how to proceed;Some tricks, some quillets, how to cheat the devil. DUMAIN Some salve for perjury. BIRON '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 have 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 cockl'd 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 ought 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 fulfills the law, And who can sever love from charity? FERDINAND Saint Cupid, then! and, soldiers, to the field! BIRON Advance your standards, and upon them, lords;Pell-mell, down with them! but be first advised, In conflict that you get the sun of them. LONGAVILLE Now to plain-dealing; lay these glozes by:
Shall we resolve to woo these girls of France? FERDINAND And win them too: therefore let us devise Some entertainment for them in their tents. BIRON 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. FERDINAND Away, away! no time shall be omitted That will betime, and may by us be fitted. BIRON 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.
Exeunt LOVE'S LABOURS LOST