Page 2470 - Shakespeare - Vol. 1

BEROWNE

This fellow pecks up wit, as pigeons peas, [315]
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. [320]
This gallant pins the wenches on his sleeve.
Had he been Adam, he had tempted Eve.
’A can carve too, and lisp. Why, this is he
That kissed his hand away in courtesy.
This is the ape of form, Monsieur the Nice, [325]
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. [330]
This is the flower that smiles on everyone,
To show his teeth as white as whale’s bone;
And consciences that will not die in debt
Pay him the due of ‘honey-tongued Boyet’.

KING

A blister on his sweet tongue, with my heart, [335]
That put Armado’s page out of his part!

Enter the Princess, Rosaline, Maria, and Katharine, having unmasked
and exchanged favours, with Boyet.

BEROWNE

See where it comes! Behaviour, what wert thou
Till this man showed thee, and what art thou now?

KING

All hail, sweet madam, and fair time of day.

PRINCESS

‘Fair’ in ‘all hail’ is foul, as I conceive. [340]

KING