_Ros._ Oft have I heard of you, my Lord Biron, Before I saw you; and the world’s large tongue 830 Proclaims you for a man replete with mocks, Full of comparisons and wounding flouts, Which you on all estates will execute That lie within the mercy of your wit. To weed this wormwood from your fruitful brain, 835 And therewithal to win me, if you please, Without the which I am not to be won, You shall this twelvemonth term from day to day Visit the speechless sick, and still converse With groaning wretches; and your task shall be, 840 With all the fierce endeavour of your wit To enforce the pained impotent to smile. _Biron._ To move wild laughter in the throat of death? It cannot be; it is impossible: Mirth cannot move a soul in agony. 845 _Ros._ Why, that’s the way to choke a gibing spirit, Whose influence is begot of that loose grace Which shallow laughing hearers give to fools: A jest’s prosperity lies in the ear Of him that hears it, never in the tongue 850 Of him that makes it: then, if sickly ears, Deaf’d with the clamours of their own dear groans, Will hear your idle scorns, continue then, And I will have you and that fault withal; But if they will not, throw away that spirit, 855 And I shall find you empty of that fault, Right joyful of your reformation. _Biron._ A twelvemonth! well; befall what will befall, I’ll jest a twelvemonth in an hospital. _Prin._ [_To the King_] Ay, sweet my Lord; and so I take my leave. 860 _King._ No, madam; we will bring you on your way. _Biron._ Our wooing doth not end like an old play; Jack hath not Jill: these ladies’ courtesy Might well have made our sport a comedy. _King._ Come, sir, it wants a twelvemonth and a day, 865 And then ’twill end. _Biron._ That’s too long for a play. _Re-enter_ ARMADO. _Arm._ Sweet Majesty, vouchsafe me,— _Prin._ Was not that Hector? _Dum._ The worthy knight of Troy. _Arm._ I will kiss thy royal finger, and take leave. I 870 am a votary; I have vowed to Jaquenetta to hold the plough for her sweet love three years. But, most esteemed greatness, will you hear the dialogue that the two learned men have compiled in praise of the owl and the cuckoo? it should have followed in the end of our show. 875 _King._ Call them forth quickly; we will do so. _Arm._ Holla! approach. _Re-enter_ HOLOFERNES, NATHANIEL, MOTH, COSTARD, _and others_. This side is Hiems, Winter, this Ver, the Spring; the one maintained by the owl, the other by the cuckoo. Ver, begin. 880 THE SONG.