Scene Two
[The same. Before the Princess's Pavilion]
Enter the Ladies [i.e. Princess, Katharine, Rosaline, and Maria].
Prin. Sweet hearts, we shall be rich ere we depart,
If fairings come thus plentifully in.
A lady wall'd about with diamonds!
Look you what I have from the loving king. 4
Ros. Madam, came nothing else along with that?
Prin. Nothing but this! yes, as much love in rime
As would be cramm'd up in a sheet of paper,
Writ o' both sides the leaf, margent and all, 8
That he was fain to seal on Cupid's name.
Ros. That was the way to make his godhead wax;
For he hath been five thousand year a boy.
Kath. Ay, and a shrewd unhappy gallows too. 12
Ros. You'll ne'er be friends with him: a' kill'd your sister.
Kath. He made her melancholy, sad, and heavy;
And so she died: had she been light, like you,
Of such a merry, nimble, stirring spirit, 16
She might ha' been a grandam ere she died;
And so may you, for a light heart lives long.
Ros. What's your dark meaning, mouse, of this light word?
Kath. A light condition in a beauty dark. 20
Ros. We need more light to find your meaning out.
Kath. You'll mar the light by taking it in snuff;
166 hay: country dance
2 fairings: presents, originally such as were bought at a fair
9 That: so that (there being no blank space left)
10 wax: grow (with quibble on sealing-wax)
12 shrewd . . . gallows: cunning, roguish knave
13 Cf. n.
20 condition: temperament
22 in snuff: in anger, ill (with pun on the snuff of a candle)
