PRINCESS

[To FERDINAND] Ay, sweet my lord; and so I take my leave.

FERDINAND

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.

FERDINAND

Come, sir, it wants a twelvemonth and a day,
And then 'twill end.

BIRON

That's too long for a play.

Re-enter DON ADRIANO DE ARMADO

ADRIANO DE ARMADO

Sweet majesty, vouchsafe me, –

PRINCESS

Was not that Hector?

DUMAIN

The worthy knight of Troy.

ADRIANO DE ARMADO

I will kiss thy royal finger, and take leave. I 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.

FERDINAND

Call them forth quickly; we will do so.

ADRIANO DE ARMADO

Holla! approach.

Re-enter HOLOFERNES, SIR 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.

THE SONG

A SPRING.
When daisies pied and violets blue
And lady-smocks all silver-white
And cuckoo-buds of yellow