King. [Reads.] 'Great deputy, the welkin's vice-
gerent, and sole dominator of Navarre, my soul's 220
earth's God, and body's fostering patron,—'
Cost. Not a word of Costard yet.
King. [Reads.] 'So it is—'
Cost. It may be so; but if he say it is so, he 224
is, in telling true, but so.—
King. Peace!
Cost. Be to me and every man that dares not
fight. 228
King. No words!
Cost. Of other men's secrets, I beseech you.
King. [Reads.] 'So it is, besieged with sable-col-
oured melancholy, I did commend the black-op- 232
pressing humour to the most wholesome physic of
thy health-giving air; and, as I am a gentle-
man, betook myself to walk. The time when?
About the sixth hour; when beasts most graze, 236
birds best peck, and men sit down to that
nourishment which is called supper: so much
for the time when. Now for the ground which;
which, I mean, I walked upon: it is ycleped 240
thy park. Then for the place where; where, I
mean, I did encounter that most obscene and
preposterous event, that draweth from my snow-
white pen the ebon-coloured ink, which here thou 244
viewest, beholdest, surveyest, or seest. But to the
place where, it standeth north-north-east and
by east from the west corner of thy curious-
knotted garden. There did I see that low-spirited 248
swain, that base minnow of thy mirth,—'
Cost. Me?
240 ycleped: called
247 curious-knotted: fancifully laid out in intricate beds
