Biron. You are welcome, sir: adieu."
This, "To her will, sir, or so," is exactly in the spirit of the
sonnets: every one will remember the first two lines of sonnet 135:
"Whoever hath her wish, thou hast thy
Will, And
Will to
boot, and
Will in overplus;"
That, "To her will, sir, or so," I find astonishingly significant, for
not only has it nothing to do with the play and is therefore unexpected,
but the character-drawing is unexpected, too; maids are not usually
wedded to their will in a double sense, and no other of these maids of
honour is described at all.
A little later Biron speaks again of Rosaline in a way which shocks
expectation. First of all, he rages at himself for being in love at all.
"And I, forsooth in love! I, that have been love's whip!" Here I pause
again, it seems to me that Shakespeare is making confession to us, just
as when he admitted without reason that Jaques was lewd. Be that as it
may, he certainly goes on in words which are astounding, so utterly
unforeseen are they, and therefore the more characteristic:
"Nay, to be perjured, which is worst of all;
And, among three, to love the worst of all;"
The first line of this couplet, that he is perjured in loving Rosaline
may be taken as applying to the circumstances of the play; but
Shakespeare also talks of himself in sonnet 152 as "perjured," for he
only swears in order to misuse his love, or with a side glance at the
fact that he is married and therefore perjured when he swears love to
one not his wife.
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