ou
whether,' is especially rich in like illustrations. Breton brings into
marked prominence the antithesis which was familiar in his day between
'will' in its sensual meaning, and 'wit,' the Elizabethan synonym for
reason or cognition. 'A song between Wit and Will' opens thus:

_Wit_: What art thou, Will? _Will_: A babe of nature's
brood,

_Wit_: Who was thy sire? _Will_: Sweet Lust, as lovers
say.

_Wit_: Thy mother who? _Will_: Wild lusty wanton
blood.

_Wit_: When wast thou born? _Will_: In merry month of May.

_Wit_: And where brought up? _Will_: In school of little
skill.

_Wit_: What learn'dst thou there? _Will_: Love is my lesson
still.

Of the use of the word in the sense of stubbornness or self-will Roger
Ascham gives a good instance in his 'Scholemaster,' (1570), where he
recommends that such a vice in children as 'will,' which he places in the
category of lying, sloth, and disobedience, should be 'with sharp
chastisement daily cut away.' {418a} 'A woman will have her will' was,
among Elizabethan wags, an exceptionally popular proverbial phrase, the
point of which revolved about the equivocal meaning of the last word.
The phrase supplied the title of 'a pleasant comedy,' by William
Haughton, which--from 1597 onwards--held the stage for the unusually
prolonged period of forty years. 'Women, because they cannot have their
wills when they dye, they will have their wills while they live,' was a
current witticism which the barrister Manningham deemed worthy of record
in his 'Diary' in 1602. {418b}

Shakespeare's puns on the word.

It was not only in the sonnets that Shakespeare--almost invariably with a
glance at its sensual significance--rang the changes on this many-faced
verbal token. In his earliest play, 'Love's Labour's Lost' (II. i.
97-101), after the princess has tauntingly assured the King of Navarre
that he will break his vow to avoid women's society, the king replies,
'Not for the world, fair madam, by my _will_' (_i.e._ willingly). The
princess retorts 'Why _will_ (_i.e._ sensual desire) shall break it
(_i.e._ the vow), _will_ and nothing else.' In 'Much Ado' (V. iv. 26
seq.), when Benedick, anxious to marry Beatrice, is asked by the lady's
uncle 'What's your will?' he playfully lingers on the word in his answer.
As for his 'will,' his 'will' is that the uncle's 'goodwill may stand
with his' and