EPILOGUE.

Rof. It is not the fashion to fee the lady the Epilogue; but it is no more unhandsome, than to fee the lord the Prologue. If it be true, that good wine needs no bush, 'tis true, that a good Play needs no Epilogue. Yet to good wine they do ufe good bushes; and good Plays prove the better by the help of good Epilogues. What a cafe am I in then, that am neither a good Epilogue, nor can infinuate with you in the behalf of a good Play? I am not furnifh'd like a beggar'; therefore to beg will not become me. My way is to conjure you, and I'll begin with the women. I charge you, O women', for the love you bear to men, 'to like as much of this Play as pleafes you: and I charge you, O men, for the love for the love you bear to women (as I perceive by your fimpring, none of you hate them)

you

men, for the love you bear to men, to like as much of this play as pleases THEM: and I charge you, O men, for the love bear to women,TO LIKE AS MUCH AS PLEASES THEM, that between you and the women, &c. Without the alteration of You into Them, the invocation is nonsense; and without the addition of the words, to like as much as pleases them, the inference of, that between you and the women the play may pafs, would be unfupported by any precedent premises. The words feem to have been struck out by fome fenfeless Player, as a vicious redundancy.

WARBURTON.

The words you and ym written as was the custom in that time, were in manuscript scarcely diftinguishable. The emendation is very judicious and probable.

that

that between you and the women, the Play may please. If I were a woman, I would kifs as many of you as had beards that pleas'd me, complexions that lik'd me, and breaths that I defy'd not: and, I am fure, as many as have good beards, or good faces, or fweet breaths, will for my kind offer, when I make curt'fy, bid me farewel. [Exeunt omnes.

LOVE's LABOUR's LOST.

A

COMEDY.

FERDINAND, King of Navarre.

Longaville,}

Biron,

Dumain,

Boyet,

Macard,

three Lords, attending upon the King in

bis retirement.

Lords, attending upon the Princess of
France.

Don Adriano de Armado, a fantaftical Spaniard.

Officers, and others, Attendants upon the King and
Princefs.

SCENE, the King of Navarre's Palace, and the Country near it.

This enumeration of the perfons was made by Mr. Rowe.

Of this Play there is an edi

tion in 4to 1598, by W. W. for Cuthbert Burby, which I have not feen.

LOVE's

LOVE'S LABOUR'S LOST.

ACTI. SCENE I

The PALACE.

Enter the King, Biron, Longaville, and Dumain.

KING.

ET Fame, that all hunt after in their lives,
Live registered upon our brazen tombs :
And then grace us in the disgrace of death:
When, fpight of cormorant devouring time,
Th' endeavour of this present breath may buy
That honour which fhall bate his fcythe's keen edge;
And make us heirs of all eternity.

Therefore, brave Conquerors! for fo you are,
That war against your own Affections,
And the huge army of the world's defires;
Our late edict shall strongly stand in force.
Navarre fhall be the wonder of the world;
Our Court fhall be a little academy,
Still and contemplative in living arts.
You three, Biron, Dumain, and Longaville,
Have fworn for three years' term to live with me,
My fellow Scholars; and to keep thofe Statutes,
That are recorded in this schedule here.

Your oaths are past, and now fubfcribe your names:

That