DRAMATIS PERSONE

FERDINAND, king of Navarre

BIRON,

DUMAIN,

LONGAVILLE,

BOYET,

MERCADE, }lords attending on the Princess of France

DON ADRIANO DE ARMADO, a fantastical Spaniard

SIR NATHANIEL, a curate

HOLOFERNES, a schoolmaster
DULL, a constable

COSTARD, a clown

MOTH, page to Armado

There is no list of "Dramatis Persona" in the Quartos and Folios: it should be remembered that "Biron" is spelled "Berowne," rhyming with "moon" in Act IV. iii. 233; "Moth" was probably pronounced "Mote"; "Mercade" is generally "Marcade"; “Armado" is sometimes given as “Armatho"; "Boyet" rhymes with "debt" in V. ii. 334; "Longaville" with "ill” in IV. iii. 126, and with “mile” in V. ii. 53.– I. G.

LOVE'S LABOR'S LOST

ACT FIRST

SCENE I

The king of Navarre's park.

Enter Ferdinand, king of Navarre, Biron, Longaville, and Dumain.

King. Let fame, that all hunt after in their lives,
Live register'd upon our brazen tombs,

And then grace us in the disgrace of death;
When, spite of cormorant devouring Time,
The endeavor of this present breath may buy
That honor which shall bate his scythe's keen
edge,

And make us heirs of all eternity.

Therefore, brave conquerors,-for so you are,
That war against your own affections

And the huge army of the world's desires,— 10
Our late edict shall strongly stand in force:
Navarre shall be the wonder of the world;
Our court shall be a little Academe,
Still and contemplative in living art.

You three, Biron, Dumain, and Longaville,
Have sworn for three years' term to live with me

My fellow-scholars, and to keep those statutes
That are recorded in this schedule here:

Your oaths are pass'd; and now subscribe your

names,

That his own hand may strike his honor down 20
That violates the smallest breach therein:

If you are arm'd to do as sworn to do,

Subscribe to your deep oaths, and keep it too. Long. I am resolved; 'tis but a three years' fast: The mind shall banquet, though the body pine: Fat paunches have lean pates; and dainty bits Make rich the ribs, but bankrupt quite the wits. Dum. My loving lord, Dumain is mortified:

The grosser manner of these world's delights
He throws upon the gross world's baser slaves:
To love, to wealth, to pomp, I pine and die; 31
With all these living in philosophy.

Biron. I can but say their protestation over;
So much, dear liege, I have already sworn,
That is, to live and study here three years.
But there are other strict observances;
As, not to see a woman in that term,
Which I hope well is not enrolled there;
And one day in a week to touch no food,
And but one meal on every day beside,
The which I hope is not enrolled there;
And then, to sleep but three hours in the night,
And not be seen to wink of all the day,-
When I was wont to think no harm all night,

40

23. "It" evidently refers, not to oaths, but to the preceding clause: keep your subscription, or what you have sworn. So that the changing of oaths into oath, or of it into them, is quite unnecessary.— H. N. H.

And make a dark night too of half the day,—
Which I hope well is not enrolled there:

O, these are barren tasks, too hard to keep,
Not to see ladies, study, fast, not sleep!
King. Your oath is pass'd to pass away from these.
Biron. Let me say no, my liege, an if you please:
I only swore to study with your grace,

51

And stay here in your court for three years'

space.

Long. You swore to that, Biron, and to the rest. Biron. By yea and nay, sir, then I swore in jest. What is the end of study? let me know.

King. Why, that to know, which else we should not know.

Biron. Things hid and barr'd, you mean, from common sense?

King. Aye, that is study's god-like recompense.
Biron. Come on, then; I will swear to study so,
To know the thing I am forbid to know:
As thus, to study where I well may dine,

60

When I to feast expressly am forbid;
Or study where to meet some mistress fine,
When mistresses from common sense are hid;
Or, having sworn too hard a keeping oath,
Study to break it, and not break my troth.
If study's gain be thus, and this be so,

Study knows that which yet it doth not know:
Swear me to this, and I will ne'er say no.
King. These be the stops that hinder study quite,
And train our intellects to vain delight.

71

62. "feast"; Quartos and Folios "fast," corrected by Theobald.—

I. G.

Biron. Why, all delights are vain; but that most

vain,

Which, with pain purchased, doth inherit pain:
As, painfully to pore upon a book

To seek the light of truth; while truth the
while

Doth falsely blind the eyesight of his look:
Light, seeking light, doth light of light be-
guile:

So, ere you find where light in darkness lies,
Your light grows dark by losing of your eyes.
Study me how to please the indeed,
By fixing it upon a fairer eye;

eye

Who dazzling so, that eye shall be his heed,
And give him light that it was blinded by.
Study is like the heaven's glorious sun,

80

That will not be deep-search'd with saucy
looks;

Small have continual plodders ever won,
Save base authority from others' books.
These earthly godfathers.of heaven's lights,
That give a name to every fixed star,

Have no more profit of their shining nights 90
Than those that walk and wot not what they

are.

Too much to know, is to know nought but fame;
And every godfather can give a name.

King. How well he's read, to reason against read

ing!

82. "Who dazzling so"; "that when he dazzles, that is, has his eye made weak, by fixing his eye upon a fairer eye, that fairer eye shall be his heed, his direction or lodestar, and give him light that was blinded by it."-Johnson.