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ntroductory Remarks

Ir Love's labor is apparently lost on the beauteous dames and sprightly courtiers of Navarre and France, poetic readers have still to be grateful for the many fine things that his inspiration has caused his votaries to utter. The play is not for those who see no merit but in broad and striking effects, for it really is deficient in dramatic interest; still it has an infinite variety of beauties; there is a rich vein of gold running through the lode, although the earthly mixture is greater in proportion than in most of the metal from the same prolific mine. The characters are numerous and well contrasted; the one thing wanting to them, and consequently to the play, is determined purpose. It is, however, pleasant to consort with a happy lot of Fortune's darlings, who seem to carve out penance for themselves simply to get rid of their superfluous leisure; and who have nothing to do throughout the long, delightful, summer day, but to amuse, baffle, laud, and depreciate each other, in blissful ignorance of time and business, vice and

sorrow.

Biron and Rosaline have been often noted as the precursors of Benedick and Beatrice, and well deserve the compliment. The King and Princess, in their general courtesy and intellectual gifts, advance much more than conventional claim to the title of "Matchless Navarre," and the "Maid of grace and complete majesty." The scholastic enthusiasm of Holofernes and Nathaniel is not without its interest to those who, in the language of the Curate, have "learned to feed upon the delicacies of a book." The sentence in which this phrase occurs, rivals, in merit, his praise of the Schoolmaster's table-talk; an eulogium, which Johnsop (an unexcep

tionable judge in such a case), calls, "a finished representation of colloquial excellence."

Costard is admirable throughout, bating the occasional coarseness, which he shares with his betters in the scene. His mode of meeting the accusation of Armado, in the first Act, would have been worthy of Touchstone, Launcelot, or Ferto. Equally good is his overflowing delight in the witty impertinence of Moth; his exaltation, on successfully standing for "Pompion the Great,” though “he knows not the degree of the worthy;" and his triumphant compassion on the histrionic failure of the poor Curate: "He is a marvelous good neighbor, in sooth, and a very good bowler; but for Alexander, alas! you see how it is; a little o'er parted."

Among the finer passages of the play (albeit they abound beyond the power of enumeration), are Biron's enthusiastic praise of Rosaline; her description of him; his expostulation with the King and Courtiers, in the first Act; and his glowing laudation of love and women in the last. Dumain's exquisite Sonnet, "On a Day," must not be forgotten; nor the "Dialogue of the Owl and the Cuckoo;" words which, married to the exquisite music of Arne, contribute to form as auspicious a conjunction as ever was ratified at the altar of Apollo.

At what time the first edition of this play appeared is altogether uncertain; probably about 1590: it is, undoubtedly, one of Shakspeare's earlier productions. The edition of 1598 has the following title: "A pleasant conceited comedie, called 'LOVE'S LABOR'S LOST.' As it was presented before her Highness this last Christmas. Newly corrected and augmented by W. Shakspeare." The drama was, probably, on various accounts especially pleasing to Elizabeth. The voluntary, yet unwilling, maiden Queen-she who was so peevishly jealous of the marriage of her maids of honor- must have relished, intensely, the postponement of so many sexual unions "for a twelvemonth and a day," with a tolerable prospect of the matches failing altogether. The learning of the pedants must have been anything but caviare to the accomplished pupil of Ascham; while the grandiloquence of Armado would provoke a smile, both for herself and the author, from the lion-hearted woman who had so heroically defied alike the thunder and the machinations of the wily and redoubtable Philip.

"It is not unimportant (says Mr. Coleridge) to notice how strong a presumption the dictions and allusions of this play afford, that, though Shakspeare's acquirements in the dead languages might not be such as we suppose consistent with a learned education, his habits had nevertheless been scholastic and those of a student."

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Love's Labor's Lost.

ACT I.

SCENE I.-Navarre. A Park, with a Palace in it. | Fat paunches have lean pates; and dainty bits

Enter the KING, BIRON, LONGAVILLE, and

DUMAIN.

Make rich the ribs, but bankerout the wits.

Dum. My loving lord, Dumain is mortified. grosser manner of these world's delights

The

King. Let fame, that all hunt after in their He throws upon the gross world's baser slaves.

lives,

Live registered 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, -
Our late edíct 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, Birón, 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 past, and now subscribe your

names;

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To love, to wealth, to pomp, I pine and die;
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 enrolléd 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 enrolléd 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,
And make a dark night too of half the day);
Which I hope well is not enrolléd there:
O, these are barren tasks, too hard to keep;
Not to see the ladies, - study,- fast,- not sleep;
King. Your oath is passed to pass away from

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

Biron. Things hid and barred, you mean, from common sense?

King. Ay, that is study's godlike 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,

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 he doth not know:
Swear me to this, and I will ne'er say no.

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Dum. In reason nothing.
Biron.

Something, then, in rhyme.

King. Birón is like an envious sneaping frost,
That bites the first-born infants of the spring.
Biron. Well, say I am; why should proud sum-
mer boast,

Before the birds have any cause to sing?
Why should I joy in any abortive birth?
At Christmas I no more desire a rose,
Than wish a snow in May's new-fangled shows;

King. These be the stops that hinder study But like of each thing that in season grows.

quite,

And train our intellects to vain delight.

Biron. Why, all delights are vain; and that

most vain,

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

So you, to study now it is too late,

Climb o'er the house to unlock the little gate.

King. Well, sit you out: go home, Birón; adieu !

Biron. No, my good lord; I have sworn to stay with you:

To seek the light of truth; while truth the And though I have for barbarism spoke more

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 eye indeed,

By fixing it upon a fairer eye;
Who dazzling so, that eye shall be his heed,

And give him light that was it blinded by.

Study is like the heaven's glorious sun,

Than for that angel knowledge you can say,
Yet confident I'll keep what I have swore,

And bide the penance of each three years' day.
Give me the paper, let me read the same;
And to the strick'st decrees I'll write my name.
King. How well this yielding rescues thee from
shame!

BIRON reads.

"Item, That no woman shall come within a mile of my court,"

That will not be deep-searched with saucy looks; Hath this been proclaimed?

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 fixéd star, Have no more profit of their shining nights

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 reading!

Dum. Proceeded well, to stop all good proceeding!

Long. Four days ago.

Biron. Let's see the penalty.

Reads.

"On pain of losing her tongue.".

Who devised this penalty?

Long. Marry, that did I.
Biron. Sweet lord, and why?

Long. To fright them hence with that dread

penalty.

Biron. A dangerous law against gentility.

Reads.

"Item, If any man be seen to talk with a woman within the term of three years, he shall endure such public shame as the rest of the court shall possibly devise.".

This article, my liege, yourself must break;

For well you know, here comes in embassy The French king's daughter, with yourself to speak,

A maid of grace and cómplete majesty,— About surrender-up of Aquitain

To her decrepit, sick, and bed-rid father: Therefore this article is made in vain,

Or vainly comes the admiréd princess hither. King. What say you, lords? - why, this was

quite forgot.

Biron. So study evermore is overshot; While it doth study to have what it would, It doth forget to do the thing it should: And when it hath the thing it hunteth most, 'Tis won as towns with fire; so won, so lost. King. We must of force dispense with this decree;

She must lie here on mere necessity.

Biron. Necessity will make us all forsworn Three thousand times, within this three years'

space :

For every man with his affects is born;

Not by might mastered, but by special grace : If I break faith, this word shall speak for me, I am forsworn on mere necessity.

So to the laws at large I write my name:

[Subscribes.

And he that breaks them in the least degree, Stands in attainder of eternal shame :

Suggestions are to others as to me;
But I believe, although I seem so loth,
I am the last that will last keep his oath.
But is there no quick recreation granted?

King. Ay, that there is: our court you know is haunted

With a refinéd traveler of Spain;

A man in all the world's new fashion planted,
That hath a mint of phrases in his brain :
One whom the music of his own vain tongue
Doth ravish, like enchanting harmony;

A man of complements, whom right and wrong
Have chose as umpire of their mutiny:

This child of fancy, that Armado hight,
For interim to our studies, shall relate,
In high-born words, the worth of many a knight
From tawny Spain, lost in the world's debate.
How you delight my lords, I know not, I;
But I protest, I love to hear him lie,
And I will use him for my minstrelsy.

Biron. Armado is a most illustrious wight,
A man of fire-new words, fashion's own knight.
Long. Costard the swain, and he, shall be our
sport;

And so to study, three years is but short.

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King. A letter from the magnificent Armado. Biron. How low soever the matter, I hope in God for high words.

Long. A high hope for a low having: God grant us patience!

Biron. To hear? or forbear hearing?

Long. To hear meekly, sir, and to laugh moderately; or to forbear both.

Biron. Well, sir, be it as the style shall give us cause to climb in the merriness.

Cost. The matter is to me, sir, as concerning Jaquenetta. The manner of it is, I was taken with the manner.

Biron. In what manner?

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