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LOVE'S LABOUR'S LOST.

ACT I. SCENE I.

Navarre. The Palace.

Enter the King, BIRON, LON

L

GAVILLE, and DUMAIN.

King.

ET fame, that all hunt after in their lives,
Live regifter'd upon our brazen tombs,
And then grace us in the difgrace of death:
When, fpight of cormorant, devouring time,
The 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 fhall ftrongly stand in force:
Navarre fhall be the wonder of the world;
Our court fhall be a little Academe;
Still, and contemplative, in living_arts.
You three, Biron, Dumain, and Longaville,
Have fworn for three years' term to live with me,
My fellow-fcholars; and to keep thofe ftatutes
That are recorded in this schedule here:

Your oaths are past, and now subscribe your names;
That his own hand may ftrike his honour down,
That violates the fmalleft branch herein :

If you are arm'd to do, as fworn to do,
Subscribe to your deep oaths, and keep them too.
Long. I am refolv'd: 'tis but a three years fast ;
The mind fhall banquet though the body pine:
Fat paunches have lean pates; and dainty bits
Make rich the ribs, but bankerout the wits.

Dum. My loving lord, Dumain is mortify'd;
The groffer manner of thefe world's delights
He throws upon the grofs world's bafer flaves:

To love, to wealth, to pomp, I pine and die;
With all these, living in philofophy.[1]

Biron. I can but fay their proteftation over,.
So much, dear liege, I have already fworn
That is, To live and ftudy here three years.
But there are other ftrict obfervances :
As, not to fee 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 befide;
The which, I hope, is not enrolled there.
And then, to fleep but three hours in the night,
And not be feen 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 enrolled there..
O, these are barren tasks, too hard to keep,-
Not to fee ladies, ftudy, faft, nor fleep..

King. Your oath is pass'd, to pafs away from these. Biron. Let me fay, no, my liege, an' if you please ; I only fwore to ftudy with your grace,

And stay, here in your court for three years' space. Long. You fwore to that, Biron, and to the reft. Biron. By yea and nay, fir, then I fwore in jest.What is the end of study? let me know..

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

Biron. Things hid and barr'd (you mean) from com-
mon fenfe?

King. Ay; that is ftudy's god-like recompence.
Biron. Come on then, I will fwear to study so,
To know the thing I am forbid to know:
As thus ;-To ftudy where I well may dine,
When I to feaft exprefsly am forbid;
Or, ftudy where to meet fome mistress fine,
When miftreffes from common fenfe are hid ::
Or, having fworn too hard-a-keeping oath,
Study to break it, and not break my troth
If ftudy's gain be thus, and this be fo,
Study knows that, which yet it doth not know,
Swear me to this, and I will ne'er fay, no.

King. These be the stops that hinder study quite,

[] By 'all thefe' the poet feems to mean, all thefe gentlemen' who have fworn to profecute the fame ftudies with me. STEEV.

And train our intellects to vain delight.

Biron. Why, all delights are vain; but that most vain, Which, with pain purchas'd, doth inherit pain. As, painfully to pore upon a book,

To feek the light of truth; while truth the while Doth falfely[2] blind the eye-fight of his look;

Light, feeking light, doth light of light beguile : So, ere you find where light in darkness lies, Your light grows dark by lofing of your eyes. Study me how to please the eye indeed,

By fixing it upon a fairer eye;

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

That will not be deep fearch'd with faucy looks;
Small have continual plodders ever won,
Save base authority from others' books.
Thefe earthly godfathers of heaven's lights,
That give a name to every fixed far,
Have no more profit of their fhining nights,

Than thofe that walk and wot not what they are. Too much to know, is to know naught but fame; And every godfather can give a name.[3]

King. How well he's read, to reafon against reading! Dum. Proceeded well, to ftop all good proceeding! Long. He weeds the corn, and ftill let's grow the weeding.

Biron. The fpring is near, when green geefe are a breeding.

Dum. How follows that?

Biron. Fit in his place and time.

Dum. In reafon nothing.

Biron. Something then in rhyme.

Long. Biron' is like an envious fneaping froft,

That bites the first-born infants of the spring. Biron. Well, fay I am: why fhould proud fummer boast, Before the birds have any cause to fing?

Why fhould I joy in an abortive birth?

[2] Falfely' is here and in many other places, the fame as dishoneftly or treacherously. The whole fenfe of this gingling declamation is only this, that a man by too clofe ftudy may read himself blind. JOHNS.

[3] The confequence, fays Biron, of too much knowledge, is not any real folution of doubts, but mere empty reputation. That is, too much knowledge gives only fame, a name which every godfather can give like. wife. JOHNS.

At Christmas I no more defire a rofe,

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Than with a fnow in May's new-fangled shows ;
But like of each thing, that in feafon grows.
So you, to ftudy now it is too late,

That were to climb o'er the house t'unlock the gate.
King. Well, fit you out :-go home, Biron; adieu!
Biron. No, my good lord; I have sworn to stay with
you :

And, though I have for barbarism spoke more,
Than for that angel knowledge you can fay;
Yet confident I'll keep what I have fwore,

And 'bide the penance of each three years' day.
Give me the paper, let me read the fame ;
And to the ftrict'ft decrees I'll write my name.

King. How well this yielding rescues thee from fhame! Biron. [Reading.] Item, That no woman shall come within a mile of my court. Hath this been proclaimed ? Long. Four days ago.

Biron. Let's fee the penalty.-[Reading.] On pain of lofing her tongue-Who devis'd 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!

Item, [Reading.] If any man be feen to talk with a woman within the term of three years, he shall endure fuch public fhame as the rest of the court can possibly devise.— This article, my liege, yourself muft break;

For, well you know, here comes in embaffy The French king's daughter, with yourself to speak,A maid of grace, and complete majesty,― About furrender-up of Aquitain

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

Or vainly comes the admired princefs hither.
King. What fay you, lords? why, this was quite forgot.
Biron. So ftudy 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; fo won, fo loft.

King. We must, of force, dispense with this decree ; She muft lie here on mere neceffity.

Biron. Neceffity will make us all forfworn

Three thousand times within this three years space:

For every man with his affects is born;

Not by might mafter'd, but by especial grace ; If I break faith, this word shall speak for me, I am forfworn on mere neceffity.[4]

So to the laws at large I write my name,

And he that breaks them in the leaft degree, Stands in attainder of eternal fhame :

Suggeftions[5] are to others, as to me;

But, I believe, although I feem fo loth,
I am the laft that will laft keep his oath.
But is there no quick recreation granted?

King. Ay, that there is: our court, you know, is haunted
With a refined traveller of Spain;

A man in all the world's new fashion planted,
That hath a mint of phrafes in his brain :
One, whom the mufic of his own' vain tongue
Doth ravifh, like enchanting harmony;
A man of compliments, whom right and wrong
Have chofe as umpire of their mutiny :[6]
This child of fancy, that Armado hight,

For interim to our ftudies, fhall relate
In high-born words the worth of many a knight
From tawny Spain,[7] loft in the world's debate.
How you delight, my lords, I know not, I,
But, I proteft, I love to hear him lie;
And I will ufe him for my minstrelsy,

[4] Biron, amidft his extravagancies, fpeaks with great juftnefs against the folly of vows. They are made without fufficient regard to the variations of life, and are therefore broken by fome unforeseen neceffity. They proceed commonly from a presumptuous confidence, and a false estimate of human power. JOHNS.

[5] Temptations. JOHNS.

[6] An exceffive complaifance is here admirably painted, in the perfon of one who was willing to make even right and wrong, friends: and to per fuade the one to recede from the accustomed ftubbornnefs of her nature, and wink at the liberties of her oppofite, rather than he would incur the imputation of ill-breeding in keeping up the quarrel. WARB.

This paffage, I believe, means no more than that Don Armado was a man nicely verfed in ceremonial distinctions, one who could diftinguish in the molt delicate queftions of honour the exact boundaries of right and wrong. Compliment.' in Shakespeare's time, did not fignify, at leaft did not only fignify verbal civility, or phrafes of courtefy, but according to its original meaning, the trappings, or ornamental appendages of a character, in the fame manner, and on the fame principles of fpeech with 'accomplishment.' "Compliment' is, as Armado well expreffes it, the varnish of a complete man. JOHNS.

[7] i. e. He thall relate to us the celebrated ftories recorded in the old romances, and in their very ftyle. Why he fays 'from tawny Spain' is, because these romances being of Spanish original, the heroes and the fcene were generally of that country. Why he fays, loft in the world's debate' is, because the fubject of thofe romances were the crufades of the European Christians against the Saracens of Afia and Africa. WARB.

VOL. II. Cc

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