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Gra. Were you the clerk, that is to make me

cuckold?

Ner. Ay, but the clerk, that never means to do it, Unless he live until he be a man.

Baff. Sweet Doctor, you fhall be my bedfellow; When I am absent, then lie with my wife.

Anth. Sweet lady, you have giv'n me life and living; For here I read for certain, that my fhips

Are fafely come to road.

Por. How now, Lorenzo?

My clerk hath fome good comforts too for you.
Ner. Ay, and I'll give them him without a fee.
There do I give to you and Jessica,

From the rich Jew, a fpecial Deed of Gift,
After his death, of all he dies possess'd of.

*

Lor. Fair ladies, you drop Manna in the way Of starved people.

Por. It is almost morning,

And yet, I'm fure, you are not fatisfy'd
Of these events at full. Let us go in,
And charge us there upon interr'gatories,
And we will answer all things faithfully.

Gra. Let it be fo: the first interr'gatory,
That my Neriffa fhall be fworn on, is,
Whether 'till the next night she had rather stay,
Or go to bed now, being two hours to day.
But were the day come, I fhould wish it dark,
'Till I were couching with the Doctor's clerk.
Well, while I live, I'll fear no other thing
So fore, as keeping safe Nerissa's ring.

* you drop Manna in the way

[Exeunt onines,

Of starved people.] Shakespear is not more exact in any Thing, than in adapting his Images with Propriety to his Speakers; of which he has here given an Instance in making the young Jewess call gool Fortune, Manna,

***

Love's Labour's Loft.

COME D Y.

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Boyet, } Lords, attending upon the Princess of

Macard,

Don Adriano de Armadó, a fantastical Spaniard.
Nathaniel, a Curate.

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Officers, and others, Attendants upon the King and

Princess.

SCENE, the King of Navarre's Palace, and the Country

near it.

Love's Labour's Loft.

ACT I. SCENE I.

The

PALACE.

Enter the King, Biron, Longaville, and Dumain.

L

KING.

ET Fame, that all hunt after in their lives,
Live regiftred upon our brazen tombs ;
And then grace us in the disgrace of death:
When, fpight of cormorant devouring time,
Th' endeavour of this prefent breath may buy
That honour which shall '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 shall 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 paft, and now subscribe your names:
That his own hand may strike his honour down,
That violates the smallest branch herein:

VOL. II

N

If

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