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• 1 2016-11-13T11:53:07-08:00 Act II 18 Loves Labours Lost Act II plain 2016-12-14T23:15:48-08:00 Scene 1
  Enter the Princess of France, with three attending
  Ladies (Rosaline, Maria, and Katherine), Boyet
  and other Lords.
   
  BOYET
  Now, madam, summon up your dearest spirits.
  Consider who the King your father sends,
  To whom he sends, and what’s his embassy.
  Yourself, held precious in the world’s esteem,
  To parley with the sole inheritor                                                              5
  Of all perfections that a man may owe,
  Matchless Navarre; the plea of no less weight
  Than Aquitaine, a dowry for a queen.
  Be now as prodigal of all dear grace
  As nature was in making graces dear                                                    10
  When she did starve the general world besides
  And prodigally gave them all to you.
  PRINCESS
  Good Lord Boyet, my beauty, though but mean,Needs not the painted flourish of your praise.Beauty is bought by judgment of the eye, 15Not uttered by base sale of chapmen’s tongues.I am less proud to hear you tell my worthThan you much willing to be counted wiseIn spending your wit in the praise of mine.
  But now to task the tasker: good Boyet,                                               20
  You are not ignorant all-telling fame
  Doth noise abroad Navarre hath made a vow,
  Till painful study shall outwear three years,
  No woman may approach his silent court.
  Therefore to ’s seemeth it a needful course,                                        25
  Before we enter his forbidden gates,
  To know his pleasure, and in that behalf,
  Bold of your worthiness, we single you
  As our best-moving fair solicitor.
  Tell him the daughter of the King of France                                        30
  On serious business craving quick dispatch,
  Importunes personal conference with his Grace.
  Haste, signify so much, while we attend,
  Like humble-visaged suitors, his high will.
  BOYET
  Proud of employment, willingly I go.                                                   35
  PRINCESS
  All pride is willing pride, and yours is so.
  Boyet exits.
  Who are the votaries, my loving lords,
  That are vow-fellows with this virtuous duke?
  A LORD
  Lord Longaville is one.
  PRINCESS  Know you the man?                                                               40
  MARIA
  I know him, madam. At a marriage feast
  Between Lord Perigort and the beauteous heir
  Of Jaques Falconbridge, solemnizèd
  In Normandy, saw I this Longaville.
  A man of sovereign parts he is esteemed,                                            45
  Well fitted in arts, glorious in arms.
  Nothing becomes him ill that he would well.
  The only soil of his fair virtue’s gloss,
  If virtue’s gloss will stain with any soil,
  Is a sharp wit matched with too blunt a will,                                       50
  Whose edge hath power to cut, whose will still wills
  It should none spare that come within his power.
  PRINCESS
  Some merry mocking lord, belike. Is ’t so?
  MARIA
  They say so most that most his humors know.
  PRINCESS
  Such short-lived wits do wither as they grow.                                     55
  Who are the rest?
  KATHERINE
  The young Dumaine, a well-accomplished youth,
  Of all that virtue love for virtue loved.
  Most power to do most harm, least knowing ill;
  For he hath wit to make an ill shape good,                                           60
  And shape to win grace though he had no wit.
  I saw him at the Duke Alanson’s once,
  And much too little of that good I saw
  Is my report to his great worthiness.
  ROSALINE
  Another of these students at that time                                                   65
  Was there with him, if I have heard a truth.
  Berowne they call him, but a merrier man,
  Within the limit of becoming mirth,
  I never spent an hour’s talk withal.
  His eye begets occasion for his wit,                                                      70
  For every object that the one doth catch
  The other turns to a mirth-moving jest,
  Which his fair tongue, conceit’s expositor,
  Delivers in such apt and gracious words
  That agèd ears play truant at his tales,                                                  75
  And younger hearings are quite ravishèd,
  So sweet and voluble is his discourse.
  PRINCESS
  God bless my ladies, are they all in love,That every one her own hath garnishèdWith such bedecking ornaments of praise?                                          80
  A LORD
  Here comes Boyet.
   
  Enter Boyet.
   
  PRINCESS  Now, what admittance, lord?
  BOYET
  Navarre had notice of your fair approach,
  And he and his competitors in oath
  Were all addressed to meet you, gentle lady,                                       85
  Before I came. Marry, thus much I have learned:
  He rather means to lodge you in the field,
  Like one that comes here to besiege his court,
  Than seek a dispensation for his oath
  To let you enter his unpeopled house.                                                   90
   
  Enter King of Navarre, Longaville, Dumaine, and
  Berowne.
   
  Here comes Navarre.
  KING  Fair Princess, welcome to the court of Navarre.
  PRINCESS  “Fair” I give you back again, and “welcome”
  I have not yet. The roof of this court is too
  high to be yours, and welcome to the wide fields too                     95
  base to be mine.
  KING
  You shall be welcome, madam, to my court.
  PRINCESS
  I will be welcome, then. Conduct me thither.
  KING
  Hear me, dear lady. I have sworn an oath.
  PRINCESS
  Our Lady help my lord! He’ll be forsworn.                                       100
  KING
  Not for the world, fair madam, by my will.
  PRINCESS
  Why, will shall break it, will and nothing else.
  KING
  Your Ladyship is ignorant what it is.
  PRINCESS
  Were my lord so, his ignorance were wise,
  Where now his knowledge must prove ignorance.                           105
  I hear your Grace hath sworn out housekeeping.
  ’Tis deadly sin to keep that oath, my lord,
  And sin to break it.
  But pardon me, I am too sudden bold.
  To teach a teacher ill beseemeth me.                                                  110
  Vouchsafe to read the purpose of my coming,
  And suddenly resolve me in my suit.
  She gives him a paper.
  KING
  Madam, I will, if suddenly I may.
  PRINCESSYou will the sooner that I were away,For you’ll prove perjured if you make me stay.                                115
  They walk aside while the King reads the paper.
  BEROWNE, to Rosaline
  Did not I dance with you in Brabant once?ROSALINEDid not I dance with you in Brabant once?BEROWNEI know you did.ROSALINE How needless was it thenTo ask the question. 120BEROWNE You must not be so quick.ROSALINE’Tis long of you that spur me with such questions.BEROWNEYour wit’s too hot, it speeds too fast; ’twill tire.ROSALINENot till it leave the rider in the mire.
  BEROWNE
  What time o’ day?                                                                                  125
  ROSALINE  The hour that fools should ask.
  BEROWNE  Now fair befall your mask.
  ROSALINE  Fair fall the face it covers.
  BEROWNE  And send you many lovers.
  ROSALINE  Amen, so you be none.                                                       130
  BEROWNE  Nay, then, will I be gone.
  KING, coming forward with the Princess
  Madam, your father here doth intimate
  The payment of a hundred thousand crowns,
  Being but the one half of an entire sum
  Disbursèd by my father in his wars.                                                    135
  But say that he or we, as neither have,
  Received that sum, yet there remains unpaid
  A hundred thousand more, in surety of the which
  One part of Aquitaine is bound to us,
  Although not valued to the money’s worth.                                       140
  If then the King your father will restore
  But that one half which is unsatisfied,
  We will give up our right in Aquitaine,
  And hold fair friendship with his Majesty.
  But that, it seems, he little purposeth;                                                 145
  For here he doth demand to have repaid
  A hundred thousand crowns, and not demands,
  On payment of a hundred thousand crowns,
  To have his title live in Aquitaine—
  Which we much rather had depart withal,                                          150
  And have the money by our father lent,
  Than Aquitaine, so gelded as it is.
  Dear Princess, were not his requests so far
  From reason’s yielding, your fair self should make
  A yielding ’gainst some reason in my breast,                                    155
  And go well satisfied to France again.
  PRINCESS
  You do the King my father too much wrong,And wrong the reputation of your name,In so unseeming to confess receiptOf that which hath so faithfully been paid.                                        160
  KING
  I do protest I never heard of it;
  And if you prove it, I’ll repay it back
  Or yield up Aquitaine.
  PRINCESS  We arrest your word.—
  Boyet, you can produce acquittances                                                  165
  For such a sum from special officers
  Of Charles his father.
  KING  Satisfy me so.
  BOYET
  So please your Grace, the packet is not come
  Where that and other specialties are bound.                                      170
  Tomorrow you shall have a sight of them.
  KING
  It shall suffice me; at which interview
  All liberal reason I will yield unto.
  Meantime receive such welcome at my hand
  As honor (without breach of honor) may                                           175
  Make tender of to thy true worthiness.You may not come, fair princess, within my gates,​ ouse
  180Your own good thoughts excuse me, and farewell.Tomorrow shall we visit you again.
  PRINCESS
  Sweet health and fair desires consort your Grace.
  KING
  Thy own wish wish I thee in every place.
  He exits with Dumaine,
  Longaville, and Attendants.
  BEROWNE, to Rosaline  Lady, I will commend you to                     185
  my own heart.
  ROSALINE  Pray you, do my commendations. I would
  be glad to see it.
  BEROWNE  I would you heard it groan.
  ROSALINE  Is the fool sick?                                                                   190
  BEROWNE  Sick at the heart.
  ROSALINE  Alack, let it blood.
  BEROWNE  Would that do it good?
  ROSALINE  My physic says “ay.”
  BEROWNE  Will you prick ’t with your eye?                                      195
  ROSALINE  No point, with my knife.
  BEROWNE  Now God save thy life.
  ROSALINE  And yours from long living.
  BEROWNE  I cannot stay thanksgiving.                                       He exits.
   
  Enter Dumaine.
   
  DUMAINE, to Boyet
  Sir, I pray you, a word. What lady is that same?                              200
  BOYET
  The heir of Alanson, Katherine her name.
  DUMAINE
  A gallant lady, monsieur. Fare you well.                                   He exits.
   
  Enter Longaville.
   
  LONGAVILLE, to Boyet
  I beseech you, a word. What is she in the white?
  BOYET
  A woman sometimes, an you saw her in the light.
  LONGAVILLE
  Perchance light in the light. I desire her name.                                 205
  BOYET
  She hath but one for herself; to desire that were a
  shame.
  LONGAVILLE  Pray you, sir, whose daughter?
  BOYET  Her mother’s, I have heard.
  LONGAVILLE  God’s blessing on your beard!                                   210
  BOYET  Good sir, be not offended. She is an heir of
  Falconbridge.
  LONGAVILLE  Nay, my choler is ended. She is a mostsweet lady.
  BOYET  Not unlike, sir, that may be.                                                     215
  Longaville exits.
   
  Enter Berowne.
   
  BEROWNE, to Boyet  What’s her name in the cap?
  BOYET  Rosaline, by good hap.
  BEROWNE  Is she wedded or no?
  BOYET  To her will, sir, or so.
  BEROWNE  You are welcome, sir. Adieu.                                           220
  BOYET  Farewell to me, sir, and welcome to you.
  Berowne exits.
  MARIA
  That last is Berowne, the merry madcap lord.
  Not a word with him but a jest.
  BOYET  And every jest but
  a word.                                                                                                   225
  PRINCESS
  It was well done of you to take him at his word.
  BOYET
  I was as willing to grapple as he was to board.
  KATHERINE
  Two hot sheeps, marry.
  BOYET  And wherefore not ships?
  No sheep, sweet lamb, unless we feed on your lips.                        230
  KATHERINE
  You sheep and I pasture. Shall that finish the jest?
  BOYET
  So you grant pasture for me.                                     He tries to kiss her.
  KATHERINE  Not so, gentle beast,
  My lips are no common, though several they be.
  BOYET
  Belonging to whom?                                                                              235
  KATHERINE  To my fortunes and me.
  PRINCESS
  Good wits will be jangling; but, gentles, agree,This civil war of wits were much better usedOn Navarre and his bookmen, for here ’tis abused.
  BOYET
  If my observation, which very seldom lies,                                       240
  By the heart’s still rhetoric, disclosèd wi’ th’ eyes,
  Deceive me not now, Navarre is infected.
  PRINCESS  With what?
  BOYET
  With that which we lovers entitle “affected.”
  PRINCESS  Your reason?                                                                         245
  BOYET
  Why, all his behaviors did make their retireTo the court of his eye, peeping thorough desire.His heart like an agate with your print impressed,Proud with his form, in his eye pride expressed.His tongue, all impatient to speak and not see, 250Did stumble with haste in his eyesight to be;All senses to that sense did make their repair,To feel only looking on fairest of fair.
  Methought all his senses were locked in his eye,
  As jewels in crystal for some prince to buy,                                      255
  Who, tend’ring their own worth from where they
  were glassed,
  Did point you to buy them along as you passed.
  His face’s own margent did quote such amazes
  That all eyes saw his eyes enchanted with gazes.                             260
  I’ll give you Aquitaine, and all that is his,
  An you give him for my sake but one loving kiss.
  PRINCESS, to her Ladies
  Come, to our pavilion. Boyet is disposed.
  BOYET
  But to speak that in words which his eye hath
  disclosed.                                                                                              265
  I only have made a mouth of his eye
  By adding a tongue which I know will not lie.
  MARIA
  Thou art an old lovemonger and speakest skillfully.
  KATHERINE
  He is Cupid’s grandfather, and learns news of him.
  ROSALINE
  Then was Venus like her mother, for her father is                            270
  but grim.
  BOYET
  Do you hear, my mad wenches?
  MARIA  No.
  BOYET  What then, do
  you see?                                                                                                 275
  MARIA
  Ay, our way to be gone.
  BOYET  You are too hard for me.
  They all exit.