Don Adriano de ARMADO, an affected Spanish braggart

MOTE, his page

PRINCESS of France

COSTARD, a Clown

JAQUENETTA, a country wench

Sir NATHANIEL, a curate

HOLOFERNES, a schoolmaster

Anthony DULL, a constable

MERCADE, a messenger

A FORESTER

Love’s Labour’s Lost

1.1 Enter Ferdinand, King of Navarre, Biron, Longueville, and Dumaine

KING

Let fame, that all hunt after in their lives,

Live registered upon our brazen tombs,

And then grace us in the disgrace of death

When, spite of cormorant devouring time,

Th’endeavour of this present breath may buy

That honour 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 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, Dumaine, and Longueville—

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 passed; and now subscribe your names,

That his own hand may strike his honour down

That violates the smallest branch herein.

If you are armed to do as sworn to do,

Subscribe to your deep oaths, and keep it, too.

LONGUEVILLE

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.

He signs

DUMAINE

My loving lord, Dumaine 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,

With all these living in philosophy.

He signs

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,

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 passed to pass away from these.

BIRON

Let me say no, my liege, an if you please.

I only swore to study with your grace,

And stay here in your court, for three years’ space.

LONGUEVILLE

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 barred, you mean, from common sense.

KING

Ay, 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

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.

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 beguile;

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 it was blinded by.

Study is like the heavens’ glorious sun,

That will not be deep searched with saucy looks.