SCENE I. The same. Loves Labours Lost  Shakespeare homepage  |  Love's Labour's Lost  | Act 2, Scene 1 

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 Enter the PRINCESS of France, ROSALINE, MARIA, KATHARINE, BOYET, Lords, and other Attendants  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 

 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 

 When she did starve the general world beside 

 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 judgement of the eye, 

 Not utter'd by base sale of chapmen's tongues: 

 I am less proud to hear you tell my worth 

 Than you much willing to be counted wise 

 In spending your wit in the praise of mine. 

 But now to task the tasker: good Boyet, 

 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, 

 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, 

 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. 

 PRINCESS  All pride is willing pride, and yours is so. 



 Exit BOYET  Who are the votaries, my loving lords, 

 That are vow-fellows with this virtuous duke? 

 First Lord  Lord Longaville is one. 

 PRINCESS  Know you the man? 

 MARIA  I know him, madam: at a marriage-feast, 

 Between Lord Perigort and the beauteous heir 

 Of Jaques Falconbridge, solemnized 

 In Normandy, saw I this Longaville: 

 A man of sovereign parts he is esteem'd; 

 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; 

 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 humours know. 

 PRINCESS  Such short-lived wits do wither as they grow. 

 Who are the rest? 

 KATHARINE  The young Dumain, 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, 

 And shape to win grace though he had no wit. 

 I saw him at the Duke Alencon'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 

 Was there with him, if I have heard a truth. 

 Biron 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; 

 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 aged ears play truant at his tales 

 And younger hearings are quite ravished; 

 So sweet and voluble is his discourse. 

 PRINCESS  God bless my ladies! are they all in love, 

 That every one her own hath garnished 

 With such bedecking ornaments of praise? 

 First Lord  Here comes Boyet. 



 Re-enter BOYET  PRINCESS  Now, what admittance, lord? 

 BOYET  Navarre had notice of your fair approach; 

 And he and his competitors in oath 

 Were all address'd to meet you, gentle lady, 

 Before I came. Marry, thus much I have learnt: 

 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. 

 Here comes Navarre. 



 Enter FERDINAND, LONGAVILLE, DUMAIN, BIRON, and Attendants  FERDINAND  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 base to be mine. 

 FERDINAND  You shall be welcome, madam, to my court. 

 PRINCESS  I will be welcome, then: conduct me thither. 

 FERDINAND  Hear me, dear lady; I have sworn an oath. 

 PRINCESS  Our Lady help my lord! he'll be forsworn. 

 FERDINAND  Not for the world, fair madam, by my will. 

 PRINCESS  Why, will shall break it; will and nothing else. 

 FERDINAND  Your ladyship is ignorant what it is. 

 PRINCESS  Were my lord so, his ignorance were wise, 

 Where now his knowledge must prove ignorance. 

 I hear your grace hath sworn out house-keeping: 

 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. 

 Vouchsafe to read the purpose of my coming, 

 And suddenly resolve me in my suit. 

 FERDINAND  Madam, I will, if suddenly I may. 

 PRINCESS  You will the sooner, that I were away; 

 For you'll prove perjured if you make me stay. 

 BIRON  Did not I dance with you in Brabant once? 

 ROSALINE  Did not I dance with you in Brabant once? 

 BIRON  I know you did. 

 ROSALINE  How needless was it then to ask the question! 

 BIRON  You must not be so quick. 

 ROSALINE  'Tis 'long of you that spur me with such questions. 

 BIRON  Your wit's too hot, it speeds too fast, 'twill tire. 

 ROSALINE  Not till it leave the rider in the mire. 

 BIRON  What time o' day? 

 ROSALINE  The hour that fools should ask. 

 BIRON  Now fair befall your mask! 

 ROSALINE  Fair fall the face it covers! 

 BIRON  And send you many lovers! 

 ROSALINE  Amen, so you be none. 

 BIRON  Nay, then will I be gone. 

 FERDINAND  Madam, your father here doth intimate 

 The payment of a hundred thousand crowns; 

 Being but the one half of an entire sum 

 Disbursed by my father in his wars. 

 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. 

 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, 

 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 

 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 

 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 receipt 

 Of that which hath so faithfully been paid. 

 FERDINAND  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 

 For such a sum from special officers 

 Of Charles his father. 

 FERDINAND  Satisfy me so. 

 BOYET  So please your grace, the packet is not come 

 Where that and other specialties are bound: 

 To-morrow you shall have a sight of them. 

 FERDINAND  It shall suffice me: at which interview 

 All liberal reason I will yield unto. 

 Meantime receive such welcome at my hand 

 As honour without breach of honour may 

 Make tender of to thy true worthiness: 

 You may not come, fair princess, in my gates; 

 But here without you shall be so received 

 As you shall deem yourself lodged in my heart, 

 Though so denied fair harbour in my house. 

 Your own good thoughts excuse me, and farewell: 

 To-morrow shall we visit you again. 

 PRINCESS  Sweet health and fair desires consort your grace! 

 FERDINAND  Thy own wish wish I thee in every place! 



 Exit  BIRON  Lady, I will commend you to mine own heart. 

 ROSALINE  Pray you, do my commendations; I would be glad to see it. 

 BIRON  I would you heard it groan. 

 ROSALINE  Is the fool sick? 

 BIRON  Sick at the heart. 

 ROSALINE  Alack, let it blood. 

 BIRON  Would that do it good? 

 ROSALINE  My physic says 'ay.' 

 BIRON  Will you prick't with your eye? 

 ROSALINE  No point, with my knife. 

 BIRON  Now, God save thy life! 

 ROSALINE  And yours from long living! 

 BIRON  I cannot stay thanksgiving. 



 Retiring  DUMAIN  Sir, I pray you, a word: what lady is that same? 

 BOYET  The heir of Alencon, Katharine her name. 

 DUMAIN  A gallant lady. Monsieur, fare you well. 



 Exit  LONGAVILLE  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. 

 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! 

 BOYET  Good sir, be not offended. 

 She is an heir of Falconbridge. 

 LONGAVILLE  Nay, my choler is ended. 

 She is a most sweet lady. 

 BOYET  Not unlike, sir, that may be. 



 Exit LONGAVILLE  BIRON  What's her name in the cap? 

 BOYET  Rosaline, by good hap. 

 BIRON  Is she wedded or no? 

 BOYET  To her will, sir, or so. 

 BIRON  You are welcome, sir: adieu. 

 BOYET  Farewell to me, sir, and welcome to you. 



 Exit BIRON  MARIA  That last is Biron, the merry madcap lord: 

 Not a word with him but a jest. 

 BOYET  And every jest but a word. 

 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. 

 MARIA  Two hot sheeps, marry. 

 BOYET  And wherefore not ships? 

 No sheep, sweet lamb, unless we feed on your lips. 

 MARIA  You sheep, and I pasture: shall that finish the jest? 

 BOYET  So you grant pasture for me. 



 Offering to kiss her  MARIA  Not so, gentle beast: 

 My lips are no common, though several they be. 

 BOYET  Belonging to whom? 

 MARIA  To my fortunes and me. 

 PRINCESS  Good wits will be jangling; but, gentles, agree: 

 This civil war of wits were much better used 

 On Navarre and his book-men; for here 'tis abused. 

 BOYET  If my observation, which very seldom lies, 

 By the heart's still rhetoric disclosed with eyes, 

 Deceive me not now, Navarre is infected. 

 PRINCESS  With what? 

 BOYET  With that which we lovers entitle affected. 

 PRINCESS  Your reason? 

 BOYET  Why, all his behaviors did make their retire 

 To the court of his eye, peeping thorough desire: 

 His heart, like an agate, with your print impress'd, 

 Proud with his form, in his eye pride express'd: 

 His tongue, all impatient to speak and not see, 

 Did 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 lock'd in his eye, 

 As jewels in crystal for some prince to buy; 

 Who, tendering their own worth from where they were glass'd, 

 Did point you to buy them, along as you pass'd: 

 His face's own margent did quote such amazes 

 That all eyes saw his eyes enchanted with gazes. 

 I'll give you Aquitaine and all that is his, 

 An you give him for my sake but one loving kiss. 

 PRINCESS  Come to our pavilion: Boyet is disposed. 

 BOYET  But to speak that in words which his eye hath 

 disclosed. 

 I only have made a mouth of his eye, 

 By adding a tongue which I know will not lie. 

 ROSALINE  Thou art an old love-monger and speakest skilfully. 

 MARIA  He is Cupid's grandfather and learns news of him. 

 ROSALINE  Then was Venus like her mother, for her father is but grim. 

 BOYET  Do you hear, my mad wenches? 

 MARIA  No. 

 BOYET  What then, do you see? 

 ROSALINE  Ay, our way to be gone. 

 BOYET  You are too hard for me. 



 Exeunt  LOVE'S LABOURS LOST 

 Shakespeare homepage  |  Love's Labour's Lost  | Act 2, Scene 1 

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