SCENE I. The king of Navarre's park. Loves Labours Lost  Shakespeare homepage  |  Love's Labour's Lost  | Act 1, Scene 1 

 Next scene  SCENE I. The king of Navarre's park. 

 Enter FERDINAND king of Navarre, BIRON, LONGAVILLE and DUMAIN  FERDINAND  Let fame, that all hunt after in their lives, 

 Live register'd upon our brazen tombs 

 And then grace us in the disgrace of death; 

 When, spite of cormorant devouring Time, 

 The endeavor 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, Dumain, and Longaville, 

 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 pass'd; and now subscribe your names, 

 That his own hand may strike his honour down 

 That violates the smallest branch herein: 

 If you are arm'd to do as sworn to do, 

 Subscribe to your deep oaths, and keep it too. 

 LONGAVILLE  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. 

 DUMAIN  My loving lord, Dumain 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. 

 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! 

 FERDINAND  Your oath is pass'd 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. 

 LONGAVILLE  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. 

 FERDINAND  Why, that to know, which else we should not know. 

 BIRON  Things hid and barr'd, you mean, from common sense? 

 FERDINAND  Ay, that is study's godlike 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. 

 FERDINAND  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 heaven's glorious sun 

 That will not be deep-search'd with saucy looks: 

 Small have continual plodders ever won 

 Save base authority from others' books 

 These earthly godfathers of heaven's lights 

 That give a name to every fixed star 

 Have no more profit of their shining nights 

 Than those that walk and wot not what they are. 

 Too much to know is to know nought but fame; 

 And every godfather can give a name. 

 FERDINAND  How well he's read, to reason against reading! 

 DUMAIN  Proceeded well, to stop all good proceeding! 

 LONGAVILLE  He weeds the corn and still lets grow the weeding. 

 BIRON  The spring is near when green geese are a-breeding. 

 DUMAIN  How follows that? 

 BIRON  Fit in his place and time. 

 DUMAIN  In reason nothing. 

 BIRON  Something then in rhyme. 

 FERDINAND  Biron is like an envious sneaping frost, 

 That bites the first-born infants of the spring. 

 BIRON  Well, say I am; why should proud summer boast 

 Before the birds have any cause to sing? 

 Why should I joy in any abortive birth? 

 At Christmas I no more desire a rose 

 Than wish a snow in May's new-fangled mirth; 

 But like of each thing that in season grows. 

 So you, to study now it is too late, 

 Climb o'er the house to unlock the little gate. 

 FERDINAND  Well, sit 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 say, 

 Yet confident I'll keep what I have swore 

 And bide the penance of each three years' day. 

 Give me the paper; let me read the same; 

 And to the strict'st decrees I'll write my name. 

 FERDINAND  How well this yielding rescues thee from shame! 

 BIRON  [Reads]  'Item, That no woman shall come within a 

 mile of my court:' Hath this been proclaimed? 

 LONGAVILLE  Four days ago. 

 BIRON  Let's see the penalty. 



 Reads  'On pain of losing her tongue.' Who devised this penalty? 

 LONGAVILLE  Marry, that did I. 

 BIRON  Sweet lord, and why? 

 LONGAVILLE  To fright them hence with that dread penalty. 

 BIRON  A dangerous law against gentility! 



 Reads  'Item, If any man be seen to talk with a woman 

 within the term of three years, he shall endure such 

 public shame as the rest of the court can possibly devise.' 

 This article, my liege, yourself must break; 

 For well you know here comes in embassy 

 The French king's daughter with yourself to speak-- 

 A maid of grace and complete majesty-- 

 About surrender up of Aquitaine 

 To her decrepit, sick and bedrid father: 

 Therefore this article is made in vain, 

 Or vainly comes the admired princess hither. 

 FERDINAND  What say you, lords? Why, this was quite forgot. 

 BIRON  So study 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, so won, so lost. 

 FERDINAND  We must of force dispense with this decree; 

 She must lie here on mere necessity. 

 BIRON  Necessity will make us all forsworn 

 Three thousand times within this three years' space; 

 For every man with his affects is born, 

 Not by might master'd but by special grace: 

 If I break faith, this word shall speak for me; 

 I am forsworn on 'mere necessity.' 

 So to the laws at large I write my name: 



 Subscribes  And he that breaks them in the least degree 

 Stands in attainder of eternal shame: 

 Suggestions are to other as to me; 

 But I believe, although I seem so loath, 

 I am the last that will last keep his oath. 

 But is there no quick recreation granted? 

 FERDINAND  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 phrases in his brain; 

 One whom the music of his own vain tongue 

 Doth ravish like enchanting harmony; 

 A man of complements, whom right and wrong 

 Have chose as umpire of their mutiny: 

 This child of fancy, that Armado hight, 

 For interim to our studies shall relate 

 In high-born words the worth of many a knight 

 From tawny Spain lost in the world's debate. 

 How you delight, my lords, I know not, I; 

 But, I protest, I love to hear him lie 

 And I will use him for my minstrelsy. 

 BIRON  Armado is a most illustrious wight, 

 A man of fire-new words, fashion's own knight. 

 LONGAVILLE  Costard the swain and he shall be our sport; 

 And so to study, three years is but short. 



 Enter DULL with a letter, and COSTARD  DULL  Which is the duke's own person? 

 BIRON  This, fellow: what wouldst? 

 DULL  I myself reprehend his own person, for I am his 

 grace's tharborough: but I would see his own person 

 in flesh and blood. 

 BIRON  This is he. 

 DULL  Signior Arme--Arme--commends you. There's villany 

 abroad: this letter will tell you more. 

 COSTARD  Sir, the contempts thereof are as touching me. 

 FERDINAND  A letter from the magnificent Armado. 

 BIRON  How low soever the matter, I hope in God for high words. 

 LONGAVILLE  A high hope for a low heaven: God grant us patience! 

 BIRON  To hear? or forbear laughing? 

 LONGAVILLE  To hear meekly, sir, and to laugh moderately; or to 

 forbear both. 

 BIRON  Well, sir, be it as the style shall give us cause to 

 climb in the merriness. 

 COSTARD  The matter is to me, sir, as concerning Jaquenetta. 

 The manner of it is, I was taken with the manner. 

 BIRON  In what manner? 

 COSTARD  In manner and form following, sir; all those three: 

 I was seen with her in the manor-house, sitting with 

 her upon the form, and taken following her into the 

 park; which, put together, is in manner and form 

 following. Now, sir, for the manner,--it is the 

 manner of a man to speak to a woman: for the form,-- 

 in some form. 

 BIRON  For the following, sir? 

 COSTARD  As it shall follow in my correction: and God defend 

 the right! 

 FERDINAND  Will you hear this letter with attention? 

 BIRON  As we would hear an oracle. 

 COSTARD  Such is the simplicity of man to hearken after the flesh. 

 FERDINAND  [Reads]  'Great deputy, the welkin's vicegerent and 

 sole dominator of Navarre, my soul's earth's god, 

 and body's fostering patron.' 

 COSTARD  Not a word of Costard yet. 

 FERDINAND  [Reads]  'So it is,'-- 

 COSTARD  It may be so: but if he say it is so, he is, in 

 telling true, but so. 

 FERDINAND  Peace! 

 COSTARD  Be to me and every man that dares not fight! 

 FERDINAND  No words! 

 COSTARD  Of other men's secrets, I beseech you. 

 FERDINAND  [Reads]  'So it is, besieged with sable-coloured 

 melancholy, I did commend the black-oppressing humour 

 to the most wholesome physic of thy health-giving 

 air; and, as I am a gentleman, betook myself to 

 walk. The time when. About the sixth hour; when 

 beasts most graze, birds best peck, and men sit down 

 to that nourishment which is called supper: so much 

 for the time when. Now for the ground which; which, 

 I mean, I walked upon: it is y-cleped thy park. Then 

 for the place where; where, I mean, I did encounter 

 that obscene and preposterous event, that draweth 

 from my snow-white pen the ebon-coloured ink, which 

 here thou viewest, beholdest, surveyest, or seest; 

 but to the place where; it standeth north-north-east 

 and by east from the west corner of thy curious- 

 knotted garden: there did I see that low-spirited 

 swain, that base minnow of thy mirth,'-- 

 COSTARD  Me? 

 FERDINAND  [Reads]  'that unlettered small-knowing soul,'-- 

 COSTARD  Me? 

 FERDINAND  [Reads]  'that shallow vassal,'-- 

 COSTARD  Still me? 

 FERDINAND  [Reads]  'which, as I remember, hight Costard,'-- 

 COSTARD  O, me! 

 FERDINAND  [Reads]  'sorted and consorted, contrary to thy 

 established proclaimed edict and continent canon, 

 which with,--O, with--but with this I passion to say 

 wherewith,-- 

 COSTARD  With a wench. 

 FERDINAND  [Reads]  'with a child of our grandmother Eve, a 

 female; or, for thy more sweet understanding, a 

 woman. Him I, as my ever-esteemed duty pricks me on, 

 have sent to thee, to receive the meed of 

 punishment, by thy sweet grace's officer, Anthony 

 Dull; a man of good repute, carriage, bearing, and 

 estimation.' 

 DULL  'Me, an't shall please you; I am Anthony Dull. 

 FERDINAND  [Reads]  'For Jaquenetta,--so is the weaker vessel 

 called which I apprehended with the aforesaid 

 swain,--I keep her as a vessel of the law's fury; 

 and shall, at the least of thy sweet notice, bring 

 her to trial. Thine, in all compliments of devoted 

 and heart-burning heat of duty. 

 DON ADRIANO DE ARMADO.' 

 BIRON  This is not so well as I looked for, but the best 

 that ever I heard. 

 FERDINAND  Ay, the best for the worst. But, sirrah, what say 

 you to this? 

 COSTARD  Sir, I confess the wench. 

 FERDINAND  Did you hear the proclamation? 

 COSTARD  I do confess much of the hearing it but little of 

 the marking of it. 

 FERDINAND  It was proclaimed a year's imprisonment, to be taken 

 with a wench. 

 COSTARD  I was taken with none, sir: I was taken with a damsel. 

 FERDINAND  Well, it was proclaimed 'damsel.' 

 COSTARD  This was no damsel, neither, sir; she was a virgin. 

 FERDINAND  It is so varied, too; for it was proclaimed 'virgin.' 

 COSTARD  If it were, I deny her virginity: I was taken with a maid. 

 FERDINAND  This maid will not serve your turn, sir. 

 COSTARD  This maid will serve my turn, sir. 

 FERDINAND  Sir, I will pronounce your sentence: you shall fast 

 a week with bran and water. 

 COSTARD  I had rather pray a month with mutton and porridge. 

 FERDINAND  And Don Armado shall be your keeper. 

 My Lord Biron, see him deliver'd o'er: 

 And go we, lords, to put in practise that 

 Which each to other hath so strongly sworn. 



 Exeunt FERDINAND, LONGAVILLE, and DUMAIN  BIRON  I'll lay my head to any good man's hat, 

 These oaths and laws will prove an idle scorn. 

 Sirrah, come on. 

 COSTARD  I suffer for the truth, sir; for true it is, I was 

 taken with Jaquenetta, and Jaquenetta is a true 

 girl; and therefore welcome the sour cup of 

 prosperity! Affliction may one day smile again; and 

 till then, sit thee down, sorrow! 



 Exeunt  LOVE'S LABOURS LOST 

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