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Love’s Labour’s Lost: Act II, Scene 1

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Love’s Labour’s Lost
Act II, Scene 1

Scene 1

The King of Navarre’s park.

  1. Enter the Princess of France with three attending Ladies
  2. (Rosaline, Maria, Katherine) and three Lords, one named
  3. Boyet.

Boyet

1 - 12
  1. Now, madam, summon up your dearest spirits;
  2. Consider who the King your father sends,
  3. To whom he sends, and what’s his embassy:
  4. Yourself, held precious in the world’s esteem,
  5. To parley with the sole inheritor
  6. Of all perfections that a man may owe,
  7. Matchless Navarre; the plea of no less weight
  8. Than Aquitaine, a dowry for a queen.
  9. Be now as prodigal of all dear grace
  10. As Nature was in making graces dear,
  11. When she did starve the general world beside
  12. And prodigally gave them all to you.

Princess

13 - 34
  1. Good Lord Boyet, my beauty, though but mean,
  2. Needs not the painted flourish of your praise:
  3. Beauty is bought by judgment of the eye,
  4. Not utt’red by base sale of chapmen’s tongues.
  5. I am less proud to hear you tell my worth
  6. Than you much willing to be counted wise
  7. In spending your wit in the praise of mine.
  8. But now to task the tasker: good Boyet,
  9. You are not ignorant all-telling fame
  10. Doth noise abroad Navarre hath made a vow,
  11. Till painful study shall outwear three years,
  12. No woman may approach his silent court;
  13. Therefore to ’s seemeth it a needful course,
  14. Before we enter his forbidden gates,
  15. To know his pleasure; and in that behalf,
  16. Bold of your worthiness, we single you
  17. As our best-moving fair solicitor.
  18. Tell him, the daughter of the King of France,
  19. On serious business craving quick dispatch,
  20. Importunes personal conference with his Grace.
  21. Haste, signify so much, while we attend,
  22. Like humble-visag’d suitors, his high will.

Boyet

35
  1. Proud of employment, willingly I go.
  2. Exit Boyet.

Princess

36 - 38
  1. All pride is willing pride, and yours is so.
  2. Who are the votaries, my loving lords,
  3. That are vow-fellows with this virtuous Duke?

First French Lord

39
  1. Lord Longaville is one.

Princess

40
  1.                         Know you the man?

Maria

41 - 52
  1. I know him, madam; at a marriage-feast,
  2. Between Lord Perigort and the beauteous heir
  3. Of Jaques Falconbridge, solemnized
  4. In Normandy, saw I this Longaville,
  5. A man of sovereign parts, peerless esteem’d,
  6. Well fitted in arts, glorious in arms;
  7. Nothing becomes him ill that he would well.
  8. The only soil of his fair virtue’s gloss,
  9. If virtue’s gloss will stain with any soil,
  10. Is a sharp wit match’d with too blunt a will,
  11. Whose edge hath power to cut, whose will still wills
  12. It should none spare that come within his power.

Princess

53
  1. Some merry mocking lord belike, is’t so?

Maria

54
  1. They say so most that most his humors know.

Princess

55 - 56
  1. Such short-liv’d wits do wither as they grow.
  2. Who are the rest?

Katherine

57 - 64
  1. The young Dumaine, a well-accomplish’d youth,
  2. Of all that virtue love for virtue loved;
  3. Most power to do most harm, least knowing ill;
  4. For he hath wit to make an ill shape good,
  5. And shape to win grace though he had no wit.
  6. I saw him at the Duke Alanson’s once,
  7. And much too little of that good I saw
  8. Is my report to his great worthiness.

Rosaline

65 - 77
  1. Another of these students at that time
  2. Was there with him, if I have heard a truth.
  3. Berowne they call him, but a merrier man,
  4. Within the limit of becoming mirth,
  5. I never spent an hour’s talk withal.
  6. His eye begets occasion for his wit,
  7. For every object that the one doth catch
  8. The other turns to a mirth-moving jest,
  9. Which his fair tongue, conceit’s expositor,
  10. Delivers in such apt and gracious words
  11. That aged ears play truant at his tales,
  12. And younger hearings are quite ravished,
  13. So sweet and voluble is his discourse.
Princess of France

Princess of France

William Henry Mote, John William Wright, mid-19th century

Princess

78 - 80
  1. God bless my ladies! Are they all in love,
  2. That every one her own hath garnished
  3. With such bedecking ornaments of praise?

First French Lord

81
  1. Here comes Boyet.
  1. Enter Boyet.

Princess

82
  1.                   Now, what admittance, lord?

Boyet

83 - 91
  1. Navarre had notice of your fair approach,
  2. And he and his competitors in oath
  3. Were all address’d to meet you, gentle lady,
  4. Before I came. Marry, thus much I have learnt:
  5. He rather means to lodge you in the field,
  6. Like one that comes here to besiege his court,
  7. Than seek a dispensation for his oath,
  8. To let you enter his unpeopled house.
  9. Enter Ferdinand, King of Navarre, Longaville, Dumaine, and
  10. Berowne, and Attendants.
  11. Here comes Navarre.
  12. The ladies-in-waiting mask.

King

92
  1. Fair Princess, welcome to the court of Navarre.

Princess

93 - 95
  1. “Fair” I give you back again, and “welcome” I have not yet.
  2. The roof of this court is too high to be yours, and welcome
  3. to the wide fields too base to be mine.

King

96
  1. You shall be welcome, madam, to my court.

Princess

97
  1. I will be welcome then—conduct me thither.

King

98
  1. Hear me, dear lady: I have sworn an oath.

Princess

99
  1. Our Lady help my lord! He’ll be forsworn.

King

100
  1. Not for the world, fair madam, by my will.

Princess

101
  1. Why, will shall break it, will, and nothing else.

King

102
  1. Your ladyship is ignorant what it is.

Princess

103 - 111
  1. Were my lord so, his ignorance were wise,
  2. Where now his knowledge must prove ignorance.
  3. I hear your Grace hath sworn out house-keeping:
  4. ’Tis deadly sin to keep that oath, my lord,
  5. And sin to break it.
  6. But pardon me, I am too sudden bold;
  7. To teach a teacher ill beseemeth me.
  8. Vouchsafe to read the purpose of my coming,
  9. And suddenly resolve me in my suit.
  1. Giving a paper.

King

112
  1. Madam, I will, if suddenly I may.

Princess

113 - 114
  1. You will the sooner, that I were away,
  2. For you’ll prove perjur’d if you make me stay.

Berowne

115
  1. Did not I dance with you in Brabant once?

Rosaline

116
  1. Did not I dance with you in Brabant once?

Berowne

117
  1. I know you did.

Rosaline

118 - 119
  1.                 How needless was it then
  2. To ask the question?

Berowne

120
  1.                      You must not be so quick.

Rosaline

121
  1. ’Tis long of you that spur me with such questions.

Berowne

122
  1. Your wit’s too hot, it speeds too fast, ’twill tire.

Rosaline

123
  1. Not till it leave the rider in the mire.

Berowne

124
  1. What time a’ day?

Rosaline

125
  1. The hour that fools should ask.

Berowne

126
  1. Now fair befall your mask!

Rosaline

127
  1. Fair fall the face it covers!

Berowne

128
  1. And send you many lovers!

Rosaline

129
  1. Amen, so you be none.

Berowne

130
  1. Nay then will I be gone.

King

131 - 155
  1. Madam, your father here doth intimate
  2. The payment of a hundred thousand crowns,
  3. Being but the one half of an entire sum
  4. Disbursed by my father in his wars.
  5. But say that he, or we, as neither have,
  6. Receiv’d that sum, yet there remains unpaid
  7. A hundred thousand more, in surety of the which
  8. One part of Aquitaine is bound to us,
  9. Although not valued to the money’s worth.
  10. If then the King your father will restore
  11. But that one half which is unsatisfied,
  12. We will give up our right in Aquitaine,
  13. And hold fair friendship with his Majesty.
  14. But that, it seems, he little purposeth:
  15. For here he doth demand to have repaid
  16. A hundred thousand crowns, and not demands,
  17. On payment of a hundred thousand crowns,
  18. To have his title live in Aquitaine;
  19. Which we much rather had depart withal,
  20. And have the money by our father lent,
  21. Than Aquitaine, so gelded as it is.
  22. Dear Princess, were not his requests so far
  23. From reason’s yielding, your fair self should make
  24. A yielding ’gainst some reason in my breast,
  25. And go well satisfied to France again.
Costume for King of Navarre in Augustin Daly's production of Love's Labour's Lost

Costume for King of Navarre in Augustin Daly's production of Love's Labour's Lost

Edward Hamilton Bell, 1891

Princess

156 - 159
  1. You do the King my father too much wrong,
  2. And wrong the reputation of your name,
  3. In so unseeming to confess receipt
  4. Of that which hath so faithfully been paid.

King

160 - 162
  1. I do protest I never heard of it;
  2. And, if you prove it, I’ll repay it back,
  3. Or yield up Aquitaine.

Princess

163 - 166
  1.                        We arrest your word.
  2. Boyet, you can produce acquittances
  3. For such a sum from special officers
  4. Of Charles his father.

King

167
  1.                        Satisfy me so.

Boyet

168 - 170
  1. So please your Grace, the packet is not come
  2. Where that and other specialties are bound:
  3. Tomorrow you shall have a sight of them.

King

171 - 181
  1. It shall suffice me; at which interview
  2. All liberal reason I will yield unto.
  3. Mean time receive such welcome at my hand
  4. As honor (without breach of honor) may
  5. Make tender of to thy true worthiness.
  6. You may not come, fair Princess, within my gates,
  7. But here without you shall be so receiv’d
  8. As you shall deem yourself lodg’d in my heart,
  9. Though so denied fair harbor in my house.
  10. Your own good thoughts excuse me, and farewell.
  11. Tomorrow shall we visit you again.

Princess

182
  1. Sweet health and fair desires consort your Grace!

King

183
  1. Thy own wish wish I thee in every place.
  1. Exit with Longaville, Dumaine, and Attendants.

Boyet

184
  1. Lady, I will commend you to mine own heart.

Rosaline

185
  1. Pray you, do my commendations—I would be glad to see it.

Boyet

186
  1. I would you heard it groan.

Rosaline

187
  1. Is the fool sick?

Boyet

188
  1. Sick at the heart.

Rosaline

189
  1. Alack, let it blood.

Boyet

190
  1. Would that do it good?

Rosaline

191
  1. My physic says ay.

Boyet

192
  1. Will you prick’t with your eye?

Rosaline

193
  1. No point, with my knife.

Boyet

194
  1. Now God save thy life!

Rosaline

195
  1. And yours from long living!

Berowne

196
  1. I cannot stay thanksgiving.
  1. Exit.
  1. Enter Dumaine.

Dumaine

197
  1. Sir, I pray you a word. What lady is that same?

Boyet

198
  1. The heir of Alanson, Katherine her name.

Dumaine

199
  1. A gallant lady. Monsieur, fare you well.
  1. Exit.
  1. Enter Longaville.

Longaville

200
  1. I beseech you a word. What is she in the white?

Boyet

201
  1. A woman sometimes, and you saw her in the light.

Longaville

202
  1. Perchance light in the light. I desire her name.

Boyet

203
  1. She hath but one for herself, to desire that were a shame.

Longaville

204
  1. Pray you, sir, whose daughter?

Boyet

205
  1. Her mother’s, I have heard.

Longaville

206
  1. God’s blessing on your beard!

Boyet

207 - 208
  1. Good sir, be not offended,
  2. She is an heir of Falconbridge.

Longaville

209 - 210
  1. Nay, my choler is ended.
  2. She is a most sweet lady.

Boyet

211
  1. Not unlike, sir, that may be.
  1. Exit Longaville.
  1. Enter Berowne.

Berowne

212
  1. What’s her name in the cap?

Boyet

213
  1. Rosaline, by good hap.

Berowne

214
  1. Is she wedded or no?

Boyet

215
  1. To her will, sir, or so.
Love's Labour's Lost at Dramatiska Teatern

Love's Labour's Lost at Dramatiska Teatern

Axel Rydin, 1901

Berowne

216
  1. O, you are welcome, sir, adieu.

Boyet

217
  1. Farewell to me, sir, and welcome to you.
  1. Exit Berowne.

Maria

218 - 219
  1. That last is Berowne, the merry madcap lord.
  2. Not a word with him but a jest.

Boyet

220
  1.                                 And every jest but a word.

Princess

221
  1. It was well done of you to take him at his word.

Boyet

222
  1. I was as willing to grapple as he was to board.

Katherine

223
  1. Two hot sheeps, marry.

Boyet

224 - 225
  1.                        And wherefore not ships?
  2. No sheep, sweet lamb, unless we feed on your lips.

Katherine

226
  1. You sheep, and I pasture: shall that finish the jest?

Boyet

227
  1. So you grant pasture for me.
  1. Offering to kiss her.

Katherine

228 - 229
  1.                              Not so, gentle beast.
  2. My lips are no common, though several they be.

Boyet

230
  1. Belonging to whom?

Katherine

231
  1.                    To my fortunes and me.

Princess

232 - 234
  1. Good wits will be jangling, but, gentles, agree:
  2. This civil war of wits were much better used
  3. On Navarre and his book-men, for here ’tis abused.

Boyet

235 - 237
  1. If my observation (which very seldom lies),
  2. By the heart’s still rhetoric, disclosed with eyes,
  3. Deceive me not now, Navarre is infected.

Princess

238
  1. With what?

Boyet

239
  1. With that which we lovers entitle “affected.”

Princess

240
  1. Your reason?

Boyet

241 - 256
  1. Why, all his behaviors did make their retire
  2. To the court of his eye, peeping thorough desire:
  3. His heart like an agot with your print impressed,
  4. Proud with his form, in his eye pride expressed;
  5. His tongue, all impatient to speak and not see,
  6. Did stumble with haste in his eyesight to be;
  7. All senses to that sense did make their repair,
  8. To feel only looking on fairest of fair:
  9. Methought all his senses were lock’d in his eye,
  10. As jewels in crystal for some prince to buy,
  11. Who tend’ring their own worth from where they were glass’d,
  12. Did point you to buy them, along as you pass’d;
  13. His face’s own margent did quote such amazes
  14. That all eyes saw his eyes enchanted with gazes.
  15. I’ll give you Aquitaine and all that is his,
  16. And you give him for my sake but one loving kiss.

Princess

257
  1. Come to our pavilion—Boyet is dispos’d.

Boyet

258 - 260
  1. But to speak that in words which his eye hath disclos’d.
  2. I only have made a mouth of his eye,
  3. By adding a tongue which I know will not lie.

Maria

261
  1. Thou art an old love-monger and speakest skillfully.

Katherine

262
  1. He is Cupid’s grandfather, and learns news of him.

Rosaline

263
  1. Then was Venus like her mother, for her father is but grim.

Boyet

264
  1. Do you hear, my mad wenches?

Maria

265
  1.                              No.

Boyet

266
  1.     What then, do you see?

Maria

267
  1. Ay, our way to be gone.

Boyet

268
  1.                         You are too hard for me.
  1. Exeunt omnes.

Byam Shaw, 1901

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