Might well have made our sport a comedy. 884 King. Come, sir, it wants a twelvemonth and a day, And then 'twill end. Ber. That's too long for a play. Enter Braggart [Armado]. Arm. Sweet majesty, vouchsafe me,— Dum. The worthy knight of Troy. 888 Arm. I will kiss thy royal finger, and take leave. I am a votary; I have vowed to Jaquenetta to hold the plough for her sweet love three 892 year. But, most esteemed greatness, will you hear the dialogue that the two learned men have compiled in praise of the owl and the cuckoo? it should have followed in the end of our show. King. Call them forth quickly; we will do so. Arm. Holla! approach. Enter all. 896 This side is Hiems, Winter; this Ver, the Spring; the one maintained by the owl, th' other by the 900 cuckoo. Ver, begin. The Song. [Spring.] 'When daisies pied and violets blue And lady-smocks all silver-white And cuckoo-buds of yellow hue Do paint the meadows with delight, The cuckoo then, on every tree, 904 Mocks married men; for thus sings he, Cuckoo; 908 899 Cf. n. 903 lady-smocks: cardamine pratensis, May-flower 904 cuckoo-buds: buttercups or cowslips Cuckoo, cuckoo: O, word of fear, 'When shepherds pipe on oaten straws, And merry larks are ploughmen's clocks, When turtles tread, and rooks, and daws, And maidens bleach their summer smocks, The cuckoo then, on every tree, Mocks married men; for thus sings he, Cuckoo, cuckoo: O, word of fear, 912 916 Cuckoo; And milk comes frozen home in pail, When blood is nipp'd, and ways be foul, Then nightly sings the staring owl, Tu-who; Tu-whit, tu-who-a merry note, 'When all aloud the wind doth blow, 924 928 And coughing drowns the parson's saw, 932 And birds sit brooding in the snow, And Marian's nose looks red and raw, When roasted crabs hiss in the bowl, Then nightly sings the staring owl, Tu-who; Tu-whit, tu-who-a merry note, While greasy Joan doth keel the pot.' 913 turtles: turtle-doves 930 saw: maxim or wise talk 933 crabs: wild, sour apples 936 928 keel: cool by stirring bowl: i.e. wassail-bowl Arm. The words of Mercury are harsh after the songs of Apollo. You, that way: we, this way. 940 Exeunt Omnes. FINIS. NOTES Dramatis Persona. A list of characters for this play was first supplied by Rowe in 1709. Berowne (spelled 'Biron' in the second and later Folios and in most modern editions) is accented on the second syllable, and rimes with 'moon' (cf. IV. iii. 232). Longaville rimes with ‘ill' (IV. iii. 123) but sometimes also with 'compile' (IV. iii. 133) and with 'mile' (V. ii. 53). Boyet rimes with 'debt' (V. ii. 335); Rosaline with ‘mine' (IV. i. 53) and ‘thine' (V. ii. 133). Moth was probably pronounced as if spelled 'Mote' (cf. IV. iii. 161, where the common noun, mote, is spelled 'Moth' in the early editions). Armado is often spelled 'Armatho,' which probably indicates the pronunciation (Spanish dth). Unusual irregularities are found in the quarto and folio editions of Love's Labour's Lost in the naming of the characters. The confusion is particularly striking in IV. ii, where the names of Holofernes and Nathaniel are transposed through most of the scene. Throughout the play the Princess is often called 'Queen'; and the names of Armado, Holofernes, Nathaniel, Costard, and Dull are erratically supplanted in stage directions and speech headings by the titles, Braggart, Pedant, Curate, Clown, and Constable, while Moth is often referred to as Page or Boy. Some recent editors have attempted to discriminate on the evidence of these phenomena between the original and the revised portions of the play. Thus Mr. Dover Wilson argues that passages using the designations 'Braggart,' 'Pedant,' etc., belong to the revision of 1597, whereas passages that give the proper names 'Armado,' 'Holofernes,' etc., are part of the original play. But this leads to risky conclusions. Love's Labour's Lost. The spelling of the title is that of the third Folio. The earlier Folios have Loues Labour's Lost. The first Quarto has on the title-page Loues labors lost, but as running-title Loues Labor's lost. 'Labour's' was evidently intended as a contraction of 'Labour is.' Meres, however, referred to the play as Loue labors lost, clearly regarding labors' as the nominative plural. Likewise the play is known in France as Les Peines de l'Amour Perdues and in Germany as Verlorene Liebesmüh. I. i. 12. Navarre shall be the wonder of the world. The opening speech of the King shows the influence of Marlowe's versification in its special sonorousness, alliteration, and exhilaration. Compare with the present line Marlowe's Dido, 1. 730: 'Lest I be made a wonder to the world.' I. i. 14. Still and contemplative in living art. Quietly contemplating the art of perfect living. The line alludes to the common mediæval distinction between the contemplative and the active life. Mr. J. S. Reid (Iowa Philological Quarterly, July, 1922) suggests that 'living art' refers particularly to the Stoic term, ars vivendi, ethical (as distinguished from physical and logical) philosophy. I. i. 62. feast. Theobald's emendation for the 'fast' of the early editions. I. i. 67, 68. If study's gain be thus, and this be so, Study knows that which yet it doth not know. If the benefit of study consist only in the development of casuistry, then there is no such thing as knowledge: instead of discovering the true, study merely merges the true and the false. I. i. 73. Which, with pain purchas'd, doth inherit pain. In which the final result of painful striving is only further pain. I. i. 80-83. Study me how to please the eye indeed, By fixing it upon a fairer eye, Who dazzling so, |