LOVE'S LABOUR'S LOST.] I have not hitherto disco vered any novel on which this comedy appears to have been founded; and yet the story of it has most of the features of an ancient romance. STEEVENS. I suspect that there is an error in the title of this play, which, I believe, should be—“ Love's Labours Lost." M. MASON. Love's Labour's Lost, I conjecture to have been written in 1594. See An Attempt to ascertain the Order of Shakespeare's Plays, Vol. II. MALONE.. PERSONS REPRESENted. FERDINAND, king of Navarre. BIRON, LONGAVILLE, lords, attending on the king. BOYET, MERCADE,} lords attending on the princess of France, Don Adriano de Armado, a fantastical Spaniard. HOLOFERNES, a schoolmaster. DULL, a constable. COSTARD, a clown. Mori, page to Armado. A Forester. Princess of France. ROSALINE, MARIA, KATHARINE, ladies attending on the princess. JAQUENETTA, a country wench. Officers and others, Attendants on the King and Princess. SCENE, Navarre. LOVE'S LABOUR'S LOST. ACT 1. SCENE I.-Navarre. A park, with a palace in it. Enter the King, BIRON, LONGAVILLE, and Dumain. And then grace us in the disgrace of death; That honour, which shall bate his scythe's keen edge, Therefore, brave conquerors !-for so you are, Your oaths are past, and now subscribe your names; That his own hand may strike his honour down, Long. I am resolv'd: 'tis but a three years' fast; Biron. I can but say their protestation over, King. Your oath is pass'd to pass away from these And stay here in your court for three years' space, Long. 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 barr'd, you mean, from common sense? King. Ay, that is study's god-like recompense. Study knows that, which yet it doth not know: 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 purchas'd, 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 : Who dazzling so, that eye shall be his heed, |