The Works of William Shakespeare [Cambridge Edition] [Vol. 2 of 9]Shakespeare, William
General
The Works of William Shakespeare [Cambridge Edition] [Vol. 2 of 9]
Shakespeare, William
English drama
_Biron._ It must be done this afternoon. Hark, slave, it
is but this:
The princess comes to hunt here in the park,
And in her train there is a gentle lady; 155
When tongues speak sweetly, then they name her name,
And Rosaline they call her: ask for her;
And to her white hand see thou do commend
This seal’d-up counsel. There’s thy guerdon; go.
[_Giving him a shilling._
_Cost._ Gardon, O sweet gardon! better than remuneration, 160
a ’leven-pence farthing better: most sweet gardon! I
will do it, sir, in print. Gardon! Remuneration! [_Exit._
_Biron._ And I, forsooth, in love! I, that have been
love’s whip;
A very beadle to a humorous sigh; 165
A critic, nay, a night-watch constable;
A domineering pedant o’er the boy;
Than whom no mortal so magnificent!
This wimpled, whining, purblind, wayward boy;
This senior-junior, giant-dwarf, Dan Cupid; 170
Regent of love-rhymes, lord of folded arms,
The anointed sovereign of sighs and groans,
Liege of all loiterers and malcontents,
Dread prince of plackets, king of codpieces,
Sole imperator and great general 175
Of trotting ’paritors:—O my little heart!—
And I to be a corporal of his field,
And wear his colours like a tumbler’s hoop!
What! I love! I sue! I seek a wife!
A woman, that is like a German clock, 180
Still a-repairing, ever out of frame,
And never going aright, being a watch,
But being watch’d that it may still go right!
Nay, to be perjured, which is worst of all;
And, among three, to love the worst of all; 185
A wightly wanton with a velvet brow,
With two pitch-balls stuck in her face for eyes;
Ay, and, by heaven, one that will do the deed,
Though Argus were her eunuch and her guard:
And I to sigh for her! to watch for her! 190
To pray for her! Go to; it is a plague
That Cupid will impose for my neglect
Of his almighty dreadful little might.
Well, I will love, write, sigh, pray, sue and groan:
Some men must love my lady, and some Joan. [_Exit._ 195
~~~~~
Linenotes: _Love’s Labour’s Lost_, III, 1.
ACT III.] Actus Tertius. F1 Q2. Actus Tertia. F2 F3 F4. om.
Q1.
SCENE I.] Rowe. SCENE II. Capell, following Theobald, who
continues Act I.
Enter Armado and Moth.] Enter Braggart and his boy. Q1. Enter
Braggart and Boy: Song. Ff Q2.
7: _Master_] Q1. om. Ff Q2.
11: _your_] Q1. _the_ Ff Q2.
12: _eyelids_] Q1. _eye_ Ff Q2.
_sometime_] _something_ Rowe (ed. 1). _sometimes_ Pope.
13: _as if_] Theobald. _if_ Qq Ff.
_singing love, sometime_] Theobald. _singing love sometime_
Q1. _singing, love sometime_ Ff Q2.
14: _through the nose_] F2 F3 F4. _through: nose_ Qq F1.
16, 17: _thin-belly_] F3 F4. _thinbellies_ Q1. _thinbellie_ F1
Q2. _thinebelly_ F2.
_thin-belly doublet_] _thin belly-doublet_ Steevens. _thin
belly’s doublet_ Collier.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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