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Love’s Labour’s Lost: Act I, Scene 2

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Love’s Labour’s Lost
Act I, Scene 2

The King of Navarre’s park.

Sidney Herbert as Don Adriano de Armado and Kitty Cheatham as Jaquenetta

Sidney Herbert as Don Adriano de Armado and Kitty Cheatham as Jaquenetta

From Augustin Daly's production of Love's Labour's Lost

1891

  1. Enter Armado and Moth, his page.

Armado

1 - 2
  1. Boy, what sign is it when a man of great spirit grows
  2. melancholy?

Moth

3
  1. A great sign, sir, that he will look sad.

Armado

4
  1. Why, sadness is one and the self-same thing, dear imp.

Moth

5
  1. No, no, O Lord, sir, no.

Armado

6 - 7
  1. How canst thou part sadness and melancholy, my tender
  2. juvenal?

Moth

8 - 9
  1. By a familiar demonstration of the working, my tough
  2. signior.

Armado

10
  1. Why tough signior? Why tough signior?

Moth

11
  1. Why tender juvenal? Why tender juvenal?

Armado

12 - 14
  1. I spoke it tender juvenal as a congruent epitheton
  2. appertaining to thy young days, which we may nominate
  3. tender.

Moth

15 - 16
  1. And I tough signior as an appertinent title to your old
  2. time, which we may name tough.

Armado

17
  1. Pretty and apt.

Moth

18 - 19
  1. How mean you, sir? I pretty, and my saying apt? Or I apt,
  2. and my saying pretty?

Armado

20
  1. Thou pretty, because little.

Moth

21
  1. Little pretty, because little. Wherefore apt?

Armado

22
  1. And therefore apt, because quick.

Moth

23
  1. Speak you this in my praise, master?

Armado

24
  1. In thy condign praise.

Moth

25
  1. I will praise an eel with the same praise.

Armado

26
  1. What? That an eel is ingenious?

Moth

27
  1. That an eel is quick.

Armado

28
  1. I do say thou art quick in answers; thou heat’st my blood.

Moth

29
  1. I am answer’d, sir.

Armado

30
  1. I love not to be cross’d.

Moth

31
  1. Aside.
  2. He speaks the mere contrary, crosses love not him.

Armado

32
  1. I have promised to study three years with the Duke.

Moth

33
  1. You may do it in an hour, sir.

Armado

34
  1. Impossible.

Moth

35
  1. How many is one thrice told?

Armado

36
  1. I am ill at reck’ning, it fitteth the spirit of a tapster.

Moth

37
  1. You are a gentleman and a gamester, sir.

Armado

38
  1. I confess both, they are both the varnish of a complete man.

Moth

39 - 40
  1. Then I am sure you know how much the gross sum of deuce-ace
  2. amounts to.

Armado

41
  1. It doth amount to one more than two.

Moth

42
  1. Which the base vulgar do call three.

Armado

43
  1. True.

Moth

44 - 47
  1. Why, sir, is this such a piece of study? Now here is three
  2. studied ere ye’ll thrice wink; and how easy it is to put
  3. “years” to the word “three,” and study three years in two
  4. words, the dancing horse will tell you.

Armado

48
  1. A most fine figure!

Moth

49
  1. Aside.
  2. To prove you a cipher.

Armado

50 - 57
  1. I will hereupon confess I am in love; and as it is base for
  2. a soldier to love, so am I in love with a base wench. If
  3. drawing my sword against the humor of affection would
  4. deliver me from the reprobate thought of it, I would take
  5. Desire prisoner, and ransom him to any French courtier for a
  6. new devis’d cur’sy. I think scorn to sigh; methinks I should
  7. outswear Cupid. Comfort me, boy: what great men have been in
  8. love?

Byam Shaw, 1901

Moth

58
  1. Hercules, master.

Armado

59 - 61
  1. Most sweet Hercules! More authority, dear boy, name more;
  2. and, sweet my child, let them be men of good repute and
  3. carriage.

Moth

62 - 64
  1. Sampson, master; he was a man of good carriage, great
  2. carriage, for he carried the town gates on his back like a
  3. porter; and he was in love.

Armado

65 - 67
  1. O well-knit Sampson, strong-jointed Sampson! I do excel thee
  2. in my rapier as much as thou didst me in carrying gates. I
  3. am in love too. Who was Sampson’s love, my dear Moth?

Moth

68
  1. A woman, master.

Armado

69
  1. Of what complexion?

Moth

70 - 71
  1. Of all the four, or the three, or the two, or one of the
  2. four.

Armado

72
  1. Tell me precisely of what complexion.

Moth

73
  1. Of the sea-water green, sir.

Armado

74
  1. Is that one of the four complexions?

Moth

75
  1. As I have read, sir, and the best of them too.

Armado

76 - 78
  1. Green indeed is the color of lovers; but to have a love of
  2. that color, methinks Sampson had small reason for it. He
  3. surely affected her for her wit.

Moth

79
  1. It was so, sir, for she had a green wit.

Armado

80
  1. My love is most immaculate white and red.

Moth

81 - 82
  1. Most maculate thoughts, master, are mask’d under such
  2. colors.

Armado

83
  1. Define, define, well-educated infant.

Moth

84
  1. My father’s wit and my mother’s tongue assist me!

Armado

85
  1. Sweet invocation of a child, most pretty and pathetical!

Moth

86 - 94
  1. If she be made of white and red,
  2. Her faults will ne’er be known,
  3. For blush in cheeks by faults are bred,
  4. And fears by pale white shown:
  5. Then if she fear, or be to blame,
  6. By this you shall not know,
  7. For still her cheeks possess the same
  8. Which native she doth owe.
  9. A dangerous rhyme, master, against the reason of white and red.

Armado

95
  1. Is there not a ballet, boy, of the King and the Beggar?

Moth

96 - 98
  1. The world was very guilty of such a ballet some three ages
  2. since, but I think now ’tis not to be found; or if it were,
  3. it would neither serve for the writing nor the tune.

Armado

99 - 102
  1. I will have that subject newly writ o’er, that I may example
  2. my digression by some mighty president. Boy, I do love that
  3. country girl that I took in the park with the rational hind
  4. Costard. She deserves well.

Moth

103
  1. Aside.
  2. To be whipt; and yet a better love than my master.

Armado

104
  1. Sing, boy, my spirit grows heavy in love.

Moth

105
  1. And that’s great marvel, loving a light wench.

Armado

106
  1. I say, sing.

Moth

107
  1. Forbear till this company be past.
  1. Enter Clown Costard, Constable Dull, and Wench Jaquenetta.

Dull

108 - 112
  1. Sir, the Duke’s pleasure is that you keep Costard safe, and
  2. you must suffer him to take no delight nor no penance, but
  3. ’a must fast three days a week. For this damsel, I must keep
  4. her at the park; she is allow’d for the dey-woman. Fare you
  5. well.
Jaquenetta

Jaquenetta

Edwin Austin Abbey, 1891

Armado

113
  1. I do betray myself with blushing. Maid.

Jaquenetta

114
  1. Man.

Armado

115
  1. I will visit thee at the lodge.

Jaquenetta

116
  1. That’s hereby.

Armado

117
  1. I know where it is situate.

Jaquenetta

118
  1. Lord, how wise you are!

Armado

119
  1. I will tell thee wonders.

Jaquenetta

120
  1. With that face?

Armado

121
  1. I love thee.

Jaquenetta

122
  1. So I heard you say.

Armado

123
  1. And so farewell.

Jaquenetta

124
  1. Fair weather after you!

Dull

125
  1. Come, Jaquenetta, away.
  1. Exeunt Dull and Jaquenetta.

Armado

126 - 127
  1. Villain, thou shalt fast for thy offenses ere thou be
  2. pardoned.

Costard

128 - 129
  1. Well, sir, I hope when I do it I shall do it on a full
  2. stomach.

Armado

130
  1. Thou shalt be heavily punished.

Costard

131 - 132
  1. I am more bound to you than your fellows, for they are but
  2. lightly rewarded.

Armado

133
  1. Take away this villain, shut him up.

Moth

134
  1. Come, you transgressing slave, away.

Costard

135
  1. Let me not be pent up, sir; I will fast, being loose.

Moth

136
  1. No, sir, that were fast and loose; thou shalt to prison.

Costard

137 - 138
  1. Well, if ever I do see the merry days of desolation that I
  2. have seen, some shall see.

Moth

139
  1. What shall some see?

Costard

140 - 143
  1. Nay, nothing, Master Moth, but what they look upon. It is
  2. not for prisoners to be too silent in their words, and
  3. therefore I will say nothing. I thank God I have as little
  4. patience as another man, and therefore I can be quiet.
  1. Exit with Moth.

Armado

144 - 160
  1. I do affect the very ground (which is base) where her shoe
  2. (which is baser) guided by her foot (which is basest) doth
  3. tread. I shall be forsworn (which is a great argument of
  4. falsehood) if I love. And how can that be true love, which
  5. is falsely attempted? Love is a familiar; Love is a devil;
  6. there is no evil angel but Love. Yet was Sampson so tempted,
  7. and he had an excellent strength; yet was Salomon so
  8. seduced, and he had a very good wit. Cupid’s butt-shaft is
  9. too hard for Hercules’ club, and therefore too much odds for
  10. a Spaniard’s rapier. The first and second cause will not
  11. serve my turn; the passado he respects not, the duello he
  12. regards not: his disgrace is to be called boy, but his glory
  13. is to subdue men. Adieu, valor, rust, rapier, be still,
  14. drum, for your manager is in love; yea, he loveth. Assist
  15. me, some extemporal god of rhyme, for I am sure I shall turn
  16. sonnet. Devise, wit, write, pen, for I am for whole volumes
  17. in folio.
  1. Exit.
Loues labours lost

Loues labours lost

A vvittie and pleasant comedie, as it was acted by his Maiesties Seruants at the Blacke-Friers and the Globe.

William Stansby, 1631

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