LOVE'S LABOR'S LOST. ACT I. SCENE I. Navarre. A park, with a palace in it. Enter the KING, BIRON, LONGAVILLE, and DUMAIN. King. Let fame, that all hunt after in their lives, Live register'd upon our brazen tombs, And then grace us in the disgrace of death; Therefore, brave conquerors!--for so you are, Still and contemplative in living art. You three, Biron, Dumain, and Longaville, Have sworn for three years' term to live with me, That are recorded in this schedule here. Your oaths are pass'd, and now subscribe your names; That his own hand may strike his honor down, If you are arm'd to do, as sworn to do, fast; The mind shall banquet, though the body pine: Bir. I can but say their protestation over, O, these are barren tasks, too hard to keep; King. Your oath is pass'd to pass away from these. Bir. Let me say, no, my liege, an if you please : I only swore to study with your grace, And stay here in your court for three years' space. Lon. You swore to that, Biron, and to the rest. Bir. 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. Bir. Things hid and barr'd, you mean, from common sense? King. Ay, that is study's godlike recompense. King. These be the stops that hinder study quite, And train our intellects to vain delight. Bir. Why, all delights are vain; but that most vain, Which, with pain purchased, doth inherit pain: As, painfully to pore upon a book, To seek the light of truth; while truth the while Doth falsely 1 blind the eyesight of his look: Light, seeking light, doth light of light beguile : So, ere you find where light in darkness lies, Your light grows dark by losing of your eyes. Study me how to please the eye indeed, By fixing it upon a fairer eye; Who dazzling so, that eye shall be his heed, That will not be deep search'd with saucy looks: Small have continual plodders ever won, Save base authority from others' books. These earthly godfathers of heaven's lights, That give a name to every fixed star, Have no more profit of their shining nights, Than those that walk, and wot not what they are. Too much to know, is to know naught but fame; And every godfather can give a name. King. How well he's read, to reason against reading! Dum. Proceeded well, to stop all good proceeding! Lon. He weeds the corn, and still lets grow the weeding. Bir. The spring is near, when green geese are a breeding. Dum. How follows that? Dishonestly, treacherously. Bir. Fit in his place and time. Dum. In reason nothing. Bir. 1 Something then in rhyme. Before the birds have any cause to sing? Than wish a snow in May's new-fangled shows; Climb o'er the house to unlock the little gate. King. Well, sit you out: go home, Biron : adieu! Bir. No, my good lord; I have sworn to stay with you: And, though I have for barbarism spoke more Yet confident I'll keep what I have swore, And bide the penance of each three years' Give me the paper; let me read the same; Bir. [reads.] Item, that no woman shall come 1 Nipping. |