Than you expect; unfeal this letter foon,
There you fhall find, three of your Argofies
Are richly come to Harbour fuddenly.
You shall not know by what strange accident
I chanced on this letter.

Ant. I am dumb.

Baff. Were you the Doctor, and I knew you not? Gra. Were you the clerk, that is to make me cuckold?

Ner. Ay, but the clerk, that never means to do it, Unless he live until he be a man.

Baff. Sweet Doctor, you fhall be my bedfellow; When I am abfent, then lye with my wife.

Ant. Sweet lady, you have giv'n me life and living; For here I read for certain, that my ships Are fafely come to road.

Por. How now, Lorenzo?

My clerk hath fome good comforts too for you.
Ner. Ay, and I'll give them him without a fee.
There do I give to you and Jeffica,

From the rich few, a fpecial Deed of Gift,
After his death, of all he dies poffefs'd of.
Lor. Fair ladies, 4 you drop Manna in the way
Of ftarved people.

Por. It is almost morning,

And yet, I'm fure, you are not fatisfy'd
Of thefe events at full. Let us go in,
And charge us there upon interr'gatories,
And we will anfwer all things faithfully.
Gra. Let it be fo: the first interr'gatory,
That my Nerilla fhall be fworn on, is,

4

-you drop Manna in the

way

Of farved people.] Shakespear is not more exact in any thing, than in adapting his images with propriety to his speakers; of which he has here given an instance in making the young Jewess call good fortune, Manna.

Whether

Whether 'till the next night he had rather stay,
Or go to bed now, being two hours to day.
But were the day come, I fhould with it dark,
'Till I were couching with the Doctor's clerk.
Well, while I live, I'll fear no other thing
So fore, as keeping safe Nerissa's ring.

[Exeunt omnes.

LOVE'S

LOVE'S LABOUR'S loft.

A

COMEDY

Dramatis Perfonæ.

FERDINAND, King of Navarre.

Biron,

Longaville,

Dumain,

Boyet,

Macard,

PAST

three Lords, attending upon the King in his retirement.

Lords, attending upon the Princess of
France.

Don Adriano de Armado, a fantastical Spaniard.

Nathaniel, a Curate,

Dull, a Constable.

Holofernes, a Schoolmaster.

Coftard, a Clown.

Officers, and others, Attendants upon the King and

Princefs.

SCENE, the King of Navarre's Palace, and the Country near it.

LOVE'S LABOUR's loft.

ACT I. SCENE I.

The PALACE.

Enter the King, Biron, Longaville, and Dumain.

KING.

ET Fame, that all hunt after in their lives,
Live registred upon our brazen tombs;
And then grace us in the difgrace of death:
When, fpight of cormorant devouring
time,

Th' endeavour of this prefent breath may buy
'That honour which fhall 'bate his fcythe's keen edge;
And make us heirs of all eternity.

Therefore, brave Conquerors! for so you are,
That war against your own Affections,
And the huge army of the world's defires;
Our late edict shall strongly stand in force.
Navarre fhall be the wonder of the world;
Our Court fhall be a little academy,
Still and contemplative in living arts.
You three, Biron, Dumain, and Longaville,

Have