# Love's Labour's Lost (1925) Yale/Text/Act III

Notes originally placed at the bottom of each page appear below, following Act III. Where these notes gloss a word in the text, the gloss can also be found by hovering over the text.
Where these notes refer to an end note (cf. n. = confer notam; "consult note"), a link to the accompanying end note is provided from the Footnotes section. The end notes accompanying Act III begin on page 113 of the original volume.
Layout 2
ACT THIRD
Scene One
[The King of Navarre's Park]
Enter Braggart [Armado] and his Boy [Moth].
Arm. Warble, child; make passionate my sense of hearing.
Moth. [Singing.] Concolinel,—
Arm. Sweet air! Go, tenderness of years; 4 take this key, give enlargement to the swain, bring him festinately hither; I must employ him in a letter to my love.
Moth. Master, will you win your love with a 8 French brawl?
Arm. How meanest thou? brawling in French?
Moth. No, my complete master; but to jig off 12 a tune at the tongue's end, canary to it with your feet, humour it with turning up your eyelids, sigh a note and sing a note, sometime through the throat, [as] if you swallowed love by singing 16 love, sometime through [the] nose, as if you snuffed up love by smelling love; with your hat pent- house-like o'er the shop of your eyes; with your arms crossed on your thin belly-doublet like a 20 ​rabbit on a spit; or your hands in your pocket like a man after the old painting; and keep not too long in one tune, but a snip and away. These are complements, these are humours, these be- 24 tray nice wenches, that would be betrayed with- out these; and make them men of note,—do you note? men,—that most are affected to these.
Arm. How hast thou purchased this ex- 28 perience?
Moth. By my penny of observation.
Arm. But O—but O,—
Moth. 'The hobby-horse is forgot.' 32
Arm. Callest thou my love 'hobby-horse'?
Moth. No, master; the hobby-horse is but a colt, and your love perhaps a hackney. But have you forgot your love? 36
Arm. Almost I had.
Moth. Negligent student! learn her by heart.
Arm. By heart, and in heart, boy.
Moth. And out of heart, master: all those 40 three I will prove.
Arm. What wilt thou prove?
Moth. A man, if I live; and this, by, in, and without, upon the instant: by heart you love 44 her, because your heart cannot come by her; in heart you love her, because your heart is in love with her; and out of heart you love her, being out of heart that you cannot enjoy her. 48
Arm. I am all these three.
Moth. And three times as much more, and yet nothing at all.
​Arm. Fetch hither the swain: he must carry 52 me a letter.
Moth. A message well sympathized: a horse to be ambassador for an ass.
Arm. Ha, ha! what sayest thou? 56
Moth. Marry, sir, you must send the ass upon the horse, for he is very slow-gaited. But I go.
Arm. The way is but short: away!
Moth. As swift as lead, sir. 60
Arm. The meaning, pretty ingenious? Is not lead a metal heavy, dull, and slow?
Moth. Minime, honest master; or rather, master, no.
Arm. I say, lead is slow.
Moth. You are too swift, sir, to say so. 64 Is that lead slow which is fir'd from a gun?
Arm. Sweet smoke of rhetoric! He reputes me a cannon; and the bullet, that's he: I shoot thee at the swain.
Moth. Thump, then, and I flee. 68
[Exit.]
Arm. A most acute juvenal; volable and free of grace! By thy favour, sweet welkin, I must sigh in thy face: Most rude melancholy, valour gives thee place. My herald is return'd. 72
Enter Page [Moth] and Clown [Costard].
Moth. A wonder, master! here's a costard broken in a shin.
Arm. Some enigma, some riddle: come, thy l'envoy; begin.
Cost. No egma, no riddle, no l'envoy; no salve ​in the mail, sir. O! sir, plantain, a plain plan- 76 tain: no l'envoy, no l'envoy: no salve, sir, but a plantain.
Arm. By virtue, thou enforcest laughter; thy silly thought, my spleen; the heaving of my 80 lungs provokes me to ridiculous smiling: O! pardon me, my stars. Doth the inconsiderate take salve for l'envoy, and the word l'envoy for a salve? 84
Moth. Do the wise think them other? is not l'envoy a salve?
Arm. No, page: it is an epilogue or discourse, to make plain Some obscure precedence that hath tofore been sain. 88 I will example it: The fox, the ape, and the humble-bee Were still at odds, being but three. There's the moral. Now the l'envoy. 92
Moth. I will add the l'envoy. Say the moral again.
Arm. The fox, the ape, and the humble-bee Were still at odds, being but three. 96
Moth. Until the goose came out of door, And stay'd the odds by adding four. Now will I begin your moral, and do you follow with my l'envoy. 100 The fox, the ape, and the humble-bee Were still at odds, being but three.
Arm. Until the goose came out of door, Staying the odds by adding four. 104
Moth. A good l'envoy, ending in the goose. Would you desire more?
Cost. The boy hath sold him a bargain, a goose, that's flat. Sir, your pennyworth is good, an your goose be fat. 108 To sell a bargain well is as cunning as fast and loose. Let me see: a fat l'envoy; ay, that's a fat goose.
Arm. Come hither, come hither. How did this argument begin?
Moth. By saying that a costard was broken in a shin. 112 Then call'd you for the l'envoy.
Cost. True, and I for a plantain: thus came your argument in; Then the boy's fat l'envoy, the goose that you bought; And he ended the market. 116
Arm. But tell me: how was there a costard broken in a shin?
Moth. I will tell you sensibly.
Cost. Thou hast no feeling of it, Moth: I will 120 speak that l'envoy: I, Costard, running out, that was safely within, Fell over the threshold and broke my shin.
Arm. We will talk no more of this matter. 124
Cost. Till there be more matter in the shin.
Arm. Sirrah Costard, I will enfranchise thee.
Cost. O! marry me to one Frances: I smell some l'envoy, some goose, in this. 128
Arm. By my sweet soul, I mean setting thee at liberty, enfreedoming thy person: thou wert immured, restrained, captivated, bound.
Cost. True, true, and now you will be my pur- 132 gation and let me loose.
Arm. I give thee thy liberty, set thee from ​durance; and in lieu thereof, impose on thee nothing but this:—[Giving a letter.] Bear this 136 significant to the country maid Jaquenetta. [Giving money.] There is remuneration; for the best ward of mine honour is rewarding my dependents. Moth, follow. [Exit.]
Moth. Like the sequel, I. Signior Costard, adieu.
Exit.
Cost. My sweet ounce of man's flesh! my incony Jew!— Now will I look to his remuneration. Remune- ration! O that's the Latin word for three far- 144 things: three farthings, remuneration. 'What's the price of this inkle?' 'One penny.' 'No, I'll give you a remuneration': why, it carries it. Remuneration! why, it is a fairer name than 148 French crown. I will never buy and sell out of this word.
Enter Berowne.
Ber. O my good knave Costard, exceedingly well met! 152
Cost. Pray you, sir, how much carnation ribbon may a man buy for a remuneration?
Ber. What is a remuneration?
Cost. Marry, sir, halfpenny farthing. 156
Ber. Oh! Why then, three-farthing-worth of silk.
Cost. I thank your worship. God be wi' you!
Ber. O stay, slave; I must employ thee. 160 As thou wilt win my favour, good my knave, Do one thing for me that I shall entreat.
Cost. When would you have it done, sir?
Ber. O, this afternoon. 164
Cost. Well, I will do it, sir. Fare you well.
Ber. O, thou knowest not what it is.
Cost. I shall know, sir, when I have done it.
Ber. Why, villain, thou must know first. 168
Cost. I will come to your worship to-morrow morning.
Ber. It must be done this afternoon. Hark, slave, it is but this: 172 The princess comes to hunt here in the park, And in her train there is a gentle lady: When tongues speak sweetly, then they name her name, And Rosaline they call her: ask for her 176 And to her white hand see thou do commend This seal'd-up counsel. [Gives him a shilling.] There's thy guerdon: go.
Cost. Gardon, O sweet gardon! better than remuneration; a 'leven-pence farthing better. 180 Most sweet gardon! I will do it, sir, in print. Gardon! remuneration! Exit.
Ber. O! And I,— Forsooth, in love! I, that have been love's whip; 184 A very beadle to a humorous sigh; A critic, nay, a night-watch constable, A domineering pedant o'er the boy, Than whom no mortal so magnificent! 188 This wimpled, whining, purblind, wayward boy, This senior-junior, giant-dwarf, Dan Cupid; Regent of love-rimes, lord of folded arms, ​The anointed sovereign of sighs and groans, 192 Liege of all loiterers and malcontents, Dread prince of plackets, king of codpieces, Sole imperator and great general Of trotting 'paritors: O my little heart! 196 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, 200 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 perjur'd, which is worst of all; 204 And, among three, to love the worst of all; A whitely 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, 208 Though Argus were her eunuch and her guard. And I to sigh for her! to watch for her! To pray for her! Go to: it is a plague That Cupid will impose for my neglect 212 Of his almighty dreadful little might. Well, I will love, write, sigh, pray, sue, groan: Some men must love my lady, and some Joan.
[Exit.]
Footnotes to Act III
Scene One
​3 Concolinel; cf. n. 6 festinately: quickly 9 brawl: dance; cf. n. 13 canary: dance; cf. n. 18 penthouse-like: porch-like ​24 complements: accomplishments 25 nice: coy 30 penny: i.e. purchasing medium 32 Cf. n. 35 hackney: i.e. loose woman ​54 well sympathized: i.e. the message is well suited to the bearer 63 Minime: by no means 68 Thump: bang! 69 volable: quick of wit 70 welkin: sky 73 costard: head ​76 mail: bag; cf. n. 80 spleen: mirth 86 l'envoy a salve; cf. n. 88 sain: said 98 adding: i.e. making ​107 hath . . . bargain; cf. n. 116 market; cf. n. 119 sensibly: feelingly ​137 significant: token, i.e. letter 139 ward: guard 142 incony: fine 146 inkle: tape 147 it carries it: it carries off the palm 148 name: word 158 wi': with ​178 counsel: private communication guerdon: reward 181 in print: precisely 185 beadle . . . sigh; cf. n. 188 magnificent: pompous, overbearing 189 wimpled: veiled purblind: totally blind 190 Cf. n. ​194 plackets: petticoats, or slits in petticoats or skirts codpieces: baggy appendages to the front of breeches 196 'paritors: apparitors, officials of the ecclesiastical court 198 like . . . hoop: like the flaunting ribbons attached to a tumbler's hoop 201 frame: order 206 whitely: pale-skinned 209 Argus: a monster having a hundred eyes 215 Joan: stock name for a peasant wench; cf. IV. iii. 182 and V. ii. 928