Love's Labour 's Won (Revisited -Comedy.).part one.

Love's Labour's Won (Revisited): ACT I

Dramatis Personae

KING FERDINAND: King of Navarre.

LONGAVILLE, DUMAIN, BEROWNE: Lords attending the King.

THE PRINCESS OF FRANCE: Arriving in Navarre.

ROSALINE, MARIA, KATHARINE: Ladies attending the Princess.

COSTARD: A country fellow/clown.

ARMADO: A fantastical Spanish knight.

ACT I

SCENE I. The King of Navarre's park.

Enter KING FERDINAND, LONGAVILLE, DUMAIN, and BEROWNE.

KING FERDINAND

Let fame, that all things yields, be ours to-day.

We have made a vow to study for three years,

To fast, to watch, to shun the company of women,

And make Navarre a little academe,

A place of pure and unspotted thought.

LONGAVILLE

The time is short, the vow is hard to keep.

DUMAIN

We are sworn, my liege, and we shall keep our oath.

BEROWNE

O, but the world, the flesh, the devil, and all!

To fast from love is a most piteous fast.

The Princess of France is near the borders now,

To speak of treaties and of ancient debts.

She comes with ladies, full of grace and charm.

How can we shun their sight, their gentle talk?

KING FERDINAND

The law is absolute: No woman comes within

A mile of our court. The treaty must be done

In the open field, with distance kept between us.

The vow is signed and sealed, there is no turning back!

We shall be scholars, men of high repute.

BEROWNE

Great men are not always wise. My heart doth ache

For the sweet folly of a woman's smile.

But I have signed the paper, and my fate is sealed.

Exeunt, full of resolve.

SCENE II. Another part of the

SCENE II. Another part of the park.

Enter COSTARD and ARMADO.

ARMADO

I am a man of love, a soldier of Cupid's camp.

I love a wench, a country maid, a simple thing.

COSTARD

She's simple enough, sir, I can attest to that.

But the King's law doth forbid all love, all mirth, all joy.

I am arrested for a woman, Master Armado.

ARMADO

Arrested? For a woman? A violation of the law!

The King shall hear of this, I am his favourite.

I shall compose a letter, full of passion,

To tell the King of this most dire affair.

The law is strict, Costard, the law is strict.

COSTARD

I know the law, sir, it is a hard taskmaster.

To fast from love? 'Tis not a natural thing.

A man must love, as a fish must swim,

Or he doth die of melancholy's grip.

ARMADO

Go to the King, and tell him of my woe.

My heart is bleeding, like a stuck pig's heart!

Exeunt separately.

SCENE III. The 

SCENE III. The French camp, in the fields near Navarre.

Enter THE PRINCESS OF FRANCE, ROSALINE, MARIA, KATHARINE.

PRINCESS

The King of Navarre is a strange and fusty man,

To shun us so, to keep us from his court.

A scholar's vow, a hermit's life he seeks,

Whilst treaties wait, and all the world doth laugh

At his strange, new religion.

ROSALINE

He fears our beauty, madam, fears our wit.

He knows a woman's eyes can teach a man

More than a thousand books in dusty rooms.

We shall engage in wit, a battle of the minds.

MARIA

And we shall win. For love's labour cannot be lost,

When ladies set the game and hold the stakes.

KATHARINE

We have our orders: to make them break their oath,

To win their hearts, and make them love the chase

More than their dusty, sad philosophy.

PRINCESS

Tomorrow we shall meet them in the field.

The game is on. The labour shall be won.

Exeunt.