REMARKS ON THE PLOT, THE FABLE, AND CONSTRUCTION OF LOVE'S LABOUR'S LOST. I HAVE not been hitherto so lucky as to discover any novel on which this comedy seems to have been founded, and yet the story of it has most of the features of an ancient romance. STEEVENS. In this play, which all the editors have concurred to censure, and some have rejected as unworthy of our poet, it must be confessed that there are many passages mean, childish, and vulgar; and some which ought not to have been exhibited, as we are told they were, to a maiden queen. But there are scattered through the whole many sparks of genius; nor is there any play that has more evident marks of the hand of Shakspeare. JOHNSON. Persons Represented. FERDINAND, King of Navarre. BIRON, LONGAVILLE, Lords, attending on the King. BOYET, Lords, attending on the Princess of MERCADE, France. DON ADRIANO DE ARMADO, a fantastical Spaniard. SIR NATHANIEL, a Curate. HOLOFERNES, a Schoolmaster. DULL, a Constable. COSTARD, a Clown. MOTH, Page to ARMADO. LOVE'S LABOUR'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; That honour, which shall bate his scythe's keen edge, Therefore, brave conquerors!-for so you are, Have sworn for three years' term to live with me, |