Page:Love's Labour's Lost (1925) Yale.djvu/112

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Hath much deform'd us, fashioning our humours

Even to the opposed end of our intents;

And what in us hath seem'd ridiculous,—

As love is full of unbefitting strains;

All wanton as a child, skipping and vain;

Form'd by the eye, and, therefore, like the eye,

Full of straying shapes, of habits and of forms,

Varying in subjects, as the eye doth roll

To every varied object in his glance:—

Which parti-coated presence of loose love

Put on by us, if, in your heavenly eyes,

Have misbecom'd our oaths and gravities,

Those heavenly eyes, that look into these faults,

Suggested us to make. Therefore, ladies,

Our love being yours, the error that love makes

Is likewise yours: we to ourselves prove false,

By being once false for ever to be true

To those that make us both,—fair ladies, you:

And even that falsehood, in itself a sin,

Thus purifies itself and turns to grace.

Prin. We have receiv'd your letters full of love;

Your favours, the embassadors of love;

And, in our maiden council, rated them

At courtship, pleasant jest, and courtesy,

As bombast and as lining to the time.

But more devout than this in our respects

Have we not been; and therefore met your loves

In their own fashion, like a merriment.

Dum. Our letters, madam, show'd much more than jest.

Long. So did our looks.

 766 In a way quite opposite to our intentions

768 strains: impulses

774 parti-coated: motley-coated

778 Suggested: tempted

789 bombast: padding

790 devout: serious

respects: reflections

