Page:Love's Labour's Lost (1925) Yale.djvu/116

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Might well have made our sport a comedy.

King. Come, sir, it wants a twelvemonth and a day,

And then 'twill end.

Ber. That's too long for a play.

Arm. Sweet majesty, vouchsafe me,—

Prin. Was not that Hector?

Dum. The worthy knight of Troy.

Arm. I will kiss thy royal finger, and take

leave. I am a votary; I have vowed to Jaque-

netta to hold the plough for her sweet love three

year. But, most esteemed greatness, will you

hear the dialogue that the two learned men have

compiled in praise of the owl and the cuckoo? it

should have followed in the end of our show.

King. Call them forth quickly; we will do so.

Arm. Holla! approach.

This side is Hiems, Winter; this Ver, the Spring;

the one maintained by the owl, th' other by the

cuckoo. Ver, begin.

'When daisies pied and violets blue

And lady-smocks all silver-white

And cuckoo-buds of yellow hue

Do paint the meadows with delight,

The cuckoo then, on every tree,

Mocks married men; for thus sings he,

Cuckoo;

 899 Cf. n.

903 lady-smocks: cardamine pratensis, May-flower

904 cuckoo-buds: buttercups or cowslips

