Page:Love's Labour's Lost (1925) Yale.djvu/121

Love's Labour's Lost that eye shall be his heed, And give him light that it was blinded by. 'Me' (l. 80) is the 'ethical dative'; 'Who' (l. 82) refers to the eye mentioned in l. 80 or to its owner; and 'it' (l. 83) is the object of 'by.' The passage may be paraphrased: Rather study how really to please your eye by fixing it upon that of a sweetheart, whereupon your own eye will be dimmed; but the 'fairer eye' will be your sole attention and give light to you whom it has blinded.

''These earthly godfathers of heaven's lights, That give a name to every fixed star, Have no more profit of their shining nights Than those that walk and wot not what they are. Too much to know is to know nought but fame; And every godfather can give a name''. The learned astronomers who give names to the stars have no more real control of them than have the ignorant. Encyclopedic knowledge is but parrot-like, no more essential than the bestowal of a name at the baptism of an infant.

Proceeded. Almost certainly used in the technical sense of taking an academic degree. Berowne employs his own intellectual subtlety to discourage others from similarly training themselves.

''In reason nothing. Ber. Something, then, in rime''. Shakespeare is very fond of playing on the alliterative phrase, rime and reason. Compare I. ii. 113.

May's new-fangled shows. Since the rest of the passage is in alternate rime, it is assumed that the poet intended this line to end with a word riming with 'birth' (l. 104). Many editors have therefore substituted 'earth' (Theobald) or 'mirth' (Walker) for 'shows'; but neither seems natural, and it is quite likely that Shakespeare himself made the slip through inadvertence.

Climb o'er the house to unlock the little gate. Take an absurdly impractical course. The line