Page:Love's Labour's Lost (1925) Yale.djvu/23

Love's Labour's Lost, I. i

King. Ay, the best for the worst. But, sirrah,

what say you to this?

Cost. Sir, I confess the wench.

King. Did you hear the proclamation?

Cost. I do confess much of the hearing it, but

little of the marking of it.

King. It was proclaimed a year's imprison-

ment to be taken with a wench.

Cost. I was taken with none, sir: I was taken

with a damsel.

King. Well, it was proclaimed 'damsel.'

Cost. This was no damsel neither, sir: she

was a virgin.

King. It is so varied too; for it was pro-

claimed 'virgin.'

Cost. If it were, I deny her virginity: I was

taken with a maid.

King. This maid will not serve your turn, sir.

Cost. This maid will serve my turn, sir.

King. Sir, I will pronounce your sentence:

you shall fast a week with bran and water.

Cost. I had rather pray a month with mutton

and porridge.

King. And Don Armado shall be your keeper.

My Lord Berowne, see him deliver'd o'er:

And go we, lords, to put in practice that

Which each to other hath so strongly sworn.

[Exeunt King, Longaville, and Dumaine.]

Ber. I'll lay my head to any good man's hat,

These oaths and laws will prove an idle scorn.

Sirrah, come on.

Cost. I suffer for the truth, sir: for true it is

 284 marking of: paying attention to

288 damsel: a young unmarried woman of good birth

300 mutton: slang for 'loose woman'

306 lay: wager 