Love's Labor's Lost (Quarto 1, 1598)

¶true that thou art beautious, trueth it selfe that

¶thou art louelie: more fairer then faire, beautifull then beau-

¶tious, truer then trueth it selfe: haue comiseration on thy

¶heroicall Vassall. The magnanimous and most illustrate

1045King Cophetua set eie vpon the pernicious and indubitaTe

¶Begger Zenelophon: and he it was that might rightly say,

¶Veni, vidi, vici: Which to annothanize in the vulgar, O base

¶and obscure vulgar; videliset, He came, See, and ouercame:

1050He came, one; see, two; couercame, three. Who came? the

¶King. Why did he come? to see. Why did he see? to ouer-

¶come. To whom came he? to the Begger. What saw he? the

¶Begger. Who ouercame he? the Begger. The conclusion is

¶victorie: On whose side? the King: the captiue is inricht, on

1055whose side? the Beggers. The catastrophe is a Nuptiall, on

¶whose side? the Kinges: no, on both in one, or one in both.

¶I am the King (for so standes the comparison) thou the Beg-

¶ger, for so witnesseth thy lowlines. Shall I commande thy

1060loue? I may. Shall I enforce thy loue? I coulde. Shall I en-

¶treate thy loue? I will. What, shalt thou exchange for raggs

¶roabes, for tittles tytles, for thy selfe, mee. Thus expecting

¶thy replie, I prophane my lippes on thy foote, my eyes on

¶thy picture, and my hart on thy euerie part.

¶

Thine in the dearest designe of industri,

¶

Don Adriana de Armatho.