comments on these are in couplets, and often a line of comment from one place of concealment is, to the ear of the audience, capped by a rhyme from another. When the lovers spring in succession from their concealment the battle still rages in couplets, until a great change is made in the spirit of the scene by Biron, who abandons his annoyance at being discovered for justification of his perjury on the ground that his Rosaline surpasses the mistresses of all the rest. This change is reflected in a change to alternate rhyming, and in this meter the climax of the scene continues. At last another break in the scene comes when the king proposes to take things as they are and boldly justify them, and he calls in Biron for reasons, such as may serve to cheat the devil. Biron responds and his immensely long speech is in blank verse, here heard for the last time in the scene. This continues to the end, except that a scene of such metrical varieties cannot be wound up with merely the ordinary couplet, but has for its coda a couple of couplets followed by a quatrain of alternate rhymes.-MOULTON, Shakespeare as a Dramatic Artist.

LOVE'S LABOR'S LOST

DRAMATIS PERSONA

FERDINAND, king of Navarre

BIRON,

DUMAIN,

LONGAVILLE,

BOYET,

MERCADE,

lords attending on the Princess of France

DON ADRIANO DE ARMADO, a fantastical Spaniard

There is no list of "Dramatis Persona" in the Quartos and Folios: it should be remembered that "Biron" is spelled "Berowne," rhyming with "moon" in Act IV. iii. 233; "Moth" was probably pronounced "Mote"; "Mercade" is generally "Marcade"; "Armado" is sometimes given as "Armatho"; "Boyet" rhymes with "debt" in V. ii. 334; "Longaville" with "ill" in IV. iii. 126, and with "mile” in V. ii. 53.— I. G.

SYNOPSIS

By J. ELLIS BURDICK

ACT I

Ferdinand, king of Navarre, and Biron, Longaville, and Dumain, three of his lords, covenant together to spend three years in study and in that time to forego the society of women and to live monk-like lives. A proclamation is issued forbidding any woman to come within a mile of the court "on pain of losing her tongue." Costard, the king's clown, is ordered imprisoned for a week and to fast with bran and water because he was seen in the company of Jaquenetta, a country maid. His keeper is a Spanish gentleman, Armado by name, who is also a victim of Jaquenetta's charms.

ACT II

The daughter of the king of France comes to the court of Navarre on state business and she and her attending ladies are, because of Ferdinand's oath, lodged outside the gates of the city. The king and his three friends call on the princess and her ladies and each gentleman falls in love with one of the ladies.

ACT III

Armado releases Costard so that he may be employed in carrying a message to Jaquenetta. Biron also entrusts him with a note-this one addressed to the Lady Rosaline, one of the princess's ladies.