Speeches (Lines) for Don Adriano de Armado
in "Love's Labour's Lost"
Total: 102

1

I,2,310

Boy, what sign is it when a man of great spirit
grows melancholy?

2

I,2,313

Why, sadness is one and the self-same thing, dear imp.

3

I,2,315

How canst thou part sadness and melancholy, my
tender juvenal?

4

I,2,318

Why tough senior? why tough senior?

5

I,2,320

I spoke it, tender juvenal, as a congruent epitheton
appertaining to thy young days, which we may
nominate tender.

6

I,2,325

Pretty and apt.

7

I,2,328

Thou pretty, because little.

8

I,2,330

And therefore apt, because quick.

9

I,2,332

In thy condign praise.

10

I,2,334

What, that an eel is ingenious?

11

I,2,336

I do say thou art quick in answers: thou heatest my blood.

12

I,2,338

I love not to be crossed.

13

I,2,340

I have promised to study three years with the duke.

14

I,2,342

Impossible.

15

I,2,344

I am ill at reckoning; it fitteth the spirit of a tapster.

16

I,2,346

I confess both: they are both the varnish of a
complete man.

17

I,2,350

It doth amount to one more than two.

18

I,2,352

True.

19

I,2,358

A most fine figure!

20

I,2,360

I will hereupon confess I am in love: and as it is
base for a soldier to love, so am I in love with a
base wench. If drawing my sword against the humour
of affection would deliver me from the reprobate
thought of it, I would take Desire prisoner, and
ransom him to any French courtier for a new-devised
courtesy. I think scorn to sigh: methinks I should
outswear Cupid. Comfort, me, boy: what great men
have been in love?

21

I,2,370

Most sweet Hercules! More authority, dear boy, name
more; and, sweet my child, let them be men of good
repute and carriage.

22

I,2,376

O well-knit Samson! strong-jointed Samson! I do
excel thee in my rapier as much as thou didst me in
carrying gates. I am in love too. Who was Samson's
love, my dear Moth?

23

I,2,381

Of what complexion?

24

I,2,383

Tell me precisely of what complexion.

25

I,2,385

Is that one of the four complexions?

26

I,2,387

Green indeed is the colour of lovers; but to have a
love of that colour, methinks Samson had small reason
for it. He surely affected her for her wit.

27

I,2,391

My love is most immaculate white and red.

28

I,2,394

Define, define, well-educated infant.

29

I,2,396

Sweet invocation of a child; most pretty and
pathetical!

30

I,2,408

Is there not a ballad, boy, of the King and the Beggar?

31

I,2,413

I will have that subject newly writ o'er, that I may
example my digression by some mighty precedent.
Boy, I do love that country girl that I took in the
park with the rational hind Costard: she deserves well.

32

I,2,419

Sing, boy; my spirit grows heavy in love.

33

I,2,421

I say, sing.

34

I,2,429

I do betray myself with blushing. Maid!

35

I,2,431

I will visit thee at the lodge.

36

I,2,433

I know where it is situate.

37

I,2,435

I will tell thee wonders.

38

I,2,437

I love thee.

39

I,2,439

And so, farewell.

40

I,2,443

Villain, thou shalt fast for thy offences ere thou
be pardoned.

41

I,2,447

Thou shalt be heavily punished.

42

I,2,450

Take away this villain; shut him up.

43

I,2,463

I do affect the very ground, which is base, where
her shoe, which is baser, guided by her foot, which
is basest, doth tread. I shall be forsworn, which
is a great argument of falsehood, if I love. And
how can that be true love which is falsely
attempted? Love is a familiar; Love is a devil:
there is no evil angel but Love. Yet was Samson so
tempted, and he had an excellent strength; yet was
Solomon so seduced, and he had a very good wit.
Cupid's butt-shaft is too hard for Hercules' club;
and therefore too much odds for a Spaniard's rapier.
The first and second cause will not serve my turn;
the passado he respects not, the duello he regards
not: his disgrace is to be called boy; but his
glory is to subdue men. Adieu, valour! rust rapier!
be still, drum! for your manager is in love; yea,
he loveth. Assist me, some extemporal god of rhyme,
for I am sure I shall turn sonnet. Devise, wit;
write, pen; for I am for whole volumes in folio.

44

III,1,765

Warble, child; make passionate my sense of hearing.

45

III,1,768

Sweet air! Go, tenderness of years; take this key,
give enlargement to the swain, bring him festinately
hither: I must employ him in a letter to my love.

46

III,1,772

How meanest thou? brawling in French?

47

III,1,788

How hast thou purchased this experience?

48

III,1,790

But O,—but O,—

49

III,1,792

Callest thou my love 'hobby-horse'?

50

III,1,795

Almost I had.

51

III,1,797

By heart and in heart, boy.

52

III,1,799

What wilt thou prove?

53

III,1,806

I am all these three.

54

III,1,809

Fetch hither the swain: he must carry me a letter.

55

III,1,812

Ha, ha! what sayest thou?

56

III,1,815

The way is but short: away!

57

III,1,817

The meaning, pretty ingenious?
Is not lead a metal heavy, dull, and slow?

58

III,1,820

I say lead is slow.

59

III,1,823

Sweet smoke of rhetoric!
He reputes me a cannon; and the bullet, that's he:
I shoot thee at the swain.

60

III,1,828

A most acute juvenal; voluble and free of grace!
By thy favour, sweet welkin, I must sigh in thy face:
Most rude melancholy, valour gives thee place.
My herald is return'd.

61

III,1,834

Some enigma, some riddle: come, thy l'envoy; begin.

62

III,1,838

By virtue, thou enforcest laughter; thy silly
thought my spleen; the heaving of my lungs provokes
me to ridiculous smiling. O, pardon me, my stars!
Doth the inconsiderate take salve for l'envoy, and
the word l'envoy for a salve?

63

III,1,844

No, page: it is an epilogue or discourse, to make plain
Some obscure precedence that hath tofore been sain.
I will example it:
The fox, the ape, and the humble-bee,
Were still at odds, being but three.
There's the moral. Now the l'envoy.

64

III,1,851

The fox, the ape, and the humble-bee,
Were still at odds, being but three.

65

III,1,859

Until the goose came out of door,
Staying the odds by adding four.

66

III,1,867

Come hither, come hither. How did this argument begin?

67

III,1,874

But tell me; how was there a costard broken in a shin?

68

III,1,879

We will talk no more of this matter.

69

III,1,881

Sirrah Costard, I will enfranchise thee.

70

III,1,884

By my sweet soul, I mean setting thee at liberty,
enfreedoming thy person; thou wert immured,
restrained, captivated, bound.

71

III,1,888

I give thee thy liberty, set thee from durance; and,
in lieu thereof, impose on thee nothing but this:
bear this significant
[Giving a letter]
to the country maid Jaquenetta:
there is remuneration; for the best ward of mine
honour is rewarding my dependents. Moth, follow.

72

V,1,1767

Chirrah!

73

V,1,1770

Men of peace, well encountered.

74

V,1,1780

[To HOLOFERNES] Monsieur, are you not lettered?

75

V,1,1790

Now, by the salt wave of the Mediterraneum, a sweet
touch, a quick venue of wit! snip, snap, quick and
home! it rejoiceth my intellect: true wit!

76

V,1,1808

Arts-man, preambulate, we will be singled from the
barbarous. Do you not educate youth at the
charge-house on the top of the mountain?

77

V,1,1812

At your sweet pleasure, for the mountain.

78

V,1,1814

Sir, it is the king's most sweet pleasure and
affection to congratulate the princess at her
pavilion in the posteriors of this day, which the
rude multitude call the afternoon.

79

V,1,1822

Sir, the king is a noble gentleman, and my familiar,
I do assure ye, very good friend: for what is
inward between us, let it pass. I do beseech thee,
remember thy courtesy; I beseech thee, apparel thy
head: and among other important and most serious
designs, and of great import indeed, too, but let
that pass: for I must tell thee, it will please his
grace, by the world, sometime to lean upon my poor
shoulder, and with his royal finger, thus, dally
with my excrement, with my mustachio; but, sweet
heart, let that pass. By the world, I recount no
fable: some certain special honours it pleaseth his
greatness to impart to Armado, a soldier, a man of
travel, that hath seen the world; but let that pass.
The very all of all is,—but, sweet heart, I do
implore secrecy,—that the king would have me
present the princess, sweet chuck, with some
delightful ostentation, or show, or pageant, or
antique, or firework. Now, understanding that the
curate and your sweet self are good at such
eruptions and sudden breaking out of mirth, as it
were, I have acquainted you withal, to the end to
crave your assistance.

80

V,1,1857

Pardon, sir; error: he is not quantity enough for
that Worthy's thumb: he is not so big as the end of his club.

81

V,1,1866

For the rest of the Worthies?—

82

V,1,1869

Shall I tell you a thing?

83

V,1,1871

We will have, if this fadge not, an antique. I
beseech you, follow.

84

V,2,2455

Anointed, I implore so much expense of thy royal
sweet breath as will utter a brace of words.

85

V,2,2461

That is all one, my fair, sweet, honey monarch; for,
I protest, the schoolmaster is exceeding
fantastical; too, too vain, too too vain: but we
will put it, as they say, to fortuna de la guerra.
I wish you the peace of mind, most royal couplement!

86

V,2,2585

The armipotent Mars, of lances the almighty,
Gave Hector a gift,—

87

V,2,2591

Peace!—
The armipotent Mars, of lances the almighty
Gave Hector a gift, the heir of Ilion;
A man so breathed, that certain he would fight; yea
From morn till night, out of his pavilion.
I am that flower,—

88

V,2,2599

Sweet Lord Longaville, rein thy tongue.

89

V,2,2602

The sweet war-man is dead and rotten; sweet chucks,
beat not the bones of the buried: when he breathed,
he was a man. But I will forward with my device.
[To the PRINCESS]
Sweet royalty, bestow on me the sense of hearing.

90

V,2,2608

I do adore thy sweet grace's slipper.

91

V,2,2611

This Hector far surmounted Hannibal,—

92

V,2,2614

What meanest thou?

93

V,2,2618

Dost thou infamonize me among potentates? thou shalt
die.

94

V,2,2633

By the north pole, I do challenge thee.

95

V,2,2643

Gentlemen and soldiers, pardon me; I will not combat
in my shirt.

96

V,2,2646

Sweet bloods, I both may and will.

97

V,2,2648

The naked truth of it is, I have no shirt; I go
woolward for penance.

98

V,2,2663

For mine own part, I breathe free breath. I have
seen the day of wrong through the little hole of
discretion, and I will right myself like a soldier.

99

V,2,2824

Sweet majesty, vouchsafe me,—

100

V,2,2827

I will kiss thy royal finger, and take leave. I am
a votary; I have vowed to Jaquenetta to hold the
plough for her sweet love three years. 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.

101

V,2,2835

Holla! approach.
[Re-enter HOLOFERNES, SIR NATHANIEL, MOTH, COSTARD,]
and others]
This side is Hiems, Winter, this Ver, the Spring;
the one maintained by the owl, the other by the
cuckoo. Ver, begin.
[THE SONG]
SPRING.
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;
Cuckoo, cuckoo: O word of fear,
Unpleasing to a married ear!
When shepherds pipe on oaten straws
And merry larks are ploughmen's clocks,
When turtles tread, and rooks, and daws,
And maidens bleach their summer smocks
The cuckoo then, on every tree,
Mocks married men; for thus sings he, . Cuckoo;
Cuckoo, cuckoo: O word of fear,
Unpleasing to a married ear!
WINTER.
When icicles hang by the wall
And Dick the shepherd blows his nail
And Tom bears logs into the hall
And milk comes frozen home in pail,
When blood is nipp'd and ways be foul,
Then nightly sings the staring owl, . Tu-whit;
Tu-who, a merry note,
While greasy Joan doth keel the pot.
When all aloud the wind doth blow
And coughing drowns the parson's saw
And birds sit brooding in the snow
And Marian's nose looks red and raw,
When roasted crabs hiss in the bowl,
Then nightly sings the staring owl, . Tu-whit;
Tu-who, a merry note,
While greasy Joan doth keel the pot.

102

V,2,2876

The words of Mercury are harsh after the songs of
Apollo. You that way: we this way.