William Shakespeare

COMEDIES
1. COMEDIES: DEFINITIONS AND TRAITS
Comedy could be simply defined as a dramatic presentation that makes us laugh. (McEvoy 125).
Though it is rather difficult to state a straightforward definition of comedy, since laughter is not
confined to comedy, some laughable scenes could be present in tragedies, as well, there are, however,
sets of characters, themes or conventions that correspond to the publics expectations. Moreover, the
"funny" or amusing element is not the defining feature of comedy: "comedy was described by the
ancient Greeks, notably Aristotle, as art that concerns humans as social beings interacting with others,
as opposed to considering them as private individuals" (K. Kuiper). By contrast to tragedy, comedy
insist on the human being as part of the community, integrated in it and adhering to its values;
therefore, through laughter, credited with therapeutic functions, the comic character is brought back
into conformity with society whose conventions he abandons.
1.1.
Origins and History
The beginning of the comedy is located in Ancient Greece, the name comedy coming from the
Greek komos meaning revels, merrymaking and its origins are rooted in the rituals for the Greek
god Dionysus. On stage, comedy seems to have started with the works of the Greek playwrights
Aristophanes and Menander, and their comic conventions where taken up by the Roman authors
Plautus and Terence and then transmitted to the Renaissance writers. Therefore, many of the comic
conventions and characters have remained from the classical tradition.
There are no great comedies left from the period of the Middle Ages, but comedy survived in
the development of the farce and in the Interludes in the Mystery Plays. The Renaissance, coming
with its revival of classical literature, became interested in the plays of the Roman comic playwrights,
and they were present on the English stage either in the form of translations, or in that of adaptations
like Nicholas Udalls Ralph Roister Doister or the anonymous Gammer Gurtons Needle (the middle of
the 16th century).
1.2.
Definitions and Traits
In defining comedy, many critics start from the distinction between comedy and tragedy, seeing
them as opposing genres. Thus, Aristotle says that comedy deals with ordinary characters in
everyday situation, opposing it to tragedy that depicts noble characters (kings, princes, and
noblemen) in extraordinary situations. Due to these distinctions, it is common that comedy should be
involved with the private life of people, while tragedy should deal with state affairs, influenced by
the destiny of kings and princes. Euanthius, a Greek rhetorician commented that:
Of the many differences between tragedy and comedy, the foremost are these: in comedy the fortunes of
men are middle-class, the dangers are slight, and the ends of the action are happy; but in tragedy
everything is the opposite the characters are great men, the fears are intense, and the ends disastrous. In
comedy the beginning is troubled, the end tranquil; in tragedy events follow the reverse order. And in
tragedy the kind of life is shown that is to be shunned; while in comedy the kind is shown that is to be
sought after. Finally in comedy the story is always fictitious; while tragedy often has a basis in historical
truth. (in J. A. Cuddon, Penguin Dictionary of Literary Terms)
To sum up, there is a set of conventions that can be taken into consideration when talking about
comedies, despite the rather numerous problematic aspects that make this genre so difficult to define.
First, comedies deal with private lives and private affairs in opposition to the tragic conflict that
resonates through the entire political body. Whatever may happen in a comedy, it does not have
relevance beyond the private life of its characters and will not affect the entire political system,
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causing its downfall and destruction, as it is the case in tragedy. That is the reason why, in general,
the characters in comedies pertain rather to the lower classes, since they are more likely to become
subject to comic, or ridiculous attitudes. Tragedy is about human isolation, comedy is about human
integration (Terry Eagleton). A comedy may start in misfortune, but it will end in communal joy and
reconciliation. If the style of the tragedy is lofty, the style of the comedy is humble, negligent.
The comedy also deals with certain stock characters and typical actions. Generally, it is
considered that love is one of the major comic actions, usually, thwarted love that leads to a series of
misfortunes and misunderstandings which eventually have a happy ending.
In his analysis of the literary genres, Northrop Frye tries to point out some of the elements
characteristic to comedy. He locates the center of the comedy in the young generation, as it usually
deals with youthful love that has to overstep a series of obstacles created by those in the older
generations (mainly parents). At the end of a comedy, though, the triumph belongs to the young, and
is celebrated by a sort of festivity, most commonly, a wedding. The comedy, according to Fryes
analysis, has the tendency to include as many people as possible in the final, reconciliating festivity,
and it sometimes contains a ritual of exclusion of the undesirable one, the individual whose actions
destroy the harmony of the world (as in the case of Shakespeares Merchant of Venice).
The comedy usually tries to impose a better version of the society, that is why, in many plays,
the opening is marked by a cruel, or unnatural, or absurd law or deal, as is the case of the cruel law of
killing the Syracusians in The Comedy of Errors, or the deal with Shylock, in The Merchant of Venice. In
order to set the world right, the protagonist(s) need to pass through a series of obstacles, or tests.
2. SHAKESPEARES COMEDIES
The inclusion of Shakespeares plays into strict categories has been a challenged for critics over
the centuries. The 1623 Folio classification of plays into comedies, tragedies and histories is not very
helpful, and part of this initial classifications has subsequently been challenged and rethought. These
difficulties arise, on the one hand, from the lack of a large body of theoretical writings on literary
forms. In this case, Shakespeare did not rely on a solid theoretical body, but on stage traditions, such
as the ancient comedy, Greek and Roman, medieval forms and Renaissance, especially Italian
conventions. Another reason for such difficulties in defining Shakespearean comedy might lie in the
playwrights refusal to be limited by fixed forms and conventions, continually challenging any
limitations, improving on the existing forms and even altering his own vision in the course of time,
from the first plays toward the end of his career and mixing up genres, including comic elements in
his tragedies, serious events in his comedies, happy-endings in histories. The difficulties to include
certain plays into various literary forms have led to several attempts at different classifications and
subdivisions. For instance, Shakespearean comedies have, in turn, been classed into early comedies
and late comedies, other were named festive comedies. Some other terms were introduced to
deal with the more problematic comedies, such as romance, problem play or tragicomedy. In
the end, one must acknowledge the individuality of each play taken separately as well as its
importance into a wider understanding of Shakespeares work in general.

2.1.
COMIC TRADITIONS
Shakespeares comedies are not indebted to a single source, this is the reason why it is rather
difficult to classify them. The three main sources for his creation of comedies are: the classical plays,
especially the Classical tradition; the Italian stories; and the English festive tradition.
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A.
The Classical tradition draws on the plays of the Roman writers Plautus and Terence who, in
their turn, are indebted to the Greek writers Aristophanes and Menander. Some of the conventions
employed by these classical writers are to be found in Shakespeares plays, as well. Shakespeare was
clearly influenced by the language and style of the Roman comedies that included music and songs.
Moreover, this focus on music and musicality is seen in the composition of the text, with the variation
of line-length and measure, alliteration and rhymes. Likewise, similar to the Roman plays,
Shakespeare intensively uses puns, word-play, and draws comic effect from the use of neologisms or
dialect.
According to classical models, Shakespeares plays are focused on the opposition between
appearance and reality, as well as on ambiguous identities, cross-dressing, twins, exchanges of
identity. There elements are intensified by overheard conversations and eavesdropping. Two sets of
twins who exchange places, without one knowing about the existence of the other are present in The
Comedy of Errors, a play clearly drawn from Plautus Manaechmi, as well as in Twelfths Night. Crossdressing is a widely employed convention in S
Shakespeare from the first play and many women dress as young men for different reasons:
Julia (Two Gentlemen of Verona), Rosalinde (As You Like It), Portia (The Merchant of Venice), Viola
(Twelfths Night), even, briefly, Helena (Alls Well That Ends Well). Staged conversations to make lovers
confess their love, overheard discussions and eavesdropping that could led even to disaster form the
basis of Much Ado about Nothing.
Shakespeare also largely used the classical convention of plot doubling (several couples of
lovers), repetition, contrast and counterpoint, all these successfully solved in the end by multiple
weddings. Thus, there is often the theme of friendship that resists or does not resist the test of love in
Two Gentlemen of Verona, A Midsummer Nights Dream, Two Noble Kinsmen, faithful friends in As You
Like It (Rosalind and Celia) and The Merchant of Venice (Antonio and Bassanio) or merry groups in
Loves Labours Lost, Much Ado about Nothing.
B.
The Italian(ate) stories had been very popular in England long before Shakespeares times,
since the Middle Ages, though, to call them Italian is often a misnomer, because many had come from
more distant sources (classical stories, Indian tales) through Italian channels. Without the pressure of
copyright, writers and playwrights of the time had no urge to invent new stories and could freely use
and adapt old material to their own texts. The sources used were various and diverse, but the most
common were the complete novelle collection of Boccaccio, Bandello and Giraldi, the chivalric
romance cycles (such as Ariostos Orlando Furioso), translated by John Harrington in 1591. All of these
narratives were outgrowths of longer traditions, with roots in the classics Homer, Ovid, Apuleius,
Heliodorus, Achilles Tatius and in folktales from as far away as India, transmitted in the Gesta Romanorum,
hagiographies, and various other forms. (Louise George Clubb, The Cambridge Companion to
Shakespeares Comedies, CCSC)
As far as the theatre tradition was concerned, many plays circulated in print or were played at
different European courts. The Italian comedy had already disseminated a variety of forms: farces,
satires, romantic courtship plays of revelation, pastoral plays. Professional companies that would be
called commedia dellarte were touring Europe, especially France and Spain and Shakespeare may have
had access to printed plays or accounts of such plays from the Italians in London. To pinpoint exactly
the Italianate influence in each and every play is a difficult task. But we can mention the fact that
many are set in Italy, and are drawn from Italian sources, from the classical writers to Renaissance
writers.
C.
The third very rich source of inspiration for Shakespeares plays, employed not only in
comedies, but also in histories and tragedies is the English popular tradition. This source is
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extremely varied drawing on popular festivities during the year as well as court festivities. Jeanette
Dillon (CCSC) notes that the use of the festive tradition becomes a subtle and effective means of generic
subversion and reconstruction especially when it is employed in histories and tragedies, such as
Richard III, Hamlet or King Lear.
Popular festivities as well as Court festivities were a large source of influence for Shakespeare.
The year was divided into two halves, the winter festivities that were mostly connected to religious
ceremonies, and corresponding to many Court forms of entertainment such as the revels of winter,
the twelve days of Christmas or the garter ceremony. During the summer, the festivities connected to
agricultural cycles abounded. These had pagan influences and were closer to nature rituals. During
the summer, the Court toured the provinces and this was the occasion for various city and country
festivals. Added to these, there were the occasional feasts and celebrations, such as royal weddings,
baptisms or funerals.
Of great influence for Shakespeare were the green world and popular festivities:
Pagan, ritualized vision of a traditional green world with its hunting rites and grounds, chance or
sporting games, and its utopian or topsy-turvy scenarios. The green world was regarded as a place of
escape from the constraints of the law and from everyday life, a place of change (of gender or of identity or
both) and deep interior transformation where the contact with nature and old custom provided a form
of content and fulfillment, pagan, ritualized vision of a traditional green world with its hunting rites and
grounds, chance or sporting games, and its utopian or topsy-turvy scenarios. The green world was
regarded as a place of escape from the constraints of the law and from everyday life, a place of change (of
gender or of identity or both) and deep interior transformation where the contact with nature and old
custom provided a form of content and fulfillment. (Jeanette Dillon, CCSC)
The forest is seen as an alternative to a corrupted and treacherous world, a place were the society can
be regenerated, and where the banished can find a place of hiding and salvation till the world is
regenerated, as it is a clear case in A Midsummer Nights Dream and As You Like It. The function of the
festive element is to trigger and emotional release and create an atmosphere of joyful liberation in the face of
an archaic moral order or tyranny. (CCSC)
2.2.
CONVENTIONS, THEMES, CHARACTERS
According to the Classic tradition, the main theme of a comedy is love. Shakespeares comedies
usually involve love issues, lovers won and lost, change of identities, attempts to avoid unjust
marriages. Love, therefore, triggers the process of growing up of the young into adulthood, and their
breaking up with the authority of their parents or that of the elders. This is the reason why John
McEvoy considers that one common theme in Shakespeares comedies is the JOURNEY, the passage
of the young woman or man from innocence/ virginity to marriage. Therefore, the comedies often
involve a series of obstacles that the young lovers need to cross before becoming united with the
loved ones. Portia (The Merchant of Venice) needs to pass through a strange ritual imposed by her
father through which the one she is supposed to marry has to choose from three caskets. Similarly,
Hermia (A Midsummer Nights Dream) is forced, by her father, to marry Demetrius, and so she decides
to run into the woods with her lover, Lysander.
The comedy, therefore, starts with trouble, misfortune, sometimes unjust and cruel laws, threats
of punishment, even threats of death. The Comedy of Errors begins with the unjust law of punishing
Syracusians by death, and the entire play, centered on two sets of twins that are supposed to meet,
but only manage to get into more trouble, becomes even more pressing, since the time lost by them
brings their father closer to death. In The Merchant of Venice, the threat of the strange deal between
Shylock and Antonio looms over the play. In As You Like It the real Dukes place is usurped by his
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brother who, in the end, is rumored to have gathered an army against him, whereas, in the double
plot, a older brother plans to kill his younger brother. The same threat of betrayal and murder is
sensed in Much Ado About Nothing, where Don John plots against his brother Don Pedro, prince of
Aragon and he manages to convince Claudio and the Duke that Claudios lover, Hero, had been
unfaithful. All these complications caused by Don Johns plotting may easily lead to tragedy, since
Hero is slandered and rejected and her friends devise a plot similar to that in Romeo and Juliet.
Therefore, there may be a direct obstacle against the love of the young (like a parent), or a more
serious plot, touching politics and state affairs. This is the point, actually, that unites comedies to
tragedies, and, at any moment, the comedy may turn into a tragedy, the final reconciliation, the
exposure, the betterment or the repentance of the culprit making the difference between happy
endings and destructions. So, the main theme of comedies is, quite often, the challenge of authority,
usually that represented by parents whose choice of spouses is different from the love of the young
ones, but it is sometimes doubled by political plots that make the situation more serious.
But there are also the cases in which the lovers themselves set obstacles in the path of their own
love, refusing the feeling, being reluctant to reveal their love or mocking love altogether. Love
changes people, they become metamorphosed or translated, they forget who they are and start
behaving in ways that are unnatural to their nature. Sometimes, they are charmed into loving the
wrong lover: thus, Proteus, previously in love with Julia, falls in love with his friends beloved Silvia,
just by witnessing their love. Hermia, Lysander, Helena and Demetrius (A Midsummer Nights Dream)
are bewitched into deserting the loved one and loving somebody else, just as Titania, the Queen of
the Fairies, is charmed to fall in love with the weaver Bottom, bewitched to have the head of an ass.
Some fall in love with the wrong person while being loved by somebody else: Silvius loves Phoebe
who falls in love with Ganymede/ Rosalind in As You Like It and Olivia falls in love with
Cesario/Viola (Twelfth Night). In Shakespeares comedies, lovers are often separated, deserted,
mistreated; they have to pass through obstacles, interdictions and misfortunes. Therefore, they often
run away (the lovers in A Midsummer Nights Dream, Valentine in The Two Gentlemen of Verona), are
banished (Rosalind in As You Like It), pretend to be dead to win again the heart of their lovers (Much
Ado about Nothing), are tricked (Don Johns plan against Hero and Claudio in Much Ado about Nothing)
or ill-treated (Katherine in The Taming of the Shrew).
These obstacles, problems and misfortunes often require for the lovers to change their identities:
Valentine becomes the leader of a group of criminals (The Two Gentlemen of Verona), the men in love
with Bianca try to devise a plan to enter her house as teachers and trick her father (The Taming of the
Shrew), women change their identities or disguise themselves as men (Portia and Jessica in The
Merchant of Venice, Julia in The Two Gentlemen of Verona, Rosalind in As You Like It, or Viola in Twelfth
Night). These changes often create further complications, as other women fall in love with the women
who disguised themselves as men (Phoebe falls in love with Rosalind/Ganymede in As You Like It,
and Olivia is more interested in Viola / Cesario than in Duke Orsino who loves her, in Twelfth Night).
In this switch of identities, objects become tokens of love or further complicate the situations. There is
often an exchange of love letters, but sometimes, the letters do not directly reach their destinations,
there are rings or necklaces to be given as tokens of love.
These plots often involve journeys (journeys across the sea, into the woods, from one place/
town to the other) at the end of which, the young lovers emerge more experienced. Moreover, at the
end of the journey something happens to make their love socially acceptable, some sort of repentance,
recognition, revealed tokens of love and identities and usually, the comedies end in (multiple)
marriage(s).
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Though there are numerous similarities among the comedies, they are very distinct the one from
the other, the same conventions being used to different end effects and the sources being not only
used, but transformed by Shakespeare to reach further comic effects, on the one hand, but also open
the way to meditation and debate. Loves Labours Lost, for instance, is considered one of the most
courtly and cerebral comedies written by Shakespeare. It begins with the formation of a sort of
aristocratic, male community (the King of Navarre and his followers: Longaville, Dumaine and
Berowne) and they try to dismiss everything connected to sentimentality and love in favor of study
and self-improvement. The presence of Don Adriano de Armado is not only to be read as having
comic effects, but extending, with his linguistic extravagance, the aristocratic community of
academicians. Their efforts are thwarted by the fact that they fall in love with the Princess of France
and her three followers: Rosaline, Maria and Katherine. The ladies, however, plan to trick their
lovers, and they switch their identities among themselves by wearing masks. Unlike other comedies,
though, this does not end in marriage, despite the final revelation of tricks and true identities. The
death of the King of France casts a gloomy shadow over their love and the ladies ask for a year both
to mourn for the death of the king and force their lovers to spend that period of time in hermitage for
having broken their initial vow.
Twelfth Night and A Midsummer Nights Dream can be seen as a sort of festive comedies,
connected to the festivities during the year. A Midsummer Nights Dream recalls the pagan festivities
that are usually associated with the summer solstice. These practices, involving superstitions and
magic, are connected to rituals of fertility, courtship and love. The plot is complex, working on
several levels. The frame is created by the wedding of Theseus with Hippolyta, the Queen of the
Amazons. Within that frame, several plots are presented and intertwined. Firstly, there is the plot of
the four Athenian lovers: Helena forced by her father and by Theseus to marry Demetrius, while she
is in love with Lysander, decides to run away into the forest, followed by her friend Helena who
loves Demetrius, but is despised by him. Things are complicated by Puck who, instead of following
Oberons orders and help the lovers, makes a mistake and charms Lysander, instead of Demetrius, to
fall in love with Helena, to the despair of Hermia. The magic realm in the play is represented by
Oberon, King of the Fairies and Titania, Queen of the Fairies, who are fighting over an orphan
desired by both as a page. Puck, the mischievous spirit, charms Titania, under Oberons orders, to fall
in love with the first creature she sees. Thus, a third plot is intertwined, represented by a group of
people who want to present a play for the royal wedding. One of them, Bottom, is charmed to wear a
head of an ass, being the first person Titania sees and falls in love with. At the end of the play, charms
are reversed, and the Athenian lovers as well as Bottom return to the city reunited and believing that
what happened in the woods had been a midsummer nights dream. At the end, after hearing the
tedious play of the guildsmen, the couples are married, blessed by the fairies, who are reconciled and
reunited as well. However, upon their return to the city, the wonders of the forest are dismissed in a
rational disbelief and dismissal of the irrational, the woods being seen as a space that eludes the
authority of reason, a space of confusion, deception and madness, the authority of the father (Egeus)
and of the King.
Twelfth Night, unlike A Midsummer Nights Dream, does not make a direct reference to any
festivities, however, the title refers to the Court winter revels, especially the twelve days of
Christmas, ending with the Epiphany (the Twelfth Night). The reference to Twelfth Night invokes the
climactic moment of the festive season, a work-free period of licensed misrule given over to music, dancing,
feasting and drinking in which, in imagination, at least, masters and servants may trade places, exchanges of
identity, disguise and cross-dressing become temporarily permissible, and in which scapegoats are targeted.
(R. Shaughnessy). The play is set in the imaginary dukedom of Illyria, and its beginning is marked by
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sadness and melancholy: Olivia mourns the death of her brother just as Viola mourns the presumed
death of her own brother lost in a shipwreck. After confused identities, separated twins or switched
lovers and confusion, harmony and unity are restored and couples are formed. A secondary plot, in
keeping with the festive time of the Twelfth Night, is centered on the serious and killjoy steward
Malvolio, who becomes the target of a cruel prank devised by Sir Toby and his merry friends
exposing Malvolios secret love for Olivia, his ambition and hypocrisy.
As You Like It is another very complicated play that intertwines the love plots with the very
serious and dangerous political schemes. The space is divided again between the city and the woods,
the city being a place of treason and danger, represented by both the banishment of the rightful duke
and Olivers plan to get rid of his younger brother. The woods, the hiding place of the Duke, become,
at least temporarily, a safe harbour for runaways, a place of ease and tranquility, but also of love
confusion and switched identities. At the end of the play, the several levels are united by multiple
marriages, from the upper layer: the Dukes daughter Rosalinde and Orlando, his brother, Oliver,
and the Dukes niece Celia, thus solving the political, as well as the family conflict, to the lower: the
shepherd Silvius and Phoebe, as well as Touchstone and Audrey. The danger posed by the usurper is
miraculously solved off-stage and the Duke finally returns to his rightful position and to his court.
These comedies also allow for meditations upon theatre and life. Starting with The Taming of the
Shrew, which is actually presented as a play performed in front of a simpleton Sly on whom a Lord
plays a trick, many other plays display comments on theatre. In A Midsummer Nights Dream, for
instance, there is the unsuccessful play of the guildsmen that, besides causing the audiences to laugh,
points out, through the exaggerated care of the plays creators, the dangers posed by authority. The
players are very cautious with their act, especially Pyramus killing himself and the roar of the lion
which may frighten the ladies causing a severe punishment (That would hang us, every mothers
son (I, 2)). Though there is an exaggerated fear of punishment, the players concerns reveal the
uneasiness of authority regarding theatrical performance. In As You Like It, Jaques gives voice to one
of the most famous meditations on life in Shakespeares plays
In conclusion, Shakespeares comedies, though drawing on the existing comic traditions, deal
with more serious issues and defying the convention to which they belong.

SHAKESPEARES COMEDIES
Examples
TEXT 1
TOUCHSTONE When a man's verses cannot be understood, nor a
man's good wit seconded with the forward child
Understanding, it strikes a man more dead than a
great reckoning in a little room. Truly, I would
the gods had made thee poetical.
AUDREY I do not know what 'poetical' is: is it honest in
deed and word? is it a true thing?
TOUCHSTONE No, truly; for the truest poetry is the most
feigning; and lovers are given to poetry, and what
they swear in poetry may be said as lovers they do feign.
AUDREY Do you wish then that the gods had made me poetical?
TOUCHSTONE I do, truly; for thou swearest to me thou art
honest: now, if thou wert a poet, I might have some
hope thou didst feign.
AUDREY Would you not have me honest?
TOUCHSTONE No, truly, unless thou wert hard-favoured; for
honesty coupled to beauty is to have honey a sauce to sugar. (As You Like It, III, 3)
TEXT 2
FERDINAND [Reads] 'So it is, besieged with sable-coloured
melancholy, I did commend the black-oppressing humour
to the most wholesome physic of thy health-giving
air; and, as I am a gentleman, betook myself to
walk. The time when. About the sixth hour; when
beasts most graze, birds best peck, and men sit down
to that nourishment which is called supper: so much
for the time when. Now for the ground which; which,
I mean, I walked upon: it is y-cleped thy park. Then
for the place where; where, I mean, I did encounter
that obscene and preposterous event, that draweth
from my snow-white pen the ebon-coloured ink, which
here thou viewest, beholdest, surveyest, or seest;
but to the place where; it standeth north-north-east
and by east from the west corner of thy curiousknotted garden: there did I see that low-spirited
swain, that base minnow of thy mirth,' (Loves Labours Lost, I, 1)
TEXT 3
MOTH
[Aside to COSTARD] They have been at a great feast
of languages, and stolen the scraps.
COSTARD
O, they have lived long on the alms-basket of words.
I marvel thy master hath not eaten thee for a word;
for thou art not so long by the head as
honorificabilitudinitatibus: thou art easier
swallowed than a flap-dragon. (Loves Labours Lost, V, 1)
TEXT 4
CHARLES
There's no news at the court, sir, but the old news:
that is, the old duke is banished by his younger

brother the new duke; and three or four loving lords

have put themselves into voluntary exile with him,
whose lands and revenues enrich the new duke;
therefore he gives them good leave to wander. (As You Like It, I, 1)
TEXT 5
DUKE SENIOR
Now, my co-mates and brothers in exile,
Hath not old custom made this life more sweet
Than that of painted pomp? Are not these woods
More free from peril than the envious court?
Here feel we but the penalty of Adam,
The seasons' difference, as the icy fang
And churlish chiding of the winter's wind,
Which, when it bites and blows upon my body,
Even till I shrink with cold, I smile and say

'This is no flattery: these are counsellors

That feelingly persuade me what I am.'
Sweet are the uses of adversity,
Which, like the toad, ugly and venomous,
Wears yet a precious jewel in his head;
And this our life exempt from public haunt
Finds tongues in trees, books in the running brooks,
Sermons in stones and good in every thing.
I would not change it. (As You Like It, II, 1)

TEXT 6
Ber. And I
Forsooth, in love! I, that have been love's whip;
A very beadle to a humorous sigh;
A critic, nay, a night-watch constable,
A domineering pedant o'er the boy,
Than whom no mortal so magnificent!
This wimpled, whining, purblind, wayward boy,
This senior-junior, giant-dwarf, Dan Cupid;
Regent of love-rimes, lord of folded arms,
The anointed sovereign of sighs and groans,
Liege of all loiterers and malecontents,
Dread prince of plackets, king of codpieces,
Sole imperator and great general
Of trotting 'paritors: O my little heart!
And I to be a corporal of his field,
And wear his colours like a tumbler's hoop.
What I! I love! I sue! I seek a wife!

A woman that is like a German clock,

Still a-repairing, ever out of frame,
And never going aright, being a, watch,
But being watch'd that it may still go right
Nay, to be perjur'd, which is worst of all;
And, among three, to love the worst of all;
A wightly wanton with a velvet brow,
With two pitch balls stuck in her face for eyes;
Ay, and, by heaven, one that will do the deed
Though Argus were her eunuch and her guard:
And I to sigh for her! to watch for her!
To pray for her! Go to; it is a plague
That Cupid will impose for my neglect
Of his almighty dreadful little might.
Well, I will love, write, sigh, pray, sue, and groan:
Some men must love my lady, and some Joan.
[Exit.] (Loves Labours Lost, III, 1)

TEXT 7
Pro. He after honour hunts, I after love:
He leaves his friends to dignify them more;
I leave myself, my friends and all, for love.
Thou, Julia, thou hast metamorphos'd me;
Made me neglect my studies, lose my time,
War with good counsel, set the world at
nought;
Made wit with musing weak, heart sick with
thought. (The Two Gentlemen of Verona, Act I, scene 1)
TEXT 8
Val. Why, how know you that I am in love?
Speed. Marry, by these special marks: first,
you have learned, like Sir Proteus, to wreathe
your arms, like a malecontent; to relish a lovesong, like a robin-redbreast; to walk alone, like
one that had the pestilence; to sigh, like a
schoolboy that had lost his A B C; to weep, like
a young wench that had buried her grandam;

to fast, like one that takes diet; to watch, like

one that fears robbing; to speak puling, like a
beggar at Hallowmas. You were wont, when
you laughed, to crow like a cock; when you
walked, to walk like one of the lions; when you
fasted, it was presently after dinner; when you
looked sadly, it was for want of money; and now
you are metamorphosed with a mistress, that,
when I look on you, I can hardly think you my
master.
Val. Are all these things perceived in me?
Speed. They are all perceived without ye.
Val. Without me? they cannot.
Speed. Without you? nay, that's certain;
for, without you were so simple, none else would:
but you are so without these follies, that these
follies are within you and shine through you
like the water in an urinal, that not an eye that
sees you but is a physician to comment on your
malady. (The Two Gentlemen of Verona, Act II, scene 1)
TEXT 9
Hip. 'Tis strange, my Theseus, that these
lovers speak of.
The. More strange than true. I never may
believe
These antique fables, nor these fairy toys.
Lovers and madmen have such seething brains,
Such shaping fantasies, that apprehend
More than cool reason ever comprehends.
The lunatic, the lover, and the poet,
Are of imagination all compact:
One sees more devils than vast hell can hold,
That is, the madman; the lover, all as frantic;
Sees Helen's beauty in a brow of Egypt:
The poet's eye, in a fine frenzy rolling,
Doth glance from heaven to earth, from earth to
heaven;
And, as imagination bodies forth
The forms of things unknown, the poet's pen
Turns them to shapes, and gives to airy nothing
A local habitation and a name.
Such tricks hath strong imagination,
That, if it would but apprehend some joy,
It comprehends some bringer of that joy;
Or in the night, imagining some fear,
How easy is a bush suppos'd a bear!
Hip. But all the story of the night told over,
And all their minds transfigur'd so together,
More witnesseth than fancy's images,
And grows to something of great constancy,
But, howsoever, strange and admirable. (A Midsummer
Nights Dream, Act V, scene 1).

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TEXT 10
Mar. The devil a puritan that he is, or anything constantly but a time-pleaser; an affectioned ass, that cons state without book, and
utters it by great swarths: the best persuaded
of himself; so crammed, as he thinks, with
excellences, that it is his ground of faith that
all that look on him love him; and on that
vice in him will my revenge find notable cause
to work. (Twelfth Night, Act II, scene 3)
TEXT 11
DUKE SENIOR
Thou seest we are not all alone unhappy:
This wide and universal theatre
Presents more woeful pageants than the scene
Wherein we play in.
JAQUES
All the world's a stage,
And all the men and women merely players:
They have their exits and their entrances;
And one man in his time plays many parts,
His acts being seven ages. At first the infant,
Mewling and puking in the nurse's arms.
And then the whining school-boy, with his satchel
And shining morning face, creeping like snail
Unwillingly to school. And then the lover,
Sighing like furnace, with a woeful ballad
Made to his mistress' eyebrow. Then a soldier,
Full of strange oaths and bearded like the pard,
Jealous in honour, sudden and quick in quarrel,
Seeking the bubble reputation
Even in the cannon's mouth. And then the justice,
In fair round belly with good capon lined,
With eyes severe and beard of formal cut,
Full of wise saws and modern instances;
And so he plays his part. The sixth age shifts
Into the lean and slipper'd pantaloon,
With spectacles on nose and pouch on side,
His youthful hose, well saved, a world too wide
For his shrunk shank; and his big manly voice,
Turning again toward childish treble, pipes
And whistles in his sound. Last scene of all,
That ends this strange eventful history,
Is second childishness and mere oblivion,
Sans teeth, sans eyes, sans taste, sans everything. (As You Like It, II, 7 )

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