{"id":4449,"date":"2015-04-09T22:10:40","date_gmt":"2015-04-10T02:10:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/stateofshakespeare.com\/?page_id=4449"},"modified":"2015-04-09T22:10:40","modified_gmt":"2015-04-10T02:10:40","slug":"loves-labors-won-prologue","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/stateofshakespeare.com\/?page_id=4449","title":{"rendered":"Love’s Labor’s Won: Prologue"},"content":{"rendered":"

Love’s Labor’s Won. \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 Prologue. \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0War<\/strong><\/p>\n

This text is featured in our interview with Scott Kaiser<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Click here for a scanned version<\/a>.<\/p>\n

WAR<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Nay, do not run\u2014for thou dost know me well;<\/li>\n
  2. Though now my clothes are torn, and my grim visage<\/li>\n
  3. Arrayed in blood. \u2019Twas only four years since<\/li>\n
  4. That thou didst take my hand and welcome me.<\/li>\n
  5. Why, is not this the very place that thou<\/li>\n
  6. Didst fold me in thy open arms, and kissed<\/li>\n
  7. My rosy cheeks, and praised my bearing much,<\/li>\n
  8. Swearing oaths and waving flags as I marched by?<\/li>\n
  9. And dost thou now not know me? O for shame!<\/li>\n
  10. Why, thou didst polish bright my silver buttons,<\/li>\n
  11. And sharpen my worn sword, and fill my purse<\/li>\n
  12. With borrowed gold and new-collected treasure.<\/li>\n
  13. And dost thou now not recognize my face?<\/li>\n
  14. I am war, the pandemonious child<\/li>\n
  15. You once adored, born in the self-same hour,<\/li>\n
  16. And in that same contagious bed whereon<\/li>\n
  17. The last French King commanded his last breath,<\/li>\n
  18. Whose sickness, carried on the wanton breeze,<\/li>\n
  19. Infected intertwined alliances<\/li>\n
  20. As fragile as a widow spider\u2019s web,<\/li>\n
  21. Infesting all the fecund courts of Europe<\/li>\n
  22. With deadly enmity. For four long years<\/li>\n
  23. I\u2019ve toiled for thy glory without rest,<\/li>\n
  24. Deafening sons with my thunderous voice,<\/li>\n
  25. Defiling daughters with my fiery fists,<\/li>\n
  26. Trampling villages with my cruel boots,<\/li>\n
  27. Starving children with my greedy stomach,<\/li>\n
  28. Bereaving fathers with my stony heart,<\/li>\n
  29. Widowing wives with my venomous breath,<\/li>\n
  30. Divorcing bodies from their timeless souls,<\/li>\n
  31. And all in loving and devoted service<\/li>\n
  32. To thy most deep and secretive desires;<\/li>\n
  33. And dost thou now disown me? Call me bastard?<\/li>\n
  34. Spit out my bitter name? Well, \u2019tis no matter:<\/li>\n
  35. I know thou shalt despair when I am gone,<\/li>\n
  36. Which soon may come to pass, for now, alas,<\/li>\n
  37. The fickle coronets of Spain and France<\/li>\n
  38. Do court in Paris, where they woo and dance,<\/li>\n
  39. United by desire to conceive<\/li>\n
  40. A fetal treaty that will banish me<\/li>\n
  41. From out the skirts of these deflower\u2019d lands.<\/li>\n
  42. But what care I if they expel me hence?<\/li>\n
  43. For I\u2019m in great demand on every plot<\/li>\n
  44. Of this contentious ball of wormy earth;<\/li>\n
  45. Pretend then, henceforth, not to know my birth;<\/li>\n
  46. A round or two my labors here shall cease,<\/li>\n
  47. While Time gestates my witless sibling, peace.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

     <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

    Love’s Labor’s Won. \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 Prologue. \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0 \u00a0\u00a0War This text is featured in our interview with Scott Kaiser. Click here for a scanned version. WAR Nay, do not run\u2014for thou dost know me well; Though now my clothes are torn, and my grim visage Arrayed in blood. \u2019Twas<\/p>\n [...]<\/a>","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","template":"","meta":{"_exactmetrics_skip_tracking":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_active":false,"_exactmetrics_sitenote_note":"","_exactmetrics_sitenote_category":0,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-4449","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry","post-seq-1","post-parity-odd","meta-position-line-bottom","fix"],"aioseo_notices":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/P2Frfq-19L","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateofshakespeare.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/4449","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateofshakespeare.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateofshakespeare.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateofshakespeare.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateofshakespeare.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=4449"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/stateofshakespeare.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/4449\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":4563,"href":"https:\/\/stateofshakespeare.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/4449\/revisions\/4563"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateofshakespeare.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=4449"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}