us nor Berowne, who appears to be a more realistic appraiser of the state of their "sport" than Mr.

Arthos: "That's too long for a play."³⁷

The ostensible reason for aborting the conventional coda at the end of his courtly entertain-

ment Shakespeare makes clear enough.

Totally unexpectedly, "The scene begins to cloud"³⁸

when a new character, Marcade, informs the Princess of the sudden death of the King of France.
With this unprepared-for injection of a note of seriousness, of mortality, the ungenerous sabotag-
ing of the Pageant of the Nine Worthies and the battle of the sexes may not continue. Driven by
her "new-sad soul"³⁹the Princess immediately orders her retinue to prepare for their return to
France that night, which allows for enough time to make their apologies and say their good-byes,

though not enough "time, methinks, .../ To make a world-without-end bargain in."⁴⁰

Though temporarily checked in its progress, we might have been inclined to agree with John
Arthos, that "the happy outcome is certain, and love and long life ...define the happy prospect,"

were it not for the Princess' additional comments:

We have received your letters, full of love;

Your favors, the ambassadors of love;

And in our maiden council rated them

At courtship, pleasant jest, and courtesy,

As bombast and as lining of the time.⁴¹

And while she graciously concedes that

But more devout than this in our respects

Have we not been, and therefore met your loves

In their own fashion, like a merriment,⁴²

the Princess and her ladies do not call it an even trade; instead, they each in turn challenge their
suitors to redeem themselves by undertaking rather impossible services over the next twelve
month, or abandon all hopes of ever winning their loves. Though the men gamely promise to ac-
cept the terms, we should have our doubts concerning their prospects, for the tasks appear to be so

disproportionately severe as to fit the crimes of a Volpone.
Apparently, the women consider the men guilty of something more serious than we have identi-
fied so far. True, Navarre and his bookmen have broken their initial oath, when converting from
men "That war against . . .[their] own affections"⁴³into "affection's men-at-arms"⁴⁴. Yet, while

37_LLL.V.ii.876
38_{(LLL.V.ii.720.}
39_{(LLL.V.ii.729,}
40_{(LLL.V.ii.787-8.}
41_{(LLL.V.ii.775-9)}
42_{LLL.V.ii.780-2}
43_{LLL. I.i.9}
44_{LLL.IV.iii.287.}

cpb@gac.edu: CRC 98 Paper

9

January, 1998