| Consider what you first did swear unto,
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| To fast, to study, and to see no woman
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| But here’s the trick: it’s flat treason
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| against the kingly state of youth
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| Your stomachs are too young to fast,
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| and abstinence will make you sick
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| We made a vow to study lords, and
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| in that vow we have forsworn our books,
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| We’ve lost the war
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| For when would you, or you, or you
|
| have ever found such words in books
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| as the poems you’ve sang before for love?
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| What is a vow except to be broken?
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| What is an oath except to be unspoken?
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| What is contract but a meaningless token?
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| Are you a man or just the plan your parents made?
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| Are you a man or just a flannel suit waiting to get paid?
|
| Are you a man or just some Bran Flakes and another inside trade?
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| Love courses swift as thought
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| in every power,
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| and gives to every power,
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| a double power,
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| A lover’s eye will gaze an eagle blind,
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| A lover’s ear will hear the lowest sound
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| Are you a man or just a Xanax and a bleeding ulcer?
|
| Are you a man or just a fantasy football girl-repulser?
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| Are you a man and can you learn to see, |
| That women are the arts, the books, the academes
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| That teach and show and nourish all the world?
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| Then fools you were!
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| These women to forswear or keeping,
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| What is sworn you will prove fools!
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| For wisdom’s sake, a word that all men love,
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| Or for love’s sake, a word that loves all men,
|
| Or for men’s sake, the authors of these women,
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| Or for women’s sake, by whom we men are men!
|
| (All)
|
| Are you a man
|
| (Longaville)
|
| or just a can of old ideas and words?
|
| (All)
|
| Are you a man
|
| (Dumaine)
|
| or just a channel playing Revenge of the Nerds?
|
| (All)
|
| Are you a man
|
| (Berowne)
|
| or just an MBA candidate who followed the herd?
|
| (Speaking)
|
| (Longaville)
|
| Shall we resolve to woo these girls?
|
| (Dumaine)
|
| And win them too!
|
| (Berowne)
|
| Let us do as brave Armado would,
|
| (King)
|
| Yes, we’ll devise some European entertainment to make them ours!
|
| (Singing)
|
| (All)
|
| Love is learning,
|
| And the heart and brain are one,
|
| Love is learning,
|
| And before this night is done,
|
| (Speaking)
|
| (Berowne)
|
| Away, away! |
| By dawn we will with some strange performance solace them, |
| (Dumaine)
|
| With music!
|
| (King)
|
| Dance!
|
| (Longaville)
|
| Disguises and merry hours!
|
| (Berowne)
|
| Forerun fair Love, strewing her way with flowers!
|
| (Singing)
|
| (Armado, in Spanish)
|
| Pues, ¿sos un hombre o sólo haces lo que tus papas te dicen?
|
| (English: Well, are you a man or do you only do what your parents tell you?)
|
| (Speaking)
|
| (King)
|
| Armado, conduct the women hither for a show!
|
| (Berowne)
|
| But do stay for one more !
|
| (Singing)
|
| (All)
|
| Let’s lose our oaths to find ourselves,
|
| Not lose ourselves to keep our oaths,
|
| We’ll learn to love our ladies, then
|
| Our learning will surely make us men!
|
| (At the same time)
|
| (Berowne and King)
|
| Are you a man or just the plan your parents made?
|
| Are you a man or just a flannel suit waiting to get paid?
|
| Are you a man or just some Bran Flakes and another inside trade?
|
| (Longaville)
|
| Let’s lose our oaths to find ourselves,
|
| Not lose ourselves to keep our oaths,
|
| We’ll learn to love our ladies, then
|
| (Dumaine and Armado)
|
| What is a vow except to be broken?
|
| What is an oath except to be unspoken? |
| What is contract but a meaningless token?
|
| (All)
|
| Let’s lose our oaths to find ourselves,
|
| Not lose ourselves to keep our oaths,
|
| We’ll learn to love our ladies, then
|
| Our learning will surely make us men! |