The preyful princess pierc'd and prick'd a pretty pleasing pricket;

Some say a sore, but not a sore till now made sore

with shooting.

The dogs did yell; put L to sore, then sorel jumps from thicket,

Or pricket sore, or else sorel; the people fall a-hoot

ing.

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If sore be sore, then L to sore makes fifty sores,- 0

sore L!

Of one sore I an hundred make by adding but one

more L.

Nathaniel. A rare talent.

Dull. [Aside] If a talent be a claw, look how he claws him with a talent.

Holofernes. This is a gift that I have, simple, simple; a foolish extravagant spirit, full of forms, figures, shapes, objects, ideas, apprehensions, motions, revolutions. These are begot in the ventricle of memory, nourished in the womb of pia mater, and delivered upon the mellowing of occasion. But the gift is good in those in whom it is acute, and I am thankful for it.

and so

Nathaniel. Sir, I praise the Lord for you; may my parishioners, for their sons are well tutored by you, and their daughters profit very greatly under you. You are a good member of the commonwealth.

Holofernes. Mehercle, if their sons be ingenuous, they shall want no instruction; if their daughters be

73

capable, I will put it to them. But vir sapit qui pauca loquitur; a soul feminine saluteth us.

Enter JAQUENETTA and COSTARD

Jaquenetta. God give you good morrow, master Person.

Holofernes. Master Person, quasi pers-on. An if one should be pierced, which is the one?

Costard. Marry, master schoolmaster, he that is likest to a hogshead.

Holofernes. Piercing a hogshead! a good lustre of conceit in a turf of earth; fire enough for a flint, pearl enough for a swine. "T is pretty; it is well.

Jaquenetta. Good master Person, be so good as read me this letter. It was given me by Costard, and sent me from Don Armado; I beseech you, read it.

Holofernes. Fauste, precor gelida quando pecus omne sub umbra Ruminat, —and so forth. Ah, good old Mantuan! I may speak of thee as the traveller doth of Venice:

Venetia, Venetia,

Chi non ti vede non ti pretia.

Old Mantuan, old Mantuan ! who understandeth thee not loves thee not. Ut, re, sol, la, mi, fa.

Under

pardon, sir, what are the contents? or rather, as Horace says in his What, my soul, verses?

Nathaniel. Ay, sir, and very learned.

81

90

100

Holofernes. Let me hear a staff, a stanza, a verse; lege, domine.

Nathaniel. [Reads]

'If love make me forsworn, how shall I swear to love? Ah, never faith could hold, if not to beauty vow'd! Though to myself forsworn, to thee I'll faithful prove ; Those thoughts to me were oaks, to thee like osiers bow'd.

III

Study his bias leaves and makes his book thine eyes, Where all those pleasures live that art would comprehend;

If knowledge be the mark, to know thee shall suffice. Well learned is that tongue that well can thee commend,

All ignorant that soul that sees thee without wonder,

Which is to me some praise that I thy parts admire. Thy eye Jove's lightning bears, thy voice his dreadful thunder,

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Which, not to anger bent, is music and sweet fire. Celestial as thou art, O, pardon love this wrong, That sings heaven's praise with such an earthly tongue.' Holofernes. You find not the apostrophas, and so miss the accent; let me supervise the canzonet. Here are only numbers ratified; but, for the elegancy, facility, and golden cadence of poesy, caret. Ovidius Naso was the man; and why, indeed, Naso, but for smelling out the odoriferous flowers of fancy, the jerks of invention? Imitari is nothing; so doth the hound his master, the ape his keeper, the tired LOVE'S LABOUR-6

horse his rider. But, damosella virgin, was this

directed to you?

Jaquenetta. Ay, sir, from one Monsieur Biron, one of the strange queen's lords.

Holofernes. I will overglance the superscript:' To the snow-white hand of the most beauteous Lady Rosaline.' I will look again on the intellect of the letter, for the nomination of the party writing to the person written unto: 'Your ladyship's in all desired employment, Biron.' Sir Nathaniel, this Biron is one of the votaries with the king; and here he hath framed a letter to a sequent of the stranger queen's, which accidentally, or by the way of progression, hath miscarried. -Trip and go, my sweet, deliver this paper into the royal hand of the king; it may concern much. Stay not thy compliment; I forgive thy duty. Adieu.

Jaquenetta. Good Costard, go with me. Sir, God save your life!

Costard. Have with thee, my girl.

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146

[Exeunt Costard and Jaquenetta. Nathaniel. Sir, you have done this in the fear of God, very religiously; and, as a certain father saith,

Holofernes. Sir, tell not me of the father; I do fear colourable colours. But to return to the verses, did they please you, Sir Nathaniel?

Nathaniel. Marvellous well for the pen.

Holofernes. I do dine to-day at the father's of a

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certain pupil of mine, where, if, before repast, it shall please you to gratify the table with a grace, I will, on my privilege I have with the parents of the foresaid child or pupil, undertake your ben venuto; where I will prove those verses to be very unlearned, neither savouring of poetry, wit, nor invention. I beseech

your society.

164 Nathaniel. And thank you too; for society, saith the text, is the happiness of life.

Holofernes. And, certes, the text most infallibly concludes it. [To Dull] Sir, I do invite you too; you shall not say me nay; pauca verba. - Away! the gentles are at their game, and we will to our recreation.

-

[Exeunt.

SCENE III. The Same

Enter BIRON, with a paper.

Biron. The king he is hunting the deer; I am coursing myself. They have pitched a toil; I am toiling in a pitch, - pitch that defiles. Defile! a foul word. Well, set thee down, Sorrow! for so they say the fool said, and so say I, and ay the fool. Well proved, wit! By the Lord, this love is as mad as Ajax! it kills sheep; it kills me, ay, a sheep. Well proved again o' my side! I will not love; if I do, hang me; i' faith, I will not. O, but her eye, — by this light, but for her eye, I would not love her; yes, for 10