portunate and most serious designs,—and of great import indeed, too;-but let that pass :-for I must tell thee, it will please his grace (by the world) sometime to lean upon my poor shoulder; and with his royal finger, thus, dally with my excrement 2, with my mustachio: but sweet heart, let that pass. By the world, I recount no fable; some certain special honours it pleaseth his greatness to impart to Armado, a soldier, a man of travel, that hath seen the world: but let that pass.-The very all of all is, but, sweet heart, I do implore secrecy,that the king would have me present the princess, sweet chuck, with some delightful ostentation, or show, or pageant, or antick, or fire-work. Now, understanding that the curate and your sweet self, are good at such eruptions, and sudden breaking out of mirth, as it were, I have acquainted you withal, to the end to crave your assistance.

HOL. Sir, you shall present before her the nine worthies. Sir Nathaniel*, as concerning some entertainment of time, some show in the posterior

* Folio and quarto, Sir Holofernes.

and prevented (as I believe) from using the very word which I suppose to have been accidentally omitted here:

"Ham. I beseech you, remember

"Osr. Nay, good my lord, for my ease, in good faith." In the folio copy of this play we find in the next scene : "O, that your face were so full of O's-"

instead of were not so full, &c. MALONE.

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By remember thy courtesy," I suppose Armado means-remember that all this time thou art standing with thy hat off.

2

STEEVENS.

dally with my EXCREMENT,] The author calls the beard valour's excrement in the Merchant of Venice. JOHNSON. 3 chuck,] i. e. chicken; an ancient term of endearment. So, in Macbeth:

"Be innocent of the knowledge, dearest chuck —.”

STEEVENS.

of this day, to be rendered by our assistance,—the king's command, and this most gallant, illustrate, and learned gentleman,-before the princess; I say, none so fit as to present the nine worthies.

NATH. Where will you find men worthy enough to present them?

HOL. Joshua, yourself; myself, or this gallant gentleman, Judas Maccabæus; this swain, because of his great limb or joint, shall pass Pompey the great; the page, Hercules.

ARM. Pardon, sir, error: he is not quantity enough for that worthy's thumb: he is not so big as the end of his club.

HOL. Shall I have audience? he shall present Hercules in minority: his enter and exit shall be strangling a snake; and I will have an apology for that purpose.

MOTH. An excellent device! so, if any of the audience hiss, you may cry well done, Hercules! now thou crushest the snake! that is the way to make an offence gracious; though few have the grace to do it.

ARM. For the rest of the worthies ?-
HOL. I will play three myself.
MOTH. Thrice-worthy gentleman!
ARM. Shall I tell you a thing?

4 myself, or this gallant gentleman,] The old copy hasand this, &c. The correction was made by Mr. Steevens. We ought, I believe, to read in the next line-shall pass for Pompey the great. If the text be right, the speaker must mean that the swain shall, in representing Pompey, surpass him, "because of his great limb." MALONE.

"Shall pass Pompey the great," seems to mean, shall march in the procession for him; walk as his representative.

STEEVENS.

5 to make an offence gracious ;] i. e. to convert an offence against yourselves, into a dramatic propriety. STEEVENS.

HOL. We attend.

ARM. We will have, if this fadge not, an antick. I beseech you, follow.

HOL. Via', goodman Dull! thou hast spoken no word all this while.

DULL. Nor understood none neither, sir.

HOL. Allons! we will employ thee,

DULL. I'll make one in a dance, or so; or I will play on the tabor to the worthies, and let them dance the hay.

HOL. Most dull, honest Dull, to our sport, away, [Exeunt.

SCENE II.

Another part of the Same. Before the Princess's Pavilion.

Enter the Princess, KATHARine, Rosaline, and MARIA.

PRIN, Sweet hearts, we shall be rich ere we depart,

If fairings come thus plentifully in:

A lady wall'd about with diamonds !—

Look you, what I have from the loving king.

Ros. Madam, came nothing else along with that? PRIN. Nothing but this? yes, as much love in rhyme,

As would be cramm'd up in a sheet of paper,
Writ on both sides the leaf, margent and all;

6

-

if this FADGE not,] i. e. suit not, go not, pass not into action. Several instances of the use of this word are given in Twelfth-Night,

Another may be added from Chapman's version of the 22d Iliad:

"This fadging conflict." STEEVENS.

• Via,] An Italian exclamation, signifying, Courage! come on! STEEVENS,

That he was fain to seal on Cupid's name.

Ros. That was the way to make his god-head wax *;

8

For he hath been five thousand years a boy.

KATH. Ay, and a shrewd unhappy gallows too. Ros. You'll ne'er be friends with him; he kill'd your sister.

KATH. He made her melancholy, sad, and heavy;
And so she died: had she been light, like you,
Of such a merry, nimble, stirring spirit,
She might have been a grandam ere she died :
And so may you; for a light heart lives long.
Ros. What's your dark meaning, mouse, of this
light word?

KATH. A light condition in a beauty dark.
Ros. We need more light to find your meaning

out.

KATH. You'll mar the light, by taking it in snuff1;

1

Therefore, I'll darkly end the argument.

Ros. Look, what you do, you do it still i' the dark.

KATH. So do not you; for you are a light wench.

8 -to make his god-head WAX ;] To war anciently signified to grow. It is yet said of the moon, that she waxes and wanes. So, in Drayton's Polyolbion, Song I.:

"I view those wanton brooks that waxing still do wane." Again, in Lyly's Love's Metamorphoses, 1601:

"Men's follies will ever wax, and then what reason can make them wise?"

Again, in the Polyolbion, Song V.:

"The stem shall strongly wax, as still the trunk doth wither." STEEVENS.

9 mouse,] This was a term of endearment formerly. So,

in Hamlet:

I

66

Pinch wanton on your cheek; call you his mouse.”

MALONE.

-taking it IN SNUFF;] Snuff is here used equivocally for anger, and the snuff of a candle. See more instances of this conceit in King Henry IV. P. I. Act I. Sc. III. STEEVENS.

Ros. Indeed, I weigh not you; and therefore

light.

KATH. You weigh me not,-O, that's you care not for me.

Ros. Great reason; for, Past cure is still past care 2

PRIN. Well bandied both; a set of wit 3 well

play'd.

But Rosaline, you have a favour too :

Who sent it? and what is it?

Ros.

I would, you knew:

An if my face were but as fair as yours,

My favour were as great; be witness this.
Nay, I have verses too, I thank Birón:

The numbers true; and, were the numb'ring too,
I were the fairest goddess on the ground:
I am compar'd to twenty thousand fairs.
O, he hath drawn my picture in his letter!
PRIN. Any thing like?

Ros. Much, in the letters; nothing in the praise.
PRIN. Beauteous as ink; a good conclusion.
KATH. Fair as a text B in a copy-book.

Ros. 'Ware pencils! How? let me not die your debtor,

My red dominical, my golden letter:

2

for, Past CURE is still past CARE.] The old copy readspast care is still past cure. The transposition was proposed by Dr. Thirlby, and is supported by a line in King Richard II. : Things past redress are now with me past care."

66

So, also, in a pamphlet entitled Holland's Leaguer, 4to. 1632 : "She had got this adage in her mouth. Things past cure, past care." MALONE.

3 — a SET of wit-] A term from tennis, So, in King Henry V.:

66

66

play a set

Shall strike his father's crown into the hazard."

4 'WARE pencils!] The former editions read:

"Were pencils

STEEVENS.