Arm. Thy meaning, pretty ingenious? Is not lead a metal heavy, dull, and slow? Moth. Minimè, honest master; or rather, master, no. Arm. I say, lead is slow. Moth. You are too swift, sir, to say so. Is that lead slow which is fired from a gun? Arm. Sweet smoke of rhetoric! He reputes me a cannon; and the bullet, that's he. I shoot thee at the swain. Moth. Thump then, and I flee. [Exit. Arm. A most acute juvenal; voluble and free of grace! By thy favor, sweet welkin, I must sigh in thy face. Re-enter MoтH and COSTARD. Moth. A wonder, master; here's a Costard1 broken in a shin. Arm. Some enigma, some riddle. 3 l'envoy; 2-begin. Come,-thy Cost. No egma, no riddle, no l'envoy; no salve in the mail, sir. O, sir, plantain, a plain plantain; no l'envoy, no l'envoy, no salve, sir, but a plantain ! Arm. By virtue, thou enforcest laughter; thy silly thought, my spleen; the heaving of my lungs provokes me to ridiculous smiling. O, pardon me, my stars! Doth the inconsiderate take salve for l'envoy, and the word, l'envoy, for a salve? 1 i. e. a head; a name adopted from an apple shaped like a man's head. It must have been a common sort of apple, as it gave a name to the dealers in apples who were called costar-mongers. 2 An old French term for concluding verses, which served either to convey the moral, or to address the poem to some person. 3 A mail or male was a budget, wallet, or portmanteau. Costard, mistaking enigma, riddle, and l'envoy for names of salves, objects to the application of any salve in the budget, and cries out for a plantain leaf. There is a quibble upon salve and salvé, a word with which it was not unusual to conclude epistles, &c., and which therefore was a kind of l'envoy. Moth. Do the wise think them other? l'envoy a salve? Is not Arm. No, page; it is an epilogue or discourse, to make plain Some obscure precedence that hath tofore been sain. I will example it. The fox, the ape, and the humble-bee, Were still at odds, being but three. There's the moral; now the l'envoy. Moth. I will add the l'envoy. Say the moral again. Arm. The fox, the ape, and the humble-bee, Were still at odds, being but three. Moth. Until the goose came out of door, And stayed the odds by adding four. Now will I begin your moral, and do you follow with my l'envoy. The fox, the ape, and the humble-bee, Were still at odds, being but three. Arm. Until the goose came out of door, Staying the odds by adding four. Moth. A good l'envoy, ending in the goose. Would desire more? you Cost. The boy hath sold him a bargain, a goose ; that's flat. Sir, your pennyworth is good, an your goose be fat.— To sell a bargain well, is as cunning as fast and loose. Let me see a fat l'envoy; ay, that's a fat goose. Arm. Come hither, come hither. How did this argument begin? Moth. By saying that a Costard was broken in a shin. Then called you for the l'envoy. Cost. True, and I for a plantain; thus came your argument in. Then the boy's fat l'envoy, the goose that you bought; And he ended the market.1 Arm. But tell me ; how was there a Costard broken in a shin? Alluding to the proverb, "Three women and a goose make a market.” 2 See p. 102, note 1. Moth. I will tell you sensibly. Cost. Thou hast no feeling of it, Moth; I will speak that l'envoy. I, Costard, running out, that was safely within, Arm. We will talk no more of this matter. Arm. By my sweet soul, I mean, setting thee at liberty, enfreedoming thy person; thou wert immured, restrained, captivated, bound. Cost. True, true; and now you will be my purgation, and let me loose. Arm. I give thee thy liberty, set thee from durance; and, in lieu thereof, impose on thee nothing but this. Bear this significant to the country maid Jaquenetta. There is remuneration; [Giving him money.] for the best ward of mine honor is, rewarding my dependants. Moth, follow. [Exit. Moth. Like the sequel, I.-Seignior Costard, adieu. Cost. My sweet ounce of man's flesh! My incony 1 Jew! [Exit MOTH. Remuneration! Now will I look to his remuneration. O, that's the Latin word for three farthings: three farthings-remuneration.-What's the price of this inkle? A penny.—No, I'll give you a remuneration. Why, it carries it. Remuneration!-Why, it is a fairer name than French crown. I will never buy and sell out of this word. Enter BIRON. Biron. O, my good knave Costard! exceedingly well met. Cost. Pray you, sir, how much carnation riband may a man buy for a remuneration? Incony or kony, says Warburton, signifies, in the north, fine or delicate. It seems to be substantially the same with canny, a familiar Scotch word. Biron. What is a remuneration? Cost. Marry, sir, half-penny farthing. Biron. O, why, then, three farthings worth of silk. Cost. When would you have it done, sir? Cost. Well, I will do it, sir. Fare you well. Cost. I will come to your worship to-morrow morning. Biron. It must be done this afternoon. slave, it is but this.— The princess comes to hunt here in the park, Hark, When tongues speak sweetly, then they name her name, And Rosaline they call her. Ask for her; And to her white hand see thou do commend This sealed-up counsel. There's thy guerdon; go. [Gives him money. Cost. Guerdon,-O sweet guerdon! better than remuneration; eleven-pence farthing better. Most sweet guerdon !—I will do it, sir, in print.'-Guerdon -remuneration. [Exit. Biron. O! And I, forsooth, in love! I, that have been love's whip; A very beadle to a humorous sigh; A critic; nay, a night-watch constable; A domineering pedant o'er the boy, Than whom no mortal so magnificent! 2 This wimpled, whining, purblind, wayward boy; 1 With the utmost nicety. 2 Magnificent here means glorying, boasting. 3 To wimple is to veil, from guimple (Fr.). Shakspeare means no more than that Cupid was hood-winked. VOL. II. 14 This senior-junior, giant-dwarf, Dan Cupid; Of trotting paritors 2-O my little heart— 4 And wear his colors like a tumbler's hoop! With too pitch balls stuck in her face for eyes, Well, I will love, write, sigh, pray, sue, and groan; 1 Plackets were stomachers. 2 The officers of the spiritual courts who serve citations. 3 It appears from Lord Stafford's Letters, vol. ii. p. 199, that a corporal of the field was employed, as an aid-de-camp is now, "in taking and carrying to and fro the directions of the general, or other higher officers of the field." 4 It was once a mark of gallantry to wear a lady's colors. So in Cynthia's Revels, by Jonson, "despatches his lacquey to her chamber early, to know what her colors are for the day." It appears that a tumbler's hoop was usually dressed out with colored ribands. |