Lord, lord how the ladies and I have put him

down!

O' my troth, most sweet jests! most incony vulgar

wit!

150 it

When it comes so smoothly off, so obscenely, as

were, so fit.

Armatho o' the one side,-O, a most dainty man!
To see him walk before a lady, and to bear her fan!
To see him kiss his hand! and how most sweetly a'
will swear!

And his page o' t'other side, that handful of wit!
Ah, heavens, it is a most pathetical nit!

Śola, sola!

[Shouting within. [Exit COSTARD.

SCENE II.

Enter DULL, HOLOFERNES, and Sir NATHANIEL.

Nath. Very reverent sport, truly; and done in the testimony of a good conscience.

159

Hol. The deer was, as you know, sanguis, in blood; ripe as a pomewater, who now hangeth like a jewel in the ear of Calo,-the sky, the welkin, the heaven; and anon falleth like a crab, on the face of Terra,the soil, the land, the earth.

Nath. Truly, master Holofernes, the epithets are sweetly varied, like a scholar at the least: But, sir, I assure ye, it was a buck of the first head..

Hol.

Hol. Sir Nathaniel, haud credo.

Dull. 'Twas not a haud credo, 'twas a pricket.

168.

Hol. Most barbarous intimation! yet a kind of insinuation, as it were, in via, in way, of explication; facere, as it were, replication; or, rather, ostentare, to show, as it were, his inclination-after his undressed, unpolished, uneducated, unpruned, untrained, or rather unlettered, or, ratherest, unconfirmed fashion,— to insert again my haud credo for a deer.

Dul. I said, the deer was not a haud credo ; 'twas a pricket. 178

Hol. Twice sod simplicity, bis coctus!-0 thou monster ignorance, how deformed dost thou look ?

Nath. Sir, he hath never fed on the dainties that are bred in a book; he hath not eat paper, as it were; he hath not drunk ink: his intellect is not replenished; he is only an animal, only sensible in the duller parts:

And such barren plants are set before us, that we thankful should be

(Which we of taste and feeling are) for those parts that do fructify in us more than he.

For as it would ill become me to be vain, indiscreet, or a fool,

188

So were there a patch set on learning, to see him in a

school:

But, omne bene, say I; being of an old father's mind, Many can brook the weather, that love not the wind.

Dull. You two are book-men; Can you tell by

your wit,

E

What

What was a month old at Cain's birth, that's not five weeks old as yet?

Hol. Dictynna, good man Dull; Dictynna, good man Dull.

Dull. What is Dictynna?

Nath. A title to Phoebe, to Luna, to the moon.

Hol. The moon was a month old, when Adam was

no more;

And raught not to five weeks, when he came to five

score.'

The allusion holds in the exchange.

200

Dull. 'Tis true, indeed; the collusion holds in the exchange.

Hol. God comfort thy capacity! I say the allusion holds in the exchange.

Dull. And I say the pollusion holds in the exchange; for the moon is never but a month old: and I say beside, that 'twas a pricket that the princess kill'd.

208

Hol. Sir Nathaniel, will you hear an extemporal epitaph on the death of the deer? and, to humour the ignorant, I have call'd the deer the princess kill'd, a pricket.

Nath. Perge, good master Holofernes, perge; so it shall please you to abrogate scurrility.

Hol. I will something affect the letter; for it argues facility.

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

Some

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

with shooting:

218

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

thicket;

Or pricket, sore, or else sorel, the people fall a hooting. If sore be sore, then L to sore makes fifty sores; O sore L!

Of one sore I an hundred make, by adding but one more L. Nath. A rare talent!

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

Hol. 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 deliver'd upon the mellowing of occasion: But the gift is good in those in whom it is acute, and I am thankful for it. 233

Nath. Sir, I praise the Lord for you; and so may my parishioners; for their sons are well tutor'd by you, and their daughters profit very greatly under you: you are a good member of the commonwealth.

Hol. Mehercle, if their sons be ingenious, they shall want no instruction: if their daughters be capable, I will put it to them: But, vir sapit, qui pauca loquitur: a soul feminine saluteth us.

241

Enter JAQUENETTA, and COSTARD.

Jac. God give you good morrow, master parson.

Hol. Master parson,

- quasi person. And if one

should be pierc'd, which is the one?

Cost. Marry, master school-master, he that is likest to a hogshead.

Hol. Of piercing a hogshead! a good lustre of conceit in a turf of earth; fire enough for a flint, pearl enough for a swine: 'tis pretty; it is well.

249

Jac. Good master parson, be so good as read me this letter; it was given me by Costard, and sent me from Don Armatho: I beseech you, read it.

Hol. Fauste, precor gelidá quando pecus omne sub umbrá

Ruminat,

and so forth. Ah, good old Mantuan! I may speak of thee as the traveller doth of Venice ; -Vinegia, Vinegia,

Chi non ti vidi, ei non te pregia.

257

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?

Nath. Ay, sir, and very learned.

Hol. Let me hear a staff, a stanza, a verse; Lege, domine..

Nath. If love make me forsworn, how shall I swear to love?

Ah, never faith could hold, if not to beauty

vowed

Though