For as it would ill become me to be vain, indifcreet, or a fool; * So were there a patch fet on learning, to fee him in a fchool. But omne bene, fay 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, 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 Phabe, 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 fcore. Th' allusion holds in the exchange. Dull. 'Tis true, indeed; the collufion holds in the exchange. Hol. God comfort thy capacity! I fay, the allufion holds in the exchange. Dull. And I fay, the pollution holds in the exchange; for the moon is never but a month old; and I fay befide, that 'twas a pricket that the Princefs kill'd. Hol. Sir Nathanael, will you hear an extemporal epitaph on the death of the deer? and to humour the ignorant, I have call'd the deer the Princefs kill'd, a pricket. Nath. Perge, good mafter Holofernes, perge; fo it fhall please you to abrogate fcurrility. * The meaning is, to be in a fchool would as ill become a patch, or low fellow, as folly would become me. • Th' allufion holds in the ex change.] i. e. the riddle is as good when I use the name of Adam, as when you use the name of Cain. WARBURTON. Hol Hol. I will fomething affect the letter; for it argues facility. The praifeful Princess pierc'd and prickt 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; fimple! fimple! a foolish extravagant fpirit, full of forms, figures, fhapes, objects, ideas, apprehenfions, motions, revolutions. Thefe are begot in the ventricle of memory, nourish'd in the womb of pia mater, and deliver'd upon the mellowing of occafion; but the gift is good in thofe in whom it is acute, and I am thankful for it. Nath. Sir, I praife the Lord for you, and fo may my parishioners; for their fons 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 fons be ingenuous, they fhall want no inftruction: if their daughters be capable, I Makes fifty fores, O forrel!] We fhould read, or forel, alluding to L being the numeral for 50. Concerning the beasts of chafe, whereof the Buck, being the firft, is called as followeth year, a the first year a Fawn; the fecond will put it to them. But vir fapit, qui pauca loquiturz a foul feminine faluteth us. SCENE III. Enter Jaquenetta, and Coftard." Jaq. God give you good morrow, master Parfon. Hol. Master Parfon, quafi Perfon. And if one fhould be pierc'd, which is the one? Coft. Marry, mafter school-master, he that is likeft to a hogfhead. Hol. Of piercing a hogfhead. A good Luftre of conceit in a turf of earth, fire enough for a flint, pearl enough for a fwine: 'Tis pretty, it is well. Faq. Good mafter Parfon, be fo good as read me this letter; it was given me by Coftard, and fent me from Don Armatho; I beseech you, read it. 2 Hol. Faufte, precor, gelida quando pecus omne fub unbrá. Nath. Faufte, precor, gelida] Though all the Editions concur to give this Speech to Sir Nathanael, yet, as Dr. Thirlby ingenioufy obferv'd to me, it is evident, it must belong to Holo fernes. The Curate is employ'd in reading the Letter to himself; and while he is doing fo, that the Stage may not fland. ftill, Holofernes either pulls out a Book, or, repeating fome Verfe by heart from Mantuanus, comments upon the Character of that Poet. Baptifa Spagnolus, (furnamed Mantuanus, from the Place of his Birth) was a Writer of Poems, who flourish'd towards the latter End of the 15th CenTHEOBALD. Faufle, precor gelida, &c. tury. A note of La Monnoye's on these very words in Les Contes des Periers, Nov. 42. will explain the humour of the quotation, and fhew how well Shakespear has fuftained the character of his pedant.-Il defigne le Carme de Baptifte Mantuan, dont au commencement du 16 fiecle on lifvit publiquement à Paris les Poefics; fi cele bres alors, que, comme dit plaifamment Farnabe, dans fa preface fur Martial, les Pedan's ne faifoient nulle difficulté de preferer à Arma virumque cano, le Faufte, precor, gelida, c'efi-a dire, à Eneide de Virgile les Eclegues de Mantuan, le tremiere defquelles commence par Faufte precor ge lida. WARBURTON. Ru 3 Ruminat, and fo forth. Ah, good old Mantuan, I may speak of thee as the traveller doth of Venice; Vinegia, Vinegia! qui non te vedi, ei non te pregia. Old Mantuan, old Mantuan! Who understandeth thee not, loves thee not;-ut re fol la mi fa. Under don, Sir, what are the contents? or rather, as Horace fays in his What! my foul! verfes? Nath. Ay, Sir, and very learned. par Hol. Let me hear a staff, a stanza, a verfe; Lege, Domine. Nath. If love make me forfworn, how fhall I fwear to love? Ah, never faith could hold, if not to beauty vow'd; Tho' to myfelf forfworn, to thee I'll faithful prove; Thofe thoughts to me were oaks, to thee like offers bow'd. Study his biafs leaves, and makes his book thine eyes; Where all thofe 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 fees thee without wonder: Which is to me fome praise, that I thy parts admire. Thy eye Jove's lightning bears, thy voice is dreadful thunder; Which, not to anger bent, is musick, and fweet fire. Celestial as thou art, Oh pardon, love, this wrong, That fings the heaven's praife with fuch an earthly tongue. Hol. You find not the Apostrophes, and so miss the accent. Let me fupervife the canzonet. Here are. only numbers ratify'd; but for the elegancy, facility, and golden cadence of poefie, caret: Ovidius Nafo was the man. And why, indeed, Nafo; but for fmelling out the odoriferous flowers of fancy? the jerks of invention? imitari, is nothing: fo doth the Nath. Here are only Numbers ratified; Tho' this Speech has been all along plac'd to Sir Nathanael, I have ventur'd to join it to the preceding Words of Holofernes; and not without Reafon. The Speaker here is impeaching the Verfes; but Sir Nathanael, as it appears above, thought them learned ones: befides, as Dr. Thirlby obferves, almoft every Word of this Speech, fathers itfelf on the Pedant. So much for the Regulation of it: now, a little, to the Contents And why indeed Nafo, but for Smelling out the odoriferous Flowers of Fancy? the Jerks of Invention imitary is nothing. Sagacity with a Vengeance! I fhould be afham'd to own my felf a Piece of a Scholar, to pretend to the Task of an Editor, and to pass fuch Stuff as this upon the World for genuine. Who ever heard of Invention imitary? In. vention and Imitation have ever been accounted two diftinct Things. The Speech is by a Pedant, who frequently throws in a Word of Latin amongst his English; and he is here flourish hound ing upon the Merit of Invention, heyond That of Imitation, or copying after another. My Correction makes the whole fo plain and intelligible, that, I think," it carries Conviction along with it. THEOBALD. 5 Ovidius Nafo was the man. Our author makes his pedant af fect the being converfant in the beft authors: Contrary to the practice of modern wits, who represent them as defpifers of all fuch. But thofe who know the world, know the pedant to be the greatest affecter of politeness. WARBURTON. 6 fo doth the bound his master, the ape his keeper, the TIRED horse his rider] The pedant here, to run down Imitation, fhews that it is a quality within the capacity of beafts: that the dog and the ape are taught to copy tricks by their mafter and keeper: and fo is the tir'd horse by his rider. This latt is a wond derful inftance; but it happens not to be true. The author müßtis have wrote the TRYED horse 11 his rider i, e. one, exercis'd, and broke to the manage: for he obeys |