2

ripe as a pomewater, who now hangeth like a jewel in

66

the use of the word thrasonical, [See this play, Act V, sc. i,] any argument that the author had read Terence. It was introduced to our language long before Shakspeare's time. Stanyhurst writes, in a translation of one of Sir Thomas More's Epigrams: Lynckt was in wedlocke a loftye thrasonical hufsnuffe." It can scarcely be necessary to animadvert any further upon what Mr. Colman has advanced in the appendix to his Terence. If this gentleman, at his leisure from modern plays, will condescend to open a few old ones, he will soon be satisfied that Shakspeare was obliged to learn and repeat in the course of his profession, such Latin fragments as are met with in his works. The formidable one, ira furor brevis est, which is quoted from Timon, may be found, not in plays only, but in every tritical essay from that of King James to that of Dean Swift inclusive. I will only add, that if Mr. Colman had previously looked at the panegyric on Cartwright, he could not so strangely have misrepresented my argument from it: but thus it must ever be with the most ingenious men, when they talk without-book. Let me, however, take this opportunity of acknowledging the very genteel language which he has been pleased to use on this occasion.

Mr. Warton informs us in his Life of Sir Thomas Pope, that there was an old play of Holophernes acted before the Princess Elizabeth in the year 1556. Farmer.

The verses above cited, are prefixed to Florio's Dict. 1598.

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Malone.

In support of Dr. Farmer's opinion, the following passage from Orlando Furioso, 1594, may be brought: Knowing him to be a Thrasonical mad cap, they have sent me a Gnathonical companion," &c.

Greene, in the dedication to his Arcadia, has the same word: "as of some thrasonical huffe-snuffe."

Florio's first work is registered on the books of the Stationers' Company, under the following title: "Aug. 1578. Florio his First Frute, being Dialogues in Italian and English, with certen Instructions, &c. to the learning the Italian Tonge." In 1595, he dedicated his Italian and English Dictionary to the Earl of Southampton. In the year 1600, he published his translation of Montaigne. Florio pointed his ridicule not only at dramatic performances, but even at performers. Thus, in his preface to this work: "as if an owle should represent an eagle, or some tararag player should act the princely Telephus with a voyce as rag'd as his clothes, a grace as bad as his voyce." Steevens.

1

in sanguis,-blood;] The old copies read-sanguis in blood. The transposition was proposed by Mr. Steevens, and is, I think, warranted by the following words, which are arranged in the same manner: "in the ear of calo, the sky," &c. The same expression occurs in King Henry VI, P. I:

"If we be English deer, be then in blood."

Malone.

the ear of cælo,3-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.4

Hol. Sir Nathaniel, haud credo.

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

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,

2

-ripe as a pomewater,] A species of apple formerly much esteemed. Malus Carbonaria. See Gerard's Herbal, edit. 1597, p. 1273.

Again, in the old ballad of Blew Cap for Me:

"Whose cheeks did resemble two rosting pomewaters."

Steevens.

In the first Act of The Puritan, Pyeboard says to Nicholas; "The captain loving you so dearly, aye as the pome-water of his eye.”—Meaning the pupil, or apple of it, as it is vulgarly called. M. Mason.

3- in the ear of cœlo, &c.] In Florio's Italian Dictionary, Cielo is defined "heaven, the skie, firmament, or welkin," and terra is explained thus: "The element called earth; anie ground, earth, countrie,-land, soile," &c. If there was any edition of this Dictionary, prior to the appearance of Love's Labour's Lost, this might add some little strength to Dr. Warburton's conjecture, though it would by no means be decisive; but my edition is dated 1598, (posterior to the exhibition of this play) and it appears to be the first. Malone.

4

But, sir, I assure ye, it was a buck of the first head.'twas a pricket.] In a play called The Return from Parnassus, 1606, I find the following account of the different appellations of deer, at their different ages:

"Amoretto. I caused the keeper to sever the rascal deer from the bucks of the first head. Now, sir, a buck is the first year, a fawn; the second year, a PRICKET; the third year, a SORRELL; the fourth year, a soare; the fifth, a buck of the FIRST HEAD; the sixth year, a compleat buck. Likewise your hart is the first year, a calfe, the second year, a brocket; the third year, a spade; the fourth year, a stag; the sixth year, a hart. A roe-buck is the first year a kid, the second year, a gird; the third year, a hemuse; and these are your special beasts for chase."

Again, in A Christian turn'd Turk, 1612: "I am but a pricket, a mere sorell; my head's not harden'd yet." Steevens:

or, ratherest, unconfirmed fashion,-to insert again my haud credo for a deer.

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

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

Nath. Sir, he hath never fed of 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

not, to think

having (Which we"of taste and feeling are) for those parts that do fructify in us more than he.5

set

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

a fool,

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

school:

5 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.] The length of these lines was no novelty on the English stage. The Moralities afford scenes of the like measure. Johnson.

This stubborn piece of nonsense, as somebody has called it, wants only a particle, I think, to make it sense. I would read: And such barren plants are set before us, that we thankful should be, (Which we of taste and feeling are) for those parts, that fructify

in us more than he.

Which in this passage has the force of as, according to an idiom of our language, not uncommon, though not strictly grammatical. What follows is still more irregular; for I am afraid our poet, for the sake of his rhyme, has put he for him, or rather in him. If he had been writing prose, he would have expressed his meaning, I believe, more clearly thus-that do fructify in us more than in him. Tyrwhitt.

The old copies read-" which we taste and feeling" &c. I have placed Mr. Tyrwhitt's emendation in the text. Steevens. Mr. Tyrwhitt's last observation is fully supported by a subsequent passage:

and then we,

Following the signs, woo'd but the sign of she." Malone.

6 For as it would ill become me to be vain, indiscreet, or a fool, So, were there a patch set on learning, to see him in a school:] The meaning is, to be in a school would, as ill become a patch, or low fellow, as folly would become me. Johnson.

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, 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.9

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.

Hol. Sir Nathaniel, will you hear an extemporal epitaph on the death of the deer? and, to humour the ignorant, I have1 call'd the deer the princess kill'd, a pricket. Nath. Perge, good master Holofernes, perge; so it shall please you to abrogate scurrility.

7 Dictynna,] Old copies-Dictisima. Corrected by Mr. Rowe. Malone. Shakspeare might have found this uncommon title for Diana, in the second Book of Golding's translation of Ovid's Metamorphoses:

Dictynna garded with her traine, and proud of killing deere." It occurs also in the first satire of Marston, 1598, and in the 9th Thebaid of Statius, 632. Steevens.

8 And raught not—] i. e. reach'd not. So, in The Arraignment of Paris, 1584:

66 the fatal fruit

66

Raught from the golden tree of Proserpine." Steevens.

9 The allusion holds in the exchange.] i. e. the riddle is as good when I use the name of Adam, as when I use the name of Cain.

1

Warburton.

-I have-] These words were inserted by Mr. Rowe.
Malone.

Hol. I will something affect the letter;2 for it argues facility.

The praiseful 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 I 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!4 Of one sore I an hundred make, by adding but one more L. Nath. A rare talent!

Dull. If a talent be a claw,5 look how he claws him with a talent."

2

affect the letter;] That is, I will practice alliteration. M. Mason. To affect is thus used by Ben Jonson in his Discoveries: Spenser in affecting the ancients, writ no language; yet I would have him read for his matter, but as Virgi Iread Ennius." Steevens.

66

3 The praiseful princess-] This emendation was made by the editor of the second folio. The quarto 1598, and folio 1623, read corruptly-prayful. Malone.

The ridicule designed in this passage may not be unhappily illustrated by the alliteration in the following lines of Ulpian Fulwell, in his Commemoration of Queen Anne Bullayne, which makes part of a collection called The Flower of Fame, printed, 1575: "Whose princely praise hath pearst the pricke, "And price of endless fame," &c. Steevens.

4 O sore L!] The old copies read-O sorell. The necessary change was made by Dr. Warburton. The allusion (as he observes) is to L, being the numeral for fifty.

This correction (says Mr. Malone) is confirmed by the rhyme : "A deer (he adds) during his third year is called a sorell.”

Steevens.

5 If a talent be a claw, &c.] In our author's time the talon of a bird was frequently written talent. Hence the quibble here, and in Twelfth-Night: "-let them use their talents." So, in The First Part of the Contention between the Houses of York and Lancaster, 1600: "Are you the kite, Beaufort? where's your talents ?" Again, in Marlowe's Tamberlaine, 1590:

66

and now doth ghastly death

“With greedy tallents gripe my bleeding heart.”

Malone.

6 -claws him with a talent.] Honest Dull quibbles. One of the senses of to claw, is to flatter. So, in Much Ado about Nothing: "-laugh when I am merry, and claw no man in his humour." Steevens.