by your wit,

can you

tell

What was a month old at Cain's birth, that's not

five weeks old as yet?

old: and I say, beside, that 't was a pricket that the princess killed.

a

goodman 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.

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

a Dictynna, goodman Dull; Dictynna,-] The old copies have Dictissima and Dictima. Rowe made the corrections.

princess killed, a pricket.

b

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 preyful 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 l to sore, then sorel jumps from thicket;

Or pricket, sore, or else sorel; the people fall a hooting.

b I have called the deer-] I have, not in the ancient copies, was inserted by Rowe.

If sore be sore, then L to sore makes fifty sores; O sore L!

Of one sore l 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.a

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 delivered upon the mellowing of occasion: but the gift is good in those in whom it is acute, and I am thankful for it.

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

Where all those pleasures live that art would comprehend:

Enter JAQUENETTA and COSTARD.

JAQ. God give you good morrow, master person.b

HOL. Master person,-quasi pers-on. And if one should be pierced, which is the one?

COST. Marry, master schoolmaster, 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: 't is pretty; it is well.

JAQ. 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 gelidâ quando pecus omne sub umbra Ruminat,-and so forth. Ah, good old Mantuan! I may speak of thee as the traveller doth of Venice:

-Vinegia, Vinegia,

Chi non te vede, ei non te pregia.(3)

(*) Old copies, primater.

a If a talent be a claw, &c.-] Goodman Dull's small pun is founded on talon of a bird or beast being often of old spelt talent, and on clat, in one sense, meaning to flatter, to fawn upon.

b Master person.] Parson was formerly very often pronounced and spelt person; which, indeed, is more correct than parson, as the word comes from persona ecclesiæ. "Though we write Parson differently, yet 'tis but Person; that is, the individual Person set apart for the service of the Church, and 'tis in Latin Persona, and Personatus is a Personage."-SELDEN'S Table Talk, Art. "Parson."

e Fauste, precor gelida-] In the old copies this passage is assigned to Nathaniel. There can be no doubt of its belonging to Holofernes, who probably reads it, or recites it from memory, while the curate is intent upon the letter. Like all quotations

Well learned is that tongue that well can thee

commend:

HOL. You find not the apostrophes, and so miss the accent let me supervise the canzonet. Here are only numbers ratified; but, for the elegancy, facility, and golden cadence of poesy, caret. Ovidius Naso was the man: and why, indeed, Naso; but for smelling out the odoriferous flowers of fancy, the jerks of invention? Imitarie is nothing: so doth the hound his master, the ape his keeper, the tired horse his rider. But, damosella virgin, was this directed to you?

(*) First folio omits loves thee not. from a foreign language, the Latin here, and the Italian proverb which follows, are printed most vilely in both quarto and folio. The "good old Mantuan" was Baptista Spagnolus, a writer of poems, who flourished late in the fifteenth century, and was called Mantuanus, from the place of his birth.

d Here are only numbers ratified;] In the old copies Sir Nathaniel is now made to proceed with this speech; so to other passages in the present scene, which clearly belong to Holofernes, Nath. has been mistakenly prefixed.

e Imitari is nothing:] The quarto and folio, 1623, read invention imitarie. Theobald made the obvious correction.

f The tired horse-] Banks' horse is thought to be here again alluded to; but perhaps by tired horse (in the original tyred) any horse adorned with ribbons or trappings may be meant.

much: stay not thy compliment; I forgive thy duty; adieu!

JAQ. Good Costard, go with me.-Sir, God save your life!

COST. Have with thee, my girl.

[Exeunt CosT. and JAQ. NATH. Sir, you have done this in the fear of God, very religiously; and, as a certain father saith

HOL. Sir, tell not me of the father, I do fear colourable colours. But, to return to the verses: did they please you, sir Nathaniel?

NATH. Marvellous well for the pen.

HOL. I do dine to-day at the father's of a certain pupil of mine; where if, before repast, it shall please you to gratify the table with a grace,

I will, on my privilege I have with the parents of the foresaid child or pupil, undertake your ben venuto; where I will prove those verses to be very unlearned, neither savouring of poetry, wit, nor invention: I beseech your society.

NATH. I thank you too: for society (saith the text) is the happiness of life.

HOL. And, certes, the text most infallibly concludes it.-Sir, [to DULL] I do invite you too; you shall not say me nay: pauca verba. Away; the gentles arc at their game, and we will to our recreation. [Exeunt.

SCENE III.-Another part of the same.

Enter BIRON with a paper.

BIRON. The king he is hunting the deer; I am coursing myself: they have pitched a toil; I am toiling in a pitch; pitch, that defiles; defile! a foul word. Well, Set thee down, sorrow! for so they say the fool said, and so say I, and I the fool. Well proved, wit! By the Lord, this love is as mad as Ajax: it kills sheep; it kills me, I a sheep: well proved again o'my side! I will not love: if I do, hang me; i'faith, I will not. O, but her eye, by this light, but for her eye, I would not love her; yes, for her two eyes. Well, I do nothing in the world but lie, and lie in my throat. By heaven, I do love; and it hath taught me to rhyme, and to be melancholy; and here is part of my rhyme, and here my melancholy. Well, she hath one o' my sonnets already: the clown bore it, the fool sent it, and the lady hath it: sweet clown, sweeter fool, sweetest lady! By the world, I would not care a pin if the other three were in. Here comes one with a paper; God give him grace to groan. [Gets up into a tree."

Enter the KING, with a paper.
KING. Ay me!

BIRON. [Aside.] Shot by heaven!—Proceed, sweet Cupid; thou hast thump'd him with thy bird-bolt under the left pap.-I' faith, secrets. KING. [Reads.]

So sweet a kiss the golden sun gives not

To those fresh morning drops upon the rose, As thy eye-beams, when their fresh rays have smot The dew of night* that on my cheeks down flows:

(*) Old copies, night of dew.

a Gets up into a tree.] A modern stage direction. The old one is, "He stands aside."

b He comes in like a perjure, wearing papers.] For perjure, some modern editors, Mr. Collier among them, read perjurer; but in the old play of "King John," Act II., Constance says,— "But now black-spotted perjure as he is, He takes a truce with Elnor's damned brat." Wearing papers is an allusion to the custom of making persons convicted of perjury wear papers, while undergoing punishment, descriptive of their offence. Thus Hollinshed, p. 383, says of

Nor shines the silver moon one-half so bright
Through the transparent bosom of the deep,
As doth thy face through tears of mine give light:
Thou shin'st in every tear that I do weep;
No drop but as a coach doth carry thee,

So ridest thou triumphing in my woe:
Do but behold the tears that swell in me,

And they thy glory through my grief will show: But do not love thyself; then thou wilt keep My tears for glasses, and still make me weep. O queen of queens, how far dost thou excel! No thought can think, nor tongue of mortal tell.How shall she know my griefs? I'll drop the

A woman I forswore; but, I will prove,

Thou being a goddess, I forswore not thee: My vow was earthly, thou a heavenly love;

Thy grace being gain'd, cures all disgrace in me. Vows are but breath, and breath a vapour is:

Then thou, fair sun, which on my earth dost shine,

Exhal'st this vapour vow; in thee it is:

If broken then, it is no fault of mine, If by me broke, what fool is not so wise, To lose an oath to win a paradise?

BIRON. [Aside.] This is the liver vein, which makes flesh a deity;

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