Enter HOLOFERNES, Sir NATHANIEL, and DULL." HOL. Satis quod sufficit. NATH. I praise God for you, sir: your reasons at dinner have been sharp and sententious; pleasant without scurrility, witty without affection, audacious without impudency, learned without opinion, and strange without heresy. I did converse this quondam day with a companion of the king's, who is intituled, nominated, or called, Don Adriano de Armado. HOL. Novi hominem tanquam te: His humour a Enter Holofernes, Sir Nathaniel, and Dull.] In the quarto and the folio. 1623, the direction here is, "Enter the Pedant, Curate, and Dull." And Holofernes is styled the "Pedant," to the end of the Scene. b Satis quod sufficit.] The ancient copies have quid; and in them the errors in the Latinity are so frequent and so barbarous that, in mercy to the reader, I have refrained from noting them severally, and have silently adopted the obvious corrections of my predecessors. c Without affection,-] That is, without affectation. Thus, in "Hamlet," Act II. Sc. 2, "No matter that might indite the author of affection." is lofty, his discourse peremptory, his tongue filed, his eye ambitious, his gait majestical, and his general behaviour vain, ridiculous, and thrasonical. He is too picked, too spruce, too affected, too odd, as it were, too peregrinate, as I may call it. NATH. A most singular and choice epithet. [Takes out his table-book. HOL. He draweth out the thread of his verbosity finer than the staple of his argument. I abhor such fanatical phantasms, such insociable and point-devise companions; such rackers of d He is too picked,-] Picked was applied both to manners and to dress. It seems to have meant, scrupulously nice; or, as we should now term it, priggish, foppish. "Hamlet," Act. V. Sc. 1, says, the age is grown so picked." So Chaucer, "Prologue to the Canterbury Tales," speaking of the dresses of the haberdasher, dyer, &c. tells us, 1. 367, "Ful freshe and newe ther geare ypicked was." Again, in Chapman's Play of "All Fools," Act. V. Sc. 1,"I think he was some barber's son, by the mass, 'Tis such a picked fellow, not a hair About his whole bulk, but it stands in print." say, orthography, as to speak, dout, fine, when he should doubt; det, when he should pronounce debt; d, e, b, t; not d, e, t:-he clepeth a calf, cauf; half, hauf; neighbour, vocatur, nebour; neigh, abbreviated, ne: This is abhominable,a (which he would call abominable*) it insinuateth me of insanie: Ne intelligis, domine? to make frantic, lunatic. NATH. Laus Deo, bone intelligo. HOL. Bone?-bone, for benè : Priscian a little scratch'd; 't will serve. [To COSTARD aside. COST. O, they have lived long on the almsbasket of words! I marvel, thy master hath not eaten thee for a word; for thou art not so long by the head as honorificabilitudinitatibus: thou art easier swallowed than a flap-dragon. MOTH. Peace! the peal begins. ARM. Monsieur [to HOL.], are you not lettered? MOTH. Yes, yes; he teaches boys the hornbook: What is a, b, spelt backward, with the horn on his head? HOL. Ba, pueritia, with a horn added. HOL. Quis, quis, thou consonant? repeat them; or the fifth, if I. you HOL. I will repeat them, a, e, i.— MOTH. The sheep: the other two concludes it; o, u. ARM. Now, by the salt wave of the Mediterraneum, a sweet touch, a quick venew (1) of wit: snip, snap, quick, and home; it rejoiceth my intellect: true wit. (*) Old copies, abhominable. (+) Old editions, The last. a Abhominable,-] The antiquated mode of spelling the word, which appears to have been in a transition state at the period when the present Play was written. b It insinuateth me of insanie:] The old editions have infamie. For this and other corrections in the speech we are indebted to Theobald. e I do beseech thee, remember thy courtesy:] The words remember thy courtesy have been a stumbling-block to all the commentators. Mr. Malone wrote a very long note to prove that we should read, "remember not thy courtesy;" and Mr. Dyce says, nothing can be more evident than that Shakespeare so wrote. Whatever may have been the meaning of the words, or whether they were a mere complimentary periphrasis, without MOTн. Offer'd by a child to an old man ; which is wit-old. HOL. What is the figure? what is the figure? MOTH. Horns. HOL. Thou disputest like an infant: go, whip thy gig. MOTH. Lend me your horn to make one, and I will whip about your infamy circùm circà: A gig of a cuckold's horn! COST. An I had but one penny in the world, thou shouldst have it to buy gingerbread: hold, there is the very remuneration I had of thy master, thou halfpenny purse of wit, thou pigeonegg of discretion. O, an the heavens were so pleased that thou wert but my bastard! what a joyful father wouldst thou make me! Go to; thou hast it ad dunghill, at the fingers' ends, as they say. HOL. O, I smell false Latin; dunghill for unguem. ARM. Arts-man, præambula; we will be singled from the barbarous. Do you not educate youth at the charge-house on the top of the mountain? HOL. Or, mons, the hill. ARM. At your sweet pleasure, for the mountain. HOL. I do, sans question. ARM. Sir, it is the king's most sweet pleasure and affection, to congratulate the princess at her pavilion, in the posteriors of this day; which the rude multitude call the afternoon. HOL. The posterior of the day, most generous sir, is liable, congruent, and measurable for the afternoon the word is well culled; choice,* sweet, and apt, I do assure you, sir, I do assure. ARM. Sir, the king is a noble gentleman; and my familiar, I do assure you, very good friend : -For what is inward between us, let it pass:I do beseech thee, remember thy courtesy: I beseech thee, apparel thy head:—And among other importunate and most serious designs,-and of great import indeed, too;-but let that pass: -for I must tell thee, it will please his grace (by the world) sometime to lean upon my poor shoulder; and with his royal finger, thus, dally with my excrement, with my mustachio: but, sweet heart, let that pass. By the world, I recount no fable; some certain special honours it (*) First folio, culd, chose, &c. any precise signification, the following quotations prove, I think beyond question, that the old text is right; and that the expres sion refers-not, as Mr. Knight supposes, to any obligation of secrecy, but simply to the Pedant's standing bare-headed, "I pray you be remembred, and cover your head." MARLOWE'S Faustus, Act IV. Sc. 3. "Pray you remember your courts'y * * pleaseth his greatness to impart to Armado, a soldier, a man of travel, that hath seen the world: but let that pass.-The very all of all is,-but, sweet heart, I do implore secrecy,—that the king would have me present the princess, sweet chuck, with some delightful ostentation, or show, or pageant, or antic, or fire-work. Now, understanding that the curate and your sweet self are good at such eruptions, and sudden breaking out of mirth, as it were, I have acquainted you withal, to the end to crave your assistance. HOL. Sir, you shall present before her the nine Worthies.-Sir Nathaniel,* as concerning some entertainment of time, some show in the posterior of this day, to be rendered by our assistance,the king's command, and this most gallant, illustrate, and learned gentleman,-before the princess; I say, none so fit as to present the nine Worthies. NATH. Where will you find men worthy enough to present them? HOL. Joshua, yourself; myself, or this gallant gentleman, Judas Maccabæus; this swain, because of his great limb or joint, shall pass Pompey the great; the page, Hercules. ARM. Pardon, sir, error: he is not quantity enough for that worthy's thumb: he is not so big as the end of his club. HOL. Shall I have audience? he shall present Hercules in minority: his enter and exit shall be strangling a snake; and I will have an apology for that purpose. MOTH. An excellent device! so, if any of the audience hiss, you may cry, Well done, Hercules ! now thou crushest the snake! that is the way to make an offence gracious; though few have the grace to do it. ARM. For the rest of the Worthies?- ARM. We will have, if this fadge" not, an antic. I beseech you, follow. HOL. Via, goodman Dull! thou hast spoken no word all this while. DULL. Nor understood none neither, sir. PRIN. Nothing but this? yes, as much love in rhyme, As would be cramm'd up in a sheet of paper, Writ on both sides of the leaf, margent and all; That he was fain to seal on Cupid's name. Ros. That was the way to make his godhead For he hath been five thousand years a boy. KATH. He made her melancholy, sad, and heavy; And so she died: had she been light, like you, this light word? KATH. A light condition in a beauty dark. out. KATH. You'll mar the light, by taking it in snuff; Therefore, I'll darkly end the argument. 44 nose, and sometimes to the snuff of a candle. Everybody is familiar with Hotspur's fop and his pouncet-box,which ever and anon He gave his nose, and took 't away again;— Who, therewith angry, when it next came there, Took it in snuff." So in "Midsummer-Night's Dream," Act. V. Sc. 1, "He dares not come there, for the candle; for you see, it is already in snuff." So, too, in Decker's "Satiro-mastix," where the characters are speaking of tobacco, "'tis enough, Having so much fool, to take him in sauff.” Ros. Look, what you do; you do it still i' the dark. KATH. So do not you; for you are a light wench. Ros. Indeed, I weigh not you; and therefore light. KATH. You weigh me not,-O, that's you care not for me. Ros. Great reason; for, Past cure is still past care.a PRIN. Well bandied both; a set of wit well play'd. But, Rosaline, you have a favour too: Ros. The numbers true; and, were the numb'ring too, I were the fairest goddess on the ground: Ros. Much, in the letters; nothing in the praise. PRIN. Beauteous as ink; a good conclusion. KATH. Fair as a text B in a copy-book. Ros. 'Ware pencils," Ho! let me not die your debtor, с My red dominical, my golden letter: But, Katharine, what was sent to you from fair KATH. Madam, this glove. Did he not send you twain? (*) First folio omits not so. (+) First folio omits not. a Past cure is still past care.] The old editions transpose the words cure and care; but Rosaline is quoting a familiar adage,— "Things past cure, past care." b'Ware pencils, Ho!] The elder copies read, Ware pensals. How? Mr. Dyce has shown that, in books of the period, Ho! is frequently printed How? but he is wrong in saying that all editions have hitherto retained the old reading. Sir Thomas Hanmer, in his edition, 1744, gives the lection in the text. e My golden letter:] Rosaline was a "darke ladye;" Katharine fair and golden haired; and, as in the early alphabets for children, A was printed in red, and B in black, ink, the taunting allusions are sufficiently expressive. MAR. Ay, or I would these hands might never part. PRIN. We are wise girls to mock our lovers so. Ros. They are worse fools to purchase mocking So. That same Biron I'll torture ere I go. O, that I knew he were but in by the week! PRIN. None are so surely caught, when they are catch'd, As wit turn'd fool: folly, in wisdom hatch'd, Hath wisdom's warrant, and the help of school; And wit's own grace to grace a learned fool. Ros. The blood of youth burns not with such excess, As gravity's revolt to wantonness.† MAR. Folly in fools bears not so strong a note, As foolery in the wise, when wit doth dote; Since all the power thereof it doth apply, To prove, by wit, worth in simplicity. Enter BOYET. PRIN. Here comes Boyet, and mirth is in his face. BOYET. O, I am stabb'd with laughter! Where's Prepare, madam, prepare!— Arm, wenches, arm! encounters mounted are Against your peace: Love doth approach disguis'd, Arm'd in arguments; you'll be surpris'd: (*) The quarto and first folio have device. (+) The quarto and first folio read wantons be. d And I beshrew all shrows !] To beshrew, is to imprecate sorrow, or evil, on any person or thing, to curse, &c. e He were but in by the week!] To be in by the week, i.e. for a fixed period, was a frequent saying in former times; and is supposed to be taken from the custom of hiring servants, or operatives, generally. f So portent-like-] The old copies have pertaunt-like. Hanmer first suggested portent-like; and he has been followed by most of the subsequent editors. Toward that shade I might behold address'd I should have fear'd her had she been a devil. With that all laugh'd, and clapp'd him on the shoulder; Making the bold wag by their praises bolder. With that, they all did tumble on the ground, PRIN. But what, but what, come they to visit us? BOYET. They do, they do; and are apparell'd thus, Like Muscovites, or Russians, as I guess. PRIN. And will they so? the gallants shall be task'd: For, ladies, we will every one be mask'd; a To check their folly, passion's solemn tears.] Mr. Collier's annotator, for "solemn tears," reads "sudden tears," which is, at least, a very plausible suggestion. But whether we have sudden, or solemn tears, I cannot help believing the line should run, To check their folly's passion, &c. |