in them all, sir: O sir, plantain, a plain plantain; no l'envoy, no l'envoy, no salve, sir, but a plantain ! Arm. By virtue, thou enforcest laughter; thy silly thought, my spleen; the heaving of my lungs provokes me to ridiculous smiling: O, pardon me, my stars! Doth the inconsiderate take salve for l'envoy, and the word l'envoy for a salve? Moth. Do the wise think them other? is not l'envoy a salve? Arm. No, page: it is an epilogue or discourse, to make plain Some obscure precedence that hath tofore been sain. The fox, the ape, and the humble-bee, Moth. I will add the l'envoy; say the moral again. Arm. The fox, the ape, and the humble-bee, Were still at odds, being but three. Moth. Until the goose came out of door, And stay'd the odds by adding four. Now will I begin your moral, and do you follow with my l'envoy. The fox, the ape, and the humble-bee, Were still at odds, being but three: Arm. Until the goose came out of door, Staying the odds by adding four. Moth. A good l'envoy, ending in the goose; would you desire more? Cost. The boy hath sold him a bargain, a goose, Sir, your pennyworth is good, an your goose be fat.- Moth. By saying that a Costard was broken in a shin. Cost. True, and I for a plantain: Thus came your argument in ; Then the boy's fat l'envoy, the goose that you bought. And he ended the market. Arm. But tell me; how was there a Costard broken in a shin? Moth. I will tell you sensibly. Cost. Thou hast no feeling of it, Moth; I will speak that l'envoy. I, Costard, running out, that was safely within, Arm. We will talk no more of this matter. Arm. By my sweet soul, I mean, setting thee at liberty, enfreedoming thy person; thou wert immured, restrained, captivated, bound. tion, and let me loose. Cost. True, true; and now you will be my purgaArm. I give thee thy liberty, set thee from durance; and, in lieu thereof, impose on thee nothing but this: Bear this significant to the country maid Jaquenetta: there is remuneration; [giving him money] for the best ward of mine honour is rewarding my dependents. Moth, follow. [Exit. Moth. Like the sequel, I.-Signor Costard, adieu. Cost. My sweet ounce of man's flesh! my incony [Exit MOTH. Now will I look to his remuneration. Remuneration! O, that's the Latin word for three farthings: three farthings—remuneration.—What's the price of this Jew !a Incony Jew. Incony is thought to be the same as the Scotch canny, which is our knowing-cunning. Jew is, perhaps, Costard's superlative notion of a clever follow. inkle? a penny :-No, I'll give you a remuneration: why, it carries it.-Remuneration!-why, it is a fairer name than French crown. I will never buy and sell out of this word. Enter BIRON. Biron. O, my good knave Costard' exceedingly well met. Cost. Pray you, sir, how much carnation ribbon may a man buy for a remuneration? Biron. What is a remuneration? Biron. O, why then, three-farthings-worth of silk. Cost. When would you have it done, sir? Cost. Well, I will do it, sir: Fare you well. The princess comes to hunt here in the park, Cost. Gardon,- O sweet gardon! better than remuneration; eleven-pence farthing better: Most sweet gardon!-I will do it, sir, in print.-Gardon-remuneration. [Exit. Biron. O! And I, forsooth, in love! I, that have been love's whip; A very beadle to a humorous sigh; A critic; nay, a night-watch constable; Wimpled-veiled. b Trotting paritors. The paritor, apparitor, is the office of the ecclesiastical court who carries out citations. A corporal of the field was an officer in some degree teen bling our aid-de-camp. SCENE I.-Another part of the Park. ACT IV. Enter the PRINCESS, ROSALINE, MARIA, KATHARINE, Boyet. I know not; but, I think, it was not he. For. Pardon me, madam, for I meant not so. O short-liv'd pride! Not fair? alack for woe Prin. A giving hand, though foul, shall have fair praise.— That more for praise, than purpose, meant to kill. When, for fame's sake, for praise, an outward part, Tae poor deer's blood, that my heart means no ill. Boyet. Do not curst wives hold that self-sovereigntyd Only for praise' sake, when they strive to be Lords o'er their lords? Prin. Only for praise: and praise we may afford To any lady that subdues a lord. Enter CoSTARD. e Boyet. Here comes a member of the commonwealth. Cost. God dig-you-den all! Pray you, which is the heard lady? Prin. Thou shalt know her, fellow, by the rest that have no beads. Cost. Which is the greatest lady, the highest? Prin. The thickest, and the tallest. Prin. What's your will, sir? what's your will? Cost. I have a letter from monsieur Biron, to one lady Rosaline. Prin. O, thy letter, thy letter; he 's a good friend of mine : Stand aside, good hearer.-Boyet, you can carve; Boyet. Prin. We will read it, I swear: Break the neck of the wax, and every one give ear. Boyet. [Reads.] " three. By Heaven, that thou art fair is most infallible; true, that thou art beauteous; truth itself, that thou art lovely: More fairer than fair, beautiful than beauteous, truer than truth itself, have commiseration on thy heroical vassal! The magnanimous aud most illustrate king Cophetua set eye upon the pernicious and indubitate beggar Zenel phon; and he it was that might rightly say, rent, vidi, vici; which to annotanize * in the vulgar, (O base and obscure vulgar!) videlicet, he came, saw, and overcame: he came, one; saw, two; overcame, Who came? the king; Why did he come? to see; Why did he see? to overcome: To whom came he? to the beggar; What saw he? the beggar; Who overcame he? the beggar: The conclusion is victory; On whose side? the king's: the captive is enrich'd; On whose side? the beggar's: The catastrophe is a nuptial; on whose side? the king's?-no, on both in one, or one in both. I am the king; for so stands the comparison: thou the beggar; for so witnesseth thy lowliness. Shall I command thy love? I may: Shall I enforce thy love? I could: Shall I entreat thy love? I will: What shalt thou exchange for rags? robes: For tittles, titles; For thyself, me. Thus, expecting thy reply, I profane my lips on thy foot, my eyes ou thy picture, and my heart on thy every part. Thine, in the dearest design of industry, And he from forage will incline to play : Prin. What plume of feathers is he that indited this What vane? what weather-cock? did you ever hear better? Boyet. I am much deceived, but I remember the style. while. Boyet. This Armado is a Spaniard, that keeps here in court; A phantasm, a Monarcho,b and one that makes sport To the prince, and his book-mates. Thou, fellow, a word: I told you; my lord. Prin. To whom shouldst thou give it? Cost. From my lord to my lady. Cost. The thickest, and the tallest! it is so; truth is To a lady of France, that he call'd Rosaline. Boyet. Thou canst not hit it, hit it, hit it, [Exeunt Ros. and KATH. Cost. By my troth, most pleasant! how both did fit it! Mar. A mark marvellous well shot; for they both did hit it. Boyet. A mark! O, mark but that mark! A mark, says my lady! Let the mark have a prick in 't to mete at, if it may be. Mar. Wide o' the bow hand! I' faith your hand is out. Cost. Indeed, a' must shoot nearer, or he 'll ne'er hit the clout. Boyet. An if is in. my hand be out, then, belike your hand Cost. Then will she get the upshot by cleaving the pin. Mar. Come, come, you talk greasily, your lips grow foul. Cost. She's too hard for you at pricks, sir; challenge her to bowl. Boyet. I fear too much rubbing. Good night, my good owl. [Exeunt BOYET and MARIA. Cost. By my soul, a swain! a most simple clown! Lord, Lord! how the ladies and I have put him down! O' my troth, most sweet jests! most incony vulgar wit! When it comes so smoothly off, so obscenely, as it were, so fit. Armatho o' the one side,-O, a most dainty ran! And his page o' t' other side, that handful of wit! SCENE II.-The same. Enter HOLOFERNES, SIR NATHANIEL, and DULL.. Nath. Very reverent sport, truly; and done in the testimony of a good conscience. 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 • Pomewater-a species of apple. sweetly varied, like a scholar at the least: But, sir, I assure ye, it was a buck of the first head. Hol. Sir Nathaniel, haud credo. Dull. 'Twas not a haud credo; 't was a pricket. Jol. Most barbarous intimation! yet a kind of insin aation, as it were in via, in way, of explication; facere, as it were, replication, or, rather, ostentare, ta 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. Dull. I said, the deer was not a haud credo; 't was a pricket. Hol. Twice sod simplicity, bis coctus!-0 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 (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, 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, 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. no more; And raught not to five weeks, when he came to fivescore. The allusion holds in the exchange. Dull. "T is true inleed; 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 't was a pricket that the princess killed. Hol. Sir Nathaniel, will you hear an extemporal epitaph on the death of the deer? and, to humour the ignorant, I have called the deer the princess killed, 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 say a sore; but not a sore, till now made sore with shooting. The dogs did yell; put 1 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. Pricket. The buck acquires a new name every year as he approaches to maturity. The first year he is a fawn; the second, a pricket; the third, a sorrell; the fourth, a soare; the fifth, a buck of the first head; the sixth, a complete buck Raught-reached. fifty Affect the letter-affect alliteration. The pedant brings in the Roman numeral, L, as the sign of Talon was formerly written 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 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 tutored by you, and their daughters profit very greatly under yon: 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. Enter JAQUENETTA and CoSTARD. And if one Jaq. God give you good morrow, master person. H&L Master person,-quasi pers-on. should be pierced, which is the one? Cost. Marry, master schoolmaster, be 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. "Your ladyship's in all desired employment, BIRON." Sir Nathaniel, this Biron is one of the votaries with the king; and here he hath framed a letter to a sequent of the stranger queen's, which, accidentally, or by the way of progression, hath miscarried.-Trip and go, my sweet; deliver this paper into the royal hand of the king; it may concern much: Stay not thy ccmpliment; I forgive thy duty; adieu! Jaq. Good Costard, go with me.-Sir, God save your life! Cost. Have with thee, my girl. [Ex. 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 Hol. Fauste, precor gelidâ quando pecus omne sub unbrá Ruminat,—and so forth. Ah, good old Man-pupil of mine; where if, before repast, it shall please I may speak of thee as the traveller doth of tuan' Venice: Vinegia, Vinegia, Chi non te vede, ei non te pregia. 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 savour Nath. And thank you too: for society (saith the text) is the happiness of life. Old Mantuan! old Mantuan! Who understandething of poetry, wit, nor invention: I beseech your society. thee not, loves thee not.-Ut, re, sol, la, mi, fa.a Under pardon, sir, what are the contents? Or, rather, as Horace says in his-What, my soul, verses? Nath. Ay, sir, and very learned. Hoẻ. Let me hear a staff, a stanza, a verse; Lege, domine. Nath. If love make me forsworn, how shall I swear to love? Study his bias leaves, and makes his book thine eyes, bend: If knowledge be the mark, to know thee shall suffice; Which, not to anger bent, is music, and sweet fire. Celestial as thou art, oh pardon, love, this wrong, That sings heaven's praise with such an earthly tongue! 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? • Master person. The derivation of parson was, perhaps, commonly understood in Shakspere's time, and parson and perwere used indifferently. Blackstone has explained the word: A parson, persuna ecclesiæ, is one that hath full posspesion of all the rights of a parochial church. He is called parsa, persund, because, by his person, the church, which is an vichle body, is represented."-Commentaries, b. i. The good old Mantuan was Joh. Baptist. Mantuanus, a Carmelite, whose Eclogues were translated into English by George Turbervile, in 1367. His first Eclogue commences with Fante prear gelidá, A proverbial expression applied to Venice. 4 The pedant sol-fas, to recreate himself, and to show his 2sical skill. Hol. And, certes, the text most infallibly concludes it. Sir, I do invite you too; you shall not say me nay: pauca verba. Away; the gentles are at their game, and we will to [Exeunt. our recreation.b 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. Ah me! Biron. [Aside.] Shot, by Heaven.--Proceed, sweet Cupid; thou hast thumped him with thy bird-bolt under the left pap::-In faith, secrets.— bad. Tired-caparisoned; adorned with trappings. These lines are hexameters, and all the better for being very King. [Reads.] So sweet a kiss the golden sun gives not And they thy glory through my grief will show : How shall she know my griefs? I'll drop the paper; [Steps aside. Enter LONGAVILLE, with a paper. What, Longaville! and reading! listen, ear. Biron. Now, in thy likeness, one more fool appear! [Aside. Long. Ah me! I am forsworn. Biron. Why, he comes in like a perjure, wearing papers.b [Aside. King. In love, I hope: Sweet fellowship in shame! [Aside. Biron. One drunkard loves another of the name. [Aside. Long. Am I the first that have been perjur'd so? Biron. [Aside.] I could put thee in comfort; not by two, that I know: Thou mak'st the triumviry, the corner cap of society, The shape of Love's Tyburn that hangs up simplicity. Long. I fear these stubborn lines lack power to move : O sweet Maria, empress of my love! These numbers will I tear and write in prose. Biron. [Aside.] O, rhymes are guards on wanton Cupid's hose: Disfigure not his slop.d Long. Dum. On a day, (alack the day!) Love, whose month is ever May, Ne'er to pluck thee from thy thorn: Youth so apt to pluck a sweet. Do not call it sin in me, That I am forsworn for thee: Thou for whom Jove would swear, This same shall go.-[He reads the sonnet. This will I send; and something else more plain, Did not the heavenly rhetoric of thine eye ('Gainst whom the world cannot hold argument) Persuade my heart to this false perjury? Vows for thee broke deserve not punishment. A woman I forswore; but, I will prove, Then thou, fair sun, which on my earth dost shine, If broken then, it is no fault of mine, Biron. [Aside.] This is the liver vein, which makes flesh a deity; A green goose, a goddess: pure, pure idolatry. That shall express my true love's fasting pain. Would from my forehead wipe a perjur'd note; Long. Dumain, [advancing] thy love is far from charity, That in love's grief desir'st society: You may look pale, but I should blush, I know, King. Come, sir, [advancing] you blush; as his your case is such; You chide at him, offending twice as much : God amend us, God amend! we are much out o' the way. Nor never lay his wreathed arms athwart Enter DUMAIN, with a paper. Long. By whom shall I send this?-Company! stay. [Stepping aside. Biron. [Aside.] All hid, all hid, an old infant play: Like a demi-god here sit I in the sky, And wretched fools' secrets heedfully o'er-eye. More sacks to the mill! O Heavens, I have my wish; Dumain transform'd: four woodcocks in a dish! Dum. O most divine Kate! Biron. O most profane coxcomb! [Aside. Smot-the old preterite of smote. The perjure-the perjurer-when exposed on the pillory vore " papers of perjury." e Guards-the hems or boundaries of a garment; generally ornamented. 4 Slop. A clothesman is still a slop-seller ; His loving bosom, to keep down his heart. What will Biron say, when that he shall hear I would not have him know so much by me |