Prin. What plume of feathers is he that indited this letter? What vane? what weathercock? did you ever hear better? Boy. I am much deceiv'd, but I remember the style. Prin. Else your memory is bad, going o'er it erewhile." Boy. This Armado is a Spaniard, that keeps here in court; A phantasm, a Monarcho, and one that makes sport To the prince, and his book-mates. Prin. Who gave thee this letter? Cost. Thou, fellow, a word: I told you; my lord. Prin. To whom shouldst thou give it? Prin. From which lord, to which lady? Cost. From my lord Biron, a good master of mine, To a lady of France, that he call'd Rosaline. Prin. Thou hast mistaken his letter. Come, lords, away. day. Here, sweet, put up this: 'twill be thine another That is, lately. A pun is intended upon the word stile. The allusion is to a fantastical character of the time. Thus Meres, in his Palladis Tamia, 1598: "Popular applause doth nourish some, neither do they gape after any other thing but vaine praise and glorie, as in our age Peter Shakerlye of Paules, and Monarcho that lived about the court." He is called an Italian by Nashe, and Churchyard has written some lines which he calls his Epitaphe. By another writer it appears that he was a Berga masco. 7 An equivoque was here intended; it should appear that the words shooter and suitor were pronounced alike in Shakespeare's time. Boy. Ay, my continent of beauty. Ros. Finely put off! Why, she that bears the bow. Boy. My lady goes to kill horns; but, if thou marry, Hang me by the neck, if horns that year miscar: y Finely put on! Ros. Well, then, I am the shooter. Boy. And who is your deer? Ros. If we choose by the horns, yourself: come near. Finely put on, indeed! Mar. You still wrangle with her, Boyet, and she strikes at the brow. Boy. But she herself is hit lower: Have I hit her now? Ros. Shall I come upon thee with an old saying, that was a man when king Pepin of France was a little boy, as touching the hit it? Boy. So I may answer thee with one as old, that was a woman when queen Guinever of Britain was a little wench, as touching the hit it. Ros. Thou canst not hit it, hit it, hit it, Boy. An I cannot, cannot, cannot, An I cannot, another can. [Singing. [Exeunt Ros. and KATH. Cost. By my troth, most pleasant! how both did fit it! Mur. A mark marvellous well shot; for they both did hit it. Boy. 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. Boy. An if my hand be out, then belike your hand is in. 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. Boy. I fear too much rubbing: Good night, my [Exeunt BOYET and MARIA. Cost. By my soul, a swain! a most simple clown! Lord, Lord! how the ladies and I have put him good owl. 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 man! To see him walk before a lady, and to bear her fan! To see him kiss his hand! and how most sweetly a' will swear! And his page o' t' other side, that handful of wit! Ah, heavens, it is a most pathetical nit! Sola, sola! [Shouting within. Exit COST. * This is a term in archery still in use, signifying "a good deal to the left of the mark." Of the other expressions, the clout was the white mark at which the arners took aim. The pin was the wooden nail in the centre of it. SCENE II. The same. Enter HOLOFERNES, Sir NATHANIEL, and DULL. Nath. Very reverent sport, truly; and done in the testimony of a good conscience. - in Hol. The deer was, as you know, sanguis, blood; ripe as the pomewater,' who now hangeth like a jewel in the ear of cœlo, the sky, the wel kin, 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.' 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, 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. 1 A species of apple. In The Return from Parnassus, 1606, is the following account of the appellations of deer at their different ages:Now, sir, a buck is, the first year, a fawn; the second year, a pricket; the third year, a sorrel; the fourth year, a soare; the fifth, a buck of the first head; the sixth year, a complete 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' O, thou Hol. Twice sod simplicity, bis coctus! 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. Hol. The moon was a month old, when Adam was no more; 4 And raught not to five weeks, when he came to fivescore. The allusion holds in the exchange. 5 3 Shakespeare might have found this uncommon title of Diana in the second book of Golding's translation of Ovid's Metamor phoses • Reached. That is, the riddle is as good when I use the name of Adam when I use the name of Cain. |