Arm. Thy meaning, pretty ingenious? Is not lead a metal heavy, dull, and slow? Moth. Minimè, honest master; or rather, master, no. Arm. I say, lead is slow. Moth. You are too swift, sir, to say so. Is that lead slow which is fired from a gun? Arm. Sweet smoke of rhetoric! He reputes me a cannon; and the bullet, that's he.I shoot thee at the swain. Moth. Thump then, and I flee. [Exit. Arm. A most acute juvenal; voluble and free of grace! By thy favor, sweet welkin, I must sigh in thy face. Re-enter MOTH and CoStard. Moth. A wonder, master; here's a Costard1 broken in a shin. Arm. Some enigma, some riddle. l'envoy; 2-begin. Come,-thy Cost. No egma, no riddle, no l'envoy; no salve in the mail, 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? 1 i. e. a head; a name adopted from an apple shaped like a man's head. It must have been a common sort of apple, as it gave a name to the dealers in apples who were called costar-mongers. 2 An old French term for concluding verses, which served either to convey the moral, or to address the poem to some person. 3 A mail or male was a budget, wallet, or portmanteau. Costard, mistaking enigma, riddle, and l'envoy for names of salves, objects to the application of any salve in the budget, and cries out for a plantain leaf. There is a quibble upon salve and salvé, a word with which it was not unusual to conclude epistles, &c., and which therefore was a kind of l'envoy. Moth. Do the wise think them other? l'envoy a salve? ls not Arm. No, page; it is an epilogue or discourse, to make plain Some obscure precedence that hath tofore been sain. I will example it. The fox, the ape, and the humble-bee, Were still at odds, being but three. There's the moral; now the l'envoy. 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 stayed 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; that's flat. Sir, your pennyworth is good, an your goose be fat.To sell a bargain well, is as cunning as fast and loose. Let me see a fat l'envoy; ay, that's a fat goose. Arm. Come hither, come hither. How did this argument begin? Moth. By saying that a Costard was broken in a shin. Then called you for the l'envoy. 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? Alluding to the proverb, "Three women and a goose make a market.” 2 See p. 102, note 1. 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. Cost. True, true; and now you will be my purgation, and let me loose. Arm. 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 honor is, rewarding my dependants. Moth, follow. [Exit. Moth. Like the sequel, I.-Seignior Costard, adieu. Cost. My sweet ounce of man's flesh! My incony 1 [Exit MOTH. Remuneration! Jew! Now will I look to his remuneration. O, that's the Latin word for three farthings:, three farthings-remuneration.-What's the price of this 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 riband may a man buy for a remuneration? 1 Incony or kony, says Warburton, signifies, in the north, fine or delicate. It seems to be substantially the same with canny, a familiar Scotch word. Biron. What is a remuneration? Cost. Marry, sir, half-penny farthing. Biron. O, why, then, three farthings worth of silk. As thou wilt win my favor, good my knave, Cost. Well, I will do it, sir. Fare you well. Cost. I shall know, sir, when I have done it. Cost. I will come to your worship to-morrow morning. Biron. It must be done this afternoon. Hark slave, it is but this.— The princess comes to hunt here in the park, And in her train there is a gentle lady; When tongues speak sweetly, then they name her name, And Rosaline they call her. Ask for her; And to her white hand see thou do commend This sealed-up counsel. There's thy guerdon; go. [Gives him money. Cost. Guerdon,-O sweet guerdon! better than remuneration; eleven-pence farthing better. Most sweet guerdon !—I will do it, sir, in print.'-Guerdon [Exit. -remuneration. 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 ; A domineering pedant o'er the boy, Than whom no mortal so magnificent! 2 This wimpled,3 whining, purblind, wayward boy; 1 With the utmost nicety. 2 Magnificent here means glorying, boasting. 3 To wimple is to veil, from guimple (Fr.). Shakspeare means no more than that Cupid was hood-winked. VOL. II. 14 This senior-junior, giant-dwarf, Dan Cupid; Of trotting paritors 2-O my little heart- And wear his colors like a tumbler's hoop! Well, I will love, write, sigh, pray, sue, and groan; Some men must love my lady, and some Joan. [Exit. 1 Plackets were stomachers. 2 The officers of the spiritual courts who serve citations. 3 It appears from Lord Stafford's Letters, vol. ii. p. 199, that a corporal of the field was employed, as an aid-de-camp is now, "in taking and carrying to and fro the directions of the general, or other higher officers of the field." 4 It was once a mark of gallantry to wear a lady's colors. So in Cynthia's Revels, by Jonson, "despatches his lacquey to her chamber early, to know what her colors are for the day." It appears that a tumbler's hoop was usually dressed out with colored ribands. |