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

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."

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

Old Mantuan! old Mantuan! who understandeth thee not, loves thee not.*-Ut, re, sol, la, mi, fa. -Under pardon, sir, what are the contents? Or, rather, as Horace says in his-What, my soul, verses?

NATH. Ay, sir, and very learned.

HOL. Let me hear a staff, a stanza, a verse; Lege, domine. NATH.

If love make me forsworn, how shall I swear to love?

Ah, never faith could hold, if not to beauty vow'd!

Though to myself forsworn, to thee I'll faithful

prove;

Those thoughts to me were oaks, to thee like osiers bow'd.

Study his bias leaves, and makes his book thine eyes,

Where all those pleasures live that art would comprehend:

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 claw, in one sense, meaning to flatter, to fawn upon.

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 gelidá-] 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:

All ignorant that soul that sees thee without

wonder;

(Which is to me some praise, that I thy parts admire ;)

Thy eye Jove's lightning bears, thy voice his dreadful thunder,

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!

Here

HOL. You find not the apostrophes, and so miss the accent: let me supervise the canzonet. 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? Imitari 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.

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 are 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 eve, 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.a

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.

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

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 damn d brat." Wearing appers 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 excell No thought can think, nor tongue of mortal tell.How shall she know my griefs? I'll drop the

paper;

--

Sweet leaves, shade folly. Who is he comes here? [Steps aside.

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;