Moth. Negligent student! learn her by heart.
Arm. By heart, and in heart, boy.

Cost. No egma, no riddle, no l'envoy; no salve in the male, sir: O sir, plantain, a plain plan tain; no l'envoy, no l'envoy, or 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. And out of heart, master; all those three 10 Moth. Doth the wise think them other? is not

I will prove.

l'envoy a salve?

Arm. What wilt thou prove?

Moth. A man, if I live; and this, by, in, and

to make plain

Arm. No, page; it is an epilogue or discourse, [sain.

without, upon the instant: By heart you love her,

Some obscure precedence that hath tofore been

The fox, the ape, and the humble-bee,

Were still at odds, being but three.

heart that you cannot enjoy her.

There's the moral: Now the l'envoy.

because your heart cannot come by her; in heart 151 will example it:

you love her, because your heart is in love with

her; and out of heart you love her, being out of

Arm. I am all these three.

Moth. I will add the l'envoy; Say the moral again.

Moth. And three times as much more, and yet 20 Arm. The fox, the ape, and the humble-bee, nothing at all.

Arm. Fetch hither the swain; he must carry

me a letter.

Moth. A message well sympathiz'd; a horse to be embassador for an ass!

Arm. Ha, ha; what sayest thou?
Moth. Marry, sir, you must send the ass upon
the horse, for he is very slow-gaited: But I go.
Arm. The way is but short; away.
Moth. As swift as lead, sir.

Arm. Thy meaning, pretty ingenious?

Is not lead a metal heavy, dull, and slow?

Moth. Minimè, honest master; or rather,

Were still at odds, being but three : Moth. Until the goose came out of door, Staying the odds by adding four.

Now will I begin your moral, and do you follow 25 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.

30 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:[fat.Sir, your penny-worth is good, an your goose be 35 To sell a bargain well, is as cunning as fast and

Moth. I will tell you sensibly.

speak that l'envoy :

Re-enter Moth and Costard.

Moth. A wonder, master; here's a Costard

broken in a shin.

Then the boy's fat l'envoy, the goose that you

how was there a Costard'

Arm. Some enigma, some riddle: come,-thy 50 Cost. Thou hast no feeling of it, Moth; I will

l'envoy';-begin.

1 In the celebration of May-day, besides the sports now used of hanging a pole with garlands, and dancing round it, formerly a boy was dressed up representing maid Marian; another like a friar; and another rode on a hobby-horse, with bells jingling, and painted streamers. After the Reformation took place, and Precisians multiplied, these latter rites were looked upon to savour of paganism; and then maid Marian, the friar, and the poor hobby-horse, were turned out of the games. Some who were not so wisely precise, but regretted the disuse of the hobby-horse, no doubt, satirized this suspicion of idolatry, and archly wrote the epitaph above alluded to. Now Moth, hearing Armado groan ridiculously, and cry out, But oh! but oh! humourously pieces out his exclamation with the sequel of this epitaph. 2 Meaning, a hot, mad-brain'd, unbroken young fellow; or sometimes an old fellow with juvenile desires. 3 Welkin is the sky. i. e. a head. The l'envoy, which is a term borrowed from the old French poetry, appeared always at the head of a few concluding verses to each piece, and either served to convey the moral, or to address the poem to some particular person. • To sell a bargain here means to lead a person to say something, which being applied to himself makes him appear ridiculous, so Armado is supposed to call himself a goose. The head was anciently called the costard, as observed above. - A costard likewise signified a crab-stick.

I, Costard, running out, that was safely within,
Fell over the threshold, and broke my shin.
Arm. We will talk no more of this matter.
Cost. Till there be more matter in the shin.

Cost. I will come to your worship to-morrow morning.

Biron. It must be done this afternoon. Hark, slave, it is but this:

Arm. Sirrah, Costard, I will enfranchise thee. 5 The princess comes to hunt here in the park, Cost. O, marry me to one Frances; -I smell

some l'envoy, some goose, in this.

Arm. By my sweet soul, I mean, setting thee at liberty, enfreedoming thy person; thou wert immur'd, 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 dieu 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 dependants. Moth, follow. [Exit. Moth. Like the sequel, I. Signior Costard,

adieu.

And in her train there is a gentle lady; (name, When tongues speak sweetly, then they name her And Rosaline they call her: ask for her; And to her sweet hand see thou do commend 101 his seal'd-up counsel. There's thy guerdon; go. [Gives him money.

[Exit.

Cost. Guerdon, - O sweet guerdon'! better than remuneration; eleven-pence farthing better:Most sweet guerdon! - I will do it, sir, in print3. 15-Guerdon-remuneration. Biron. O! And I, forsooth, in love! I, that have been love's whip; 1 very beadle to a humorous sigh; A critic; nay, a night-watch constable: [Erit. 20 A domineering pedant o'er the boy, Than whom no mortal so magnificent! [boy; This wimpled', whining, purblind, wayward This signior Junio's giant-dwarf, Dan Cupid; Regent of love-rhimes, lord of folded arms,

Cost. My sweet ounce of man's flesh! my incony' Jew!

Now will I look to his remuneration. Remuneration! O, that's the Latin word for three farthings: three farthings-remuneration. What's 25 The anointed sovereign of sighs and groans,

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.

Liege of all loiterers and malcontents,
Dread prince of plackets, king of codpieces,
Sole imperator, and great general

Of trotting paritors', - O my little heart!-
30 And I to be a corporal of his field,

And wear his colours like a tumbler's hoops!
What? what? I love! I sue! I seek a wife!
A woman, that is like a German clock,
Still a repairing; ever out of frame;

35 And never going aright, being a watch,
But being watch'd that it may still go right?
Nay, to be perjur'd, which is worst of all:
And, among three, to love the worst of all:
A whitely wanton with a velvet brow,

Cost. I thank your worship: God be with you. 40 With two pitch-balls stuck in her face for eyes; Biron. O, stay, slave; I must employ thee:

As thou wilt win my favour, good my knave,
Do one thing for me that I shall entreat.

Cost. When would you have it done, sir?
Biron. O, this afternoon.

Cost. Well, I will do it, sir: Fare you well.
Biron. O, thou knowest not what it is.

Cost. I shall know, sir, when I have done it.
Biron. Why, villain, thou must know first.

ward.

Ay, and by heaven, one that will do the deed,
Though Argus were her eunuch and her guard:
And I to sigh for her! to watch for her!
To pray for her! Go to; it is a plague
45 That Cupid will impose for my neglect

Of his almighty dreadful little might. [groan:
Well, I will love, write, sigh, pray, sue, and
Some men must love my lady, and some Joan.
[Exit.

Incony, or kony, in the north, signifies fine, delicate as a kony thing, a fine thing. 2 i. e. re3 i. e. with the utmost nicety. The wimple was a hood or veil which fell over the face. An apparitor, or paritor, is an officer of the bishop's court, who carries out citations for fornication and other matters cognizable in his court. • That is, hanging on one shoulder, and falling under the opposite arm.

ACT

SCENE I.

ACT IV.

Cost. Which is the greatest lady, the highest? Prin. The thickest, and the tallest. [truth. Cost. The thickest and the tallest! 'tis so; truth is An your waist, mistress, were as slender as mywit,

be fit.

A Pavilion in the Park near the Palace. Enter the Princess, Rosaline, Maria, Katharine,

Lords, Attendants, and a Forester.

Prin. WAS that the king that spurr'd his horse 5 One of these maids' girdles for your waist should

so hard

Well, lords, to-day we shall have our dispatch;
On Saturday we will return to France.-
Then, forester, my friend, where is the bush,
That we must stand and play the murderer in?

one lady Rosaline.

Prin. O, thy letter, thy letter; he's a good friend of mine:

Stand aside, good bearer.-Boyet, you can carve;

For. Here by, upon the edge of yonder coppice; 15 Break up this capon1.

A stand, where you may make the fairest shoot.

Prin. I thank my beauty; I am fair that shoot,

And thereupon thou speak'st, the fairest shoot.

For. Pardon me, madam, for I meant not so.

Prin. We will read it, I swear:

[ear.

Prin. What, what? first praise me, then again 20 Break the neck of the wax, and every one give

O short-liv'd pride! Not fair? alack for woe!

For. Yes, madam, fair.

Prin. Nay, never paint me now;

Where fair is not, praise cannot mend the brow. 25 " truth itself, have commiseration on thy heroical

Here, good my glass, take this for telling true;
[Giving him money.
Fair payment for foul words is more than due.
For. Nothing but fair is that which you inherit.

Prin. See, see, my beauty will besav'd by merit. 30" to anatomizem the vulgar, (O base and obscure

A giving hand, though foul, shall have fair praise.-
But come, the bow:-Now mercy goes to kill,
And shooting well is then accounted ill.
Thus will I save my credit in the shoot:
Not wounding, pity would not let me do't;
If wounding, then it was to shew my skill,
That more for praise, than purpose meant to kill.
And, out of question, so it is sometimes;
Glory grows guilty of detested crimes;
When, for fame's sake, for praise, an outward
We bend to that the working of the heart:
As I, for praise alone, now seek to spill [ill.
The poor deer's blood that my heart means no
Boyet. Do not curst wives hold that self-sove-45"
reignty
Only for praise' sake, when they strive to be
Lords o'er their lords?

see; Why did he see? to overcome; To whom 35" came he? to the beggar; What saw he? the beggar; Whom 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 [part, 40" 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 wit"nesseth 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 prophane my lips on thy foot, my eyes on thy picture, and my heart on thy every part. "Thine, in the dearest design of industry,

"DON ADRIANO DE ARMADO."

Thus dost thou hear the Nenean lion roar 'Gainst thee, thou lamb, that standest as his prey; Submis-ive fall his princely feet before, 55 And he from forage will incline to play: But if thou strive, poor soul, what art thou then? Food for his rage, repasture for his den.

1 That is, Open this letter. Our poet uses this metaphor, as the French do their poulet, which signities both a young fowl and a love-letter. 2 Illustrate for illustrious.

Prin, Prin. What plume of feathers is he, that indited this letter? [hear better? What vane? what weather-cock? Did you ever Boyet. I am much deceived, but I remember the stile. [ere while. 5 Prin. Else your memory is bad, going o'er 'it Boyet. This Armado is a Spaniard, that keeps [sport A phantasm, a Monarcho, and one that makes To the prince, and his book-mates.

here in court;

Prin. Thou, fellow, a word:

Who gave thee this letter?

Cost. I told you, my lord.

Prin. To whom shouldst thou give it?
Cost. From my lord to my lady.
Prin. From which lord to which lady?
Cost. From mylord Biron, a good master of mine,
To a lady of France, that he called Rosaline.
Prin. Thou hast mistaken his letter. Come,

lords, away.
Here, sweet, put up this; 'twill be thine another
day.
[Exit Princess attended.
Boyet. Who is the shooter? who is the shooter3?
Ros. Shall I teach you to know?
Boyet. Ay, my continent of beauty.
Ros. Why, she that bears the bow.

Finely put off!

[marry,

Boyet. My lady goes to kill horns; but, if thou
Hang me by the neck, if horns that year miscarry.
Finely put on!

Ros. Well then, I am the shooter.
Boyet. And who is your deer?
Ros. If we chuse by horns, yourself; come not

Finely put on, indeed!

[near.

Cost. She's too hard for you at pricks, sir;challenge her to bowl.

10 Boyet. I fear too much rubbing: Good night, my good owl. [Exeunt all but Costard. Cost. By my soul, a swain! a most simple clown! Lord, lord! how the ladies and I have put him [gar wit! 150' my troth, most sweet jests! most incony vulWhen it comes so smoothly off, so obscenely, as

down!

it were so fit.

Enter Dull, Holofernes', and Sir Nathaniel.
Nath. Very reverend sport, truly; and done

30 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 Cœlo, -the sky, the welkin, the heaven; and anon falleth like a crab, on

Mar. You still wrangle with her, Boyet, and 35 the face of Terra, -the soil, the land, the earth.

Boyet. 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 40 Dull. 'Twas not a haud credo, 'twas a pricket.

little boy, as touching the hit it?

Boyet. 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, [Singing. 45 ter his undressed, unpolished, uneducated, un

Thou canst not hit it, my good man.

she strikes at the brow.

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.

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 shew, as it were, his inclination-af

pruned, untrained, or rather unletter'd, or ratherest, unconfirmed fashion, -to insert again my haud credo for a deer.

Dull. I said, the deer was not a haud credo; 50 'twas a pricket'.

Hol. Twice sod simplicity, bis coctus! O thou monster ignorance, how deformed dost thou look! Nath. Sir, he hath never fed on the dainties that are bred in a book; he hath not eat paper,

is not replenished; he is only an animal, only sensible in the duller parts:

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! [may be. Let the mark have a prick in't, to mete at, if it 55 as it were; he hath not drunk ink: his intellect Mar. Wide o' the bow hand! I' faith, your

A pun upon the word stile. 2 i. e. a little while ago. 3 Shooter here means suitor. i. e. the white mark at which archers took their aim. The pin was the wooden nail which upheld it. Dr. Warburton says, that by Holofernes was designed a particular character, a pedant and a schoolmaster of our author's time, one John Florio, a teacher of the Italian tongue in London. * A species of apple. A buck is the first year, a fawn; the second year, a pricket; the third year, a sorell; the fourth year, a soare; the fifth year, a buck of the first head; the sixth year, a compleat buck.

7

And

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.

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 tuFor as it would ill become me to be vain, indis- 5 tor'd by you, and their daughters profit very creet, or a fool, [in a school: So were there a patch1 set on learning, to see him 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?

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 be 10 capable, I will put it to them: But, vir sapit, qui pauca loquitur: a soul feminine saluteth us. Enter Jaquenetta, and Costard.

Jaq. God give you good-morrow, master par

son.

Hol. Dictynna, goodman Dull; Dictynua, 15 Hol. Master parson, quasi person. And if

good man Dull.

Dull. What is Dictynna?
Nath. A title to Phabe, to Luna, to the moon.
Hol. The moon was a month old, when Adam

was no more;

one should be pierc'd, which is the one?

Cost. Marry, master school-master, he that is likest to a hogshead.

Hol. Of piercing a hogshead! a good lustre of [five-score. 20 conceit in a turf of earth; fire enough for a flint, pearl enough for a swine: 'tis 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.

And raught not to five weeks, when he came to
The allusion holds in the exchange'.

Dull. 'Tis true, indeed; the collusion holds in the exchange.

Hol. God comfort thy capacity! I say the al-25 lusion 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 'twas a pricket that the princess kill'd.

Hol. Sir Nathaniel, will you hear an extemporal epitaph on the death of the deer? and, to humour the ignorant, I have call'd the deer the princess kill'd, a pricket.

30

Hol. Fauste, precor gelida quando pecus omne

sub umbra Ruminat, and so forth. Ah, good old Mantuan'! I may speak of thee as the traveller doth of Ve[nice;

-Vinegia, Vinegia,

Chi non te vide, ei non te pregia.

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. Perge, good master Holofernes, perge; 35 Nath. Ay, sir, and very learned. so it shall please you to abrogate scurrility.

Hol. I will something affect the letter; for it

argues facility.

The praiseful princess piered and prick'd a pretty pleasing pricket;

40

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

Some say, a soare; but not a sore, 'till now made sore with shooting: [from thicket; The dogs did yell; put L to sore, then sorel jumps Or pricket, sore, or else sorel, the people full [O sore L45"

a hooting.

If sore be sore, then L to sore makes fifty sores;
Of one sore I an hundred make, by adding but
Nath. A rare talent.
[one more L.
Dull. If a talent be a claw, look how he claws
him with a talent.

Nath. " If love make me forsworn, how shall I
"swear to love?
[vow'd!
"Ah, never faith could hold, if not to beauty
Though to myself forsworn, to thee I'll faith-
"ful prove;

"Those thoughts to me were oaks, to thee "like osiers bowed. Study his bias leaves, and makes his book thine [comprehend: "Where all those pleasures live, that art would "If knowledge be the mark, to know thee shall "suffice; [commend: 50" Well learned is that tongue, that well can thee "All ignorant that soul, that sees thee without "wonder; [admire) ("Which is to me some praise, that I thy parts "Thy eye Jove's lightning bears, thy voice his [sweet fire. "Which, not to anger bent, is musick, and

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 55 delivered upon the mellowing of occasion: But

1

dreadful thunder,

4

Patch here means a silly, foolish, fellow. The term is supposed to have been adopted from a celebrated fool named Patch, and who wearing, perhaps in allusion to his name, a party-colour'd dress, all stage fools have ever since been distinguish'd by a motley coat. i, e. reach'd not. i. e. the riddle is as good when I use the name of Adam, as when you use the name of Cain. Alluding to L being the numeral for 50. Baptista Spagnolus (surnamed Mantuanus, from the place of his birth) was a writer of poems, who flourished towards the latter end of the 15th century. His Ecloques were translated before the time of Shakspeare. That is, "O Venice, Venice, he who has ne ver seen thee, bas thee not in esteem."

5

:

" Celestial