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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.

Prin. What plume of feathers is he that in-
dited this letter?

What vane? what weathercock? did you ever hear better?

Boyet. I am much deceived but I remember the style.

Prin. Else your memory is bad, going o'er it erewhile.

Boyet. This Armado is a Spaniard, that keeps

here in court;

A phantasime, a Monarcho, and one that makes

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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.

[To Ros.] Here, sweet, put up this: 'twill be thine another day.

[Exeunt Princess and train.

Boyet. Who is the suitor? who is the suitor?

93. forage, devouring; regu

larly used of wild beasts.

95. repasture, repast. 101. phantasime, a fantastic fellow. On the 'Fantastical

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Monarcho,' see the Introduction. 106. master, patron.

IIO. suitor, Qq and Fi shooter, with a view to the pun, the word being sounded approximately so.

Ros.

Shall I teach you to know?

Boyet. Ay, my continent of beauty.
Ros.

Finely put off!

Why, she that bears the bow.

Boyet. My lady goes to kill horns; but, if thou marry,

Hang me by the neck, if horns that year mis

carry.

Finely put on!

Ros. Well, then, I am the shooter.

Boyet.

And who is your deer?

Ros. If we choose by the horns, yourself

come not near.

Finely put on, indeed!

Mar. You still wrangle with her, Boyet, and she strikes at the brow.

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 little boy, as touching the hit it?

Boyet. So I may answer thee with one as old, that was a woman when Queen Guinover of Britain was a little wench, as touching the hit it. Ros. Thou canst not hit it, hit it, hit it,

Thou canst not hit it, my good man.

Boyet. An I cannot, cannot, cannot,

An I cannot, another can.

[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!

III. continent, complete embodiment.

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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 my hand be out, then belike your hand is in.

Cost. Then will she get the upshoot 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.

Armado o' th' 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!

134. mete at, aim at.

136. clout, the white mark in a target, supported by a wooden pin.

[Shout within.

[Exit Costard, running.

140

150

138. upshoot, the deciding shot.

139. greasily, uncleanly.

150. nit, particle (playing on Moth's name-mote).

SCENE II. The same.

Enter HOLOFERNES, SIR NATHANIEL, and DULL.

Nath. Very reverend sport, truly; and done in the testimony of a good conscience.

Hol. The deer was, as you know, sanguis, in blood; ripe as the pomewater, who now hangeth like a jewel in the ear of caelo, 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 sweetly varied, like a scholar at the least: but, sir, I assure ye, it was a buck of the first head. 10 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, 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.

Hol. Twice-sod simplicity, bis coctus !

O thou monster Ignorance, how deformed dost thou look!

3. sanguis... caelo. These are possibly blunders for Ital. sanguigno, full of blood,' cielo, sky. But the first at least can hardly be due to the printer.

4. pomewater, a kind of apple.

20

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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 me

by your wit

What was a month old at Cain's birth, that's not five weeks old as yet?

Hol. Dictynna, goodman Dull; Dictynna, goodman 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,

And raught not to five weeks when he came to five-score.

The allusion holds in the exchange.

Dull. 'Tis true indeed; 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

32. patch, fool.

41. raught, reached.

30

40

42. the allusion, etc. The statement is equally true when Adam is substituted for Cain.

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