exchange; for the moon is never but a month old and I say beside that, 'twas a pricket that the princess killed. Hol. Sir Nathaniel, will you hear an extem- 50 poral epitaph on the death of the deer? And, to humour the ignorant, call I the deer the princess killed a pricket. Nath. Perge, good Master Holofernes, perge; so it shall please you to abrogate scurrility. Hol. I will something affect the letter, for it argues facility. The preyful princess pierced and prick'd a pretty pleasing pricket; Some say a sore; but not a sore, till now made sore with shooting. The dogs did yell: put L to sore, then sorel jumps from thicket; Or pricket sore, or else sorel; the people fall a-hooting. If sore be sore, then L to sore makes fifty sores one sorel. Of one sore I an hundred make by adding but one more L. Nath. A rare talent! Dull. [Aside] 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 56. affect the letter, employ alliteration. 59. 60. sore, a buck of the fourth year; sorel, a buck of the third year. 66. claws, flatters. ба 70 70. ventricle of memory. The brain was currently divided into three chambers or ventricles, the 65. talent, a current colloquial hindmost of which was the seat form of talon. of memory. 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 tutored by you, and their daughters profit very greatly under you: you are a good member of the commonwealth. Hol. Mehercle, if their sons be ingenuous, 80 they shall want no instruction; if their daughters be 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 Parson. Hol. Master Parson, quasi pers-on. An if one should be pierced, which is the one? Cost. Marry, master schoolmaster, he that is likest to a hogshead. Hol. Piercing a hogshead! a good lustre of 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 Armado: I beseech you, read it. 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 Venice; 71. pia mater, a membrane enclosing part of the brain, used elsewhere for the brain itself. 85, 86. 'on' and 'one' were nearly identical in pronunciation. 97. Mantuan, Baptista Man 90 tuanus (1448-1516), general of the Carmelite order, whose Eclogues were used in the English grammar schools, and hence familiar to Shakespeare. Fauste, precor, etc., is the opening of the first eclogue. Venetia, Venetia, Chi non ti vede non ti pretia. Old Mantuan, old Mantuan! who understandeth thee not, loves thee not. Ut, re, sol, la, mi, fa. Under pardon, sir, what are the contents? rather, as Horace says in his-What, my soul, verses? Nath. Ay, sir, and very learned. or Hol. Let me hear a staff, a stanza, a verse; lege, domine. Nath. [reads] 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 knowledge be the mark, to know thee shall suffice; 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 : 99. Venetia, Venetia, etc. Shakespeare probably found this saying in Florio's Second Frutes (1591). It is much mutilated in the old texts. 109-122. Biron's sonnet, as well as Longaville's and Dumain's verses in the next scene (iv. 3. 60-73, 101-120), were reprinted with a few variations in the Passionate Pilgrim. 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, O, pardon love this wrong, That sings heaven's praise with such an earthly tongue. 120 Hol. You find not the apostrophas, and so miss the accent: let me supervise the canzonet. Here 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 130 ape his keeper, the tired horse his rider. damosella virgin, was this directed to you? Jaq. Ay, sir, from one Monsieur Biron, one of the strange queen's lords. But, Hol. I will overglance the superscript: 'To the snow-white hand of the most beauteous Lady Rosaline.' I will look again on the intellect of the letter, for the nomination of the party writing to the person written unto: 'Your ladyship's in all desired employment, BIRON.' Sir Nathaniel, 140 this Biron is one of the votaries with the king; and here he hath framed a letter to a sequent of the stranger queen's, which accidentally, or by 123. You find not the apostrophas. This doubtless refers to the curtailment in Nathaniel's reading (represented by the text) of the last line. The reading singës (Q) probably, as has been suggested, gives what Nathaniel should have read, Holofernes (or Shakespeare) meaning by apostrophas, 'diæ. reses. 131. tired, attired, arrayed. 133. This declaration, contradicting iv. 94 above, seems to be an oversight. 137. intellect, purport, here specially the indication of the sender. the way of progression, hath miscarried. Trip and go, my sweet; deliver this paper into the royal hand of the king: it may concern much. Stay not thy compliment; I forgive thy duty: adieu. Jaq. Good Costard, go with me. Sir, God save your life! Cost. Have with thee, my girl. [Exeunt Cost. and Jaq. Nath. Sir, you have done this in the fear of God, very religiously; and, as a certain father saith,— Hol. Sir, tell not me of the father; I do fear colourable colours. But to return to the verses: did they please you, Sir Nathaniel? Nath. Marvellous well for the pen. 150 Hol. I do dine to-day at the father's of a certain pupil of mine; where, if, before repast, it 160 shall please you to gratify the table with a grace, 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. And thank you too; for society, saith the text, is the happiness of life. Hol. And, certes, the text most infallibly concludes it. [To Dull] Sir, I do invite you 170 too; you shall not say me nay: pauca verba. Away! the gentles are at their game, and we will to our recreation. 156. colourable colours, specious pretexts. [Exeunt. |