a Dictynna, goodman Dull; Dictynna,-] The old copies have Dictissima and Dictima. Rowe made the corrections. 72 b I have called the deer-] I have, not in the ancient copies, was inserted by Rowe. If sore be sore, then L to sore makes fifty sores; 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. a 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 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 person.b And if HOL. Master person, quasi pers-on. one should be pierced, which is the one? Cost. Marry, master schoolmaster, he that is likest to a hogshead. HOL. Of 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 Armatho; I beseech you, read it. HOL. Fauste, precor gelida quando pecus omne eyes, Where all those pleasures live that art would comprehend: If knowledge be the mark, to know thee shall suffice; All ignorant that soul that sees thee without Thy eye Jove's lightning bears, thy voice his That sings heaven's praise with such an earthly HOL. You find not the apostrophes, 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 the man: and why, indeed, Naso; but for sub umbra Ruminat, and so forth. Ah, good smelling out the odoriferous flowers of fancy, the old Mantuan! I may speak of thee as the traveller doth of Venice: -Vinegia, Vinegia, Chi non te vede, ei non te pregia.(3) (*) Old copies, primater. a 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 clar, in one sense, meaning to flatter, to fawn upon. b Master person.] Porson 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." Fauste, precor gelida-] 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 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. 73 (*) Old copies, written. (+) First folio omits royal. • Monsieur Biron, one of the strange queen's lords.] Unless Jaquenetta is intended to blunder or prevaricate, the poet has committed an oversight here. As Mason remarks, "Jaquenetta 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. HOL. I do dine to-day at the father's of a certain pupil of mine; where if, before* repast, it shall please you to gratify the table with a grace, (*) First folio, being. knew nothing of Biron, and had said just before that the letter had been sent to her from Don Armatho, and given to her by Costard." 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. 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 eye, 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. Enter the KING, with a paper. KING. Ay me! Nor shines the silver moon one-half so bright So ridest thou triumphing in my woe : 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 excel! No thought can think, nor tongue of mortal tell.How shall she know my griefs? I'll drop the Sweet leaves, shade folly. Who is he comes here? [Steps aside. paper; Enter LONGAVILLE with a paper. What, Longaville! and reading! listen, ear. BIRON. Now, in thy likeness, one more fool appear! [Aside. LONG. Ay me! I am forsworn. BIRON. Why, he comes in like a perjure, wearing papers. [Aside. KING. In love, I hope: sweet fellowship in shame! [Aside. BIRON. One drunkard loves another of the [Aside. LONG. Am I the first that have been perjur'd so? BIRON. [Aside.] I could put thee in comfort; name. not by two, that I know: Thou mak'st the triumviry, the corner cap of society, The shape of Love's Tyburn that hangs up simplicity.a LONG. I fear these stubborn lines lack power to move: O sweet Maria, empress of my love! BIRON. [Aside.] O, rhymes are guards on wanton Cupid's hose : BIRON. [Aside.] Shot by heaven! - Proceed, sweet Cupid; thou hast thump'd him with thy Disfigure not his shape. 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. a Gets up into a tree.] A modern stage direction. The old one is, "He stands aside." b 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, Wearing papers 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 LONG. This same shall go.[He reads the sonnet. Did not the heavenly rhetoric of thine eye ('Gainst whom the world cannot hold argument) Persuade my heart to this false perjury? Vows for thee broke deserve not punishment. Wolsey, "he so punished a perjurie with open punishment, and open paper wearing, that in his time it was less used." c In love, I hope:] The early copies give this line to Longaville. d Thou mok'st the triumviry, the corner cap of society, The old gallows at Tyburn was of a triangular form. • Disfigure not his shape.] The quarto and folio, 1623, read shop, which has been altered by some editors to slop. If any change is necessary, of which I am not sure-for shop may have been an old word for garb-I prefer that in the text, which is a MS. correction in the margin of Lord Ellesmere's copy of the first folio. 75 A woman I forswore; but, I will prove, 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? LONG. By whom shall I send this? Company! stay. [Stepping aside. BIRON. [Aside.] All hid, all hid, an old infant play: And wretched fools' secrets heedfully o'er-eye. BIRON. [Aside.] This is the liver vein, which Like a demi-god here sit I in the sky, makes flesh a deity; 76 |