a calf, cauf: half, hauf; neighbour, vocatur, nebour; neigh, abbreviated, ne: This is abominable, (which he would call abominable,) it insinuateth me of insanie; Ne intelligis domine? to make frantick, lunatick. Nath. Laus deo, bone intelligo. bone, for benė: Priscian a little scratch'd; 'twill serve. Enter ARMADO, MOTH, and COSTARD. Nath. Videsne quis venit? Hol. Video, et gaudeo. Arm. Chirra! Hol. Quare Chirra, not sirrah ? [TO MOTH. Arm, Men of peace, well encounter'd. Hol. Most military Sir, salutation. Moth. They have been at a great feast of lan. guages, and stolen the scraps. [To COSTARD aside. Cost, O, they have lived long on the alms. basket of words! I marvel, thy master hath not eaten thee for a word; for thou art not so long by the head as honorificabilitudinitatibus: thou art easier swallowed than a flap dragon. Moth. Peace; the peal - begins. Arm. Monsieur, [To HoL.] are you not letter'd? Moth. Yes, yes; he teaches boys the hornbook: What is a, b, spelt backward with a born on his head? Hol. Ba, pueritia, with a horn added. Moth. Ba, most silly sheep, with a horn: You hear his learning. Hol. Quis, quis, thou consonant? Moth. The third of the five vowels, if you repeat them; or the fifth, if I. Hol. I will repeat them, a, e, i. Moth. The sheep: the other two concludes it; 0, 1. meum, Arm. Now, by the salt wave of the Mediterraa sweet touch, a quick venew of wit:, snip, snap, quick and home; it rejoiceth my intellect: true wit. Moth. Offer'd by a child to an old man; which is wit old. Hol. What is the figure? what is the figure? Hol. Thou disputest like an infant: go, whip thy gig. Moth. Lend me your horn to make one, and I will whip about your infamy circùm circà; A gig of a cuckold's horn! Cost. An I had but one penny in the world, thou shouldst have it to buy ginger bread: hold there is the very remuneration I had of thy master, thou half-penny purse of wit, thou pigeon egg of discretion. 0, an the heavens were so pleased, that thou wert but my bastard! joyful father wouldst thou make me! thou hast it ad dunghill, at the fingers' ends, as they say. Hol. O, unguem. what a Go to; I smell false Latin; dunghill for Arm. Arts - man, praeambula; we will be sin gled from the barbarous. Do you not educate youth at the charge house on the top of the mountain? Hol. Or, mons, the hill. Arm. At your sweet pleasure, for the mountain. Hol. I do, sans question. Arm. Sir, it is the King's most sweet pleasure and affection, to congratulate the Princess at her pavilion, pavilion, in the posteriors of this day; which the rude multitude call, the afternoon. Hol. The posterior of the day, most generous Sir, is liable, congruent, and measurable for the afternoon: the word is well cull'd, chose; sweet and apt, I do assure you, Sir, I do assure. Ι Arm. Sir, the King is a noble gentleman; and my familiar, I do assure you, very good friend: For what is inward between us, let it pass:I do beseech thee, remember thy courtesy; beseech thee apparel thy head: and among other importunate and most serious designs, and of great import indeed, too; — but let that pass: for 1 must tell thee, it will please his grace (by the world) sometime to lean upon my poor shoulder; and with his royal finger, thus, dally with my excrement, with my mustachio: but sweet heart, let that pass. By the world I recount no fable: some certain special honours it pleaseth his greatness to impart to Armado, a soldier, a man of travel, that hath seen the world: but let that pass. The very all of all is, but, sweet heart, I do implore secrecy, that the King would have me present the Princess, sweet chuck, with some delightful ostentation, or show, or pageant, or antick, or fire-work. Now, understanding that the curate, and your sweet self, are good at such eruptions, and sudden breaking out of mirth, as it were, I have acquainted you withal, to the end to crave your assistance. Hol. Sir, you shall present before her the nine worthies. Sir Nathaniel, as concerning some entertainment of time, some show in the posterior of this day, to be render'd by our assistance, the King's command, and this most gallant, illus trate, and learned gentleman, - before the Prin VOL. IV. 5 cess; I say, none so fit as to present the nine worthies. Nath. Where will you find men worthy enough to present them? Iol. Joshua, yourself; myself, or this gallant gentleman, Judas Maccabaeus; this swain, because of his great limb or joint, shall pass Pompey the great; the page, Hercules. Arm. Pardon, Sir, error: he is enough for that worthy's thumb! big as the end of his club. not quantity he is not so Hol. Shall I have audience; he shall present Hercules in minority: his enter and exit shall be strangling a snake; and I will have an apology for that purpose. Moth. An excellent device! so, if any of the audience hiss, you may cry: well done, Hercules! now thou crushest the snake! that is the way to make an offence gracious; though few have the grace to do it. Arm. For the rest of the worthies? Arm. We will have, if this fadge not, an antick. I beseech you, follow. Hol. Via, goodman Dull! thou hast spoken no word all this while. Dull. Nor understood none neither, Sir. Hol. Allons! we will employ thee. Dull. I'll make one in a dance, or so; or L will play on the tabor, to the worthies, and let them dance the hay., Hol. Most dull, honest Dull, to our sport, [Exeunt. away. If fairings come thus plentifully in: Prin. Nothing but this? yes, as much love in : rhyme, As would be cramm'd up in a sheet of paper, Ros. That was the way to make his god-head wax; For he hath been five thousand years a boy. Kath. Ay, and a shrewd unhappy gallows too. Ros. You'll ne'er be friends with him; he kill'a your sister. Kath. He made her melancholy, sad, and heavy; And so she died: had she been light, like you, Of such a merry, nimble, stirring spirit, She might have been a grandam ere she died |