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

Math. And out of heart, master; all those three ro

Coft. No egma, no riddle, no l'envoy; no falve in the male, fir: O fir, plantain, a plain plantain; no envoy, no l'envoy, or falve, fir, but a plantain !

Arm. By virtue, thou enforceft laughter; thy filly thought, my spleen; the heaving of my lungs provokes me to ridiculous fmiling: O, pardon me, my ftars! Doth the inconfiderate take falve for l'envoy, and the word l'envoy for a falve?

Moth. Doth the wife think them other? is not P'envoy a falve?

Math. A man, if I live; and this, by, in, and without, upon the inftant: By heart you love her,] because your heart cannot come by her in heart 15I you love her, because your heart is in love with her; and out of heart you love her, being out of heart that you cannot enjoy her.

Arm. I am all these three.

Arm. No, page; it is an epilogue or discourse, to make plain

Some obfcure precedence that hath tofore been fain. will example 'it :

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

Were ftill at odds, being but three.

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

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 fwain; he must carry me a letter.

Matb. A meffage well fympathis'd; a horse to be embassador for an afs!

Arm. Ha, ha; what fayeft thou?

Math. Marry, fir, you must fend the afs upon the horse, for he is very flow-gaited: But I go. Arm. The way is but short; away.

25

30

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 with my l'envoy.

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

Were ftill at odds, being but three:

Arm. Until the goofe came out of door,
Staying the odds by adding four.

Moth. A good l'envoy, ending in the goose ;—
Would you defire more?

that's flat:

Coft. The boy hath sold him a bargain", a goose [tat,Sir, your penny-worth is good, an your goose be 35 To fell a bargain well, is as cunning as fast and

40

45

Arm. Some enigma, fome riddle: come,-thy 50 l'envey 5 ;-begin.

loofe :

Let me fee a fat l'envoy; ay, that's a fat goofe. Arm. Come hither, come hither: How did this argument begin?

Moth. By faying, that a Coftard was broken in a fhin: then call'd you for the l'envoy.

Coft. True, and I for a plantain; thus came your argument in:

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

And he ended the market.

Arm. But tell me; how was there a Coftard ? broken in a fhin ?

Meth. I will tell you fenfibly.

Coft. Thou haft no feeling of it, Moth; I will fpeak that l'envoy :—

! In the celebration of May-day, befides the sports now ufed of hanging a pole with garlands, and dancing round it, formerly a boy was dreffed 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 Precifians multiplied, thefe latter rites were looked upon to favour of paganifm; and then maid Marian, the friar, and the poor hobby-horfe, were turned out of the games. Some who were not fo wifely precife, but regretted the difufe of the hobby-horse, no doubt, fatirized this fufpicion of idolatry, and archly wrote the epitaph above alluded to. Now Moth, hearing Armado groan ridiculously, and cry out, But cb! but ob!- -humourously pieces out his exclamation with the fequel of this epitaph. 2 Meaning, a hot, mad-brain'd, unbroken young fellow; or fometimes an old fellow with juvenile defires. 3 Welkin is the fky. 4 i. e. a head. 5 The l'envoy, which is a term borrowed from the old French poetry, appeared always at the head of a few concluding verfes to each piece, and either ferved to convey the moral, or to addrefs the poem to fome particular peifon. 6 To fell a bargain here means to lead a perfon to say something, which being applied to himself makes him appear ridiculous, fo Armado is fuppofed to call himself a goofe. 7 The bead was anciently called the caftard,as obferved above.-A cftard likewife fignified a crab-flick.

I, Coftard,

I, Coftard, running out, that was fafely within,
Fell over the threshold, and broke my shin.
Arm. We will talk no more of this matter.
Coft. Till there be more matter in the shin.
Arm. Sirrah, Coftard, I will enfranchise thee.
Coft. O, marry me to one Frances;-I fmell
fome l'envoy, fome goofe, in this.

Arm. By my fweet foul, I mean, fetting thee at liberty, enfreedoming thy perfon; thou wert immur'd, restrained, captivated, bound.

Coft. True, true; and now you will be my purgation, and let me loose.

Arm. I give thee thy liberty, fet thee from durance; and, in lieu thereof, impose on thee nothing| but this: Bear this fignificant to the country maid Jaquenetta: there is remuneration; [Giving bim money.] for the best ward of mine honour, is, rewarding my dependants. Moth, follow. [Exit. Moth. Like the fequel, I. Signior Coftard, adieu.

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

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

5 The princess comes to hunt here in the park,
And in her train there is a gentle lady; [name,
When tongues fpeak fweetly, then they name her
And Rofaline they call her: ask for her;
And to her fweet hand fee thou do commend
This feal'd-up counfel. There's thy guerdon; go.
[Gives him money.

Ceft. Guerdon,-O fweet guerdon 2! better than remuneration; eleven-pence farthing better:Moft fweet guerdon!-I will do it, fir, in print 3. 15-Guerdon-remuneration. [Exit. Biron. O! And I, forfooth, in love! I, that have been love's whip;

[Exit. 20

Coft. My fweet ounce of man's flesh! my incony 1
Jew!-

:

Now will I look to his remuneration. Remune-
ration! O, that's the Latin word for three far-
things three farthings-remuneration.-What's 25
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 fell out of this word.

Enter Biron.

Biron. O, my good knave Costard! exceedingly well met.

Coft. Pray you, fir, how much carnation ribbon may a man buy for a remuneration?

Biron. What is a remuneration ?

Cof. Marry, fir, half-penny farthing. Biron. O, why then, three-farthing-worth of filk.

Coft. I thank your worship: God be with you.
Biron. O, ftay, flave; I must employ thee:
As thou wilt win my favour, good my knave,
Do one thing for me that I fhall entreat.

Coft. When would you have it done, fir?
Biron. O, this afternoon.

Coft. Well, I will do it, fir: Fare you well.
Biron. O, thou knowest not what it is.
Coft. I fhall know, fir, when I have done it.
Biron. Why, villain, thou must know first.

A very beadle to a humourous figh;
A critic; nay, a night-watch conftable:
A domineering pedant o'er the boy,
Than whom no mortal so magnificent!
This wimpled 4, whining, purblind, wayward boy;
This fignior Junio's giant-dwarf, Dan Cupid;
Regent of love-rhimes, lord of folded arms,
The anointed fovereign of fighs and groans,
Liege of all loiterers and malecontents,
Dread prince of plackets, king of codpieces,
Sole imperator, and great general

Of trotting paritors 5,-O my little heart!--
30 And I to be a corporal of his field,

And wear his colours like a tumbler's hoop!
What? what? I love! I fue! I feek 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,
40 With two pitch-balls stuck in her face for eyes;
Ay, and by heaven, one that will do the deed,
Though Argus were her eunuch and her guard:
And I to figh for her! to watch for her!
To pray for her! Go to; it is a plague
45 That Cupid will impofe for my neglect
Of his almighty dreadful little might.
Well, I will love, write, figh, pray, fue, and
Some men must love my lady, and some Joan.

[groan:

[Exit.

Incony, or kony, in the north, fignifies fine, delicate-as a kony thing, a fine thing. 2 i. e. reward. 3 i. e. with the utmoft nicety. 4 The wimple was a hood or veil which fell over the face. 5 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 oppofite arm.

ACT

SCENE

ACT IV.

I.

A Pavilion in the Park near the Palace.

Enter the Princess, Rosaline, Maria, Katharine, Lords,

Prin. W

Attendants, and a Forefter.

Coft. Which is the greatest lady, the highest? Prin. The thickeft, and the tallest. [truth. Coft. The thickeft and the tallest! 'tis fo; truth is An your waift, mistress, were as flender as my wit,

AS that the king, that fpurr'd his 5 One of thefe maids' girdles for your waist should horse so hard

be fit.

Are not you the chief woman? you are the thickest

here.

Prin. What's your will, fir? what's your will? Coff. I have a letter from monfieur Biron, to one lady Rofaline.

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

Well, lords, to-day we shall have our dispatch;
On Saturday we will return to France.-
Then, forefter, my friend, where is the bush,
That we must stand and play the murderer in?
For. Here by, upon the edge of yonder coppice; 15 Break up this capon '.
A stand, where you may make the fairest shoot.

Prin. I thank my beauty; I am fair that shoot,
And thereupon thou fpeak'ft, the fairest shoot.
For. Pardon me, madam, for I meant not fo.

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

Boyet. I am bound to ferve.

This letter is mistook, it importeth none here;
It is writ to Jaquenetta.

Prin. We will read it, I swear:

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

fay, no?

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

For. Yes, madam, fair.

Priz. Nay, never paint me now;

25

Boyet. [Reads.] "By heaven, that thou art fair, is moft infallible; true, that thou art beauteous; "truth itself, that thou art lovely: More fairer "than fair, beautiful than beauteous, truer than "truth itself, have commiferation on thy heroical "vaffal! The magnanimous and most illustrate "king Cophetua set eye upon the pernicious and "indubitate beggar Zenelophon; and he it was

Where fair is not, praise cannot mend the brow.
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, fee, my beauty will be fav'd by merit. 3c"
O herefy in fair, fit for these days!

35

that might rightly fay, veni, vidi, vici; which to anatomize in the vulgar, (O base and obfcure "vulgar!) videlicet, he came, faw, and overcame : "He came, one; faw, two; overcame, three. "Who came? the king; Why did he come? to "fee; Why did he fee? to overcome; To whom

A giving hand, though foul, shall have fair praife.-|
But come, the bow:-Now mercy goes to kill,
And shooting well is then accounted ill.
Thus will I fave my credit in the shoot:
Not wounding, pity would not let me do 't;
If wounding, then it was to fhew my skill,
That more for praise, than purpose, meant to kill.
And, out of question, fo it is fometimes;
Glory grows guilty of detefted crimes;
When, for fame's fake, for praise, an outward part,
We bend to that the working of the heart:
As I, for praife alone, now seek to spill
The poor deer's blood, that my heart means no ill.
Boyet. Do not curft wives hold that felf-fove-45"
reignty

Only for praife' fake, when they strive to be
Lords o'er their lords?

Prin. Only for praife: and praise we may afford
To any lady that fubdues a lord.

came he? to the beggar; What faw he? the "beggar; Whom overcame he? the beggar: The "conclufion is victory; On whofe fide? the king's: "the captive is enrich'd; On whofe fide,? the "beggar's: The catastrophe is a nuptial; on "whofe fide? the king's ?-no; on both in one, 66 or one in both. I am the king; for fo ftands "the comparison: thou the beggar; for fo wit"neffeth thy lowlinefs. 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 thyfelf? 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 deareft defign of industry,
"DON ADRIANO DE ARMADO."
Thus doft thou hear the Nemean lion roar
'Gainft thee, thou lamb, that standeft as his prey;
Submiffive fall his princely feet before,

And he from forage will incline to play:
But if thou ftrive, poor foul, what art thou then?
Food for his rage, repafture for his den.

this metaphor, as the French do their poulet, which 2 Illuftrate for illuftrious.

150' my troth, most sweet jefts! most incony vulgar When it comes fo fmoothly off, fo obfcenely, as

Armatho o' the one fide,-O, a most dainty man! To fee him walk before a lady, and to bear her fan! 20 To fee him kifs his hand! and how most sweetly a' will fwear!

Enter Dull, Holofernes 5, and Sir Nathaniel. Nath. Very reverend sport, truly; and done in 30 the teftimony of a good confcience.

Mar. You ftill wrangle with her, Boyet, and 35 fhe ftrikes at the brow.

Boyet. But the herself is hit lower: Have I hit her now?

Rof. Shall I come upon thee with an old faying, that was a man when king Pepin of France was a 40 little boy, as touching the hit it?

Buyet. So I may anfwer thee with one as old, that was a woman when queen Guinever of Britain was a little wench, as touching the hit it.

Ref. Thou can't not hit it, bit it, bit it, [Singing. 45 after his undreffed, unpolished, uneducated, unThou can'ft not bit it, my good man.

pruned, untrained, or rather unletter'd, or, rathereft, unconfirmed fashion,-to infert again my baud credo for a deer.

Dull. I faid, the deer was not a baud credo; 50twas a pricket 7.

Let the mark have a prick in't, to mete at, if it 55
Mar. Wide o' the bow hand! I' faith, your

A pun upon the word file. 2 i. e. a little while ago. 3 Shooter here means fuitor. 4 i. e. the white mark at which archers took their aim. The pin was the wooden nail which upheld it. 5 Dr. Warburton fays, that by Holofernes was defigned a particular character, a pedant and a schoolmaster of our author's time, one John Florio, a teacher of the Italian tongue in London. 6 A fpecies of apple. 7 A luck is the firft year, a farm; the fecond year, a pricket; the third year, a forell; the fourth year, a foare; the fifth year, a buck of the first bead; the fixth year, a compleat buck.

the gift is good in those in whom it is acute, and I am thankful for it.

Nath. Sir, I praife the Lord for you; and fo may my parishioners; for their fons are well tu5tor'd by you, and their daughters profit very greatly under you: you are a good member of the commonwealth.

Hol. Mebercie, if their fons be ingenious, they hall want no inftruction: if their daughters be 10 capable, I will put it to them: But, vir fapit, qui pauca loquitur: a foul feminine faluteth us.

Hol. Dictynna, good man Dull; Dictynna, good 15 man Dull.

Dull. What is Dictynna ?

Nath. A title to Phoebe, to Luna, to the moon. Hel. The moon was a month old, when Adam was no more; [five-fcore. 20 And raught not to five weeks, when he came to The allufion holds in the exchange 3.

Dall. 'Tis true, indeed; the collufion holds in the exchange.

Hel. God comfort thy capacity! I fay the allu-25 fion holds in the exchange.

Dull. And I say the pollufion holds in the exchange; for the moon is never but a month old: and I fay befide, 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

Nath. Perge, good mafter Holofernes, perge; 35 fo it shall please you to abrogate fcurrility.

Hal. I will fomething affect the letter; for it argues facility.

The praiseful princess pierc'd and prick'd a pretty pleafing pricket;

Some fay, a fore; but not a fore, 'till now made fore with footing:

[thicket

40

The dogs did yell; put L to fore, then forel jumps from
Or pricket, fore, or else forel, the people fall a
busting.
[fore L 445
If fore be fore, then L to fore makes fifty fores; 0
Of one jure I an hundred make, by adding but one more L.
Natb. A rare talent!

Dull. If a talent be a claw, look how he claws him with a talent.

50

Hel. This is a gift that I have, fimple, fimple; a foolish extravagant spirit, full of forms, figures, fhapes, objects, ideas, apprehenfions, motions, revolutions: thefe are begot in the ventricle of memory, nourished in the womb of pia mater, and 551 delivered upon the mellowing of occasion: But

Enter Jaquinetta, and Cftard.

Jaq. God give you good-morrow, mafter par

fon.

Hel. Mafter parfon,quafi perfon. And if one hould be pierc'd, which is the one?

Caft. Marry, mafter school-mafter, he that is likeft 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 fwine: 'tis pretty; it is well.

Jaq. Good mafter parfon, be so good as read me this letter: it was given me by Coftard, and fent me from Don Armatho: I beseech you, read it.

Hol. Faufte, precor gelida quando pecus omne fub

umbra

Ruminat,and fo forth. Ah, good old Mantuan 5!
I may speak of thee as the traveller doth of Venice;
Vinegia, Vinegia,

-

Chi non te vide, ei non te pregia6.

Old Mantuan! old Mantuan! Who understandeth thee not, loves thee not,-Ut, re, fol, la, mi, fa...ni Under pardon, fir, what are the contents? or, rather as Horace fays in his-What, my foul, verses? Nath. Ay, fir, and very learned.

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

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

"Those thoughts to me were oaks, to thee like
"ofiers bowed.

Study his biafs leaves, and makes his book thine "eyes; [comprehend: "Where all thofe pleasures live, that art would "If knowledge be the mark, to know thee shall [commend: Well learned is that tongue, that well can thee All ignorant that foul, that fees thee without

"fuffice;

"wonder; [admire) ("Which is to me some praise, that I thy parts "Thy eye Jove's lightning bears, thy voice his "dreadful thunder, [fire. "Which, not to anger bent, is musick, and sweet

Patch here means a filly, foolish fell. The term is supposed to have been adopted from a celebrated fool named Patch, and who wearing, perhaps in allufion to his name, a party-colour'd dress, all stage fools have ever fince been distinguish'd by a motley coat. 2 i. e. reach'd not. 3 i. e. the riddle is as good when I use the name of Adam, as when you use the name of Cain. 4 Alluding to L being the numeral for 50. 5 Baptifta Spagnolus (firnamed Mantuanus, from the place of his birth) was a writer of poems, who flourished towards the latter end of the 15th century. His Eclogues were tranflated before the time of Shakspeare. That is, "O Venice, Venice, he who has never feen thee, has thee not in eftcem,"

"Celestial