NATH. Laus deo, bone intelligo.

HOL. Bone?-bone, for benè: Prifcian a little fcratch'd; 'twill ferve.

Enter ARMADO, MOTH, and COSTARD.

NATH. Videfne quis venit?

HOL. Video, & gaudeo.

ARM. Chirra!

HOL. Quare Chirra, not firrah?

[To MOTH.

ARM. Men of peace, well encounter'd.

ferve.] Why fhould infamy be explained by making frantick, lunatick? It is plain and obvious that the poet intended the pedant fhould coin an uncouth affected word here, infanie, from infania of the Latins. Then, what a piece of unintelligible jargon have these learned criticks given us for Latin? I think, I may venture to affirm, I have restored the paffage to its true purity.

Nath. Laus Deo, bone, intelligo.

The curate, addreffing with complaifance his brother pedant, fays, bone, to him, as we frequently in Terence find bone vir; but the pedant, thinking he had miftaken the adverb, thus defcants

on it.

Bone?. -bone for bene. Prifcian a little feratched: 'twill serve. Alluding to the common phrafe, Diminuis Prifciani caput, applied to fuch as fpeak falfe Latin. THEOBALD.

There feems yet fomething wanting to the integrity of this paffage, which Mr. Theobald has in the moft corrupt and difficult places very happily restored. For ne intelligis domine? to make frantick, lunatick, I read (nonne intelligis, domine ?) to be mad, frantick, Lunatick. JOHNSON.

Infanie appears to have been a word anciently ufed. In a book entitled, The Fall and evil Succeffe of Rebellion from Time to Time, &c. written in verfe by Wilfride Holme, imprinted at London by Henry Bynneman; without date, (though from the concluding ftanza, it appears to have been produced in the 8th year of the reign of Henry VIII.) I find the word ufed:

"In the days of fixth Henry, Jack Cade made a brag, "With a multitude of people; but in the confequence,

After a little infanie they fled tag and rag, "For Alexander Iden he did his diligence.' STEEVENS. I should rather read-" it infinuateth men of infanie."

FARMER.

HOL. Moft military fir, falutation. MоTH. They have been at a great feast of languages, and stolen the fcraps." [To COSTARD afide. COST. O, they have lived long on the alms-basket of words! I marvel, thy mafter hath not eaten thee for a word; for thou art not fo long by the head as bonorificabilitudinitatibus: thou art easier fwallowed than a flap-dragon."

MOTH. Peace; the peal begins.

ARM. Monfieur, [To HoL.] are you not letter'd? MOTH. Yes, yes; he teaches boys the hornbook:

What is a, b, fpelt backward with a horn on his head? HOL. Ba, pueritia, with a horn added.

6 They have been at a great feaft of languages, and ftolen the fcraps.] So, in Chrift's Tears over Jerufalem, by Thomas Nafhe, 1594: "The phrafe of fermons, as it ought to agree with the fcripture, fo heed must be taken, that their whole fermon feem not a banquet of the broken fragments of fcripture." MALONE.

7 the alms-basket of words!] i. e. the refufe of words. The refufe meat of great families was formerly fent to the prifons. So, in The Inner Temple Mafque, 1619, by T. Middleton: “his perpetual lodging in the King's Bench, and his ordinary out of the basket." Again, in If this be not a good Play the Devil is in It, 1612: “ He must feed on beggary's basket." STEEVENS.

The refuse meat of families was put into a basket in our author's time, and given to the poor. So, in Florio's Second Frutes, 1 1591: "Take away the table, fould up the cloth, and put all those pieces of broken meat into a basket for the poor." MALONE..

8-honorificabilitudinitatibus:] This word, whencefoever it comes, is often mentioned as the longeft word known. JOHNSON.

It occurs likewife in Marfton's Dutch Courtezan, 1604: "His difcourfe is like the long word honorificabilitudinitatibus; a great deal of found and no fenfe." I meet with it likewife in Nath's Lenten Stuff, &c. 1599. STEEVENS.

9 a flap-dragon.] A flap-dragon is a small inflammable fubftance, which topers fwallow in a glass of wine. See a note on K. Henry IV. P. II. Act II. fc. ult. STEEVENS.

MOTн. Вa, most filly fheep, with a horn: You hear his learning.

HOL. Quis, quis, thou confonant?

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; o, u.1

ARM. Now, by the falt wave of the Mediterraneum, a sweet touch, a quick venew of wit: 3 fnip, fnap, quick and home; it rejoiceth my intellect: true wit.

MOTн. Offer'd by a child to an old man; which is wit-old.

HOL. What is the figure? what is the figure?

2 Moth. The third of the five vowels, &c.] In former editions: The last of the five vowels, if you repeat them; or the fifth, if I. Hol. I will repeat them, a, e, I,—

Moth. The beep the other two concludes it; o, u.

Is not the laft and the fifth the fame vowel? Though my correction restores but a poor conundrum, yet if it reftores the poet's meaning, it is the duty of an editor to trace him in his loweft conceits. By O, U, Moth would mean-Ch, you—i. e. You are the sheep ftill, either way; no matter which of us repeats them.

3

THEOBALD.

— a quick venew of wit:] A venew is the technical term for a bout at the fencing-fchool. So, in The Four Prentices of London, 1615:

66

in the fencing-school

"To play a venew.' STEEVENS.

but a hit. 66

A venue, as has already been obferved, is not a bout at fencing, A fweet touch of wit, (fays Armado,) a fmart hit." So, in The Famous Hiftorie of Captain Thomas Stukely, b. l. 1605: for forfeits, and vennyes given, upon a wager, at the ninth button of your doublet, thirty crowns." MALONE.

Notwithstanding the pofitivenefs with which my fenfe of the word venue is denied, my quotation fufficiently establishes it; for who ever talked of playing a hit in a fencing school? STEEVENS.

MOTH. Horns.

HOL. Thou difputest 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!

Cosr. An I had but one penny in the world, thou shouldft 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 difcretion. O, an the heavens were so pleased, that thou wert but my bastard! what a joyful father wouldst thou make me! Go to; thou haft it ad dunghill, at the fingers' ends, as they say.

HOL. O, I smell falfe Latin; dunghill for unguem.

ARM. Arts-man, preambula; we will be fingled 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 fweet pleasure, for the mountain. HOL. I do, fans queftion.

ARM. Sir, it is the king's moft fweet pleasure and affection, to congratulate the princefs at her pavilion, in the pofteriors of this day; which the rude multitude call, the afternoon.

I will whip about your infamy circùm circà ;] The old copies read-unum cita. STEEVENS.

Here again all the editions give us jargon inftead of Latin. But Moth would certainly mean-circum circa: i. e. about and about: though it may be defigned he should mistake the terms.

THEOBALD

STEEVENS.

the charge-house- -] I fuppofe, is the free-fchool.

HOL. The pofterior of the day, moft generous fir, is liable, congruent, and measurable for the afternoon: the word is well cull'd, chofe; fweet and apt, I do affure you, fir, I do affure.

ARM. Sir, the king is a noble gentleman; and my familiar, I do affure you, very good friend :For what is inward between us, let it pafs :-I do befeech thee, remember thy courtefy;-I befeech thee, apparel thy head: -and among other impor

-inward-] i. e. confidential. So, in King Richard III: "Who is moft inward with the noble duke?" STEEVENS. I do befeech thee, remember thy courtefy;-1 befeech thee, apparel thy head: I believe the word not was inadvertently omitted by the tranfcriber or compofitor; and that we should read-I do befeech thee, remember not thy courtefy--Armado is boafting of the familiarity with which the king treats him, and intimates (" but let that pafs,") that when he and his Majefty converfe, the king lays afide all ftate, and makes him wear his hat: "I do befeech thee, (will he fay to me) remember not thy courtely; do not observe any ceremony with me; be covered," The putting off the hat at the table (fays Florio in his Second Frutes, 1591,) is a kind of courtefie or ceremonie rather to be avoided than otherwife."

Thefe words may, however, be addreffed by Armado to Holofernes, whom we may fuppofe to have flood uncovered from refpect to the Spaniard.

If this was the poet's intention, they ought to be included in a parenthefis, To whomfoever the words are fuppofed to be addreffed, the emendation appears to me equally neceffary. It is confirmed by a paffage in A Midsummer-Night's Dream: "Give me your neif, mounfieur Muftard feed. Pray you, leave your courtefie,

mounfier,"

In Hamlet, the prince, when he defires Ofrick to "put his bonnet to the right ufe," begins his addrefs with the fame words which Armado ufes but unluckily is interrupted by the courtier, and prevented (as I believe) from ufing the very word which I fuppofe to have been accidentally omitted here.

"Ham. I beseech you, remember

"Ofr. Nay, good my lord, for my eafe, in good faith." In the folio copy of this play we find in the next scene:

O, that your face were fo full of o's—”

instead of were not so full, &c. MALONE.

.