he should fay, doubt; det, when he should pronounce, debt; d, e, b, t; not, d, e, t: he clepeth a calf, cauf; half, hauf; neighbour, vocatur, nebour; neigh, abbreviated, ne: This is abhominable, (which he would call abominable,) it infinuateth me of infanie; Ne intelligis domine? to make frantick, lunatick.

NATH. Laus deo, bone intelligo.

HOL. Bone?-bone, for benè: Prifcian a little scratch'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.

HOL. Moft military fir, falutation.

MOTH. They have been at a great feaft of languages, and ftolen 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 eafier swallowed than a flapdragon.

MOTH. Peace; the peal begins,

ARM. Monfieur, [To HoL.] are you not letter'd? MOTH. Yes, yes; he teaches the boys the hornbook:What is a, b, fpelt backward with a horn on his head? HOL. Ba, pueritia, with a horn added.

MOTH. Ba, moft filly sheep, 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. ARM. Now, by the falt wave of the Mediterraneum, a fweet touch, a quick venew of wit: 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?

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 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. O, an the heavens were so pleased, that thou wert but my baftard! what a joyful father wouldst thou make me! Go to; thou haft it ad dunghill, at the finger's ends, as they say. HOL. O, I fmell falfe Latin; dunghill for unguem. ARM. Arts-man, præambula; we will be fingled from the barbarous. Do you not educate youth at the chargehoufe on the top of the mountain!

HOL. Or, mons, the hill.

ARM. At your fweet pleasure, for the mountain.
HOL. I do, fans question.

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.

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 courtesy; I beseech thee, apparel thy head: -and among other importunate and moft ferious defigns,—and of great import indeed, too;-but let that pass-for I must tell thee, it will please his grace (by the world) fometime to lean upon my poor fhoulder ; and with his royal finger, thus, dally with my excrement, with my muftachio: but fweet heart, let that pass. By the world, I recount no fable; fome certain fpecial honours it pleaseth his greatness to impart to Armado, a foldier, a man of travel, that hath feen the world: but let that pafs.-The very all of all is, but, fweet heart, I do implore fecrecy,—that the king would have me present the princess, sweet chuck, with fome delightful oftentation, or show, or pageant, or antick, or fire-work. Now, understanding that the curate, and your fweet felf, are good at fuch eruptions, and fudden breaking out of mirth, as it were, I have acquainted you withal, to the end to crave your affistance.

HOL. Sir, you shall present before her the nine worthies.-Sir Nathaniel, as concerning fome entertainment of time, some show in the pofterior of this day, to be render'd by our affistance,—the king's command, and this most gallant, illuftrate, and learned gentleman,—— before the princefs; I fay, none fo fit as to present the nine worthies.

NATH. Where will you find men worthy enough to present them?

HOL. Joshua, yourself; myself, or this gallant gentle

man, Judas Maccabæus; this fwain, because of his great limb or joint, fhall pafs Pompey the great; the page, Hercules.

ARM. Pardon, fir, error: he is not quantity enough for that worthy's thumb: he is not fo big as the end of his club.

HOL. Shall I have audience? he shall present Hercules in minority: his enter and exit fhall be ftrangling a snake; and I will have an apology for that purpose.

MOTH. An excellent device! fo, if any of the audience hifs, you may cry well done, Hercules! now thou crusheft the Snake! that is the way to make an offence gracious; though few have the grace to do it.

ARM. For the reft of the worthies?—

HOL. I will play three myself.

MOTH, Thrice-worthy gentleman!
ARM. Shall I tell you a thing?

HOL. We attend.

ARM. We will have, if this fadge not, an antick. I befeech you, follow.

HOL. Via, goodman Dull! thou haft fpoken no word all this while.

DULL. Nor understood none neither, fir.

HOL. Allons! we will employ thee.

DULL. I'll make one in a dance, or fo; or I will play on the tabor to the worthies, and let them dance the hay. HOL. Moft dull, honest Dull, to our sport, away.

SCENE II. Another part of the fame.

Before the PRINCESS's Pavilion.

[Exeunt.

Enter the PRINCESS, KATHARINE, ROSALINE, and

MARIA.

PRIN. Sweet hearts, we fhall be rich ere we depart, If fairings come thus plentifully in:

A lady wall'd about with diamonds!—

Look you, what I have from the loving king.

Ros. Madam, came nothing else along with that? PRIN. Nothing but this? yes, as much love in rhyme, As would be cramm'd up in a sheet of paper, Writ on both fides the leaf, margent and all; That he was fain to feal on Cupid's name.

Ros. That was the way to make his god-head wax; For he hath been five thousand years a boy.

KATH. Ay, and a fhrewd unhappy gallows too. Ros. You'll ne'er be friends with him; he kill'd your fifter.

KATH. He made her melancholy, fad and heavy;
And fo fhe died: had the been light, like you,

Of fuch a merry, nimble, ftirring fpirit,
She might have been a grandam ere she died:
And fo may you; for a light heart lives long.

Ros. What's your dark meaning, moufe, of this light KATH, A light condition in a beauty dark. [word? Ros. We need more light to find your meaning out, KATH. You'll mar the light, by taking it in fnuff; Therefore, I'll darkly end the argument.

Ros. Look what you do, you do it ftill i' the dark.
KATH. So do not you; for you are a light wench.
Ros. Indeed, I weigh not you; and therefore light.
KATH. You weigh me not,-O, that's you care not

for me.

Ros. Great reafon; for, Past cure is ftill past care.

PRIN. Well bandied both; a fet of wit well play'd. But Rofaline, you have a favour too :

Who fent it? and what is it?