King. No devil will fright thee then fo much as fhe. Dum. I never knew man hold vile ftuff fo dear. Long. Look, here's thy love; my foot and her face fee. Biron. O, if the ftreets were paved with thine eyes, Her feet were much too dainty for fuch tread. Biron. O, 'tis more than need. Have at you then, Affection's men at arms; [evil. And where that you have vow'd to study, (Lords), Then, when ourselves we fee in ladies' eyes, Such fiery numbers, as the prompting eyes Than are the tender horns of cockled fnails. Love's tongue proves dainty Bacchus grofs in tafte; For valour, is not Love a Hercules, Still climbing trees in the Hefperides ? As bright Apollo's lute, ftrung with his hair: And when Love speaks the voice of all the gods, Never durft poet touch a pen to write, Or for Love's fake, (a word all women love); For charity itself fulfils the law : And who can fever love from charity? King. Saint Cupid, then! and, foldiers, to the field! Biron. Advance your ftandards, and upon them, Lords; Pell-mell, down with them; but be firft advis'd, In conflict that you get the fun of them. Long. Now to plain-dealing, lay thefe glozes by; Shall we refolve to woo these girls of France? King. And win them too; therefore let us devise Some entertainment for them in their tents. Biron. First, from the park let us conduct them thiThen homeward every man attach the hand Of his fair miftrefs; in the afternoon [ther; We will with fome ftrange paftime folace them, Biron. Allons! allons ! fown cockle reap'd no corn; Light wenches may prove plagues to men forfworn; Atis, quod fufficit. Nath. I praife God for you, Sir, your reasons at dinner have been fharp and fententious ; pleasant without fcurrility, witty without affectation, audacious without impudency, learned without opinion, and ftrange without herefy. I did converse this quondam day with a companion of the King's, who is intitled, nominated, or called, Don Adriano de Armado. Hol. Novi hominem, tanquam te. His humour is lofty, his difcourfe peremptory, his tongue filed, his eye ambitious, his gate majeftical, and his general behaviour vain, ridiculous, and thrafonical. He is too piqued, too fpruce, too affected, too odd, as it were; too peregrinate, as I may call it. Nath. A moft fingular and choice epithet. [Draws out his table-book. Hol. He draweth out the thread of his verbofity finer than the ftaple of his argument. I abhor fuch phanatical phantafms, fuch infociable and point-devife companions; fuch rackers of orthography, as do fpeak dout fine, when he should fay doubt; det, when he fhould 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 abominable, which we would call abhominable: it infinuateth me of infanity: Ne intelligis, Domine, to make frantic, lunatic ? Nath. Laus Deo, bone, intelligo. bone, for benè; Prifcian a little SCENE II. Enter Armado, Moth, and Coftard. Nath. Videfne quis venit? Hol. Video, & gaudeo. Arm. Chirra. Hol. Quare chirra, not firrah ? Arm. Men of peace, well encounter'd, Hol. Moft military, Sir, falutation. Moth. They have been at a great feast of languages, and ftole the fcraps. Coft. O, they have liv'd 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 honorificabilitudinitatibus: thou art easier fwallow'd than a flap-dragon. Moth. Peace, the peal begins. Arm. Monfieur, are you not letter'd? Moth. Yes, yes, he teaches boys the horn-book: What is A B fpelt backward with a horn on his head? Hol. Ba, pueritia, with a horn added. Moth. Ba, moft 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 fheep; 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. Moth. 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 difputeft like an infant; go, whip thy gigg. Moth. Lend me your horn to make one, and I will whip about your infamy circùm circà; a gigg of a cuckold's horn. Coft. An' I had but one penny in the world, thou fhouldst have it to buy ginger-bread; hold, there is the very remuneration I had of thy mafter, thou halfpenny purfe of wit, thou pidgeon-egg of difcretion. O, that the heav'ns were fo pleased, that thou wert but my baftard! what a joyful father wouldft thou make me? go to, thou haft it ad dunghill; at the finger's ends, as they fay. 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. 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 Sir, is liable, congruent, and meafurable for the afternoon : |