Nat.

Very reverent sport, truly; and done in the testimony of a good conscience.

Hol.

The deer was, as you know, in sanguis, blood: ripe as a pome-water; who now hangeth, like a jewel, in the ear of cælo,—the sky, the welkin, the heaven; And anon, falleth, like a crab, on the face of terra,— the soil, the land, the earth.

Nat.

Truly, master Holofernes, the epithets are sweetly vary'd, like a scholar at the least: But, Sir, I assure ye, it was a buck of the first head.

Hol.

Sir Nathaniel, haud credo.

Dul.

'Twas not a haud credo, 'twas a pricket.

Hol.

Most barbarous intimation! yet a kind of insinuation, as it were, in via, in way, of explication; facere, as it were, replication; or, rather, ostentare, to show, as it were, his inclination—after his undressed, unpolished, uneducated, unpruned, untrained, or, rather, unlettered, or, ratherest, unconfirmed fashion,—to insert again my haud credo for a deer.

&blquo;Dull.

&blquo;I said, the deer was not a haud credo; 'twas a pricket.&brquo;

&blquo;Hol.

&blquo;Twice sod simplicity, bis coctus!—O thou monster, ignorance, how deform'd dost thou look!&brquo;

&blquo;Nat.

&blquo;Sir, he hath never fed of the dainties that are bred in a book; he hath not eat paper, as it were, he hath not drunk ink: his intellect is not replenished; he is only an animal, only sensible in the duller parts:&brquo;

&blquo;Dull.
&blquo;You two are book-men; Can you tell by your wit,
&blquo;What was a month old at Cain's birth, that's not five weeks old as yet?

&blquo;Hol.
&blquo;Dictynna, goodman Dull; Dictynna, goodman Dull.

&blquo;Dul.
&blquo;What is Dictynna?

&blquo;Hol.
&blquo;A title to Phœbe, to Luna, to the moon.
&blquo;The moon was a month old, when Adam was no more;
&blquo;And raught not to five weeks, when he came to five score.
&blquo;The allusion holds in the exchange.

&blquo;Dul.

&blquo;'Tis true, indeed; the collusion holds in the exchange.&brquo;

&blquo;Hol.

&blquo;God comfort thy capacity! I say, the allusion, holds in the exchange.&brquo;

&blquo;Dul.

&blquo;And I say, the pollution holds in the exchange, for the moon is never but a month old: and I say beside, that 'twas a pricket that the princess kill'd.&brquo;

&blquo;Hol.

&blquo;Sir Nathaniel, will you hear an extemporal epitaph on the death of the deer? and, to humour the ignorant, I have called the deer the princess kill'd, a pricket.&brquo;

&blquo;Nat.

&blquo;Perge, good master Holofernes, perge; so it shall please you to abrogate scurrility.&brquo;

&blquo;Hol.
&blquo;I will something affect the letter, for it argues facility.

&blquo;The praiseful princess pierc'd, and prick'd a pretty pleasing pricket;
  &blquo;Some say, a sore; but not a sore, 'till now made sore with shooting:
&blquo;The dogs did yell; put l to sore, then sorel jumps from thicket:
  &blquo;Or pricket, sore, or else sorel, the people fall a hooting.
&blquo;If sore be sore, then L to sore makes fifty sores; O sore L!
&blquo;Of one sore I an hundred make by adding but one more L.

&blquo;Nat.

&blquo;A rare talent!&brquo;

&blquo;Dul.

&blquo;If a talent be a claw, look how he claws him with a talent.&brquo;

&blquo;Hol.

&blquo;This is a gift that I have, simple, simple; a foolish extravagant spirit, full of forms, figures, shapes, objects, ideas, apprehensions, motion, revolutions: these are begot in the ventricle of memory, nourish'd in the womb of pia mater, and delivered upon the mellowing of occasion: But the gift is good in those in whom it is acute, and I am thankful for it* ^note.&brquo;

Nat.

Sir, I praise the Lord for you, and so may my parishioners; for their sons are well tutor'd by you, and their daughters profit very greatly under you; you are a good member of the common-wealth.

Hol.

Mehercle, if their sons be ingenious, they shall

want no instruction; if their daughters be capable, I will put it to them. But, Vir sapit qui pauca loquitur: a soul feminine saluteth us.