Dull.
Nat.
Very reverent sport, truly; and done in the
testimony of a good conscience.
Hol.
The deer was, as you know, in sanguis note, blood:14Q0201
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
foil, the land, the earth.
Nat.
Truly, master Holofernes, the epithets note 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.
-- 40 --
Dul.
I said, the deer was not a haud credo; 'twas a pricket.
Hol.
Twice sod simplicity, bis coctus!—O thou monster,
ignorance, how deformed dost thou look!
Nat.
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:
And such barren plants are set before us, that we thankful should be
For those parts which we taste, and feel, do note fructify in us more than he.
For as it would ill become me, to be vain, indiscreet, or note a fool;
So were there a patch set on learning, to see him in a school:
But, omne bene, say I; being of an old father's mind,
Many can brook the weather, that love not the wind.
Dul.
You two are book-men; Can you tell by your wit,
What was a month old at Cain's birth, that's not five weeks old as yet?
Hol.
Dictynna, good man Dull; Dictynna, goodman Dull.14Q0202
Dul.
What is Dictynna? note
Hol.
A title note to14Q0203 Phœbe, to Luna, to the moon.
The moon was a month old, when Adam was no more;
And raught note not to five weeks, when he came to five score.
The allusion holds in the exchange.
Dul.
'Tis true, indeed; the collusion holds in the
exchange.
Hol.
God comfort thy capacity! I say, the allusion
holds in the exchange.
Dul.
And I say, the pollusion note holds in the exchange,
for the moon is never but a month old: and I say beside,
-- 41 --
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 note,
I have call'd the deer the princess kill'd, a pricket.
Nat.
Perge, good master Holofernes, perge; so it shall
please you to abrogate scurrility. note
Hol.
I will something affect the letter, for it argues facility.
The praiseful note princess pierc'd and prick'd a pretty pleasing pricket;
Some say, a sore; but not a sore, 'till now made sore with shooting:
The dogs did yell; put l to sore, then sorel jumps from thicket:
Or pricket, sore, or else sorel, the people fall a hooting.
If sore be sore,14Q0204 then L to sore makes fifty sores; O sore L!
Of one sore I an hundred make by adding but one more L.
Nat.
A rare talent!
Dul.
If a talent be a claw, look how he claws him
with a talent.
Hol.
This is notea gift that I have, simple, simple; a
foolish extravagant spirit, full of forms, figures, shapes,
objects, ideas, apprehensions, motions, revolutions: these
are begot in the ventricle of memory, nourish'd in the
womb of pia mater note, 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.
Nat.
Sir, I note 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 note, if their sons be ingenious note, note they shall
want no instruction; if their daughters be capable, I
-- 42 --
will put it to them. But, Vir sapit qui pauca loquitur:
a soul feminine saluteth us.
Enter Jaquenetta, and Costard.
Jaq.
God give you good morrow, master parson note!
Hol.
Master note
parson note,—quasi pers-one: And if one
should be pierc'd, which is the one?
Cos.
Marry, master school-master, he that is likest note
to a hogshead.
Hol.
Of piercing note a hogshead! a good lustre of conceit
in a turf of earth; fire enough for a flint, pearl
enough for a swine: 'tis pretty, it is well.
Jaq.
Good master parson, be so good as read me
this &dagger2; letter; it was given me by Costard, and sent me
from don Armatho: I beseech you, read it.
Hol.
Fauste, note precor gelidâ quando pecus omne note sub umbrâ
Ruminat,—and so forth. Ah good old Mantuan! I may
speak of thee as the traveller doth of Venice,—
14Q0205&lblank; Vinegia, Vinegia,
Chi non te vedi, note ei non te pregia.
Old Mantuan! old Mantuan! who understandeth thee
not, loves thee not. note Ut, re, sol, la, mi, fa.—Under
pardon, note sir, what are the contents? or, rather, as Horace
says in his—What, my soul, verses?
Nat.
Ay, sir, note and very learned.
Hol.
Let me note hear a staff, a stanza, note a verse; lege, domine.
Nat.
If love make me forsworn, how shall I swear to love?
[reading.
Ah, never faith could hold, if not to beauty vowed!
Though to myself forsworn, to thee I'll faithful prove;
Those thoughts to me were oaks, to thee like osiers bowed.
Study his biass leaves, and makes his book thine eyes;
-- 43 --
Where all those pleasures live, that art would comprehend:
If knowledge be the mark, to know thee shall suffice;
Well learned is that tongue, that well can thee commend:
All ignorant that soul, that sees thee without wonder;
(Which is to me some praise, that I thy parts admire)
Thy eye Jove's lightning bears, thy voice his dreadful thunder,
Which, not to anger bent, is musick, and sweet fire.
Celestial as thou art, o, pardon, love, this wrong,
That sings heaven's praise with such an earthly tongue!
Hol.
You find not the apostrophes, and so miss the
accent: let me supervise the canzonet note. Here † are note only
numbers ratify'd; but, for the elegancy, facility, and
golden cadence of poesy, caret. Ovidius Naso was the
man: And why, indeed, Naso? but for smelling out
the odoriferous flowers of fancy, the jerks of invention.
Imitari note is nothing: so doth the hound his master, the
ape his keeper, the 'tired note horse his rider.—But, damosella
virgin, was this directed to you?
Jaq.
Ay, sir, from one mounsieur Biron, one of the
strange queen's lords.
Hol.
I will note overglance the superscript; To the snow-white
hand of the beauteous Lady Rosaline. I will look
again on the intellect of the letter, for the nomination of
the party writing note to the person written unto; Your Ladiship's
in all note desired employment, Biron.—Sir Nathaniel note note, this
Biron is one of the votaries with the king; and here he
hath framed a letter to a sequent of the stranger queen's,
which, accidentally, or by the way of progression, hath
miscarried.—Trip and go, my sweet; deliver this &dagger2; paper
into the royal note hand of the king; it may concern much:
Stay not thy compliment; I forgive thy duty; adieu.
-- 44 --
Jaq.
Good Costard, go with me.—Sir, God save your life!
Cos.
Have with thee, my girl.
[Exeunt Cos. and Jaq.
Nat.
Sir, you note have done this in the fear of God,
very religiously: and, as a certain father saith,—
Hol.
Sir, tell not note me of the father, I do fear colourable
colours. But to return to the verses; Did they
please you, sir Nathaniel?
Nat.
Marvelous well for the pen.
Hol.
I do dine to-day at the father's of a certain pupil
of mine; where if, before repast note, it shall please you to
gratify the table with a grace, I will, on my priviledge
I have with the parents of the foresaid child or pupil,
undertake your ben venuto; note where I will prove those
verses to be very unlearned, neither savouring of poetry,
wit, nor invention: I beseech your society.
Nat.
And thank you too: for society, saith the text,
is the happiness of life.
Hol.
And, certes, the text most infallibly concludes
it.—Sir, [to Dul.] I do invite you too; you shall not say
me nay: pauca verba.—Away; the gentles are at their
game, and we will to our recreation.
[Exeunt.
Edward Capell [1767], Mr William Shakespeare his comedies, histories, and tragedies, set out by himself in quarto, or by the Players his Fellows in folio, and now faithfully republish'd from those Editions in ten Volumes octavo; with an introduction: Whereunto will be added, in some other Volumes, notes, critical and explanatory, and a Body of Various Readings entire (Printed by Dryden Leach, for J. and R. Tonson [etc.], London) [word count] [S10601].
