Methough, all his senses were lock'd in his eye,
As jewels in crystal for some prince to buy;
Who tending their own worth, from where they
were glass'd

Moth. Negligent student? learn her by heart. Arm. By heart, and in heart, boy.

Moth. And out of heart, master: all those three I will prove.

Arm. What wilt thou prove?

I only nave made a mouth of his eye,
By adding a tongue which I know will not lie.
Ras. Thou art an old love-monger, and speak'st
skilfully.

Mar. He is Cupid's grandfather, and learns news

Moth. Concolinel2

[Singing.

Arm. Sweet air!-Go, tenderness of years; take this key, give enlargement to the swain, bring him festinately hither; I must employ him in a letter to my love.

Moth. Master, will you win your love with a

French brawl ?4

Arm. How mean'st thou? brawling in French? Moth. No, my complete master: but to jig off a tune at the tongue's end, canary' to it with your feet, humour it with turning up your eye-lids; sigh a note, and sing a note; sometime through the throat, as if you swallowed love with singing love; sometime through the nose, as if you snuffed up love by smelling love; with your hat penthouselike o'er the shop of your eyes; with your arms crossed on your thin belly-doublet, like a rabbit on a spit; or your hands in your pocket, like a man after the old painting; and keep not too long in one tune, but a snip and away. These are complements, these are humours; these betray nice wenches-that would be betrayed without these; and make them men of note, (do you note, men ?") that most are affected to these. Arm. How hast thou purchased this experience? Moth. By my penny of observation.* Arm. But O, but 0,

Moth. the hobby-horse is forgot.
Arm. Callest thou my love, hobby-horse?"
Moth. No, master; the hobby-horse is but a colt,

1 In Shakspeare's time, notes, quotations, &c. were usually printed in the exterior margin of books.

2 A song is appareily lost here. In old comedies the Bongs are frequently omitted. On this occasion the stage direction is generally Here they sing or Cantant 3 i. e. hastily.

4 A kind of dance; spelt bransle by some authors: being the French name for the same dance.

5 Canary was the name of a sprightly dance, sometimes accompanied by the castanets. 3 i. e. accomplishments.

7 One of the modern editors, with great plausibility, proposes to read do you note me?

9 The allusion is probably to the old popular pamphlet, A Pennyworth of Wit.'

9 The Hobby-horse was a personage belonging to the ancient Morris dance, when complete. It was the figure of a horse fastened round the waist of a man, his own legs going through the body of the horse, and enabling him to walk, but concealed by a long footcloth: while false legs appeared where those of the man should be at

Moth. A man, if I live; and this, by, in, and

because your heart cannot come by her: in heart you love her, because your heart is in love with her; and out of heart you love her, being out of heart that you cannot enjoy her.

Arm. I am all these three.

Moth. And three times as much more, and yet nothing at all.

Arm. Fetch hither the swain; he must carry me a letter.

Moth. A message well sympathised; a horse to be an embassador for an ass!

Arm. Ha, ha! what sayest thou?

Moth. Marry, sir, you must send the ass upon the horse, for he is very slow-gaited: But I go." Arm. The way is but short; away.

Moth. As swift as lead, sir,

Arm. Thy meaning, pretty ingenious?

Is not lead a metal heavy, dull, and slow?
Moth. Minime, honest master; or rather, mas-
ter, no.
Arm. I say, lead is slow
Moth.

Is

You are too swift,10 sir, to say so: that lead slow which is fir'd from a gun? Arm. Sweet smoke of rhetoric!

He reputes me a cannon; and the bullet, that's he ;-shoot thee at the swain.

I

Moth.

Thump then, and I flee [Exit Arm. A most acute juvenal: voluble and free c By thy favour, sweet welkin, I must sigh in thy face: grace! Most rude melancholy, valour gives thee place. My herald is return'd.

Re-enter MOTH and CoSTARD.

Moth. A wonder, master; here's a Costard' broken in a shin.

Arm. Some enigma, some riddle ;-come,-thy l'envoy;1-begin.

Cost. No egma, no riddle, no l'envoy: no salve in the mail,13 sir: O, sir, plantain, a plain plantain ; no l'envoy, no l'envoy, no salve, sir, but a plantain!

Arm. By virtue, thou enforcest laughter; thy silly thought, my spleen; the heaving of my lungs provokes me to ridiculous smiling; O, pardon me, my stars! Doth the inconsiderate take salve for l'envoy, and the word, l'envoy, for a salve?

Moth. Do the wise think them other? is not l'envoy a salve?

Arm. No, page; it is an epilogue or discourse, to make plain

Some obscure precedence that hath tofore been sain. I will example it:

The fox, the ape, and the humble-bee, Were still at odds, being but three. There's the moral: Now the l'envoy.

the sides of the horse. Latterly the Hobby-horse was frequently omitted, which appears to have occasioned a popular ballad, in which was this line, or burden io Quick, ready.

11 i. e. a head; a name adopted from an apple shaped like a man's head. It must have been a common sort of apple, as it gave a name to the dealers in apples who were called costar-mongers.

12 An old French term for concluding verses, which served either to convey the moral, or to address the poem to some person.

13 A mail or male was a budget, wallet, or portmanteau. Costard, mistaking enigma, riddle, and l'envoy for names of salves, objects to the application of any salve in the budget, and cries out for a plantain leaf. There is a quibble upon salve and salve, a word with which it was not unusual to conclude epistles, &c and which therefore was a kind of l'envoy.

Well, lords, to-day we shall have our despatch;
On Saturday we will return to France.--
Then, forester, my friend, where is the bush,
That we must stand and play the murderer in?
For. Here by, upon the edge of yonder coppice;
A stand, where you may make the fairest shoot,
Prin. I thank my beauty, I am fair that shoot,
And thereupon thou speak'st, the fairest shoot.
For. Pardon me, madam, for I meant not so.
Prin. What, what? first praise me, and again
say, no?

O short-liv'd pride! Not fair? alack for woe!
For. Yes, madam, fair.
Prin.
Nay, never paint me now;
Where fair is not, praise cannot mend the brow.
Here, good my glass,' take this for telling true;
[Giving him
money.
Fair payment for foul words is more than due.
For. Nothing but fair is that which you inherit.
Prin. See, see, my beauty will be sav'd by merit.
O heresy in fair, fit for these days!

A giving hand, though foul, shall have fair praise.-
But come, the bow:-Now mercy goes to kill,
And shooting well is then accounted ill.
Thus will I save my credit in the shoot:
Not wounding, pity would not let me do't;
If wounding, then it was to shew my skill,
That more for praise, than purpose, meant to kill.
And, out of question, so it is sometimes;
Glory grows guilty of detested crimes;
When, for fame's sake, for praise, an outward part,
We bend to that the working of the heart:
As I, for praise alone, now seek to spill
The

poor deer's blood, that my heart means no ill. Boyet. Do not curst wives hold that self-sovereignty

Only for praise' sake, when they strive to be ords o'er their lords?

Prin. Only for praise: and praise we may afford To any lady that subdues a lord.

1 Here Drs. Johnson and Farmer have each a note too long and too absurd to quote, to show it was the fashion for ladies to wear mirrors at their girdles. Steevens says justly (though he qualifies his assertion with perhaps) that Dr. Johnson is mistaken, and that the forester is the mirror. It is impossible for common sense to suppose otherwise.-Pye.

2 The princess calls Costard a member of the commonwealth, because he is one of the attendants on the king and his associates in their new modelled society

3 A corruption of God give you good even. See Romeo and Juliet, Act ii. Sc. 4.

4i. e. open this letter. The poet uses this metaphor as the French do their poulet; which signifies both a young fowl and a love letter. To break up was a phrase for to carve.

Prin. What's your will, sir? what's your will Cost. I have a letter from monsieur Biron, to one lady Rosaline.

Prin. O, thy letter, thy letter; he's a good friend

of mine:

Stand aside, good bearer.-Boyet, you can carve; Break up this capon.4 Boyet. I am bound to serve.This letter is mistook, it importeth none here; It is writ to Jaquenetta. Prin. We will read it, I swear Break the neck of the wax, and every one give ear. Boyet. [Reads.] By heaven, that thou art fair, is most infallible; true, that thou art beauteous: truth itself, that thou art lovely: More fairer than fair, beautiful than beauteous; truer than truth itself, have commiseration on thy heroical vassal! The magnani mous and most illustrate king Cophetua set eye upon the pernicious and indubitate beggar Zenelophon; and he it was that might rightly say, veni, vidi, vici; which to anatomize in the vulgar, (0 base and obscure vulgar!) videlicet, he came, saw, and overcame: he came, one; saw, two; overcame, three. Who came? the king; Why did he come? to see; Why did he see? to overcome; To whom came he? to the beggar; What saw he? the beggar; Who overcame he? the beggar: The conclusion is victory; On whose side? the king's: the captive is enrich'd; On whose side? the beggar's; The catastrophe is a nuptial; On whose side? the king's? no, on both in one, or one in both. I am the king; for so stands the comparison: thou the beggar; for so witnesseth thy lowliness. Shall I command thy love? I may : Shall I enforce thy love? I could: Shall I entreat thy love? I will. What shalt thou exchange for rags? robes; For tittles, titles; For thyself, me. Thus, expecting thy reply, I profane my lips on thy foot, my eyes on thy picture, and my heart on thy every part.

Thine, in the dearest design of industry, DON ADRIANO DE ARMADO. Thus dost thou hear the Nemean lion roar 'Gainst thee, thou lamb, that standest as his prey; Submissive fall his princely feet before,

And he from forage will incline to play: But if thou strive, poor soul, what art thou then? Food for his rage, repasture for his den.

Prin. What plume of feathers is he, that indited this letter?

What vane? what weathercock? did you ever hear better?

Boyet. I am much deceived, but I remember the

style.

away.

Finely put off!

Boyet. My lady goes to kill horns; but, if thou marry,

Hang me by the neck, if horns that year miscarry
Finely put on!

Ros. Well then, I am the shooter.
Boyet.
And who is your deer?
Ros. If we choose by the horns, yourself: come

near.

Finely put on, indeed!

Mar. You still wrangle with her, Boyet, and she strikes at the brow.

Boyet. But she herself is hit lower: Have I hit her now?

Ros. Shall I come upon thee with an old saying, that was a man when king Pepin of France was a little boy, as touching the hit it?

[Singing

Boyet. So I may answer thee with one as old, that was a woman when queen Guinever of Britain was a little wench, as touching the hit it. Ros. Thou canst not hit it, hit it, hit it, Thou canst not hit it, my good man. Boyet. An I cannot, cannot, cannot, An I cannot, another can. [Exeunt Ros. and KATH. Cost. By my troth, most pleasant! how both did fit it!

Mar. A mark marvellous well shot! for they both did hit it.

Boyet. A mark! O, mark but that mark; A mark, says my lady!

Let the mark have a prick in't, to mete at, if it may be. Mar. Wide o'the bow hand! I'faith your hand

is out.

Cost. Indeed, a' must shoot nearer, or he'll ne'er

hit the clout.

1 An equivoque was here intended; it should appear that the words shooter and suitor were pronounced alike in Shakspeare's time.

2 This is a term in archery still in use, signifying 'a good deal to the left of the mark. Of the other expressions, the clout was the white mark at which archers took aim. The pin was the wooden nail in the centre of it.

3 i. e. grossly. This scene, as Dr. Johnson Justly remarks, deserves no care.'

4 To rub is a term at bowls.

5 Pathetical sometimes meant passionate, and sometimes passion-moving, in our old writers; but is here used by Costard as an idle expletive, as Rosalind's 'pathetical break-promise,' in As You Like It.

6 Pomewater, a species of apple.

7 Warburton's conjecture that Florio, the author of the Italian Dictionary, was ridiculed under the name of Holofernes would derive some strength from the follow. ing definition: cielo, haven, the skie, firmament or welkin. Terra, the element called earth, anie ground, earth, countrie, land, soile.' But Florio's Dictionary was not published until 1598; and this play appears to have been written in 1594, though not printed until 1598.

And his page o' t' other side, that handful of wit!
Ah, heavens, it is a most pathetical' nit!
Sola, sola! [Shouting within. Exit COST. running.
SCENE II. The same. Enter HOLOFERNES,
SIR NATHANIEL, and DULL.

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

Hol. The deer was, as you know, in sanguis,blood; ripe as a pomewater, who now hangeth like heaven; and anon falleth like a crab, on the face of a jewel in the ear of cœlo, the sky, the welkin, the terra,-the soil, the land, the earth."

Nath. Truly, master Holofernes, the epithets are sweetly varied, like a scholar at the least; But, sir, I assure ye, it was a buck of the first head." Hol. Sir Nathaniel, haud credo.

Dull. "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.

Dull. 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!

Nath. 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 And such barren plants are set before us, that we the duller parts;

thankful should be

(Which we of taste and feeling are) for those parts that do fructify in us more than he." For as it would ill become me to be vain, indiscreet, or a fool,

So,

were there a patch set on learning, to see him

in a school:10

Many can brook the weather that love not the wind. But, omne bene, say I; being of an old father's mind,

Dull. 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,11 good man Dull.

Dull. What is Dictynna?

Nath. A title to Phoebe, to Luna, to the moon.

Hol. The moon was a month old, when Adam was no more;

8 In The Return from Parnassus, 1606, is the following account of the different appellations of deer at their different ages. 'Amoretto. I caused the keeper to sever the rascal deer from the bucks of the first head. Now, sir, a buck is the first year, a fawn; the second year, a pricket; the third year, a sorrel; the fourth year, a soare; the fifth, a buck of the first head; the sixth year, a complete buck. Likewise your hart, is the first year, a calfe; the second year, a brocket; the third year, a spade; the fourth year, a stag; the sixth year, a hart. A roe-buck is the first year, a kid ; the second year, a gird; the third year, a hemuse; and these are your special beasts for chase.'

9 The length of these lines was no novelty on the English stage. The Moralities afford whole scenes of the like measure.

10 The meaning is, to be in a school would as ill become a patch, or low fellow, as folly would become me. 11 Shakspeare might have found this uncommon title for Diana in the second book of Golding's translation of Ovid's Metamorphoses.

12 Reached