What shalt thou exchange entreat thy love? I will. "Thine, in the dearest design of industry, "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? Prin. What plume of feathers is he that indited this letter? What vane? what weather-cock? did you ever hear better? Boyet. I am much deceiv'd, but I remember the style. Prin. Else your memory is bad, going o'er it erewhile. Boyet. This Armado is a Spaniard, that keeps here in court; A phantasm, a Monarchos, and one that makes sport To the prince, and his book-mates. Food for his rage, repasture for his den.] This stanza has been given, in modern editions, as if spoken by Boyet after he has read Armado's letter; but it evidently is a sort of conclusion to it in verse. The verse is quite consistent with the prose by which it is preceded, and Armado has already told us that he should "turn sonneteer." This is to be taken as a specimen of the "whole volumes in folio" he promised to pen. * A phantasm, a Monarcho,] Monarcho was a character of the time, so called: See Meres' Palladis Tamia, folio 178, printed in the same year as the first edition of this play. Meres also mentions Peter Shakerley, a person of a similar class, introducing both under the head of "Braggers ;" and we have already seen that Armado is repeatedly called the "Braggart" in the 4to, 1598, and in the folio, 1623. How long before Shakespeare wrote "Love's Labour's Lost," Monarcho flourished, cannot perhaps be ascertained, but Churchyard wrote an epitaph upon him in 1580; and Peter Shakerley is spoken of by G. Harvey in his "New Letter of Notable Contents," 4to, 1593, where he terms Marlowe, then dead, a "second Shakerley." The word phantasm, or phantasma, seems also to have been used VOL. II. Y Prin. Thou, fellow, a word. Who gave thee this letter? Cost. I told you; my lord. Prin. To whom shouldst thou give it? From my lord to my lady. Prin. From which lord, to which lady? Cost. From my lord Biron, a good master of mine, To a lady of France, that he call'd Rosaline. Prin. Thou hast mistaken his letter.-Come, lords, away. Here, sweet, put up this: 'twill be thine another day. [Exeunt PRINCESS and Train. Boyet. Who is the suitor? who is the suitor9? Ros. Boyet. Ay, my continent of beauty. Ros. Finely put off! Shall I teach you to know? Why, she that bears the bow. 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 not 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, in a similar sense to Monarcho. In "Skeialetheia," by E. Guilpin, printed in 1598, this description of persons is introduced : 9 "they are Phantasmas, butterflies, Inconstant, but yet witless Mercuries." Sat. iii. who is the suitor ?] The joke, here and afterwards, depends upon the pronunciation of "suitor," shooter. In this play, in the last line but one of A. iii., to "sue" is printed to "shue," both in the 4to. and in the folio; and here "suitor" is printed shooter. that was a man when king Pepin of France was a little boy, as touching the hit it? 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. 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. Boyet. An if my hand be out, then belike your hand is in. Cost. Then will she get the upshot by cleaving the pin 3. Mar. Come, come, you talk greasily; your lips grow foul. 1 BOYET. So I may answer thee, &c.] This speech, in Malone's Shakespeare by Boswell, is assigned to Biron, who was not on the stage. 2 An I cannot, another can.] This is, no doubt, the same song that Cricket refers to near the end of "Wily Beguiled," 1606. 3 "To give my wench a kiss, And then dance, Canst thou not hit it." by cleaving THE PIN.] This is one of the emendations of the folio, 1632: both the 4to, 1598, and the folio, 1623, print is in, (caught by the compositor from the preceding line) instead of pin. To "hit the clout" and to "cleave the pin were synonymous phrases in archery: the clout (nail), or pin, upheld the mark at which aim was taken. Cost. She's too hard for you at pricks, sir: challenge her to bowl. good owl. Boyet. I fear too much rubbing. Good night, my [Exeunt BOYET and MARIA. Cost. By my soul, a swain! a most simple clown! Lord, lord! how the ladies and I have put him down! O' my troth, most sweet jests! most incony vulgar wit! When it comes so smoothly off, so obscenely, as it were, so fit. Armado o' the one side1,-O, a most dainty man! And his page o' t' other side, that handful of wit! Ah, heavens, it is a most pathetical nit! Sola, sola! SCENE II. [Shouting within3. [Exit COSTARD. The Same. Enter HOLOFERNES, Sir NATHANIEL, and DULL. Nath. Very reverend sport, truly; and done in the testimony of a good conscience. Hol. The deer was, as you know, sanguis,-in blood; ripe as the pomewater, who now hangeth like a jewel in the ear of cœlo,-the sky, the welkin, the Armado o' THE ONE side,] Spelt in the 4to, ath toothen side, of which the printer of the first folio seems to have been able to make no sense, and gave it ath to the side. Shouting within.] The old copies, 4to. and folio, have "shoote within :" it is, in fact, a shout raised upon the shooting. 6 - ripe as the POMEWATER,] A species of apple. The 4to, 1598, reads, “the pomewater," and the folio," a pomewater:" the difference is not very material, but the definite article, from what follows, seems preferable. heaven; and anon falleth like a crab, on the face of 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 7. 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 the duller parts; And such barren plants are set before us, that we thankful should be (Which we of taste and feeling are) for those parts that do fructify in us more than he3; 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: 7 - 'twas a pricket.] "A buck of the first head" is a stag of five years old : "a pricket" is a stag of the second year. Malone established these points by a quotation from "The Return from Parnassus," 1606. 8-do fructify in us more than he ;] This line is regulated according to Tyrwhitt's judicious emendation, by the insertion of the preposition" of," not found in the old copies: "he" at the end of the line ought to be him, but Shakespeare wanted the rhyme. |