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

wind.

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, 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;

And raught not to five weeks, when he came to five

score.

The allusion holds in the exchange.

Dull. "Tis true indeed: the collusion holds in the exchange.

Hol. God comfort thy capacity! I say, the allusion holds in the exchange.

Dull. And I say the pollusion 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.

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

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

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

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The preyful princess pierc'd and prick'd a pretty pleasing pricket;

9 Dictynna,] Misprinted, in the old copies, Dictissima and Dictima.

1 And RAUGHT not] i. e. Reached not, or attained not.

2- I have] These words, wanting in the old copies, and apparently necessary, were inserted by Rowe.

3 The PREYFUL princess -] So the 4to. 1598, and folio 1623: the 4to. 1632,

Some say, a sore; but not a sore, till now made sore

with shooting.

The dogs did yell; put I to sore, then sorel jumps from thicket;

Or pricket sore, or else sorel; the people fall a

hooting.

If sore be sore, then I to sore makes fifty sores; O sore l!

Of one sore I an hundred make, by adding but one more l.

Nath A rare talent !

Dull. If a talent be a claw, look how he claws him with a talent.

Hol. This is a 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, nourished in the womb of pia mater, and delivered upon the mellowing of occasion. But the gift is good in those in whom 5 it is acute, and I am thankful for it.

Nath. Sir, I praise the Lord for you, and so may my parishioners; for their sons are well tutored by you, and their daughters profit very greatly under you: you are a good member of the commonwealth.

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.

substituted praiseful; but the change was not only unnecessary but injudicious. Holofernes alludes to the occupation of the Princess, pursuing prey or game, and "preyful" is to be taken as one of his affected terms.

4 If a TALENT be a claw, &c.] In our author's time the talon of a bird was frequently written talent. Hence the quibble. In Beaumont and Fletcher's "Woman Hater," A. i. sc. 3 (Dyce's edit.), " talons" is spelt talents in the old copies, in the following passage :—

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"hath yet seiz'd on thee

With her two nimble talons."

- in those IN whom] The second in is omitted in the 4to, and supplied by

the folio.

Enter JAQUENETTA and COSTARD.

An if one

Jaq. God give you good morrow, master person. Hol. Master person,-quasi pers-on °. should be pierced, which is the one?

Cost. Marry, master schoolmaster, he that is likest to a hogshead.

Hol. Of piercing 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 letter it was given me by Costard, and sent me from Don Armado: I beseech you, read it.

Hol. Fauste, precor gelida quando pecus omne sub

umbrá

Ruminat,—and so forth. Ah, good old Mantuan! I may speak of thee as the traveller doth of Venice:

Venegia, Venegia,

Chi non te vede, non te pregia1.

Old Mantuan! old Mantuan! Who understandeth thee not, loves thee not.-Ut, re, sol, la, mi, fa.-Under pardon, sir, what are the contents? or, rather, as Horace says in his-What, my soul, verses?

Nath. Ay, sir, and very learned.

Hol. Let me hear a staff, a stanza, a verse: lege, domine.

Nath. If love make me forsworn, how shall I swear to love?

quasi pers-on.] The joke depends upon parson, as we now pronounce it, being then sometimes called person. Person is no doubt correct, from persona ecclesiæ, as Sir W. Blackstone observes, Comm. I. p. 383, edit. 1800. Jaquenetta, nevertheless, just afterwards calls Sir Nathaniel parson.

7 non te pregia.] This scrap of Italian, and the preceding passage from the commencement of Mantuan's Eclogues, are barbarously printed in the old copies. In Florio's “Second Fruits,” 1591, the proverbial saying about Venice is given as in the text, and from thence perhaps Shakespeare derived it.

8 Who understandeth thee not, LOVES THEE NOT.] The words "loves thee not" are in the 4to, but not in the folio. In the old copies this speech, and two others preceding it, are mistakenly assigned to Sir Nathaniel.

9 If love make me forsworn,] Jaggard inserted this poem in the "Passionate Pilgrim," 1599, not being aware, perhaps, that it had been printed the year

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 bias leaves, and makes his book thine eyes, 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 music, 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. Here are only numbers ratified'; 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 is nothing: so doth the hound his master, the ape his keeper, the 'tired horse his rider. But damo

sella, virgin, was this directed to you?

Jaq. Ay, sir, from one Monsieur Biron, one of the strange queen's lords2.

before in this play: at all events, he used a different copy, though the variations are not material. They may be seen by comparing the "canzonet," as it stands in the play, with the lines from the "Passionate Pilgrim" in our last vol.

Here are only numbers ratified ;] In the old copies, where there is from first to last, in this scene, much confusion of persons in the prefixes, Sir Nathaniel here begins to speak; but the sense and the character of what is said show that Holofernes ought to continue, until Jaquenetta answers the question put to her. He then again proceeds, and not Sir Nathaniel, as it stands in the 4to, 1598, and in the folios. In the prefixes Holofernes is not unfrequently called Pedant, and in the stage-direction he is introduced as "Holofernes, the Pedant.”

2 Monsieur Biron, one of the strange queen's lords.] Biron was one of the

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"To the

Hol. I will overglance the superscript. snow-white hand of the most beauteous Lady Rosaline." I will look again on the intellect of the letter, for the nomination of the party writing to the person written unto: "Your ladyship's, in all desired employment, Biron.” Sir Nathaniel, 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 paper into the royal hand of the king; it may concern much. Stay not thy compliment; I forgive thy duty adieu.

Jaq. Good Costard, go with me.-Sir, God save your

life!

Cost. Have with thee, my girl.

[Exeunt COST. and JAQ. Nath. Sir, you have done this in the fear of God, very religiously; and, as a certain father saith

Hol. Sir, tell not me of the father; I do fear colourable colours. But, to return to the verses: did they please you, sir Nathaniel?

Nath. Marvellous well for the pen.

Hol. I do dine to-day at the father's of a certain pupil of mine; where if before repast it shall please you to gratify the table with a grace, I will, on my privilege I have with the parents of the foresaid child or pupil, undertake your ben venuto; where I will prove those verses to be very unlearned, neither savouring of poetry, wit, nor invention. I beseech your society.

king's lords, and Jaquenetta stated, just after her entrance, that the letter was sent to her by Armado. This oversight, for which it is not easy to account, was pointed out by Monck Mason.

3

error.

of the party WRITING] In both 4to. and folio it stands written, an obvious Lower down in this speech, the folio omits "royal.”

Sir Nathaniel,] Sir Holofernes: edits. 1598 and 1623. The editors of the folio did not attempt to set right the extraordinary confusion of persons in this

where if, BEFORE repast,] The folio has it " (being repast)," in paren