Dull. And I fay, the pollution holds in the exchange; for the moon is never but a month old; and I fay befide, 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 mafter Holofernes, perge; so it shall please you to abrogate fcurrility.

Hol. I will fomething affect the letter; for it argues facility.

The praifeful Princefs pierc'd and prickt
A pretty pleafing pricket;

Some fay, a fore; but not a fore,
'Till now made fore with fhooting.
The dogs did yell; put L to fore,
Then forel jumpt from thicket;
Or pricket fore, or else forel,
The people fall a booting.
If fore be fore, then L to fore
9 Makes fifty fores, O forel!
Of one fore 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, fimple, fimple; a foolish extravagant fpirit, full of forms, figures, fhapes, objects, ideas, apprehenfions, motions, revolutions. These are begot in the ventricle of memory, nourished in the womb of pia mater, and deli

9 Makes fifty fores, O forel!] We fhould read, of forel, alluding to L being the numeral for 50. Concerning the beasts of chafe, whereof the Buck, being the firft, is called as folla-weth; the first year a Fawn; the fecond year a Pricket; the third year, a Sorel; the fourth year a Sore; the fifth year, a buck of the first bead, &c. Manhood of the Laws of the Foreft, p. 44.

ver'd upon the mellowing of occafion; but the gift is good in those in whom it is acute, and I am thankful for it.

Nath. Sir, I praise the lord for you, and fo may my parishioners; for their fons are well tutor❜d by you, and their daughters profit very greatly under you; you are a good member of the commonwealth.

Hol. Mebercle, if their fons be ingenuous, they shall want no instruction: if their daughters be capable, I will put it to them. But vir fapit, qui pauca loquitur; a foul feminine faluteth us.

Enter Jaquenetta, and Coftard.

Jaq. God give you good morrow, master Parson. Hol. Mafter Parfon, quafi Perfon.

fhould be pierc'd, which is the one?

And if one

Coft. Marry, mafter school-mafter, he that is likeft to a hogfhead.

Hol. Of piercing a hogfhead, a good Luftre of conceit in a turf of earth, fire enough for a flint, pearl enough for a fwine: 'Tis pretty, it is well.

Jaq. Good mafter Parfon, be fo good as read me this letter; it was given me by Coftard, and fent me from Don Armatho; I beseech you, read it.

I

(a) Hol. Faufte, precor, gelidâ quando pecus omne fub umbrá

Ruminat,

1 Faufte, precor gelida, &c.] A note of La Monnoye's on these very words in Les Contes des Periers, Nov. 42. will explain the humour of the quotation, and fhew how well Shakespear has sustained the character of his pedant.Il defigne le Carme Baptifte Mantuan, dont au commencement du 16 fiecle on lifoit publiquement à Paris les Poëfies; fi celebres alors, que, comme dit plaifamment Farnabe, dans fa preface fur Martial, les Pedans ne faiQ4

[(a) Hol. Dr. Thirlby.-Vulg. Sir Nath. ]

foient

Ruminat, and fo forth. Ah, good old Mantuan, I may speak of thee as the traveller doth of Venice; Vinegia, Vinegia! qui non te vedi, ei non te pregia. Old Mantuan, old Mantuan! Who understandeth thee not, loves thee not:-ut re fol la mi fa. Under Under par don, Sir, what are the contents? or rather, as Horace fays in his: What! my foul! verses?

Nath. Ay, Sir, and very learned.

Hol. Let me hear a staff, a stanza, a verse; Lege, Domine.

Nath. If love make me forfworn, how fhall I fwear to love?

Ah, never faith could hold, if not to beauty vow'd;

Tho' to my self forfworn, to thee I'll faithful prove; Thofe thoughts to me were oaks, to thee like ofiers bow'd.

Study his biafs leaves, and makes his book thine eyes;

Where all thofe pleasures live, that art would comprehend:

If knowledge be the mark, to know thee fhall fuffice;

Well learned is that tongue, that well can thee commend,

All ignorant that Soul, that fees thee without wonder:

Which is to me fome praife, that I thy parts admire;

Thy eye Jove's lightning bears, thy voice his dreadful thunder;

Which, not to anger bent, is mufick, and sweet fire.

foient nulle difficulté de preferer à l'Arma virumque cano, le Faufte precor gelida, c'eft-a-dire, à l'Eneide de Virgile les Eglogues de Mantuan, la premiere defquelles commence par Faufte precor gelida.

Coleftial

Celestial as thou art, Oh pardon, love, this wrong,
That fings heav'n's praise with fuch an earthly

accent.

tongue.

Hol. You find not the Apoftrophes, and fo mifs the 2 Let me fupervise the canzonet. Here are only numbers ratify'd; but for the elegancy, facility, and golden cadence of poefie, caret: 3 Ovidius Nafo was the man. And why, indeed, Nafo; but for fmelling out the odoriferous flowers of fancy? the jerks of invention? (a) imitari, is nothing: +fo doth the hound his mafter, the ape his keeper, the try'd horse his rider: But Damofella Virgin, was this directly to you?

Jaq. Ay, Sir, from one Monfieur Biron, to one of the ftrange Queen's Ladies.

Hol. I will overglance the fuperfcript. To the fnow-white band of the most beauteous lady Rotaline. I will look again on the intellect of the letter, for the nomination of the party writing to the perfon written

unto.

2 Let me fupervife, &c] The common editions give this fpeech to Nathaniel. Dr. Thirlby reftores it rightly to Holofernes.

3 Ovidius Nafo was the man.] Our author makes his pedant affect the being converfant in the best authors: Contrary to the practice of modern wits, who reprefent them as despisers of ail fuch. But those who know the world, know the pedant to be the greatest affecter of politeness.

4 fo doth the hound his mafter, the ape his keeper, the TIRED horfe his rider.] The pedant here, to run down imitation, thews that it is a quality within the capacity of beafts: that the dog and the ape are taught to copy tricks by their mafter and keeper; and fo is the tir'd horse by his rider. This laft is a wonderful inftance; but it happens not to be true. The author must have wrote -the TRYED harfe his rider: i. e. one, exercis'd, and broke to the manage: for he obeys every fign, and motion of the rein, or of his rider. So in the Two Gentlemen of Verona, the word is used in the sense of trained, exercised;

And how he cannot be a perfect man,

Not being try'd and tutor3d in the world.
(a) imitari, Mr. Theobald. Vulg. imitary. 】

Your

Your Ladyfhip's in all defir'd employment, Biron. This Biron is one of the votaries with the King; and here he hath fram'd a letter to a fequent of the ftranger Queen's, which accidentally, or by the way of progreffion, hath miscarry'd. Trip and go, my fweet; deliver this paper into the hand of the King; it may concern much; ftay not thy compliment; I forgive thy duty adieu.

Faq. Good Coftard, go with me. Sir, God fave your life.

Coft. Have with thee, my girl.

[Exeunt Coft. and Jaq. Nath. Sir, you have done this in the fear of God, very religiously and as a certain father faith

Hol. Sir, tell not me of the father, I do fear colourable colours. But, to return to the verfes; 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 (being repaft) it shall please you to gratifie the table with a grace, I will, on my privilege I have with the parents of the aforefaid child or pupil, undertake your ben venuto; where will I prove those verses to be very unlearned, neither favouring of poetry, wit, nor invention. I befeech

your fociety.

Nath. And thank you too: for fociety (faith the text) is the happiness of life.

Hol. And, certes, the text moft infallibly concludes it. Sir, I do invite you too; [To Dull.] you fhall not say me, nay: Pauca verba. Away, the gentles are at their game, and we will to our recreation.

[Exeunt.

SCENE