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

Enter COSTARD.
Prin. Here comes a member of the commonwealth.

Cost. God dig-you-den all! Pray you, which is the head lady?

Prin. Thou shalt know her, fellow, by the rest that have no heads.

Cost. Which is the greatest lady, the highest ?
Prin. The thickest, and the tallest.

[truth.
Cost. The thickest, and the tallest! it is so; truth is
An your waist, mistress, were as Nender as my wit,
One of these maids' girdles for your waist should be fit.
Are not you the chief woman? you are the thickest here.

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

[mine:
Prin. O, thy letter, thy letter; he's a good friend of
Stand aside, good bearer.-Boyet, you can carve;
Break

up
this

capon.
Borer. 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.

Boret. [reads.] By beaven, 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 vasal! The magnanimous and most illustrate king Cophetua fet eye upon the pernicious and indubitate beggar Zenelophon; and be it was that might rightly say, veni, vidi, vici ; which to anatomize in the vulgar, (O base and obfcure vulgar!) vi

delicet, he came, faw, and overcame : be came, one ; faw,
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 be? the beggar ; Who over-
came be? the beggar : The conclusion is victory ; On whose
fide ? the king's: the captive is enrich’d; On whose fide ? 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 fo stands the comparison : thou the beggar; for so witnes-
eth thy lowliness. Shall I command thy love? I may: Sball
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.
Tbine, 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 weather-cock? Did you ever hear

better?
Boret. I am much deceived, but I remember the style.
Prin. Else your memory is bad, going o'er it erewhile.
Boret. This Armado is a Spaniard, that keeps here in

court;
A phantasm, a Monarcho; and one that makes sport
To the prince, and his book-mates.

Prin. Thou, fellow, a word :
Who gave thee this letter?

Cost. I told you; my lord.
Prin. To whom should'st thou give it?
Cost. 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 callid Rosaline.
Prin. Thou hast mistaken his letter. Come, lords,

away.
Here, sweet, put up this ; 'twill be thine another day.

[Exit Princess and Train.
Boret. Who is the suitor ? who is the suitor ?
Ros. Shall I teach you to know ?
Boret. Ay, my continent of beauty.

Ros. Why, she that bears the bow."
Finely put off!
Boret. 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.
Boret. 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.
Boret. But she herself is hit lower: Have 1 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?

Boret. 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 can't not hit it, hit it, hit it, [linging

Thou canst not hit it, my good man.
BOYET. An I cannot, cannot, cannot,
An I cannot, another can.

[Excunt Ros. and KAT. Cost. By my troth, most pleasant! how both did fit it! MAR. A mark marvellous well shot; for they both did

hit it. Boret. A mark! O, mark but that mark; A mark,

fays my lady!
Let the mark have a prick in't, to mete at,

if it
may

be, Mar. Wide or the bow hand! I'faith, your hand is

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

the clout. Boret. An if my hand be out, then, belike your

hand is in. Cost. Then will she get the upshot by cleaving the pin. Mar. Come, come, you talk greasily, your lips grow

foul. Cost. She's too hard for you at pricks, fir; challenge

her to bowl. Boret. I fear too much rubbing; Good night, my good owl.

[Exeunt Boret 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,

fo fit. Armatho o' the one side,--0, a most dainty man! To see him walk before a lady, and to bear her fan! To see him kiss his hand! and how most sweetly a' will

swear!

And his page o't'other side, that handful of wit !
Ah, heavens, it is a most pathetical nit!
Sola, sola!

[Shouting within. [Exit COSTARD, running.

SCENE II. The same.
Enter HOLOFERNES, Sir NATHANIEL, and Dull.

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

Hol. The deer was, as you know, in sanguis,--blood; ripe as a pomewater, 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 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, baud credo.
Dull. 'Twas not a baud 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, oftentare, 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 baud credo for a deer.

Dull. I said, the deer was not a baud credo; 'twasa pricket.

Hol. Twice sod simplicity, bis coctus!-0 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;