Ros. Thou can't not hit it, hit it, hit it,
Thou can't uot hit it, my good man.
BOYET. An I cannot, cannot, cannot,

An I cannot, another can.

[finging.

[Exeunt Ros. and KAT.

COST. By my troth, most pleasant! how both did fit it! MĀr. A mark marvellous well shot; for they both did hit it.

BOYET. 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 o' the bow hand! I'faith, your hand is

out.

COST. Indeed, a' muft fhoot 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 fhe get the upfhot by cleaving the pin. MAR. Come, come, you talk greafily, your lips grow

foul.

COST. She's too hard for you at pricks, fir; challenge her to bowl.

good owl.

BorET. I fear too much rubbing; Good night, my [Exeuut BorET and MARIA. COST. By my foul, a fwain! a most simple clown! Lord, lord! how the ladies and I have put him down! O' my troth, most sweet jefts! most incony vulgar wit! When it comes fo fmoothly off, fo obfcenely, as it were,

fo fit.

Armatho o' the one fide,-O, a moft dainty man!

To fee him walk before a lady, and to bear her fan!
To fee him kifs his hand! and how moft fweetly a' will

fwear!

And his page o' t'other fide, that handful of wit!
Ah, heavens, it is a moft pathetical nit!

Sola, fola!

[Shouting within.

[Exit COSTARD, running.

SCENE II. The fame.

Enter HOLOFERNES, Sir NATHANIEL, and DULL. NATH. Very reverent fport, truly; and done in the teftimony of a good confcience.

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

NATH. Truly, master Holofernes, the epithets are sweetly varied, like a scholar at the leaft: But, fir, I affure ye, it was a buck of the firft head.

HOL. Sir Nathaniel, baud credo.

DULL. 'Twas not a baud credo, 'twas a pricket.

HOL. Moft barbarous intimation! yet a kind of infinuation, as it were, in via, in way, of explication; facere, as it were, replication, or, rather, oftentare, to fhow, as it were, his inclination,-after his undreffed, unpolished, uneducated, unpruned, untrained, or rather unlettered, or, rathereft, unconfirmed fashion,-to infert again my baud credo for a deer.

DULL. I faid, the deer was not a haud credo; 'twas a pricket. HOL. Twice fod fimplicity, bis coctus!-O thou monfter ignorance, how deformed doft 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 fenfible in the duller parts;

And fuch barren plants are fet before us,

ful fhould be

that we thank

(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, indifcreet, or

a fool,

So, were there a patch fet on learning, to fee him in a school:

But, omne bene, fay 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 Dictynnà ?

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 fivefcore. The allufion holds in the exchange.

DULL. 'Tis true, indeed, the collufion holds in the exchange.

HOL. God comfort thy capacity! I fay, the allufion holds in the exchange.

DULL. And I fay the pollufion 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 master Holofernes, perge; so it shall please you to abrogate fcurrility.

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

The praifeful princess pierc'd and prick'd a pretty pleafing

pricket;

[fbooting. Some fay, a fore; but not a fore, till now made fore with The dogs did yell; put l to fore, then forel jumps from thicket;

Or pricket, fore, or else forel; the people fall a booting. If fore be fore, then L to fore makes fifty fores; O fore L! 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 spirit, 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 deliver'd upon the mellowing of occafion: But the gift is good in those in whom it is acute, and I am thankful for it.

may my

NATH. Sir, I praise the Lord for you; and fo 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 ingenious, they fhall 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 COSTARD.

F42. God give you good morrow, master person. HOL. Mafter perfon,-quafi perf-on. And if one should be pierced, which is the one?

VOL. II.

F

COST. Marry, master schoolmaster, 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 flint, pearl enough for a fwine: 'tis pretty; it is well.

J42. Good mafter parfon, be fo good as read me this letter; it was given me by Coftard, and fent me from Don Armatho I befeech you, read it.

HOL. Faufte, precor gelidá quando pecus omne fub umbră Ruminat,—and fo forth. Ah, good old Mantuan! I may speak of thee as the traveller doth of Venice;

-Vinegia, Vinegia,

Chi non te vede, ei non te pregia.

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

NATH. Ay, fir, and very learned.

HOL. Let me hear a staff, a ftanza, a verfe; Lege, domine. NATH. If love make me forefworn, how fhall I fwear

to love,

Ah, never faith could hold, if not to beauty vowed! Though to myself forfworn, to thee I'll faithful prove; Those thoughts to me were oaks, to thee like ofiers

bowed.

Study his bias leaves, and makes his book thine eyes; Where all thofe pleasures live, that art would com

prehend:

;

If knowledge be the mark, to know thee fhall fuffice Well learned is that tongue, that well can thee com

mend :

All ignorant that foul, that fees thee without wonder;

(Which is to me fome praise, that I thy parts admire;)