And, out of question, so it is sometimes; When, for fame's sake, for praise, an outward part, As I, for praise alone, now seek to spill The poor deer's blood that my heart means no ill. Lords o'er their lords? PRIN. Only for praise: and praise we may afford To any lady that subdues a lord. Enter COSTARD. BOYET. Here comes a member of the commonwealth. 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. COST. The thickest, and the tallest! it is so; truth is truth. An your waist, mistress, were as slender as my wit, One o' 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, sir? what's your will? COST. I have a letter from monsieur Biron, to one lady Rosaline. PRIN. O, thy letter, thy letter; he's a good friend of mine : Stand aside, good bearer.-Boyet, you can carve; Break up this capon. BOYET. I am bound to serve, This letter is mistook, it importeth none here; PRIN. We will read it, I swear: Break the neck of the wax, and every one give ear. "By heaven, 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 vassal! The magnanimous and most illustrate king Cophetua set eye upon the pernicious and indubitate beggar Zenelophon; and he it was that might rightly say veni, vidi, vici; which to annotanize, in the vulgar, (O base and obscure vulgar!) videlicet, he came, saw, and overcame: he came, one; saw, 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 he? the beggar; Who overcame he? the beggar: The conclusion is victory; On whose side? the king's: the captive is enrich'd; On whose side? 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 so stands the comparison: thou the beggar; for so witnesseth thy lowliness. Shall I command thy love? I may: Shall 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. Thine, 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? PRIN. What plume of feathers is he that indited this letter? What vane? what weathercock? did you ever hear better? BOYET. I am much deceived, 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 Monarcho, and one that makes sport To the prince, and his book-mates. PRIN. Who gave thee this letter? Thou, fellow, a word: COST. I told you; my lord. PRIN. To whom shouldst thou give it? From my lord to my lady. COST. 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; 't will be thine another day. [Exeunt PRINCESS and train. BOYET. Who is the suitor? who is the suitor? Ros. Shall I teach you to know? BOYET. Ay, my continent of beauty. Ros. the bow. Finely put off! Why, she that bears 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, 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 weuch, as touching the hit it. Ros. [Singing.] BOYET. Thou canst not hit it, hit it, hit it, An I cannot, cannot, cannot, An I cannot, another can. [Exeunt Ros. and KATH. 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. BOYET. 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, sir; challenge her to bowl. BOYET. I fear too much rubbing. Good night, my good [Exeunt BOYET and MARIA. owl. 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. Armatho o' the one side,-O, 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 reverend sport, truly; and done in the testimony of a good conscience. HOL. The deer was, as you know, sanguis,—in 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 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. "T was not a haud credo; 't was 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, 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; 't was 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 he. 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: But, omne bene, say I; being of an old father's mind, 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, goodman Dull; Dictynna, goodman 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. "T is true indeed; the collusion holds in the exchange. |