Mark, Heaven drowfy with the harmony!
Never durft Poet touch a pen to write,
Until his ink were temper'd with love's fighs
O, then his lines would ravish favage ears,
And plant in tyrants mild humility.

From womens eyes this doctrine I derive :
They fparkle ftill the right Promethean fire,
They are the books, the arts, the academies,
That fhew, contain, and nourish all the world;
Elfe none at all in aught proves excellent.
Then fools you were, these women to forfwear :
Or, keeping what is fworn, you will prove fools.
For wifdom's fake, (a word, that all men love ;)
Or for love's fake, (a word, that loves all men ;)
Or for men's fake, (the author of these women ;)
Or womens fake, (by whom we men are men ;)
Let us once lose our oaths, to find ourselves;
Or elfe we lofe ourselves, to keep our oaths.
It is religion to be thus forfworn,

For charity itself fulfils the law;

And who can fever love from charity ?

KingSaint Cupid, then! and, foldiers, to the field! Biron. Advance your ftandards, and upon them, Lords; Pell-mell, down with them; but be firft advis'd, In conflict that you get the fun of them.

Long. Now to plain-dealing, lay thefe glozes by s. Shall we refolve to woo thefe girls of France?

King. And win them too; therefore let us devise

Some entertainment for them in their tents.

Biron. First, from the Park let us conduct them thither, Then homeward every man attach the hand

Of his fair miftrefs; in the afternoon

We will with fome ftrange paftime folace them,
Such as the fhortness of the time can shape:
For revels, dances, mafks, and merry hours,
Forerun fair love, ftrewing her way with flowers.
King. Away, away! no time fhall be omitted,
That will be time, and may by us be fitted.

Biron. Allons! Allons ! fown Cockle reap'd no corn; (29)
And juftice always whirls in equal measure;
Light wenches may prove plagues to men forfworn;
If fo, our copper buys no better treafure. [Exeunt.

ACT IV.

SCENE, the Street.

Enter Holofernes, Nathaniel and Dull.

Satis quod fufficit.

HOLOFERNÈS,

Nath. I praife God for you, Sir, your reafons at dinner have been fharp and fententious; pleafant without fcurrility, witty without affectation, audacious without impudency, learned without opinion, and ftrange without herefy: I did converfe this quondam-day with a companion of the King's, who is entitled, nominated, or called, Don Adriano de Armado.

Hol. Novi hominem, tanquam te. His humour is lofty, his difcourfe peremptory, his tongue filed, his eye ambitious, his gate majeftical, and his general behaviour vain, ridiculous, and thrafonical. He is too piqued, too fpruce, too affected, too odd, as it were; too peregri nate, as I may call it.

(29) Alone, alone, for'd Cockrel,] The Editors, fure, could have no Idea of this Paffage. Biron begins with a repetition in French of what the King had faid in English; Away, away! and then proceeds with a proverbial Expreffion, enciting them to what he had before advised, from this Inference; if we only for Cockle we shall never reap Corn. i. e. If we don't take the proper Meafures for winning these Ladies, we shall never atchieve them. Mr. Warburton.

Nath

Nath. A most fingular and choice epithet.

[Draavs out bis table book. Hol. He draweth out the thread of his verbosity finer than the staple of his argument. I abhor fuch phanatical phantafms, fuch infociable and point-devife.companions; fuch rackers of orthography, as do fpeak dout fine, when he fhould fay doubt; det, when he fhould pronounce debt; d, e, b, t; not, d, e, t: he clepeth a calf, cauf: half, hauf: neighbour vacatur nebour; neigh, abbreviated ne: this is abominable, which we would call abhominable: (30) it infinuateth me of Infanie: Ne intelligis, Domine, to make frantick, lunatick ?

Nath. Laus Dea, bone, intelligo.

Hol. Bone?

fcratch'd; 'twill ferve.

bone, for benè; Prifcian a little

(30) I infinuareth me of infamy: Ne intelligis, Domine, to make frantick, lunatick ?

Natb. Laus Deo, bene intelligo.

Hol. Bome, boon for boon Prefcian; a little Scratch, 'twill ferve.] This Play is certainly none of the beft in itself, but the Editors have been fo very happy in making it worfe by their Indolence, that they have left me Augeas's Stable to cleanfe: and a Man had need have the Strength of a Hercules to heave out all their Rubbish. But to Bufinefs; Why fhould Infamy be explained by making frantick, lunatick? It is plain and obvious that the Poet intended, the Pedant fhould coin an uncouth affected Word here, infanie, from insania of the Larines. Then, what a Piece of unintelligible Jargon have thefe learned Criticks given us for Latin? I think, I may venture to affirm, I have reftored the Paffage to its true Purity.

Nath. Laus Deo, bone, intelligo.

The Curate, addreffing with Complaifance his brother Pedant, fays, bone, to him, as we frequently in Terence find bone Vir; but the Pedant thinking, he had mistaken the Adverb, thus defcants on it.

Bone? -bone for bene. Prifcian a little feratched: 'twill ferve. Alluding to the common Phrafe, Diminuis Prifciani caput, applied to fach as fpeak false Ļwin,

Enter Armado, Moth and Coftard.

1

-Nath. Videfne quis venit ?

Hol. Video, & gaudeo.

3) Arm. Chirra.

Hol. Quare Chirrah, not Sirrah ?

Arm. Men of peace, well encountered.
Hol. Most military Sir, falutation.

Moth. They have been at a great feast of languages, and stole the scraps.

Coft. O, they have liv'd long on the alms-basket of words. I marvel, thy mafter hath not eaten thee for a word; for thou art not fo long by the head as bonorificabilitadinitatibus thou art easier swallow'd than a flapdragon.

Moth. Peace, the peal begins.

Arm. Monfieur, are you not letter'd ?

Moth. Yes, yes, he teaches boys the horn-book : What is A B fpelt backward with a horn on his head? Hol. Ba, pueritia, with a horn added.

Moth. Ba, moft filly fheep, with a horn. You hear his learning.

?

Hel. Quis, quis, thou confonant?

Moth. The third of the five vowels, if you repeat them ; or the fifth, if I. (31)

Hol. I will repeat them, a, e, T.

Moth. The fheep; the other two concludes it, o, u. Arm. Now by the falt wave of the Mediterraneum, á

(31) The laft of the five Vowels, if you repeat them; or the fifth

Hol. I will repeat them, a, e, I.

Moth. The Sheep: --- the other two concludes it out.] Wonderful Sagacity again: All the Editions agree in this Reading; but is not the laft, and the fifth, the fame Vowel? Though my Correction restores but a poor Conundrum, yet if it reftores the Poet's Meaning, it is the Duty of an Editor to trace him in his lowest Conceits. By O, U, Moth would mean →→→→→ Oh, You. i. e. You are the Sheep Aill, either way; no Matter which of us repeats them.

fweet

fweet touch, a quick venew of wit; snip, snap, quick and home; it rejoiceth my intellect; true wit.

Moth. Ofter'd by a child to an old man: which is wit-old.

Hol. What is the figure? what is the figure?
Moth. Horns.

Hol. Thou difputeft like an infant; go, whip thy gigg. Moth. Lend me your horn to make one, and I will whip about your infamy (32) circum circà; a gigg of a cuckold's horn.

Coft. An' I had but one penny in the world, thou fhouldft have it to buy ginger-bread; hold, there is. the very remuneration I had of thy mafter, thou halfpenny purfe of wit, tho u pigeon-egg of difcretion. O, that the heav'ns were fo pleased, that thou wert but my baftard! what a joyful father wouldst thou make me? go to, thou hast it ad dunghill; at the fingers' ends, as they fay.

Hol. Oh, I fmell falfe Latin, dung bill for unguem.
Arm. Arts-man, præambula; we will be fingled from
Do you not educate youth at the charge-

the barbarous.

houfe on the top of the mountain ?

Hol. Or, Mons the hill.

Arm. At your fweet pleasure, for the mountain.
Hol. I do, fans queftion.

Arm. Sir, it is the King's moft sweet pleasure and affection, to congratulate the Princefs at her pavilion, in the pofterior of this day, which the rude multitude call the afternoon.

Hol. The pofterior of the day, moft generous Sir, is, liable, congruent, and measurable for the afternoon: the word is well cull'd, choice, fweet, and apt, I do affure: you, Sir, I do affure.

(32) I will whip about your Infamy unum cita;] Here again all the Editions give us Jargon instead of Latin. But Moth would certainly mean, circum eirca: i. e. about and about: tho' it may be defigned, he fhould mistake the Terms.

Arm