Εικόνες σελίδας
PDF
Ηλεκτρ. έκδοση

will put it to them. But vir fapit, qui pauca loquitur; a foul feminine faluteth us.

SCENE III.

Enter Jaquenetta, and Costard.

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

should be pierc'd, which is the one?

And if one

Coft. Marry, master fchool-master, he that is likest to a hogshead.

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

Jaq. Good master Parson, be so good as read me this letter; it was given me by Coftard, and sent me from Don Armatho; I beseech you, read it.

Hol. Faufte, precor, gelidâ quando pecus omne fub umbrá.

* Nath. Faufte, precor, gelida] Though all the Editions concur to give this Sperch to Sir Natharael, yet, as Dr. Thirlby ingenioufy observ'd to me, it is evident, it must belong to Holofernes. The Curate is employ'd in reading the Letter to himself; and while he is doing so, that the Stage may not stand still, Holofernes either pulls out a Book, or, repeating some Verse by heart from Mantuanus, comments upon the Character of that Poet. Baptifta Spagnolus, (furnamed Mantuanus, from the Place of his Birth) was a Writer of Poems, who flourisfh'd towards the latter End of the 15th Cen

tury.

THEOBALD. 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 shew how well Shakespear has fustained the character of his pedant.-Il defigne le Carme de Baptifle Mantuan, dont au commencement du 16 ficcle on lifoit publiquement à Paris les Poefies; fi celebres alors, que, comme dit plaisamment Farnabe, dans sa preface fur Martial, les Pedans ne faifoient nulle difficulté preferer à 'Arma virumque cano, le Faufte, precor, gelida, c'eft-a dire, à Eneide de Virgile-les Eclogues de Mantuan, le tremiere desquelles commence par Faufte precor gelida.

de

WARBURTON.

Ru

Ruminat, and so forth. Ah, good old Mantuan, I may speak of thee as the traveller doth of Venice;

3

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 pardon, Sir, what are the contents? or rather, as Horace says 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 forsworn, how shall I fwear to love?

Ah, never faith could hold, if not to beauty vow'd; Tho' to myself forsworn, to thee I'll faithful prove; Those thoughts to me were oaks, to thee like ofiers bow'd.

Study his biass leaves, and makes his book thine eyes ; Where all those pleasures live, that art would

comprehend:

If knowledge be the mark, to know thee shall fuffice; Well learned is that tongue, that well can thee commend.

All ignorant that Soul, that fees thee without wonder : Which is to me some praise, that I thy parts admire.

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

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

[blocks in formation]

:

Celestial as thou art, Oh pardon, love, this wrong, That sings the heaven's praise with fuch an earthly

tongue.

Hol. You find not the Apostrophes, and so miss the accent. Let me supervise the canzonet. Here are only numbers ratify'd; but for the elegancy, facility, and golden cadence of poefie, caret : $ Ovidius Nafo was the man. And why, indeed, Naso; but for smelling out the odoriferous flowers of fancy ? the jerks of invention? imitari, is nothing: fo doth the

4 Nath. Here are only Numbers ratified; Thơ' this Speech has been all along plac'd to Sir Nathanael, I have ventur'd to join it to the preceding Words of Holofernes; and not without Reafon. The Speaker here is impeaching the Verses; but Sir Nathanael, as it appears above, thought them learned ones: befides, as Dr. Thirlby observes, almost every Word of this Speech, fathers itself on the Pedant. So much for the Regulation of it: now, a little, to the Contents

And why indeed Naso, but for fmelling out the odoriferous Flowers of Fancy? the Jerks of Invention imitary is nothing.

Sagacity with a Vengeance! I should be asham'd to own myself a Piece of a Scholar, to pretend to the Tase of an Editor, and to pass such Stuff as this upon the World for genuine. Who ever heard of Invention imitary? In. vention and Imitation have ever been accounted two diftinct Things. The Speech is by a Pedant, who frequently throws in a Word of Latin amongst his English, and he is here flourish

hound

[blocks in formation]

6 So doth the hound his mafter, the ape bis keeper, the TIRED horse his rider.] The pedant here, to run down Imitation, fhews that it is a quality within the capacity of beasts: that the dog and the ape are taught to copy tricks by their master and keeper: and fo is the tir'd horse by his rider. This last is a wonderful instance; but it happens not to be true. The author must have wrote the TRYED horfe bis rider: i. e. one, exercis'd, and broke to the manage: for he obeys

1

hound his master, the ape his keeper, the try'd horfe his rider: But Damosella Virgin, was this directly to you?

Jag. Ay, Sir, from one Monfieur Biron, to one of the strange Queen's Ladies.

Hol. I will overglance the superscript. To the snow white hand of the most beauteous lady Rosaline. I will look again on the intellect of the letter, for the nomination of the party writing to the person written

unto.

Your Ladyship'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 sequent of the stranger Queen's, which accidentaly, or by the way of progreffion, hath miscarry'd. Trip and go, my sweet; deliver this paper into the hand of the King; it may concern much; stay not thy compliment; I forgive thy duty: adien.

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

Coft. Have with thee, my girl.

[Exeunt Cost. 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 verses; did they please you; Sir Nathanael?

Nath. Marvellous well for the pen.

Hol. I do dine to day at the father's of a certain

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,

M 2

Not being try'd and tutor'd in the world.

WARBURTON.

Colourable colours.] That is, specious, or fairseeming appearances.

pu

pupil of mine; where if (being repast) it shall pleafe you to gratifie the table with a grace, I will, on my privilege I have with the parents of the aforesaid child or pupil, undertake your ben venuto; where will I prove those verfes to be very unlearned, neither favouring of poetry, wit, nor invention. I beseech your fociety.

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

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

SCENE IV.

[Exeunt.

Enter Biron, with a paper in his hand, alone.

Biron. The King is hunting the deer, I am coursing myself. They have pitcht a toil, I am toiling in a pitch *; pitch, that defiles; defile! a foul word: well, fet thee down, forrow; for so they say the fool faid, and so say I, and I the fool. Well prov'd wit. By the Lord, this love is as mad as Ajax, it kills theep, it kills me, I a sheep. Well prov'd again on my side. I will not love; if I do, hang me; i'faith, I will not. O, but her eye: by this light, but for her eye, I would not love; yes, for her two eyes. Well, I do nothing in the world but lie, and lie in my throat. By heaven, I do love; and it hath taught me to rhime, and to be melancholy; and here is part of my rhime; and here my melancholy. Well, she hath one o' my fonnets already; the clown bore it; the fool sent it, and the lady hath it: sweet clown, sweeter fool, sweetest lady! by the world, I would not care a pin if the other three were in. Here comes one with a paper; God give him grace to groan! [He stands aside.

• Alluding to lady Rosaline's whole play, represented as a complexion, who is, through the black beauty.

Enter

« ΠροηγούμενηΣυνέχεια »