Break the neck of the wax, and every one give ear.

Boyet. [Reads.] 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 anatomize in the vulgar-O base and obscure vulgar!— videlicet, he came, suw, 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 u nuptial; On whose side? the king's?-no, on both in one, or one in both. I um 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, 1 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 foruge 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 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?

Cost.

Thou, fellow, a word.

I told you; my lord.

Prin. To whom shouldst thou give it?
Cost.

From my lord to my lady.

Prin. From which lord, to which lady?

Cost. From my lord Berowne, 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; 'twill be thine another day. [Exit Princess and Train.

Boyet. Who is the suitor? who is the suitor?

Ros.

Shall I teach you to know?

Why, she that bears the bow.

Boyet. Ay, my continent of beauty.

Ros.

Finely put off!

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 wench, as touching the hit it. Ros. Thou canst not hit it, hit it, hit it, Thou canst not hit it, my good man. Boyet. An I cannot, cannot, cannot, An I cannot, another can.

[Singing.

[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! Oh, mark but that mark! A mark, says 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' must shoot 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 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 owl. [Exeunt BOYET 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, so fit.

Armatho a' th' t'other side,... Oh, 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!

*

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

Sola, sola! [Shouting within. Exit Cost. running.

SCENE II. The same.

Enter HOLOFERNES, SIR NATHANIEL, and DULL.

Sir Nathaniel.

VERY reverent 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.

Nuth. 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. 'Twas not a haud 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, ostentare, to shew, 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; 'twas 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 set him in a school.

But, omne bene, say I; being of an old Father's mind, Many can brook the weather that love not the wind. Dull. You two are bookmen. 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 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. 'Tis true, indeed; the collusion holds in the exchange.

Hol. God comfort thy capacity! I say, the allusion holds in the exchange.

Dull. And I say the pollusion holds in the exchange; for the moon is never but a month old. And I say beside, 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 scurrility.

Hol. I will something affect the letter; for it argues facility.