This letter is mistook; it importeth none here: Prin. Boy. [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 Cophetua1 set eye upon the pernicious and indubitate beggar Penelophon; 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: Whom 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, "Thus dost thou hear the Nemean lion roar 'Gainst thee, thou lamb, that standest as his prey; And he from forage will incline to play: 4 See Act i. sc. 2, note 7. Prin. What plume of feathers is he that indited this letter? What vane? what weathercock? did you ever hear better? Boy. I am much deceiv'd, but I remember the style. Prin. Else your memory is bad, going o'er it erewhile." Boy. 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? 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. lords, away. Come, Here, sweet, put up this: 'twill be thine another. [Exeunt PRINCESS and Train. Boy. Who is the suitor? who is the suitor ?? Ros. day. Shall I teach you to know? That is, lately. A pun is intended upon the word stile. The allusion is to a fantastical character of the time. Thus Meres, in his Palladis Tamia, 1598: "Popular applause doth nourish some, neither do they gape after any other thing but vaine praise and glorie, as in our age Peter Shakerlye of Paules, and Monarcho that lived about the court." He called an Italian by Nashe, and Churchyard has written some lines which he calls his Epitaphe. By another writer it appears that he was a Berga masco. 7 An equivoque was here intended; it should appear that the words shooter and suitor were pronounced alike in Shakespeare's time. Why, she that bears the bow. Boy. Ay, my continent of beauty. Ros. Finely put off! Boy. My lady goes to kill horns; but, if thou marry, Hang me by the neck, if horns that year miscar:y Finely put on! Ros. Well, then, I am the shooter. Boy. And who is your deer! Ros. If we choose by the horns, yourself: come near. Finely put on, indeed! Mar. You still wrangle with her, Boyet, and she strikes at the brow. Boy. 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? Boy. 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, Boy. An I cannot, cannot, cannot, [Singing. [Exeunt Ros. and KATH. Cost. By my troth, most pleasant! how both did fit it! Mur. A mark marvellous well shot; for they both did hit it. Boy. 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. 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. Boy. 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. Boy. I fear too much rubbing: Good night, my [Exeunt BOYET and MARIA. Cost. By my soul, a swain! a most simple clown! Lord, Lord! how the ladies and I have put him good owl. 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 COST. 8 This is a term in archery still in use, signifying “a good deal to the left of the mark." Of the other expressions, the clout was the white mark at which the archers took aim. The pin was the wooden nail in the centre of it. SCENE II. The same. Enter HOLOFERNES, Sir NATHANIEL, and DULL Nath. Very reverent sport, truly; and done in the testimony of a good conscience. in Hol. The deer was, as you know, sanguis, blood; ripe as the pomewater,' who now hangeth like a jewel in the ear of cœlo, - the sky, the wel kin, 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.2 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 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; 'twas a pricket. 1 A species of apple. 2 In The Return from Parnassus, 1606, is the following account of the appellations of deer at their different ages: Now, sir, a buck is, the first year, a fawn; the second year, a pricket; the third year, a sorrel; the fourth year, a soare; the fifth, a buck of the first head; the sixth year, a complete buck. Likewise, your hart is, the first year, a calfe; the second year, a brocket; the third year, a spade; the fourth year, a stag; the sixth year, a hart. A roe-buck is, the first year, a kid; the second year, a gird; the third year, a hemuse; and these are your special beasts for chase' |