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Act IV.Scene II. The Same.
Scene II. The Same.
Enter Holofernes, Sir Nathaniel, and Dull.
Nath. 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 the pomewater,
who now hangeth like a jewel in the ear of caelo, 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,
Many can brook the weather that love not the wind.
Dull. You two are book-men: can you tell me 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.
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, `t was a pricket that the
princess killed.
Hol. Sir Nathaniel, will you hear an extemporal epitaph on the death of
the deer? and, to humour the ignorant, call I the deer the princess killed, 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.
The preyful princess pierc`d and prick`d a pretty pleasing pricket;
Some say a sore; but not a sore, till now made sore with shooting.
The dogs did yell; put L to sore, then sorel jumps from thicket;
Or pricket sore, or else sorel; the people fall ahooting.
If sore be sore, then L to sore makes fifty sores one sorel.
Of one sore I an hundred make, by adding by one more L.
Nath. A rare talent!
Dull. If a talent be a claw, look how he claws him with a talent.
Hol. This is a gift that I have, simple, simple; a foolish extravagant
spirit, full of forms, figures, shapes, objects, ideas, apprehensions,
motions, revolutions: these are begot in the ventricle of memory, nourished in
the womb of pia mater, and delivered upon the mellowing of occasion. But the
gift is good in those in whom it is acute, and I am thankful for it.
Nath. Sir, I praise the Lord for you, and so may my parishioners; for
their sons are well tutored by you, and their daughters profit very greatly
under you: you are a good member of the commonwealth.
Hol. Mehercle! if their sons be ingenuous, they shall want to
instruction; if their daughters be capable, I will put it to them. But vir
sapit qui pauca loquitur. A soul feminine saluteth us.
Enter Jaquenetta and Costard
Jaq. God give you good morrow, Master parson.
Hol. Master parson, quasi pers-on. An if one should be pierced, which is
the one?
Cost. Marry, Master schoolmaster, he that is likest to a hogshead.
Hol. Piercing a hogshead! a good lustre of conceit in a turf of earth;
fire enough for a flint, pearl enough for a swine: `t is pretty; it is well.
Jaq. Good Master parson, be so good as read me this letter: it was given
me by Costard, and sent me from Don Armado: I beseech you, read it.
Hol. Fauste, precor gelida quando pecus omne sub umbra Ruminat, and so
forth. Ah! good old Mantuan. I may speak of thee as the traveller doth of
Venice: Venetia, Venetia, Chi non ti vede, non ti pretia. Old Mantuan! old
Mantuan! who understandeth thee not, loves thee not. Ut, re, sol, la, mi, fa.
Under pardon, sir, what are the contents? or, rather, as Horace says in
his-What, my soul, verses?
Nath. Ay, sir, and very learned.
Hol. Let me hear a staff; a stanze, a verse: lege, domine.
Nath. If love make me forsworn, how shall I swear to love?
Ah! never faith could hold, if not to beauty vow`d;
Though to myself forsworn, to thee I`ll faithful prove;
Those thoughts to me were oaks, to thee like osiers bow`d
Study his bias 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 suffice.
Well learned is that tongue that well can thee commend;
All ignorant that soul that sees thee without wonder;
Which is to me some praise that I thy parts admire.
Thy eye Jove`s lightning bears, thy voice his dreadful thunder,
Which, not to anger bent, is music and sweet fire.
Celestial as thou art, O! pardon love this wrong,
That sings heaven`s praise with such an earthly tongue.
Hol. You find not the apostrophas, and so miss the accent: let me
supervise the canzonet. Here are only numbers ratified; but, for the elegancy,
facility, and golden cadence of poesy, caret. Ovidius Naso was the man: and
why, indeed, Naso, but for smelling out the odoriferous flowers of fancy, the
jerks of invention? Imitari is nothing; so doth the hound his master, the ape
his keeper, the tired horse his rider. But, damosella virgin, was this
directed to you?
Jaq. Ay, sir, from one Monsieur Berowne, one of the strange queen`s
lords.
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 desired employment, Berowne. Sir Nathaniel, this
Berowne is one of the votaries with the king; and here he hath framed a letter
to a sequent of the stranger queen`s, which, accidentally, or by the way of
progression, hath miscarried. Trip and go, my sweet; deliver this paper into
the royal hand of the king; it may concern much. Stay not thy compliment; I
forgive thy duty; adieu.
Jaq. Good Costard, go with me. Sir` God save your life!
Cost. Have with thee, my girl.
[Exeunt Costard and Jaquenetta.
Nath. Sir, you have done this in the fear of God, very religiously; and,
as a certain Father saith, -
Hol. Sir, tell not me of the Father; I do fear colourable colours. But to
return to the verses: did they please you, Sir Nathaniel?
Nath. Marvellous well for the pen.
Hol. I do dine to-day at the father`s of a certain pupil of mine; where,
if before repast it shall please you to gratify the table with a grace, I
will, on my privilege I have with the parents of the foresaid child or pupil,
undertake your ben venuto; where I will prove those verses to be very
unlearned, neither savouring of poetry, wit, nor invention. I beseech your
society.
Nath. And thank you too; for society, saith the text, is the happiness of
life.
Hol. And, certes, the text most infallibly concludes it. (To Dull) Sir, I
do invite you too: you shall not say me nay: pauca verba. Away! the gentles
are at their game, and we will to our recreation.
[Exeunt.
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