King. Away, away! no time shall be omitted corn; And justice always whirls in equal measure: Light wenches may prove plagues to men for sworn; If so, our copper buys no better treasure. [Exeunt. ACT V. SCENE I. The same. Enter HOLOFERNES, SIR NATHANIEL, and Hol. Satis quod sufficit. Nath. I praise God for you, sir: your reasons at dinner have been sharp and sententious; pleasant without scurrility, witty without affection, audacious without impudency, learned without opinion, and strange without heresy. I did converse this quondam day with a companion of the king's, who is intituled, nominated, or called, Don Adriano de Armado. Hol. Novi hominem tanquam te: his humour is lofty, his discourse peremptory, his tongue filed, his eye ambitious, his gait majestical, and his general behaviour vain, ridiculous, and thrasonical. He is too picked, too spruce, too 382. betime, betide. 6. opinion, dogmatism. affected, too odd, as it were, too peregrinate, as I may call it. Nath. A most singular and choice epithet. [Draws out his table-book. Hol. He draweth out the thread of his verbosity finer than the staple of his argument. I abhor such fanatical phantasimes, such insociable 20 and point-devise companions; such rackers of orthography, as to speak dout, fine, when he should say doubt; det, when he should pronounce debt,—d, e, b, t, not d, e, t: he clepeth a calf, cauf; half, hauf; neighbour vocatur nebour; neigh abbreviated ne. This is abhominable,— which he would call abbominable: it insinuateth me of insanie: anne intelligis, domine? to make frantic, lunatic. Nath. Laus Deo, bone intelligo. Hol. Bone? bone for ben! scratched, 'twill serve. Nath. Videsne quis venit? Hol. Video, et gaudeo. Priscian a little Enter ARMADO, MOTH, and COSTARD. Arm. Chirrah! 21. point-devise, precise. 22. dout. . . det. In these words Holofernes champions a pronunciation which never had existed, and which received countenance only from an 'orthography' 'racked' into conformity with their ultimate etymology; in 'abominable,' one founded upon false etymology as well as false spelling; in calf, half, neighbour, neigh, one which had grown obsolete while the spelling survived. 26. abhominable; the word was currently derived in the [To Moth. 30 sixteenth century from ab homine. 28. There is some corruption in these words. Insanie (for Qq, Ff 'infamie') is probably a Holofernianism for 'madness.' 31. Priscian a little scratched, a slight blunder in Latin grammar. What precedes is Theobald's acute suggestion for the corrupt text of Qq and Ff bome boon for boon prescian. This appears to give the clue to the blunder which Nathaniel must be supposed to have committed, viz. bone for bene, which is thence inserted in the text. Hol. Quare chirrah, not sirrah? Moth. [Aside to Costard] They have been at a great feast of languages, and stolen the scraps. Cost. O, they have lived long on the almsbasket of words. I marvel thy master hath not eaten thee for a word; for thou art not so long by the head as honorificabilitudinitatibus: thou art easier swallowed than a flap-dragon. Moth. Peace! the peal begins. Arm. [To Hol.] Monsieur, lettered? are you not 40 Moth. Yes, yes; he teaches boys the hornbook. What is a, b, spelt backward, with the 50 horn on his head? Hol. Ba, pueritia, with a horn added. Moth. Ba, most silly sheep with a horn. You hear his learning. Hol. Quis, quis, thou consonant ? Moth. The third of the five vowels, if you repeat them; or the fifth, if I. Hol. I will repeat them,—a, e, i, Moth. The sheep: the other two concludes it,-o, u. Arm. Now, by the salt wave of the Mediter 60 and meant (in the nominative) the state of being loaded with honours. A verse was current in the Middle Ages: Fulget honorificabilitudinitatibus iste' (Jahrbuch des d. Sh. Ges. xxxiii. 271). 45. flap-dragon, a small burning substance swallowed in wine. 49. horn-book, primer, from the sheet of transparent horn which covered the text. raneum, a sweet touch, a quick venue of wit! snip, snap, quick and home! it rejoiceth my intellect true wit! Moth. Offered by a child to an old man ; which is wit-old. Hol. What is the figure? what is the figure? Hol. Thou disputest like an infant: go, whip thy gig. Moth. Lend me your horn to make one, and I will whip about your infamy circum circa,—a gig of a cuckold's horn. 70 Cost. An I had but one penny in the world, thou shouldst have it to buy gingerbread: hold, there is the very remuneration I had of thy master, thou halfpenny purse of wit, thou pigeonegg of discretion. O, an the heavens were so pleased that thou wert but my bastard, what a joyful father wouldst thou make me! Go to; 80 thou hast it ad dunghill, at the fingers' ends, as they say. Hol. O, I smell false Latin; dunghill for unguem. Arm. Arts-man, preambulate, we will be singuled from the barbarous. Do you not educate youth at the charge-house on the top of the mountain? Hol. Or mons, the hill. Arm. At your sweet pleasure, for the mountain. Arm. Sir, it is the king's most sweet pleasure 90 85. preambulate, come for ward. 87. charge-house, the school house; a phrase of Armado's 'mint.' and affection to congratulate the princess at her pavilion in the posteriors of this day, which the rude multitude call the afternoon. Hol. The posterior of the day, most generous sir, is liable, congruent and measurable for the afternoon the word is well culled, chose, sweet and apt, I do assure you, sir, I do assure. Arm. Sir, the king is a noble gentleman, and 100 my familiar, I do assure ye, very good friend: for what is inward between us, let it pass. I do beseech thee, remember thy courtesy; I beseech thee, apparel thy head; and among other important and most serious designs, and of great import indeed, too, but let that pass: for I must tell thee, it will please his grace, by the world, sometime to lean upon my poor shoulder, and with his royal finger, thus, dally with my excrement, with my mustachio; but, sweet heart, let 110 that pass. By the world, I recount no fable: some certain special honours it pleaseth his greatness to impart to Armado, a soldier, a man of travel, that hath seen the world; but let that pass. The very all of all is,-but, sweet heart, I do implore secrecy,- that the king would have me present the princess, sweet chuck, with some delightful ostentation, or show, or pageant, or antique, or firework. Now, understanding that the curate and your sweet self are good at such 120 eruptions and sudden breaking out of mirth, as it were, I have acquainted you withal, to the end to crave your assistance. |