Some entertainment for them in their tents.

Bir. First, from the park let us conduct them thither; Then, homeward, every man attach the hand

Of his fair mistress: in the afternoon

We will with fome ftrange paftime folace them,
Such as the shortness of the time can shape;
For revels, dances, mafks, and merry hours,
Fore-run fair love, ftrewing her way with flowers.
King. Away, away! no time fhall be omitted,
That will be time, and may by us be fitted.

Bir. Allons! allons !-Sow'd cockle reap'd no corn;
And juftice always whirls in equal measure:
Light wenches may prove plagues to men forfworn;
If so, our copper buys no better treasure. [Exeunt.

ACT V.

SCENE 1. The Street.

Enter HOLOFERNES, Sir NATHANIEL, and DULL, Hol.

SATIS quod fufficit.

Nath. I praife God for you, fir: your reafons at dinner have been fharp and fententious; pleafant without fcurrility, witty without affection, audacious without impudency, learned without opinion, and ftrange without herefy. I did converfe 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 difcourfe peremptory, his tongue filed, his eye ambitious, his gait majeftical, and his general behaviour

behaviour vain, ridiculous, and thrafonical.

He is

too picked, too fpruce, too affected, too odd, as it were; too peregrinate, as I may call it. Nath. A molt fingular and choice epithet.

[Draws out his table-book.

Hol. He draweth out the thread of his verbofity finer than the staple of his argument. I ab or fuch phanatical phantafm, fuch infociable and point-devise companions; fuch rackers of orthography, as to speak, dout, fine, when he should say, doubt; det, when he fhould 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 abominable), it infinuateth me of infanie; Ne intelligis, domine? to make frantic, lunatic.

Nath. Laus deo, bone intelligo.

Hol. Bone?-bone, for benè: Prifcian a little fcratch'd; 'twill ferve.

Enter ARMADO, MOTH, and COSTARD.

Nath. Videfne quis venit?

Hol. Vidio,

Arm. Chirra!

gaudeo.

Hol. Quare Chirra, not firrah?

Arm. Men of peace, well encounter'd.
Hol. Moft military fir, falutation.

Moth. They have been at a great feast of languages, and ftolen the scraps. [To COSTARD afide. Coft. O, they have liv'd long on the alms-basket of words! I marvel, thy master hath not eaten thee for a word; for thou art not fo long by the head as honorificabilitudinitatibus: thou art easier fwallowed than a flap-dragon.

Moth.

Moth. Peace; the peal begins.

Arm. Monfieur, [To HoL.] are you not letter'd? Moth. Yes, yes; he teaches boys the horn-book:What is a, b, fpelt backward with a horn on his head? Hol. Ba, pueritia, with a horn added.

Moth. Ba, moft filly fheep, with a horn :—You hear his learning.

Hol. Quis, quis, thou confonant?

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 fheep: the other two concludes it; o, u. Arm. Now, by the falt wave of the Mediterraneum, a fweet touch, a quick venew of wit: fnip, fnap, quick and home; it rejoiceth my intellect: true wit.

Moth. Offer'd by a child to an old man; which is wit-old.

Hol. What is the figure? what is the figure?
Moth. Horns.

Hol. Thou difputeft like an infant: go, whip thy gig. Moth. Lend me your horn to make one, and I will whip about your infamy circùm circà; A gig of a cuckold's horn!

Coft. An I had but one penny in the world, thou fhould't have it to buy ginger-bread: hold, there is the very remuneration I had of thy mafter, thou halfpenny purfe of wit, thou pigeon-egg of difcretion. O, an the heavens were so pleased, that thou wert but my bastard! what a joyful father would it thou make me! Go to; thou haft it ad dunghill, at the fingers' ends, as they say. Hol. Oh, I fmell falfe Latin; dunghill for unguem. Arm. Arts-man, præambula; we will be fingled from the barbarous. Do you not educate youth at the charge-house on the top of the mountain?

Hol.

Hol. Or, mons, the hill.

Arm. At your fweet pleafure, for the mountain.
Hol. I do, fans question.

Arm. Sir, it is the king's moft fweet pleasure and affection, to congratulate the princefs at her pavilion, in the pofteriors of this day; which the rude multitude call, the afternoon.

Hol. The pofterior of the day, moft generous fir, is liable, congruent, and measurable for the afternoon: the word is well cull'd, chofe; fweet and apt, I do affure you, fir, I do affure.

Arm. Sir, the king is a noble gentleman; and my familiar, I do affure you, very good friend :-For what is inward between us, let it pafs :-I do befeech thee, remember thy courtesy;I befeech thee, apparel thy head-and among other importunate and most ferious defigns,and of great import indeed, too;but let that pafs:-for I must tell thee, it will please his grace (by the world) fometime to lean upon my poor thoulder; and with his royal finger, thus, dally with my excrement, with my muftachio: but fweet heart, let that pafs. By the world, I recount no fable ; fome certain fpecial honours it pleafeth his greatness to impart to Armado, a foldier, a man of travel, that hath feen the world: but let that pass.-The of all is, but, fweet heart, I do implore fecrefy, that the king would have me prefent the princefs, fweet chuck, with fome delightful oftentation, or fhow, or pageant, or antic, or fire-work. Now, understanding that the curate, and your fweet felf, are good at fuch eruptions, and fudden breaking out of mirth, as it were, I have acquainted you withal, to the end to crave your affistance.

F

very

all

Hol

Hol. Sir, you fhall prefent before her the nine worthies. Sir Nathaniel, as concerning fome entertainment of time, fome fhow in the pofterior of this day, to be render'd by our affittance, the king's command, and this moft gallant, illuftrate, and learned gentleman, before the princefs; I say, none so fit as to present the nine worthies.

Nath. Where will you find men worthy enough to prefent them?

Hol. Jofhua, yourfelf; myself, or this gallant gentleman, Judas Maccabæus; this fwain, because of his great limb or joint, fhall pass Pompey the great; the page, Hercules.

Arm. Pardon, fir, error: he is not quantity enough for that worthy's thumb: he is not so big as the end of his club.

Hol. Shall I have audience? he shall present Hercules in minority: his enter and exit fhall be ftrangling a fnake; and I will have an apology for that purpofe.

Moth. An excellent device! fo, if any of the audience hifs, you may cry; well done, Hercules! now thou crusheft the fnake! that is the way to make an offence gracious; though few have the grace to do it.

Arm. For the reft of the worthies?
Hol. I will play three myself.
Moth. Thrice-worthy gentleman!
Arm. Shall I tell you a thing?
Hol. We attend.

drm. We will have, if this fadge not, an antie. I befeech you, follow.

Hol. Via, goodman Dull! thou haft spoken no word all this while.

Dull. Nor understood none neither, fir.

Hol. Allons! we will employ thee.

Dull.