But omne bene, fay 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 by your wit, What was a month old at Cain's birth, that's not five weeks old as yet?

Hol. Dittynna, good man Dull; Diałynna, good-man, Dull.

Dull. What is Dictyuna ?

Nath. A title to Phabe, 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, Th' allufion holds in the exchange.

Dull. 'Tis true, indeed; the collufion holds in the exchange.

Hol. God comfort thy capacity! I fay, the allufion holds in the exchange.

Dull. And I fay, the pollution holds in the exchange; for the moon is never but a month old; and I fay befide, 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 mafter Holofernes, perge; fo it fhall please you to abrogate fcurrility.

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

The praifeful Princefs pierc'd and prickt
A pretty pleafing pricket.

Some fay, a fore; but not a fore,
'Till now made fore with fhooting.
The dogs did yell; put L to fore,
Then forel jumpt from thicket;
Or pricket fore, or elfe forel,.
The people fall a hooting.
If fore be fore, then L to fore
Makes fifty fores, o' forel!
Of one fore I an hundred make,
By adding but one more L.

Nath.

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, fimple, fimple; a foolish extravagant fpir't, full of forms, figures, shapes, objects, ideas, apprehenfions, motions, revolutions, Thefe are begot in the ventricle of memory, nourish’d in the womb of pia mater, and deliver'd upon the mellowing of occafion; but the gift is good in those in whom it is acute, and I am thankful for it.

Nath. Sir, I praife the Lord for you, and fo may my parishioners; for their fons are well tutor'd by you, and their daughters profit very greatly under you; you are a good member of the common-wealth.

Hol. Mehercle, if their fons be ingenuous, they shall want no inftruction: if their daughters be capable, I will put it to them. But vir fapit, qui pauca loquitur ; a foul feminine faluteth us.

Enter Jaquenetta, and Coftard.
Jaq. God give you good-morrow,
Hol. Mafter Parion, quafi Perion.

be pierc'd, which is the one?

master Parfon. And if one should

Goft. Marry, mafter fchool-mafter, he that is likeft to a hog fhead.

Hol. Of piercing a hogfhead, a good luftre of conceit in a turf of earth, fire enough for a flint, pearl enough for a fwine: "Tis pretty, it is well.

Jaq. Good mafter Parfon, be fo good as read me this letter; it was given me by Coftard, and fent me from Don Armatho. I befeech you, read it.

Hol. Faufte, precor, gelidâ (21) quando pecus omur fub

umbrâ.

Ruminat,

(21) Nath. Faufte, precor gelida] Tho' all the editions concur to give this fpeech to Sir Nathaniel, yet as Dr. Thirlby ingeniously obferv'd to me, it is evident, it must belong to Holofernes. The curate is employ'd in reading the letter to himfelf; and while he is doing fo, that the ftage may not ftand ftill, Holofernes either pulls out a book; or, repeating fome verfes by heart from Mantuanus, comments upon the character of that post. Baptifa Spagaolus, (firnamed Mantuanus,

from

Ruminat, and fo forth. Ah, good old Mantuan, I may fpeak of thee as the traveller aoth of Venice; Vingia, Vinegia! qui non te vedi, ei non te pregia (22).

Old Mantuan, old Mantuan! Whọ underftandeth tice not, loves thee not: -ut re fol la mi fa. Under pardon, Sir, what are the contents ? or rather, as Horace fays in his : What my foul! verfes (23)

Nath. Ay, Sir, and very learned.

1

Hol. Let me hear a staff, a ftanza, a verfe; Lege, Domine.

Nath. If love make me forfworn, how shall I fwear to love?

Ab, never faith could hold, if not to beauty vow'd; Though to myself forfworn, to thee I'll faithful prove; Tho e thoughts to me were oaks, to thee like ofiers bow'd.

Study his bias leaves, and makes his book thine eyes; Where all thofe pleatures live, that art would comprehend:

If knowledge be the mark, to know thee fhall fuffice; Well learned is that tongue, that well can thee commend.

All ignorant that foul, that fees thee without wonder: Which is to me fome praife, that I thy pa.ts admire; Thy eye Jove's lightning bears, thy voice his dreadful thunder;

Which, not to anger bent, is mufick, and sweet fire. Celestial as thou art, Oh pardon, love, this wrong, That fings heav'n's praise with such an earthly tongue,

from the place of his birth ;) was a voluminous writer of poems,who flourish'd towards the latter end of the 15th century.

(22) Venechi, veneche a, qui non te vide, i non te piacch.] Thus Mr. Rove, and Mr. Pope, from the old blundering editions. But that these gentlemen, poets, fcholars, and linguiffs could not afford to restore this little fcrap to true Italian, is to me unaccountable. Cur author is applying the praifes of Mantuanus to a common proverbial fentence, faid of Venice. Vinegia, Vinegia! qui non te vedi, ei non te pregia. O Venice, Venice, he, who has never feen thee, has thee not in efteem. (23) What! my foul! verfes ?] As our poet has mention'd Horace, I prefume, he is here alluding to this paffage in his I. Sermon. 9. Quid agis, dulciffime rerum?

Hol

Hol. You find not the Apoftrophes, and so mifs the accent. Let me fupervife the canzonet (24). Here are only numbers ratify'd (25); but for the elegancy, facility, and golden cadence of poefy, caret: Ovidus Nafo was the man, And why, indeed, Nafo; but for fmelling out the odoriferous flowers of fancy? the jerks of in ́vention? imitari, is nothing: fo doth the hound his master, the ape his keeper, the try'd horse his rider: But Damofella Virgin, was this directly to you?

(24) Let me jupervise the Cangenet.] If the editors have met with any fuch word, it is more than I have done, or, I believe, ever shall do. Our author wrote Canzonet, from the Italian word Canzonetto, a little fong. We meet with it in B. Jonson's Cynthia's Revells.

O! what a call is there! I will have a Canzonet made with nothing in it but, Sirrah! and the burden fhall be, I come."

(25) Nath. Here are only numbers ratified;] Tho' this speech has been all along plac'd to Sir Nathaniel, I have ventur'd to join it to the preceding words of Holofernes; and not without reafon. The fpeaker here is impeaching the verses; but Sir Nathaniel, as it appears above, thought them learned ones: befides, as Dr. Thirlby obferves, almost every word of this speech fathers itself on the pedant. So much for the regulation of it; now, a little, to the contents.

And why indeed Nafo, but for smelling out the odoriferous flowers of fancy? the jerks of invention imitary is nothing.

Sagacity with a vengeance! I fhould be ashamed to own myself a piece of a scholar, to pretend to the task of an editor, and to pass fuch ftuff as this upon the world for genuine. Who ever heard of invention imitary? invention and imitation have ever been accounted two distinct things. The fpeech is by a pedant, who frequently throws in a word of Latin amongst his English; and he is here florifhing upon the merit of invention, beyond that of imitation, or copying after another. My correction makes the whole fo plain and intelligible, that, I think, it carries conviction along with it. Again;

So doth the bound bis mafter, the ape his keeper, the tired horse his rider. The pedant here, to run down imitation, fhews that it is a quality within the capacity of beats: that the dog and the ape are taught to copy tricks by their mafter and keeper; and fo is the tired horfe by his rider. This last is a wonderful instance; but it happens not to be Mr. Warburton ingeniously faw, that the author must have the tried horfe his rider.

true.

wrote

i. e. One, exercis'd, and broke to the manage: for he obeys every fign, and motion of the rein, or of his rider. This is not the only paffage, where our author employs tried in the sense of, exercis'd, train'd. So in Two Gentlemen of Versna.

And how he cannot be a perfect man,
Not being try'd, and tutor'd in the world.

Jaq.

Jaq. Ay, Sir, from one Monfieur Biron, to one of the ftrange Queen's Ladies.

Hol. I will overglance the fuperfcript. To the nowwhite band of the most beauteous lady Rofaline. 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 defir'd employment, Biron. This Biron is one of the votaries with the King; and here he hath fram'd a letter to a fequent of the ftranger Queen's, which accidentally, or by the way of progreffion, hath miscarry'd. Trip and go, my fweet ; deliver this paper into the hand of the King; it may concern much; ftay not thy compliment; I forgive thy duty adieu.

Faq. Good Coftard, go with me. Sir, God fave your life. Coft. Have with thee, my girl. [Exit. Coft. and Jaq. Nath. Sir, you have done this in the fear of God, very religiously and as a certain father faith

:

Hol. Sir, tell not me of the father, I do fear the 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 pu! pil of mine; where if (being repaft) it fhall please you to gratify the table with a grace, I will, on my privilege I have with the parents of the aforefaid child or pupil, undertake your ben venuto; where will I prove those verses to be very unlearned, neither favouring of poetry, wit, nor invention. I befeech your fociety.

Nath. And thank you too: for fociety (faith the text) is the happiness of life.

Hol. And, certes, the text most infallibly concludes it. Sir, I do invite you too; [To Dull.] you fhall not fay me, nay: Pauca verba. Away, the gentles are at their game, and we will to our recreation. [Exeunt.

Enter Biron, with a paper in his hand, alone. Biron. The King is hunting the deer, I am courfing myfelf. They have pitcht a toil, I am toiling in a