Page:Love's Labour's Lost (1925) Yale.djvu/57

Love's Labour's Lost, IV. ii

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 Phœbe, 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. 'Tis 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 'twas a pricket that the

princess killed.

Hol. Sir Nathaniel, will you hear an extem-

poral epitaph on the death of the deer? and, to

humour the ignorant, [I have] call'd the deer the

princess killed, a pricket.

 32 patch: clown, fool; cf. n.

33 omne bene: all's well

34 Cf. n.

37 Dictynna: a name given to Diana; cf. n.

41 raught: reached

42 allusion: jest, riddle; cf. n.

50 extemporal: extemporary

