Page:Love's Labour's Lost (1925) Yale.djvu/79

Love's Labour's Lost, V. i

Arm. [To Holofernes.] Monsieur, are you

not lettered?

Moth. Yes, yes; he teaches boys the horn-

book. What is a, b, spelt backward, with the

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-

raneum, a sweet touch, a quick venew 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?

Moth. Horns.

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.

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

 50 horn-book: primer; cf. n.

53 pueritia: childishness, child

61 o, u: i.e. oh, you

63 venew: venue, sally

67 wit-old: i.e. wittol, cuckold

73 circum circa: round and round; cf. n.

