Page:Shakespeare - First Folio Faithfully Reproduced, Methuen, 1910.djvu/157

Rh Rosa. Thou canst not hit it, hit it, hit it, Thou canst not hit it my good man.

Boy. I cannot, cannot, cannot: And I cannot, another can.

Clo. By my troth most pleasant, how both did fit it.

Mar. A marke marueilous well shot, for they both did hit.

Boy. A mark, O marke but that marke: a marke saies my Lady. Let the mark haue a pricke in't, to meat at, if it may be.

Mar. Wide a'th bow hand, yfaith your hand is out.

Clo. Indeede a' must shoote nearer, or heele ne're hit the clout.

Boy. And if my hand be out, then belike your hand is in.

Clo. Then will shee get the vpshoot by cleauing the is in.

Ma. Come, come, you talke greasely, your lips grow foule.

Clo. She's too hard for you at pricks, sir challenge her to boule.

Boy. I feare too much rubbing: good night my good Oule.

Clo. By my soule a Swaine, a most simple Clowne. Lord, Lord, how the Ladies and I haue put him downe. O my troth most sweete iests, most inconie vulgar wit, When it comes so smoothly off, so obscenely, as it were, so fit. Armathor ath to the side, O a most dainty man. To see him walke before a Lady, and to beare her Fan. To see him kisse his hand, and how most sweetly a will sweare: And his Page atother side, that handfull of wit, Ah heauens, it is most patheticall nit. Sowla, sowla. Shoote within.

Nat. Very reuerent sport truely, and done in the testimony of a good conscience.

Ped. The Deare was (as you know) sanguis in blood, ripe as a Pomwater who now hangeth like a Iewell in the eare of Celo the skie; the welken the heauen, and anon falleth like a Crab on the face of Terra, the soyle, the land, the earth.

Curat.Nath. Truely M. Holofernes, the epythithes are sweetly varied like a scholler at the least: but sir I assure ye, it was a Bucke of the first head.

Hol. Sir Nathaniel, haud credo.

Dul. 'Twas not a haud credo, 'twas a Pricket.

Hol. Most barbarous intimation: yet a kinde of insinuation, as it were in via, in way of explication facere: as it were replication, or rather ostentare, to show as it were his inclination after his vndressed, vnpolished, vneducated, vnpruned, vntrained, or rather vnlettered, or ratherest vnconfirmed fashion, to insert againe my haud credo for a Deare.

Dul. I said the Deare was not a haud credo, 'twas a Pricket.

Hol. Twice sod simplicitie, bis coctus, O thou monster Ignorance, how deformed doost thou looke.

Nath. Sir hee hath neuer fed of the dainties that are bred in a booke. He hath not eate paper as It were: He hath not drunke inke. His intellect is not replenished, hee is onely an animall, onely sensible in the duller parts: and such barren plants are set before vs, that we thankfull should be: which we taste and feeling, are for those parts that doe fructifie in vs more then he. For as it would ill become me to be vaine, indiscreet, or a foole; So were there a patch set on Learning, to see him in a Schoole. But omne bene say I, being of an old Fathers minde, Many can brooke the weather, that loue not the winde.

Dul. You two are book-men: Can you tell by your wit, What was a month old at Cains birth, that's not fiue weekes old as yet?

Hol. Dictisima goodman Dull, dictisima goodman Dull.

Dul. What is dictima?

Nath. A title to Phebe, to Luna, to the Moone.

Hol. The Moone was a month old when Adam was no more. And wrought not to fiue-weekes when he came to fiue-score. Th' allusion holds in the Exchange.

Dul. 'Tis true indeede, the Collusion holds in the Exchange.

Hol. God comfort thy capacity, I say th' allusion holds in the Exchange.

Dul. And I say the polusion holds in the Exchange: for the Moone is neuer but a month old: and I say beside that, 'twas a Pricket that the Princesse kill'd.

Hol. Sir Nathaniel, will you heare an extemporall Epytaph on the death of the Deare, and to humour the ignorant call'd the Deare, the Princesse kill'd a Pricket.

Nath. Perge, good M. Holofernes, perge, so it shall please you to abrogate scurilitie.

Hol. I will something affect a letter, for it argues facilitie.

The prayfull Princesse pearst and prickt' a prettie pleasing Pricket, Some say a Sore, but not a sore, till now made sore with shooting. The Dogges did yell, put ell to Sore, then Sorrell iumps from thicket: Or Pricket-sore, or else Sorell, the people fall a hooting. If Sore be sore, than ell to Sore, makes fiftie sores O sorell: Of one sore I an hundred make by adding but one more L.

Nath. A rare talent.

Dul. If a talent be a claw, looke how he clawes him with a talent.

Nath. This is a gift that I haue simple: simple, a foolish extrauagant spirit, full of formes, figures, shapes, obiects, Ideas, apprehensions, motions, reuolutions. These are begot in the ventricle of memorie, nourisht in the wombe of primater, and deliuered vpon the mellowing of occasion: but the gift is good in those in whom it is acute, and I am thankfull for it.

Hol. Sir, I praise the Lord for you, and so may my parishioners, for their Sonnes are well tutor'd by you, and their Daughters profit very greatly vnder you: you are a good member of the common-wealth.

Nath. Me hercle, If their Sonnes be ingenuous, they shall