Page:Some Textual Difficulties in Shakespeare.djvu/73

Rh is the man he has worsted, a gentleman and a scholar; and it is none the less humorous that he considers the specious Armado and the precocious Moth as the beaux ideals of the two qualifications, separately considered.

Finally, having taken full account of the enemy and set him at a high value, he proceeds to look down upon him from his own point of view—the true formula for setting off our own superiority. Boyet may be all this, but as compared with Costard he is nothing—"Ah, heavens, it is a most pathetical nit! Sola, sola."

A humble clodhopper like Costard naturally takes pride in being a connoisseur of that which he has not—bearing and brains, aristocracy and wit. The incident itself is funny in the connection in which it occurs, not to speak of the way it is worded. I think that future editors should be careful to let the passage remain where it is in the Folio. The last lines of a scene are an important position with Shakespeare.