Nath. When in the world I liv'd, I was the world's commander ; Boyet. Most true, 'tis right; you were so, Ali sander. Biron. Pompey the great,- Your servant, and Costard. Biron. Take away the conqueror, take away Alisander. Cost. O, sir, [To NATH.] you have overthrown Alisander the conqueror! You will be scraped out of the painted cloth for this: your lion, that holds his poll-ax sitting on a close-stool, will be given to A-jax: he will be the ninth worthy. A conqueror, and afeard to speak! run away for shame, Alisander. [NATH. retires.] There, an't shall please you; a foolish mild man; an honest man, look you, and soon dash'd! He is a marvellous good neighbour, in sooth; and a very good bowler: but, for Alisander, alas, you see how 'tis ;-a little o'erparted:-But there are worthies a coming will speak their mind in some other sort. Prin. Stand aside, good Pompey. Enter HOLOFERNES arm'd, for Judas, and MOTH arm'd, for Hercules. Hol. Great Hercules is presented by this imp, Whose club kill'd Cerberus, that three-headed canus, And, when he was a babe, a child, a shrimp, Thus did he strangle serpents in his manus : Quoniam, he seemeth in minority; [Exit MOTH. against Hector. Keep some state in thy exit, and vanish. Hol. Judas I am, Hol. Not Iscariot, sir. Dum. A Judas! Judas I am, yeleped Machabæus, Dum. Judas Machabæus clipt, is plain Judas. Dum. Ay, and Hector's a greyhound. Arm. The sweet war-man is dead and rotten; sweet chucks, beat not the bones of the buried: when he breath'd, he was a man-But I will forward with my device: Sweet royalty, [to the Prin Biron. A kissing traitor:-How art thou prov'deess] bestow on me the sense of hearing. Judas? Hol. Judas I am, Dum. The more shame for Hol. What mean you, sir? you, Judas. Boyet. To make Judas hang himself. Hol. Begin, sir; you are my elder. Biron. Well follow'd: Judas was hang'd on an elder. Hol. I will not be put out of countenance. Biron. Because thou hast no face. Hol. What is this? Boyet. A cittern head.2 Dum. The head of a bodkin. Biron. A death's face in a ring. Long. The face of an old Roman coin, scarce scen. Boyet. The pummel of Cæsar's faulchion. Biron. Ay, and worn in the cap of a tooth-drawer: tenance. Hol. You have put me out of countenance. Biron. For the ass to the Jude? give it him :- Hol. This is not generous, not gentle, not humble. 1 This alludes to the arms given, in the old history of the Nine Worthies, to Alexander, the which did bear geules a lion or, seiante in a chayer, holding a battle-axe argent.' 2 The cittern, a musical instrument like a guitar, had usually a head grotesquely carved at the extremity of the neck and finger-board: hence these jests. 3 i. e. a soldier's powder-horn. A brooch was an ornamental clasp for fastering [BIRON whispers COSTARD. Prin. Speak, brave Hector; we are much de lighted. Arm. I do adore thy sweet grace's slipper. Dum. He may not by the yard. Arm. This Hector far surmounted Hannibal, Cost. The party is gone, fellow Hector, she is gone; she is two months on her way. Arm. What meanest thou? Cost. Faith, unless you play the honest Trojan, poor wench is cast away: she's quick; the child brags in her belly already; 'tis yours. the Arm. Dost thou infamonize me among potentates? thou shalt die. Cost. Then shall Hector be whipp'd, for Jaquenetta that is quick by him; and hang'd, for Pompey that is dead by him. Dum. Most rare Pompey! Biron. Greater than great, great, great, great Dum. Hector trembles. For every one pursents three. Cost. Not so, sir; And three times thrice is nine. You cannot beg us, sir, I can assure you, sir; we I hope, sir, three times thrice, sir,- Biron. By Jove, I always took three threes for Cost. O lord, sir, it were pity you should get your living by reckoning, sir. Biron. How much is it? Cost. O Lord, sir, the parties themselves, the actors, sir, will show whereuntil it doth amour: for my own part, I am, as they say, but to parfect one man,-e'en one poor man; Pompion the great, Sr. Biron. Art thou one of the worthies? Cost. It pleased them, to think me worthy of Pompion the great: for mine own part, I know not the degree of the worthy; but I am to stand for him. Biron. Go, bid them prepare. Cost. We will turn it finely off, sir; we will take [Exit COSTARD. King. Biron, they will shame us, let them not approach. Biron. We are shame-proof, my lord: and 'tis some policy some care. To have one show worse than the king's and his 1 That is, you are an allowed or a licensed fool or jester. Prin. Doth this man serve God? Prin. He speaks not like a man of C King. Here is like to be a good pr chabæus. And if these four worthies in their Biron. There is five in the first A bare throw at novum ; and the [Seats brought for the Cost. I Pompey am, Boyet. Yo With lib Cost. It is great, sir ;-P chance; And lay my arms before If your ladyship would done. Prin. Great that Cost. 'Tis not so perfect: I made a Biron. My hat t best worthy. Enter NATI By east, west. star Biron. Prin. 4 L 2 In the old common law was a writ de idiota inquirendo, under which if a man was legally proved an idiot, the profits of his lands, and the custody of his per- Sonr son, might be granted by the king to any subject. Such a person, when this grant was asked, was said to be 6 begged for a fool. See Blackstone, b. 1. c. 8. § 18. One fro of the legal tests appears to have been to try whether fir the party could answer a simple arithmetical question. w 3 The old copies read 'Dies in the zeal of that which it presents.' The emendation in the text is Malone's, and he thus endeavours to give this obscure passage a meaning. The word it, I believe, refers to sport. That sport, says th princess, pleases best, where the actors are least skilfu where zeal strives to please, and the contents, or gre things attempted, perish in the very act of being r duced, from the ardent zeal of those who present sportive entertainment. It, however, may refer to tents, and that word may mean the most materia! of the exhibition. SI Dum. Room for the incensed worthies. Cost. I'll do it in my shirt. Dum. Most resolute Pompey! Moth. Master, let me take you a buttonhole lower. Do you not see, Pompey is uncasing for the combat? What mean you? you will lose your reputation. Arm. Gentlemen, and soldiers, pardon me ; not combat in my shirt. will Dum. You may not deny it; Pompey hath made the challenge. Arm. Sweet bloods, I both may and will. Biron. What reasons have you for't? Arm. The naked truth of it is, I have no shirt; I go woolward' for penance. Boyet. True, and it was enjoin'd him in Rome for want of linen: since when, I'll be sworn, he wore none, but a dish-clout of Jaquenetta's; and that a' wears next his heart for a favour. Enter a Messenger MONSIEUR MERCADE. Mer. God save you, Madam. Prin. Welcome, Mercade; But that thou interrupt'st our merriment. Mer. I am sorry, madam; for the news I bring, Is heavy in my tongue. The king your fatherPrin. Dead, for my life. Mer. Even so; my tale is told. Biron. Worthies, away; the scene begins to cloud. Arm. For mine own part, I breathe free breath: I have seen the day of wrong through the little hole of discretion, and I will right myself like a soldier. [Exeunt Worthies. King. How fares your majesty? Prin. Boyet, prepare; I will away to-night. For all your fair endeavours; and entreat, Put on by us, if, in your heavenly eyes, Prin. We have receiv'd your letters, full of love; Dum. Our letters, madam, show'd much more than jest. Long. So did our looks. Ros. We did not quote them so. King. Now, at the latest minute of the hour, Grant us your loves. Prin. A time, methinks, too short Change not your offer made in heat of blood; Come challenge, challenge me by these deserts, I will be thine; and, till that instant, shut My woful self up in a mourning house; For the remembrance of my father's death. King. The extreme parts of time extremely form If this thou do deny, let our hands part; All causes to the purpose of his speed; That which long process could not arbitrate: The holy suit which fain it would convince ; From what it purpos'd; since, to wail friends lost, Prin. I understand you not; my griefs are double. Biron. Honest plain words best pierce the ear of grief; And by these badges understand the king. the Neither intitled in the other's heart. King. If this, or more than this, I would deny, To flatter up these powers of mine with rest, The sudden hand of death close up mine eye! Hence ever then my heart is in thy breast. Biron. And what to me, my love? and what to me? Ros. You must be purged too, your sins are rank; Therefore, if you my favour mean to get, You are attaint with faults and perjury; A twelvemonth shall you spend, and never rest, But seek the weary beds of people sick. Dum. But what to me, my love? but what to me? Kath. A wife!-A beard, fair health, and honesty; With three-fold love I wish you all these three. Dum. O, shall I say, I thank you, gentle wife? Kath. Not so, my lord:-a twelvemonth and a day I'll mark no words that smooth-fac'd wooers say: Mar. says At the twelvemonth's end, I'll change my black gown for a faithful friend. 5 Loose may mean at the moment of his parting, i. e. of his getting loose or away from us. 6 i. e. which it fain would succeed in obtaining. 7 Tempted. 8 Thus in Decker's Satiromastix: You shall swear not to bombast out a new play with the old nings o jests." 9 Regard, 10 Clothing. 'Long. I'll stay with patience: but the time is long. Mar. The liker you; few taller are so young. Biron. Studies my lady? mistress, look on me, Behold the window of my heart, mine eye, What humble suit attends thy answer there: Impose some service on me for thy love. Ros. Oft have I heard of you, my lord Biron, Before I saw you; and the world's large tongue Proclaims you for a man replete with mocks; Full of comparisons and wounding flouts; Which you on all estates will execute, That lie within the mercy of your wit: To weed this wormwood from your fruitful brain; And, therewithal, to win me, if you please (Without the which I am not to be won,) You shall this twelvemonth term from day to day Visit the speechless sick, and still converse With groaning wretches; and your task shall be, With all the fierce' endeavour of your wit, To enforce the pained impotent to smile. Biron. To move wild laughter in the throat of death? It cannot be; it is impossible: Mirth cannot move a soul in agony. Ros. Why, that's the way to choke a gibing spirit, Of him that hears it, never in the tongue Deaf'd with the clamours of their own dear2 groans, Biron. A twelvemonth? well, befall what will befall, I'll jest a twelvemonth in an hospital. Prin. Ay, sweet my lord; and so I take my leave. To the King. King. No, madam; we will bring you on your King. Call them forth quickly, we will do so. Arm. Holla! approach. Enter HOLOFERNES, NATHANIEI, MOTH, COSTARD, and others. This side is Hiems, winter; this Ver, the spring; the one maintain'd by the owl, the other by the cuckoo. Ver, begin. SONG. I. Spring. When daisies pied, and violets blue, Cuckoo, cuckoo,-O word of fear, When shepherds pipe on oaten straws, And merry larks are ploughmen's clocks, And maidens bleach their summer smocks, Cuckoo, cuckoo,-O word of fear, III. Winter. When icicles hang by the wall, And Dick the shepherd blows his nail, And milk comes frozen home in pail, To-whit, to-who, a merry note, When all aloud the wind doth blow, And coughing drowns the parson's saw, And Marian's nose looks red and raw, To-whit, to-who, a merry note, [Exeunt. |