Moth. Peace; the peal begins.

Arm. Monsieur, [to HoL.] are you not letter'd? Moth. Yes, yes; he teaches boys the horn-book:What is a, b, spelt backward with a 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.1 Arm. Now, by the salt wave of the Mediterraneum, a sweet touch, a quick venew of wit:2 snip, snap, quick and home; it rejoiceth my intellect: true wit.

Moth. Offer'd 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 circùm circà;3 A gig of a cuckold's horn!

1 Moth. The third of the five vowels, &c.] In former editions: The last 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.

Is not the last and the fifth the same vowel? Though my correction restores but a poor conundrum, yet if it restores the poet's meaning, it is the duty of an editor to trace him in his lowest conceits. By O, U, Moth would mean—Oh, you-i. e. You are the sheep still, either way; no matter which of us repeats them. Theobald.

2 a quick venew of wit:] A venew is the technical term for a bout at the fencing-school. So, in The Four Prentices of London, 1615:

66

in the fencing-school

"To play a venew." Steevens.

A venue, as has already been observed, is not a bout at fencing, but a hit. "A sweet touch of wit, (says Armado) a smart hit." So, in The Famous Historie of Captain Thomas Stukely, b. 1. 1605: "-for forfeits, and vennyes given, upon a wager, at the ninth button of your doublet, thirty crowns."

Malone.

Notwithstanding the positiveness with which my sense of the word venue is denied, my quotation sufficiently establishes it; for who ever talked of playing a hit in a fencing-school? Steevens.

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 half-penny purse of wit, thou pigeon-egg of discretion. O, an the heavens were so pleased, that thou wert but my bastard! what a joyful father wouldst thou make me! Go to; thou hast it ad dunghill, at the fingers' ends, as they say.

Hol. O, I smell false Latin; dunghill for unguem. Arm. Arts-man, præambula; we will be singled from the barbarous. Do you not educate youth at the chargehouse on the top of the mountain?

Hol. Or, mons, the hill.

Arm. At your sweet pleasure, for the mountain.
Hol. I do, sans question.

Arm. Sir, it is the king's most sweet pleasure and affection, to congratulate the princess at her pavilion, in the posteriors of this day; which the rude multitude call, the afternoon.

Hol. The posterior of the day, most generous sir, is liable, congruent, and measurable for the afternoon: the word is well cull'd, chose; sweet and apt, I do assure you, sir, I do assure.

Arm. Sir, the king is a noble gentleman; and my familiar, I do assure you, very good friend:-For what is inward between us, let it pass:-I do beseech thee, remember thy courtesy ;-I beseech thee, apparel thy head;—and among other importunate and most serious

3 I will whip about your infamy circùm circà ;] So, as Dr. Farmer observes, in Greene's Quip for an upstart Courtier: "He walked not as other men in the common beaten waye, but compassing circum circa." The old copies read-unum cita. Steevens.

Here again all the editions give us jargon instead of Latin. But Moth would certainly mean-circum circa; i. e. about and about: though it may be designed he should mistake the terms. Theobald.

4

5

the charge-house-] I suppose, is the free-school.

Steevens.

inward-] i. e. confidential. So, in K. Richard III: "Who is most inward with the noble duke?" Steevens. 6 I do beseech thee, remember thy courtesy; I beseech thee, apparel thy head;] I believe the word not was inadvertently omitted by the transcriber or compositor; and that we should read-I do beseech thee, remember not thy courtesy-Armado is boasting of the familiarity with which the King treats him, and intimates

designs, and of great import indeed, too;-but let that pass: for I must tell thee, it will please his grace (by the world) sometime to lean upon my poor shoulder; and with his royal finger, thus, dally with my excrement,7 with my mustachio: but sweet heart, let that pass. By the world, I recount no fable; some certain special honours it pleaseth his greatness to impart to Armado, a soldier, a man of travel that hath seen the world: but let that pass.-The very all of all is,-but, sweet heart I do implore secrecy,—that the king would have me present the princess, sweet chuck, with some delightful ostentation, or show, or pageant, or antick, or fire-work. Now, understanding that the curate and your sweet self, are good at such eruptions, and sudden breaking out of

("but let that pass") that when he and his Majesty converse, the King lays aside all state,.and makes him wear his hat: "I do beseech thee, (will he say to me) remember not thy courtesy: do not observe any ceremony with me; be covered." "The putting off the hat at the table, says Florio in his Second Frutes, 1591, is a kind of courtesie or ceremonie rather to be avoided than otherwise." These words may, however, be addressed by Armado to Holofernes, whom we may suppose to have stood uncovered from respect to the Spaniard.

If this was the poet's intention, they ought to be included in a parenthesis. To whomsoever the words are supposed to be addressed, the emendation appears to me equally necessary. It is confirmed by a passage in A Midsummer Night's Dream: "Give me your neif, mounsier Mustardseed. Pray you, leave your courtesie, mounsier."

In Hamlet, the prince, when he desires Osrick to "put his bonnet to the right use," begins his address with the same words which Armado uses: but unluckily is interrupted by the courtier, and prevented (as I believe) from using the very word which I suppose to have been accidentally omitted here:

"Ham. I beseech you, remember

"Osr. Nay, good my lord, for my ease, in good faith." In the folio copy of this play we find in the next scene: "O, that your face were so full of O's-."

instead of-were not so full, &c. Malone.

By "remember thy courtesy," I suppose Armado means-remember that all this time thou art standing with thy hat off.

7-

Steevens. ·dally with my excrement,] The author calls the beard valour's excrement in The Merchant of Venice. Johnson.

8 chuck,] i. e. chicken; an ancient term of endearment. So, in Macbeth:

"Be innocent of the knowledge, dearest chuck" Steevens.

mirth, as it were, I have acquainted you withal, to the end to crave your assistance.

Hol. Sir, you shall present before her the nine worthies. Sir Nathaniel, as concerning some entertainment of time, some show in the posterior of this day, to be rendered by our assistance,—the king's command, and this most gallant, illustrate, and learned gentleman,— before the princess; I say, none so fit as to present the nine worthies.

Nath. Where will you find men worthy enough to present them?

Hol. Joshua, yourself; myself, or this gallant gentleman, Judas Maccabæus; this swain, because of his great limb or joint, shall pass Pompey the great; the page, Hercules.

Arm. Pardon, sir, error: he is not quantity enough for that worthy's thumb: he is not so big as the end of his club.

Hol. Shall I have audience? he shall present Hercules in minority; his enter and exit shall be strangling a snake; and I will have an apology for that purpose.

Moth. An excellent device! so, if any of the audience hiss, you may cry well done Hercules! now thou crushest the snake! that is the way to make an offence gracious;1 though few have the grace to do it.

Arm. For the rest of the worthies?-
Hol. I will play three myself.

Moth. Thrice-worthy gentleman!
Arm. Shall I tell you a thing?

Hol. We attend.

Arm. We will have, if this fadge not, an antick. I beseech you, follow.

9 myself, or this gallant gentleman,] The old copy hasand this, &c. The correction was made by Mr. Steevens. We ought, I believe, to read in the next line-shall pass for Pompey the great. If the text be right, the speaker must mean that the swain shall, in representing Pompey, surpass him, "because of his great limb." Malone.

"Shall pass Pompey the great," seems to mean, shall march in the procession for him; walk as his representative. Steevens. 1- to make an offence gracious;] i. e. to convert an offence against yourselves, into a dramatic propriety. Steevens.

2 if this fadge not,] i. e. suit not, go not, pass not into

Hol. Via,3 goodman Dull! thou hast spoken no word all this while.

Dull. Nor understood none neither, sir.

Hol. Allons! we will employ thee.

Dull. I'll make one in a dance, or so; or I will play on the tabor to the worthies, and let them dance the hay. Hol. Most dull, honest Dull, to our sport, away.

Exeunt.

SCENE II.

Another part of the same.

Before the Princess's

Pavilion.

Enter the Princess, KATHARINE, ROSALINE, and MARIA.

Prin. Sweet hearts, we shall be rich ere we depart, If fairings come thus plentifully in:

A lady wall'd about with diamonds!—

Look you, what I have from the loving king.

Ros. Madam, came nothing else along with that? Prin. Nothing but this? yes, as much love in rhyme, As would be cramm'd up in a sheet of paper,

Writ on both sides the leaf, margent and all;

That he was fain to seal on Cupid's name.

Ros. That was the way to make his god-head wax; For he hath been five thousand years a boy.

Kath. Ay, and a shrewd unhappy gallows too.

action. Several instances of the use of this word are given in Twelfth Night.

Another may be added from Chapman's version of the 22d Iliad:

"This fadging conflict." Steevens.

3 Via,] An Italian exclamation, signifying, courage, come on!

Steevens.

4to make his god-head wax;] To wax anciently signified to grow. It is yet said of the moon, that she waxes and wanes. So, in Drayton's Polyolbion, Song I:

"I view those wanton brooks, that waxing still do wane." Again, in Lyly's Love's Metamorphoses, 1601:

"Men's follies will ever wax, and then what reason can make them wise?"

Again, in the Polyolbion, Song V:

"The stem shall strongly wax, as still the trunk doth wither." Steevens.