For as it would ill become me to be vain, indifcreet, or a fool; So were there a patch fet on learning, to fee him in a fchool. But omne bene, fay I; being of an old father's mind, Many can brook the weather, that love not the wind. Dull. You two are book-men; can you tell by your wit, What was a month old at Cain's birth, that's not five weeks old as yet? Hol. Dictynna, good-man Dull; Dictynna, good man Dull Dull. What is Dictynna? Nath. A title to Phabe, to Luna, to the Moon. Hol. The moon was a month old, when Adam was no more: And raught not to five weeks, when he came to fivefcore: Th' allufion holds in the exchange". Dull. 'Tis true, indeed; the collufion holds in the exchange. Hol. God comfort thy capacity! I fay, the allufion holds in the exchange. Dull. And I fay, the pollution holds in the exchange; for the moon is never but a month old; and I fay befide, that 'twas a pricket that the Princess kill'd. Hol. Sir Nathanael, will you hear an extemporal epitaph on the death of the deer? and to humour the ignorant, I have call'd the deer the Princefs kill'd, a pricket. Nath. Perge, good mafter Holofernes, perge; fo it fhall please you to abrogate fcurrility. The meaning is, to be in a fchool would as ill become a patch, or low fellow, as folly would become me. 9 Th' allufion holds in the ex change.] i. e. the riddle is as good when I use the name of Adam, as when you use the name of Cain. WARBURTON. Hol. Hol. I will fomething affect the letter; for it argues facility. The praifeful Princefs pierc'd and prickt Nath. A rare talent! Dull. If a talent be a claw, look how he claws him with a talent. Hol. This is a gift that I have; fimple! fimple! a foolish extravagant fpirit, full of forms, figures, fhapes, objects, ideas, apprehenfions, motions, revolutions. These are begot in the ventricle of memory, nourish'd in the womb of pia mater, and deliver'd upon the mellowing of occafion; but the gift is good in those in whom it is acute, and I am thankful for it. Nath. Sir, I praise the Lord for you, and fo may my parishioners; for their fons are well tutor'd by you, and their daughters profit very greatly under you; you are a good member of the commonwealth. Hol. Mehercle, if their fons be ingenuous, they fhall want no inftruction: if their daughters be capable, I Makes fifty fores, O forrel!] We should read, or forel, alluding to L being the numeral for 50. Concerning the beasts of chafe, whereof the Buck, being the firft, is called as followveth; the first year a Fawn; the fecond year a Pricket; the third year, a Sorel; the fourth year a Sore; the fifth year, a buck of the first head, &c. Manhood of the Laws of the Foreft, p. 44. WARB. will put it to them. But vir fapit, qui pauca loquitur; a foul feminine faluteth us. SCENE III. Enter Jaquenetta, and Coftard. Jaq. God give you good morrow, master Parfon. fhould be pierc'd, which is the one? And if one Coft. Marry, master school-mafter, he that is likeft to a hogfhead. Hol. Of piercing a hogfhead. A good Luftre of conceit in a turf of earth, fire enough for a flint, pearl enough for a fwine: 'Tis pretty, it is well. Jaq. Good mafter Parfon, be fo good as read me this letter; it was given me by Coftand, and fent me from Don Armatho; I beseech you, read it. 2 Hol. Faufte, precor, gelida quando pecus omne fub umbrá Nath. Faufte, precor, gelida] Though all the Editions concur to give this Speech to Sir Nathanael, yet, as Dr. Thirlby ingenioufy obferv'd to me, it is evident, it must belong to Holo fernes. The Curate is employ'd in reading the Letter to himself; and while he is doing fo, that the Stage may not land fill, Holofernes either pulls out a Book, or, repeating fome Verfe by heart from Mantuanus, comments upon the Character of that Poet. Baptifia Spagnolus, (furnamed Mantuanus, from the Place of his Birth) was a Writer of Poems, who flourish'd towards the latter End of the 15th Cen note of La Monnoye's on thefe ve ry words in Les Contes des Periers, Nov. 42. will explain the humour of the quotation, and fhew how well Skakeipcar has fuflained the character of his pedant.-Il defigne le Carme de Bap tifie Mantuan, dont au commencement du 16 fiecle on lifait publiquement à Paris les Poefics; fi cele bres alors, que, comme dit plaifamment Farnabe, dans fa preface fur Martial, les Peduns ne faifoient nulle difficulté de preferer à Arma virumque cano, le Faufte, precor, gelida, c'efl-a dire, à Eneide de Virgile les Eclogues de Mantuan, le tremiere defquelles commence par Faufte precor geWARBURTON. lida. Ru 3 Ruminat, and fo forth. Ah, good old Mantuan, I may fpeak of thee as the traveller doth of Venice; Vinegia, Vinegia! qui non te vedi, ei non te pregia. Old Mantuan, old Mantuan! Who understandeth thee not, loves thee not;-ut re fol la mi fa. Under pardon, Sir, what are the contents? or rather, as Horace lays in his What! my foul! verfes? Nath. Ay, Sir, and very learned. Hol. Let me hear a staff, a stanza, a verse; Lege, Domine. Nath. If love make me forfworn, how fhall I fwear to love? Ah, never faith could hold, if not to beauty vow'd; Tho' to myself forfworn, to thee I'll faithful prove; Thofe thoughts to me were oaks, to thee like ofiers bow'd. Study his biafs leaves, and makes his book thine eyes; Where all thofe pleafures live, that art would comprehend: If knowledge be the mark, to know thee fhall fuffice; Well learned is that tongue, that well can thee commend. All ignorant that Soul, that fees thee without wonder: Which is to me fome praife, that I thy parts admire. Thy eye Jove's lightning bears, thy voice is dreadful thunder; Which, not to anger bent, is mufick, and fweet fire, 3 In old Editions: Venechi, venache a, qui non te vide, ei non te piaech.] And thus Mr. Rowe, and Mr. Pope. But that Poets, Scholars, and Linguifts, could not restore this little Scrap of true Italian, is to me unaccountable. Oar Author is applying the Praifes of Mantuanus to a common proverbial Sentence, faid of Venice. Vinegia, Vinegia! qui VOL. II. non te vedi, ei non te pregia. O Venice, Venice, he, who has rever feen thee, has thee not in Esteem. THEOBALD. The proverb, as I am informed, is this; He that fees Venice little, values it much; he that fees it much, values it little. But I fuppofe Mr. Theobald is right, for the true proverb would not ferve the speaker's purpose. M Ce Celestial as thou art, Oh pardon, love, this wrong, That fings the heaven's praise with such an earthly tongue. Hol. You find not the Apostrophes, and fo mifs the accent. Let me fupervife the canzonet. Here are only numbers ratify'd; but for the elegancy, facility, and golden cadence of poefie, caret: Ovidius Nafo was the man. And why, indeed, Nafo; but for fmelling out the odoriferous flowers of fancy? the jerks of invention? imitari, is nothing: fo doth the Nath. Here are only Numbers ratified;] Tho' this Speech has been all along plac'd to Sir Nathanael, I have ventur'd to join it to the preceding Words of Holofernes; and not without Reafon. The Speaker here is impeaching the Verfes; but Sir Nathanael, as it appears above, thought them learned ones: befides, as Dr. Thirlby obferves, almost every Word of this Speech, fathers itself on the Pedant. So much for the Regulation of it: now, a little, to the Contents And why indeed Nafo, but for fmelling out the odoriferous Flowers of Fancy? the Jerks of Invention imitary is nothing. Sagacity with a Vengeance! I fhould be afham'd to own my felf a Piece of a Scholar, to pretend to the Task of an Editor, and to pafs fuch Stuff as this upon the World for genuine. Who ever heard of Invention imitary? Invention and Imitation have ever been accounted two diftinct Things. The Speech is by a Pedant, who frequently throws in a Word of Latin amongst his English; and he is here flourish hound 6 fo doth the bound his mafler, the ape his keeper, the TIRED horse bis rider.] The pedant here, to run down Imitation, fhews that it is a quality within the capacity of beatts: that the dog and the ape are taught to copy tricks by their matter and keeper: and fo is the fir'd horfe by his rider. This last is a wonderful inftance; but it happens not to be true. The author mult have wrote the TRYED bare his rider: i. e. one, exertis'd, and broke to the manage: for he obey's |