תמונות בעמוד
PDF
ePub

Mark, heaven drowfy with the harmony!
Never durft poet touch a pen to write,

Until his ink were temper'd with love's fighs;
O, then his lines would ravish favage ears,
And plant in tyrants mild humility..

From womens eyes this doctrine I derive:
They fparkle ftill the right Promethean fire,
They are the books, the arts, the academes,
That fhew, contain, and nourish all the world;
Elfe none at all in ought proves excellent.
Then fools you were, these women to forfwear:
Or, keeping what is fworn, you will prove fools.
For wifdom's fake (a word, that all men love)
Or for love's fake, (a word, that loves all men ;)
Or for mens fake, (the author of these women ;}
Or women's fake, (by whom we men are men ;)
Let us once lofe our oaths, to find ourselves;
Or elfe we lofe ourselves, to keep our oaths.
It is religion to be thus forfworn,

For charity itfelf fulfils the law;

And who can fever love from charity?

King. Saint Cupid then! and, foldiers, to the field! Biron. Advance your ftandards, and upon them, Lords; Pell-mell, down with them; but be firft advis'd, In conflict that you get the fun of them.

[ocr errors]

Long. Now to plain-dealing, lay thefe glozes by; Shall we refolve to woo thefe girls of France?

nid eafy emendation, which I have inferted in the text, I owe to my ingenious friend Mr. Warburton. His comment on heaven being drewly with the Larmony is no lefs ingenious; and therefore, I'll subjoin it in his own words. Mufick, we must obferve, in our author's time had a very different ufe to what it has now. At prefent, it is only employ'd to raife and inflame the paffions; then, to calm and allay all kind of perturbations. And, agreeable to this obfervation, throughout all Shakespeare's plays, where mufick is either actually ufed, or its power defcrib'd, 'tis always faid to be for thefe ends. Particularly, it was most frequently us'd at the Couchee of “the great. Heaven being made drowsy with the barmony, therefore "I take to mean, foothing their cares, and lulling them to reft. For the Claffical deities, like earthly grandees, are subject to the most violent perturbations of human paffions”,

46

King. And win them too; therefore let us devise Some entertainment for them in their tents.

Biron. First, from the park let us conduct them thither; Then homeward every man attach the hand

Of his fair miftrefs; in the afternoon

We will with fome strange paftime folace them,
Such as the thortnefs of the time can fhape:
For revels, dances, mafks, and meriy hours,
Forerun fair love, ftrewing her way with flowers.
King. Away, away! no time fhall be omitted,
That will be time, and may by us be fitted.
Biron. Allons! allons! fown cockle reap'd no corn; (35)
And juftice always whirls in equal measure;
Light wenches may prove plagues to men forfworn;
If so, our copper buys no better treasure. [Exeunt.

ACT IV.

SCENE, the Street.

Enter Holofernes, Nathaniel and Dull.

Atis, quod fufficit.

HOLOFERNES.

Satis
Nath. I praife God for you, Sir, your reasons at

dinner have been fharp and fententious; pleafant without fcurrility, witty without affectation, audacious without impudency, learned without opinion, and ftrange without herefy: I did converfe this quondam-day with a companion of the King's, who is entituled, nominated, or called, Don Adriano de Armado.

(35) Alone, alone, [.w'd cockrel,] The editors, fure, could have no idea of this pafiage. Biron begins with a repetition in French of what the King had said in English; away, away! and then proceeds with a proverbial expreffion, inciting them to what he had before aovis'd, from this inference; if we only for cockle, we shall never reap corn. i. e. if we don't take the proper meafures for winning thefe Ladies, we shall never atchieve them, Mr. Warburton.

Hol,

Hol. Novi hominem, tanquàm te. His humour is lofty, his difcourfe peremptory, his tongue filed, his eye ambitious, his gate majeftical, and his general behaviour vain, ridiculous, and thrafonical. He is too piqued, too fpruce, too affected, too odd, as it were; too peregrinate, as I may call it.

Nath. A moft fingular and choice epithet.

[draws out his table-book. Hol. He draweth out the thread of his verbofity finer than the staple of his argument. I abhor such phanatical phantafins, fuch infociable and point-de-vife companions; fuch rackers of orthography, as do fpeak dout fine, when he should fay doubt; det, when he should pronounce debt; d, e, b, t; not d, e, t: he clepeth a calf, cauf: half, hauf; neighbour vocatur nebour; neigh abbreviated ne: this is abominable, which we would call abhominable: (36) it infinuateth me of infamy Ne intelligis Domine, to make frantick, lunatick ?

Nath. Laus deo, bone, intelligo.

Hol. Bone?

bone, for benè; Prifcian a little fcratch'd; 'twill ferve.

(36) It infinuateth me of infamy: Nè intelligis, Domine, to make frantick, lunatick ?

Nath. Laus Deo, bene intelligo.

Hol. Bome boon for boon prefcian; a little fcratch, 'twill ferve.] This play is certainly none of the best in itself, but the editors have been fo very happy in making it worse by their indolence, that they have left me Augeas's ftable to cleanse: and a man had need have the Atrength of a Hercules to heave out all their rubbish. But to bufinefs; why fhould infamy be explain'd by making frantick, lunatick ? It is plain and obvious that the poet intended, the pedant fhould coin an uncouth affected word here, infanie, from infania of the Latines. Then what a piece of unintelligible jargon have these learned criticks given us for Latine? I think, I may venture to affirm, I have reftor'd the paffage to its true purity,

Nath. Laus Deo, bone, intelligo.

The Curate, addreffing with complaifance his brother pedant, fays, bone, to him, as we frequently in Terence find bone vir; but the pedant thinking, he had miftaken the adverb, thus defcants on it.

Bone?bine for bene. Prifcian a little feratch'd 'twill ferve. alluding to the common phrafe, Diminuis Prifciani caput, apply'd to fuch as fpeak false Latin,

Enter

Enter Armado, Moth and Coftard.

Nath. Videfne quis venit?

Hol. Video, & gaudeo.

Arm. Chirra.

Hol. Quare Chirra, not Sirrah!

Arm. Men of peace, well encountered. hol. Molt military Sir, falutation.

Moth. They have been at a great feaft of languages, and ftole the fcraps.

Coft. O, they have liv'd long on the alms-basket of words. I marvel, thy mafter hath not eaten thee for a word; for thou art not fo long by the head as honorifi cabilitudinitatibus: thou art easier swallow'd than a flapdragon.

Moth. Peace, the peal begins.

Arm. Monfieur, are you not letter'd?

Moth. Yes, yes, he teaches boys the horn-book: What is A B fpelt backward with a horn on his head? Hol. Ba, pueritia, with a horn added.

Moth. Ba, moft filly sheep, with a horn. You hear This learning.

Hol. Quis, quis, thou confonant?

Moth. The third of the five vowels, if you repeat them; or the fifth, if I. (37)

Hol. I will repeat them, a e I

Moth. The fheep; the other two concludes it, o, u Arm. Now, by the falt wave of the Mediterraneum, a fweet touch, a quick venew of wit; fnip, fnap, quick and home; it rejoiceth my intellect; true wit.

Moth. Offer'd by a child to an old man: which is wit-old.

(37) The last of the five vowels, if you repeat them; or the fifth if I:Ho!. I will repeat them, a e

Moth. The beep:-the other two concludes it out.] Wonderful fagacity again! all the editions agree in this reading; but is not the la and the fifth, the fame voel? tho' my correction restores but a poor conundrum, yet if it reftores 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 ftill, either way; no mat ter, which of us repeats them.

Hol

Hol. What is the figure? what is the figure?
Moth. Horns.

Hol. Thou difputeft like an infant; go, whip thy gigg. Moth. Lend me your 'horn to make one, and I will whip about your infamy (38) circùm circà; a gigg of a cuckold's horn.

Coft. An I had but one penny in the world, thou fhouldft have it to buy ginger-bread; hold, there is the very remuneration I had of thy mafter, thou half-penny purfe of wit, thou pigeon-egg of difcretion. O, that the heav'ns were fo pleased, that thou wert but my baftard! what a joyful father wouldst thou make me ? go to, thou haft it ad dunghill; at the finger's ends, as they fay.

Hol. Oh, I fmell falfe latin, dunghil for unguem.

Arm. Arts-man, preambula; we will be fingled from the barbarous. Do you not educate youth at the chargehoufe on the top of the mountain ?

Hol. Or, Mons the hill.

Arm. At your fweet pleafure, for the mountain.
Hol. I do, fans question.

Arm. Sir, it is the King's moft fweet pleasure and affection, to congratulate the Princefs at her pavillion, in the pofteriors of this day, which the rude multitude call the afternoon.

Hol. The pofterior of the day, moft generous Sir, is liable, congruent, and measureable for the afternoon : the world is well cull'd, choice, fweet, and apt, I do affure you, Sir, I do affure.

Arm. Sir, the King is a noble gentleman, and my familiar; I do affure ye, my very good friend; for what is inward between us, let it pafs do beseech thee, remember thy curtefy-I befeech thee, apparel thy head,and among other importunate and most ferious defigns, and of great import indeed too- but let that pafs-for I muft tell thee, it will please his Grace (by the world) fometime to lean upon my poor

(38) I will whip about your infamy unum cita ;] Here again all the editions give us jargon inftead of Latin. But Moth would certainly fay circum circa: i, e, about and about.

fhoulder,

« הקודםהמשך »