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Enter Armado, Moth and Coftard.

Nath. Videfne quis venit ?

Hol. Video & gaudio.

Arm. Chirra.

Hol. Quare Chirra, not Sirrah?

Arm. Men of peace, well encountered.

Hal. Moft military Sir, falutation.

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

Coft. O, they have liv'd long on the alms-bafket of words. 1 marvel, thy mafter hath not eaten thee for a word; for thou art not fo long by the head as honorificabilitudinitatibus: thou art eafier fwallow'd than a flap, dragon.

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 fheep, with a horn. You hear his 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 theep; the other two concludes it, o, u. Arm. Now, by the falt wave of the Mediterranean, a fweet touch, a quick venew of wit; fnip, ap, quick and home; it rejoiceth my intelle&t; true wit.

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

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

Moth. The beep-the other two concludes it out.] Wonderful fagacity again! all the editions agree in this reading; but is not the laft and the fifth, the fame vowel? tho' my correction reftores but a poor conundrum, yet if it reftores the poet's meaning, it is the duty of an editor to trace him in his loweft conceits. By, o, u, Math would mean-oh, you,-i e. You are the fheep ftill, either way; no matter, which of us repeats them.

Hol.

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

Hol. Thou disputest 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 pleafed, that thou wert but my baftard! what a joyful father wouldst thou make me? go to, thou haft it ad dungbill; at the finger's ends, as they fay,

Hol. Oh, I fmell false latin, dunghill for unguem.

Arm. Arts-man, præambula; 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 pleasure, for the mountain.
Hol. I do, fans queftion.

Arm. Sir, it is the King's moft fweet pleasure and affection, to congratulate the Princess 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 meafureable 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- I do befeech thee, remember thy curtefy-I beseech thee, apparel thy head, and among other importunate and moft ferious defigns, and of great import indeed too-but let that pafs: for I must tell thee, it will please his Grace (by the world) fometime to lean upon my poor

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(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.

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Coulder, and with his royal finger thus dally with my excrement, with my muftachio; but fweet heart, let that pafs. By the world, I recount no fable; fome certain fpecial honours it pleafeth his Greatnefs to impart to Armado, a foldier, a man of travel, that hath feen the world; but let that pafs-the very all of

is-but sweet heart, I do implore fecrecy-that the King would have me present the Princefs (fweet chuck) with fome delightful oftentation, or fhow, or pageant, or antick, or fire-work. Now, understanding that the Curate and your sweet felf are good at fuch eruptions, and fudden breaking out of mirth, (as it were) I have acquainted you withal, to the end to crave your affiftance.

Hol. Sir, you fhall present before her the nine worthies. Sir, as concerning fome entertainment of time, some show in the pofterior of this day, to be rendered by our affiftants at the King's command, and this most gallant, illuftrate and learned gentleman, before the Princess: I fay, none fo fit as to prefent the nine worthies.

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

Hol. Joshua, yourfelf; this gallant man, Judas Macabeus; this fwain (because of his great limb or joint) fhall pass Pompey the great; and the page, Hercules.

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

Hol. Shall I have audience? he fhall prefent Hercules in minority: his Enter and his Exit fhall be ftrangling a fnake; and I will have an apology for that purpose.

Moth. An excellent device: for if any of the audience hifs, you may cry ; "well done, Hercules, now thou "crufheft the fnake;" that is the way to make an offence gracious, tho' few have the grace to do it. Arm. For the reft of the worthies. Hol. I will play three myself. Moth. Thrice-worthy gentleman ! Arm. Shall I tell you a thing?

Hala

Hol. We attend.

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

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Hol. Via! good-man Dull, thou haft 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 fo: or I will play on the taber to the worthies, and let them dance the hay.

Hol. Moft dull, honeft, Dull, to our fport away.

[Exeunt.

SCENE, before the Princess's Pavilion,

Enter Princefs, and Ladies.

Prin. If fairings come thus plentifully in.

Weet hearts, we fhall be rich ere we depart,

A Lady wall'd about with diamonds!

Look you, what I have from the loving King.

Rofa. Madam, came nothing else along with that? Prin. Nothing but this? yes, as much love in rhime,(39) As would be cram'd up in a fheet of paper,

Writ on both fides the leaf, margent and all ;

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

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

Cath. Ay, and a fhrewd unhappy gallows too.
Rofa. You'll ne'er be friends with him; he kill'd your
fifter.

Cath. He made her melancholy, fad and heavy,
And fo fhe died; had the been light, like you,
Of fuch a merry, nimble, stirring fpirit,

(39)

as much love in rbime,

As would be cram'd up in a free of paper,

Writ on both fides the leaf, margent and all.]

I dare not affirm this to be an imitation, but it carries a mighty re

femblance of this paffage in the beginning of Juvenal's first satire. fummi plenâ jam margine libri

Scriptus, & in tergo nec dum finitus Orestes..

She

She might have been a grandam ere fhe dy❜d.
And fo may you; for a light heart lives long.

Rofa. What's your dark meaning, moufe, of this light word?

Cath. A light condition, in a beauty dark.

Rofa. We need more light to find your meaning out. Cath. You'll mar the light, by taking it in snuff: Therefore I'll darkly end the argument.

Rofa. Look, what you do; and do it ftill i'th' dark. Cath. So do not you, for you are a light wench. Rofa. Indeed, I weigh not you; and therefore light. Cath. You weigh me not; O, that's, you care not for me. Rofa. Great reafon; for past cure is ftill past care.(40) Prin. Well bandied both; a fet of wit well play'd. But, Rofaline, you have a favour too: Who fent it? and what is it?

Rofa. I would, you knew.

And if my face were but as fair as yours,
My favour were as great; be witness this.
Nay, I have verses too, I thank Biron.
The numbers true, and were the numbring too,
I were the fairest goddess on the ground.
I am compar'd to twenty thousand fairs.

O, he hath drawn my picture in his letter.

Prin. Any thing like ?

Rofa. Much in the letters, nothing in the praise.
Prin. Beauteous as ink; a good conclufion.
Cath. Fair as a text B in a copy-book.

Rofa. Ware pencils. How? let me not die your debtor,

My red dominical, my golden letter.

Q, that your face were not fo full of oes!

Cath. Pox of that jeft, and I beshrew all fhrews: (41)

Prin.

(40) -for past care is ftill paft cure.] The tranfpofition which I have made in the two words, care and cure, is by the direction of the ingenious Dr. Thirlby. The reafon fpeaks for itself.

(41) Prin. Pox of that jeft, and I beforew all brews.

As the Princess has behav'd with great decency all along hitherto,there. is no reason to be affign'd why the fhould ftart all at once into this course dialect. But I am perfuaded, the editors only have made her go out of character. In short, Rofaline and Catharine are rallying one

another

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