Jaquenetta: there is remuneration [giving him money]; for the best ward of mine honour* is rewarding my dependents. Moth, follow. [Exit. MOTH. Like the sequel, I.-Signor Costard, adieu. COST. My sweet ounce of man's flesh! my incony Jew! [Exit MOTH. Now will I look to his remuneration. Remuneration! O, that's the Latin word for three farthings: three farthings—remuneration.—What's the price of this inkle? a penny:-No, I'll give you a remuneration: why, it carries it.-Remuneration!—why, it is a fairer name than French crown. I will never buy and sell out of this word. Enter BIRON. BIRON. O, my good knave Costard! exceedingly well met. COST. Pray you, sir, how much carnation ribbon may a man buy for a remuneration? BIRON. What is a remuneration? COST. Marry, sir, half-penny farthing. BIRON. O, why then, three-farthings-worth of silk. COST. I thank your worship: God be wi' you! COST. When would you have it done, sir? COST. Well, I will do it, sir: fare you well. A BIRON. O! And I, forsooth, in love! I that have been love's whip; very C beadle to a humorous sigh; Of trotting paritors. O my little heart!- And wear his colours like a tumbler's hoop! (*) First folio, honours. a My incony Jew!] Incony is defined to mean fine, delicate, pretty. It occurs occasionally in our old plays, and is repeated in the present one, Act IV. Sc. 1. Of Jew, as a term of endearment, I remember no other example, except that in "Midsummer Night's Dream." Act III. Sc. 1, where Thisbe calls Pyramus "Most lovely Jew." (See note (b), p. 71.) b Guerdon,-O sweet guerdon! better than remuneration,-] In reference to this passage, Farmer has pointed attention to a parallel one, which is given in a tract called "A Health to the Gentlemanly Profession of Serving-men," by J. M., 1598. "There was, sayth he, a man, (but of what estate, degree, or calling, I will not name, least thereby I might incurre displeasure of any,) that comming to his friend's house, who was a gentleman of good reckoning, and being there kindly entertayned and well used as well of his friende the gentleman, as of his servantes; one of the sayd servantes doing him some extraordinarie pleasure during his abode there, at his departure he comes unto the sayd servant and saith unto him, Holde thee, here is a remuneration for thy paynes; which the servant receyving, gave him utterly for it (besides his paynes) thankes, for it was but a three-farthing piece! and I holde thankes for the same a small price as the market goes. Now another comming to the sayd gentleman's house, it was the foresayd servant's good hap to be neare him at his going away, who, calling the servant unto him, sayd, Holde thee, heere is a guerdon (*) Old editions, cloake. for thy desartes. Now the servant payde no deerer for the guerdon than he did for the remuneration, though the guerdon was xj d. farthing better, for it was a shilling, and the other but a threefarthinges." The joke was probably older than either the play or the tract quoted. c This wimpled,-] Hooded, veiled, blindfolded. "Justice herself there sitteth wimpled about the eyes," &c. Comedy of Midas, 1592. d Of trotting paritors.] An apparitor is an officer of the spiritual court. As his duty, in former times, often consisted in summoning offenders against chastity, he is very properly described as under Cupid's command. A corporal of his field,-] A corporal of the field, according to some authorities, was an officer like an aide-de camp, whose employment was to convey instructions from head-quarters, or from the higher officers of the field. f A whitely wanton-] The old editions have "A whitly wanton," which is, perhaps, a misprint for witty wanton. Whitely is not a suitable epithet to apply to a dark beauty. In Vicar's " Virgil," 1632, it is applied befittingly enough to the moon,— "Night-gadding Cynthia with her whitely face." ACT IV. SCENE I.-Another part of the Park. Enter the PRINCESS, ROSALINE, MARIA, KATHARINE, BOYET, Lords, Attendants, and a Forester. PRIN. Was that the King, that spurr'd his horse so hard Against the steep uprising of the hill? BOYET. I know not; but, I think, it was not he. Well, lords, to-day we shall have our despatch; PRIN. I thank my beauty, I am fair that shoot, And thereupon thou speak'st, the fairest shoot. FOR. Pardon me, madam, for I meant not so. PRIN. What, what! first praise me, and * again say, no? O short-liv'd pride! Not fair? alack for woe! A giving hand, though foul, shall have fair praise. But come, the bow :- (*) First folio, and then again. O heresy in fair,-] Mr. Collier's old annotator suggests, "O heresy in faith," &c.; but this alteration would destroy the point of the allusion. Fair is used here, as in many other instances, for beauty; and the heresy is, that merit should be esteemed equivalent to beauty. b Do not curst wives-] That is, sour, cross-grained, intraclable wives. A very ancient sense of the word, and one in which it is repeatedly used by Shakespeare. Thus, in "Taming of the Shrew," Act I. Sc. 1: That more for praise, than purpose, meant to kill. Only for praise' sake, when they strive to be PRIN. Only for praise: and praise we may afford To any lady that subdues a lord. Enter COSTARD. BOYET. Here comes a member of the commonwealth. COST. God dig-you-den all! Pray you, which is the head lady? PRIN. Thou shalt know her, fellow, by the rest that have no heads. COST. Which is the greatest lady, the highest? An Are not you the chief woman? you are the thickest here. PRIN. What's your will, sir? what's your will? COST. I have a letter from monsieur Biron, to one lady Rosaline. PRIN. O, thy letter, thy letter; he's a good friend of mine: Stand aside, good bearer.-Boyet, you can carve ; Break up this capon. d BOYET. It is writ to Jaquenetta. a By heaven, that thou art fair is most infallible; true, that thou art beauteous; truth itself, that thou art lovely: More fairer than fair, beautiful than beauteous, truer than truth itself, have commiseration on thy heroical vassal! The magnanimous and most illustrate king Cophetua set eye upon the pernicious and indubitate beggar Zenelophon; and he it was that might rightly say veni, vidi, vici; which to annothanize, in the vulgar, (0 base and obscure vulgar !) videlicet, he came, saw, and overcame: he came, one; saw, two; overcame, three. Who came the king; why did he come? to see; why did he see? to overcome to whom came he? to the beggar ; what saw he? the beggar; who overcame he? the beggar: the conclusion is victory; on whose sile the king's: the captive is enrich'd; On whose side? the beggar's: the catastrophe is a nuptial; on whose side? the king's?-no, on both in one, or one in both. I am the king; for so stands the comparison: thou the beggar; for so witnesseth thy lowliness. Shall I command thy love? I may: shall I enforce thy love? I could shall I entreat thy love? I will: what shalt thou exchange for rags robes: for tittles, titles: for thyself, me. . Thus, expecting thy reply, I profane my lips on thy foot, my eyes on thy picture, and my heart on thy every part. Thine, in the dearest design of industry, DON ADRIANO DE ARMADO. Thus dost thou hear the Nemean lion roar 'Gainst thee, thou lamb, that standest as his prey; Submissive fall his princely feet before, And he from forage will incline to play : But if thou strive, poor soul, what art thou then? Food for his rage, repasture for his den. PRIN. What plume of feathers is he that indited this letter? What vane?* what weathercock? did you ever hear better? BOYET. I am much deceived, but I remember the style. (*) First folio, veine. the same metaphor, calling a love-letter, una pollicetta amor^sa. To break up, Percy says, was a peculiar phrase in carving. Undoubtedly, "We carve a hare, or else breake up a hen." FLORIO'S Montaigne, p. 166, 1603. But Shakespeare is not singular in applying it to the opening of a letter. In Ben Jonson's "Every Man Out of His Humour." Act I. Sc. 1, Carlo Buffone recommends Sogliardo to have letters brought to him when dining or supping out,-"And there, while you intend circumstances of news, or inquiry of their health, or so, one of your familiars, whom you must carry about you still, breaks it up, as 't were in a jest, and reads it publicly at the table." not near. Finely put on, indeed !—— MAR. You still wrangle with her, Boyet, and Ros. Shall I come upon thee with an old saying, that was a man when king Pepin of France was a little boy, as touching the hit it? BOYET. So I may answer thee with one as old, that was a woman when queen Guinever of Britain was a little wench, as touching the hit it. Ros. [Singing.] с Thou canst not hit it, hit it, hit it, Thou canst not hit it, my good man. a Zenelophon;] In the old ballad of "A Song of a Beggar and a King," 1612, the name is Penelophon, but the misspelling may have been intentional. b Who is the suitor?] The jest lies in pronouncing suitor, as it is spelt in the old copies, shooter; which, indeed, appears to have been the ancient pronunciation. e Thou canst not hit it,-] Alluding to a song, or dance, mentioned in S. Gosson's " Pleasant Quippes for Upstart Newfangled Gentlewomen," 1596: "Can you hit it? is oft their daunce, And in "Wily Beguiled," 1606 : "And then dance, Canst thou not hit it?" Ah, heavens, it is a most pathetical nit! Sola, sola! Shouting within.* SCENE II.-The same. Enter HOLOFERNES, Sir NATHANIEL, and DULL. NATH. Very reverend sport, truly; and done in the testimony of a good conscience. HOL. The deer was, as you know, sanguis,— in blood; ripe as a pomewater, who now hangeth like a jewel in the ear of coelo,-the sky, the welkin, the heaven; and anon falleth like a crab, on the face of terra,-the soil, the land, the earth. NATH. Truly, master Holofernes, the epithets are sweetly varied, like a scholar at the least; but, sir, I assure ye, it was a buck of the first head. HOL. Sir Nathaniel, haud credo. DULL. 'Twas not a haud credo; 't was a pricket. (2) HOL. Most barbarous intimation! yet a kind of insinuation, as it were in via, in way, of explication; facere, as it were, replication, or, rather, ostentare, to show, as it were, his inclination,after his undressed, unpolished, uneducated, unpruned, untrained, or rather unlettered, or, ratherest, unconfirmed fashion,-to insert again my haud credo for a deer. DULL. I said the deer was not a haud credo, 't was a pricket. HOL. Twice sod simplicity, bis coctus !—— O, thou monster, Ignorance, how deformed dost thou look! NATH. Sir, he hath never fed of the dainties that are bred in a book. He hath not eat paper, as it were; he hath not drunk ink: his intellect is not replenished; he is only an animal, only sensible in the duller parts; And such barren plants are set before us, that we thankful should be (Which we of taste and feeling are) for those parts that do fructify in us more than he. For as it would ill become me to be vain, indiscreet, or a fool, So, were there a patch set on learning, to see him in a school: But, omne bene, say I; being of an old father's mind, Exit CoSTARD, running. Many can brook the weather, that love not the wind. (*) Old copies, shoote within. a By cleaving the pin.] The quarto, 1598, and the folio, 1623, read, by mistake, is in. To cleave the pin is explained in Act V. Sc. 4, of The Two Gentlemen of Verona," p. 39. b Armado o' the one side,-] O' the one side, is a modern correction: the quarto, 1598, reads, ath toothen side; and the folio, 1623, ath to the side. Nor are these, I believe, the only misdeeds in connexion with this particular passage for which the old copies are amenable. The reference to Armado and the Page is so utterly irrelevant to anything in the scene, that every one must be struck with its incongruity. I have more than a suspicion that the whole passage, from "O' my troth, most sweet jests! most incony vulgar wit!" or, at least, from down to, "Armado o' the one side," &c. Ah, heavens, it is a most pathetical nit!" belongs to the previous Act, and in the original MS. followed Costard's panegyric on the Page, "My sweet ounce of man's flesh! my incony Jew!" It is evidently out of place in the present scene, and quite appropriate in the one indicated. In blood;] To be in blood, a phrase of the chase, has been explained, to be fit for killing; but it appears also to have meant an animal with its blood up-ready to turn and attack its pursuers; like a stag at bay. See the passage in " Henry VI. Part I." Act IV. Sc. 2, beginning "If we be English deer, be then in blood; d Which we of taste-] The preposition of is not found in the old copies. It was inserted by Tyrwhitt. |