Hol. The deer was (as you know) fanguis, in blood; ripe as a pomwater, who now hangeth like a jewel in the ear of Calo; the sky, the welkin, the heav'n; and deals fo much in Italian fentences. There is an edition of Love's Labour's Loft, printed 1998, and faid to be presented before her Higbnefs this laft Chriftmas 1597; The next year 1598, comes out our John Florio with his World of worlds, recentibus odits ; and in the preface, quoted above, falls upon the comic poet for bringing him on the stage. There is another fort of leering curs, that rather fnarle than bite, whereef I could inftance in one, who lighting on a good fonnet of a gentleman's, a friend of mine, that loved better to be a poet than to be counted fo, called the author a Rymer.-Let Ariftophanes and bis comedians make plaies, and fcowre their mouths Socrates; those very mouths they make to villifie shall be the means to amplifie bis virtue, &c. Here Shakespeare is fo plainly marked out as not to be mittaken. As to the fonnet of The Gentleman his friend, we may be affured it was no other than his own. And withont doubt was parodied in the very fonnet beginning with The praiseful Princef, &c. in which our author makes Hol.fernes fay, He will fomething affect the letter; for it argues facility. And how much John Furio thought this affectation argued facility, or quickness of wit, we fee in this preface where he falls upon his enemy, H. S. His name is H. S. Do not take it for the Roman H. S. unless it be as H S. is twice as much and an half, as half an AS. With a great deal more to the fame purpose; concluding his preface in these words, The refolute John Flerio. From the ferocity of this man's temper it was, that Shakespeare chofe for him the name which Rebelais gives to his Pedant of Thubal Holoferne. WARBURTON. I am not of the learned commentator's opinion, that the fatire of Shakespeare is fo feldom perfonal. It is of the nature of perfonal invectives to be soon unintelligible ; and the authour that gratifies private malice, animam in vulnere ponit, deftroys the future efficacy of his own writings, and facrifices the efteem of fucceeding times to the laughter of a day. It is no wonder, therefore, that the farcafms which, perhaps, in the author's time, fet the playhouse in a roar, are now loft among general reflections. Yet whether the character of Holofernes was pointed at any particular man, I am, notwithstanding the plaufibility of Dr. Warburton's conjecture, inclined to doubt. Every man adheres as long as he can to his own pre-conceptions. Before I read this note I confidered the character of Hlofernes as borrowed from the Rhombus of Sir Philip Sidney, who in a kind of paftoral entertainment exhibited to Queen Elizabeth, has introduced a schoolmafter fo called, fpeaking a leash of languages at once, and puzzling himself and his auditors with a jargon like that of Holofernes in the prefent play. Sidney himself might bring the character from Italy; for, as Peacham observes, the Schoolmaster has long been one of the ridiculous perfonages in the farces of that country. anon falleth like a crab on the face of Terra, the foil, the land, the earth. Nath. Truly, mafter Holofernes, the epithets are fweetly varied, like a scholar at the leaft; but, Sir, I affure you it was a buck of the firft head. Hol. Sir Nathanael, haud credo. Dull. 'Twas not a haud credo, 'twas a pricket. Hol. Moft barbarous intimation; yet a kind of infinuation, as it were in via, in the way of explication; facere, as it were, replication; or rather, oftentare, to fhow, as it were, his inclination; after his undreffed, unpolished, uneducated, unpruned, untrained, or rather unlettered, or rathereft unconfirmed fashion, to infert again my haud credo for a deer. Dull. I faid, the deer was not a baud credo; 'twas a pricket. ; Hol. Twice fod fimplicity, bis coctus O thou monfter ignorance, how deformed doft thou look? Nath. Sir, he hath never fed on 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; (8) And fuch barren plants are fet before us, that we thankful fhould be, Which we tafte and feeling are for those parts that do fructify in us, more than He. For (8) and fuch barren plants are fet before us, that we thank ful bould be, which we taste, and feeling are for those parts that do fructify in us more than he.] The words have been ridiculously, and ftupidly tranfpofed and corrupted. I read, we thankful bould be for thefe parts (which we tape and feel ingradare) that do fructify, &c. The emendation I have offer'd, I hope, reftores the author: At least, it gives him fenfe and grammar: and anfwers extremely well to his metaphors taken from planting. Ingradare, with the Italians, fignifies, to rife higher and higher; andare di grado in grado, to make a progreffion; and fo at length come to fructify, as the poet expreffes it. WARBURTON. Sir T. Hanmer reads thus, And fuch barren plants are fet before us, that we thankful should be, For those parts which we tafte and feel do fructify in us more than be. And Mr. Edwards, in his animadverfions on Dr. Warburton's notes, applauds the emendation. I think both the editors mistaken, ex cept For as it would ill become me to be vain, indifcreet, or a fool; So were there a patch * fet on learning, to see 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. Dul!. 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. Didynna, good-man Dull; Didynna, 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 five- fcore. Th' allufion holds in the old exchange (9). 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. cept that Sir T. Hanmer found the metre though he miffed the fense. Iread, with a flight change, And fuch barren plants are fet before us, that we thankful should· be; When we tafte and feeling are for those parts that do fructify in us more than be That is, fuch barren plants are exhibited in the creation, to make us thankful when we have more tufte and feeling than be, of those parts or qualities, which produce fruit in us, and preferve us from being likewife barren plants. Such is the fenfe, juft in itself and pious, but a little clouded by the diction of Sir Nathanael. The length of thefe lines was no novelty on the English stage.. The moralities afford fcenes of the like measure. * The meaning is, to be in a school would as ill become a patch, or low fellow, as folly would become me. (9) Tb' allufion helds in the exchange.] i. e. the riddle is as good when I use the name of Adam, as when you use the name of Cain. WARBURTON. 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 Princess kill'd, a pricket. Nath. Perge, good mafter Holofernes, perge; fo it fhall please you to abrogate fcurrility. 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, thapes, objects, ideas, apprehenfions, motions, revolutions. Thefe 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 praife 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. (1) Makes fifty fores, O forrel! We fhould read, or forel, alluding to L being the numeral for 50. Concerning the beafts of chafe, where:f the Buck, being the first, is called as followeth; 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 Forest, p. 44. WARBURTON. Hol. Hol. Mebercle, if their fons be ingenuous, they fhall want no inftruction: if their daughters be capable, I will put it to them. But vir fapit, qui pauca loquitur. ; a foul feminine faluteth us. Enter Jaquenetta, and Coftard. Jaq. God give you good morrow, mafter Parfon. Hol. Mafter Parfon, quafi Perfon. And if one should be pierc'd, which is the one? . Coft. Marry, master school-mafter, he that is likest to a hogshead. Hol. Of piercing a hogfhead. A good Luftre of con→ ceit in a turf of earth, fire enough for a flint, pearl enough for a swine: 'Tis pretty, it is well. faq. Good mafter Parfon, be fo good as read me this letter; it was given me by Coftard, and fent me from Don Armatho; I befeech you, read it. Hol. (2) Faufte, precor, gelidâ quando pecus omne fub umbrâ. Ruminat, and so forth. Ah,good old Mantuan, I may speak of thee as the traveller doth of Venice; (3) Vi negia, (2) Nath. Faufte, precor, gelida-] Though all the Editions concur to give this Speech to Sir Nathanael, yet, as Dr. Thirlby ingenioufly obferv'd to me, it must belong to Holofernes. The Curate is employed in reading the Letter to himself; and while he is doing fo, that the Stage may not stand still, Holofernes either pulls out. a Book, or, repeating fome Verfe by heart from Mantuanus, comments upon the Character of that Poet. Baptifta Spagnolus, (furnamed Mantuanus, from the Place of his Birth) was a Writer of Poems, who flourish'd towards the latter End of the 15th Century. THEOBALD Faufte, precor gelida, &c. A note of La Monneye's on thele very words in Les Contes des Periers, Nov. 42. will explain the humour of the quotation, and fhew how well Shakespeare has fuftained the character of his pedant.Il defigne le Carme de Baptifte Mantuan, dont au commencement du 16 fiecle on lifoit publiquent à Pa is les Poefies; fi celebres alors, que, comme dit plufamment Farnabe, dans fa Preface fur Martial, les Pedans ne faifoient nulle difficulté de preferer à l'Arma virumque cano, le Faufte, precor gelida, c'eft a dire, à l'Eneide de Virgile les Eclogues de Mantuan, le premier defquelles commence par Faufte precor gelida. WARBURTON. (3) In old Edition: Venechi, venache a, qui non te vide, ei non te |