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 school. 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, goodman Dull. Dull. What is Dictynna ? Nath. A title to Phoebe, 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. The allufion holds in the exchange." Dull. 'Tis true, indeed; the collufion holds in the exchange. Hol. God comfort thy capacity! I say the allufion holds in the exchange. length of thefe lines was no novelty on the English ftage. The moralities afford fcenes of the like measure. JOHNSON. The author of the Obfervations and Conjectures on fome Paffages in Shakespeare, printed at Oxford, 1766, would read, I think very properly, (Which we of tafle and feeling are) &c. STEEVENS. 5 For as it would ill become me to be vain, indifcreet, or a fcol; So were there a patch set on lea ning, to see him in school.] The meaning is, to be in a school would as ill become a patch, or low fellow, as folly would become me. JOHNSON. 6 The allufion belds in the exchang.] i. e. the riddle is as good when I use the name of Adam, as when you use the name of Cain. WARBURTON. Dull. Dull. And I fay, the pollufion holds in the exchange; for the moon is never but a month old: and I fay befide, that 'twas a pricket that the princefs kill'd. Hol. Sir, Nathaniel, 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 princess pierc'd and prickt" Some fay, a fore; but not a fore, Nath. A rare talent! 8 7 The praifeful princefs, &c.] The ridicule defigned in this paffage may not be unhappily illuftrated by the alliteration in the following lines of Ulpian Fullwell, in his Commemoration of Queen Anne Bullayne, which makes part of a collection called The Flower of Fame, printed 1575. "Whose princely praise hath pearît the pricke, "And price of endless fame, &c." STEEVENS. Makes fifty fores, O forel!] We should read, of fore L, alluding to L being the numeral for 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. Thefe are begot in the ventricle of memory, nourished in the womb of pia mater, and deliver'd upon the mellowing of occafion: But the gift is good in thofe 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. Hol. Mebercle, if their fons be ingenuous, they fhall want no inftruction:9 if their daughters be capable, I will put it to them. But vir fapit, qui pauca lequitur: a foul feminine faluteth us. Enter Jaquenetta and Coftard. Jac. God give you good morrow, mafter Parfon. Hol. Mafter Parfon, quafi Perfon. And if one fhould be pierc'd, which is the one? Coft. Marry, mafter School-mafter, he that is likeft to a hogshead. 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. Jac. Good mafter Parfon, be fo good as read me this letter; it was given me by Coftard, and fent me from Don Armatho: I beseech you, read it. if their doughters be capable, &c.] Of this double entendre, defpicable as it is, Mr. Pope and his coadjutors availed themselves, in their unfuccefsful comedy called Three Hours after Marriage. STEEVENS. Hol. 1 Hol. Faufte, precor, gelidâ quando pecus omne fub umbrâ. Ruminat, and fo forth. Ah, good old Mantuan! I may speak of thee as the traveller doth of Venice; Vinegia, Vinegia, 2 Chi non te vedi, ei non te pregia. Old Nath. Faufte, precor, gelida] Though all the editions concur to give this fpeech to fir Nathaniel, yet, as Dr. Thirlby ingeniously obferved to me, it is evident, 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 (firnamed Mantuanus, from the place of his birth) was a writer of poems, who flourished towards the latter end of the 15th century. THEOBALD. Faufte, precor, gelida, &c.] A note of La Monnoye's on thefe very words in Les Contes des Periers, Nov. 42. will explain the humour of the quotation, and fhew how well Shakespeare has fuf. tained the character of his pedant.- Il defigne le Carme Baptifte Mantuan, dont au commencement du 16 fiecle on lifoit publiquement à Paris les Poefies; fi celebres alors, que, comme dit plaisamment Farnabe dans fa preface fur Martial, les Pedans ne faifoient nulle difficulté de preferer à le Arma virumque cano, le Faufte precor gelida, c'eft-a-dire, à l'Eneide de Virgile les Eclogues de Mantuan, la premiere defquelles commence par Faufte, precor gelida. WARBURTON. The Eclogues of Mantuanus the Carmelite were tranflated before the time of Shakespeare, and the Latin printed on the oppofite fide of the page. STEEVENS. In old editions: Venechi, veneche a, qui non te vide, i non te piacch. And thus Mr. Rowe and Mr. Pope. But that poets, scholars, and linguifts, could not reftore this little fcrap of true Italian, is to me unaccountable. Our author is applying the praises of Mantuanus to a common proverbial fentence, faid of Venice. Vinegia, Vinegia! qui non te vedi, ei non te pregia. O Venice, Venice, he who has never feen thee, has thee not in efteem. 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 fpeaker's purpose. JOHNSON. The Old Mantuan! old Mantuan! Who understandeth thee not, loves thee, not :-Ut, re, fol, la, me, fa. Under pardon, fir, what are the contents? or rather, as Horace fays in his-What, my foul, verses? Nath. Ay, fir, and very learned. Hol. Let me hear a staff, a stanza, a verse; Lege, domine. Nath. If love make me forfworn, how shall I swear to love? Ah, never faith could hold, if not to beauty vowed! Tho' to myself forfworn, to thee I'll faithful prove; Those thoughts to me were oaks, to thee like ofiers bowed. Study his biafs leaves, and makes his book thine eyes; Where all thofe pleasures live, that art would comprehend: If knowledge be the mark, to know thee shall fuffice; Well learned is that tongue, that well can thee commend. All ignorant that soul, that sees thee without won der; Which is to me fome praife, that I thy parts admire. Thy eye Jove's lightning bears, thy voice his dreadful thunder; Which, not to anger bent, is mufick, and sweet fire. The proverb ftands thus in Howell's Letters, book i. feat. 1. 1. 36. Venetia, Venetia, chi non te vede, non te pregia STEEVENS. Ce |