Coft. By my foul, a fwain! a moft fimple clown! Lord, Lord! how the ladies and I have put him down!

O'my troth, moft sweet jefts, most incony vulgar wit! When it comes fo fmoothly off, fo obfcenely, as it were, fo fit.

Armado o' the one fide, O, a most dainty man! To fee him walk before a lady, and to bear her fan! To fee him kifs his hand! and how moft fweetly a' will fwear!

And his page o' t'other fide, that handful of wit! Ah, heav'ns, it is a moft pathetical nit!

Sola, fola!

[Exit Coflard, [Shouting within.

2

SCENE II.

Enter Dull, Holofernes, and Sir Nathaniel.

Nath. Very reverend sport, truly; and done in the teftimony of a good confcience,

Hol.

Enter-Holofernes,] There is very little perfonal reflexion in Shakespeare. Either the virtue of thofe times, or the candour of our author, has fo effected, that his fatire is, for the most part, ge neral, and, as himself fays,

his taxing like a wild goofe flies,

Unclaim'd of any man.

The place before us feems to be an exception. For by Holofer nes is defigned a particular character, a pedant and schoolmaster of our author's time, one John Florio, a teacher of the Italian tongue in London, who has given us a fmall dictionary of that language under the title of A World of Words, which in his epif tle dedicatory he tells us, is of little less value than Stephens's Treas fure of the Greek Tongue, the most complete work that was ever yet compiled of its kind. In his preface, he calls those who had criticized his works fea-dogs or land-critics; monfters of men, if not beafts rather than men ; able teeth are canibals, their addars forks, their lips afpes poifon, their eyes bafilifkes, their breath the "breath of a grave, their words like jordes of Turks, that five which thall dive deepest into a Christian lying bound before them.

2

100ng's

Well

Hol The deer was (as you know) fanguis, in blood, ripe as a pomewater, who now hangeth like a jewel in

the

Well therefore might the mild Nathaniel defire Holofernes to abrogate fcurrility. His profeffion too is the reafon that Holofernes deals fo much in Italian fentences. There is an edition of Love's Labour's Loft, printed 1598, and faid to be prefented before her bigbnefs this laf Christmas, 1597. The next year 1598, comes out our John Florio, with his World of Words, recentibus odiis; and in the preface, quoted above, falls upon the comic poet for bringing him on the itage. There is another fort of leering curs, that rather fnarl: than bite, whereof I could inftance in one, who lighting on a good fonnet of a gentleman's, a friend of mine, that Lved better to be a poet than to be counted fo, called the author a rymer.Let Aristophanes and his comedians make plaies, and scorre their mouths on Socrates; thofe very mouths they make to vilifie fhall be the means to amplifie his virtue, &c. Here Shakespeare is fo plainly marked out as not to be mistaken. As to the Sonnet of the gentleman his friend, we may be affured it was no other than his own. And without doubt was parodied in the very fonnet beginning with The praif-ful princess, &c. in which our author makes Holofernes fay, He will fomething affect the letter; for it argues facility. And how much John Florio thought this affectation ar qued 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. un'efs 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 thefe words, The refolute John Florio. From the ferocity of this man's temper it was, that Shakespeare chofe for him the name which Rabelais 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 foon unintelligible; and the authour that gratifies private malice, animam in vulnere ponit, deftroys the future efficacy of his own writings, and facrifices the esteem of fucceeding times to the laughter of a day. It is no wonder, therefore, that the farcafins, which, perhaps, in the authour'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 Holofernes as borrowed from the Rhombus of fir Philip Sidney, who, in a kind of paftoral entertainment, ex

hibited

the ear of Cælo, the fky, the welkin, the heaven; and anon falleth like a crab, on the face of Terra, the foil, the land, the earth.

Nath. Truly, master Holofernes, the epithets are fweetly varied, like a scholar at the leaft: But, Sir, I affure ye, it was a buck of the first head.

Hol. Sir Nathaniel, 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 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. 3

hibited to queen Elizabeth, has introduced a school-mafter fo called, fpeaking a leafh of languages at once, and puzzling himself and his auditors with a jargon like that of Holofernes in the prefent play. Sidney himfelf might bring the character from Italy; for, as Peacham obferves, the fchool-mafter has long been one of the ridiculous perfonages in the farces of that country.

JOHNSON.

3 'twas a pricket.] In a play called The Return from Parnaffus, 1606, I find the following account of the different appellations of deer, at their different ages.

"Amoretto. I caufed the keeper to fever the rafal deer from "the bucks of the first head. Now, fir, a buck is the first year, a "fawn; the fecond year, a pricket; the third year, a forell; the fourth year, a foare; the fifth, a buck of the first head; the fixth year, a compleat buck. Likewife your art is the first year, a calfe; the fecond year, a brocket; the third year, a spade; the "fourth year, a fag; the fixth year, a bart. A roe-buck is the first "year, a kid; the fecond year, a girl; the third year, a bemuse; "and thefe are your fpecial beafts for chafe."

"I am but a

So in A Chriftian turn'd Turk, 1612.——— "pricket, a mere forell; my head's not harden'd yet.”

STEEVENS.

Hol.

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 fenfible in the duller parts;

And fuch barren plants are fet before us, that we thankful fhould be,

Which we taste and feeling are for those parts that do fructify in us, more than he.

&c.

For

* and fuch barren plants are fet before us, that we thankful should be; which we tafte, and feeling are for those parts that do fructify in us more than be.] The words have been ridiculously, and stupidly, tranfpofed and corrupted. I read, we thankful should be for thofe parts (which we taste and feel ingradare) that do fructify, The emendation I have offered, I hope, reftores the author: at leaft, it gives him fenfe and grammar; and answers extremely well to his metaphors taken from planting. Ingradare, with the Italians, fignifies, to rise higher and higher; andare di grado in grado, to make a progreffion; and fo at length come to fructify, as the poet expresses it. WARBURTON.

Sir T. Hanmer reads thus,

And fuch barren plants are set before us, that we thankful fhould be,

For thofe parts which we tafle and feel do fructify in us more than he.

And Mr. Edwards, in his animadverfions on Dr. Warburton's notes, applauds the emendation. I think both the editors miftaken, except that fir T. Hanmer found the metre, though he miffed the fenfe. I read, with a flight change,

And fuch barren plants are fet before us, that we thankful

fhould be,

When we taste and feeling are for thofe parts that do fructify in us more than he.

That is, fuch barren plants are exhibited in the creation, to make us thankful when we have more tafte and feeling than be, of thofe 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 fir Nathaniel. The

length

For as it would ill become me to be vain, indifcreet, or a fool;

So were there a patch 5 fet on learning, to fee 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.

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 fay the allusion 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 taste and feeling are) &c. STEEVENS.

For as it would ill become me to be vain, indifcreet, or a fool; So So were there a patch fet on lea ning, to fee 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.

• The allufion holds 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.

Dull.