Dull. And I fay, the pollufion holds in the exchange; for the moon is never but a month old: and I say befide, that 'twas a pricket that the prin cefs 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 princefs kill'd, a pricket. Nath. Perge, good mafter Holofernes, it fhall please you to abrogate fcurrility. perge; fo Hol. I will fomething affect the letter; for it argues facility. The praifeful princefs pierc'd and prickt? A pretty pleafing pricket; Some fay, a fore; but not a fore, Nath. A rare talent! 7 The praifeful princess, &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 "Whofe princely praise hath pearit the pricke, Makes fifty fores, O forel!] We should read, -of fore L, alluding to L being the numeral for 50. 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, shapes, objects, ideas, apprehenfions, motions, revolutions. These 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 praise 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: 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 daughters 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 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 speech 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 ftage may not stand still, Holofernes either pulls out a book, or, repeating fome verse 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 dif ficulté 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 piaeck. 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 seen thee, has thee not in esteem. THEOBALD. The proverb, as I am informed, is this; He that fees Venice little, values it much; be that fees it much, values it little. But I fuppofe Mr. Theobald is right, for the true proverb would not ferve the fpeaker's purpofe. JOHNSON. The Old Mantuan! old Mantuan! Who understandeth Hol. Let me hear a staff, a ftanza, a verfe; Lege, domine. Nath. If love make me forfworn, how fhall I fwear to love? Ah, never faith could hold, if not to beauty vowed! Tho' to myself forfworn, to thee I'll faithful prove; Thofe 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 fhall fuffice; Well learned is that tongue, that well can thee commend. All ignorant that foul, that fees 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 musick, and fweet fire. The proverb ftands thus in Howell's Letters, book i. fect. 1 1. 36. Venetia, Venetia, chi non te vede, non te pregia STEEVENS. Co Celestial as thou art, oh pardon, love, this wrong, That fings the heaven's praise with fuch an earthly tongue! Hol. You find not the apoftrophes, and fo mifs the accent. Let me fupervife the canzonet. Here are only numbers ratify'd, but for the elegancy, facility, and golden cadence of poefy, caret. Ovidius Nafo was the man. And why, indeed, Nafo; but for fmelling out the odoriferous flowers of fancy? the 4 Nath. Here are only numbers ratified ;] Though this fpeech has all along been placed to fir Nathaniel, I have ventured to join it to the preceding words of Holofernes; and not without reason. The speaker here is impeaching the verfes; but fir Nathaniel, as it appears above, thought them learned ones: befides, as Dr. Thirlby obferves, almost every word of this fpeech fathers itself on the pedant. So much for the regulation of it: now, a little, to the contents. And why, indeed, Nafo; but for fmelling out the odoriferous flowers of fancy? the jerks of invention imitary is nothing. Sagacity with a vengeance! I fhould be ashamed to own myself a piece of a scholar, to pretend to the task of an editor, and to pafs fuch ftuff as this upon the world for genuine. Who ever heard of invention imitary? Invention and imitation have ever been accounted two diftinct things. The fpeech is by a pedant, who frequently throws in a word of Latin amongst his English; and he is here flourishing upon the merit of invention, beyond that of imitation, or copying after another. My correction makes the whole fo plain and intelligible, that, I think, it carries conviction along with it. THEOBALD. This pedantry appears to have been common in the age of Shakespeare. The author of Lingua, or the Combat of the Tongue and the Five Senfes for Superiority, 1607, takes particu lar notice of it. "I remember, about the year 1602, many used this fkew "kind of language, which, in my opinion, is not much unlike "the man, whom Platony, the fon of Lagus, king of Egypt, brought for a spectacle, half white half black." STEEVENS. 4 Ovidius Nafe was the man.] Our author makes his pedant affect the being converfant with the best authors: contrary to the practice of modern wits, who reprefent them as defpifers of all fuch. But thofe who know the world, know the pedant to be the greatest affecter of politenefs. WARBURTON. VOL. II. D d jerks |