Act IV, Scene 2

The same.

[Enter HOLOFERNES, SIR NATHANIEL, and DULL]

• Sir Nathaniel. Very reverend sport, truly; and done in the testimony
  of a good conscience.

• Holofernes. The deer was, as you know, sanguis, in blood; ripe
  as the pomewater, who now hangeth like a jewel in 1145
  the ear of caelo, the sky, the welkin, the heaven;
  and anon falleth like a crab on the face of terra,
  the soil, the land, the earth.

• Sir Nathaniel. Truly, Master Holofernes, the epithets are sweetly
  varied, like a scholar at the least: but, sir, I 1150
  assure ye, it was a buck of the first head.

• Holofernes. Sir Nathaniel, haud credo.

• Dull. 'Twas not a haud credo; 'twas a pricket.

• Holofernes. Most barbarous intimation! yet a kind of
  insinuation, as it were, in via, in way, of 1155
  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 1160
  insert again my haud credo for a deer.

• Dull. I said the deer was not a haud credo; twas a pricket.

• Holofernes. Twice-sod simplicity, his coctus!
  O thou monster Ignorance, how deformed dost thou look!

• Sir Nathaniel. Sir, he hath never fed of the dainties that are bred 1165
  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 1170
  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: 1175
  But omne bene, say 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 me by your wit
  What was a month old at Cain's birth, that's not five
  weeks old as yet? 1180

• Holofernes. Dictynna, goodman Dull; Dictynna, goodman Dull.

• Dull. What is Dictynna?

• Sir Nathaniel. A title to Phoebe, to Luna, to the moon.

• Holofernes. The moon was a month old when Adam was no more,
  And raught not to five weeks when he came to 1185
  five-score.
  The allusion holds in the exchange.

• Dull. 'Tis true indeed; the collusion holds in the exchange.

• Holofernes. God comfort thy capacity! I say, the allusion holds
  in the exchange. 1190

• Dull. And I say, the pollusion holds in the exchange; for
  the moon is never but a month old: and I say beside
  that, 'twas a pricket that the princess killed.

• Holofernes. Sir Nathaniel, will you hear an extemporal epitaph
  on the death of the deer? And, to humour the 1195
  ignorant, call I the deer the princess killed a pricket.

• Sir Nathaniel. Perge, good Master Holofernes, perge; so it shall
  please you to abrogate scurrility.

• Holofernes. I will something affect the letter, for it argues facility.
  The preyful princess pierced and prick'd a pretty 1200
  pleasing pricket;
  Some say a sore; but not a sore, till now made
  sore with shooting.
  The dogs did yell: put L to sore, then sorel jumps
  from thicket; 1205
  Or pricket sore, or else sorel; the people fall a-hooting.
  If sore be sore, then L to sore makes fifty sores
  one sorel.
  Of one sore I an hundred make by adding but one more L.

• Sir Nathaniel. A rare talent! 1210

• Dull. [Aside] If a talent be a claw, look how he claws
  him with a talent.

• Holofernes. This is a gift that I have, simple, simple; a
  foolish extravagant spirit, full of forms, figures,
  shapes, objects, ideas, apprehensions, motions, 1215
  revolutions: these are begot in the ventricle of
  memory, nourished in the womb of pia mater, and
  delivered upon the mellowing of occasion. But the
  gift is good in those in whom it is acute, and I am
  thankful for it. 1220

• Sir Nathaniel. Sir, I praise the Lord for you; and so may my
  parishioners; for their sons are well tutored by
  you, and their daughters profit very greatly under
  you: you are a good member of the commonwealth.

• Holofernes. Mehercle, if their sons be ingenuous, they shall 1225
  want no instruction; if their daughters be capable,
  I will put it to them: but vir sapit qui pauca
  loquitur; a soul feminine saluteth us.

[Enter JAQUENETTA and COSTARD]

• Jaquenetta. God give you good morrow, master Parson. 1230

• Holofernes. Master Parson, quasi pers-on. An if one should be
  pierced, which is the one?

• Costard. Marry, master schoolmaster, he that is likest to a hogshead.

• Holofernes. Piercing a hogshead! a good lustre of conceit in a
  tuft of earth; fire enough for a flint, pearl enough 1235
  for a swine: 'tis pretty; it is well.

• Jaquenetta. Good master Parson, be so good as read me this
  letter: it was given me by Costard, and sent me
  from Don Armado: I beseech you, read it.

• Holofernes. Fauste, precor gelida quando pecus omne sub umbra 1240
  Ruminat,—and so forth. Ah, good old Mantuan! I
  may speak of thee as the traveller doth of Venice;
  Venetia, Venetia,
  Chi non ti vede non ti pretia.
  Old Mantuan, old Mantuan! who understandeth thee 1245
  not, loves thee not. Ut, re, sol, la, mi, fa.
  Under pardon, sir, what are the contents? or rather,
  as Horace says in his—What, my soul, verses?

• Sir Nathaniel. Ay, sir, and very learned.

• Holofernes. Let me hear a staff, a stanze, a verse; lege, domine. 1250

• Sir Nathaniel. [Reads]
  If love make me forsworn, how shall I swear to love?
  Ah, never faith could hold, if not to beauty vow'd!
  Though to myself forsworn, to thee I'll faithful prove:
  Those thoughts to me were oaks, to thee like 1255
  osiers bow'd.
  Study his bias leaves and makes his book thine eyes,
  Where all those pleasures live that art would
  comprehend:
  If knowledge be the mark, to know thee shall suffice; 1260
  Well learned is that tongue that well can thee commend,
  All ignorant that soul that sees thee without wonder;
  Which is to me some praise that I thy parts admire:
  Thy eye Jove's lightning bears, thy voice his dreadful thunder,
  Which not to anger bent, is music and sweet fire. 1265
  Celestial as thou art, O, pardon, love, this wrong,
  That sings heaven's praise with such an earthly tongue.

• Holofernes. You find not the apostraphas, and so miss the
  accent: let me supervise the canzonet. Here are
  only numbers ratified; but, for the elegancy, 1270
  facility, and golden cadence of poesy, caret.
  Ovidius Naso was the man: and why, indeed, Naso,
  but for smelling out the odouriferous flowers of
  fancy, the jerks of invention? Imitari is nothing:
  so doth the hound his master, the ape his keeper, 1275
  the tired horse his rider. But, damosella virgin,
  was this directed to you?

• Jaquenetta. Ay, sir, from one Monsieur Biron, one of the strange
  queen's lords.

• Holofernes. I will overglance the superscript: 'To the 1280
  snow-white hand of the most beauteous Lady
  Rosaline.' I will look again on the intellect of
  the letter, for the nomination of the party writing
  to the person written unto: 'Your ladyship's in all
  desired employment, BIRON.' Sir Nathaniel, this 1285
  Biron is one of the votaries with the king; and here
  he hath framed a letter to a sequent of the stranger
  queen's, which accidentally, or by the way of
  progression, hath miscarried. Trip and go, my
  sweet; deliver this paper into the royal hand of the 1290
  king: it may concern much. Stay not thy
  compliment; I forgive thy duty; adieu.

• Jaquenetta. Good Costard, go with me. Sir, God save your life!

• Costard. Have with thee, my girl.

[Exeunt COSTARD and JAQUENETTA]

• Sir Nathaniel. Sir, you have done this in the fear of God, very
  religiously; and, as a certain father saith,—

• Holofernes. Sir tell me not of the father; I do fear colourable
  colours. But to return to the verses: did they
  please you, Sir Nathaniel? 1300

• Sir Nathaniel. Marvellous well for the pen.

• Holofernes. I do dine to-day at the father's of a certain pupil
  of mine; where, if, before repast, it shall please
  you to gratify the table with a grace, I will, on my
  privilege I have with the parents of the foresaid 1305
  child or pupil, undertake your ben venuto; where I
  will prove those verses to be very unlearned,
  neither savouring of poetry, wit, nor invention: I
  beseech your society.

• Sir Nathaniel. And thank you too; for society, saith the text, is 1310
  the happiness of life.

• Holofernes. And, certes, the text most infallibly concludes it.
  [To DULL]
  Sir, I do invite you too; you shall not
  say me nay: pauca verba. Away! the gentles are at 1315
  their game, and we will to our recreation.

[Exeunt]