Another part of the Park.
 Enter HOLOFERNES, SIR NATHANIEL, and DULL.

Nathaniel	Very reverent 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 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.

Nathaniel	Truly, Master Holofernes, the epithets are sweetly varied, 
	like a scholar at the least; but, sir, I 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 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 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, bis coctus!
	O, thou monster Ignorance, how deformed dost thou look!

Nathaniel	Sir, he hath never fed of 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;
	And such barren plants are set before us that we 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:
	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 bookmen: can you tell me by your wit,
	What was a month old at Cain's birth that's not five weeks
	old as yet?

Holofernes	Dictynna, goodman Dull. Dictynna, goodman Dull.

Dull	What is Dictynna?

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 fivescore.
	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.

Dull	And I say the pollution 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 ignorant, I have called 
	the deer the princess killed, a pricket.

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 pricked a pretty 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;
	Or pricket sore, or else sorel; the people fall a-hooting.
	If sore be sore, then 'L' to sore makes fifty sores o'sorel.
	Of one sore I an hundred make, by adding but one more 'L'.

Nathaniel	A rare talent!

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, 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.

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 ingenious, they shall 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.

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 turf of 
	earth; fire enough for a flint, pearl enough 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
	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 not, loves 
	thee not. [Sings.] Ut, re, sol, la, mi, fa. - Under pardon, 
	sir, what are the contents? Or, rather, as Horace says in his 
	- what, my soul! Verses?

Nathaniel	Ay, sir, and very learned.

Holofernes	Let me hear a staff, a stanze, a verse. Lege, domine.

Nathaniel	[Reads.]
	If love make me forsworn, how shall I swear to love?
		Ah, never faith could hold, if not to beauty vowed;
	Though to myself forsworn, to thee I'll faithful prove.
		Those thoughts to me were oaks, to thee like osiers bowed.
	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.
		Well learnd 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.
	Celestial as thou art, O, pardon love this wrong,
	That sings heaven's praise with such an earthly tongue!

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

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

Holofernes	I will overglance the superscript.

	[Reads.]	"To the 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.

	[Reads.]	"Your ladyship's in all desired employment, 
	Berowne."

	Sir Nathaniel, this Berowne 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 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.

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

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

Nathaniel	Marvellous well for the pen.

Holofernes	I do dine today 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 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.

Nathaniel	And thank you too, for society, saith the text, is 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 their game, and we 
	will to our recreation.
															[Exeunt.
