voluble and free of grace!
By thy favour, sweet welkin, I must sigh in thy face:
Most rude melancholy, valour gives thee place.
My herald is return'd.
A wonder, master! here's a costard broken in a shin.
Some enigma, some riddle: come, thy l'envoy; begin.
No enigma, no riddle, no l'envoy; no salve in the
mail, sir: O, sir, plantain, a plain plantain! no
l'envoy, no l'envoy; no salve, sir, but a plantain!
By virtue, thou enforcest laughter; thy silly
thought my spleen; the heaving of my lungs provokes
me to ridiculous smiling. O, pardon me, my stars!
Doth the inconsiderate take salve for l'envoy, and
the word l'envoy for a salve?
Do the wise think them other? is not l'envoy a salve?
No, page: it is an epilogue or discourse, to make plain
Some obscure precedence that hath tofore been sain.
I will example it:
The fox, the ape, and the humble-bee,
Were still at odds, being but three.
There's the moral. Now the l'envoy.
I will add the l'envoy. Say the moral again.
The fox, the ape, and the humble-bee,
Were still at odds, being but three.
Until the goose came out of door,
And stay'd the odds by adding four.
Now will I begin your moral, and do you follow with
my l'envoy.
The fox, the ape, and the humble-bee,
Were still at odds, being but three.
Until the goose came out of door,
Staying the odds by adding four.
A good l'envoy, ending in the goose: would you
desire more?
The boy hath sold him a bargain, a goose, that's flat.
Sir, your pennyworth is good, an your goose be fat.
To sell a bargain well is as cunning as fast and loose:
Let me see; a fat l'envoy; ay, that's a fat goose.
Come hither, come hither. How did this argument begin?
By saying that a costard was broken in a shin.
Then call'd you for the l'envoy.
True, and I for a plantain: thus came your
argument in;
Then the boy's fat l'envoy, the goose that you bought;
And he ended the market.
But tell me; how was there a costard broken in a shin?
I will tell you sensibly.
Thou hast no feeling of it, Moth: I will speak that l'envoy:
I Costard, running out, that was safely within,
Fell over the threshold and broke my shin.
We will talk no more of this matter.
Till there be more matter in the shin.
Sirrah Costard, I will enfranchise thee.
O,