MOTH A message well sympathized; a horse to be ambassador
for an ass.
DON
ADRIANO DE ARMADO Ha, ha! what sayest thou?
MOTH Marry, sir, you must send the ass upon the horse,
for he is very slow-gaited. But I go.
DON
ADRIANO DE ARMADO The way is but short: away!
MOTH As swift as lead, sir.
DON
ADRIANO DE ARMADO The meaning, pretty ingenious?
Is not lead a metal heavy, dull, and slow?
MOTH Minime, honest master; or rather, master, no.
DON
ADRIANO DE ARMADO I say lead is slow.
MOTH You are too swift, sir, to say so:
Is that lead slow which is fired from a gun?
DON
ADRIANO DE ARMADO Sweet smoke of rhetoric!
He reputes me a cannon; and the bullet, that's he:
I shoot thee at the swain.
MOTH Thump then and I flee.
[Exit]
DON
ADRIANO DE ARMADO A most acute juvenal; 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.
[Re-enter MOTH with COSTARD]
MOTH A wonder, master! here's a costard broken in a shin.
DON
ADRIANO DE ARMADO Some enigma, some riddle: come, thy l'envoy; begin.
COSTARD 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!
DON
ADRIANO DE ARMADO By virtue, thou enforcest laughter; thy silly
thought my spleen; the heaving of my lungs provokes
me to ridiculous smiling.
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