HOLOFERNES.
Quare “chirrah”, not “sirrah”?
ARMADO.
Men of peace, well encountered.
HOLOFERNES.
Most military sir, salutation.
MOTH.
[Aside to Costard.] They have been at a great feast of languages and stolen the scraps.
COSTARD.
O, they have lived long on the almsbasket of words. I marvel thy master hath not eaten thee for a word, for thou art not so long by the head as honorificabilitudinitatibus. Thou art easier swallowed than a flap-dragon.
MOTH.
Peace! The peal begins.
ARMADO.
[To Holofernes.] Monsieur, are you not lettered?
MOTH.
Yes, yes, he teaches boys the hornbook. What is a, b, spelt backward with the horn on his head?
HOLOFERNES.
Ba, pueritia, with a horn added.
MOTH.
Ba, most silly sheep with a horn. You hear his learning.