_Moth._ A man, if I live; and this, by, in, and without, upon the instant: by heart you love her, because your heart cannot come by her; in heart you love her, because your heart is in love with her; and out of heart you love her, 40 being out of heart that you cannot enjoy her. _Arm._ I am all these three. _Moth._ And three times as much more, and yet nothing at all. _Arm._ Fetch hither the swain: he must carry me a letter. 45 _Moth._ A message well sympathized; a horse to be ambassador for an ass. _Arm._ 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. 50 _Arm._ The way is but short: away! _Moth._ As swift as lead, sir. _Arm._ The meaning, pretty ingenious? Is not lead a metal heavy, dull, and slow? _Moth._ Minimè, honest master; or rather, master, no. 55 _Arm._ I say lead is slow. _Moth._ You are too swift, sir, to say so: Is that lead slow which is fired from a gun? _Arm._ 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._ 60 _Arm._ A most acute juvenal; volable 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. 65 _Arm._ Some enigma, some riddle: come, thy l’envoy; begin. _Cost._ No egma, 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! _Arm._ By virtue, thou enforcest laughter; thy silly 70 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? _Moth._ Do the wise think them other? is not l’envoy a salve? 75 _Arm._ 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. 80 There’s the moral. Now the l’envoy. _Moth._ I will add the l’envoy. Say the moral again. _Arm._ The fox, the ape, the humble-bee, Were still at odds, being but three. _Moth._ Until the goose came out of door, 85 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. 90 _Arm._ Until the goose came out of door, Staying the odds by adding four. _Moth._ A good l’envoy, ending in the goose: would you desire more?