It made trouble for the early compositors, who spell it 'Dictisima' and 'Dictima.'
IV. ii. 42. The allusion holds in the exchange. That is, the point of the jest is still seen when Holofernes recasts (in ll. 40, 41) the form in which Dull has given it (l. 36).
IV. ii. 82. vir sapit qui pauca loquitur. That man is wise who speaks little. The sentence is borrowed directly from Lyly's Latin grammar.
IV. ii. 96–98. Fauste, precor gelida quando pecus omne sub umbra Ruminat . . . good old Mantuan. Holofernes quotes the opening words of the first eclogue of Mantuanus (Baptista Spagnuoli of Mantua, d. 1516), whose Latin poems were an elementary textbook in the schools of the day. The early editions read 'Facile' instead of 'Fauste,' which the recent Cambridge editors think an intentional misquotation. It is more probably a compositor's misreading of Shakespeare's manuscript.
IV. ii. 100, 101. Venetia, Venetia, Chi non te vede, non te pretia. Archaic Italian: 'Venice, Venice, he who has not seen thee cannot value thee.' The words are gibberish as they appear in the early editions. Theobald first explained them.
IV. ii. 103, 104. Ut, re, sol, la, mi, fa. Notes of the old musical scale in incorrect order. They should run: 'ut (later replaced by "do"), re, mi, fa, sol, la.'
IV. ii. 105. As Horace says in his —. What saying of Horace Holofernes has in mind the commentators have failed to discover.
IV. ii. 124. You find not the apostrophas. You pronounce syllables which should be omitted. Or perhaps, as Gollancz suggests, Holofernes means the reverse (diereses): You omit syllables which should be pronounced.
IV. ii. 126. numbers ratified. Metre sanctioned by convention.
