. is twice as much and a
halfe as halfe an As. But value you him how you will, I am sure he
highly valueth himselfe. This fellow, this H.S. reading (for I would
you should knowe he is _a reader and a writer too_) under my last
epistle to the reader J.F. made as familiar a word of F. as if I had
bin his brother. Now Recte fit oculis magister tuis, said an ancient
writer to a much-like reading gramarian-pedante[31]: God save your
eie-sight, sir, or at least your insight. And might not a man, that
can do as much as you (that is, reade) finde as much matter out of
H.S. as you did out of J.F.? As for example H.S. why may it not stand
as well for Haeres Stultitiae, as for Homo Simplex? or for Hircus
Satiricus, as well as for any of them? And this in Latine, besides
Hedera Seguace, Harpia Subata, Humore Superbo, Hipocrito Simulatore
in Italian. And in English world without end. Huffe Snuffe, Horse
Stealer, Hob Sowter, Hugh Sot, Humphrey Swineshead, Hodge Sowgelder.
Now Master H.S. if this do gaule you, forbeare kicking hereafter, and
in the meane time you may make a plaister of your dried Marjoram. I
have seene in my daies an inscription, harder to finde out the
meaning, and yet easier for a man to picke a better meaning out of
it, if he be not a man of H.S. condition."

It will be noticed that Florio's reflections upon Shakespeare's
breeding, morals, and manners, while couched in coarser terms, are of
the same nature as Chapman's. Ben Jonson,--as shall later be shown,--in
_Every Man out of his Humour_, casts similar slurs at Shakespeare's
provincial origin. It is likely that the friend whose sonnet had been
criticised and who was called a "rymer" by "H.S." was none other than
George Chapman. The fifth _book_ of Shakespeare's Sonnets to the Earl of
Southampton was written against Chapman's advances upon his patron's
favour. In the tenth Sonnet in this _book_, which is numbered as the
38th in Thorpe's arrangement, Shakespeare refers to Chapman as a rhymer
in the lines:

"Be thou the tenth Muse ten times more in worth
Than those old nine which _rhymers_ invocate."

The few records concerning Florio, from which we may derive any idea of
his personal appearance and manner, suggest a very singular
individuality. There was evidently something peculiar about his face; he
was undoubtedly witty and worldly-wise, a braggart, a sycophant, and
somewhat of a buffoon. He