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nowned Claudio (whose estimation do you mightily hold up) to a contaminated stale, such a one as Hero.

D. John. What proof shall I make of that?

Bora. Proof enough to misuse the prince, to vex Claudio, to undo Hero, and kill Leonato: Look you for any other issue?

D. John. Only to despite them, I will endeavour any thing.

1 Bora. Go then, find me a meet hour to draw Don

i Bora. Go then, find me a meet hour to draw Don Pedro and the count Claudio, alone: tell them, that you know that Hero loves me ;offer them instances; which shall bear no less likelihood, than to see me at her chamber-window; hear me call Margaret, Hero; hear Margaret term me Claudio; and bring them to see this, the very night before the intended wedding:] Thus the whole stream of the editions from the first quarto downwards. I am obliged here to give a short account of the plot depending, that the emendation I have made may appear the more clear and unquestionable. The business stands thus: Claudio, a favourite of the Arragon prince, is, by his intercessions with her father, to be married to fair Hero; Don John, natural brother of the prince, and a hater of Claudio, is in his spleen zealous to disappoint the match. Borachio, a rascally dependant on Don John, offers his assistance, and engages to break off the marriage by this stratagem. "Tell the prince and Claudio (says he) tlrat Hero is in love with me; they won't believe it: offer them proofs, as that they shall see me converse with her in her chamber-window. I am in the good graces of her waiting-woman, Margaret; and I'll prevail with Margaret, at a dead hour of night, to personate her mistress Hero; do you then bring the prince and Claudio to overhear our discourse; and they shall have the torment to hear me address Margaret by the name of Hero, and her say sweet things to me by the name of Claudio.". -This is the substance of Borachio's device to make Hero suspected of disloyalty, and to break off her match with Claudio. But, in the name of common sense, could it displease Claudio, to hear his mistress making use of his name tenderly? If he saw another man with her, and heard her call him Claudio, he might reasonably think her betrayed, but not have the same reason to accuse her of disloyalty. Besides, how could her naming Claudio, make the prince and Claudio believe that she loved Borachio, as he desires Don John to insinuate to them that she did? The circumstances weighed, there is no doubt but the passage ought to be reformed, as I have settled in the texthear me call Margaret, Hero; hear Margaret term me, Borachio. Theobald.

Though I have followed Mr. Theobald's direction, I am not convinced that this change of names is absolutely necessary. Claudio would naturally resent the circumstance of hearing another

Pedro and the count Claudio, alone: tell them, that you know that Hero loves me; intend a kind of zeal2 both to the prince and Claudio, as-in love of your brother's honour who hath made this match; and his friend's reputation, who is thus like to be cozen'd with the semblance of a maid,—that you have discover'd thus. They will scarcely believe this without trial: offer them instances; which shall bear no less likelihood, than to see me at her chamber-window; hear me call Margaret, Hero; hear Margaret term me Borachio; and bring them to see this, the very night before the intended wedding: for, in the mean time, I will so fashion the matter, that Hero shall be absent; and there shall appear such seeming truth of Hero's disloyalty, that jealousy shall be call'd assurance, and all the preparation

overthrown.

D. John. Grow this to what adverse issue it can, I will put it in practice: Be cunning in the working this, and thy fee is a thousand ducats.

Bora. Be you constant in the accusation, and my cunning shall not shame me.

D. John. I will presently go learn their day of marriage. [Exeunt.

called by his own name; because in that case baseness of treachery would appear to be aggravated by wantonness of insult; and, at the same time he would imagine the person so distinguished to be Borachio, because Don John was previously to have informed both him and Don Pedro that Borachio was the favoured lover. Steevens.

We should surely read Borachio instead of Claudio.-There could be no reason why Margaret should call him Claudio; and that would ill agree with what Borachio says in the last Act, where he declares that Margaret knew not what she did when she spoke to him. M. Mason.

Claudio would naturally be enraged to find his mistress, Hero, (for such he would imagine Margaret to be) address Borachio, or any other man, by his name, as he might suppose that she called him by the name of Claudio in consequence of a secret agreement between them, as a cover, in case she were overheard; and he would know, without a possibility of error, that it was not Claudio, with whom in fact she conversed. Malone.

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- intend a kind of zeal -] i. e. pretend. So, in King Rich ard III:

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Intending deep suspicion." Steevens.

SCENE III.

LEONATO'S Garden.

Enter BENEDICK and a Boy.

Bene. Boy,

Boy. Signior.

Bene. In my chamber-window lies a book; bring it hither to me in the orchard. 3

Boy. I am here already, sir.

Bene. I know that;-but I would have thee hence, and here again. [Exit Boy]—I do much wonder, that one man, seeing how much another man is a fool when he dedicates his behaviours to love, will, after he hath laugh'd at such shallow follies in others, become the argument of his own scorn, by falling in love: And such a man is Claudio. I have known, when there was no musick with him but the drum and the fife; and now had he rather hear the tabor and the pipe: I have known, when he would have walk'd ten mile a foot, to see a good armour; and now will he lie ten nights awake, carving the fashion of a new doublet. He was wont to speak

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in the orchard.] Gardens were anciently called orchards. So, in Romeo and Juliet:

"The orchard walls are high, and hard to climb." Steevens. carving the fashion of a new doublet.] This folly, so conspicuous in the gallants of former ages, is laughed at by all our comic writers. So, in Greene's Farewel to Folly, 1617: "-We are almost as fantastic as the English gentleman that is painted naked, with a pair of sheers in his hand, as not being resolved after what fashion to have his coat cut." Steevens.

The English gentleman in the above extract alludes to a plate in Borde's Introduction of Knowledge. In Barnaby Riche's Faults and nothing but Faults, 4to, 1606, p. 6, we have the following account of a Fashionmonger: - here comes first the Fashionmonger that spends his time in the contemplation of sutes. Alas! good gentleman, there is something amisse with him. I perceive it by his sad and heavie countenance: for my life his tailer and he are at some square about the making of his new sute; he hath cut it after the old stampe of some stale fashion that is at the least of a whole fortnight's standing." Reed.

The English gentleman is represented [by Borde] naked, with a pair of tailor's sheers in one hand, and a piece of cloth on his arm, with the following verses:

"I am an Englishman, and naked I stand here,

"Musing in my mynde what rayment I shall were,

plain, and to the purpose, like an honest man, and a soldier; and now is he turn'd orthographer;5 his words are a very fantastical banquet, just so many strange dishes. May I be so converted, and see with these eyes? I cannot tell: I think not: I will not be sworn, but love may transform me to an oyster; but I'll take my oath on it, till he have made an oyster of me, he shall never make me such a fool. One woman is fair; yet I am well: another is wise; yet I am well: another virtuous; yet I am well: but till all graces be in one woman, one woman shall not come in my grace. Rich she shall be, that 's certain; wise, or I 'll none; virtuous, or I'll never cheapen her; fair, or I'll never look on her; mild, or come not near me; noble, or not I for an angel; of good discourse, an excellent musician, and her hair shall be of what colour it please God. Ha!

"For now I will ware this, and now I will were that,
"Now I will were I cannot tell what," &c.

See Camden's Remaines, 1614, p. 17. Malone.

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orthographer;] The old copies read-orthography. Corrected by Mr. Pope. Steevens.

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and her hair shall be of what colour it please God.] Perhaps Benedick alludes to a fashion, very common in the time of Shakspeare, that of dying the hair.

Stubbes, in his Anatomy of Abuses, 1595, speaking of the attires of women's heads, says: "If any have haire of her owne naturall growing, which is not faire ynough, then will they die it in divers colours." Steevens.

The practice of dying the hair was one of those fashions so frequent before and in Queen Elizabeth's time, as to be thought worthy of particular animadversion from the pulpit. In the Homily against excess of apparel, b. 1. 1547, after mentioning the common excuses of some nice and vain women for painting their faces, dying their hair, &c. the preacher breaks out into the following invective: "Who can paynt her face, and curle her heere, and chaunge it into an unnaturall coloure, but therein doth worke reprofe to her maker who made her? as thoughe she coulde make herselfe more comelye than God hath appoynted the measure of her beautie. What do these women but go about to refourme that which God hath made? not knowyng that all thynges naturall is the worke of God: and thynges disguysed and unnatural be the workes of the devyll," &c. Reed.

Or he may allude to the fashion of wearing false hair, "of whatever colour it pleased God." So, in a subsequent scene: "I like the new tire within, if the hair were a thought browner." Fines Moryson, describing the dress of the ladies of Shakspeare's

the prince and monsieur Love! I will hide me in the arbour. [Withdraws.

Enter Don PEDRO, LEONATO, and CLAUDIO. D. Pedro. Come, shall we hear this musick? Claud. Yea, my good lord:-How still the evening is, As hush'd on purpose to grace harmony!

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D. Pedro. See you where Benedick hath hid himself? Claud. O, very well, my lord: the musick ended, We'll fit the kid-fox with a penny-worth.7

Enter BALTHAZAR, with musick.8

D. Pedro. Come, Balthazar, we 'll hear that song again.9

time, says, "Gentlewomen virgins weare gownes close to the body, and aprons of fine linnen, and go bareheaded, with their hair curiously knotted, and raised at the forehead, but many (against the cold, as they say) weare caps of hair that is not their own. See The Two Gentlemen of Verona. Malone.

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The practice of colouring the hair in Shakspeare's time, receives considerable illustration from Maria Magdalene her Life and Repentance, 1567, where Infidelitie (the Vice) recommends her to a goldsmith to dye her hair yellow with some preparation, when it should fade; and Carnal Concupiscence tells her likewise that there was "other geare besides goldsmith's water," for the purpose. Douce.

7 Pedro. See you where Benedick hath hid himself?

Claudio. O, very well, my lord: the musick ended,

We'll fit the kid-fox with a penny-worth.] i. e. we will be even with the fox now discovered. So the word kid or kidde, signifies in Chaucer:'

"The soothfastness that now is hid,

"Without coverture shall be bid,
"When I undoen have this dreming."

"Perceiv'd or shew'd,

Romaunt of the Rose, 2171, &c.

Troilus and Cresseide, lib. i, 208.

"He kidde anon his bone was not broken."

"With that anon sterte out daungere,
"Out of the place where he was hidde;
"His malice in his cheere was kidde."

Romaunt of the Rose, 2130. Grey. It is not impossible but that Shakspeare chose on this occasion, to employ an antiquated word: and yet if any future editor should choose to read-hid fox, he may observe that Hamlet has said"Hide fox and all after." Steevens.

Dr. Warburton reads as Mr. Steevens proposes.

Malone.

A kid-fox seems to be no more than a young fox or cub. In As you Like it, we have the expression of "two dog-apes." Ritson.

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