Beatrice. If we can do this, Cupid is no longer an archer; his glory fhall be ours, for we are the only love-gods. Go in with me, and I will tell you my drift. [Exeunt. SCENE II. Another Room in LEONATO's Houfe. Enter Don JOHN and BORACHIO. D. JOHN. It is fo; the count Claudio fhall marry the daughter of Leonato. BORA. Yea, my lord; but I can cross it. D. JOHN. Any bar, any crofs, any impediment will be medicinable to me: I am fick in difpleasure to him; and whatsoever comes athwart his affection, ranges evenly with mine. How canft thou crofs this marriage? BORA. Not honeftly, my lord; but fo covertly that no dishonesty shall appear in me. D. JOHN. Show me briefly how. BORA. I think, I told your lordship, a year fince, how much I am in the favour of Margaret, the waiting-gentlewoman to Hero. D. JOHN. I remember. BORA. I can, at any unfeasonable instant of the night, appoint her to look out at her lady's chamberwindow. D. JOHN. What life is in that, to be the death of this marriage? BORA. The poifon of that lies in you to temper. Go you to the prince your brother; fpare not to tell him, that he hath wrong'd his honour in marrying the renowned Claudio (whofe eftimation do you mightily hold up) to a contaminated ftale, fuch a one as Hero. D. JOHN. What proof fhall I make of that? BORA. Proof enough to mifufe the prince, to vex Claudio, to undo Hero, and kill Leonato: Look you for any other iffue? D. JOHN. Only to defpite them, I will endeavour any thing. *BORA. Go then, find me a meet hour to draw 4 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 inftances; which shall bear no less likelihood, than to fee me at her chamber-window; hear me call Margaret, Hero; bear Margaret term me Claudio; and bring them to fee this, the very night before the intended wedding :] Thus the whole ftream of the editions from the first quarto downwards. I am obliged here to give a fhort account of the plot depending, that the emendation I have made may appear the more clear and unquestionable. The bufinefs ftands thus: Claudio, a favourite of the Arragon prince, is, by his interceffions with her father, to be married to fair Hero; Don John, natural brother of the prince, and a hater of Claudio, is in his fpleen zealous to difappoint the match. Borachio, a raf cally dependant on Don John, offers his affiftance, and engages to break off the marriage by this ftratagem. Tell the prince and Claudio (favs he) that Hero is in love with me; they won't believe it: offer them proofs, as, that they fhall fee 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 perfonate her miftrefs Hero; do you then bring the prince and Claudio to overhear our difcourfe; and they fhall have the torment to hear me addrefs Margaret by the name of Hero, and her fay fweet things to me by the name of Claudio."- This is the fubftance of Borachio's device to make Hero fufpected of difloyalty, and to break off her match with Claudio. But, in the name of common fenfe, could it difpleafe Claudio, to hear his mistress making use of his name tenderly? If he faw another man with her, and heard her call him Claudio, he might reafonably think her betrayed, but not have the fame reason to accufe her of disloyalty. Besides, how could her naming Claudio, make the prince and Claudio believe that she loved Borachio, as he defires Don John to infinuate to them that fhe did? The circum Don Pedro and the count Claudio, alone: tell them, that you know that Hero loves me; intend a kind of zeal 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 femblance of a maid,-that you have discover'd thus. They will scarcely believe this without trial: offer them inftances; which shall bear no less likelihood, than to fee me at her chamber-window; hear me call Margaret, Hero; hear Margaret term me Borachio; and bring them to fee this, the very night before the intended wedding: for, in the mean time, I will fo fashion the ftances weighed, there is no doubt but the paffage ought to be reformed, as I have fettled in the text-bear me call Margaret, Hero; bear Margaret term me, Borachio. THEOBALD. Though I have followed Mr. Theobald's direction, I am not convinced that this change of names is abfolutely neceffary. Claudio would naturally refent the circumftance of hearing another called by his own name; because, in that cafe, baseness of treachery would appear to be aggravated by wantonnefs of infult; and, at the fame time he would imagine the perfon fo diftinguished 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 furely read Borachio instead of Claudio.-There could be no reason why Margaret fhould call him Claudio; and that would ill agree with what Borachio fays 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 fuch he would imagine Margaret to be,) addrefs Borachio, or any other man, by his name, as he might fuppofe that the called him by the name of Claudio in confequence of a fecret agreement between them, as a cover, in cafe fhe were overheard; and be would know, without a poffibility of error, that it was not Claudio, with whom in fact the converfed. MALONE. ́s intend a kind of zeal—] i. e. pretend. So, in King Richard III: matter, that Hero fhall be abfent; and there fhall appear fuch feeming truth of Hero's difloyalty, that jealoufy fhall be call'd affurance, 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 conftant in the accufation, and my cunning fhall not shame me. D. JOHN. I will presently go learn their day of marriage. [Exeunt. SCENE III. LEONATO'S Garden. Enter BENEDICK and a Boy. BENE. BOY, Bor. Signior. BENE. In my chamber-window lies a book; bring it hither to me in the orchard." Bor. I am here already, fir. BENE. I know that ;-but I would have thee hence, and here again. [Exit Boy.]-I do much wonder, that one man, feeing how much another man is a fool when he dedicates his behaviours to love, will, after he hath laugh'd at fuch fhallow follies in others, become the argument of his own scorn, by falling in love: And fuch a man is Claudio. I have known, when there was no mufick with him 6 in the orchard.] Gardens were anciently called orchards. So, in Romeo and Juliet: "The orchard walls are high, and hard to climb.” STEEVENS. 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 afoot, to fee a good armour; and now will he lie ten nights awake, carving the fashion of a new doublet. He was wont to fpeak plain, and to the purpose, like an honest man, and a foldier; and now is he turn'd orthographer;" his words are a very fantastical banquet, juft fo many ftrange dishes. May I be fo converted, and fee with these eyes? I cannot tell; I think not: I will not be fworn, but love may transform me to an oyfter; but I'll take my oath on it, till he have made an oyster of me, he fhall never make me fuch a fool. One woman is fair; yet I am well: ano carving the fashion of a new doublet.] This folly, fo confpicuous in the gallants of former ages, is laughed at by all our comic writers. So, in Greene's Farewell to Folly, 1617: "-We are almoft as fantastic as the English gentleman that is painted naked, with a pair of fheers in his hand, as not being refolved 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 Faultsand nothing but Faults, 4to. 1606, p. 6, we have the following account of a Fashionmonger: here comes firft the Fashionmonger that fpends his time in the contemplation of futes. Alas! good gentleman, there is fomething amifle with him. I perceive it by his fad and heavie countenance: for my life his tailer and he are at fome fquare about the making of his new fute; he hath cut it after the old ftampe of fome ftale fashion that is at the least of a whole fortnight's standing." REED. The English gentleman is reprefented [by Borde] naked, with a pair of tailor's fheers in one hand, and a piece of cloth on his arm, with the following verfes: "I am an Englishman, and naked I ftand here, "Mufing in my mynde what rayment I shall were, See Camden's Remaines, 1614, p. 17. MALONE. 8 orthographer;] The old copies read-orthography. Corrected by Mr. Pope. STEEVENS. |