And made a pish at chance and sufferance.'

ANT. Yet bend not all the harm upon yourself; Make those, that do offend you, suffer too.

LEON. There thou speak'st reason: nay, I will do fo:

My foul doth tell me, Hero is bely'd;

And that fhall Claudio know, fo fhall the prince, And all of them, that thus dishonour her.

Enter Don PEDRO and CLAUDIO.

ANT. Here comes the prince, and Claudio, haftily. D. PEDRO. Good den, good den.

CLAUD.

Good day to both of you.

LEON. Hear you, my lords,—

D. PEDRO.

We have some hafte, Leonato.

LEON. Some hafte, my lord!-well, fare you well, my lord:

Are

you fo hafty now?-well, all is one.

D. PEDRO. Nay, do not quarrel with us, good old

man.

ANT. If he could right himself with quarreling, Some of us would lie low.

CLAUD.

LEON.

Who wrongs him?

Marry,

6

Thou, thou doft wrong me; thou diffembler,

thou:

Nay, never lay thy hand upon thy fword,

I fear thee not.

5 And made a pish at chance and fufferance.] Alludes to their famous apathy. WARBURTON.

The old copies read-push. Corrected by Mr. Pope. MALONE. Thou, thou-] I have repeated the word-thon, for the fake of measure. STEEVENS.

CLAUD. Marry, befhrew my hand, If it should give your age fuch cause of fear: In faith, my hand meant nothing to my sword. LEON. Tush, tush, man, never fleer and jeft at

me:

I fpeak not like a dotard, nor a fool;
As, under privilege of age, to brag

What I have done being young, or what would do,
Were I not old: Know, Claudio, to thy head,
Thou haft fo wrong'd mine innocent child and me,
That I am forc'd to lay my reverence by;
And, with grey hairs, and bruise of many days,
Do challenge thee to trial of a man.

I fay, thou haft bely'd mine innocent child;
Thy flander hath gone through and through her
heart,

And the lyes buried with her ancestors:
O! in a tomb where never scandal flept,
Save this of her's, fram'd by thy villainy.
CLAUD. My villainy!

LEON.

Thine, Claudio; thine I fay.

D. PEDRO. You say not right, old man.

LEON.

My lord, my lord,

I'll prove it on his body, if he dare;
Despite his nice fence, and his active practice,
His May of youth, and bloom of luftyhood.

CLAUD. Away, I will not have to do with you. LEON. Canft thou fo daff me?" Thou haft kill'd my child;

If thou kill'ft me, boy, thou fhalt kill a man.

5 Defpite his nice fence,] i. e. defence, or skill in the science of fencing, or defence. DOUCE.

6 Can't thou fo daff me?] This is a country word, Mr. Pope tells us, fignifying, daunt. It may be fo; but that is not the expofition here: To daff and doff are fynonymous terms, that

ANT. He fhall kill two of us, and men indeed: " But that's no matter; let him kill one first ;— Win me and wear me,—let him answer me:Come, follow me, boy; come, boy, follow me: Sir boy, I'll whip you from your foining fence;" Nay, as I am a gentleman, I will.

LEON. Brother,

8

ANT. Content yourfelf: God knows, I lov'd my niece;

mean to put off which is the very fenfe required here, and what Leonato would reply, upon Claudio's faying, he would have nothing to do with him. THEOBALD.

Theobald has well interpreted the word. Shakspeare uses it more than once. Thus, in K. Henry IV. P. I:

"The nimble-footed mad-cap Prince of Wales,

"And his comrades, that daff'd the world aside.”

Again, in the comedy before us:

"I would have daff'd all other respects," &c.

Again, in The Lover's Complaint:

"There my white ftole of chaftity I daff'd."

It is, perhaps, of Scottish origin, as I find it in Ane verie excellent and delectabill Treatife intitulit PHILOTUS, &c. Edinburgh, 1603: "Their daffing does us fo undo." STEEVENS.

7 Ant. He shall kill two of us, &c.] This brother Antony is the trueft picture imaginable of human nature. He had affumed the character of a fage to comfort his brother, overwhelmed with grief for his only daughter's affront and dishonour; and had feverely reproved him for not commanding his paffion better on fo trying an occafion. Yet, immediately after this, no fooner does he begin to fufpect that his age and valour are flighted, but he falls into the most intemperate fit of rage himself: and all he can do or fay is not of power to pacify him. This is copying nature with a penetration and exactness of judgement peculiar to Shakspeare. As to the expreffion, too, of his paffion, nothing can be more highly painted. WARBURTON.

come, boy, follow me:] Here the old copies deftroy the measure by reading

come, fir boy, come, follow me:"

I have omitted the unneceffary words. STEEVENS.

9

foining fence;] Foining is a term in fencing, and means thrufting. DouCE.

And fhe is dead, flander'd to death by villains;
That dare as well anfwer a man, indeed,
As I dare take a ferpent by the tongue :
Boys, apes, braggarts, Jacks, milkfops!-
LEON.
Brother Antony,-

ANT. Hold you content; What, man! I know them, yea,

And what they weigh, even to the utmost scruple:
Scambling, out-facing, fafhion-mong'ring boys,
That lie, and cog, and flout, deprave and flander,
Go antickly, and fhow outward hideoufnefs,'
And fpeak off half a dozen dangerous words,
How they might hurt their enemies, if they durft,
And this is all.

LEON. But, brother Antony,

ANT.

Come, 'tis no matter; Do not you meddle, let me deal in this.

2

D. PEDRO. Gentlemen both, we will not wake your patience.+

Scambling,] i. e. fcrambling. The word is more than once afed by Shakspeare. See Dr. Percy's note on the firft fpeech of the play of K. Henry V. and likewife the Scots proverb, “It is well ken'd your father's fon was never a Scambler." A fcambler in its literal fenfe, is one who goes about among his friends to get a dinner, by the Irish called a cofberer. STEEVENS.

bow outward hideoufnefs,] i. e. what in King Henry V. A&t III. fc. vi. is called

a horrid fuit of the camp." STEEVENS.

we will not wake your patience.] This conveys a fentiment that the fpeaker would by no means have implied,-That the patience of the two old men was not exercifed, but afleep, which upbraids them for infenfibility under their wrong. Shakfpeare must have wrote:

we will not wrack.

i. e. deftroy your patience by tantalizing you. WARBURTON.

This emendation is very fpecious, and perhaps is right; yet the prefent reading may admit a congruous meaning with lefs difficulty than many other of Shakspeare's expreffions.

My heart is forry for your daughter's death;
But, on my honour, fhe was charg'd with nothing
But what was true, and very full of proof.

LEON. My lord, my lord,

D. PEDRO.

LEON.

I will not hear you.

Brother, away: -I will be heard ;-
ANT.

Or fome of us will fmart for it.

No?

And fhall,

[Exeunt LEONATO and ANTONIO.

Enter BENEDICK.

D. PEDRO. See, fee; here comes the man we went to seek.

CLAUD. Now, fignior! what news!

BENE. Good day, my lord.

D. PEDRO. Welcome, fignior: You are almost come to part almost a fray.

The old men have been both very angry and outrageous; the prince tells them that he and Claudio will not wake their patience; will not any longer force them to endure the prefence of those whom, though they look on them as enemies, they cannot resist.

JOHNSON.

Wake, I believe, is the original word. The ferocity of wild beasts is overcome by not fuffering them to fleep. We will not wake your patience, therefore means, we will forbear any further provocation. HENLEY.

The fame phrase occurs in Othello:

"Thou hadst been better have been born a dog, "Than answer my wak'd wrath." STEEVENS. s Brother, away:-] The old copies, without regard to metre, read

Come, brother, away, &c.

I have omitted the useless and redundant word-come. STEEVENS. 6 to part almoft-] This fecond almoft appears like a cafual infertion of the compofitor. As the fenfe is complete without it, I wish the omiflion of it had been licensed by either of the ancient copies. STEEVENS.