When after that the holy rites are ended,

I'll tell you largely of fair Hero's death:
Meantime let wonder seem familiar,

And to the chapel let us presently.

Bene. Soft and fair, friar. Which is Beatrice?

Beat. [Unmasking] I answer to that name. What is your will?

Bene. Do not you love me?

Beat.

Why, no; no more than reason.

Bene. Why, then your uncle, and the prince, and Claudio Have been deceived; they swore you did.

Beat. Do not you love me?

Bene.
Troth, no; no more than reason.
Beat. Why, then my cousin, Margaret, and Ursula
Are much deceived; for they did swear you did.

Bene. They swore that you were almost sick for me.
Beat. They swore that you were well-nigh dead for me.
Bene. 'Tis no such matter. Then you do not love me?
Beat. No, truly, but in friendly recompense.

70

75

80

Leon. Come, cousin, I am sure you love the gentleman.
Claud. And I'll be sworn upon't that he loves her;

85

Writ in my cousin's hand, stolen from her pocket,
Containing her affection unto Benedick.

Bene. A miracle! here's our own hands against our hearts. Come, I will have thee; but, by this light, I take thee for pity.

90

Beat. I would not deny you; but, by this good day, I yield upon great persuasion; and partly to save your life, 95 for I was told you were in a consumption.

Bene. Peace! I will stop your mouth. [Kissing her. D. Pedro. How dost thou, Benedick, the married man? Bene. I'll tell thee what, prince; a college of wit-crackers cannot flout me out of my humour. Dost thou think I care 100 for a satire or an epigram? No: if a man will be beaten with brains, a' shall wear nothing handsome about him. In brief, since I do purpose to marry, I will think nothing to any purpose that the world can say against it; and therefore never flout at me for what I have said against it; for man 105 is a giddy thing, and this is my conclusion. For thy part, Claudio, I did think to have beaten thee; but in that thou art like to be my kinsman, live unbruised, and love my cousin.

Claud. I had well hoped thou wouldst have denied Beatrice, that I might have cudgelled thee out of thy single life, 110 to make thee a double-dealer; which, out of question, thou wilt be, if my cousin do not look exceeding narrowly to thee.

Bene. Come, come, we are friends: let's have a dance ere we are married, that we may lighten our own hearts, and our wives' heels.

Leon. We'll have dancing afterward.

Bene. First, of my word; therefore play, music. Prince, thou art sad; get thee a wife, get thee a wife: there is no staff more reverend than one tipped with horn.

Enter a Messenger.

Mess. My lord, your brother John is ta'en in flight, And brought with armed men back to Messina.

Bene. Think not on him till to-morrow: I'll devise thee

115

120

NOTES.

NOTE I.

DRAMATIS PERSONE. Rowe and Pope included in the list of Dramatis Personæ, 'Innogen, wife to Leonato.' At the beginning of the first scene the Quarto and the Folios have, 'Enter Leonato Governour of Messina, Innogen his wife, &c.' and at the beginning of Act II. Sc. 1, 'Enter Leonato, his brother, his wife, &c.' But as no reference is made to such a character throughout the play, Theobald was doubtless right in striking the name out. The author probably, as Theobald observed, had designed such a character in his first sketch, and afterwards saw reason to omit it. It is impossible to conceive that Hero's mother should have been present during the scenes in which the happiness and honour of her daughter were at issue, without taking a part, or being once referred to.

NOTE II.

I. I. 124. The punctuation which we have adopted seems to be the only one which will make sense of this passage without altering the text. We must suppose that, during the 'skirmish of wit' between Benedick and Beatrice, from line 96 to 123, Don Pedro and Leonato have been talking apart and making arrangements for the visit of the Prince and his friends, the one pressing his hospitable offers and the other, according to the manners of the time, making a show of reluctance to accept them.

NOTE III.

1. 1. 182, 183. Johnson was not satisfied with his own conjecture, and supposed something to be omitted relating to Hero's consent or to Claudio's marriage; 'something which Claudio and Pedro concur in wishing.'

NOTE IV.

I. 2. I. We take this opportunity of reminding the reader that when no authority is given for the place of the scene, we generally follow the words of Capell. He, however, more frequently expands than alters the directions given by Pope. At the beginning of the next scene he puts, unnecessarily, 'Another room in Leonato's house.' The stage was left vacant for an instant, but there is nothing to indicate a change of place.

NOTE V.

II. I. I. Mr Spedding, in The Gentleman's Magazine, June 1850, proposed to rearrange the Acts thus:

Act II. to begin at what is now Act 1. Sc. 2,

Act III.

Act IV.

Act v. remaining as it is.

Act II. Sc. 3,

Act III. Sc. 4,

We have not felt ourselves at liberty in such cases as this to desert the authority of the Folio.

NOTE VI.

II. 1. Scene, a hall in Leonato's house. It may be doubted whether the author did not intend this scene to take place in the garden rather than within doors. The banquet, of which Don John speaks, line 150, would naturally occupy the hall or great chamber. Don Pedro at the close of the scene says, 'Go in with me, &c.' If the dance, at line 135, were intended to be performed before the spectators, the stage might be supposed to represent a smooth lawn as well as the floor of a hall. On the other hand, the word 'entering,' at line 70, rather points to the scene as being within doors.

NOTE VII.

II. 1. 67. The conjecture of the MS. corrector of Mr Collier's Folio, which seems to have suggested itself independently to Capell (Notes, Vol. II. p. 121), is supported by a passage in Marston's Insatiate Countesse, Act II. (Vol. III. p. 125, ed. Halliwell):

'Thinke of me as of the man

Whose dancing dayes you see are not yet done.

Len. Yet you sinke a pace, sir.'

NOTE VIII.

II. I. 87. Mr Halliwell mentions that Mar. is altered to Mask. in the third Folio. This is not the case in Capell's copy of it.

NOTE IX.

II. I. 218. In the copy before us of Theobald's first edition, which belonged to Warburton, the latter has written 'Mr Warburton' after the note in which the reading 'impassable,' adopted by Theobald, is suggested and recommended, thus claiming it as his own. We have accepted his authority in this and other instances.

NOTE X.

II. 1. 237. bring you the length of Prester John's foot: fetch you a hair off the great Cham's beard. Though of' and 'off' are frequently interchanged in the old copies, yet, as in this place both Quarto and Folios are consistent in reading 'of' in the first clause and 'off' in the second, we follow them.

NOTE XI.

II. I. 284. The old copies here give us no help in determining whether Beatrice is meant to cry, 'Heigh-ho for a husband,' or merely, 'Heigh-ho,' and wish for a husband. Most editors seem by their punctuation to adopt the latter view. We follow Staunton in taking the former. It probably was the burden of a song. At all events it was so well-known as to be almost proverbial. It is again alluded to III. 4. 48.

NOTE XII.

II. 2. 39. The substitution of 'Borachio' for 'Claudio' does not relieve the difficulty here. Hero's supposed offence would not be enhanced by calling one lover by the name of the other. The word 'term,' moreover, is not the one which would be used to signify the calling a person by his own proper name. It is not clearly explained how Margaret could, consistently with the 'just and virtuous' character which Borachio claims for her in the fifth act, lend herself to the villain's plot. Perhaps the author meant that Borachio should persuade her to play, as children say, at being Hero and Claudio.