Pedro. Thou waft ever an obftinate heretick in the defpight of beauty.

Claud. And never could maintain his part, but in the force of his will.

Bene. That a woman conceived me, I thank her; that he brought me up, I likewife give her most humble thanks: but that I will have a recheate winded in my forehead, or hang my bugle in an invisible baldrick, all women fhall pardon me; because I will not do them the Wrong to mistrust any, I will do my self the Right to truft none; and the fine is, (for the which I may go the finer,) I will live a batchelor.

Pedro. I fhall fee thee, ere I die, look pale with love.

Bene. With anger, with fickness, or with hunger, my lord, not with love: prove, that ever I lose more blood with love, than I will get again with drinking, pick out mine eyes with a balladmaker's pen, and hang me up at the door of a brothel-houfe for the Sign of blind Cupid.

Pedro. Well, if ever thou doft fall from this faith, thou wilt prove a notable argument.

Bene. If I do, hang me in a bottle like a cat, and fhoot at me; and he that hits me, let him be clapt on the fhoulder, and call'd

Adam.

Pedro.

notable argument.] An eminent fubject for fatire.

2 -

and he that hits me, let him be clap'd on the Shoulder, and call'd Adam.] But why should he therefore be called Adam? Perhaps, by a Quotation or two we may be able to trace the Poet's Allufion here. In LawTricks, cr, Who would have thought it, (a Comedy written by John Da, and printed in 1608) I find this Speech. Adam Bell, a fubftantial Outlaw, and a

pafing

Pedro. Well, as time fhall try; in time the favage bull doth bear the yoke.

Bene. The favage bull may, but if ever the fenfible Benedick bear it, pluck off the bull's-horns, and fet them in my forehead, and let me be vilely painted; and in fuch great letters as they write, Here is good Horfe to hire, let them fignifie under my Sign, Here you may fee Benedick the marry'd man.

Claud. If this fhould ever happen, thou would'st be horn-mad.

Pedro. Nay, if Cupid hath not spent all his quiver in Venice, thou wilt quake for this shortly.

Bene. I look for an earthquake too then.

Pedro. Well, you will temporize with the hours; in the mean time, good Signior Benedick, repair to Leonato's, commend me to him, and tell him 1 will not fail him at fupper; for, indeed, he hath made great preparation.

Bene. I have almoft matter enough in me for fuch an embaffage, and fo I commit you

Claud. To the tuition of God; From my house, if I had it,

Pedro. The fixth of July, your loving friend, Benedick.

Bene. Nay, mock not, mock not; the body of your

4

difcourfe is fometime guarded with fragments, and the guards are but flightly basted on neither: ere you Hout old ends any further, examine your confcience, and fo I leave you.

[Exit.

Claud. My Liege, your Highness now may do me good.

Pedro. My love is thine to teach, teach it but how, And thou fhalt fee how apt it is to learn

Any hard leffon that may do thee good.

Claud. Hath Leonato any fon, my lord?

Pedra. No child but Hero, fhe's his only heir: Doft thou affect her, Claudio?

Claud. O my lord,

When you went onward on this ended action,
I look'd upon her with a foldier's eye;
That lik'd, but had a rougher task in hand
Than to drive liking to the name of love;
But now I am return'd, and that war-thoughts
Have left their places vacant; in their rooms.
Come thronging foft and delicate Defires,
All prompting me how fair young Hero is;
Saying, I lik'd her tre I went to wars.

Pedro. Thou wilt be like a lover presently,
And tire the hearer with a book of words.
If thou dost love fair Hero, cherish it,
And I will break with her,
And Thou fhalt have her.

and with her Father;
Was't not to this end,

That thou began'ft to twift fo fine a story?
Claud. How fweetly do you minister to love,
That know love's grief by his complection!
But left my liking might too fudden feem,

4 ―ere you fout old ends, &c.] Before you endeavour to diftinguish your felf any more by antiquated allufions, examine whether you can fairly claim them for your own.

This I think is the meaning; or it may be understood in another sense, examine, if your farcafms do not touch your elf.

I would

I would have falv'd it with a longer treatise.

Pedro. What need the bridge much broader than the flood?

The fairest grant is the neceffity;

Look, what will ferve, is fit; 'tis once, thou lov'ft;
And I will fit thee with the remedy.

I know, we fhall have revelling to-night;
I will affume thy part in fome difguife,
And tell fair Hero I am Claudio;
And in her bofom I'll unclafp my heart,
And take her hearing prifoner with the force.
And ftrong encounter of my amorous tale :
Then, after, to her father will I break;
And the conclufion is, fhe fhall be thine;
In practice let us put it presently.

Re-enter Leonato and Antonio.

[Exeunt.

Leon. How now, Brother, where is my Coufin your fon? hath he provided this musick?

Ant. He is very bufy about it; but, brother, I can tell you news that you yet dream'd not of.

Leon. Are they good?

Ant. As the event ftamps them, but they have a good cover; they fhow well outward. The Prince and Count Claudio, walking in a thick-pleached alley in my orchard, were thus over-heard by a man of mine: The Prince difcover'd to Claudio, that he lov'd my neice your daughter, and meant to acknowledge it this night in a dance; and if he found her accordant, he meant to take the prefent time by the top, and inflantly break with you of it.

Leon. Hath the fellow any wit, that told
you this?
Ant. A good fharp fellow; I will fend for him,

and question him yourself.

5 The fair eft grant is the recity; i. e. no one can have a better reafon for granting a re

qucft than the neceffity of its being granted.

WARBURTON.

Leon.

Leon. No, no; we will hold it as a dream, 'till it appear itself. But I will acquaint my daughter withal, that he may be the better prepared for answer, if peradventure this be true; go you and tell her of it. [Several cross the Stage here.] Coufin, you know what you have to do.-O, I cry you mercy, friend, go you with me and I will ufe your skill. Good Coufin, have a care this bufy time. [Exeunt.

SCENE VI.

Changes to an Apartment in Leonato's House.
Enter Don John and Conrade.

Conr.

W

HAT the good-jer, my lord, why are you thus out of measure fad?

John. There is no measure in the occafion that breeds it, therefore the sadness is without limit.

Conr. You should hear reason.

John. And when I have heard it, what Blessing bringeth it?

Conr. If not a prefent remedy, yet a patient fufferance.

John. I wonder, that thou (being, as thou fay'st thou art, born under Saturn) goeft about to apply a moral medicine to a mortifying mischief: I cannot hide what I am I must be fad when I have caufe, and smile at no man's jefts; eat when I have stomach, and wait for no man's leifure; fleep when I am drowsy, and tend on no man's business; laugh when I am merry, and claw no man in his humour.

I cannot hide what I am:] This is one of our authour's natural touches. An envious and unfocial mind, too proud to give pleafure, and too fullen to receive it, always en

Conr.

deavours to hide its malignity from the world and from itself, under the plainnefs of fimple honefty, or the dignity of haughty independence.

claw no man in his humour.]