Whiles we enjoy it; but being lacked and loft,
Why then we reck the value; then we find
The virtue that poffeffion would not shew us,
Whilft it was ours; fo fhall it fare with Claudio:
When he fhall hear fhe died upon his words,
The idea of her life fhall fweetly creep
Into his ftudy of imagination,

And every lovely organ of her life

Shall come apparelled in more precious habit ;
More moving, delicate, and full of life,

Into the eye and profpect of his foul,

Than when the lived indeed. Then shall he mourn,
If ever love had interest in his liver,

And wish he had not fo accused her;

No, though he thought his accufation true.
Let this be fo, and doubt not but success
Will fashion the event in better shape
Than I can lay it down in likelihood.
But if all aim but this be levelled false,
The fuppofition of the lady's death
Will quench the wonder of her infamy.
And if it fort not well, you may conceal her,
As beft befits her wounded reputation,
In fome reclufive and religious life,

Out of all eyes, tongues, minds, and injuries.

To this innocent deception the father at length confents, expreffing himself, at the fame time, in a manner that every person's experience, who has ever had the misfortune to have been in fuch fituations, must have felt the justness of.

Leonato. Being that I flow in grief,
The fmalleft wine may lead me.

Doctor Johnfon's note upon this paffage, is worthy of being quoted here:

"This is one of our Author's obfervations upon "life. Men overpowered with diftrefs, eagerly "liften to the firft offers of relief, clofe with every "scheme, and believe every promife. He that has "no longer any confidence in himself, is glad to "repose his truft in any other that will undertake "to guide him.”

SCENE

SCENE III.

Beatrice, in fpiriting up Benedick to avenge her coufin Hero's quarrel, thus expreffes her refentment against the offender :

Is he not approved in the height a villain, that hath flander'd, fcorn'd, difhonour'd my kinfwoman! O, that I were a man! What! bear her in hand until they come to take hands, and then with public accufation, uncover'd flander, unmitigated rancour O God, that I were a man! I would eat his heart in the marketplace. O that I were a man for his fake! or, that I had any friend would be a man for my fake! But manhood is melted into courtefies, valour into compliment, and men are only turned into tongue, and trim ones too-He is now as valiant as Hercules, that only tells a lie, and swears to it-I cannot be a man with wishing, therefore I will die a woman with grieving.

There is a generous warmth of indignation in this fpeech, which must certainly impress a female reader with the fame fentiments upon fuch an occafion. I am not fo difingenuous to take advantage of this paffage as an historical fact, but am willing to reft it upon the fole authority of the Poet's affumption, as this will fufficiently answer the defign of my introducing it; which is, to vindicate my fex from the general, but unjust charge of being prone to flander; for were this the cafe, were not the refentment of Beatrice, in this inftance, natural, how could it move our fympathy? which it actually does here, even though we acknowledge the circumftance to have been merely imaginary.

I believe, that there is nothing which a woman of virtue feels herself more offended at, than defamation or scandal, first against her own character, and proportionably when others are made the victims. There are women, indeed, who may be fond of flander, as having an intereft in depreciating an idea of chastity; but this is owing to their frailty, not their fex-Vice is neither mafculine, nor feminine; 'tis the common of two.

ACT

ACT V. SCENE I..

While the above-mentioned experiment was depending, and before the honour of Hero had been cleared, Antonio, her uncle, endeavours to comfort his brother under this misfortune; who replies to him in a manner very natural for a perfon la bouring under the immediate preffure of affliction, to speak to all advisers who do not fuffer the fame portion of grief themselves.

Leonato. I pray thee, cease thy counsel,
Which falls into mine ears as profitlefs
As water in a fieve-Give me not counsel,
Nor let no comforter delight mine ear,
But fuch a one whofe wrongs do fuit with mine.
Bring me a father that fo loved his child,
Whofe joy of her is overwhelmed like mine,
And bid him fpeak of patience ;-

Measure his woe the length and breadth of mine,
And let it answer every ftrain for strain ;
And thus for thus, and fuch a grief for such,
In every lineament, branch, fhape, and form;

If fuch a one will fmile, and ftroke his beard,

Cry, Sorrow, wag! and hem, when he should groan;
Patch grief with proverbs; make misfortune drunk
With candle-wafters; bring him yet to me,
And I of him will gather patience.

But there is no fuch man; for, brother, men
Can counfel, and give comfort to that grief
Which they themselves not feel; but tafting it,
Their counsel turns to paffion, which before
Would give preceptial medicine to rage;
Fetter ftrong madness in a filken thread;
Charm ach with air, and agony with words.
No, no 'tis all men's office to fpeak patience
To those that wring under the load of forrow;
But no man's virtue, or fufficiency,

To be fo moral, when he shall endure

The like himself-therefore, give me no counsel
My griefs cry louder than advertisement".

Antonio. Therein do men from children nothing differ.
Leonato. I prithee, peace; I will be flesh and blood;
For there was never yet philofopher,

* Advertisement, for admonition.

That could endure the tooth-ach patiently;
However they have writ the ftile of Gods,
And made a pish at chance and fufferance.

SCENE II.

Upon the two brothers meeting Claudio foon after, the father challenges him to fingle combat, for the scandal he had thrown upon his daughter's fame; which being paffed off in a fort of contemptuous manner, the refentment of the younger brother is roused, and he immediately fteps between and takes the quarrel upon himself, retorting the affront by a just defcription of the bragging profligates of thofe, or, indeed, of any times.. Horatio's taunt to Lothario* feems to have been borrowed from this paffage.

Claudio to Leonato.

Away, I will not have to do with you.

Leonato. Cant thou fo daffe + me? Thou haft killed my child;
If thou kill'ft me, boy, thou shalt kill a man..

Antonio. He fhall kill two of us, and men indeed;
But that's no matter, let him kill one firft;
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.

Leonato. Brother,

Antonio. Content yourself-God knows, I loved my niece;
And the is dead, flandered 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, milk-fops!

Leonato. Brother Anthony,

A

Antonio. Hold you content-What, man? I know them, yea;
And what they weigh, even to the utmost scruple:

Scambling, out-facing, fashion-monging boys,
That lye, and cog, and flout, deprave and flander,
Go antickly, and fhew an outward hideousness,
And speak off half a dozen dangerous words,

In the Fair Penitent.

† An old English expreffion, for pitting off, cx fetting aside.

How they might hurt their enemies-if they durft ;

And this is all.

As I commenced my remarks on this Play with a note of Doctor Warburton's, I fhall conclude them, alfo, with another very judicious obfervation of the fame critic upon this laft paffage :

"This brother Anthony is the truest picture ima"ginable of human nature. He had affumed the "character of a Sage, to comfort his brother o'er"whelmed 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 in"temperate fit of rage himself, and all his brother "can fay, or do, is not of power to pacify him. "This is copying Nature with a penetration and "exactness of judgment peculiar to Shakespeare. "As to the expreffion, too, of his paffion, nothing "can be more highly painted."