Beat. Do, do: he'll but break a comparison or two on me; which, peradventure not marked or not laughed at, strikes him into melancholy; and then there's a partridge wing saved, for the fool will eat no supper that night. We must follow the leaders. Bene. In every good thing. Beat. Nay, if they lead to any ill, I will leave them at [Dance. Then exeunt all but DON JOHN, BORACHIO 140 D. John. Sure my brother is amorous on Hero, and hath withdrawn her father to break with him about it. 145 The ladies follow her and but one visor remains. Manus. In faith no, we brake a bitter iest one uppon another." Cotgrave (French Dictionarie) gives: "Dire le mot. To break a jeast." 136. comparison] = scornful, gibing simile. Cf. Love's Labour's Lost, v. ii. 852-854 "The world's large tongue Proclaims you for a man replete with mocks, ... Full of comparisons and wounding flouts." According to Hero (III. i. 59-67), Beatrice herself was much given to breaking comparisons on people. 138-140. there's a partridge. fool night] This looks like a sarcastic thrust at Benedick's large appetite: a "very valiant trencher-man" would eat more than a partridge wing for his supper. But perhaps Benedick was a gourmet rather than a glutton. We learn from Willughby's Ornithology, ii. 168 (ed. Ray, MDCLXXVIII) that "Palate-men, and such as have skill in eating, do chiefly commend the Partridges Wing," etc. 140. the leaders] i.e. of the dance. 143. Dance. Then .] The stage Manent John, Borachio, and Claudio. Musicke for the dance F. direction of the Folios is clearly a slip. The dance is meant to take place on the stage, the arrangement of partners having been indicated in the preceding dialogue. We gather from Don John's next words that after the dance the men and women separate; the men leave the room first and are followed by the ladies, led by Hero. amorous 144. Sure.. Hero, etc.] At first sight it would seem that this speech is designed to reach-and to wound-Claudio, for Don John knew of the compact between the prince and his friend. But Borachio's answer (clearly intended for his master's ears only) shows that Don John has not recognized Claudio and suggests that the two men were talking low, or at some distance from the count. It is of course possible that Don John's words are spoken aloud so as to reach Claudio, while Borachio's answer is an aside. But this would entail awkward stage business. How is Borachio to know that his master wishes to pretend ignorance of the identity of the solitary masker and that his voice must, therefore, be lowered in reply? The explanation must be that Don John is himself persuaded that his brother is false to Claudio and hastens to use his misconception as a " model to build mischief on." 144. amorous on] Cf. the form " enamoured on " in line 151 infra, and see Abbott, Shakes. Gram., § 180. Bora. And that is Claudio: I know him by his bearing. Claud. You know me well; I am he. D. John. Signior, you are very near my brother in his 150 love he is enamoured on Hero; I pray you, dissuade him from her: she is no equal for his birth: you may do the part of an honest man in it. Claud. How know you he loves her? D. John. I heard him swear his affection. Bora. So did I too; and he swore he would marry her to-night. D. John. Come, let us to the banquet. 155 [Exeunt Don John and Borachio. Claud. Thus answer I in name of Benedick, But hear these ill news with the ears of Claudio. 'Tis certain so; the prince woos for himself. 160 Save in the office and affairs of love: Therefore all hearts in love use their own tongues; 165 160. these] Q, F tongues;] love, use your own tongues! 159. [Exeunt .] exeunt: manet Clau. Q, F (subs.). this Ff 3, 4 Rowe. Hanmer. 164. love. 150, 151. near... brother . . . love] intimate with my brother, in his confidence. Staunton compares 2 Henry IV., v. i. 81: "I would humour his men with the imputation of being near their master." 156, 157. and... swore... to-night] W. A. Wright takes to-night as qualifying "swore," not "marry." This seems improbable. Borachio, to support his master, adds a lie, which is convincing because so precise a statement. it weakens the force of his words, and of their evil sound to Claudio, if to-night is referred to "swore." 158. banquet] Probably the "rere" or "after" supper, a light repast or dessert, following almost immediately after the first more formal meal. The word is explained well enough in The Taming of the Shrew, v. ii. 9: "My banquet is to close our stomachs up, After our great good cheer." See also John Palsgrave's Acolastus, cited by Stucky Lean in his Collectanea, iii. 185: "The rere supper or banket where men sit down to drink and eat again after their meat." Robert Manning's Handlyng Synne (ed. Furnivall for the Roxburghe Club, 1862, p. 226) inveighs against the luxury of these "rere sopers." "If banquet is used in this specialized sense in the text then, as Boas points out, "Don John seems to have missed the supper to which he had announced his intention of going [in 1. iii. 65], but at which apparently he had not been present (cf. 11. 1-2)." 159. Thus answer I etc.] The readiness of Claudio to believe evil of his friend and patron prepares us for his conduct towards Hero. It is natural that Benedick should be mistaken for he had not been present when the compact between the prince and Claudio was made. 164. all hearts tongues] i.e. let all hearts tongues; the imperative mood is used here, as in the following line. And trust no agent; for beauty is a witch Against whose charms faith melteth into blood. This is an accident of hourly proof, 166, 167. for beauty charms blood]" "When exposed to the witchcraft of beauty, honour gives way to passion (W. A. Wright); a reference to the practice of witches who would expose wax figures of persons they wished to injure to the flames of a fire, sometimes to the stabs of thorns, knives and other sharp instruments. Brand, in his Popular Antiquities (ed. Hazlitt, iii. 65), quotes from the Damonology of King James: "The Devil teacheth how to make pictures of Wax or Clay, that by roasting thereof, the persons that they bear the name of may be continually melted or dried away by In Glanvil's continual sickness." Sadducismus Triumphatus, ed. 1682, among the Collection of Modern Rela tions, we find accounts of a waxen image stuck with thorns (pp. III and 121); and of the turning of a waxen image of Sir George Maxwel on a spit before the fire (p. 257), etc. See also Samuel Daniel, Sonnet 10, quoted by Grosart in his Prefatory Note to Sonnets to Delia, p. 27 (Works, vol. i.) :— "The slie Inchanter, when to worke his will And secret wrong on some forespoken wight, Frames waxe in form to represent aright The poore unwitting wretch he meanes to kill, And prickes the image fram'd by Magicks skill, Whereby to vexe the partie, day and night;" and Middleton's The Witch, v. ii. 5 (Works, ed. Bullen, v. 442): "Hecate. His picture made in wax, and gently molten By a blue fire kindled with dead men's eyes, Will waste him by degrees." Many a thousand, Which now mistrust no parcel of my fear"; also A Winter's Tale, II. i. 48: " All's true that is mistrusted." 169. Farewell, therefore] The substiCollier in his MS. and anticipated by tution of then for therefore, found by Pope, is unnecessary. Proper names at the end of lines frequently form extra syllables which do not turn the lines into regular Alexandrines. 170. Count Claudio ?] Claudio is still masked but the other revellers must have discarded their visors after the dance. Benedick now, and the Prince later, are immediately recognized. Bene. Come, will you go with me? Claud. Whither? Bene. Even to the next willow, about your own business, county. What fashion will you wear the garland 175 of? about your neck, like an usurer's chain? or under your arm, like a lieutenant's scarf? You must wear it one way, for the prince hath got your Hero. 175. county] Q; Count F. 174, 175. willow, garland] The willow-garland is the emblem of the forsaken lover, unforgettably so since Desdemona's song (Othello, iv. iii.). In Bell's Songs from the Dramatists, 1854, the editor prints John Heywood's The Song of the Green Willow, adding in a footnote Halliwell's observation that it "is, perhaps, the oldest in our language with the willow burthen: For all a green willow is my garland.'" But it is probable that the willow song printed by Percy in his Reliques, from a copy in the Pepys Collection (i. 358), is older than Heywood's. There are two still older versions, one in the Roxburghe Ballads, i. 171, and one in Popular Music, ed. Chappell, i. 207-208. As late as the mid-nineteenth century a street song was popular in London with, the refrain, "All round my hat I wear a green willow." For a pointed use of this emblem of forlorn love see Marston's What You Will, Act 1. (Old Plays, 1814, ii. 209) where Jacomo, an unwelcome suitor, causes his boy to sing a love-song beneath Celia's window. The stage-direction reads: "The boy sings, and is answered by another song from within: A willow garland is flung down, and the song ceaseth." 175. county] count, a not unusual form. See The Merchant of Venice, 1. ii. 49: "Then there is the County Palatine"; and Tancred and Gismunda, Argument, 11. 3-4 (Hazlitt's Dodsley, vii. 23): "Gismund, who loves the County Palurin, Guiscard, who quites her likings with his love"; etc. Count, a foreign title, not used in this country until the sixteenth century (according to the New Eng. Dict.), corresponds to the English title of Earl, with which word it was formerly interchange able. In Tancred and Gismunda, a few 176. usurer's chain] Such as were worn by wealthy merchants who were frequently usurers also. Robert of Brunne in his Handlyng Synne had long since lamented the fact that the merchants and chapmen of his day had become usurers (ed. Furnivall, p. 184). By the time of Shakespeare the fact was well established. See Massinger's A New Way to Pay Old Debts, in which Sir Giles Overreach, the merchant, lends money at extortionate rates of interest; and the opening scene of Englishmen for my Money, where the rich Portingal, Pisaro, speaks of his well-freighted ships, and of "the sweetlov'd trade of usury" (Hazlitt's Dodsley, x. 473). Cf. also Gascoigne's Steele Glasse (Cambridge ed., p. 163), on merchants, who employ all the unworthy devices of moneylenders, "to catch yong frye." Chains, now only worn by mayors and aldermen on official occasions, were in Elizabethan times, a common ornament to men of wealth and of high position. In Albumazar, 1. vii., Pandolpho offers the magician his chain, which "cost two hundred pound," in payment for a magic trick (Hazlitt's Dodsley, xi. 324); and in the same play, II. iv., Trincalo promises himself to "wear a gold chain at every quarter sessions," when he shall be a gentleman (p. 342). So, in Dekker, The Shoemaker's Holiday, Act III. (Dramatic Works, 1873, i. 42) Simon Eyre, when he is made a sheriff, enters wearing his chain of office and says to his wife, "See here my Maggy, a Chaine, a gold Chaine for Simon Eyre, I shall make thee a lady," etc. See also Gosson's School of Claud. I wish him joy of her. Bene. Why, that's spoken like an honest drovier: so they 180 sell bullocks. But did you think the prince would have served you thus ? Claud. I pray you, leave me. Bene. Ho! now you strike like the blind man : 'twas the boy that stole your meat, and you'll beat the post. 185 Claud. If it will not be, I'll leave you. [Exit. Bene. Alas! poor hurt fowl; now will he creep into sedges. But that my Lady Beatrice should know me, and not know me! The prince's fool! Ha! It may be I go under that title because I am merry. 190 Yea, but so I am apt to do myself wrong; I am not so reputed: it is the base, though bitter, disposition 180. drovier] Q, Ff; drover Rowe (2). 184. blind man] Rowe; blindman Q, Ff. 187. fowl] soul Ff 3, 4. 191. so I. wrong] so; (I. wrong) Capell; so; I wrong: Variorum 1813. (though bitter) Q, F; base, the bitter Johnson, Abuse (Shakes. Soc., p. 38): 192. base, though bitter,] base followed by Steevens. "If 184, 185. now ... blind man. meat post] Perhaps a reference to the romance of Mendoza, entitled Lazarillo de Tormes, in which the hero steals a sausage from his master, a blind beggar, and is by him so severely pun. ished that, in revenge, he causes the blind man to jump against a stone pillar. The story of Lazarillo was translated into English by David Rowlands and published in London in 1586 and was exceedingly popular with the Elizabethan reading public" (Sir Clements Markham's Translation, Introd., p. xxix). See Appendix, p. 160. 180, 181. drovier . . . bullocks] drovier, a variant of drover. I do not know whether cattle-dealers used less ceremony in their business transactions than other traders. This seems to be the suggestion here and perhaps in The Returne from Parnassus, II. v. (ed. Macray, pp. 102-103), where Amoretto tells Stercutio that his father has a living at disposal: "Amor. Mary if I shall see your Amor. Why [then] thus in plaine with thanks. Ster. And I pray you Sir, what is Acad. The verye same Method an oxe." 66 187, 188. poor hurt sedges] For further observation of birds in this play see also III. i. 24 and III. i. 35 post. These, like scores of other instances to be found in Shakespeare's plays, show the imaginative, sympathetic eye of the poet, as well as the keen eye of the sportsman, "both which, master constable-" 192. base, though bitter] Why though? Johnson's conjecture, “the base, the bitter," was adopted by Steevens. Boas quotes "Willing to wound, and yet afraid to strike"; but fear, in this connection, is the last thing one would attribute to Beatrice. The meaning seems to be: Beatrice basely says the world calls me the prince's fool, though it is really her own bitter tongue that does so. If the text is correct, it |