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SCENE III.-Another Room in Leonato's House.

Enter DON JOHN and CONrade.

CON. What the good year 2, my lord! why are you thus out of measure sad? D. JOHN. There is no measure in the occasion that breeds, therefore the sadness is without limit.

CON. You should hear reason.

D. JOHN. And when I have heard it, what blessing bringeth it?

CON. If not a present remedy, yet a patient sufferance.

D. JOHN. I wonder that thou, being (as thou say'st thou art) born under Saturn, goest about to apply a moral medicine to a mortifying mischief. I cannot hide what I am: I must be sad when I have cause, and smile at no man's jests; eat when I have stomach, and wait for no man's leisure; sleep when I am drowsy, and tend on no man's business; laugh when I am merry, and claw no man in his humour.

CoN. Yea, but you must not make the full show of this, till you may do it without controlment. You have of late stood out against your brother, and he hath ta'en you newly into his grace; where it is impossible you should take root, but by the fair weather that you make yourself: it is needful that you frame the season for your own harvest.

D. JOHN. I had rather be a canker in a hedge than a rose in his grace; and it better fits my blood to be disdained of all than to fashion a carriage to rob love from any in this, though I cannot be said to be a flattering honest man, it must not be denied that I am a plain-dealing villain. I am trusted with a muzzle, and enfranchised with a clog; therefore I have decreed not to sing in my cage: If I had my mouth I would bite; if I had my liberty I would do my liking in the mean time, let me be that I am, and seek not to alter me.

CON. Can you make no use of your discontent?

D. JOHN. I make all use of it, for I use it only. Who comes here? What news, Borachio?

Enter BORACHIO.

BORA. I came yonder from a great supper; the prince, your brother, is royally entertained by Leonato; and I can give you intelligence of an intended marriage.

D. JOHN. Will it serve for any model to build mischief on? What is he for a fool that betroths himself to unquietness?

BORA. Marry, it is your brother's right hand.

■ Good year. See Note on 'King Lear,' Act V., Scene 3.

Yet. The quarto, at least.

In the quarto, true root.

What is he for a fool. Mr. Dyce says this is "an equivalent for-What manner of fool is he, -What fool is he?" Gifford calls this mode of expression, "pure German, or, as the authorised phrase seems to be, pure Saxon."

D. JOHN. Who? the most exquisite Claudio?

BORA. Even he.

D. JOHN. A proper squire! And who, and who? which way looks he?
BORA. Marry, on Hero, the daughter and heir of Leonato.

D. JOHN. A very forward March-chick! How came you to this?
BORA. Being entertained for a perfumer, as I was smoking a musty room, comes
me the prince and Claudio, hand in hand, in sad a conference: I whipt b
behind the arras; and there heard it agreed upon, that the prince should
woo Hero for himself, and having obtained her give her to count Claudio.
D. JOHN. Come, come, let us thither; this may prove food to my displeasure:
that young start-up hath all the glory of my overthrow; if I can cross him
any way I bless myself every way: You are both sure, and will assist me?
CON. To the death, my lord.

D. JOHN. Let us to the great supper: their cheer is the greater that I am subdued: 'Would the cook were of my mind!-Shall we go prove what's to be done?

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[SCENE II. "Walking in a thick-pleached alley in my orchard."]

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[SCENE I. "My visor is Philemon's roof; within the house is Jove."]

ACT II.

SCENE I.-A Hall in Leonato's House.

Enter LEONATO, ANTONIO, HERO, BEATRICE, and others.

LEON. Was not count John here at supper?

ANT. I saw him not.

BEAT. How tartly that gentleman looks! I never can see him but I am heartburned an hour after.

HERO. He is of a very melancholy disposition.

BEAT. He were an excellent man that were made just in the mid-way between him and Benedick; the one is too like an image, and says nothing; and the other too like my lady's eldest son, evermore tattling.

LEON. Then half signior Benedick's tongue in count John's mouth, and half count John's melancholy in signior Benedick's face,

BEAT. With a good leg, and a good foot, uncle, and money enough in his purse, such a man would win any woman in the world,-if he could get her good will.

LEON. By my troth, niece, thou wilt never get thee a husband if thou be so

shrewd of thy tongue.

ANT. In faith, she 's too curst.

BEAT. Too curst is more than curst: I shall lessen God's sending that way: for it is said, "God sends a curst cow short horns;" but to a cow too curst he sends none.

LEON. So, by being too curst God will send you no horns.

BEAT. Just, if he send me no husband; for the which blessing I am at him upon my knees every morning and evening: Lord! I could not endure a husband with a beard on his face: I had rather lie in the woollen.

LEON. You may light upon a husband that hath no beard.

BEAT. What should I do with him? dress him in my apparel, and make him my waiting-gentlewoman? He that hath a beard is more than a youth; and he that hath no beard is less than a man: and he that is more than a youth is not for me; and he that is less than a man I am not for him: Therefore I will even take sixpence in earnest of the bearward a, and lead his apes

into hell.

LEON. Well then, go you into hell?

BEAT. No; but to the gate; and there will the devil meet me, like an old cuckold, with horns on his head, and say, "Get you to heaven, Beatrice, get you to heaven; here's no place for you maids:" so deliver I up my apes, and away to Saint Peter: for the heavens, he shows me where the bachelors sit, and there live we as merry as the day is long.

ANT. Well, niece [to HERO], I trust you will be ruled by your father.
BEAT. Yes, faith; it is my cousin's duty to make courtesy, and say, "As it please
you:
"-but yet for all that, cousin, let him be a handsome fellow, or else
make another courtesy, and say, "Father, as it please me."

LEON. Well, niece, I hope to see you one day fitted with a husband.
BEAT. Not till God make men of some other metal than earth.

Would it not

grieve a woman to be over-mastered with a piece of valiant dust? to make account of her life to a clod of wayward marl? No, uncle, I'll none: Adam's sons are my brethren; and truly I hold it a sin to match in my kindred. LEON. Daughter, remember what I told you: if the prince do solicit you in that kind, you know your answer.

BEAT. The fault will be in the music, cousin, if you be not wooed in good time: if the prince be too important", tell him there is measure in everything, and so dance out the answer. For hear me, Hero; Wooing, wedding, and repenting, is as a Scotch jig, a measure, and a cinque-pace: the first suit is hot and hasty, like a Scotch jig, and full as fantastical; the wedding, man

Bearward. In the original berrord. The modern editions have bear-herd. In Henry VI., Part II.,' it is bearard. The pronunciation is indicated by both of the ancient modes of spelling; and bearward appears to be the word meant, when rapidly uttered.

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Important-importunate.

• The technical meaning of measure, a particular sort of dance, is here played upon. Beatrice's own description of that dance, "full of state and ancientry," is the most characteristic account we have of it. See Romeo and Juliet,' Illustrations of Act I.

6

nerly-modest, as a measure full of state and ancientry; and then comes repentance, and, with his bad legs, falls into the cinque-pace faster and faster, till he sink into his grave.

LEON. Cousin, you apprehend passing shrewdly.

BEAT. I have a good eye, uncle; I can see a church by daylight.
LEON. The revellers are entering, brother; make good room.

Enter DON PEDRO, CLAUDIO, BENEDICK, BALTHAZAR, DON JOHN, BORACHIO, MARGARET, URSULA, and others, masked.

D. PEDRO. Lady, will you walk about with your friend?

HERO. So you walk softly, and look sweetly, and say nothing, I am yours for the walk; and, especially, when I walk away.

D. PEDRO. With me in your company?

HERO. I may say so when I please.

D. PEDRO. And when please you to say so?

HERO. When I like your favour; for God defend a the lute should be like the

case!

D. PEDRO. My visor is Philemon's roof; within the house is Jove.

HERO. Why, then your visor should be thatch'd.

D. PEDRO.

BENE. Well, I would you did like me.

Speak low, if you speak love.

[Takes her aside.

MARG. So would not I, for your own sake, for I have many ill qualities.

BENE. Which is one?

MARG. I say my prayers aloud.

BENE. I love you the better; the hearers may cry, Amen c.

MARG. God match me with a good dancer!

BALTH. Amen.

MARG. And God keep him out of my sight when the dance is done!—Answer, clerk.

BALTH. No more words; the clerk is answered.

URS. I know you well enough; you are signior Antonio.

ANT. At a word, I am not.

URS. I know you by the waggling of your head.

ANT. To tell you true, I counterfeit him.

URS. You could never do him so ill-well, unless you were the very man: Here's his dry hand up and down; you are he, you are he.

ANT. At a word, I am not.

Defend-forbid.

This line, which is in the rhythm of Chapman's Homer and Golding's Ovid, is an allusion to the story of 'Baucis and Philemon;' and perhaps Shakspere was thinking of Golding's version of the original. The subsequent speeches of Hero and Don Pedro complete a couplet.

• Tieck supposes that these three speeches, which are assigned to Benedick, really belong to Balthazar;-that there is a series of dialogues between four masked pairs-Hero and Don Pedro, Margaret and Balthazar, Ursula and Antonio, Beatrice and Benedick. He is probably right; but still Benedick may first address Margaret, and then pass on, leaving Balthazar with her.

COMEDIES.-VOL. II.

B

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