Dogb. Flat burglary, as ever was committed.
Verg. Yea, by the mass, that it is.

Sexton. What else, fellow?

1 Watch. And that count Claudio did mean, upon his words, to disgrace Hero before the whole assembly, and not marry her.

Dogb. O villain! thou wilt be condemned into everlasting redemption for this. Sexton. What else?

2 Watch. This is all.

Sexton. And this is more, masters, than you can deny. Prince John is this morning secretly stolen away; Hero was in this manner accused, in this very manner refused, and upon the grief of this, suddenly died.-Master constable, let these men be bound, and brought to Leonato's; I will go before, and show him their examination.* [Exit

Dogb. Come, let them be opinioned.

Verg. Let them be in band.3

Conr. Off, coxcomb!

Dogb. God's my life! where's the sexton? let him write down, the prince's officer, coxcomb.-Come, bind them:-Thou naughty varlet!

Conr. Away! you are an ass, you are an ass.

Dogb. Dost thou not suspect my place? Dost thou not suspect my years ?-O that he were here to write me down, an ass!-but, masters, remember, that I am an ass; though it be not written down, yet forget not that I am an ass :-No, thou villain, thou art full of piety, as shall be proved upon thee by good witness. I am a wise fellow; and, which is more, an officer; and, which is more, a householder; and, which is more, as pretty a piece of flesh as any in Messina; and one that knows the law, go to; and a rich fellow enough, go to ; and a fellow that hath had losses; and one that hath two gowns, and every thing handsome about him :-Bring him away. O, that I had been writ down, an ass ! [Exeunt.

[4] This sexton was an ecclesiastic of one of the inferior orders called the sacristan, and not a brother officer. I suppose the book from whence the poet took his subject was some old English novel, translated from the Italian, where the word sagristano was rendered serton. WARBURTON.

Dr. Warburton's assertion, as to the dignity of a sexton or sacristan, may be supported by the following passage in Stanyhurst's Version of the fourth book of the Eneid, where he calls the Massylian priestess,

"-in soil Massyla begotten,

"Sexten of Hesperides sinagog." STEEVENS. [5] Shakespeare commonly uses band for boad. TYRWHITT.

ACT V.

SCENE I.—Before LEONATO's House. Enter LEONATO

and ANTONIO.

Antonio.

IF you go on thus, you will kill yourself;
And 'tis not wisdom, thus to second grief
Against yourself.

Leon. I pray thee, cease thy counsel,
Which falls into mine ears as profitless
As water in a sieve: give not me counsel;
Nor let no comforter delight mine ear,

But such a one whose wrongs do suit with mine.
Bring me a father, that so lov'd his child,
Whose joy of her is overwhelm'd like mine,
And bid him speak of patience;

Measure his woe the length and breadth of mine,
And let it answer every strain for strain;

As thus for thus, and such a grief for such,
In every lineament, branch, shape, and form:

If such a one will smile, and stroke his beard;

Cry, sorrow, wag and hem, when he should groan; Patch grief with proverbs; make misfortune drunk With candle-wasters; bring him yet to me,

And I of him will gather patience.

But there is no such man: For, brother, men
Can counsel, and speak comfort to that grief
Which they themselves not feel; but, tasting it,
Their counsel turns to passion, which before
Would give preceptial medicine to rage,
Fetter strong madness in a silken thread,
Charm ach with air, and agony with words:
No, no; 'tis all men's office to speak patience
To those that wring under the load of sorrow;

But no man's virtue, nor sufficiency,

To be so moral, when he shall endure

The like himself: therefore give me no counsel:

My griefs cry louder than advertisement.

[6] Read-" And bid him speak to me of patience." RITSON.

Sorrow go by! is also (as I am assured) a common exclamation of hilarity

even at this time, in Scotland. Sorrow wag! might have been just such another. The verb to wag is several times used by our author in the sense of to go, or pack of. STEEVENS.

Ant. Therein do men from children nothing differ.

Leon. I pray thee, peace: I will be flesh and blood; For there was never yet philosopher,

That could endure the tooth-ach patiently;
However they have writ the style of gods,
And made a pish at chance and sufferance."

Ant. Yet bend not all the harm upon yourself;

Make those, that do offend you, suffer too.

Leon. There thou speak'st reason: nay, I will do so: My soul doth tell me, Hero is belied d;

And that shall Claudio know, so shall the prince,

And all of them, that thus dishonour her.

Enter Don PEDRO and CLAUDIO.

Ant. Here comes the prince, and Claudio, hastily.
D. Pedro. Good den, good den.

Claud. Good day to both of you.

Leon. Hear you, my lords,

D. Pedro. We have some haste, Leonato.

Leon. Some haste, my lord!-well, fare you well, my lord: :

Are you so hasty now ?-well, all is one.

D. Pedro. Nay, do not quarrel with us, good old man. Ant. If he could right himself with quarrelling,

Some of us would lie low.

Claud. Who wrongs him?

Leon. Marry,

Thou, thou dost wrong me; thou dissembler, thou :-
Nay, never lay thy hand upon thy sword,

I fear thee not.

Claud. Marry, beshrew my hand,

If it should give your age such cause of fear:

In faith, my hand meant nothing to my sword.

Leon. Tush, tush, man, never fleer and jest at me :

I speak not like a dotard, nor a fool;

As, under privilege of age, to brag

What I have done being young, or what would do,

[8] This alludes to the extravagant titles the Stoics gave their wise men Sapiens ille cum Diis ex pare vivit. Senec. Ep. 59. Jupiter quo antecedit virum bonum? diutius bonus est. Sapiens nihilo se minoris æstimat.-Deus non vincit sapientem felicitate. Ep. 73. WARBURTON

Shakespeare might have used this expression, without any acquaintance with the hyperboles of stoicism. By the style of gods, he meant an exalted language; such as we may suppose would be written by beings superior to human calamities, and therefore regarding them with neglect and coldness. STEEVENS.

[9] Alluding to their famous apathy. WARBURTON

Were I not old: Know, Claudio, to thy head,

Thou hast so wrong'd mine innocent child and me,
That I am forc'd to lay my reverence by;

And, with grey hairs, and bruise of many days,
Do challenge thee to trial of a man.

I say, thou hast belied mine innocent child;

Thy slan der bath gone through and through her heart, And she lies buried with her ancestors:

O! in a tomb where never scandal slept,

Save this of her's; fram'd by thy villany.

Claud. My villany!

Leon. Thine, Claudio; thine I say.
D. Pedro. You say not right, old man.
Leon. My lord, my lord,

I'll prove it on his body, if he dare;

Despite his nice fence, and his active practice:1
His May of youth, and bloem of lustyhood.

Claud. Away, I will not have to do with you.
Leon. Canst thou so daff me? Thou hast kill'd my child;
If thou kill'st me, boy, thou shalt kill a man.

Ant. He shall kill two of us, and men indeed.* But that's no matter; let him kill one first :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.

Leon. Brother,

Ant. Content yourself: God knows, I lov'd my niece; And she is dead, slander'd to death by villains;

That dare as well answer a man, indeed,

As I dare take a serpent by the tongue :

Boys, apes, braggarts, jacks, milksops!-
Leon. Brother Antony,-

Ant. Hold you content; What, man! I know them, yea, And what they weigh, even to the utmost scruple : Scambling, out-facing, fashion-mong'ring boys,

Не

[1] i. e. defence, or skill in the science of fencing, or defence. DOUCE. [2] This brother Antony is the truest picture imaginable of human nature. had assumed the character of a sage to comfort his brother, overwhelmed with grief for his only daughter's affront and dishonour; and had severely reproved him for not commanding his passion better on so trying an occasion Yet, immediately after this, no sooner does he begin to suspert that his age and valour are slighted, but he falls into the most intemperate fit of raze himself; and all he can do or say is not of power to pacify him. This is copying nature with a penetration and exactness of judgment peculiar to Shakespeare. As to the expression, too, of his passion, nothing can be more highly painted, WARBURTON.

[3] Foining is a term in fencing, and means thrusting. DOUCE.

That lie, and cog, and flout, deprave and slander,
Go anticly, and show outward hideousness,
And speak off half a dozen dangerous words,
How they might hurt their enemies, if they durst,
And this is all.

Leon. But, brother Antony,

Ant. Come, 'tis no matter;

Do not you meddle, let me deal in this.

D. Pedro. Gentlemen both, we will not wake your pa

tience.

My heart is sorry for your daughter's death;
But, on my honour, she was charg'd with nothing
But what was true, and very ful: of proof.

Leon. My lord, my lord,

D. Pedro. I will not hear you.
Leon. No?

Brother, away-I will be heard ;

Ant. And shall,

-

Or some of us will smart for it. [Exe. LEON. and Axt.

Enter BENEDICK.

D. Ped. See, see; here comes the man we went to seek. Claud. Now, signior! what news!

Bene. Good day, my lord.

D. Pedro. Welcome, signior: You are almost come to part almost a fray.

Claud. We had like to have had our two noses snapped off with two old men without teeth.

D. Pedro. Leonato and his brother: What think'st thou? had we fought, I doubt, we should have been too young for them.

Bene. In a false quarrel there is no true valour. I came to seek you both.

Claud. We have been up and down to seek thee; for we are high-proof melancholy, and would fain have it beaten away: Wilt thou use thy wit?

Bene. It is in my scabbard; Shall I draw it?

D. Pedro. Dost thou wear thy wit by thy side? Claud. Never any did so, though very many have been beside their wit.-I will bid thee draw, as we do the minstrels; draw, to pleasure us.

D. Pedro. As I am an honest man, he looks pale :Art thou sick, or angry?

Claud. What! courage, man! What though care killed a cat, thou hast mettle enough in thee to kill care.