keep peace if he break the peace, he ought to enter into a quarrel with fear and trembling.

D. Pedro. And so will he do; for the man doth fear God, howsoever it seems not in him by some large jests he will make. Well, I am sorry for your niece: Shall we go seek Benedick, and ell him of her love?

Claud. Never tell him, my lord: let her wear it out with good counsel.

Leon. Nay, that's impossible; she may wear her heart out first.

D. Pedro. Well, we will hear further of it by your daughter let it cool the while. I love Benedick well; and I could wish he would modestly examine himself, to see how much he is unworthy to have so good a lady.

Leon. My lord, will you walk? dinner is ready. Claud. [Aside.] If he do not dote on her upon this, I will never trust my expectation.

D. Pedro. [Aside.] Let there be the same net spread for her; and that must your daughter and her gentlewomen carry. The sport will be, when they hold one an opinion of another's dotage, and no such matter; that's the scene that I would see, which will be merely a dumb show. Let us send her to call him in to dinner.

-

[Exeunt Don PEDRO, CLAUDIO, and LEONATO. Bene. [Advancing from the arbour.] This can be no trick: The conference was sadly borne.12 They have the truth of this from Hero. They seem to pity the lady: it seems, her affections have their full bent. Love me! why, it must be requited I hear how I am censur'd: they say I will bear myself proudly, if I perceive the love come from

12 Seriously carried on.

:

her they say, too, that she will rather die than give any sign of affection. — I did never think to marry : -I must not seem proud. — Happy are they that hear their detractions, and can put them to mending. They say the lady is fair; 'tis a truth, I can bear them witness: and virtuous; 'tis so, I cannot reprove it and wise, but for loving me:- by my troth, it is no addition to her wit; -nor no great argument of her folly, for I will be horribly in love. with her. I may chance have some odd quirks and remnants of wit broken on me, because I have rail'd so long against marriage:- But doth not the appetite alter? A man loves the meat in his youth that he cannot endure in his age. Shall quips, and sentences, and these paper bullets of the brain, awe a man from the career of his humour? No: The world must be peopled. When I said I would die a bachelor, I did not think I should live till I were married. Here comes Beatrice By this day, she's a fair lady: I do spy some marks of love in her.

Enter BEATRICE.

Beat. Against my will, I am sent to bid you come in to dinner.

Bene. Fair Beatrice, I thank you for your pains. Beat. I took no more pains for those thanks, than you take pains to thank me: if it had been painful, I would not have comc.

Bene. You take pleasure, then, in the message? Beat. Yea, just so much as you may take upon a knife's point, and choke a daw withal: . You have no stomach, signior? fare you well. [Exit. Bene. Ha! " Against my will, I am sent to bid you come in to dinner;" - there's a double meaning

in that. "I took no more pains for those thanks, than you took pains to thank me;" - that's as much as to say, Any pains that I take for you is as easy as thanks. -If I do not take pity of her, I am a villain; if I do not love her, I am a Jew: I will go get her picture.

[Exit.

ACT III.

SCENE I. LEONATO'S Garden.

Enter HERO, MARGARET, and URSULA.

Hero. Good Margaret, run thee to the parlour, There shalt thou find my cousin Beatrice

Proposing with the prince and Claudio :
Whisper her ear, and tell her I and Ursula
Walk in the orchard, and our whole discourse
Is all of her say, that thou overheard'st us;
And bid her steal into the pleached bower,
Where honey-suckles, ripen'd by the sun,
Forbid the sun to enter; like favourites.

Made proud by princes, that advance their pride
Against that power that bred it: -There will sha

hide her,

To listen our propose. This is thy office;

Bear thee well in it, and leave us alone.

This is from the French propos, signifying talk, conversation. A few lines below we have the noun, " to listen our propose," bearing the same sense. In the latter case the folio reads purpose; but bere, as in almost every instance where the two copies differ, the reading of the quarto seems preferable.

H.

Marg. I'll make her come, I warrant you, pres

[Exit.

ently. Hero. Now, Ursula, when Beatrice doth come, As we do trace this alley up and down, Our talk must only be of Benedick: When I do name him, let it be thy part To praise him more than ever man did merit. My talk to thee must be, how Benedick Is sick in love with Beatrice: Of this matter Is little Cupid's crafty arrow made, That only wounds by hearsay. Now begin;

Enter BEATRICE, behind.

For look where Beatrice, like a lapwing, runs
Close by the ground, to hear our conference.

Urs. The pleasant'st angling is to see the fish
Cut with their golden oars the silver stream,
And greedily devour the treacherous bait :
So angle we for Beatrice; who even now
Is couched in the woodbine coverture:

Fear you not my part of the dialogue.

Hero. Then go we near her, that her ear lose nothing

Of the false sweet bait, that we lay for it. -
No, truly, Ursula, she is too disdainful;

I know her spirits are as coy and wild
As haggards of the rock.2

Urs.

But are you sure, That Benedick loves Beatrice so cutirely?

Hero. So says the prince, and my new-trothed lord. Urs. And did they bid you tell her of it, madam ꞌ

The haggard is a wild hawk. Latham, in his Book of Falconry, says, · -Such is the greatness of her spirit, she will not admit of any society until such a time as nature worketh." Sen Twelfth Night, Act iii. sc. 1, note h

Hero. They did entreat me to acquaint her of it, But I persuaded them, if they lov'd Benedick, To wish him wrestle with affection,

And never to let Beatrice know of it.

Doth not the gentleman

Urs. Why did you so?
Deserve as full, as fortunate a bed,

As ever Beatrice shall couch upon ?

Hero. O, God of love! I know he doth descrvo As much as may be yielded to a man;

But nature never fram'd a woman's heart
Of prouder stuff than that of Beatrice :
Disdain and scorn ride sparkling in her cyes,
Misprising what they look on; and her wit
Values itself so highly, that to her

All matter else seems weak: She cannot love,
Nor take no shape nor project of affection,
She is so self-endeared.

Urs.

Sure, I think so;

And therefore, certainly, it were not good
She knew his love, lest she make sport at it.

Hero. Why, you speak truth: I never yet saw

man,

How wise, how noble, young, how rarely featur'd, But she would spell him backward:3 if fair-fac'd, She would swear the gentleman should be her sister: If black, why, Nature, drawing of an antic,

4

Made a foul blot: if tall, a lance ill-headed:
If low, an agate very vilely cut: 5

3 That is, misinterpret him. An allusion to the practice of witches in uttering prayers. In like sort, we often say of a man who refuses to take things in their plain natural meaning, as if he were on the lookout for some cheat,- -"He reads every thing backwards."

A black man here means a man with a dark or thick beard, which is the blot in nature's drawing. The antic was the fool or buffoon of the old farces.

An agute is often used metaphorically for a very diminutiv