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Enter LEONATO, HERO, BEATRICE, and Others, with a Meffenger.

LEON. I learn in this letter, that Don Pedro of Arragon comes this night to Messina.

MESS. He is very near by this; he was not three leagues off when I left him.

LEON. How many gentlemen have you loft in this action?

2 Innogen, (the mother of Hero,) in the old quarto that I have feen of this play, printed in 1600, is mentioned to enter in two feveral fcenes. The fucceeding editions have all continued her name in the Dramatis Perfonæ. But I have ventured to expunge it; there being no mention of her through the play, no one speech addrefs'd to her, nor one fyllable fpoken by her. Neither is there any one paffage, from which we have any reason to determine that Hero's mother was living. It feems as if the poet had in his firft plan defigned such a character: which, on a furvey of it, he found would be fuperfluous; and therefore he left it out.

THEOBALD.

"Enter

The name of Hero's mother occurs alfo in the firft folio. Leonato governor of Meffiua, Innogen his wife," &c. STEEVENS.

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MESS. But few of any-fort, and none of name. LEON. A victory is twice itself, when the atchiever brings home full numbers. I find here, that Don Pedro hath bestowed much honour on a young Florentine, called Claudio.

MESS. Much deserved on his part, and equally remember'd by Don Pedro: He hath borne himfelf beyond the promise of his age; doing, in the figure of a lamb, the feats of a lion: he hath, indeed, better better'd expectation, than you must expect of me to tell you how.

LEON. He hath an uncle here in Meffina will be very much glad of it.

MESS. I have already delivered him letters, and there appears much joy in him; even fo much, that joy could not fhow itfelf modeft enough without a badge of bitterness."

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of any fort,] Sort is rank, diftin&tion. So, in Chapman's verfion of the 16th Book of Homer's Odyfey:

"A fhip, and in her many a man of fort."

There were but

I incline, however, to Mr. M. Mafon's cafier explanation. Of any fort, fays he, means of any kind whatsoever. few killed of any kind, and none of rank.

STEEVENS.

4 joy could not show itself modeft enough, without a badge of bitterness. This is judiciously expreffed. Of all the transports of joy, that which is attended with tears is leaft offenfive; because, carrying with it this mark of pain, it allays the envy that ufually attends another's happiness. This he finely calls a modeft joy, fuch a one as did not infult the observer by an indication of happiness unmixed with pain. WARBURTON.

A fomewhat fimilar expreffion occurs in Chapman's verfion of the 10th Book of the Odyssey:

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This is an idea which Shakspeare feems to have been delighted to introduce. It occurs again in Macbeth:

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"Wanton in fullness, feek to hide themselves

"In drops of forrow."

A badge being the diftinguishing mark worn in our author's time by the servants of noblemen, &c. on the fleeve of their liveries, with

LEON. Did he break out into tears?
MESS. In great measure. '

LEON. A kind overflow of kindness: There are no faces truer than thofe that are so washed. How much better is it to weep at joy, than to joy at weeping?

BEAT. I pray you, is fignior Montanto returned▾ from the wars, or no?

MESS. I know none of that name, lady; there was none fuch in the army of any fort.

LEON. What is he that you ask for, niece?

HERO.My Coufin means fignior Benedick of Padua. MESS. O, he is returned; and as pleasant as ever he was.

BEAT. He fet up his bills here in Meffina,' and

his ufual licence he employs the word to fignify a mark or token in general. So, in Macbeth:

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“Their hands and faces were all badg'd with blood.” Malone. In great measure. ] i. c. in abundance. STEEVENS.

no faces truer

Ancere. JOHNSON.

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That is, none honefter, none more

is fignior Montanto returned — ] Montante, in Spanish, is a huge two-handed Sword, [a title given, with much humour, to one [whom] the speaker would reprefent as a boafter or bravado. WARBURTON,

Montanto was one of the ancient terms of the fencing-fchool, So, in Every Man in his Humour: “ your punto, your reverfo, your ftoccata, your imbrocata, your paffada, your montanto," &c. Again, in The Merry Wives of Windfor:

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thy reverse, thy distance, thy montánt." there was none fuch in the army of any fort. ] there was none fuch of any order or degree whatever, was none fuch of any quality above the common.

STEEVENS. Not meaning but that there WARBURTON.

H9 He fet up his bills, &c.] So, in B. Jonson's Every Man out of his

umour, Shift fays:

"This is rare, I have fet up my bills without discovery,"

Again, in Swetnam Arraign'd, 1620:

"I have bought foils already, set up bills,

"Hung up my two-hand fword," &c.

challenged Cupid at the flight: and my uncle's fool, reading the challenge, subscribed for Cupid,

Again, in Nafh's Have with you to Saffron Walden, &c. 1596:

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· Setting up bills, like a bearward or fencer, what fights. we fhall have, and what weapons fhe will meet me at.

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The following account of one of these challenges, taken from an ancient MS. of which further mention is made in a note on The Merry Wives of Windfor, A& I. fc. i. may not be unacceptable to the inquifitive reader. Item a challenge playde before the King's majeftie (Edward VI.) at Weftminster, by three maifters, Willyam Pafcall, Robert Greene, and W. Browne, feven kynde of weapons. That is to saye, the axe, the pike, the rapier and target, the rapier and cloke, and with two fwords, agaynft all alyens and ftrangers being borne without the King's dominions, of what countrie fo ever he or they were, geving them warninge by theyr bills fet up by the three maifters, the space of eight weeks before the fayd challenge was playde; and it was holden four feverall Sundayes one after another. It appears from the fame work, that all challenges to any maifter within the realme of Englande being an Englishe man, were against the ftatutes of the "Noble fcience of Defence.

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Beatrice means, that Benedick published a general challenge, like a prize-fighter. STEEVENS.

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challenged Cupid at the flight:] Flight (as Mr. Douce obferves to me) does not here mean an arrow, but a fort of flooting called roving, or fhooting at long lengths. The arrows ufed at this fport are called flight-arrows; as were thofe ufed in battle for great diftances. So, in Beaumont and Fletcher's Bonduca:

not the quick rack fwifter;

"The virgin from the hated ravisher

"Not half so fearful: not a flight drawn home,
"A round ftone from a fling,

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Again, in A Woman kill'd with Kindness, 1617:

We have tied our geldings to a tree, two flight-fhot off." Again, in Middleton's Game of Chefs:

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"Who, as they fay, difcharg'd it like a flight. Again, in The Entertainment at Caufome Houfe, &c. 1617:

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it being from the park about two flight-fhots in length. Again, in The Civil Wars of Daniel, B. VI. ft. 15:

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and affign'd

"The archers their flight-fhafts to fhoot away;

"Which th' adverse fide (with feet and dimness blind, Mistaken in the diftance of the way,)

"Answer with their fheaf-arrows, that came fhort

Of their intended aim, and did no hurt."

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and challenged him at the bird-bolt. -I pray you, how many hath he killed and eaten in these wars?

Holinfhed makes the fame diftinction in his account of the fame Occurrence, and adds, that these flights were provided on purpose. Again, in Holinfhed, p. 649: "He caufed the foldiers to shoot their flights towards the lord Audlies company.

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Mr. Tollet obferves, that the length of a flight-fhot seems afcer tained by a paffage in Leland's Itinerary, 1769, Vol. IV. p. 44: The paffage into it at ful fe is a flite-fhot over, as much as the Tamife is above the bridge.' It were eafy to know the length of London-bridge, and Stowe's Survey may inform the curious reader whether the river has been narrowed by embanking fince the days of Leland.

Mr. Douce, however, obferves, that as the length of the fhot depended on the ftrength and skill of the archer, nothing can with certainty be determined by the paffage quoted from Leland.

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STEEVENS.

The flight was an arrow of a particular kind : :- In the Harleian Catalogue of MSS. Vol. I. n. 69. is a challenge of the lady Maice's fervants to all comers, to be performed at Greenwiche-to fhoot ftandart arrow, or flight.' I find the title-page of an old pamphlet ftill more explicit -"A new poft ―a marke exceeding neceffary for all men's arrows: whether the great man's flight, the gallant's rover, the wife man's pricke-fhaft, the poor man's butJhaft, or the fool's bird-bolt."

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FARMER.

at the bird-bolt.] The bird-bolt is a fhort thick arrow without a point, and spreading at the extremity fo much, as to leave a flat surface, about the breadth of a fhilling. Such are to this day in ufe to kill rooks with, and are hot from a crossbow. So, in Marfton's What You Will, 1607:

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ignorance fhould shoot

"His grofs-knobb'd bird-bolt

Again, in Love in a Maze, 1632:

Cupid,

"Pox of his bird-bolt! Venus,

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"Speak to thy boy to fetch his arrow back, "Or ftrike her with a sharp one!" STEEVENS. The meaning of the whole is - Benedick, from a vain conceit of his influence over women, challenged Cupid at roving (a particular kind of archery, in which flight-arrows are used.) In other words, he challenged him to shoot at hearts. The fool, to ridicule this piece of vanity, in his turn challenged Benedick to fhoot at crows with the cross-bow and bird-bolt; an inferior kind of archery

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VOL. VI.

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