BENE. Not I, believe me.

BEAT. Did he never make you laugh?
BENE. I pray you, what is he?

BEAT. Why, he is the prince's jefter: 'a very duil fool; only his giftis in devifing impoffible flanders: " none but libertines delight in him; and the commendation is not in his wit, but in his villainy; for he both pleaseth men, and angers them; and then they laugh at him, and beat him: I am fure, he is in the fleet; I would he had boarded me.

BENE. When I know the gentleman, I'll tell him what you say.

BEAT. Do, do: he'll but break a comparison or two on me; which, peradventure, not mark'd, or not laugh'd at, ftrikes him into melancholy; and then there's a partridge' wing faved, for the fool will eat no fupper that night. [Mufick within.] We must follow the leaders.

BENE. In every good thing.

BEAT. Nay, if they lead to any ill, I will leave them at the next turning. [Dance. Then exeunt all but Don JOHN, BORACHIO, and CLAUDIO.

his gift is in devising impoffible flanders:] We should read impaffible, i. e. flanders fo ill invented, that they will pafs upon no body. WARBURton.

Impoffible flanders are, I fuppofe, fuch flanders as, from their abfurdity and impoffibility, bring their own confutation with them. JOHNSON.

Johnfon's explanation appears to be right. Ford fays, in The Merry Wives of Windfor, that he hall fearch for Falstaff in "impoffible places." The word impoffible is alfo ufed in a fimilar fenfè in Jonfon's Sejanus, where Silius accufes Afer of

6

"Malicious and manifold applying,

"Foul wrefting, and impoffible conftruction."

M. MASON.

his villainy; By which the means his malice and impiety. By his impious jefts, the infinuates, he pleafed libertines; and by

his devifing flanders of them, he angered them.

WARBURTON.

D. JOHN. Sure, my brother is amorous on Hero, and hath withdrawn her father to break with him about it: The ladies follow her, and but one visor remains.

BORA. And that is Claudio; I know him by his bearing.

D. JOHN. Are not you fignior Benedick?

CLAUD. You know me well; I am he.

D. JOHN. Signior, you are very near my brother in his love: he is enamoured on Hero; I pray you, diffuade 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 fwear his affection. BORA. So did I too; and he fwore he would marry her to-night.

D. JOHN. Come, let us to the banquet.

[Exeunt Don JOHN and BORACHIO. CLAUD. Thus anfwer I in name of Benedick,

But hear these ill news with the ears of Claudio.-
'Tis certain fo; - the prince wooes for himself.
Friendship is conftant in all other things,
Save in the office and affairs of love:

8

Therefore, all hearts in love use their own tongues; Let every eye negotiate for itself,

And truft no agent: for beauty is a witch, Against whose charms faith melteth into blood."

7 his bearing.] i. e. his carriage, his demeanour. So, in Meafure for Measure:

"How I may formally in perfon bear me." STEEVENS.

Therefore, &c.] Let, which is found in the next line, is underfood here. MALONE.

Against whofe charms faith melteth into blood.] i. c. as wax
VOL. VI.

S

This is an accident of hourly proof,

Which I mistrufted not: Farewell therefore, Hero!

Re-enter BENEDICK.

BENE. Count Claudio?

CLAUD. Yea, the fame.

BENE. Come, will you go with me?
CLAUD. Whither?

BENE. Even to the next willow, about your Own bufinefs, count. What fashion will you wear the garland of? About your neck, like an ufurer's chain? or under your arm, like a lieutenant's scarf?

when oppofed to the fire kindled by a witch, no longer preferves the figure of the perfon whom it was defigned to reprefent, but flows into a fhapeless lump; fo fidelity, when confronted with beauty, dissolves into our ruling passion, and is lost there like a drop of water in the fea.

That blood fignifies (as Mr. Malone has alfo obferved) amorous heat, will appear from the following paffage in All's well that ends well, A& III. fc. vii:

"Now his important blood will nought deny
"That he'll demand." STEEVENS.

ufurer's chain?) Chains of gold, of confiderable value, were in our author's time, ufually worn by wealthy citizens, and others, in the fame manner as they now are, on publick occafions, by the Aldermen of London. See The Puritan, or the Widow of Watling-Street, A& III. fc. iii. Albumazar, A& I. fc. vii. and other pieces. REED.

Ufury feems about this time to have been a common topic of invective. I have three or four dialogues, pafquils, and difcourfes on the fubject, printed before the year 1600. From every one of thefe it appears, that the merchants were the chief ufurers of the age. STEEVENS.

So, in The Choice of Change, containing the triplicitie of Divinitie, Philofophie, and Poeirie, by S. R. Gent. 4to. 1598. "Three fortes of people, in respect of use in neceffitie, may be accounted good: Merchantes, for they may play the ufurers, inftead of the Jewes." Again, ibid: “There is a fcarcitie of Jewes, becaufe Chriftians make an occupation of usurie." MALONE.

You must wear it one way, for the prince hath got your Hero.

CLAUD. I wish him joy of her.

BENE. Why, that's fpoken like an honeft drover; fo they fell bullocks. But did you think, the prince would have ferved you thus?

CLAUD. I pray you, leave me.

BENE. HO! now you ftrike like the blind man ; 'twas the boy that ftole your meat, and you'll beat the poft.

CLAUD. If it will not be, I'll leave you. [Exit. BENE. Alas, poor hurt fowl! Now will he creep into fedges. But, that my lady Beatrice fhould know me, and not know me! The prince's fool!— Ha! it may be, I go under that title, because I am merry. Yea; but fo; I am apt to do myself wrong: I am not fo reputed: it is the bafe, the bitter difpofition of Beatrice, that puts the world into her perfon,' and fo gives me out. Well, I'll be revenged

Re-enter Don PEDRO, HERO, and LEONATO.

D. PEDRO. Now, fignior, where's the count? Did you fee him?

BENE. Troth, my lord, I have play'd the part of lady Fame. I found him here as melancholy as a

3 it is the base, the bitter difpofition of Beatrice that puts the world into her perfon,] That is, It is the difpofition of Beatrice, who takes upon her to perfonate the world, and therefore reprefents the world. as faying what the only fays herfelf.

The old copies read bafe, though bitter: but I do not understand how bafe and bitter are inconfiftent, or why what is bitter fhould not be bafe. I believe, we may fafely read, It is the bafe, the bitter difpofition. JOHNSON.

I have adopted Dr. Johnson's emendation, though I once thought it unneceflary. STEEVENS.

lodge in a warren; I told him, and, I think, I told him true, that your grace had got the good will of this young lady;' and I offered him my company to a willow tree, either to make him a garland, as being forfaken, or to bind him up a rod, as being worthy to be whipped.

D. PEDRO. To be whipped! What's his fault? BENE. The flat tranfgreffion of a school-boy; who, being overjoy'd with finding a bird's neft, fhows it his companion, and he steals it.

D. PEDRO. Wilt thou make a trust a tranfgreffion? The tranfgreffion is in the stealer.

BENE. Yet it had not been amifs, the rod had been made, and the garland too; for the garland he might have worn himself; and the rod he might have beflow'd on you, who, as I take it, have stol'n his bird's neft.

D. PEDRO. I will but teach them to fing, and reftore them to the owner.

BENE. If their finging anfwer your saying, by my faith, you fay honeftly.

as melancholy as a lodge in a warren; ] A parallel thought occurs in the first chapter of Ifaiah, where the prophet, describing the defolation of Judah, fays: "The daughter of Zion is left as a cottage in a vineyard, as a lodge in a garden of cucumbers," &c. I am informed, that near Aleppo, thefe lonely buildings are ftill made use of, it being neceffary, that the fields where watermelons, cucumbers, &c. are raised, thould be regularly watched. I learn from Tho. Newton's Herball to the Bible, 8vo. 1587. that fo foone as the cucumbers, &c. be gathered, thefe lodges are abandoned of the watchmen and keepers, and no more frequented." From these forfaken buildings, it should feem, the prophet takes his comparifon. STEEVENS.

5 of this young lady;] Benedick fpeaks of Hero as if fhe were on the ftage. Perhaps, both she and Leonatą, were meant to make their entrance with Don Pedro. When Beatrice enters, the is fpoken of as coming in with only Claudio. STEEVENS. I have regulated the entries accordingly. MALONE.