BEAT. No, fure, my lord, my mother cry'd; but then there was a ftar danced, and under that was I born. Coufins, God give you joy!

LEON. Niece, will you look to those things I told you of?

BEAT. I cry you mercy, uncle.-By your grace's pardon. [Exit BEATRICE.

D. PEDRO. By my troth, a pleafant-fpirited lady. LEON. There's little of the melancholy element in her, my lord: fhe is never fad, but when the fleeps; and not ever fad then; for I have heard my daughter fay, fhe hath often dream'd of unhappinefs, and waked herself with laughing.

D. PEDRO. She cannot endure to hear tell of a hufband.

LEON. O, by no means; fhe mocks all her wooers out of fuit.

D. PEDRO. She were an excellent wife for Benędick.

LEON. O Lord, my lord, if they were but a week married, they would talk themselves mad.

D. PEDRO. Count Claudio, when mean you to go to church?

"Does not

8 There's little of the melancholy element in her,] our life confift of the four elements?" fays Sir Toby, in Twelfth Night. So, alfo in King Henry V: "He is pure air and fire, and the dull elements of earth and water never appear in him."

MALONE.

9 • fhe hath often dream'd of unhappiness,] So all the editions ; but M. Theobald alters it to, an happiness, having no conception that unhappiness meant any thing but misfortune, and that, he thinks, fhe could not laugh at. He had never heard that it fignified a wild, wanton unlucky trick. Thus Beaumont and Fletcher, in their comedy of The Maid of the Mill:

My dreams are like my thoughts, honest and innocent: Yours are unhappy." WARBURTON.

CLAUD. To-morrow, my lord; Time goes on crutches, till love have all his rites.

LEON. Not till Monday, my dear fon, which is hence a juft sevennight; and a time too brief too, to have all things anfwer my mind.

D. PEDRO. Come, you thake the head at fo long a breathing; but, I warrant thee, Claudio, the time fhall not go dully by us; I will, in the interim, undertake one of Hercules' labours; which is, to bring fignior Benedick, and the lady Beatrice into a mountain of affection, the one with the other. I would fain have it a match; and I doubt not but to fashion it, if you three will but minifter fuch affiftance as I fhall give you direction.

2

into a mountain of affection, the one with the other.] A mountain of affection with one another is a ftrange expreffion, yet I know not well how to change it. Perhaps it was originally written to bring Benedick and Beatrice into a mooting of affection; to bring them not to any more mootings of contention, but to a mooting or converfation of love. This reading is confirmed by the prepofition with; a mountain with each other, or affection with each other, cannot be used, but a mooting with each other is proper and regular. JOHNSON.

Uncommon as the word propofed by Dr. Johnson may appear, it is used in several of the old plays. So, in Glapthorne's Wit in Conftable, 1639.

..

one who never

Had mooted in the hall, or feen the revels

"Kept in the houfe at Chriftinas."

Again, in The Return from Parnassus, 1606.

Again:

"It is a plain cafe, whereon I mooted in our temple."

at a mooiing in our temple." Ibid.

And yet, all that I believe is meant by a mountain of affection is, a great deal of affection.

In one of Stanyhurft's poems is the following phrase to denote a large quantity of love.

Lumps of love promift, nothing perform'd," &c.

Again, in The Renegado, by Maffinger :

66

'tis but parting with

"A mountain of vexation."

LEON. My lord, I am for you, though it coft me ten nights' watchings.

CLAUD. And I, my lord.

D. PEDRO. And you too, gentle Hero? HERO. I will do any modeft office, my lord, to help my coufin to a good husband.

2

D. PEDRO. And Benedick is not the unhopefulleft husband that I know: thus far can I praise him; he is of a noble ftrain, of approved valour, and confirm'd honefty. I will teach you how to humour your coufin, that fhe fhall fall in love with Benedick:- and I, with your two helps, will so practise on Benedick, that, in despite of his quick wit and his quealy ftomach,' he fhall fall in love with

Thus, also in K. Henry VIII: we find a fea of glory." In Hamlet: a fea of troubles." Again, in Howel's Hiftory of Venice: "though they fee mountains of miferies heaped on one's back." Again, in Bacon's Hiftory of K. Henry VII: "Perkin fought to corrupt the fervants to the lieutenant of the tower by mountains of promises." Again, in The Comedy of Errors: (6 the mountain of mad flesh that claims marriage of me." Little can be inferred from the prefent offence against grammar; an offence which may not ftrictly be imputable to Shakspeare, but rather to the negligence or ignorance of his tranfcribers or printers. STEEVENS.

He who would hazard

Shakspeare has many phrafes equally harsh. fuch expreffions as a form of fortune, a vale of years, and a tempeft of provocation, would not fcruple to write a mountain of affection."

MALONE.

a noble rain,] i. c. defcent, lineage. So in The Faery Queen, B. IV. C. viii. S. 33.

"Sprung from the auncient ftocke of prince's firaine:"

Again, B. V. C. ix. S. 32.

"Sate goodly temperaunce in garments clene,

"And facred reverence yborn of heavenly firene." REED.

Again, in King Lear, A& V. fc. iii:

"Sir, you have shown to-day your valiant ftrain." STEEVENS. 3.- queafy ftomach,] i. e. fqueamish. So, in Antony and Cleopatra :

"Who queasy with his infolence already".

STEEVENS.

Beatrice. If we can do this, Cupid is no longer an archer; his glory fhall be ours, for we are the only love-gods. Go in with me, and I will tell you my drift. [Exeunt.

SCENE II.

Another Room in LEONATO's Houfe.

Enter Don JOHN and BORACHIO.

1

D. JOHN. It is fo; the count Claudio shall marry the daughter of Leonato.

BORA. Yea, my lord; but I can cross it.

D. JOHN. Any bar, any cross, any impediment will be medicinable to me: I am fick in displeasure to him; and whatsoever comes athwart his affection, ranges evenly with mine. How canft thou crofs this marriage.

BORA. Not honeftly, my lord; but fo covertly that no difhonefty fhall appear in me.

D. JOHN. Show me briefly how.

BORA. I think, I told your lordship, a year fince, how much I am in the favour of Margaret, the waiting-gentlewoman to Hero.

D. JOHN. I remember.

BORA, I can, at any unfeasonable inftant of the night, appoint her to look out at her lady's chamberwindow.

D. JOHN. What life is in that, to be the death of this marriage?

BORA. The poifon of that lies in you to temper. Go you to the prince your brother; fpare not to tell him, that he hath wrong'd his honour in marrying the renowned Claudio (whofe eftimation do you

mightily hold up) to a contaminated ftale, fuch a one as Hero.

D. JOHN. What proof fhall I make of that?

BORA. Proof enough to misuse the prince, to vex Claudio, to undo Hero, and kill Leonato: Look you for any other iffue?

D. JOHN. Only to defpite them, I will endeavour any thing.

4 BORA. Go then, find me a meet hour to draw

4 Bora. Go then, find me a meet hour to draw Don Pedro and the count Claudio, alone: tell them, that you know that Hero loves me ; offer them inftances; which fhall bear no less likelihood, than to fee me at her chamber-window; hear me call Margaret, Hero; hear Margaret term me Claudio; and bring them to fee this, the very night before the intended wedding:] Thus the whole ftream of the editions from the first quarto downwards. I am obliged here to give a fhort account of the plot depending, that the emendation I have made may appear the more clear and unqueftionable. The bufinefs flands thus: Claudio, a favourite of the Arragon prince, is, by his interceffions with her father, to be married to fair Hero; Don John, natural brother of the prince, and a hater of Claudio, is in his fpleen zealous to disappoint the match. Borachio, a rafcally dependant on Don John, offers his assistance, and engages to break off the marriage by this ftratagem. "Tell the prince and Claudio (fays he) that Hero is in love with me; they won't believe it offer them proofs, as, that they fhall fee me converse with her in her chamber-window. I am in the good graces of her waiting-woman, Margaret; and I'll prevail with Margaret, at a dead hour of night, to perfonate her miftrefs Hero; do you then bring the prince and Claudio to overhear our discourse; and they fhall have the torment to hear me addrefs Margaret by the name of Hero, and her fay fweet things to me by the name of Claudio."

This is the fubftance of Borachio's device to make Hero suspected of disloyalty, and to break off her match with Claudio. But, in the name of common fenfe, could it difpleafe Claudio, to hear his mistress making ufe of his name tenderly? If he faw another man with her, and heard her call him Claudio, he might reasonably think her betrayed, but not have the fame reafon to accufe her of disloyalty. Befides, how could her naming Claudio, make the prince and Claudio believe that he loved Borachio, as he defires Don John to infinuate to them that she did? The