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CLAUD. Now you talk of a sheet of paper, I remember a pretty jeft your daughter told us of.

LEON. O! When fhe had writ it, and was reading it over, fhe found Benedick and Beatrice between the fheet?

CLAUD. That.

LEON. O the tore the letter into a thousand halfpence; rail'd at herself, that she should be fọ immodeft to write to one that she knew would flout her: I measure him, fays fhe, by my own fpirit, for I fhould flout him, if he writ to me; yea, though I love him, I should.

Macbeth; perhaps the paffage here quoted was not lefs grateful to Elizabeth, as it apparently alludes to an extraordinary trait in one of the letters pretended to have been written by the hated Mary to Bothwell:

"I am nakit, and ganging to fleep, and zit I cease not to fcribble all this paper, in fo meikle as reft is thairof." That is, I am naked, and going to fleep, and yet I cease not to scribble to the end of my paper, much as there remains of it unwritten on. HENLEY.

Mr. Henley's observation must fall to the ground; the word in every edition of Mary's letter which Shakspeare could poffibly have feen, being irkit, not nakit.

"I am irkit" means, I am uneafy. So, in As you like it:

"And yet it irks me, the poor dappled fools," &c. Again, in K. Henry VI:

"It irks his heart he cannot be reveng'd." STEEVENS. 90! fhe tore the letter into a thousand halfpeuce; ] i. e. into a thousand pieces of the fame bignefs. So, in As you Like it: "they were all like one another, as halfpence are." THEOBALD.

A farthing, and perhaps a halfpenny, was used to fignify any small particle or divifion. So, in the character of the Priorefs in Chaucer:

"That in hire cuppe was no ferthing sene

STEEVENS.

"Of grefe, whan fhe dronken hadde hire draught." Prol. to the Cant. Tales, Tyrwhitt's edit. v. 135. See Mortimeriados, by Michael Drayton, 4to. 1596: "She now begins to write unto her lover, "Then turning back to read what he had writ, "She teyrs the paper, and condemns her wit."

MALONE.

CLAUD. Then down upon her knees fhe falls, weeps, fobs, beats her heart, tears her hair, prays, curfes; O fweet Benedick! God give me patience! LEON. She doth indeed; my daughter fays fo: and the ecstasy 2 hath so much overborne her, that my daughter is fometime afraid fhe will do a defperate outrage to herself; It is very true.

2

D. PEDRO. It were good, that Benedick knew of it by fome other, if fhe will not discover it.

CLAUD. To what end? He would but make a fport of it, and torment the poor lady worse.

D. PEDRO. An he should, it were an alms to hang him: She's an excellent sweet lady; and, out of all fufpicion, fhe is virtuous.

CLAUD. And she is exceeding wife.

D. PEDRO. In every thing, but in loving Benedick.

LEON. O my lord, wisdom and blood3 combating in fo tender a body, we have ten proofs to one, that blood hath the victory. I am forry for her, as I have juft caufe, being her uncle and her guardian.

D. PEDRO. I would, fhe had bestowed this dotage on me; I would have daff'd all other refpects, and

2

-and the ecftafy Tempest, A& III. fc. iii: may now provoke them and blood-]

3

4

Ji. e. alienation of mind. So, in The "Hinder them from what this ecftafy to." STEEVENS.

I fuppofe blood, in this inftance, to mean nature, or disposition. So, in The Yorkshire Tragedy: For 'tis our blood to love what we're forbidden."

STEEVENS.

Blood is here as in many other places ufed by our author in the fenfe of paffion, or rather temperament of body. MALONE.

4

have daff'd ] To daff is the fame as to doff, to do off, So, in Macbeth:

to put aside. 56

to doff their dire diftreffes." STEEVENS.

made her half myself: I pray you, tell Benedick of it, and hear what he will fay.

LEON. Were it good, think you?

CLAUD. Hero thinks furely, she will die: for fhe fays, fhe will die if he love her not; and fhe wilf die ere she make her love known; and she will die if he woo her, rather than fhe will 'bate one breath of her accuftom'd croffnefs.

D. PEDRO. She doth well: if the fhould make tender of her love, 'tis very poffible he'll scorn it; for the man, as you know all, hath a contemptible fpirit. s

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CLAUD. He is a very proper man. D. PEDRO. He hath, indeed, a good outward happiness.

mind, very

wife.

CLAUD. 'Fore God, and in my D. PEDRO. He doth, indeed, fhow some sparks that are like wit.

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LEON. And I take him to be valiant.

D. PEDRO. As Hector, I affure you: and in the

contemptible fpirit.] That is, a temper inclined to fcorn and contempt. It has been before remarked, that our author uses his verbal adjectives with great licence. There is therefore no need of changing the word with Sir Thomas Hanmer to contemptuous.

JOHNSON.

In the argument to Darius, a tragedy, by Lord Sterline, 1603, it is faid, that Darius wrote to Alexander in a proud and contemptible manner. In this place contemptible certainly means contemptuous.

Again, Drayton, in the 24th Song of his Polyolbion, fpeaking in praise of a hermit, fays, that he,

"The mad tumultuous world contemptibly forfook,
"And to his quiet cell by Crowland him betook."

- a very proper man. i. e. a very handsome one. Othello:

"This Ludovico is a proper man," STEEVENS,

STEEVENS.

So, in

managing of quarrels you may fay he is wife; for either he avoids them with great difcretion, or undertakes them with a moft chriftian-like fear.

LEON. If he do fear God, he muft neceffarily keep peace; if he break the peace, he ought to enter into a quarrel with fear and trembling.

D. PEDRO. And fo will he do; for the man doth fear God, howfoever it feems not in him, by fome large jests he will make. Well, I am forry for your niece: Shall we go feek Benedick, and tell him of her love?

CLAUD. Never tell him, my lord;· let her wear it out with good counfel.

LEON. Nay, that's impoffible; fhe may wear her heart out firft.

D. PEDRO. Well, we'll hear further of it by your daughter; let it cool the while. I love Benedick well; and I could wish he would modeftly examine himself, to fee how much he is unworthy fo good a lady.

LEON. My lord, will you walk? dinner is ready. CLAUD. If he do not dote on her upon this, I will never truft my expectation. [Afide.

D. PEDRO. Let there be the fame net spread for her; and that muft your daughter and her gentlewoman carry. The fport will be, when they hold one an opinion of another's dotage, and no fuch. matter; that's the fcene that I would fee, which will be merely a dumb fhow. Let us fend her to call

him in to dinner.

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[Afide. [Exeunt Don PEDRO, CLAUDIO, and LEONATO.

unworthy fo good a lady.] Thus the quarto, 1600. The "unworthy to have so good a lady," STEEVENS,

first folio unneceffarily reads

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BENEDICK advances from the Arbour.

BENE. This can be no trick: The conference was

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8

fadly borne. - They have the truth of this from
Hero. They feem to pity the lady; it seems, her
affections have their full bent. Love me! why, it
must be requited. I hear how I am cenfured: they
fay, I will bear myself proudly, if I perceive the
love come from her; they say too, that she will rather
die than give any fign of affection. — I did never
think to marry: I muft not feem proud;- Happy
are they that hear their detractions, and can put
them to mending. They fay, the lady is fair; 'tis
a truth. I can bear them witnefs: and virtuous;-
'tis fo, I cannot reprove it: and wife, 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
fome 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 fentences, and thefe paper bullets of the
brain, awe a man from the career of his humour?
No: The world must be peopled. When I faid, I
would die a bachelor, I did not think I fhould live
till I were married. Here comes Beatrice:-By this
day, she's a fair lady: I do fpy fome marks of love

in her.

7

--

was fadly borne.] i. e. was feriously carried on.

STEEVENS.

8 have their full bent.] Metaphor from the exercife of the bow. So, in Hamlet:

"And here give up ourfelves in the full bent,
"To lay our fervice freely at your feet."

The firft folio reads -the full bent." I have followed the quarto, 1600. STEEVENS.

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