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 must 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, how foever it seems not in him, by fome large jefts 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 counsel.

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 with 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 gentlewomen 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. [Afide.] [Exeunt Don PEDRO, CLAUDIO, and LEONATO.

6unworthy fo good a lady.] first folio unneceffarily reads

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

BENEDICK advances from the Arbour.

BENE. This can be no trick: The conference was fadly borne.'-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 cenfured: they fay, I will bear myself proudly, if I perceive the love come from her; they fay 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 fo 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 these 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, fhe's a fair lady: I do fpy fome marks of love in her.

7 was fadly borne.] i. e. was seriously carried on.

8

STEEVENS.

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

"And here give up ourselves in the full bent,

"To lay our fervice freely at your feet,"

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

Enter BEATRICE.

BEAT. Against my will, I am fent 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 come.

BENE. You take pleafure then in the message? BEAT. Yea, juft fo much as you may take upon a knife's point, and choke a daw withal:-You have no ftomach, fignior; fare you well. [Exit.

BENE. Ha! Against my will I am fent to bid you come in to dinner-there's a double meaning in that. I took no more pains for thofe thanks, than you took pains to thank me-that's as much as to fay, Any pains that I take for you is as eafy 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 into the parlour; There fhalt thou find my coufin Beatrice Propofing with the Prince and Claudio: " Whisper her ear, and tell her, I and Urfula Walk in the orchard, and our whole difcourfe Is all of her; fay, that thou overheard'ft us;

9 Propofing with the Prince and Claudio:] Propofing is converfing, from the French word-propos, difcourfe, talk, STEEVENS.

And bid her steal into the pleached bower,
Where honey-fuckles, ripen'd by the fun,
Forbid the fun to enter;-like favourites,

Made proud by princes, that advance their pride Against that power that bred it :-there will the hide her,

To liften our propose: This is thy office,
Bear thee well in it, and leave us alone.

MARG. I'll make her come, I warrant you, pre

fently.

[Exit. HERO. Now, Urfula, 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 muft be, how Benedick Is fick in love with Beatrice: Of this matter Is little Cupid's crafty arrow made,

That only wounds by hearfay. Now begin;

Enter BEATRICE, behind.

For look where Beatrice, like a lapwing, runs
Close by the ground, to hear our conference.
URS. The pleasant'ft angling is to fee the fish
Cut with her golden oars the filver ftream,
And greedily devour the treacherous bait:
So angle we for Beatrice; who even now

our propofe:] Thus the quarto. The folio reads-our purpose. Propofe is right. See the preceding note. STEEVENS. Purpose, however, may be equally right. It depends only on the manner of accenting the word, which, in Shakspeare's time, was often used in the fame fenfe as propofe. Thus, in Knox's Hiftory of the Reformation in Scotland, p. 72: with him fix perfons; and getting entrie, held purpose with the porter." Again, p. 54, "After fupper he held comfortable purpose of God's chofen children." REED.

66

Is couched in the woodbine coverture:
Fear you not my part of the dialogue.

HERO. Then go we near her, that her car lofe no

thing

Of the falfe fweet bait that we lay for it.

[They advance to the bower.

No, truly, Urfula, fhe is too difdainful;
I know, her spirits are as coy and wild
As haggards of the rock.'

URS.
But are you fure,
That Benedick loves Beatrice fo entirely?

HERO. So fays the prince, and my new-trothed lord.
URS. And did they bid you tell her of it, madam?
HERO. They did intreat me to acquaint her of it:
But I perfuaded them, if they lov'd Benedick,
To with him wreftle with affection,

And never to let Beatrice know of it.

URS. Why did you fo? Doth not the gentleman Deferve as full, as fortunate a bed,'

As ever Beatrice fhall couch upon?

3 As haggards of the rock.] Turbervile, in his book of Falconry, 1575, tells us, that "the baggard doth come from foreign parts a ftranger and a paffenger;" and Latham, who wrote after him, fays, that, "fhe keeps in fubjection the moft part of all the fowl that fly, infomach, that the taffel gentle, her natural and chiefcft companion, dares not come near that coaft where the ufeth, nor fit by the place where fhe ftandeth. Such is the greatnefs of her fpirit, She will not admit of any fociety, until fuch a time as nature worketh," &c. So, in The tragical History of Didaco and Violenta, 1576: "Perchaunce she's not of haggard's kind, STEEVENS.

"Nor heart fo hard to bend," &c.

4 To with him-] i. e. recommend or defire. So, in The Honeft Whore, 1604:

"Go toifh the furgeon to have great refpect," &c. Again, in The Hog hath loft his Pearl, 1614: " But lady mine that shall be, your father, hath wish'd me to appoint the day with you." REED. 5 -as full, &c.] So in Othello:

"What a full fortune doth the thick-lips owe?" &c.