Leon. My lord, will you walk? dinner is ready. Claud. If he do not dote on her upon this, I will never trust my expectation. [Aside.

D. Pedro. Let there be the same net spread for her; and that must your daughter and her gentlewomen carry. The sport will be, when they hold one an opinion of another's dotage, and no such matter; that's the scene that I would see, which will be merely a dumb show. Let us send her to call him in to dinner. [Aside.

[Exeunt Don PEDRO, CLAUD. and LEON.

BENEDICK advances from the Arbour.

Bene. This can be no trick: The conference was sadly 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 censured: they say, I will bear myself proudly, if I perceive the love come from her; they say too, that she will rather die than give any sign of affection.—I did never think to marry :-I must not seem proud :-Happy are they that hear their detractions, and can put them to mending. They say, the lady is fair; 'tis a truth, I can bear them witness: and virtuous;-'tis so, I cannot reprove it: and wise, 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 some 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 sentences, and these paper bullets of the brain, awe a man from the career of his humour? No: The world must be peopled. When I said, I would die a bachelor, I did not think I should live till I were

4

unworthy so good a lady.] Thus the quarto, 1600. The first folio unnecessarily reads "unworthy to have so good a lady."

6

Steevens.

5 was sadly borne.] i. e. was seriously carried on. 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 service freely at your feet."

The first foilo reads-" the full bent." I have followed the quarto, 1600. Steevens.

married.-Here comes Beatrice: By this day, she's a fair lady: I do spy some marks of love in her.

Enter BEATRICE.

Beat. Against my will, I am sent 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 pleasure then in the message?

Beat. Yea, just so much as you may take upon a knife's point, and choke a daw withal:-You have no stomach, signior; fare you well. [Exit.

Bene. Ha! Against my will I am sent to bid you come in to dinner-there's a double meaning in that. I took no more pains for those thanks, than you took pains to thank me—that's as much as to say, Any pains that I take for you is as easy 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 1.

LEONATO's Garden.

Enter HERO, MARGARET, and URSULA.

Hero. Good Margaret, run thee into the parlour;
There shalt thou find my cousin Beatrice

Proposing with the Prince and Claudio:7
Whisper her ear, and tell her, I and Ursula
Walk in the orchard, and our whole discourse
Is all of her; say, that thou overheard'st us;
And bid her steal into the pleached bower,
Where honey-suckles, ripen'd by the sun,
Forbid the sun to enter;-like favourites,
Made proud by princes, that advance their pride
Against that power that bred it:-there will she hide her,

7 Proposing with the Prince and Claudio:] Proposing is conversing, from the French word-propos, discourse, talk. Steevens.

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

Marg. I'll make her come, I warrant you, presently.

Hero. Now, Ursula, 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 must be, how Benedick
Is sick in love with Beatrice: Of this matter
Is little Cupid's crafty arrow made,

That only wounds by hearsay. Now begin;
Enter BEATRICE, behind.
For look where Beatrice, like a lapwing, runs
Close by the ground, to hear our conference.
Urs, The pleasant'st angling is to see the fish
Cut with her golden oars the silver stream,
And greedily devour the treacherous bait:
So angle we for Beatrice; who even now
Is couched in the woodbine coverture:
Fear you not my part of the dialogue.

[Exit.

Hero. Then go we near her, that her ear lose nothing Of the false sweet bait that we lay for it.—

[They advance to the bower. No, truly, Ursula, she is too disdainful; I know, her spirits are as coy and wild As haggards of the rock.

8 ―our propose:] Thus the quarto. The folio reads-our purpose. Propose 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 same sense as propose. Thus, in Knox's History of the Reformation in Scotland, p. 72: ". with him six persons; and getting entrie, held purpose with the porter." Again, p. 54, "After supper be held comfortable purpose of God's chosen children." Reed.

9 As haggards of the rock.] Turbervile, in his book of Falconry, 1575, tells us that "the haggard doth come from foreign parts a stranger and a passenger;" and Latham, who wrote after him, says, that, "she keeps in subjection the most part of all the fowl that fly, insomuch, that the tassel gentle, her natural and chiefest companion, dares not come near that coast where she useth, nor sit by the place where she standeth. Such is the greatness of

Urs.

But are you sure

That Benedick loves Beatrice so entirely?

Hero. So says 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 persuaded them, if they lov'd Benedick, To wish him1 wrestle with affection,

And never to let Beatrice know of it.

Urs. Why did you so? Doth not the gentleman Deserve as full, as fortunate a bed,2

As ever Beatrice shall couch upon?

Hero. O God of love! I know, he doth deserve
As much as may be yielded to a man:
But nature never fram'd a woman's heart
Of prouder stuff than that of Beatrice:
Disdain and scorn ride sparkling in her eyes,
Misprising what they look on; and her wit
Values itself so highly, that to her

All matter else seems weak:4 she cannot love,

her spirit, she will not admit of any society, until such a time as nature worketh," &c. So, in The Tragical History of Didaco and Violenta, 1576:

"Perchaunce she 's not of haggard's kind,
"Nor heart so hard to bend," &c.

Steevens.

1 To wish him—] i. e. recommend or desire. So, in The Honest Whore, 1604:

"Go wish the surgeon to have great respect," &c. Again, in The Hog hath lost his Pearl, 1614: "But lady mine that shall be, your father hath wish'd me to appoint the day with you." Reed.

2

as full, &c.] So, in Othello:

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

Mr. M. Mason very justly observes, that what Ursula means to say is," that he is as deserving of complete happiness in the marriage state, as Beatrice herself." Steevens.

3 Misprising-] Despising, contemning. Johnson.

To misprise is to undervalue, or take in a wrong light. So, in Troilus and Cressida :

a great deal misprising

"The knight oppos'd." Steevens.

that to her

All matter else seems weak:] So, in Love's Labour's Lost:

66

to your huge store

"Wise things seem foolish, and rich things but poor."

Steevens.

Nor take no shape nor project of affection,
She is so self-endeared.

Urs.

Sure, I think so;

And therefore, certainly, it were not good
She knew his love, lest she make sport at it.

Hero. Why, you speak truth: I never yet saw man, How wise, how noble, young, how rarely featur'd, But she would spell him backward:5 if fair-faced, She'd swear, the gentleman should be her sister; If black, why, nature, drawing of an antick, Made a foul blot: if tall, a lance ill-headed;

5

·spell him backward:] Alluding to the practice of witches in uttering prayers.

The following passages containing a similar train of thought, are from Lyly's Anatomy of Wit, 1581:

"If one be hard in conceiving, they pronounce him a dowlte: if given to studie, they proclaim him a dunce: if merry, a jester: if sad, a saint: if full of words, a sot: if without speech, a cypher: if one argue with him boldly, then is he impudent: if coldly, an innocent: if there be reasoning of divinitie, they cry, Que supra nos, nihil ad nos: if of humanitie, sententias loquitur carnifex."

Again, p 44, b. “ if he be cleanly, they [women] term him proude: if meene in apparel, a sloven: if tall, a lungis: if shorte, a dwarfe: if bold, blunt: if shamefast, a cowarde," &c. P. 55: "If she be well set, then call her a bosse: if slender, a hasil twig: if nut brown, black as a coal: if well colour'd, a painted wall: if she be pleasant, then is she wanton: if sullen, a clowne: if honest, then is she coye." Steevens.

6 If black, why, nature, drawing of an antick,

Made a foul blot :] The antick was a buffoon character in the old English farces, with a blacked face, and a patch-work habit. What I would observe from hence is, that the name of antick or antique, given to this character, shows that the people had some traditional ideas of its being borrowed from the ancient mimes, who are thus described by Apuleius: "mimi centunculo, fuligine faciem obducti." Warburton.

I believe what is here said of the old English farces, is said at random. Dr. Warburton was thinking, I imagine, of the modern Harlequin. I have met with no proof that the face of the antick or Vice of the old English comedy was blackened. By the word black in the text, is only meant, as I conceive, swarthy, or dark brown. Malone.

A black man means a man with a dark or thick beard, not a swarthy or dark-brown complexion, as Mr. Malone conceives.

Douce.

When Hero says, that "nature drawing of an antick, made a