Beat. Very ill. Bene. And how do you? Beat. Very ill too. Bene. Serve God, love me, and mend: there will I leave you too, for here comes one in haste. Enter URSULA. Urs. Madam, you must come to your uncle : Yonder's old coil at home: it is proved, my lady Hero hath been falsely accus'd, the prince and Claudio mightily abus'd; and Don John is the author of all, who is fled and gone: Will you come presently? Beat. Will you go hear this news, signior? Bene. I will live in thy heart, die in thy lap, and be buried in thy eyes; and, moreover, I will go with thee to thy uncle's. 8 [Exeunt. SCENE III. The Inside of a Church. Enter Don PEDRO, CLAUDIO, and Attendants, Claud. Is this the monument of Leonato ? lord. 7 That is, huge bustle, or stir. Old was much used as an augmentative in familiar language, perhaps because things that are old have given proof of strength, in having outstood the trial of time. Thus, in The Merry Wives of Windsor, Act i. sc. 4: "Here will be an old abusing of God's patience, and the king's English." So, likewise, in Dekker's comedy, "If this be not a good Play the Devil is in it:" "We shall have old breaking of necks." And in Le Bone Florence, quoted by Boswell: "Gode olde fyghtyng was there." H. 8 Mr. Collier says, -The Rev. Mr. Barry suggests to me, that the words heart and eyes have in some way changed places in the old copies." H. Claud. [Reads.] Epitaph. Done to death' by slanderous tongues Was the Hero that here lies: Death, in guerdon" of her wrongs, Gives her fame which never dies: Hang thou there upon the tomb, Now, music, sound, and sing your solemn hymn. Song. Pardon, goddess of the night, Those that slew thy virgin knight;3 Midnight, assist our moan; Help us to sigh and groan, Graves, yawn, and yield your dead, te çu Heavily, heavily.a 1 This phrase occurs frequently in writers of Shakespeare's time it appears to be derived from the French phrase, faire mourir. 2 Reward. 3 Knight was a common poetical appellation of virgins in Shakespeare's time; probably in allusion to their being the votarists of Diana, whose chosen pastime was in knightly sports. Thus, in Fletcher's Two Noble Kinsmen, Act v. sc. 1: "O! sacred, shadowy, cold, and constant queen, H. 4 We here give the reading of the quarto, though we confess Claud. Now, unto thy bones good night! D. Pedro. Good morrow, masters; put your torches out: The wolves have prey'd; and look, the gentle day, D. Pedro. Come, let us hence, and put on other And then to Leonato's we will go. Claud. And Hymen now with luckier issue speeds, Than this, for whom we render'd up this woe! [Exeunt. SCENE IV. A Room in LEONATO'S House. Enter LEONATO, ANTONIO, BENEDICK, BEATRICE, Friar. Did I not tell you she was innocent? her Upon the error that you heard debated: ourselves somewhat puzzled to find its meaning, and on the whole rather doubtful whether it have any. The folio reads, —“ Heavenly, heavenly," which seems still more obscure or meaningless, but which Knight and Verplanck retain, explaining uttered to mean put out or expelled, a sense which it sometimes bears, and heavenly to mean by the power of heaven. In this case the sense jumps well enough with what goes before, but it looks too much like making the passage a hieroglyph. Steevens' explanation is, "till songs of death be uttered;" which makes heavily appropriate; but then it gives a sense that can hardly be crushed into agreement with what precedes. Difficult as the meaning is either way, we keep to the reading that has the oldest authority. Mr. 'Dyce justly urges against the reading of the folio, that it gives a But Margaret was in some fault for this; Ant. Well, I am glad that all things sort so well. Bene. And so am I, being else by faith enforc'd To call young Claudio to a reckoning for it. Leon. Well, daughter, and you gentlewomen all, Withdraw into a chamber by yourselves; And, when I send for you, come hither mask'd: The prince and Claudio promis'd by this hour To visit me.— - You know your office, brother; You must be father to your brother's daughter, And give her to young Claudio. [Exeunt Ladies. Ant. Which I will do with confirm'd countenance. Bene. Friar, I must entreat your pains, I think. Friar. To do what, signior? Bene. To bind me, or undo me; one of them. Signior Leonato, truth it is, good signior, Your niece regards me with an eye of favour. Leon. That eye my daughter lent her: 'tis most true. Bene. And I do with an eye of love requite her. Leon. The sight whereof, I think, you had from me, From Claudio, and the prince: But what's your will? Bene. Your answer, sir, is enigmatical : But, for my will, my will is, your good will passage in Hamlet, Act ii. sc. 2, thus: "And indeed, it goes so heavenly with my disposition, that this goodly frame the Earth seems to me a steril promontory." And he thinks heavenly is as certainly a misprint for heavily in one case as in the other. H. Leon. My heart is with your liking. Here come the prince and Claudio. And my help. Enter Don PEDRO and CLAUDIO, with Attendants. D. Pedro. Good morrow to this fair assembly. We here attend you: Are you yet determin'd D. Pedro. Good morrow, Benedick: Why, what's That you have such a February face, So full of frost, of storm, and cloudiness? As once Europa did at lusty Jove, When he would play the noble beast in love. Bene. Bull Jove, sir, had an amiable low: And some such strange bull leap'd your father's Cow, Much like to you, for you have just his bleat. Re-enter ANTONIO, with the Ladies masked. Claud. For this I owe you here come other reckonings. Which is the lady I must scize upon ? Leon. This same is she, and I do give you her. Still alluding to the passage quoted from The Spanish Tragedy, in the first scene of the play. |