LEON. O!-When she had writ it, and was reading it over, she found Benedick and Beatrice between the sheet ? CLAUD. That. LEON. O! she tore the letter into a thousand halfpence; railed at herself, that she should be so immodest to write to one that she knew would flout her: I measure him, says she, by my own spirit; for I should flout him, if he writ to me; yea, though I love him, I should. CLAUD. Then down upon her knees she falls, weeps, sobs, beats her heart, tears her hair, prays, curses;-0 sweet Benedick! God give me patience! LEON. She doth indeed; my daughter says so : and the ecstasy hath so much overborne her, that my daughter is sometime afraid she will do a desperate outrage to herself; It is very true. 4 D. PEDRO. It were good, that Benedick knew of it by some other, if she will not discover it. CLAUD. To what end? He would but make a sport 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 suspicion, she is virtuous. 3 O she tore the letter into a thousand HALFPENCE;] i. e. into a thousand pieces of the same bigness. 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 signify any small particle or division. So, in the character of the Prioress in Chaucer: That in hirre cuppe was no ferthing sene "Of grese, whan she dronken hadde hire draught." 4 and the ECSTASY-] i. e. alienation of mind. So, in The Tempest, Act III. Sc. III.: "Hinder them from what this ecstasy may now provoke them to." STEEVENS. VOL. VII. F CLAUD. And she is exceeding wise. D. PEDRO. In every thing, but in loving Benedick. LEON. O my lord, wisdom and blood combating in so tender a body, we have ten proofs to one, that blood hath the victory. I am sorry for her, as I have just cause, being her uncle and her guardian. D. PEDRO. I would, she had bestowed this dotage on me; I would have daff'd all other respects, and made her half myself: I pray you, tell Benedick of it, and hear what he will say. 6 LEON. Were it good, think you? CLAUD. Hero thinks surely, she will die: for she says, she will die if he love her not; and she will die ere she makes her love known; and she will die if he woo her, rather than she will 'bate one breath of her accustomed crossness. D. PEDRO. She doth well: if she should make tender of her love, 'tis very possible he'll scorn it; for the man, as you know all, hath a contemptible spirit'. 5 - and BLOOD-] I suppose blood, in this instance, to mean nature, or disposition. So, in the Yorkshire Tragedy: "For 'tis our blood to love what we're forbidden." See p. 41, n. 1. STEEVENS. Blood is here, as in many other places, used by our author in the sense of passion, or rather temperament of body. MALONE. have DAFF'D] To daff is the same as to doff, to do off, to put aside. So, in Macbeth: 6 7 - 66 to doff their dire distresses." STEEVENS. CONTEMPTIBLE spirit.] That is, a temper inclined to scorn and contempt. It has been before remarked, that our author uses his verbal adjectives with great licence. therefore no need of changing the word with Sir Thomas Hanmer to contemptuous. JOHNSON. There is In the argument to Darius, a tragedy, by Lord Sterline, 1603, it is said, that Darius wrote to Alexander "in a proud and contemptible manner." In this place contemptible certainly means contemptuous. CLAUD. He is a very proper man ®. D. PEDRO. He hath, indeed, a good outward happiness. CLAUD. 'Fore God, and in my mind, very wise. D. PEDRO. He doth, indeed, show some sparks that are like wit. LEON. And I take him to be valiant. D. PEDRO. AS Hector, I assure you: and in the managing of quarrels you may say he is wise; for either he avoids them with great discretion, or undertakes them with a most christian-like fear. LEON. If he do fear God, he must necessarily keep peace; if he break the peace, he ought to enter into a quarrel with fear and trembling. D. PEDRO. And so will he do; for the man doth fear God, howsoever it seems not in him, by some large jests he will make. Well, I am sorry for your niece: Shall we go see 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 impossible; she may wear her heart out first. D. PEDRO. Well, we will hear further of it by your daughter; let it cool the while. I love Benedick well; and I could wish he would modestly examine himself, to see how much he is unworthy to have so good a lady 9. Again, Drayton, in the 24th Song of his Polyolbion, speaking in praise of a hermit, says, that he "The mad tumultuous world contemptibly forsook, 8 a very PROPER MAN.] i. e. a very handsome one. So, in Othello : "This Ludovico is a proper man." STEEVENS. 9 - unworthy so good a lady.] Thus the quarto 1600. The first folio unnecessarily reads "unworthy to have so good a lady.” STEEVENS. 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 gentlewoman 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, CLAUDIO, and LEONATO. 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 2. 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, was sadly borne.] i. e. was seriously carried on. STEEVENS. have their FULL BENT.] A metaphor from archery. So, in Hamlet: 66 They fool me to the top of my bent." MALONE. So, again, in Hamlet: 66 And here give up ourselves in the full bent, "To lay our service freely at your feet." The first folio reads-" the full bent." I have followed the 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 railed 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 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 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. |