Hero itself can blot out Hero's virtue. Hero. I talk'd with no man at that hour, my lord. D. Pedro. Why, then are you no maiden.- I am sorry you must hear; Upon mine honour, D. John. Claud. O Hero! what a Hero hadst thou been, If half thy outward graces had been placed Leon. Hath no man's dagger here a point for me? liberal villain,] Liberal here, as in many places of these plays, means frank beyond honesty, or decency. Free of tongue. conjecture-] Conjecture is here used for suspicion. $ And never shall it more be gracious.] i. e. lovely, attractive. D. John. Come, let us go: these things, come thus to light, Smother her spirits up. [Exeunt Don PEDRO, Don JOHN, and CLAUDIO. Bene. How doth the lady? Beat. Dead, I think ;-help, uncle ; Hero! why, Hero!-Uncle!-Signior Benedick! friar! Leon. O fate, take not away thy heavy hand! Death is the fairest cover for her shame, That may be wish'd for. Beat. How now, cousin Hero? Dost thou look up? Friar. Have comfort, lady. Leon. Friar. Yea; Wherefore should she not? Leon. Wherefore? Why, doth not every earthly thing Cry shame upon her? Could she here deny The story that is printed in her blood?] That is, the story which her blushes discover to be true. 8 Chid I for that at frugal nature's frame?] Grieved I at nature's being so frugal as to have framed for me only one child? 9 Who smirched.] To smirch is to daub, to sully. I might have said, No part of it is mine, Hath drops too few to wash her clean again; Bene. I know not what to say. Beat. O, on my soul, my cousin is belied! Bene. Lady, were you her bedfellow last night? Beat. No, truly, not; although, until last night I have this twelvemonth been her bedfellow. Leon. Confirm'd, confirm'd! O, that is stronger made, Which was before barr'd up with ribs of iron! Friar. Hear me a little; For I have only been silent so long, And given way unto this course of fortune, The tenour of my book ;' trust not my age, Leon. Friar, it cannot be: Thou seest, that all the grace that she hath left, Is, that she will not add to her damnation A sin of perjury; she not denies it : Why seek'st thou then to cover with excuse Friar. Lady, what man is he you are accus'd of? none: If I know more of any man alive, Than that which maiden modesty doth warrant, Friar. There is some strange misprision in the princes. Bene. Two of them have the very bent of ho And if their wisdoms be misled in this, The practice of it lives in John the bastard, Leon. I know not; If they speak but truth of her, Nor fortune made such havock of my means, 2 of my book:] i. e. of what I have read. bent of honour;] Bent is used by our author for the utmost degree of any passion, or mental quality. In this play before, Benedick says of Beatrice, her affection has its full bent. Nor my bad life reft me so much of friends, Friar. Pause a while, And let my counsel sway you in this case. And publish it, that she is dead indeed: Leon. What shall become of this? What will this do? Friar. Marry, this, well carried, shall on her behalf Change slander to remorse; that is some good: Of every That what we have we prize not to the worth, Whiles we enjoy it; but being lack'd and lost, Why, then we rack the value; then we find The virtue, that possession would not show us Whiles it was ours:-So will it fare with Claudio. When he shall hear she died upon his words, The idea of her life shall sweetly creep Into his study of imagination; And every lovely organ of her life we rack the value ;] i. e. we exaggerate the value. The allusion is to rack-rents. |