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Bene. I pray you, what is he?

Beat. Why, he is the prince's jester: a very dull fool, only his gift is in devising impossible slanders: 20 none but libertines delight in him; and the commendation is not in his wit, but in his villainy, for he both pleases men, and angers them, and then they laugh at him and beat him. I am sure, he is in the fleet; I would he had boarded me! 21

Bene. When I know the gentleman, I'll tell him what you say.

Beat. Do, do: he'll but break a comparison or two on me; which, peradventure, not marked, or not laughed at, strikes him into melancholy; and then there's a partridge' wing saved, for the fool will eat no supper that night. [Music within.] We must follow the leaders.

Bene. In every good thing.

Beat. Nay, if they lead to any ill, I will leave them at the next turning. [Dance. Then, exeunt all but JOHN, BORACHIO, and CLAUDIO. John. Sure, my brother is amorous on 22 Hero, and hath withdrawn her father to break with him about it. The ladies follow her, and but one visor remains.

Bora. And that is Claudio: I know him by his bearing. 23

John. Are not you signior Benedick?

Claud. You know me well: I am he.

John. Signior, you are very near my brother in his love: he is enamoured on Hero. I pray you, dissuade him from her; she is no equal for his birth: you may do the part of an honest man in it.

Claud. How know you he loves her?

John. I heard him swear his affection.

Bora. So did I too; and he swore he would marry her to-night.

John. Come, let us to the banquet.

[Exeunt JOHN and BORACHIO.

Claud. Thus answer I in name of Benedick,

But hear these ill news with the ears of Claudio. "T is certain so:

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the prince woos for himself.

Friendship is constant in all other things,

Save in the office and affairs of love:

Therefore, all hearts in love use 24 their own tongues;

Let every eye negotiate for itself,

And trust no agent, for beauty is a witch,

20) impossible slanders

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unsinnige Verläumdungen, deren Unwahrheit zu Tage lag:

Benedick sagte den Leuten Dinge nach, die unmöglich oder undenkbar waren. 21) Sie vergleicht die gegenwärtige Ballgesellschaft einem Flottengeschwader, wo ein Schiff das andere entert. So wünscht sie, dass der auf diesem Maskenball anwesende Bene

dick sie anreden möchte, und Benedick erwidert ihr, wenn er den betreffenden Herrn

unter seiner Maske erkenne, so wolle er ihn benachrichtigen.

22) Die Construction ist dieselbe wie gleich nachher enamoured on Hero.

23) an seiner Haltung, an der Art, wie er sich trägt.

2) use ist Conjunctiv sie mögen oder sollen gebrauchen.

Against whose charms faith melteth into blood. 25
This is an accident of hourly proof,

Which I mistrusted not. Farewell, therefore, Hero!

Bene. Count Claudio?

Claud. Yea, the same.

Re-enter BENEDICK.

Bene. Come, will you go with me?

Claud. Whither?

Bene. Even to the next willow, about your own business,

count. 26

What fashion will you wear the garland of? About your neck, like an usurer's

27

chain, or under your arm,

like a lieutenant's scarf? You must wear it one

way, for the prince hath got your Hero.

Claud. I wish him joy of her.

Bene. Why, that 's spoken like an honest drover: so they sell bullocks. 28 But did you think, the prince would have served you thus?

Claud. I pray you, leave me.

Bene. Ho! now you strike like the blind man: 't was the boy that stole your meat, and you 'll beat the post.

Claud. If it will not be, I'll leave you. 29

-

[Exit.

But,

Bene. Alas, poor hurt fowl! Now will he creep into sedges. that my lady Beatrice should know me, and not know me! The prince's fool! Ha! it may be, I go under that title, because I am merry. Yea; but so I am apt to do myself wrong: I am not so reputed: it is the base though bitter disposition 30 of Beatrice, that puts the world into her person, and so gives me out. 31 Well, I'll be revenged as I may.

25) Die Treue der Freundschaft hält dem Zauber der Schönheit gegenüber, die als eine Hexe gedacht wird, nicht Stand, sondern zerschmilzt, so dass nur die verliebte Leidenschaft des Blutes übrig bleibt.

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26) count in der Fol.; die Q. hat county, was Sh. häufig für count gebraucht. Von dem nächsten Weidenbaum soll Claudio den Kranz pflücken, den er als Symbol eines unglücklich Liebenden zu tragen hat. So in K. Henry VI. Third Part (A. 3, Sc. 3) I'll wear the willow garland for his sake.

27) eine schwere goldene Kette, wie reiche Londoner Bürger, die durch Wucher reich geworden waren, sie um den Hals zu tragen pflegten.

28) So sagt ein ehrlicher Viehhändler, wenn er einen Handel abgeschlossen und dem, der ihm Ochsen abgekauft, Glück zu seinem Kaufe wünscht.

29) Wenn es nicht geschieht, wie ich Euch aufgefordert, d. h. wenn Ihr mich nicht verlassen wollt, so verlasse ich Euch.

30) Johnson's Aenderung the base, the bitter disposition ist überflüssig: Benedick räumt die Bitterkeit, die zum Ziele treffende Schärfe von Beatricens Wesen ein, erklärt jedoch dieses Wesen für niedrig und gemein. Q. und Fol. schliessen though bitter in Pa

renthese ein.

31) Was sie selbst sich ausdenkt, dass ich des Prinzen Spassmacher sei, das sagt sie, erkläre die Welt von mir.

D. Pedro.

Re-enter DON PEDRO.

32

33

Now, signior, where 's the count? Did you see him? Bene. Troth, my lord, I have played the part of lady Fame. I found him here as melancholy as a lodge in a warren. I told him, and, I think, I told him true, that your grace had got the good-will of this young lady; and I offered him my company to a willow-tree, either to make him a garland, as being forsaken, or to bind him up a rod, as being worthy to be whipped. D. Pedro. To be whipped! What 's his fault?

Bene. The flat transgression of a school-boy; who, being overjoy'd with finding a bird's nest, shows it his companion, and he steals it.

D. Pedro. Wilt thou make a trust a transgression? The transgression is in the stealer.

Bene. Yet it had not been amiss, the rod had been made, and the garland too; for the garland he might have worn himself, and the rod he might have bestow'd on you, who, as I take it, have stolen his bird's nest.

D. Pedro. I will but teach them 34 to sing, and restore them to the owner. Bene. If their singing answer your saying, by my faith, you say honestly. D. Pedro. The lady Beatrice hath a quarrel to you: the gentleman, that danced with her, told her she is much wronged by you.

35

Bene. O she misused me past the endurance of a block: an oak, but with one green leaf on it, would have answered her: my very visor began to assume life, and scold with her. She told me, not thinking I had been myself, that I was the prince's jester; that I was duller than a great thaw; huddling jest upon jest, with such impossible conveyance, upon me, that I stood like a man at a mark, with a whole army shooting at me. She speaks poignards, and every word stabs: if her breath were as terrible as her terminations, there were no living near her; she would infect to the north star. I would not marry her, though she were endowed with all that Adam had left him before he transgressed: 36 she would have made Hercules have turned spit, yea, and have cleft his club to make the fire too. Come, talk not of her; you shall find her the infernal Até 37 in good apparel. I would to God, some

32) Die einsame Lage eines verfallenen Wächterhäuschens in einem Gehege macht einen so melancholischen Eindruck, wie der verliebte Claudio, da er der Einsamkeit nachhängt. 33) this young lady = die bewusste junge Dame, das Fräulein, das wir im Sinne haben.

An eine Anwesenheit der Hero auf der Bühne ist bei this nicht zu denken. Die Fol. hat will für good-will der Q. und lässt weiterhin up vor a rod aus. 34) them bezieht sich auf birds in bird's nest.

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35) mit solcher unglaublichen, undenkbaren Behendigkeit; impossible was kaum möglich erscheint. Vgl. oben Anm. 20. So in Twelfth-Night (A. 3, Sc. 2) There is no Christian can ever believe such impossible passages of grossness. impassable und Johnson importable.

Warburton las

36) mit Allem, was Adam vor dem Sündenfall als Erbtheil besass.
37) Die aus der Hölle stammende Göttin der Rache und Zwietracht hat Sh.
lius Caesar (A. 3, Sc. 1) with Até by his side, come hot from hell.
die Beatrice, nur dass sie besser kostümirt ist.

auch in Ju

Ihr gleicht

scholar would conjure her, 38 for, certainly, while she is here, a man may live as quiet in hell, as in a sanctuary; and people sin upon purpose, because they would go thither; so, indeed, all disquiet, horror, and perturbation follow her.

Enter CLAUDIO, BEATRICE, HERO, and LEOnato.

D. Pedro. Look, here she comes.

Bene. Will your grace command me any service to the world's end? I will go on the slightest errand now to the Antipodes, that you can devise to send me on: I will fetch you a toothpicker 39 now from the farthest inch of Asia; bring you the length of Prester John's foot; 40 fetch you a hair of the Great Cham's beard; do you any embassage to the Pigmies, rather than hold three words' conference with this harpy. You have no employment for me? D. Pedro. None, but to desire your good company.

Bene. O God, Sir, here's a dish I love not: I cannot endure my lady Tongue. 41 [Exit. D. Pedro. Come, lady, come; you have lost the heart of signior Benedick. Beat. Indeed, my lord, he lent it me a while; and I gave him use for it, a double heart for his single one: marry, once before he won it of me with false dice, therefore your grace may well say I have lost it.

42

D. Pedro. You have put him down, lady; you have put him down. 43 Beat. So I would not he should do me, my lord, lest I should prove the mother of fools. I have brought count Claudio, whom you sent me to seek. D. Pedro. Why, how now, count? wherefore are you sad?

Claud. Not sad, my lord.

D. Pedro. How then? Sick?

Claud. Neither, my lord.

Beat. The count is neither sad, nor sick, nor merry, nor well; but civil, count, civil as an orange, and something of that jealous complexion. **

38) Ein Gelehrter, der als solcher der Geisterbeschwörungen kundig ist, sollte die Beatrice zurückbannen in die Hölle, wohin sie gehört.

39) Der Zahnstocher kommt auch sonst als eine unenglische Mode vor, die die Reisenden vom Auslande mit heimbrachten.

40) Priester Johann, der fabelhafte Beherrscher eines Reiches im Orient, dem sich Niemand nahen durfte. Um so kühner war Benedick's Unternehmen, das Mass von dessen Fuss zu nehmen oder dem Grosskhan der Tartarei ein Barthaar auszuraufen. 41) So die Q.; die Fol. this lady Tongue.

42) use Zinsen.

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In der folgenden Zeile hat die Fol. for a single one. 43) to put down = niederstrecken, zu Boden strecken, gebraucht Pedro in uneigentlichem Sinne, Beatrice in eigentlichem, mit frivolem Nebensinn.

=

ehrbar, erinnert an Sevil orange

= die Sevilla-Pomeranze.

Das Wortspiel

44) civil scheint sprichwörtlich gewesen zu sein und kommt schon in einem Pamphlet von Nashe (1592) vor: For the order of my life, it is as civil as an orange. of that jealous complexion das Gelb als Farbe der Eifersucht und der Orange. So die Q., die Fol. hat of a jealous complexion.

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D. Pedro. I' faith, lady, I think your blazon to be true; 45 though, I 'll be sworn, if he be so, his conceit is false. Here, Claudio, I have wooed in thy name, and fair Hero is won; I have broke with her father, and, his good will obtained, name the day of marriage, and God give thee joy!

Leon. Count, take of me my daughter, and with her my fortunes: his grace hath made the match, and all grace say Amen to it!

Beat. Speak, count, 't is your cue.

Claud. Silence is the perfectest herald of joy: I were but little happy, if I could say how much. Lady, as you are mine, I am yours: I give away myself for you, and dote upon the exchange.

Beat. Speak, cousin; or, if you cannot, stop his mouth with a kiss, and let him not speak neither.

D. Pedro. In faith, lady, you have a merry heart.

Beat. Yea, my lord; I thank it, poor fool, 46 it keeps on the windy side of care. My cousin tells him in his ear, that he is in her heart.

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Claud. And so she doth, cousin.

Beat. Good Lord, for alliance! 47

Thus goes every one to the world but I, and I am sun-burned. 48 I may sit in a corner, and cry, heigh ho!

for a husband.

D. Pedro. Lady Beatrice, I will get you one.

Beat. I would rather have one of your father's getting. 49 Hath your grace ne'er a brother like you? Your father got excellent husbands, if a maid could come by them.

D. Pedro. Will you have me, lady?

Beat. No, my lord, unless I might have another for working-days: your grace is too costly to wear every day. But, I beseech your grace, pardon me; I was born to speak all mirth, and no matter.

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D. Pedro. Your silence most offends me, and to be merry best becomes you; for, out of question, you were born in a merry hour.

45) Beatrice deutet die Miene und Farbe Claudio's so richtig, als handelte es sich um ein Wappen und dessen Dentung.

46) So heisst das Herz auch scherzhaft in Love's Labour's lost (A. 2, Sc. 1) Is the fool sick?

47) Ein komischer Stofsseufzer, den Beatrice zum Himmel sendet, als ob sie nach einer ehelichen Verbindung schmachte.

48) to go to the world = eigentlich sich der Welt widmen, im Gegensatze zu dem beschaulichen Klosterleben, dann = heirathen. Mit sun-burn'd von der Sonne verbrannt, bezeichnet Beatrice scherzhaft ihren dunkeln Teint, ihre Hässlichkeit, welche die Freier abschrecke. So in Troilus and Cressida (A. 1, Sc. 3) The Grecian dames were sun-burn'd, and not worth || The splinter of a lance. 49) Pedro fasst to get

besorgen, verschaffen; Beatrice missversteht es geflissentlich

=

erzeugen.

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