10

That could endure the tooth-ache patiently,
However they have writ the style of gods,
And made a push at chance and sufferance.
Ant. Yet bend not all the harm upon yourself;
Make those that do offend you suffer too.

Leon. There thou speak'st reason: nay,

My soul doth tell me Hero is belied,

I will do so.

And that shall Claudio know; so shall the prince,
And all of them, that thus dishonour her.

Enter Don PEDRO and CLAUDIO.

Ant. Here comes the prince, and Claudio hastily.

D. Pedro. Good den, good den.
Claud.

Leon. Hear you, my lords,

Good day to both of you.

We have some haste, Leonato.

well, fare you well, my lord:

Are you so hasty now? well, all is one.

D. Pedro. Nay, do not quarrel with us, good old man.
Ant. If he could right himself with quarrelling, 11
Some of us would lie low.

Leon. Marry, thou dost wrong me; thou, dissembler thou. Nay, never lay thy hand upon thy sword,

I fear thee not.

Claud. Marry, beshrew my hand,

If it should give your age such cause of fear.

In faith, my hand meant nothing to my sword. 12

Leon. Tush, tush, man! never fleer and jest at me:

I speak not like a dotard, nor a fool,

As, under privilege of age, to brag

What I have done being young, or what would do,
Were I not old. Know, Claudio, to thy head, 13
Thou hast so wrong'd mine innocent child and me,
That I am forc'd to lay my reverence by,

10) Die Philosophen zeigten sich in ihren Werken so erhaben über alles Erdenleid, als ob sie Götter wären, und fertigten das ihnen zustossende Leiden verächtlich mit einem Pfui! ab. push, eine andere Form für die jetzige Interjection pish! steht hier substantivisch. Pope änderte ohne Noth pish für push. chance and sufferance ist das Leid, welches der Wechsel des Geschicks dem Menschen zu tragen auferlegt. 11) Pedro fasst to quarrel zanken, hadern mit Worten; Antonio fasst es

suchen, sich duelliren.

=

12) Ich hatte mit meiner Hand nichts vor, als ich sie an's Schwert legte.
13) Lass es Dir auf den Kopf zu sagen, lass es Dir gerade in's Gesicht sagen.

Händel

Thy slander hath gone through and through her heart,

And she lies buried with her ancestors,

O! in a tomb where never scandal slept,
Save this of hers, fram'd by thy villainy.
Claud. My villainy?

Leon.

Thine, Claudio; thine, I say.

D. Pedro. You say not right, old man.
Leon.

I'll prove it on his body, if he dare,

My lord, my lord,

Despite his nice fence, 15 and his active practice,

His May of youth, and bloom of lustyhood.

Claud. Away! I will not have to do with you.

Leon. Canst thou so daff 16 me? Thou hast kill'd my child:

If thou kill'st me, boy, thou shalt kill a man.

Ant. He shall kill two of us, and men indeed:

But that's no matter; let him kill one first:
Win me and wear me, 17 let him answer me.
Come, follow me, boy! come, sir boy, come, follow me.
Sir boy, I'll whip you from your foining fence; 18
Nay, as I am a gentleman, I will.

Leon. Brother,

Ant. Content yourself. God knows, I lov'd my niece; And she is dead; slander'd to death by villains,

That dare as well answer a man, indeed,

As I dare take a serpent by the tongue. 19

Boys, apes, braggarts, Jacks, milksops!

Leon.

Brother Antony

Ant. Hold you content. What, man! I know them, yea,

And what they weigh, even to the utmost scruple:

Scambling, 20 out-facing, fashion-mong'ring 21 boys,

1) wie sehr auch ein langes Leben mich mitgenommen, meine Kräfte gebrochen haben mag. auserlesene, feine Fechtkunst. active practice

15) nice fence

im Fechten.

16) Vgl. A. 2, Sc. 3, Anm. 23.

= gewandte Uebung

17) Sprichwörtlich in dem Sinn, dass man erst nach dem Siege sich des Sieges rühmen darf,

dass man die Beute dem Feind erst abgewinnen und dann sie tragen muss.

18) foining fence Stossfechten.

Aus solchen Fechterkünsten, auf die Claudio sich

etwas zu Gute thun mag, will Antonio verächtlich ihn herauspeitschen.

19) Schurken, die so wenig einem tüchtigen Manne Rede zu stehen wagen, wie ich eine Schlange bei ihrer giftigen Zunge packen mag.

20) scambling

= wirr, unstät in seinem Thun und Treiben.

21) fashion-mongʻring geckenhaft, modesüchtig, ändern schon die spätern Folioausgg. das fashion-monging der Q. und Fol. So in Romeo and Juliet (A. 2, Sc. 4.) these strange flies, these fashion-mongers.

That lie, and cog, and flout, deprave and slander,
Go antickly, and show outward hideousness, 22
And speak off half a dozen dangerous words,
How they might hurt their enemies, if they durst,
And this is all!

Leon. But, brother Antony -
Ant.

Come, 't is no matter:

Do not you meddle, let me deal in this.

D. Pedro. Gentlemen both, we will not wake your patience. 23 My heart is sorry for your daughter's death;

But, on my honour, she was charg'd with nothing

But what was true, and very full of proof.

Leon. My lord, my lord!

D. Pedro. See, see: here comes the man we went to seek.

Claud. Now, signior, what news?

Bene. Good day, my lord.

D. Pedro. Welcome, signior: you are almost come to part almost a fray. 24 Claud. We had like to have had our two noses snapped off with two old men without teeth.

D. Pedro. Leonato and his brother. What think'st thou? Had fought, I doubt, we should have been too young for them.

we

Bene. In a false quarrel there is no true valour. I came to seek you both.

Claud. We have been up and down to seek thee; for we are highproof melancholy, 25 and would fain have it beaten away. Wilt thou use thy wit?

Bene. It is in my scabbard; shall I draw it?

D. Pedro. Dost thou wear thy wit by thy side?

22) Sie tragen sich närrisch und zeigen äusserlich ein abschreckendes Wesen, um sich Respekt zu verschaffen.

23) Wir wollen Euch nicht anfreizen oder aufstören aus der Geduld, in der Ihr bis jetzt verharrt.

2) Steevens wollte das zweite almost streichen, das sich auf a fray bezieht, wie das erste almost auf come: es ist nicht völlig zu einem Handgemenge gekommen, wie Benedick nicht völlig zu rechter Zeit erschienen ist.

25) high-proof melancholy in hohem Grade melancholisch. Das adjectivische melancholy ist als Substantiv zu dem folgenden have it beaten away zu suppliren.

wit. 26

Claud. Never any did so, though very many have been beside their I will bid thee draw, as we do the minstrels; draw to pleasure us. D. Pedro. As I am an honest man, he looks pale. Art thou sick, or angry?

Claud. What! courage, man ! What though care killed a cat,

hast mettle enough in thee to kill care.

27 thou

Bene. Sir, I shall meet your wit in the career, 28 an you charge it I pray you, choose another subject.

against me.

Claud. Nay, then give him another staff: this last was broke cross. D. Pedro. By this light, he changes more and more. I think he be angry indeed.

Claud. If he be, he knows how to turn his girdle. 29

Bene. Shall I speak a word in your ear?

Claud. God bless me from a challenge!

Rene. You are a villain.

I jest not.

dare, with what you dare, and when you dare.

I

will make it good how yo

Do me right, 30 or I will

protest your cowardice. You have killed a sweet lady, and her death shall fall heavy on you. Let me hear from you.

Claud. Well, I will meet you, so I may have good cheer.

D. Pedro. What, a feast? a feast?

Claud. I' faith, I thank him; he hath bid me to a calf's-head and a capon, the which if I do not carve most curiously, 31 say my knife 's naught. — Shall I not find a woodcock too?

Bene. Sir, your wit ambles well: it goes easily.

D. Pedro. I'll tell thee how Beatrice praised thy wit the other day. I said, thou hadst a fine wit. True," said she, „a fine little one:" "No," said I, a great wit." "Right," says she, a great gross one." „Nay", said I, „a

26) Wortspiel zwischen by thy side und beside. Doppelsinnig steht dann to draw = den Degen ziehen, und = den Violinbogen führen, wie die Musikanten zum Tanze. 27) Ein Sprichwort, das auch in Ben Jonson's Every Man in his Humour erwähnt

25) Benedick gebraucht das Bild von einem Turnier und Lanzenreiten, das Claudio im Folgenden fortsetzt, wenn er Benedick's verfehlte Replik mit einem queer zerbrochenen Lanzenschaft vergleicht.

29 to turn the girdle = den Gürtel so drehen, dass die Schnalle, die gewöhnlich vorn sitzt, hinten zu sitzen kommt, ist soviel wie sich zum Streit rüsten, sich zu einem Ringkampf fertig machen.

30) Leistet meiner Ausforderung ein Genüge, steht mir im Zweikampfe.

31) Claudio versteckt vor dem Prinzen Benedicks Ausforderung hinter einer Einladung zum Essen, die er von ihm erhalten, und führt anzüglich als die Hauptgerichte einen Kalbskopf und einen Kapaunen an. Mit dem kunstvollen Zerlegen eines Kapaunen deutet er hin auf die Geschicklichkeit, mit der er den Herausforderer im Duell zurichten wird. Figürlich wird derselbe Ausdruck auch sonst von Sh. gebraucht; so in Love's Labour's Lost (A. 4, Sc. 1) von dem Oeffnen eines Briefes: You can carve; break up this capon. Mit derselben Anzüglichkeit spricht er gleich nachher von woodcock Schnepfe, und Einfaltspinsel.

66

"

good wit." "Just," said she, it hurts nobody." „Nay," said I, the gentleman is wise. ,,Certain," said she, a wise gentleman. " 32 „Nay," said I, ,,he hath the tongues. 4 33 That I believe," said she, for he swore a thing to me on Monday night, which he forswore on Tuesday morning: there's a double tongue: there 's two tongues." Thus did she, an hour together, transshape thy particular virtues; yet at last she concluded with a sigh, thou wast the properest man in Italy.

Claud. For the which she wept heartily, and said she cared not. D. Pedro. Yea, that she did; but yet, for all that, an if she did not hate him deadly, she would love him dearly. The old man's daughter told us all.

Claud. All, all; and moreover, God saw him when he was hid in the garden. 34

D. Pedro. But when shall we set the savage bull's horns on the sensible Benedick's head? 35

man!"

Claud. Yea, and text underneath, "Here dwells Benedick the married

36

Bene. Fare you well, boy: you know my mind. I will leave you now to your gossip-like humour: you break jests as braggarts do their blades, which, God be thanked, hurt not. - My lord, for your many courtesies I thank you: I must discontinue your company. Your brother, the bastard, is fled from Messina: you have, among you, killed a sweet and innocent lady. For my lord Lack-beard, 37 there, he and I shall meet; and till then, peace be with him. [Exit BENEDICK.

D. Pedro. He is in earnest.

Claud. In most profound earnest; and, I 'll warrant you, for the love of Beatrice.

D. Pedro. And hath challenged thee?
Claud. Most sincerely.

32) Johnson vermuthet, dass a wise gentleman ironisch so viel wie silly fellow bedeutet habe, oder dass zu schreiben sei a wise gentle man ein Mann, der wohlweislich sanft ist, der sich viel bieten lässt.

33) to have the tongues = die gangbaren fremden Sprachen verstehen, wie in Two Gentlemen of Verona (A. 4, Sc. 1) Have you the tongues? bildet hier ein Wortspiel mit double tongue Doppelzüngigkeit.

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34) Hindeutung auf die Scene, wo Benedick das Gespräch des Prinzen und Claudio's über Beatrice's Liebe zu ihm belauscht hat; zugleich eine Anspielung auf die biblische Erzählung von Adam's Verstecken nach dem Sündenfall.

35) Vgl. A. 1, Sc. 1, Anm. 44 und 45.

In derselben Rede hatte Benedick auch die

Unterschrift für sein Bild angegeben: Here may you see Benedick the married man. 36) Vor blades ist genau genommen nicht dasselbe Verbum to break zu suppliren, da dieses nur zu jests passt, sondern ein anderes handhaben, schwingen.

37) lack-beard

=

Ohnebart. So hat Sh. ebenfalls substantivisch und persönlich lack-love in Midsummer-Night's Dream (A. 2, Sc. 3) und lack-brain in K. Henry IV. First Part (A. 2. Sc. 3).