Claud. If my paffion change not fhortly, God forbid it fhould be otherwise.

Pedro. Amen, if you love her, for the Lady is very well worthy.

Claud. You fpeak this to fetch me in, my Lord.
Pedro. By my troth, I fpeak my thought.

Claud. And, in faith, my lord, I spoke mine.

Bene. And by my two faiths and troths, my Lord, I speak mine.

Claud. That I love her, I feel.

Pedro. That she is worthy, I know.

Bene. That I neither feel how fhe fhould be loved, nor know how the fhould be worthy, is the opinion that fire cannot melt out of me; I will die in it at the ftake.

Pedro. Thou waft ever an obftinate heretick in the defpight of beauty.

Claud. And never could maintain his part, but in the force of his will.

Bene. That a woman conceived me, I thank her; that fhe brought me up, I likewife give her moft humble thanks: but that I will have a recheate winded in my forehead, or hang my bugle in an invisible baldrick, all women fhall pardon me; because I will not do them the wrong to miftruft any, I will do my felf the right to trust none; and the fine is, for the which I may go the finer, I will live a batchelor.

Pedro. I fhall fee thee, ere I die, look pale with love.

Bene. With anger, with fickness, or with hunger, my Lord, not with love: prove that ever I lofe more blood with love, than I will get again with drinking, pick out mine eyes with a ballad-maker's pen, and hang me up at the door of a brothel-houfe for the fign of blind Cupid.

Pedro. Well, if ever thou doft fall from this faith, thou wilt prove a notable argument.

Bene. If I do, hang me in a bottle like a cat, and shoot

Gg3

at

at me; and he that hits me, let him be clapt on the fhoulder, and call'd Adam. a

Pedro. Well, as time fhall try; in time the favage bull doth bear the yoke.

Bene. The lavage bull may, but if ever the fenfible Benedick bear it, pluck off the bull's-horns, and fet them in my forehead, and let me be vilely painted; and in fuch great letters as they write, Here is good horfe to hire, let them fignifie under my fign, Here you may fee Benedick the marry'd man,

Claud. If this fhould ever happen, thou would't be horn-mad.

Pedro. Nay, if Cupid hath not spent all his quiver in Venice, thou wilt quake for this shortly.

Bene. I look for an earthquake too then.

Pedro. Well, you will temporize with the hours; in the mean time, good Signior Benedick, repair to Leonato's, commend me to him, and tell him I will not fail him at fupper; for indeed he hath made great preparation.

Bene. I have almoft matter enough in me for fuch an embaffage, and fo I commit you

Claud. To the tuition of God.. From my houfe, if I had it,

Pedro. The fixth of July, your loving friend, Benedick. Bene. Nay, mock not, mock not; the body of your difcourfe is fometime guarded with fragments, and the guards are but flightly basted on neither: ere you flout old ends any further, examine your confcience, and fo I leave you. [Exit.

Theobald.

(a) Alluding to one Adam Bell a famous archer of old. (b) Befides that Venice is as remarkable for freedoms in amorous intrigues as Cyprus was of old, there may be a farther conje&ure why this expreffion is bere ufed: The Italians give to each of their princi pal cities a particular diftinguishing title, as, Roma la fanta, Napoli la gentile, Genoua la fuperba, &c. and among the reft it is, Venetia la ricca, Venice the wealthy: A farcafm therefore feems to be bere implied that mony governs Love. Warburton.

SCENE

SCENE V.

Claud. My Liege, your Highness now may do me good. Pedro. My love is thine to teach, teach it but how, And thou shalt fee how apt it is to learn

Any hard leffon that may do thee good.

Claud. Hath Leonato any fon, my Lord? Pedro. No child but Hero, fhe's his only heir: Doft thou affect her, Claudio?

Claud. O my Lord,

When you went onward on this ended action
I look'd upon her with a foldier's eye,
That lik'd, but had a rougher task in hand
Than to drive liking to the name of love;
But now I am return'd, and that war-thoughts
Have left their places vacant; in their rooms
Come thronging foft and delicate defires,
All prompting me how fair young Hero is,
Saying I lik'd here ere I went to wars.

Pedro. Thou wilt be like a lover presently,
And tire the hearer with a book of words:
If thou doft love fair Hero, cherish it,
And I'll break with her: was't not to this end,
That thou began'ft to twift fo fine a story?
Claud. How fweetly do you minister to love,
That know love's grief by his complection!
But left my liking might too fudden feem,
I would have falv'd it with a longer treatise.

[flood?

Pedro. What need the bridge much broader than the The fairest 'plea is the neceffity;

3

Look, what will ferve, is fit; 'tis once, thou lovest,
And I will fit thee with the remedy.

I know we shall have revelling to-night;
I will affume thy part in fome disguise,
And tell fair Hero I am Claudio,
And in her bofom I'll unclafp my heart,

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And

3 grant

And take her hearing prifoner with the force
And strong encounter of my amorous tale :
Then after to her father will I break,
And the conclufion is, fhe fhall be thine;
In practice let us put it presently..

Re-enter Leonato and Antonio.

[Exeunt,

Leon. How now, brother, where is my coufin your fon? hath he provided this mufick?

Ant. He is very bufie about it; but, brother, I can tell you news that you yet dream'd not of.

Leon. Are they good?

Ant. As the event ftamps them, but they have a good cover; they fhow well outward. The Prince and Count Claudio, walking in a thick pleached alley in my orchard, were thus over-heard by a man of mine: the Prince difcover'd to Claudio that he lov'd my neice your daughter, and meant to acknowledge it this night in a dance; and if he found her accordant, meant to take the present time by the top, and inftantly break with you of it.

Leon. Hath the fellow any wit that told you this? Ant. A good fharp fellow, I will fend for him, and question him your self.

Leon. No, no; we will hold it as a dream, 'till it appear itself: but I will acquaint my daughter with all, that The may be the better prepared for anfwer, if peradventure this be true; go you and tell her of it: cousins, you know what you have to do. [Some cross the Stage.] O, cry you mercy, friend, go you with me and I will ufe your skill; good coufin, have a care this busie time.

I

[Exeunt,

SCENE

SCENE

The STREET.

Enter Don John and Conrade.

Conr. What

VI.

7Hat the goujeres, my Lord! why are you thus out of measure fad?

John, There is no measure in the occafion that breeds it, therefore the fadness is without limit.

Conr. You fhould hear reason.

John. And when I have heard it, what bleffing bringeth it?

Conr, If not a prefent remedy, yet a patient fufferance. John. I wonder that thou (being, as thou fay'ft thou art, born under Saturn) goest about to apply a moral medicine to a mortifying mischief: I cannot hide what I am: I must be fad when I have caufe, and fmile at no man's jefts; eat when I have stomach, and wait for no man's leifure; fleep when I am drowfie, and tend on no man's bufinefs; laugh when I am merry, and claw no man in his humour.

Conr. Yea, but you must not make the full show of this, 'till you may do it without controlement; you have of late ftood out against your brother, and he hath ta'en you newly into his grace, where it is impoffible you should take root, but by the fair weather that you make your felf; it is needful that you frame the feafon for your own

harvest.

John. I had rather be a canker in a hedge, than a rose in his grace; and it better fits my blood to be disdain'd of all, than to fashion a carriage to rob love from any in : this (though I cannot be faid to be a flattering honeft man) It must not be deny'd but I am a plain-dealing villain; am trusted with a muzzle, and infranchised with a clog, therefore I have decreed not to fing in my cage: if I had

I

my