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Consume away in sighs, waste inwardly:
It were a better death than die with mocks ;
Which is as bad as die with tickling.
URS. Yet tell her of it; hear what she will say.
HERO. No; rather I will go to Benedick,

And counsel him to fight against his passion:
And, truly, I'll devise some honest slanders
To stain my cousin with: One doth not know
How much an ill word may empoison liking.
URS. O, do not do your cousin such a wrong.

She cannot be so much without true judgment,
(Having so swift and excellent a wit

As she is priz'd to have,) as to refuse
So rare a gentleman as signior Benedick.
HERO. He is the only man of Italy,

Always excepted my dear Claudio.

URS. I pray you, be not angry with me, madam,
Speaking my fancy; signior Benedick,

For shape, for bearing, argument a, and valour,
Goes foremost in report through Italy.

HERO. Indeed, he hath an excellent good name.
URS. His excellence did earn it, ere he had it.
When are you married, madam ?

HERO. Why, every day;-to-morrow: Come, go in ;

I'll show thee some attires; and have thy counsel,

Which is the best to furnish me to-morrow.

URS. She's ta'en b, I warrant you; we have caught her, madam.

HERO. If it prove so, then loving goes by haps:

Some Cupid kills with arrows, some with traps. [Exeunt HEBO and URSULA.

BEATRICE advances.

BEAT. What fire is in mine ears 15? Can this be true?

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Stand I condemn'd for pride and scorn so much?
Contempt, farewell! and maiden pride, adieu!

No glory lives behind the back of such.
And, Benedick, love on, I will requite thee;
Taming my wild heart to thy loving hand;
If thou dost love, my kindness shall incite thee
To bind our loves up in a holy band:
For others say thou dost deserve; and I

Believe it better than reportingly.

[Exit.

· Argument—conversation. So in 'Henry IV., Part I.:' " It would be argument for a week." Ta'en. So the folio; the quarto, limed.

COMEDIES.-VOL. II.

SCENE II.-A Room in Leonato's House.

Enter DON PEDRO, CLAUDIO, BENEDICK, and LEONATO.

D. PEDRO. I do but stay till your marriage be consummate, and then go I toward Arragon.

CLAUD. I'll bring you thither, my lord, if you 'll vouchsafe me.

D. PEDRO. Nay, that would be as great a soil in the new gloss of your marriage, as to show a child his new coat, and forbid him to wear it. I will only be bold with Benedick for his company; for, from the crown of his head to the sole of his foot, he is all mirth; he hath twice or thrice cut Cupid's bowstring, and the little hangman dare not shoot at him: he hath a heart as sound as a bell, and his tongue is the clapper; for what his heart thinks his tongue speaks.

BENE. Gallants, I am not as I have been.

LEON. So say I; methinks you are sadder.

CLAUD. I hope he be in love.

D. PEDRO. Hang him, truant; there's no true drop of blood in him, to be truly touched with love: if he be sad, he wants money.

BENE. I have the tooth-ach.

D. PEDRO. Draw it.

BENE. Hang it !

CLAUD. You must hang it first, and draw it afterwards.

D. PEDRO. What? sigh for the tooth-ach?

LEON. Where is but a humour, or a worm?

BENE. Well, every one can master a grief, but he that has it.
CLAUD. Yet, say I, he is in love.

b

D. PEDRO. There is no appearance of fancy in him, unless it be a fancy that he hath to strange disguises; as, to be a Dutchman to-day; a Frenchman to-morrow; [or in the shape of two countries at once, as, a German from the waist downward, all slops; and a Spaniard from the hip upward, no doublet:] Unless he have a fancy to this foolery, as it appears he hath, he is no fool for fancy, as you would have it to appear he is.

CLAUD. If he be not in love with some woman, there is no believing old signs: he brushes his hat o' mornings: What should that bode?

D. PEDRO. Hath any man seen him at the barber's?

CLAUD. No, but the barber's man hath been seen with him; and the old ornament of his cheek hath already stuffed tennisballs d.

• Can. The original copies, cannot.

b

Fancy is here used in a different sense from the same word which immediately precedes it— although fancy in the sense of love is the same as fancy in the sense of the indulgence of a humour. The fancy which makes a lover, and the fancy which produces a bird-fancier, each express the same subjection of the will to the imagination.

• The passage in brackets is not found in the folio, but is supplied from the quarto.

* In one of Nashe's pamphlets, 1591, we have," they may sell their hair by the pound, to stuff tennis-balls." Several of the old comedies allude to the same employment of human hair.

LEON. Indeed, he looks younger than he did, by the loss of a beard.

D. PEDRO. Nay, he rubs himself with civet: Can you smell him out by that? CLAUD. That's as much as to say, The sweet youth's in love.

D. PEDRO. The greatest note of it is his melancholy.

CLAUD. And when was he wont to wash his face?

D. PEDRO. Yea, or to paint himself? for the which, I hear what they say of him. CLAUD. Nay, but his jesting spirit; which is now crept into a lutestring 16, and now governed by stops.

D. PEDRO. Indeed, that tells a heavy tale for him: Conclude a he is in love.
CLAUD. Nay, but I know who loves him.

D. PEDRO. That would I know too; I warrant, one that knows him not.
CLAUD. Yes, and his ill conditions; and, in despite of all, dies for him.

D. PEDRO. She shall be buried with her face upwards.

BENE. Yet is this no charm for the tooth-ach.-Old signior, walk aside with me; I have studied eight or nine wise words to speak to you, which these hobbyhorses must not hear. [Exeunt BENEDICK and LEONATO.

D. PEDRO. For my life, to break with him about Beatrice.

CLAUD. 'T is even so: Hero and Margaret have by this played their parts with Beatrice; and then the two bears will not bite one another when they meet.

Enter DON JOHN.

D. JOHN. My lord and brother, God save you.

D. PEDRO. Good den, brother.

D. JOHN. If your leisure served, I would speak with you.

D. PEDRO. In private?

D. JOHN. If it please you;-yet count Claudio may hear; for what I would speak of concerns him.

D. PEDRO. What's the matter?

D. JOHN. Means your lordship to be married to-morrow?

D. PEDRO. You know he does.

D. JOHN. I know not that, when he knows what I know.

CLAUD. If there be any impediment, I pray you discover it.

[TO CLAUDIO.

D. JOHN. You may think I love you not; let that appear hereafter, and aim better at me by that I now will manifest. For my brother, I think, he holds

you well; and in dearness of heart hath holp to effect your ensuing marriage: surely, suit ill spent, and labour ill bestowed!

D. PEDRO. Why, what's the matter?

D. JOHN. I came hither to tell you: and, circumstances shortened, (for she hath been too long a talking of,) the lady is disloyal.

CLAUD. Who? Hero?

D. JOHN. Even she; Leonato's Hero, your Hero, every man's Hero.

CLAUD. Disloyal?

D. JOHN. The word is too good to paint out her wickedness; I could say she

were worse; think

you
• The quarto has, conclude, conclude.

of a worse title, and I will fit her to it. Wonder not

till further warrant: go but with me to-night, you shall see her chamberwindow entered; even the night before her wedding-day; if you love her then, to-morrow wed her; but it would better fit your honour to change your mind.

CLAUD. May this be so?

D. PEDRO. I will not think it.

D. JOHN. If you dare not trust that you see, confess not that you

know: if you

will follow me, I will show you enough; and when you have seen more, and heard more, proceed accordingly.

CLAUD. If I see anything to-night why I should not marry her to-morrow, in the congregation, where I should wed, there will I shame her.

D. PEDRO. And, as I wooed for thee to obtain her, I will join with thee to disgrace her.

D. JOHN. I will disparage her no farther, till you are my witnesses: bear it coldly but till night, and let the issue show itself.

D. PEDRO. O day untowardly turned !
CLAUD. O mischief strangely thwarting!

D. JOHN. O plague right well prevented!

So will you say when you have seen the sequel.

[Exeunt.

SCENE III.-A Street.

Enter DOGBERRY and VERGES, with the Watch.

DOGB. Are you good men and true?

VERG. Yea, or else it were pity but they should suffer salvation, body and soul. DOGB. Nay, that were a punishment too good for them, if they should have any allegiance in them, being chosen for the prince's watch.

VERG. Well, give them their charge, neighbour Dogberry.

DOGB. First, who think you the most desartless man to be constable?

1 WATCH. Hugh Oatcake, sir, or George Seacoal; for they can write and read. DOGB. Come hither, neighbour Seacoal: God hath blessed you with a good name: to be a well-favoured man is the gift of fortune; but to write and read comes by nature.

2 WATCH. Both which, master constable,

DOGB. You have; I knew it would be your answer. Well, for your favour, sir, why give God thanks, and make no boast of it; and for your writing and reading, let that appear when there is no need of such vanity. You are thought here to be the most senseless and the watch; therefore bear you the lantern 17. shall comprehend all vagrom men; you are to prince's name.

2 WATCH. How if ab will not stand?

fit man for the constable of This is your charge: You bid any man stand, in the

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Night. So the folio; in the quarto, midnight.

How if a. We have retained the quaint vulgarism of the original, instead of the modern re

DOGB. Why then, take no note of him, but let him go; and presently call the rest of the watch together, and thank God you are rid of a knave. VERG. If he will not stand when he is bidden, he is none of the prince's subjects.

DOGB. True, and they are to meddle with none but the prince's subjects:-You shall also make no noise in the streets; for, for the watch to babble and talk, is most tolerable and not to be endured.

2 WATCH. We will rather sleep than talk; we know what belongs to a watch. DOGB. Why, you speak like an ancient and most quiet watchman; for I cannot see how sleeping should offend: only, have a care that your bills be not stolen 17:-Well, you are to call at all the ale-houses, and bid them that are drunk get them to bed.

2 WATCH. How if they will not?

DOGB. Why then, let them alone till they are sober; if they make you not then the better answer, you may say they are not the men you took them for.

2 WATCH. Well, sir.

DOGB. If you meet a thief, you may suspect him, by virtue of your office, to be no true man; and, for such kind of men, the less you meddle or make with them, why, the more is for your honesty.

2 WATCH. If we know him to be a thief, shall we not lay hands on him? DOGB. Truly, by your office, you may; but I think they that touch pitch will be defiled: the most peaceable way for you, if you do take a thief, is to let him show himself what he is, and steal out of your company.

VERG. You have been always called a merciful man, partner.

DOGB. Truly, I would not hang a dog by my will; much more a man who hath any honesty in him.

VERG. If you hear a child cry in the night, you must call to the nurse, and bid

her still it.

2 WATCH. How if the nurse be asleep, and will not hear us?

DOGB. Why, then depart in peace, and let the child wake her with crying: for the ewe that will not hear her lamb when it baes will never answer a calf when he bleats.

VERG. "T is very true.

DOGB. This is the end of the charge. You, constable, are to present the prince's own person; if you meet the prince in the night, you may stay him.

VERG. Nay, by 'r lady, that, I think, a cannot.

DOGB. Five shillings to one on 't, with any man that knows the statuesa, he may

stay him: marry, not without the prince be willing: for, indeed, the watch ought to offend no man; and it is an offence to stay a man against his will. VERG. By 'r lady, I think it be so.

DOGB. Ha, ha, ha! Well, masters, good night: an there be any matter of

finement, how if he. In many other passages of these inimitable scenes the same form is restored by us.

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Statues. So the folio. The quarto has statutes; and those who eschew jokes follow the quarto.

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