already that you are little better than false knaves; and it will go near to be thought so shortly. How answer you for yourselves?

CON. Marry, sir, we say we are none.

DOGB. A marvellous witty fellow, I assure you; but I will go about with him.— Come you hither, sirrah; a word in your ear, sir; I say to you, it is thought you are false knaves.

BORA. Sir, I say to you, we are none.

DOGB. Well, stand aside.-'Fore God, they are both in a tale: Have you writ down, that they are none?

SEXTON. Master constable, you go not the way to examine; you must call forth the watch that are their accusers.

DOGB. Yea, marry, that's the eftest way :-Let the watch come forth :-Masters, I charge you, in the prince's name, accuse these men.

1 WATCH. This man said, sir, that don John, the prince's brother, was a villain. DOGB. Write down, prince John a villain:-Why this is flat perjury, to call a prince's brother villain.

BORA. Master constable,

DOGB. Pray thee, fellow, peace; I do not like thy look, I promise thee.

SEXTON. What heard you him say else ?

2 WATCH. Marry, that he had received a thousand ducats of don John, for accusing the lady Hero wrongfully.

DOGB. Flat burglary, as ever was committed.

VERG. Yea, by the mass, that it is.

SEXTON. What else, fellow?

1 WATCH. And that count Claudio did mean, upon his words, to disgrace Hero before the whole assembly, and not marry her.

DOGB. O villain! thou wilt be condemned into everlasting redemption for this. SEXTON. What else?

2 WATCH. This is all.

SEXTON. And this is more, masters, than you can deny. Prince John is this morning secretly stolen away; Hero was in this manner accused, in this very manner refused, and upon the grief of this suddenly died.-Master constable, let these men be bound, and brought to Leonato; I will go before, and show him their examination. [Exit.

DOGB. Come, let them be opinioned.
VERG. Let them be in the hands-

CON. Off, coxcomb b !

DOGB. God's my life! where 's the sexton? let him write down, the prince's officer, coxcomb. Come, bind them :' -Thou naughty varlet!

CON. Away! you are an ass, you are an ass.

DOGB. Dost thou not suspect my place? Dost thou not suspect my years ?—O

that he were here to write me down, an ass! but, masters, remember, that

Eftest-quickest.

The original makes Verges say, "Let them be in the hands of Coxcomb." Steevens reads adopting Theobald's division of the speech, "Let them be in hand.”

I am an ass; though it be not written down, yet forget not that I am an ass-No, thou villain, thou art full of piety, as shall be proved upon thee by good witness. I am a wise fellow; and, which is more, an officer; and, which is more, a householder; and, which is more, as pretty a piece of flesh as any is in Messina; and one that knows the law, go to; and a rich fellow enough, go to; and a fellow that hath had losses; and one that hath two gowns and everything handsome about him :-Bring him away. O, that I had been writ down, an ass!

[Exeunt.

Enter LEONATO and ANTONIO.

ANT. If you go on thus, you will kill yourself;
And 't is not wisdom thus to second grief
Against yourself.

LEON.

I pray thee, cease thy counsel,

Which falls into mine ears as profitless

As water in a sieve: give not me counsel;

Nor let no comforter delight mine ear,

But such a one whose wrongs do suit with mine.

Bring me a father, that so lov'd his child,

Whose joy of her is overwhelm'd like mine,

And bid him speak of patience;

Measure his woe the length and breadth of mine,

And let it answer every strain for strain;

As thus for thus, and such a grief for such,
In every lineament, branch, shape, and form:
If such a one will smile, and stroke his beard;
And, 66
sorrow wag" cry; hem, when he should groan;
Patch grief with proverbs; make misfortune drunk
With candle-wasters; bring him yet to me,

And I of him will gather patience.

But there is no such man: For, brother, men
Can counsel, and speak comfort to that grief
Which they themselves not feel; but tasting it
Their counsel turns to passion, which before
Would give preceptial medicine to rage,
Fetter strong madness in a silken thread,
Charm ach with air, and agony with words:
No, no; 't is all men's office to speak patience
To those that wring under the load of sorrow;
But no man's virtue, nor sufficiency,
To be so moral, when he shall endure

The like himself: therefore give me no counsel:
My griefs cry louder than advertisement.
ANT. Therein do men from children nothing differ.
LEON. I pray thee, peace; I will be flesh and blood;
For there was never yet philosopher

That could endure the tooth-ach 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;

C

Make those that do offend you suffer too.
LEON. There thou speak'st reason: nay, I will do so :
My soul doth tell me Hero is belied;

And that shall Claudio know, so shall the prince,

And all of them, that thus dishonour her.

• This is a perplexing passage. In both the originals the line stands thus:

"And sorrow, wagge, cry hem, when he should grone."

The editors have proposed all sorts of emendations, as-And hollow, wag-And sorrow wageAnd sorrow waive-And sorrow gag-And sorrowing cry-And sorry wag-And sorrow waggery -In sorrow wag. The emendation of Dr. Johnson is the ordinary reading:

"Cry, sorrow, wag! and hem, when he should groan."

We prefer the slight change in the punctuation which gives the same meaning.

Candle-wasters. Ben Jonson calls a bookworm a candle-waster; and we think with Whalley that this is the meaning here. To make misfortune drunk with candle-wasters is to attempt to stupify it with learned discourses on patience, that the preachers did not practise:

"For there was never yet philosopher

That could endure the tooth-ach patiently,
However they have writ the style of gods."

• Push is explained to be a thrust-a defiance. Pope changes the word to pish. Possibly push may be a 'misprint for pish; or the words might have been synonymous.

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,

D. PEDRO.

Good day to both of you.

We have some haste, Leonato.

LEON. Some haste, my lord!-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,

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

If it should give your age such cause of fear: In faith, my hand meant nothing to my sword. 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,
Thou hast so wrong'd my innocent child and me,
That I am forc'd to lay my reverence by;

And, with gray hairs, and bruise of many days,

Do challenge thee to trial of a man.

I say, thou hast belied mine innocent child;

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.

My lord, my lord,

I'll prove it on his body, if he dare;
Despite his nice fence and his active practice,
His May of youth, and bloom of lustihood.
CLAUD. Away, I will not have to do with you.

LEON. Canst thou so daff 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;

• Daff me-put me aside.