Is he pardon'd; And, for your lovely sake, Lucio. 'Faith, my lord, I spoke it but according to the trick: If you will hang me for it, you may, but I had rather it would please you, I might be whipp'd. Duke. Whipp'd first, sir, and hang'd after,- Lucio. I beseech your highness, do not marry me to a whore! Your highness said even now, I made you a duke; good my lord, do not recompense ne Duke. Upon mine honour, thou shalt marry her. Lucio. Marrying a punk, my lord, is pressing death, whipping, and hanging. Duke. Slandering a prince deserves it.— Of this play, the light or comic part is very natural and pleas- quent one with Claudio, exhibit, along with the most engaging ing, but the grave scenes, if a few passages be excepted, have feminine diffidence and modesty, an extraordinary display of more labour than elegance. The plot is rather intricate than intellectual energy, of dexterous argument, and of indignant artful. The time of the action is indefinite; some time, we contempt. Her pleadings before the lord deputy, are directed know not how much, must have elapsed between the recess of with a strong appeal both to his understanding and his heart the duke and the imprisonment of Claudio; for he must have while her sagacity and address in the communication of the re learned the story of Mariana in his disguise, or he delegated sult of her appointment with him to her brother, of whose weakhis power to a man already known to be corrupted. The unities ness and irresolution she is justly apprehensive, are, if possible, of action and place are sufficiently preserved.-JOHNSON. still more skilfully marked, and add another to the multitude There are very few readers whose admiration for Shakspeare of instances which have established for Shakspeare an unriwill not be outraged by reading the above harsh and tasteless valled intimacy with the finest feelings of our nature." There observations of Dr Johnson. It may perhaps allay their irri- is one beauty in this play which I do not remember to have seen tation to find that all critics are not equally cold to the various observed, though the vice of Claudio is one which the world merits of this beautiful play." Of Measure for Measure," says is inclined to think too lightly of, and though there was offered Dr. Drake, independent of the comic characters, which afford so easy and popular a way of exciting an interest for him in the a rich fund of entertainment, the great charm springs from the minds of the audience, by diminishing the heinousness of his lovely example of female excellence exhibited in the person of offence, and representing the transgressor rather as a martyr than Isabella. Piety, spotless purity, tenderness combined with a culprit; Shakspeare has in no instance breathed a syllable that firmness, and an eloquence the most persuasive, unite to render might seem to extenuate his guilt, Throughout the play, the her singularly interesting and attractive. C'est un ange de lu- crime which is so much debated, is represented as an object of miere sous l'humble habit d'une novice. To save the life of her disgust, both in its own impurity and in the mean, the selfish, brother she hastens to quit the peaceful seclusion of her con- and the loathsome baseness of its ministers. The very passages ent, and moves amid the votaries of corruption and hypocrisy, of a gross and indecent nature that occur, only serve to heighten mid the sensual, the vulgar, and the profligate, as a being of a the general, moral effect of the whole, and raise the reader's uigher order, as a ministering spirit from the throne of grace. admiration of the holy chastity of Isabel, by placing it in conHer first interview with Angelo, and the immediately subs-trast with the repulsive levity of the votaries of licentiousness. THIS play was printed in quarto in the year 1600; and entered at Stationers' Hall, August 23, of that year: and as it is not mentioned by Meres, in his list of our Author's works published in 1598, the date of its production is ascertained with more than usual accuracy. Mr. Pope says that the plot was taken from the fifth book of the Orlando Furioso.-Mr. Steevens conceives that not Ariosto but Spenser afforded the subject of the play, and that it was taken from the Fairy Queen, b. 2. c. 4. But as both these PERSONS REPRESENTED. Don PEDRO, Prince of Arragon. CLAUDIO, a young lord of Florence, favourite to Don BENEDICK, a young lord of Padua, favourite likewise of Don Pedro. LEONATO, governor of Messina. ANTONIO, his brother. BALTHAZAR, servant to Don Pedro. BORACHIO, CONRADE, followers of Don John. A Sexton, A Friar, A Boy. HERO, daughter to Leonato. BEATRICE, niece to Leonato. originals are most justly acknowledged to be remote, it has been suggested that the story might have been copied from the 18th history of the third volume of Belleforest. It never appears to have entered into the minds of the critics that Shakspeare might occasionally have dramatized a story of his own invention. Much ado about Nothing, is reported in Mr. Vertue's MSS. to have passed formerly under the name of Benedick and Beatrice. much better is it to weep at joy, than to joy at weeping? Beat. I pray you, is signior Montanto returned from the wars, or no? Mess. I know none of that name, lady; there was none such in the army of any sort. Leon. What is he that you ask for, niece? Hero. My cousin means signior Benedick of Padua. Mess. O, he is returned, and as pleasant as ever he was. Beat. He set up his bills here in Messina, and challenged Cupid at the flight: and my uncle's fool, reading the challenge, subscribed for Cupid, and challenged him at the bird-bolt.-I pray you, how many hath he killed and eaten in these wars? how many hath he killed? for, indeed, I promised MARGARET, URSULA, gentlewomen attending on Hero. to eat all of his killing. Mess. But few of any sort, and none of name. Leon. A victory is twice itself, when the achiever brings home full numbers. I find here, that Don Pedro hath bestowed much honour on a young Florentine, called Claudio. Mess. Much deserved on his part, and equally remembered by Don Pedro: He hath borne himself beyond the promise of his age; doing, in the figure of a lamb, the feats of a lion: he hath, indeed, better bettered expectation, than you must expect of me to tell you how. Leon. He hath an uncle here in Messina will be very much glad of it. Mess. I have already delivered him letters, and there appears much joy in him; even so much, that joy could not shew itself modest enough, without a badge of bitterness. Leon. Did he break out into tears? Leon. A kind overflow of kindness: There are no faces truer than those that are so washed. How But Leon. Faith, niece, you tax signior Benedick toc much; but he'll be meet with you, I doubt it not. Mess. He hath done good service, lady, in these wars. Beat. You had musty victual, and he hath holp to eat it: he is a very valiant trencher-man, he hath an excellent stomach. Mess. And a good soldier too, lady. Beat. And a good soldier to a lady ;-But what is he to a lord? Mess. A lord to a lord, a man to a man; stuffed with all honourable virtues. Beat. It is so, indeed: he is no less than a stuffed man but for the stuffing,-Well, we are all mortal. Leon. You must not, sir, mistake my niece: there is a kind of merry war betwixt signior Benedick and her: they never meet, but there is a skirmish of wit between them. Beat. Alas, he gets nothing by that. In our last conflict, four of his five wits went halting off, and now is the old man governed with one so that if he have wit enough to keep himself warm, let him bear it for a difference between himself and his horse; for it is all the wealth that he hath left, to be known a reasonable creature.-Who is his companion now? He hath every month a new sworn brother. Mess. Is it possible? Beat. Very easily possible: he wears his faith but as the fashion of his hat, it ever changes with the next block. Mess. I see, lady, the gentleman is not in your books. Beat. No an he were, I would burn my study. | But, I pray you, who is his companion? Is there no young squarer now, that will make a voyage with him to the devil? Mess. He is most in the company of the right noble Claudio. Beat. O Lord! he will hang upon him like a dis ease he is sooner caught than the pestilence and Leon. You will never run mad, niece. Enter Don PEDRO, attended by BALTHAZAR and others, Don JOHN, CLAUDIO, and BENEDICK. D. Pedro. Good signior Leonato, you are come to meet your trouble: the fashion of the world is to avoid cost, and you encounter it. Leon. Never came trouble to my house in the likeness of your grace; for trouble being gone, comfort should remain; but when you depart from me, sorrow abides, and happiness takes his leave. D. Pedro. You embrace your charge too willingly. -I think, this is your daughter. Leon. Her mother hath many times told me so. Bene. Were you in doubt, sir, that you asked her! Leon. Signior Benedick, no; for then were you a child. D. Pedro. You have it full, Benedick: we may guess by this what you are, being a man. Truly, the lady fathers herself:-Be happy, lady! for you are like an honourable father. Bene. If signior Leonato be her father, she would not have his head on her shoulders, for all Messina, as like him as she is. Beat. I wonder that you will still be talking, signior Benedick; no body marks you. Bene. What, my dear lady Disdain! are you yet living? Beat. Is it possible, disdain should die, while she hath such meet food to feed it, as signior Benedick? Courtesy itself must convert to disdain, if you come in her presence. Bene. Then is courtesy a turn-coat :-But it is certain, I am loved of all ladies, only you excepted: and I would I could find in my heart that I had not a hard heart for, truly, I love none. Beat. A dear happiness to women; they would else have been troubled with a pernicious suitor. I thank God, and my cold blood, I am of your humour for that; I had rather hear my dog bark at a crow, than a man swear he loves me. Bene. God keep your ladyship still in that mind! so some gentleman or other shall 'scape a predestinate scratched face. Beat. Scratching could not make it worse, an 'twere such a face as yours were. Bene. Well, you are a rare parrot-teacher. of yours. Bene. I would, my horse had the speed of your tongue; and so good a continuer : But keep your way o' God's name; I have done. Beat. You always end with a jade's trick; I know you of old. D. Pedro. This is the sum of all:-Leonato,signior Claudio, and signior Benedick,-my dear friend Leonato hath invited you all. I tell him, we shall stay here at the least a month; and he heartily prays some occasion may detain us longer: I dare swear he is no hypocrite, but prays from his heart. - Leon. If you swear, my lord, you shall not be forsworn. Let me bid you welcome, my lord: being reconciled to the prince your brother, I owe you all duty. D. John. I thank you: I am not of many words. but I thank you. Leon. Please it your grace lead on? D. Pedro. Your hand, Leonato; we will go together. [Exeunt all but BENEDICK and CLAUDIO Claud. Benedick, didst thou note the daughter of signior Leonato ? Bene. I noted her not: but I looked on her. Bene. Do you question me as an honest man should do, for my simple true judgment; or would you have me speak after my custom, as being a pro fessed tyrant to their sex? Claud. No, I pray thee, speak in sober judgment. Bene. Why, i'faith, methinks she is too low for a high praise, too brown for a fair praise, and too little for a great praise: only this commendation I can afford her; that were she other than she is, she were unhandsome; and being no other but as she is, I do not like her. Claud. Thou thinkest I am in sport; I pray thee, tell me truly how thou likest her. Bene. Would you buy her, that you inquire after her? Claud. Can the world buy such a jewel? Bene. Yea, and a case to put it into. But speak you this with a sad brow? or do you play the flouting Jack; to tell us Cupid is a good hare-finder, and Vulcan a rare carpenter? Come, in what key shall a man take you, to go in the song? Claud. In mine eye, she is the sweetest lady that ever I looked on. Bene. I can see yet without spectacles, and I see no such matter: there's her cousin, an she were not possessed with a fury, exceeds her as much in beauty, as the first of May doth the last of December. But 1 hope, you have no intent to turn husband; have you? Claud. I would scarce trust myself, though I had sworn the contrary, if Hero would be my wife. Bene. Is it come to this, i'faith? Hath not the world one man, but he will wear his cap with suspicion? Shall I never see a bachelor of three-score again? Go to, i'faith: an thou wilt needs thrust thy neck into a yoke, wear the print of it, and sigh away Sundays. Look, Don Pedro is returned to seek you. Re-enter Don PEDRO. D. Pedro. What secret hath held you here, that you followed not to Leonato's? [tell. Bene. I would, your grace would constrain me to D. Pedro. I charge thee on thy allegiance. Bene. You hear, count Claudio: I can be secret as a dumb man, I would have you think so; but oc my allegiance, mark you this, on my allegiance :-He is in love. With who?-now that is your grace's part.-Mark, how short his answer is: With Hero. Leonato's short daughter. Claud. If this were so, so were it uttered. Bene. Like the old tale, my lord: it is not so, nor 'twas not so: but, indeed, God forbid it should be so." D. Pedro. That she is worthy, I know. Bene. That I neither feel how she should be loved, nor know how she should be worthy, is the opinion that fire cannot melt out of me; I will die in it at the stake. D. Pedro. Thou wast ever an obstinate heretic in the despite 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 she brought me up, I likewise give her most humble thanks: but that I will have a recheat winded in my forehead, or hang my bugle in an invisible oaldrick, all women shall pardon me: Because I will not do them the wrong to mistrust any, I will do myself the right to trust none; and the fine is, (for the which I may go the finer,) I will live a bachelor. D. Pedro. I shall see thee, ere I die, look pale with love. Bene. With anger, with sickness, or with hunger, my lord; not with love : prove, that ever I lose more blood with love, than I will get again with drinking, pick out mine eyes with a baliad maker's | pen, and hang me up at the door of a brothel-house, for the sign of blind Cupid. D. Pedro. Well, if ever thou dost fall from this faith, thou wilt prove a notable argument. Bene. If I do, hang me in a bottle like a cat, and shoot at me; and he that hits me, let him be clapped on the shoulder, and called Adam. D. Pedro. Well, as time shall try : In time the savage bull doth bear the yoke. Bene. The savage bull may; but if ever the sensible Benedick bear it, pluck off the bull's horns, and set them in my forehead : and let me be vilely. painted; and in such great letters as they write, Here is good horse to hire, let them signify under my sign,— Here you may see Benedick the married man. Claud. If this should ever happen, thou would'st be horn-mad. D. Pedro. Nay, if Cupid have not spent all his quiver in Venice, thou wilt quake for this shortly. Bene. I look for an earthquake too then. D. 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 supper; for, indeed, he hath made great preparation. Bene. I have almost matter enough in me for such an embassage; and so I commit you Claud. To the tuition of God: From my house, (if I had it) D. Pedro. The sixth of July: Your loving friend, Benedick. Bene. Nay, mock not, mock not: The body of D. Pedro. My love is thine to teach; teach it D. Pedro. No child but Hero, she's his on'v heir: Claud. O my lord, When you went onward on this ended action, | But now I am return'd, and that war-thoughts D. Pedro. Thou wilt be like a lover presently I know, we shall have revelling to night; [Exeunt. SCENE II.-A Room in Leonato's House. Leon. How now, brother ? Where is my cousin, your son? Hath he provided this music? Ant. He is very busy about it. But, brother, I can tell you strange news that you yet dreamed not of. Leon. Are they good? Ant. As the event stamps them; but they have a good cover, they shew well outward. The prince and count Claudio, walking in a thick-pleached alley in my orchard, were thus much overheard by a man of mine: The prince discovered to Claudio, that he loved my niece your daughter, and meant to acknowledge it this night in a dance; and, if he found her accordant, he meant to take the present time by the top, and instantly break with you of it. Leon. Hath the fellow any wit, that told you this ? Ant. A good sharp fellow ; I will send for him, and question him yourself. Leon. No, no; we will hold it as a dream, till it appear itself: but I will acquaint my daughter withal, that she may be the better prepared for an answer, if peradventure this be true. Go you, and tell her of it. [Several persons cross the stage.] Cousins, you know what you have to do.-0), I cry you mercy, friend: you go with me, and I will use your skill-Good cousins, have a care this busy time. [Eaeunt. SCENE III.-Another Room in Leonato's House. Enter Don JOHN and CONRADE. Con. What the goujere, my lord! why are you thus out of measure sad? D. John. There is no measure in the occasion that breeds it, therefore the sadness is without limit. Con. You should hear reason. D. John. And when I have heard it, what blessing bringeth it? Con. If not a present remedy, yet a patient suffer ance. D. John. I wonder, that thou being (as thou say's! 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 sad when I have cause, and sinile at no man's jests; eat when I have stomach, and wait for no man's leisure; sleep when I am drowsy, and tend to no man's business; laugh when I am merry, and claw no man in his humour. Con. Yea, but you must not make the full show of this, till you may do it without controlment. You have of late stood out against your brother, and he hath ta'en you newly into his grace; where it is impossible you should take true root, but by the fair weather that you make yourself: it is needful that you frame the season for your own harvest. D. 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 said to be a flattering honest man, it must not be denied that I am a plain-dealing villain. I am trusted with a muzzle, and enfranchised with a clog: therefore I have decreed not to sing in my cage: If I had my mouth, I would bite; if I had my liberty, I would do my liking in the mean time, let me be that I am, and seek not to alter me. Con. Can you make no use of your discontent? Bora. I came yonder from a great supper; the prince, your brother, is royally entertained by Leonato; and I can give you intelligence of an intended marriage. D. John. Will it serve for any model to build mischief on? What is he for a fool, that betroths himself to unquietness? Bora. Marry, it is your brother's right hand. D. John. A proper squire! And who, and who? which way looks he? Bora. Marry, on Hero, the daughter and heir of Leonato. D. John. A very forward March-chick! How came you to this? Bora. Being entertained for a perfumer, as I was smoking a musty room, comes me the prince and Claudio, hand in hand, in sad conference: I whipt me behind the arras; and there heard it agreed upon, that the prince should woo Hero for himself, and ing obtained her, give her to count Claudio. : | Beat. How tartly that gentleman looks!! never can see him, but I am heart-burned an hour after. Hero. He is of a very melancholy disposition. Beat. He were an excellent man, that were made just in the mid-way between him and Benedick; the other, too like my lady's eldest son, evermore tattling one is too like an image, and says nothing; and the Leon. Then half signior Benedick's tongue in count John's mouth, and half count John's melancholy in signior Benedick's face, Beat. With a good leg, and a good foot, uncle, and money enough in his purse, such a man would good will. win any woman in the world,-if he could get her a husband, if thou be so shrewd of thy tougue. Beat. Too curst is more than curst: I shall lessen God's sending that way for it is said, God sends a curst cow short horns; but to a cow too curst he sends none. Leon. So, by being too curst, God will send you no horns. Beat. Just, if he send me no husband; for the which blessing, I am at him upon my knees every morning and evening: Lord! I could not endure a husband with a beard on his face: I had rather lie in the woollen. Leon. You may light upon a husband, that hath no beard. my apparel, and make him my waiting gentlewoman? that hath no beard, is less than a man: and he that He that hath a beard, is more than a youth; and he is more than a youth, is not for me; and he that is less than a man, I am not for him: Therefore I will even take sixpence in earnest of the bear-herd, and lead his apes into hell. Beat. What should I do with him? dress him in Leon. Well then, go you into hell? Beat. No; but to the gate; and there will the head, and say, Get you to heaven, Beatrice, get you devil meet me, like an old cuckold, with horns on his up my apes, and away to Šaint Peter for the heavens ; to heaven; here's no place for you maids: so deliver I he shews me where the bachelors sit, and there live ruled by your father. hav-courtesy, and say, Father, as it please you :—but yet D. John. Come, come, let us thither; this may prove food to my displeasure that young start-up hath all the glory of my overthrow; if I can cross him any way, I bless myself every way: You are both sure, and will assist me? Con. To the death, my lord. D. John. Let us to the great supper: their cheer is the greater, that I am subdued: 'Would the cook were of my mind!-Shall we go prove what's to be done? Bora. We'll wait upon your lordship. ACT II. [Exeunt. SCENE 1.-A Hall in Leonato's Ilouse. Enter LEONATO, ANTONIO, HERO, Beatrice, and others. Leon. Was not count John here at supper? fitted with a husband. Beat. Not till God make men of some other metal over-mastered with a piece of valiant dust? to make than earth. Would it not grieve a woman to be an account of her life to a clod of wayward marl? No, uncle, I'll none. Adam's sons are my brethren; and truly, I hold it a sin to match in my kindred. Leon. Daughter, remember what I told you: if the prince do solicit you in that kind, you know your answer. Beat. The fault will be in the music, cousin, if you be not woo'd in good time: if the prince be too important, tell him, there is measure in every thing, and so dance out the answer. For hear me, Hero: Wooing, wedding, and repenting, is as a Scotch jig, a measure, and a cinque-pace: the first suit is hot and hasty, like a Scotch jig, and full as fantastical = the wedding, mannerly-modest, as a measure full of |