-Cent. To the death, my Lord,

John. Let us to the great fupper; their cheer is the greater that I am fubdued. Would the cook were of my mind!---fhall we go prove what's to be done?

Bora. We'll wait upon your Lordship. [Exeunt.

A CT II.

SCENE, a Hall in Leonato's House.

Enter LEONATO, ANTONIO, HERO, BEATRICE, MARGARET, and URSULA,

Beat. How tartly that gentleman looks! I never can fee him, but I am heart-burned an hour after. Hero. He is of a very melancholy difpofition.... Beat. He were an excellent man that were made juft in the mid way between him and Benedick: the one is too like an image, and fays nothing; and the other too like my Lady's eldest fon, evermore, tatling.

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 purfe, fuch a man would win any woman in the world, if he could get her good-will.

Leon. By my troth, niece, thou wilt never get thee a husband if thou be fo fhrewd of thy tongue Ant. In faith, fhe's too curst.

Beat. Too curit is more than curft; I fhall leflen

God's fending that way; for it is faid, God fends a curft cow fhort horns; but to a cow too curft he fends none.

Leon. So, by being too curft, God will fend you no horns.

Beat. Juft, if he fend me no husband; for the which blefling I am at him upon my knees every morning and evening. Lord! could not endure a husband with a beard on his face, I had rather ly in woolen.

Leon. You may light upon a husband that hath no beard.

Beat. What should I do with him? drefs him in my apparel, and make him my waiting gentlewoman? he that hath a beard is more than a youth, and he that hath no beard is less than a man, and he that 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 fixpence in earneft of the bearherd, and lead his apes into helk

Leon. Well then, go you into hell,-

Beat. No, but to the gate; and there will the devil meet me, like an old cuckold, with his horns on his head, and say, "Get you to heaven, Bea"trice, get you to heaven, here's no place for you "maids" fo I deliver up my apes, and away to St Peter, for the heavens; he fhews me where the bachelors fit, and there live we as merry as the day is long.

Ant. Well, niece, I truft you will be ruled by your father. [To Hero. Beat. Yes, faith, it is my coufin's duty to make eurt'fy, and fay, Father, as it pleafe you; but yet for all that, coufin, let him be a handfome fellow, or elfe make another curt'fy, and fay, Father, as it Eleafes me.

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Leon. Well, nicee, I hope to fee you one day fit ted with a husband.

Beat. Not 'till God make men of fome other metal than earth. Would it not grieve a woman to be over-mastered with a piece of valiant duft? to make account of her life to a clod of wayward marl? No, uncle, I'll none; Adam's fons are my brethren, and truly I hold it a fin to match in my kindred.

Leon. Daughter, remember what I told you; if the Prince do folicit you in that kind, you know your answer.

Beat. The fault will be in the mufic, coufin, if you be not wooed in good time: (4) if the Prince be too important, tell him, there is measure in every thing, and fo dance. out the answer; for hear me, Here, wooing, wedding, and repenting, is as a Scotch jig, a measure, and a cinque-pace; the first fuit is hot and hafty, like a Scotch jig, and full as fantastical; the wedding mannerly-modeft, as a measure; full of ftate and anchentry; and then comes repentance, and with his bad legs falls into the cinque-pace falter and fafter, 'till he finks into his grave.

Leon. Coufin, you apprehend paffing fhrewdly. Beat. I have a good eye, uncle, I can fee a church by day-light.

Leon. The revellers are entering, brother; make good room.

(4) If the prince be too importunate.] This is the reading only of Mr Pope's impreffions, as I can find, and warranted by none of the copies. I have reftored with all the old books important; i. e. if the Prince be too forcible, preffing, lays too much stress on his fuit, &c. The Poet employs this word again in the like fignification, in King Lear.

therefore great France

My mourning, and important tears hath pitied.

Enter Don PEDRO, CLAUDIO, BENEDICK, BALTHAZAR, and others in Mafquerade.

Pedro. Lady, will you walk about with your friend?

Hero. So you walk foftly, and look fweetly, and fay nothing, I am yours for the walk, and efpecially when I walk away.

Pedro. With me in your company?

Hero. I may fay fo, when I please.
Pedro. And when pleafe you to say fo?

Hero. When I like your favour; for God defend the lute fhould be like the cafe!

Pedro. (5) My vifor is Philemon's roof; within the houfe is Jove.

(5) My vifor is Philemon's roof, within the house is Love.] Thus the whole ftream of the copies, from the first downwards I must own this paffage for a long while appeared very obfcure to me and gave me much trouble in attempt ing to understand it. Hero fays to Don Pedro, God forbid the lute should be like the cafe! . e. that your face fhould be as homely and as coarfe as your mark. Upon this, Don Pedro compares his vifor to Philemon's roof. "Tis plain the Poet alludes to the ftory of Baucis and Philemon, from Ovid; and this old couple as the Roman poet defcribes it, lived in a thatched cottage;

Stipulis et canna te&a palujiri.

But why, within the houfe is Love? Baucis and Philemon, 'tis true, had lived to old age together, in a comfortable ftate of agreement. But piety and hofpitality are the top parts of their character. Our Poet unquestionably goes a little deeper into the ftory. Though this old pair lived in a cottage, this cottage, received two ftraggling gods, (Jupiter and Mercury) under its roof. So Don Pedro is a prince; and though his vifor is but ordinary, he would infinuate to Hero, that he has fomething god-like within; ale luding either to his dignity, or the qualities of his perfon and mind. By these circumftances, I am fure, the thought is mended; as I think verily the text is too by the change of a fingle letter.

Hero. Why, then your visor fhould be thatched.
Pedro. Speak low, if you fpeak love.

Balth. Well, I would you did like me. (6) Marg. So would not I for your own fake, for I have many ill qualities.

Balth. Which is one?

Marg. I fay my prayers aloud.

Balth. I love you the better; the hearers may cry Amen.

Marg. God match me with a good dancer!
Balth. Amen.

within the houfe is Jove.

I made this correction in my Shakespeare Reftored; and Mr Pope has youchfafed to adopt it in his laft edition. Nor is this emendation a little confirmed by another paffage in our Author, in which he plainly alludes to the fame ftory. As you like it.

Clown. I am here with thee and thy goats, as the moft capricions poet, honeft Ovid, was amongst the Goths.

Faq. O knowledge ill inhabited, worie than Jove in a thatched houfe.

I am naturally drawn here to correct a paffage in Beaumont and Fletcher's Two Noble Kinsmen, where a fault of the like kind has obtained in all the copies.

-here Love himself fits fmiling;

Just such another wanton Ganymede

Set Love a-fire with, and enforced the god

Snatch up the goodly boy, and fet him by him

A fhining couftellation;

All my readers, who are acquainted with the poetical Hiftory here alluded to, will concur with me in the certainty of the following emendation:

Juft fuch another wanton Ganymede

Set Jove a-fire with.

(6) Balth. Well, I would you did like me.] This and the two following little speeches, which I have placed to Balthazar, are in all the printed copies given to Benedick. But 'tis clear the dialogue here ought to be betwixt Balthazar and Margaret; Benedick a little lower converfes with Beatrices and fo every man talks with his woman once round.

VOL. III.

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