once before, he won it of me with falfe dice, therefore your grace may well say I have lost it.

D. Pedro. You have put him down, lady, you have put

him down.

Beat. So I would not he fhould do me, my lord, left I fhould prove the mother of fools. I have brought count Claudio, whom you sent me to feek.

D. Pedro. Why, how now, count? wherefore are you fad?
Claud. Not fad, my lord.

D. Pedro. How then? Sick?
Claud. Neither, my lord.

Beat. The count is neither fad, nor fick, nor merry, nor well but civil, count; civil as an orange, and fomething of that jealous complexion.

D. Pedro. I'faith, lady, I think your blazon to be true; though, I'll be fworn, if he be fo, his conceit is falfe. Here, Claudio, I have wooed in thy name, and fair Hero is won; I have broke with her father, and his good will obtained: name the day of marriage, and God give thee joy!

Leon. Count, take of me my daughter, and with her my fortunes: his grace hath made the match, and all grace fay

Amen to it!

Beat. Speak, count, 'tis your cue.

Claud. Silence is the perfecteft herald of joy: I were but little happy, if I could fay how much.-Lady, as you are mine, I am yours: I give away myself for you, and dote upon the exchange.

Beat. Speak, coufin; or, if you cannot, ftop his mouth with a kifs, and let not him speak, neither.

D. Pedro. In faith, lady, you have a merry heart.

Beat. Yea, my lord; I thank it, poor fool, it keeps on the windy fide of care:-My coufin tells him in his ear, that he is in her heart.

Claud. And fo fhe doth, coufin.

Beat. Good lord, for alliance! -Thus goes every one

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This was formerly an expreffion of tenderness. See King Lear, laft fcene: "And my poor fool is hang'd." MALONE.

7 Claudio has just called Beatrice coufin. I fuppofe, therefore, the meaning is,-Good Lord, here have I got a new kinfman by marriage.

MALONE.

to the world but I, and I am fun-byrn'd; I may fit in a corner, and cry, heigh ho! for a husband.

D. Pedro. Lady Beatrice, I will get you one.

Beat. I would rather have one of your father's getting: Hath your grace ne'er a brother like you? Your father got excellent hufbands, if a maid could come by them.

D. Pedra. Will you have me, lady? Beat. No, my lord, unless I might have another for working-days; your grace is too coftly to wear every day :→ But, I beseech your grace, pardon me; I was born to speak all mirth, and no matter.

D. Pedro. Your filence most offends me, and to be merry beft becomes you; for, out of queftion, you were born in a merry hour.

Beat. No, fure, my lord, my mother cry'd; but then there was a ftar danced, and under that was I born.-Coufins, God give you joy!

Leon. Niece, will you look to thofe things I told you of?
Beat. I cry you mercy, uncle.-By your grace's pardon.
[Exit BEATRICE.

D. Pedro. By my troth, a pleasant-spirited lady. Leon. There's little of the melancholy element in her,9 my lord: fhe is never fad, but when the fleeps, and not ever sven? M

fad

I cannot understand thefe words, unless they imply a wish for the fpeaker's alliance with a husband.

STEEVENS.

8 What is it, to go to the world? perhaps, to enter by marriage into a fettled ftate; but why is the unmarried lady fun-burnt? I believe we fhould read, Thus goes every one to the wood but I, and I am fun-burnt. Thus does every one but I find a fhelter, and I am left exposed to wind and fun. The nearest way to the wood, is a phrafe for the readieft means to any end. It is faid of a woman, who accepts a worse match than thofe which fhe had refufed, that he has paffed through the wood, and at laft taken a crooked stick. But conjectural criticifm has always fomething to abate its confidence. Shakspeare, in All's well that Ends well, ufes the phrafe, to go to the world, for marriage. So that my emendation depends, only on the oppofition of wood to fun-burnt. JOHNSON.

I am fun-burnt may mean, I have loft my beauty, and am confequently no longer fuch an object as can tempt a man to marry. STEEVENS.

9 There's little of the melancholy element in ber,] "Does not our life confift of the four elements ?" fays Sir Toby, in Twelfth Night. So, alfo in King Henry V He is pure air and fire, and the dull elements of earth and water never appear in him." MALONE.

fad then; for I have heard my daughter fay, the hath often dream'd of unhappinefs, and waked herfelf with laughing.

D. Pedro. She cannot endure to hear tell of a husband. Leon. O, by no means; the mocks all her wooers out of fuit.

D. Pedro. She were an excellent wife for Benedick.

Leon. O Lord, my lord, if they were but a week married, they would talk themselves mad.

D. Pedro, Count Claudio, when mean you to go to church? Claud. To-morrow, my lord: Time goes on crutches, till love have all his rites.

Leon. Not till Monday, my dear fon, which is hence a just fevennight; and a time too brief too, to have all things anfwer my mind.

D. Pedro. Come, you shake the head at fo long a breathing; but, I warrant thee, Claudio, the time fall not go dully by us; I will, in the interim, undertake one of Hercules' labours; which is, to bring fignior Benedick, and the lady Beatrice into a mountain of affection, the one with the other. I would fain have it a match; and I doubt not but to fashion it, if you three will but minifter fuch affiftance as I fhall give you direction.

Leon. My lord, I am for you, though it coft me ten nights' watchings.

Claud. And I, my lord.

Hero. I will do any modeft office, my lord, to help my coufin to a good husband.

D. Pedro. And Benedick is not the unhopefulleft hufband that I know: thus far can I praife him; he is of a noble strain,3

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2 A mountain of affection with one another is a ftrange expreffion, yet I know not well how to change it. Perhaps it was originally written to bring Benedick and Beatrice into a mooting of affection; to bring them not to any more mootings of contention, but to a meoting or converfation of love. This reading is confirmed by the prepofition with; a mountain with each other, or affection with each other, cannot be used, but a mooting with each other is proper and regular. JOHNSON.

Uncommon as the word propofed by Dr. Johnfon may appear, it ufed in feveral of the old plays. STEEVENS.

Shakspeare has many phrafes equally harfh. He who would hazar fuch expreffions as a form of fortune, a vale of years, and a tempeft of prom vocation, would not fcruple to write a mountain of affection. MALONE. 3-a nuble strain,] i, e. defcent, lineage. REED.

of approved valour, and confirm'd honefty. I will teach you how to humour your coufin, that the fhall fall in love with Benedick-and I, with your two helps, will fo practise on Benedick, that in defpite of his quick wit and his queafy ftomach,4 he fhall fall in love with Beatrice. If we can do this, Cupid is no longer an archer; his glory fhall be ours, for we are the only love-gods. Go in with me, and I will tell you my drift. [Exeunt.

SCENE I

Another Room in LEONATO's House.

Enter Don JOHN and BORACHIO.

D. John. It is fo; the count Claudio fhall marry daughter of Lecnato.

Bora. Yea, my lord; but I can cross it.

the

D. John. Any bar, any crofs, any impediment will be medicinable to me: I am fick in displeasure to him; and whatsoever comes athwart his affection, ranges evenly with mine. How canft thou cross this marriage?

Bora. Not honeftly, my lord; but fo convertly that no dishonefty fhall appear in me.

D. John. Show me briefly how.

Bora. I think, I told your lordship, a year fince, how much I am in the favour of Margaret, the waiting-gentlewoman to Hero.

D. John. I remember.

Bora. I can, at any unfeafonable inftant of the night, appoint her to look out of her lady's chamber-window. D. John. What life is in that, to be the death of this marriage?

Go you

Bora. The poifon of that lies in you to temper. to the prince your brother; fpare not to tell him, that he hath wrong'd his honour in marrying the renowned Claudio (whofe eftimation do you mightily hold up) to a contaminated ftale, fuch a one as Hero.

D. John. What proof fhall I make of that?

Bora. Proof enough to mifufe the prince, to vex Claudio, to undo Hero, and kill Leonato: Look you for any other iffue?

-queafy ftomach,] i. e. fqueamish. STEEVENS.

D. John..

D. John. Only to defpite them, will I endeavour any thing.

Bora. Go then, find me a meet hour to draw Don Pedro and the count Claudio, alone: tell them, that you know that Hero loves me; intend a kind of zeal 5 both to the prince and Claudio, as-in love of your brother's honour who hath made this match; and his friend's reputation, who is thus like to be cozen'd with the semblance of a maid, -that you have difcover'd thus. They will fcarcely believe this without trial: offer them inftances; which shall bear no less likelihood, than to see me at her chamber-window; hear me call Margaret, Hero; hear Margaret term me Borachio; and bring them to fee this, the very night before the intended wedding: for, in the mean time, I will fo fashion the matter, that Hero fhall be abfent; and there fhall appear fuch feeming truth in Hero's difloyalty, that jealoufy fhall be call'd affurance, and all the preparation overthrown.

D. John. Grow this to what adverfe iffue it can, I will put it in practice: Be cunning in the working this, and thy fee is a thousand ducats.

Bora. Be you conftant in the accufation, and my cunning fhall not shame me.

D. John. I will presently go learn their day of marriage.

SCENE III.

LEONATO's Garden.

Enter BENEDICK and a Boy.

Bene. Boy,

Boy. Signior.

[Exeunt.

Bene. In my chamber-window lies a book; bring it hither to me in the orchard."

Boy. I am here already, fir.

Bene. I know that; but I would have thee hence, and here again. [Exit Boy.]-I do much wonder, that one man, feeing how much another man is a fool when he dedicates

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—intend a kind of zeal-] i. e. pretend. STEEVENS. Gardens were anciently called orchards. STEEVENS.

his