would conjure her; for, certainly, while fhe is here, a man may live as quiet in hell as in a fanctuary, and people fin upon purpose, because they would go thither; fo, indeed, all difquiet, horror, and perturbation follow her.

SCENE V.

Enter Claudio, Beatrice, Leonato and Hero.

Pedro. Look, here he comes.

Bene. Will your Grace command me any fervice to the world's end? I will go on the flighteft errand now to the Antipodes, that you can devife to fend me on; I will fetch you a tooth-picker now from the fartheft inch of Afia; bring you the length of Prefer John's foot: fetch you a hair off the great Cham's beard: do you any ambaffage to the pigmies, rather than hold three words conference with this harpy; you have no employment for me?

Pedro. None, but to defire your good company.

Bene. O God, Sir, here's a dish I love not. 1 cannot indure this Lady Tongue.

Pedro Come, Lady, come; you have loft the heart of Signior Benedick.

Beat. Indeed, my Lord, he lent it me a while, and I gave him ufe for it, a double heart for a fingle one; marry, once before he won it of me with falfe dice, therefore your Grace may well fay, I have loft it.

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.

Pedro. Why, how now, Count, wl.erefore are you fad?

Claud. Not fad, my Lord.

Pedro. How then? fick ?

Claud.

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.

Pedro. I'faith, Lady, I think your blazon to be true; though I'll be fworn, if he be fo, his conceit is false. 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 doat upon the exchange.

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

1 Thus goes every one to the world but I, and I am funburnt.] What is it, to go to the world? perhaps, to enter by marriage into a fettled ftate: but why is the unmarried Lady funburnt? I believe we should read, thus goes every one to the wood but 1, and I am fnnburnt. Thus does every one but I find a fhelter, and I am left expofed to wind and fun. The nearest way to the wood, is a phrafe for the readieft means to any end. It is faid of

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

Pedro. 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 bound to speak all mirth and no matter.

Pedro. Your filence moft 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 danc'd, and under that I was born. Coufins, God give you joy.

Lean. Niece, will you look to those things I told you of?

Beat. I cry you mercy, Uncle: by your Grace's pardon. [Exit Beatrice.

SCENE VI.

Pedro. By my troth, a pleasant-fpirited Lady. Leon. There's little of the melancholy element in her, my Lord; fhe is never fad but when the fleeps, and not ever fad then; for I have heard my daughter fay, he hath often dream'd of an unhappiness, and wak'd herself with laughing.

2

Pedro. She cannot endure to hear tell of a husband.

fe bath often dream'd of unhappiness,] So all the editions; but Mr. Theobald's alters it to, an happiness, having no conception that unhappiness meant any thing but misfortune, and that he thinks he could not laugh at. He had never heard that it fig

nified a wild, wanton, unlucky trick. Thus Beaumont and Fletcher, in their comedy of the Maid of the Mill.

-Mydreamsfare like my thoughts.
boneft and innocent.
Yours are unhappy.

WARBURTON.
Leon.

Leon. O, by no means, fhe mocks all her wooers out of fuit.

Pedro. She were an excellent wife for Benedick.

Leon. O Lord, my Lord, if they were but a week marry'd, they would talk themselves mad.

Pedro. Count Claudio, when mean you to go to church?

Claud. To-morrow, my Lord; time goes on crutches, 'till love have all its rites.

Leon. Not 'till Monday, my dear fon, which is hence a juft seven-night, and a time too brief too, to have all things anfwer my mind.

3

Pedro. Come, you shake the head at so long a breathing; but, I warrant thee, Claudio, the time fhall not go dully by us. I will in the Interim undertake one of Hercules's labours, which is, to bring Signior 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 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 cost me ten nights watchings.

Claud. And I, my Lord.

Pedro. And you too, gentle Hero?

Hero. I will do any modeft office, my Lord, to help my Coufin to a good husband.

Pedro. And Benedick is not the unhopefulleft husband that I know thus far I can praife him, he is of a noble ftrain, of approv'd valour, and confirm'd honesty.

3 To bring Benedick and Beatrice into a mountain of affection the one with the other.] A mountain of affection with one another is a strange 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 mostings of contention, but to a mooting or converfation of love. The reading is confirmed by the propofition with; a mountain with each other, or affection with each other, cannot be used, but a mooting with each other is proper and regular.

I will

I will teach you how to humour your Coufin, that fhe fhall fall in love with Benedick; and I, with your two helps, will fo practife on Benedick, that in defpight of his quick wit, and his queafy ftomach, he shall 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 VII.

Changes to another Apartment in Leonato's Houfe.

John.

Enter Don John and Borachio.

Tis fo, the Count Claudio fhall marry the
Daughter of Leonato.

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

John. Any bar, any cross, any impediment will be medicinable to me; I am fick in difpleasure 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 covertly that no dishonesty shall appear in me.

John. Shew me briefly how.

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

John. I remember.

Bora. I can, at any unfeasonable instant of the night, appoint her to look out at her lady's chamber win

dow.

John. What life is in That, to be the death of this marriage?

Bora. The poifon of That lies in you to temper; go you to the Prince your Brother, fpare not to tell him, that he hath wrong'd his honour in marrying the

I

renown'd