Win me and wear me, let him answer me;
Come, follow me, boy; come, boy, follow me;
Sir boy, I'll whip you from your foining fence;
Nay, as I am a gentleman, I will.

Leon. Brother,

[Neice;

Ant. Content yourfelf; God knows, I lov'd my And she is dead, flander'd to death by villains, That dare as well anfwer a man, indeed, As I dare take a ferpent by the tongue. Boys, apes, braggarts, jacks, milkfops! Leon. Brother Anthony

Ant. Hold you content; what, man? I know them, yea,

And what they weigh, even to the utmost scruple:
Scambling, out-facing, fashion-mongring boys,
That lie, and cog, and flout, deprave and flander,
Go unticly, and show an outward hideousness,
And speak off half a dozen dangerous words,
How they might hurt their enemies, if they durft;
And this is all.

Leon. But, brother Anthony,

Ant. Come, 'tis no matter;

Do not you meddle, let me deal in this.

Pedro. Gentlemen both, * we will not wrack your patience.

My heart is forry for your daughter's death;
But, on my Honour, the was charg'd with nothing
But what was true, and very full of proof.

Leon. My lord, my lord

Pedro. I will not hear you.

Leon. No! come, brother, away, I will be heard. Ant. And shall, or some of us will smart for it. [Exeunt ambo.

we will not wake your patience.] This conveys a Sentiment that the Speaker would by no Means have implied, That the Patience of the two Old Men was not exercised, but asleep, which upbraids them for Infenfibility under their Wrong. Shakespear mult have wrote We will not wrack, i. e. deftroy your Patience by tantalizing you.

SCENE

EE, fee, here comes the man we went to

Pedro. S feek.

Claud. Now, Signior, what news?

Bene. Good day, my lord.

Pedro. Welcome, Signior; you are almost come to part almost a fray.

Claud. We had like to have had our two noses fnapt off with two old men without teeth.

Pedro. Leonato and his brother; what think'ft thou? had we fought, I doubt, we should have been too young for them.

Bene. In a falfe quarrel there is no true valour: I came to feek you both.

Claud. We have been up and down to feek thee; for we are high-proof melancholy, and would fain have it beaten away: wilt thou use thy wit?

Bene. It is in my fcabbard; fhall I draw it? Pedro. Doft thou wear thy wit by thy fide? Claud. Never any did fo, though very many have been befide their wit. I will bid thee draw, as we do the minstrels; draw, to pleasure us.

Pedro. As I am an honeft man, he looks pale: art thou fick or angry

?

Claud. What! courage, man: what tho' care kill'd a cat, thou haft mettle enough in thee to kill care. Bene. Sir, I fhall meet your wit in the career, if you charge it against me.I pray you, chufe another fubject.

Claud. Nay, then give him another staff; this last was broke cross.

Pedro. By this light, he changes more and more: I think, he be angry, indeed.

Claud. If he be, he knows how to turn his girdle. Bene. Shall I speak a word in your ear?

Claud.

Claud. God bless me from a challenge!
Bene. You are a villain; I jest not.

I will make it good how you dare, with what you dare, and when you dare. Do me right, or I will proteft your cowardife. You have kill'd a fweet lady, and her death fhall fall heavy on you. Let me hear from you. Claud. Well, I will meet you, fo I may have good

cheer.

Pedro. What, a feast?

Claud. I'faith, I thank him; he hath bid me to a calves-head and a capon, the which if I do not carve moft curiously, fay, my knife's naught. Shall I not find a woodcock too?

Bene. Sir, your wit ambles well; it goes eafily.

Pedro. I'll tell thee, how Beatrice prais'd thy wit the other day: I faid, thou hadft a fine wit; right, fays fhe, a fine little one; no, faid I, a great wit just, said she, a great grofs one; nay, faid I, a good wit; juft, faid fhe, it hurts no body; nay, faid I, the gentleman is wife; certain, faid fhe, a wife gentleman; nay, faid I, he hath the tongues; that I believe, said she, for he swore a thing to me on Monday night, which he forfwore on Tuesday morning; there's a double tongue, there's two tongues. Thus did fhe an hour together trans-fhape thy particular virtues; yet, at last, she concluded with a figh, thou waft the propereft man in Italy.

Claud. For the which fhe wept heartily, and faid, fhe car'd not.

Pedro. Yea, that she did; but yet for all that, and if she did not hate him deadly, fhe would love him dearly; the old man's daughter told us all.

Claud. All, all; and moreover, God faw him when he was hid in the garden.

Pedro. But when fhall we fet the favage bull's horns on the fenfible Benedick's head?

Claud. Yea, and text underneath, Here dwells Benedick the married man.

Bene.

Bene. Fare you well, boy, you know my mind; I will leave you now to your goffip-like humour; you break jefts as braggars do their blades, which, God be thank'd, hurt not. My lord, for your many courtefies I thank you; I muft difcontinue your company; your brother, the baftard, is fled from Meffina; you have among you killed a sweet and innocent lady. For my lord lack-beard there, he and I shall meet; and 'till then peace be with him! [Exit Benedick.

Pedro. He is in earnest.

Claud. In most profound earnest, and, I'll warrant you, for the love of Beatrice.

Pedro. And hath challeng'd thee?
Claud. Moft fincerely.

Pedro. What a pretty thing man is, when he goes in his doublet and hofe, and leaves off his wit!

SCENE

IV.

Enter Dogberry, Verges, Conrade and Borachio

Claud.

H

guarded.

E is then a giant to an ape; but then is an ape a doctor to fuch a man.

Pedro. But, foft you, let me fee, pluck up my heart and be fad; did he not say, my brother was fled?

Dogb. Come, you, Sir; if justice cannot tame you, she shall ne'er weigh more reafons in her balance; nay, an you be a curfing hypocrite once, you must be look'd to.

Pedro. How now, two of my brother's men bound? Borachio, one?

*What a pretty thing man is, when he goes in his doublet and hofe, and leaves off his wit! It was esteemed a Mark of Levity and Want of becoming Gravity, at that Time, to go in the Doublet and Hofe, and leave off the Cloak, to which this well turn'd Expression alludes. The Thought is, that Love makes a Man as ridiculous, and expofes him as naked as being in the Doublet and Hofe without a Cloak.

Claud.

Claud. Hearken after their offence, my lord. Pedro. Officers, what offence have thefe men done? Dogb. Marry, Sir, they have committed false report; moreover, they have fpoken untruths; fecondarily, they are flanders; fixth and laftly, they have bely'd a lady; thirdly, they have verify'd unjuft things; and, to conclude, they are lying knaves. Pedro. First, I afk thee what they have done; thirdly, I ask thee what's their offence; fixth and laftly, why they are committed; and, to conclude, what you lay to their charge?

Claud. Rightly reafon'd and in his own divifion; and. by my troth, there's one meaning well fuited. Pedro. Whom have you offended, mafters, that you are thus bound to your answer? This learned constable is too cunning to be understood. What's your offence?

Bora. Sweet Prince, let me go no further to mine answer: do you hear me, and let this Count kill me: I have deceiv'd even your very eyes; what your wifdoms could not difcover, thefe fhallow fools have brought to light, who in the night overheard me confeffing to this man, how Don John your brother incens'd me to flander the lady Hero; how you were brought into the orchard, and faw me court Margaret in Hero's garments; how you disgrac'd her, when you should marry her; my villany they have upon record, which I had rather seal with my death, than repeat over to my fhame; the lady is dead upon mine and my master's false accufation; and briefly, I defire nothing but the reward of a villain.

Pedro. Runs not this fpeech like iron through your blood?

Claud. I have drunk poison, while he utter'd it. Pedro. But did my brother set thee on to this? Bora. Yea, and paid me richly for the practice of it. Pedro. He is compos'd and fram'd of treachery; And fled he is upon this villany.

Claud.