ACT IV.

The Dew in Flowers.

That same dew, which sometime on the buds
Was wont to swell, like round and orient pearls,
Stood now within the pretty flowret's eyes,
Like tears, that did their own disgrace bewail.

Hunting.

I was with Hercules and Cadmus once,
When in a wood of Crete they bay'd the bear
With hounds of Sparta: never did I hear
Such gallant chiding ;* for, besides the groves,
The skies, the fountains, every region near
Seem'd all one mutual
cry: I never heard

So musical a discord, such sweet thunder.

ACT V.

The Power of Imagination.

The poet's eye, in a fine frenzy rolling,
Doth glance from heaven to earth, from earth to heaven ;
And, as imagination bodies forth

The forms of things unknown, the poet's pen
Turns them to shapes, and gives to airy nothing
A local habitation and a name.

Modest Duty always acceptable.

Where I have come, great clerks have purposed
To greet me with premeditated welcomes;
Where I have seen them shiver and look pale,
Make periods in the midst of sentences,

*Such cheerful sounds.

Throttle their practised accent in their fears,
And in conclusion, dumbly have broke off,
Not paying me a welcome. Trust me, sweet,
Out of this silence, yet, I pick'd a welcome;
And in the modesty of fearful duty

I read as much, as from the rattling tongue
Of saucy and audacious eloquence.

Time.

The iron tongue of midnight hath told twelve.
Night.

Now the hungry lion roars,

And the wolf behowls the moon;
Whilst the heavy ploughman snores,
All with weary task foredone.*
Now the wasted brands do glow,

Whilst the scritch-owl, scritching loud,

Puts the wretch, that lies in woe,

In remembrance of a shroud.

Now it is the time of night,

That the graves all gaping wide,

Every one lets forth his sprite,

In the church-way paths to glide.

-000

MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING.

The scene opens in Messina, where Don Pedro, Prince of Arragon, arrives on a visit to Leonato, the governor of Messina. Here Claudio, a young lord of Florence, a friend of Don Pedro's, in love with Hero, daughter of Leonato, and they are engaged to

* Overcome with fatigue.

falls

be married.

At the church where the marriage is to be soleınnized, Claudio, repenting of his promise, rudely rejects Hero, and retires with his friends. Overwhelmed with anguish at her lover's conduct, Hero swoons, and, by the advice of the friar who is present to perform the nuptial ceremony, she is reported to be dead. Claudio afterwards deeply regrets his conduct, and gladly accepts an offer of Leonato to marry his niece, whom he pronounces to be "Almost the copy of his child that's dead."

The niece, to the great joy of Claudio, turns out to be Hero herself, who has in the interim remained in concealment. Don John, who has acted a villain's part throughout the play, flies from Messina, but is captured and brought back for punishment. The chief interest in the drama is, however, centred in Benedick, a young lord of Padua, who exclaims bitterly against marriage, and Beatrice, niece of Leonato, who, after constantly railing at each other, fall in love, and agree to be married. Much merriment is caused by the ignorance displayed by two city officers, Dogberry and Verges.

ACT II.

Friendship in Love.

FRIENDSHIP is constant in all other things,
Save in the office and affairs of love;

Therefore all hearts in love use their own tongues;
Let every eye negotiate for itself,

And trust no agent; for beauty is a witch,
Against whose charms faith melteth into blood.*

Benedick's Disparagement of Beatrice.

She speaks poniards, and every word stabs: if her breath were as terrible as her terminations, there were no living near her; she would infect to the north star. I would not marry her though she were endowed with all that Adam had left him before he transgressed: she

* Passion.

would have made Hercules have turned spit; yea, and have cleft his club to make the fire too.

Beatrice's Merry Disposition Described.

There's little of the melancholy element in her, my lord: she is never sad, but when she sleeps; and not ever sad then; for I have heard my daughter say, she hath often dreamt of unhappiness, and waked herself with laughing.

Benedick's Ridicule of Love.

I

I do much wonder that one man, seeing how much another man is a fool when he dedicates his behaviours to love, will, after he hath laughed at such shallow follies in others, become the argument of his own scorn, by falling in love: And such a man is Claudio. have known when there was no music with him but the drum and the fife; and now he would rather hear the tabor and the pipe: I have known when he would have walked ten mile afoot to see a good armour; and now will he lie ten nights awake, carving the fashion of a new doublet. He was wont to speak plain, and to the purpose, like an honest man, and a soldier; and now is he turn'd orthographer; his words are a very fantastical banquet, just so many strange dishes. May I be so converted, and see with these eyes? I cannot tell; I think not: I will not be sworn, but love may transform me to an oyster; but I'll take my oath on it, till he have made an oyster of me, he shall never make me such a fool.

Balthazar's Song.

Sigh no more, ladies, sigh no more,
Men were deceivers ever;

One foot in sea, and one on shore;
To one thing constant never :
Then sigh not so,

But let them go,

And be you blithe and bonny ;

Converting all

your

sounds of woe

Into, Hey nonny, nonny.

Sing no more ditties, sing no mo
Of dumps so dull and heavy;
The fraud of men was ever so,
Since summer first was leavy,
Then sigh not so, etc.

Benedick the Bachelor's Recantation.

This can be no trick; the conference was sadly borne.—They have the truth of this from Hero. They seem to pity the lady; it seems her affections have their full bent. Love me! why it must be requited. I hear how I am censured: they say, I will bear myself proudly, if I perceive the love come from her; they say too, that she will rather die than give any sign of affection.-I did never think to marry :—I must not seem proud :— happy are they that hear their detractions, and can put them to mending. They say the lady is fair; 'tis a truth, I can bear them witness and virtuous;—'tis so, I cannot reprove it and wise, but for loving me ;-by my troth, it is no addition to her wit ;-nor no great argument of her folly, for I will be horribly in love with her. I may chance have some odd quirks and remnants of wit broken on me, because I have railed so long against marriage :-but doth not the appetite alter? A man loves the meat in his youth, that he cannot endure in his age. Shall quips, and sentences, and these paper

* No longer.