Obrázky stránek
PDF
ePub

Hero. I talk'd with no man at that hour, my lord. I
D. Pedro. Why then are you no maiden.-Leo-
nato,

I am sorry you must hear; upon my honour,
Myself, my brother, and this grieved count,
Did see her, hear her, at that hour last night,
Talk with a ruffian at her chamber-window;
Who hath, indeed, most like a liberal' villain,
Confess'd the vile encounters they have had
A thousand times in secret.

D. John.
Fie, Fie! they are
Not to be nam'd, my lord, not to be spoke of;
There is not chastity enough in language,
Without offence to utter them: Thus, pretty lady,
I am sorry for thy much misgovernment.

Claud. O Hero! what a Hero hadst thou been,
If half thy outward graces had been placed
About thy thoughts, and counsels of thy heart!
But fare thee well, most foul, most fair! farewell,
Thou pure impiety, and impious purity!
For thee I'll lock up all the gates of love,
And on my eyelids shall conjecture hang,
To turn all beauty into thoughts of harm,
And never shall it more be gracious,2
Leon. Hath no man's dagger here a point for me?
[HERO Swoons.
Beat. Why, how now, cousin? wherefore sink
you down?

D. John. Come, let us go: these things, come
thus to light,

Smother her spirits up.

[Exeunt DON PEDRO, DON JOHN, and CLAUDIO.
Bene. How doth the lady?
Beat.

Dead, I think;-help, uncle
Hero! why, Hero!-Uncle !-Signior Benedict!-

friar?

Leon. O fate take not away thy heavy hand!
Death is the fairest cover for her shame,
That may be wish'd for.
Beat.

How now, cousin Hero?
Friar. Have comfort, lady.
Leon. Dost thou look up?
Friar. Yea; Wherefore should she not?
Leon. Wherefore? Why, doth not every earthly
thing

Cry shame upon her? Could she here deny
The story that is printed in her blood?3-
Do not live, Hero; do not ope thine eyes:
For did I think thou wouldst not quickly die,
Thought I thy spirits were stronger than thy shames,
Myself would, on the rearward of reproaches,
Strike at thy life. Griev'd I, I had but one?
Chid I for that at frugal nature's frame ?4
O, one too much by thee! Why had I one?
Why ever wast thou lovely in my eyes?
Why had I not with charitable hand,
Took up a beggar's issue at my gates;
Who smirched thus, and mired with infamy,
I might have said, No part of it is mine,
This shame derives itself from unknown loins?
But mine, and mine I lov'd, and mine I prais'd,
And mine that I was proud on; mine so much,
That I myself was to myself not mine,
Valuing of her why, she-O, she is fallen
Into a pit of ink! that the wide sea
Hath drops too few to wash her clean again;
And salt too little, which may season give
To her foul tainted flesh!

Bene.

Sir, sir, be patient:
For my part, I am so attir'd in wonder,
I know not what to say.

Beat. O, on my soul, my cousin is belied:
Bene. Lady, were you her bedfellow last night?
Beat. No, truly, not: although, until last night,
I have this twelvemonth been her bedfellow.

1 Liberal here, as in many places of these plays, means licentious beyond honesty or decency. This sense of the word is not peculiar to Shakspeare.

2 i. e. graced, favoured, countenanced. See As You Like It, Act i. Sc. 2.

3 That is, which her blushes discovered to be true. 4 Frame is order, contrivance, disposition of things,

Leon. Confirm'd, confirm'd! O, that is stronger
made,

Which was before barr'd up with ribs of iron!
Would the two princes lie? and Claudio lie?
Who lov'd her so, that, speaking of her foulness,
Wash'd it with tears? Hence from her; let her die.
Friar. Hear me a little;

;

For I have only been silent so long,
And given way unto this course of fortune,
By noting of the lady: I have mark'd
A thousand blushing apparitions start
Into her face; a thousand innocent shames
In angel whiteness bear away those blushes
And in her eye there hath appear'd a fire,
To burn the errors that these princes hold
Against her maiden truth :-Call me a fool;
Trust not my reading nor my observations,
Which with experimental zeal doth warrant
The tenour of my book; trust not my age,
My reverence, calling, nor divinity,
If this sweet lady lie not guiltless here
Under some biting error.
Leon.
Friar, it cannot be :
Thou seest, that all the grace that she hath left,
Is, that she will not add to her damnation
A sin of perjury; she not denies it;
Why seek'st thou then to cover with excuse
That which appears in proper nakedness?

Friar. Lady, what man is he you are accus'd of?
Hero. They know, that do accuse me; I know

none :

If I know more of any man alive,

Than that which maiden modesty doth warrant,
Let all my sins lack mercy!-O my father,
Prove you that any man with me convers'd
At hours unmeet, or that I yesternight
Maintain'd the change of words with any creature,
Refuse me, hate me, torture me to death.

Friar. There is some strange misprision" in the
princes.

Bene. Two of them have the very bent of honour;
And if their wisdoms be misled in this,
The practice of it lives in John the bastard,
Whose spirits toil in frame of villanies.

Leon. I know not; If they speak but truth of her, These hands shall tear her; if they wrong her honour,

The proudest of them shall well hear of it.
Time hath not yet so dried this blood of mine,
Nor fortune made such havock of my means,
Nor age so eat up my invention,
Nor my bad life reft me so much of friends,
But they shall find, awak'd in such a kind,
Both strength of limb, and policy of mind,
Ability in means, and choice of friends,
To quit me of them throughly.

Friar.

Pause a while,

And let my counsel sway you in this case.
Your daughter here the princes left for dead;
Let her awhile be secretly kept in,
And publish it, that she is dead indeed:
Maintain a mourning ostentation;"
And on your family's old monument
Hang mournful epitaphs, and do all rites
That appertain unto a burial.

Leon. What shall become of this? What will
this do?

Friar. Marry, this well carried, shall on her behalf
Change slander to remorse; that is some good:
But not for that, dream I on this strange course,
But on this travail look for greater birth.
She dying, as it must be so maintain'd,
Upon the instant that she was accus'd,
Of every hearer: For it so falls out,
Shall be lamented, pitied and excus'd,

[blocks in formation]

That what we have we prize not to the worth,
Whiles we enjoy it; but being lack'd and lost,
Why, then we rack the value; then we find
The virtue, that possession would not show us
Whiles it was ours :-So will it fare with Claudio:
When he shall hear she died upon2 his words,
The idea of her life shall sweetly creep
Into his study of imagination;
And every lovely organ of her life

Shall come apparell'd in more precious habit,
More moving-delicate, and full of life,
Into the eye and prospect of his soul,

Than when she liv'd indeed :-then shall he mourn,
(If ever love had interest in his liver,3)
And wish he had not so accused her;
No, though he thought his accusation true.
Let this be so, and doubt not but success
Will fashion the event in better shape
Than I can lay it down in likelihood.
But if all aim but this be levell'd false,
The supposition of the lady's death
Will quench the wonder of her infamy:
And, if it sort not well, you may conceal her
(As best befits her wounded reputation,)
In some reclusive and religious life,
Out of all eyes, tongues, minds, and injuries.

Bene. Signior Leonato, let the friar advise you:
And though, you know, my inwardness and love
Is very much unto the prince and Claudio,
Yet, by mine honour, I will deal in this
As secretly, and justly, as your soul
Should with your body.
Leon.

Being that I flow in grief, The smallest twine may lead me." Friar. 'Tis well consented; presently away; For to strange sores they strangely strain the

[blocks in formation]

endure.

[Exeunt Friar, HERO, and LEONATO. Bene. Lady Beatrice, have you wept all this while? Beat. Yea, and I will weep a while longer. Bene. I will not desire that,

Beat. You have no reason, I do it freely. Bene. Surely, I do believe your fair cousin is wrong'd.

Beat. Ah, how much might the man deserve of me, that would right her!

Bene. Is there any way to show such friendship?
Beat. A very even way, but no such friend.
Bene. May a man do it?

Beat. It is a man's office, but not yours. Bene. I do love nothing in the world so well as you; is not that strange?

Beat. As strange as the thing I know not: It were as possible for me to say, I loved nothing so well as you: but believe me not; and yet I lie not; I confess nothing, nor I deny nothing:-I am sorry for my cousin.

Bene. By my sword, Beatrice, thou lovest me. Beat. Do not swear by it, and eat it.

Bene. I will swear by it that you love me; and I will make him eat it, that says I love not you. Beat. Will you not eat your word?

Bene. With no sauce that can be devised to it:

I protest I love thee.

Beat. Why then, God forgive me!

Bene. What offence, sweet Beatrice?

1 i. c. raise the highest pitch.

2 Upon the occasion of his words she died: his words were the cause of her death.

3 The liver was anciently supposed to be the seat of love. 4 Intimacy.

5 This is one of Shakspeare's subtle observations upon life. Men, overpowered with distress, eagerly listen to the first offers of relief, close with every scheme, and believe every promise. He that has no longer any confidence in himself is glad to repose his trust in any other that will undertake to guide him.

6 i. e. 'I am in reality absent, for my heart is gone from you, I remain in person before you.'

7 So, in K. Henry VIII.: He's a traitor to the height.' In præcipiti vitium stetit.-JUV. i. 149.

Beat. You have staid me in a happy hour; I was about to protest, I loved you.

Bene. And do it with all thy heart.

Beat. I love you with so much of my heart, that none is left to protest.

Bene. Come, bid me do any thing for thee.
Beat. Kill Claudio.

Bene. Ha! not for the wide world.

Beat. You kill me to deny it: Farewell.
Bene. Tarry, sweet Beatrice.

Beat. I am gone, though I am here:-There is no love in you:-Nay, I pray you, let me go. Bene. Beatrice,

Beat. In faith, I will go.

Bene. We'll be friends first.

Beat. You dare easier be friends with me, than fight with mine enemy.

Bene. Is Claudio thine enemy?

Beat. Is he not approved in the height a villain," that hath slandered, scorned, dishonoured my kins woman?-O, that I were a man!-What! bear her in hand until they come to take hands; and then with public accusation, uncovered slander, unmitigated rancour,-O God, that I were a man! I would eat his heart in the market-place.

Bene. Hear me, Beatrice ;

Beat. Talk with a man out at a window ?-a proper saying!

Bene. Nay but, Beatrice ;

Beat. Sweet Hero!-she is wronged, she is slandered, she is undone.

Bene. Beat

Beat. Princes, and counties! Surely a princely testimony, a goodly count-confect;10 a sweet gallant, surely! O that I were a man for his sake! or that I had any friend would be a man for my sake! But manhood is melted into courtesies," valour into compliment, and men are only turned into tongue, and trim12 ones too: he is now as valiant as Her cules, that only tells a lie, and swears it :-I cannot be a man with wishing, therefore I will die a woman with grieving.

Bene. Tarry, good Beatrice: By this hand I love

thee.

Beat. Use it for my love some other way than swearing by it.

Bene. Think you in your soul the count Claudio hath wronged Hero?

Beat. Yea, as sure as I have a thought, or a soul. Bene. Enough, I am engaged, I will challenge him; I will kiss your hand, and so leave you: By this hand Claudio shall render me a dear account: As you hear of me, so think of me. Go, comfort your cousin'; I must say she is dead; and so farewell. [Exeunt.

SCENE II. A Prison. Enter DOGBERRY, VER GES,13 and Sexton, in gowns: and the Watch, with CONRADE and BORACHIO.

Dogb. Is our whole dissembly appeared? Verg. O, a stool and a cushion for the sexton! Sexton. Which be the malefactors? Dogb. Marry, that am I and my partner. Verg. Nay, that's certain; we have the exhibition to examine.14

Sexton. But which are the offenders that are to be examined? let them come before master constable.

Dogb. Yea, marry, let them come before me.What is your name, friend?

8 Delude her with false expectations.

9 Countie was the ancient term for a count or earl. 10 A specious nobleman made out of sugar. 11 Ceremonies.

12 Trim seems here to signify apt, fair spoken. Tongue used in the singular, and trim ones in the plural, is a mode of construction not uncommon in Shakspeare.

18 Throughout this scene the names of Kempe and Cowley, two celebrated actors of the time, are put for Dogberry and Verges in the old editions.

14 This is a blunder of the constable's, for examina tion to exhibit. In the last scene of the third act Leonato says: Take their examination yourself and bring it me.'

A

Bora Borachio.

the law, go to; and a rich fellow enough, go to; and Dogb. Pray write down-Borachio.-Yours, a fellow that hath had losses; and cie that hath sirrah? two gowns, and every thing handsome about him:Bring him away. Ó, that I had been writ down

Con. I am a gentleman, sir, and my name is
Conrade.

Dogb. Write down-master gentleman Conrade.
-Masters, do you serve God?
Con. Bora. Yea, sir, we hope.

Dogb. Write down-that they hope they serve God:-and write God first; for God defend but God should go before such villains !-Masters, it is proved already that you are little better than false knaves; and it will go near to be thought so shortly. How answer you for yourselves?

Con. Marry, sir, we say we are none. Dogb. A marvellous witty fellow, I assure you; but I will go about with him.-Come you hither, sirrah; a word in your ear, sir; I say to you, it is thought you are false knaves.

Bora. Sir, I say to you, we are none. Dogb. Well, stand aside.-'Fore God they are both in a tale: Have you writ down-that they are none?

an ass.

ACT V.

[Exeunt.

SCENE I. Before Leonato's House. Enter
LEONATO and ANTONIO.

And 'tis not wisdom, thus to second grief
Ant. If you go on thus, you will kill yourself;
Against yourself.

Leon.

I pray thee, cease thy counsel Which falls into mine ears as profitless As water in a sieve: give not me counsel; Nor let no comforter delight mine ear, But such a one whose wrongs do suit with mine. Bring me a father, that so lov'd his child, And bid him speak of patience; Whose joy of her is overwhelm'd like mine, Measure his woe the length and breadth of mine, As thus for thus, and such a grief for such, And let it answer every strain for strain; In every lineament, branch, shape, and form: Dagb. Yea, marry, that's the eftest' way ;-Let | Cry-sorrow, wag! and hem, when he should If such a one will smile, and stroke his beard: the watch come forth :-Masters, I charge you, in the prince's name, accuse these men.

Sexton. Master constable, you go not the way to examine; you must call forth the watch that are

their accusers.

groan;

1 Watch. This man said, sir, that Don John, the With candle-wasters; bring him yet to me, Patch grief with proverbs; make misfortune drunk prince's brother, was a villain. Dogb. Write down-prince John, a villain-But there is no such man: For, brother, men And I of him will gather patience. Why this is flat perjury, to call a prince's brother Can counsel, and speak comfort to that grief -villain.

Bora. Master constable,

Which they themselves not feel; but, tasting it,
Their counsel turns to passion, which before

Dogb. Pray thee, fellow, peace; I do not like Would give preceptial medicine to rage, thy look, I promise thee.

Sexton. What heard you him say else?

2 Watch. Marry, that he had received a thousand ducats of Don John, for accusing the lady Hero wrongfully.

Dogh. Flat burglary, as ever was committed.
Verg. Yea, by the mass, that it is.

Serton. What else, fellow?

I Watch. And that count Claudio did mean, upon his words, to disgrace Hero before the whole assembly, and not marry her.

Dogb. O villain! thou wilt be condemned into everlasting redemption for this. Sexton. What else?

2 Watch. This is all.

Sexton. And this is more, masters, than you can
deny. Prince John is this morning secretly stolen
away; Hero was in this manner accused, in this
very manner refused, and upon the grief of this sud-
denly died.-Master constable, let these men be
bound, and brought to Leonato's; I will go before,
and show him their examination.
[Exit.

Dogb. Come, let them be opinioned.
Verg. Let them be in the bands-
Con. Off, coxcomb!

Dogb. God's my life! where's the sexton? let him write down-the prince's officer, coxcomb.Come, bind them:-Thou naughty varlet.

Con. Away! you are an ass, you are an ass. Dogb. Dost thou not suspect my place? Dost thou not suspect my years ?-O that he were here to write me down-an ass!-but, masters, rememher, that I am an ass; though it be not written down, yet forget not that I am an ass:-No, thou villain, thou art full of piety, as shall be proved upon thee by good witness. I am a wise fellow; and, which is more, an officer; and, which is more, a householder: and, which is more, as pretty a piece of flesh as any is in Messina; and one that knows

1 i. e. the quickest way.

2 In the old copy this passage stands thus: Sexton. Let them be in the hands of Coxcomb.'

Fetter strong madness in a silken thread,
No, no; 'tis all men's office to speak patience
Charm ach with air, and agony with words:
To those that wring under the load of sorrow:
But no man's virtue, nor sufficiency,

To be so moral, when he shall endure
The like himself: therefore give me no counsel:
My griefs cry louder than advertisement."

Ant. Therein do men from children nothing differ.
Leon. I pray thee, peace: I will be flesh and
For there was never yet philosopher,
blood;
That could endure the tooth-ach patiently
However they have writ the style of gods,
And made a push at chance and sufferance.

Make those, that do offend you, suffer too.
Ant. Yet bend not all the harm upon yourself;
Leon. There thou speak'st reason: nay, I will
do so:

My soul doth tell me, Hero is belied,
And that shall Claudio know, so shall the prince,
And all of them, that thus dishonour her.

Enter DON PEDRO and CLAUDIO.

Ant. Here comes the prince, and Claudio, hastily.
D. Pedro. Good den, good den.
Claud.

Good day to both of you.
Leon. Hear you, my lords,--
D. Pedro.

We have some haste, Leonato. Leon. Some haste, my lord!--well, fare you well, my lord :-

Are you so hasty now?-well, all is one.
D. Pedro. Nay, do not quarrel with us, good old

man.

Ant. If he could right himself with quarreling,
Some of us would lie low.
Claud.

Who wrongs him? Leon. Marry, thou dost wrong me; thou dissembler, thou:-

Nay, never lay thy hand upon thy sword,
I fear thee not.
Claud.

Marry, beshrew my hand,

3 The folio reads, And sorrow, wagge, cry hem,' &c. 5 That is, 'than admonition, than moral instruction. 4 Candle wasters. A contemptuons term for book- 6 Push is the reading of the old copy, which Pope al worms or hard students used by Ben Jonson in Cyn-tered to pish without any seeming necessity. To make thia's Reveis, and others. a push at any thing is to contend against it or defy it.

If it should give your age such cause of fear;
In faith, my hand meant nothing to my sword.

Leon. Tush, tush, man, never fleer and jest at me:
I speak not like a dotard, nor a fool;
As, under privilege of age, to brag

What I have done being young, or what would do,
Were I not old: Know, Claudio, to thy head,
Thou hast so wrong'd mine innocent child and me,
That I am forc'd to lay my reverence by ;

And, with grey hairs, and bruise of many days,
Do challenge thee to trial of a man.

I say, thou hast belied mine innocent child;

Claud. Now, signior! what news? Bene. Good day, my lord.

D. Pedro. Welcome, signior: You are almost come to part almost a fray.

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

D. Pedro. Leonato and his brother: What think'st thou? Had we fought, I doubt, we should have been too young for them.

Bene. In a false quarrel there is no true valour, I came to seek you both.

Claud. We have been up and down to seek thee;

Thy slander hath gone through and through her for we are high-proof melancholy, and would fain

heart,

And she lies buried with her ancestors:
O! in a tomb where never scandal slept,
Save this of her's fram'd by thy villany.
Claud. My villany!
Leon.
Thine, Claudio; thine I say,
D. Pedro. You say not right, old man.
Leon.
My lord, my lord.
I'll prove it on his body, if he dare;
Despite his nice fence, and his active practice,'
His May of youth, and bloom of lustyhood.

Claud. Away, I will not have to do with you. Leon. Canst thou so daff me? Thou hast kill'd my child;

If thou kill'st me, boy, thou shalt kill a man.

Ant. He shall kill two of us, and men indeed: But that's no matter; let him kill one first ;Win me and wear me,--let him answer me,-Come, follow me, boy; come, boy, follow me :3 Sir boy, I'll whip you from your foining fence; Nay, as I am a gentleman, I will.

Leon. Brother,

Ant. Content yourself: God knows, I lov'd my

niece;

And she is dead, slander'd to death by villains;
That dare as well answer a man, indeed,

As I dare take a serpent by the tongue;
Boys, apes, braggarts, jacks, milksops!
Leon.
Brother Antony,-
Ant. Hold you content; What, man! I know

them, yea,

And what they weigh, even to the utmost scruple:
Scambling, out-facing, fashion-mong'ring boys,
That lie, and cog, and flout, deprave and slander,
Go antickly, and show outward hideousness,"
And speak off half a dozen dangerous words,
How they might hurt their enemies, if they durst,
And this is all.

Leon. But, brother Antony,-
Ant.

Come, 'tis no matter; Do not you meddle, let me deal in this.

D. Pedro. Gentlemen both, we will not wake" your patience.

My heart is sorry for your daughter's death;
But, on my honour, she was charg'd with nothing
But what was true, and very full of proof.
Leon. My lord, my lord,—

D. Pedro.

Leon.

I will not hear you.

No?
And shall,
[Exeunt LEONATO and ANTONIO.
Enter BENEDICK.

Come, brother, away :-I will be heard ;-
Ant.

Or some of us will smart for it.

D. Pedro. See, see; here comes the man we went to seck.

off.

1 Skill in fencing.

have it beaten away: Wilt thou use thy wit? Bene. It is in my scabbard; Shall I draw it? D. Pedro. Dost thou wear thy wit by thy side? Claud. Never any did so, though very many have been beside their wit.-I will bid thee draw, as we do the minstrels; draw, to pleasure us.®

D. Pedro. As I am an honest man, he looks pale:--Art thou sick, or angry?

Claud, What! courage, man! What though care killed a cat, thou hast mettle enough in thee to kill

care.

Bene. Sir, I shall meet your wit in the career, an you charge it against me:--I pray you, choose another subject.

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

D. 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 gir dle, 10

Bene. Shall I speak a word in your ear?
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 protest your cowardice. You have killed a sweet lady, and her death shall fall heavy on you: Let me hear from you.

Claud. Well, I will meet you, so I may have good cheer.

D. Pedro, What, a feast? a feast?

Claud. I'faith, I thank him; he hath bid11 me to a calf's head and a capon; the which if I do not carve most curiously, say, my knife's naught.— Shall I not find a woodcock12 too.

Bene. Sir, your wit ambles well; it goes easily. D. Pedro. I'll tell thee how Beatrice praised thy wit the other day: I said thou hadst a fine wit: True, says she, a fine little one: No, said I, a great wit; Right, says she, a great gross one: Nay, said I, a good wit: Just; said she, it hurts nobody: Nay, said I, the gentleman is wise; Certain, said she, a wise gentleman:13 Nay, said I, he hath the tongues: That I believe, said she, for he swore a thing to me on Monday night, which he foreswore on Tuesday morning; there's a double tongue; there's two tongues. Thus, did she, an hour together, transshape thy particular virtues; yet, at last, she concluded with a sigh, thou wast the properest man in Italy.

Claud. For the which she wept heartily, and said, she cared not.

D. Pedro. Yea, that she did; but yet, for all that, and if she did not hate him deadly, she would love him dearly: the old man's daughter told us all. strels draw the bows of their fiddles, merely to please

us.'

9 The allusion is to tilting. See note, As You Like It, Act iii. Sc. 4.

10 There is a proverbial phrase, If he be angry let

2 This is only a corrupt form of doff, to do off or put him turn the buckle of his girdle.' Mr. Holt White says,

3 The folio reads:

[blocks in formation]
[blocks in formation]

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

D. Pedro. But when shall we set the savage bull's horns on the sensible Benedick's head?

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

Bene. Fare you well, boy; you know my mind; I will leave you now to your gossip-like humour; you break jests as braggarts do their blades, which, God be thanked, hurt not.—My lord, for your many courtesies I thank you: I must discontinue your Company: your brother, the bastard, is fled from Messina: 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.

D. Pedro. He is in earnest.

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

D. Pedro. And hath challenged thee?
Claud. Most sincerely.

D. Pedro. What a pretty thing man is, when he goes in his doublet and hose, and leaves off his witl

Claud. He is then a giant to an ape; but then is an ape a doctor to such a man.

D. Pedro. But, soft you, let be;2 pluck up my heart, and be sad! Did he not say, my brother was fled.

Enter DOGEERRY, VERGES, and the Watch, with
CONRADE and BORACI10.

[blocks in formation]

D. Pedro. He is compos'd and fram'd of trea-
chery:-
:-

And fled he is upon this villany.
Claud. Sweet Hero! now thy image doth appear
In the rare semblance that I loved it first.

Dogb. Come, bring away the plaintiffs; by this time our Sexton hath reformed signior Leonato of the matter: And masters, do not forget to specify, when time and place shall serve, that I am an ass. Verg. Here, here comes master signior Leonato, and the Sexton too.

Re-enter LEONATO and ANTONIO, with the Sexton.
Leon. Which is the villain? Let me see his eyes;
That when I note another man like him,
may avoid him: Which of these is he?
Bora. If you would know your wronger, look on

I

me.

Leon. Art thou the slave, that with thy breath hast kill'd

Mine innocent child? Bora. Yea, even I alone. Leon. No, not so, villain; thou bely'st thyself; Here stand a pair of honourable men, A third is fled, that had a hand in it :I thank you, princes, for my daughter's death; Dogh. Come, you, sir; if justice cannot tame Record it with your high and worthy deeds; you, she shall ne'er weigh more reasons in her ba-'Twas bravely done, you bethink you of it. lance: nay, and you be a cursing hypocrite once, you must be looked to.

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

Claud. Hearken after their offence, my lord! D. Pedro. Officers, what offence have these men done?

Dogb. Marry, sir, they have committed false report; moreover, they have spoken untruths; secondarily, they are slanders: sixth and lastly, they have belied a lady; thirdly, they have veried unjust things; and, to conclude, they are lying knaves. D. Pedro. First, I ask thee what they have done; thirdly, I ask thee what's their offence; sixth and lastly, why they are committed; and, to conclude, what you lay to their charge?

Claud. I know not how to pray your patience,
Yet I must speak: Choose your revenge yourself;
Impose" me to what penance your invention
Can lay upon my sin: yet sinn'd I not,
But in mistaking.

D. Pedro.

By my soul, nor I;
And yet, to satisfy this good old man,
I would bend under any heavy weight
That he'll enjoin me to.

Leon. I cannot bid you bid my daughter live, That were impossible; but, I pray you both, Possess the people in Messina here How innocent she died: and, if your love Can labour aught in sad invention, Hang her an epitaph upon her tomb, And sing it to her bones; sing it to-night: Claud. Rightly reasoned, and in his own divi-To-morrow morning come you to my house; sion; and, by my troth, there's one meaning well suited.4

D. Pedro. Whom have you offended, masters, 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 deceived even your very eyes: what your wisdoms could not discover, these shallow fools have brought to light; who, in the night, overheard me confessing to this man, how Don John, your brother, incensed me to slander the lady Hero; how you were brought into the orchard, and saw me court Margaret in Hero's garment; how you disgraced 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 shame: the lady is dead upon mine and my master's false accusation; and, briefly, I desire nothing but the reward of a villain.

1 These words are probably meant to express what Rosaline, in As You Like It, calls the careless desolation of a lover.

2 The old copies read let me be,' the emendation is Malone's. Let be appears here to signify hold, rest there. It has the same signification in Saint Matthew, ch. xxvii. v. 49.

3 i. e. rouse thyself my heart and be prepared for serious consequences.'

4 That is, one meaning put into many different dresses; the Prince having asked the same question in four modes of speech.

-

And since you could not be my son-in-law,
Be yet my nephew: my brother hath a daughter
Almost the copy of my child that's dead,
And she alone is heir to both of us;
Give her the right you should have given her cousin,
And so dies my revenge.
Claud.

O, noble sir,
Your over-kindness doth wring tears from me!
I do embrace your offer; and dispose
For henceforth of poor Claudio.

Leon, To-morrow then I will expect your com-
ing;

To-night I take my leave.-This naughty man
Shall face to face be brought to Margaret,
Who, I believe, was pack'd1o in all this wrong,
Hir'd to it by your brother.

Bora.

No, by my soul, she was not;
Nor knew not what she did, when she spoke to me;
But always hath been just and virtuous,
In any thing that I do know by her.

5 Incited, instigated.

6 i. e. inflict upon me whatever penance, &c.' 7 To possess anciently signified to inform, to make acquainted with. So in the Merchant of Venice:

"I have possess'd your grace of what I purpose. 8 It was the custom among Catholics to attach, upon or near the tomb of celebrated persons, a written inscription either in prose or verse generally in praise of the deceased.

9 Yet Shakspeare makes Leonato say to Antonio, Act i. Sc. 5, How now, brother; where is my cousin your son,' &c.

10 i. e. combined; an accomplice.

« PředchozíPokračovat »