Dogb. Moreover, sir (which, indeed, is not under | good swimmer, Troilus the first employer of panwhite and black,) this plaintiff here, the offender, ders, and a whole book full of these quondam cardid call me ass: I beseech you, let it be remem- pet mongers, whose names yet run smoothly in the bered in his punishment: And also, the watch heard even road of a blank verse, why, they were never them talk of one Deformed: they say, he wears a so truly turned over and over as my poor self, in key in his ear, and a lock hanging by it; and love: Marry, I cannot show it in rhyme; I have borrows money in God's name; the which he hath tried; I can find out no rhyme to lady but baby, an used so long, and never paid, that now men grow innocent rhyme; for scarn, horn, a hard rhyme; for hard-hearted, and will lend nothing for God's sake: school, fool, a babbling rhyme; very ominous endPray you, examine him upon that point. ings: No, I was not born under a rhyming planet, nor I cannot woo in festival terms."—

Leon. I thank thee for thy care and honest pains. Dogb. Your worship speaks like a most thankful and reverend youth: and I praise God for you. Leon. There's for thy pains.

Dogb. God save the foundation.2

Leon. Go, I discharge thee of thy prisoner, and I thank thee.

Dogb. I leave an errant knave with your worship; which, I beseech your worship, to correct yourself, for the example of others. God keep your worship; I wish your worship well; God restore you to health: I humbly give you leave to depart; and if a merry meeting may be wished, God prohibit it.-Come, neighbour.

[Exeunt DOGBERRY, VERGES, and Watch. Leon. Until to-morrow morning, lords, farewell. Ant. Farewell, my lords; we look for you to

morrow.

D. Pedro. We will not fail.
Claud.

To-night I'll mourn with Hero. [Exeunt DON PEDRO and CLAUDIO. Leon. Bring you these fellows on; we'll talk with Margaret,

How her acquaintance grew with this lewd3 fellow. [Exeunt. Enter BENE

SCENE II. Leonato's Garden.

DICK and MARGARET, meeting. Bene. Pray thee, sweet mistress Margaret, deserve well at my hands, by helping me to the speech

of Beatrice.

Marg. Will you then write me a sonnet in praise of my beauty?

Bene. In so high a style, Margaret, that no man living shall come over it; for, in most comely truth, thou deservest it.

Marg. To have no man come over me? why, shall I always keep below stairs ?4

Bene. Thy wit is as quick as the greyhound's mouth, it catches.

Marg. And your's as blunt as the fencer's foils, which hit, but hurt not.

Bene. A most manly wit, Margaret, it will not hurt a woman; and so, I pray thee, call Beatrice : I give thee the bucklers."

Marg. Give us the swords, we have bucklers of

That sits above,

And knows me, and knows me,
How pitiful I deserve,-

[Singing.

I mean, in singing; but in loving,-Leander the

1 It was one of the fantastic fashions of Shakspeare's time to wear a long hanging lock of hair dangling by the ear; it is often mentioned by cotemporary writers, and may be observed in some ancient portraits. The humour of this passage is in Dogberry's supposing the lock to have a key to it.

2 A phrase used by those who received alms at the gates of religious houses. Dogberry probably designed to say,God save the founder.'

3 Here leied has not the common meaning; nor do I think it can be used in the more uncommon sense of ignorant; but rather means knavish, ungracious, naughty, which are the synonymes used with it in explaining the latin pravus in dictionaries of the sixteenth century.

Enter BEATRICE.

Sweet Beatrice, would'st thou come when I called
thee?

Beat. Yea, signior, and depart when you bid me.
Bene. O, stay but till then!

Beat. Then, is spoken; fare you well now:which is, with knowing what hath passed between and yet, ere I go, let me go with that I came for, you and Claudio.

Bene. Only foul words; and thereupon I will kiss

thee.

Beat. Foul words is but foul wind, and foul wind is but foul breath, and foul breath is noisome; therefore I will depart unkissed.

didst thou first

right sense, so forcible is thy wit: But, I must tell
Bene. Thou hast frighted the word out of his
thee plainly, Claudio undergoes my challenge;
and either I must shortly hear from him, or I will
subscribe him a coward. And, I pray thee now,
tell for which of
me,
my bad
parts
fall in love with me?
Beat. For them all together; which maintained
so politic a state of evil, that they will not admit
any good part to intermingle with them. But for
which of my good parts did you first suffer love for
me?

Bene. Suffer love; a good epithet! I do suffer love, indeed, for I love thee against my will.

Beat. In spite of your heart, I think; alas! poor for yours; for I will never love that which heart! If you spite it for my sake, I will spite it

hates.

my

friend

Bene. Thou and I are too wise to woo peaceably. Beat. It appears not in this confession: there's himself. not one wise man among twenty that will praise

lived in the time of good neighbours: if a man do Bene. An old, an old instance, Beatrice, that shall live no longer in monument, than the bell not erect in this age his own tomb ere he dies, he rings, and the widow weeps.

Beat. And how long is that, think you?

Bene. Question!-Why, an hour in clamour, and a quarter in rheum: Therefore it is most expedient for the wise (if Don Worm, his conscience, find no impediments to the contrary,) to be the trumpet of his own virtues, as I am to myself: So much for praising myself, (who, I myself will bear me, How witness, is praise-worthy,) and now tell

doth

your cousin? Beat. Very ill.

Bene. And how do you?

Beat. Very ill too.

Bene. Serve God, love me, and mend: there will I leave you too, for here comes one in haste.

yonder's old coil at home: it is proved, my lady Hero hath been falsely accused, the Prince and Claudio mightily abused; and Don John is the author of all, who is fled and gone: Will you come presently?

Beat. Will you go hear this news, signior?
Bene. I will live in thy heart, die in thy lap, and
be buried in thy eyes; and moreover, I will go with
thee to thy uncle's.
[Exeunt
SCENE III. The Inside of a Church. Enter
DON PEDRO, CLAUDIO, and Attendants, with
Music and Tapers.

Claud. Is this the monument of Leonato ?
Atten. It is, my lord.

Claud. [Reads from a scrol]

Done to death by slanderous tongues
Was the Hero that here lies:
Death, in the guerdon3 of her wrongs,
Gives her fame which never dies:
So the life, that died with shame,
Lives in death with glorious fame.
Hang thou there upon the tomb,
Praising her when I am dumb.-
Now, music, sound, and sing your solemn hymn.

SONG.

[affixing it.

The wolves have prey'd ; and look, the gentle day, Before the wheels of Phoebus, round about

Dapples the drowsy east with spots of gray: Thanks to you all, and leave us; fare you well. Claud. Good morrow, masters; each his several way.

D. Pedro. Come, let us hence, and put on other weeds;

And then to Leonato's we will go.

Claud. And, Hymen, now with luckier issue speeds, Than this, for whom we render'd up this woe!

[Exeunt.
SCENE IV. A Room in Leonato s House. Enter
LEONATO, ANTONIO, BENEDICK, BEATRICE,
URSULA, Friar, and HERO.

Friar. Did I not tell you she was innocent?
Leon. So are the prince and Claudio, who ac-
cused her

Cpon the error that you heard debated:
But Margaret was in some fault for this;
Although against her will, as it appears
In the true course of all the question.
Ant. Well, I am glad that all things sort so well.
Bene. And so am I, being else by faith enforc'd
To call young Claudio to a reckoning for it.

all,

Leon Well, daughter, and you gentlewoman
Withdraw into a chamber by yourselves;
And when I send for you come hither mask'd;
The prince and Claudio promis'd by this hour
To visit me:-You know your office, brother;
You must be father to your brother's daughter,
And give her to young Claudio. [Exeunt Ladies.

1 Old coil is great or abundant bustle. Old was a common augmentative in ancient familiar language.

2 This phrase occurs frequently is writers of Shakspeare's time, it appears to be derived from the French phrase, faire mourir. See note on K. Henry VI. Part

. Act . Sc. 1.

Bene. And I do with an eye of love requite her.
From Claudio, and the prince: But what's your will?
Leon. The sight whereof, I think, you had from me,
Bene. Your answer, sir, is enigmatical:
But, for my will, my will is, your good will
May stand with ours, this day to be conjoin'd
In the estate of honourable marriage ;-
In which, good friar, I shall desire your help.
Leon. My heart is with your liking.
Friar
And my help.

Here comes the prince, and Claudio.
Enter DON PEDRO and CLAUDIO, with Attendants.
D. Pedro. Good morrow to this fair assembly.
Leon. Good morrow, prince; good morrow,
Claudio.

We here attend you; are you yet determin'd
To-day to marry with my brother's daughter?

Claud. I'll hold my mind, were she an Ethiope.
Leon. Call her forth, brother, here's the friar
ready.
[Exit ANTONIO.
D. Pedro. Good morrow, Benedick: Why, what's

the matter.

That you have such a February face,

So full of frost, of storm, and cloudiness?

Claud. I think, he thinks upon the savage bull. Tush, fear not, man, we'll tip thy horns with gold. And all Europa shall rejoice at thee;

As once Europa did at lusty Jove,

When he would play the noble beast in love.

Bene. Bull Jove, sir, had an amiable low:
And some such strange bull leap'd your father's cow,
And got a calf in that same noble feat,
Much like to you, for you have just his bleat.

Re-enter ANTONIO, with the Ladies masked. Claud. For this I owe you: here comes other reckonings.

Which is the lady I must seize upon?

Ant. This same is she, and I do give you her. Claud. Why, then she's mine: Sweet, let me see your face.

Leon. No, that you shall not till you take her hand
Before this friar, and swear to marry her.

Claud. Give me your hand before this holy friar;
I am your husband if you like of me.
Hero. And when I lived, I was your other wife:
And when you loved, you were my other husband.
[Unmasking.
Claud. Another Hero!

Hero.

Nothing certainer :
One Hero died defil'd; but I do live,
And surely as I live I am a maid.

D. Pedro. The former Hero! Hero that is dead!
Leon. She died, my lord, but whiles her slander

lived.

Friar. All this amazement can I qualify;
When, after that the holy rites are ended,
I'll tell you largely of fair Hero's death:
Mean time, let wonder seem familiar,
And to the chapel let us presently.

Bene. Soft and fair, Friar.-Which is Beatrice?
Beat. I answer to that name; [Unmasking]

What is your will?

Bene. Do not you love me?

Beat.

Why, no, no more than reason. Bene. Why, then your uncle, and the prince, and Claudio,

3 Reward.

4 Diana's knight, or virgin knight, was the common poetical appellation of virgins in Shakspeare's time. 5 i. e. till death be spoken of.

6 Still alluding to the passage quoted from Hierony. mo, or the Spanish Tragedy, in the first scene of the play.

Have been deceived; for they swore you did.
Beat. Do not you love me?

Bene.

Troth, no, no more than reason. Beat. Why, then my cousin, Margaret, and Ursula,

Are much deceiv'd; for they did swear you did. Bene. They swore that you were almost sick for me.

Beat. They swore that you were well-nigh dead for me.

Bene. 'Tis no such matter:-Then you do not love me ?

Beat. No, truly, but in friendly recompense.
Leon. Come, cousin, I am sure you love the
gentleman.

Claud. And I'll be sworn upon't, that he loves her;
For here's a paper, written in his hand,
A halting sonnet of his own pure brain,
Fashion'd to Beatrice.

Hero

And here's another,

Writ in my cousin's hand, stolen from her pocket,
Containing her affection unto Benedick.

Bene. A miracle! here's our own hands against our hearts!-Come, I will have thee; but, by this light, I take thee for pity.

Beat. I would not deny you; but, by this good day, I yield upon great persuasion; and, partly, to save your life, for I was told you were in a consumption.

Bene. Peace, I will stop your mouth. [Kissing her D. Pedro. How dost thou, Benedick the married man?

Bene. I'll tell thee what, prince; a college of wit-crackers cannot flout me out of my humour: Dost thou think, I care for a satire, or an epigram? No: if a man will be beaten with brains, he shall wear nothing handsome about him: In brief, since I do propose to marry, I will think nothing to any purpose that the world can say against it; and therefore never flout at me for what I have said against it; for man is a giddy thing, and this is my conclusion. For thy part, Claudio, I did think to have beaten thee; but in that thou art like to be my kinsman, live unbruised and love my cousin.

Claud. I had well hoped, thou wouldst have

1 Because.

nied Beatrice, that I might have cudgelled thes out of thy single life, to make thee a double dealer; which, out of question, thou wilt be, if my cousin do not look exceeding narrowly to thee.

Bene. Come, come, we are friends:-let's have a dance ere we are married, that we may lighten our own hearts, and our wives' heels.

Leon. We'll have dancing afterwards.

Bene. First o'my word: therefore play, musicPrince, thou art sad; get thee a wife, get thee a wife: there is no staff more reverend than one tipped with horn.2

Enter a Messenger.

Mess. My lord, your brother John is ta'en in flight, And brought with armed men back to Messina. Bene. Think not on him till to-morrow; I'll devise thee brave punishments for him.-Strike up, pipers. [Dance. Exeunt.

THIS play may be justly said to contain two of the most sprightly characters that Shakspeare ever drew. The wit, the humourist, the gentleman, and the soldier are combined in Benedick. It is to be lamented, indeed, that the first and most splendid of these distinctions is disgraced by unnecessary profaneness; for the good. ness of his heart is hardly sufficient to atone for the licence of his tongue. The too sarcastic levity, which flashes out in the conversation of Beatrice, may be excused on account of the steadiness and friendship so ap parent in her behaviour, when she urges her lover to risk his life by a challenge to Claudio. In the conduct of the fable, however, there is an imperfection similar to that which Dr. Johnson has pointed out in The MeTTY genious than the first :-or, to speak more plainly, the Wives of Windsor :-the second contrivance is less insame incident is become stale by repetition. I wish some other method had been found to entrap Beatrice, than that very one which before had been successfully practised on Benedick.3

Much Ado about Nothing, (as I understand from one of Mr. Vertue's MSS.) formerly passed under the title of Benedick and Beatrix. Heming the player received, on the 20th of May, 1613, the sum of forty pounds, and twenty pounds more as his Majesty's gratuity, for exde-hibiting six plays at Hampton Court, among which was this comedy. STEEVENS.

2 Steevens, Malone, and Reed, conceive that there is an allusion here to the staff used in the ancient trial by wager of battle; but Mr. Douce thinks it is more probable the walking stick or staff of elderly persons was intended, such sticks were often tipped or headed with horn, sometimes crosswise, in imitation of the crutched sticks or potences of the friars, which were borrowed from the celebrated tau of St. Anthony.

3 Mr. Pye thus answers the objection of Steevens. The intention of the poet was to show that persons of either sex might be made in love with each other by supposing themselves beloved, though they were before enemies; and how he could have done this by any other means I do not know. He wanted to show the sexes were alike in this case, and to have employed different motives would have counteracted his own design.'

MIDSUMMER-NIGHT'S DREAM.

PRELIMINARY REMARKS.

dew, and spring-perfumes are the element of these ten

der spirits; they assist nature in embroidering her carpet with green leaves, many coloured flowers, and daz

WE may presume the plot of this play to have been the invention of Shakspeare, as the diligence of his commentators has failed to trace the sources from whence it is derived. Steevens says that the hint for itzling insects; in the human world they merely sport in was probably received from Chaucer's Knight's Tale. 'In the Midsummer Night's Dream,' says Schlegel, 'there flows a luxuriant vein of the boldest and most fantastical invention; the most extraordinary combination of the most dissimilar ingredients seems to have arisen without effort by some ingenious and lucky accident, and the colours are of such clear transparency that we think that the whole of the variegated fabric may be blown away with a breath. The fairy world here deecribed resembles those elegant pieces of Arabesque, where little Genii, with butterfly wings, rise half em bodied above the flower cups. Twilight, moonshine,

a childish and wayward manner with their beneficent or noxious influences. Their most violent rage dissolves in good-natured raillery; their passions, stripped of all earthly matter, are merely an ideal dream. To correspond with this, the loves of mortals are painted as a poetical enchantment, which, by a contrary enchant ment, may be immediately suspended, and then renewed again. The different parts of the plot; the wedding of Theseus, the disagreement of Oberon and Titania, the flight of the two pair of lovers, and the theatrical operations of the mechanics, are so lightly and happily interwoven, that they seem necessary to each other for

the formation of a whole. Oberon is desirous of reliev- | Hippolita are, as it were, a splendid frame for the picing the lovers from their perplexities, and greatly adds ture; they take no part in the action, but appear with a to them through the misapprehension of his servant, till stately pomp. The discourse of the hero and his Amahe at last comes to the aid of their fruitless amorous zon, as they course through the forest with their noisy pam, their inconstancy and jealousy, and restores fide-hunting train, works upon the imagination like the fresh lity to its old rights. The extremes of fanciful and vul- breath of morning, before which the shapes of night gar are united when the enchanted Titania awakes and disappear."* falls in love with a coarse mechanic with an ass's head, who represents, or rather disfigures the part of a tragical lover. The droll wonder of the transmutation of Bottom is merely the transmutation of a metaphor in its lateral sense; but, in his behaviour during the tender homage of the Fairy Queen, we have a most amusing proof how much the consciousness of such a head-dress heightens the effect of his usual folly. Theseus and

This is a production of the youthful and vigourous imagination of the poet. Malone places the date of its composition in 1594. There are two quarto editions, both printed in 1600: one by Thomas Fisher, the other by James Roberts.

Lectures on Dramatic Literature, vol. ii. p. 176.

Stand forth, Demetrius ;-My noble lord,
This man hath my consent to marry her :-
Stand forth, Lysander;-and, my gracious duke,
This hath bewitch'd' the bosom of my child:
Thou, thou, Lysander, thou hast given her rhymes,
And interchang'd love tokens with my child:1
Thou hast by moon-light at her window sung,
With feigning voice, verses of feigning love;
And stol'n the impression of her fantasy
With bracelets of thy hair, rings, gawds, conceits,
Knacks, trifles, nosegays, sweet-meats; messengers
Of strong prevailment in unharden'd youth:
With cunning hast thou filch'd my daughter's heart;
Turn'd her obedience, which is due to me,
To stubborn harshness:-And, my gracious duke,
Be it so she will not here before your grace
Consent to marry with Demetrius,

I beg the ancient privilege of Athens;
As she is mine, I may dispose of her:
Which shall be either to this gentleman,
Or to her death; according to our law,
Immediately provided in that case.

The. What say you, Hermia? be advis'd, fair
maid:

To you your father should be as a god;
One that compos'd your beauties; yea, and one
To whom you are but as a form in wax,
By him imprinted, and within his power
Demetrius is a worthy gentleman.
To leave the figure, or disfigure it.
Her. So is Lysander.

The.

In himself he is:

But, in this kind, wanting your father's voice,
The other must be held the worthier.
Her. I would my father look'd but with my eyes.
The. Rather your eyes must with his judgment
look.

Her. I do entreat your grace to pardon me.
I know not by what power I am made bold;
Nor how it may concern my modesty,

In such a presence here, to plead my thoughts:
But I beseech your grace that I may know
The worst that may befall me in this case,
If I refuse to wed Demetrius.

The. Either to die the death, or to abjure
For ever the society of men.

Therefore, fair Hermia, question your desires,
Know of your youth, examine well your blood,
Whether, if you yield not to your father's choice,
You can endure the livery of a nun;
For aye' to be in shady cloister mew'd,
To live a barren sister all your life,
Chanting faint hymns to the cold fruitless moon.
Thrice blessed they, that master so their blood,
To undergo such maiden pilgrimage:
But earthlier happy2 is the rose distill'd,
Than that, which, withering on the virgin thorn,
Grows, lives, and dies, in single blessedness.

Her. So will I grow, so live, so die, my lord,
Ere I will yield my virgin patent up

Unto his lordship, whose unwished yoke
My soul consents not to give sovereignty.

Lys. How now, my love? Why is your cheek
so pale?

How chance the roses there do fade so fast?
Her. Belike, for want of rain; which I could well
Beteem them from the tempest of mine eyes.

Lys. Ah me! for aught that ever I could read,
Could ever hear by tale or history,

The course of true love never did run smooth:
But, either it was different in blood;

Her. O cross! too high to be enthrall'd to low!
Lys. Or else misgraffed, in respect of years;
Her. O spite! too old to be engaged to young!
Lys. Or else it stood upon the choice of friends:
Her. O hell! to choose love by another's eye!
Lys. Or, if there were a sympathy in choice,
War, death, or sickness did lay siege to it;
Making it momentany as a sound,
Swift as a shadow, short as any dream;
Brief as the lightning in the collied night,
That, in a spleen, unfolds both heaven and earth,
And ere a man hath power to say,-Behold!
The jaws of darkness do devour it up;

So quick bright things come to confusion.
Her. If then true lovers have been ever cross'd,
It stands as an edict in destiny:

The. Take time to pause: and, by the next new Then let us teach our trial patience,

moon,

(The sealing-day betwixt my love and me,
For everlasting bond of fellowship,)
Upon that day either prepare to die,

For disobedience to your father's will;

Or else to wed Demetrius, as he would:

Or on Diana's altar to protest,

For aye, austerity and single life.

Because it is a customary cross;

As due to love, as thoughts, and dreams, and sighs,
Wishes, and tears, poor fancy's' followers.

Lys. A good persuasion; therefore, hear me,
Hermia.

I have a widow aunt, a dowager

Of great revenue, and she hath no child:
From Athens is her house remote seven leagues;

Dem. Relent, sweet Hermia ;-And, Lysander, And she respects me as her only son.

yield

Thy crazed title to my certain right.

Lys. You have her father's love, Demetrius;
Let me have Hermia's: do you marry him.
Ege. Scornful Lysander! true, he hath my love,
And what is mine my love shall render him;
And she is mine; and all my right of her
I do estate unto Demetrius.

Lys. I am, my lord, as well deriv'd as he,
As well possess'd; my love is more than his;
My fortunes every way as fairly rank'd,
If not with vantage, as Demetrius';

And, which is more than all these boasts can be,
am belov'd of beauteous Hermia:
Why should not I then prosecute my right?
Demetrius, I'll avouch it to his head,
Made love to Nedar's daughter, Helena,
And won her soul; and she, sweet lady, dotes,
Devoutly dotes, dotes in idolatry,

Upon this spotted and inconstant man.

The. I must confess, that I have heard so much,
And with Demetrius thought to have spoke thereof;
But, being over-full of self-affairs,

My mind did lose it. But, Demetrius, come:
And come, Egeus; you shall go with me,
I have some private schooling for you both.-
For you, fair Hermia, look you arm yourself
To fit your fancies to your father's will;
Or else the law of Athens yields you up
(Which by no means we may extenuate)
To death, or to a vow of single life.-

Come, my Hippolyta: What cheer, my love?—
Demetrius, and Egeus, go along:

I must employ you in some business
Against our nuptial; and confer with you
Of something nearly that concerns yourselves.
Ege. With duty and desire we follow you.
[Exeunt THESEUS, HIPPOLYTA, EGEUS,
DEMETRIUS, and Train.

There, gentle Hermia, may I marry thee;
And to that place the sharp Athenian law
Cannot pursue us: If thou lov'st me then,
Steal forth thy father's house to-morrow night;
And in the wood, a league without the town
Where I did meet thee once with Helena,
To do observance to a morn of May,
There will I stay for thee

Her.

My good Lysander!

I swear to thee, by Cupid's strongest bow;
By his best arrow with the golden head;
By the simplicity of Venus' doves;
By that which knitteth souls, and prospers loves;
And by that fire which burn'd the Carthage queen,
When the false Trojan under sail was seen;
By all the vows that ever men have broke,
In number more than women ever spoke;-
In that same place thou hast appointed me,
To-morrow truly will I meet with thee.
Lys. Keep promise, love: Look, here comes
Helena.

lody.

Were the world mine, Demetrius being bated,
The rest I'll give to be to you translated.12

7 Fancy is love. So afterwards in this play:
'Fair Helena in fancy following me.'

8 Shakspeare forgot that Theseus performed his exploits before the Trojan war, and consequently long be fore the death of Dido.

9 Fair for fairness, beauty. Very common in writers of Shakspeare's age.

10 The lode-star is the leading or guiding star, that is the polar star. The magnet is for the same reason called the lode-stone.

11 Countenance, feature.

12 i. e. changed, transformed.