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 one that hath sirrah? two gowns, and every thing handsome about him:Bring him away. Ŏ, that I had been writ down-. [Exeunt. 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. an ass. ACT V. SCENE I. Before Leonato's House. Enter 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 Ant. If you go on thus, you will kill yourself; is proved already that you are little better than And 'tis not wisdom, thus to second grief false knaves; and it will go near to be thought so Against yourself. 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 ? Sexton. Master constable, you go not the way to examine; you must call forth the watch that are their accusers. Dogb. Yea, marry, that's the eftest way;-Let the watch come forth :-Masters, I charge you, in the prince's name, accuse these men. Leon. I pray thee, cease thy counsel Cry-sorrow, wag! and hem, when he should groan ;3 1Watch. This man said, sir, that Don John, the prince's brother, was a villain. Dogb. Write down-prince John, a villain-But there is no such man: For, brother, men Why this is flat perjury, to call a prince's brother Can counsel, and speak comfort to that grief villain. Which they themselves not feel; but, tasting it, Their counsel turns to passion, which before With candle-wasters; bring him yet to me, Bora. Master constable, 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. Dogb. Flat burglary, as ever was committed. Sexton. What else, fellow? 1 Watch. And that count Claudio did mean, upon is words, to disgrace Hero before the whole assembly, and not marry her. Dogvillain! 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 suddenly died.-Master constable, let these men be bound, and brought to Leonato's; I will go before, [Exit. and show him their examination. Dogb. Come, let them be opinioned. Dogb. God's my life! where's the sexton? let him write down-the prince's officer, coxcomb.Come, bind them:-Thou naughty varlet. Fetter strong madness in a silken thread, To be so moral, when he shall endure Ant. Therein do men from children nothing differ. blood; For there was never yet philosopher, Ant. Yet bend not all the harm upon yourself; do so: My soul doth tell me, Hero is belied, Enter DON PEDRO and CLAUDIO. Ant. Here comes the prince, and Claudio, hastily Good day to both of you. D. Pedro. We have some haste, Leonato. Leon. Some haste, my lord!-well, fare you well, my lord : 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, remem-Are you so hasty now?-well, all is one. ber, 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 hee by good witness. I am a wise fellow; and, which is more, an officer; and, which is more, a nouseholder: and, which is more, as pretty a piece of flesh as any is in Messina; and one that knows D. Pedro. Nay, do not quarrel with us, good old worms or hard students used by Ben Jonson in Cyn-tered to pish without any seeming necessity. To make thia's Revcis. 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; Leon. Tush, tush, man, never fleer and jest at me: What I have done being young, or what would do, I say, thou hast belied mine innocent child; 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: Thine, Claudio; thine I say, Claud. Away, I will not have to do with you. Leon. Canst thou so daff2 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; Brother Antony,know Ant. Hold you content; What, man! them, yea, And what they weigh, even to the utmost scruple: Leon. But, brother Antony,- 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; I will not hear you. No? Come, brother, away :--I will be heard ;- Or some of us will smart for it. D. Pedro. See, see; here comes the man we went to seek. 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, ho 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. 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: Large belts were worn with the buckle before, but for wrestling the buckle was turned behind, to give the adversary a fairer grasp at the girdle. To turn the buckle behind was therefore a challenge.' 11 Invited. 12 A woodcock, being supposed to have no brains, was a common phrase for a foolish fellow. It means here one caught in a springe or trap, alluding to the plot against Benedick. 13 Wise gentleman was probably used ironically for a silly fellow; as we still say a wise-acre. Claud. All, all; and moreover, when he was hid in the garden. God saw him D. Pedro. But when shall we set the savage. bull's horns on the sensible Benedick's head? Claud. 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. D. Pedro. And hath challenged thee? D. Pedro. What a pretty thing man is, when he goes in his doublet and hose, and leaves off his wit.1 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; pluck up my heart, and be sad! Did he not say, my brother was fled. Enter DOGBERRY, VERGES, and the Watch, with Dogb. Come, you, sir; if justice cannot tame 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? D. Pedro. He is compos'd and fram'd of trea And fled he is upon this villany. 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. I may avoid him : Which of these is he? Bora. If you would know your wronger, look on me. Leon. Art thou the slave, that with thy breath Mine innocent child? Claud. I know not how to pray your patience, D. Pedro. By my soul, nor I; I 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, O, noble sir, Leon. To-morrow then I will expect your com- To-night I take my leave.-This naughty man Bora. No, by my soul, she was not; 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 ie combined: an accomplice Dogb. Moreover, sir (which, indeed, is not under white and black,) this plaintiff here, the offender, did call me ass: I beseech you, let it be remembered in his punishment: And also, the watch heard them talk of one Deformed: they say, he wears a key in his ear, and a lock hanging by it; and borrows money in God's name; the which he hath used so long, and never paid, that now men grow hard-hearted, and will lend nothing for God's sake: Pray you, examine him upon that point. 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. 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 lewd fellow. serve 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 our own. Bene. If you use them, Margaret, you must put in the pickes with a vice; and they are dangerous weapons for maids. good swimmer, Troilus the first employer of pan ders, and a whole book full of these quondam car pet mongers, whose names yet run smoothly in the even road of a blank verse, why, they were never so truly turned over and over as my poor self, in love: Marry, I cannot show it in rhyme; I have tried; I can find out no rhyme to lady but baby, an innocent rhyme; for scarn, horn, a hard rhyme; for school, fool, a babbling rhyme; very ominous endings: No, I was not born under a rhyming planet, nor I cannot woo in festival terms.— 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! and yet, ere I go, let me go with that I came for, Beat. Then, is spoken; fare you well now!-which is, with knowing what hath passed between 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. Bene. Thou hast frighted the word out of his right sense, so forcible is thy wit: But, I must tell 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 me, for which of my bad parts fall in love with me? didst thou first Bene. Thou and I are too wise to woo peaceably. Beat. It appears not in this confession: there's not one wise man among twenty that will praise himself. lived in the time of good neighbours: if a man do Bene. An old, an old instance, Beatrice, that not erect in this age his own tomb ere he dies, he shall live no longer in monument, than the bell 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 witness, is praise-worthy,) and now tell me, How Marg. Well, I will call Beatrice to you, who, I think hath legs. doth [Exit MARGARET. Bene. And therefore will come. The god of love, 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 lewd 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. your cousin? Beat. Very ill. Bene. And how do you? Beat. Very ill too. 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? Claud. [Reads from a scrol] Done to death by slanderous tongues Was the Hero that here lies: Death, in the guerdon 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. Pardon, Goddess of the night, Graves yawn and yield your dead, Claud. Now, unto thy bones good night! D. Pedro. Good morrow, masters; put your torches out: 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 seve ral way. D. Pedro. Come, let us hence, and put on other weeds; And then to Leonato's we will go. [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? Upon the error that you heard debated: 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. Leon Well, daughter, and you gentlewoman all, 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 in writers of Shakspeare's time, it appears to be derived from the French phrase, fuire mourir. See note on K. Henry VI. Part III. Act ii. Sc. 1. Bene. And I do with an eye of love requite her. May stamy will, my will is, your good will Here comes the prince, and Claudio. We here attend you; are you yet determin'd Claud. I'll hold my mind, were she an Ethiope. 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 : 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. 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. |