curtly, and fay, Father, as it please you: but yet for all that, coufin, let him be a handfome fellow, or elfe make another curtfy, and fay, Father, as it please me. Leon. Well, niece, I hope to fee you one day fitted with a husband.

Beat. Not 'till God make men of fome other metal than earth. Would it not grieve a woman to be over-master'd with a piece of valiant duft? to make account of her life to a clod of wayward marle? No, uncle, I'll none: Adam's fons are my brethren, and, truly, I hold it a fin to match in my kindred.

Leon. Daughter, remember, what I told you: if the prince do folicit you in that kind, you know your anfwer.

Beat. The fault will be in the musick, cousin, if you be not woo'd in good time: if the prince be too 4 important, tell him, there is meafure in every thing, and fo dance out the answer. For hear me, Hero, wooing, wedding, and repenting, is as a Scotch jig, a measure, and a cinque-pace: the firft fuit is hot and hafty, like a Scotch jig, and full as fantastical; the wedding, mannerly modeft, as a measure, full of ftate and ancientry; and then comes repentance, and with his bad legs falls into the cinque-pace fafter and fafter, 'till he finks into his grave.

Lean. Coufin, you apprehend paffing fhrewdly. Beat. I have a good eye, uncle; I can fee a church by day light.

Leon. The revellers are entring, brother; make good room.

4

If the prince be too important,] Important here, and in many other places, is importunate. JOHNSON.

Enter

Enter Don Pedro, Claudio, Benedick, Balthazar, 5 Don John, Borachio, Margaret, Urfula, and others mafk'd.

Pedro. Lady, will you walk about with your friend?

Hero. So you walk foftly, and look fweetly, and fay nothing, I am yours for the walk; and efpecially when I walk away.

Pedro. With me in your company?

Hero. I may fay fo, when I please.
Pedro. And when please you to say fo?

Hero. When I like your favour; for God defend, the lute fhould be like the cafe!

Pedro. My vifor is Philemon's roof; within the house is Jove.

5 Balthazar,] The quarto and folio add—or dumb John.

Hero.

STEEVENS.

6 My vifor is Philemon's roof, within the houfe is love.] Thus the whole ftream of the copies, from the first downwards. Hero fays to Don Pedro, God forbid the lute should be like the cafe! i. e. that your face should be as homely and as coarfe as your mask. Upon this, Don Pedro compares his vifor to Philemon's roof. 'Tis plain, the poet alludes to the story of Baucis and Philemon from Ovid and this old couple, as the Roman poet describes it, liv'd in a thatch'd cottage ;

Stipulis & canna tea paluftri.

But why, within the boufe is love? Though this old pair lived in a cottage, this cottage received two ftraggling Gods, (Jupiter and Mercury) under its roof. So, Don Pedro is a prince; and though his vifor is but ordinary, he would infinuate to Hero, that he has fomething godlike within: alluding either to his dignity or the qualities of his perfon and mind. By thefe circumftances, I am fure, the thought is mended: as, I think verily, the text is too by the addition of a fingle letter-within the house is Jove. Nor is this emendation a little confirmed by another paflage in our author, in which he plainly alludes to the fame ftory. As you Like it.

Clown. I am here with thee and thy goats, as the most capricious poet, boneft Ovid, was amongst the Goths.

Hero. Why, then your visor fhould be thatch'd.
Pedro. Speak low, if you speak love."

Bene. Well, I would you did like me.

8

Marg. So would not I for your own fake; for I have many ill qualities.

Bene. Which is one?

Marg. I fay my prayers aloud.

Bene. I love you the better; the hearers may cry Amen.9

Marg. God match me with a good dancer!
Balth. Amen.

Marg. And God keep him out of my fight when the dance is done! Anfwer, clerk.

Balth. No more words; the clerk is anfwer'd.

Urf. I know you well enough; you are fignior

Antonio.

Jaq. O knowledge ill inhabited, worse than Jove in a thatch'd bouje! THEOBALD.

This emendation, thus impreffed with all the power of his elo. quence and reafon, Theobald found in the quarto edition of 1600, which he profeffes to have feen; and in the first folio, the and the I are fo much alike, that the printers, perhaps, used the fame type for either letter. JOHNSON.

7 Pedro. Speak low, &c,] This fpeech, which is given to Pedro, hould be given to Margaret. REVISAL.

8 Balth. Well, I would, you did like me.] This and the two following little fpeeches, which I have placed to Balthazar, are in all the printed copies given to Benedick. But, 'tis clear, the dialegue here ought to be betwixt Balthazar and Margaret: Benêdick, a little lower, converfes with Beatrice and fo every man talks with his woman once round. THEOBALD.

Amen.I do not heartily concur with Theobald in his arbitrary difpofition of thefe fpeeches. Balthazar is called in the old copies dumb. John, as I have already obferved, and therefore it fhould feem, that he was meant to fpeak but little. When Benedick fays, the bearers may cry, Amen, we must fuppofe that he leaves Margaret and goes in fearch of fome other fport. Margaret utters a wifh for a good partner; Balthazar, who is reprefented a man of the feweft words, repeats Benedick's Amen, and leads her off, defiring, as he fays in the following thort fpeech, to put himfelf to no greater expence of breath. STEEVENS.

Ant.

Ant. At a word, I am not.

Urf. I know you by the wagling of

your head.

Ant. To tell you true, I counterfeit him.

Urf. You could never do him fo ill-well, unless you were the very man: Here's his dry hand up and down; you are he, you are he.

Ant. At a word, I am not.

Urf. Come, come; do you think, I do not know you by your excellent wit? Can virtue hide itfelf? Go to, mum, you are he: graces will appear, and there's an end.

Beat. Will you not tell me, who told you fo?
Bene. No, you shall pardon me.

Beat. Nor will you not tell me who you are¿

Bene. Not now.

5

Beat. That I was difdainful, and that I had my good wit out of the Hundred merry Tales; well, this was fignior Benedick that faid fo.

Bene. What's he?

Beat. I am fure, you know him well enough.

Bene. Not I, believe me.

Beat. Did he never make you laugh?

Bene. I pray you, what is he?

Beat. Why, he is the prince's jefter: a very dull fool; only his gift is in devifing impoffible flanders: none but libertines delight in him; and the commen

Hundred merry Tales ;] The book, to which Shakespeare alludes, was an old tranflation of Les cent Nouvelles Nouvelles. The original was published at Paris, in the black letter, before the year 1500; and is faid to have been written by fome of the royal family of France. Ames mentions a tranflation of it prior to the time of Shakespeare. STEEVENS.

his gift in devifing impoffible flanders:] We fhould read impaffible, i. e. flanders fo ill invented, that they will pafs upon no body. WARBURTON.

Impoffible flanders are, I fuppofe, fuch flanders as, from their abfurdity and impoffibility, bring their own confutation with them.

JOHNSON.

dation is not in his wit, but in his villainy; for he both pleaseth men, and angers them, and then they laugh at him, and beat him: I am fure, he is in the fleet, I would he had boarded me.

Bene. When I know the gentleman, I'll tell him what you fay.

Beat. Do, do he'll but break a comparison or two on me; which, peradventure, not mark'd, or not laugh'd at, ftrikes him into melancholy, and then there's a partridge wing fav'd, for the fool will eat no fupper that night. We must follow the leaders. [Mufick within.

Bene. In every good thing. Beat. Nay, if they lead to any ill, I will leave them at the next turning.

Manent John, Borachio, and Claudio.

[Exeunt.

John. Sure, my brother is amorous on Hero, and hath withdrawn her father to break with him about it: The ladies follow her, and but one vifor remains. Bora. And that is Claudio; I know him by his bearing.

John. Are you not fignior Benedick?

Claud. You know me well; I am he.

John. Signior, you are very near my brother in his love: he is enamour'd on Hero; I pray you, diffuade him from her, fhe is no equal for his birth: you may do the part of an honest man in it.

Claud. How know you he loves her?

John. I heard him fwear his affection.

Bora. So did I too; and he fwore he would marry her to-night.

3 bis villainy ;] By which the means his malice and impiety. By his impious jefls, fhe infinuates, he pleafed libertines; and by his devifing flanders of them, he angered them. WARBURTON.