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Pedro. Why, how now, count, wherefore are you fad?

Claud. Not fad, my lord,

Pedro. How then? fick ?

Claud. Neither, my lord.

Beat. The count is neither fad, nor fick, nor merry, nor well: but civil, count; civil as an orange, and fomething of that jealous complexion.'

Pedro. I'faith, lady, I think your blazon to be true; though I'll be fworn, if he be fo, his conceit is falfe. Here, Claudio, I have wooed in thy name, and fair Hero is won; I have broke with her father, and his good will obtained: name the day of marriage, and God give thee joy.

Leon. Count, take of me my daughter, and with her my fortunes: his grace hath made the match, and all grace fay, Amen, to it!

Beat. Speak, count, 'tis your cue.

Claud. Silence is the perfecteft herald of joy: I were but little happy, if I could fay how much. Lady, as you are mine, I am yours I give away myself for you, and doat upon the exchange.

Beat. Speak, coufin; or (if you cannot) ftop his mouth with a kifs, and let him not speak neither, Pedro. In faith, lady, you have a merry heart. Beat. Yea, my lord; I thank it, poor fool, it keeps on the windy fide of care: My coufin tells him in his ear, that he is in her heart,

Claud. And fo fhe doth, cousin.

Beat. Good lord, for alliance! Thus goes every

one

of that jealous complexion.] Thus the quarto 160 The folie reads, of a jealous complexion." STEEVENS.

2 Thus goes every one to the world but I, and I am fun-burn'd ;] What is it, to go the world? perhaps, to enter by marriage into a fettled ftate: but why is the unmarry'd lady fun-burnt? I believe we should read, Thus goes every one to the wood but I, and I am fun-burnt. Thus does every one but I find a shelter, and I am

left

one to the world but I, and I am fun-burn'd; I may fit in a corner, and cry, heigh bo! for a husband. Pedro. Lady Beatrice, I will get you one.

Beat. I would rather have one of your father's getting: Hath your grace ne'er a brother like you? Your father got excellent hufbands, if a maid could come by them.

Pedro. Will you have me, lady?

Beat. No, my lord, unless I might have another for working days; your grace is too coftly to wear every day: But, I befeech your grace, pardon me; I was born to speak all mirth and no matter.

Pedro. Your filence moft offends me, and to be merry best becomes you; for, out of question, you were born in a merry hour.

Beat. No, fure, my lord, my mother cry'd; but then there was a ftar danc'd, and under that I was born.-Coufins, God give you joy.

Leon. Niece, will you look to those things I told you of?

Beat. I cry you mercy, uncle. By your grace's pardon. [Exit Beatrice. Pedro. By my troth, a pleasant spirited lady. Leon. There's little of the melancholy element in her, my lord: she is never fad, but when the fleeps; and not ever fad then; for I have heard my daughter fay, she hath often dream'd of an unhappiness, and wak'd herself with laughing.

Pedro

left exposed to wind and fun. The nearest way to the wood, is a phrafe for the readieft means to any end. It is faid of a woman, who accepts a worse match than those which fhe had refused, that fhe has paffed through the wood, and at laft taken a crooked stick. But conjectural criticifm has always fomething to abate its confidence. Shakespeare, in All's well that Ends well, ufes the phrafe, to go to the world, for marriage. So that my emendation depends only on the oppofition of wood to fun-burnt. JOHNSON.

fhe hath often dream'd of an unhappiness,] So all the editions; but Mr. Theobald's alters it to, an happinef, having no conception VOL. II.

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that

Podro. She cannot endure to hear tell of a hufband. Leon. O, by no means; fhe mocks all her wooers out of fuit.

Pedro. She were an excellent wife for Benedick.

Leon. O lord, my lord, if they were but a week marry'd, they would talk themselves mad.

Pedro. Count Claudio, when mean you to go to church?

Claud. To-morrow, mylord: Time goes on crutches, till love have all his rites.

Leon. Not till Monday, my dear fon, which is hence a juft feven-night; and a time too brief too, to have all things answer my mind.

Pedro. Come, you shake the head at fo long a breathing; but, I warrant thee, Claudio, the time fhall not go dully by us. I will, in the interim, undertake one of Hercules' labours, which is, to bring fignior Benedick, and the lady Beatrice into a moun

that unhappiness meant any thing but misfortune, and that, he thinks, the could not laugh at. He had never heard that it fignified a wild, wanton, unlucky trick. Thus Beaumont and Fletcher, in their comedy of the Maid of the Mill.

-My dreams are like my thoughts, honeft and innocent:
Yours are unhappy.

WARBURTON.

To bring Benedick and Beatrice into a mountain of affection the one with the other :] A mountain of affection with one another is a ftrange expreffion, yet I know not well how to change it. Perhaps it was originally written, to bring Benedick into a mooting of affec tion; to bring them not to any more mootings of contention, but to a mooting or conversation of love. This reading is confirmed by the prepofition with; a mountain with each other, or affection with each other, cannot be used, but a mooting with each other is proper and regular. JOHNSON.

Uncommon as the word propofed by Dr. Johnfon may appear, it is used in feveral of the old plays. So in Glapthorne's Wit in a Confiable, 1639.

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Kept in the house at Chriftmas." STEEVENS,

tain of affection, the one with another. I would fain have it a match, and I doubt not to fashion it, if you three will but minister such affistance as I fhall give you direction.

Leon. My lord, I am for you, though it coft me ten nights watchings.

Claud. And I, my lord.

Pedro. And you too, gentle Hero?

Hero. I will do any modeft office, my lord, to help my coufin to a good husband.

Pedro. And Benedick is not the unhopefulleft hufband that I know. Thus far I can praise him; he is of a noble strain, of approv'd valour, and confirm'd honefty. I will teach you how to humour your coufin, that she shall fall in love with Benedick and I, with your two helps, will fo practise on Benedick, that, in defpight of his quick wit, and his queafy ftomach, he fhall fall in love with Beatrice. If we can do this, Cupid is no longer an archer; his glory shall be ours, for we are the only love-gods. Go in with me, and I will tell you my drift. [Exeunt.

SCENE II.

Another Apartment in Leonato's House.

Enter Don John and Borachio.

John. It is fo; the count Claudio fhall marry the daughter of Leonato.

Bora. Yea, my lord; but I can cross it.

John. Any bar, any crofs, any impediment will be medicinable to me: I am fick, in difpleasure to him, and whatsoever comes athwart his affection, ranges evenly with mine. How can'ft thou cross this marriage?

Bora. Not honeftly, my lord; but fo covertly that no dishonesty shall appear in me.

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John. Shew me briefly how.

Bora. I think, I told your lordship, a year fince, how much I am in the favour of Margaret, the waiting gentlewoman to Hero.

John. I remember.

Bora. I can, at any unfeasonable inftant of the night, appoint her to look out at her lady's chamberber-window.

John. What life is in that, to be the death of this marriage?

Bora. The poifon of that lies in you to temper. Go you to the prince your brother; fpare not to tell him, that he hath wrong'd his honour in marrying the renown'd Claudio, (whofe eftimation do you mightily hold up) to a contaminated ftale, fuch a one as Hero.

John. What proof fhall I make of that?

Bora. Proof enough, to mifufe the prince, to vex Claudio, to undo Hero, and kill Leonato: Look you for any other iffue?

John. Only to despite them, I will endeavour any thing.

5 Bora. Go then, find me a meet hour to draw Don

5 Bora. Go then, find me a meet hour to draw Don Pedro, and the count Claudio alone; tell them that you know Hero loves me ;—Offer them inftances, which shall bear no less likelihood than to see me at ber chamber-window; hear me call Margaret, Hero; hear Margaret term me Claudio; and bring them to fee this the very night before the intended wedding.] Thus the whole ftream of the editions from the first quarto downwards. I am obliged here to give a fhort account of the plot depending, that the emendation I have made may appear the more clear and unquestionable. The bufinefs ftands thus: Claudio, a favourite of the Arragon prince, is, by his interceffions with her father, to be married to fair Hero; Don John, natural brother of the prince, and a hater of Claudio, is in his fpleen zealous to difappoint the match. Borachio, a rafcally dependant on Don John, offers his affiftance, and engages to break off the marriage by this tratagem. "Tell the prince and Clau"dio (fays he) that Hero is in love with me; they won't believe

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