Pedro. May be, fhe doth but counterfeit. Claud. Faith, like enough. Leon. O God! counterfeit! there never was counterfeit of paffion came fo near the life of paffion, as fhe difcovers it. Pedro. Why, what effects of paffion fhews fhe? [Afide. Leon. What effects, my lord? fhe will fit you,You heard my daughter tell you how. Claud. She did, indeed. Pedro. How, how, I pray you? You amaze me: I would have thought her spirit had been invincible against all affaults of affection. Leon. I would have fworn, it had my lord; efpecially against Benedick, Bene. [Afide.] I fhould think this a gull, but that the white-bearded fellow fpeaks it: knavery cannot, fure, hide himself in fuch reverence. that affection is. These broken disjointed fentences are ufual in converfation. However there is one word wrong, which yet perplexes the fenfe, and that is infinite. Human thought cannot furely be called infinite with any kind of figurative propriety. I fuppofe the true reading was definite. This makes the paffage intelligible. It is past the definite of thought-i. e. it cannot be defined or conceived how great that affection is. Shakespeare uses the word again in the fame sense in Cymbeline. For idiots, in this cafe of favour, would i. e. could tell how to pronounce or determine in the cafe. WARBURTON. Here are difficulties raifed only to fhew how eafily they can be removed. The plain sense is, I know not what to think otherwise, but that he loves him with an enraged affection: It (this affection) is paft the infinite of thought. Here are no abrupt ftops, or imperfe& fentences. Infinite may well enough ftand; it is ufed by more careful writers for indefinite: and the fpeaker only means, that thought, though in itself unbounded, cannot reach or estimate the degree of her paffion. JOHNSON. Claud Claud. He hath ta'en the infection; hold it up. [Afide. Pedro. Hath fhe made her affection known to Benedick? Leon. No; and fwears fhe never will; that's her torment. Claud. 'Tis true, indeed; fo your daughter fays: Shall I, fays fhe, that have fo oft encounter'd him with fcorn, write to him that I love him? Leon. This fays fhe now, when fhe is beginning to write to him for fhe'll be up twenty times a night; and there fhe will fit in her fmock, 'till fhe have writ a fheet of paper:-my daughter tells us all. Claud. Now you talk of a fheet of paper, I remember a pretty jeft your daughter told us of. Leon. Oh,-When she had writ it, and was reading it over, the found Benedick and Beatrice between the sheet? Claud. That Leon. O, fhe tore the letter into a thousand halfpence; rail'd at herfelf, that she should be fo immodeft, to write to one that, he knew, would flout her: I measure him, fays fhe, by my own fpirit, for, I fhould flout him if he writ to me; yea, though I love him, I fhould. Claud. Then down upon her knees fhe falls, weeps, O, fhe tore the letter into a thousand half-pence;] i. e. into a thousand pieces of the fame bignefs. This is farther explained by a paffage in As you Like it. There were none principal; they were all like one another as half-pence are. In both places the poet alludes to the old filver penny, which had a creafe running cross-wife over it, fo that it might be broke into two or four equal pieces, half-pence, or farthings. THEOBALD. How the quotation explains the paffage, to which it is applied, I cannot discover. JOHNSON. fobs, fobs, beats her heart, tears her hair, prays, curses; O fweet Benedick! God give me patience! Leon. She doth indeed; my daughter fays fo: and the ecftacy hath fo much overborne her, that my daughter is fometime afraid, fhe will do desperate outrage to herself: It is very true. Pedro. It were good that Benedick knew of it by fome other, if she will not difcover it. Claud. To what end? Hewould but make a sport of it, and torment the poor lady worse. Pedro. An he should, it were an alms to hang him: She's an excellent fweet lady; and, (out of all fufpicion) fhe is virtuous." Claud. And fhe is exceeding wife. Pedro. In every thing, but in loving Benedick. Leon. O my lord, wifdom and blood combating in fo tender a body, we have ten proofs to one, that blood hath the victory. I am forry for her, as I have juft caufe, being her uncle and her guardian. Pedro. I would, fhe had beftow'd this dotage on me; I would have daff'd all other refpects, and made her half myself. I pray you, tell Benedick of it, and hear what he will fay. Leon. Were it good, think you? Claud. Hero thinks, furely fhe will die: for the fays, fhe will die if he love her not; aud fhe will die ere fhe make her love known; and fhe will die if he woo her, rather than fhe will bate one breath of her accuftom'd croffness. Pedro. She doth well: if she should make tender of her love, 'tis very poffible, he'll fcorn it; for the man, as you know all, hath a contemptible spirit. 7 9 contemptible spirit.] That is, a temper inclined to fcorn and contempt. It has been before remarked, that our authour ufes his verbal adjectives with great licence. There is therefore no need of changing the word with fir T. Hanmer to contemptuous. JOHNSON. Claud Claud. He is a very proper man. Pedro. He hath, indeed, a good outward happi nefs. Claud. 'Fore God, and in my mind, very wife. Pedro. He doth, indeed, fhew fome fparks that are like wit. Leon. And I take him to be valiant. Pedro. As Hector, I affure you: and in the managing of quarrels you may fay he is wife; for either he avoids them with great difcretion, or undertakes them with a chriftian-like fear. Leon. If he do fear God, he muft neceffarily keep peace; if he break the peace, he ought to enter into a quarrel with fear and trembling. Pedro. And fo will he do, for the man doth fear God, howfoever it feems not in him, by fome large jefts he will make. Well, I am forry for your niece: fhall we go feek Benedick, and tell him of her love? Claud. Never tell him, my lord; let her wear it out with good counsel. Leon. Nay, that's impoffible; fhe may wear her heart out first. Pedro. Well, we will hear further of it by your daughter; let it cool the while. I love Benedick well; and I could with he would modeftly examine himself, to see how much he is unworthy to have fo good a lady. Leon. My lord, will you walk? dinner is ready. Claud. If he do not doat on her upon this, I will never truft my expectation. [Afide. Pedro. Let there be the fame net fpread for her, and that must your daughter and her gentlewomen carry. The sport will be, when they hold an opinion of one another's dotage, and no fuch matter; that's the scene that I would fee, which will be meerly a dumb show. Let us fend her to call him to dinner. [Afide.] [Exeunt. I Benedick Benedick advances from the arbour. Bene. This can be no trick: The conference was fadly borne. They have the truth of this from Hero. They seem to pity the lady; it seems, her affections have the full bent. Love me! why, it must be requited. I hear, how I am cenfur'd: they fay, I will bear my felf proudly, if I perceive the love come from her; they fay too, that he will rather die than give any fign of affection.-I did never think to marry-I must not feem proud :-happy are they that hear their detractions, and can put them to mending. They fay, the lady is fair; 'tis a truth, I can bear them witnefs. And virtuous;-'tis fo, I cannot reprove it. And wife-but for loving me.→ By my troth, it is no addition to her wit;-nor no great argument of her folly, for I will be horribly in love with her.-I may chance have fome odd quirks and remnants of wit broken on me, because I have rail'd fo long against marriage: But doth not the appetite alter? a man loves the meat in his youth, that he cannot endure in his age.-Shall quips and fentences, and these paper-bullets of the brain, awe a man from the career of his humour? No: the world muft be peopled. When I faid, I would die a batchelor, I did not think I fhould live till I were marry'd. Here comes Beatrice: By this day, fhe's a fair lady: I do fpy fome marks of love in her. Enter Beatrice. Beat. Against my will, I am fent to bid you come in to dinner. 2 was fadly borne.] i. e. was feriously carried on. So in Whet ftone's Promos and Caffandra, 1578. "The king feigneth to talk fadly with fome of his counsel.” STEEVENS. Bene. |