Bene. How now! Interjections? Why, then fome be of laughing, as, ha, ha, he'

Claud. Stand thee by, friar: Father, by your leave; Will you with free and unconstrained foul Give me this maid your daughter?

Leon. As freely, fon, as God did give her me. Claud. And what have I to give you back, whofe worth

May counterpoife this rich and precious gift?
Pedro. Nothing, unless you render her again.
Claud. Sweet prince, you learn me noble thankful-
nefs:-

There, Leonato, take her back again;

Give not this rotten orange to your friend;
She's but the fign and femblance of her honour:-
Behold, how like a maid fhe blushes here:
O, what authority and fhew of truth
Can cunning fin cover itself withal!

Comes not that blood, as modeft evidence,
To witnefs fimple virtue? Would you not swear,
All you that fee her, that she were a maid,
By thefe exterior fhews? But fhe is none :
She knows the heat of a luxurious bed: 3
Her blush is guiltinefs, not modefty.

Leen. What do you mean, my lord?
Claud. Not to be marry'd;

Not knit my foul to an approved wanton.

3

Leon, Dear my lord, if you in your own approof +

Have

fome be of laughing,] This is a quotation from the Accidence.

-luxurious bed :] That is, lafcivious. confeffor's term for unlawful pleafures of the fex.

JOHNSON. Luxury is the JOHNSON.

+ Dear my lord, if you in your own proof] I am furpriz'd the poetical editors did not obferve the lameness of this verfe. It evidently wants a fyllable in the laft foot, which I have restored by a word, which, I prefume, the first editors might hesitate at; tho' it is a very proper one, and a word elsewhere ufed by our author.

Befides,

Have vanquish'd the refiftance of her youth,

And made defeat of her virginity

Claud. I know what you would say; If I have known her,

You'll fay, fhe did embrace me as a husband,
And fo extenuate the forehand fin.

No, Leonato,

I never tempted her with word too large; 5
But, as a brother to his fifter, fhew'd

Bafhful fincerity, and comely love.

Hero And feem'd I ever otherwise to you? Claud. Out on thy feeming! I will write against it : °

You feem to me as Dian in her orb;

As chafte as is the budere it be blown;

But you are more intemperate in your blood.
Than Venus, or thofe pamper'd animals
That rage in favage fenfuality.

Hero. Is my lord well, that he doth speak fo wide?
Leon. Sweet prince, why speak not you?
Pedro. What fhould I fpeak?

I ftand dishonour'd, that have gone about
To link my dear friend to a common stale.

Befides, in the paffage under examination, this word comes in almost neceffarily, as Claudio had faid in the line immediately precceding;

Not knit my foul to an approved wanton. THEOBALD. -word 100 large;] So he ufes large jefs in this play, for licentious, not reftrained within due bounds. JOHNSON.

6

-I will write against it :] What? a libel? nonsense We should read,

I will rate against it:

i. e. rail or revile. WARBURTON.

As to fubfcribe to any thing is to allow it, fo to write against is to difallow or deny. JOHNSON.

7

chafte as is the bud

-] Before the air has tasted

is fweetness. JOHNSON,

Leon.

Leon. Are these things fpoken, or do I but dream? John. Sir, they are spoken, and these things are

true.

Bene. This looks not like a nuptial.

Hero. True, O God!

Claud. Leonato, ftand I here?

Is this the prince? Is this the prince's brother?
Is this face Hero's? Are our eyes our own?

Leon. All this is fo; But what of this, my lord? Claud. Let me but move one queftion to your daughter,

And, by that fatherly and kindly power

That you have in her, bid her answer truly.
Leon. I charge thee do fo, as thou art my child.
Hero. O God defend me! how I am befet!
What kind of catechizing call you this?

Claud. To make you answer truly to your name, Hero. Is it not Hero? Who can blot that name With any juft reproach?

Claud. Marry, that can Hero;

Hero herself can blot out Hero's virtue.
What man was he talk'd with you yesternight
Out at your window, betwixt twelve and one?
Now, if you are a maid, anfwer to this.

Hero. I talk'd with no man at that hour, my lord.
Pedro. Why, then you are no maiden.-Leonato,
I am forry, you must hear. Upon mine honour,
Myfelf, my brother, and this grieved count
Did fee her, hear her, at that hour last night
Talk with a ruffian at her chamber-window;
Who hath, indeed, most like a liberal villain, 9

-kindly power] That is, natural power. Kindis nature. JOHNSON. 9-liberal villain,] Liberal here, as in many places of the fe plays, means, frank beyond bonefly or decency. Free of tongue. Dr. Warburton unneceffarily reads, illiberal. JOHNSON.

Con

Confefs'd the vile encounters they have had

A thousand times in fecret.

John. Fie, fie! they are not to be nam'd, my lord, Not to be spoke of;

There is not chastity enough in language,

Without offence, to utter them: Thus, pretty lady, I am forry for thy much mifgovernment.

Claud. O Hero! what a Hero hadft thou been,' If half thy outward graces had been plac'd About the thoughts and counfels of thy heart! But, fare thee well, most foul, most fair! farewel, Thou pure impiety, and impious purity! For thee I'll lock up all the gates of love, And on my eye-lids fhall conjecture hang, To turn all beauty into thoughts of harm; And never fhall it more be gracious.

Leon. Hath no man's dagger here a point for me? Beat. Why, how now, coufin, wherefore fink you down?

John. Come, let us go: these things, come thus to light,

Smother her fpirits up.

[Exeunt Don Pedro, Don John, and Claudio.

Bene. How doth the lady?

Beat. Dead, I think; Help, uncle ;

Hero! why, Hero! uncle! fignior Benedick! friar! Leon. O fate! take not away thy heavy hand! Death is the fairest cover for her shame,

That may be wish'd for.

1

Beat. How now, coufin Hero?

Friar. Have comfort, lady.

Leon. Doft thou look up ?

Friar. Yea; Wherefore fhould she not?

-what a Hero had'st thou been,] I am afraid here is in

tended a poor conceit upon the word Hero. JOHNSON.

Leon.

300

Leon. Wherefore? Why, doth not every earthly

thing

Cry fhame upon her? Could fhe here deny
The ftory that is printed in her blood?
Do not live, Hero; do not ope thine eyes:
For did I think, thou would't not quickly die,
Thought I, thy fpirits were ftronger than thy fhames,
Myfelf would on the rearward of reproaches
Strike at thy life. Griev'd I, I had but one?
Chid I for that at frugal nature's frame ?3
O, one too much by thee! Why had I one?
Why ever waft thou lovely in my eyes?
Why had I not, with charitable hand,

2 The ftory that is printed in ber blood?] That is, the fiery which ber blushes difcover to be true. JOHNSON.

The meaning of the fecond line, according to the prefent reading is this, Chid I at frugal nature that jhe fent me a girl and not a boy? But this is not what he chid nature for; if he himself may be believed, it was becaufe the had given him but one: and in that he owns he did foolishly, for he now finds he had one too much. He called her frugal, therefore, in giving him but one child. (For to call her fo because the chofe to fend a girl rather than a boy would be ridiculous.) So that we must certainly read,

Chid I for this at frugal nature's 'fraine?

i. e. refraine, or keeping back her further favours, stopping her band, as we fay, when she had given him one. But the Oxford editor has, in his ufual way, improved this amendment by fubstituting band for 'fraine. WARBURTON.

Though frame be not the word which appears to a reader of the prefent time moft proper to exhibit the poet's fentiment, yet it may as well be used to fhew that he had one child, and no more, as that he had a girl, not a boy, and as it may eafily fignify the fyftem of things, or univerfal fehem, the whole order of beings is comprehended, there arifes no difficulty from it which requires to be removed by fo violent an effort as the introduction of a new word offenfively mutilated. JOHNSON.

Took