Claud. All, all; and moreover, God faw him when he was bid in the garden.

Pedro. But when fhall we fet the favage bull's horns on the fenfible 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 goffip-like humour: you break jefts as braggarts do their blades, which, God be thank'd, hurt not. My lord, for your many courtefies I thank you; I muft difcontinue your company your brother, the baftard, is fled from Meffina; you have among you kill'd a sweet and innocent lady. For my lord lack-beard there, he and I fhall meet; and till then, peace be with him! [Exit Benedick.

Pedro. He is in earnest.

Claud. In moft profound earneft; and, I'll warrant you, for the love of Beatrice.

Pedro. And hath challeng'd thee?

Claud. Moft fincerely.

8

Pedro. What a pretty thing man is, when he goes

in his doublet and hofe, and leaves off his wit!

Enter Dogberry, Verges, Conrade and Borachio guarded.

Claud. He is then a giant to an ape: but then is an ape a doctor to fuch a man,

What a pretty thing man is, when he goes in his doublet and hose, and leaves off his wit !] It was etteemed a mark of levity and want of becoming gravity, at that time, to go in the doublet and befe, and leave off the cloak, to which this well-turned exprion alludes. The thought is, that love makes a man as ridiculous, and expofes him as naked as being in the doublet and hose without a cloak. WARBURTON,

Pedro. But, foft you, let be; pluck up my heart and be fad: Did he not fay, my brother was fled?

Dogb. Come, you, fir; if justice cannot tame you, fhe fhall ne'er weigh more reafons in her balance: nay an you be a curfing hypocrite once, you must be look'd to.

Pedro. How now, two of my brother's men bound! Borachio, one!

Claud Hearken after their offence, my lord.

Pedro. Officers, what offence have thefe men done? Dogb. Marry, fir, they have committed falfe report; moreover, they have fpoken untruths; fecondarily, they are flanders; fixth and laftly, they have bely'd a lady; thirdly, they have verify'd unjuft things and, to conclude, they are lying knaves.

Pedro. First, I afk thee what they have done; thirdly, Iafk thee what's their offence; fixth and lastly, why they are committed; and, to conclude, what you lay to their charge?

Claud. Rightly reafon'd, and in his own divifion; and, by my troth, there's one meaning well fuited.' Pedro. Whom have you offended, mafters, that you are thus bound to your anfwer? This learned conftable is too cunning to be understood. What's your offence?

Bora. Sweet prince, let me go no further to mine anfwer do you hear me, and let this count kill me. I have deceiv'd even your very eyes: what your wif doms could not difcover, thefe fhallow fools have brought to light, who in the night overheard me confeffing to this man, how Don John your brother incens'd me to flander the lady Hero; how you were brought into the orchard, and faw me court Margaret

9 one meaning well fuited.] That is, one meaning is put into many different dries; the prince having asked the fame question in four modes of fpeech. JOHNSON.

in

in Hero's garments; how you difgrac'd her, when you should marry her: my villainy they have upon record; which I had rather feal with my death, than repeat over to my fhame; the lady is dead upon mine and my mafter's falfe accufation; and briefly, I defire nothing but the reward of a villain.

Pedro. Runs not this fpeech like iron through your blood?

Claud. I have drunk poison, while he utter'd it,
Pedro. But did my brother fet thee on to this?
Bora. Yea, and paid me richly for the practice of

it.

Pedro. He is compos'd and fram'd of treachery; And fled he is upon this villany.

Claud. Sweet Hero! now thy image doth appear In the rare femblance that I lov'd it firft.

Dogb. Come, bring away the plaintiffs; by this time, our fexton hath reform'd fignior Leonato of the matter. And, mafters, do not forget to fpecify, when time and place fhall ferve, that I am an afs. Verg. Here, here comes mafter fignior Leonato, and the fexton too.

Enter Leonato, and Sexton.

Leon. Which is the villain? Let me fee his
That when I note another man like him,
I may avoid him: Which of thefe is he?

eyes s

Bora. If you would know your wronger, look on

me.

Leon. Art thou, art thou the flave, that with thy breath

Haft kill'd mine innocent child?

Bora. Yea, even I alone.

Leon. No, not fo villain; thou bely'ft thyself, Here ftand a pair of honourable men,

A third is fled, that had a hand in it :—

I thank you, princes, for my daughter's death;

Y 2

Record

Record it with your high and worthy deeds;
'Twas bravely done, if you bethink you of it.
Claud. I know not how to pray your patience,
Yet I must speak: Chufe your revenge yourself;
Impose me to what penance your invention
Can lay upon my fin: yet finn'd I not,
But in mistaking.

Pedro. By my foul, nor I;

And yet, to fatisfy this good old man,
I would bend under any heavy weight.
That he'll enjoin me to.

Leon. You cannot bid my daughter live again,
That were impoffible; but, I pray you both,
Poffefs the people in Meffina here

How innocent the dy'd: and, if your love
Can labour aught in fad invention,
Hang her an epitaph upon her tomb,
And fing it to her bones: Sing it to night;
To-morrow morning come you to my house,
And fince you could not be my fon-in-law,
Be yet my nephew; my brother hath a daughter,
Almost the copy of my child that's dead,

And she alone is heir to both of us;

I

Give her the right you should have given her cousin, And fo dies my revenge.

Claud. O noble fir,

Your over-kindness doth wring tears from me!
I do embrace your offer; and dispose

For henceforth of poor Claudio.

Leon. To-morrow then I will expect your coming, To night I take my leave. This naughty man Shall face to face be brought to Margaret,

And he alone is beir to both of us;] Shakespeare feems to have forgot what he had made Leonato fay, in the fifth scene of the first act to Antonio. How now, brother; where is my coufin your fon? bath he provided the mufick? ANONYMOUS.

Who,

Who, I believe, was pack'd in all this wrong,
Hir'd to it by your brother.

Bora. No, by my foul, fhe was not;

Nor knew not what she did, when she spoke to me:
But always hath been just and virtuous,
In any thing that I do know by her.

Dogb. Moreover, fir, (which indeed is not under white and black) this plaintiff here, the offender, did call me afs: I beseech you, let it be remembred in his punishment: And alfo the watch heard them talk of one Deformed: they fay, he wears a key in his ear, and a lock hanging by it; and borrows money in God's name; the which he hath us'd fo long, and never paid, that now men grow hard-hearted, and will lend nothing for God's fake. Pray you, examine him upon that point.

Leon. I thank thee for thy care and honeft pains. Dogb. Your worship fpeaks like a moft thankful and reverend youth; and I praise God for you. Leon. There's for thy pains.

Dogb. God fave the foundation!

Leon. Go, I discharge thee of thy prifoner, and I thank thee.

2be wears a key in his ear, and a lock hanging by it, and borrows money in God's name ;] There could not be a pleasanter ridicule on the fashion, than the conftable's defcant on his own blunder. They heard the confpirators fatyrize the fashion; whom they took to be a man firnamed, Deformed. This the conftable applies with exquifite humour to the courtiers, in a defcription of one of the moft fantastical fashions of that time, the men's wearing rings in their ears, and indulging a favourite lock of hair which was brought before, and tied with ribbons, and called a love-lock. Against this fashion William Prynne wrote his treatise, called, The Unlovelynefs of Love-Locks. To this fantaftick mode Fletcher alludes in his Cupid's Revenge-This morning I brought him a new periiwig with a lock at it And yonder's a fellow come has bored a hole in his ear. And again in his Woman-Hater -If I could endure an ear with a hole in it, or a platted lock, &c. ́

Y 3

WARBURTON.

Dogb.