Dogb. I leave an errant knave with your worship which, I beseech your worship, to correct yourself, for the example of others. God keep your worship; I wish your worship well: God restore you to health; I humbly give you leave to depart; and if a merry meeting may be wifh'd, God prohibit it. Come, neighbour. [Exeunt. Leon. Until to-morrow morning, lords, farewell. Ant. Farewell, my lords; we look for you to morrow. Pedro. We will not fail. Claud. To-night I'll mourn with Hero. Leon. Bring you thefe fellows on; we'll talk with Margaret, How her acquaintance grew with this lewd fellow. [Exeunt feverally. SCENE II. A Room in Leonato's Houfe. Enter Benedick, and Margaret, meeting. Bene. Pray thee, fweet miftrefs Margaret, deferve well at my hands, by helping me to the fpeech of Beatrice. Marg. Will you then write me a fonnet in praise of my beauty? Bene. In fo high a ftyle, Margaret, that no man living fhall come over it; for, in moft comely truth, thou deferveft it. Marg. To have no man come over me? why, hall I always keep below ftairs? Bene. 3 To have no man come over me? why, fhall I always kep below fairs? Thus all the printed copies, but, fure, erroneously for all the jeft, that can lie in the paffage, is deftroyed by it. Any man might come over her, literally fpeaking, if he always kept below Bene. Thy wit is as quick as the greyhound's mouth, it catches. Marg. And your's as blunt as the fencer's foils, which hit, but hurt not. Bene. A moft manly wit, Margaret, it will not hurt a woman; and fo, I pray thee, call Beatrice: I give thee the bucklers. 4 Marg. Give us the fwords; we have bucklers of our own. Bene. If you use them, Margaret, you must put in the pikes with a vice; and they are dangerous weapons for maids. Marg. Well, I will call Beatrice to you, who, I think hath legs. [Exit Margaret. Bene. And therefore will come. [Sings.] The God of love, that fits above, and knows me, and knows me, bow pitiful I deferve,-I mean, in finging; but in loving, Leander the good swimmer, Troilus the first below ftairs. By the correction I have ventured to make, Margaret, as I prefume, muft mean, What! fhall I always keep above ftairs? i. e. Shall I for ever continue a chambermaid? THEOBALD. I fuppofe every reader will find the meaning of the old copies. JOHNSON. I give thee the bucklers.] I fuppofe that to give the bucklers is, to yield, or to lay by all thoughts of defence, so clipeum abjicere. The reft deferves no comment. JOHNSON. Greene, in his Second Part of Conny-Catching, 1592, uses the fame expreffion." At this his mafter laught, and was glad, for "further advantage, to yeeld the bucklers to his prentise." So in The Family of Love, Comedy, 1608: "Bow. No, by my troth, if you stay here all day. So Ben Jonfon, in The Cafe is Alter'd, 1609: "-play an honest part, and bear away the bucklers." Again, in A Woman never vex'd, comedy, by Rowley, 1632: "into whofe hands fhe thrufts the weapons first, let him "take up the bucklers." STEEVENS. employer of pandar's, and a whole book full of thefe quondam carpet-mongers, whofe names yet ruñ fmoothly in the even road of a blank verse, why, they were never fo truly turn'd over and over, as my poor felf, in love: Marry, I cannot fhew it in rhime; I have try'd; I can find out no rhime to lady but baby, an innocent's rhime; for fcorn, born, a hard rhime; for fchool, fool, a babbling rhime; very ominous endings: no, I was not born under a rhiming planet, for I cannot woo in feftival terms. Enter Beatrice. Sweet Beatrice, would't thou come when I call thee? Beat. Yea, fignior, and depart when you bid me. Bene. O, ftay but till then. Beat. Then, is fpoken; fare you well now; and yet ere I go, let me go with that I came for, which is, with knowing what hath past between you and Claudio. Bene. Only foul words; and thereupon I will kifs thee. Beat. Foul words are but foul wind, and foul wind is but foul breath, and foul breath is noifome; therefore I will depart unkifs'd. Bene. Thou haft frighted the word out of its right fenfe, fo forcible is thy wit: But, I must tell thee plainly, Claudio undergoes my challenge; and either I muft fhortly hear from him, or I will fubscribe him a coward. And, I pray thee, now tell me, for which of my bad parts didit thou first fall in love with me. Beat. For them all together; which maintain'd fo politick a ftate of evil, that they will not admit any good part to intermingle with them. But for which of my good parts did you firft fuffer love for me? Bene. Suffer love; a good epithet! I do fuffer love, indeed, for I love thee against my will. Beat. Beat. In fpight of your heart, I think; alas! poor heart! If you fpight it for my fake, I will fpight it for yours; for I will never love that, which my friend hates. Bene. Thou and I are too wife to woo peaceably. Beat. It appears not in this confeffion; there's not one wife man among twenty that will praise himself. Bene. An old, an old inftance, Beatrice, that liv'd 5 in the time of good neighbours: if a man do not erect in this age his own tomb ere he dies, he fhall live no longer in monuments, than the bell rings, and the widow weeps. Beat. And how long is that, think you? 6 Bene. Question?Why, an hour in clamour, and a quarter in rheum: Therefore it is most expedient for the wife, (if Don Worm, his confcience, find no impediment to the contrary) to be the trumpet of his own virtues, as I am to myfelf: So much for praifing myself; (who, I myself will bear witness is praise-worthy) and now tell me, How doth your coufin? Beat. Very ill. Bene. And how do you? Beat. Very ill too. Bene. Serve God, love me, and mend: there will I leave you too, for here comes one in hafte. Enter Urfula. Urf. Madam, you must come to your uncle: yon 5 in the time of good neighbours :] i. e. When men were not envious, but every one gave another his due. The reply is extremely humourous. WARBURTON. Question? why, an hour, &c.] i. e. What a queftion's there, or what a foolish queftion do you afk. But the Oxford editor, not understanding this phrafe, contracted into a fingle word, (of which we have many inftances in English) has fairly ftruck it out. WARBURTON. der's der's old coil at home: it is proved, my lady Hero hath been falfely accus'd; the prince and Claudio mightily abus'd; and Don John is the author of all, who is filed and gone: Will you come presently? Beat. Will you go hear this news, fignior? Bene. I will live in thy heart, die in thy lap, and be bury'd in thy eyes; and, moreover, I will go with thee to thy uncle. [Exeunt. SCENE III. A CHURCH. Enter Don Pedro, Claudio, and Attendants with tapers. Claud. Is this the monument of Leonato ? Atten. It is, my lord. Claudio reads. Done to death by flanderous tongues Hang thou there upon the tomb, Now mufick found, and fing your folemn hymn. SONG. Pardon Goddess of the night, Thofe that flew thy virgin knight;7 For These that flew thy virgin knight;] Knight, in its original fignification, means follower or pupil, and in this fenfe may be femi |