Pedro. How doft thou, Benedick, the married man ? Bene. I'll tell thee what, prince; a college of witcrackers cannot flout me out of my humour: Doft think, I care for a fatire or an epigram? No: if a man will be beaten with brains, he fhall wear nothing handsome about him: In brief, fince I do purpose to marry, I will think nothing to any purpose that the world can fay it against: and therefore never flout at me, for what I have faid againft it; for man is giddy thing, and this is my conclufion. For thy part, Claudio, I did think to have beaten thee; but in that thou art like to be my kinsman, live unbruis'd, and love my cousin. Claud. I had well hoped, thou wouldst have denied Beatrice, that I might have cudgell'd thee out of thy fingle life to make thee a double dealer; which, out of question, thou wilt be, if my coufin do not look exceeding narrowly to thee. Bene. Come, come, we are friends, let's have a dance ere we are marry'd, that we may lighten our own hearts, and our wives heels. Leon. We'll have dancing afterwards. Bene. First, o' my word; therefore, play, mufick. Prince, thou art fad, get thee a wife, get thee a wife: there is no ftaff more reverend than one tipt with horn. Enter Messenger. Meff. My lord, your brother John is ta'en in flight, And brought with armed men back to Meffina. Beatrice, and this being done before the whole company, how na tural is the reply which the prince makes upon it? How doft thou, Benedick, the married man? Befides, this mode of speech, preparatory to a falute, is familiar to our poet in common with other stage-writers. THEOBALD. Beye. Bene. Think not on him till to-morrow: I'll devife thee brave punishments for him. Strike up, pipers. [Dance. [Exeunt omnes. THIS play may be fairly faid to contain two of the most fprightly characters that Shakespeare ever drew. The wit, the humourift, the gentleman, and the foldier, are combined in Benedick. It is to be lamented, indeed, that the firft and moft fplendid of thefe diftinctions, is difgraced by unneceffary prophanenefs; for the good nefs of his heart is hardly fufficient to atone for the licence of his tongue. The innocent levity, which flashes out in the converfation of Beatrice, receives a fanction from that fteadiness and spirit of friendship to her coufin, fo apparent in her behaviour, when the urges her lover to rifque his own life by a challenge to Claudio. In the conduct of the fable, however, there is an imperfection fimilar to that which Dr. Johnson has pointed out in the Merry Wives of Windfor: the fecond contrivance is lefs ingenious than the first-or, to speak more plainly, the fame incident is become ftale by repetition. I with fome other. method had been found to entrap Beatrice, than that very stratagem which before had been fuccefsfully practifed on Benedick. This play (as I understand from one of Mr. Vertue's MSS.) formerly paffed under the title of Benedict and Beatrix. Heming the player received, on the zoth of May, 1613, the fum of forty pounds, and twenty pounds more as his majefty's gratuity, for exhibiting fix plays at Hampton-Court, among which this was STEEVENS. one. VOL. II. Ꮓ LOVE's FERDINAND, King of Navarre. Biron, three Lords, attending upon the King in Mercade,} Lords, attending upon the Princess of France. Don Adriano de Armado, a fantastical Spaniard. Dull, a Constable. Holofernes, a Schoolmaster. Coftard, a Clown. Moth, Page to Don Adriano de Armado. Princess of France. Rofaline, Maria, Ladies attending on the Princefs. Catharine, Jaquenetta, a Country Wench. Officers, and others, Attendants upon the King and SCENE, the King of Navarre's Palace, and the Country near it. This enumeration of the perfons was made by Mr. Rowe. JOHNSON. |