Melf. I know none of that name, lady; 'there was none fuch in the army of any fort. Leon. What is he that you afk for, niece? Hero. My cousin means fignior Benedick of Padua. Meff. O, he's return'd; and as pleasant as ever he was. Beat. He fet up his bills here in Meffina, and challenged Cupid' at the flight: and my uncle's fool, reading the challenge, fubfcrib'd for Cupid, and chal 5-there was none fuch in the army of any fort.] Not meaning there was none fuch of any order or degree whatever, but that there was none such of any quality above the common. WARBURTON. He fet up his bills, &c.] In B. Jonfon's Every Man out of his Humour, Shift fays, “This is rare, I have set up my bills without discovery." Beatrice means, that Benedick published a general challenge, like a prize-fighter. STEEVENS. 7 - -challeng'd Cupid at the flight;] The difufe of the bow makes this paffage obfcure. Benedick is reprefented as challenging Cupid at archery. To challenge at the flight is, I believe, to wager who fhall fhoot the arrow furtheft without any particular mark. To challenge at the bird-bolt, feems to mean the fame as to challenge at children's archery, with fmall arrows fuch as are discharged at birds. In Twelfth Night Lady Olivia opposes a bird-bolt to a cannonon-bullet, the lightest to the heaviest of miffive weapons. JOHNSON. The bird-bolt is a fhort thick arrow without point, and spreading at the extremity fo much, as to leave a flat furface, about the breadth of a fhilling. Such are to this day in ufe to kill rooks with, and are shot from a cross-bow. So in Mariton's What You Will, 1607: To challenge at the flight was a challenge to fhoot with an arrow. Flight means only an arrow, as may be proved from the following lines in Beaumont and Fletcher's Bonduca : -not the quick rack fwifter The virgin from the hated ravijher Not balf fo fearful: not a fight drawn home, A round ftone from a fling. STEEVENS. lenged lenged him at the bird-bolt.-I pray you, how many hath he kill'd and eaten in thefe wars? But how many hath he kill'd? for, indeed, I promis'd to eat all of his killing. Leon. Faith, niece, you tax fignior Benedick too much; but he'll be meet with you, I doubt it not. Meff. He hath done good service, lady, in these wars. Beat. You had mufty victuals, and he hath holp to eat it he's a very valiant trencher-man, he hath an excellent ftomach. Melf. And a good foldier too, lady. Beat. And a good foldier to a lady? But what is he to a lord? Mell. A lord to a lord, a man to a man; ftuft with all honourable virtues. Beat. It is fo, indeed: he is no lefs than a stuff'd man: but for the ftuffing,-well, we are all mortal. Leon. You must not, fir, miftake my niece: there is a kind of merry war betwixt fignior Benedick and her; they never meet, but there's a fkirmish of wit between them. Beat. Alas, he gets conflict, four of his 8 nothing by that. In our laft five wits went halting off, and now -he'll be meet with you.] This is a very common expreffion in the midland counties, and fignifies he'll be your match, be'll be even with you. So in TEXNOTAMIA by B. Holiday, 1618. 9 "Go meet her, or else shall be meet with me." STEEVENS. -four of his five wits-] In our author's time wit was the general term for intellectual powers. Soul. So Davies on the Wit, feking truth from caufe to cause afcends, And I now is the whole man govern'd with one: fo that if he have wit enough to keep himself warm, let him bear it for a difference between himself and his horfe for it is all the wealth that he hath left, to be known a reasonable creature. Who is his companion now? he hath a every month a new fworn brother. Me. Is it poffible? 2 Beat. Very eafily poffible: he wears his faith but as the fashion of his hat; it ever changes with the next block. 3 Me. I fee, lady, the gentleman is not in your books. And in another part, But if a phrenzy do poffefs the brain, Then doth the wit, admitting all for true, Build fund conclufions on those idle grounds;· Beat. The wits feem to have reckoned five, by analogy to the five fenfes, or the five inlets of ideas. JOHNSON. wit enough to keep himself WARM,] But how would that make a difference between him and his hore? We fhould read, Wit enough to kep himself FROM HARM. This fuits the fatirical turn of her fpeech, in the character she would give of Benedick; and this would make the difference spoken of. For 'tis the nature of horses, when wounded, to run upon the point of the weapon. WARBURTON. Such a one has it enough to keep him! If warm, is a proverbial expreffion, and there is furely no need of change. An attempt to refute the reafoning of the note would be lofs of time and labour, To bear any thing for a difference is a term in heraldry. 2 STEEVENS. he wears his faith-] Not religious profeffion, but profeffion of friendship; for the fpeaker gives it as the reafon of her asking, who was now his companion? that he had every month a new fworn brother. WARBURTON. 3 with the next block.] A block is the mould on which a hat is formed. The old writers fometimes ufe the word for the hat itself. 4 STEEVENS. -the gentleman is not in your books.] This is a phrafe afed, I believe, by more than understand it. To be in one's books Beat. No: an he were, I would burn my study. But, I pray you, who is his companion? Is there no young fquarer now, that will make a voyage with him to the devil? Mess. He is most in the company of the right noble Claudio. Beat. O lord! He will hang upon him like a disease: he is fooner caught than the peftilence, and the taker runs presently mad. God help the noble Claudio! if he have caught the Benedick, it will coft him a thousand pounds ere he be cur'd. Melf. I will hold friends with you, lady. Leon. You'll ne'er run mad, niece. Mell. Don Pedro is approach'd. Enter Don Pedro, Claudio, Benedick, Balthazar, and Don John. Pedro. Good Signior Leonato, you are come to is to be in one's codicils or will, to be among friends fet down for legacies. JOHNSON. I rather think that the books alluded to, are memorandum-books, like the vifiting-books of the prefent age. Such another expreffion occurs in Middleton's Comedy of Blurt Mafter Constable, 1602. "I'd scratch her eyes out, if my man ftood in her tables.” Again, in Shirley's School of Compliment, 1637. -There's a man in her tables more than I look'd for. Hamlet fays, -My tables, meet it is I fet it down—” when he pulls out his pocket-book. Probably the phrafe was originally adopted from the tradefman's language. To be in tradefman's books, might formerly have been an expreffion in common converfation for a trust of any other kind. STEEVENS. young fqualer] A Squarer I take to be a cholerick, quarrelfome fellow, for in this fenfe Shakespeare ufes the word to Square. So in Midfummer Night's Dream it is faid of Oberon and Titania, that they never meet but they fquare. So the fenfe may be, Is there no hot-blooded youth that will keep him company through all bis mad pranks? JOHNSON. meet meet your trouble: the fashion of the world is to avoid coft, and you encounter it. Leon. Never came trouble to my houfe in the likenefs of your grace: for trouble being gone, comfort fhould remain; but when you depart from me, forrow abides, and happiness takes his leave. 6 Pedro. You embrace your charge too willingly.I think, this is your daughter. Leon. Her mother hath many times told me fo. Bene. Were you in doubt, fir, that you ask'd her? Leon. Signior Benedick, no; for then were you a child. Pedro. You have it full, Behedick: we may guess by this what you are, being a man. Truly, the lady, fathers herfelf: Be happy, lady! for you are like an honourable father. Bene. If fignior Leonato be her father, fhe would not have his head on her fhoulders for all Meffina, as like him as fhe is. Beat. I wonder, that you will ftill be talking, fignior Benedick; no body marks you. Bene. What, my dear lady Difdain! are you yet living? Beat. Is it poffible, Difdain fhould die, while fhe hath fuch meet food to feed it as fignior Benedick? Courtesy itself muft convert to Difdain, if you come in her presence. Bene. Then is courtefy a turn-coat: but it is certain, I am lov'd of all ladies, only you excepted: and I would I could find in my heart that I had not a hard heart; for, truly, I love none. Beat. A dear happiness to women; they would elfe have been troubled with a pernicious fuitor. I thank God and my cold blood, I am of your humour for You embrace your charge-] That is your burthen, your incumbrance. JOHNSON. |