Enter Don Pedro, Claudio, Benedick, Balthazar, 5 Don John, Borachio, Margaret, Urfula, and others mafk'd. Pedro. Lady, will you walk about with your friend? Hero. So you walk foftly, and look fweetly, and fay nothing, I am yours for the walk; and especially when I walk away. Pedro. With me in your company? Hero. I may fay fo, when I please. Hero. When I like your favour; for God defend, the lute fhould be like the cafe! 6 Pedro. My vifor is Philemon's roof; within the houfe is Jove. 5 Balthazar,] The quarto and folio add-ar dumb John. Hero. STEEVENS. 6 My vifor is Philemon's roof, within the house is love.] Thus the whole ftream of the copies, from the first downwards. Hero fays to Don Pedro, God forbid the lute should be like the cafe! i. e. that your face should be as homely and as coarfe as your mask. Upon this, Don Pedro compares his vifor to Philemon's roof. 'Tis plain, the poet alludes to the ftory of Baucis and Philemon from Ovid and this old couple, as the Roman poet describes it, liv'd in a thatch'd cottage ; Stipulis & canna tea paluftri. But why, within the boufe is love? Though this old pair lived in a cottage, this cottage received two ftraggling Gods, (Jupiter and Mercury) under its roof. So, Don Pedro is a prince; and though his vifor is but ordinary, he would infinuate to Hero, that he has fomething godlike within: alluding either to his dignity or the qualities of his perfon and mind. By thefe circumftances, I am fure, the thought is mended: as, I think verily, the text is too by the addition of a fingle letter-within the houfe is Jove. Nor is this emendation a little confirmed by another passage in our author, in which he plainly alludes to the fame ftory. As you Like it. Clown. I am here with thee and thy goats, as the most capricious poet, boneft Ovid, was amongst the Goths. Hero. Why, then your visor should be thatch'd. Bene. Well, I would you did like me. 8 Marg. So would not I for your own fake; for I have many ill qualities. Bene. Which is one? Marg. I fay my prayers aloud. Bene. I love you the better; the hearers may cry Amen, Marg. God match me with a good dancer! Marg. And God keep him out of my fight when the dance is done! Anfwer, clerk. Balth. No more words; the clerk is anfwer'd. Urf. I know you well enough; you are fignior Antonio. Jaq. O knowledge ill inhabited, worse than jove in a thatch'd boue! THEOBALD. This emendation, thus impreffed with all the power of his elo. quence and reafon, Theobald found in the quarto edition of 1600, which he profeffes to have feen; and in the first folio, the and the I are fo much alike, that the printers, perhaps, used the fame type for either letter. JOHNSon. Pedro. Speak low, &c,] This fpeech, which is given to Pedro, fhould be given to Margaret. REVISAL. 8 Balth. Well, I would, you did like me. .] This and the two following little fpeeches, which I have placed to Balthazar, are in all the printed copies given to Benedick. But, 'tis clear, the dialogue here ought to be betwixt Balthazar and Margaret: Benedick, a little lower, converfes with Beatrice; and fo every man talks with his woman once round. THEOBALD. Amen. I do not heartily concur with Theobald in his arbitrary difpofition of thefe fpeeches. Balthazar is called in the old copies dumb John, as I have already obferved, and therefore it should feem, that he was meant to speak but little. When Be nedick fays, the bearers may cry, Amen, we must fuppofe that he Joaves Margaret and goes in fearch of fome other fport. Margaret utters a wifh for a good partner; Balthazar, who is reprefented a man of the feweft words, repeats Eenedick's Amen, and leads her off, defiring, as he fays in the following thort fpeech, to put himfelf to no greater expence of breath. STEEVENS. Ant Ant. At a word, I am not. Urf. I know you by the wagling of your head. Urf. You could never do him fo ill-well, unless you were the very man: Here's his dry hand up and down; you are he, you are he. Ant. At a word, I am not. Urf. Come, come; do you think, I do not know you by your excellent wit? Can virtue hide itfelf? Go to, mum, you are he: graces will appear, and there's an end. Beat. Will you not tell me, who told you fo? Beat. Nor will you not tell me who you are ¿ Bene. Not now. Beat. That I was difdainful, and that I had my good wit out of the Hundred merry Tales; well, this was fignior Benedick that faid fo. Bene. What's he? Beat. I am fure, you know him well enough. Bene. Not I, believe me. Beat. Did he never make you laugh? Bene. I pray you, what is he? Beat. Why, he is the prince's jefter: a very dull fool; only his gift is in devifing impoffible flanders: 5 none but libertines delight in him; and the commen 1 Hundred merry Tales ;] The book, to which Shakespeare alludes, was an old tranflation of Les cent Nouvelles Nouvelles. The original was published at Paris, in the black letter, before the year 1500; and is faid to have been written by fome of the royal family of France. Ames mentions a tranflation of it prior to the time of Shakespeare. STEEVENS. bis gift in devifing impoffible flanders:] We fhould read impaffible, i.e. flanders fo ill invented, that they will pafs upon no body. WARBURTON. Impoffible flanders are, I fuppofe, fuch flanders as, from their abfurdity and impoffibility, bring their own confutation with them. JOHNSON. dation dation is not in his wit, but in his villainy; for he both pleafeth men, and angers them, and then they laugh at him, and beat him: I am fure, he is in the fleet, I would he had boarded me. Bene. When I know the gentleman, I'll tell him what you fay. Beat. Do, do he'll but break a comparison or two on me; which, peradventure, not mark'd, or not laugh'd at, ftrikes him into melancholy, and then there's a partridge wing fav'd, for the fool will eat no fupper that night. We must follow the leaders. [Mufick within. Bene. In every good thing. Beat. Nay, if they lead to any ill, I will leave them at the next turning. Manent John, Borachio, and Claudio. [Exeunt. John. Sure, my brother is amorous on Hero, and hath withdrawn. her father to break with him about it: The ladies follow her, and but one vifor remains. Bora. And that is Claudio; I know him by his bearing. John. Are you not fignior Benedick? Claud. You know me well; I am he. John. Signior, you are very near my brother in his love: he is enamour'd on Hero; I pray you, diffuade him from her, she is no equal for his birth: you may do the part of an honeft man in it. Claud. How know you he loves her? John. I heard him fwear his affection. Bora. So did I too; and he fwore he would marry her to-night. 3 his villainy ;] By which the means his malice and impiety. By his impious jefts, fhe infinuates, he pleafed libertines; and by his devifing flanders of them, he angered them. WARBURTON. John. John. Come, let us to the banquet. [Exeunt John and Bora. And truft no agent: for beauty is a witch, Which I miftrufted not. Farewell, therefore, Hero! Re-enter Benedick. Bene. Count Claudio? Claud. Yea, the fame, Bene. Come, will you go with me? Bene. Even to the next willow, about your own business, count. What fafhion will you wear the garland of? about your neck, like an ufurer's chain? + or under your arm, like a lieutenant's fcarf? You must wear it one way, for the prince hath got your Hero. Claud. I wish him joy of her. Bene. Why, that's fpoken like an honeft drover; fo they fell bullocks. But did you think, the prince would have ferv'd you thus? 4 ufurer's chain ?] I know not whether the chain was, in our authour's time, the common ornament of wealthy citizens, or whether he fatirically ufes ufurer and alderman as fynonymous terms. JOHNSON. Ufury feems about this time to have been a common topic of invective. I have three or four dialogues, pafquils, and difcourfes on the fubject, printed before the year 1600. From every one of thefe it appears, that the merchants were the chief ufurers of the age. STEEVENS. Claud. |