Claud. I pray you leave me.

Bene. Ho! now you ftrike like the blind man ; 'twas the boy that ftole your meat, and you'll beat the post.

Claud. If it will not be, I'll leave you. [Exit.

-

Bene. Alas, poor hurt fowl! Now will he creep into fedges. But, that my lady Beatrice should know me, and not know me! the prince's fool!— Ha? it may be, I go under that title, because I am merry. Yea, but fo I am apt to do myself wrong: I am not fo reputed. It is the base, the bitter difpofition of Beatrice, that puts the world into her perfon, and fo gives me out. Well, I'll be reveng'd as I may.

Re-enter Don Pedro.

Pedro. Now, fignior, where's the count? did you

fee him?

Bene. Troth, my lord, I have play'd the part of lady Fame. I found him here as melancholy as a lodge in a warren," I told him, (and I think, I told him true) that your grace had got the will of this

It is the bafe, tho' bitter, difpofition of Beatrice, who puts the world into her perfon.] That is, It is the difpofition of Beatrice, who takes upon her to perfonate the world, and therefore reprefents the world as faying what the only lays herflf.

Bafe, tho' bitter. I do not understand how base and bitter are inconfiftent, or why what is bitter fhould not be bafe. I believe, we may fafely read, It is the bafe, the bitter difpofition.

JOHNSON.

6 as melancholy as a lodge in a warren,] A parallel thought occurs in the first chapter of lfaiah, where the prophet, defcribing the defolation of Judah, fays," The daughter of Zion is left as "a cottage in a vineyard, as a lodge in a garden of cucumbers," &c. I am informed, that near Aleppo, thefe lonely buildings are ftill made ufe of, it being neceffary, that the fields where watermelons, cucumbers, &c. are raised, fhould be regularly watched.

STEEVENS.

young

young lady; and I offered him my company to a willow tree, either to make him a garland, as being forfaken, or to bind him up a rod, as being worthy to be whipt.

Pedro. To be whipt! what's his fault ?

Bene. The flat tranfgreffion of a school-boy; who, being overjoy'd with finding a bird's neft, fhews ic his companion, and he steals it.

Pedro, Wilt thou make a truft a tranfgreffion? The tranfgreffion is in the ftealer.

Bene. Yet it had not been amifs, the rod had been made, and the garland too: for the garland he might have worn himself, and the rod he might have beftow'd on you, who (as I take it) have flol'n his bird's

nest.

Pedro. I will but teach them to fing, and reftore them to the owner.

Bene. If their finging anfwer your faying, by my faith, you fay honestly.

Pedro. The lady Beatrice hath a quarrel to you; the gentleman, that danc'd with her, told her fhe is much wrong'd by you.

Bene. O, the mifus'd me paft the indurance of a block; an oak, but with one green leaf on it, would have answer'd her; my very vifor began to affume life and fcold with her: She told me, not thinking I had been myself, that I was the prince's jefter, and that I was duller than a great thaw; huddling jeft upon jeft, with fuch impoffible conveyance upon me,

that

7 of this young lady ;] Benedick fpeaks of Hero as if he were on the ftage. Perhaps, both fhe and Leonato, were meant to make their entrance with Don Pedro. When Beatrice enters, he is fpoken of as coming in alone. STEEVENS.

fuch impoffible conveyance] We fhould read impaffible. A term taken from fencing, when the ftrokes are fo fwift and repeated, as not to be parried or palled off. WARBURTON. I know not what to propofe. Impofele feems to have no meaning here, and for impaffible I have not found any authority. Spen

that I ftood like a man at a mark, with a whole army fhooting at me: She fpeaks poniards, and every word ftabs. If her breath were as terrible as her terminations, there were no living near her, she would infect to the north ftar. I would not marry her, though fhe were endowed with all that Adam had left him before he tranfgrefs'd: fhe would have made Hercules have turn'd fpit, yea, and have cleft his club to make the fire too. Come, talk not of her ; you fhall find her the infernal Até in good apparel. I would to God, fome fcholar would conjure her: for, certainly, while fhe is here, a man may live as quiet in hell as in a fanctuary; and people fin upon purpose, becaufe they would go thither: fo, indeed, all difquiet, horror, and perturbation follow

her.

fer ufes the word importable in a fenfe very congruous to this paffage, for infupportable, or not to be fuftained.

Botb him charge on either fide,

With hideous ftrokes and importable power,

Which forced him his ground to traverse wide.

It may be easily imagined, that the tranfcribers would change a word fo unusual, into that word moft like it, which they could readily find. It must be however confeffed, that importable appears harsh to our ears, and I wish a happier critick may find a better word.

Sir Tho. Hanmer reads impetuous, which will ferve the purpose well enough, but is not likely to have been changed to impoffible.

Importable was a word not peculiar to Spenfer, but ufed by the laft tranflators of the Apocrypha, and therefore fuch a word as Shakespeare may be fuppofed to have written. JOHNSON.

Impoffible may be licentioufly used for unaccountable. Beatrice has already faid, that Benedick invents impossible flanders.

STEEVENS.

9 the infernal Até in good apparel.] This is a pleasant allufion to. the cuftom of ancient poets and painters, who represent the furies in rags. WARBURTON.

Enter

1

Enter Claudio, Beatrice, Lecnato, and Hero.

Pedro. Look, here fhe comes.

Bene. Will your grace command me any fervice to the world's end? I will go on the flightest errand now to the antipodes, that you can devife to fend me on; I will fetch you a tooth-picker now from the farthest inch of Afia; bring you the length of Prefter John's foot: fetch you a hair off the great cham's beard: do you any embaffage to the pigmies, rather than hold three words conference with this harpy: You have no employment for me?

Pedro. None, but to defire your good company. Bene. O God, fir, here's a dish I love not. I cannot endure this lady Tongue.

Pedro. Come, lady, come; you have loft the heart of fignior Benedick.

Ι

Beat. Indeed, my lord, he lent it me a while; and gave him ufe for it, a double heart for a fingle one: marry, once before he won it of me with falfe dice, therefore your grace may well fay, I have loft it.

Pedro. You have put him down, lady, you have put him down.

Beat. So I would not he fhould do me, my lord, left I should prove the mother of fools. I have brought count Claudio, whom you fent me to feek.

1

bring you the length of Prefter John's foot: fetch you a hair of the great cham's beard : i. e. I will undertake the most difficult task, rather than have any converfation with lady Beatrice. Alluding to the difficulty of accefs to either of thofe monarchs, but more particularly to the former.

So Cartwright, in his comedy call'd The Siege, or Love's Convert, 1641.

-bid me take the Parthian king by the beard; or “draw an eye-tooth from the jaw royal of the Perfian monarch.”

STEEVENS.

Pedro.

Pedro. Why, how now, count, wherefore are you fad?

Claud. Not fad, my lord,

Pedro. How then? fick ?

Claud. Neither, my lord.

Beat. The count is neither fad, nor fick, nor merry, nor well: but civil, count; civil as an orange, and fomething of that jealous complexion.'

Pedro. I'faith, lady, I think your blazon to be true; though I'll be fworn, if he be fo, his conceit is falfe. Here, Claudio, I have wooed in thy name, and fair Hero is won; I have broke with her father, and his good will obtained: name the day of marriage, and God give thee joy.

Leon. Count, take of me my daughter, and with her my fortunes: his grace hath made the match, and all grace fay, Amen, to it!

Beat. Speak, count, 'tis your cue.

Claud. Silence is the perfecteft herald of joy: Į were but little happy, if I could fay how much. Lady, as you are mine, I am yours: I give away myfelf for you, and doat upon the exchange.

Beat. Speak, coufin; or (if you cannot) ftop his mouth with a kifs, and let him not fpeak neither. Pedro. In faith, lady, you have a merry heart. Beat. Yea, my lord; I thank it, poor fool, it keeps on the windy fide of care: My coufin tells him in his ear, that he is in her heart.

Claud. And fo fhe doth, coufin.

Beat. Good lord, for alliance! Thus goes every

one

of that jealous complexion.] Thus the quarto 1600. The folio reads, of a jealous complexion. STEEVENS.

2 Thus goes every one to the world but I, and I am fun-burn'd ;] What is it, to go the world? perhaps, to enter by marriage into a fettled ftate: but why is the unmarry'd lady fun-burnt? I believe we fhould read, Thus goes every one to the wood but I, and I am fun-burnt. Thus does every one but I find a fhelter, and I am

Jeft