one to the world but I, and I am fun-burn'd; I may fit in a corner, and cry, heigh ho! for a husband. Pedro. Lady Beatrice, I will get you one. Beat. I would rather have one of your father's getting: Hath your grace ne'er a brother like you? Your father got excellent husbands, if a maid could come by them. Pedro. Will you have me, lady? Beat. No, my lord, unless I might have another for working days; your grace is too coftly to wear every day: But, I beseech your grace, pardon me; I was born to speak all mirth and no matter. Pedro. Your filence moft offends me, and to be merry best becomes you; for, out of queftion, you were born in a merry hour. Beat. No, fure, my lord, my mother cry'd; but then there was a ftar danc'd, and under that I was born.-Coufins, God give you joy. Leon. Niece, will you look to those things I told you of? Beat. I cry you mercy, uncle. By your grace's pardon. [Exit Beatrice. Pedro. By my troth, a pleasant spirited lady. Leon. There's little of the melancholy element in her, my lord she is never fad, but when the fleeps ; and not ever fad then; for I have heard my daughter fay, he hath often dream'd of an unhappiness, and wak'd herself with laughing. 3 Pedro left exposed to wind and fun. The nearest way to the wood, is a phrafe for the readieft means to any end. It is faid of a woman, who accepts a worfe match than those which she had refused, that he has paffed through the wood, and at laft taken a crooked stick. But conjectural criticifm has always fomething to abate its confidence. Shakespeare, in All's well that Ends well, uses the phrafe, to go to the world, for marriage. So that my emendation depends only on the oppofition of wood to fun-burnt. JOHNSON. The hath often dream'd of an unhappiness, ] So all the editions; but Mr. Theobald's alters it to, an happinef, having no conception VOL. II. S that Podro. She cannot endure to hear tell of a husband. Leon. O, by no means; fhe mocks all her wooers out of fuit. Pedro. She were an excellent wife for Benedick. 'Leon. O lord, my lord, if they were but a week marry'd, they would talk themfelves mad. Pedro. Count Claudio, when mean you to go to church? Claud. To-morrow, mylord: Time goes on crutches, till love have all his rites. Leon. Not till Monday, my dear fon, which is hence a juft feven-night; and a time too brief too, to have all things anfwer my mind. Pedro. Come, you fhake the head at fo long a breathing; but, I warrant thee, Claudio, the time fhall not go dully by us. I will, in the interim, undertake one of Hercules' labours, which is, to bring fignior Benedick, and the lady Beatrice into a moun-. that unhappiness meant any thing but misfortune, and that, he thinks, the could not laugh at. He had never heard that it fignified a wild, wanton, unlucky trick. Thus Beaumont and Fletch er, in their comedy of the Maid of the Mill. -My dreams are like my thoughts, honeft and innocent: WARBURTON. 4 To bring Benedick and Beatrice into a mountain of affection the one with the other :] A mountain of affection with one another is a ftrange expreffion, yet I know not well how to change it. Perhaps it was originally written, to bring Benedick into a mooting of affection; to bring them not to any more mootings of contention, but to a mooting or converfation of love. This reading is confirmed by the prepofition with; a mountain with each other, or affection with each other, cannot be used, but a mooting with each other is proper and regular. JOHNSON. Uncommon as the word propofed by Dr. Johnfon may appear, it is used in feveral of the old plays. So in Glapthorne's Wit in a Conftable, 1639. "one who never "Had mooted in the hall, or feen the revels 46 Kept in the house at Christmas." STEEVENS. tain tain of affection, the one with another. I would fain have it a match, and I doubt not to fashion it, if three will but minifter fuch affiftance as I fhall give you direction. you Leon. My lord, I am for you, though it coft me ten nights watchings. Claud. And I, my lord. Pedro. And you too, gentle Hero? Hero. I will do any modeft office, my lord, to help my coufin to a good husband. Pedro. And Benedick is not the unhopefulleft hufband that I know. Thus far I can praife him; he is of a noble strain, of approv'd valour, and confirm'd honefty. I will teach you how to humour your coufin, that the fhall fall in love with Benedick and I, with your two helps, will fo practife on Benedick, that, in defpight of his quick wit, and his queafy ftomach, he fhall fall in love with Beatrice. If we can do this, Cupid is no longer an archer; his glory fhall be ours, for we are the only love-gods. Go in with me, and I will tell you my drift. SCENE II. Another Apartment in Leonato's Houfe. Enter Don John and Borachio. [Exeunt. John. It is fo; the count Claudio fhall marry the daughter of Leonato. Bora. Yea, my lord; but I can cross it. John. Any bar, any cross, any impediment will be medicinable to me: I am fick, in difpleasure to him, and whatsoever comes athwart his affection, ranges evenly with mine. How can't thou cross this marriage? Bora. Not honeftly, my lord; but fo covertly that no difhonefty fhall appear in me. S 2 John John. Shew me briefly how. Bora. I think, I told your lordship, a year fince, how much I am in the favour of Margaret, the waiting gentlewoman to Hero. John. I remember. Bora. I can, at any unseasonable instant of the night, appoint her to look out at her lady's chamberber-window. John. What life is in that, to be the death of this marriage? Bora. The poifon of that lies in you to temper. Go you to the prince your brother; fpare not to tell him, that he hath wrong'd his honour in marrying the renown'd Claudio, (whofe eftimation do you mightily hold up) to a contaminated ftale, fuch a one as Hero. John. What proof fhall I make of that? Bora. Proof enough, to mifufe the prince, to vex Claudio, to undo Hero, and kill Leonato: Look you for any other iffue? John. Only to defpite them, I will endeavour any thing. 5 Bora. Go then, find me a meet hour to draw Don Bora. Go then, find me a meet hour to draw Don Pedro, and the count Claudio alone; tell them that you know Hero loves me ;-Offer ihem inftances, which shall bear no lefs likelihood than to see me at her chamber-window; hear me call Margaret, Hero; hear Margaret term me Claudio; and bring them to fee this the very night before the intended awedding.] Thus the whole ftream of the editions from the first quarto downwards. I am obliged here to give a short account of the plot depending, that the emendation I have made may appear the more clear and unquestionable. The bufinefs ftands thus: Claudio, a favourite of the Arragon prince, is, by his interceffions with her father, to be married to fair Hero; Don John, natural brother of the prince, and a hater of Claudio, is in his fpleen zealous to difappoint the match. Borachio, a rafcally dependant on Don John, offers his affiftance, and engages to break off the marriage by this tratagem. "Tell the prince and Claudio (fays he) that Hero is in love with me; they won't believe "it ; Don Pedro, and the count Claudio, alone; tell them, that you know, Hero loves me; intend a kind of zeal both to the prince and Claudio, as in a love of your brother's honour who hath made this match; and his friends reputation, who is thus like to be cozen'd with the femblance of a maid, that you have discover'd thus. They will hardly believe this without trial. Offer them inftances; which fhall bear no less likelihood than to fee me at her chamber-window; hear me call Margaret, Hero; hear Margaret term me Borachio; aud bring them to fee this, the very night before the intended wedding for in the mean time, I will fo fashion the matter, that Hero fhall be abfent; and there fhall appear fuch feeming truths of Hero's difloyalty, that jealousy fhall be call'd affurance, and all the preparation overthrown. John. Grow this to what adverfe iffue it can, I will put it in practice: Be cunning in the working this, and thy fee is a thousand ducats. "it; offer them proofs, as that they fhall fee me converse with her "in her chamber-window. I am in the good graces of her wait"ing-woman Margaret; and I'll prevail with Margaret, at a "dead hour of night to perfonate her miftrefs Hero; do you "then bring the prince and Claudio to overhear our dif "courfe; and they fhall have the torment to hear me addrefs Margaret by the name of Hero; and her fay fweet things "to me by the name of Claudio.". -This is the fub ftance of Borachio's device to make Hero fufpected of difloyalty, and to break off her match with Claudio. But, in the name of common fenfe, could it displease Claudio, to hear his mistress making ufe of his name tenderly? If he faw another man with her, and heard her call him Claudio, he might reafonably think her betrayed, but not have the fame reafon to accufe her of dif loyalty. Befides, how could her naming Claudio make the prince and Claudio believe that the lov'd Borachio, as he defires Don John to infinuate to them that she did? The circumstances weighed, there is no doubt but the paffage ought to be reformed; as I have fettled in the text.bear me call Margaret, Hero; hear Margaret term me Borachio. THEOBALD. S 3 Bora. |