Conr. Off, coxcomb.

Dogb. God's my life, where's the fexton? let him write down the prince's officer, coxcomb. Come, bind them: Thou naughty varlet!

Conr. Away! you are an ass, you are an ass.—

Dogb. Doft thou not fufpect my place? Doft thou not suspect my years? O that he were here to write me down an afs! but, mafters, remember, that I am an afs; though it be not written down, yet forget not that I am an afs: No, thou villain, thou art full of piety, as fhall be proved upon thee by good witnefs. I am a wife fellow, and which is more, an officer; and which is more, an housholder; and which is more, as pretty a piece of flefh as any is in Meffina, and one that knows the law; go to, and a rich fellow enough; go to, and a fellow that hath had loffes; and one that hath two gowns, and every thing handsome about him: Bring him away, O, that I had been writ down an ass.-- [Exeunt.

When one of the watchmen comes up to bind them, Conrade fays, Off, coxcomb! as he fays afterwards to the conftable, Away! you are an ass. But the editor adds, The old quarto gave me the firft umbrage for placing it to Conrade. What thefe words mean I don't know: but I fufpect the old quarto divides the paffage as I have done. WARBURTON.

Dr. Warburton's affertion, as to dignity of a fexton or facriftan, may be fupported by the following paffage in Stanyhurft's Verfion of the fourth book of the Eneid, where he calls the Maffylian priestess,

in foil Maffyla begotten, "Sexten of Hefperides finagog.'

STEEVENS.

Let them be in band. This must be wrong, for the Sexton has left the ftage. Perhaps we should read thus.

Verges. Let them. Bind their bands.

There is nothing in the old quarto different in this fcene from the common copies, except that the names of two actors, Kempe and Cowley, are placed at the beginning of the fpeeches, instead of the proper words. JOHNSON.

ACT

1

1

ACT V. SCENE I.

Before Leonato's House.

Enter Leonato and Antonio.

ANTONIO.

IF

F you go on thus, you will kill yourself;
And 'tis not wifdom, thus, to fecond grief
Against your self.

Leon. I pray thee, cease thy counsel,
Which falls into mine ears as profitless
As water in a fieve: give not me counsel,
Nor let no comforter delight mine ear,
But fuch a one whose wrongs do fuit with mine.
Bring me a father, that so lov'd his child,
Whose joy of her is overwhelm'd like mine,
And bid him speak of patience;

Measure his woe the length and breadth of mine,
And let it answer every strain for ftrain;
As thus for thus, and fuch a grief for fuch,
In every lineament, branch, fhape, and form:
If fuch a one will fmile and ftroke his beard; 7
And, forrow wag! cry; hem, when he should groan;
Patch

"If fuch a one will smile, and ftroke his beard,
And hallow, wag, cry hem, when he should groan ;]

Mr. Rowe is the firft authority that I can find for this reading. But what is the intention, or how can we expound it? "If a man "will balloo, and whoop, and fidget, and wriggle about, to fhew a "pleasure when he should groan," &c. This does not give much decorum to the fentiment. The old quarto, and the first and second folio editions all read,

And forrow, wagge, cry bem, &c.

We don't, indeed, get much by this reading; tho', I flatter myfelf, by a flight alteration it has led me to the true one,

And

Patch grief with proverbs; make misfortune drunk
With candle-wafters; bring him yet to me,
And I of him will gather patience.

But there is no fuch man: For, brother, men
Can counsel, and give comfort to that grief
Which they themselves not feel; but, tafting it,
Their counsel turns to paffion, which before
Would give preceptial medicine to rage;
Fetter ftrong madnefs in a filken thread;
Charm ach with air, and agony with words.
No, no; 'tis all men's office to fpeak patience
To thofe, that wring under the load of forrow;
But no man's virtue, nor fufficiency,
To be fo moral, when he shall endure
The like himself: therefore give me no counsel;
My griefs cry louder than advertisement.

8

Ant. Therein do men from children nothing differ.
Leon. I pray thee, peace; I will be flesh and blood;

And forrow wage, cry, hem! when he should groan;

i. e. If fuch a one will combat with, strive against forrow, &c. Nor is this word infrequent with our author in thefe fignifications.

THEOBALD.

Sir Thomas Hanmer, and after him Dr. Warburton, for wag read waive, which is, I fuppofe, the fame as, put afide, or shift off. None of thefe conjectures fatisfy me, nor perhaps any other reader. I cannot but think the true meaning nearer than it is imagined. I point thus,

If fuch an one will fmile, and froke bis beard,

And, forrow wag! cry; hem, when he should groan ; That is, If he will fmile, and cry forrow be gone, and hem inftead of groaning. The order in which and and cry are placed is harth, and this harfhness made the fense mistaken. Range the words in the common order, and my reading will be free from all difficulty.

If fuch an one will smile, and ftroke his beard,
Cry, forrow, wag! and hem when he should groan."
JOHNSON.

3 than advertisement.] That is, than admonition, than moral inftruction. JOHNSON.

For

For there was never yet philofopher,
That could endure the tooth-ach patiently;
However they have writ the style of Gods,"
And made a pifh at chance and sufferance. '
Ant. Yet bend not all the harm upon yourself:
Make those that do offend you fuffer too.

Leon. There thou speak'ft reason: nay, I will do fo.

My foul doth tell me, Hero is bely'd;

And that fhall Claudio know, fo fhall the prince; And all of them, that thus difhonour her.

Enter Don Pedro and Claudio.

Ant. Here comes the prince and Claudio haftily. Pedro. Good den, good den.

Claud. Good day to both of you.

Leon. Hear you, my lords?

Pedro. We have fome hafte, Leonato.

Leon. Some hafte, my lord! well, fare you well, my lord.

Are you fo hafty now? well, all is one.

Pedro. Nay, do not quarrel with us, good old

man.

Ant. If he could right himself with quarrelling, Some of us would lye low.

Claud. Who wrongs him?

Leon. Marry, thou doft wrong me, thou diffembler,

thou!

Nay, never lay thy hand upon thy fword,

I fear thee not.

However they have writ the flyle of Gods.] This alludes to the extravagant titles the Stoics gave their wife men. Sapiens ille cum Diis ex pare vivit. Senec. Ep 59. Jupiter quo antecedit virum bonum? diutius bonus eft. Sapiens nihilo fe minoris æftimat.-Deus non vincit fapientem felicitate. Ep. 73. WARBURTON.

And made a pish at chance and fufferance.] Alludes to their famous apathy. WARBURTON.

Claud.

Claud. Marry, befhrew my hand,

If it should give your age such cause of fear :
In faith, my hand meant nothing to my sword.
Leon. Tush, tush, man, never fleer and jeft at me;
I speak not like a dotard, nor a fool;

As, under privilege of age, to brag

What I have done, being young, or what would do,
Were I not old: Know, Claudio, to thy head,
Thou haft fo wrong'd my innocent child, and me,
That I am forc'd to lay my reverence by ;
And, with grey hairs, and bruife of many days,
Do challenge thee to tryal of a man.

I fay, thou haft bely'd mine innocent child,
Thy flander hath gone through and through her
heart,

And the lyes bury'd with her ancestors:
O, in a tomb where fcandal never slept,
Save this of hers, fram'd by thy villainy!
Claud. My villainy?

Leon. Thine, Claudio; thine I say.
Pedro. You fay not right, old man.
Leon. My lord, my lord,

I'll prove it on his body, if he dare;
Defpight his nice fence, and his active practice,
His May of youth, and bloom of luftyhood.
Claud. Away, I will not have to do with you.
Leon. Canft thou fo daffe me? Thou haft kill'd
my child;

If thou kill'ft me, boy, thou fhalt kill a man.

2

Ant. He fhall kill two of us, and men indeed: 1

But

Canft thou fo daffe me?— -] This is a country word, Mr. Pope tells us, fignifying, daunt. It may be fo; but that is not the expofition here: To daffe and deffe are fynonimous terms, that mean, to put off: which is the very fenfe required here, and what Leonato would reply upon Claudio's faying, he would have nothing to do with him. THEOBALD.

Ant. He shall kill two of us, &c.] This brother Anthony is the

trueft