But that's no matter; let him kill one firft;
Win me and wear me, let him answer me:

Come, follow me, boy; come, fir boy, follow me;
Sir, boy, I'll whip you from your foining fence;
Nay, as I am a gentleman, I will.

Leon. Brother,

Ant. Content yourself; God knows, I lov'd my
niece;

And fhe is dead, flander'd to death by villains,
That dare as well answer a man, indeed,
As I dare take a ferpent by the tongue.
Boys, apes, braggarts, jacks, milkfops!-
Leon. Brother Anthony,-

Ant. Hold you content; what, man? I know
them, yea,

And what they weigh even to the utmost scruple:
Scambling, out-facing, fafhion-mong'ring boys,
That lye, and cog, and flout, deprave and flander,
Go antickly, and fhow outward hideousness,
And speak off half a dozen dangerous words,
How they might hurt their enemies, if they durft;
And this is all.

Leon. But, brother Anthony,

Ant. Come, 'tis no matter :

Do not you meddle, let me deal in this.

trueft picture imaginable of human nature. He had affumed the character of a fage to comfort his brother, o'erwhelmed with grief for his only daughter's affront and difhonour; and had severely reproved him for not commanding his paffion better on fo trying an occaffion. Yet, immediately after this, no fooner does he be gin to fufpect that his age and valour are flighted, but he falls into the moft intemperate fit of rage himself: and all he can do or fay is not of power to pacify him. This is copying nature with a penetration and exactness of judgment peculiar to Shakespeare. As to the expreffion, too, of his paffion, nothing can be more highly painted. WARBURTON.

4

a

Pedro. Gentlemen both, we will not wake your
patience.

My heart is forry for your daughter's death;
But, on my honour, fhe was charg'd with nothing
But what was true, and very full of proof.
Leon. My lord, my lord,—
Pedro. I will not hear you.

Leon. No! come, brother, away, I will be heard.
Ant. And fhall, or fome of us will fmart for it.

Enter Benedick.

[Exeunt ambo..

Pedro. See, fee, here comes the man we went to

feek.

Claud. Now, fignior, what news?

Bene. Good day, my lord.

Pedro. Welcome fignior; you are almost come to part almost a fray.

Claud. We had like to have had our two nofes fnapt off with two old men without teeth.

Pedro. Leonato and his brother: What think'st

we will not wake your patience.] This conveys a fentiment that the speaker would by no means have implied, That the patience of the two old men was not exercised, but asleep, which upbraids them for infenfibility under their wrong. Shakespeare must have wrote,

we will not wrack

i. e. deftroy your patience by tantalizing you. WARBURTON.

This emendation is very fpecious, and perhaps is right; yet the prefent reading may admit a congruous meaning with lefs difficulty than many other of Shakespeare's expreffions.

The old men have been both very angry and outrageous; the prince tells them that he and Claudio will not wake their patience; will not any longer force them to endure the prefence of those whom, though they look on them as enemies, they cannot refift.

JOHNSON.

thou?

thou? Had we fought, I doubt, we should have been too young for them.

Bene. In a falfe quarrel there is no true valour: I came to feek you both.

Claud. We have been up and down to feek thee; for we are high-proof melancholy, and would fain have it beaten away: wilt thou use thy wit?

Bene. It is in my scabbard; Shall I draw it? Pedro. Doft thou wear thy wit by thy fide? Claud. Never any did fo, though very many have been befide their wit. I will bid thee draw, as we do the minstrels; draw, to pleasure us.

Pedro. As I am an honeft man, he looks pale: Art thou fick or angry

?

Claud. What! courage, man! what tho' care kill'd a cat, thou haft mettle enough in thee to kill

care.

Bene. Sir, I fhall meet your wit in the career, if you charge it against me.-I pray you, chufe another fubject.

Claud. Nay, then give him another staff; this laft was broke crofs."

Pedro. By this light, he changes more and more; I think, he be angry, indeed.

Claud. If he be, he knows how to turn his girdle. Bene. Shall I speak a word in your ear?

Claud. God bless me from a challenge!

Bene. You are a villain; I jeft not. I will make it

Nay, then give him another floff, &c.] Allufion to tilting. See note, As you Like it, act iii. fcene 10. WARBURTON.

6

to turn bis girdle.] We have a proverbial fpeech, If he be an gry, let him turn the buckle of his girdle. But I do not know its original or meaning. JOHNSON.

A correfponding expreffion is ufed to this day in Ireland.-If be be angry, let bim tie up his brogues. Neither proverb, I believe, any other meaning than this: If he is in a bad humour, let him employ himself till he is in a better. STEEVENS.

has

good

good how you dare, with what you dare, and when you dare. Do me right, or I will proteft your cowardife. You have kill'd a fweet lady, and her death shall fall heavy on you :-Let me hear from you.

Claud. Well, I will meet you, fo I may have good cheer.

Pedro. What a feaft? a feaft?

Claud. I'faith, I thank him; he hath bid me to a calves-head and a capon; the which if I do not carve moft curiously, fay my knife's naught. Shall I not find a woodcock too?

Bene. Sir, your wit ambles well; it goes eafily.

7

Pedro. I'll tell thee, how Beatrice prais'd thy wit the other day I faid, thou hadst a fine wit; True, fays fhe, a fine little one; No, faid I, a great wit; Juft, faid fhe, a great grofs one; Nay, faid I, a good wit; Juft, faid fhe, it burts no body; Nay, faid I, the gentleman is wife; Certain, faid fhe, a wife gentleman; Nay, faid I, he hath the tongues; That I believe, faid fhe, for be fwore a thing to me on Monday night, which he forfwore on Tuesday morning; there's a double tongue, there's two tongues. Thus did fhe an hour together tranf-fhape thy particular virtues; yet, at laft, fhe concluded with a figh, thou waft the properest man in Italy.

Claud. For the which the wept heartily, and said, The car'd not.

Pedro. Yea, that she did, but yet for all that, and if she did not hate him deadly, the would love him dearly the old man's daughter told us all.

7 a wife gentleman ;] This jeft depending on the colloquial use of words is now obfcure; perhaps we fhould read, a wife gentle man, or a man wife enough to be a coward. Perhaps wife gentleman was in that age used ironically, and always ftood for filly fellow.

JOHNSON.

Claud.

Claud. All, all; and moreover, God faw him when he was hid in the garden.

Pedro. But when fhall we fet the favage bull's horns on the sensible Benedick's head?

Claud. Yea, and text underneath, Here dwells Benedick the married man?

Bene. Fare you well, boy; you know my mind: I will leave you now to your goffip-like humour: you break jefts as braggarts do their blades, which, God be thank'd, hurt not. My lord, for your many courtefies I thank you; I must difcontinue your company your brother, the baftard, is fled from Meffina; you have among you kill'd a fweet and innocent lady. For my lord lack-beard there, he and I fhall meet; and till then, peace be with him!

Pedro. He is in earnest.

[Exit Benedick.

Claud. In most profound earnest; and, I'll warrant you, for the love of Beatrice.

Pedro. And hath challeng'd thee?

Claud. Moft fincerely.

8

Pedro. What a pretty thing man is, when he in his doublet and hofe, and leaves off his wit!

goes

Enter Dogberry, Verges, Conrade and Borachig guarded.

Claud. He is then a giant to an ape; but then is an ape a doctor to such a man,

What a pretty thing man is, when he goes in his doublet and hofe and leaves off his wit !] It was etteemed a mark of levity and want of becoming gravity, at that time, to go in the doublet and hofe, and leave off the cloak, to which this well-turned expreffion alludes. The thought is, that love makes a man as ridiculous, and expofes him as naked as being in the doublet and hose without a cloak. WARBURTON,

VOL. II,

Pedia,