borrows money in God's name; the which he hath used so long, and never paid, that now men grow hard-hearted, and will lend nothing for God's sake: Pray you, examine him upon that point.

Leon. I thank thee for thy care and honest pains. Dogb. Your worship speaks like a most thankful and reverend youth; and I praise God for you. Leon. There's for thy pains.

Dogb. God save the foundation 30.

Leon. Go, I discharge thee of thy prisoner, and I thank thee.

Dogb. I leave an errant knave with your worship; which, I beseech your worship, to correct yourself, for the example of others. God keep your worship; I wish your worship well; God restore you to health: I humbly give you leave to depart; and if a merry meeting may be wished, God prohibit it.-Come, neighbour.

[Exeunt DOGBERRY, VERGES, and Watch. Leon. Until to-morrow morning, lords, farewell. Ant. Farewell, my lords; we look for you to

morrow.

D. Pedro. We will not fail.

Claud.

To-night I'll mourn with Hero. [Exeunt DON PEDRO and CLAUDIO.

Leon. Bring you these fellows on; we'll talk with

Margaret,

How her acquaintance grew with this lewd 31 fellow. [Exeunt.

supposing the lock to have a key to it. See Hall's Satires, Edition, 1824. Book iii. Satire 7.

30 A phrase used by those who received alms at the gates of religious houses. Dogberry probably designed to say, ' God save the founder.'

31 Here lewd has not the common meaning; nor do I think it can be used in the more uncommon sense of ignorant; but rather means knavish, ungracious, naughty, which are the synonymes used with it in explaining the Latin pravus in dictionaries of the sixteenth century.

SCENE II. Leonato's Garden.

Enter BENEDICK and MARGARET, meeting. Bene. Pray thee, sweet mistress Margaret, deserve well at my hands, by helping me to the speech of Beatrice. Marg. Will

of my beauty?

you then write me a sonnet in praise

Bene. In so high a style, Margaret, that no man living shall come over it; for, in most comely truth, thou deservest it.

Marg. To have no man come over me? why, shall I always keep below stairs1?

Bene. Thy wit is as quick as the greyhound's mouth, it catches.

Marg. And your's as blunt as the fencer's foils, which hit, but hurt not.

Bene. A most manly wit, Margaret, it will not hurt a woman; and so, I pray thee, call Beatrice: I give thee the bucklers 2.

Marg. Give us the swords, we have bucklers of

our own.

Bene. If you use them, Margaret, you must put in the pikes with a vice; and they are dangerous weapons for maids.

Marg. Well, I will call Beatrice to you, who, I think, hath legs. [Exit MARGARET.

a

1 Theobald proposed to read, above stairs; and the sense of the passage seems to require some such alteration: perhaps word has been lost, and we may read why, shall I always keep them below stairs?' Of this passage Dr. Johnson says, 1 suppose every reader will find the meaning.' It was certainly not worth while to illustrate it as the pseudo-Collins has done.

2 i. e. 'I yield.' So in Holland's Translation of Pliny's Natural History, b. x. c. xxi. ' It goeth against the stomach to yeeld the gauntlet and give the bucklers.' He is speaking of the cock.

Bene. And therefore will come.

The god of love,

That sits above,

And knows me, and knows me,
How pitiful I deserve.-

[Singing.

I mean, in singing; but in loving,-Leander the good swimmer, Troilus the first employer of panders, and a whole book full of these quondam carpet-mongers, whose names yet run smoothly in the even road of a blank verse, why, they were never so truly turned over and over as my poor self, in love: Marry, I cannot show it in rhyme; I have tried; I can find out no rhyme to lady but baby, an innocent rhyme; for scorn, horn, a hard rhyme; for school, fool, a babbling rhyme; very ominous endings: No, I was not born under a rhyming planet, nor I cannot woo in festival terms 3..

3

Enter BEATRICE.

Sweet Beatrice, would'st thou come when I called thee?

Beat. Yea, signior, and depart when you bid me. Bene. O, stay but till then!

go,

Beat. Then, is spoken; fare you well now:and yet, ere I with that I came for, let me go which is, with knowing what hath passed between you and Claudio.

Bene. Only foul words; and thereupon I will

kiss thee.

Beat. Foul words is but foul wind, and foul wind

3 i. e. ' in choice phraseology.' So mine Host in Merry Wives of Windsor says of Fenton, He speaks holiday.' And Hotspur, in K. Henry IV. Part I.

is but foul breath, and foul breath is noisome; therefore I will depart unkissed.

4

Bene. Thou hast frighted the word out of his right sense, so forcible is thy wit: But, I must tell thee plainly, Claudio undergoes my challenge; and either I must shortly hear from him, or I will subscribe him a coward. And, I pray thee now, tell me, for which of my bad parts didst thou first fall in love with me?

Beat. For them all together; which maintained so politick a state of evil, that they will not admit any good part to intermingle with them. But for which of my good parts did you first suffer love for

me?

Bene. Suffer love; a good epithet! I do suffer love, indeed, for I love thee against my will.

Beat. In spite of your heart, I think; alas! poor heart! If you spite it for my sake, I will spite it for yours; for I will never love that which my

friend hates.

Bene. Thou and I are too wise to woo peaceably. Beat. It appears not in this confession: there's not one wise man among twenty that will praise himself.

Bene. An old, an old instance, Beatrice, that lived in the time of good neighbours 5: if a man do not erect in this age his own tomb ere he dies, he shall live no longer in monument, than the bell rings, and the widow weeps.

Beat. And how long is that, think you?

Bene. Question!-Why, an hour in clamour,

4 Is under challenge, or now stands challenged, by me. 5 i. e. ' when men were not envious, but every one gave another his due.'

6 This phrase appears to be equivalent to-'You ask a question indeed!'-or that is the question!'

and a quarter in rheum: Therefore it is most expedient for the wise (if Don Worm, his conscience, find no impediment to the contrary), to be the trumpet of his own virtues, as I am to myself: So much for praising myself (who, I myself will bear witness, is praise-worthy), and now tell me, How doth your cousin?

Beat. Very ill.

Bene. And how do you?
Beat. Very ill too.

Bene. Serve God, love me, and mend: there will I leave you too, for here comes one in haste.

Enter URSULA,

Urs. Madam, you must come to your uncle; yonder's old coil at home: it is proved, my lady Hero hath been falsely accused, the Prince and Claudio mightily abused; and Don John is the author of all, who is fled and gone: will you come presently?

Beat. Will you go hear this news, signior?

Bene. I will live in thy heart, die in thy lap, and be buried in thy eyes; and moreover, I will go with thee to thy uncle's. [Exeunt.

SCENE III. The Inside of a Church.

Enter DON PEDRO, CLAUDIO, and Attendants, with Musick and Tapers.

Claud. Is this the monument of Leonato ?
Atten. It is, my lord.

7 Old coil is great or abundant bustle. Old was a common augmentative in ancient familiar language. So in K. Henry IV. Part II. Act ii. 'By the mass, here will be old utis.' And in Soliman and Perseda, 1599, ' I shall have old laughing.' It is said to be still in use in the northern counties.