Leon. Are these things spoken, or do I but dream? true. Claud. Leonato, stand I here? Leon. All this is fo; But what of this, my lord ? daughter, Leon. I charge thee do so, as thou art my child. Hero. O God defend me! how I am beset ! What kind of catechizing call you this ? Claud. To make you answer truly to your name, Hero. Is it not Hero? Who can blot that name With any just reproach? Claud. Marry, that can Hero; Hero. I talk'd with no man at that hour, my lord. Pedro. Why, then you are no maiden.-Leonato, I am sorry, you must hear. Upon mine honour, Myself, my brother, and this grieved count Did see her, hear her, at that hour last night Talk with a ruffian at her chamber-window; Who hath, indeed, most like a liberal villain, s k indly power] That is, natural power. Kind'is nature. JOHNSON. 9- liberal villain,) Liberal here, as in many places of these plays, means, frank beyond honesty or dicency. Free of congill. Dr. Warburton unnecessarily reads, illiberal. JOHNSON, Con Confess’d the vile encounters they have had John. Fie, fie! they are not to be nam’d, my lord, Claud. 'O Hero! what a Hero hadst thou been,' Leon. Hath no man's dagger here a point for me? down? to light, Smother her spirits up. [Exeunt Don Pedro, Don John, and Claudio. ' Bene. How doth the lady? Beai. Dead, I think; Help, uncle ; Leon. O fate! take not away thy heavy hand! Beat. How now, cousin Hero? what a Hero had'thou been, ] I am afraid here is intended a poor conceit upon the word Hero. Johnson. Leon. Leon. Wherefore? Why, doth not every earthly thing Cry shame upon her? Could she here deny The story that is printed in her blood ? — Do not live, Hero; do not ope chine eyes: For did I think, thou would’It not quickly die, Thought I, thy spirits were stronger than thy shames, Myself would on the rearward of reproaches Strike at thy life. Griev'd I, I had but one? Chid I for that at frugal nature's frame ? 3. O, one too much by thee! Why had I one? Why ever wast thou lovely in my eyes? Why had I not, with charitable hand, ? The story that is printed in ber blood?] That is, the fore wbieh ber blushes discover to be true. Johnson. 3 Griev'd I, I bad but one ? Chid I for that at frugal nature's frame ? I've one too much by thee. The meaning of the second line, according to the present reading is chis, Chid I at frugal nature that he sent me a girl and not a boy? But this is not what he chid nature for ; if he himself may be believed, it was because the had given him but one : and in that he owns he did foolishly, for he now finds he had one too much. He called her frugal, therefore, in giving him but one child. (For to call her so because the chose to send a girl rather than a boy would be ridiculous.) So that we must certainly read, . Chid I for this ar fruga! nature's 'fraine? i. e, refraine, or keeping back her further favours, stopping her band, as we say, when she had given him one. But the Oxford editor has, in his usual way, improved this amendment by subiticuting band for 'fraine. WARBURTON. • Though frame be not the word which appears to a reader of the present time most proper to exhibit the poet's sentiment, yet it may as well be used to shew that he had one child, and no more, as that he had a girl, not a boy, and as it may easily signify the system of things, or universal fihimi, the whole order of beings is comprehended, there arises no difficulty from it which requires to be removed by so violent an effort as the introduction of a new word offensively mutilated. JOHNSON. Took A har I myself w why, the wide sean again; Took up a beggar's issue at my gates; Bene. Sir, sir, be patient : Beat. O, on my soul, my cousin is bely'd. Beat. No, truly, not; altho', until last night, made, Which was before barr'd up with ribs of iron ! Would the two princes lie ? and Claudio lie? Who lov'd her so, that, speaking of her foulness, Wash'd it with tears? Hence from her; let her die. Friar. Hear me a little ; 4 But mine, and mine I lov'd, and mine I prais'd, And mine that I was proud on ;- ) The sense requires that we should read, as in these three places. The reasoning of the speaker stands thus,--Had this been my adope ted child, -bis shame would not have rebounded on me. But this child was mine, as mine I loved her, praised her, was proud of ber : confes quently, as I claimed the glory, I musi needs be subjected to the fame, &c. WARBURTON. Even of this small alteration there is no need. The speaker utters his emotion abruptly, But min”, and mine that I loved, &c. by an ellipsis frequent, perhaps too frequent, both in verse and prole. JOHNSON. For For I have only been silent so long, A thousand blushing apparitions To burn the errors that thele princes hold Trust not my reading, nor my observations, Leon. Friar, it cannot be : Friar. Lady, what man is he you are accus'd of ? : none : 5 Friar. What man is be you are accus'd of?] The friar had just before boalted his great skill in fishing out the truth. And indeed, he appears by this question to be no fool. He was by, all the while at the accusation and heard no names mentioned. Why then should he ask her what man she was accused of? But in this lay the subtilty of his examination. For, had Hero been guilty, it was very probable that in that hurry and confusion of spirits, into which the terrible insult of her lover had thrown her, she would never have observed that the man's name was not mentioned ; and so, on this question, have betrayed herself by naming the person she was conscious of an affair with. The friar observed this, and so concluded, that, were the guilty, she would probably fall into the trap he laid for her. I only take notice of this to few how admirably well Shakespeare koew how to sustain his characters. WARBURTON. |