Hero. Why, then your vifor fhould be thatch'd.
Pedro. Speak low, if you fpeak love.

Balth. Well; I would, you did like me 2.

Marg. So would not I for your own fake, for I have many ill qualities.

Balth. Which is one?

Marg. I fay my Prayers aloud.

Balth. I love you the better, the hearers may cry Amen.

Marg. God match me with a good dancer!
Balth. Amen.

Marg. And God keep him out of my fight when the dance is done! Anfwer, Clerk.

Balth. No more words, the clerk is answer'd.

i. e. that your Face fhould be as homely and as coarfe as your Mask. Upon this, Don Pedro compares his Vifor to Philemon's Roof. 'Tis plain, the Poet alludes to the Story of Baucis and Philemon from OVID: And this old Couple, as the Roman Poet defcribes it, liv'd in a thatch'd Cottage;

Stipulis & canna tecta paluftri. But why, Within the Houfe is Love? Though this old Pair lived in a Cottage, this Cottage received two fraggling Gods, (Jupiter and Mercury,) under its Roof. So, Don Pedro is a Prince; and though his Visor is but ordinary, he would infinuate to Hero, that he has fomething god like within alluding either to his Dignity, or the Qualities of his Perfon and Mind. By thefe Circumftances, I am fure, the Thought is mended: as, I think verily, the Text is too by the Change of a fingle Letter.

:

within the Houfe is Jove.

I

Nor is this Emendation a little' confirmed by another Paffage in our Author, in which he plainly alludes to the fame Story. As you like it.

Clown. I am here with thee and thy Goats, as the most capricious Poet, boneft Ovid, was amongst the Goths.

Jaq. O Knowledge ill inhabited, worse than Jove in a thatch'd Houfe! THEOBALD.

This emendation, thus impreffed with all the power of his eloquence and reafon, Theobald had in the 4to edition of 1600, which he profeffes to have feen.

2 Balth. Well; I would, you did like me.] This and the two following little Speeches, which I have placed to Balthazar, are in all the printed Copies given to Benedick. But, 'tis clear, the Dialogue here ought to be betwixt Balthazar, and Margaret : Benedick, a little lower, converses with Beatrice: and fo every Man talks with his Woman once round. THEOBALD.

Urf.

Urf. I know you well enough; you are Signior Antonio.

Ant. At a word, I am not.

Urf. I know you by the wagling of your head.
Ant. To tell you true, I counterfeit him.

Urf. You could never do him fo ill-well, unless you were the very man: here's his dry hand up and down; you are he, you are he.

Ant. At a word, I am not.

Urf. Come, come, do you think, I do not know you by your excellent wit? can virtue hide itfelf? go to, mum, you are he; graces will appear, and there's an end.

Beat. Will you not tell me, who told you fo?

Bene. No you fhall pardon me.

Beat. Nor will you not tell me, who you are?

Bene. Not now.

Beat. That I was difdainful, and that I had my good Wit out of the Hundred merry Tales; well, this was Signior Benedick that faid fo.

Bene. What's he?

Beat. I am fure, you know him well enough.

Bene. Not I, believe me.

Beat. Did he never make you laugh?

Bene. I pray you, what is he?

Beat. Why, he is the Prince's jefter; a very dull fool, only his gift is in devifing impoffible flanders +: none but libertines delight in him, and the commendation is not in his wit, but in his villany; for he both pleaseth men and angers them, and then they

3 Hundred merry Tales ;] A book, I fuppofe, like the Oxford Jefts.

4-bis gift is in devifing I MPOSSIBLE flanders: We fhould read IMPASSIBLE, i. e. flanders fo ill invented that they will pafs upon no body. WARB.

YOL. III.

Impoffible is better.

shis villany;] By which, fhe means his malice and impiety. By his impious jefts, fhe infinuates he pleafed libertines, and by his devifing Fanders of them, he angered them.

WARBURTON.

laugh

laugh at him, and beat him; I am fure, he is in the fleet; I would, he had boarded me.

Bene. When I know the gentleman, I'll tell him what you fay.

Beat. Do, do, he'll but break a comparison or two on me; which, peradventure, not mark'd, or not laugh'd at, ftrikes him into melancholy, and then there's a partridge wing fav'd, for the fool will eat no fupper that night. We muft follow the leaders.

Bene. In every good thing.

[Mufick within.

Beat. Nay, if they lead to any ill, I will leave them at the next turning.

SCENE III.

Manent John, Borachio, and Claudio.

[Exeunt.

John. Sure, my brother is amorous on Hero, and hath withdrawn her father to break with him about it: the ladies follow her, and but one vifor remains.

Bora. And that is Claudio; I know him by his Bearing.

John. Are you Signior Benedick?

Claud. You know me well, I am he.

John. Signior, you are very near my brother in his love, he is enamour'd on Hero; I pray you diffuade him from her, fhe is no equal for his birth; you may do the part of an honeft man in it.

Claud. How know ye, he loves her?
John. I heard him fwear his affection.

Bora. So did I too, and he fwore he would marry her to night.

John. Come, let us to the banquet.

[Exeunt John and Bora. Claud. Thus anfwer I in name of Benedick, But hear this ill news with the ears of Claudio. 'Tis certain fo-the Prince wooes for himself.

Friendship

Friendship is conftant in all other things,

Save in the office and affairs of love;

Therefore all hearts in love ufe their own tongues,

Let every eye negotiate for itself,

And truft no agent; beauty is a witch,

Against whose charms faith melteth into blood.
This is an accident of hourly proof,

Which I mistrusted not.

Farewel then, Hero!

Bene. Even to the next willow, about your own bufinefs, Count. What fashion will you wear the garland of? about your neck, like an Ufurer's chain ? or under your arm, like a Lieutenant's fearf? you must wear it one way, for the Prince hath got your Hero.

Claud. I wish him Joy of her.

Bene. Why, that's fpoken like an honeft drover ; fo they fell bullocks: but did you think, the Prince would have ferved you thus?

Claud. I pray you, leave me.

Bene. Ho! now you ftrike like the blind man ; 'twas the boy that ftole your meat, and you'll beat the Post.

Claud. If it will not be, I'll leave you.

[Exit.

Bene. Alas, poor hurt fowl! now will he creep into fedges. But, that my Lady Beatrice fhould know me, and not know me! the Prince's fool!-ha? it may be, I go under that Titie, because I am merry

· Ufurer's chain?] I know not whether the chain was, in our authour's time, the common ornament of wealthy citi

O 2

zens, or whether he fatirically ufes ufurer and alderman as fynonymous terms.

yea,

7

yea, but fo I am apt to do myself wrong: I am not fo reputed. It is the bafe (tho' bitter) difpofition of Beatrice, that puts the world into her perfon, and fo gives me out; well, I'll be reveng❜d as I may.

Pedro. Now, Signior, where's the Count? did you fee him?

Bene. Troth, my lord, I have play'd the part of lady Fame. I found him here as melancholy as a lodge in a warren, I told him (and I think, told him true) that your Grace had got the Will of this young lady, and I offer'd him my company to a willow tree, either to make him a garland, as being forfaken, or to bind him up a rod, as being worthy to be whipt. Pedro. To be whipt! what's his fault?

Bene. The flat tranfgreffion of a School-boy; who, being overjoy'd with finding a bird's neft, fhews it his companion, and he fteals it.

Pedro. Wilt thou make a truft, a tranfgreflion? the tranfgreffion is in the ftealer.

Bene. Yet it had not been amifs, the rod had been made, and the garland too; for the garland he might have worn himself, and the rod he might have beftow'd on you, who (as I take it) have ftol'n his bird's neft.

Pedro. I will but teach them to fing, and restore them to the owner.

"It is the bafe, the bitter, if pofition of Beatrices, who puts the world into her perfon.] That is, it is the difpofition of Beatrice, who takes upon her to perfonate the world, and therefore represents the world as foying what he only fays

herself.

Bafe tho' bitter. I do not underftand how bafe and bitter are inconfiftent, or why what is bitter fhould not be base. I believe we may fafely read, it is the bafe, the bitter difpofition.

Bene.