Which they themselves not feel; but tafting it, To be fo moral, when he fhall endure The like himself; therefore give me no counsel; Ant. Therein do men from children nothing differ. Leon. I pray thee, peace; I will be flesh and blood; For there was never yet philofopher, That could endure the tooth-ach patiently; Leon. There thou speak'ft reafon; nay, I will do fo. My foul doth tell me, Hero is bely'd; And that fhall Claudio know, fo fhall the Prince SCENE II. Enter Don Pedro, and Claudio. Ant. Here comes the Prince and Claudio haftily. Claud. Good day to both of you. 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. Claud. Marry, befhrew my hand, If it should give your age fuch caufe of fear; As, under privilege of age, to brag What I have done being young, or what would do, I fay, thou haft bely'd mine innocent child, O, in a tomb where never fcandal flept, Leon. Thine, Claudio; thine, I fay. I'll prove it on his body, if he dare; 4 Claud Claud. Away, I will not have to do with you. 3 Leon. Canft thou fo daffe me? thou haft kill'd my child; If thou kill'ft me, boy, thou fhalt kill a man. Ant. He fhall kill two of us, and men indeed; Leon. Brother, Ant. Content yourself; God knows, I lov'd my And he is dead, flander'd to death by villains, As I dare take a ferpent by the tongue. Ant. Hold you content; what, man? I know them, yea, And what they weigh, even to the utmoft fcruple: Scambling, out-facing, fathion monging boys, 3 Canfi 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 deff are fynonymous Ternis, that mean, to put off which is the very Senfe requir'd here, and what Leonato would reply, upon Claudio's faying, He would have nothing to do with him. THEOBALD. 4 Ant. He fall kill two of us, &c.] This Brother Anthony is the trueft picture imaginable of human nature. He had af fumed the Character of a Sage to comfort his Brother, o'er whelm'd with grief for his only daughter's affront and dishonour; and had feverely reproved him for not commanding his paffion better on fo trying an occafion. Yet, immediately after this, no fooner does he begin to suspect that his Age and Valour are flighted, but he falls into the molt intemperate fit of rage himfelf and all his Brother 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 paflion, nothing can be more highly painted. WARB. That That lye, and cog, and flout, deprave and flander, Leon. But, brother Anthony, Ant. Come, 'tis no matter: Do not you meddle, let me deal in this. Pedro. Gentlemen both, we will not wake your patience. My heart is forry for your daughter's death; Pedro. I will not hear you. Leon. No! come, brother, away, I will be heard. Ant. And fhall, or fome of us will mart for it. SCENE Ex. ambo. III. Enter Benedick. Pedro. See, fee, here comes the man we went to feck. s—we will not WAKE your patience. This conveys a fentiment that the fpeaker would by no means have implied, That the patience of the two Old men was not exercised, but afleep, 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 fpe cious, 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 presence of thofe whom, though they look on them as enemics, they cannot refift. Pedro. Pedro. Welcome, Signior; you are almost come to part almost a fray. Claud. We had like to have had our two noses snapt off with two old men without teeth. Pedro. Leonato and his brother; what think'ft 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 fcabbard; fhall 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 honest 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 last was broke cross °. Pedro. By this light, he changes more and more: I think, he be angry, indeed. 6 Claud. If he be, he knows how to turn his girdle '. Claud. God blefs me from a challenge! Bene. You are a villain; I jest not. I will make it Nay, then give him another 7 to turn his girdle.] We have a proverbial speech, f he be angry, let him turn his girdle. But I do not know its original or meaning. good |