Benedick, advancing from the arbour,

This can be no trick, the conference was fadly* borne. They have the truth of this, from Hero; they feem to pity the lady; it seems her affections have the full bent. Love me! Why, it must be requited-I hear how I am cenfured; they fay, I will bear myself proudly, if I perceive the love to come from her; they fay too, that The will rather die than give any fign of affection.--I did never think to marry-1 muft not feem proud-happy are they that hear their detractions, and can put them to mending. They fay the lady is fair; 'tis a truth, I can bear them witness-And virtuous-'Tis fo, I cannot reprove it-And wife-but for loving me-By my troth, it is no addition to her wit-nor no great argument of her folly, neither; for I will be horribly in love with her I may chance to have fome odd quirks and remnants of wit broken on me, because I have railed fo long against marriage; but doth not the appetite alter? A man loves the meat in his youth, that he cannot endure in his age. Shall quips and fentences, thefe paper bullets of the brain, awe a man from the career of his humour? Nothe world must be peopled-When I faid I would die a bachelor, I did not think I fhould live 'till I were married. Here comes Beatrice! By this day, she's a fair lady- I do spy fome marks of love in her.

The fpeech of Beatrice, also, in the firft Scene of the Third Act, has a right to take place here, though fomewhat before its time, as a companion to the preceding.

Beatrice, advancing, after Hero and Urfula had quitted the Scene:

What fire is in my ears! Can this be true?

Stand I condemned for pride and fcorn fo much?
Contempt, farewe!! and maiden pride, adieu!
No glory lives behind the back of fuch.
And, Benedick, love on, I will requite thee,
Taming my wild heart to thy loving hand;
If thou doft love, thy fondness fhall incite thee
To bind our loves up in a holy band.

For others fay thou dost deferve; and I
Believe it better than reportingly.

ACT

III.

SCENE I.

A moft unamiable character of pride and felfconceit is given in this place, which falls very pro

Sadly, for gravely, or seriously.

perly

perly within the moral tendency of these notes to expofe to view; though it is only spoken in confequence of the plot against Beatrice.

Hero. But nature never framed a woman's heart
Of prouder stuff, than that of Beatrice.
Difdain and fcorn ride sparkling in her eyes,
Mifprizing what they look on; and her wit
Values itself fo highly, that to her

All matter elfe feems weak; fhe cannot love,
Nor take no shape nor project of affection,
She is fo felf-indeared.

The fame character is continued in the fame Scene, with the addition of a fatirical vein, which is extremely well and humorously described:

Hero. I never yet faw man,

How wife, how noble, young, how rarely featured,
But she would fpell him backward-If fair-faced,
She'd fwear the gentleman fhould be her fifter;
If black, why Nature drawing of an antick*,
Made a foul blot; if tall, a lance ill-headed;
If low, an aglet + very vilely cut;

If fpeaking, why, a vane blown with all winds;
If filent, then a block moved by none.
So turns the every man the wrong fide out,
And never gives to truth and virtue that
Which fimplenefs and merit purchaseth.

Hero, in the fame Scene, pretending to lay a scheme with Urfula, for curing Benedick of his fuppofed paffion for Beatrice, while fhe is liftening, fays,

No, rather I will go to Benedick,

And counfel him to fight against his paffion,
And, truly, I'll devife fome honeft flanders
To ftain my cousin with- One doth not know
How fuch an ill word may impofon liking.

The fuccefs of fuch a wicked device I have already remarked on, in a paffage of the Two Gentle men of Verona, A&t Third, and Scene Fifth,

"The best way is to flander Valentine, &c."

A Harlequin.

Aglets were little Images made use of as tags to he suspended at the points of the old fashioned laced cravats; fomewhat like those the Roman Catholica ang at the bottom of their referies,

and

and I fhall, therefore, make no further note on the fubject here.

I have not been fo much an economist, in other places, where the recurring of fimilar topics afforded me opportunities of faving myself trouble, by references; but this one is fo very irkfome a theme, that it difgufts me to dwell upon it for a moment; for which reason, should I happen to meet with it again, in the courfe of this Work, I fhall pass it by unnoticed for the future,

ACT IV. SCENE II.

Hero, being falfely accufed of an act of difho nour, is examined before her father, her lover, and a Friar, with other friends, who had all met together in a convent to attend her nuptials; and the bitternefs of a parent's anguish and refentment on fo trying an occafion, is moft feelingly expreffed in the fol Jowing speech:

Leonato, to his daughter on her fainting.

Do not live, Hero, do not ope thy eyes;
For did I think thou wouldst not quickly die,
Thought I thy fpirits were stronger than thy fhames,
Myfelf would, on the rereward of reproaches,
Strike at thy life. Grieved I, I had but one?
Chid I for that at frugal Nature's frame ?
I've one too much by thee. Why had I one?
Why ever waft thou lovely in my eyes?
Why had I not, with charitable hand,
Ta'en up a beggar's iffue at my gates?
Who fmeared thus, and mired with infamy,
I might have faid, No part of it is mine;
This fhame derives itself from unknown loins.
But mine, and mine I loved, and mine I praised,
And mine that I was proud of, mine fo much,
That I myself was to myself not mine,
Valuing of her; why fhe-O fhe is fallen
Into a pit of ink, that the wide fea
Hath drops too few to wash her clean again ;
And falt too little which may season give
To her foul tainted flesh !

Upon

Upon this occafion, the good Friar, with that charity and humanity which fo well become the facred office of Priesthood, and from that obfervation which his long experience in the business of auricular confeffion had enabled him to form, stands forth an advocate for Hero's innocence, in the following poetical and philofophical oration;

Hear me, a little ;

For I have only filent been fo long,

And given way into this courfe of fortune,
By noting of the lady. I have marked
A thoufand blufhing apparitions

To start into her face; a thousand innocent shames
In angel whitenefs bear away those blushes ;
And in her eye there hath appeared a fire,
To burn the errors that these princes + hold
Against her maiden truth-Call me a fool,
Truft not my reading, nor my obfervations,
Which with experimental feal do warrant
The tenor of my book; trust not my age,
My reverence, calling, nor divinity,
If this fweet lady lie not guiltlefs here,
Under fome biting error.

But, a little after, this good cafuift afks her fuddenly this trying question:

Lady, what man is he you are accused of?

Upon which paffage Doctor Warburton makes the following judicious remark:

"The Friar had just before boafted his great "fkill in fifting out the truth; and indeed, he appears, in this inftance, to have been no fool. He "was by, all the while at the accufation, and heard

no names mentioned. Why, then, fhould he ask "her what man fhe was accufed of? But in this "lay the fubtilty of his examination. For, had "Hero been guilty, it was very probable that, in "the hurry and confufion of fpirits into which the "terrible infult of her lover had thrown her, fhe

Who were her accufers.

I do not comprehend the meaning of this expreffion, unless it be allowed to be figurative of his art, fcience, or knowledge in phyloguemy.

"would

66

"would never have obferved that the man's name was not mentioned; and fo, on this question, might have betrayed herself, by naming the per"fon fhe was confcious of an affair with. The "Friar obferved this, and fo concluded, that, were "fhe guilty, fhe would probably have fallen into "the trap he had laid for her. I only take notice "of this, to fhew how admirably well Shakespeare "knew how to fuftain his characters."

But this noble defence for the unhappy Hero, not being fufficient to obviate the strong impreffions of her guilt, which the father had conceived against her, the honeft Prieft then goes on to propose a scheme of conduct to him, which might peradventure bring about fome crifis or event, that would clear her innocence; at least filence the infamy, and remove her from being any longer an object of obloquy. In this propofal there is fhewn a just knowledge of the world, and an intimate acquaintance with the fecret movements of the human heart.

Friar. Paufe, a while,

And let my counsel fway you in this cafe.

Your daughter here the princes left for dead;

Let her a time be fecretly kept in,

And publish it that fhe is fo, indeed:

Maintain a mourning oftentation,

And on your family's old monument

Hang mournful epitaphs, and do all rites

That appertain unto a burial.

Leonato. What shall become of this? What will this do?

Friar. Marry, this well carried, shall on her behalf
Change flander to remorfe; that is fome good :
But not for that I dream on this ftrange course,
But on this travail look for greater birth:
She dying, as it must be fo maintained,
Upon the inftant that she was accused,
Shall be lamented, pitied, and excufed,
Of every hearer: for it fo falls out,

That what we have, we prize not to the worth,

On her fainting.