ACT III.

SCENE I.

Leonato's Garden.

Enter HERO, MARGARET, and URSULA.

Hero. Good Margaret, run thee into the parlour; There shalt thou find my cousin Beatrice Propofing with the prince and Claudio': Whisper her ear, and tell her, I and Urfula Walk in the orchard, and our whole discourse Is all of her; fay, that thou overheard'st us; And bid her steal into the pleached bower, Where honey-fuckles, ripen'd by the fun, Forbid the fun to enter ;-like favourites, Made proud by princes, that advance their pride Against that power that bred it :-there will the hide her, To liften our propofe 2: This is thy office;

Bear thee well in it, and leave us alone.

Marg. I'll make her come, I warrant you, presently.

Hero. Now, Urfula, when Beatrice doth come,
As we do trace this alley up and down,
Our talk must only be of Benedick:
When I do name him, let it be thy part
To praise him more than ever man did merit;
My talk to thee muft be, how Benedick

Is fick in love with Beatrice: Of this matter
Is little Cupid's crafty arrow made,
That only wounds by hear-fay. Now begin;
Enter BEATRICE, behind.
For look where Beatrice, like a lapwing, runs
Close by the ground, to hear our conference.
Urf. The pleasant'ft angling is to see the fish
Cut with her golden oars the filver stream,
And greedily devour the treacherous bait :

[Exit.

1 Propofing with the prince and Claudio:] Propofing is converfing, from the French word-propos, difcourfe, talk. STEEVENS.

2- our propofe :] Thus the quarto. The folio reads our purpose. Propofe is right. See the preceding note.

STEEVENS.

So angle we for Beatrice; who even now
Is couched in the woodbine coverture:

Fear you not my part of the dialogue.

Hero. Then go we near her, that her ear lofe nothing Of the false sweet bait that we lay for it.

[They advance to the bower.

No, truly, Urfula, fhe is too difdainful:

I know her fpirits are as coy and wild

3

As haggards of the rock.

Urf. But are you fure,

That Benedick loves Beatrice fo entirely?

Hero. So fays the prince, and my new-trothed lord.
Urf. And did they bid you tell her of it, madam?
Hero. They did intreat me to acquaint her of it:
But I perfuaded them, if they lov'd Benedick,
To with him wrestle with affection,

And never to let Beatrice know of it.

Urf. Why did you fo? Doth not the gentleman Deserve as full, as fortunate a bed 4,

As ever Beatrice fhall couch upon?

Hero. O God of love! I know, he doth deserve
As much as may be yielded to a man:
But nature never fram'd a woman's heart
Of prouder ftuff than that of Beatrice:

Difdain and fcorn ride fparkling in her eyes,
Mifprifing what they look on; and her wit
Values itself fo highly, that to her

All matter elfe feems weak: she cannot love,
Nor take no shape nor project of affection,
She is fo felf endeared.

Urf. Sure, I think fo;

And therefore, certainly, it were not good

She knew his love, left the make sport at it.

Hero. Why, you speak truth: I never yet faw man,

3-as haggards-] The wildeft of the hawk fpecies.

4

MALONE.

as full, as fortunate a bed,] Full is ufed by our author and his contemporaries for abfolute, complete, perfect. So, in Antony and Cleopatra, "the fulleft man and worthieft;" and in Othello, (as Mr. Steevens has obferved,) "What a full fortune doth the thick-lips owe?" MALONE, 5 Mifprifimg-] Defpifing, contemning. JOHNSON.

To mifprize is to undervalue, or take in a wrong light. STEEVENS.

How wife, how noble, young, how rarely featur'd,
But she would spell 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 agate very vilely cut :

If

6. — spell him backward:] Alluding to the practice of witches in uttering prayers.

The following paffage, containing a fimilar train of thought, is from Lilly's Anatomy of Wit, 1581, p. 44. b:-"if he be cleanly, they [women] term him proude; if meene in apparel, a floven; if tall, a lungis; if fhorte, a dwarfe; if bold, blunte; if shamefaft, a coward; &c. P. 55. If the be well fet, then call her a boffe; if slender, a hafil twig; if the be pleasant, then is fhe wanton; if fullen, a clowne; if honest, then is the coye." STEEVENS.

7 If black, why, nature, drawing of an antick,

Made a foul blot :] The antick was a buffoon character in the old English farces, with a blacked face, and a patch-work babit. What I would obferve from hence is, that the name of antick or antique, given to this character, fhews that the people had fome traditional ideas of its being borrowed from the ancient mimes, who are thus defcribed by Apuleius, "mimi centunculo, fuligine faciem obducti." WARB.

I believe what is here faid of the old English farces, is faid at random. Dr. Warburton was thinking, I imagine, of the modern Harlequin. I have met with no proof that the face of the antick or Vice of the old English comedy was blackened. By the word black in the text, is only meant, as I conceive, fwarthy, or dark brown. MALONE.

If low, an agate very vilely cut :] Dr. Warburton reads aglet, which was adopted, I think, too haftily, by the fubfequent editors. I fee no reafon for departing from the old copy. Shakspeare's comparisons fcarcely ever anfwer completely on both fides. Dr. Warburton asks, "What likeness is there between a little man and an agat?" No other than that both are fmall. Our author has himself in another place compared a very little man to an agate. "Thou whorfon mandrake, (fays Falstaff to his page,) thou art fitter to be worn in my cap, than to wait at my heels. I was never fo man'd with an agate till now.”Hero means no more than this: "If a man be low, Beatrice will fay that he is as diminutive and unhappily formed as an ill-cut agate."

It appears both from the paffage juft quoted, and from one of Sir John Harrington's epigrams, 4to. 1618, that agates were commonly worn in Shakspeare's time:

THE AUTHOR TO A DAUGHTER NINE YEARS OLD.
"Though pride in damfels is a hateful vice,
"Yet could I like a noble-minded girl,

"That would demand me things of coftly price,

"Rich velvet gowns, pendents, and chains of pearle, "Cark'nets of agats, cut with rare device," &c.

Thefe

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

Urf. Sure, fure, fuch carping is not commendable.
Hero. No: not to be fo odd, and from all fashions,
As Beatrice is, cannot be commendable:

But who dare tell her fo? If I fhould speak,
She'd mock me into air; O, fhe would laugh me
Out of myself, prefs me to death' with wit."
Therefore let Benedick, like cover'd fire,
Confume away in fighs, wafte inwardly :
It were a better death than die with mocks 2;
Which is as bad as die with tickling 3.

Urf. Yet tell her of it; hear what she will say.
Hero. No; rather I will go to Benedick,
And counsel him to fight against his paffion :
And, truly, I'll devife fome honeft flanders

These lines, at the fame time that they add fuppoft to the old reading, fhew, I think, that the words "vilely cut," are to be understood in their ufual fenfe, when applied to precious ftones, viz. awkwardly wrought by a tool, and not, as Mr. Steevens fuppofed, grotesquely veined by nature. MALONE.

9 — a vane blown with all winds;] This comparison might have been borrowed from an ancient bl. let. ballad, entitled A comparison of the life of man:

"I may compare a man againe

"Even like unto a twining vaine,

"That changeth even as doth the wind;

"Indeed fo is man's feeble mind." STEEVENS.

prefs me to death-] The allufion is to an ancient punishment of our law, called peine fort et dure, which was formerly inflicted on thofe perfons, who, being indicted, refufed to plead. In confequence of their filence, they were prefied to death by an heavy weight laid upon their ftomach. This punishment the good fenfe and humanity of the legiflature have within thefe few years abolished. MALONE.

2 It were a better dea:b than die with mocks ;] Thus the quarto. So before: "To wish him wrestle with affection." The folio reads-a better death to die with mocks. MALONE.

3

with tickling.] The author meant that tickling fhould be pronounced as a trifyllable; tickeling. So, in Spenfer's F. Q. b. ii. c. 12. "a ftrange kind of harmony;

"Which Gayon's fenfes foftly tickeled, &c. MALONE.

To

To ftain my coufin with: One doth not know,
How much an ill word may empoifon liking.
Urf. O, do not do your coufin fuch a wrong.
She cannot be fo much without true judgment,
(Having fo fwift and excellent a wit,
As fhe is priz'd to have,) as to refuse
So rare a gentleman as fignior Benedick.
Hero. He is the only man of Italy,
Always excepted my dear Claudio.

Urf. I pray you, be not angry with me, madam,
Speaking my fancy; fignior Benedick,

For fhape, for bearing, argument, and valour,
Goes foremost in report through Italy.

Hero. Indeed, he hath an excellent good name.
Urf. His excellence did earn it, ere he had it.-
When are you marry'd, madam ?

Hero. Why, every day ;-to-morrow: Come, go in, I'll fhew thee fome attires; and have thy counsel, Which is the beft to furnish me to-morrow.

Urf. She's limed, I warrant you; we have caught her, madam.

Hero. If it prove fo, then loving goes by haps : Some Cupid kills with arrows, fome with traps.

[Exeunt HERO and URSULA. BEATRICE advances. Beat. What fire is in mine ears? Can this be true? Stand I condemn'd for pride and scorn fo much? Contempt, farewell! and maiden pride, adieu ! No glory lives behind the back of fuch.

4-argument,] This word feems here to fignify difcourfe, or, the powers of reafoning. JOHNSON.

5 She's limed,] She is enfnared and entangled, as a sparrow with birdlime. JOHNSON.

The folio reads-She's ta'en. STEEVENS.

6 What fire is in mine ears ] Alluding to a proverbial faying of the common people, that their ears burn, when others are talking of them. WARBURTON.

The opinion from whence this proverbial faying is derived, is of great antiquity, being thus mentioned by Pliny: "Moreover is not this an opinion generally received, that when our ears do glow and tingle, fome there be that in our abfence doo talke of us". P. Holland's Tranflation. B. xxviii. p. 297. See alfo Brown's Vulgar Errors. REED.

And,