marry, once before he won it of me with falfe dice, therefore your Grace may well fay, I have loft it.

Pedro. You have put him down, Lady, you have put him down.

Beat. So I would not he fhould do me, my Lord, left I should prove the mother of fools: I have brought Count Claudio, whom you fent me to seek.

Pedro. Why, how now, Count, wherefore are you fad?

Claud. Not fad, my Lord.

Pedro. How then? fick ?

Claud. Neither, my Lord.

Beat. The Count is neither fad, nor fick, nor merry, nor well; but civil, Count, civil as an orange, and fomething of that jealous complexion.

Pedro. I'faith, Lady, I think your blazon to be true; though I'll be fworn, if he be fo, his conceit is falfe. Here, Claudio, I have wooed in thy name, and fair Hero is won; I have broke with her father, and his good will obtained; name the day of marriage, and God give thee joy.

Leon. Count, take of me my daughter, and with her my fortunes: his Grace hath made the match, and all grace fay, Amen, to it.

Beat. Speak, Count, 'tis your cue.

Claud. Silence is the perfecteft herald of joy; I were but little happy, if I could fay how much. Lady, as you are mine, I am yours: I give away my self for you, and doat upon the exchange.

Beat. Speak, Coufin, or (if you cannot) ftop his mouth with a kifs, and let him not fpeak neither.

Pedro. In faith, Lady, you have a merry heart. Beat. Yea, my Lord, I thank it, poor fool, it keeps on the windy fide of care; my coufin tells him in his car that he is in her heart.

Claud. And fo fhe doth, coufin.

Beat. Good Lord, for alliance! thus goes every one to the world but I, and I am fun-burn'd; I may fit in a corner, and cry heigh ho! for a husband.

Pedro. Lady Beatrice, I will get you one.

Beat.

Beat. I would rather have one of your Father's getting: hath your Grace ne'er a brother like you? your Father got excellent husbands, if a maid could come by them.

Pedro. Will you have me, Lady?

Beat. No, my Lord, unless I might have another for working-days; your Grace is too coftly to wear every day but, I beseech your Grace, pardon me, I was born to speak all mirth and no matter.

Pedro. Your filence most offends me, and to be merry beft becomes you; for, out of question, you were born in a merry hour.

Beat. No, fure, my Lord, my mother cry'd; but then there was a star danc'd, and under that I was born. Coufins, God give you joy.

Leon. Neice, will you look to those things I told you of?

Beat. I cry you mercy, Uncle: by your Grace's by_your pardon. [Exit Beatrice. Pedro. By my troth, a pleasant-spirited Lady. Leon. There's little of the melancholy element in her, my Lord; the is never fad but when the fleeps, and not ever fad then; (8) for I have heard my daughter fay, The hath often dream'd of an happiness, and wak'd her felf with laughing.

Pedro. She cannot endure to hear tell of a hufband.

Leon. O, by no means, fhe mocks all her wooers out of fuit.

Pedro. She were an excellent wife for Benedick.

Leon. O Lord, my Lord, if they were but a week marry'd, they would talk themselves mad.

Pedro. Count Claudio, when mean you to go to church?

(8) For I have heard my daughter fay, She hath often dream'd of unhappiness, and wak'd her felf with laughing.] Tho' all the Impreffions agree in this Reading, furely, 'tis abfolutely repugnant to what Leonato intends to fay, which is this; " Beatrice is never fad, but when the fleeps; and not ever fad then; for fhe hath often dream'd of fomething merry, (an happiness, as the Poet phrafes it,) and wak'd herself "with laughing".

Claud.

Claud. To morrow, my Lord; time goes on crutches, 'till love have all his rites.

Leon. Not 'till Monday, my dear fon, which is hence a just seven-night, and a time too brief too, to have all things answer my mind.

Pedro. Come, you shake the head at fo long a breathing; but, I warrant thee, Claudio, the time fhall not go dully by us; I will in the Interim undertake one of Hercules's labours, which is to bring Signior Benedick and the Lady Beatrice into a mountain of affection the one with the other; I would fain have it a match, and I doubt not to fashion it, if you three will but minifter fuch affiftance as I fhall give you direction.

Leon. My Lord, I am for you, though it coft me ten nights watchings.

Claud. And I, my Lord.

Pedro. And you too, gentle Hero?

Hero. I will do any modeft office, my Lord, to help my Coufin to a good husband.

Pedro. And Benedick is not the unhopefulleft husband that I know: thus far I can praise him, he is of a noble strain, of approv'd valour, and confirm'd honefty. I will teach you how to humour your Coufin, that the fhall fall in love with Benedick; and I, with your two helps, will fo practife on Benedick, that in defpight of his quick wit, and his queafie ftomach, he fhall fall in love with Beatrice: if we can do this, Cupid is no longer an archer, his glory fhall be ours, for we are the only Love-Gods; go in with me, and I will tell you my you my drift. [Exeunt.

SCENE changes to another Apartment in Leonato's House.

Enter Don John and Borachio.

John. IT is fo, the Count Claudio fhall marry the Daughter of Leonato.

Bora. Yea, my Lord, but I can cross it.

John.

John. Any bar, any crofs, any impediment will be medicinable to me; I am fick in difpleasure to him ; and whatsoever comes athwart his affection, ranges evenly with mine. How canft thou cross this marriage?

Bora. Not honeftly, my Lord, but fo covertly that no dishonesty shall appear in me.

John. Shew me briefly how.

Bora. I think, I told your lordship a year fince, how much I am in the favour of Margaret, the waitinggentlewoman to Hero.

John. I remember.

Bora. I can, at any unfeasonable inftant of the night, appoint her to look out at her Lady's chamber-window.

John. What life is in That, to be the death of this marriage?

Bora. The poifon of That lyes in you to temper; go you to the Prince your brother, fpare not to tell him, that he hath wrong'd his Honour in marrying the renown'd Claudio, (whofe eftimation do you mightily hold up) to a contaminated Stale, fuch a one as Hero. John. What proof fhall I make of That?

Bora. Proof enough, to mifufe the Prince, to vex Claudio, to undo Hero, and kili Leonato; look you for any other iffue?

John. Only to despite them, I will endeavour any thing.

(9) Bora. Go then find me a meet hour, to draw Don

Pedro,

(9) Bora. Go then, find me a meet hour to draw on Pedro and the Count Claudio, alone; tell them that you know Hero loves me ; Offer them Inftances which shall bear no lefs Likelihood than to fee me at her Chamber-window; hear me call Margaret, Hero; hear Margaret term me CLAUDIO; and bring them to fee this the very night before the intended Wedding.] Thus the whole Stream of the Editions from the first Quarto downwards. I am oblig'd here to give a fhort Account of the Phot depending, that the Emendation I have made may appear the more clear and unquestionable. The Bufiness ftands thus: Claudio, a Favourite of the Arragon Prince, is, by his Interceffions with her Father, to be married to fair Hero. Don John, Natural Brother of the Prince, and a Hater of Claudio, is in his Spleen

zealous

Pedro, and the Count Claudio, alone; tell them, that you know, Hero loves me; intend a kind of zeal both to the Prince and Claudio, (as in a love of your Brother's honour who hath made this match;) and his friend's reputation, (who is thus like to be cozen'd with the semblance of a maid,) that you have difcover'd thus; they will hardly believe this without tryal: offer them inftances, which fhall bear no less likelihood than to see me at her chamber-window; hear me call Margaret, Hero; hear Margaret term me Borachio; and bring them to fee this, the very night before the intended Wedding; for in the mean time I will fo fashion the matter, that Hero fhall be abfent; and there shall appear fuch feeming truths of Hero's disloyalty, that jealoufie fhall be call'd affurance, and all the preparati on overthrown.

John. Grow this to what adverse iffue it can, I will put it in practice: be cunning in the working this, and thy fee is a thousand ducats.

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zealous to disappoint the Match. Borachio, a rafcally Dependant on Don John, offers his Affiftance, and engages to break off the Marriage by this Stratagem. "Tell the Prince and Claudio (fays He) that Hero "is in Love with Me; they won't believe it; offer them Proofs, as that they hall fee me converfe with her in her Chamber-window; I am "in the good Graces of her Waiting-woman Margaret; and TN prevail with Margaret at a dead Hour of Night to perfonate "her Miftrefs Hero; do you then bring the Prince and Claudio to "overhear our Difcourfe; and They fhall have the Torment to hear me addrefs Margaret by the Name of Hero, and her fay fweet things to me by the Name of Claudio." -- This is the Substance of Borachio's Device to make Hero fufpected of Difloyalty, and to break off her Match with Claudio. But, in the Name of common Sense, could it displease Claudio to hear his Miftrefs making Ufe of bis Name tenderly? If he faw another Man with her, and heard her call him Claudio, he might reasonably think her betray'd, but not have the fame Reason to accufe her of Difloyalty. Befides, how could her naming Claudio make the Prince and Claudio believe that She lov'd Borachio, as he defires Don John to infinuate to them that She did? The Circumftances weigh'd, there is no Doubt but the Paffage ought to be reform'd, as I have fettled in the Text.

- hear me call Margaret, Hero; bear Margaret term me BORACHIO. I made this Correction in my SHAKESPEARE reftor'd, and Mr. Pope has thought fit tacitly to embrace it in his laft Edition.

John.