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Leon. Some hafte, my lord! well, fare you well, my lord. Are you so 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 fhould give your age fuch cause of fear;
In faith, my hand meant nothing to my fword.
Leon. Tufh, tush, man, never flcer and jeft at me;
I speak not like a dotard nor a fool;

As, under privilege of age, to brag

What I have done being young, or what would do,
Were I not old: know, Claudio, to thy head,
Thou haft fo wrong'd my innocent child and me,
That I am forc'd to lay my reverence by;
And, with grey hairs, and bruise of many days,
Do challenge thee to tryal of a man;

I fay, thou haft bely'd mine innocent child,

Thy flander hath gone through and through her heart,
And the lyes bury'd with her ancestors,

O, in a tomb where never fcandal flept,
Save this of hers, fram'd by thy villany!

Claud. My villany?

Leon. Thine, Claudio; thine, I fay.
Pedro. You fay not right, old man.
Leon. My lord, my lord,

I'll prove it on his body, if he dare;

Defpight his nice fence and his active practice,
His May of youth, and bloom of luftyhood.
Claud. Away, I will not have to do with you.
(24) Leon. Canft thou fo daffe me? thou haft kill'd

my child;

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(24) Can't 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:

If thou kill'ft me, boy, thou shalt kill a man.
Ant. He fhall kill two of us, and men indeed;
But that's no matter, let him kill one first,
Win me and wear me, let him answer me;
Come, follow me, boy; come, boy, follow me;
Sir boy, I'll whip you from your foining fence;
Nay, as I am a gentleman, I will.

Leon. Brother,

Ant. Content your felf; God knows, I lov'd my
Niece;

And fhe is dead, flander'd to death by villains,
That dare as well answer a man, indeed,

As I dare take a ferpent by the tongue.
Boys, apes, braggarts, jacks, milkfops!
Leon. Brother Anthony,

Ant. Hold you content; what, man? I know them,

yea,

And what they weigh, even to the utmoft fcruple:
Scambling, out-facing, fashion-mongring boys,
That lye, and cog, and flout, deprave and flander,
Go antickly, and how an outward hideousness,
And speak off half a dozen dangerous words, (25)
How they might hurt their enemies, if they durft;
And this is all.

Leon. But, brother Anthony,
Ant. Come, 'tis no matter;

here: To daffe, and doffe are fynonomous Terms, 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. So Hotfpur, in the 1 Henr. IV.

Where is his Son,

The nimble-footed, mad-cap, Prince of Wales,
And his Comrades, that daft the World afide,
And bid it, pafs?

i. e. put it afide; neglected all Confiderations of the World. Doffe is too perpetual in our Author, to need any Quotations in Proof of it.

(25) And Speak of half a dozen dangerous Words,] These Editors are Perions of unmatchable Indolence, that can't afford to add a fingle Letter to retrieve common Senfe. To speak off, as I have reform'd the Text, is to throw out boldly, with an Oftentation of Bravery, &c. So in Twelfth-night;

A terrible Oath, with a fwaggering Accent fharply twang'd off:

Do

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

But, on my Honour, the was charg'd with nothing
But what was true, and very full of proof.
Leon. My lord, my lord-
Pedro. I will not hear you.

Leon, No! come, brother, away, I will be heard.
Ant. And fhall, or fome of us will fmart for it.

Enter Benedick.

[Exe. ambo.

Pedro. See, fee, here comes the man we went to seek. Claud. Now, Signior, what news?

Bene. Good day, my lord..

Pedro. Welcome, Signior; you are almoft come to part almoft a fray.

Claud. We had like to have had our two nofes fnapt 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: Į came to feek you both.

Claud. We have been up and down to feek thee; for we are high-proof melancholly, 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 honeft man, he looks pale: art thou fick or angry?

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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.

H h 4

Claud.

Claud. Nay, then give him another staff; this laft was broke crofs.

Pedro. By this light, he changes more and more; I think, he be angry, indeed.

Claud. If he be, he knows how to turn his girdle.
Bene. Shall I fpeak a word in your ear?
Claud. God bless me from a challenge!

Bene. You are a villain; I jeft not. I will make it good how you dare, with what you dare, and when you dare. Do me right, or I will proteft your cowardife. You have kill'd a fweet lady, and her death fhall fall heavy on you. Let me hear from you.

Claud. Well, I will meet you, so I may have good

cheer.

Pedro. What, a feast?

Claud. I' faith, I thank him; he hath bid me to a calves-head and a capon, the which if I do not carve moft curiously, fay, my knife's naught. Shall I not find a woodcock too?

Bene, Sir, your wit ambles well; it goes cafily.

:

Pedro. I'll tell thee, how Beatrice prais'd thy wit the other day I faid, thou hadft a fine wit; right, fays the, a fine little one; no, faid I, a great wit; juft, faid fhe, a great grofs one; nay, faid I, a good wit; juft, faid fhe, it hurts no body; nay, faid I, the gentleman is wife, certain, faid the, a wife gentleman; nay, faid I, he hath the tongues; that I believe, faid the, for he fwore a thing to me on Monday night, which he forfwore on Tuesday morning; there's a double tongue, there's two tongues. Thus did the an hour together tranf-fhape thy particular virtues; yet, at laft, fhe con cluded with a figh, thou waft the propereft man in Italy.

Claud. For the which fhe wept heartily, and faid The car'd not.

Pedro. Yea, that fhe did; but yet for all that, and if he did not hate him deadly, fhe would love him dearly; the old man's daughter told us all.

Claud. All, all; and moreover, God faw him when he was bid in the garden.

Pedro.

Pedro. But when fhall we fet the falvage bull's horns on the fenfible Benedick's head?

Claud. Yea, and text underneath, Here dwells Benedick the married man.

Bene. Fare you well, boy, you know my mind; I will leave you now to your goffip-like humour; you break jefts as braggarts do their blades, which, God be thank'd, hurt not. My lord, for your many courtefies I thank you; I muft difcontinue your company; your brother the baftard is fled from Melina; you have among you killed a fweet and innocent lady. For my lord lack-beard there, he and I fhall meet; and 'till then, peace be with him. [Exit Benedick.

Pedro. He is in earnest.

Claud. In moft profound earnest, and, I'll warrant you, for the love of Beatrice.

Pedro. And hath challeng'd thee?

Claud. Moft fincerely.

Pedro. What a pretty thing man is, when he goes in his doublet and hofe, and leaves off his wit!

Enter Dogberry, Verges, Conrade and Borachio

guarded.

Claud. He is then a giant to an ape; but then is an ape a doctor to fuch a man.

Pedro. But, foft you, let me fee, pluck up my heart and be fad, did he not fay, my brother was fled?

Dogb. Come you, Sir, if juftice cannot tame you, fhe fhall ne'er weigh more reafons in her balance; nay, an you be a curfing hypocrite once, you must be look'd to.

Pedro. How now, two of my brother's men bound? Borachio, one?

Claud. Hearken after their offence, my lord.

Pedro. Officers, what offence have these men done? Dogb. Marry, Sir, they have committed falfe report; moreover, they have spoken untruths; fecondarily, they are flanders; fixth and laftly, they have bely'd a lady; thirdly, they have verify'd unjust things; and to conclude, they are lying knaves,

Pedro.

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