in her, my lord: she is never sad, but when she sleeps; and not ever sad then; for I have heard my daughter say, she hath often dreamed of unhappiness, and waked herself with laughing.

2

D. PEDRO. She cannot endure to hear tell of a husband.

LEON. O, by no means; she mocks all her wooers out of suit.

D. PEDRO. She were an excellent wife for Benedick.

LEON. O lord, my lord, if they were but a week married, they would talk themselves mad.

D. PEDRO. Count Claudio, when mean you to go to church?

CLAUD. To-morrow, my lord: Time goes on crutches, till love have all his rites.

LEON. Not till Monday, my dear son, which is hence a just seven-night; and a time too brief toò, to have all things answer my mind.

D. PEDRO. Come, you shake the head at so long a breathing; but, I warrant thee, Claudio, the time

"Does

1 There's little of the melancholy element in her,] not our life consist of the four elements?" says Sir Toby, in Twelfth-Night. So, also in King Henry V: "He is pure air and fire, and the dull elements of earth and water never appear in him." MALONE.

2

she hath often dreamed of unhappiness,] So all the editions; but Mr. Theobald alters it to, an happiness, having no conception that unhappiness meant any thing but misfortune, and that, he thinks, she could not laugh at. He had never heard that it signified a wild, wanton, unlucky trick. Thus Beaumont and Fletcher, in their comedy of The Maid of the Mill:

"My dreams are like my thoughts, honest and innocent: "Yours are unhappy." WARBURTON,

shall not go dully by us; I will, in the interim, undertake one of Hercules' labours; which is, to bring signior Benedick and the lady Beatrice into a mountain of affection, the one with the other. I

3 — into a mountain of affection, the one with the other.] A mountain of affection with one another, is a strange expression, yet I know not well how to change it. Perhaps it was originally written to bring Benedick and Beatrice into a mooting of affection; to bring them not to any more mootings of contention, but to a mooting or conversation of love. This reading is confirmed by the preposition with; a mountain with each other, or affection with each other, cannot be used, but a mooting with each other is proper and regular. JOHNSON.

Uncommon as the word proposed by Dr. Johnson may appear, it is used in several of the old plays. So, in Glapthorne's Wit in a Constable, 1639:

"Had mooted in the hall, or seen the revels

"Kept in the house at Christmas."

Again, in The Return from Parnassus, 1606:

Again:

"It is a plain case, whereon I mooted in our temple."

"at a mooting in our temple." Ibid.

And yet, all that I believe is meant by a mountain of affection is, a great deal of affection.

In one of Stanyhurst's poems is the following phrase to denote a large quantity of love:

Lumps of love promist, nothing perform'd," &c.

Again, in The Renegado, by Massinger:

Thus, also in King Henry VIII. we find " a sea of glory." In Hamlet, "a sea of troubles." Again, in Howel's History of Venice: 66 though they see mountains of miseries heaped on one's back." Again, in Bacon's History of King Henry VII: "Perkin sought to corrupt the servants to the lieutenant of the tower by mountains of promises." Again, in The Comedy of Errors: " the mountain of mad flesh that claims marriage of me.' Little can be inferred from the present offence against grammar; an offence which may not strictly be imputable to Shakspeare, but rather to the negligence or ignorance of his transcribers or printers. STEEVENS.

would fain have it a match; and I doubt not but to fashion it, if you three will but minister such assistance as I shall give you direction.

LEON. My lord, I am for you, though it cost me ten nights' watchings.

CLAUD. And I, my lord.

D. PEDRO. And you too, gentle Hero? HERO. I will do any modest office, my lord, to help my cousin to a good husband.

D. PEDRO. And Benedick is not the unhopefullest husband that I know: thus far can I praise him; he is of a noble strain, of approved valour, and confirmed honesty. I will teach you how to humour your cousin, that she shall fall in love with Benedick:-and I, with your two helps, will so practice on Benedick, that, in despite of his quick wit and his queasy stomach," he shall fall in love. with Beatrice. If we can do this, Cupid is no

Shakspeare has many phrases equally harsh. He who would hazard such expressions as a storm of fortune, a vale of years, and a tempest of provocation, would not scruple to write a mountain of affection. MALOne.

4

a noble strain,] i. e. descent, lineage. So, in The Fairy Queen, B. IV. c. viii. s. 33:

"Sprung from the auncient stocke of prince's straine." Again, B. V. c. ix. s. 32:

"Sate goodly temperaunce in garments clene,

"And sacred reverence yborn of heavenly strene."

It was used in the same sense by Shadwell, in his Virtuoso, Act I: "Gentlemen care not upon what strain they get their 'sons."

REED.

Again, in King Lear, Act V. sc. iii:

"Sir, you have shown to-day your valiant strain."

STEEVENS. 3queasy stomach,] i. e. squeamish. So, in Antony and "Cleopatra:

"Who queasy with his insolence already-." STEEVENS.

longer an archer; his glory shall be ours, for we are the only love-gods. Go in with me, and I will tell you my drift. [Exeunt.

SCENE II.

Another Room in Leonato's House.

Enter Don JOHN and BORACHIO.

D. JOHN. It is so; the count Claudio shall marry the daughter of Leonato.

BORA. Yea, my lord: but I can cross it.

D. JOHN. Any bar, any cross, any impediment will be medicinable to me: I am sick in displeasure to him; and whatsoever comes athwart his affection, ranges evenly with mine. How canst thou cross this marriage?

BORA. Not honestly, my lord; but so covertly that no dishonesty shall appear in me.

D. JOHN. Show me briefly how.

BORA. I think, I told your lordship, a year since, how much I am in the favour of Margaret, the waiting-gentlewoman to Hero.

D. JOHN. I remember.

BORA. I can, at any unseasonable instant of the night, appoint her to look out at her lady's chamber-window.

D. JOHN. What life is in that, to be the death of this marriage?

BORA. The poison of that lies in you to temper. Go you to the prince your brother; spare not to

tell him, that he hath wronged his honour in marrying the renowned Claudio (whose estimation do you mightily hold up) to a contaminated stale, such a one as Hero.

D. JOHN. What proof shall I make of that?

BORA. Proof enough to misuse the prince, to vex Claudio, to undo Hero, and kill Leonato: Look you for any other issue?

D. JOHN. Only to despite them, I will endeavour any thing.

6 BORA. Go then, find me a meet hour to draw

The

Bora. Go then, find me a meet hour to draw Don Pedro and the count Claudio, alone: tell them, that you know that Hero loves me; -offer them instances; which shall bear no less likelihood, than to see me at her chamber-window; hear me call Margaret, Hero; hear Margaret term me Claudio; and bring them to see this, the very night before the intended wedding] Thus the whole stream of the editions from the first quarto downwards. I am obliged here to give a short account of the plot depending, that the emendation I have made may appear the more clear and unquestionable. business stands thus: Claudio, a favourite of the Arragon prince, is, by his intercessions 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 to disappoint the match. Borachio, a rascally dependant on Don John, offers his assistance, and engages to break off the marriage by this stratagem, “Tell the prince and Claudio (says he) that Hero is in love with me; they won't believe it: offer them proofs, as, that they shall see me converse with her in her chamber-window. I am in the good graces of her waiting-woman, Margaret; and I'll prevail with Margaret, at a dead hour of night, to personate her mistress Hero; do you then bring the Prince and Claudio to overhear our discourse; and they shall have the torment to hear me address Margaret by the name of Hero, and her say sweet things to me by the name of Claudio."-This is the substance of Borachio's device to make Hero suspected of disloyalty; and to break off her match with Claudio. But, in the name of common sense, could it displease Claudio, to hear his mistress making use of his name tenderly? If he saw another man with her,