Bene. Is't poffible? Sits the wind in that corner? [afide. Leon. By my troth, my lord, I cannot tell what to think of it; but that the loves him with an enraged affection,-it is paft the infinite of thought*. D. Pedro. May be, fhe doth but counterfeit. Leon. O God! counterfeit! There never was counterfeit of paffion came fo near the life of paffion as fhe dif covers it. D. Pedro. Why, what effects of paffion fhews she? Claud. Bait the hook well; this fish will bite. [afide. Leon. What effects, my lord! She will fit you,-You heard my daughter tell you how. Claud. She did, indeed. D. Pedro. How, how, I pray you? You amaze me: I would have thought her spirit had been invincible against all affaults of affection. Leon. I would have fworn it had, my lord; efpecially against Benedick. Bene. [afide.] I fhould think this a gull, but that the white-bearded fellow fpeaks it: knavery cannot, fure, hide himself in fuch reverence. Claud. He hath ta'en the infection; hold it up. [afide. D. Pedro. Hath fhe made her affection known to Benedick? Leon. No; and fwears she never will: that's her tor ment. Claud. 'Tis true, indeed; fo your daughter fays: Shall I, fays fhe, that have fo oft encounter'd him with fcorn, write to him that I love him? Leon. This fays fhe now when he is beginning to write to him for fhe'll be up twenty times a night; and -but that he loves bim with an enraged affection,—it is past the infinite of thought. The plain fenfe is, I know not what to think otherwife, but that he loves him with an enraged affection: It (this affection) is paft the infinite of thought. Infinite is ufed by more careful writers for indefinite and the fpeaker only means, that thought, though in itself unbounded, cannot reach or estimate the degree of her paffion. JoHNS. The meaning, I think, is, but with what an enraged affection she loves bim, it is beyond the power of thought to conceive. MALONE. there there will fhe fit in her fmock, till fhe have writ a fheet of paper 5-my daughter tells us all. Claud. Now you talk of a fheet of paper, I remember a pretty jeft your daughter told us of. Leon. O,-When he had writ it, and was reading it over, the found Benedick and Beatrice between the fheet? Claud. That. Leon. O, fhe tore the letter into a thousand half-pence"; rail'd at herself, that she should be fo immodeft to write to one that she knew would flout her: I measure him, fays fhe, by my own fpirit; for, I should flout him, if he writ to me; yea, though I love him, I should. Claud. Then down upon her knees fhe falls, weeps, fobs, beats her heart, tears her hair, prays, curfes ;Ofweet Benedick! God give me patience! Leon. She doth indeed; my daughter fays fo: and the ecftacy hath fo much overborne her, that my daughter is fometime afeard fhe will do defperate outrage to herself; It is very true. 5 This fays fhe now when she is beginning to write to him: for she'll be up twenty times a night; and there will she fit in ber fmock, till she bave writ a fheet of paper:] Shakspeare has more than once availed himfelf of fuch incidents as occurred to him from hiftory, &c. to compliment the princes before whom his pieces were performed. A ftriking inftance of flattery to James occurs in Macbeth; perhaps the paffage here quoted was not lefs grateful to Elizabeth, as it apparently alludes to an extraordinary trait in one of the letters pretended to have been written by the hated Mary to Bothwell. "I am nakit, and ganging to fleep, and zit I ceafe not to fcribble all this paper, in fo meikle as reft is thairof." That is, I am naked, and going to fleep, and yet I ceafe not to fcribble to the end of my paper, much as there remains of it unwritten on. HENLEY. 60, he tore the letter into a thousand half-pence ;] i. e. into a thoufand pieces of the fame bignefs. So, in As you like it :-"they were all like one another, as balfpence are." THEOBALD. A farthing, and perhaps a balfpenny, was used to fignify any fmall particle or divifion. So, in the character of the Priorefs in Chaucer : "That in hire cuppe was no ferthing fene "Of grefe, whan the dronken hadde hire draught." Prol. to the Cant. Tales, late edit. v. 135. STEEVINS. and the ecftacy] Ecftacy formerly fignified a violent perturbation of mind. So, in Macbeth; "in reftlefs ecftacy". MALONE. D. Pedro. It were good, that Benedick knew of it by fome other, if she will not discover it. Claud. To what end? He would but make a fport of it, and torment the poor lady worse. D. Pedro. An he should, it were an alms to hang him: She's an excellent fweet lady; and, out of all fufpicion, fhe is virtuous. Claud. And fhe is exceeding wife. D. Pedro. In every thing but in loving Benedick. Leon. O my lord, wifdom and blood combating in fo tender a body, we have ten proofs to one, that blood hath the victory. I am forry for her, as I have just cause, being her uncle and her guardian. 8 D. Pedro. I would, fhe had beftow'd this dotage on me; I would have daff'd all other refpects, and made her half myself: I pray you, tell Benedick of it, and hear what he will fay. Leon. Were it good, think you? Claud. Hero thinks furely, fhe will die for fhe fays, fhe will die if he love her not; and she will die ere the make her love known; and fhe will die if he woo her, rather than she will 'bate one breath of her accustom'd croffness. D. Pedro. She doth well: if she should make tender of her love, 'tis very poffible, he'll fcorn it; for the man, as you know all, hath a contemptible fpirit". Claud. He is a very proper man*. D. Pedro. He hath, indeed, a good outward happiness. 7 wifdom and blood] Blood is here as in many other places ufed by our author in the fenfe of paffion, or rather temperament of body. 8 afide. 9 MALONE. - have daff'd-] To daff is the fame as to doff, to do eff, to put STEEVENS. contemptible fpirit.] That is, a temper inclined to fcorn and contempt. It has been before remarked, that our author uses his verbal adjectives with great licence. There is therefore no need of changing the word with fir T. Hanmer to contemptuous. JOHNSON. In the argument to Darius, a tragedy, by lord Sterline, 1603, it is faid, that Darius wrote to Alexander "in a proud and contemptible manner." In this place contemptible certainly means contemptuous. STEEV. a very proper man.] i, e. a very handfome man. See Vol. I. p. 160. MALONE. Claud Claud. 'Fore God, and in my mind, very wife. D. Pedro. He doth, indeed, fhew fome fparks that are like wit. Claud. And I take him to be valiant! D. Pedro. As Hector, I affure you and in the managing of quarrels you may fay he is wife; for either he avoids them with great difcretion, or undertakes them with a most christian-like fear. Leon. If he do fear God, he muft neceffarily keep peace; if he break the peace, he ought to enter into a quarrel with fear and trembling. D. Pedro. And fo will he do; for the man doth fear God, howfoever it seems not in him, by fome large jests he will make. Well, I am forry for your niece: Shall we go feek Benedick, and tell him of her love? Claud. Never tell him, my lord; let her wear it out, with good counfel. Leon. Nay, that's impoffible; fhe may wear her heart out first. D. Pedro. Well, we will hear further of it by your daughter; let it cool the while. I love Benedick well; and I could wish he would modeftly examine himself, to fee how much he is unworthy to have fo good a lady. Leon. My lord, will you walk? dinner is ready. Claud. If he do not dote on her upon this, I will never truft my expectation. [afide. D. Pedro. Let there be the fame net fpread for her, and that muft your daughter and her gentlewomen carry. The sport will be, when they hold one an opinion of another's dotage, and no fuch matter; that's the scene that I would fee, which will be meerly a dumb show. Let us fend her to call him to dinner. [afide. [Exeunt Don PEDRO, CLAUDIO, and LEONATO. Bene. [advancing.] 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 feems, her affections have the full bent*: Love me! why, it must be . was fadly borne.] i. e. was seriously carried on. bave the full bent.] A metaphor from archery. "They fool me to the top of my bent." MALONE. R 3 STEEVENS. requited. requited. I hear how I am cenfured: they fay, I will bear myself proudly, if I perceive the love come from her; they fay too, that he will rather die than give any fign of affection.-I did never think to marry :-I must not feem proud :-happy are they that hear their detractions, and can put them to mending. They say, the lady is fair; 'tis a truth, I can bear them witnefs 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, for I will be horribly in love with her.-I may chance have fome odd quirks and remnants of wit broken on me, because I have rail'd 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, and thefe paper bullets of the brain, awe a man from the career of his humour? No: The world must be peopled. When I faid, I would die a bachelor, I did not think I fhould live till I were marry'd.-Here comes Beatrice: By this day, he's a fair lady: I do fpy fome marks of love in her. Enter BEATRICE. Beat. Against my will, I am fent to bid you come in to dinner. Bene. Fair Beatrice, I thank you for your pains. Beat. I took no more pains for those thanks, than you take pains to thank me; if it had been painful, I would not have come. Bene. You take pleasure then in the meffage? Beat. Yea, juft so much as you may take upon a knife's point, and choke a daw withal :-You have no ftomach, fignior; fare you well. [Exit. come in I took no Bene. Ha! Against my will I am fent to bid you to dinner-there's a double meaning in that. more pains for thofe thanks, than you look pains to thank me that's as much as to fay, Any pains that I take for you is as eafy as thanks :-If I do not take pity of her, I am a villain; if I do not love her, I am a Jew: I will go get her picture. [Exit. ACT |