SCENE II.

A Room in Leonato's House.

Enter LEONATO and ANTONIO.

LEON. How now, brother? Where is my cousin, your son? Hath he provided this musick?

ANT. He is very busy about it. But, brother, I can tell you strange news that you yet dreamed not of.

LEON. Are they good?

ANT. As the event stamps them; but they have a good cover, they show well outward. The prince and Count Claudio, walking in a thick-pleached alley' in my orchard, were thus much overheard by a man of mine: The prince discovered to Claudio, that he loved my niece your daughter, and meant to acknowledge it this night in a dance; and, if he found her accordant, he meant to take the present time by the top, and instantly break with you of it.

LEON. Hath the fellow any wit, that told you this?

ANT. A good sharp fellow: I will send for him, and question him yourself.

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strange news] Thus the quarto, 1600. The folio omits the epithet, which indeed is of little value. STEEVENS. a thick-pleached alley-] Thick-pleached is thickly interwoven. So afterwards, Act III. sc. i:

66

-bid her steal into the pleached bower." Again, in King Henry V :

"her hedges even-pleach'd-" STEEVENS.

LEON. No, no; we will hold it as a dream, till it appear itself:-but I will acquaint my daughter withal, that she may be the better prepared for an answer, if peradventure this be true. Go you, and tell her of it. [Several persons cross the stage.] Cousins, you know what you have to do.-O, I cry you mercy, friend; you go with me, and I will use your skill:-Good cousins, have a care this busy time. [Exeunt.

SCENE III.

Another Room in Leonato's House.

Enter Don JOHN and CONRADE.

3

CON. What the goujere, my lord! why are you thus out of measure sad?

D. JOHN. There is no measure in the occasion that breeds it, therefore the sadness is without limit.

CON. You should hear reason.

D. JOHN. And when I have heard it, what blessing bringeth it?

Cousins, you know--and afterwards,-good cousins.] Cousins were anciently enrolled among the dependants, if not the domesticks, of great families, such as that of Leonato.Petruchio, while intent on the subjection of Katharine, calls out, in terms imperative, for his cousin Ferdinand. STEEVENS.

3 What the goujere,] i. e. morbus Gallicus. The old copy corruptly reads, "good-year." The same expression occurs again in King Lear, Act V. sc. iii :

"The goujeres shall devour them, flesh and fell." See note on this passage. STEEVENS.

CON. If not a present remedy, yet a patient sufferance.

D. JOHN. I wonder, that thou being (as thou say'st thou art) born under Saturn, goest about to apply a moral medicine to a mortifying mischief. I cannot hide what I am :4 I must be sad when I have cause, and smile at no man's jests; eat when I have stomach, and wait for no man's leisure; sleep when I am drowsy, and tend to no man's business; laugh when I am merry, and claw no man in his humour.

CON. Yea, but you must not make the full show of this, till you may do it without controlment. You have of late stood out against your brother, and he hath ta'en you newly into his grace; where it is impossible you should take true root, but by the fair weather that you make yourself: it is needful that you frame the season for your own harvest.

• I cannot hide what I am:] This is one of our author's natural touches. An envious and unsocial mind, too proud to give pleasure, and too sullen to receive it, always endeavours to hide its malignity from the world and from itself, under the plainness of simple honesty, or the dignity of haughty independence. JOHNSON.

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claw no man in his humour.] To claw is to flatter. So, the pope's claw-backs, in Bishop Jewel, are the pope's flatterers. The sense is the same in the proverb, Mulus mūlum scabit.

So, in Albion's England, 1597, p. 125:

JOHNSON.

"The overweening of thy wits does make thy foes to smile,

"Thy friends to weepe, and claw-backs thee with soothings to beguile."

Again, in Wylson on Usury, 1571, p. 141: "therefore I will elawe him, and saye well might he fare, and godds blessing have he too. For the more he speaketh, the better it itcheth, and maketh better for me." REED.

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D. JOHN. I had rather be a canker in a hedge, than a rose in his grace; and it better fits my blood to be disdained of all, than to fashion a carriage to rob love from any: in this, though I cannot be said to be a flattering honest man, it must not be denied that I am a plain-dealing villain. I am trusted with a muzzle, and enfranchised with a clog; therefore I have decreed not to sing in my

I had rather be a canker in a hedge, than a rose in his grace;] A canker is the canker-rose, dog-rose, cynosbatus, or hip. The şense is; I would rather live in obscurity the wild life of nature, than owe dignity or estimation to my brother. He still continues his wish of gloomy independence. But what is the meaning of the expression, a rose in his grace? If he was a rose of himself, his brother's grace or favour could not degrade him. I once read thus: I had rather be a canker in a hedge, than a rose in his garden; that is, I had rather be what nature makes me, however mean, than owe any exaltation or improvement to my brother's kindness or cultivation. But a less change will be suffici ent: I think it should be read, I had rather be a canker in a hedge, than a rose by his grace. JOHNSON.

The canker is a term often substituted for the canker-rose: Heywood, in his Love's Mistress, 1636, calls it the "canker flower."

Again, in Shakspeare's 54th Sonnet:

"The canker blooms have full as deep a die

"As the perfumed tincture of the rose."

I think no change is necessary. The sense is,-I had rather be a neglected dog-rose in a hedge, than a garden-flower of thè same species, if it profited by his culture. STEEVENS.

The latter words are intended as an answer to what Conrade has just said-" he hath ta'en you newly into his grace, wheer it is impossible you should take true root," &c. In Macbeth we have a kindred expression:

"I have begun to plant thee, and will labour
"To make thee full of growing."

Again, in King Henry VI. P. ÎII:

"I'll plant Plantagenet, root him up who dares."

VOL. VI.

D

5

MALONE.

cage: If I had my mouth, I would bite; if I had my liberty, I would do my liking: in the mean time, let me be that I am, and seek not to alter

me.

CON. Can you make no use of your discontent? D. JOHN. I make all use of it, for I use it only. Who comes here? What news, Borachio?

Enter BORACHIO.

BORA. I came yonder from a great supper; the prince, your brother, is royally entertained by Leonato; and I can give you intelligence of an intended marriage.

D. JOHN. Will it serve for any model to build mischief on? What is he for a fool, that betroths himself to unquietness?

BORA. Marry, it is your brother's right hand. D. JOHN. Who? the most exquisite Claudio? BORA. Even he.

D. JOHN. A proper squire! And who, and who? which way looks he?

BORA. Marry, on Hero, the daughter and heir of Leonato.

D. JOHN. A very forward March-chick! How came you to this?

BORA. Being entertained for a perfumer, as I was smoking a musty room, comes me the prince and

"—for I use it only.] i. e. for I make nothing else my counsellor. STEEVENS.

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smoking a musty room,] The neglect of cleanliness among our ancestors, rendered such precautions too often neces