Claudio, hand in hand, in sad conference: I whipt me behind the arras; and there heard it agreed upon, that the prince should woo Hero for himself, and having obtained her, give her to count Claudio.

D. JOHN. Come, come, let us thither; this may prove food to my displeasure: that young start-up hath all the glory of my overthrow; if I can cross him any way, I bless myself every way: You are both sure,' and will assist me?

CON. To the death, my lord.

D. JOHN. Let us to the great supper; their cheer is the greater, that I am subdued: "Would the cook were of my mind!-Shall we go prove what's to be done?

BORA. We'll wait upon your lordship. [Exeunt

sary. In the Harleian Collection of MSS. No. 6850, fol. 90, in the British Museum, is a paper of directions drawn up by Sir John Puckering's Steward, relative to Suffolk Place before Queen Elizabeth's visit to it in 1594. The 15th article is-" The swetynynge of the house in all places by any means." Again, in Burton's Anatomy of Melancholy, edit. 1632, p. 261: "—the smoake of juniper is in great request with us at Oxford, to sweeten our chambers.' See also King Henry IV. P. II. Act V. sc. iv. STEEVENS.

9-in sad conference:] Sad in this, as in future instances, signifies serious. So, in The Winter's Tale: " My father, and the gentlemen, are in sad talk." STEEVENS.

1both sure,] i. e. to be depended on. So, in Macbeth. "Thou sure and firm-set earth-"

STEEVENS.

ACT II. SCENE I.

A Hall in Leonato's House.

Enter LEONATO, ANTONIO, HERO, BEATRICE, and others.

LEON. Was not count John here at supper?
ANT. I saw him not.

BEAT. How tartly that gentleman looks! I never can see him, but I am heart-burned an hour after.2

HERO. He is of a very melancholy disposition.

BEAT. He were an excellent man, that were made just in the mid-way between him and Benedick: the one is too like an image, and says nothing; and the other, too like my lady's eldest son, evermore tattling.

LEON. Then half signior Benedick's tongue in count John's mouth, and half count John's melancholy in signior Benedick's face,—

BEAT. With a good leg, and a good foot, uncle, and money enough in his purse, such a man would win any woman in the world,—if he could get heṛ good will.

LEON. By my troth, niece, thou wilt never get thee a husband, if thou be so shrewd of thy tongue. ANT. In faith, she is too curst.

2

heart-burned an hour after.] The pain commonly called the heart-burn, proceeds from an acid humour in the stomach, and is therefore properly enough imputed to tart looks.

JOHNSON.

BEAT. Too curst is more than curst: I shall lessen God's sending that way: for it is said, God sends a curst cow short horns; but to a cow too curst he sends none.

LEON. So, by being too curst, God will send you no horns.

BEAT. Just, if he send me no husband; for the which blessing, I am at him upon my knees every morning and evening: Lord! I could not endure. a husband with a beard on his face; I had rather lie in the woollen.3

LEON. You may light upon a husband, that hath no beard.

BEAT. What should I do with him? dress him in my apparel, and make him my waiting gentlewoman? He that hath a beard, is more than a youth; and he that hath no beard, is less than a man: and he that is more than a youth, is not for me; and he that is less than a man, I am not for him: Therefore I will even take sixpence in earnest of the bear-herd, and lead his apes into hell. LEON. Well then, go you into hell?*

BEAT. No; but to the gate; and there will the devil meet me, like an old cuckold, with horns on his head, and say, Get you to heaven, Beatrice, get

in the woollen.] I suppose she means-between blankets, without sheets.

STEEVENS.

* Well then, &c.] Of the two next speeches Dr. Warburton says, All this impious nonsense thrown to the bottom, is the players', and foisted in without rhyme or reason. He therefore

puts them in the margin. They do not deserve indeed so honourable a place; yet I am afraid they are too much in the manner of our author, who is sometimes trying to purchase merriment at too dear a rate. JOHNSON.

I have restored the lines omitted. STEEVEns.

you to heaven; here's no place for you maids: so deliver I up my apes, and away to Saint Peter for the heavens; he shows me where the bachelors sit, and there live we as merry as the day is long.

ANT. Well, niece, [To HERO.] I trust, you will be ruled by your father.

BEAT. Yes, faith; it is my cousin's duty to make courtesy, and say, Father, as it please you:-but yet for all that, cousin, let him be a handsome fellow, or else make another courtesy, and say, Father, as it please me.

LEON. Well, niece, I hope to see you one day fitted with a husband.

BEAT. Not till God make men of some other metal than earth. Would it not grieve a woman to be over-mastered with a piece of valiant dust? to make an account of her life to a clod of wayward marl? No, uncle, I'll none; Adam's sons are my brethren; and truly, I hold it a sin to match in my kindred.

LEON. Daughter, remember, what I told you: if the prince do solicit you in that kind, you know your answer.

BEAT. The fault will be in the musick, cousin, if you be not woo'd in good time; if the prince be too important, tell him, there is measure in every thing, and so dance out the answer. For hear me,

5

if the prince be too important,] Important here, and in many other places, is importunate. JOHNSON.

6

So, in King Lear, Act IV. sc. iv:

66 -great France

"My mourning, and important tears hath pitied."

STEEVENS.

- there is measure in every thing,] A measure in old language, beside its ordinary meaning, signified also a dance.

MALONE.

Hero; Wooing, wedding, and repenting, is as a Scotch jig, a measure, and a cinque-pace: the first suit is hot and hasty, like a Scotch jig, and full as fantastical; the wedding, mannerly-modest, as a measure full of state and ancientry; and then comes repentance, and, with his bad legs, falls into the cinque-pace faster and faster, till he sink into his grave.

LEON. Cousin, you apprehend passing shrewdly. BEAT. I have a good eye, uncle; I can see a church by day-light.

LEON. The revellers are entering; brother, make good room.

Enter Don PEDRO, CLAUDIO, BENEDICK, BALTHAZAR; Don JOHN, BORACHIO, MARGARET, URSULA, and others, masked.

D. PEDRO. Lady, will you walk about with friend? 8

7

My legs can keep no measure in delight,

"When my poor heart no measure keeps in grief.”

your

STEEVENS.

Balthazar;] The quarto and folio add-or dumb John.
STEEVENS.

Here is another proof that when the first copies of our author's plays were prepared for the press, the transcript was made out by the ear. If the MS. had lain before the transcriber, it is very unlikely that he should have mistaken Don for dumb: but, by an inarticulate speaker, or inattentive hearer, they might easily be confounded. MALONE.

Don John's taciturnity has been already noticed. It seems therefore not improbable that the author himself might have occasionally applied the epithet dumb to him. REED.

8

your friend?] Friend, in our author's time, was the common term for a lover. So also in French and Italian.

MALONE.