BEAT. Will you go hear this news, signior?

BENE. I will live in thy heart, die in thy lap, and be buried in thy eyes; and, moreover, I will go with thee to thy uncle's.

[Exeunt.

Enter DON PEDRO, CLAUDIO, and Attendants, with music and tapers.

CLAUD. Is this the monument of Leonato?

ATTEN. It is, my lord.

CLAUD. [Reads from a scroll.]

"Done to death by slanderous tongues

Was the Hero that here lies:

Death, in guerdon of her wrongs,

Gives her fame which never dies:
So the life that died with shame
Lives in death with glorious fame.
Hang thou there upon the tomb,
Praising her when I am dumb."

Now, music sound, and sing your solemn hymn.

SONG.

"Pardon, Goddess of the night,
Those that slew thy virgin knight;
For the which, with songs of woe,
Round about her tomb they go.

Midnight, assist our moan;
Help us to sigh and groan,

Heavily, heavily:

Graves, yawn, and yield your dead,

Till death be uttered,

Heavenly, heavenly."

CLAUD. Now unto thy bones good night!
Yearly will I do this rite.

D. PEDRO. Good morrow, masters; put your torches out:
The wolves have prey'd and look, the gentle day,
Before the wheels of Phoebus, round about

Dapples the drowsy east with spots of gray:
Thanks to you all, and leave us; fare you well.
CLAUD. Good morrow, masters; each his several way.
D. PEDRO. Come, let us hence, and put on other weeds;
And then to Leonato's we will

go.

CLAUD. And, Hymen, now with luckier issue speeds

Than this, for whom we render'd up this woe!

[Exeunt.

• Heavenly, heavenly. In the quarto the reading is heavily, heavily. The editors appear to have mistaken the meaning of uttered, interpreting the passage to mean till songs of death be uttered heavily. To utter is here to put out-to expel. Death is expelled heavenly-by the power of heaven. The passage has evidently reference to the sublime verse of Corinthians.

COMEDIES.-VOL. II.

E

SCENE IV.-A Room in Leonato's House.

Enter LEONATO, ANTONIO, BENEDICK, BEATRICE, URSULA, Friar, and HERO.

FRIAR. Did I not tell you she was innocent?

LEON. So are the prince and Claudio, who accus'd her,
Upon the error that you heard debated:
But Margaret was in some fault for this;
Although against her will, as it appears
In the true course of all the question.
ANT. Well, I am glad that all things sort so well.
BENE. And so am I, being else by faith enforc'd

To call young Claudio to a reckoning for it.
LEON. Well, daughter, and you gentlewomen all,
Withdraw into a chamber by yourselves;
And, when I send for you, come hither mask'd:
The prince and Claudio promis'd by this hour
To visit me:-you know your office, brother;
You must be father to your brother's daughter,
And give her to young Claudio.

ANT. Which I will do with confirm'd countenance.
BENE. Friar, I must entreat your pains, I think.
FRIAR. To do what, signior?

BENE. To bind me, or undo me, one of them.

Signior Leonato, truth it is, good signior,
Your niece regards me with an eye of favour.
LEON. That eye my daughter lent her: "T is most true.
BENE. And I do with an eye of love requite her.
LEON. The sight whereof, I think, you had from me,

From Claudio, and the prince. But what's

BENE. Your answer, sir, is enigmatical:

But, for my will, my will is, your good will
May stand with ours, this day to be conjoin'd
In the estate of honourable marriage;
In which, good friar, I shall desire your help.
LEON. My heart is with your liking.

FRIAR.

your will?

And my help. [Here comes the prince, and Claudio a.]

Enter DON PEDRO and CLAUDIO, with Attendants.

D. PEDRO. Good morrow to this fair assembly.
LEON. Good morrow, prince; good morrow, Claudio;
We here attend you. Are you yet determin'd
To-day to marry with my brother's daughter?
CLAUD. I'll hold my mind, were she an Ethiope.

The passage in brackets is omitted in the folio.

[Exeunt Ladies.

LEON. Call her forth, brother, here's the friar ready.

D. PEDRO. Good morrow, Benedick: Why, what's the matter,
That you have such a February face,

So full of frost, of storm, and cloudiness?

CLAUD. I think he thinks upon the savage bull:

Tush, fear not, man, we 'll tip thy horns with gold,
And all Europa shall rejoice at thee;

As once Europa did at lusty Jove,

When he would play the noble beast in love.

BENE. Bull Jove, sir, had an amiable low;

And some such strange bull leap'd your father's cow,
And got a calf in that same noble feat,

Much like to you, for you have just his bleat.

Re-enter ANTONIO, with the Ladies masked.

CLAUD. For this I owe you: here come other reckonings.
Which is the lady I must seize upon?

ANT. This same is she, and I do give you her.

CLAUD. Why, then she's mine: Sweet, let me see your face.
LEON. No, that you shall not, till you take her hand
Before this friar, and swear to marry her.
CLAUD. Give me your hand before this holy friar;
I am your husband, if you like of me.

HERO. And when I liv'd, I was your other wife :
And when you lov'd, you were my other husband.
CLAUD. Another Hero?

a

One Hero died [defil'd ;] but I do live,

And, surely as I live, I am a maid.

D. PEDRO. The former Hero! Hero that is dead!

LEON. She died, my lord, but whiles her slander liv'd.
FRIAR. All this amazement can I qualify;

When, after that the holy rites are ended,
I'll tell you largely of fair Hero's death:
Meantime, let wonder seem familiar,
And to the chapel let us presently.

BENE. Soft and fair, friar.—Which is Beatrice ?

BEAT. I answer to that name [unmasking]; what is

BENE. Do not you love me?

BEAT.

your

will?

Why no, no more than reason.

• The word defil'd is also wanting in the folio.

[Exit ANTONIO.

[Unmasking.

Why no. Steevens rejects the why, upon the old principle of its being "injurious to metre." When Benedick in the same way replies to the question of Beatrice,

"Do not you love me?"

the poet throws a spirit and variety into the answer, by making it, "Troth no, no more than reason."

Steevens

BENE. Why then your uncle, and the prince, and Claudio,
Have been deceiv'd; they swore you did.

BEAT. Do not you love me?

BENE.
Troth no, no more than reason.
BEAT. Why then my cousin, Margaret, and Ursula,

Are much deceiv'd; for they did swear you did.
BENE. They swore that you were almost sick for me.
BEAT. They swore that you were well nigh dead for me.
BENE. "T is no such matter:- Then you do not love me?
BEAT. No, truly, but in friendly recompense.

LEON. Come, cousin, I am sure you love the gentleman.
CLAUD. And I'll be sworn upon 't, that he loves her;
For here's a paper, written in his hand,

A halting sonnet of his own pure brain,
Fashion'd to Beatrice.

HERO.

And here's another,

Writ in my cousin's hand, stolen from her pocket,
Containing her affection unto Benedick.

BENE. A miracle; here's our own hands against our hearts!-Come, I will have thee; but, by this light, I take thee for pity.

BEAT. I would not deny you;-but, by this good day, I yield upon great persuasion; and, partly, to save your life, for I was told you were in a consump

tion.

BENE. Peace, I will stop your mouth a.

[Kissing her.

D. PEDRO. How dost thou, Benedick the married man? BENE. I'll tell thee what, prince; a college of wit-crackers cannot flout me out of my humour: Dost thou think I care for a satire, or an epigram? No: if a man will be beaten with brains, a shall wear nothing handsome about him: In brief, since I do purpose to marry, I will think nothing to any pur pose that the world can say against it; and therefore never flout at me for what I have said against it; for man is a giddy thing, and this is my conclusion. For thy part, Claudio, I did think to have beaten thee; but in that thou art like to be my kinsman, live unbruised, and love my cousin. CLAUD. I had well hoped thou wouldst have denied Beatrice, that I might have cudgelled thee out of thy single life, to make thee a double dealer; which, out of question, thou wilt be, if my cousin do not look exceeding narrowly to thee.

C

BENE. Come, come, we are friends :-let 's have a dance ere we are married, that we may lighten our own hearts, and our wives' heels.

Steevens cuts out the troth; the metre, says he, is overloaded. It would matter little what Steevens did with his own edition, but he has furnished the text of every popular edition of Shakspere extant; and for this reason we feel it a duty perpetually to protest against his corruptions of the real text.

The old copies give the line to Leonato.

What is omitted in the folio.

• In that-because.

LEON. We'll have dancing afterwards.

BENE. First, o' my word; therefore, play music.

Prince, thou art sad; get thee a wife, get thee a wife; there is no staff more reverend than one tipped with horn 23.

Enter a Messenger.

MESS. My lord, your brother John is ta'en in flight,

And brought with armed men back to Messina.

BENE. Think not on him till to-morrow; I'll devise thee brave punishments for him.-Strike up, pipers.

[Dance. Exeunt.