Mess. I have already delivered him letters, and there appears much joy in him; even so much, that joy could not show itself modest enough, without a badge of bitterness 2.

Leon. Did he break out into tears?

Mess. In great measure 3.

Leon. A kind overflow of kindness: There are no faces truer than those that are so washed. How much better it is to weep at joy, than to joy at weeping!

Beat. I pray you, is signior Montanto returned from the wars, or no?

Mess. I know none of that name, lady; there was none such in the army of any sort 5.

Leon. What is he that you ask for, niece?
Hero. My cousin means signior Benedick of
Padua.

Mess. O, he is returned; and as pleasant as ever he was.

A

Beat. He set up his bills here in Messina, and challenged Cupid at the flight: and my uncle's

2 Of all the transports of joy, that which is attended by tears is least offensive; because, carrying with it this mark of pain, it allays the envy that usually attends another's happiness. This is finely called a modest joy, such a one as did not insult the observer by an indication of happiness unmixed with pain. In Chapman's version of the 10th Odyssey, a somewhat similar expression occurs :

our eyes wore

The same wet badge of weak humanity.' This is an idea which Shakspeare seems to have delighted to introduce. It occurs again in Macbeth:

my plenteous joys,

Wanton in fulness, seek to hide themselves
In drops of sorrow."

3 i. e. in abundance.

4 Montanto was one of the ancient terms of the fencing school; a title humorously given to one whom she would represent as a bravado.

5 Rank.

6 This phrase was in common use for affixing a printed notice in some public place, long before Shakspeare's time, and long after. It is amply illustrated by Mr. Douce, in his 'Illustrations of Shakspeare.' that went

Flights, were long and light feathered arrows, directly to the mark; bird-bolts, short thick arrows without a point, and spreading at the extremity into a blunt nobbed head. See Vol. I. p. 293, note 6. The meaning of the whole is :—

fool, reading the challenge, subscribed for Cupid, and challenged him at the bird-bolt. I pray you, how many hath he killed and eaten in these wars? But how many hath he killed? for, indeed, I promised to eat all of his killing.

Leon. Faith, niece, you tax signior Benedick too much; but he'll be meets with you, I doubt it not.

Mess. He hath done good service, lady, in these

wars.

Beat. You had musty victual, and he hath holp to eat it he is a very valiant trencher-man, he hath an excellent stomach.

Mess. And a good soldier too, lady.

Beat. And a good soldier to a lady;-But what Is he to a lord?

Mess. A lord to a lord, a man to a man; stuffed 9 with all honourable virtues.

Beat. It is so, indeed; he is no less than a stuffed man: but for the stuffing,-Well, w we are all mortal.

Leon. You must not, sir, mistake my niece: there is a kind of merry war betwixt signior Benedick and her they never meet, but there is a skirmish of wit between them.

Beat. Alas, he gets nothing by that. In our last conflict, four of his five wits 10 went halting off,

Benedick, from a vain conceit of his influence over women, challenged Cupid at the flight (i. e. to shoot at hearts). The fool, to ridicule this piece of vanity, in his turn challenged Benedick at the bird-bolt, an inferior kind of archery used by fools, who, for obvious reasons, were not permitted to shoot with pointed arrows whence the proverb-A fool's bolt is soon shot.

8 Even.

9 Stuffed, in this first instance, has n ridiculous meaning. Mede, in his discourses on Scripture, quoted by Edwards, speak ing of Adam, says, 'he whom God had stuffed with so many ex-cellent qualities. And in the Winter's Tale:

Of stuff d sufficiency.

Beatrice starts an idea at the words stuffed man. and prudently checks herself in the pursuit of it. A stuffed man appears to have been one of the many cant phrases for a cuckold.

10 In Shakspeare's time wit was the general term for intellectual power. The wits seem to have been reckoned five by

and now is the whole man governed with one: so that if he have wit enough to keep himself warm, let him bear it for a difference 11 between himself and his horse: for it is all the wealth that he hath left, to be known a resonable creature. Who is his companion now

every month a new sworn brother. Mess. Is it possible?

2

He hath

Beat. Very easily possible: he wears his faith but as the fashion of his hat, it ever changes with the next block 12.

Mess. I see, lady, the gentleman is not in your books 13.

Beat. No: an he were, I would burn my study. But, I pray you, who is his companion? Is there no young squarer 14 now, that will make a voyage with him to the devil?

Mess. He is most in the company of the right noble Claudio.

Beat. O Lord! he will hang upon him like a disease: he is sooner caught than the pestilence, and the taker runs presently mad. God help the noble Claudio! if he have caught the Benedick, it will cost him a thousand pound ere he be cured. Mess. I will hold friends with you, lady.

Beat. Do, good friend.

Leon. You will never run mad, niece.

analogy to the five senses. So in Lear, Act iii. Sc. 4: Bless thy five wits.'

it This is an heraldic term. So, in Hamlet, Ophelia says 'You may wear your rue with a difference.`

12 The mould on which a hat is formed. It is here used for shape or fashion. See note on Lear, Act iv. Sc. 6.

13 The origin of this phrase, which is still in common use, has not been clearly explained, though the sense of it is pretty generally understood. The most probable account derives it from the circumstance of servants and retainers being entered in the books of those to whom they were attached. To be in one's books was to be in favour. That this was the ancient sense of the phrase, and its origin, appears from Florio, in V. Casso. Cashier'd, crossed, cancelled, or put out of booke and checke Toule."

14 Quarrellor.

Beat. No, not till a hot January.
Mess. Don Pedro is approached.

Enter DON PEDRO, attended by BALTHAZAR and others, DON JOHN, CLAUDIO, and BENEDICK.

D. Pedro. Good signior Leonato, you are come to meet your trouble: the fashion of the world is to avoid cost, and you encounter it.

Leon. Never came trouble to my house in the likeness of your grace: for trouble being gone, comfort should remain; but, when you depart from me, sorrow abides, and happiness takes his leave. D. Pedro. You embrace your charge 15 too willingly. I think, this is your daughter.

Leon. Her mother hath many times told me so. Bene. Were you in doubt, sir, that you asked her? Leon. Signior Benedick, no; for then were you a child.

D. Pedro. You have it full, Benedick: we may guess by this what you are, being a man. Truly, the lady fathers herself 16:-Be happy, lady! for you are like an honourable father.

Bene. If signior Leonato be her father, she would not have his head on her shoulders, for all Messina, as like him as she is.

Beat. I wonder, that you will still be talking, signior Benedick; no body marks you.

Bene. What, my dear lady Disdain! are you yet living?

Beat. Is it possible disdain should die, while she hath such meet food to feed it, as signior Benedick? Courtesy itself must convert to disdain, if you come in her presence.

Bene. Then is courtesy a turn-coat: -But it is certain, I am lov'd of all ladies, only you excepted: and I would I could find in my heart that I had not a hard heart; for, truly, I love none.

15 Burthen, incumbrance.

16 This phrase is common in Dorsetshire. Jack father's himself,' is like his father.

Beat. A dear happiness to women; they would else have been troubled with a pernicious suitor. I thank God, and my cold blood, I am of your humour for that; I had rather hear my dog bark at a crow, than a man swear he loves me.

Bene. God keep your ladyship still in that mind! 80 some gentleman or other shall 'scape a predestinate scratched face.

Beat. Scratching could not make it worse 'twere such a face as yours were.

an

Bene. Well, you are a rare parrot-teacher. Beat. A bird of my tongue is better than a beast of yours.

Bene. I would, my horse had the speed of your tongue; and so good a continuer: But keep your way o'God's name; I have done.

Beat. You always end with a jade's trick; know you of old.

D. Pedro. This is the sum of all: Leonato,-signior Claudio, and signior Benedick, my dear friend Leonato, hath invited you all. I tell him, we shall stay here at the least a month; and he heartily prays, some occasion may detain us longer: I dare swear he is no hypocrite, but prays from his heart.

P

Leon. If you swear, my lord, you shall not be forsworn. Let me bid you welcome, my lord, being reconciled to the prince your brother, I owe you all duty.

D. John. I thank you: I am not of many words, but I thank you.

Leon. Please it your grace lead on?

D. Pedro. Your hand, Leonato; we will go together. [Exeunt all but BENEDICK and CLAUDIO. Claud. Benedick, didst thou note the daughter of signior Leonato ?

Bene. I noted her not; but I looked on her.
Claud. Is she not a modest young lady?

Bene. Do you question me, as an honest man should do, for my simple true judgment; or would