D. Pedro. Well, if ever thou doft fall from this faith, thou wilt prove a notable argument.7 Bene. If I do, hang me in a bottle like a cat, and fhoot at me; and he that hits me, let him be clapped on the fhoulder, and call'd Adam.9 D. Pedro. Well, as time fhall try: In time the favage bull doth bear the yoke. : Bene. The favage bull may; but if ever the sensible Benedick bear it, pluck off the bull's horns, and fet them in my forehead and let me be vilely painted; and in fuch great letters as they write, Here is good horse to hire, let them fignify under my fign,-Here you may fee Benedick the married man. Claud. If this fhould ever happen, thou would'st be hornmad. D. Pedro. Nay, if Cupid have not fpent all his quiver in Venice, thou wilt quake for this shortly. Bene. I look for an earthquake too then. D. Pedro. Well, you will temporize with the hours. In the mean time, good fignior Benedick, repair to Leonato's; commend 7 An eminent fubject for fatire. JOHNSON. In fome counties in England, a cat was formerly clofed up with a quantity of foot in a wooden bottle, (fuch as that in which thepherds carry their liquor,) and was fufpended on a line. He who beat out the bottom as he ran under it, and was nimble enough to escape its contents, was regarded as the hero of this inhuman diverfion. STEEVENS. This practice is ftill kept up at Kelfo, in Scotland, where it is called-Cat-in-barrel. See a defcription of the whole ceremony in a little account of the town of Kelfo, published in 1789, by one Ebenezer Lazarus, a filly Methodist, who has interlarded his book with fcraps of pious and other poetry. DouCE.. 9 Adam Bel, Clym of the Cloughe, and Wyllyam of Cloudefle, were, fays Dr. Percy, three noted outlaws, whofe fkill in Archery, rendered them formerly as famous in the North of England, as Robin Hood and his fellows were in the midland counties. Their place of refidence was. in the foreft of Englewood, not far from Carlisle. At what time they lived does not appear. The author of the common ballads on The Pedigree, Education, and Marriage of Robin Hood, makes them contemporary with Robin Hood's father, in order to give him the honour of beating them. See Reliques of Ancient English Poetry, Vol. I. p. 143, where the ballad outlaws is preferved. STEEVENS. 2 All modern writers agree in reprefenting Venice in the fame light as the ancients did Cyprus. And it is this character of the people that is here alluded to. WARBURTON. commend me to him, and tell him I will not fail him at fupper; for, indeed, he hath made great preparation. Bene. I have almoft matter enough in me for fuch an embaffage; and fo I commit you Claud. To the tuition of God: From my house, (if I had it,) D. Pedro. The fixth of July: Your loving friend, Benedick. Bene. Nay, mock not, mock not: The body of your difcourfe is fometime guarded with fragments, and the guards are but flightly bafted on neither: ere you flout old ends any further, examine your confcience; and fo I leave [Exit BENEDICK. Claud. My liege, your highnefs now may do me good. D. Pedro. My love is thine to teach; teach it but how, And thou shalt fee how apt it is to learn you. Any hard leffen that may do thee good. Claud. Hath Leonato any fon, my lord? D. Pedro. No child but Hero, fhe's his only heir: Doft thou affect her Claudio? Claud. O my lord, When you went onward on this ended action, I look'd upon her with a foldier's eye, D. Pedro. Thou wilt be like a lover prefently, And I will break with her, and with her father, 3 Guards were ornamental lace or borders. STEEVENS. Claud 4 Before you endeavour to diftinguish your felf any more by antiquated allufions, examine whether you can fairly claim them for your own. This, I think is the meaning; or it may be understood in another fense, examine, if your farcafms touch yourself. JOHNSON. Claud. How fweetly do you minifter to love, D. Pedro. What need the bridge much broader than the flood? The fairest grant is the neceffity: 5 Look, what will ferve, is fit: 'tis once, thou lòvʼst ; And I will fit thee with the remedy. I know, we shall have revelling to-night; t; [Exeunt, Leon. How now, brother? Where is my coufin your fon? Hath he provided this mufick? Ant. He is very bufy about it. But, brother, I can tell you ftrange news that you yet dream'd not of. Leon. Are they good! Ant. As the event ftamps them; but they have a good cover, they fhow well outward. The prince and Count Claudio, walking in a thick-pleached alley 6 in my orchard, were thus much overheard by a man of mine: The prince difcovered to Claudio, that he loved my niece your daughter, and meant to acknowledge it this night in a dance; and, if he 5. e. no one can have a better reason for granting a request than the neceffity of its being granted. WARBURTON. Mr. Hayley with great acutenefs proposes to read, The fairest grant is to neceffity. STEEVENS. Thefe words cannot imply the fenfe that Warburton contends for; but if we fuppofe that grant means conceffion, the fenfe is obvious; and that is no uncommon acceptation of that word. M. MASON. · • Thick-pleached is thickly interwoven, he found her accordant, he meant to take the prefent time by the top, and instantly break with you of it. Leon. Hath the fellow any wit, that told you this? Ant. A good fharp fellow; I will fend for him, and quef tion him yourself. Leon. No, no; we will hold it as a dream, till it appear itfelf:-but I will acquaint my daughter withal, that the my be the better prepared for an anfwer, if peradventure this be true. Go you, and tell her of it. [Several perfons cross the fage.] Coulins, you know what you have to do.-0, I cry you mercy, friend; go you with me, and I will ufe your skil: Good coufins, have a care this busy time. [Exeunt. SCENE III. Another Room in LEONATO's Houje. Enter Don JOHN and CONRADE. Con. What the goujere, my lord! why are you thus out of measure fad ? D. John. There is no measure in the occafion that breeds it, therefore the fadnefs is without limit. Con. You should hear reafon. D. John. And when I have heard it, what bleffing bringeth it? Con. If not a prefent remedy, yet a patient fufferance. D. John. I wonder, that thou being (as thou fayeft thou art) born under Saturn, goest about to apply a moral medicine to a mortifying mischief. I cannot hide what I am : I must be fad when I have caufe, and finile at no man's jets; eat when I have stomach, and wait for no man's leifure; fleep when 7 Cousins were anciently enrolled among the dependants, if not the domefticks, of great families, fuch as that of Leonato. Petruchio, while intent on the fubjection of Katharine, calls out, in terms imperative, for his coufin Ferdinand. STEEVENS. 8 What the goujere,] i. e. morbus Gallicus. The old copy corruptly reads, "good year." The fame expreflion occurs again in K. Lear. A&t V. fc. iii. STEEVENS. 9 This is one of cur author's natural touches. An envious and unfocial mind, too proud to give pleasure, and too fullen to receive it, always endeavours to hide its malignity from the world and from itfelf, under the plainnefs of timple honefty, or the dignity of haughty independence. JOHNSONA when I am drowfy, and tend on no man's bufinefs; laugh when I am merry, and claw no man in his humour. 9 Con. Yea, but you must not make the full show of this, till you may do it without controlment. You have of late ftood out against your brother, and he hath ta'en you newly into his grace; where it is impoffible you should take true root, but by the fair weather that you make yourself: it is needful that you frame the feafon for your own harvest. 2 D. John. I had rather be a canker in a hedge, than a rofe in his grace; and it better fits my blood to be disdain'd of all, than to fashion a carriage to rob love from any: in this, though I cannot be faid to be a flattering honest man, it must not be denied but I am a plain-dealing villain. I am trusted with a muzzle, and enfranchifed with a clog: therefore I have decreed not to fing in my 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 feek not to alter me. Con. Can you make no ufe of your difcontent? D. John. I make all use of it, for I ufe it only.3 Who comes here? What news, Borachio? Enter 9 To claw is to flatter. So the pope's claw-backs, in Bishop Jewel, are the pope's flatterers. The fenfe is the fame in the proverb, Mulus mulum fcabit. JOHNSON. 2 I bad rather be a canker in a hedge, than a rose in bis grace;] A canker is the canker-rofe, dog-refe, cynofbatus, or bip. The fenfe is, I would rather live in obfcurity the wild life of nature, than owe dignity or eftimation to my brother. He ftill continues his wish of gloomy independence. But what is the meaning of the expreffion, a rofe in his grace? If he was a rofe of himself, his brother's grace or fa vour could not degrade him. I once read thus: I had rather be a canker in a hedge, than a rofe in bis 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 lefs change will be fufficient: I think it fhould be read, I had rather be a canker in a hedge, than a rofe by his grace. JOHNSON. The canker is a term often substituted for the canker-rofe. Heywood, in his Love's Miftrefs, 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 rofe." I think no change is neceffary. The fenfe is,-I had rather be a neg lected dog-rofe in a hedge, than a garden-flower of the fame fpecies, if it profited by his culture. STEEVENS. 3 i, e. for I make nothing else my counfellor. STEEVENS. |