would fain have it a match; and I doubt not but to fashion it, if you three will but minister such assistance as I shall give you direction. LEON. My lord, I am for you, though it cost me ten nights' watchings. CLAUD. And I, my lord. D. PEDRO. And you too, gentle Hero? HERO. I will do any modest office, my lord, to help my cousin to a good husband. D. PEDRO. And Benedick is not the unhopefullest husband that I know: thus far can I praise him; he is of a noble strain, of approved valour, and confirmed honesty. I will teach you how to humour your cousin, that she shall fall in love with Benedick:-and I, with your two helps, will practice on Benedick, that, in despite of his quick wit and his queasy stomach, he shall fall in love with Beatrice. If we can do this, Cupid is no SO Shakspeare has many phrases equally harsh. He who would hazard such expressions as a storm of fortune, a vale of years, and a tempest of provocation, would not scruple to write a mountain of affection. MALONE. 4 a noble strain,] i. e. descent, lineage. So, in The Fairy Queen, B. IV. c. viii. s. 33: "Sprung from the auncient stocke of prince's straine." Again, B. V. c. ix. s. 32: "Sate goodly temperaunce in garments clene, It was used in the same sense by Shadwell, in his Virtuoso, Act I: "Gentlemen care not upon what strain they get their "Sons." REED. Again, in King Lear, Act V. sc. iii : 5 " Sir, you have shown to-day your valiant strain." STEEVENS. queasy stomach,] i. e. squeamish. So, in Antony and Cleopatra: " Who queasy with his insolence already-." STEEVENS. 1 longer an archer; his glory shall be ours, for we are the only love-gods. Go in with me, and I will tell you my drift. [Exeunt. SCENE II. Another Room in Leonato's House. Enter Don JOHN and BORACHIO. D. JOHN. It is so; the count Claudio shall marry the daughter of Leonato. BORA. Yea, my lord: but I can cross it. D. JOHN. Any bar, any cross, any impediment will be medicinable to me: I am sick in displeasure to him; and whatsoever comes athwart his affection, ranges evenly with mine. How canst thou cross this marriage? BORA. Not honestly, my lord; but so covertly that no dishonesty shall appear in me. D. JOHN. Show me briefly how. BORA. I think, I told your lordship, a year since, how much I am in the favour of Margaret, the waiting-gentlewoman to Hero. D. JOHN. I remember. BORA. I can, at any unseasonable instant of the night, appoint her to look out at her lady's chamber-window. D. JOHN. What life is in that, to be the death of this marriage? BORA. The poison of that lies in you to temper. Go you to the prince your brother; spare not to tell him, that he hath wronged his honour in marrying the renowned Claudio (whose estimation do you mightily hold up) to a contaminated stale, such a one as Hero. D. JOHN. What proof shall I make of that? BORA. Proof enough to misuse the prince, to vex Claudio, to undo Hero, and kill Leonato: Look you for any other issue? D. JOHN. Only to despite them, I will endeavour any thing. BORA. Go then, find me a meet hour to draw Bora. Go then, find me a meet hour to draw Don Pedro and the count Claudio, alone: tell them, that you know that Hero loves me; offer them instances; which shall bear no less likelihood, than to see me at her chamber-window; hear me call Margaret, Hero; hear Margaret term me Claudio; and bring them to see this, the very night before the intended wedding:] Thus the whole stream of the editions from the first quarto downwards. I am obliged here to give a short account of the plot depending, that the emendation I have made may appear the more clear and unquestionable. The business stands thus: Claudio, a favourite of the Arragon prince, is, by his intercessions with her father, to be married to fair Hero; Don John, natural brother of the prince, and a hater of Claudio, is in his spleen zealous to disappoint the match. Borachio, a rascally dependant on Don John, offers his assistance, and engages to break off the marriage by this stratagem. "Tell the prince and Claudio (says he) that Hero is in love with me; they won't believe it: offer them proofs, as, that they shall see me converse with her in her chamber-window. I am in the good graces of her waiting-woman, Margaret; and I'll prevail with Margaret, at a dead hour of night, to personate her mistress Hero; do you then bring the Prince and Claudio to overhear our discourse; and they shall have the torment to hear me address Margaret by the name of Hero, and her say sweet things to me by the name of Claudio." - This is the substance of Borachio's device to make Hero suspected of disloyalty; and to break off her match with Claudio. But, in the name of common sense, could it displease Claudio, to hear his mistress making use of his name tenderly? If he saw another man with her, Don Pedro and the count Claudio, alone: tell them, that you know that Hero loves me: intend a kind of zeal both to the prince and Claudio, as in love of your brother's honour who hath made this match; and his friend's reputation, who is thus like to be cozened with the semblance of a maid, that you have discovered thus. They will scarcely believe this without trial: offer them instances; which shall and heard her call him Claudio, he might reasonably think her betrayed, but not have the same reason to accuse her of disloyalty. Besides, how could her naming Claudio, make the Prince and Claudio delieve that she loved Borachio, as he desires Don John to insinuate to them that she did? The circumstances weighed, there is no doubt but the passage ought to be reformed, as I have settled in the text-hear me call Margaret, Hero; hear Margaret term me, Borachio. THEOBALD. Though I have followed Mr. Theobald's direction, I am not convinced that this change of names is absolutely necessary. Claudio would naturally resent the circumstance of hearing another called by his own name; because, in that case, baseness of treachery would appear to be aggravated by wantonness of insult; and, at the same time, he would imagine the person so distinguished to be Borachio, because Don John was previously to have informed both him and Don Pedro, that Borachio was the favoured lover. STEEVENS. We should surely read Borachio instead of Claudio. There could be no reason why Margaret should call him Claudio; and that would ill agree with what Borachio says in the last Act, where he declares that Margaret knew not what she did when she spoke to him. M. MASON. Claudio would naturally be enraged to find his mistress, Hero, (for such he would imagine Margaret to be,) address Borachio, or any other man, by his name, as he might suppose that she called him by the name of Claudio in consequence of a secret agreement between them, as a cover, in case she were overheard; and he would know, without a possibility of error, that it was not Claudio, with whom, in fact, she conversed. MALONE. intend a kind of zeal-] i. e. pretend. So, in King 7 Richard III: "Intending deep suspicion." STEEVENS. bear no less likelihood, than to see me at her chamber-window; hear me call Margaret, Hero; hear Margaret term me Borachio; and bring them to see this, the very night before the intended wedding: for, in the mean time, I will so fashion the matter, that Hero shall be absent; and there shall appear such seeming truth of Hero's disloyalty, that jealousy shall be call'd assurance, and all the preparation overthrown. D. JOHN. Grow this to what adverse issue it can, I will put it in practice: Be cunning in the working this, and thy fee is a thousand ducats. BORA. Be you constant in the accusation, and my cunning shall not shame me. D. JOHN. I will presently go learn their day of marriage. [Exeunt. SCENE III. Leonato's Garden. Enter BENEDICK and a Boy. BENE. Boy, Bor. Signior. BENE. In my chamber-window lies a book; bring it hither to me in the orchard. Bor. I am here already, sir. BENE. I know that;-but I would have thee 8 - in the orchard.] Gardens were anciently called orchards. So, in Romeo and Juliet: "The orchard walls are high, and hard to climb." STEEVENS. |