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ACT IV. SCENE I.

The Inside of a Church.

Enter Don PEDRO, Don JOHN, LEONATO, Friar, CLAUDIO, BENEDICK, HERO, and BEATRICE, &c.

LEON. Come, friar Francis, be brief; only to the plain form of marriage, and you shall recount their particular duties afterwards.

FRIAR. You come hither, my lord, to marry this lady?

CLAUD. No.

LEON. To be married to her, friar; you come to marry her.

FRIAR. Lady, you come hither to be married to this count?

HERO. I do.

FRIAR. If either of you know any inward impediment3 why you should not be conjoined, I charge you, on your souls, to utter it.

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FRIAR. Know you any, count?

LEON. I dare make his answer, none.

If either of you know any inward impediment, &c.] This is borrowed from our Marriage Ceremony, which (with a few slight changes in phraseology) is the same as was used in the time of Shakspeare. DOUCE.

CLAUD. O, what men dare do! what men may do! what men daily do! not knowing what they do! BENE. How now! Interjections? Why, then some be of laughing,' as, ha! ha! he!

CLAUD. Stand thee by, friar Father, by your leave ;

Will you with free and unconstrained soul
Give me this maid, your daughter?

LEON. As freely, son, as God did give her me. CLAUD. And what have I to give you back, whose worth

May counterpoise this rich and precious gift.
D. PEDRO. Nothing, unless you render her again.
CLAUD. Sweet prince, you learn me noble thank-
fulness.-

There, Leonato, take her back again;

Give not this rotten orange to your friend;
She's but the sign and semblance of her honour:-
Behold, how like a maid she blushes here:
O, what authority and show of truth
Can cunning sin cover itself withal!
Comes not that blood, as modest evidence,

To witness simple virtue? Would you not swear,
All you that see her, that she were a maid,
By these exterior shows? But she is none:
She knows the heat of a luxurious bed:5
Her blush is guiltiness, not modesty.

some be of laughing,] This is a quotation from the Accidence, JOHNSON.

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- luxurious bed:] That is, lascivious. Luxury is the confessor's term for unlawful pleasures of the sex. JOHNSON.

Thus Pistol, in King Henry V. calls Fluellen a—

66 -damned and luxurious mountain goat."

STEEVENS.

LEON. What do you mean, my lord?

.

CLAUD.

Not to be married,

Not knit my soul to an approved wanton.

LEON. Dear my lord, if you, in your own proof" Have vanquish'd the resistance of her youth, And made defeat of her virginity,

CLAUD. I know what you would say; If I have known her,

You'll say, she did embrace me as a husband,
And so extenuate the 'forehand sin:
No, Leonato,

I never tempted her with word too large;"
But, as a brother to his sister, show'd
Bashful sincerity, and comely love.

HERO. And seem'd I ever otherwise to you? CLAUD. Out on thy seeming! I will write against it :i

You seem to me as Dian in her orb;

Again, in The Life and Death of Edward II. p. 129: "Luxurious Queene, this is thy foule desire." REED. 6 Not knit my soul &c.] The old copies read, injuriously to metre,-Not to knit, &c. I suspect, however, that our author wrote-Nor knit, &c. STEEVENS.

7 Dear

my

lord, if you, in your own proof-] In your own proof may signify in your own trial of her. TYRWHITT.

Dear like door, fire, hour, and many similar words, is here used as a dissyllable. MALONE.

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word too large ;] So he uses large jests in this play, for licentious, not restrained within due bounds. JOHNSON.

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thy seeming!] The old copies have thee. The emendation is Mr. Pope's. In the next line Shakspeare probably wrote-seem'd.. MALONE.

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I will write against it:] So, in Cymbeline, Posthumus speaking of women, says:

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I'll write against them, "Detest them, curse them."

STEEVENS.

As chaste as is the bud2 ere it be blown;
But you are more intemperate in your blood
Than Venus, or those pamper'd animals
That rage in savage sensuality.

HERO. Is my lord well, that he doth speak so wide ?3

LEON. Sweet prince, why speak not you?
D. PEDRO.

What should I speak?

I stand dishonour'd, that have gone about
To link my dear friend to a common stale.
LEON. Are these things spoken? or do I but
dream ?4

D. JOHN. Sir, they are spoken, and these things are true.

BENE. This looks not like a nuptial.

HERO.

True, O God!

CLAUD. Leonato, stand I here? Is this the prince? Is this the prince's brother? Is this face Hero's? Are our eyes our own?

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LEON. All this is so; But what of this, my lord? CLAUD. Let me but move one question to your daughter;

sweetness.

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chaste as is the bud -] Before the air has tasted its JOHNSON.

that he doth speak so wide?] i. e. so remotely from the present business. So, in Troilus and Cressida: "No, no; no such matter, you are wide." Again, in The Merry Wives of Windsor: "I never heard a man of his place, gravity, and learning, so wide of his own respect." STEEvens.

beth

Are these things spoken? or do I but dream?] So, in Mac

:

"Were such things here, as we do speak about?

"Or have we," &c. STEEVENS.

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child.

And, by that fatherly and kindly power
That you have in her, bid her answer truly.
LEON. I charge thee do so, as thou art my
HERO. O God defend me! how am I beset!-
What kind of catechizing call you this?

CLAUD. To make you answer truly to your name. HERO. Is it not Hero? Who can blot that name With any just reproach?

CLAUD.

Marry, that can Hero;

Hero itself can blot out Hero's virtue.
What man was he talk'd with you yesternight
Out at your window, betwixt twelve and one?
Now, if you are a maid, answer to this.

HERO. I talk'd with no man at that hour, my

lord.

D. PEDRO. Why, then are you no maiden.-
Leonato,

I am sorry you must hear; Upon mine honour,
Myself, my brother, and this grieved count,
Did see her, hear her, at that hour last night,
Talk with a ruffian at her chamber-window;
Who hath, indeed, most like a liberal villain,

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kindly power-] That is, natural power. Kind is nature. JOHNSON.

Thus, in the Induction to The Taming of the Shrew : "This do, and do it kindly, gentle sirs."

i. e. naturally. STEEVENS.

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liberal villain,] Liberal here, as in many places of these plays, means frank beyond honesty, of decency. Free of tongue. Dr. Warburton unnecessarily reads, illiberal.

So, in The Fair Maid of Bristow, 1605:

"But Vallinger, most like a liberal villain,
"Did give her scandalous ignoble terms."

JOHNSON.

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