Claud. Marry, befhrew my hand,

If it should give your age fuch cause of fear:
In faith, my hand meant nothing to my fword.
Leon. Tush, tufh, man, never fleer and jest at me;
I fpeak not like a dotard, nor a fool;

As, under privilege of age, to brag

What I have done, being young, or what would do,
Were I not old: Know, Claudio, to thy head,
Thou haft fo wrong'd my innocent child, and me,
That I am forc'd to lay my reverence by ;
And, with grey hairs, and bruife of many days,
Do challenge thee to tryal of a man.

I fay, thou haft bely'd mine innocent child,
Thy flander hath gone through and through her
heart,

And the lyes bury'd with her ancestors:
O, in a tomb where fcandal never slept,
Save this of hers, fram'd by thy villainy !
Claud. My villainy?

Leon. Thine, Claudio; thine I say.
Pedro. You fay not right, old man.
Leon. My lord, my lord,

I'll prove it on his body, if he dare;
Defpight his nice fence, and his active practice,
His May of youth, and bloom of luftyhood.
Claud. Away, I will not have to do with you.
Leon. Canft thou fo daffe me? Thou haft kill'd
my child;

2

If thou kill'ft me, boy, thou fhalt kill a man.

2

Ant. He shall kill two of us, and men indeed: '

Canft thou fo daffe me?

But

-] This is a country word, Mr. Pope tells us, fignifying, daunt. It may be fo; but that is not the expofition here: To daffe and deffe are fynonimous terms, that mean, to put off: which is the very fenfe required here, and what Leonato would reply upon Claudio's faying, he would have nothing to do with him. THEOBALD.

3 Ant. He fall kill two of us, &c.] This brother Anthony is the

truckt

But that's no matter; let him kill one firft;
Win me and wear me, let him answer me:
Come, follow me, boy; come, fir boy, follow me;
Sir, boy, I'll whip you from your foining fence;
Nay, as I am a gentleman, I will.

Leon. Brother,

Ant. Content yourself: God knows, I lov'd my
niece;

And fhe is dead, flander'd to death by villains,
That dare as well anfwer a man, indeed,
As I dare take a ferpent by the tongue.
Boys, apes, braggarts, jacks, milkfops!-
Leon. Brother Anthony,-

Ant. Hold you content; what, man? I know
them, yea,

And what they weigh even to the utmost scruple:
Scambling, out-facing, fashion-mong'ring boys,
That lye, and cog, and flout, deprave and flander,
Go antickly, and show outward hideousness,
And speak off half a dozen dangerous words,
How they might hurt their enemies, if they durft;
And this is all.

Leon. But, brother Anthony,

Ant. Come, 'tis no matter:

Do not you meddle, let me deal in this.

trueft picture imaginable of human nature. He had affumed the character of a fage to comfort his brother, o'erwhelmed with grief for his only daughter's affront and difhonour; and had feverely reproved him for not commanding his paffion better on fo trying an occaffion. Yet, immediately after this, no fooner does he be gin to fufpect that his age and valour are flighted, but he falls into the most intemperate fit of rage himfelf: and all he can do or fay is not of power to pacify him. This is copying nature with a penetration and exactnefs of judgment peculiar to Shakespeare. As to the expreffion, too, of his paffion, nothing can be more highly painted. WARBURTON.

Pedro. Gentlemen both, we will not wake your

patience.

My heart is forry for your daughter's death;
But, on my honour, fhe was charg'd with nothing
But what was true, and very full of proof.
Leon. My lord, my lord,-
Pedro. I will not hear you.

Lean. No! come, brother, away, I will be heard.
Ant. And fhall, or fome of us will smart for it.
[Exeunt ambo.

Enter Benedick.

Pedro. See, fee, here comes the man we went to

feek.

Claud. Now, fignior, what news?

Bene. Good day, my lord.

Pedro. Welcome fignior; you are almost come to part almoft a fray.

Claud. We had like to have had our two nofes fnapt off with two old men without teeth.

Pedro. Leonato and his brother: What think't

-we will not wake your patience.] This conveys a fentiment that the speaker would by no means have implied, That the patience of the two old men was not exercised, but asleep, which upbraids them for infenfibility under their wrong. Shakefpeare must have wrote,

we will not wrack

i. e. deftroy your patience by tantalizing you. WARBURTON.

This emendation is very specious, and perhaps is right; yet the prefent reading may admit a congruous meaning with less difficulty than many other of Shakespeare's expreffions.

The old men have been both very angry and outrageous; the prince tells them that he and Claudio will not wake their patience; will not any longer force them to endure the prefence of thofe whom, though they look on them as enemies, they cannot refift.

JOHNSON.

thou?

thou? Had we fought, I doubt, we should have been too young for them.

Bene. In a falfe quarrel there is no true valour: I came to feek you both.

Claud. We have been up and down to feek thee; for we are high-proof melancholy, and would fain have it beaten away: wilt thou use thy wit?

Bene. It is in my fcabbard; Shall I draw it? Pedro. Doft thou wear thy wit by thy fide? Claud. Never any did fo, though very many have been befide their wit. I will bid thee draw, as we do the minstrels; draw, to pleasure us.

Pedro. As I am an honeft man, he looks pale: Art thou fick or angry?

Claud. What! courage, man! what tho' care kill'd a cat, thou haft mettle enough in thee to kill

care.

Bene. Sir, I fhall meet your wit in the career, if you charge it against me. I pray you, chuse another fubject.

Claud. Nay, then give him another staff; this laft was broke crofs.

Pedro. By this light, he changes more and more; I think, he be angry, indeed.

Claud. If he be, he knows how to turn his girdle.
Bene. Shall I fpeak a word in your ear?
Claud. God bless me from a challenge!

Bene. You are a villain; I jeft not. I will make it

Nay, then give him another ftaff, &c.] Allufion to tilting. Sea note, As you Like it, act iii. fcene 10. WARBURTON.

6 10 turn bis girdle] We have a proverbial speech, If he be an gry, let him turn the buckle of his girdle. But I do not know its original or meaning. JOHNSON.

A correfponding expreffion is ufed to this day in Ireland.-If be be angry, let him tie up his brogues. Neither proverb, I believe, has any other meaning than this: If he is in a bad humour, let him employ himself till he is in a better. STEEVENS.

good

good how you dare, with what you dare, and when you dare. Do me right, or I will protest your cowardife. You have kill'd a fweet lady, and her death shall fall heavy on you :-Let me hear from you.

Claud. Well, I will meet you, so I may have good

cheer.

Pedro. What a feaft? a feaft?

Claud. I'faith, I thank him; he hath bid me to a calves-head and a capon; the which if I do not carve most curiously, say my knife's naught. Shall I not find a woodcock too?

Bene. Sir, your wit ambles well; it goes eafily.

7

Pedro. I'll tell thee, how Beatrice prais'd thy wit the other day: I said, thou hadft a fine wit; True, fays fhe, a fine little one; No, said I, a great wit; Just, said she, a great grofs one; Nay, said I, a good wit; Juft, faid fhe, it hurts no body; Nay, faid I, the gentleman is wife; Certain, faid fhe, a wife gentleman; Nay, faid I, he hath the tongues; That I believe, faid fhe, for he wore a thing to me on Monday night, which be forfwore on Tuesday morning; there's a double tongue, there's two tongues. Thus did fhe an hour together tranf-shape thy particular virtues; yet, at laft, fhe concluded with a figh, thou waft the propereft man in Italy.

Claud. For the which fhe wept heartily, and said, The car'd not.

Pedro. Yea, that fhe did, but yet for all that, and if fhe did not hate him deadly, he would love him dearly the old man's daughter told us all.

7

a wife gentleman;] This jeft depending on the colloquial use of words is now obfcure; perhaps we fhould read, a wife gentle man, or a man wife enough to be a coward. Perhaps wife gentleman was in that age used ironically, and always ftood for filly fellow.

JOHNSON.

Claud