Leon. Indeed, neighbour, he comes too short of you. Leon. I must leave you. Dogb. One word, sir. Our watch, sir, have, indeed, comprehended two aspicious persons, and we would have them this morning examined before your worship. Leon. Take their examination yourself, and bring it me: I am now in great haste, as it may appear unto you. Dogb. It shall be suffigance. Leon. Drink some wine ere you go. Fare you well. Enter a Messenger. Mess. My lord, they stay for you to give your daughter to her husband. Leon. I'll wait upon them: I am ready. [Exeunt LEONATO and Messenger. Dogb. Go, good partner, go; get you to Francis Seacoal; bid him bring his pen and inkhorn to the gaol: we are now to examination these men'. Verg. And we must do it wisely. Dogb. We will spare for no wit, I warrant you; here's that shall drive some of them to a non com: only get the learned writer to set down our excommunication, and meet me at the gaol. [Exeunt. ACT IV. SCENE I. The Inside of a Church. Enter Don PEDRO, JOHN, LEONATO, Friar, CLAUDIO, BENEDICK, HERO, BEATRICE, &c. Leon. Come, friar Francis, be brief: only to the plain form of marriage, and you shall recount their particular duties afterwards. 9 Friar. You come hither, my lord, to marry this lady? Leon. To be married to her; friar, you come to marry her. to EXAMINATION THESE men. Friar. If either of you know any inward impediment, why you should not be conjoined, I charge you on your souls to utter it. Claud. Know you any, Hero? Hero. None, my lord. Friar. Know you any, count? Leon. I dare make his answer; none. 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 thankfulness.There, Leonato; take her back again : Give not this rotten orange to your friend; She's but the sign and semblance of her honour.— To witness simple virtue? Would you not swear, Claud. Not to be married, Not to knit my soul to an approved wanton. And made defeat of her virginity, Claud. I know what you would say: if I have known her, 1 not knowing what they do!] These words, from the 4to, 1600, are omitted in the folios. These lapses in the folio, 1623, are strange, when it is quite clear that it was printed from the 4to, 1600. 2 Interjections? Why then, some be of laughing, as, ha ha! he!] Benedick quotes from the Accidence. You'll say, she did embrace me as a husband, I never tempted her with word too large; Hero. And seem'd I ever otherwise to you ? Claud. Out on thee, seeming! I will write against it, You seem to me as Dian in her orb, As chaste as is the bud 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? D. Pedro. What should I speak ? I stand dishonour'd, that have gone about Leon. Are these things spoken, or do I but dream? Hero. Claud. Leonato, stand I here ? True? O God! Is this the prince? Is this the prince's brother? Is this face Hero's? Are our eyes our own? Leon. All this is so; but what of this, my lord? Claud. Let me but move one question to your daughter, 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 child. What kind of catechizing call you this? Claud. To make you answer truly to your name. 3 Out on THEE, seeming!] Since Pope's time this has usually been printed "Out on thy seeming!" but there is no reason for the change. Claudio addresses Hero as the personification of "seeming," or hypocrisy. Both the 4to. and the folios support the reading in our text, but the corr. fo. 1632 has "thee " needlessly altered to thy. True? O God!] This is Hero's exclamation on John's assertion-" these things are true." Hitherto it has been printed as if Hero merely answered, "True, O God!" to Benedick's observation, "This looks not like a nup tial." " I charge thee do so,] The folio, 1623, omits "so," to the manifest injury of the metre. 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 Hero. I talk'd with no man at that hour, my lord. John. Fie, fie! they are not to be nam'd, my lord, There is not chastity enough in language, Without offence to utter them. Thou pretty lady', Claud. O Hero! what a Hero hadst thou been, Leon. Hath no man's dagger here a point for me? [Exeunt Don PEDRO, JOHN, and CLAUDIO. Fie, fie! they are not to be nam'd, my lord, Not to be SPOKE of;] This is the old regulation; whereas the modern editors alter it, under the notion that they can make something like measure out of "Not to be nam'd, my lord, not to be spoken of." 7 Thou pretty lady,] The old copies read, “Thus, pretty lady," but thou is evidently more proper, with reference both to what follows and what precedes: it is the emendation in the corr. fo. 1632 of an easy and common misprint. Bene. How doth the lady? Beat. Dead, I think:-help, uncle!- Hero! why, Hero!-Uncle !-Signior Benedick!—friar! Death is the fairest cover for her shame, That may be wish'd for. Beat. Friar. Have comfort, lady. How now, cousin Hero? Yea; wherefore should she not? Leon. Dost thou look up? Leon. Wherefore? Why, doth not every earthly thing Cry shame upon her? Could she here deny The story that is printed in her blood ?— Do not live, Hero; do not ope thine eyes; Thought I thy spirits were stronger than thy shames, Hath drops too few to wash her clean again, — on the REWARD of reproaches,] To render this line more intelligible, perhaps, the corr. fo. 1632 substitutes hazard for reward: it is rereward in the 4to, 1600. We see no sufficient reason for here altering the text of the folio, 1623, where the word is "reward," the meaning being, that Leonato was willing to run the risk of being rewarded with reproaches. › — at frugal nature's frown?] So the corr. fo. 1632, meaning the frown which forbad him to have more children: the old misprinted text is "frame.” 1 Who SMIRCHED thus,] The folio substitutes smeared for "smirched" of the 4to. We have before had "smirched" in this play (see p. 50) in the sense of soiled, and it is a word to which Shakespeare was partial. See "As You Like It," A. i. sc. 3, and "Henry V." A. iii. sc. 3. |