My foul doth tell me, Hero is bely'd;

And that fhall Claudio know, fo fhall the prince,
And all of them, that thus dishonour her.

Enter Don Pedro and Claudio.

Ant. Here comes the prince, and Claudio, haftily.

Pedro. Good den, good den.

Claud. Good day to both of you.

Leon. Hear you, my lords,

Pedro. We have fome hafte, Leonato.

Leon. Some haste, my lord?-well, fare you well, my lord :

Are you fo hafty now?-well, all is one.

Pedro. Nay, do not quarrel with us, good old man.
Ant. If he could right himself with quarrelling,

Some of us would lie low.

Claud. Who wrongs him?

Leon. Marry, thou doft wrong me, thou diffembler, thou!

Nay, never lay thy hand upon thy fword,

I fear thee not.

X

Claud. Marry, befhrew my hand,

If it should give your age fuch cause of fear:
In faith, my hand meant nothing to my sword.

Leon. Tufh, tufh, man, never fleer and jeft at me;
I speak 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 bruise of many days, Do challenge thee to tryal of a man.

* befbrew]-ill betide.

I say, thou haft bely'd mine innocent child,

Thy flander hath gone through and through her heart,
And the lies 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 fay.
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;

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

Ant. He fhall kill two of us, and men indeed:
But that's no matter; let him kill one first ;-
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 she is dead, flander'd to death by villains;

That dare as well answer 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 utmoft fcruple :

y Canft thou fo daffe me?]-Doft thou think to put me off thus flightly? daff'd the world aside,

"And bid it pafs ?" HENRY IV, Part I, A&t IV, S. 1. Hot.

Scambling,

*Scambling, out-facing, fashion-mong'ring boys,
That lie, 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.

Pedro. Gentlemen both, we will not wake your pa

tience.

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.
Leon. 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 seek.

Claud. Now, fignior!

What news?

Bene. Good day, my lord.

Pedro. Welcome fignior:

You are almost come to part almost a fray.

Claud. We had like to have had our two nofes fnapt

off with two old men without teeth.

2 Scambling,]-Turbulent.

a wake your patience.]-roufe you into fresh rage by our prefence, or further altercation: patience put ironically for its reverse.

Pedro.

Pedro. Leonato and his brother: What think'st 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 seek 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 minftrels; draw, to pleasure us.

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

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

b

Bene. Sir, I fhall meet your wit in the career, if you charge it against me:-I pray you, chufe another fubject. Claud. Nay, then give him another staff; this laft was C 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 blefs me from a challenge!

Bene. You are a villain;—I jest not:-I will make it good how you dare, with what you dare, and when you dare:-Do me right, or I will proteft your cowardice. You have kill'd a fweet lady, and her death fhall fall heavy on you :-Let me hear from you.

b in the career,]-curb it, ftop its course.

broke crofs.]-dishonourably.-" as a puny tilter, that breaks his ftaff like a nofe-quill'd goofe." As You LIKE IT, A& III, S. 4. Cel. to turn his girdle.]-to employ himself, till his wrath is over.

d

Claud.

Claud. Well, I will meet you, fo I may have good cheer. Pedro. What, a feast? a feast ?

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

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

с

Pedro. I'll tell thee, how Beatrice prais'd thy wit the other day I faid, thou hadft a fine wit; True, fays fhe, a fine little one; No, faid I, a great wit; Right, faid fhe, a great grofs one; Nay, faid I, a good wit; Juft, fays fhe, it burts no body; Nay, faid I, the gentleman is wife; Certain, faid fhe, a wife gentleman; Nay, said I, he hath the tongues; that I believe, faid fhe, for he fwore a thing to me on monday night, which he forfwore on tuesday morning; there's a double tongue, there's two tongues. Thus did she, an hour together, tranf-shape thy particular virtues; yet, at last, she concluded with a figh, thou waft the propereft man in Italy. Claud. For the which fhe wept heartily, and faid, fhe car'd not.

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

Claud. All, all; and moreover, God faw him when he was bid in the garden.

Pedro. But when fhall we fet the favage bull's horns on the fenfible Benedick's head?

Claud. Yea, and text underneath, Here dwells Benedick the married man?

Bene. Fare you well, boy; you know my mind, I will leave you now to your goffip-like humour: you break jefts as braggarts do their blades, which, God be thanked,

wife gentleman ;]-ironically, as we now use the word conjurer, or wifeacre.

f. as braggarts do their blades,]-in their boasts only.

VOL. I.

LI

hurt