surely! O that I were a man for his sake! or that I had any friend would be a man for my sake! But manhood is melted into courtesies, valour into compliment, and men are only turn'd into tongue, and trim ones too: he is now as valiant as Hercules, that only tells a lie, and swears it:-I cannot be a man with wishing, therefore I will die a woman with grieving.

Bene. Tarry, good Beatrice: by this hand, I love thee.

Beat. Use it for my love some other way than swearing by it.

Bene. Think you in your soul, the count Claudio hath wrong'd Hero.

Beat. Yea, as sure as I have a thought, or a soul. Bene. Enough, I am engaged, I will challenge him; I will kiss your hand, and so leave you by this hand, Claudio shall render me a dear account: as you hear of me, so think of me. Go, comfort your cousin I must say, she is dead: and so, farewell. [Exeunt.

SCENE II-A Prison.

Enter DOG BERRY, VERGES, and SEXTON, in gowns; and the WATCH, with CONRADE and BORACHIO.

Dogb. Is our whole dissembly appear'd?
Verg. O, a stool and a cushion for the sexton!
Sexton. Which be the malefactors?

Dogb. Marry, that am I and my partner.

Verg. Nay, that's certain; we have the exhibition to examine.

Sexton. But which are the offenders that are to be examined? Let them come before master constable. Dogb. Yea, marry, let them come before me.What is your name, friend?

Bora. Borachio.

Dogb. Pray write down---Borachio.-Yours, sirrah? Con. I am a gentleman, Sir, and my name is Conrade.

Dogb. Write down-master gentleman Conrade.Masters, do you serve God?

Con. Bora. Yea, Sir, we hope.

Dogb. Write down-that they hope they serve God-and write God first; for God defend but God should go before such villains!-Masters, it is proved already that you are little better than false knaves;

• Ceremony.

and it will go near to be thought so shortly. How answer you for yourselves?

Con. Marry, Sir, we say we are none.

Dogb. A marvellous witty fellow, I assure you; but I will go about with him.-Come you hither, sirrah a word in your ear, Sir; I say to you, it is thought you are faise knaves.

Bora. Sir, I say to you, we are none.

Dogb. Well, stand aside.-'Fore God, they are both in a tale have you writ down-that they are none ?

Sexton. Master constable, you go not the way to examine; you must call forth the watch that are their accusers.

Dogb. Yea, marry, that's the eftest way :-Let the watch come forth:-Masters, I charge you, in the prince's name, accuse these men.

1 Watch. This man said, Sir, that Don John, the the prince's brother, was a villain.

Dogb. Write down-prince John a villain :-Why this is flat perjury, to call a prince's brother, villain. Bora. Master constable

Dogb. Pray thee, fellow, peace; I do not like thy look, I promise thee.

Sexton. What heard you him say else?

2 Watch. Marry, that he had received a thousand ducats of Don John, for accusing the lady Hero wrongfully.

Dogb. Flat burglary, as ever was committed.
Verg. Yea, by the mass, that it is.

Sexton. What else, fellow?

I Watch. And that count Claudio did mean, upon his words, to disgrace Hero before the whole assembly, and not marry her.

Dogb. O villain! thou wilt be condemn'd into everlasting redemption for this. Sexton. What else?

2 Watch. This is all.

Sexton. And this is more, masters, than you can deny. Prince John is this morning secretly stolen away; Hero was in this manner accused, in this very manner refused, and upon the grief of this, suddenly died.-Master constable, let these men be bound, and brought to Leonato's; I will go before, and shew him their examination.

Dogb. Come, let them be opinion'd.
Verg. Let them be in band.

* Bond.

[Exit.

Con. Off, coxcomb!

Dogb. God's my life! Where's the sexton? Let him write down-the prince's officer, coxcomb.Come, bind them :-Thou naughty varlet !

Con. Away! You are an ass, you are an ass.

Dogb. Dost thou not suspect my place? Dost thou not suspect my years ?-O that he were here to write me down-an ass!-But, masters, remember, that I am an ass; though it be not written down, yet forget not that I am an ass :-No, thou villain, thou art full of piety, as shall be proved upon thee by good witness. I am a wise fellow; and, which is more, an officer; and, which is more, a householder; and, which is more, as pretty a piece of flesh as any is in Messina; and one that knows the law, go to; and a rich fellow enough, go to; and a fellow that hath had losses; and one that hath two gowns, and every thing handsome about him:-Bring him away. 0, [Exeunt.

that I had been writ down-an ass!

ACT V.

SCENE I.-Before LEONATO's House.

Enter LEONATO and ANTONIO.

Ant. If you go on thus, you will kill yourself; And 'tis not wisdom, thus to second grief

Against yourself.

Leon. I pray thee, cease thy counsel, Which falls into mine ears as profitless As water in a sieve: give not me counsel Nor let no comforter delight mine ear,

But such a one whose wrongs do suit with mine,
Bring me a father, that so loved his child,
Whose joy of her is overwhelm'd like mine,
And bid him speak of patience;

Measure his woe the length and breadth of mine,
And let it answer every strain for strain;
As thus for thus, and such a grief for such,

In every lineament, branch, shape, and form :

If such a one will smile, and stroke his beard;

Cry-sorrow, wag! and hem, when he should groan;
Patch grief with proverbs; make misfortune drunk
With candle-wasters; bring him yet to me,
And I of him will gather patience.

But there is no such man: for, brother, men
Can counsel, and speak comfort to that grief
Which they themselves not feel; but, tasting it,
Their counsel turns to passion, which before

Would give preceptial medicine to rage,
Fetter strong madness in a silken thread,
Charm ache with air, and agony with words:
No, no; 'tis all men's office to speak patience
To those that wring under the load of sorrow;
But no man's virtue, nor sufficiency,

To be so moral, when he shall endure

The like himself: therefore give me no counsel:
My griefs cry louder than advertisement.*

Ant. Therein do men from children nothing differ. Leon. I pray thee, peace; I will be flesh and blood; For there was never yet philosopher,

That could endure the tooth-ache patiently;
However they have writ the style of gods,
And made a pish at chance and sufferance.
Ant. Yet bend not all the harm upon yourself;
Make those, that do offend you, suffer too.

Leon. There thou speak'st reason: nay, I will do so:

My soul doth tell me, Hero is belied;

And that shall Claudio know, so shall the prince, And all of them that thus dishonour her.

Enter Don PEDRO and CLAUDIO.

Ant. Here comes the prince, and Claudio, hastily, D. Pedro. Good den, good den.

Claud. Good day to both of you.

Leon. Hear you, my lords,

D. Pedro. We have some haste, Leonato.
Leon. Some haste, my lord!-Well, fare you well,
my lord :-

Are you so hasty now?-Well, all is one.

D. 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, thou dost wrong me; thou dissembler, thou: Nay, never lay thy hand upon thy sword,

I fear thee not.

Claud. Marry, beshrew my hand,

If it should give your age such cause of fear:

In faith, my hand meant nothing to my sword.
Leon. Tush, tush, man, never fleer and jest at me :
I speak not like a dotard, nor a fool;

As, under privilege of age, to brag

• Admonition.

What I have done being young, or what would do,
Were I not old: know, Claudio to thy head,
Thou hast so wrong'd mine 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 trial of a man.

I say, thou hast belied mine innocent child:
Thy slander hath gone through and through her
heart,

And she lies buried with her ancestors :

O! in a tomb where scandal never slept,
Save this of her's, framed by thy villainy.
Claud. My villainy!

Leon. Thine, Claudio; thine I say.

D. Pedro. You say not right, old man.
Leon. My lord, my lord,

I'll prove it on his body, if he dare;

Despite his nice fence, and his active practice,
His May of youth, and bloom of lustyhood.

Claud. Away, I will not have to do with you. Leon. Canst thou so daff me? Thou hast kill'd my child;

If thou kill'st me, boy, thou shalt kill a man.
Ant. He shall 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 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 loved my niece;

And she is dead, slander'd to death by villains;
That dare as well answer a man, indeed,

As I dare take a serpent by the tongue:
Boys, apes, braggarts, Jacks, milksops!-
Leon. Brother Antony,-

Ant. Hold you content: What, man? I know
them, yea,

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

Leon. But, brother Antony,

Skill in fencing.

+ Thrusting.