Leon. Indeed, neighbour, he comes too short of you. Dogb. Gifts, that God gives.

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.

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.

4to EXAMINATION THESE men.] Folio, 1623, "to examine those men." VOL. II

R

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 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 thankful

ness.

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:

3 not knowing what they do!] These words, from the 4to, 1600, are omitted in the folio.

Interjections? Why then, some be of laughing, as, ha ha! he !] Benedick quotes from the Accidence.

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;
Her blush is guiltiness, not modesty.
Leon. What do you mean, my lord?
Claud.

Not to be married,

Not to 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, showed

Bashful sincerity, and comely love.

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?
Leon. Sweet prince, why speak not you?
What should I speak?

D. Pedro.

7 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 folio support the reading in our text.

To link

I stand dishonour'd, that have gone about
my dear friend to a common stale.
Leon. Are these things spoken, or do I but dream?
John. Sir, they are spoken, and these things are

true.

Bene. This looks not like a nuptial.

Hero.

Claud. Leonato, stand I here?

True? O Gods!

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. 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,

8 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 nuptial."

9 I charge thee do so,] The folio, 1623, omits "so," to the manifest injury of the metre.

Confess'd the vile encounters they have had
A thousand times in secret.

John. Fie, fie! they are not to be nam'd, my lord,
Not to be spoke of 10;

There is not chastity enough in language,

Without offence to utter them. Thus, pretty lady,
I am sorry for thy much misgovernment.

Claud. O Hero! what a Hero hadst thou been,
If half thy outward graces had been placed
About thy thoughts, and counsels of thy heart!
But, fare thee well, most foul, most fair! farewell,
Thou pure impiety, and impious purity!
For thee I'll lock up all the gates of love,
And on my eye-lids shall conjecture hang,
To turn all beauty into thoughts of harm,
And never shall it more be gracious.

Leon. Hath no man's dagger here a point for me? [HERO SWOONS. Beat. Why, how now, cousin! wherefore sink you

down?

John. Come, let us go. These things, come thus to

light,

Smother her spirits up.

[Exeunt Don PEDRO, JOHN, and CLAUDIO.

Bene. How doth the lady?

Beat.

Dead, I think :-help, uncle!—

Hero! why, Hero!-Uncle !-Signior Benedick !—

friar!

Leon. O fate! take not away thy heavy hand: Death is the fairest cover for her shame,

That may be wish'd for.

10 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."

At all events, the 4to, 1600, and the folio, 1623, give us ten syllables in the first line, and make "not to be spoke of" a hemistich: the folio, 1623, changes "spoke" to spoken.