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

Nor let no comforter delight mine ear,

But such a one whose wrongs do suit with mine:
Bring me a father that so lov'd 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;
And sorrow, wag! cry hem, when he should groan3;
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,

3 And sorrow, wag! cry hem, when he should groan ;] This is the reading of the old 4to. and of the folios, which may be reconciled to sense, and therefore ought not be disturbed. The meaning is clear, though not clearly expressed. "And, sorrow, wag!" is and sorrow away! (for which indeed it may have been misprinted) similar to the exclamation "care away!" The reading substituted by the commentators has usually been-

66

Cry sorrow, wag! and hem, when he should groan ;" which has no warrant. Heath's suggestion of "And sorrowing, cry hem, when he should groan," is the most plausible emendation.

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 push at chance and sufferance1.
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.

1 And made a PUSH at chance and sufferance.] So the old copies, and so the interjection (which Gifford altered to pish, in Massinger's "Old Law," Act ii. sc. 1.) was constantly spelt. Many instances in proof of it might be collected from our old dramatists. It is used in Beaumont and Fletcher's "Maids' Tragedy," A. iii. sc. 1 (Dyce's edit.); in Chapman's "Gentleman Usher ;" and repeatedly in Middleton's plays. See Dyce's Middleton's Works, i. 29, ii. 24, iv. 259, and v. 45. Boswell would derive the expression from fencing, and tells us that "to make a push at any thing is to contend against it, or defy it." Shakespeare's meaning is quite evident, taking "push" as an interjection, and we need not resort to any misapplied ingenuity of explanation.

VOL. II.

S

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 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

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 never scandal slept,
Save this of her's, fram'd by thy villainy.
Claud. My villainy?

Leon.

Thine, Claudio; thine, I say.

D. Pedro. You say not right, old man.
Leon.

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

My lord, my lord,

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 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.—

my

Come, follow me, boy! come, sir boy, come, 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; 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 utmost scruple:
Scambling, out-facing, fashion-mong'ring boys,
That lie, and cog, and flout, deprave and slander,
Go antickly, and show 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

Ant.

Come, 'tis no matter:

Do not you meddle, let me deal in this.

D. Pedro. Gentlemen both, we will not wake your

patience.

My heart is sorry for your daughter's death;

But, on my honour, she was charg'd with nothing

But what was true, and very full of proof.

Leon. My lord, my lord!—

D. Pedro.

I will not hear you.

Leon.

Come, brother, away.-I will be heard.—

No?

Ant. And shall, or some of us will smart for it.

[Exeunt LEONATO and ANTONIO.

Enter BENEDICK.

D. Pedro. See, see: here comes the man we went to seek.

Claud. Now, signior, what news?

Bene. Good day, my lord.

D. Pedro. Welcome, signior: you are almost come to part almost a fray.

Claud. We had like to have had our two noses snapped off with two old men without teeth.

D. 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 false quarrel there is no true valour. I came to seek 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 scabbard: shall I draw it?

D. Pedro. Dost thou wear thy wit by thy side? Claud. Never any did so, though very many have been beside their wit.-I will bid thee draw, as we do the minstrels; draw to pleasure us.

D. Pedro. As I am an honest man, he looks pale.— Art thou sick, or angry?

Claud. What! courage, man! What though care killed a cat, thou hast mettle enough in thee to kill

care.

Bene. Sir, I shall meet your wit in the career, an you charge it against me.-I pray you, choose another subject.

5 as we do the minstrels ;] i. e. As we bid the minstrels draw their instruments out of their cases.