For the which, with songs of woe,
Round about her tomb they go.
Midnight, assist our moan;
Help us to sigh and groan,
Heavily, heavily:

२

Graves, yawn, and yield your dead,
Till death be uttered,

Heavily, heavily.

Claud. Now, unto thy bones good night!

Yearly W

I do this rite.

D. Pedro. Good morrow, masters; put your torches out:

The wolves have prey'd; and look, the gentle day, ewolves Before the wheels of Phoebus, round about Dapples, the drowsy east with spots of gray: Thanks to you all, and leave us; fare you well. Claud. Good morrow, masters; each his several

way.

D. Pedro. Come, let us hence, and put on other weeds

And then to Leonato's we will go,

Claud. And, Hymen, now with luckier issue

speeds,

Than this, for whom we render'd up this woe! [Exeunt.

SCENE IV. A Room in Leonato's House.

Enter LEONATO, ANTONIO, BENEDICK, BEATRICE, URSULA, Friar, and HER BEATRICE, UR

Friar. Did I not tell you she was innocent? Leon. So are the prince and Claudio, who accus'd her

Upon the error that you heard debated:

But Margaret was in some fault for this;..
Although against her will, as it appears
In the true course of all the question

i e till death be spoken of."

Ant. Well, I am glad that all things sort so well. Bene. And so am I, being else by faith enforc'd To call young Claudio to a reckoning for it.

Leon. Well; daughter, and you gentlewomen all, Withdraw into a chamber by yourselves;

And, when I send for you, come hither mask’d:
The prince and Claudio promis'd by this hour
To visit me: You know your office, brother;
You must be father to your brother's daughter,
And give her to young Claudio. [Exeunt Ladies.
Ant. Which I will do with confirm'd countenance.
Bene. Friar, I must entreat your pains, I think.
Friar. To do what, signior?

Bene. To bind me, or undo me, one of them.
Signior Leonato, truth it is, good signior,

Your niece regards me with an eye of favour. Leon. That eye my daughter lent her; "Tis most

true.

Bene. And I do with an eye of love réquite her. Leon. The sight whereof, I think, you had from me, From Claudio, and the prince: But what's your

will?

Bene. Your answer, sir, is enigmatical:
But, for my will, my will is, your good will

May stand with this day to be conjoin'd

ours,

In the estate of honourable marriage; -
In which, good friar, I shall desire your help.
Leon. My heart is with your liking.
Friar.

And my help. Here comes the prince, and Claudio.

Enter DON PEDRO and CLAUDIO, with Attendants. D. Pedro. Good morrow to this fair assembly. Leon. Good morrow, prince; good morrow, Claudio.

We here attend you; are you yet determin'd Today to marry with my brother's daughter ? Claud. I'll hold my mind, were she an Ethiope. Leon. Call her forth, brother, here's the friar [Exit ANTONIO.

ready.

d. D. Pedro. Good morrow, Benedick: Why, what's

E

the matter,

That you have such a February face,

So full of frost, of storm, and cloudiness?
Claud. I think, he thinks upon the savage bull1:
Tush, fear not, man, we'll tip thy horns with gold,
And all Europa shall rejoice at thee;

As once Europa did at lusty Jove,

When he would play the noble beast in love.
Bene Bull Jove, sir, had an amiable low:
And some such strange bull leap'd your father's COW
And got a calf in that same noble feat,

Much like to you, for you have just his bleat.

Re-enter ANTONIO, with the Ladies masked. Claud. For this I owe you: here comes other reckonings.

Which is the lady I must seize upon?

Ant. This same is she, and I do give you her. Claud. Why, then she's mine: Sweet, let me see your face.

Leon. No, that you shall not, till you take her hand

Before

his friar, and swear to marry her. Claud. Give me your hand before this holy friar; I am your husband, if you like of me.

Hero. And when I lived, I was your other wife: [Unmasking And when you loved, you were my other husband. Claud. Another Hero!

Hero.

Nothing certainer:
One Hero died defil'd; but I do live,

And, surely as I live, I am a maid.

D. Pedro. The former Hero! Hero that is dead! Leon. She died, my lord, but whiles her slander lived.

Friar. All this amazement can I qualify;

Still alluding to the passage quoted from Hieronymo, or the Spanish Tragedy, in the first scene of the play.

When, after that the holy rites are ended,
I'll tell you largely of fair Hero's death:
Mean time, let wonder seem familiar,
And to the chapel let us presently.
Bene. Soft and fair, friar.

Which is Beatrice?

Beat. I answer to that name; [Unmasking] What is your will?

Bene. Do not you love me?

Beat.

Why, no, no more than reason.

Bene. Why, then your uncle, and the prince, and
Claudio,

Have been deceived; for they swore you did.
Beat. Do not you love me?

Bene.

Troth, no, no more than reason. Beat. Why, then m cousin, Margaret, and Ursula, Are much deceiv'd; for they did swear you did. Bene. They swore that you were almost sick for

me.

Beat. They swore that you were well-nigh dead

for me.

Bene. 'Tis no such matter:

love me?

Then, you do not

Beat. No, truly, but in friendly recompense. Leon. Come, cousin, I am sure you love the gentleman.

Claud. And I'll be sworn upon't, that he loves

her;

For here's a paper, written in his hand,

A halting sonnet of his own pure brain, de
Fashion'd to Beatrice.

Hero. And here's another, Writ in my cousin's hand, stolen from her pocket, Containing her affection unto Benedick.MANE Bene. A miracle! here's our own hands against our hearts! Come, I will have thee; but, by this light, I take thee for pity.

Beat. I would not deny you; but, by this good day, I yield upon great persuasion; and partly, to save your life, for I was told you were in a cònsumption.

Bene. Peace, I will stop your mouth.

[Kissing her. D. Pedro. How dost thou, Benedick the married

man ?

Bene. I'll tell thee what, prince; a college of wit-crackers cannot flout me out of my humour: Dost thou think, I care for a satire, or an epigram? No: if a man will be beaten with brains, he shall wear nothing handsome about him: In brief, since I do propose to marry, I will think nothing to any purpose that the world can say against it; and therefore never flout at me for what I have said against it; for man is a giddy thing, and this is my conclusion. For thy part, Claudio, I did think to have beaten thee; but in that2 thou art like to be my kinsman, live unbruised, and love my cousin.

Claud. I had well hoped, thou wouldst have denied Beatrice, that I might have cudgelled thee out of thy single life, to make thee a double dealer; which, out of question, thou wilt be, if my cousin do not look exceeding narrowly to thee.

Bene. Come, come, we are friends: let's have a dance ere we are married, that we may lighten our own hearts, and our wives' heels.

Leon. We'll have dancing afterwards.

Bene. First, o'my word; therefore play, music. — Prince, thou art sad; get thee a wife, get thee a wife: there is no staff more reverend than one tipped with horn3.

2 Because.

3 Steevens, Malone, and Reed, conceive that there is an allu. sion here to the staff used in the ancient trial by wager of battle but Mr. Douce thinks it is more probable the walking-stick or staff of elderly persons was intended, such sticks were often tipped or headed with horn, sometimes crosswise, in imitation of the crutched sticks or potences of the friars, which were borrowed from the celebrated tau of St. Anthony. Chaucer's Sompnour describes one of his friars as having a 'scrippe and tipped staff, and he adds that.

'His felaw had a staf tipped with horn.' To these the epithet reverend would be much more appropriate than to the staff used by a felon in wager of battle.

Vol. II.