marl? No, uncle, I'll none: Adam's sons are my brethren; and, truly, I hold it a sin to match in my kindred. Leon. Daughter, remember what I told you: if the prince do solicit you in that kind, you know your answer. Beat. The fault will be in the music, cousin, if you be not wooed in good time: if the prince be too important,' tell him there is measure 2 in every thing, and so dance out the answer. For, hear me, Hero: Wooing, wedding, and repenting, is as a Scotch jig, a measure, and a cinque-pace:3 the first suit is hot and hasty, like a Scotch jig, and full as fantastical; the wedding mannerly-modest, as a measure full of state and ancientry; and then comes repentance, and with his bad legs falls into the cinque-pace faster and faster, till he sink into his grave. Leon. Cousin, you apprehend passing shrewdly Beat. I have a good eye, uncle: I can see a church by daylight. Leon. The revellers are entering, brother: Make good room! H. 1 Important and importunate were sometimes used indiscrimi nately. See Twelfth Night, Act v. sc. 1, note 17. 2 A measure, in old language, besides its ordinary meaning, signified also a dance. So, in Richard II.: My legs can keep no measure in delight, When my poor heart no measure keeps in grief." The measures were grave, solemn dances with slow and measured steps like the minuet; and therefore described as "full of state and ancientry." 3 The cinque-pace was a dance, the measures whereof were regulated by the number five. See Twelfth Night, Act i. sc. 3. note 10. H. Enter Don PEDRO, CLAUDIO, BENEDICK, BALTHA ZAR; JOHN, BORACHIO, MARGARET, URSULA, and maskers. D. Pedro. Lady, will you walk about with your friend? Hero. So you walk softly, and look sweetly, and say nothing, I am yours for the walk; and especially when I walk away. D. Pedro. With me in your company ? Hero. I may say so, when I please. D. Pedro. And when please you to say so? Hero. When I like your favour; for God defend, the lute should be like the case!" D. Pedro. My visor is Philemon's roof; within the house is Jove." Hero. Why, then your visor should be thatch'd. D. Pedro. Speak low, if you speak love. [Takes her aside. Balth. Well, I would you did like me. Marg. So would not I, for your own sake; for I have many ill qualities. Balth. Which is one? Marg. I say my prayers aloud. Balth. I love you the better; the hearers may cry Amen. 4 That is, God forbid that your face should be like your mask. 5 Alluding to the fable of Baucis and Philemon in Ovid, who describes the old couple as living in a thatched cottage: " Stipulis et cannâ tecta palustri;" which Golding renders: "The roofe thereof was thatched all with straw and fennish reede." Jaques, in As You Like It, again alludes to it: O knowledge ill-inhabit ed, worse than Jove in a thatched-house." Marg. And God keep him out of my sight, when the dance is done! - Answer, clerk. Balth. No more words: the clerk is answered. Urs. I know you well enough: you are signion Antonio. Ant. At a word, I am not. Urs. I know you by the waggling of your head. Ant. To tell you true, I counterfeit him. Urs. You could never do him so ill-well, unless you were the very man: Here's his dry hand up and down; you are he, you are he. 6 Ant. At a word, I am not. Urs. Come, come; do you think I do not know you by your excellent wit? Can virtue hide itself? Go to, mum, you are he graces will appear, and there's an end. Beat. Will you not tell me who told you so? Beat. Nor will you not tell me who you are? Beat. That I was disdainful, — and that I had my good wit out of The Hundred Merry Tales;' 6 So, in The Two Gentlemen of Verona, Act ii. sc. 3, Launce says, "Here's my mother's breath up and down." The phrase apparently means exactly, precisely; something like those of our time, out and out, all over, to a t. H. This was the term for a jest-book in Shakespeare's time, from a popular collection of that name, about which the commentators were much puzzled, until a large fragment was discovered in 1815, by the Rev. J. Conybeare, Professor of Poetry in Oxford. It was printed by Rastell, and therefore must have been published previous to 1533. Another collection of the same kind, called Tales and Quicke Answeres, printed by Berthelette, and of nearly equal antiquity, was also reprinted at the same time; and it is remarkable that this collection is cited by Sir John Harrington under the title of The Hundred Merry Tales. It continued for a long period to be the popular name for collections of this sort; for in the Lon don Chaunticlere, 1659, it is mentioned as being cried for sale by a ballad man. Well, this was signior Benedick that said so. Beat. I am sure you know him well enough. Beat. Did he never make you laugh? Bene. I pray you, what is he? Beat. Why, he is the prince's jester: a very dull fool; only his gift is in devising impossible slanders: none but libertines delight in him; and the commendation is not in his wit, but in his villany; for he both pleaseth men, and angers them, and then they laugh at him, and beat him: I am sure he is in the fleet; I would he had boarded me. 8 Bene. When I know the gentleman, I'll tell him what you say. Beat. Do, do; he'll but break a comparison or two on me; which, peradventure, not mark'd, or not laugh'd at, strikes him into melancholy; and then there's a partridge wing saved, for the fool will eat no supper that night. [Music within.] We must follow the leaders. Bene. In every good thing. Beat. Nay, if they lead to any ill, I will leave them at the next turning. [Dance. Then exeunt all but JOHN, BORACHIO, and CLAUDIO. John. Sure, my brother is amorous on Hero, and hath withdrawn her father to break with him about it The ladies follow her, and but one visor remains. Bora. And that is Claudio; I know him by his bearing. John. Are not you signior Benedick? 8 Boarded, besides its usual meaning, signified accosted. Claud. You know me well: I am he. John. Signior, you are very near my brother in his love: he is enamour'd on Hero. I pray you dissuade him from her; she is no equal for his birth: you may do the part of an honest man in it. Claud. How know you he loves her? John. I heard him swear his affection. Bora. So did I too; and he swore he would marry her to-night. John. Come, let us to the banquet. [Exeunt JOHN and BORACHIO. Claud. Thus answer I in name of Benedick, But hear these ill news with the ears of Claudio. "Tis certain so: - the prince woos for himself. Friendship is constant in all other things, Save in the office and affairs of love : Therefore, 10 all hearts in love use their own tongues; Let every eye negotiate for itself, And trust no agent; for beauty is a witch, Against whose charms faith melteth into blood." This is an accident of hourly proof, Which I mistrusted not: Farewell, therefore, Hero' Re-enter BENEDICK. Bene. Count Claudio? Claud. Yea, the same. Bene. Come, will you go with me? Claud. Whither? Bene. Even to the next willow, about your own business, count. What fashion will you wear the garland of? About your neck, like an usurer's 10 Let, which is found in the next line, is understood here. 11 Blood signifies amorous heat or passion. So, in All's Well that Ends Well, Act iii. sc. 7: "Now his important blood will nought deny, that she'll demand." |