Which they themselves not feel, but tafting it,
Their counfel turns to paffion, which before
Would give preceptial medicine to rage;
Fetter ftrong madness in a filken thread;
Charm ach with air, and agony with words,
No, no; 'tis all mens office to speak patience
To thofe, that wring under the load of forrow;
But no man's virtue, nor fufficiency,

To be fo moral, when he fhall endure

The like himself; therefore give me no counfel;
My griefs cry louder than advertisement. 9

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

That could endure the tooth-ach patiently;
However they have writ the ftyle of Gods,
And made a pifh at chance and fufferance. 2
Ant. Yet bend not all the harm upon yourself:
Make thofe, that do offend you, fuffer too.

Leon. There thou speak'ft reafon; nay, I will do so. My foul doth tell me, Hero is bely'd ;

And that fhall Claudio know, fo fhall the Prince;
And all of them, that thus dishonour her.

Enter Don Pedro, and Claudio.

Ant. Here comes the Prince and Claudio haftily.
Pedro. Good den, good den.

9 than advertisement. ] That is, than admonition, than moral inftruction.

However they have writ the ftyle of Gods, ] This alludes to the extravagant titles the Stoics gave their wife men. Sapiens ille cum Diis, ex pari, Senec. Ep. 59. Jupiter

vivit.

quo antecedit virum bonum? diutius bonus eft. Sapiens nihilo je minoris æftimat.—Deus non vncit Sapientem felicitate. Ep. 73. WARBURTON. 2 And made a pish at chance and fufferance. Alludes to their famous Apathy.

WARBURTON.
Claud.

Claud. Good day to both of you.

Leon. Hear you, my lords?

Pedro. We have fome hafte, Legnato.

Leon. Some hafte, my lord! well, fare you well, my lord.

Are you fo hafty now? well, all is one.

Pedro. Nay, do not quarrel with us, good old man. Ant. If he could right himfelf with quarrelling, Some of us would lye low.

Claud. Who wrongs him?

Leon. Marry, thou doft wrong me, thou diffembler, thou!

Nay, never lay thy hand upon thy fword,

I fear thee not.

Claud. Marry, befhrew my hand,

If it should give your age fuch caufe of fear;
In faith, my hand meant nothing to my fword.
Leon. Tush, tush, man, never fleer and jeft at me;
1 fpeak 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 haft fo wrong'd my innocent child and me,
That I am forc'd to lay my reverence by;
And, with grey hairs, and bruife of many days,
Do challenge thee to tryal of a man;

I fay, thou haft bely'd mine innocent child,
Thy flander hath gone through and through her heart,
And the lyes bury'd with her ancestors,

O, in a tomb where never scandal flept,
Save this of hers, fram'd by thy villany!
Claud. My villany?

Leon. Thine, Claudio; thine, I fay.
Pedro. You fay not right, old man.
Leon. My lord, my lord,

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

Delpight his nice fence and his active practice,
His May of youth, and bloom of luftyhood.

Claud. Away, I will not have to do with you.
Leon. Canft thou so daffe me? thou haft kill'd my
child;

If thou kill'ft me, boy, thou fhalt kill a man.
Ant. He fhall 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 lov'd my
Niece;

And fhe is dead, flander'd to death by villains,
That dare as well anfwer a man, indeed,
As I dare take a ferpent by the tongue.
Boys, apes, braggarts, jacks, milkfops!
Leon. Brother Anthony-

Ant. Hold you content; what, man? I know them, yea,

And what they weigh, even to the utmost scruple :
Scambling, out-facing, fashion-monging boys,

3 Canft Thou fo daffe me?-] This is a Country Word, Mr. Pope tells us, fignifying, daunt. It may be fo; but that is not the Expofition here: To daffe, and doffe are fynonymous Terms, that mean, to put off: which is the very Senfe requir'd here, and what Leonato would reply, upon Claudio's faying, He would have nothing to do with him.

THEOBALD.

4 Ant. He fhall kill two of us, &c.] This Brother Anthony is the trueft picture imaginable of human nature. He had affumed the Character of a Sage to comfort his Brother, o'er

whelm'd with grief for his only daughter's affront and dishonour; and had feverely reproved him for not commanding his passion better on fo trying an occafion. Yet, immediately after this, no fooner does he begin to fufpect that his Age and Valour are flighted, but he falls into the most intemperate fit of rage himfelf: and all his Brother can do or fay is not of power to pacify him. This is copying nature with a penetration and exactness of Judgment peculiar to Shakefpeare. As to the expreffion, too, of his paffion, nothing can be more highly painted. WARB.

That

That lye, and cog, and flout, deprave and flander,
Go antickly, and fhow an outward hideousness,
And speak off half a dozen dangerous words,
How they might hurt their enemies, if they durft ;
And this is all.

Leon. But, brother Anthony,

Ant. Come, 'tis no matter:

Do not you meddle, let me deal in this.

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

My heart is forry for your daughter's death;
But, on my Honour, fhe was charg'd with nothing
But what was true, and very full of proof.
Leon. My lord, my lord

Pedro. I will not hear you.

Leon. No! come, brother, away, I will be heard.
Ant. And fhall, or fome of us will fiart for it.

SCENE

[Exe. ambo.

III.

Enter Benedick.

Pedro. See, fee, here comes the man we went to feek.
Claud. Now, Signior, what news?

Bene. Good day, my lord.

-

we will not WAKE your patience.] This conveys a fentiment that the speaker would by no means have implied, That the patience of the two Old men was not exercised, but afleep, which upbraids them for infenfibility under their wrong. ShaksSpeare must have wrote

We will not WRACK, i. e. deftroy your patience by tantalizing you. WARBURTON. This emendation is very fpe

cious, and perhaps is right; yet the prefent reading may admit a congruous meaning with lefs difficulty than many other of Shake peare's expreffions.

The old men have been both very angry and outrageous; the Prince tells them that he and Claudio will not wake their patience; will not any longer force them to endure the prefence of those whom, though they look on them as enemies, they cannot refiit.

Pedro.

Pedro. Welcome, Signior; you are almost come to part almost a fray."

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

Pedro. Leonato and his brother; what think'ft thou? had we fought, I doubt, we fhould have been too young for them.

Bene. In a falfe quarrel there is no true valour: I came to feek you both.

Claud. We have been up and down to feek thee; for we are high-proof melancholy, and would fain have it beaten away: wilt thou ufe thy wit?

Bene. It is in my fcabbard; fhall I draw it?
Pedro. Doft thou wear thy wit by thy fide?

Claud. Never any did fo, though very many have been befide their wit. I will bid thee draw, as we do the minstrels; draw, to pleasure us.

Pedro. As I am an honest man, he looks pale: art thou fick or angry?

Claud. What! courage, man: what tho' care kill'd a cat, thou haft mettle enough in thee to kill care.

Bene. Sir, I fhall meet your wit in the career, if you charge it againft me.-I pray you, chufe another fubject.

Claud. Nay, then give him another staff; this laft was broke crofs. "

Pedro. By this light, he changes more and more: I think, he be angry, indeed.

Claud. If he be, he knows how to turn his girdle. ?
Bene. Shall I speak a word in your ear?
Claud. God bless me from a challenge!

Bene. You are a villain; I jeft not. I will make it

Nay, then give him another faff; &c.] Allufion to Tilting. See note, 1s you like it. A&t 3. Scene 10. WARBURTON to turn his girdle.]

7

We have a proverbial fpeech, f he be angry, let him turn his girdle. But I do not know its original or meaning.

good