examine: you must call forth the watch that are their accusers.

Dog. Yea, marry, that's the eftest way. Let the watch come forth. Masters, I charge you, in the prince's name, accuse these men.

First Watch. This man said, sir, that Don John, the prince's brother, was a villain.

Dog. Write down Prince John a villain. Why, this is flat perjury, to call a prince's brother villain. Bora. Master constable,

Dog. Pray thee, fellow, peace: I do not like thy look, I promise thee.

Sex. What heard you him say else?

Sec. Watch. Marry, that he had received a thousand ducats of Don John for accusing the so Lady Hero wrongfully.

Dog. Flat burglary as ever was committed.
Verg. Yea, by mass, that it is.

Sex. What else, fellow?

First Watch. And that Count Claudio did mean, upon his words, to disgrace Hero before the whole assembly, and not marry her.

Dog. O villain! thou wilt be condemned into everlasting redemption for this.

Sex. What else?

Watch. This is all.

Sex. And this is more, masters, than you can deny. Prince John is this morning secretly stolen away; Hero was in this manner accused, in this very manner refused, and upon the grief of this suddenly died. Master constable, let these men be bound, and brought to Leonato's: I will go before and show him their examination.

[Exit.

Dog. Come, let them be opinioned.

40

60

38. eftest, quickest, most con- between 'eftsoons, soon, and venient; probably a confusion 'deftest.'

Verg. Let them be in the hands-
Con. Off, coxcomb !

Dog. God's my life, where's the sexton? let him write down the prince's officer coxcomb. Come, bind them. Thou naughty varlet!

ACT V.

Con. Away! you are an ass, you are an ass. Dog. Dost thou not suspect my place? dost thou not suspect my years? O that he were here to write me down an ass! But, masters, remember that I am an ass; though it be not written down, yet forget not that I am an ass. 80 No, thou villain, thou art full of piety, as shall be proved upon thee by good witness. I am a wise fellow, and, which is more, an officer, and, which is more, a householder, and, which is more, as pretty a piece of flesh as any is in Messina, and one that knows the law, go to; and a rich fellow enough, go to; and a fellow that hath had losses, and one that hath two gowns and every thing handsome about him. Bring him away. O that I had been writ down an ass!

[Exeunt. 90

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

70, 71. Let ... coxcomb. Q and Ff print this as a single speech, which Q gives to Verges ('Cowley') and Ff to Dogberry

70

('Sexton'). Warburton proposed the divisions followed in the text.

Against yourself.
Leon.
I pray thee, cease thy counsel,
Which falls into mine ears as profitless
As water in a sieve: give not me counsel;
Nor let no comforter delight mine ear

But such a one whose wrongs do suit with mine.
Bring me a father that so loved 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,
Bid sorrow wag, cry 'hem!' when he should groan,
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,
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

ject of 'patch grief,' etc.
17. make
drunk with
candle-wasters, drown grief in
converse with hard students.
Candle-waster' was a recog-
nised equivalent for 'bookworm.'
24. preceptial medicine, re-
medial precepts.

28. wring, writhe.

20

30

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 toothache patiently,
However they have writ the style of gods
And made a push at chance and sufferance.

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.

Ant. Here comes the prince and Claudio hastily.

Enter DON PEDRO and CLAUDIO.

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. 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?

30. so moral, so full of moral precepts.
32. advertisement, counsel.

40

50

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 forced 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 hers, framed by thy villany!
Claud. My villany?

My lord, my lord,

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,
Despite his nice fence and his active practice,
His May of youth and bloom of lustihood.

Claud. Away! I will not have to do with you.
Leon. Canst thou so daff me? Thou hast kill'd
my child:

If thou kill'st me, boy, thou shalt kill a man.

58. fleer, grin.

62. to thy head, to thy face.

60

70

65. bruise of many days, furrows of age.