Bene. Would you buy her, that you inquire after her? But speak you this to tell us Cupid is a good hare-finder, and Vulcan 170 Claud. In mine eye, she is the sweetest lady that ever I looked on. Bene. I can see yet without spectacles, and I see no such 175 matter: there's her cousin, an she were not possessed with a fury, exceeds her as much in beauty as the first of May doth the last of December. But I hope you have no intent to turn husband, have you? Claud. I would scarce trust myself, though I had sworn 180 the contrary, if Hero would be my wife. Bene. Is't come to this? In faith, hath not the world one man but he will wear his cap with suspicion? Shall 176. an] 168. it into] it in too Hanmer. 173. ever I] I ever Pope. Rowe; and Q, Ff; if Pope. 177. with a] with such a Rowe (2) and other editors. 182. this? În faith] Rowe; this? in faith Q, Ff; this, in faith? Pope, punctuation adopted by majority of editors. the sincerity of others-" But speak you this with a sad brow?" 169. sad] serious, as in v. i. 201 post. For the adverb, see 11. iii. 211. 169. the flouting Jack] the mocking rascal. Jack was a common term of contempt. See v. i. 91 post; Marlowe's Edward II. (ed. Dyce, p. 193): "I have not seen a dapper Jack so brisk"; The Knight of the Burning Pestle, Induction, 19 (Beaumont and Fletcher, ed. A. R. Walker, vi. 161): "If you were not resolv'd to play the Jacks, What need you study for new subjects, Purposely to abuse your betters ?" Staunton quotes from Puttenham's Arte of English Poesie [ed. Arber, p. 201] an illustration of "Antiphrasis or the Broad floute": "Or when we deride by plaine and flat contradiction, as he that saw a dwarfe go in the streete said to his companion that walked with him: See yonder gyant: and to a negro or woman blackemoore, in good sooth ye are a faire one, we may call it the broad floute." This explains the following words. To refer to the blind Cupid as a hare-finder [see next note], and to Vulcan the blacksmith as a carpenter is to deride by flat contradiction. Benedick says in effect: Are you serious in your praise of Hero, or do you speak in mockery, exalting her for qualities which she obviously does not possess? 170. hare-finder] one whose business it is to seek out a hare in the form or lair in which she crouches, a profession which clearly demands keen sight. The New Eng. Dict. quotes, 1611, Markham, Countr. Content, 1. vii. (1668) 43: "The Hare-finder should give the Hare three sohows before he put her from her Lear." 175, 176. no such matter] nothing of the kind, as in II. iii. 207, and v. iv. 82 post. Compare 2 Henry IV., Ind. 15; Sonnet lxxxvii. :— "Thus have I had thee, as a dream doth flatter, In sleep a king, but waking no such matter." and Tarlton's Jest Book (Shakes. Soc. Papers, p. 40): " But Tarlton demanded of his father if it were so. But he knew no such matter." 183. wear.. suspicion] One of the many references in this play to the well I never see a bachelor of threescore again? Go to, Re-enter DON PEDRO. D. Pedro. What secret hath held you here, that you fol- Bene. I would your grace would constrain me to tell. think so; you but on my He is allegiance, mark you this, on my allegiance. 190 in love. With who? now that is your grace's part. 195 Mark how short his answer is:—with Hero, Leonato's short daughter. Claud. If this were so, so were it uttered. 185. an] and Q, Ff. 188. Re-enter .] Hanmer; Enter Don Pedro, John the bastard Q, Ff. 189. Leonato's] Rowe; Leonatoes Q, F; Leonato's house Pope. 192. can be] cannot be F 4, Rowe, Pope. 193, 194. so; but He is] Johnson (substantially) after Theobald; so (but on .. allegiance) hee is Q, F. 195. who] Q, F; whom Ff 2-4. on ... worn Elizabethan jest, which adorned the husbands of unfaithful wives with imaginary horns. It would seem that contemporary audiences could not tire of this joke. To illustrate text Henderson cites a passage from Painter's Palace of Pleasure (vol. i. fol. 229, ed. 1569, ap. Wright): "All they yt weare hornes, be pardoned to weare their capps vpon their heads." 186. sigh away Sundays] Sundays, probably, because spent at home. There may be a reference here to the efforts made in Elizabeth's reign to restrict Sunday games and entertainments, for long a grave scandal among the soberminded. (See Gosson's School of Abuse and John Northbrooke's Treatise against Dicing, Dancing, etc., Shakes. Soc. Papers.) In his Introduction to The Sports and Pastimes of the People of England (ed. J. C. Cox, 1801, p. xlviii), Strutt refers (i) to an edict passed in the twenty-second year of Elizabeth's reign, enacting that "all heathenish playes and interludes should be banished upon Sabbath days" in the city of London; (ii) to the more general prohibition of public pastimes on Sun day, which followed three years later upon the catastrophe at Paris Garden (Jan. 1583), when eight spectators at a Sunday bear-baiting were killed and many injured (Holinshed's Chronicles, 1807, iv. 504). Such restrictions, though but negligently enforced, as may be inferred from various proclamations in the following reign, would naturally be resented by a gallant of Benedick's disposition. 188. Re-enter Don Pedro.] The original stage direction (possibly, as Furness suggests, another "reminiscence of the original play ") is clearly a mistake, since the first intelligence that Don John has of Claudio's intended marriage with Hero is brought him by Borachio in scene iii. of this act. ... 195. With who] Who for whom as often. Compare "Who have you offended, masters, . . .?" v. i. 221 post, and see Abbott's Shakes. Gram., § 274. 198. If... so,. uttered] Resenting Benedick's flippancy, and not yet sure of the prince's approval, Claudio speaks sulkily: If this were true even in this manner would Benedick have repeated my confidence. Bene. Like the old tale, my lord: "it is not so, nor 'twas not so: but indeed, God forbid it should be so." Claud. If my passion change not shortly, God forbid it should be otherwise. D. Pedro. Amen, if you love her, for the lady is very well worthy. Claud. You speak this to fetch me in, my lord. D. Pedro. By my troth, I speak my thought. Claud. And in faith, my lord, I spoke mine. Bene. And by my two faiths and troths, my lord, I spoke mine. Claud. That I love her, I feel. D. Pedro. That she is worthy, I know. Bene. That I neither feel how she should be loved, nor know how she should be worthy, is the opinion that fire cannot melt out of me: will die in it at the stake. D. Pedro. Thou wast ever an obstinate heretic in the despite of beauty. 66 207. spoke] Q; speake F. 199. the old tale] Probably that contributed by Mr. Blakeway to the Variorum edition of 1821, and reproduced by both W. A. Wright and Furness in their editions of this play. This "old tale," which appears in many forms in the folk-lore of Europe, belongs to the Robber-Bridegroom" type of story, the essential features of which are thus given in The Handbook of Folk-lore (ed. C. S. Burne, App. C, p. 352): “I. A girl is engaged to a disguised robber. 2. She visits his castle and discovers his occupation. 3. She convicts him before her relatives by some token, and he is killed." For a German version see The Robber Bridegroom in Grimm's Household Tales, trans. M. Hunt, 1884, i. 40; for a gruesome English variant see the Nurse's story of Captain Murderer in Dickens's Uncommercial Traveller. Gypsy versions have been published by Dr. Sampson in the Journal of the Gypsy Lore Society, New Series, ii. pp. 372-376, and Third Series, i. pp. 97-109. In some form the story must have been familiar to Shakespeare. See Appendix, p. 159. 201. If my .. shortly] Suggestive and inauspicious words, but due rather to shyness than to any doubt of his own constancy. 200 205 210 215 201, 202. God... otherwise] Dr. Johnson was puzzled by this and the two preceding speeches: "there seems something omitted relating to Hero's consent, or to Claudio's marriage, else I know not what Claudio can wish' not to be otherwise."" Surely he is simply echoing and answering Benedick's last words and means: God forbid I should not love her. 205. fetch me in] lead me on, and so entrap me or cause me "to give myself The verb to fetch in is generaway." ally used in a harsher sense than this and = to cheat or beguile. See Middleton's Father Hubburd's Tales old cunning bowler to fetch in a young (Works, ed. Bullen, viii. 94): "like an killing gamester, who will suffer him to win one sixpenny game at the first, and then lurch him in six pounds afterward.” 208. my two... troths] i.e. to both Don Pedro and Claudio. The two nouns, used like this, are almost synonymous. Compare The Marriage of Wit and Science, III. i. (Hazlitt's Dodsley, ii. 348): "Give me thy hand, take here my faith and troth I will maintain thee, howsoever the world goeth." Claud. And never could maintain his part but in the force of his will. Bene. That a woman conceived me, I thank her: that she 220 D. Pedro. I shall see thee, ere I die, look pale with love. not with love: prove that ever I lose more blood 230 222. recheat] rechate Q, Ff; recheate Rowe (2). Ballet F. 66 222. recheat] A series of notes sounded on a horn to summon the hounds together at the beginning and end of the hunt and on various occasions during the course of the run. Apparently there were many different kinds of recheat. W. A. Wright says: Among the 'Antient Hunting Notes,' given in The Gentleman's Recreation, we find 'A Recheat when the Hounds Hunt a right Game,' The Double Recheat,' The Treble or Sr. Hewets Recheat,' 'A New Warbling Recheat for any Chace,' 'The Royal Recheat,' A Running Recheat with very quick time,' and 'A Recheat or Farewell at parting. New Eng. Dict. quotes: "Cockaine Treat. Hunting Div, The Rechate, with three winds, The first, one long and fiue short. The second, one long and one short. The third, one long and sixe short." See also The Returne from Parnassus, II. v. 848-854 (ed. Macray, p. 106): “Amor. when you blow the death of your Fox in the field or couert, then must you sound 3. notes, with 3. windes, and recheat: Now sir, when you come to your stately gate, as you sounded the recheat before, so now you must sound the releefe three times." 223. baldrick] a leather belt (worn over the shoulder and across the breast), in which was hung the horn or bugle of the forester. So Chaucer describes his 232. ballad] Q (B); "Yeman in the Prologue to the Canterbury Tales: "An horn he bar, the bawdrik was of grene" (ed. Skeat, 116). The meaning of the passage is not very clear. There is some contrast suggested between the recheat and the invisible baldrick, though the allusion in both expressions is to the horns of the cuckold. Perhaps, as Wright interprets, "Benedick implies that he will neither have his shame published nor silently endure it." 226. fine] conclusion, as in All's Well that Ends Well, Iv. iv. 35; The London Prodigall, III. ii. 90 (Shakes. Apoc., ed. Tucker Brooke, p. 205): "if I cannot, then, make my way, nature hath done the last for me, and thers the fine"; and frequently in the expression "in fine.' 230. lose blood] i.e. by sighing. It is still a common superstition that a heavy sigh draws a drop of blood from the heart. Compare A Midsummer Night's Dream, III. ii. 96-97 : "All fancy-sick she is and pale of cheer, With sighs of love, that costs the fresh blood dear." 232. ballad-maker's pen] which is dedicated to love and lovers, and therefore in Benedick's estimation—a worthless and degrading instrument. ... 232-234. hang me blind Cupid] Rushton, in his Shakespeare's Eu me up at the door of a brothel-house for the sign of D. Pedro. Well, if ever thou dost fall from this faith, thou 235 wilt prove a notable argument. Bene. If I do, hang me in a bottle like a cat and shoot at me, and he that hits me, let him be clapped on the shoulder and called Adam. D. Pedro. Well, as time shall try: 240 'In time the savage bull doth bear the yoke.' Bene. The savage bull may; but if ever the sensible Benedick bear it, pluck off the bull's horns and set them in my forehead; and let me be vildly painted, and in such great letters as they write, 'Here is good 245 241. In time. . . yoke'] as 240. as time] as the time Ff 3, 4, Rowe. verse Capell. 244. vildly] Q, F 4; vildely Ff 1-3; vilely Rowe. Here... Here] here . . . here Q, Ff 1, 2. 237. a bottle] W. A. Wright: "Probably a twiggen bottle (Othello, II. iii. 152), or wicker basket, in which our rude forefathers appear to have enclosed a cat, real or fictitious, as a mark for their archers, like the popinjay in Old Mortality." Steevens quotes from a pamphlet, Warres, or the Peace is Broken: " arrowes flew faster than they did at a catte in a basket, when Prince Arthur, or the Duke of Shordich, strucke up the drumme in the field.” 239. Adam] Probably, as Theobald suggested, a reference to Adam Bell, who, with his friends, Clym of the Clough and William of Cloudesly, made one of a famous trio of archers. To support this suggestion Halliwell gives nine quotations in which Adam Bell's name is mentioned in connection with archery. Furness remarks of these that "in every instance the full name, Adam Bell, is given, never the Christian name alone, as is given by Benedick." But in the old ballads, whence these heroes drew the breath of 245-246. life, Adam Bell's Christian name (never his surname) is used alone, while we find that Clym of the Clough has always his full title and William of Cloudesly is referred to indifferently by either Christian or surname (see Child's English and Scottish Popular Ballads, ed. Sargent and Kittredge, p. 245). Furness adds: "It is barely possible that 'Adam' might be a generic term for an unrivalled archer, but of this there is no evidence." The lines in Romeo and Juliet (11. i. 13, 14) :— 66 · Young Adam Cupid, he that shot so trim, When king Cophetua loved the beggar-maid,' will not serve as evidence here, since the name Adam is a conjectural substitution for the Abraham of the old copies. Moreover, it would seem that Arthur, not Adam, was the name given in Shakespeare's time to a good archer. See Strutt, The Sports and Pastimes of the People of England (ed. J. C. Cox, 1801), p. 54: [of Prince Arthur, eldest son of Henry VII.] From his expertness in handling of the bow, every good shooter was called by his name. 241. In time yoke] Borrowed from Kyd's Spanish Tragedy, 11. i. (Hazlitt's Dodsley, v. 36): "In time the savage bull sustains the yoke." Kyd had taken the line from Watson's Love Passion, in his Ecatompathia (ed. Arber, p. 83): "In time the Bull is brought to weare the yoake." |