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Conr. Off, Coxcomb.

Dogb. God's my life, where's the Sexton? let him write down the 'Prince's officer Coxcomb: come, bind them, thou naughty varlet.

Conr. Away! you are an ass, you are an afs

Dogb. Doft thou not fufpect my place? doft, thou not fufpect my years? O that he were here to write me down an afs! but, mafters, remember, that I am an afs; though it be not written down, yet forget not that I am an afs; no, thou villain, thou art full of piety, as fhall be prov'd upon thee by good witness; I am a wife fellow, and which is more, an officer; and which is more, an houfholder; and which is more, as pretty a piece of flefh as any in Messina, and one that knows the law; go to, and a rich fellow enough; go to, and a fellow that hath had loffes; and one that hath two gowns, and every thing handfome about him; bring him away; O, that I had been writ down an ais! [Exeunt.

I

ACT V. SCENE I.
Before Leonato's Houfe.

Enter Leonato and Antonio.

ΑΝΤΟΝΙΟ.

F you go on thus, you will kill yourself;
And 'tis not wifdom thus to fecond grief
Against yourself.

Leon. 1 pray thee, ceafe thy counsel,
Which falls into mine ears as profitlefs
As water in a fieve; give not me counsel,
Nor let no Comforter delight mine ear,

There is nothing in the old quarto different in this fcene from the common copies, except that the names of two actors, Kempe

and Cooley, are placed at the beginning of the fpeeches, initead of the proper words.

But

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But fuch a one whofe wrongs do fuite with mine.
Bring me a father, that fo lov'd his child,
Whofe 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, fhape and form.
If fuch a one will fmile and ftroke his beards,
And, Sorrow wag! cry; hem, when he fhould groan;
Patch grief with proverbs; make misfortune drunk
With candle-wafters; bring him yet to me,
And I of him will gather patience.

But there is no fuch man; for, brother, men
Can counfel, and give comfort to that grief

8 If fuch a one will Smile, and froke his Beard, And hallow, wag, cry hem, when be bould groan,] Mr. Rowe is the first Authority that I can find for this Reading. But what is the Intention, or how are we to expound it?" If a Man will

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halloo, and whoop, and fidget, "and wriggle about, to fhew a "Pleafure when He fhould "groan," &c. This does not give much Decorum to the Sentiment. The old Quarto, and the 1st and 2d Folio Editions all read,

And forrow, wagge; cry hem, &c. We don't, indeed, get much by this Reading; tho', I flatter myfelf, by a flight Alteration, it has led me to the true one,

And Sorrow wage; cry, hem!

when he fould groan; i. e. If fuch a one will combat with, firive against Sorrow, &c. Nor is this Word infrequent with pur Author in thefe Significa

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Sir Thomas Hanmer, and after him Dr. Warburton, for wag, read waive, which is, I fuppofe, the fame as, put aside, or shift off. None of thefe conjectures fatisty me, nor perhaps any other reader. I cannot but think the true reading nearer than it is imagined. I point thus,

If fuch an one will smile, and
froke his beard,
And, forrow, wag! cry; hem,

when be fould groan;
That is, If he will smile, and
cry, forrow, be gone, and hem in-
flead of groaning. The order in
which and and cry are placed is
harfh, and this harfhnefs made
the fenfe miftaken. Range the
words in the common order, and
my reading will be free from all
difficulty.

If fuch an one will Smile, and
firoke his beard,
Cry, forrow, wag! and hem.
when he should groan.

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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 himfelf; 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 tooth-ach patiently;
However they have writ the ftyle of Gods',
And made a pifh at chance and sufferance'.
Ant. Yet bend not all the harm upon yourself:
Make those, that do offend you, fuffer too.

Leon. There thou speak'st reason; nay, I will do fo. My foul doth tell me, Hero is bely'd;

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

SCENE II.

Enter Don Pedro, and Claudio.

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

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Claud. Good day to both of you.
Leon. Hear you, my lords?

Pedro. We have fome hafte, Leonato.

1

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 himself 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 sword,

I fear thee not.

Claud. Marry, befhrew my hand,

If it fhould give your age fuch cause of fear;
In faith, my hand meant nothing to my fword.
Leon. Tufh, tufh, man, never fleer and jeft 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 haft fo wrong'd my innocent child and me,
That I am forc'd to lay my reverence by ;
And, with grey hairs, and bruise 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 fcandal flept,
Save this of hers, fram'd by thy villany!

Claud. My villany?

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

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

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

4.

Claud.

Claud. Away, I will not have to do with you.

Leon. 3 Canft thou fo 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 Iam a gentleman, I will.

Leon. Brother,

Ant. Content yourself; God knows, I lov'd my
Niece;

And she 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, fathion 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 deffe 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 fall kill two of us, &c.] This Brother Anthony is the trueft picture imaginable of human nature. He had af fumed 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 paffion
better on fo trying an occafion.
Yet, immediately after this, no
fooner does he begin to suspect
that his Age and Valour are
flighted, but he falls into the
moft intemperate fit of rage him-
felf 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 Shake-
Speare. As to the expreffion, too,
of his paffion, nothing can be
more highly painted. WARB

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