Verg. Nay, that's certain; we have the exhibition to examine.

Sexton. But which are the offenders that are to be examined? let them come before master constable.

Dogb. Yea, marry, let them come before me.-What is your name, friend?

Bora. Borachio.

Dogb. Pray write down, Borachio.-Yours, sirrah? Conr. I am a gentleman, sir, and my name is Conrade. Dogb. Write down, master gentleman Conrade.—Masters, do you serve God?

Bora. Conr. Yea, sir, we hope.

Dogb. Write down, that they hope they serve God :— and write God first; for God defend but God should go before such villains!-Masters, it is proved already, that you are little better than false knaves; and it will go near to be thought so shortly. How answer you for yourselves? Conr. Marry, sir, we say we are none.

Dogb. A marvellous witty fellow, I assure you; but I will go about with him.-Come you hither, sirrah; a word in your ear, sir; I say to you, it is thought you are false knaves.

Bora. Sir, I say to you, we are none.

Dogb. Well, stand aside.-'Fore God, they are both in a tale: Have you writ down, that they are none?

Sexton. Master constable, you go not the way to examine; you must call forth the watch that are their accusers.

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

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

Dogb. Write down, prince John a villain :-Why this is flat perjury, to call a prince's brother, villain.

Bora. Master constable,

Dogb. Pray thee, fellow, peace; I do not like thy look, I promise thee.

Sexton. What heard you him say else?

2 Watch. Marry, that he had received a thousand ducats of Don John, for accusing the lady Hero wrongfully

[2] Blunder for examination to exhibit. See p. 49: "Take their examination yourself, and bring it me " STEEVENS.

[3] Deftly, i. e. the readiest, most commodious way. Shakespeare, I suppose, desigued Dogberry to corrupt this word as well as many others. STEEVENS.

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

Sexton. What else, fellow?

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

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

Sexton. What else?

2 Watch. This is all.

Sexton. 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

Dogb. Come, let them be opinioned.

Verg. Let them be in band,

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 ass.

Dogb. 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 :-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 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.

[4] This sexton was an ecclesiastic of one of the inferior orders called the sacristan, and not a brother officer. I suppose the book from whence the poet took his subject was some old English novel, trauslated from the Italian, where the word sagristano was rendered sexton. WARBURTON.

Dr. Warburton's assertion, as to the dignity of a sexton or sacristan, may be sup ported by the following passage in Stanyhurst's Version of the fourth book of the Eneid, where he calls the Massylian priestess,

in soil Massyla begotten,

"Sexten of Hesperides sinagog." STEEVENS. [5] Shakespeare commonly uses band for bond. TYRWHITT.

ACT V.

SCENE I.—Before LEONATO's House. Enter LEOnato

and ANTONIO.

Antonio.

IF you go on thus, you will kill yourself;
And 'tis not wisdom, thus to second grief
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 lov'd 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 ;
Cry,-sorrow, wag!" and 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 ach 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,

To be so moral, when he shall endure

The like himself: therefore give me no counsel:
My griefs cry louder than advertisement.

[6] Read-" And bid him speak to me of patience." RITSON.

[7] Sorrow go by' is also (as I am assured) a common exclamation of hilarity even at this time, in Scotland. Sorrow wag! might have been just such another. The verb to wag is several times used by our author in the sense of to go, or pack of. STEEVENS

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 style of gods,
And made a pish 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.

Enter Don PEDRO and CLAudio.

Ant. Here comes the prince, and Claudio, hastily.
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?

Leon. Marry,

Thou, 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,

[8] This alludes to the extravagant titles the Stoics gave their wise men Sapiens ille cum Diis ex pare vivit. Senec. Ep. 59. Jupiter quo antecedit virum bonum? diutius bonus est. Sapiens nihilo se minoris æstimat.--Deus non vincit sapientem felicitate. Ep. 73. WARBURTON.

Shakespeare might have used this expression, without any acquaintance with the hyperboles of stoicism. By the style of gods, he meant an exalted language; such as we may suppose would be written by beings superior to human calamities, and therefore regarding them with neglect and coldness. STEEVENS.

[9] Alluding to their famous apathy. WARBURTON

Were I not old: Know, Claudio, to thy head,

Thou hast so wrong'd mine 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 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 her's, fram'd by thy villany.

Claud. My villany!

Leon. Thine, Claudio; thine I say.

D. Pedro. You say not right, old man.
Leon. My lord, my lord,

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

Despite his nice fence, and his active practice :1
His May of youth, and bloom of lustyhood.

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.

Ant. He shall 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;3 Nay, as I am a gentleman, I will.

Leon. Brother,—

Ant. Content yourself: God knows, I lov'd
And she is dead, slander'd to death by villains;
That dare as well answer a man, indeed,
As I dare take a serpent by the tongue :
Boys, apes, braggarts, jacks, milksops!-
Leon. Brother Antony,-

Ant. Hold you content; What, man! I know them, yea, And what they weigh, even to the utmost scruple : Scambling, out-facing, fashion-mong'ring boys,

[1] i. e. defence, or skill in the science of fencing, or defence. DOUCE. [2] This brother Antony is the truest picture imaginable of human nature. He had assumed the character of a sage to comfort his brother, overwhelmed with grief for his only daughter's affront and dishonour; and had severely reproved him for not commanding his passion better on so trying an occasion. Yet, immediately after this, no sooner does he begin to suspect that his age and valour are slighted, but he falls into the most intemperate fit of rage himself; and all he can do or say is not of power to pacify him. This is copying nature with a penetration and exactness of judgment peculiar to Shakespeare. As to the expression, too, of his passion, nothing can be more highly painted. WARBURTON

[3] Foining is a term in fencing, and means thrusting. DOUCE