D. PEDRO. The lady Beatrice hath a quarrel to you; the gentleman, that danced with her, told her, fhe is much wrong'd by you.

BENE. O, fhe mifufed me paft the endurance of a block; an oak, but with one green leaf on it, would have answer'd her; my very vifor began to affume life, and fcold with her: She told me, not thinking I had been myself, that I was the prince's jefter; that I was duller than a great thaw; huddling jeft upon jeft, with fuch impoffible conveyance, upon me, that I ftood like a man at a mark, with a whole

6

- fuch impoffible conveyance,] Dr. Warburton reads impaffable: Sir Tho. Hanmer impetuous, and Dr. Johnfon importable, which, fays he, is used by Spenfer, in a fenfe very congruous to this paffage, for insupportable, or not to be fuftained. Alfo by the laft tranflators of the Apocrypha; and therefore fuch a word as Shakspeare may be fuppofed to have written. REED.

Importable is very often used by Lidgate in his Prologue to the tranflation of The Tragedies gathered by Ihon Bochas, &c. as well as by Holinfhed.

Impoffible may be licentiously used for unaccountable.

has already faid, that Benedick invents impoffible flanders.

Beatrice

So, in The Fair Maid of the Inn, by Beaumont and Fletcher : "You would look for some most impossible antick." Again, in The Roman Actor, by Maflinger:

"Ourselves, by building on impoffible hopes." STEEVENS, Impoffible may have been what Shakspeare wrote, and be used in the fenfe of incredible or inconceivable, both here and in the beginning of the fcene, where Beatrice fpeaks of impoffible flanders. M. MASON. I believe the meaning is with a rapidity equal to that of jugglers, who appear to perform impoffibilities. We have the fame epithet again in Twelfth-Night: "There is no Chriftian can ever believe fuch impoffible paffages of groffnefs." So Ford fays in The Merry Wives of Windfor, "I will examine impoffible places." Again, in Julius Cæfar:

tt

-

Now bid me run,

"And I will ftrive with things impoffible,

"And get the better of them."

Conveyance was the common term in our author's time for fleight ́ of hand. MALONE,

?

6

army fhooting at me: She fpeaks poniards, and every word flabs: if her breath were as terrible as her terminations, there were no living near her, fhe would infect to the north ftar. I would not marry her, though the were endowed with all that Adam had left him before he tranfgrefs'd: fhe would have made Hercules have turn'd fpit; yea, and have cleft his club to make the fire too. Come, talk not of her; you fhall find her the infernal Até in good apparel. I would to God, fome fcholar would conjure her; for, certainly, while fhe is here, a man may live as quiet in hell, as in a fanctuary; and people fin upon purpose, because they would go thither; fo, indeed, all difquiet, horror, and perturbation follows her.

7

8

Re-enter CLAUDIO, and BEATRICE.

D. PEDRO. Look, here fhe comes.

BENE. Will your grace command me any fervice to the world's end? I will go on the flightest errand now to the Antipodes, that you can devise to fend me on; I will fetch you a toothpicker now from the fartheft inch of Afia; bring you the length of Prefter John's foot; fetch you a hair off the great Cham's beard; do you any embaffage to the

6

9

She speaks poniards,] So, in Hamlet: "I'll Speak daggers to her

STEEVENS.

7 the infernal Até in good apparel.] This is a pleasant allufion to the cuftom of ancient poets and painters, who represent the Furies in rags. WARBURTON.

Até is not one of the Furies, but the Goddess of Revenge, or Difcord. STEEVENS.

8 -fome Scholar would conjure her ;] As Shakspeare always attributes to his exorcifts the power of raifing fpirits, he gives his conjurer, in this place, the power of laying them. M. MASON.

bring you the length of Prefer John's foot; fetch you a hair off the great Cham's beard;] i. e. I will undertake the hardest task,

Pigmies, rather than hold three word's conference with this harpy: You have no employment for me? D. PEDRO. None, but to defire your good com

pany.

BENE. O God, fir, here's a difh I love not; I cannot endure my lady Tongue.' [Exit. D. PEDRO. Come, lady, come; you have loft the heart of fignior Benedick.

BEAT. Indeed, my lord, he lent it me a while; and I gave him ufe for it, a double heart for his fingle one: marry, once before, he won it of me with falfe dice, therefore your grace may well fay, I have loft it.

D. PEDRO. You have put him down, lady, you have put him down.

BEAT. So I would not he fhould do me, my lord, left I fhould prove the mother of fools. I have brought count Claudio, whom you fent me to feek.

rather than have any conversation with lady Beatrice. Alluding to the difficulty of access to either of those monarchs, but more particularly to the former.

So, Cartwright, in his comedy called The Siege, or Love's Conwert, 1651:

Ibid me take the Parthian king by the beard or draw an eye-tooth from the jaw royal of the Perfian monarch."

Such an achievement, however, Huon of Bourdeaux was fent to perform, and performed it. See chap. 46. edit. 1601. " he opened his mouth, and tooke out his foure great teeth, and then cut off his beard, and tooke thereof as much as pleased him." STEEVENS.

"Thou must goe to the citie of Babylon to the Admiral Gaudiffe, to bring me thy hand full of the heare of his beard, and foure of his greatest teeth, 'Alas, my lord, (quoth the Barrons) we fee well you defire greatly his death, when you charge him with fuch a meffage." Huon of Bourdeaux, ch. 17. BOWLE.

2

reads 3

my lady Tongue.] Thus the quarto, 1600. The folio this lady Tongue. STEEVENS.

I gave him use for it,] Ufe, in our author's time, meant intereft of money. MALONE.

D. PEDRO. Why, how now, count? wherefore

CLAUD. Not fad, my lord.

D. PEDRO. How then? Sick?
CLAUD. Neither, my lord.

BEAT. The count is neither fad, nor fick, nor merry, nor well: but civil, count; civil as an orange, and fomething of that jealous complexion.

D. PEDRO. I'faith, lady, I think your blazon to be true; though, I'll be fworn, if he be fo, his conceit is falfe. Here, Claudio, I have wooed in thy name, and fair Hero is won; I have broke with her father, and his good will obtained: name the day of marriage, and God give thee joy!

LEON. Count, take of me my daughter, and with her my fortunes: his grace hath made the match, and all grace fay Amen to it!

- BEAT. Speak, count, 'tis your cue.

CLAUD. Silence is the perfecteft herald of joy: I were but little happy, if I could fay how much. Lady, as you are mine, I am yours: I give away myself for you, and dote upon the exchange.

BEAT. Speak, coufin; or, if you cannot, ftop his mouth with a kifs, and let him not speak, neither. D. PEDRO. In faith, lady, you have a merry heart. BEAT. Yea, my lord; I thank it, poor fool, it keeps on the windy fide of care: - My cousin tells him in his ear, that he is in her heart.

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civil as an orange,] This conceit occurs likewife in Nafhe's four Letters confuted, 1592. "For the order of my life, it is as civil as an orange." STEEVENs.

of that jealous complexion.] Thus the quarto, 1600. The folio reads, of a jealous complexion. STEEVENS.

3 - poor fool,] This was formerly an expreffion of tenderness. See King Lear, laft fceue: "And my poor fool is hang'd." MALONE.

CLAUD. And fo fhe doth, coufin.

BEAT. Goodlord, for alliance!"-Thus goes every one to the world but I, and I am fun-burn'd;' I may fit in a corner, and cry, heigh ho! for a husband. D. PEDRO. Lady Beatrice, I will get you one. BEAT. I would rather have one of your father's getting: Hath your grace ne'er a brother like you? Your father got excellent husbands, if a maid could come by them.

D. PEDRO. Will you have me, lady?

BEAT. No, my lord, unless I might have another for working-days; your grace is too coftly to wear every day: But, I befeech your grace, pardon me; I was born to speak all mirth, and no matter.

D. PEDRO. Your filence moft offends me, and to be merry beft becomes you; for, out of queftion, you were born in a merry hour.

6 Good lord, for alliance!] Claudio has juft called Beatrice coufin. I fuppofe, therefore, the meaning is, Good Lord, here have I got a new kinfman by marriage. MALONE.

I cannot underftand thefe words, unless they imply a wifh for the fpeaker's alliance with a husband. STEEVENS.

--

7 Thus goes every one to the world but I, and I am fun-burn'd;] What is it, to go to the world? perhaps, to enter by marriage into a fettled ftate; but why is the unmarried lady fun-burnt? I believe we fhould read, Thus goes every one to the wood but I, and I am fun-burnt. Thús does every one but I find a fhelter, and I am left expofed to wind and fun. The nearest way to the wood,' is a phrase for the readieft means to any end. It is faid of a woman, who accepts a worfe match than those which she had refused, that fhe has paffed through the wood, and at laft taken a crooked stick. But conjectural criticifm has always fomething to abate its confidence. Shakspeare, in All's well that Ends well, ufes the phrafe, to go to the world, for marriage. So that my emendation depends only on the opposition of wood to fun-burnt. JOHNSON.

I am fun-burnt may mean, I have loft my beauty, and am confequently no longer fuch an object as can tempt a man to marry.

STEEVENS.