I

turn'd orthographer; his words are a very fantastical banquet, juft fo many ftrange difhes. May I be fo converted, and fee with these eyes? I cannot tell; I think not: I will not be fworn, but love may tranfform me to an oyfter; but I'll take my oath on it, till he have made an oyfter of me, he fhall never make me fuch a fool. One woman is fair; yet I am well another is wife; yet I am well: another virtuous; yet I am well: but till all graces be in one woman, one woman fhall not come in my grace. Rich fhe fhall be, that's certain; wife, or I'll none; virtuous, or I'll never cheapen her; fair, or I'll never look on her; mild, or come not near me; noble, or not I for an angel; of good difcourfe, an excellent musician, and her hair fhall be of what colour it please God. Ha! the prince and monfieur Love! I will hide me in the arbour. [Withdraws.

I

-orthographer;] The old copies read-orthography. Corrected by Mr. Pope. STEEVENS.

2 and her hair fhall be of what colour it pleafe God.] Perhaps Benedick alludes to a fashion, very common in the time of Shakspeare, that of dying the hair.

66

Stubbes, in his Anatomy of Abuses, 1595, fpeaking of the attires of women's heads, fays: If any have haire of her owne naturall growing, which is not faire ynough, then will they die it in divers colours." STEEVENS.

The practice of dying the hair was one of thofe fashions fo frequent before and in Queen Elizabeth's time, as to be thought worthy of particular animadverfion from the pulpit. In the Homily against excefs of apparel, b. 1. 1547, after mentioning the common excufes of fome nice and vain women for painting their faces, dying their hair, &c. the preacher breaks out into the following invective: "Who can paynt her face, and curle her heere, and chaunge it into an unnaturall coloure, but therein doth worke reprofe to her Maker who made her? as thoughe she coulde make herselfe more comelye than God hath appoynted the measure of her beautie. What do these women but go about to refourme that which God hath made? not

Enter Don PEDRO, LEONATO, and CLAUDIO.

D. PEDRO. Come, fhall we hear this musick? CLAUD. Yea, my good lord:-How ftill the evening is,

As hufh'd on purpose to grace harmony!

D. PEDRO. See you where Benedick hath hid himself?

CLAUD. O, very well, my lord: the mufick ended, We'll fit the kid-fox with a penny-worth.3

knowyng that all thynges naturall is the worke of God: and thynges difguyfed and unnatural be the workes of the devyll," &c. REED.

Or he may allude to the fashion of wearing falfe hair, “of whatever colour it pleafed God." So, in a fubfequent scene: "I like the new tire within, if the hair were a thought browner." Fines Moryfon, defcribing the dress of the ladies of Shakspeare's time, fays: "Gentlewomen virgins weare gownes clofe to the body, and aprons of fine linnen, and go bareheaded, with their hair curiously knotted, and raised at the forehead, but many (against the cold, as they fay,) weare caps of hair that is not their own." See The Two Gentlemen of Verona. MALONE.

The practice of colouring the hair in Shakspeare's time, receives confiderable illuftration from Maria Magdalene her Life and Repentance, 1567, where Infidelitie (the Vice) recommends her to a goldfmith to die her hair yellow with some preparation, when it fhould fade; and Carnal Concupifcence tells her likewife that there was "other geare befides goldsmith's water," for the purpose. Douce.

3 Pedro. See you where Benedick hath hid himself? Claudio. O, very well, my lord: the mufick ended,

We'll fit the kid-fox with a penny-worth.] i. e. we will be even with the fox now discovered. So the word kid, or kidde, fignifies in Chaucer :

"The foothfaftness that now is hid,

Without coverture shall be kid,

"When I undoen have this dreming."

Romaunt of the Rofe, 2171, &c.

Enter BALTHAZAR, with mufick.4

D. PEDRO. Come, Balthazar, we'll hear that fong

BALTH. O good my lord, tax not fo bad a voice To flander mufick any more than once.

D. PEDRO. It is the witnefs ftill of excellency, To put a ftrange face on his own perfection I pray thee, fing, and let me woo no more. BALTH. Because you talk of wooing, I will fing: Since many a wooer doth commence his fuit

"Perceiv'd or fhew'd.

"He kidde anon his bone was not broken."

Troilus and Creffida, Lib. I. 208.

"With that anon fterte out daungere,
"Out of the place where he was hidde;
"His malice in his cheere was kidde.”

Romaunt of the Rofe, 2130. GREY. It is not impoffible but that Shakspeare chofe on this occafion to employ an antiquated word; and yet if any future editor fhould choose to read hid fox, he may obferve that Hamlet has faid" Hide fox and all after.' STEEVENS.

As

Dr. Warburton reads as Mr. Steevens propofes. MALONE. A kid-for feems to be no more than a young fox or cub. In you like it, we have the expreffion of" two dog-apes.

RITSON.

with mufick.] I am not sure that this stage-direction (taken from the quarto, 1600,) is proper. Balthazar might have been defigned at once for a vocal and an inftrumental performer. Shakspeare's orchestra was hardly numerous; and the first folio, instead of Balthazar, only gives us Jacke Wilfon, the name of the actor who reprefented him. STEEVENS.

s Come, Balthazar, we'll hear that fong again.] Balthazar, the musician and fervant to Don Pedro, was perhaps thus named from the celebrated Baltazarini, called De Beaujoyeux, an Italian performer on the violin, who was in the highest fame and favour at the court of Henry II. of France, 1577. Burney.

To her he thinks not worthy; yet he wooes;
Yet will he fwear, he loves.

D. PEDRO.

Or, if thou wilt hold longer argument,

Do it in notes.

BALTH.

Nay, pray thee, come:

Note this before my notes,

There's not a note of mine that's worth the noting.

D. PEDRO. Why these are very crotchets that he

speaks;

Note, notes, forfooth, and noting!"

[Mufick. BENE. Now, Divine air! now is his foul ravifhed!-Is it not strange, that sheeps' guts fhould hale fouls out of men's bodies?-Well, a horn for my money, when all's done.

BALTHAZAR fings.

I.

BALTH. Sigh no more, ladies, figh no more,?
Men were deceivers ever;

6

One foot in fea, and one on fhore;
To one thing constant never:
Then figh not fo,

But let them go,
And be you blith and bonny;
Converting all your founds of woe

Into, Hey nonny, nonny.

and noting!] The old copies-nothing. The correc

tion was made by Mr. Theobald. MALONE.

7 Sigh no more, ladies, figh no more,]

"Weep no more, woful fhepherds, weep no more."

Milton's Lycidas. STEEVENS.

II.

Sing no more ditties, fing no mo
Of dumps fo dull and heavy;
The fraud of men was ever fo,
Since fummer firft was leavy.
Then figh not fo, &c.

D. PEDRO. By my troth, a good fong.
BALTH. And an ill finger, my lord.

D. PEDRO. Ha? no; no, faith; thou fingest well enough for a shift.

BENE. [Afide.] An he had been a dog, that fhould have howled thus, they would have hanged him and, I pray God, his bad voice bode no mifchief! I had as lief have heard the night-raven, come what plague could have come after it.

D. PEDRO. Yea, marry; [To CLAUDIO.]-Doft thou hear, Balthazar? I pray thee, get us fome excellent mufick; for to-morrow night we would have it at the lady Hero's chamber-window.

BALTH. The beft I can, my lord.

D. PEDRO. Do fo: farewell. [Exeunt BALTHAZAR and mufick.] Come hither, Leonato: What was it you told me of to-day? that your niece Beatrice was in love with fignior Benedick?

I pray God, his bad voice bode no mifchief! I had as lief have heard the night-raven,] i. e. the owl; runrınopag. So, in King Henry VI. P. III. fc. vi:

"The night-crow cried, aboding luckless time."

Thus alfo, Milton, in L'Allegro:

"And the night-raven fings." Douce.

STEEVENS.