Against that power that bred it :-there will fhe hide her,

To liften our propose: 4 This is thy office,
Bear thee well in it, and leave us alone.

MARG. I'll make her come, I warrant you, pre

fently.

[Exit.

HERO. Now, Urfula, when Beatrice doth come,
As we do trace this alley up and down,
Our talk muft only be of Benedick:
When I do name him, let it be thy part
To praise him more than ever man did merit:
My talk to thee must be, how Benedick

Is fick in love with Beatrice: Of this matter
Is little Cupid's crafty arrow made,

That only wounds by hearfay. Now begin;

Enter BEATRICE, behind.

For look where Beatrice, like a lapwing, runs
Close by the ground, to hear our conference.
URS. The pleasant'ft angling is to see the fish
Cut with her golden oars the filver stream,
And greedily devour the treacherous bait :
So angle we for Beatrice; who even now
Is couched in the woodbine coverture:
Fear you not my part of the dialogue.

4 our propofe:] Thus the quarto. The folio reads-our purpose. Propofe is right. See the preceding note. STEEVENS.

Purpose, however, may be equally right. It depends only on the manner of accenting the word, which, in Shakspeare's time, was often used in the fame fenfe as propofe. Thus, in Knox's Hiftory of the Reformation in Scotland, p. 72: "-with him fix perfons; and getting entrie, held purpose with the porter." Again, p. 54: "After fupper he held comfortable purpose of God's chosen children." REED.

HERO. Then go we near her, that her ear lose

nothing

Of the false sweet bait that we lay for it.

[They advance to the bower. No, truly, Urfula, fhe is too disdainful; I know, her fpirits are as coy and wild As haggards of the rock.5

URS.

But are you fure, That Benedick loves Beatrice fo entirely?

HERO. So fays the prince, and my new-trothed

lord.

URS. And did they bid you tell her of it, madam?

HERO. They did intreat me to acquaint her of it: But I perfuaded them, if they lov'd Benedick, To with him wrestle with affection,

And never to let Beatrice know of it.

URS. Why did you fo? Doth not the gentleman

5 As haggards of the rock.] Turberville, in his book of Fal conry, 1575, tells us, that "the haggard doth come from foreign parts a ftranger and a paffenger;" and Latham, who wrote after him, fays, that, "fhe keeps in fubjection the most part of all the fowl that fly, infomuch, that the taffel gentle, her natural and chiefeft companion, dares not come near that coaft where fhe ufeth, nor fit by the place where the ftandeth. Such is the greatness of her fpirit, he will not admit of any fociety, until fuch a time as nature worketh," &c. So, in The tragical History of Didaco and Violenta, 1576:

"Perchaunce the's not of haggard's kind,

"Nor heart fo hard to bend," &c. STEEVENS.

To with him-] i. e. recommend or defire. So, in The Honeft Whore, 1604:

"Go wish the furgeon to have great refpect," &c. Again, in The Hog hath loft his Pearl, 1614: "But lady mine that fhall be, your father, hath wish'd me to appoint the day with you." REED.

Deferve as full, as fortunate a bed,"
As ever Beatrice fhall couch upon ?

HERO. O God of love! I know, he doth deferve
As much as may be yielded to a man:
But nature never fram'd a woman's heart
Of prouder ftuff than that of Beatrice:
Difdain and scorn ride sparkling in her eyes,
Mifprifing what they look on; and her wit
Values itself fo highly, that to her

All matter else feems weak: 9 fhe cannot love,
Nor take no shape nor project of affection,
She is fo felf-endeared.

URS.

Sure, I think fo;

And therefore, certainly, it were not good
She knew his love, left she make sport at it.

HERO. Why, you speak truth: I never yet faw

man,

How wife, how noble, young, how rarely featur'd, But she would spell him backward:1 if fair-faced,

7 as full, &c.] So in Othello:

"What a full fortune doth the thick-lips owe?" &c. Mr. M. Mafon very juftly obferves, that what Urfula means to say is, "that he is as deferving of complete happiness in the marriage state, as Beatrice herself.” STEEVENS.

8 Mifprifing-] Defpifing, contemning. JOHNSON.

To mifprife is to undervalue, or take in a wrong light. So, in Troilus and Crefida:

a great deal misprifing

"The knight oppos'd." STEEVENS.

that to her

All matter else seems weak:] So, in Love's Labour's Loft:

to your huge ftore

"Wife things feem foolish, and rich things but poor."

STEEVENS. Spell him backward:] Alluding to the practice of witches in uttering prayers.

She'd fwear, the gentleman should be her fifter; If black, why, nature, drawing of an antick, Made a foul blot: if tall, a lance ill-headed;

The following paffages containing a fimilar train of thought, are from Lyly's Anatomy of Wit, 1581:

"If one be hard in conceiving, they pronounce him a dowlte: if given to ftudy, they proclaim him a dunce: if merry, a jefter if fad, a faint if full of words, a fot: if without speech, a cypher: if one argue with him boldly, then is he impudent: if coldly, an innocent: if there be reasoning of divinitie, they cry, Quæ fupra nos, nihil ad nos: if of huma nite, fententias loquitur carnifex."

:

Again, p. 44, b: " if he be cleanly, they [women] term him proude: if meene in apparel, a floven: if tall, a lungis if thort, a dwarf: if bold, blunt: if fhamefaft, a cowarde," &c. P. 55: "If the be well fet, then call her a boffe: if flender, a hafill twig: if nut brown, black as a coal: if well colour'd, a painted wall: if the be pleasant, then is fhe wanton: if fullen, a clowne: if honeft, then is the coye." STEEVENS.

2 If black, why, nature, drawing of an antick,

Made a foul blot:] The antick was a buffoon character in the old English farces, with a blacked face, and a patch-work habit. What I would obferve from hence is, that the name of antick or antique, given to this character, fhows that the people had fome traditional ideas of its being borrowed from the ancient mimes, who are thus defcribed by Apuleius: "mimi centunculo, fuligine faciem obducti." WARBURTON.

I believe what is here faid of the old English farces, is faid at random. Dr. Warburton was thinking, I imagine, of the modern Harlequin. I have met with no proof that the face of the antick or Vice of the old English comedy was blackened. By the word black in the text, is only meant, as I conceive, fwarthy, or dark brown. MALone.

A black man means a man with a dark or thick beard, not a fwarthy or dark-brown complexion, as Mr. Malone conceives. DOUCE.

When Hero fays, that" nature drawing of an antick, made a foul blot," the only alludes to a drop of ink that may cafually fall out of a pen, and fpoil a grotesque drawing. STIEVENS, VOL. VI.

G

If low, an agate very vilely cut: 3

3 If low, an agate very vilely cut:] But why an agate, if low? For what likeness between a little man and an agate? The ancients, indeed, used this ftone to cut upon; but very exquifitely. I make no question but the poet wrote:

an aglet very vilely cut:

An aglet was a tag of thofe points, formerly fo much in fashion. These tags were either of gold, filver, or brafs, according to the quality of the wearer; and were commonly in the shape of little images; or at least had a head cut at the extremity. The French call them, aiguillettes. Mezeray, speaking of Henry the Third's forrow for the death of the princefs of Conti, fays, "-portant meme fur les aiguillettes des petites tetes de mort.' And as a tall man is before compared to a lance ill-headed; fo, by the fame figure, a little man is very aptly liken'd to an aglet ill-cut. WARBURTON.

The old reading is, I believe, the true one. Vilely cut may not only mean aukwardly cut by a tool into fhape, but grotefquely veined by nature as it grew. To this circumftance, I fuppofe, Drayton alludes in his Mufes' Elixium:

"With th' agate, very oft that is
"Cut ftrangely in the quarry;

"As nature meant to show in this
"How the herself can vary."

Pliny mentions that the fhapes of various beings are to be difcovered in agates; and Mr. Addison has very elegantly compared Shakspeare, who was born with all the feeds of poetry, to the agate in the ring of Pyrrhus, which, as Pliny tells us, had the figure of Apollo and the nine Mufes in the veins of it, produced by the fpontaneous hand of nature, without any help from art. STEEVENS.

Dr. Warburton reads aglet, which was adopted, I think, too haftily by the fubfequent editors. I fee no reason for departing from the old copy. Shakspeare's comparisons fcarcely ever anfwer completely on both fides. Dr. Warburton aiks, "What likeness is there between a little man and an agate ?" No other than that both are small. Our author has himself, in another place, compared a very little man to an agate. "Thou whorfon mandrake, (says Falstaff to his page,) thou art fitter to be worn in my cap, than to wait at my heels. I was never fo man'd with an agate till now." Hero means no more than this: "If a man be low, Beatrice will say that he is as diminutive and unhappily formed as an ill-cut agate."