Bene. Come, come, we are friends: -let's have a dance ere we are married, that we may lighten our own hearts, and our wives' heels.

Leon. We'll have dancing afterwards.

Bene. First, o' my word; therefore, play, musick.Prince, thou art sad; get thee a wife, get thee a wife : there is no staff more reverend than one tipp'd with horn.

Enter a Messenger.

Mess. My lord, your brother John is ta'en in flight,

And brought with armed men back to Messina.

Bene. Think not on him till to-morrow; I'll devise

thee brave punishments for him. -Strike up, pipers.

[Dance.

[Exeunt.

ΑΝΝΟΤΑTIONS

UPON

MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING.

1 Much Ado about Nothing.] INNOGEN (the mother of Hero), in the oldest quarto that I have seen of this play, printed in 1600, is mentioned to enter in two several scenes. The succeeding editions have all continued her name in the Dramatis Persone. But I have ventured to expunge it; there being no mention of her through the play, no one speech addressed to her, nor one syllable spoken by her. Neither is there any one passage, from which we have any reason to determine that Hero's mother was living. It seems, as if the poet had in his first plan design'd such a character: which, on a survey of it, he found would be superfluous; and therefore he left it out.

THEOBALD.

2-joy could not shew itself modest enough, without a badge of bitterness.] This is an idea which Shakspeare seems to have delighted to express. It occurs again in Macbeth.

-my plenteous joys

Wanton in fulness, seek to hide themselves
In drops of sorrow.

* -is signior Montanto returned-] Montante, in Spanish, is a huge two-handed sword, given, with much humour, to one, the speaker would represent as a boaster or bravado.

WARBURTON.

4-challenged him at the bird-bolt.] The bird-bolt is a short thick arrow without point. It is used, says Steevens, to this day, to kill rooks from the crossbow.

5-young squarer-] A squarer I take to be a cholerick, quarrelsome fellow, for in this sense Shakspeare uses the word to square. So in Midsummer Night's Dream it is said of Oberon and Titania, that they never meet but they square. So the sense may be, Is there no hot-blooded youth that will keep him company through all his mad pranks?

JOHNSON.

6 You embrace your charge-] Charge is burthen, incumbrance.

7-to tell us, Cupid is a good hare-finder, &c.] I know not whether I conceive the jest here intended. Claudio hints his love of Hero. Benedick asks whether he is serious, or whether he only means to jest, and tell them that Cupid is a good hare-finder, and Vulcan a rare carpenter. A man praising a pretty lady in jest, may shew the quick sight of Cupid, but what has it to do with the carpentry of Vulcan? Perhaps the thought lies no deeper than this, Do you mean to tell us as new what we all know already?

JOHNSON.

I believe no more is meant by those ludicrous expressions than this:

Do you mean, says Benedick, to amuse us with improbable stories ?

An ingenious correspondent, whose signature is R. W. explains the passage in the same sense, but more amply. "Do you mean to tell us that love is not blind, and that fire will not consume what is combustible?" for both these propositions are implied in making Cupid a good hare-finder, and Vulcan (the God of fire) a good carpenter. In other words, would you convince me, whose opinion on this head is well known, that you can be in love without being blind, and can play with the flame of beauty without being scorched.

8

STEEVENS.

-wear his cap with suspicion?] That is, subject his head to the disquiet of jealousy. JOHNSON. 9-sigh away Sundays:] A proverbial expression to signify that a man could have no rest at all; when Sunday, a day formerly of ease and diversion, was passed so uncomfortably.

WARBURTON.

10 If this were so, so were it uttered.] If (says Clau dio, evading an explicit answer) this assertion of his were true, it is a truth that might quickly be declared. He alludes to the short answer, &c. which Benedick has just mentioned. Benedick replies, My lord, he is like the old riddling tale, it is not so, and 'twas not so; but (now he mentions his own private wish) I say God forbid that it should be so! Claudio then re-assumes his part in the dialogue, and adds, If I do not change the object of my affections, God forbid it should be otherwise. Benedick, by saying God forbid it should be so, means God forbid you should be married. The other returns for answer, If I continue as much in love with her as I am at present, God forbid I should not..

11

STEEVENS.

-a recheat-] A recheat is the term for that sound of the horn, by which the huntsman draws his dogs off from scent.