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Enter BEATRICE.

BEAT. Against my will, I am fent to bid you come in to dinner.

BENE. Fair Beatrice, I thank you for your pains. BEAT. I took no more pains for those thanks, than you take pains to thank me; if it had been painful, I would not have come.

BENE. You take pleasure then in the message? BEAT. Yea, juft fo much as you may take upon a knife's point, and choke a daw withal:-You have no ftomach, fignior; fare you well. [Exit.

BENE. Ha! Against my will I am fent to bid you come in to dinner- there's a double meaning in that. I took no more pains for thofe thanks, than you took pains to thank me that's as much as to fay, Any pains that I take for you is as eafy as thanks:-If I do not take pity of her, I am a villain; if I do not love her, I am a Jew: I will go get her picture.

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ACT III. SCENE I.

LEONATO'S Garden.

[ Exit.

Enter HERO, MARGARET, and URSULA.

HERO. Good Margaret, run thee into the parlour; There'fhalt thou find my coufin Beatrice Propofing with the Prince and Claudio: " Whisper her ear, and tell her, I and Urfula Walk in the orchard, and our whole discourse Is all of her; fay, that thou overheard'st us;

9 Propofing with the Prince and Claudio:] Propofing is converfing, from the French word - propos, discourse, "talk." STEEVENS.

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And bid her fteal into the pleached bower,
Where honey-fuckles, ripen'd by the fun,
Forbid the fun to enter; like favourites,
Made proud by princes, that advance their pride
Against that power that bred it: there will fhe

hide her,

To liften our propofe:

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
Clofe by the ground, to hear our conference.
URS. The pleasant'ft angling is to see the fish
Cut with her golden oars the filver ftream,
And greedily devour the treacherous bait:
So angle we for Beatrice; who even now

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our propofe:] Thus the quarto. The folio reads 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 fense 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 chofen children." REED.

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Is couched in the woodbine coverture:
Fear you not my part of the dialogue.

HERO. Then go we near her, that her ear lofe no

thing

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. 3

URS.

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

HERO. SO fays the prince, and my new-trothed lord. URS. And did they bid you tell her of it, madam? HRRO. 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 Deferve as full, as fortunate a bed, '

As ever Beatrice fhall couch upon?

3 As haggards of the rock. ] Turbervile, in his book of Falconry, 1575, tells us, that "the haggard doth come from foreign parts a ftranger and a paffenger;" and Latham, who wrote after him, fays, that," he keeps in fubje&ion the most part of all the fowl that fly, infomuch, that the taffel gentle, her natural and chiefest companion, dares not come near that coaft where the ufeth, nor fit by the place where the ftandeth. Such is the greatnefs of her fpirit, She will not admit of any fociety, until fuch a time as nature worketh," &c. So, in The tragical Hiftory of Didaco and Violenta, 1576: "Perchaunce fhe's not of haggard's kind,

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

4 To with him

Whore, 1604:

-] i. e. recommend or defire. So, in The Honeft

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

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"What a full fortune doth the thick-lips owe?" &c.

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