Have vanquish'd the resistance of her youth,
And made defeat of her virginity,-

CLAUD. I know what you would say; If I have known her,

You'll say, she did embrace me as a husband,
And so extenuate the 'forehand sin:

No, Leonato,

I never tempted her with word too large;
But, as a brother to his sister, show'd

Bashful sincerity, and comely love.

HERO. And seem'd I ever otherwise to you? CLAUD. Out on thy seeming! I will write against it':

You seem to me as Dian in her orb ;
As chaste as is the bud2 ere it be blown ;
But you are more intemperate in your blood
Than Venus, or those pamper'd animals

That rage in savage sensuality.

HERO. Is my lord well, that he doth speak so

wide 3 ?

LEON. Sweet prince, why speak not you?
D. PEDRO.

What should I speak?

I stand dishonour'd, that have

8

gone about

word too LARGE ;] So he uses large jests in this play, for licentious, not restrained within due bounds. JOHNSON.

THY seeming!] The old copies have thee. The emendation is Mr. Pope's. In the next line Shakspeare probably wrote-seem'd. MALONE.

' - I Will WRITE AGAINST IT:] So, in Cymbeline, Posthumus, speaking of women, says:

2

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I'll write against them,

"Detest them, curse them."

STEEVENS.

chaste as is the bud] Before the air has tasted its sweetness. JOHNSON.

3 that he doth speak so WIDE?] i. e. so remotely from the present business. So, in Troilus and Cressida: "No, no; no such matter, you are wide." Again, in The Merry Wives of Windsor: "I never heard a man of his place, gravity, and learning, so wide of his own respect." STEEVENS.

To link my dear friend to a common stale. LEON. Are these things spoken ? or do I but dream 1?

D. JOHN. Sir, they are spoken, and these things

are true.

BENE. This looks not like a nuptial.

HERO.

CLAUD. Leonato, stand I here?

True, O God!

Is this the prince? Is this the prince's brother?
Is this face Hero's? Are our eyes our own?

LEON. All this is so; But what of this, my lord? CLAUD. Let me but move one question to your daughter;

And, by that fatherly and kindly power

5

That you have in her, bid her answer truly.
LEON. I charge thee do so, as thou art my child.
HERO. O God, defend me! how am I beset!-
What kind of catechizing call you this?

CLAUD. To make you answer truly to your name. HERO. Is it not Hero? Who can blot that name With any just reproach?

CLAUD.

Marry, that can Hero;

Hero itself can blot out Hero's virtue.

What man was he talk'd with you yesternight
Out at your window, betwixt twelve and one?
Now, if you are a maid, answer to this.

HERO. I talk'd with no man at that hour, my lord.

Are these things spoken? or do I but dream?] So, in Macbeth:

"Were such things here, as we do speak about?
"Or have we," &c. STEEVENS.

5-KINDLY power-] That is, natural power.

nature. JOHNSON.

Thus, in the Induction to The Taming of the Shrew: "This do, and do it kindly, gentle sirs :"

i. e. naturally. STEEVENS.

Kind is

D. PEDRO. Why, then are you no maiden.—
Leonato,

I am sorry you must hear; Upon mine honour,
Myself, my brother, and this grieved count,
Did see her, hear her, at that hour last night,
Talk with a ruffian at her chamber-window ;
Who hath, indeed, most like a liberal villain",
Confess'd the vile encounters they have had
A thousand times in secret.

D. JOHN.

Fye, fye! they are Not to be nam'd, my lord, not to be spoke of; There is not chastity enough in language, Without offence, to utter them: Thus, pretty lady, I am sorry for thy much misgovernment.

CLAUD. O Hero! what a Hero hadst thou been 6, If half thy outward graces had been placed About thy thoughts, and counsels of thy heart! But, fare thee well, most foul, most fair! farewell, Thou pure impiety, and impious purity! For thee I'll lock up all the gates of love, And on my eye-lids shall conjecture' hang, To turn all beauty into thoughts of harm,

5 LIBERAL villain,] Liberal here, as in many places of these plays, means frank, beyond honesty, or decency. Free of tongue. Dr. Warburton unnecessarily reads, illiberal. JOHNSON. So, in The Fair Maid of Bristow, 1605:

"But Vallinger, most like a liberal villain,
"Did give her scandalous ignoble terms."

Again, in The Captain, by Beaumont and Fletcher:
"And give allowance to your liberal jests

66

Upon his person."

STEEVENS.

This sense of the word liberal is not peculiar to Shakspeare. John Taylor, in his Suite concerning Players, complains of the "many aspersions very_liberally, unmannerly, and ingratefully bestowed upon him." FARMER.

what a Hero hadst thou been,] I am afraid here is intended a poor conceit upon the word Hero. JOHNSON. 7- conjecture-] Conjecture is here used for suspicion.

MALONE.

And never shall it more be gracious 8.

LEON. Hath no man's dagger here a point for [HERO Swoons.

me 9?

BEAT. Why, how now, cousin? wherefore sink you down?

D. JOHN. Come, let us go: these things, come thus to light,

Smother her spirits up.

[Exeunt Don PEDRO, Don JOHN, and CLAUDIO.

BENE. How doth the lady?

BEAT.

Dead, I think ;-help, uncle ;

Hero! why, Hero!-Uncle!-Signior Benedick!—

friar!

LEON. O fate, take not away thy heavy hand! Death is the fairest cover for her shame,

LEON. Wherefore? Why, doth not every earthly

thing

Cry shame upon her? Could she here deny

And never shall it more be GRACIOUS.] i. e. lovely, attractive.

So, in King John:

MALONE.

"There was not such a gracious creature born."

STEEVENS.

9 Hath no man's dagger here a point for me?] So, in Venice Preserved:

"A thousand daggers, all in honest hands!
"And have not I a friend to stick one here!"

STEEVENS.

1 Dost thou look up ?] The metre is here imperfect. Perhaps our author wrote-' Dost thou still look up?' STEEVENS. The metre of this line is perfect, if we read as in the text: "Leon. Dost thou look up?

"Friar.

Yea; Wherefore should she not? No arrangement can prevent a hemistich occurring somewhere in this passage. BOSWELL.

The story that is printed in her blood 2 ?—
Do not live, Hero; do not ope thine eyes :
For did I think thou would'st not quickly die,

Thought I thy spirits were stronger than thy shames,

3

Myself would, on the rearward of reproaches,
Strike at thy life. Griev'd I, I had but one?
Chid I for that at frugal nature's frame ?
O, one too much by thee! Why had I one?
Why ever wast thou lovely in my eyes?
Why had I not with charitable hand,
Took up a beggar's issue at my gates;

Who smirched thus, and mired with infamy,

2 The story that is printed in her blood?] That is, 'the story which her blushes discover to be true.' JOHNSON.

3 Chid I for that at frugal nature's FRAME ?] Frame is contrivance, order, disposition of things. So, in The Death of Robert Earl of Huntington, 1603:

there was no

"And therefore seek to set each thing in frame." Again, in Holinshed's Chronicle, p. 555: " man that studied to bring the unrulie to frame." Again, in Daniel's Verses on Montaigne :

66

extracts of men,

"Though in a troubled frame confus'dly set."

Again, in this play:

66

"Whose spirits toil in frame of villainies." STEEVENS. It seems to me, that by frugal nature's frame," Leonato alludes to the particular formation of himself, or of Hero's mother, rather than to the universal system of things. Frame means here framing, as it does where Benedick says of John, that

"His spirits toil in frame of villainies."

Thus Richard says of Prince Edward, that he was"Fram'd in the prodigality of nature."

And, in All's Well that Ends Well, the King says to Bertram : "Frank nature, rather curious than in haste,

"Hath well compos'd thee."

But Leonato, dissatisfied with his own frame, was wont to complain of the frugality of nature. M. MASON.

4 Who SMIRCHED thus, &c.] Thus the quarto 1600. The folio reads" smeared." To smirch is to daub, to sully. So, in King Henry V.:

"Our gayness and our gilt are all besmirch'd," &c. STEEVENS.