SCENE IV.
Enter Don Pedro.
Pedro.
Now, Signior, where's the Count? did you
see him?
Bene.
Troth, my lord, I have play'd the part of
lady Fame. I found him here as melancholy as a
lodge in a warren, I told him (and I think, told him
true) that your Grace had got the Will of this young
lady, and I offer'd him my company to a willow-tree,
either to make him a garland, as being forsaken,
or to bind him up a rod, as being worthy to
be whipt.
Pedro.
To be whipt! what's his fault?
Bene.
The flat transgression of a School-boy; who,
-- 24 --
being overjoy'd with finding a bird's nest, shews it
his companion, and he steals it.
Pedro.
Wilt thou make a trust, a transgression? the
transgression is in the stealer.
Bene.
Yet it had not been amiss, the rod had been
made, and the garland too; for the garland he might
have worn himself, and the rod he might have bestow'd
on you, who (as I take it) have stol'n his
bird's nest.
Pedro.
I will but teach them to sing, and restore
them to the owner.
Bene.
If their singing answer your saying, by my
faith, you say honestly.
Pedro.
The lady Beatrice hath a quarrel to you; the
gentleman, that danc'd with her, told her she is much
wrong'd by you.
&wlquo;Bene.
&wlquo;O, she misus'd me past the indurance of
a block; an oak, but with one green leaf on it,
would have answer'd her; my very visor began to
assume life, and scold with her; she told me, not
thinking I had been myself, that I was the Prince's
jester, and that I was duller than a great thaw;
hudling jest upon jest, with 7 notesuch impassable conveyance
upon me, that I stood like a man at a
mark, with a whole army shooting at me; she
speaks Ponyards, and every word stabs; if her
breath were as terrible as her terminations, there
were no living near her, 8 noteshe would infect to the
North-Star;&wrquo; I would not marry her, though she
were endowed with all that Adam had left him before
he transgress'd; she would have made Hercules have
turn'd Spit, yea, and have cleft his club to make the fire
-- 25 --
too. Come, talk not of her, you shall find her 9 notethe
infernal Até in good apparel. I would to God, some
scholar would conjure her; for, certainly, while she
is here a man may live as quiet in hell as in a sanctuary,
and people sin upon purpose, because they would go
thither; so, indeed, all disquiet, horror, and perturbation
follow her.
Alexander Pope [1747], The works of Shakespear in eight volumes. The Genuine Text (collated with all the former Editions, and then corrected and emended) is here settled: Being restored from the Blunders of the first Editors, and the Interpolations of the two Last: with A Comment and Notes, Critical and Explanatory. By Mr. Pope and Mr. Warburton (Printed for J. and P. Knapton, [and] S. Birt [etc.], London) [word count] [S11301].