Leon. A kind overflow of kindness. There are no faces truer than those that are so wash'd. How much better is it to weep at joy than to joy at weeping! Beat. I pray you, is Signior Mountanto return'd from the wars or no? Mess. I know none of that name, lady. There was none such in the army of any sort. Leon. What is he that you ask for, niece? 30 Hero. My cousin means Signior Benedick of 35 Padua. Mess. O, he's return'd; and as pleasant as ever he was. Beat. He set up his bills here in Messina and challeng'd Cupid at the flight; and my uncle's fool, reading the challenge, subscrib'd for Cupid, and challeng'd him at the bird-bolt. I pray you, how many hath he kill'd and eaten in these wars? But how many hath he kill'd? for indeed I promised to eat all of his killing. Leon. Faith, niece, you tax Signior Benedick too much; but he'll be meet with you, I doubt it not. Mess. He hath done good service, lady, in these wars. Beat. You had musty victual, and he hath holp to eat it. He is a very valiant trencher-man; he hath an excellent stomach. = 40 45 50 26. kind natural. Various instances. 'Conceit deceitful, so compact, so kind,' Lucr. 1423. kind (with quibble). A little more than kin, and less than kind,' Hml. i. 2.65. 'Shalt see thy other daughter will use thee kindly,' Lear i.5.15. shall not myself, One of their kind, . be kindlier mov'd than thou art?' Temp. v.1.23. 27. washed. Probably with quibble on wash cosmetic. 'And when was he wont to wash his face? ... Yea, or to paint himself?' Ado iii. 2.56. (There is a figure drawn from the laying on of colors in Wint. v. 3.49.) faces truer (with quibble). 'But there is never a fair woman has a true face,' Ant. ii. 6. 104. 30. Mountanto. An ironical appellation, from a fencing term. "To see thee fight, to see thee foin, . to see thee pass thy punto, thy stock, thy reverse, thy distance, thy montant,' Wiv. ii. 3. 24. = 37. pleasant facetious. Frequent. . . . . pleasant without scurrility, witty without affection,' LLL v.1.4. 39. bill document, placard. 'Three proper young men... With bills on their necks, "Be it known unto all men by these presents," As i.2.129. Etc. Beatrice's 27] Warwick. gentle cheeks. Washing with kindly tears his [Of Prince Henry mourning for his father.] Lafeu. Your commendations, madam, get from her tears. Countess. 'Tis the best brine a maiden can season 2H4 iv. 5.84 All's i. 1.54 28] King. Good man, those joyful tears show thy true H8 v.3.175 heart. 43-52] Helena. . . . . You must needs be born under Mars. All'si.1.210 Parolles. When he was predominant. Helena. When he was retrograde, I think, rather. Parolles. Why think you so? Helena. You go so much backward when you fight. 43-45] Rambures. He longs to eat the English. Constable. I think he will eat all he kills. 51] Talbot. For soldiers' stomachs always serve them H5 iii. 7.99 1H6 ii. 3.80 speech as a whole presents difficulties. The early commentators appear to have assumed an actual setting up of bills. Furness rightly declared this to be absurd, saying that Benedick had simply "aired his assurance that he was loved of all women." But he had to admit that "this does not account for the Court Fool." It has seemed to me just possible that by 'my uncle's fool' Beatrice means herself, in her generally recognized capacity as a 'pleasant-spirited lady' (ii.1.355; she calls her heart 'poor fool,' ii. 1.326). She had certainly led Benedick into a merry war. It is more probable, however, that she has dragged the fool into her pleasant fiction for the sake of the witticism about the bird-bolt, which, she intimates, is the only kind of shaft that Benedick is capable of handling. See note on bird-bolt below. 40. flight flight-shooting (with light, long-distance arrows). Here only; but compare : when I had lost one shaft, I shot his fellow of the self-same flight The self-same way,' Merch. i. 1.140. 42. bird-bolt : = a short, blunt arrow, allowed to boys ('Cupid's butt-shaft,' LLL i.2.181; Rom. ii. 4. 16); metaphorical for pointless, harmless wit-the "fool's bolt" of the proverb, "A fool's bolt is soon shot." Twice elsewhere. Biron, discovering the King to be love-smitten, says, 'Shot, by heaven! Proceed, sweet Cupid: thou hast thump'd him with thy bird-bolt under the left pap,' LLL iv. 3.23. In the other instance, we have the metaphorical sense: To be generous, guiltless and of free disposition, is to take those things for bird-bolts that you deem cannon-bullets: there is no slander in an allow'd fool,' Twel. i. 5.98. 46. tax inveigh against, reproach. Frequent. . . she'll tax him home,' Hml. iii. 3.29. '. so many giddy offences as he hath generally tax'd their whole sex withal,' As iii. 2.366. 47. meet with = even with. Here only. 50. victual. Singular form here only. 51. trencher-man. Here only. Some mumble-news, some trencher-knight, some Dick,' LLL v.2.464. 'You fools of fortune, trencher-friends, time's flies, Cap-andknee slaves, vapours, and minute-jacks!' Tim. iii. 6. 106. Mess. And a good soldier too, lady. Beat. And a good soldier to a lady. But what is he to a lord? Mess. A lord to a lord, a man to a man; stuff'd with all honourable virtues. Beat. It is so, indeed; he is no less than a stuff'd man. But for the stuffing, well, we are all mortal. -- Leon. You must not, sir, mistake my niece. There is a kind of merry war betwixt Signior Benedick and her. They never meet but there's a skirmish of wit between them. Beat. Alas! he gets nothing by that. In our last con flict four of his five wits went halting off, and 55 60 65 70 54. to in comparison with (to a is a strained pun on too preceding). Various instances. 'Laura to his lady was a kitchen-wench,' Rom. ii. 4. 41. Cp. Ado v.1.205. (For the whole passage, cp. Barry's Ram Alley iv. 2, "What is he for a man?Nothing for a man, but much for a beast.") The poor jest here, in which to a reports for the ear the too plus a slight pause in the preceding speech, might be called the "jest of misconstruction." Cp. 'Dost thou hear, my honest friend?—No, I hear not your honest friend; I hear you,' Oth. iii. 1. 22; etc. 59. stuffing. Noun here only. Beatrice proceeds at once to give the words stuff and stuffing their contemptuous connotation, and by stuffed man almost certainly means a mere stuffed figure or form of man (compare, though in a very different connection, ‘Stuffs out his vacant garments with his form,' John iii.4.97). So Theobald and Furness understand it. Wright's reference of stuffing back to the idea in trencherman detracts from the nimbleness of Beatrice's wit. 62. a kind of merry war. . . . . This kind of merry fooling,' Temp. ii. 1. 177. 63. a skirmish of wit. "This civil war of wits,' LLL ii. 1.226. ‘. . . . this keen encounter of wits,' R3 i.2.115. skirmish. Elsewhere only in [1H6 i.2.34; i. 4.69]. 66. five wits. Rom. i.4.47; ii. 4.78; Lear iii.4.58; iii. 6.60. 'But my five wits nor my five senses can Dissuade one foolish heart from serving thee,' Sonn. 141.9. 'Alas, sir, how fell you besides your five wits?' Twel. iv. 2.92. halting off. Once elsewhere. ‘To serve bravely is to come halting off, you know,' 2H4 ii. 4. 54. 69. difference distinguishing mark (perhaps as in heraldry). 'O, you must wear your rue with a difference,' Hml. iv. 5. 183. 70. wealth. Hammer changed to wearth, but compare: 'Wilt thou show the whole wealth of thy wit in an instant?' Merch. iii. 5.61. 54-56] Lafeu. Are you companion to the Count Rousillon? Parolles. To any count, to all counts, to what is man. All's ii. 3. 201 56] Capulet. ... A gentleman of noble parentage, Rom. iii. 5. 181 . . Stuff'd, as they say, with honourable parts. I do not think Cym. i.1.22 So fair an outward and such [sc. noble] stuff within Endows a man but he. 59-60] Portia. God made him, and therefore let him pass for a man. Robin Goodfellow. Lord, what fools these mortals Anne. What, do you tremble? Are you all afraid? 68] Petruchio. Am I not wise? Katherina. Yes; keep you warm. Bottom. ... • if I had wit enough to get out of this wood, I have enough to serve mine own turn. Maria. Merch. i. 2.60 Mids. iii. 2.115 R3 i.2.43 Shrew ii. 1.267 Mids. iii. 1.152 If I do not gull him into a nayword, Twel. ii. 3. 144 and make him a common recreation, do not Thersites. Let me carry another to his horse; for 71] Autolycus. My clown, who wants but something to Troil. ii. 1.85 Troil. ii. 1.17 Troil. iii. 3.307 Wint. iv. 4.615 be a reasonable man. 71. to be known by which to be known. A not uncommon ellipsis. . . . . nor has he with him to Supply his life,' Tim. iv. 2.46. reasonable creature =man. Cp. Overbury (Characters, "A Wise Man"): "The true definition of man, that is, a reasonable creature." companion now? He hath every month a new Mess. Is 't possible? Beat. Very easily possible. He wears his faith but as the fashion of his hat; it ever changes with the next block. Mess. I see, lady, the gentleman is not in your books. Beat. No; an he were, I would burn my study. Mess. He is most in the company of the right noble Beat. O Lord, he will hang upon him like a disease. He is sooner caught than the pestilence, and the taker runs presently mad. God help the noble Claudio! If he have caught the Benedick, it will cost him a thousand pounds ere 'a be cur'd. Mess. I will hold friends with you, lady. Beat. Do, good friend. Leon. You will never run mad, niece. Beat. No, not till a hot January. Mess. Don Pedro is approach'd. Enter Don Pedro, Claudio, Benedick, Balthasar, and John the Bastard. 75 80 85 90 95 73. sworn brother. Alluding to the fratres jurati of chivalry. Various instances. '.... they shook hands and swore brothers,' As v. 4. 107. 77. block. Once elsewhere in this sense. 'This a good block,' Lear iv.6.187. "The blocke for his [the Englishman's] heade alters faster than the Feltmaker can |