Chapter XLVI: Act II

SC. 1. _Bene._ "Well I would you did like me."

It should be _Balt._ here and in the next two speeches.

* * * * *

"Which I mistrusted not. Farewell, therefore, Hero!"

Collier's folio reads needlessly '_then_, Hero.'

* * * * *

"It is the base, though bitter disposition of Beatrice."

For 'though,' which can hardly be right, the usual reading is _the_, the correction of Johnson, which is very good; the words were easily confounded, especially when _though_ was written _tho'_.

* * * * *

"That I stood like a man at a mark, with a whole army shooting at me."

We should expect _him_; but 'me' may have been the poet's word. For the first 'at' we might perhaps read _as_.

* * * * *

"All that Adam had left him before he transgressed."

There must certainly be an error either in 'left' or in 'before.' For the latter we might read _after_; for the former perhaps _lent_ or _about_. I think the true reading is _lent_, in which I had been anticipated by Collier's folio. _Lend_ was constantly used in the sense of give. "I can _lend_ you letters to divers officers," etc. (Jonson, Every Man out, etc. iii. 1.) It is not quite out of use yet.

* * * * *

"County Claudio, when mean you go to church?"

For 'County,' which occurs nowhere else in the play, I read _Count_, which also suits the metre.

* * * * *

SC. 2. "Hear me call Margaret Hero; hear Margaret term me Claudio."

The poet no doubt wrote 'Claudio' here; but from what precedes it certainly should have been _Borachio_. These slips were not at all unusual with him.

* * * * *

SC. 3. "We'll fit the hid fox with a pennyworth."

The originals read '_kid_-fox'; but his hiding had just been mentioned, and the name of the game probably alluded to was Hide Fox. Warburton made the correction.

* * * * *

"Since many a lover doth commence his suit _thus_."

Something seems evidently wanting for the sense.

* * * * *

"Notes, notes, forsooth, and noting!"

Theobald's correction; the old copies have _nothing_.

* * * * *

"O, ay. Stalk on; stalk on; the fowl sits."

Perhaps for the sake of metre _yonder_ should be added.

* * * * *

"Beats her heart, tears her hair, prays, curses, O sweet Benedick!"

I agree with Collier's folio and Singer in reading _cries_ for 'curses,' which was suggested by 'prays.'

* * * * *

"My lord, will you walk _in_? dinner is ready."

* * * * *

"And virtuous; 'tis so, I cannot reprove it."

It would perhaps be better to read '_dis_prove it.'

* * * * *

"And choke a daw withal."

Collier's folio reads '_not_ choke'; but it is dubious.