gard and ultimate union only in the very slightest degree dependent on the plot devised by their friends.
It has, I know, been considered a blemish in Beatrice, that at such a moment she should desire to risk her lover's life. How little can those who think so enter into her position, or understand the feelings with which a noble woman would in such circumstances be actuated! What she would have done herself, had she been a man, to punish the traducer of her kinswoman and bosom friend, and to vindicate the family honour, she has a right to expect her engaged lover will do for her. Her honour as a member of the family is at stake, and what woman of spirit would think so meanly of her lover as to doubt his readiness to risk his life in such a cause? The days of chivalry were not gone in Shakespeare's time; neither, I trust and believe, are they gone now. I am confident that all women who are worthy of a brave man's love, will understand and sympathise with the feeling that animated Beatrice. Think of the wrong done to Hero, – the unnecessary aggravation of it in the moment chosen for publishing what Beatrice knows to be a vile slander! Benedick adopts her conviction, and, having adopted it, the course she urges is the one he must himself have taken. Could he leave it to the only male members of his adopted family, Leonato and Antonio, two elderly men, to champion the kinswoman of the lady of his love?
The manner in which he bears himself in the scene of his challenge to Count Claudio proves that, under the gaiety of his general demeanour, lies, just as in Beatrice, a high and earnest and generous spirit. In parting from her he had said, "As you hear of me, so think of me." Had she
seen with what dignity and quiet courage he meets the jibes and sarcasms of Don Pedro and Claudio, her heart must have gone out towards him with its inmost warmth. How much it cost him to renounce their friendship is very delicately shown. By the way he has heard that Don John has fled from Messina, – an incident calculated to strengthen his suspicions that it was he who had hatched the plot against Hero. But however this may be, they are not without reproach; so, turning to Don Pedro, he says: –
"My lord, for your many courtesies I thank you. I must discontinue your company. Your brother, the bastard, is fled from Messina. You have, among you, killed a sweet and innocent lady. For my Lord Lackbeard there, he and I shall meet; and, till then, peace be with him."
Knowing that Beatrice will be all impatience to learn what has passed between himself and Claudio, Benedick hastens to seek her. He longs to be again with her, for he is by this time "horribly in love," as he said he would be. Not Leander, he tells us, nor Troilus, nor "a whole bookful of these quondam carpet-mongers, whose names yet run smoothly in the even road of a blank verse, were ever so truly turned over and over as my poor self in love." When Beatrice hears from Margaret that he desires speech of her, how readily does she answer to the summons? Once fairly satisfied that Claudio has undergone Benedick's challenge, her heart is lightened, and she can afford to resume some of her natural gaiety, and let herself be wooed. Then follows the charming dialogue in which the problem how they came to fall in love with each other is discussed. How much there is here for the actress
