--So will it fare with Claudio;
When he shall hear she dy'd upon his words,
The idea of her love shall sweetly creep
Into his study of imagination;
And every lovely organ of her life
Shall come apparel'd in more precious habit,
More moving, delicate, and full of life,
Into the eye and prospect of his soul,
Than when she liv'd indeed.
The principal comic characters in MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING, Benedick
and Beatrice, are both essences in their kind. His character as a
woman-hater is admirably supported, and his conversion to matrimony
is no less happily effected by the pretended story of Beatrice's
love for him. It is hard to say which of the two scenes is the best,
that of the trick which is thus practised on Benedick, or that in
which Beatrice is prevailed on to take pity on him by overhearing
her cousin and her maid declare (which they do on purpose) that he
is dying of love for her. There is something delightfully
picturesque in the manner in which Beatrice is described as coming
to hear the plot which is contrived against herself:
For look where Beatrice, like a lapwing, runs
Close by the ground, to hear our conference.
In consequence of what she hears (not a word of which s true) she
exclaims when these good-natured informants are gone:
What fire is in mine ears? Can this be true?
Stand I condemn'd for pride and scorn so much?
Contempt, farewell! and maiden pride adieu!
No glory lives behind the back of such.
Pages:
287
288
289
290
291
292
293
294
295
296
297
298
299
300
301
302
303
304
305
306
307
308
309
310
311