Pardon this digression. It was so much my way to live with the characters I represented, that when I sit down to write, my mind naturally wanders off into things which happened to me in connection with the representation of them. It was some time before I again performed Beatrice, and then I had for my Benedick Mr James Wallack. He was by that time past the meridian of his life; but he threw a spirit and grace into the part, which, added to his fine figure and gallant bearing, made him, next to Mr Charles Kemble, although far beneath him, the best Benedick whom I have ever seen. Oh, for something of the fire, the undying youthfulness of spirit, now so rare, the fine courtesy of bearing, which made the acting with actors of this type delightful!
By this time I had made a greater study of the play; moved more freely in my art, and was therefore able to throw myself into the character of Beatrice more completely than in the days of my novitiate. The oftener I played it, the more the character grew upon me. The view I had taken of it seemed also to find favour with my audiences. I well remember the pleasure I felt, when some chance critic wrote of my Beatrice, that she was "a creature overflowing with joyousness, – raillery itself being in her nothing more than an excess of animal spirits, tempered by passing through a soul of goodness." That she had a soul, brave and generous as well as good, it was always my aim to show. All this was easy work to me on the stage. To do it with my pen is a far harder task; but I must try.
It may be a mere fancy, but I cannot help thinking that Shakespeare found peculiar pleasure in the delineation of Beatrice, and more especially in devising the encounters between her and Benedick. You remember what old Fuller says of the wit combats between Ben Jonson and Shakespeare, in which he likens Jonson to a Spanish galleon, "built high, solid, but slow;" and Shakespeare to an English man-of-war, "lesser in bulk, but lighter in sailing, tacking about, and taking advantage of all winds by the quickness of his wit and invention." It is just this quickness of wit and invention which is the special characteristic of both Benedick and Beatrice. In their skirmishes, each vies with each in trying to outflank the other by jest and repartee; and, as is fitting, the victory is generally with the lady, whose adroitness in "tacking about, and taking advantage of all winds," gives her the advantage even against an adversary so formidable as Benedick.
That Beatrice is beautiful, Shakespeare is at pains to indicate. If what Wordsworth says was ever true of any one, assuredly it was true of her, that
"Vital feelings of delight
Had reared her form to stately height."
Accordingly we picture her as tall, and with the lithe elastic grace of motion which should come of a fine figure and high health. We are very early made to see that she is the sunshine of her uncle Leonato's house. He delights in her quaint, daring way of looking at things; he is proud of her, too, for with all her sportive and somewhat domineering ways, she is every inch the noble lady, bearing herself in a manner worthy of her high blood and courtly breeding. He knows how good and sound she is in heart no less than in head, – one of those strong natures which can be counted on to rise up in answer to a call upon their courage and fertility of resource in any time of
