Page:William Hazlitt - Characters of Shakespear's Plays (1817).djvu/329

Rh Than to drive liking to the name of love; But now I am return'd, and that war-thoughts Have left their places vacant; in their rooms Come thronging soft and delicate desires, All prompting me how fair young Hero is, Saying, I lik'd her ere I went to wars."

In the scene at the altar, when Claudio, urged on by the villain Don John, brings the charge of incontinence against her, and as it were divorces her in the very marriagecceremony, her appeals to her own conscious innocence and honour are made with the most affecting simplicity.

The justification of Hero in the end, and her restoration to the confidence and arms of her