Beat. I wonder that you will still be talking, signior Benedick; no body marks you.

Bene. What, my dear lady Disdain! are you yet living?

Beat. Is it possible, disdain should die, while she hath such meet food to feed it, as signior Benedick? Courtesy itself must convert to disdain, if you come in her presence.

Beat. A dear happiness to women; they would else have been troubled with a pernicious suitor. I am of your humour for that; I had rather hear my dog bark at a crow, than a man swear he loves me.

Bene. Heaven keep your ladyship still in that mind! so some gentleman or other shall 'scape a predestinate scratched face.

Beat. Scratching could not make it worse, an 'twere such a face as yours were.

Bene. Well, you are a rare parrot-teacher. Beat. A bird of my tongue is better than a beast of yours.

Bene. I would, my horse had the speed of your tongue; and so good a continuer: But keep your way; I have done.

Beat. You always end with a jade's trick; I know you of old.

D. Pedro. This is the sum of all: Don John,signior Claudio, and signior Benedick, my dear friend Leonato hath invited you all. I tell him, we shall stay here at the least a month; and he heartily prays, some occasion may detain us longer: I dare swear he is no hypocrite, but prays from his heart.

Leon. If you swear, my lord, you shall not be forsworn. Let me bid you welcome, my lord: being reconciled to the prince your brother, I owe you all duty.

D. John. I thank you: I am not of many words, but I thank you.

Leon. Please it your grace lead on?

D. Pedro. Your hand, Leonato; we will go together. [Exeunt all but BENEDICK and CLAUDIO. Claud. Benedick, didst thou note the daughter of signior Leonato?

Bene. I noted her not; but I looked on her.
Claud. Is she not a modest young lady?

Bene. Do you question me, as an honest man should do, for my simple true judgment; or would you have me speak after my custom, as being a professed tyrant to their sex?

Claud. No, I pray thee, speak in sober judgment. Bene. Why, i'faith, methinks she is too low for a high praise, too brown for a fair praise, and too little for a great praise: only this commendation I can afford her; that were she other than she is, she were unhandsome; and being no other but as she is, I do not like her.

Claud. Thou thinkest, I am in sport; I pray thee, tell me truly how thou likest her.

Bene. Would you buy her, that you inquire after her?

Claud. Can the world buy such a jewel?

Bene. Yea, and a case to put it into. But speak you this with a sad brow? or do you play the flouting Jack; to tell us Cupid is a good hare-finder, and Vulcan a rare carpenter? Come, in what key shall a man take you, to go in the song?

Claud. In mine eye, she is the sweetest lady that ever I look'd on.

Bene. I can see yet without spectacles, and I see no such matter: there's her cousin, an she were not possessed with a fury, exceeds her as much in beauty, as the first of May doth the last of DecemBut I hope, you have no intent to turn

D. Pedro. I charge thee, on thy allegiance. Bene. You hear, count Claudio: I can be secret as a dumb man, I would have you think so; but on my allegiance, mark you this, on my allegiance: -He is in love. With who?-now that is your grace's part. Mark, how short his answer is: With Hero, Leonato's short daughter. Claud. If this were so, so were it uttered. Bene. Like the old tale, my lord: it is not so, nor 'twas not so; but, indeed, heaven forbid it should be so.

Claud. If my passion change not shortly, heaven forbid it should be otherwise.

D. Pedro. Amen, if you love her; for the lady is very well worthy.

Claud. You speak this to fetch me in, my lord. D. Pedro. By my troth, I speak my thought. Claud. And, in faith, my lord, I spoke mine. Bene. And, by my two faiths and troths, my lord, I spoke mine.

Claud. That I love her, I feel.

D. Pedro. That she is worthy, I know. Bene. That I neither feel how she should be loved, nor know how she should be worthy, is the opinion that fire cannot melt out of me; I will die in it at the stake.

D. Pedro. Thou wast ever an obstinate heretic in the despite of beauty.

Claud. And never could maintain his part, but in the force of his will.

Bene. That a woman conceived me, I thank her; that she brought me up, I likewise give her most humble thanks: but that I will have a recheat 3 winded in my forehead, all women shall pardon me. Because I will not do them the wrong to mistrust any, I will do myself the right to trust none; and the fine is, (for the which I may go the finer,) I will live a bachelor.

D. Pedro. I shall see thee, ere I die, look pale with love.

Bene. With anger, with sickness, or with hunger, my lord! not with love: prove, that ever I lose more blood with love, than I will get again with drinking, pick out mine eyes with a ballad-maker's pen, and hang me up for the sign of blind Cupid.

D. Pedro. Well, if ever thou dost fall from this faith, thou wilt prove a notable argument.

Bene. If I do, hang me in a bottle like a cat, and shoot at me; and he that hits me, let him be clapped 'on the shoulder, and called Adam.4

D. Pedro. Well, as time shall try: In time the savage bull doth bear the yoke.

Bene. The savage bull may; but if ever the sensible Benedick bear it, pluck off the bull's horns, and set them in my forehead: and let me be vilely painted; and in such great letters as they write, Here is good horse to hire, let them signify under my sign,

Claud. If this should ever happen, t be horn-mad.

D. Pedro. Nay, if Cupid have not quiver in Venice, thou wilt quake for Bene. I look for an earthquake too

D. Pedro. Well, you will tempori hours. In the mean time, good signi repair to Leonato's; commend me to him, I will not fail him at supper; fo hath made great preparation.

Bene. I have almost matter enoug such an embassage; and so I commit Claud. To the tuition of heaven: house, (if I had it,)

D. Pedro. The sixth of July: Your l Benedick.

Bene. Nay, inock not, mock not: your discourse is sometime guarded wit and the guards are but slightly basted ere you flout old ends any further, ex conscience; and so I leave you. [Eri Claud. My liege, your highness now good.

D. Pedro. My love is thine to tead but how,

And thou shalt see how apt it is to lear Any hard lesson that may do thee good

Claud. Hath Leonato any son, my l D. Pedro. No child but Hero, she's h Dost thou affect her, Claudio?

Claud. O my When you went onward on this ended I look'd upon her with a soldier's eye, That lik'd, but had a rougher task in ha Than to drive liking to the name of lov But now I am return'd, and that war-t Have left their places vacant, in their r Come thronging soft and delicate desir All prompting me how fair young Her Saying, I lik'd her ere I went to wars.

D. Pedro. Thou wilt be like a lover And tire the hearer with a book of word If thou dost love fair Hero, cherish it; And I will break with her, and with he And thou shalt have her: Was't not to That thou began'st to twist so fine a sto

Claud. How sweetly do you minister That know love's grief by his complexic But lest my liking might too sudden se I would have salv'd it with a longer trea D. Pedro. What need the bridge m than the flood? The fairest grant is the necessity: Look, what will serve, is fit: 'tis once 5, And I will fit thee with the remedy. I know, we shall have revelling to-night I will assume thy part in some disguise, And tell fair Hero I am Claudio; And in her bosom I'll unclasp my heart And take her hearing prisoner with the And strong encounter of my amorous ta Then, after, to her father will I break; And, the conclusion is, she shall be thin In practice let us put it presently.

SCENE II. A Room in Leonato's Enter LEONATO and ANTONIO.

Ant. He is very busy about it. But, brother, I can tell you strange news that you yet dreamed not of.

Leon. Are they good?

Ant. As the event stamps them; but they have a good cover, they show well outward. The prince and count Claudio, walking in a thick-pleached alley in my orchard, were thus much overheard by a man of mine: The prince discovered to Claudio, that he loved my niece your daughter, and meant to acknowledge it this night in a dance; and, if he found her accordant, he meant to take the present time by the top, and instantly break with you of it. Leon. Hath the fellow any wit, that told you this? Ant. A good sharp fellow: I will send for him, and question him yourself.

Leon. No, no; we will hold it as a dream, till it appear itself: - but I will acquaint my daughter withal, that she may be the better prepared for an answer, if peradventure this be true. Go you, and tell her of it. [Several persons cross the stage.] Cousins, you know what you have to do. O, I cry you mercy, friend; you go with me, and I will use your skill: . Good cousins, have a care this busy time. [Exeunt. SCENE III.—Another Room in Leonato's House. Enter Don JOHN and CONRADE.

Con. My lord! why are you thus out of measure sad?

D. John. There is no measure in the occasion that breeds it, therefore the sadness is without limit. Con. You should hear reason.

weather that you make yourself: it is needful that you frame the season for your own harvest.

D. John. I had rather be a canker in a hedge, than a rose in his grace; and it better fits my blood to be disdained of all, than to fashion a carriage to rob love from any in this, though I cannot be said to be a flattering honest man, it must not be denied that I am a plain-dealing villain. I am trusted with a muzzle, and enfranchised with a clog; therefore I have decreed not to sing in my cage: If I had my mouth, I would bite; if I had my liberty, I would do my liking; in the mean time, let me be that I am, and seek not to alter me.

Con. Can you make no use of your discontent? D. John. I make all use of it, for I use it only. Who comes here? What news, Borachio?

Enter BORACHIO.

Bora. I came yonder from a great supper; the prince, your brother, is royally entertained by Leonato; and I can give you intelligence of an intended marriage.

D. John. Will it serve for any model to build mischief on? What is he for a fool, that betroths himself to unquietness?

Bora. Marry, it is your brother's right hand.
D. John. Who? the most exquisite Claudio?
Bora. Even he.

D. John. A proper squire! And who, and who? which way looks he?

Bora. Marry, on Hero, the daughter and heir of Leonato.

D. John. A very forward March-chick! How

humour.

Con. Yea, but you must not make the full show of this, till you may do it without controlment. You have of late stood out against your brother, and he hath ta'en you newly into his grace; where it is impossible you should take true root, but by the fair

Bora. Being entertained for a perfumer, as I was smoking a musty room, comes me the prince and Claudio, hand in hand, in sad conference: I whipt me behind the arras; and there heard it agreed upon, that the prince should woo Hero for himself, and having obtained her, give her to count Claudio.

D. John. Come, come, let us thither; this may prove food to my displeasure; that young start-up hath all the glory of my overthrow; if I can cross him any way, I bless myself every way: You are both sure, and will assist me?

Con. To the death, my lord.

D. John. Let us to the great supper; their cheer is the greater, that I am subdued: 'Would the cook were of mind! my Shall we go prove what's to be done?

Bora. We'll wait upon your lordship. [Exeunt.

Beat. Nor will you not tell me who y
Bene. Not now.

Beat. That I was disdainful, and tha good wit out of the Hundred Merry Tale this was signior Benedick that said so. Bene. What's he?

Beat. I am sure, you know him well
Bene. Not I, believe me.
Beat. Did he never make you laugh?
Bene. I pray you, what is he?

Beat. Why, he is the prince's jester : fool; only his gift is in devising impossibl none but libertines delight in him; and mendation is not in his wit, but in his vi he both pleaseth men, and angers them they laugh at him, and beat him.

Bene. When I know the gentleman, I what you say.

Beat. Do, do; he'll but break a con two on me; which, peradventure, not not laughed at, strikes him into meland then there's a partridge' wing saved, for t eat no supper that night. [Musick wit must follow the leaders.

Bene. In every good thing. Beat. Nay, if they lead to any ill, I them at the next turning.

[Dance. Then exeunt all but BORACHIO, and CLAUDIO. D.John. Sure, my brother is amorous or hath withdrawn her father to break with it: The ladies follow her, and but one vis Bora. And that is Claudio; I know bearing. 9

D. John. Are not you signior Benedi Claud. You know me well; I am he. in his love; he is enamoured on Hero; D. John. Signior, you are very near dissuade him from her, she is no equal fo you may do the part of an honest man in

Claud. How know you he loves her? D. John. I heard him swear his affect Bora. So did I too; and he swore he w her to night.

D. John. Come, let us to the banque [Exeunt Don JOHN and

Claud. Thus answer I in name of Be
But hear these ill news with the ears of
'Tis certain so; - the prince wooes for
Friendship is constant in all other thing
Save in the office and affairs of love :
Therefore, all hearts in love use their ow
Let every eye negotiate for itself,
And trust no agent: for beauty is a wit
Against whose charms faith melteth into
This is an accident of hourly proof,
Which I mistrusted not: Farewell theref
Re-enter BENEDICK.

Bene. Count Claudio?
Claud. Yea, the same.
Bene. Come, will you go with me?
Claud. Whither?

Bene. Even to the next willow, about business, count. What fashion will vo