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And all of them, that thus dishonour her.

Enter Don Pedro and Claudio. Ant. Here comes the prince, and Claudio, hastily. D. Pedro. Good den, good den. Claud. Good day to both of you. Leon. Hear you my lords,D. Pedro. We have some haste, Leonato. Leon. Some haste, my lord!-well, fare you well, my lord :-

Are you so hasty now?-well, all is one.

D. Pedro. Nay, do not quarrel with us, good old man.

Ant. If he could right himself with quarrelling, Some of us would lie low.

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Claud.

Marry, beshrew my hand,

If it should give your age such cause of fear:
In faith, my hand meant nothing to my sword.
Leon. Tush, tush, man, never fleer and jest at me:
I speak not like a dotard, nor a fool;
As, under privilege of age, to brag
What I have done being young, or what would do,
Were I not old: Know, Claudio, to thy head,
Thou hast so wrong'd mine innocent child and me,
That I am forc'd to lay my reverence by;
And, with gray hairs, and bruise of many days,
Do challenge thee to trial of a man.

I say, thou hast belied mine innocent child;
Thy slander hath gone through and through her
heart,

And she lies buried with her ancestors:
O! in a tomb where never scandal slept,
Save this of her's fram'd by thy villany.
Claud. My villany?

Leon.
Thine, Claudio; thine I say.
D. Pedro. You say not right, old man.
Leon.
My lord, my lord,
I'll prove it on his body, if he dare;
Despite his nice fence, and his active practice,
His May of youth, and bloom of lustyhood.

Claud. Away, I will not have to do with you. Leon. Canst thou so daff me? Thou hast kill'd my child;

If thou kill'st me, boy, thou shalt kill a man.

Ant. He shall kill two of us, and men indeed : But that's no matter; let him kill one first:Win me and wear me.-let him answer me,Come, follow me, boy; come, boy, follow me:Sir boy, I'li whip you from your foining2 fence; Nay, as I am a gentleman, I will.

Leon. Brother,

Ant. Content yourself: God knows, I lov'd my niece;

And she is dead, slander'd to death by villains;
That dare as well answer a man, indeed,
As I dare take a serpent by the tongue :
Boys, apes, braggarts, Jacks, milksops!-
Leon.
Brother Antony,-
Ant. Hold you content; What, man! I know
them, yea,

And what they weigh, even to the utmost scruple:
Scrambling, out-facing, fashion-inong'ring boys,
That lie, and cog, and out, deprave and slander,
Go anticly, and show outward hideousness,
And speak off half a dozen dangerous words,
How they might hurt their enemies, if they durst,
And this is all.

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Or some of us will smart for it.

[Exeunt Leonato and Antonio. Enter Benedick.

D. Pedro. See, see, here comes the man we went to seek.

Claud. Now, signior! what news?

Bene. Good day, my lord.

D. Pedro. Welcome, signior: You are almost come to part almost a fray.

Claud. We had like to have had our two noses snapped off with two old men without teeth.

D. Pedro. Leonato and his brother: What think'st thou? Had we fought, I doubt, we should have been too young for them.

Bene. In a false quarrel there is no true valour. I came to seek you both.

Claud. We have been up and down to seek thee; for we are high-proof melancholy, and would fain have it beaten away: Wilt thou use thy wit?

Bene. It is in my scabbard; shall I draw it? D. Pedro. Dost thou wear thy wit by thy side? Claud. Never any did so, though very many have been beside their wit.-I will bid thee draw as we do the minstrels; draw, to pleasure us.

D. Pedro. As I am an honest man, he looks pale: Art thou sick or angry?

Claud. What! courage, man! What though care killed a cat, thou hast mettle enough in thee to kill

care.

Bene. Sir, I shall meet your wit in the career, an you charge it against me:-I pray you, choose another subject.

Claud Nay, then give him another staff; this last was broke cross.

D. Pedro. By this light, he changes more and more : I think, he be angry indeed.

Claud. If he be, he knows how to turn his girdle.3 Bene. Shall I speak a word in your ear? Claud. God bless me from a challenge! Bene. You are a villain; I jest not:--I will make it good how you dare, with what you dare, and when you dare:-Do me right, or I will protest your cowardice. You have killed a sweet lady, and her death shall fall heavy on you: Let me hear from you.

Claud. Well, I will meet you, so I may have good cheer.

D. Pedro. What, a feast? a feast? Claud. P'faith, I thank him; he hath bid4 me to a calf's-head and a capon; the which if I do not carve most curiously, say, my knife's naught.—Shall I not find a woodcock too?

Bene Sir, your wit ambles well; it goes easily. D. Pedro. I'll tell thee how Beatrice praised thy wit the other day: I said, thou hadst a fine wit; True, says she, a fine little one: No, said I, a great wit; Right, says she, a great gross one: Nay, said I, a good wit: Just, said she, it hurts nobody:

(3) To give a challenge. (4) Invited.

I have deceived even your very eyes: Nay, said I, the gentleman is wise; Certain, said kill me. she, a wise gentleman: Nay, said I, he hath the what your wisdoms could not discover, these tongues; That I believe, said she, for he swore a shallow fools have brought to light; who, in the thing to me on Monday night, which he forswore night, overheard me confessing to this man, how On Tuesday morning; there's a double tongue; Don John your brother incensed2 me to slander the there's two tongues. Thus did she, an hour to-lady Hero; how you were brought into the orchard, gether, trans-shape thy particular virtues; yet, at last, she concluded with a sigh, thou wast the properest man in Italy.

Claud. For the which she wept heartily, and said, she cared not.

D. Pedro. Yea, that she did; but yet, for all that, an if she did not hate him deadly, she would love him dearly: the old man's daughter told us all. Claud. All, all; and moreover, God saw him when he was hid in the garden.

D. Pedro. But when shall we set the savage bull's horns on the sensible Benedick's head?

Claud. Yea, and text underneath, Here dwells Benedick the married man.

Bene. Fare you well, boy; you know my mind; I will leave you now to your gossip-like humour: you break jests as braggarts do their blades, which, God be thanked, hurt not.-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 Lack-beard, there, he and I shall meet; and till then, peace be with him. [Exit Benedick.

D. Pedro. He is in earnest.
Claud. In most profound earnest; and, I'll war-
rant you, for the love of Beatrice.

D. Pedro. And hath challenged thee?
Claud. Most sincerely.

D. Pedro. What a pretty thing man is, when he
goes in his doublet and hose, and leaves off his wit!
Enter Dogberry, Verges, and the Watch, with
Conrade and Borachio.

Claud. He is then a giant to an ape: but then is an ape a doctor to such a man.

D. Pedro. But, soft you, let be; pluck up, my heart, and be sad!! Did he not say my brother was fled?

Dogb. Come, you, sir; if justice cannot tame you, she shall ne'er weigh more reasons in her balance; nay, an you be a cursing hypocrite once, you must be looked to.

D. Pedro. How now, two of my brother's men bound! Borachio, one!

Claud. Hearken to their offence, my lord! D. Pedro. Officers, what offence have these men done?

and saw me court Margaret in Hero's garments; how you disgraced her, when you should marry her: my villany they have upon record; which I had rather seal with my death, than repeat over to my shame the lady is dead upon mine and my master's false accusation; and, briefly, I desire nothing but the reward of a villain.

D. Pedro. Runs not this speech like iron through your blood?

Claud. I have drunk poison whiles he utter'd it. D. Pedro. But did my brother set thee on to this? Bora. Yea, and paid me richly for the practice of it.

D. Pedro. He is compos'd and fram'd of trea-
chery

And fled he is upon this villany.
Claud. Sweet Hero! now thy image doth appear
In the rare semblance that I loved it first.

Dogb. Come, bring away the plaintiffs; by this time our Sexton hath reformed signior Leonato of the matter: and masters, do not forget to specify, when time and place shall serve, that I am an ass. Verg. Here, here comes master signior Leonato, and the Sexton too.

Re-enter Leonato and Antonio, with the Sexton.
Leon. Which is the villain? Let me see his eyes;
That when I note another man like him,
I may avoid him: Which of these is he?
Bora. If you would know your wronger, look on

me.

Leon. Art thou the slave, that with thy breath hast
kill'd

Mine innocent child?
Bora.
Yea, even I alone.
Leon. No, not so, villain; thou bely'st thyself;
Here stand a pair of honourable men,
A third is fled, that had a hand in it :-
I thank you, princes, for my daughter's death;
Record it with your high and worthy deeds;
'Twas bravely done, if you bethink you of it.

Claud. I know not how to pray your patience,
Yet I must speak: Choose your revenge yourself;
Impose3 me to what penance your invention
Can lay upon my sin: yet sinn'd I not,
But in mistaking.

D. Pedro.

By my soul, nor I;
And yet, to satisfy this good old man,
would bend under any heavy weight
That he'll enjoin me to.

I

Dogb. Marry, sir, they have committed false report; moreover, they have spoken untruths; seLeon. I cannot bid you bid my daughter live, condarily, they are slanders; sixth and lastly, they have belied a lady; thirdly, they have verified un-That were impossible; but, I pray you both, just things: and, to conclude, they are lying knaves. D. Pedro. First, I ask thee what they have done; thirdly, I ask thee what's their offence; sixth and lastly, why they are committed; and, to conclude, what you lay to their charge?

Possess the people in Messina here How innocent she died: and, if your love Can labour ought in sad invention, Hang her an epitaph upon her tomb, And sing it to her bones; sing it to-night :Claud. Rightly reasoned, and in his own di-To-morrow morning come you to my house; vision; and, by my troth, there's one meaning well suited.

D. Pedro. Whom have you offended, masters, that you are thus bound to your answer? this learned constable is too cunning to be understood: What's your offence?

Bora. Sweet prince, let me go no further to mine answer; do you hear me, and let this count (2) Incited.

(1) Serious.

And since you could not be my son-in-law,
Be yet my nephew: my brother hath a daughter,
Almost the copy of my child that's dead,
And she alone is heir to both of us;
Give her the right you should have given her cousin,
And so dies my revenge.
Claud.
O, noble sir,
Your over-kindness doth wring tears from me!
(4) Acquaint.

(3) Command.

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No, by my soul, she was not;
Nor knew not what she did, when she spoke to me;
But always hath been just and virtuous,
In any thing that I do know by her.

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I mean, in singing; but in loving,-Leander the good swimmer, Troilus the first employer of pandars, and a whole book full of these quondam carpet-mongers, whose names yet run smoothly in the even road of a blank verse, why, they were never so truly turned over and over as my poor self, in

Dogb. Moreover, sir, (which, indeed, is not under white and black,) this plaintiff here, the of-love: Marry, I cannot show it in rhyme; I have fender, did call me ass: I beseech you, let it be re- tried; I can find out no rhyme to lady but baby, membered in his punishment: and also, the watch an innocent rhyme; for scorn, horn, a hard rhyme; heard them talk of one Deformed: they say, he for school, fool, a babbling rhyme; very ominous wears a key in his ear, and a lock hanging by it; endings: No, I was not born under a rhyming and borrows money in God's name; the which he planet, nor I cannot woo in festival terms.2 hath used so long, and never paid, that now men grow hard-hearted, and will lend nothing for God's Sweet Beatrice, would'st thou come when I called Enter Beatrice. sake: pray you, examine him upon that point.

Leon. I thank thee for thy care and honest pains.
Dogb. Your worship speaks like a most thankful
and reverend youth; and I praise God for you.
Leon. There's for thy pains.
Dogb. God save the foundation!
Leon. Go, I discharge thee of thy prisoner, and

I thank thee.

thee?

Beat. Yea, signior, and depart when you bid me.
Bene. O, stay but till then!

Beat. Then, is spoken; fare you well now:and yet, ere I go, let me go with that I came for, which is, with knowing what hath passed between you and Claudio.

Bene. Only foul words; and thereupon I will

is but foul breath, and foul breath is noisome ; Beat. Foul words is but foul wind, and foul wind therefore I will depart unkissed.

Dogb. I leave an arrant knave with your wor-kiss thee. ship; which, I beseech your worship, to correct yourself, for the example of others. God keep your worship; I wish your worship well; God restore you to health: I humbly give you leave to depart; and if a merry meeting may be wished, God prohibit it.-Come, neighbour.

[Exeunt Dogberry, Verges, and Watch Leon. Until to-morrow morning, lords, farewell. Ant. Farewell, my lords; we look for you to

morrow.

D. Pedro. We will not fail.
Claud.

To-night I'll mourn with Hero. [Exeunt Don Pedro and Claudio. Leon. Bring you these fellows on; we'll talk with Margaret,

How her acquaintance grew with this lewd1 fellow. [Exeunt. SCENE II-Leonato's Garden. Enter Benedick and Margaret, meeting.

Bene. Pray thee, sweet mistress Margaret, deserve well at my hands, by helping me to the speech of Beatrice.

Marg. Will you then write me a sonnet in praise of my beauty?

Bene. In so high a style, Margaret, that no man living shall come over it; for, in most comely truth, thou deservest it.

Marg. To have no man come over me? why, shall I always keep below stairs?

Bene. Thy wit is as quick as the greyhound's mouth, it catches.

Marg. And yours as blunt as the fencer's foils, which hit, but hurt not.

Bene. A most manly wit, Margaret, it will not hurt a woman; and so I pray thee, call Beatrice: I give thee the bucklers.

Marg. Give us the swords, we have bucklers of

our own.

Bene. If you use them, Margaret, you must put in the pikes with a vice; and they are dangerous weapons for maids.

Marg. Well, I will call Beatrice to you, who, I think, hath legs. [Exit Margaret. (2) Holiday phrases.

(1) Ignorant.

right sense, so forcible is thy wit: But, I must tell Bene. Thou hast frighted the word out of his and either I must shortly hear from him, or I will thee plainly, Claudio undergoes my challenge; subscribe him a coward. And, I pray thee now, tell me, for which of my bad parts didst thou first fall in love with me?

Beat. For them all together; which maintained so politic a state of evil, that they will not admit which of my good parts did you first suffer love any good part to intermingle with them. But for

for me?

Bene. Suffer love; a good epithet! I do suffer love, indeed, for I love thee against my will.

Beat. In spite of your heart, I think; alas! poor for yours; for I will never love that which my heart! If you spite it for my sake; I will spite it friend hates.

Bene. Thou and I are too wise to woo peaceably. Beat. It appears not in this confession: there's himself. not one wise man among twenty that will praise

Bene. An old, an old instance, Beatrice, that lived in the time of good neighbours: if a man do not erect in this age his own tomb ere he dies, he shall and the widow weeps. live no longer in monument, than the bell rings,

Beat. And how long is that, think you?

Bene. Question?-Why, an hour in clamour, and a quarter in rheum: Therefore it is most expedient for the wise (if Don Worm, his conscience, find no impediment to the contrary,) to be the much for praising myself (who, I myself will bear trumpet of his own virtues, as I am to myself: So doth your cousin? witness, is praiseworthy,) and now tell me, How

Beat. Very ill.

Bene. And how do you?
Beat. Very ill too.

Bene. Serve God, love me, and mend: there

(3) Is subject to.

Scene III, IV.

MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING.

will I leave you too, for here comes one in haste.

Enter Ursula.

Urs. Madam, you must come to your uncle; yonder's old coil at home: it is proved my lady Hero hath been falsely accused, the prince and Claudio mightily abused; and Don John is the author of all, who is fled and gone: will you come presently?

Beat. Will you go hear this news, signior? Bene. I will live in thy heart, die in thy lap, and be buried in thy eyes; and, moreover, with thee to thy uncle's.

I will

go

[Exeunt.

SCENE III.-The inside of a church. Enter
Don Pedro, Claudio, and attendants, with music
and tapers.

Claud. Is this the monument of Leonato?
Atten. It is, my lord.

Claud. [Reads from a scroll.]

Done to death by slanderous tongues,
Was the Hero that here lies:
Death, in guerdon of her wrongs,
Gives her fame which never dies:
So the life, that died with shame,
Lives in death with glorious fame.

Ant. Well, I am glad that all things sort so well.
Bene. And so am I, being else by faith enforc'd
To call young Claudio to a reckoning for it.

Leon. Well, daughter, and you gentlewomen all,
Withdraw into a chamber by yourselves;
And when I send for you, come hither mask'd:
The prince and Claudio promis'd by this hour
To visit me :-You know your office, brother;
You must be father to your brother's daughter,
And give her to young Claudio. [Exeunt Ladies.

Ant. Which I will do with confirm'd countenance.
Bene. Friar, I must entreat your pains, I think.
Friar. To do what, signior?

Bene. To bind me, or undo me, one of them.-
Signior Leonato, truth it is, good signior,
Your niece regards me with an eye of favour.
Leon. That eye my daughter lent her; 'Tis most

true.

Bene. And I do with an eye of love requite her.
Leon. The sight whereof, I think, you had from

me,

From Claudio, and the prince; But what's your
will?

Bene. Your answer, sir, is enigmatical:
But, for my will, my will is, your good will
May stand with ours, this day to be conjoin'd

Hang thou there upon the tomb, [Affixing it. In the estate of honourable marriage ;—

Praising her when I am dumb.—

Now, music, sound, and sing your solemn hymn.

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Claud. Now, unto thy bones good night!
Yearly will I do this rite.

D. Pedro. Good morrow, masters; put your
torches out:

The wolves have prey'd; and look, the

tle day,

In which, good friar, I shall desire your help.
Leon. My heart is with your liking.
And my help.
Friar.
Here comes the prince, and Claudio.

Enter Don Pedro and Claudio, with attendants.
D. Pedro. Good morrow to this fair assembly.
Leon. Good morrow, prince; good morrow,
Claudio;

We here attend you; are you yet determin'd
brother's daughter?
To-day to marry with my
Claud. I'll hold my mind, were she an Ethiope.
Leon. Call her forth, brother, here's the friar
[Exit Antonio.
D. Pedro. Good morrow, Benedick: Why, what's

ready.

the matter,

That you have such a February face,
So full of frost, of storm, and cloudiness?

Claud. I think, he thinks upon the savage bull:-
Tush, fear not, man, we'll tip thy horns with gold,
gen-And all Europa shall rejoice at thee;
As once Europa did at lusty Jove,

Before the wheels of Phoebus, round about Dapples the drowsy east with spots of gray: Thanks to you all, and leave us; fare you well. Claud. Good morrow, masters; each his several

way.

D. Pedro. Come, let us hence, and put on other weeds:

And then to Leonato's we will go.

Claud. And, Hymen, now with luckier issue speeds,

Than this, for whom we render'd up this wo!

[Exeunt. SCENE IV-A room in Leonato's house. Enter Leonato, Antonio, Benedick, Beatrice, Ursula, Friar, and Hero.

Friar. Did I not tell you she was innocent?
Leon. So are the prince and Claudio, who accus'd

her,

Upon the error that you heard debated:
But Margaret was in some fault for this;
Although against her will, as it appears
In the true course of all the question.
(1) Stir.
(2) Reward.

When he would play the noble beast in love.
Bene. Bull Jove, sir, had an amiable low;
And some such strange bull leap'd your father's

COW,

And got a calf in that same noble feat,
Much like to you, for you have just his bleat.

Re-enter Antonio, with the Ladies mask'd. Claud. For this I owe you here come other reckonings.

Which is the lady I must seize upon?
Ant. This same is she, and I do give you her.
Claud. Why, then she's mine: Sweet, let me see

your face.

Leon. No, that you shall not, till you take her hand
Before this friar, and swear to marry her.

Claud. Give me your hand before this holy friar ;
I am your husband, if you like of me.
Hero. And when I lived, I was your other wife :
[Unmasking.
And when you loved, you were my other husband.
Claud. Another Hero?

Hero.

Nothing certainer:

One Hero died defil'd; but I do live,
And, surely as I live, I am a maid.

D. Pedro. The former Hero! Hero that is dead! it; for man is a giddy thing, and this is my concluLeon. She died, my lord, but whiles her slandersion.-For thy part, Claudio, I did think to have

liv'd.

Friar. All this amazement can I qualify; When, after that the holy rites are ended, I'll tell you largely of fair Hero's death: Mean time, let wonder seem familiar, And to the chapel let us presently. Bene. Soft and fair, friar.-Which is Beatrice? Beat. I answer to that name; [Unmasking.]

What is your will?
Bene. Do not you love me?
Beat.
No, no more than reason.
Bene. Why, then your uncle, and the prince,
and Claudio,

Have been deceived; for they swore you did.
Beat. Do not you love me?
Bene.
No, no more than reason.
Beat. Why then, my cousin, Margaret, and
Ursula,

Are much deceiv'd; for they did swear you did.
Bene. They swore that you were almost sick for

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Hero. Writ in my cousin's hand, stolen from her pocket, Containing her affection unto Benedick.

Bene. A miracle! here's our own hands against our hearts!-Come, I will have thee; but, by this light, I take thee for pity.

beaten thee; but in that thou art like to be my kinsman, live unbruised, and love my cousin.

Claud. I had well hoped, thou would'st have denied Beatrice, that I might have cudgelled thee out of thy single life, to make thee a double dealer; which, out of question, thou wilt be, if my cousin do not look exceeding narrowly to thee.

Bene. Come, come, we are friends:-let's have a dance ere we are married, that we may lighten our hearts, and our wives' heels.

Leon. We'll have dancing afterwards. Bene. First, o' my word; therefore, play, music.-Prince, thou art sad; get thee a wife, get thee a wife: there is no staff more reverend than one tipped with horn.

Enter a Messenger.

Mess. My lord, your brother John is ta'en in flight,

And brought with armed men back to Messina. Bene. Think not on him till to-morrow; I'll devise thee brave punishments for him.-Strike up, pipers. [Dance. [Exeunt.

This play may be justly said to contain two of the most sprightly characters that Shakspeare ever drew. The wit, the humourist, the gentleman, and the soldier, are combined in Benedick. It is to be lamented, indeed, that the first and most splendid of these distinctions, is disgraced by unnecessary profaneness; for the goodness of his heart is hardly sufficient to atone for the license of his tongue. The too sarcastic levity, which flashes out in the conversation of Beatrice, may be excused on account of the steadiness and friendship so apparent in her behaviour, when she urges her lover to risk his life by a challenge to Claudio. In the conduct of the fable, however, there is an imper

Beat. I would not deny you;-but, by this good day, I yield upon great persuasion; and, partly, to save your life, for I was told you were in a consump-fection similar to that which Dr. Johnson has point

tion.

Bene. Peace, I will stop your mouth.

[Kissing her. D. Pedro. How dost thou, Benedick the married man?

Bene. I'll tell thee what, prince; a college of witcrackers cannot flout me out of my humour: dost thou think, I care for a satire, or an epigram; No: if a man will be beaten with brains, he shall wear nothing handsome about him: In brief, since I do propose to marry, I will think nothing to any purpose that the world can say against it; and therefore never flout at me for what I have said against (1) Because.

ed out in The Merry Wives of Windsor-the second contrivance is less ingenious than the first :-or, to speak more plainly, the same incident is become stale by repetition. I wish some other method had been found to entrap Beatrice, than that very one which before had been successfully practised on Benedick.

Much Ado About Nothing (as I understand from one of Mr. Vertue's MSS.) formerly passed under the title of Benedick and Beatrix. Heming the player received, on the 20th of May, 1613, the sum of forty pounds, and twenty pounds more as his majesty's gratuity, for exhibiting six plays at Hampton Court, among which was this comedy.

STEEVENS.

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