Despite his nice fence, and his active practice, If thou kill'st me, boy, thou shalt kill a man. Leon. Brother, Ant. Content yourself: God knows, I lov'd And she is dead, slander'd to death by villains; 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 1 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 1 may have good cheer. D. Pedro. What, a feast? a feast? Claud. 1' faith, I thank him; he hath bid me to a calf's head and a capon; the which if do not carve most curiously, say, my knife's naught.-Shall I not find a woodcock 100 ? 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 Brother Antony,-I, a great wit; Right, says she, a great gro88 one: Nay, said I, a good wit; Just, said she, it hurts nobody: Nay, said I, the gentleman is wise; Certain, said she, a wise gentleman: Nay, said I, he hath the tongues; That I be lieve, said she, for he swore a thing to me on Monday night, which he forswore on Tuesday morning; there's a double tongue; there's two tongues. Thus, did she, an hour together, transshape thy particular virtues; yet, at last, she concluded with a sigh, thou wast the properest man in Italy. Ant. Hold you content; What, man! I know And what they weigh, even to the utmost scruple: Leon. But, brother Antony,- Come, 'tis no matter; D. Pedro. Gentlemen both, we will not wake My heart is sorry for your daughter's death; Leon. I will not hear you. Come, brother, away :-I will be heard :- Or some of us will smart for it. No? And shall, [Exeunt Leonato and Antonio. Enter Benedick. 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 daugh ter 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 D. Pedro. See, see; here comes the man we blades, which, God be thanked, hurt not.-My went to seek. Claud. Now signior! what news 7 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. lord, for your many courtesies I thank you: 1 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. [Erit Benedick. D. Pedro. He is in earnest. D. Pedro. What a pretty thing man is, when he goes in his doublet and hose, and leaves of his wit Claud. He is then a giant to an ape: but then Enter Dogberry, Verges, and the Watch, with 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? Dogb. Marry, sir, they have committed false report; moreover, they have spoken untruths; secondarily, they are slanders; sixth and lastly. they have belied a lady; thirdly, they have ve- To-morrow morning come you to my house; rified unjust things! and, to conclude, they are And since you could not be my son-in-law, lying knaves. 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 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? Claud. Rightly reasoned, and in his own division; 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? cousin : Your over kindness doth wring tears from me! to me; Bora Sweet prince, let me go no further to mine answer; do you hear me, and let this count kill me. I have deceived even your very eyes; what your wisdoms could not discover, these shallow fools have brought to light; who, in the night, overheard me confessing to this man, how Don John, your brother, incensed me to slander the lady Hero: how you were brought into the But always hath been just and virtuous, orchard, and saw me court Margaret in Hero's In any thing that I do know by her. garments; how you disgraced her, when you Dogb. Moreover, sir, (which, indeed, is not should marry her: my villany they have upon under white and black,) this plaintiff here, the record: which I had rather seal with my death, offender, did call me ass: I beseech you, let it be than repeat over to my shame: the lady is dead remembered in his punishment: And also, the upon mine and my master's false accusation; watch heard them talk of one Deformed: they and, briefly, I desire nothing but the reward of a say, he wears a key in his ear, and a lock hangvillain. ing by it; and borrows money in God's name; the which he hath used so long, and never paid, that now men grow hard-hearted, and will lend nothing for God's sake: 'Pray you, examine him upon that point. D. Pedro. Runs not this speech like iron through Claud. I have drunk poison, whiles he utter'd it. of it. Leon. I thank thee for thy care and honest pains. D. Pedro. He is compos'd and fram'd of trea-Dogb. Your worship speaks like a most thankchery:ful and reverend youth; and I praise God for you. And fled he is upon this villany. Claud. Sweet Hero! now thy image doth ap- Leon. There's for thy pains. I Dogb. God save the foundation. Leon. Go, I discharge thee of thy prisoner, and thank thee. Dogb. I leave an errant knave with your worship; 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 wishGod prohibit it.-Come, neighbour. [Exeunt Dogberry, Verges, and Watch Leon. Until to-morrow morning, lords, fare. Re-enter Leonato and Antonio, with the Sexton.ed, 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; D. Pedro. By my soul, nor I; And yet, to satisfy this good old man, I would bend under any heavy weight That he'll enjoin me to. Leon. I cannot bid you bid my daughter live, How innocent she died: and, if your love Hang her an epitaph upon her tomb, And sing it to her bones; sing it to-night : well. Ant. Farewell, my lords: we look for you to morrow. D. Pedro. We will not fail. 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 lewd fel[Exeunt. low. SCENE 11. 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. [Erit Margaret Bene. And therefore will come. The god of love, [Singing. That sits above, And knows me, and knows me, How pitiful I deserve,I mean, in singing; but in loving,-Leander the good swimmer, Troilus the first employer of panders, 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 love Marry, I cannot show it in rhyme; I have tried; I can find out no rhyme to lady but baby, an innocent rhyme; for scorn, horn, a hard rhyme; for school, fool, a babbling rhyme; very ominous endings: No, I was not born under a rhyming planet, nor I cannot woo in festival terms. Enter Beatrice. Sweet Beatrice, would'st thou come when I called 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 kiss thee. Beat. Foul words is but foul wind, and foul wind is but foul breath, and foul breath is noisome; therefore I will depart unkissed. Bene. Thou hast frighted the word out of his right sense, so forcible is thy wit: But, I must tell thee plainly, Claudio undergoes my challenge and either I must shortly hear from him, or I will 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 altogether: which maintained so politic a state of evil, that they will not admit any good part to intermingle with them. But for which of my good parts did you first suffer love 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 heart! If you spite it for my sake, I will spite it for yours; for I will never love that which my friend hates. Bene. Serve God, love me, and mend: ther 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 1 Beat. Will you go hear this news, signior! Gives her fame which never dies: Now, musick, sound, and sing your solemn Pardon, Goddess of the night, Graves, yawn, and yield your dead, Claud. Now, unto thy bones good night! torches out: D. Pedro. Good morrow, masters; put your Before the wheels of Phœbus, round about D. Pedro. Come, let us hence, and put on other And then to Leonato's we will go. Bene. Thou and I are too wise to woo peace-Than this, for whom we render'd up this wo! ably. [Exeunt. SCENE IV. A Room in Leonato's House. Beat. It appears not in this confession: there's not one wise man among twenty that will praise Enter Leonato, Antonio, Benedick, Beatrice, himself. 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 live no longer in monument, than the bell rings, and the widow weeps. Ursula, Friar, and Hero." Friar. Did I not tell you she was innocent? Leon. So are the prince and Claudio, who nocus'd her Upon the error that you heard debated: Beat. And how long is that, think you? But Margaret was in some fault for this; Bene. Question !-Why, an hour in clamour, Although against her will, as it appears and a quarter in rheum: Therefore it is most ex-In the true course of all the question. pedient for the wise (if Don Worm, his conscience, find no impediment to the contrary,) to be the trumpet of his own virtues, as I am to myself: So much for praising myself (who, myself will bear witness, is praise-worthy,) and now tell me, How doth your cousin? Ant. Well, I am glad that all things sort s0 well. Beat. Very ill. Bene. And how do you? Bene. And so am I, being else by faith enforc'd Withdraw into a chamber by yourselves: 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 counte nance. 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 conjoined In the estate of honourable marriage ;In which, good friar, 1 shall desire your help. Leon. My heart is with your liking. Friar. And my help. 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 determined That you have such a February face, Tush, fear not, man, we'll tip thy horns with gold, And all Europa shall rejoice at thee; And got a calf in that same noble feat, Re-enter Antonio, with the Ladies masked. Claud. For this I owe you: here come other reckonings. Which is the lady I must seize upon ? 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. Claud. Another Hero! Nothing certainer : Leon. She died, my lord, but whiles her slan der lived. Friar. All this amazement can 1 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, Bene. Do not you love me ? Why, no, no more than reason. Bene. Why, then your uncle, and the prince, and Claudio, Have been deceived; for they swore you did. Troth, no, no more than reason. Beat. They swore that you were well-nigh dead for me. Bene. 'Tis no such matter:-Then, you do not love me ? Beat. No, truly, but in friendly recompense. Leon. Come, cousin, I am sure you love the gentleman. Claud. And I'll be sworn upon't, that he loves her; For here's a paper written in his hand, A halting sonnet of his own pure brain, Fashioned to Beatrice. Hero. And here's another, 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. 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 consumption. 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 wit-crackers 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 thing, and this is my conclusion-For thy part, what I have said against it; for man is a giddy Claudio, I did think to have beaten thee; but in that thou art like to be my kinsman,' live unbruised, and love my cousin. Claud. I had well hoped thou wouldst have thee out of thy single life, to make thee a double denied Beatrice, that I might have cudgelled 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 our own hearts, and our wives' heels. a dance ere we are married, that we may lighten Leon. We'll have dancing afterwards. Bene. First, o' my word; therefore, play, musick.-Prince, thou art sad: get thee a wife, get thee a wife: there is no staff more reverend than one tipp'd 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'M devise thee brave punishments for him-Strike. up, pipers. [Dance. Exeunt HERMIA, Daughter of Egeus, in love with Other Fairies attending their King and Queen. Lysander. Attendants on Theseus and Hippolyta. SCENE, Athens, and a Wood not far from it. ACT L SCENE 1. Athens. A Room in the Palace of Theseus. Enter Theseus, Hippolyta, Philostrate, and Attendants. The. Now, fair Hippolyta, our nuptial hour Draws on apace: four happy days bring in Another moon: but, oh, methinks how slow This old moon wanes! she lingers my desires, Like to a step-dame, or a dowager, Long withering out a young man's revenue. Hip. Four days will quickly steep themselves in nights; Four nights will quickly dream away the time; And then the moon, like to a silver bow The. trius. Ege. Happy be Theseus, our renowned duke! And interchang'd love tokens with my child, ceits, Knacks, trifles, nosegays, sweet-meats; mes Turn'd her obedience, which is due to me, duke, Be it so she will not here before your grace The. What say you, Hermia? Be advis'd, fair maid: One that compos'd your beauties; yea, and one The. In himself he is But, in this kind, wanting your father's voice, The other must be held the worthier. Her. I would my father look'd but with my eyes. The. Rather your eyes must with his judgment look. Her. I do entreat your grace to pardon me. Nor how it may concern my modesty, I know not by what power I am made bold; In such a presence here, to plead my thoughts: But I beseech your grace that I may know The worst that may befall me in this case, If I refuse to wed Demetrius. The. Either to die the death, or to abjure Therefore, fair Hermia, question your desires, moon |