(the food?

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

Claud. How sweetly do you minister to love,
That know love's grief by his complexion !
But lest my liking might too sudden seem,
I would have salved it with a longer treatise.

D. Pedro. What need the bridge much broader than
The fairest grant is the necessity:
Look, what will serve, is fit: 'tis once, thou lorest;
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 force
And strong encounter of my amorous tale:
Then, after, to her father will I break;
And, the conclusion is, she shall be thine:
In practice let us put it presently.

SCENE II. - A Room in Leonato's House.

Enter LEONATO and ANTONIO
Leon. How now, brother? Where is my cousin, pour
son? Hath he provided this music?

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

Leon. Are they good ? Ant. As the event stamps them ; but they have a good cover, they shew well outward. The prince and Count Claudio, walking in a thick-pleached alley in my orchard, were thus much orerheard 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 yourselle

Leon. No, no; we will hold it as a dream, till it that she may be the better prepared for an answer, il appear itself;- but I will acquaint my daughter withal, peradventure this be true. Go you, and tell her of Illi

(Several persons cross the stage.) Cousins, you know what you have to do.-0, 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. What the goujere, 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,

D. John. And, when I have heard it, what blessing bringeth it?

Con. If not a present remedy, yet a patient sufferance.

D. John. I wonder that thou, being (as thou say'st thou art) born under Saturn, goest about to apply a moral medicine to a mortifying mischief. I cannot hide what I am: I must be sad, when I have cause, and smile at no man's jests; eat when I have stomach, and wait for no man's leisure ; sleep, when I am drowsy, and tend to no man's business; laugh, when I am merry, and claw no man in his humour.

Con. Yea, but you must not make the full shew of this, till you may do it without controlment. You have of late stood out against your brother, and he hath talen yon newly into his grace; where it is impossible you should take true root, but by the fair 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 disdain'd 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.
Rora. I canie sonder 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 betrothes himself to unquietness?

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 came you to this?

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 (Bun of my mind!-Shall we go prove what's to be done? Bora. We'll wait upon your lordship.

ACT IL

SCENE 1.-4 Hall in Leonato's House. Enter LEONATO, ANTONIO, HERO, BEATRICE, and others.

Leon. Was not count John here at supper!
Ant I saw him not.

Beat. How tartly that gentleman looks! I never can see him, but I am heart-burned an hour after.

Hero. He is of a very melancholy disposition. Beat. He were an excellent man, that were made ust in the mid-way between him and Benedick: the ne is too like an image, and says nothing; and the her, too like my lady's eldest son, evermore tattling. Leon. Then half signior Benedick's tongie in count

John's mouth, and half count John's melancholy in signior Benedick's face,

Beat. With a good leg, and a good foot, uncle, and money enough in his purse, such a man would win any woman in the world,-if he could get her good will.

Leon. By my troth, niere, thou wilt never get thee a husband, if thou be so shrewd of thy tongue.

Ant. In faith she is too curst.

Beat. Too curst is more than curst: I shall lessen God's sending that way: for it is said, God sends a curst cowo short horns; but to a cow too curst he sends none,

Leon. Well, then, go you into hell?

Beat. No; but to the gate; and there will the devil meet me, like an old cuckold, with horns on his head, and say, Get you to heaven, Beatrice, get you to hearen: here's no place for you maids so deliver I up my apes, and away to Saint Peter for the heavens: he shews me where the bachelors sit, and there live we as merry as the day is long.

Ant. Well, niece, (to Hero,) I trust you will be ruled by your father.

Beat. Yes, faith; it is my cousin's duty to make courtesy, and say, Father, as it please you :- but yet for all that, cousin, let him be a handsome fellow, or else make another courtesy, and say, Father, as it please me.

Leon. Well, niece, I hope to see you one day fitted with a husband.

Beat. Not till God make men of some other metal than earth. Would it not grieve a woman to be overmastered with a piece of valiant dust? to make an