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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
Ilooked on.

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 at the door of a brothel-house, for the signof 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.

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,-Here you may

see Benedick the married man.

Claud. If this should ever happen, thou would'st be

D. Pedro. Nay, if Cupid have not spent all his quiver in Venice, thou wilt quake for this shortly. Bene. I look for an earthquake too then. D. Pedro. Well, you will temporize with the hours. In the mean time, good signior Benedick, repair to Leonato's; commend me to him, and tell him, I will not fail him at supper; for, indeed, he hath made great preparation.

Bene. I can see yet without spectacles, and I see no such matter. There's her cousin, an she were not pos-horn-mad. sessed with a fury, exceeds her as much in beauty, as the first of May doth the last of December. But I hope, you have no intent to turn husband; have you? Claud.I would scarce trust myself, though I had sworn the contrary, if Hero would be my wife. Bene. Is it come to this, i'faith? Hath not the world one man, but he will wear his cap with suspicion? Shall I never see a bachelor of threescore again? Go to, i'faith; an thou wilt needs thrust thy neck into a yoke, wear the print of it, and sigh away Sundays. Look, Don Pedro is returned to seek you.

Re-enter Don PEDRO.

D. Pedro. What secret hath held you here, that you followed not to Leonato's?

Bene. I would, your grace would constrain me to tell. D. Pedro. Icharge 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 alle-I giance, 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, God forbid it should be so! Claud. If my passion change not shortly, God 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,
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 winded in my forehead, or hang my bugle in an invisible baldrick, all women shall pardon me. Because I will not do them the wrong to mistrust any, I will do myself the right

Bene. I have almost matter enough in me for such an embassage; and so I commit you

Claud. To the tuition of God; from my house, (if I had it)

D. Pedro. The sixth of July: your loving friend, Benedick.

Bene. Nay, mock not, mock not! The body of your discourse is sometime guarded with fragments, and the guards are but slightly basted on neither: ere you flout old ends any further, examine your conscience; and so leave you. [Exit Benedick. Claud. My liege, your highness now may do me good. D. Pedro. My love is thine to teach; teach it but how, And thou shalt see, how apt it is to learn Any hard lesson that may do thee good. Claud. Hath Leonato any son, my lord? D. Pedro. No child but Hero, she's his only heir: Dost thou affect her, Claudio? Claud.

I

O, my lord,
When you went onward on this ended action,
look'd upon her with a soldier's eye,
That lik'd, but had a rougher task in hand
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
I Come thronging soft and delicate desires,
All prompting me, how fair young Hero is,
Saying, I lik'd her, ere I went to wars.
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,
would have salv'd it with a longer treatise.
D. Pedro. What need the bridge much broader than

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the flood?

The fairest grant is the necessity:
Look, what will serve, is fit: 'tis once, thou lov'st;
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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
[Exeunt. on? What is he for a fool, that betroths himself to
unquietness?

SCENE II.-A room in Leonato's house.
Enter LEONATO and ANTONIO.

Leon. How now, brother? Where is my cousin, your 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 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 daugther, 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.

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 daugther and heir of Leonato.

D. John. Avery 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 wooHero 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, bless myself every way: you are both sure, and will

Con. To the death, my lord.

I Leon. No, no; we will hold it as a dream, till it ap-assist me? pear itself:- but I will acquaint my daugther 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 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.

you

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?

D. John. Let us to the great supper; their cheer is the greater, that I am subdued. 'Would the cook were of my mind! Shall we go prove what's to be done? Bora. We'll wait upon your lordship. [Exeunt.

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

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A C T II.

SCENE I.-A 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 just in the mid-way between him and Benedick: the one is too like an image, and says nothing; and the other, too like my lady's eldest son, evermore tattling. Leon. Then half signior Benedick's tongue 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, niece, 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 cow short horns; but to a cow too curst he sends none. Leon. So, by being too curst, God will send you no horns.

D. John. I had rather be a canker in a hedge, than a Beat. Just, if he send me no husband; for the which rose in his grace; and it better fits my blood to be dis- blessing I am at him upon my knees every morning and dain'd of all, than to fashion a carriage to rob love evening; Lord! I could not endure a husband with a from any. In this, though I cannot be said to be a flat-beard on his face; I had rather lie in the woollen. tering honest man, it must not be denied, that I am a Leon. You may light upon a husband that hath no plain-dealing villain. I am trusted with a muzzle, and beard. enfranchised with a clog; therefore I have decreed not Beat. What should I do with him? dress him in my to sing in my cage: IfI had my mouth, I would bite; if apparel, and make him my waiting gentlewoman? He, I had my liberty, I would do my liking: in the mean that hath a beard, is more than a youth; and he, that

I am not arnest

Brat. N

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hath no beard, is less than a man: and he, that is more than a youth,is not for me;and he,that is less than a man, I am not for him. Therefore I will even take sixpence in earnest of the bear-herd, and lead his apes into hell. 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 heaven; here's no place for you maids! So deliver I up my apes, and away to Saint Peter for the heavens: he shows 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; 'tis 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 valiaut dust? to make an account of her life to a clod of wayward marl? No, uncle, I'll none: Adam's sons are my brethren; and truly, I hold it a sin to match in my kindred.

Leon. Daughter, remember what I told you: if the prince do solicit you in that kind, you know your

answer.

Balth. No more words; the clerk is answered. Urs. I know you well enough; you are signior Antonio.

Ant. At a word, I am not.

Urs. I know you by the waggling of your head. Ant. To tell you true, I counterfeit him. Urs. You could never do him so ill-well, unless you were the very man. Here's his dry hand up and down; you are he, you are he! Ant. At a word, I am not.

Urs. Come, come; do you think I do not know you by your excellent wit? Can virtue hide itself? Go to,mum, you are he: graces will appear, and there's an end. Beat. Will you not tell me, who told you so ?; Bene. No, you shall pardon me. Beat. Nor will you not tell me, who you are? Bene. Not now.

Beat. That I was disdainful,-and that I had my good wit out of the Hundred merry Tales; — well, this was signior Benedick that said so.

Bene. What's he?

Beat. I am sure, you know him well enough.
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: a very dull fool;
only his gift is in devising impossible slanders: none
but libertines delight in him; and the commendation
is not in his wit, but in his villainy; for he both plea-
seth men and angers them, and then they laugh at him,
and beat him: I am sure he is in the fleet; I would he
had boarded me.

Bene. When I know the gentleman, I'll tell him what you say.

Beat. The fault will be in the music, cousin, if you be not woo'd in good time: if the prince be too important, tell him, there is measure in every thing, and so dance out the answer. For hear me, Hero; wooing, wedding, and repenting, is as a Scotch jig, a measure, and a cinque-pace: the first suit is hot and hasty, like a Beat. Do, do: he'll but break a comparison or two Scotch jig, and full as fantastical; the wedding, man-on me; which,peradventure,not marked, or not laughnerly-modest, as a measure full of state and ancien-ed at, strikes him into melancholy; and then there's try; and then comes repentance, and, with his bad a partridge's wing saved, for the fool will eat no supper legs, falls into the cinque-pace faster and faster, till he that night. [Music within.] We must follow the leadsink into his grave. Bene. In every good thing.

Leon. Cousin, you apprehend passing shrewdly. Beat. I have a good eye, uncle; I can see a church by day-light.

Leon. The revellers are entering; brother, make good room!

Enter Don PEDRO, CLAUDIO, BENEDICK, BALTHAZAR; Don JOHN, BORACHIO, Margaret, URSULA, and others, masked.

D.Pedro. Lady,will you walk about with your friend? Hero. So you walk softly, and look sweetly, and say nothing, I am yours for the walk; and, especially, when

I walk away.

D. Pedro. With me in your company?
Hero. I may say so, when I please.
D. Pedro. And when please you to say so?

Hero. When I like your favour; for God defend, the
lute should be like the case!

D. Pedro. My visor is Philemon's roof; within the house is Jove.

Hero. Why, then your visor should be thatch'd.
D. Pedro. Speak low, if you speak love.
[Takes her aside.
Bene. Well, I would you did like me.

Marg. So would not I, for your own sake; for I have

many ill qualities.

Bene. Which is one?

Marg. I say my prayers aloud.

ers.

Beat.Nay,if they lead to any ill,I will leave them at the next turning. [Dance; then exeunt all but Don John, Borachio, and Claudio.

D. John. Sure, my brother is amorous on Hero, and
hath withdrawn her father to break with him about it:
the ladies follow her, and but one visor remains.
Bora. And that is Claudio: I know him by his bearing.
D. John. Are not you signior Benedick?
Claud. You know me well; I am he.
D. John. Signior, you are very near my brother in his
love: he is enamoured on Hero; I pray you, dissuade
him from her, she is no equal for his birth: you may do
the part of an honest man in it.

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

D. John. Come, let us to the banquet!

[Exeunt Don John and Borachio.
Claud. Thus answer I in name of Benedick,
But hear these ill news with the ears of Claudio.-
'Tis certain so ;-the prince wooes for himself.
Friendship is constant in all other things,
Save in the office and affairs of love!

Therefore, all hearts in love use their own tongues;
Let every eye negotiate for itself,

And trust no agent: for beauty is a witch,

Bene. Ilove you the better; the hearers may cry, Against whose charms faith melteth into blood.

Amen.

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This is an accident of hourly proof,

Which I mistrusted not: farewell, therefore, Hero!
Re-enter BENEDICK.

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Bene. Come, will you go with me?
Claud. Whither?

Bene. Even to the next willow, about your own business, count. What fashion will you wear the garland of? About your neck, like an usurer's chain? or under your arm, like a lieutenant's scarf? You must wear it one way, for the prince hath got your Hero. Claud. I wish him joy of her.

Bene. Why, that's spoken like an honest drover; so they sell bullocks. But did you think the prince would have served you thus?

Claud. I pray you, leave me!

Bene. Ho! now you strike like the blind man; 'twas the boy that stole your meat, and you'll beat the post. Claud. If it will not be, I'll leave you. [Exit. Bene. Alas, poor hurt fowl! Now will he creep into sedges.--But,that my lady Beatrice should know me, and not know me! The prince's fool!--Ha! it may be, I go under that title, because I am merry.-Yea; but so; I am apt to do myself wrong: I am not so reputed: it is the base, the bitter disposition of Beatrice, that puts the world into her person, and so gives me out. Well, I'll be revenged as I may !

Re-enter Don PEDRO, HERO, and LEONATO. D. Pedro. Now, signior, where's the count? Did you see him?

Bene. Troth, my lord, I have played the part of lady Fame. I found him here as melancholy, as a lodge in a warren; I told him, and, I think, I told him true, that your grace had got the good will of this young lady; and I offered him my company to a willow tree, either to make him a garland, as being forsaken, or to bind him up a rod, as being worthy to be whipped.

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Beat.

Re-enter CLAUDIO and BEATRICE.
D. Pedro. Look, here she comes.
Bene. Will your grace command me any service to
the world's end?I will go on the slightest errand now to
the Antipodes,that you can devise to send me on; I will
fetch you a tooth-picker now from the farthest inch
of Asia; bring you the length of Prester John's foot;
fetch you a hair off the great Cham's beard; do you any
embassage to the Pigmies, rather than hold three
words' conference with this harpy. You have no em-
ployment for me?

D. Pedro. To be whipped! What's his fault? Bene. The flat transgression of a school-boy; who, being overjoy'd with finding a bird's nest, shows it his companion, and he steals it.

D. Pedro. Wilt thou make a trust a transgression? The transgression is in the stealer.

D. Pedro. None, but to desire your good company.
Bene. O God, sir, here's a dish I love not; I cannot
endure my lady Tongue.
[Exit.
D. Pedro. Come, lady, come; you have lost the
heart of signior Benedick.

Bene. Yet it had not been amiss, the rod had been made, and the garland too; for the garland he might have worn himself; and the rod he might have bestow'd on you,who, as I take it, have stolen his bird's

nest.

D. Pedro. I will but teach them to sing, and restore them to the owner.

Bene.If their singing answer your saying,by my faith, you say honestly.

Beat. Indeed, my lord, he lent it me a while; and I
gave him use for it, a double heart for his single one:
marry, once before, he won it of me with false dice,
therefore your grace may well say, I have lost it.
D. Pedro. You have put him down, lady, you have
put him down!

D. Pedro. The lady Beatrice hath a quarrel to you; the gentleman, that danced with her, told her, she is much wronged by you.

Beat. So I would not he should do me, my lord, lest I should prove the mother of fools. I have brought count Claudio, whom you sent me to seek.

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D. Pedro. Why, how now, count? wherefore are you Claud. Not sad, my lord. sad? D. Pedro, How then? Sick? Claud. Neither, my lord. Beat. The count is neither sad, nor sick, nor merry, nor well: but civil,count; civil as an orange,and something of that jealous complexion.

D. Pedro. I'faith, lady, I think your blazon to be true; though, I'll be sworn, if he be so, his conceit is false. Here, Claudio, I have wooed in thy name, and fair Hero is won; I have broke with her father, and his good will obtained: name the day of marriage, and God give thee joy!

Leon. Count, take of me my daughter, and with her my fortunes: his grace hath made the match, and all grace say Amen to it!

Beat. Speak, count, 'tis your cue! Claud. Silence is the perfectest herald of joy: I were but little happy, if I could say, how much.-Lady, as you are mine, I am yours: I give away myself for you, and dote upon the exchange.

Beat. Speak, cousin ; or, if you cannot, stop his mouth with a kiss, and let him not speak, neither!

D. Pedro. In faith, lady, you have a merry heart. Beat. Yea, my lord; I thank it, poor fool, it keeps on the windy side of care. My cousin tells him in his ear, that he is in her heart.

Claud. And so she doth, cousin.

Beat. Good lord, for alliance !-Thus goes every one to the world but I, and I am sun-burned; I may sit in a corner, and cry, heigh ho! for a husband. D. Pedro. Lady Beatrice, I will get you one. Beat.I would rather have one of your father's getting. Hath your grace ne'er a brother like you? Your father got excellent husbands, if a maid could come by them. D. Pedro. Will you have me, lady? Beat. No, my lord, unless I might have another for working-days; your grace is too costly to wear every day. But, I beseech your grace, pardon me; I was born to speak all mirth, and no matter. D. Pedro. Your silence most offends me, and to be merry best becomes you; for, out of question, you

Bene. O, she misused me past the endurance of
block; an oak, but with one green leaf on it, would
have answered her; my very visor began to assume life,
and scold with her. She told me, not thinking I had
been myself, that I was the prince's jester; that I was
duller than a great thaw; huddling jest upon jest, with
such impossible conveyance, upon me,that I stood like
a man at a mark, with a whole army shooting at me. She
speaks poniards, and every word stabs: if her breath
were as terrible as her terminations, there were no
living near her, she would infect to the north star. I
would not marry her, though she were endowed with
all that Adam had left him before he transgressed: she
would have made Hercules have turned spit; yea, and
have cleft his club to make the fire too. Come, talk not
of her; you shall find her the infernal Até in good ap-were born in a merry hour.
parel. I would to God, some scholar would conjure
her; for, certainly, while she is here, a man may live
as quiet in hell, as in a sanctuary; and people sin upon
purpose, because they would go thither; so, indeed,
all disquiet, horror, and perturbation follow her.

Beat. No, sure, my lord, my mother cry'd; but then there was a star danced, and under that was I born.Cousins, God give you joy! Leon. Niece, will you look to those things I told

you of?

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don.

Beat. I cry you mercy, uncle.-By your grace's par[Exit Beatrice. D. Pedro. By my troth, a pleasant-spirited lady! Leon.There's little of the melancholy element in her, my lord: she is never sad, but when she sleeps; and not ever sad then; for I have heard my daughter say, she hath often dreamed of unhappiness, and waked herself with laughing.

D.Pedro.She cannot endure to hear tell of a husband. Leon. O, by no means; she mocks all her wooers out of suit.

Bora. Proof enough to misuse the prince, to vex Claudio, to undo Hero, and kill Leonato. Look you for any other issue?

D. John. Only to despite them, I will endeavour any thing.

Bora. Go then, find me a meet hour to draw Don Pedro and the count Claudio, alone: tell them, that you know, that Hero loves me; intend a kind of zeal both to the prince and Claudio, as-in love of your brother's honour, who hath made this match, and his friend's reputation, who is thus like to be cozened with the semblance of a maid,-that you have discovered thus.

D. Pedro. She were an excellent wife for Benedick. Leon. O Lord! my lord, if they were but a week mar-They will scarcely believe this without trial: offer ried, they would talk themselves mad.

D. Pedro. Count Claudio, when mean you to go to church?

Claud. To-morrow, my lord. Time goes on crutches, till love have all his rites.

Leon. Not till Monday, my dear son, which is hence ajust seven-night; and a time too brief too, to have all things answer my mind.

them instances; which shall bear no less likelihood, than to see me at her chamber-window, hear me call Margaret Hero; hear Margaret term me Borachio; and bring them to see this, the very night before the intended wedding for, in the mean time, I will so fashion the matter,that Hero shall be absent; and there shall appear such seeming truth of Hero's disloyalty, that jealousy shall be call'd assurance, and all the preparation overthrown.

D. John. Grow this to what adverse issue it can, I will put it in practice. Be cunning in the working this, and thy fee is a thousand ducats. Bora. Be you constant in the accusation, and my cunning shall not shame me.

D. Pedro. Come, you shake the head at so long a breathing; but, I warrant thee, Claudio, the time shall not go dully by us; I will, in the interim, undertake one of Hercules' labours; which is, to bring signior Benedick and the lady Beatrice into a mountain of affection, the one with the other. I would fain have it a match; and I doubt not but to fashion it, if you three will but minister such assistance, as I shall give you direction.riage. Leon. My lord, I am for you, though it cost me ten nights' watchings.

Claud. And I, my lord.

D. Pedro. And you too, gentle Hero?

Hero. I will do any modest office, my lord, to help my cousin to a good husband.

D. John. I will presently go learn their day of mar[Exeunt.

SCENE III.-Leonato's garden.
Enter BENEDICK and a boy.

Bene. Boy,―
Boy. Signior.

Bene. In my chamber-window lies a book; bring it D. Pedro. And Benedick is not the unhopefullest hither to me in the orchard. husband that I know: thus far can I praise him; he is Boy. I am here already, sir. of a noble strain, of approved valour, and confirmed Bene. I know that;- but I would have thee hence, honesty. I will teach you, how to humour your cousin, and here again. [Exit Boy.]—I do much wonder, that that she shall fall in love with Benedick:-and I, with one man, seeing how much another man is a fool, when your two helps, will so practise on Benedick, that, in he dedicates his behaviours to love, will, after he hath despite of his quick wit and his queasy stomach, he laughed at such shallow follies in others, become the shall fall in love with Beatrice. Ifwe can do this, Cu-argument of his own scorn, by falling in love: and such pid is no longer an archer; his glory shall be ours, for a man is Claudio. I have known, when there was no we are the only love-gods. Go in with me, and I will music with him but the drum and fife; and now had tell you my drift. [Exeunt. he rather hear the tabor and the pipe. I have known, when he would have walked ten mile a-foot, to see a good armour; and now will he lie ten nights awake, carving the fashion of a new doublet. He was wont to

SCENE II. Another room in Leonato's house.

Enter Don JOHN and BORACHIO.

D. John. It is so; the count Claudio shall marry the speak plain, and to the purpose, like an honest man, daughter of Leonato.

Bora. Yea, my lord; but I can cross it.

D. John. Any bar, any cross, any impediment will be
medicinable to me: I am sick in displeasure to him; and
whatsoever comes athwart his affection, ranges evenly
with mine. How canst thou cross this marriage?
Bora. Not honestly, my lord; but so covertly, that
no dishonesty shall appear in me.
D. John. Show me briefly, how!

D. John. I remember.

and a soldier; and now is he turn'd orthographer; his words are a very fantastical banquet, just so many strange dishes. May I be so converted, and see with these eyes? I cannot tell; I think not: I will not be sworn, but love may transform me to an oyster; but I'll take my oath on it, till he have made an oyster of me, he shall never make me such a fool. One woman is fair; yet I am well: another is wise; yet I am well: another virtuous; yet I am well: but till all graces be

Bora. I think, I told your lordship, a year since, how in one woman, one woman shall not come in my grace. much I am in the favour of Margaret, the waiting-Rich she shall be, that's certain; wise, or I'll none; gentlewoman to Hero. virtuous, or I'll never cheapen her; fair, or I'll never look on her; mild, or come not near me; noble, or not Bora. I can, at any unseasonable instant of the night, for an angel; of good discourse, an excellent musiappoint her to look out at her lady's chamber-window.cian, and her hair shall be of what colour it please D. John. What life is in that to be the death of this God.-Ha! the prince and monsieur Love! I will hide marriage? me in the arbour. [Withdraws.

Bora. The poison of that lies in you to temper. Go you to the prince, your brother; spare not to tell him, that he hath wronged his honour in marrying the renowned Claudio (whose estimation do you mightily hold up) to a contaminated stale, such a one, as Hero. D.John. What proof shall I make of that?

I

Enter Don PEDRO, LEONATO, and CLAUDIO.
D. Pedro, Come, shall we hear this music?
Claud. Yea, my good lord. -How still the evening is,
As hush'd on purpose to grace harmony!

D. Pedro. See you where Benedick hath hid himself?
Claud. O, very well, my lord: the music ended,

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