ACT I
Sc. I

CLAUD. To the tuition of God: From my house (if I
had it)-

D. PEDRO. The Sixth of July: Your loving friend,
Benedick.

2

259

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 I 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.

my Lord,

When you went onward on this ended action,

I 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
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 begann'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 salv'd it with a longer treatise.

270

280

290

D. PEDRO. What need the bridge much broader than the flood?

The fairest grant is the necessity:

Look, what will serve is fit: 'tis once, thou lov'st,

3

1 trimmed. 2 tags from letters and scraps from plays.

3 settled once for all.

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.

300

ACT I

Sc. I

In practice let us put it presently.

[exeunt.

SCENE II. LEONATO's House.

Enter LEONATO and ANTONIO his Brother.

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 news that you yet dream'd not of.

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-pleach'd' alley in my orchard, were thus overheard by a man of mine: the Prince discover'd to Claudio that he lov'd 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.

2

this?

14

LEON. Hath the fellow any wit that told you
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 prepar'd 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; go you with me, and I will use your skill. Good Cousins, have a care this busy time.

1 close-hedged.

[exeunt.

2 brains.

ACT I
Sc. III

SCENE III. The Same.

Enter JOHN the Bastard and CONRADE his Companion. CON. What the good-year,' my Lord! why are you thus out of measure sad?

D. JOHN. There is no measure in the occasion that breeds; therefore the sadness is without limit.

CON. You should hear reason.

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

8

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, go'st 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
on no man's business; laugh when I am merry, and
claw2 no man in his humour.

CON. Yea; but you must not make the full show of this

23

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. D. JOHN. I had rather be a canker3 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 but I am a plain-dealing villain. I am trusted with a muzzle, and enfranchis'd 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 meantime let me be that I am, and seek not to alter me.

CON. Can you make no use of your discontent?

34

D. JOHN. I make all use of it, for I use it only. Who comes here? What news, Borachio?

Enter BORACHIO.

40

BORA. I came yonder from a great supper; the Prince,
your brother, is royally entertain'd 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.

50

I was

D. JOHN. A very forward March-chick! How came you
to this?
BORA. Being entertain'd for a perfumer, as
smoking1 a musty room, comes me the Prince and
Claudio, hand in hand, in sad2 conference: I whipt
behind the arras; and there heard it agreed upon
that the Prince should woo Hero for himself, and
having obtain'd 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
greater that I am subdued.
my mind! Shall we go prove what's to be done?
BORA. We'll wait upon your Lordship.

1 with burning juniper.

63

supper: their cheer is the
'Would the cook were of

2 earnest.

[exeunt.

ACT I

Sc. III

ACT II
Sc. I

ACT II

SCENE I. LEONATO's House.

Enter LEONATO, his Brother, his Wife, HERO his Daughter,
BEATRICE his Niece, and a Kinsman.

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-burn'd 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-

9

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 shrewd1 of thy tongue.
ANT. In faith, she is too curst.2
BEAT. Too curst is more
God's sending that way.
curst cow short horns;
sends none.

than curst: I shall lessen

For it is said God sends a but to a cow too curst He

22

LEON. So, by being too curst, God will send you no horns?

BEAT. Just, if He send me no husband: for the which blessing I am at Him upon my knees every morning and evening. Lord! I could not endure a husband with a beard on his face: I had rather lie in the woollen.3 LEON. You may light upon a husband that hath no beard. BEAT. What should I do with him? dress him in my apparel, and make him my waiting gentlewoman? He that hath a beard is more than a youth; and he

1 shrewish.

2

cross.

3

3 (1) in blankets, or (2) in my shroud.