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 210 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, though 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. D. Pedro. Now, signior, where's the count? did you see him? Bene. Troth, my lord, I have played the part 220 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. D. Pedro. To be whipped! What's his fault? Bene. The flat transgression of a school-boy, who, being overjoyed with finding a birds' nest, 230 shows it his companion, and he steals it. D. Pedro. Wilt thou make a trust a transgression? The transgression is in the stealer. 222. a lodge, a solitary (watchman's or gamekeeper's) cottage. 229. flat, stupid. 33 VOL. III D 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 bestowed on you, who, as I take it, have stolen his birds' 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. D. Pedro. The Lady Beatrice hath a quarrel to you the gentleman that danced with her told her she is much wronged by you. 240 Bene. O, she misused me past the endurance of a 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 250 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 260 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 Ate in good apparel. 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 252. impossible conveyance, incredible dexterity (with the suggestion of juggling). 256. terminations, terms. 263. Ate, the goddess of Vengeance and Discord. upon purpose, because they would go thither; so, indeed, all disquiet, horror and perturbation follows her. D. Pedro. Look, here she comes. Re-enter CLAUDIO, BEATRICE, HERO, 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 furthest 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 employment for me? 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. 270 280 Beat. Indeed, my lord, he lent it me awhile; 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 290 I have lost it. D. Pedro. You have put him down, lady, you have put him down. Beat. So I would not he should do me, my lord, lest I should prove the mother of fools. I 276. Prester John, the fabulous Eastern despot described in Maundeville. 277. Cham, the Khan of Tartary. 288. use, interest. have brought Count Claudio, whom you sent me to seek. D. Pedro. Why, how now, count! wherefore are you sad? Claud. Not sad, my lord. D. Pedro. How then? sick? 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 not him 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. 304. civil as an orange (with a play upon Seville). 309. conceit, conception (of the state of affairs). 300 310 320 310. broke, broached the matter. Claud. And so she doth, cousin. Beat. Good Lord, for alliance! Thus goes 330 every one to the world but I, and I am sunburnt 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 an- 340 other 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 were born in a merry hour. Beat. No, sure, my lord, my mother cried; 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? Beat. I cry you mercy, uncle. By your grace's pardon. [Exit. D. Pedro. By my troth, a pleasant-spirited lady. 350 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 360 unhappiness and waked herself with laughing. 330. alliance, marriage. married. 359. not ever, not always. 361. unhappiness, mischief. |