ACT IV. SCENE 1. The Inside of a Church. Enter Don PEDRO, Don JOHN, LEONATO, Friar, CLAUDIO, BENEDICK, HERO, and BEATRice, &c. Leon. Come, friar Francis, be brief; only to the plain form of marriage, and you shall recount their particular duties afterwards. Friar. You come hither, my lord, to marry this lady? Claud. No. Leon. To be married to her, friar; you come to marry her. Friar. Lady, you come hither to be married to this count? Hero. I do. Friar. If either of you know any inward impediment why you should not be conjoined, I charge you, on your souls, to utter it. Claud. Know you any, Hero? Friar. Know you any, count? Leon. I dare make his answer, none. Claud. O, what men dare do! what men may do! what men daily do! not knowing what they do! Bene. How now! Interjections? Why, then some be of laughing, as, ha! ha! he! 9 Claud. Stand thee by, friar:-Father, by your leave; some be of laughing,] This is a quotation from the Accidence. JOHNSON. Will you with free and unconstrained soul Leon. As freely, son, as God did give her me. Claud. And what have I to give you back, whose worth May counterpoise this rich and precious gift? There, Leonato, take her back again; Give not this rotten orange to your friend; Comes not that blood, as modest evidence, To witness simple virtue? Would you not swear, Not to be married, Not knit my soul to an approved wanton. Leon. Dear my lord, if you, in your own proof Have vanquish'd the resistance of her youth, And made defeat of her virginity, Claud. I know what you would say; If I have known her, You'll say, she did embrace me as a husband, No, Leonato, I never tempted her with word too large;' 1 word too large;] i. e. licentious. Hero. And seem'd I ever otherwise to you? Claud. Out on thy seeming! I will write against it: You seem to me as Dian in her orb; As chaste as is the bud ere it be blown; But you are more intemperate in your blood That rage in savage sensuality. Hero. Is my lord well, that he doth speak so wide?? D. Pedro. What should I speak? I stand dishonour'd, that have gone about To link my dear friend to a common stale. Leon. Are these things spoken? or do I but dream? D. John. Sir, they are spoken, and these things are true. Bene. This looks not like a nuptial. Hero. Claud. Leonato, stand I here? True, O God! Is this the prince? Is this the prince's brother? Leon. All this is so; But what of this, my lord? Claud. Let me but move one question to your daughter; And, by that fatherly and kindly power3 That you have in her, bid her answer truly. Leon. I charge thee do so, as thou art my child. Hero. O God defend me! how am I beset!What kind of catechizing call you this? Claud. To make you answer truly to your name. Hero. Is it not Hero? Who can blot that name With any just reproach? Claud. Marry, that can Hero; that he doth speak so wide ?] i. e. so remotely from the present business. 3 kindly power -] That is, kindred power. Hero itself can blot out Hero's virtue. Hero. I talk'd with no man at that hour, my lord. D. Pedro. Why, then are you no maiden.- I am sorry you must hear; Upon mine honour, D. John. Fye, fye! they are Not to be nam'd, my lord, not to be spoke of; There is not chastity enough in language, Without offence, to utter them: Thus, pretty lady, I am sorry for thy much misgovernment. Claud. O Hero! what a Hero hadst thou been, If half thy outward graces had been placed Leon. Hath no man's dagger here a point for me? [HERO SWOONS. Beat. Why, how now, cousin? wherefore sink you down? liberal villain,] Liberal here, as in many places of these plays, means frank beyond honesty, or decency. Free of tongue. conjecture] Conjecture is here used for suspicion. 6 And never shall it more be gracious.] i. e. lovely, attractive. D. John. Come, let us go: these things, come thus to light, Smother her spirits up. [Exeunt Don Pedro, Don John, and CLAUDIO. Bene. How doth the lady? Beat. Dead, I think;-help, uncle; Hero! why, Hero!-Uncle!-Signior Benedick!— friar! Leon. O fate, take not away thy heavy hand! Death is the fairest cover for her shame, That may be wish'd for. Beat. How now, cousin Hero? Dost thou look up? Friar. Have comfort, lady. Leon. Friar. Yea; Wherefore should she not? Leon. Wherefore? Why, doth not every earthly thing Cry shame upon her? Could she here deny Who smirched thus, and mired with infamy, 7 The story that is printed in her blood?] That is, the story which her blushes discover to be true. Chid I for that at frugal nature's frame?] Grieved I at nature's being so frugal as to have framed for me only one child? 9 Who smirched-] To smirch is to daub, to sully. |