have caught the Benedick, it will cost him a thousand pound ere a' be cured. MESS. I will hold friends with you, lady. BEAT. Do, good friend. LEON. You will never run mad, niece. BEAT. No, not till a hot January. MESS. Don Pedro is approached. Enter DON PEDRO, DON JOHN, CLAUDIO, BENEDICK, and BALTHASAR D. PEDRO. Good Signior Leonato, you are come to 80 meet your trouble: the fashion of the world is to avoid cost, and you encounter it. LEON. Never came trouble to my house in the likeness of your Grace: for trouble being gone, comfort should remain; but when you depart from me, sorrow abides, and happiness takes his leave. D. PEDRO. You embrace your charge too willingly. I think this is your daughter. LEON. Her mother hath many times told me so. BENE. Were you in doubt, sir, that you asked her? LEON. Signior Benedick, no; for then were you a child. D. PEDRO. You have it full, Benedick: we may guess by this what you are, being a man. Truly, the lady fathers herself. Be happy, lady; for you are like an honourable father. 92 You have it full] You have a complete, straight answer; in colloquial slang, "there's a facer for you." 93 fathers herself] shows her paternity in her face. 90 BENE. If Signior Leonato be her father, she would not have his head on her shoulders for all Messina, as like him as she is. BEAT. I wonder that you will still be talking, Signior Benedick: nobody marks you. BENE. What, my dear Lady Disdain! are you yet living? BEAT. Is it possible disdain should die while she hath such meet food to feed it, as Signior Benedick? Courtesy itself must convert to disdain, if you come in her presence. BENE. Then is courtesy a turncoat. But it is certain I am loved of all ladies, only you excepted: and I would I could find in my heart that I had not a hard heart; for, truly, I love none. BEAT. A dear happiness to women: they would else have been troubled with a pernicious suitor. I thank God and my cold blood, I am of your humour for that: I had rather hear my dog bark at a crow than a man swear he loves me. BENE. God keep your ladyship still in that mind! so some gentleman or other shall 'scape a predestinate scratched face. BEAT. Scratching could not make it worse, an 't were such a face as yours were. BENE. Well, you are a rare parrot-teacher. BEAT. A bird of my tongue is better than a beast of yours. 104 convert] used intransitively for "change." 109 A dear happiness] a valuable piece of luck, 100 108 119 BENE. I would my horse had the speed of your tongue, and so good a continuer. But keep your way, Ꭵ God's name; I have done. BEAT. You always end with a jade's trick: I know you of old. D. PEDRO. That is the sum of all, Leonato. Signior Claudio and Signior Benedick, my dear friend Leonato hath invited you all. I tell him we shall stay here at the least a month; and he heartily prays some occasion may detain us longer. I dare swear he is no hypocrite, but from his heart. prays LEON. If you swear, my lord, you shall not be forsworn. [To Don John] Let me bid you welcome, my lord: being reconciled to the prince your brother, I owe you all duty. D. JOHN. I thank you: I am not of many words, but I thank you. LEON. Please it your Grace lead on? D. PEDRO. Your hand, Leonato; we will go together. [Exeunt all except Benedick and Claudio. CLAUD. Benedick, didst thou note the daughter of Signior Leonato? BENE. I noted her not; but I looked on her. BENE. Do you question me, as an honest man should 123 jade's trick] trick of a vicious horse. Cf. Ben Jonson, Every Man in his Humour, III, iv, 10, where a horse slipping its head out of the collar and so escaping is described as performing "a jade's trick." Beatrice implies that Benedick makes an equally undignified retreat. 130 140 do, for my simple true judgement? 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 judgement. BENE. Why, i' faith, methinks she's 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. 151 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 I looked on. BENE. I can see yet without spectacles, and I see no such matter: there's her cousin, an she were not possessed with a fury, exceeds her as much in beauty as the 157 do you play the flouting Jack, etc.] do you play the mocker? (contrasted with one who speaks "with a sad brow," i, e. in all seriousness). It is obvious mockery to identify blind Cupid with a hare-finder, a director of a hare hunt chosen for his keenness of vision, or to identify Vulcan the blacksmith with a carpenter. 160 go in the song] join with you in your song. 160 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 't come to this? In 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. I charge 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 allegiance, 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. 171 will wear ... suspicion] will provoke the suspicion that he wears his cap in order to conceal the horns on his head. Cf. Painter's Palace of Pleasure, novel 51: "All they that weare hornes be pardoned to weare their capps vpon their heads." 174 sigh away Sundays] spend Sunday in that dull domestic fashion which evokes sighing from men of spirit. 169 179 |