Enter DON PEDRO, DON JOHN, LEONATO, FRIAR FRANCIS,
CLAUDIO, BENEDICK, HERO, BEATRICE, and attendants

LEONATO

OME, 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.

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CLAUD. Know you any, Hero?

HERO. None, my lord.

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, ah, ha, he!

CLAUD. Stand thee by, friar.

Father, by your leave:

Will you with free and unconstrained soul

Give me this maid, your daughter?

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?

D. PEDRO. Nothing, unless you render her again. CLAUD. Sweet prince, you learn me noble thankful

ness.

There, Leonato, take her back again:

Give not this rotten orange to your friend;

She's but the sign and semblance of her honour.
Behold how like a maid she blushes here!

O, what authority and show of truth

Can cunning sin cover itself withal!

Comes not that blood as modest evidence

To witness simple virtue? Would you not swear,

11-13 If either . . . utter it] This is taken directly from the marriage service of the Church of England.

19 not knowing what they do] These words are from the Quarto; they are omitted from the Folios.

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All you that see her, that she were a maid,
By these exterior shows? But she is none:
She knows the heat of a luxurious bed;
Her blush is guiltiness, not modesty.
LEON. What do you mean, my lord?
CLAUD.

Not to be married,

Not to 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 will say she did embrace me as a husband,

And so extenuate the 'forehand sin:

No, Leonato,

I never tempted her with word too large;
But, as a brother to his sister, show'd

Bashful sincerity and comely love.

HERO. And seem'd I ever otherwise to you?
CLAUD. Out on thee!

against it:

Seeming!

You seem to me as Dian in her orb,

As chaste as is the bud ere it be blown;

I will write

But you are more intemperate in your blood
Than Venus, or those pamper'd animals

That rage in savage sensuality.

IS

HERO. Is my lord well, that he doth speak so wide?
LEON. Sweet prince, why speak not you?

55 write against it] proclaim against, denounce it. Cf. Cymb. II, v, 32: "I will write against them."

D. PEDRO.

To link

What should I speak?

I stand dishonour'd, that have gone about
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?

Is this face Hero's? are our eyes our own?

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 power

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 catechising 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;

Hero itself can blot out Hero's virtue.

What man was he talk'd with you yesternight

Out at your window betwixt twelve and one?

Now, if you are a maid, answer to this.

HERO. I talk'd with no man at that hour, my lord.

D. PEDRO. Why, then are you no maiden. Leonato,

I am sorry you must hear: upon mine honour,

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Myself, my brother, and this grieved count
Did see her, hear her, at that hour last night
Talk with a ruffian at her chamber-window;
Who hath indeed, most like a liberal villain,
Confess'd the vile encounters they have had
A thousand times in secret.

D. JOHN. Fie, fie! they are not to be named, 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
About thy thoughts and counsels of thy heart!
But fare thee well, most foul, most fair! farewell,
Thou pure impiety and impious purity!
For thee I'll lock up all the gates of love,
And on my eyelids shall conjecture hang,
To turn all beauty into thoughts of harm,
And never shall it more be gracious.

LEON. Hath no man's dagger here a point for me?
[Hero swoons.
BEAT. Why, how now, cousin! wherefore sink you
down?

91 liberal] coarse tongued. Cf. the use of "large," i. e. licentious, II, iii, 181, "large jests."

98 misgovernment] "Misgoverning" is used in Lucrece, 654, in the same sense of "misconduct." "Government" for "conduct" is

found in Hen. VIII, II, iv, 138.

105 conjecture] conjecture of evil, i. e. suspicion. This usage is rare.

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