D. Pedro. Come, let us hence, and put on other weeds;

30

And then to Leonato's we will go. Claud. And Hymen now with luckier issue speed's

Than this for whom we render'd up this woe. [Exeunt.

SCENE IV. A room in LEONATO's house.

Enter LEONATO, ANTONIO, BENEDICK, BEATRICE, MARGARET, URSULA, FRIAR FRANCIS, and HERO.

Friar. Did I not tell you she was innocent? Leon. So are the prince and Claudio, who accused her

Upon the error that you heard debated:
But Margaret was in some fault for this,
Although against her will, as it appears
In the true course of all the question.

Ant. Well, I am glad that all things sort so well.

Bene. And so am I, being else by faith enforced

To call young Claudio to a reckoning for it. Leon. Well, daughter, and you gentlewomen all,

ΙΟ

Withdraw into a chamber by yourselves,
And when I send for you, come hither mask'd.
[Exeunt Ladies.
The prince and Claudio promised by this hour
To visit me. You know your office, brother:
You must be father to your brother's daughter,
And give her to young Claudio.

Ant. Which I will do with confirm'd coun

tenance.

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And got a calf in that same noble feat
Much like to you, for you have just his bleat.
Claud. For this I owe you: here comes other
reckonings.

Re-enter ANTONIO, with the Ladies masked. Which is the lady I must seize upon?

Ant. This same is she, and I do give you her. Claud. Why, then she's mine. Sweet, let me see your face.

Leon. No, that you shall not, till you take her hand

Before this friar and swear to marry her.

Claud. Give me your hand: before this holy friar,

I am your husband, if you like of me. Hero. And when I lived, I was your other [Unmasking. 60

wife :

And when you loved, you were my other husband.
Claud. Another Hero!
Hero.

Nothing certainer:

And surely as I live, I am a maid.

D. Pedro. The former Hero! Hero that is dead!

Leon. She died, my lord, but whiles her slander lived.

Friar. All this amazement can I qualify;
When after that the holy rites are ended,
I'll tell you largely of fair Hero's death:
Meantime let wonder seem familiar,
And to the chapel let us presently.
Bene.

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Soft and fair, friar. Which is Beatrice? Beat. [Unmasking] I answer to that name. What is your will?

Bene. Do not you love me?

Beat.

Why, no; no more than reason.

Bene. Why, then your uncle and the prince and Claudio

Have been deceived; they swore you did.
Beat. Do not you love me?

Bene.
Troth, no; no more than reason.
Beat. Why, then my cousin Margaret and
Ursula

three others.

D. Pedro. Good morrow to this fair assembly. Leon. Good morrow, prince; good morrow, Claudio:

We here attend you. Are you yet determined To-day to marry with my brother's daughter? Claud. I'll hold my mind, were she an Ethiope. Leon. Call her forth, brother; here's the friar ready. [Exit Antonio.

Bene. They swore that you were almost sick for me.

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Beat. They swore that you were well-nigh dead for me.

For here's a paper written in his hand, A halting sonnet of his own pure brain, Fashion'd to Beatrice.

90

Hero. And here's another Writ in my cousin's hand, stolen from her pocket, Containing her affection unto Benedick. Bene. A miracle! here's our own hands against our hearts. Come, I will have thee; but, by this light, I take thee for pity.

Beat. I would not deny you; but, by this good day, I yield upon great persuasion; and partly to save your life, for I was told you were in a consumption.

Bene. Peace! I will stop your mouth.

[Kissing her. D. Pedro. How dost thou, Benedick, the married man?

100

Bene. I'll tell thee what, prince; a college of wit-crackers cannot flout me out of my humour. Dost thou think I care for a satire or an epigram? No: if a man will be beaten with brains, a' shall wear nothing handsome about him. In brief, since I do purpose to marry, I will think nothing to any purpose that the world can say against it; and therefore never flout at me for what I have

is my conclusion. For thy part, Claudio, I did think to have beaten thee; but in that thou art like to be my kinsman, live unbruised and love my cousin.

Claud. I had well hoped thou wouldst have denied Beatrice, that I might have cudgelled thee out of thy single life, to make thee a doubledealer; which, out of question, thou wilt be, if my cousin do not look exceeding narrowly to thee. Bene. Come, come, we are friends: let's have a dance ere we are married, that we may lighten our own hearts and our wives' heels.

121

Leon. We'll have dancing afterward. Bene. First, of my word; therefore play, music. Prince, thou art sad; get thee a wife, get thee a wife: there is no staff more reverend than one tipped with horn.

Enter a Messenger.

Mess. My lord, your brother John is ta'en in flight,

And brought with armed men back to Messina. Bene. Think not on him till to-morrow: I'll devise thee brave punishments for him. Strike up, pipers. [Dance. 131 [Exeunt.

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Doth falsely blind the eyesight of his look:
Light seeking light doth light of light beguile:
So, ere you find where light in darkness lies,
Your light grows dark by losing of your eyes.
Study me how to please the eye indeed
By fixing it upon a fairer eye,
Who dazzling so, that eye shall be his heed
And give him light that it was blinded by.
Study is like the heaven's glorious sun
That will not be deep-search'd with saucy looks:
Small have continual plodders ever won

Save base authority from others' books.
These earthly godfathers of heaven's lights
That give a name to every fixed star
Have no more profit of their shining nights
Than those that walk and wot not what
they are.

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Biron. No, my good lord; I have sworn to stay with you:

And though I have for barbarism spoke more Than for that angel knowledge you can say, Yet confident I'll keep what I have swore

And bide the penance of each three years' day. Give me the paper; let me read the same; And to the strict'st decrees I'll write my name. King. How well this yielding rescues thee from shame!

Biron [reads]. Item, That no woman shall come within a mile of my court:' Hath this been proclaimed?

Long. Four days ago.

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Biron. Let's see the penalty. [Reads] 'On pain of losing her tongue.' Who devised this penalty?

Long. Marry, that did I.

Biron. Sweet lord, and why?

Long. To fright them hence with that dread penalty.

Biron. A dangerous law against gentility! [Reads] 'Item, If any man be seen to talk

For every man with his affects is born,

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Not by might master'd but by special grace: If I break faith, this word shall speak for me; I am forsworn on 'mere necessity.' So to the laws at large I write my name:

[Subscribes. And he that breaks them in the least degree Stands in attainder of eternal shame: Suggestions are to other as to me; But I believe, although I seem so loath, I am the last that will last keep his oath. But is there no quick recreation granted? King. Ay, that there is. Our court, you know,

is haunted

With a refined traveller of Spain;

A man in all the world's new fashion planted, That hath a mint of phrases in his brain; One whom the music of his own vain tongue Doth ravish like enchanting harmony;

160

A man of complements, whom right and wrong
Have chose as umpire of their mutiny :
This child of fancy that Armado hight

For interim to our studies shall relate

170

Cost. ing me. King. A letter from the magnificent Armado. Biron. How low soever the matter, I hope in God for high words.

Sir, the contempts thereof are as touch

Long. A high hope for a low heaven: God grant us patience!

Biron. To hear? or forbear laughing? Long. To hear meekly, sir, and to laugh moderately; or to forbear both. 200 Biron. Well, sir, be it as the style shall give us cause to climb in the merriness.

Cost. The matter is to me, sir, as concerning Jaquenetta. The manner of it is, I was taken with the manner.

Biron. In what manner?

Biron. For the following, sir?

Cost. As it shall follow in my correction: and God defend the right!

King, Will you hear this letter with attention?

Biron. As we would hear an oracle.

Cost. Such is the simplicity of man to hearken after the flesh. 220 King [reads]. 'Great deputy, the welkin's vicegerent and sole dominator of Navarre, my soul's earth's god, and body's fostering patron.' Cost. Not a word of Costard yet. King [reads]. 'So it is,'

Cost. It may be so: but if he say it is so, he is, in telling true, but so.

King. Peace!

Cost. Be to me and every man that dares not fight!

King. No words!

230

Cost. Of other men's secrets, I beseech you. King [reads]. 'So it is, besieged with sablecoloured melancholy, I did commend the blackoppressing humour to the most wholesome physic of thy health-giving air; and, as I am a gentleman, betook myself to walk. The time when. About the sixth hour; when beasts most graze, birds best peck, and men sit down to that nourishment which is called supper: so much for the time when. Now for the ground which; which, I mean, I walked upon it is ycleped thy park. Then for the place where; where, I mean, I did encounter that obscene and most preposterous event, that draweth from my snow-white pen the ebon-coloured ink, which here thou viewest, beholdest, surveyest, or seest: but to the place where; it standeth north-north-east and by east from the west corner of thy curious-knotted garden: there did I see that low-spirited swain, that base minnow of thy mirth,'

Cost. Me?

251

King [reads]. 'that unlettered small-knowing soul,' Cost. Me? King [reads].

Cost. Still me?

'that shallow vassal,'

King [reads]. 'which, as I remember, hight Costard,

notice, bring her to trial. Thine, in all compliments of devoted and heart-burning heat of duty. DON ADRIANO DE ARMADO. Biron. This is not so well as I looked for, but the best that ever I heard.

King. Ay, the best for the worst. But, sirrah, what say you to this?

Cost. Sir, I confess the wench.

King. Did you hear the proclamation? Cost. I do confess much of the hearing it, but little of the marking of it.

King. It was proclaimed a year's imprisonment, to be taken with a wench.

290

Cost. I was taken with none, sir: I was taken with a damsel.

King. Well, it was proclaimed 'damsel.' Cost. This was no damsel neither, sir; she was a virgin.

King. It is so varied too; for it was proclaimed 'virgin.'

Cost. If it were, I deny her virginity: I was taken with a maid.

301

King. This maid will not serve your turn, sir. Cost. This maid will serve my turn, sir. King Sir, I will pronounce your sentence: you shall fast a week with bran and water. Cost. I had rather pray a month with mutton and porridge.

King And Don Armado shall be your keeper. My Lord Biron, see him deliver'd o'er : And go we, lords, to put in practice that Which each to other hath so strongly sworn.

[Exeunt King, Longaville, and Dumain. Biron. I'll lay my head to any good man's hat, These oaths and laws will prove an idle scorn. Sirrah, come on.

Cost. I suffer for the truth, sir; for true it is, I was taken with Jaquenetta, and Jaquenetta is a true girl; and therefore welcome the sour cup of prosperity! Affliction may one day smile again; and till then, sit thee down, sorrow! [Exeunt.

SCENE II. The same.

Enter ARMADO and MoтH. Arm. Boy, what sign is it when a man of great spirit grows melancholy?

Moth. A great sign, sir, that he will look sad. Arm. Why, sadness is one and the self-same thing, dear imp.