chain? or under your arm, like a lieutenant's in hell, as in a sanctuary; and people sin upon purscarf? You must wear it one way, for the prince pose, because they would go thither; so, indeed, all hath got your Hero. disquiet, horror, and perturbation follow her.

Claud. I wish him joy of her.

Bene. Why, that's spoken like an honest drover; so they sell bullocks. But did you think, the prince would have served you thus ?

Claud. I pray you, leave me.

Re-enter Claudio and Beatrice.

D. Pedro. Look, here she comes.

Bene. Will your grace command me any service to the world's end? I will go on the slightest errand Bene. Ho! now you strike like the blind man; now to the Antipodes, that you can devise to send 'twas the boy that stole your meat, and you'll beat me on; I will fetch you a toothpicker now from the the post. farthest inch of Asia; bring you the length of PresClaud. If it will not be, I'll leave you. [Erit. ter John's foot; fetch you a hair off the great Bene. Alas, poor hurt fowl! Now will he creep Cham's beard; do you any embassage to the Piginto sedges.But, that my lady Beatrice should mies, rather than hold three words' conference with know me, and not know me! The prince's fool!-this harpy: You have no employment for me? Ha! it may be, I go under that title, because I am D. Pedro. None, but to desire your good commerry.-Yea; but so; I am apt to do myself wrong: I am not so reputed: it is the base, the 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, Hero, and Leonato.
D. Pedro. Now, signior, where's the count?
Did you see him?

Bene. Troth, my lord, I have played the part 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 overjoy'd with finding a bird's nest, shows it his companion, and he steals it.

D. Pedro. Wilt thou make a trust a transgression? The transgression is in the stealer.

pany.

Bene. O God, sir, here's a dish I love not: I can not endure my lady Tongue. [Exit. D. Pedro. Come, lady, come; you have lost the heart of signior Benedick.

Beat. Indeed, my lord, he lent it me awhile; and 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, 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 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?
Claud. Neither, my lord.

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. Bene. Yet it had not been amiss, the rod had D. Pedro. I'faith, lady, I think your blazon to been made, and the garland too; for the garland be true; though I'll be sworn, if he be so, his conhe might have worn himself; and the rod he might ceit is false. Here, Claudio, I have wooed in thy have bestowed on you, who, as I take it, have stol'n name, and fair Hero is won; I have broke with his bird's nest. her father, and his good will obtained: name the day of marriage, and God give thee joy!

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.

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 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. would not marry her, though she were endowed with all that Adam had left him before he transgressed: she would have made 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 Até in good apparel. I would to God, some scholar would conjure her; for, certainly, while she is here, a man may live as quiet

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.4

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 him not 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."

Claud. And so she doth, cousin.

Beat. Good lord, for alliance!-Thus goes every one to the world but I, and I am sun-burned; 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 another for working-days:—your grace is too costly to wear every day:-But, I beseech your grace, pardor

(4) Turn: a phrase among the players.

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 cry'd; 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.

Bora. I can, at any unseasonable instant of the night, appoint her to look out at her lady's chamber-window.

D. John. What life is in that, to be the death of this marriage?

[Exit Beatrice. Bora. The poison of that lies in you to temper. D. Pedro. By my troth, a pleasant-spirited lady. Go you to the prince your brother: spare not to Leon. There's little of the melancholy element tell him, that he hath wronged his honour in marin her, my lord: she is never sad, but when she rying the renowned Claudio (whose estimation do sleeps; and not ever sad then; for I have heard you mightily hold up) to a contaminated stale, my daughter say, she hath often dreamed of un- such a one as Hero. happiness, and waked herself with laughing.

D. Pedro. She cannot endure to hear tell of a husband.

Leon. O, by no means; she mocks all her wooers out of suit.

D. John. What proof shall I make of that?
Bora, Proof enough to misuse the prince, to vex
Claudio, to undo Hero, and kill Leonato: look you
for any other issue?

D. John. Only to despite them, I will endeavour

D. Pedro. She were an excellent wife for Bene-any thing. dick.

Leon. O Lord, my lord, if they were but a week married, they would talk themselves mad. D. Pedro. Count Claudio, when mean you to go to church?

Claud. To-morrow, my lord: Time goes on crutches, till love have all his rites.

Leon. Not till Monday, my dear son, which is hence a just seven-night; and a time too brief too, to have all things answer my mind.

Bora. Go then, find me a meet hour to draw Don Pedro and the count Claudio, alone: tell them, that you know that Hero loves me; intend3 a kind of zeal both to the prince and Claudio, as-in love of your brother's honour who hath made this match; and his friend's reputation, who is thus like to be cozened with the semblance of a maid,that you have discovered thus. They will scarcely believe this without trial offer them instances; which shall bear no less likelihood, than to see me D. Pedro. Come, you shake the head at so long at her chamber-window; hear me call Margaret, a breathing; but, I warrant thee, Claudio, the Hero; hear Margaret term me Borachio; and time shall not go dully by us; I will, in the interim, bring them to see this, the very night before the inundertake one of Hercules' labours; which is, to tended wedding: for, in the mean time, I will so bring signior Benedick, and the lady Beatrice into fashion the matter, that Hero shall be absent; and a mountain of affection, the one with the other. I there shall appear such seeming truth of Hero's would fain have it a match; and I doubt not but disloyalty, that jealousy shall be called assurance, to fashion it, if you three will but minister such and all the preparation overthrown. assistance as I shall give you direction.

Leon. My lord, I am for you, though it cost me

ten nights' watchings.

Claud. And I, my lord.

D. Pedro. And you too, gentle Hero? Hero. I will do any modest office, my lord, to help my cousin to a good husband.

D. John. Grow this to what adverse issue it can,

I will put it in practice: Be cunning in the work ing this, and thy fee is a thousand ducats.

Bora. Be you constant in the accusation, and my cunning shall not shame me.

D. John. I will presently go learn their day of marriage. [Exeunt. SCENE III.-Leonato's Garden. Enter Benedick and a Boy.

Bene. Boy,-
Boy. Signior.

Bene. In my chamber-window lies a book; bring hither to me in the orchard.

D. Pedro. And Benedick is not the unhopefullest husband that I know: thus far can I praise him; he is of a noble strain,' of approved valour, and confirmed honesty. I will teach you how to humour your cousin, that she shall fall in love with Benedick:-and I, with your two helps, will so practise on Benedick, that, in despite of his quick wit and his queasy stomach, he shall fall in love with Beatrice. If we can do this, Cupid is no Bene. I know that;-but I would have thee longer an archer; his glory shall be ours, for we hence, and here again. [Exit Boy.]-I do much are the only love-gods. Go in with me, and I will wonder, that one man, seeing how much another tell you my drift. [Exeunt. SCENE II. Another room in Leonato's house. Enter Don John and Borachio,

D. John. It is so; the count Claudio shall marry the daughter of Leonato.

Boy. I am here already, sir.

man is a fool when he dedicates his behaviours to love, will, after he hath laughed at such shallow follies in others, become the argument of his own scorn, by falling in love: and such a man is Claudio. I have known, when there was no music with him but the drum and fife, and now had he rather Bora. Yea, my lord; but I can cross it. hear the tabor and the pipe: I have known, when D. John. Any bar, any cross, any impediment he would have walked ten mile afoot, to see a good will be medicinable to me: I am sick in displea- armour; and now will he lie ten nights awake, sure to him; and whatsoever comes athwart his carving the fashion of a new doublet. He was affection, ranges evenly with mine. How canst wont to speak plain, and to the purpose, like an thou cross this marriage? honest man, and a soldier; and now is he turned or

Bora. Not honestly, my lord; but so covertly thographer; his words are a very fantastical banthat no dishonesty shall appear in me.

(1) Lineage. (2) Fastidious. (3) Pretend.

quet, just so many strange dishes. May I be so converted, and see with these eyes? I cannot tell, I think not: I will not be sworn, but love may

transform me to an oyster; but I'll take my oath Bene. [Aside.] An he had been a dog, that on it, till he have made an oyster of me, he shall should have howled thus, they would have hanged never make me such a fool. One woman is fair; him: and I pray God, his bad voice bode no misyet I am well: another is wise; yet I am well: chief! I had.as lief have heard the night-raven, another virtuous; yet I am well: but till all graces come what plague could have come after it. be in one woman, one woman shall not come in my D. Pedro. Yea, marry; [To Claudio.]-Dost grace. Rich she shall be, that's certain; wise, or thou hear, Balthazar? I pray thee, get us some I'll none; virtuous, or I'll never cheapen her; fair, excellent music; for to-morrow night we would or I'll never look on her; mild, or come not near have it at the lady Hero's chamber-window. me; noble, or not 1 for an angel; of good dis- Balth. The best I can, my lord. course, an excellent musician, and her hair shall D. Pedro. Do so: farewell. [Exeunt Balthazar be of what colour it please God. Ha! the prince and music.] Come hither, Leonato: What was it and monsieur Love! I will hide me in the arbour. you told me of to-day? that your niece Beatrice [Withdraws. was in love with signior Benedick?

Claud. O, very well, my lord: the music ended, We'll fit the kid-fox' with a penny-worth.

Enter Balthazar, with music. D. Pedro. Come, Balthazar, we'll hear that song again.

Balth. O good my lord, tax not so bad a voice
To slander music any more than once.

D. Pedro. It is the witness still of excellency,
To put a strange face on his own perfection:-
I pray thee, sing, and let me woo no more.

Balth. Because you talk of wooing, I will sing;
Since many a wooer doth commence his suit
To her he thinks not worthy; yet he woos;
Yet will he swear, he loves.

D. Pedro.

Nay, pray thee, come:
Or, if thou wilt hold longer argument,
Do it in notes.
Balth.

Note this before my notes,
There's not a note of mine that's worth the noting.
D. Pedro. Why, these are very crotchets that he
speaks;

Note, note, forsooth, and noting! [Music. Bene. Now, Divine air! now is his soul ravish ed!-Is it not strange, that sheep's guts should! hale souls out of men's bodies?-Weil, a horn for my money, when all's done.

Balthazar sings.
I.

Balth. Sigh no more, ladies, sigh no more,
Men were deceivers ever;

One foot in sea, and one on shore;
To one thing constant never:
Then sigh not so,

But let them go,
And be you blith and bonny;
Converting all your sounds of wo
Into, Hey nonny, nonny.

II.

Sing no more ditties, sing no mo'2
Of dumps so dull and heavy;
The fraud of men was ever so,
Since summer first was leavy.
Then sigh not so, &c.

D. Pedro. By my troth, a good song.
Bulth. And an ill singer, my lord.

Claud. O, ay:-Stalk on, stalk on; the fowl sits. [Aside to Pedro.] I did never think that lady would have loved any man.

Leon. No, nor I neither; but most wonderful that she should so dote on signior Benedick, whom she hath in all outward behaviours seemed ever to abhor.

Bene. Is't possible? Sits the wind in that corner?

[Aside.

Leon. By my troth, my lord, I cannot tell what to think of it; but that she loves him with an enraged affection,-it is past the infinite of thought. D. Pedro. May be, she doth but counterfeit. Claud. 'Faith, like enough.

Leon. O God! counterfeit! There never was
sion, as she discovers it.
counterfeit of passion came so near the life of pas-

D. Pedro. Why, what effects of passion shows she?
Claud. Bait the hook well; this fish will bite.

[Aside.
Leon. What effects, my lord? She will sit you,-
You heard my daughter tell you how.
Claud. She did indeed.

D. Pedro. How, how, I pray you? You amaze me: I would have thought her spirit had been invincible against all assaults of affection.

Leon. I would have sworn it had, my lord; especially against Benedick.

Bene. [Aside.] I should think this a gull, but that the white-bearded fellow speaks it: knavery cannot, sure, hide itself in such reverence. Claud. He hath ta'en the infection; hold it up. [Aside D. Pedro. Hath she made her affection known to Benedick? Leon. No; and swears she never will: that's her torment.

Claud. 'Tis true, indeed; so your daughter says: Shall I, says she, that have so oft encountered him with scorn, write to him that I love him?

Leon. This says she now when she is beginning to write to him for she'll be up twenty times a night; and there will she sit in her smock, till she have writ a sheet of paper :-my daughter tells us all.

Claud. Now you talk of a sheet of paper, remember a pretty jest your daughter told us of.

Leon. O!-When she had writ it, and was reading it over, she found Benedick and Beatrice between the sheet?

Claud. That.

Leon. O she tore the letter into a thousand half-pence; railed at herself, that she should be so immodest to write to one that she knew would flout her: I measure him, says she, by my own spirit; for I should flout him, if he writ to me; yea,

D. Pedro. Ha? no; no, faith; thou singest well though I love him, I should. enough for a shift.

Claud. Then down upon her knees she falls,

(1) Young or cub-fox.

(2) Longer.

(3) Beyond the power of thought to conceive.

a

D. Pedro. It were good that Benedick knew of it by some other, if she will not discover it. Claud. To what end? He would make but sport of it, and torment the poor lady worse. D. Pedro. An he should, it were an alms to hang him she's an excellent sweet lady; and, out of all suspicion, she is virtuous.

Benedick advances from above.
Bene. This can be no trick: the conference was

weeps, sobs, beats her heart, tears her hair, prays, curses:-O sweet Benedick! God give me patience! Leon. She doth, indeed; my daughter says so: and the ecstasy' hath so much overborne her, that sadly borne.-They have the truth of this from my daughter is sometimes afraid she will do a des-Hero. They seem to pity the lady; it seems, her affections have their full bent. Love me! why, it perate outrage to herself; It is very true. must be requited. I hear how I am censured: they say, I will bear myself proudly, if I perceive the rather die than give any sign of affection.—I did love come from her; they say too, that she will never think to marry:-I must not seem proud:Happy are they that hear their detractions, and can put them to mending. They say, the lady is fair; 'tis a truth, I can bear them witness: and vir D. Pedro. In every thing, but in loving Benedick. tuous;-'tis so, I cannot reprove it; and wise, but Leon. O my lord, wisdom and blood combating for loving me :-By my troth, it is no addition to her a so tender a body, we have ten proofs to one, that wit; nor no great argument of her folly, for I will blood hath the victory. I am sorry for her, as I have be horribly in love with her.-I may chance have Just cause, being her uncle and her guardian. some odd quirks and remnants of wit broken on D. Pedro. I would she had bestowed this dotage me, because I have railed so long against maron me; would have daff'd all other respects, and riage:-But doth not the appetite alter? A man made her half myself: I pray you, tell Benedick loves the meat in his youth, that he cannot endure of it, and hear what he will say. in his age: shall quips, and sentences, and these Leon. Were it good, think you? paper bullets of the brain, awe a man from the ca

Claud. And she is exceeding wise.

Claud. Hero thinks surely, she will die: for she reer of his humour? No: the world must be peopled. says, she will die if he love her not; and she will When I said, I would die a bachelor, I did not die ere she makes her love known; and she will think I should live till I were married.-Here comes Beatrice: By this day, she's a fair lady; I do spy die if he woo her, rather than she will 'bate one some marks of love in her. breath of her accustomed crossness.

D. Pedro. She doth well: if she should make tender of her love, 'tis very possible he'll scorn it; for the man, as you know all, hath a contemptible' spirit. Claud. He is a very proper4 man.

D. Pedro. He hath, indeed, a good outward nappiness.

Claud. 'Fore God, and in my mind, very wise. D. Pedro. He doth, indeed, show some sparks that are like wit.

Leon. And I take him to be valiant.

Enter Beatrice.

Beat. Against my will, I am sent to bid you come in to dinner.

Bene. Fair Beatrice, I thank you for your pains. Beat. I took no more pains for those thanks, than you take pains to thank me; if it had been painful, would not have come.

I

Bene. You take pleasure in the message? Beat. Yea, just so much as you may take upon a knife's point, and choke a daw withal:-You have no stomach, signior: fare you well.

D. Pedro. As Hector, I assure you and in the managing of quarrels you may say he is wise; for [Exit. either he avoids them with great discretion, or un- Bene. Ha! Against my will I am sent to bid dertakes them with a most Christian-like fear. you come to dinner-there's a double meaning in Leon. If he do fear God, he must necessarily that. I took no more pains for those thanks, than keep peace; if he break the peace, he ought to you took pains to thank me-that's as much as to enter into a quarrel with fear and trembling. say, Any pains that I take for you is as easy as D. Pedro. And so will he do; for the man doth thanks:-If I do not take pity of her, I am a vilfear God, howsoever it seems not in him, by some lain; if I do not love her, I am a Jew: I will go large jests he will make. Well, I am sorry for get her picture. your niece: shall we go see Benedick, and tell

him of her love?

Claud. Never tell him, my lord; let her wear it

out with good counsel.

[Exil.

ACT III.

Enter Hero,

Margaret and Ursula.

Leon. Nay, that's impossible; she may wear her SCENE I.-Leonato's Garden.

heart out first.

D. Pedro. Well, we'll hear further of it by your daughter; let it cool the while. I love Benedick Hero. Good Margaret, run thee into the parlour; well; and I could wish he would modestly examine There shalt thou find my cousin Beatrice himself, to see how much he is unworthy so good a Proposing with the prince and Claudio: lady. Whisper her ear, and tell her, I and Ursula Leon. My lord, will you walk? dinner is ready. Walk in the orchard, and our whole discourse Cland. If he do not dote on her upon this, I will Is all of her; say, that thou overheard'st us; never trust my expectation. [Aside. And bid her steal into the pleached bower, D. Pedro. Let there be the same net spread for Where honey-suckles, ripen'd by the sun, her; and that must your daughter and her gentle- Forbid the sun to enter ;-like favourites, woman carry. The sport will be, when they hold Made proud by princes, that advance their pride one an opinion of another's dotage, and no such Against that power that bred it:-there will she matter; that's the scene that I would see, which

call him in to dinner.

[Aside.

hide her,

will be merely a dumb show. Let us send her to To listen our propose: this is thy office, Bear thee well in it, and leave us alone. Marg. I'll make her come, I warrant you, pre [Exit.

[Exeunt Don Pedro, Claudio, and Leonato.

(1) Alienation of mind. 3) Contemptuous.

(2) Thrown off.
Handsome.

sently.

(5) Seriously carried on. (6) Discoursing.

Hero. Now, Ursula, when Beatrice doth come, | It were a better death than die with mocks ;