BEATRICE. I pray you is Signior Mountanto returned from the wars or no?

MESSENGER. I know none of that name, lady: there was none such in the army of any sort.

32

LEONATO. What is he that you ask for, niece? HERO. My cousin means Signior Benedick of Padua. MESSENGER. O! he is returned, and as pleasant as ever he was. 36

BEATRICE. He set up his bills here in Messina and challenged Cupid at the flight; and my uncle's fool, reading the challenge, subscribed for Cupid, and challenged him at the bird-bolt. I pray you, how many hath he killed and eaten in these wars? But how many hath he killed? for, indeed, I promised to eat all of his killing.

43

LEONATO. Faith, niece, you tax Signior Benedick too much; but he'll be meet with you, I doubt it not.

MESSENGER. He hath done good service, lady, in these wars.

48

BEATRICE. You had musty victual, and he hath holp to eat it: he is a very valiant trencher-man; he hath an excellent stomach.

MESSENGER. And a good soldier too, lady.

52

BEATRICE. And a good soldier to a lady; but what is he to a lord ?

MESSENGER. A lord to a lord, a man to a man; stuffed with all honourable virtues. 56 BEATRICE. It is so, indeed; he is no less than a stuffed man; but for the stuffing,—well, we are all mortal.

LEONATO. You must not, sir, mistake my niece. There is a kind of merry war betwixt Signior Benedick and her they never meet but there's a skirmish of wit between them.

63

BEATRICE. Alas! he gets nothing by that. In our last conflict four of his five wits went halting off, and now is the whole man governed with one! so that if he have wit enough to keep himself warm, let him bear it for a difference between himself and his horse; for

it is all the wealth that he hath left to be known a reasonable creature. Who is his companion now? He hath every month a new sworn brother. MESSENGER. Is't possible?

BEATRICE.

72

Very easily possible: he wears his faith but as the fashion of his hat; it ever changes with the next block.

MESSENGER. I see, lady, the gentleman is not in your books.

77

BEATRICE. No; an he were, I would burn my study. But, I pray you, who is his companion? Is there no young squarer now that will make a voyage with him to the devil? He is most in the company of the right

MESSENGER. noble Claudio.

81

BEATRICE. O Lord! he will hang upon him 'like a disease: he is sooner caught than the pestilence, and the taker runs presently mad. God help the noble Claudio! if he have caught the Benedick, it will cost him a thousand pound ere a' be cured.

MESSENGER. Í will hold friends with you, lady.
BEATRICE. Do, good friend.

LEONATO. You will never run mad, niece.

BEATRICE. No, not till a hot January.

MESSENGER.

Don Pedro is approached.

Enter DON PEDRO, DON JOHN, CLAUDIO, BENEDICK,

BALTHAZAR, and Others.

88

92

DON PEDRO. Good Signior Leonato, you are come to meet your trouble: the fashion of the world is to avoid cost, and you encounter it.

96

LEONATO. 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.

100

DON PEDRO. You embrace your charge too willingly. I think this is your daughter.

LEONATO. Her mother hath many times told me so. BENEDICK. Were you in doubt, sir, that you asked

her?

105

LEONATO. Signior Benedick, no; for then you were a child.

DON 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.

III

BENEDICK. If Signior Leonato be her father, she would not have his head on her shoulders for all Messina, as like him as she is.

BEATRICE. I wonder that you will still be talking, Signior Benedick: nobody marks you.

BENEDICK.

yet living?

116

What! my dear Lady Disdain, are you

BEATRICE. 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.

122

BENEDICK. 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.

126

BEATRICE. 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.

131

BENEDICK. God keep your ladyship still in that mind; so some gentleman or other shall 'scape a predestinate scratched face.

BEATRICE. Scratching could not make it worse, an 'twere such a face as yours were.

136

BENEDICK. Well, you are a rare parrot-teacher. BEATRICE. A bird of my tongue is better than a beast of yours.

139

BENEDICK. I would my horse had the speed of your tongue, and so good a continuer. But keep your way, i' God's name; I have done.

BEATRICE. You always end with a jade's trick: I know you of old.

144

DON PEDRO. This 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 prays from his heart.

[To DON JOHN.]

150

LEONATO. If you swear, my lord, you shall not be forsworn. Let me bid you welcome, being reconciled to the prince your brother, I owe you all duty.

my lord

DON JOHN. I thank you: I am not of many words, but I thank you.

LEONATO. Please it your Grace lead on ?

156

DON PEDRO. Your hand, Leonato; we will go together. [Exeunt all but BENEDICK and CLAUDIO.

CLAUDIO. Benedick, didst thou note the daughter of Signior Leonato ?

161

BENEDICK. I noted her not; but I looked on her. CLAUDIO. Is she not a modest young lady?

BENEDICK. Do you question me, as an honest man should do, for my simple true judgment; or would you have me speak after my custom, as being a professed tyrant to their sex?

167

CLAUDIO. No; I pray thee speak in sober judgment. BENEDICK. 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.

CLAUDIO.

Thou thinkest I am in sport: I pray

thee tell me truly how thou likest her.

BENEDICK.

after her?

176

Would you buy her, that you inquire

CLAUDIO. Can the world buy such a jewel?

BENEDICK. 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?

84

CLAUDIO. In mine eye she is the sweetest lady that ever I looked on.

186

BENEDICK. 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 first of May doth the last of December. But I hope you have no intent to turn husband, have you?

192

CLAUDIO. I would scarce trust myself, though I had sworn to the contrary, if Hero would be my wife.

BENEDICK. Is 't come to this, i' 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.

201

DON PEDRO. What secret hath held you here, that you followed not to Leonato's?

BENEDICK. I would your Grace would constrain me to tell.

DON PEDRO. I charge thee on thy allegiance.

205

BENEDICK. 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.

212

CLAUDIO. If this were so, so were it uttered. BENEDICK. Like the old tale, my lord: 'it is not so, nor 'twas not so; but, indeed, God forbid it should be so.'

216

CLAUDIO. If my passion change not shortly, God forbid it should be otherwise.

DON PEDRO. Amen, if you love her; for the lady is very well worthy.

220

CLAUDIO. You speak this to fetch me in, my lord. DON PEDRO. By my troth, I speak my thought.