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love from any in this, though I cannot be said to be a flattering honest man, it must not be deny'd but I am a plain-dealing villain. I am trusted with a muzzle, and intranchised with a clog;| therefore, I have decreed not to sing in my cage. If I had my mouth, I would bite; if I had my liberty, I would do my liking: in the mean time, let me be that I am, and seek not to alter me.

5

Con. Can you make no use of your discontent
John. I make all use of it, for I use it only.-10
Who comes here? what news, Borachio?
Enter Borachio.

Bora. I came yonder from a great supper; the prince, your brother, is royally entertained by Leonato; and I can give you intelligence of an 15 intended marriage.

John. Will it serve for any model to build mischief on? What is he for a fool, that betroths him-| self to unquietness?

Bora. Marry, it is your brother's right hand.
John. Who? the most exquisite Claudio?
Bora. Even he.

John. A proper squire! and who, and who? which way looks he?

Bora. Marry, on Hero, the daughter and heir of Leonato.

John. A very forward March-chick! How come you to know this?

Bora. Being entertain'd for a perfumer, as I was smoaking a musty room, comes me the prince and Claudio, hand in hand, in sad' conference:-[ whipt me behind the arras; and there heard it agreed upon, that the prince should woo Hero for himself, and having obtained her, give her to count Claudio.

John. Come, come, come, let us thither; this may prove food to my displeasure: that young start-up hath all the glory of my overthrow; if I can cross him any way, I bless myself every way: You are both sure 2, and will assist me?

Con. To the death, my lord.

John. Let us to the great supper; their cheer is the greater, that I am subdu'd: Would the cook 20 were of my mind!-Shall we go prove what's to be done?

Bora. We'll wait upon your lordship.

[Exeunt.

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ACT II.

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35

Beat. How tartly that gentleman looks! I never 40 can see him, but I am heart-burn'd an hour after. Hero. He is of a very melancholy disposition. Beat. He were an excellent man, that were made just in the midway between him and Benedick: the one is too like an image, and says no- 45 thing; and the other, too like my lady's eldest son, evermore tattling.

Leon. Then half signior Benedick's tongue in count John's mouth, and half count John's melancholy in signior Benedick's face,

Beat. With a good leg, and a good foot, uncle, and money enough in his purse, Such a man would win any woman in the world,-if he could get her good will.

Leon. So, by being too curst, God will send you no horns.

Beat. Just, if he send me no husband; for the which blessing, I am at him upon my knees every morning and evening: Lord! I could not endure a husband with a beard on his face; I had rather lie in woollen.

Leon. You may light upon a husband, that hath no beard.

Beat. What should I do with him? dress him in my apparel, and make him my waiting-gentlewoman? He that hath a beard, is more than a youth; and he that hath no beard, is less than a man: and he that is more than a youth, is not for me; and he that is less than a man, I am not for him: Therefore I will even take six-pence in earnest of the bear-herd, and lead his apes into hell. 150 Leon. Well then, go you into hell?

Leon. By my troth, niece, thou wilt never get 55 thee a husband, if thou be'st so shrewd of thy tongue.

Ant. In faith, she's too curst.

Beat. No; but to the gate: and there will the devil meet me, like an old cuckold, with horns on his head, and say, Get you to heaven, Beatrice, get you to heaven; here's no place for you maids; so deliver I up my apes, and away to Saint Peter for the heavens; he shews me where the batchelors sit, and there live we as merry as the day is long. Ant. Well, niece, I trust, you will be rul'd by your father. [To Hero. Beat. Yes, faith; it is my cousin's duty to make a curtsy, and say, Father, as it please you:-but yet for all that, cousin, let him be a handsome feli. e. To be depended on.

Beat. Too curst is more than curst: I shall lessen God's sending that way: for it is said God 60 sends a curst cow short horns; but to a cow too curst he sends none.

1i. e. Serious.

low,

low, or else make another curtsy, and say, Father, as it please me.

Leon. Well, niece, I hope to see you one day fitted with a husband.

Beat. Not till God make men of some other 5 metal than earth. Would it not grieve a woman to be over-master'd with a piece of valiant dust? to make account of her life to a clod of wayward marle? No, uncle, l'il none: Adam's sons are my my brethren, and truly, I hold it a sin to match in 10 my kindred.

Leon. Daughter, remember what I told you: if the prince do solicit you in that kind, you know your answer.

Beat. The fault will be in the musick, cousin, 15 if you be not woo'd in good time: if the prince be too important', tell him, there is measure in every thing, and so dance out the answer. For hear me, Hero: wooing, wedding, and repenting, is as a Scotch jig, a measure, and a cinque-20 pace: the first suit is hot and hasty, like a Scotch jig, and full as fantastical; the wedding, mannerly modest, as a measure full of state and ancientry and then comes repentance, and, with his bad legs, falls into the cinque-pace faster and faster,|23| 'till he sink into his grave.

Leon. Cousin, you apprehend passing shrewdly. Beat. I have a good eye, uncle; I can see a church by day-light.

Leon. The revellers are entering; brother, make 30 good room.

Enter Don Pedro, Claudio, Benedick, Balthazar; Don John, Borachio, Margaret, Ursula, and others, musk'd.

Pedro. Lady, will you walk about with your friend?

Hero. So you walk softly, and look sweetly, and say nothing, I am yours for the walk; and especially, when I walk away.

Pedro. With me in your company?
Hero. I may say so, when I please.
Pedro. And when please you to say so?
Hero. When I like your favour; for God de-
fend, the lute should be like the case!

Urs. I know you well enough: you are signior Antonio.

Ant. At a word, I am not.

Urs. I know you by the wagling of your head. Ant. To tell you true, I counterfeit him. Urs. You could never do him so ill-well, unless you were the very man. Here's his dry hand2 up and down; you are he, you are he. Ant. At a word, I am not.

Urs. Come, come; do you think, I do not know you by your excellent wit? Can virtue hide itself? Go to, mum, you are he: graces will appear, and there's an end.

Beat. Will you not tell me who told you so?
Bene. No, you shall pardon me.

Beat. Nor will you tell me who you are?
Bene. Not now.

Beut. That I was disdainful-and that I had my
good wit out of the Hundred merry Tales;—
Well, this was signior Benedick that said so.
Bene. What's he?

Beat. I am sure, you know him well enough,
Bene. Not I, believe me.

Beat. Did he never make you laugh?
Bene. I pray you, what is he?

Beat. Why, he is the prince's jester: a very dull fool; only his gift is in devising impossible slanders: none but libertines delight in him; and the commendation is not in his wit, but in his villainy 3; for he both pleaseth men, and angers them, and then they laugh at him, and beat him: I am sure, he is in the fleet; I would he had boarded me.

Bene. When I know the gentleman, I'll tell 35]him what you say.

Beat. Do, do: he'll but break a comparison or two on me; which, peradventure, not mark'd, or not laugh'd at, strikes him into melancholy; and then there's a partridge-wing sav'd, for the fool 40 will eat no supper that night. We must follow the leaders. [Musick within.

Pedro. My visor is Philemon's roof; within the 45 house is Jove.

Hero. Why, then your visor should be thatch'd.
Pedro. Speak low, if you speak love.
Bene. Well, I would you did like me.

Marg. So would not I, for your own sake; for 50
I have many ill qualities.

Bene. Which is one?

Marg. I say my prayers aloud.

Bene. I love you the better; the hearers may

cry amen.

Marg. God match me with a good dancer!
Balth. Amen.

Murg. And God keep him out of my sight
when the dance is done!--Answer, clerk.
Balth No more words; the clerk is answer'd.]

swerd.fo

Bene. In every good thing. Beat. Nay, if they lead to any ill, I will leave them at the next turning.

Manent John, Boruchio, and Claudio. John. Sure my brother is amorous on Hero, and hath withdrawn her father to break with him about it: The ladies follow her, and but one visor remains.

Bora. And that is Claudio: I know him by his bearing'.

John. Are you not signior Benedick?
Claud. You know me well; I am he.

John. Signior, you are very near my brother in 55 his love: he is enamour'd on Hero; I pray you, dissuade him from her, she is no equal for his birth; you may do the part of an honest man in it.

Claud. How know you he loves her?
John. I heard him swear his affection.

importunate.

3

1 Important here, as in many other places, means 2 A dry hand was in those times considered as the sign of a cold constitution. By which she means his inalice and impiety. By his impious jests, she insinuates, he pleased libertines; and by his devising slanders of them, he angered them. * i. e. His carriage, his demeanour.

Bora.

Bora. So did I too; and he swore he would! have bestow'd on you, who, as I take it, have marry her to-night.

John. Come, let us to the banquet.

[Exeunt John and Bora. Claud. Thus answer in name of Benedick, But hear these ill news with the ears of Claudio. 'Tis certain so:---the prince wooes for himself. Friendship is constant in all other things, Save in the office and affairs of love:

5

Therefore, all hearts in love use their own tongues: 10
Let every eye negotiate for itself,

And trust no agent: for beauty is a witch,
Against whose charms faith melteth into blood.
That is an accident of hourly proof,
Which I mistrusted not: Farewell therefore,

Re-enter Benedick.

Bene. Count Claudio?

Claud. Yea, the same.

Bene. Come, will you go with me?
Claud. Whither?

[Hero.
15

stolen his bird's-nest.

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.

Pedro. The lady Beatrice hath a quarrel to you; the gentleman, that danc'd with her, told her, she is much wrong'd by you.

Bene. O, she misus'd me past the endurance of a block: an oak, but with one green leaf on it, would have answer'd her; my very visor began to Jassume life and scold with her: She told me, not thinking I had been myself, that I was the prince's jester; and that I was duller than a great haw; 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 poignards, and every word stabs: if 20 her breath were as terrible as her terminations, there were no living near her, she would infect to the north star. I would not marry her, though she were endowed with all that Adam had left him before he transgress'd: she would have made Hercules have turn'd spit; yea, and have cleft This 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 in hell, as in a sanctuary; and people sin upon purpose, because they would go thither: so, indeed, all disquiet, horror, and perturbation, follow her.

Bene. Even to the next willow, about your own business, count. What fashion will you wear the garland of? About your neck, like an usurer's chain or under your arm, like a lieutenant' scari? You must wear it one way, for the prince 23 hath got your Hero.

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.

Bene. Ho! now you strike like the blind man; twas the boy that stole your meat, and you'll beat the post.

30

Claud. If it will not be, I'll leave you. [Exit. 35 Bene. Alas, poor hurt fowl! Now will he creep into sedges. -But, that my lady Beatrice should know me, and not know me! The prince's fool! -Ha? it may be I go under that title, because I am merry.-Yea; but so; I am apt to do my-40 self wrong: I am not so reputed: it is the base, though bitter disposition of Beatrice, that puts the world into her person, and so gives me out. Well, I'll be reveng'd as I may.

Re-enter Don Pedro. Pedro. Now, signior, where's the count? Did you see him?

Enter Claudio, Beatrice, Leonato, and Hero.
Pedro. Look, here she comes.

Bene. Will your grace command me any ser-
vice to the world's end? I will go on the lightest
errand now to the Antipodes, that
you can devise
to send me on; I will fetch you a tooth-picker
now from the farthest inch of Asia; bring you the
length of Prester John's foot; fetch you a hair off
the great Cham's beard; do you any embassage
to the Pigmies ; rather than hold three words con-
ference with this harpy: You have no employ-
45 ment for me?
[pany.

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, 150 told him true, that your grace had got the goodwill 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 whipt.

Pedro. To be whipt! What's his fault? Bene. The flat transgression of a school-boy;| who, being overjoy'd with finding a bird's-nest, shews it his companion, and he steals it.

Pedro. None, but to desire your good comBene. O God, sir, here's a dish 1 love not; I cannot endure my lady Tongue.

Pedro. Come, lady, come; you have lost the heart of signior Benedick.

Beat. Indeed, my lord, he lent it me a while; and I gave him use for it, a double heart for a single one: marry, once before he won it of me with false dice, therefore your grace may well 55 say, I have lost it.

Pedro. Wilt thou make a trust a transgression:60 The transgression is in the stealer.

Bene. Yet it had not been amiss, the rod had been made, and the garland too; for the garland he might have worn himself, and the rod he might

10

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. Pedro. Why, how now, count? wherefore are you sad?

Claud. Not sad, my lord.
Pedro. How then? sick?

Claud.

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.

Pedro. Piaith, lady, I think your blazon to be true; though, I'll be sworn, if he be so, his conceit is false. Here, Claudio, I have wooed in thy name, and fair Hero is won; I have broke with her father, and his good-will obtained; name the day of marriage, and God give thee joy!

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.

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 5 too, to have all things answer my mind.

Pedro. Come, you shake the head at so long a breathing; but, I warrant thee, Claudio, the time shall not go dully by us; I will, in the interim, undertake one of Hercules' labours; which is, to 10bring signior Benedick and the lady Beatrice into a mountain of affection, the one with the other. I would fain have it a match; and I doubt not to fashion it, if you three will but minister such assistance as I shall give you direction.

Claud. Silence is the perfectest herald of joy: 115 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 doat upon the exchange.

Beat. Speak, cousin: or, if you cannot, stop his mouth with a kiss, and let him not speak neither. 20 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.

Beut. Good lord, for alliance!-Thus goes every one to the world' but I, and I am sunburn'd; I may sit in a corner, and cry, Heigh-ho, for a husband!

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.

Pedro. Will you have me, lady?

Leon. My lord, I am for you, though it cost me ten nights' watchings.

Claud. And I, my lord.

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

Pedro. And Benedick is not the unhopefullest husband that I know: thus far I can praise him; he is of a noble strain, and of approv'd valour, and confirm'd honesty. I will teach you how to humour 25your cousin, that she shall fall in love with Benedick:-And I, with your two helps, will so practise on Benedick, that in despight of his quick wit and his queasy stomach, he shall fall in love with Beatrice. If we can do this, Cupid is no 30longer an archer; his glory shall be ours, for we are the only love-gods. Go in with me, and I will tell you my drift. [Exeunt.

35

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, pardon me; I was born to speak all mirth, and no matter. Pedro. Your silence most offends me, and to 40 be merry best becomes you; for, out of question, you were born in a merry hour.

SCENE II.

Another Apartment in Leonato's House.
Enter Don John and Borachio.
John. It is so: the count Claudio shall marry
the daughter of Leonato.

Bora. Yea, my lord, but I can cross it.
John. Any bar, any cross, any impediment, will
be medicinable to me: I am sick in displeasure
to him; and whatsoever comes athwart his affec-

cross this marriage?

Beat. No, sure, my lord, my mother cry'd;tion, ranges evenly with mine. How canst thou but then there was a star danc'd, and under that I was born. Cousins, God give you joy! Leon. Niece, will you look to those things I told you of?

Beat. Icry you mercy, uncle.-By your grace's pardon. [Exit Beatrice.

|45|

Pedro. By my troth, a pleasant-spirited lady. 50 Leon. There's a little of themelancholy element in her, my lord: she is never sad, but when sh sleeps; and not ever sad then; for I have heard my daughter say, she hath often dream'd of unhappiness, and wak'd herself with laughing.

Pedro.She cannot endure to heartell of a husband. Leon. O, by no means; she mocks all her wooers out of suit.

Pedro. She were an excellent wife for Benedick. Leon. O Lord, my lord, if they were but a weel marry'd, they would talk themselves mad.

Pedro. Count Claudio, when mean you to go to church?

55

Boru. Not honestly, my lord; but so covertly that no dishonesty shall appear in me.

John. Shew me briefly how.

Bora. I think, I told your lordship, a year since, how much I am in the favour of Margaret, the waiting gentlewoman to Hero.

John. I remember.

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

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

Bora. The poison of that lies in you to temper. Go you to the prince your brother; spare not to tell him, that be wrong'd his honour in 50marrying the renown'd Claudio (whose estimation do you mightily hold up) to a contaminated stale, such a one as Ilero.

John. What proof shall I make of that?

2

To go to the world was a phrase then in use, signifying, to be married. Unhappiness here signives, a wild, wanton, unlucky trick.

Bora

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Bora. Go then, find me a meet hour to draw Don Pedro, and the count Claudio, alone: teil them, that you know Hero loves me; intend a kind of zeal both to the prince and Claudio, asin a love of your brother's honour who hath made 10 this match; and his friend's reputation, who is thus like to be cozen'd with the semblance of a maid,that you have discover'd thus. They will scarcely believe this without trial: Offer them instances;

another virtuous; yet I am well: butt ili all graces
be in one woman, one. woman shall not come in
my grace. Rich she shall be, that's certain; wise,
or I'll none; virtuous, or I'll never cheapen her;
tair, or I'll never look on her; mild, or come
not near me; noble, or not I for an angel; of
good discourse, an excellent musician, and her
hair shall be of what colour it please God. Ha!
the prince and monsieur Love? I will hide me in
the arbour.
[Withdraws.
Enter Don Pedro, Leonato, Claudio,and Balthazar.
Pedro. Come, shall we hear this musick?
Claud. Yea, my good lord:-How still the
evening is,

which shall bear no less likelihood, than to see me 15 As hush'd on purpose to grace harmony! [self?

at her chamber window; hear me call Margaret, Hero; hear Margaret term me Claudio; and bring then to see this, the very night before the intended wedding for in the mean time, I will so fashion the matter, that Hero shall be absent; and 20 there shall appear such seeming truth of Hero's disloyalty, that jealousy shall be call'd assurance, and all the preparation overthrown.

John. Grow this to what adverse issue it can, I will put it in practice: Be cunning in the work-25 ing this, and thy fee is a thousand ducats.

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

John. I will presently go learn their day of marriage.

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[Exeunt. 30

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

Boy. I am here already, sir.

Pedro. See you where Benedick hath hid him-
Claud. O very well, my lord: the musick ended,
We'll fit the kid-fox with a penny-worth. [again.
Pedro. Come, Balthazar, we'll hear that song
Balth. O, good my lord, tax not so bad a voice
To slander musick any more than once.

Pedro. It is the witness still of excellency,
To put a strange face on his own perfection:-
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 notworthy; yet he woos;
Yet will he swear he loves.

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.
Pedro. Why, these are very crotchets that he
35 Note, notes, forsooth, and noting! [speaks;

Bene. I know that;-but I would have thee 40 hence, and here again. [Exit Boy.]-1 do much wonder, that one man, seeing how much another man is a fool when he dedicates his behaviours to love, will, after he hath laugh'd at such shallow follies in others, become the argument of his own 45 scorn, by falling in love: And such a man is Claudio. I have known, when there was no musick with him but the drum and the fife; and now had he rather hear the tabor and the pipe. I have known, when he would have walk'd ten mile afoot, to see 50 a good armour; and now will he lie ten nights awake, carving the fashion of a new doublet. He was wont to speak plain, and to the purpose, like an honest man, and a soldier; and now is he turn'd orthographer; his words are a very fantastical ban-55 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 on it, till he have made an oyster of me, he shali never make me such a fool. One woman is fair; yet I am well: another is wise; yet I am well:

Bene. Now, Divine air! now is his soul ravish'd!-Is it not strange, that sheep's guts should hale souls out of men's bodies?-Well, a horn for my money, when all's done.

SONG.

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 woe
Into, Hey nonny, nonny.

Sing no more ditties, sing no mo
Of dumps so dull and heavy;
The frauds of men were ever so,
Since summer first was leavy.

Then sigh not so, &c.
Pedro. By my troth, a good song.
Balth. And an ill singer, my lord.
Pedro. Ha? no; no, faith; thou sing'st well
60-nough for a shift.

Bene. [Aside.] An he had been a dog, that should have howl'd thus, they would have habg'd him: Kid means discovered.

K

and,

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