Is this face Hero's? Are our eyes our own? And, by that fatherly and kindly power Marry, that can Hero; D. John. Fye, fye! they are Not to be nam'd, my lord, not to be spoke of; There is not chastity enough in language, Without offence, to utter them: Thus, pretty I am sorry for thy much misgovernment. [lady, 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? D. John. Come, let us go: these things, come Smother her spirits up. [thus to light. [Exeunt DON PEDRO, DON JOHN, and CLAUDIO. Bene. How doth the lady? Beat. Dead, I think-help, uncle:Hero! why, Hero!-Uncle!-Signior Benedick! -friar? Leon. O fate, take not away thy heavy hand! Death is the fairest cover for her shame, That may be wish'd for. Beat. How now, cousin Hero? Friar. Have comfort, lady. Leon. Dost thou look up? Friar. Yen; wherefore should she not? Leon. Wherefore? Why, doth not every earthly thing Cry shame upon her? Could she here deny Myself would, on the rearward of reproaches, I might have said, No part of it is mine, I Bent. O, on my soul, my cousin is belied! Bene. Lady, were you her bedfellow last night? Beat. No, truly not: although, until last night have this twelvemonth been her bedfellow. Leon. Confirm'd, confirm'd! O, that is stronger made, Which was before barr'd up with ribs of iron! Would the two princes lie? and Claudio lie? Who lov'd her so, that, speaking of her foulness, Wash'd it with tears? Hence from her; let her Friar. Hear me a little; [die. For I have only been silent so long, Leon. Friar, it cannot be: Thou seest, that all the grace that she hath left, Friar. Lady, what man is he you are accus'd of? the princes. Friar. There is some strange misprision in Nor fortune made such havock of my means, Priar. Let her awhile be secretly kept in, Leon. What shall become of this? What will [behalf Friar. Marry, this well carried, shall on her Change slander to remorse; that is some good: But not for that, dream I on this strange course, But on this travail look for greater birth. She dying, as it must be so maintain'd, Upon the instant that she was accus'd, Shall be lamented, pitied and excus'd," Of every hearer: For it so falls out, That what we have we prize not to the worth, Whiles we enjoy it: but being lack'd and lost, Why, then we rack the value; then we find The virtue, that possession would not show us Whiles it was ours:-So will it fare with Claudio: When he shall hear she died upon his words, The idea of her life shall sweetly creep Into his study of imagination; And every lovely organ of her life Shall come apparell'd in more precious habit, More moving-delicate, and full of life, Into the eye and prospect of his soul, [mourn, Than when she liv'd indeed-then shall he (If ever love had interest in his liver), And wish he had not so accused her; No, though he thought his accusation true. Let this be so, and doubt not but success Will fashion the event in better shape Than I can lay it down in likelihood. But if all aim but this be levell'd false, The supposition of the lady's death Will quench the wonder of her infamy: And, if it sort not well, you may conceal her (As best befits her wounded reputation), In some reclusive and religious life, Out of all eyes, tongues, minds, and injuries. Bene. Signior Leonato, let the friar advise you, And though, you know, my inwardness and love Is very much unto the prince and Claudio, Yet, by mine honour, I will deal in this As secretly, and justly, as your soul Should with your body. Leon. Being that I flow in grief, The smallest twine may lead me. Friar. "Tis well consented; presently away; For to strange sores strangely they strain the cure. Come, lady, die to live: this wedding day, Perhaps, is but prolong'd; have patience, and endure. [Exeunt Friar, HERO, and LEONATO. Bene. Lady Beatrice, have you wept all this while? Beat. Yea, and I will weep a while longer. Beat. You have no reason, I do it freely. Beat. Ah, how much might the man deserve of me, that would right her! [ship? Bene. Is there any way to show such friendBeat. A very even way, but no such friend. Bene. May a man do it? Beat. It is a man's office, but not yours. Bene. I do love nothing in the world so well as you? Is not that strange? Beat. As strange as the thing I know not: It were as possible for me to say, I loved nothing so well as you: but believe me not; and yet I lie not; I confess nothing, nor I deny nothing: -I am sorry for my cousin. Bene. By my sword, Beatrice, thou lovest me. Beat. Do not swear by it, and eat it. Bene. I will swear by it, that you love me; and I will make him eat it, that says, I love not you Beat. Will you not eat your word? Bene. With no sauce that can be devised to it: I protest, I love thee. Beat. Why then, God forgive me! Bene. What offence, sweet Beatrice? Beat. You have staid me in a happy hour; I was about to protest, I loved you. Bene. And do it with all thy heart. Beat. I love you with so much of my heart, that none is left to protest. Bene. Come, bid me do any thing for thee. Bene. Ha! not for the wide world. Beat. You kill me to deny it: Farewell. Beat. I am gone, though I am here:-There is no love in you:-Nay, I pray you, let me go. Bene. Beatrice,— Beat. In faith, I will go. Bene. We'll be friends first. Beat. You dare easier be friends with me, than fight with mine enemy. Bene. Is Claudio thine enemy? Beat. Is he not approved in the height a villain, that hath slandered, scorned, dishonoured my kinswoman?-O, that I were a man!-What! bear her in hand until they come to take hands; and then with public accusation, uncovered slander, unmitigated rancour,-O God, that I were a man! I would eat his heart in the market Bene. Hear me, Beatrice;[place. Beat. Talk with a man out at a window ?-a proper saying! Bene. Nay but, Beatrice;-- Beat. Sweet Hero!-she is wronged, she is slandered, she is undone. Bene. Beat Beat. Princes, and counties! Surely, a princely testimony, a goodly count-confect; a sweet gailant, surely! O that I were a man for his sake! or that I had any friend would be a man for my sake! But manhood is melted into courtesies, valour into compliment, and men are only turned into tongue, and trim ones too: he is now as valiant as Hercules, that only tells a lie, and swears it:-I cannot be a man with wishing, therefore I will die a woman with grieving. Bene. Tarry, good Beatrice: By this hand, I love thee. Beat. Use it for my love some other way than Swearing by it. Bene. Think you in your soul the count Claudio hath wronged Hero? Beat. Yea, as sure as I have a thought, or a soul. Bene. Enough, I am engaged, I will challenge him; I will kiss your hand, and so leave you: By this hand, Claudio shall render me a dear account: As you hear of me, so think of me. Go, comfort your cousin; I must say, she is dead: and so, farewell. [Exeunt. SCENE II. A Prison. Enter DOGBERRY, VERGES, and Sexton, in gowns; and the Watch, with CONRADE and BORACHIO. Dogb. Is our whole dissembly appeared? Verg. O, a stool and a cushion for the sexton. Sexton. Which be the malefactors? Dogb. Marry, that am I and my partner. Verg. Nay, that's certain; we have the exhi- remember, that I am an ass; though it be not bition to examine. Sexton. But which are the offenders that are to be examined? let them come before master constable. Dogb. Yea, marry, let them come before me. -What is your name, friend? Bora. Borachio. written down, yet forget not that I am an ass: -No, thou villain, thou art full of piety, as shall be proved upon thee by good witness. I am a wise fellow; and, which is more, an officer; and, which is more, a householder: and, which is more, as pretty a piece of flesh as any is in Messina; and one that knows the law, go to; Yours, and a rich fellow enough, go to; and a fellow [Conrade. that hath had losses; and one that hath two Con. I am a gentleman, sir, and my name is gowns, and every thing handsome about him: Dogb. Write down-master gentleman Con--Bring him away. O, that I had been writ rade.-Masters, do you serve God? down-an ass. Con. Bora. Yea, sir, we hope. Dogb. Pray write down-Borachio.sirrah? Dogb. Write down-that they hope they serve God-and write God first; for God defend but God should go before such villains!-Masters, it is proved already that you are little better than false knaves; and it will go near to be thought so shortly. How answer you for yourselves? Con. Marry, sir, we say we are none. Dogb. A marvellous witty fellow, I assure yon; but I will go about with him.-Come you hither, sirrah; a word in your ear, sir; I say to you, it is thought you are false knaves. Bora. Sir, I say to you, we are none. Dogb. Well, stand aside.-'Fore God, they are both in a tale: Have you writ down-that they are none? Sexton. Master constable, you go not the way to examine; you must call forth the watch that are their accusers. Art Fifth. [Exeunt. SCENE I. Before Leonato's House. Enter LEONATO and ANTONIO. Leon. I pray thee, cease thy counsel, Which falls into mine ears as profitless As water in a sieve: give not me counsel; Nor let no comforter delight mine ear, But such a one whose wrongs do suit with mine. Bring me a father, that so lov'd his child, Whose joy of her is overwhelm'd like mine, And bid him speak of patience; Measure his woe the length and breadth of mine, And let it answer every strain for strain; Dogb. Yea, marry, that's the eftest way:-As thus for thus, and such a grief for such, Let the watch come forth:-Masters, I charge In every lineament, branch, shape, and form: you, in the prince's name, accuse these men. If such a one will smile and stroke his beard: 1 Watch. This man said, sir, that Don John, Cry-sorrow, wag! and hem, when he should the prince's brother, was a villain. groan; [drunk Dogb. Write down-prince John a villain;-Patch grief with proverbs; make misfortune Why, this is flat perjury, to call a prince's bro-With candle-wasters: bring him yet to me, ther-villain. And I of him will gather patience. But there is no such man: For, brother, men Bora. Master constable, Dogb. 'Pray thee, fellow, peace; I do not like Can counsel, and speak comfort to that grief thy look, I promise thee. Sexton. What heard you him say else? Which they themselves not feel; but, tasting it, 2 Watch. Marry, that he had received a thou-Would give preceptial medicine to rage, Dogb. Flat burglary, as ever was committed. 1 Watch. And that count Claudio did mean, upon his words, to disgrace Hero before the whole assembly, and not marry her. Dogb. O villain! thou wilt be condemned into everlasting redemption for this. Sexton. What else? 2 Watch. This is all. Fetter strong madness in a silken thread, Ant. Therein do men from children nothing differ. Leon. I pray thee, peace; I will be flesh and Ant. Yet bend not all the harm upon yourself; [hastily. Good day to both of you. Are you so hasty now ?-well, all is one. D. Pedro. Nay, do not quarrel with us, good | old man. Ant.If he could right himself with quarrelling, Some of us would lie low. Claud. Who wrongs him? Leon. Marry, thou dost wrong me, thou dissembler, thou: Nay, never lay thy hand upon thy sword, Claud. I say, thou hast belied mine innocent child: And she lies buried with her ancestors: Leon. If thou kill'st me, boy, thou shalt kill a man. Ant. Hold you content; What man! I know And what they weigh,even to the utmost scruple: Leon. But, brother Antony,- D. Pedro. Gentlemen both, we will not wake My heart is sorry for your daughter's death; Leon. I will not hear you. No? Come, brother, away :-I will be heard:- Or some of us will smart for it. Enter BENEDICK. D. Pedro. See, see: here comes the man we went to seek. Claud. Now, signior! what news? D. Pedro. Welcome, signior: You are almost come to part almost a fray. Claud. We had like to have had our two noses snapped off with two oid men without teeth. D. Pedro. Leonato and his brother: What think'st thou? Had we fought, 1 doubt, we should have been too young for them. Bene. In a fulse quarrel there is no true valour. I came to seek you both. Claud. We have been up and down to seek thee: for we are high-proof melancholy, and would fain have it beaten away: Wilt thou use thy wit? Bene. It is in my scabbard; Shall I draw it? D. Pedro. Dost thou wear thy wit by thy side? Claud. Never any did so, though very many have been beside their wit.-I will bid thee draw, as we do the minstrels; draw, to pleasure us. D. Pedro. As I am an honest man, he looks pale:-Art thou sick, or angry? Claud. What! courage, man! What though care killed a cat, thou hast mettle enough in thee to kill care. Bene. Sir, I shall meet your wit in the career. an you charge it against me:-I pray you, choose another subject. Claud. Nay, then give him another staff: this last was broke cross. D. Pedro. By this light, he changes more and more; I think, he be angry indeed. Claud. If he be, he knows how to turn his girdle. Bene. Shall I speak a word in your ear? Claud. God bless me from a challenge! Bene. You are a villain:-I jest not: I will make it good how you dare, with what you dare, and when you dare:-Do me right, or I will protest your cowardice. You have killed a sweet lady, and her death shall fall heavy on you: Let me hear from you. Claud. Well, I will meet you, so I may have good cheer. D. Pedro. What, a feast? a feast? Claud. I'faith, I thank him; he hath bid me to a calf's head and a capon; the which if I do not carve most curiously, say, my knife's naught.-Shall I not find a woodcock too? Bene. Sir, your wit ambles well; it goes easily. D. Pedro. I'll tell thee how Beatrice praised thy wit the other day: I said thou hadst a fine wit: True, says she, a fine little one: No, said I, a great wit: Right, says she, a great gross one: Nay, said I, a good wit; Just; said she, it hurts nobody: Nay, said I, the gentleman is wise; Certain, said she, a wise gentleman: Nay, said I, he hath the tongues: That I believe, said she, for he swore a thing to me on Monday night, which he forswore on Tuesday morning; there's a double tongue; there's two tongues. Thus, did she, an hour together, transshape thy particular virtues; yet, at last, she concluded with a sigh, thou wast the properest man in Italy. Claud. For the which she wept heartily, and said, she cared not. D. Pedro. Yea, that she did; but yet, for all that, an if she did not hate him deadly, she would love him dearly: the old man's daughter told us all. Claud. All, all; and moreover, God saw him [Exeunt LEONATO and ANTONIO. when he was hid in the garden. D. Pedro. But when shall we set the savage] bull's horns on the sensible Benedick's head? Claud. Yea, and text underneath, Here dwells Benedick the married man? Bene. Fare you well, boy; you know my mind: I will leave you now to your gossip-like humour; you break jests as braggarts do their blades, which, God be thanked, hurt not.-My lord, for your many courtesies I thank you: I must discontinue your company: your brother, the bastard, is fled from Messina: you have, among you, killed a sweet and innocent lady For my lord Lack-beard, there, he and I shall meet; and till then, peace be with him. [Exit BENEDICK. D. Pedro. He is in earnest. D. Pedro. And hath challenged thee? D. Pedro. What a pretty thing man is, when he goes in his doublet and hose, and leaves off his wit! Enter DOGBERRY, VERGES, and the Watch, with| Claud. He is then a giant to an ape: but then is an ape a doctor to such a man. D. Pedro. But, soft you, let be; pluck up, my heart, and be sad! Did he not say, my brother was filed? Dogb. Come, you, sir; if justice cannot tame you, she shall ne'er weigh more reasons in her balance: nay, an you be a cursing hypocrite once, you must be looked to. D. Pedro. How now, two of my brother's men bound! Borachio, one! Claud. Hearken after their offence, my lord! D. Pedro. Officers, what offence have these men done? Dogb. Marry, sir, they have committed false report; moreover, they have spoken untruths; secondarily, they are slanders: sixth and lastly, they have belied a lady; thirdly, they have verified unjust things! and, to conclude, they are lying knaves. D. Pedro. First, I ask thee what they have done; thirdly, I ask thee what's their offence; sixth and lastly, why they are committed; and, to conclude, what you lay to their charge? Claud. Rightly reasoned, and in his own division; and, by my troth, there's one meaning well suited. D. Pedro. But did my brother set thee on to this? [of it. Bora. Yea, and paid me richly for the practice D. Pedro. He is compos'd and fram'd of treaAnd fled he is upon this villany. [chery :-Claud. Sweet Hero! now thy image doth ap pear In the rare semblance that I loved it first. Dogb. Come, bring away the plaintiffs. by this time our sexton hath reformed signior Leonato of the matter: And, masters, do not forget to specify, when time and place shall serve, that I am an ass. Verg. Here, here comes master signior Leonato and the Sexton too. Re-enter LEONATO and ANTONIO, with the Sexton. on me. Leon. Art thou the slave, that with thy breath Claud. I know not how to pray your patience. D. Pedro. By my soul, nor I; Leon. I cannot bid you bid my daughter live D. Pedro. Whom have you offended, masters, that you are thus bound to your answer? this learned constable is too cunning to be under-Your over-kindness doth wring tears from me stood: What's your offence? I do embrace your offer; and dispose For henceforth of poor Claudio. [coming; Leon. To morrow then I will expect your To-night I take my leave.-This naughty man Shall face to face be brought to Margaret, Who, I believe, was pack'd in all this wrong, Hir'd to it by your brother. Bora. Sweet prince, let me go no further to mine answer; do you hear me, and let this count kill me. I have deceived even your very eyes; what your wisdoms could not discover, these shallow fools have brought to light; who, in the night, overheard me confessing to this man, how Don John, your brother, incensed me to slander the lady Hero: how you were brought into the orchard, and saw me court Margaret in Hero's garments; how you disgraced her, when you should marry her: my villany they have upon record; which I had rather seal with my death, than repeat over to my shame: the lady is dead upon mine and my master's false accusation; and, briefly, I desire nothing but the reward of a villain. D. Pedro. Runs not this speeech like iron Bora. Dogb. Moreover, sir (which, indeed, is not under white and black), this plaintiff here, the offender, did call me ass: I beseech you, let it be remembered in his punishment: And also, the watch heard them talk of one Deformed: they say, he wears a key in his ear, and a lock hanging by it; and borrows money in God's name; the which he hath used so long, and never paid, that now men grow hard-hearted, |