Hero. O god of love! I know he doth deserve All matter else seems weak. She cannot love, Urs. 52 Sure, I think so; saw man, Hero. Why, every day, to-morrow. Come, I'll show thee some attires, and have thy counsel 104 107 Hero. If it prove so, then loving goes by haps: How wise, how noble, young, how rarely featur'd, If black, why, Nature, drawing of an antick, If speaking, why, a vane blown with all winds; Urs. Sure, sure, such carping is not com- [Exit. SCENE II. A Room in LEONATO's House. Enter DON PEDRO, CLAUDIO, BENEDICK, and LEONATO. D. Pedro. I do but stay till your marriage be Hero. No; not to be so odd and from all consummate, and then go I toward Arragon. fashions 72 Claud. I'll bring you thither, my lord, if you'll Vouchsafe me. 4 D. Pedro. Nay, that would be as great a soil in the new gloss of your marriage, as to show a child his new coat and forbid him to wear it. I will only be bold with Benedick for his company; for, from the crown of his head to the sole of his foot, he is all mirth: he hath twice or thrice cut Cupid's bow-string, and the little hangman dare not shoot at him. He hath a heart as sound as a bell, and his tongue is the clapper; for what bis heart thinks his tongue speaks. Bene. Gallants, I am not as I have been. D. Pedro. What! sigh for the tooth-ache? Leon. Where is but a humour or a worm? Bene. Well, every one can master a grief but he that has it. Claud. Yet say I, he is in love. 29 D. Pedro. There is no appearance of fancy in him, unless it be a fancy that he hath to strange disguises; as, to be a Dutchman to-day, a Frenchman to-morrow, or in the shape of two countries at once, as a German from the waist downward, all slops, and a Spaniard from the hip upward, no doublet. Unless he have a fancy to this foolery, as it appears he hath, he is no fool for fancy, as you would have it appear he is. 39 Claud. If he be not in love with some woman, there is no believing old signs: a' brushes his hat a mornings; what should that bode? D. Pedro. Hath any man seen him at the barber's? 44 D. John. You may think I love you not: let that appear hereafter, and aim better at me by that I now will manifest. For my brother, I think he holds you well, and in dearness of heart hath holp to effect your ensuing marriage; surely suit ill-spent, and labour ill bestowed! 104 D. Pedro. Why, what's the matter? D. John. I came hither to tell you; and circumstances shortened, for she hath been too long a talking of,—the lady is disloyal. Claud. Who, Hero? 108 D. John. Even she: Leonato's Hero, your Claud. And when was he wont to wash his Hero, every man's Hero. face? 57 Claud. Disloyal? D. John. The word's too good to paint out her wickedness; I could say, she were worse: think you of a worse title, and I will fit her to it. Wonder not till further warrant: go but with me to-night, you shall see her chamber-window entered, even the night before her wedding-day: if you love her then, to-morrow wed her; but it would better fit your honour to change your mind. Claud. May this be so? 120 D. John. If you dare not trust that you see, confess not that you know. If you will follow me, I will show you enough; and when you have seen more and heard more, proceed accordingly. Claud. If I see any thing to-night why I Sec. Watch. Both which, Master constable,Dogb. You have: I knew it would be your answer. Well, for your favour, sir, why, give God thanks, and make no boast of it; and for your writing and reading, let that appear when there is no need of such vanity. You are thought here to be the most senseless and fit man for the constable of the watch; therefore bear you the lanthorn. This is your charge: you shall comprehend all vagrom men; you are to bid any man stand, in the prince's name. 28 Watch. How, if a' will not stand? Dogb. Why, then, take no note of him, but let him go; and presently call the rest of the watch together, and thank God you are rid of a knave. Verg. If he will not stand when he is bidden, he is none of the prince's subjects. 33 Dogb. True, and they are to meddle with none but the prince's subjects. You shall also make no noise in the streets: for, for the watch to babble and to talk is most tolerable and not to be endured. Sec. Watch. We will rather sleep than talk: we know what belongs to a watch. 40 for the wedding being there to-morrow, there is Enter BORACHIO and CONRADE. Watch. [Aside.] Peace! stir not. Con. Here, man, I am at thy elbow. 104 Bora. Mass, and my elbow itched; I thought there would a scab follow. to-night wooed Margaret, the Lady Hero's gentlewoman, by the name of Hero: she leans me out at her mistress' chamber-window, bids me a thousand times good night,-I tell this tale vilely:-I should first tell thee how the prince, ror Claudio, and my master, planted and placed and possessed by my master Don John, saw afar off in the orchard this amiable encounter. 160 Con. And thought they Margaret was Hero? Bora. Two of them did, the prince and Claudio; but the devil my master, knew she was Margaret; and partly by his oaths, which first possessed them, partly by the dark night, which did deceive them, but chiefly by my villany, which did confirm any slander that Don John had made, away went Claudio enraged; swore he would meet her, as he was appointed, next morning at the temple, and there, before the whole congregation, shame her with what he saw o'er night, and send her home again without a husband. Con. I will owe thee an answer for that; and now forward with thy tale. 108 Bora. Stand thee close then under this penthouse, for it drizzles rain, and I will, like a true drunkard, utter all to thee. Watch. [Aside.] Some treason, masters; yet stand close. 113 Bora. Therefore know, I have earned of Don John a thousand ducats. Con. Is it possible that any villany should be so dear? 117 Bora. Thou shouldst rather ask if it were possible any villany should be so rich; for when rich villains have need of poor ones, poor ones may make what price they will. Con. I wonder at it. 121 Bora. Didst thou not hear somebody? Con. No: 'twas the vane on the house. Bora. Seest thou not, I say, what a deformed thief this fashion is? how giddily he turns about all the hot bloods between fourteen and five-andthirty? sometime fashioning them like Pharaoh's soldiers in the reechy painting; sometime like god Bel's priests in the old church-window; sometime like the shaven Hercules in the smirched worm-eaten tapestry, where his cod-piece seems as massy as his club? 146 Con. All this I see, and I see that the fashion wears out more apparel than the man. But art not thou thyself giddy with the fashion too, that thou hast shifted out of thy tale into telling me of the fashion? 151 Bora. Not so, neither; but know, that I have 173 First Watch. We charge you in the prince's name, stand! Sec. Watch. Call up the right Master constable. We have here recovered the most dangerous piece of lechery that ever was known in the commonwealth. First Watch. And one Deformed is one of them: I know him, a' wears a lock. Con. Masters, masters! 181 if the hair were a thought browner; and your gown's a most rare fashion, i' faith. I saw the Duchess of Milan's gown that they praise so. 16 Hero. O! that exceeds, they say. Marg. By my troth's but a night-gown in respect of yours: cloth o' gold, and cuts, and laced with silver, set with pearls, down sleeves, side sleeves, and skirts round, underborne with a bluish tinsel; but for a fine, quaint, graceful, and excellent fashion, yours is worth ten on't. Hero. God give me joy to wear it! for my heart is exceeding heavy. 25 Marg. 'Twill be heavier soon by the weight of a man. Marg. Moral! no, by my troth, I have no moral meaning; I meant, plain holy-thistle. You may think, perchance, that I think you are in love: nay, by r lady, I am not such a fool to think Hero. Fie upon thee! art not ashamed? 28 what I list; nor I list not to think what I can; Marg. Of what, lady? of speaking honour-nor, indeed, I cannot think, if I would think my ably? is not marriage honourable in a beggar? heart out of thinking, that you are in love, or Is not your lord honourable without marriage? that you will be in love, or that you can be in I think you would have me say, 'saving your love. Yet Benedick was such another, and now reverence, a husband:' an bad thinking do not is he become a man: he swore he would never wrest true speaking, I'll offend nobody. Is there marry; and yet now, in despite of his heart, he any harm in the heavier for a husband?' None, eats his meat without grudging: and how you I think, an it be the right husband and the right may be converted, I know not; but methinks wife; otherwise 'tis light, and not heavy: ask you look with your eyes as other women do. my Lady Beatrice else; here she comes. Beat. What pace is this that thy tongue keeps? Marg. Not a false gallop. Re-enter URSULA. 93 |