Be yet my nephew; my brother hath a daughter,
Almost the copy of my child that's dead,
And she alone is heir to both of us;
Give her the right you should have given her cousin,
And so dies my revenge:

Claud. O Noble Sir?
Your over-kindness doth wring tears from me.
I do embrace your offer; and difpofe
For henceforth of poor Claudio.

Leon. To-morrow then I will expect your coming,
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. No, by my foul, she was not;
Nor knew not what she did, when she spoke to me.
But always hath been just and virtuous,
In any thing that I do know by her.

Dogb. Moreover, Sir, which indeed is not under white and black, this plaintiff here, the offender, did call me assi I beseech you, let it be remember'd 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 hang.

ing by it; and borrows money in God's name, the “ which he hath us’d so long, and never paid, that now “ men grow hard-hearted, and wil lend nothing for “ God's sake.” Pray yoụ, examine him upon that point.

Leon. I thank thee for thy care and honest pains.

Dogb. Your Worship speaks like a most thankful and reverend youth; and 1 praife God for you.

Leon. There's for thy pains.
Dogb. God save the foundation!

Leon. Go, I discharge thee of thy prisoner ; and I thank thee.

Dogb. I leave an errant knave with your Worship, which I beseech your Worship to correct yourself, for the example of others. God keep your Worship; I wish your Worship well. God restore you to health: I humbly give you leave to depart; and if a merry meeting may be with’d, God prohibit it. Come, neighbour.

[Exeunt.

Leon.

F ?

Leon. Until to-morrow morning, Lords, farewell.
Ant. Farewell, my Lords; we look for you to-morrow.
Pedro. We will not fail.
Claud. To-night I'll mourn with Hero.
Leon. Bring you these fellows on; we'll talk with

Margaret,
How her acquaintance grew with this lewd fellow.

[Exeunt severally.

SCENE VI. Changes to Leonato's house.

Enter Benedick and Margaret.

Bene. Pray thee, sweet Mistress Margaret, deferve well at my hands, by helping me to the speech of Beatrice.

Marg. Will you then write me a fonnet in praise of my beauty?

Bene. "In so high a style, Margaret, that no man living shall come over it; for, in most comely truth, thou deferveft it.

Marg. To have no man come over me? why shall I always keep above stairs ?

Bene. Thy wit is as quick as the greyhound's mouth; ït catches.

Marg. And yours as blunt as the fencer's fuils, which hit, but hurt not.

Bene. A moft manly wit, Margaret, it will not hurt a woman; and so, I pray thee, call Beatrice; I give thee the bucklers.

Murg. Give us the swords; we have bucklers of our

Own.

hath legs.

Bene. If you use them, Margaret, you must put in the pikes with a vice, and they are dangerous weapons for maids. Marg. Well, I will call Beatrice to you, who, I think,

[Exit Margaret. Bene. And therefore will come. [Sings.] The God of love that fits above, and knows me, and knows me,

how pitiful I deserve, I mean, in singing; but in loving, Leander the good swimmer, Troilus the first employer of pandars, and a whole book full of these quon

dam

dam carpet-mongers, whose names yet run smoothly in the even road of a blank verse; why, they were never so truly turnd over and over, as my poor self, in love; marry, I cannot shew it in rhyme; I have try'd; I can find out no rhyme to lady but baby, an innocent's rhyme; for fcorn, horn, a hard rhyme; for school, fool, a babbling rhyme; very ominous endings; no, I was not born under a rhyming planet, for I cannot woo in festival terms.

SCENE VII. Enter Beatrice.

bid me.

let me go

Sweet Beatrice, would'st thou come when I call thee?

Beat. Yea, Signior, and depart when you
Bene. O, stay but till then.

Beat. Then, is spoken; fare you well now; and yet ere

I
go,

with that I came for; which is, with knowing what hath pass’d between you and Claudio.

Bene. Only foul words; and thereupon I will kiss thee.

Beat. Foul words are but foul wind, and foul wind is but foul breath, and foul breath is noisome; therefore I will depart unkiss'd.

Bene. Thou haft frighted the word out of its right fense, so forcible is thy wit; but, I must tell thee plainly, Claudio undergoes my challenge; and either 1 mult thortly hear from him, or I will subscribe him a coward; and ] pray thee, now tell me, for which of

my
bad
parts

didit thou first fall in love with me?

Beat. For them all together; which maintain’d fo politie a state of evil, that they will not admit any good part to intermingle with them. But for which of my good parts did you first fuffer love for me?

Bene. Suffer love! a good epithet: I do fuffer love, indeed, for I love thee against my will.

Beat. In spight of your heart, I think; alas! poor heart, if you spight it for my fake, I will spight it for yours; for I will never love that sich my friend hates.

Bene. Thou and I are too wise to woo peaceably.

Beat. It appears not in this confeffion; there's not one wise man among twenty that will praise himself.

Bene. “ An old, an old instance, Beatrice, that liv'd “ in the time of good neighbours;" if a man do not F 3

ereet

erect in this age his own tomb ere he dies, he shall live no longer in monuments, than the bells ring, and the

widow weeps:

Beat. And how long is that, think you?

Bene. Question? --why, an hour in clamour, and a quarter in rheum; therefore it is most expedient for the wise, if Don Worm (his conscience) find no impediment to the contrary, to be the trumpet of his own virtues, as I am to myself. So much for praising myself; who, I myself will bear witness, is praise worthy. And now tell me, how doth your cousin?

Beat. Very ill.
Bene. And how do you?
Beat. Very ill too.

Bene. Serve God, love me, and mend; there will I leave you too, for here comes one in hafte.

Enter Ursula. Urf. Madam, you must come to your uncle; yonder's old coil at home; it is proved my Lady Hero hath been falsely accus'd; the Prince and Claudio mightily abus’d; and Don John is the author of all, who is fled and gone. Will

you come prefently? Beat. Will you go hear this news, Signior?

Bene. I will live in thy eyes, die in thy lap, and be bury'd in thy heart; and, moreover, I will go with thee to thy uncle.

[Exeunt. SCENE VIII. Chunges to a church. Enter Don Pedro, Claudio, and attendants with tapers. Claud. Is this the monument of Leonato ? Attend. It is, my

Lord.

EPITAPH. .
Done to death by sanderous tongues

Was the Hero that here lies :
Death, in guerdon of her wrongs,

Gives her fame which never dies.
So the life that dy'd with sbame,
Lives in death with glorious fame.

Hang thou there upon the tomb,
Praising her when I am dumb.

Claud.

Claud. Now, music, sound, and fing the soleme hymn.

SONG.
Pardon, goddess of the night,
Those that sew thy virgin knight;
For the which, with songs of wol,
Ruand about her tomb they go.
Midnight, alif our moan;
Help us to figh and groan

Heavily, heavily:
Graves, yarn, and yield your dead,
Till death be uttered,

Heavily, heavily.

Claud. Now unto thy bones good night!
Yearly will I do this rite.
Pedro. Good morrow, Masters, put your torches ont;

The wolves have prey'd; and, look, the gentle day,
Before the wheels of Phoebus, round about

Dapples the drowly east with spots of grey:
Thanks to you all, and leave

you

well. Claud. Good morrow. Maters; each his several way.

Pedro. Come, let us hence, and put on other weeds; And then to Leonato's we will go.

Claud. And Hymen now with luckier issue speed's,
Than this for whom we render'd

up
this woe!

[Exeunt.

lis; fare

SCENE IX. Changes to Leonato's house.

Enter Leonato, Benedick, Margaret, Ursula, Antonio,

Friar, and Hero.
Friar. Did I not tell

you

she was innocent? Lion. So are the Prince and Claudio, who accus'd her, • Upon the error that

you

heard debated.
But Margaret was in fome fault for this;
Although against her will, as it appears,
In the true course of all the question.

Ant. Well; I am glad that all things fort fo we!l.
Bene. And so am I, being else by faith enforc'd

To