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Bene. Is't come to this, in faith? hath not the world one man, but he will wear his cap with sufpicion? fhall I never fee a bachelor of threescore again? go to, i'faith, if thou wilt needs thruft thy neck into a yoke, wear the print of it, and figh away Sundays: look, Don Pedro is return'd to feek you.

Pedro.

SCENE IV.

Re-enter Don Pedro and Don John.

W

HAT Secret hath held you here, that you follow'd not to Leonato's house? Bene. I would your Grace would constrain me to tell.

Pedro. I charge thee on thy allegiance.

Bene. You hear, Count Claudio, I can be fecret as a dumb man, I would have you think fo; but on my allegiance, mark you this, on my allegiance :-he is in love; with whom? now that is your Grace's part: mark, how fhort his answer is, with Hero, Leonato's fhort-daughter.

Claud. If this were fo, fo were it uttered.

Bene. Like the old tale, my lord, it is not fo, nor 'twas not fo; but, indeed, God forbid it should be fo.

Claud. If my paffion change not fhortly, God forbid it fhould be otherwise.

Pedro. Amen, if you love her, for the Lady is very well worthy.

Claud. You fpeak this to fetch me in, my Lord. Pedro. By my troth, I speak my thought.

Claud. And, in faith, my Lord, I spoke mine. Bene. And by my two faiths and troths, my Lord, I speak mine.

Claud. That I love her, I feel.

Pedro. That she is worthy, I know.

Bene. That I neither feel how she should be loved, nor know how fhe fhould be worthy, is the opinion

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that fire cannot melt out of me; I will die in it at the ftake.

Pedro. Thou waft ever an obftinate heretic in the defpight of beauty.

Claud. And never could maintain his part, but in the force of his will.

Bene. That a woman conceiv'd me, I thank her; that he brought me up, I likewife give her most humble thanks: but that I will have a recheate winded in my forehead, or hang my bugle in an invifible baldric, all women fhall pardon me; because I will not do them the Wrong to mistrust any, I will do myself the Right to truft none: and the fine is, (for the which I may go the finer,) I will live a bachelor.

Pedro. I fhall fee thee, ere I die, look pale with love.

Bene. With anger, with ficknefs, or with hunger, my lord, not with love: prove, that ever I lose more blood with love, than I will get again with drinking, pick out mine eyes with a ballad-maker's pen, and hang me up at the door of a brothel-houfe for the Sign of blind Cupid.

Pedro. Well, if ever thou doft fall from this faith, thou wilt prove a notable argument.

Bene. If I do, hang me in a bottle like a cat, and fhoot at me; and he that hits me, let him be clapt on the fhoulder, and call'd *Adam.

Pedo. Well, as time fhall try; in time the favage bull doth bear the yoke.

Bene. The favage bull may, but if ever the sensible Benedick bear it, pluck off the bull's-horns, and set them in my forehead, and let me be vilely painted; and in fuch great letters as they write, Here is good Horfe to hire, let them fignify under my Sign, Here you may fee Benedick the marry'd the man.

Adam Bell, at that time famous for Archery. Mr. Theobald.

Claud.

Claud. If this fhould ever happen, thou would'st be horn-mad.

Pedro. Nay, if Cupid hath not spent all his quiver in Venice, thou wilt quake for this shortly.

Bene. I look for an earthquake too then.

Pedro. Well, you will temporize with the hours; in the mean time, good Signior Benedick, repair to Leonato's, commend me to him, and tell him I will not fail him at fupper; for, indeed, he hath made great preparation.

Bene. I have almost matter enough in me for fuch an embaffage, and so I commit you

Claud. To the tuition of God; From my house, if I had it,

Pedro. The fixth of July, your loving friend,

Benedick.

Bene. Nay, mock not, mock not; the body of your difcourfe is fometime guarded with fragments, and the guards are but flightly basted on neither: ere you flout old ends any further, examine fcience, and fo I leave you.

Claud.

MY

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your con

[Exit.

Y Liege, your Highnefs now may do me good.

Pedro. My love is thine to teach, teach it but how, And thou fhalt fee how apt it is to learn

Any hard leffon that may do thee good.

Claud. Hath Leonato any fon, my

lord?

Pedro. No child but Hero, fhe's his only heir:

Doft thou affect her, Claudio?

Claud. O my lord,

When you went onward on this ended action,
I look'd upon her with a soldier's eye;
That lik'd, but had a rougher talk in hand
Than to drive liking to the name of love;
But now I am return'd, and that war-thoughts

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Have

Have left their places vacant; in their rooms
Come thronging foft and delicate Defires,
All prompting me how fair young Hero is ;
Saying, I lik'd her ere I went to wars.

Pedro. Thou wilt be a lover prefently,
And tire the hearer with a book of words:
If thou doft love fair Hero, cherish it,
And I will break with her, and with her Father,
And thou fhalt have her: was't not to this end,
That thou began'ft to twift fo fine a ftory?

Claud. How fweetly do you minister to love,
That know love's grief by his complexion!
But left my liking might too sudden seem,
I would have falv'd it with a longer treatise.
Pedro. What need the bridge much broader than
the flood?

The fairest grant is the neceffity:

Look, what will ferve, is fit; 'tis once, thou lov'ft;
And I will fit thee with the remedy.

I know, we fhall have revelling to-night;
I will affume thy part in fome disguise,
And tell fair Hero I am Claudio;

And in her bofom I'll unclafp my heart,
And take her hearing prisoner with the force
And ftrong encounter of my amorous tale:
Then, after, to her father will I break;
And the conclufion is, fhe fhall be thine;
In practice let us put it presently.

Re-enter Leonato and Antonio.

[Exeunt.

Leon. How now, Brother, where is my Coufin your fon? hath he provided this mufic?

Ant. He is very bufy about it; but, brother, I can tell you news that you yet dream'd not of.

Leon. Are they good?

Ant. As the event ftamps them, but they have a good cover; they fhow well outward. The Prince and Count Claudio, walking in a thick-pleached alley

in my orchard, were thus over-heard by a man of mine: The Prince difcover'd to Claudio, that he lov'd my neice your daughter, and meant to acknowledge it this night in a dance; and if he found her accordant, he meant to take the present time by the top, and inftantly break with you of it.

Leon. Hath the fellow any wit, that told you this? Ant. A good sharp fellow; I will fend for him, and queftion him yourself.

Leon. No, no; we will hold it as a dream, 'till it appear itself; but I will acquaint my daughter withal, that he may be the better prepared for anfwer, if peradventure this be true; go you and tell her of it: Coufins, you know what you have to do. [Several crofs the Stage here.] O, I cry you mercy, friend, go you with me and I will use your skill; good Coufin, have a care this busy time. [Exeunt.

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Changes to an Apartment in Leonato's House.
Enter Don John and Conrade.

WHAT the good-jer, my lord, why are

Conr. W

you thus out of measure fad?

John. There is no measure in the occafion that breeds it, therefore the sadness is without limit. Conr. You fhould hear reason.

John. And when I have heard it, what Bleffing bringeth it?

Conr. If not a prefent remedy, yet a patient fuf

ferance.

John. I wonder, that thou (being, as thou fay'st thou art, born under Saturn) goest about to apply a moral medicine to a mortifying mifchief: I cannot hide what I am: I must be fad when I have cause, and smile at no man's jefts; eat when I have stomach, and wait for no man's leifure; fleep when I am drow

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