D. PEDRO. I' faith, 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, 't is your cue.

CLAUD. Silence is the perfectest herald of joy: I 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 dote upon the exchange.

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

D. 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.

BEAT. Good Lord, for alliance! Thus goes every one

283 the windy side of care] out or the way of, or having the advantage of care. Cf. Tw. Night, III, iv, 156: "Still you keep o' the windy side of the aw." It is a nautical metaphor drawn from the practice of sailing ships in naval actions endeavouring to get the weather gauge of the enemy, i. e. to get the wind behind them and against their foe.

286-287 goes... to the world] gets married. Cf. All's Well, I, iii, 18, and As you like it, V, iii, 4.

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to the world but I, and I am sun-burnt; I may sit in a corner, and cry heigh-ho for a husband!

D. 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.

D. PEDRO. Will you have me, lady?

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.

D. PEDRO. Your silence most offends me, and to be merry best becomes you; for, out of question, you were born in a merry hour.

BEAT. No, sure, my lord, my mother cried; but then there was a star danced, and under that was I born. Cousins, God give you joy!

LEON. Niece, will you look to those things I told you of?

BEAT. I cry you mercy, uncle. By your Grace's pardon.

[Exit.

D. PEDRO. By my troth, a pleasant-spirited lady. LEON. There's little of the melancholy element in her,

287 sun-burnt] neglected, exposed to the weather, homely, plain. Cf. Troil. and Cress., I, iii, 282-283: "The Grecian dames are sunburnt, and not worth The splinter of a lance."

288 cry heigh-ho for a husband] The title of an old ballad of which a copy is preserved in the Pepysian collection at Magdalene College, Cambridge.

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my lord: she is never sad but when she sleeps; and not ever sad then; for I have heard my daughter say, she hath often dreamed of unhappiness, and waked herself with laughing.

D. PEDRO. She cannot endure to hear tell of a husband.

LEON. O, by no means: she mocks all her wooers out of suit.

D. PEDRO. She were an excellent wife for Benedick. LEON. O Lord, my lord, if they were but a week married, they would talk themselves mad.

D. PEDRO. County Claudio, when mean you to go to church?

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, too, to have all things answer my mind.

D. 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 bring 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 but to fashion it, if you three will but minister such assistance as I shall give you direction.

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

325 a just seven-night] just a week. Cf. Merch. of Ven., IV, i, 328: "a

just pound."

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CLAUD. And I, my lord.

D. PEDRO. And you too, gentle Hero?

HERO. I will do any modest office, my lord, to help my cousin to a good husband.

D. PEDRO. And Benedick is not the unhopefullest husband that I know. Thus far can I praise him; he is of a noble strain, of approved valour, and confirmed honesty. I will teach you how to humour your cousin, that she shall fall in love with Benedick; and I, with your two helps, will so practise on Benedick, that, in despite of his quick wit and his queasy stomach, he shall fall in love with Beatrice. If we can do this, Cupid is no longer an archer: his glory shall be ours, for we are the only lovegods. Go in with me, and I will tell you my drift.

[Exeunt.

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SCENE II-THE SAME

Enter DON JOHN and BORACHIO

D. JOHN. It is so; the Count Claudio shall marry the daughter of Leonato.

BORA. Yea, my lord; but I can cross it.

D. JOHN. Any bar, any cross, any impediment will be medicinable to me: I am sick in displeasure to him; and whatsoever comes athwart his affection ranges evenly with mine. How canst thou cross this marriage?

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

D. JOHN. Show 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.

D. JOHN. I remember.

BORA. I can, at any unseasonable instant of the night, appoint her to look out at her lady's chamber-window. D. JOHN. What life is in that, to be the death of this marriage?

10

BORA. The poison of that lies in you to temper. Go you to the prince your brother; spare not to tell him that 20 he hath wronged his honour in marrying the renowned Claudio whose estimation do you mightily hold to a contaminated stale, such a one as Hero.

up

D. JOHN. What proof shall I make of that? BORA. Proof enough to misuse the prince, to vex Claudio, to undo Hero, and kill Leonato. Look you for any other issue?

D. JOHN. Only to despite them I will endeavour any thing.

BORA. Go, then; find me a meet hour to draw Don 30 Pedro and the Count Claudio alone: tell them that you know that Hero loves me; intend a kind of zeal both to the prince and Claudio, as, - in love of your brother's honour, who hath made this match, and his friend's reputation, who is thus like to be cozened with the semblance of a maid, — that you have discovered thus. They will scarcely believe this without trial: offer them instances;

32 intend] pretend. Cf. T. of Shrew, IV, i, 187: "I intend That all is done in reverend care of her."