She would mock me into air; O, she would laugh me
Out of myself, press me to death with wit!
Therefore let Benedick, like cover'd fire,
Consume away in sighs, waste inwardly:

It were a better death than die with mocks,
Which is as bad as die with tickling.

URS. Yet tell her of it: hear what she will say.
HERO. No; rather I will go to Benedick,
And counsel him to fight against his passion.
And, truly, I'll devise some honest slanders
To stain my cousin with: one doth not know
How much an ill word may empoison liking.

URS. O, do not do your cousin such a wrong!
She cannot be so much without true judgement, -
Having so swift and excellent a wit

As she is prized to have, as to refuse
So rare a gentleman as Signior Benedick.
HERO. He is the only man of Italy,
Always excepted my dear Claudio.

URS. I pray you, be not angry with me, madam,
Speaking my fancy: Signior Benedick,
For shape, for bearing, argument and valour,
Goes foremost in report through Italy.

HERO. Indeed, he hath an excellent good name.
URS. His excellence did earn it, ere he had it.
When are you married, madam?

76 press

... to death] the cruel punishment (peine forte et dure) assigned to those who, charged with felony, mutely refused to plead. 84 honest slanders] slanders that involve no deep disgrace.

96 argument] power of argument, intellectual faculty.

80

90

100

HERO. Why, every day, to-morrow. Come, go in: I'll show thee some attires; and have thy counsel Which is the best to furnish me to-morrow. URS. She's limed, I warrant you: we have caught her, madam.

HERO. If it prove so, then loving goes by haps: Some Cupid kills with arrows, some with traps. [Exeunt Hero and Ursula. BEAT. [Coming forward] What fire is in mine ears? Can this be true?

Stand I condemn'd for pride and scorn so much?
Contempt, farewell! and maiden pride, adieu!
No glory lives behind the back of such.
And, Benedick, love on; I will requite thee,
Taming my wild heart to thy loving hand:
If thou dost love, my kindness shall incite thee
To bind our loves up in a holy band;

For others say thou dost deserve, and I
Believe it better than reportingly.

[Exit.

101 every day, to-morrow] Hero means that her marriage is occupying her whole thought every day, every hour, but that the ceremony actually takes place the next day.

107 What fire. . . ears] One's ears are said to burn when people talk of one in absence.

110 No glory. . . such] Such persons are not spoken of with much admiration in their absence.

110

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 consummate, and then go I toward Arragon.

CLAUD. I'll bring you thither, my lord, if you'll vouchsafe me.

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 10 dare not shoot at him; he hath a heart as sound as a bell, and his tongue is the clapper, for what his heart thinks his tongue speaks.

BENE. Gallants, I am not as I have been.

LEON. So say I: methinks you are sadder.
CLAUD. I hope he be in love.

D. PEDRO. Hang him, truant! there's no true drop of blood in him, to be truly touched with love; if he be sad, he wants money.

BENE. I have the toothache.

D. PEDRO. Draw it.

BENE. Hang it!

10 hangman] often used colloquially like "rascal." Cf. L. L. L.,V, ii, 12, where Cupid is called "a shrewd unhappy gallows."

20

CLAUD. You must hang it first, and draw it afterwards.

D. PEDRO. What! sigh for the toothache?

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.

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.

CLAUD. If he be not in love with some woman, there is no believing old signs: a' brushes his hat o' mornings; what should that bode?

22 draw it afterwards] an allusion to the punishment of "drawing," i. e. disembowelling, which followed that of "hanging" and preceded that of " quartering" in convictions for treason.

24 a humour or a worm] Contemporary medical treatises attribute the toothache either to the operation of foul humours or to the presence of a worm in the offending tooth.

25 can] The original reading, cannot, is clearly wrong.

28-29 fancy... fancy] The word is used first in the sense of "love," then in that of 66 caprice or "inclination."

31-33 or in the . . . doublet] These words, which appear in the Quarto,

are omitted in the Folio text.

32 slops] loose, ill-fitting trousers.

33 no doublet] no under-garment, all cloak.

30

D. PEDRO. Hath any man seen him at the barber's? CLAUD. No, but the barber's man hath been seen with 40 him; and the old ornament of his cheek hath already stuffed tennis-balls.

LEON. Indeed, he looks younger than he did, by the loss of a beard.

D. PEDRO. Nay, a' rubs himself with civet: can you smell him out by that?

CLAUD. That's as much as to say, the sweet youth's in love.

D. PEDRO. The greatest note of it is his melancholy. CLAUD. And when was he wont to wash his face? 50 D. PEDRO. Yea, or to paint himself? for the which, I hear what they say of him.

CLAUD. Nay, but his jesting spirit; which is now crept into a lute-string, and now governed by stops. D. PEDRO. Indeed, that tells a heavy tale for him: conclude, conclude he is in love.

CLAUD. Nay, but I know who loves him.

D. PEDRO. That would I know too: I warrant, one that knows him not.

CLAUD. Yes, and his ill conditions; and, in despite of all, dies for him.

D. PEDRO. She shall be buried with her face upwards. BENE. Yet is this no charm for the toothache. Old

54 lute-string. stops] The lute was the instrument which accompanied love-songs. The "stops" of the lute, which Shakespeare elsewhere calls "frets," are marks on the fingerboard indicating where the finger is to be pressed to produce the various notes. 62 with her face upwards] in her lover's arms; in the marriage bed.