图书图片
PDF
ePub
[ocr errors]

Can counfel, and give comfort to that grief Which they themselves not feel; but tafting it, "Their counsel turns to paffion, which before Would give preceptial medicine to rage; "Fetter ftrong madness in a filken thread; Charm ach with air, and agony with words. No, no; 'tis all mens' office to speak patience To those that wring under the load of forrow; • But no man's virtue, nor fufficiency,

[ocr errors]

To be fo moral, when he fhall endure

The like himself: therefore give me no counsel;
My griefs cry louder than advertisement.'

Ant. Therein do men from children nothing differ.
Leon. I pray thee, peace; I will be flesh and blood;.
For there was never yet philofopher,

That could endure the tooth-ach patiently;
However they have writ the ftyle of gods,
• And made a pifh at chance and fufferance.'
Ant. Yet bend not all the harm upon yourfelf:
Make thofe that do offend you, fuffer too.

Leon. There thou speak'ft reason; nay, I will do fo.. My foul doth tell me, Hero is bely'd;

And that shall Claudio know, fo fhall the Prince;
And all of them that thus difhonour her.

SCENE II. Enter Don Pedro and Claudio.

Ant. Here comes the Prince and Claudio haftily. Pedro. Good den, good den.

Claud. Good day to both of you.

Leon. Hear you, my Lords.

Pedro. We have fome hafte, Leonato.

Leon. Some hafte, my Lord! well, fare you well, my Lord.

Are you fo hafty now? well, all is one.

Pedro. Nay, do not quarrel with us, good old man. Ant. If he could right himfelf with quarrelling, Some of us would lie low.

Claud. Who wrongs him?

Leon. Marry, thou doft wrong me, thou diffembler,

thou!

Nay,

Nay, never lay thy hand upon thy fword,
I fear thee not.

Claud Marry, befhrew my hand,

If it should give your age fuch cause of fear;
In faith, my hand meant nothing to my

fword.
Leon. Tufh, tufh, man, never fleer and jeft at me.
I fpeak not like a dotard, nor a fool;
As, under privilege of age, to brag

What I have done being young, or what would do,
Were I not old. Know, Claudio, to thy head,
Thou hast so wrong'd my innocent child and me,
That I am force'd to lay my reverence by ;
And, with grey hairs, and bruife of many days,
Do challenge thee to trial of a man:

I fay, thou haft bely'd mine innocent child,
Thy flander hath gone through and through her heart,
And fhe lies bury'd with her ancestors,

O, in a tomb where never fcandal flept,
Save this of her's, fram'd by thy villany!
Claud. My villany?

Leon. Thine, Claudio; thine, I fay..
Pedro. You fay not right, old man.
Leon. My Lord, my Lord,

I'll prove it on his body, if he dare;

Defpight his nice fence and his active practice,
His May of youth, and bloom of luftyhood.

Claud. Away, I will not have to do with you.
Leon. Can't thou fo doffe me? thou haft kill'd my
child;

If thou kill'ft me, boy, thou shalt kill a man.
Ant. He fhall kill two of us, and men, indeed;

But that's no matter, let him kill one first ;
Win me and wear me, let him anfwer me;
Come, follow me, boy; come, boy, follow me;
Sir boy, I'll whip you from your foining fence;
Nay, as I am a gentleman, I will.

Leon. Brother,

Ant. Content yourfelf; God knows, I lov'd my

niece;

And fhe is dead, flander'd to death by villains,
That dare as well answer a man, indeed,
As I dare take a ferpent by the tongue.

Boys,

Boys, apes, braggarts, jacks, milkfops!

Leon Brother Anthouy

Ant. "Hold you content; what, man? I know them, 66 yea,

"And what they weigh, even to the utmoft fcruple: "Scambling, out-facing, fafhion-mongring boys, "That lye, and cog, and flout, deprave, and flander, "Go anticly, and show an outward hideousness, "And fpeak off half a dozen dangerous words, "How they might hurt their enemies, if they durft; "And this is all."

Leon. But, brother Anthony,

Ant. Come, 'tis no matter;

Do not you meddle, let me deal in this.

Pedro. Gentlemen both, we will not wrack your patience.

My heart is forry for your daughter's death;
But, on my honour, fhe was charge'd with nothing
But what was true, and very full of proof:

Leon. My Lord, my Lord-
Pedro. I will not hear you,

Leon No! come, brother, away, I will be heard.
Ant. And fhall, or fome of us will smart for it.

[Exeunt ambe.

SCENE III. Enter Benedick.

Pedro. See, fee, here comes the man we went.to feek.

Claud. Now, Signior, what news?

Bene. Good day, my Lord.

Pedro. Welcome, Signior; you are almoft come to part almoft a fray.

Claud. We had like to have had our two noses snapt off with two old men without teeth.

Pedro. Leonato and his brother; what think'ft thou? had we fought, I doubt we should have been too young for them.

Bene. In a falfe quarrel there is no true valour: I came to feek you both.

Claud. We have been up and down to feek thee; for we are high-proof melancholy, and would fain have it beaten away. Wilt thou ufe thy wit?

Bene.

[ocr errors]

Bene. It is in my fcabbard; fhall I draw it? Pedro. Doft thou wear thy wit by thy fide? Claud. Never any did fo, though very many have been befide their wit. I will bid thee draw, as we do the minstrels; draw, to pleasure us.

Pedro As I am an honest man, he looks pale: art thou fick or angry

?

Claud. What! courage, man: what tho' care kill'd a cat, thou haft mettle enough in thee to kill care. Bene. Sir, I fhall meet your wit in the career, if you charge it against me.I pray you chufe another fubject.

Claud. Nay, then give him another staff; this last was broke cross.

Pedro. By this light he changes more and more. I think he be angry indeed.

Claud. If he be, he knows how to turn his girdle.
Bene. Shall I fpeak a word in your ear?
Claud. God bless me from a challenge!

Bene. You are a villain; I jeft not. I will make it good how you dare, with what you dare, and when you dare. Do me right, or I will proteft your cowardice. You have kill'd a sweet lady, and her death shall fall heavy on you. Let me hear from you.

Claud. Well, I will meet you, fo I may have good

cheer.

Pedro. What, a feaft?

Claud. I'faith, I thank him; he hath bid me to a calves-head and a capon; the which if I do not carve most curiously, fay, my knife's naught. Shall I not find a wood-cock too?

Bene. Sir, your wit ambles well; it goes eafily.

Pedro. I'll tell thee how Beatrice prais'd thy wit the other day. I faid, thou hadft a fine wit; right, fays fhe, a fine little one; no, faid I, a great wit; juft, said fhe, a great grofs one; nay, said I, a good wit; just, faid fhe, it hurts no body; nay, faid I, the gentleman is wife; certain, faid fhe, a wife gentleman; nay, faid I, he hath the tongues; that I believe, faid fhe, for he fwore a thing to me on Monday night, which he forfwore on Tuesday morning; there's a double tongue, there's two tongues. Thus did the an hour together tranf-fhape

tranf-fhape thy particular virtues; yet at laft fhe concluded with a figh, thou waft the propereft man in Italy.

Claud. For the which he wept heartily, and faid The car'd not.

Pedro. Yea, that she did; but yet for all that, and if she did not hate him deadly, fhe would love him dearly; the old man's daughter told us all.

Claud. All, all; and moreover, God faw him when he was hid in the garden.

Pedro. But when shall we set the falvage bull's horns on the fenfible Benedick's head?

Claud. Yea, and text underneath, Here dwells Benedick the married man

Bene. Fare you well, boy, you know my mind; I will leave you now to your goffip-like humour; you break jefts as braggarts do their blades, which, God be thank'd, hurt not. My Lord, for your many courtefies I thank you; I muft difcontinue your company; your brother, the bastard, is fled from Meflina; you have among you killed a fweet and innocent lady. For my Lord Lack-beard there, he and I fhall meet; and till then, peace be with him! [Exit Benedick.

Pedro He is in earnest.

Claud. In moft profound earneft, and, I'll warrant you, for the love of Beatrice.

Pedro. And hath challenge'd thee?

Claud. Moft fincerely.

Pedro. What a pretty thing man is, when he goes in his doublet and hofe, and leaves off his wit!

SCENE

IV.

Enter Dogberry, Verges, Conrade and Borachio

guarded.

Claud. He is then a giant to an ape; but then is an ape a doctor to fuch a man.

Pedro. But, foft you, let me fee, pluck up my heart and be fad; did he not fay, my brother was fled? Dogb. Come, you, Sir; if Justice cannot tame you, the fhall ne'er weigh more reafons in her balance; nay,

an

« 上一页继续 »