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Bene. God keep your Ladyfhip ftill in that mind! fo fome gentleman or other fhall fcape a predeftinate fcratch'd face.

Beat. "Scratching could not make it worse, an " 'twere fuch a face as your's were."

Bene. Well, you are a rare parrot-teacher,

Beat. A bird of my tongue is better than a beast of your's.

Bene. I would my horse had the speed of your tongue, and fo good a continuer; but keep your way o' God's name, I have done.

Beat. You always end with a jade's trick; I know you of old.

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Pedro. This is the fum of all: Leonato,-Signior Claudio, and Signior Benedick, my dear friend Leonato hath invited you all; I tell him, we shall stay here at the leaft a month; and he heartily prays fome occafion may detain us longer: I dare fwear he is no hypocrite, but prays from his heart.

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Leon. If you fwear, my Lord, you fhall not be forfworn.-Let me bid you welcome, my Lord, being reconciled to the Prince your brother; I owe you all duty.

John. I thank you; I am not of many words, but I thank you.

I

Leon. Please it your Grace lead on? Pedro. Your hand, Leonato; we will go together. [Exeunt all but Benedick and Claudio.

SCENE III.

Claud. Benedick, didft thou note the daughter of Signior Leonato ?

Bene. I noted her not, but I look'd on her.
Claud. Is the not a modeft young Lady?

Bene. Do you queftion me, as an honeft man should do, for my fimple true judgement? or would you havę me fpeak after my cuftom, as being a profeffed tyrant to their fex ?

Claud. No, I pr'ythee, fpeak in fober judgement.Bene. Why, i'faith, methinks fhe is too low for an high praife, too brown for a fair praise, and too little for a great praife; only this commendation I can "afford

"afford her, that were fhe other than fhe is, fhe were "unhandfome; and being no other but as fhe is, I do "not like her."

Claud. Thou think'ft I am in fport; I pray thee tell me truly how thou lik'st her.

Bene. Wou'd you buy her, that you inquire after her?

Claud. Can the world buy fuch a jewel?

Bene. Yea, and a cafe to put it into: but fpeak you this with a fad brow? or do you play the flouting Jack, to tell us, Cupid is a good hare-finder, and Vulcan a rare carpenter? Come, in what key fhall a man take you to go in the fong?

Claud. In mine eye, she is the sweetest lady that I ever look'd on.

Bene. I can fee yet without spectacles, and I fee no fuch matter; there's her coufin, if he were not posfefs'd with fuch a fury, exceeds her as much in beauty, as the first of May doth the last of December. But I hope you have no intent to turn husband, have you ? Claud. I would fcarce truft myself, though I had fworn the contrary, if Hero would be my wife.

Bene. Is't come to this, in faith? hath not the world one man, but he will wear his cap with fufpicion? fhall I never fee a batchelor of threefcore 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.

SCENE IV. Re-enter Don Pedro.

Pedro. What fecret hath held you here, that you followed not to Leonato's houfe?

Bene. I would your Grace would conftrain 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 anfwer is, with Hero, Leonato's short daughter.

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

Bene. Like the old tale, my Lord, it is not fo, nor

'twas

'twas not fo; but, indeed, God forbid it fhould be fo. Claud. If my paffion change not shortly, God forbid it fhould be otherwife.

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 the fhould be loved, nor know how she should be worthy, is the opinion that fire cannot melt out of me; I will die in it at the stake.

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

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

Bene. That a woman conceived me, I thank her; that the brought me up, I likewife give her moft humble thanks: but that I will have a recheate winded in my forehead, or hang my bugle in an invifible baldric, all women shall pardon me; because I will not do them the wrong to miftruft 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.

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Bene. With anger, with fickness, or with hunger, my Lord, not with love: prove, that ever I lofe 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-house for "the fign of blind Cupid."

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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 *.

Alluding to ore Adım Bell, a famous archer of old.

Pedro.

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

Bene. The favage bull may; but if ever the fenfible Benedick bear it, pluck off the bull's horns, and fet 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 fign, Here you may fee Benedick the marry'd man.

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 fhortly.

Bene. I look for an earthquake too then."

Pedro. Well, you will temporife 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 fo I commit you

Claud. To the tuition of God: From my houfe, 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 beasted on neither: ere you flout old ends any further, examine your confcience, and so I leave you.

SCEN E V.

[Exit.

Claud. My Liege, your Highness 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 lesson that may do thee good.

*Befides that Venice is as remarkable for freedoms in amorous intrigues as Cyprus was of old, there may be a farther conjecture why this expreffion is here ufed. The Italians give to each of their principal cities a particular difinguishing title, as, Roma la fanta, Napoli la gentile, Genoua la juperba, E. and among the reft it is, Venetia la ricca, Venice the wealthy. A farcafm therefore fems to be here implied, that money governs love.

I

Claud.

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 foldier's eye;
That lik'd, but had a rougher task in hand
Than to drive liking to the name of love;
But now I am return'd, and that war-thoughts
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 like a lover presently,
And tire the hearer with a book of words:
If thou doft love fair Hero,
And I will break with her
And thou shalt have her:

cherish it,

and with her father, was't not to this end

That thou began'ft to twist so fine a story?
Claud. How fweetly do you minister to love,
That know love's grief by his complexion !
But left my liking might too fudden seem,
I would have falv'd it with a longer treatife.
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 shall 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 prifoner with the force
And strong 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 prefently.

Re-enter Leonato and Antonio.

[Exeunt.

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

VOL. II.

B

Ant..

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