ACT V.

And that shall Claudio know, so shall the prince, Brother, away:—I will be heard ;—

Claud. If he be, he knows how to turn his girdle. | learned constable is too cunning to be understood. Bene. Shall I speak a word in your ear? What's your oilence? Claud. God bless me from a challenge? Bene. You are a villain;-I jest not:-I will make it good how you dare, with what you dare, and when you dare:-Do me right, or I will test your cowardice. You have killed a sweet lady, and her death shall fall heavy on you: Let me hear from you.

Bora. Sweet prince, let me go no further to mine answer; do you hear me, and let this count kill me. I have deceived even your very eyes; what your pro-wisdoms could not discover, these shallow fools have brought to light; who, in the night, overheard me confessing to this man, how don John your brother incensed me to slander the lady Hero: how you were brought into the orchard, and saw me court Margaret in Hero's garments; how you disgraced her, when you should marry her: my villany they have upon record; which I had rather seal with my death, than repeat over to my

Claud. Well, I will meet you, so I may have good cheer.

D. Pedro. What,a feast? a feast!

Claud. Ffaith, I thank him; he hath bid me to a calf's head and a capon; the which if I do not carve most curiously, say, my knife's naught.-shame: the lady is dead upon mine and my master's Shall I not find a woodcock too?

Bene. Sir, your wit ambles well; it goes easily. D. Pedro. I'll tell thee how Beatrice praised thy wit the other day: I said thou hadst a fine wit: True, says she, a fine little one: No, said I, a great wit; Right, says she, a great gross one: Nay, said I, a good wit; Just, said she, it hurts nobody: Nay said I, the gentleman is wise; Certain, said she. a wise gentleman: Nay said I, he hath the tongues; That I believe, said she for he swore a thing to me on Monday night, which he forswore on Tuesday morning; there's a double tongue; there's two tongues. Thus did she, an hour together, transshape thy particular virtues; yet, at last, she concluded with a sigh, thou wast the properest man in Italy.

Claud. For the which she wept heartily, and said she cared not.

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

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

D. Pedro. But when shall we set the savage bull's horns on the sensible 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 gossip-like humor: you break jests as braggarts do their blades, which, God be thanked, hurt not.-My lord, for your inany courtesies, I thank you: I must discontinue your company your brother, the bastard, is fled from I Messina: you have, among you, killed a sweet and innocent lady: For my lord lack-beard, there, he and I shall meet; and till then, peace be with him. Exit BENEDICK.

false accusation; and, briefly, I desire nothing but
the reward of a villain.

D. Petro, Runs not this speech like iron through
your blood?

Cland. I have drunk poison whiles he utter'd it.
D. Pedro. But did my brother set thee on to this?
Bora. Yea, and paid me richly for the practice of it.
D. Pedro. He is compos'd and frame'd of trea-
chery:-

And fled he is upon this villany.

Claud. Sweet Hero! now thy image doth appear
In the rare semblance that I loved it first.

Dogb. Come, bring away the plaintifls; by this
time our sexton hath reformed signior Leonato of
the matter. And, masters, do not forget to specify,
when time and place shall serve, that I am an ass.

Verg. Here, here comes master signior Leonato,
and the sexton too.

Re-enter LEONATO and ANTONIO, with the Sexton.
Leon. Which is the villain? Let me see his eyes
That when I note another man like him,
I may avoid him: Which of these is he?
Bora. If you would know your wronger, look

on me.

Leon. Art thou the slave, that with thy breath
hast kill'd
Mine innocent child?

Bora.

Yea, even I alone.
Leon. No, not so, villain; thou bely'st thyself;
Here stand a pair of honorable men,
A third is fled, that had a hand in it:-
thank you, princes, for my daughter's death;
Record it with your high and worthy deeds;
"Twas bravely done, if you bethink you of it.

Claud. I know not how to pray your patience,
Yet I must speak: Choose your revenge yourself;
Impose me to what penance your invention
Claud. In most profound earnest; and, I'll war-Can lay upon my sin: yet sinn'd I not,
rant you, for the love of Beatrice.

D. Pedro. He is in earnest.

D. Pedro. And hath challenged thee?
Claud. Most sincerely.

D. Pedro. What a pretty thing man is, when he goes in his doublet and hose, and leaves of his wit! Enter DOGBERRY, VERGES, and the Watch, with

CONRADE and BORACHIO.

Claud. He is then a giant to an ape: but then iş an ape a doctor to such a man.

D. Pedro. But, soft you, let be; pluck up, my heart, and be sad! Did he not say, my brother was fled?

Dogb. Come, you, sir; if justice cannot tame you, she shall ne'er weigh more reasons in her balance: nay, an you be a cursing hypocrite once, you must be looked to.

D. Petro. How now, two of my brother's men bound? Borachio, one!'

Claud. Hearken after their offence, my lord! D. Pedro. Officers, what o.fence have these men done!

But in mistaking.

D. Pedro.

By my soul, nor 1;
And yet, to satisfy this good old man,
I would bend under any heavy weight
That he'll enjoin me to.

That were impossible: but, I pray you both,
Leon. I cannot bid you bid my daughter live,
Possess the people in Messina here
How innocent she died: and, if your love
Can labor aught in sad invention,
Hang her an epitaph upon her tomb,
And sing it to her bones; sing it to-night:-
To-morrow morning come you to my house;
And since you could not be my son-in-law,
Be yet my nephew: my brother hath a daughter,
Almost the copy of my child that's dead,
And she alone is heir to both of us;
Give her the right you should have given her cousin,
And so dies my revenge.
Claud.
O, noble sir,
Your over-kindness doth wring tears from me!
I do embrace your offer; and dispose
For henceforth of poor Claudio.

Leon. To-morrow then I will expect your coming
To-night I take my leave.-This naughty man
un-Shall face to face be brought to Margaret,
Who, I believe, was pack'd in all this wrong,
Hir'd to it by your brother.

Dog5. Marry, sir, they have committed false report; moreover, they have spoken untruths; secondarily, they are slanders; sixth, and lastly they have belied a lady; thirdly, they have verified just things; and, to conclude, they are lying knaves. D. Pedro. First, I ask thee what they have done; thirdly, I ask thee what's their offence; sixth and lastly, why they are committed; and, to conclude, what you lay to their charge?

Claud. Rightly reasoned, and in his own division; and, by my troth, there's one meaning well suited. D. Pedro. Whom have you offended, masters; that you are thus bound to your answer! this

1 Serious.

Bora.

No, by my soul, she was not;
Nor knew not what she did, when she spoke to me;
But always hath been just and virtuous,
In any thing that I do know by her.

Dogb. Moreover, sir,(which, indeed, is not under
white and black,) this plaintiff here, the offender,
did call me ass: I beseech you, let it be remembered
• Acquaint. • Combined

2 Incited.

.

4

སྐ

in his punishment: And also the watch heard them talk of one Deformed: they say, he wears a key in his ear, and a lock hanging by it; and borrows money in God's name; the which he hath used so long, and never paid, that now men grow hardhearted, and will lend nothing for God's sake: Pray you, examine him upon that point.

Leon. I thank thee for thy care and honest pains. Dogh. Your worship speaks like a most thankful and reverend youth; and I praise God for you. Leon. There's for thy pains.

Dogb God save the foundation!

Leon. Go, I discharge thee of thy prisoner, and I thank thee.

Beat. Foul words are but foul breath, and foul breath is noisome; therefore I will depart unkissed. Bene. Thou hast frighted the word out of his right sense, so forcible is thy wit: But I must tell thee plainly, Claudio undergoes my challenge; and either I must shortly hear from him, or I will subscribe him a coward. And, I pray thee now, tell me, for which of my bad parts didst thou first fall in love with me?

Beat. For them all together; which maintained so politic a state of evil, that they will not admit any good part to intermingle with them. But for which of my good parts did you first suffer love for me? Bene. Suffer love; a good epithet! I do suffer Dogb. I leave an arrant knave with your worship; love, indeed, for I love thee against my will. which, I beseech your worship, to correct yourself, Beat. In spite of your heart, I think; alas! poor for the example of others. God keep your wor-heart! If you spite it for my sake, I will spite it for ship; I wish your worship well; God restore you yours; for I will never love that which my friend to health: I humbly give you leave to depart; and hates. if a merry meeting may be wished, God prohibit it.-Come, neighbor.

Bene. Thou and I are too wise to woo peaceably. Beat. It appears not in this confession: there's Ex. DOGBERY, VERGES, and Watch.not one wise man among twenty that will praise Leon. Until to-morrow morning, lords, farewell.himself. Ant. Farewell, my lords; we look for you to

morrow..

D. Pedro. We will not fail.
Claud.

To-night I mourn with Hero.
[Exeunt Don PEDRO and CLAUDIO.
Leon. Bring you these fellows on; we'll talk
with Margaret,
How her acquaintance grew with this lewds fellow.
[Exeunt.

SCENE II.-Leonato's Garden. Enter BENEDICK and MARGARET, meeting. Bene. Pray thee, sweet mistress Margaret, deserve well at my hands, by helping me to the speech of Beatrice.

Marg. Will you then write me a sonnet in praise of my beauty?

Bene. In so high a style, Margaret, that no man living shall come over it; for in most comely truth, thou deserves it.

Marg. To have no man come over me? why, shall I always keep below stairs!

Bene. Thy wit is as quick as the greyhound's mouth, it catches.

Marg. And yours as blunt as the fencer's foils, which hit, but hurt not.

Bene. Á most manly wit, Margaret, it will not hurt a woman; and so I pray thee, call Beatrice: I give thee the bucklers.

Marg. Give us the sword, we have bucklers of

And knows me, and knows me,

How pitiful I deserve,

I mean, in singing: but in loving,-Leander the good swimmer, Troilus the first employer of pandars, and a whole book full of these quondam carpet-mongers, whose names yet run smoothly in the even road of a blank verse, why, they were never so truly turned over and over as my poor self, in love: Marry, I cannot show it in rhyme; I have tried; I can find out no rhyme to lady but baby, an innocent rhyme; for scorn, horn, a hard rhyme; for school, fool, a babbling rhyme; very ominous endings: No, I was not born under a rhyming planet, nor I cannot woo in festivial terms.

Enter BEATRICE.

Sweet Beatrice, wouldst thou come when I called
thee?

Beat. Yea, signior, and depart when you bid me.
Bene. O, stay but till then?

Beat. Then, is spoken; fare you well now:and yet, ere I go, let me go with that I came for, which is, with knowing what hath passed between you and Claudio.

Bene. Only foul words; and thereupon I will kiss thee.

Wicked.

Bene. An old, an old instance, Beatrice, that lived in the time of good neighbors: if a man do not erect in this age his own tomb ere he dies, he shall live no longer in monument than the bell rings, and the widow weeps.

Beat. And how long is that, think you?

Bene. Question?-Why, an hour in clamor, and a quarter in rheum: Therefore it is most expedient for the wise, (if don Worm his consciense find no impediment to the contrary,) to be the trumpet of his own virtues, as I am to myself: So much for praising myself, (who, I myself will bear witness is praise-worthy,) and now tell me, How doth your cousin?

Beat. Very ill.

Bene. And how do you?
Beat. Very ill too.

Bene. Serve God, love me, and mend: there will I leave you too, for here comes one in haste. Enter URSULA.

Urs. Madam, you must come to your uncle; yonder's old coils at home: it is proved, my lady Hero hath been falsely accused, the prince and Claudio mightily abused; and don John is the author of all, who is fled and gone: will you come presently?

Beat. Will you go hear this news, signior! Bene. I will live in thy heart, die in thy lap, and be buried in thy eyes, and, moreover, I will go with thee to thy uncle's. [Exeunt.

SCENE III-The Inside of a Church. Enter Don PEDRO, CLAUDIO, and Attendants, with music and tapers.

Claud. Is this the monument of Leonato !
Atten. It is, my lord.
Claud. [Reads from a scroll.

Now,

Done to death by slanderous tongues,
Was the Hero that here lies:
Death in guerdon of ker wrongs,
Gives her fame which never dies:
So the life, that died with shame,
Lives in death with glorious fame.

Hang thou there upon the tomb, [Affixing it.
Praising her when I am dumb-

music, sound, and sing your solemn hymn.

[Exeunt.

SCENE IV.-A Room in Leonato's House. Enter LEONATO, ANTONIO, BENEDICK, BEATRICE, URSULA, Friar, and HERO.

Friar. Did I not tell you she was innocent?
Leon. So are the prince and Claudio, who accus'd
her,

Upon the error that you heard debated:
But Margaret was in some fault for this,
Although against her will, as it appears
In the true course of all the question.

Ant. Well, I am glad that all things sort so well.
Bene. And so am I, being else by faith enforc'd
To call young Claudio to a reckoning for it.

Leon. Well, daughter, and you, gentlewoman all,
Withdraw into a chamber by yourselves;
And, when I send for you, come hither mask'd:
The prince and Claudio promised by this hour
To visit me:- You know your office, brother;
You must be father to your brother's daughter,
And give her to young Claudio. [Exeunt Ladies.
Ant. Which I will do with confirm'd countenance.
Bene. Friar, I must entreat your pains, I think.
Friar. To do what, signior?

Bene. To bind me, or undo me, one of them.-
Signior Leonato, truth it is, good signior,
Your niece regards me with an eye of favor.
Leon. That eye my daughter lent her: 'Tis most

true.

I am your husband, if you like of me.
Hero. And when I lived I was your other wife:
[Unmasking.

And when you loved, you were my other husband.
Claud. Another Hero?

Hero.

Nothing certainer:

One Hero died defil'd; but I do live,
And, surely as I live, I am a maid.
D. Pedro. The former Hero! Hero that is dead!
Leon. She died, my lord, but whiles her slander
lived.

Friar. All this amazement can I qualify;
When, after that the holy rites are ended,
Mean time let wonder seem familiar,
I'll tell you largely of fair Hero's death:
And to the chapel let us presently.
Bene. Soft and fair, friar.-Which is Beatrice!
Beat. I answer to that name; [Unmasking.)
What is your will?
Bene. Do not you love me?
Beat.

No, no more than reason. Bene. Why, then your uncle, and the prince, and Claudio,

Have been deceived; for they swore you did.
Beat. Do you not love me?

Bene.
No, no more than reason
Are much deceiv'd; for they did swear you did.
Beat. Why, then my cousin, Margaret,and Ursula,
Bene. They swore that you were almost sick
for me.

Beat. They swore that you were well-nigh dead
for me.

Bene. 'Tis no such matter:-Then you do not
love me!

Beat. No, truly, but in friendly recompense.
Leon. Come, cousin, I am sure you love the

gentleman.

Claud. And I'll be sworn upon't, that he loves
her;

For here's a paper, written in his hand,
A halting sonnet of his own pure brain,
Fashion'd to Beatrice.

Hero.

Writ in my cousin's hand, stolen from her pocket,
And here's another,
Containing her affection unto Benedick.

Bene. A miracle! here's our own hands against our hearts!-Come, I will have thee; but, by this light, I take thee for pity.

Beat. I would not deny you; but, by this good day, I yield upon great persuasion; and, partly, to save your life; for I was told you were in a consumption.

Bene. Peace, I will stop your mouth

[Kissing her. D. Pedro. How dost thou, Benedick the married man?

Bene. I'll tell thee what prince; a college of wit-crackers cannot flout me out of my humor: Dost thou think, I care for a satire, or an epigram: No: If a man will be beaten with brains, he shall wear nothing handsome about him: In brief, since I do propose to marry, I will think nothing to any purpose that the world can say against it; and therefore never flout at me for what I have said against it; for man is a giddy thing, and this is my conclusion. For thy part, Claudio, I did think to have beaten thee; but in that thou art like to be my kinsman, live unbruised, and love my cousin.

Claud. I had well hoped, thou wouldst have denied Beatrice, that I might have cudgelled thee out of thy single life, to make thee a double dealer; which, out of question, thou wilt be, if my cousin do not look exceeding narrowly to thee.

Bene. Come, come, we are friends.- let's have a dance, ere we are married, that we might lighten our own hearts and our wives' heels.

Leon. We'll have dancing afterwards.
Bene. First, on my word; therefore, play, music.
- Prince, thou art sad; get thee a wife, get thee a

Claud. For this I owe you: here come other wife: there is no staff more reverend than one tip

reckonings.

Which is the lady I must seize upon?

Ant. This same is she, and I do give you her. Claud. Why, then she's mine: Sweet, let me see your face.

Leon. No, that you shall not, till you take her
hand,

Before this friar, and swear to marry her.
Claud. Give me your hand before this holy friar;|

ped with horn.

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