ACT 1
Scene 3
...Who comes here?
Enter Borachio.
...What news, Borachio?
I came yonder from a great supper. The
Prince your brother is royally entertained by
Leonato, and I can give you intelligence of an
intended marriage.
...himself to unquietness?
Marry, it is your brother’s right hand.
...most exquisite Claudio?
Even he.
...way looks he?
Marry, on Hero, the daughter and heir of
Leonato.
...you to this?
Being entertained for a perfumer, as I was
smoking a musty room, comes me the Prince and
Claudio, hand in hand, in sad conference. I
whipped me behind the arras, and there heard it
agreed upon that the Prince should woo Hero for
himself, and having obtained her, give her to Count
Claudio.
...to be done?
We’ll wait upon your Lordship.
They exit.
ACT 2
Scene 1
...brother step aside.
Enter, with a Drum, Prince Pedro, Claudio, and Benedick, Signior Antonio, and Balthasar, all in masks, with Borachio and Don John.
...one visor remains.
And that is Claudio. I know him by his
bearing.
...swear his affection.
So did I too, and he swore he would marry
her tonight.
...to the banquet.
They exit. Claudio remains.
Scene 2
...you my drift.
Enter Don John and Borachio.
...daughter of Leonato.
Yea, my lord, but I can cross it.
...cross this marriage?
Not honestly, my lord, but so covertly that
no dishonesty shall appear in me.
...me briefly how.
I think I told your Lordship a year since,
how much I am in the favor of Margaret, the
waiting gentlewoman to Hero.
... I remember.
I can, at any unseasonable instant of the
night, appoint her to look out at her lady’s chamber
window.
...of this marriage?
The poison of that lies in you to temper. Go
you to the Prince your brother; spare not to tell
him that he hath wronged his honor in marrying
the renowned Claudio, whose estimation do you
mightily hold up, to a contaminated stale, such a
one as Hero.
...make of that?
Proof enough to misuse the Prince, to vex
Claudio, to undo Hero, and kill Leonato. Look you
for any other issue?
...will endeavor anything.
Go then, find me a meet hour to draw Don
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 honor, 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, which shall bear no less
likelihood than to see me at her chamber window,
hear me call Margaret “Hero,” hear Margaret term
me “Claudio,” and bring them to see this the very
night before the intended wedding, for in the meantime
I will so fashion the matter that Hero shall be
absent, and there shall appear such seeming truth
of Hero’s disloyalty that jealousy shall be called
assurance and all the preparation overthrown.
...a thousand ducats.
Be you constant in the accusation, and my
cunning shall not shame me.
...day of marriage.
They exit.
ACT 3
Scene 3
...I beseech you.
Enter Borachio and Conrade.
What, Conrade!
...Peace, stir not.
Conrade, I say!
...at thy elbow.
Mass, and my elbow itched, I thought there
would a scab follow.
...with thy tale.
Stand thee close, then, under this penthouse,
for it drizzles rain, and I will, like a true
drunkard, utter all to thee.
...Yet stand close.
Therefore know, I have earned of Don
John a thousand ducats.
...be so dear?
Thou shouldst rather ask if it were possible
any villainy should be so rich. For when rich
villains have need of poor ones, poor ones may
make what price they will.
...wonder at it.
That shows thou art unconfirmed. Thou
knowest that the fashion of a doublet, or a hat, or a
cloak, is nothing to a man.
...it is apparel.
I mean the fashion.
...is the fashion.
Tush, I may as well say the fool’s the fool.
But seest thou not what a deformed thief this
fashion is?
...remember his name.
Didst thou not hear somebody?
...on the house.
Seest thou not, I say, what a deformed thief
this fashion is, how giddily he turns about all the
hot bloods between fourteen and five-and-thirty,
sometimes fashioning them like Pharaoh’s soldiers
in the reechy painting, sometimes like god Bel’s
priests in the old church window, sometimes like
the shaven Hercules in the smirched worm-eaten
tapestry, where his codpiece seems as massy as his
club?
...of the fashion?
Not so, neither. But know that I have tonight
wooed Margaret, the Lady Hero’s gentlewoman,
by the name of Hero. She leans me out at
her mistress’ chamber window, bids me a thousand
times goodnight. I tell this tale vilely. I should first
tell thee how the Prince, Claudio, and my master,
planted and placed and possessed by my master
Don John, saw afar off in the orchard this amiable
amiable encounter.
...Margaret was Hero?
Two of them did, the Prince and Claudio,
but the devil my master knew she was Margaret;
and partly by his oaths, which first possessed them,
partly by the dark night, which did deceive them,
but chiefly by my villainy, which did confirm any
slander that Don John had made, away went Claudio
enraged, swore he would meet her as he was
appointed next morning at the temple, and there,
before the whole congregation, shame her with
what he saw o’ernight and send her home again
without a husband.
...go with us.
to Conrade
We are like to prove a goodly
commodity, being taken up of these men’s bills.
...we’ll obey you.
They exit.
ACT 4
Scene 2
...and so farewell.
Enter the Constables Dogberry and Verges, and the Town Clerk, or Sexton, in gowns, with the Watch, Conrade, and Borachio.
...come before me.
Conrade and Borachio are brought forward.
...your name, friend?
Borachio.
...you serve God?
Yea, sir, we hope.
...are false knaves.
Sir, I say to you we are none.
...prince’s brother villain!
Master constable—
...down an ass!
They exit.
ACT 5
Scene 1
...brother was fled?
Enter Constables Dogberry and Verges, and the Watch, with Conrade and Borachio.
...What’s your offense?
Sweet prince, let me go no farther to mine
answer. Do you hear me, and let this count kill me.
I have deceived even your very eyes. What your
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 villainy
they have upon record, which I had rather seal with
my death than repeat over to my shame. The lady is
dead upon mine and my master’s false accusation.
And, briefly, I desire nothing but the reward of a
villain.
...on to this?
Yea, and paid me richly for the practice of
it.
...these is he?
If you would know your wronger, look on me.
...Mine innocent child?
Yea, even I alone.
...by your brother.
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 anything that I do know by her.
...this lewd fellow.
They exit.