ACT 1
Scene 1
...Pedro is approached.
Enter Don Pedro, Prince of Aragon, with Claudio, Benedick, Balthasar, and John the Bastard.
...will go together.
Benedick, didst thou note the daughter of
Signior Leonato?
...looked on her.
Is she not a modest young lady?
...to their sex?
No, I pray thee, speak in sober judgment.
...not like her.
Thou thinkest I am in sport. I pray thee tell
me truly how thou lik’st her.
...enquire after her?
Can the world buy such a jewel?
...in the song?
In mine eye she is the sweetest lady that ever
I looked on.
...husband, have you?
I would scarce trust myself, though I had
sworn the contrary, if Hero would be my wife.
...Leonato’s short daughter.
If this were so, so were it uttered.
...should be so.”
If my passion change not shortly, God forbid
it should be otherwise.
...very well worthy.
You speak this to fetch me in, my lord.
...speak my thought.
And in faith, my lord, I spoke mine.
...I spoke mine.
That I love her, I feel.
...despite of beauty.
And never could maintain his part but in the
force of his will.
...the married man.”
If this should ever happen, thou wouldst be
horn-mad.
...I commit you—
To the tuition of God. From my house, if I had
it—
...I leave you.
My liege, your Highness now may do me good.
...do thee good.
Hath Leonato any son, my lord?
...affect her, Claudio?
O, my lord,
When you went onward on this ended action,
I looked upon her with a soldier’s eye,
That liked, but had a rougher task in hand
Than to drive liking to the name of love.
But now I am returned and that war thoughts
Have left their places vacant, in their rooms
Come thronging soft and delicate desires,
All prompting me how fair young Hero is,
Saying I liked her ere I went to wars.
...fine a story?
How sweetly you do minister to love,
That know love’s grief by his complexion!
But lest my liking might too sudden seem,
I would have salved it with a longer treatise.
...put it presently.
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.
...you Signior Benedick?
You know me well. I am he.
...man in it.
How know you he loves her?
...to the banquet.
unmasking
Thus answer I in name of Benedick,
But hear these ill news with the ears of Claudio.
’Tis certain so. The Prince woos for himself.
Friendship is constant in all other things
Save in the office and affairs of love.
Therefore all hearts in love use their own tongues.
Let every eye negotiate for itself
And trust no agent, for beauty is a witch
Against whose charms faith melteth into blood.
This is an accident of hourly proof,
Which I mistrusted not. Farewell therefore, Hero.
... Count Claudio?
Yea, the same.
...go with me?
Whither?
...got your Hero.
I wish him joy of her.
...served you thus?
I pray you, leave me.
...beat the post.
If it will not be, I’ll leave you.
He exits.
...perturbation follows her.
Enter Claudio and Beatrice.
...are you sad?
Not sad, my lord.
...How then, sick?
Neither, my lord.
...’tis your cue.
Silence is the perfectest herald of joy. I were
but little happy if I could say how much.—Lady, as
you are mine, I am yours. I give away myself for you
and dote upon the exchange.
...in her heart.
And so she doth, cousin.
...go to church?
Tomorrow, my lord. Time goes on crutches
till love have all his rites.
...ten nights’ watchings.
And I, my lord.
...you my drift.
They exit.
Scene 3
...arbor. He hides.
Enter Prince, Leonato, Claudio, and Balthasar with music.
...hear this music?
Yea, my good lord. How still the evening is,
As hushed on purpose to grace harmony!
...hath hid himself?
aside to Prince
O, very well my lord. The music ended,
We’ll fit the kid-fox with a pennyworth.
...with Signior Benedick?
O, ay. Aside to Prince.
Stalk on, stalk on; the
fowl sits.—I did never think that lady would have
loved any man.
...doth but counterfeit.
Faith, like enough.
...passion shows she?
aside to Leonato
Bait the hook well; this fish
will bite.
...tell you how.
She did indeed.
...in such reverence.
aside to Prince
He hath ta’en th’ infection.
Hold it up.
...That’s her torment.
’Tis true indeed, so your daughter says. “Shall
I,” says she, “that have so oft encountered him with
scorn, write to him that I love him?”
...tells us all.
Now you talk of a sheet of paper, I remember
a pretty jest your daughter told us of.
...between the sheet?
That.
...him, I should.”
Then down upon her knees she falls, weeps,
sobs, beats her heart, tears her hair, prays, curses:
“O sweet Benedick, God give me patience!”
...not discover it.
To what end? He would make but a sport of it
and torment the poor lady worse.
...she is virtuous.
And she is exceeding wise.
...good, think you?
Hero thinks surely she will die, for she says
she will die if he love her not, and she will die ere
she make her love known, and she will die if he woo
her rather than she will bate one breath of her
accustomed crossness.
...a contemptible spirit.
He is a very proper man.
...good outward happiness.
Before God, and in my mind, very wise.
...are like wit.
And I take him to be valiant.
...of her love?
Never tell him, my lord, let her wear it out
with good counsel.
...Dinner is ready.
Leonato, Prince, and Claudio begin to exit.
aside to Prince and Leonato
If he do not
dote on her upon this, I will never trust my
expectation.
...in to dinner.
Prince, Leonato, and Claudio exit.
ACT 3
Scene 2
...better than reportingly.
Enter Prince, Claudio, Benedick, and Leonato.
...I toward Aragon.
I’ll bring you thither, my lord, if you’ll vouchsafe
me.
...you are sadder.
I hope he be in love.
...it. Hang it!
You must hang it first, and draw it afterwards.
...that has it.
Yet say I, he is in love.
...appear he is.
If he be not in love with some woman, there
is no believing old signs. He brushes his hat o’
mornings. What should that bode?
...at the barber’s?
No, but the barber’s man hath been seen
with him, and the old ornament of his cheek hath
already stuffed tennis balls.
...out by that?
That’s as much as to say, the sweet youth’s in
love.
...is his melancholy.
And when was he wont to wash his face?
...say of him.
Nay, but his jesting spirit, which is now crept
into a lute string and now governed by stops—
...is in love.
Nay, but I know who loves him.
...knows him not.
Yes, and his ill conditions; and, in despite of
all, dies for him.
...him about Beatrice!
’Tis even so. Hero and Margaret have by this
played their parts with Beatrice, and then the two
bears will not bite one another when they meet.
...what I know.
If there be any impediment, I pray you discover
it.
...lady is disloyal.
Who, Hero?
...every man’s Hero.
Disloyal?
...change your mind.
to Prince
May this be so?
...more, proceed accordingly.
If I see anything tonight why I should not
marry her, tomorrow in the congregation, where I
should wed, there will I shame her.
...day untowardly turned!
O mischief strangely thwarting!
...seen the sequel.
They exit.
ACT 4
Scene 1
...at the jail.
Enter Prince, John the Bastard, Leonato, Friar, Claudio, Benedick, Hero, and Beatrice, with Attendants.
...marry this lady?
No.
...to utter it.
Know you any, Hero?
...his answer, none.
O, what men dare do! What men may do!
What men daily do, not knowing what they do!
...ah, ha, he!
Stand thee by, friar.—Father, by your leave,
Will you with free and unconstrainèd soul
Give me this maid, your daughter?
...give her me.
And what have I to give you back whose worth
May counterpoise this rich and precious gift?
...render her again.
Sweet prince, you learn me noble thankfulness.—
There, Leonato, take her back again.
Give not this rotten orange to your friend.
She’s but the sign and semblance of her honor.
Behold how like a maid she blushes here!
O, what authority and show of truth
Can cunning sin cover itself withal!
Comes not that blood as modest evidence
To witness simple virtue? Would you not swear,
All you that see her, that she were a maid,
By these exterior shows? But she is none.
She knows the heat of a luxurious bed.
Her blush is guiltiness, not modesty.
...mean, my lord?
Not to be married,
Not to knit my soul to an approvèd wanton.
...of her virginity—
I know what you would say: if I have known her,
You will say she did embrace me as a husband,
And so extenuate the forehand sin.
No, Leonato,
I never tempted her with word too large,
But, as a brother to his sister, showed
Bashful sincerity and comely love.
...otherwise to you?
Out on thee, seeming! I will write against it.
You seem to me as Dian in her orb,
As chaste as is the bud ere it be blown.
But you are more intemperate in your blood
Than Venus, or those pampered animals
That rage in savage sensuality.
...True! O God!
Leonato, stand I here?
Is this the Prince? Is this the Prince’s brother?
Is this face Hero’s? Are our eyes our own?
...this, my lord?
Let me but move one question to your daughter,
And by that fatherly and kindly power
That you have in her, bid her answer truly.
...call you this?
To make you answer truly to your name.
...any just reproach?
Marry, that can Hero!
Hero itself can blot out Hero’s virtue.
What man was he talked with you yesternight
Out at your window betwixt twelve and one?
Now, if you are a maid, answer to this.
...thy much misgovernment.
O Hero, what a Hero hadst thou been
If half thy outward graces had been placed
About thy thoughts and counsels of thy heart!
But fare thee well, most foul, most fair. Farewell,
Thou pure impiety and impious purity.
For thee I’ll lock up all the gates of love
And on my eyelids shall conjecture hang,
To turn all beauty into thoughts of harm,
And never shall it more be gracious.
...her spirits up.
Claudio, Prince, and Don John exit.
ACT 5
Scene 1
...thus dishonor her.
Enter Prince and Claudio.
...e’en, good e’en.
Good day to both of you.
...would lie low.
Who wrongs him?
...fear thee not.
Marry, beshrew my hand
If it should give your age such cause of fear.
In faith, my hand meant nothing to my sword.
...by thy villainy.
My villainy?
...bloom of lustihood.
Away! I will not have to do with you.
...went to seek.
Now, signior, what news?
...almost a fray.
We had like to have had our two noses
snapped off with two old men without teeth.
...seek you both.
We have been up and down to seek thee, for
we are high-proof melancholy and would fain have
it beaten away. Wilt thou use thy wit?
...by thy side?
Never any did so, though very many have
been beside their wit. I will bid thee draw, as we do
the minstrels: draw to pleasure us.
...sick, or angry?
to Benedick
What, courage, man! What
though care killed a cat? Thou hast mettle enough
in thee to kill care.
...choose another subject.
to Prince
Nay, then, give him another staff.
This last was broke ’cross.
...be angry indeed.
If he be, he knows how to turn his girdle.
...in your ear?
God bless me from a challenge!
...hear from you.
Well, I will meet you, so I may have good
cheer.
...feast, a feast?
I’ faith, 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. Shall I not
find a woodcock too?
...man in Italy.
For the which she wept heartily and said she
cared not.
...told us all.
All, all. And, moreover, God saw him when
he was hid in the garden.
...sensible Benedick’s head?
Yea, and text underneath: “Here dwells Benedick,
the married man”?
...is in earnest.
In most profound earnest, and, I’ll warrant
you, for the love of Beatrice.
...hath challenged thee?
Most sincerely.
...off his wit!
He is then a giant to an ape; but then is an ape
a doctor to such a man.
...bound? Borachio one!
Hearken after their offense, my lord.
...to their charge.
Rightly reasoned, and in his own division;
and, by my troth, there’s one meaning well suited.
...through your blood?
I have drunk poison whiles he uttered it.
...upon this villainy.
Sweet Hero, now thy image doth appear
In the rare semblance that I loved it first.
...you of it.
I know not how to pray your patience,
Yet I must speak. Choose your revenge yourself.
Impose me to what penance your invention
Can lay upon my sin. Yet sinned I not
But in mistaking.
...dies my revenge.
O, noble sir!
Your overkindness doth wring tears from me.
I do embrace your offer and dispose
For henceforth of poor Claudio.
...will not fail.
Tonight I’ll mourn with Hero.
...this lewd fellow.
They exit.
Scene 3
...to thy uncle’s.
Enter Claudio, Prince, and three or four Lords with tapers, and Musicians.
Is this the monument of Leonato?
...is, my lord.
reading an Epitaph.
Done to death by slanderous tongues
Was the Hero that here lies.
Death, in guerdon of her wrongs,
Gives her fame which never dies.
So the life that died with shame
Lives in death with glorious fame. He hangs up the scroll.
Hang thou there upon the tomb,
Praising her when I am dumb.
Now music, sound, and sing your solemn hymn.
...utterèd, Heavily, heavily.
Now, unto thy bones, goodnight.
Yearly will I do this rite.
...Fare you well.
Good morrow, masters. Each his several way.
...we will go.
And Hymen now with luckier issue speed ’s,
Than this for whom we rendered up this woe.
They exit.
Scene 4
...Prince and Claudio.
Enter Prince, and Claudio, and two or three other.
...my brother’s daughter?
I’ll hold my mind were she an Ethiope.
...storm, and cloudiness?
I think he thinks upon the savage bull.
Tush, fear not, man. We’ll tip thy horns with gold,
And all Europa shall rejoice at thee,
As once Europa did at lusty Jove
When he would play the noble beast in love.
...just his bleat.
For this I owe you. Here comes other reck’nings.
Enter Leonato’s brother, Hero, Beatrice, Margaret, Ursula, the ladies masked.
Which is the lady I must seize upon?
...give you her.
Why, then, she’s mine.—Sweet, let me see your face.
...to marry her.
to Hero
Give me your hand before this holy friar. They take hands.
I am your husband, if you like of me.
...husband. She unmasks.
Another Hero!
...love the gentleman.
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,
Fashioned to Beatrice.
He shows a paper.
...love my cousin.
I had well hoped thou wouldst have denied
Beatrice, that I might have cudgeled 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.
...plays. They dance.
They exit.