"afford her, that were fhe other than fhe is, fhe were “unhandsome; and being no other but as fhe is, I do 66 not like her."

Claud. Thou think'ft I am in fport; I pray thee tell me truly how thou lik'ft 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 speak 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, fhe is the fweeteft lady that I ever look'd on.

Bene. I can fee yet without fpectacles, and I fee no fuch matter; there's her coufin, if fhe were not poffefs'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 thrust 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 house?

Bene. I would your Grace would constrain 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 answer is, with Hero, Leonato's fhort 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 should be fo. Claud. If my paffion change not fhortly, 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 fpoke mine. Bene. And by my two faiths and troths, my Lord, 1 fpeak mine,

Claud. That I love her, I feel.

Pedro. That he 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 obftinate 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 most 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 mistrust 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.

Bene. "With anger, with fickness, or with hunger,

my Lord, not with love: prove, that ever I lose more "blood with love, than I will get again with drink"ing, pick out mine eyes with a ballad-maker's pen, " and hang me up at the door of a brothel-houfe for "the fign of blind Cupid."

Pedro. Well, if ever thou dost 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 one Adam 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 set 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

Glaud. 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 beafted on neither: ere you fout old ends any further, examine your confcience, and fo I leave you.

[Exit.

Claud. My Liege, your Highness now may do me good.

Pedro. My love is thine to teach, teach it but how, And thou shalt fee how apt it is to learn Any hard leffon that may do thee good.

*Befiles that Venice is as remarkable for freedoms in amorous intrigues as Cyprus was of old, there my be a farther conjecture why this expreffion is here ufed. The italians give to each of their prin cipal cities a pa.ticular dißinguishing title, as, Roma la fanta, Napoli la gentile. Genova la Juperba, &c. and among the reft it is, Venetia la ricca, Venice the wealthy. A farcafm therefore feems to be here implied, that money governs love,

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,

:

cherish it,

And I will break with her and with her father,
And thou shalt have her: 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 feem,
I would have falv'd it with a longer treatise.
Pedro. What need the bridge much broader than
the flood?

The fairest grant is the neceflity;

Look, what will ferve, is fit; 'tis once,thou lov't;
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 ftrong 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 cousin your fon? hath he provided this music ?

Ant,

Ant. He is very busy about it; but, brother, I can tell you news that you yet dream'd not of.

Leon. Are they good?

Ant. As the event ftamps them, but they have a good coyer; they fhow well outward. The Prince and Count Claudio, walking in a thick-pleached alley in my orchard, were thus overheard by a man of mine: The Prince difcover'd to Claudio, that he lov'd my niece your daughter, and meant to acknowledge it this night in a dance; and if he found her accordant, he meant to take the prefent time by the top, and instant- ly break with you of it.

Leon. Hath the fellow any wit that told you this? Ant. A good fharp fellow; I will fend for him, and queftion him yourself.

Leon. No, no; we will hold it as a dream, till it appear itself: but I will acquaint my daughter withal,. that he may be the better prepared for answer, if peradventure this be true; go you and tell her of it. Coufins, you know what you have to do. [Several cross the flage here.] O, I cry you mercy, friend, go you with me, and I will use your skill; good coufin, have a care this bufy time. [Exeunt..

Changes to an apartment in Leonato's houfe.

Enter Don John and Conrade.

Conr. What the good-jer, my Lord, why are you thus out of measure fad ?

John. There is no measure in the occafion that breeds it, therefore the fadnefs is without limit.

Conr. You fhould hear reason.

John. And when I have heard it, what bleffing bringeth it?

Conr. If not a prefent remedy, yet a patient fuffe- ·

rance.

John. I wonder, that thou (being, as thou fay'st thou art, born under Saturn) goeft about to apply a moral medicine to a mortifying mifchief. I cannot hide what I am: I must be sad when I have cause, and smile at no man's jefts; eat when I have ftomach, and wait

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