MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING

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Contents

DRAMATIS PERSONAE

DON PEDRO prince of Arragon. 
DON JOHN his bastard brother. 
CLAUDIO a young lord of Florence. 
BENEDICK a young lord of Padua. 
LEONATO governor of Messina. 
ANTONIO his brother. 
BALTHASAR attendant on Don Pedro. 
CONRADE 

BORACHIO 

 |
| followers of Don John.
| 
FRIAR FRANCIS:
DOGBERRY a constable. 
VERGES a headborough.
A Sexton.
A Boy. 
HERO daughter to Leonato. 
BEATRICE niece to Leonato. 
MARGARET 

URSULA 

 |
| gentlewomen attending on Hero.
| 
Messengers, Watch, Attendants, &c. (Lord:)
(Messenger:)
(Watchman:)
(First Watchman:)
(Second Watchman:) 

Scene

Messina. 

Act I

Scene I Before LEONATO'S house.

[Enter LEONATO, HERO, and BEATRICE, with a
Messenger] 
LEONATO I learn in this letter that Don Peter of Arragon
comes this night to Messina. 
Messenger He is very near by this: he was not three leagues off
when I left him. 
LEONATO How many gentlemen have you lost in this action? 
Messenger But few of any sort, and none of name. 
LEONATO A victory is twice itself when the achiever brings
home full numbers. I find here that Don Peter hath
bestowed much honour on a young Florentine called Claudio. 
Messenger Much deserved on his part and equally remembered by
Don Pedro: he hath borne himself beyond the
promise of his age, doing, in the figure of a lamb,
the feats of a lion: he hath indeed better
bettered expectation than you must expect of me to
tell you how. 
LEONATO He hath an uncle here in Messina will be very much
glad of it. 
Messenger I have already delivered him letters, and there
appears much joy in him; even so much that joy could
not show itself modest enough without a badge of
bitterness. 
LEONATO Did he break out into tears? 
Messenger In great measure. 
LEONATO A kind overflow of kindness: there are no faces
truer than those that are so washed. How much
better is it to weep at joy than to joy at weeping! 
BEATRICE I pray you, is Signior Mountanto returned from the
wars or no? 
Messenger I know none of that name, lady: there was none such
in the army of any sort. 
LEONATO What is he that you ask for, niece? 
HERO My cousin means Signior Benedick of Padua. 
Messenger O, he's returned; and as pleasant as ever he was. 
BEATRICE He set up his bills here in Messina and challenged
Cupid at the flight; and my uncle's fool, reading
the challenge, subscribed for Cupid, and challenged
him at the bird-bolt. I pray you, how many hath he
killed and eaten in these wars? But how many hath
he killed? for indeed I promised to eat all of his killing. 
LEONATO Faith, niece, you tax Signior Benedick too much;
but he'll be meet with you, I doubt it not. 
Messenger He hath done good service, lady, in these wars. 
BEATRICE You had musty victual, and he hath holp to eat it:
he is a very valiant trencherman; he hath an
excellent stomach. 
Messenger And a good soldier too, lady. 
BEATRICE And a good soldier to a lady: but what is he to a lord? 
Messenger A lord to a lord, a man to a man; stuffed with all
honourable virtues. 
BEATRICE It is so, indeed; he is no less than a stuffed man:
but for the stuffing,--well, we are all mortal. 
LEONATO You must not, sir, mistake my niece. There is a
kind of merry war betwixt Signior Benedick and her:
they never meet but there's a skirmish of wit
between them. 
BEATRICE Alas! he gets nothing by that. In our last
conflict four of his five wits went halting off, and
now is the whole man governed with one: so that if
he have wit enough to keep himself warm, let him
bear it for a difference between himself and his
horse; for it is all the wealth that he hath left,
to be known a reasonable creature. Who is his
companion now? He hath every month a new sworn brother. 
Messenger Is't possible? 
BEATRICE Very easily possible: he wears his faith but as
the fashion of his hat; it ever changes with the
next block. 
Messenger I see, lady, the gentleman is not in your books. 
BEATRICE No; an he were, I would burn my study. But, I pray
you, who is his companion? Is there no young
squarer now that will make a voyage with him to the devil? 
Messenger He is most in the company of the right noble Claudio. 
BEATRICE O Lord, he will hang upon him like a disease: he
is sooner caught than the pestilence, and the taker
runs presently mad. God help the noble Claudio! if
he have caught the Benedick, it will cost him a
thousand pound ere a' be cured. 
Messenger I will hold friends with you, lady. 
BEATRICE Do, good friend. 
LEONATO You will never run mad, niece. 
BEATRICE No, not till a hot January. 
Messenger Don Pedro is approached. 
[Enter DON PEDRO, DON JOHN, CLAUDIO, BENEDICK,
and BALTHASAR] 
DON PEDRO Good Signior Leonato, you are come to meet your
trouble: the fashion of the world is to avoid
cost, and you encounter it. 
LEONATO Never came trouble to my house in the likeness of
your grace: for trouble being gone, comfort should
remain; but when you depart from me, sorrow abides
and happiness takes his leave. 
DON PEDRO You embrace your charge too willingly. I think this
is your daughter. 
LEONATO Her mother hath many times told me so. 
BENEDICK Were you in doubt, sir, that you asked her? 
LEONATO Signior Benedick, no; for then were you a child. 
DON PEDRO You have it full, Benedick: we may guess by this
what you are, being a man. Truly, the lady fathers
herself. Be happy, lady; for you are like an
honourable father. 
BENEDICK If Signior Leonato be her father, she would not
have his head on her shoulders for all Messina, as
like him as she is. 
BEATRICE I wonder that you will still be talking, Signior
Benedick: nobody marks you. 
BENEDICK What, my dear Lady Disdain! are you yet living? 
BEATRICE Is it possible disdain should die while she hath
such meet food to feed it as Signior Benedick?
Courtesy itself must convert to disdain, if you come
in her presence. 
BENEDICK Then is courtesy a turncoat. But it is certain I
am loved of all ladies, only you excepted: and I
would I could find in my heart that I had not a hard
heart; for, truly, I love none. 
BEATRICE A dear happiness to women: they would else have
been troubled with a pernicious suitor. I thank God
and my cold blood, I am of your humour for that: I
had rather hear my dog bark at a crow than a man
swear he loves me. 
BENEDICK God keep your ladyship still in that mind! so some
gentleman or other shall 'scape a predestinate
scratched face. 
BEATRICE Scratching could not make it worse, an 'twere such
a face as yours were. 
BENEDICK Well, you are a rare parrot-teacher. 
BEATRICE A bird of my tongue is better than a beast of yours. 
BENEDICK I would my horse had the speed of your tongue, and
so good a continuer. But keep your way, i' God's
name; I have done. 
BEATRICE You always end with a jade's trick: I know you of old. 
DON PEDRO That is the sum 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 least a month; and he heartily prays some
occasion may detain us longer. I dare swear he is no
hypocrite, but prays from his heart. 
LEONATO If you swear, my lord, you shall not be forsworn. 
[To DON JOHN] 
Let me bid you welcome, my lord: being reconciled to
the prince your brother, I owe you all duty. 
DON JOHN I thank you: I am not of many words, but I thank
you. 
LEONATO Please it your grace lead on? 
DON PEDRO Your hand, Leonato; we will go together. 
[Exeunt all except BENEDICK and CLAUDIO] 
CLAUDIO Benedick, didst thou note the daughter of Signior Leonato? 
BENEDICK I noted her not; but I looked on her. 
CLAUDIO Is she not a modest young lady? 
BENEDICK Do you question me, as an honest man should do, for
my simple true judgment; or would you have me speak
after my custom, as being a professed tyrant to their sex? 
CLAUDIO No; I pray thee speak in sober judgment. 
BENEDICK Why, i' faith, methinks she's too low for a high
praise, too brown for a fair praise and too little
for a great praise: only this commendation I can
afford her, that were she other than she is, she
were unhandsome; and being no other but as she is, I
do not like her. 
CLAUDIO Thou thinkest I am in sport: I pray thee tell me
truly how thou likest her. 
BENEDICK Would you buy her, that you inquire after her? 
CLAUDIO Can the world buy such a jewel? 
BENEDICK Yea, and a case to put it into. But speak you this
with a sad 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 shall a man take
you, to go in the song? 
CLAUDIO In mine eye she is the sweetest lady that ever I
looked on. 
BENEDICK I can see yet without spectacles and I see no such
matter: there's her cousin, an she were not
possessed with 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? 
CLAUDIO I would scarce trust myself, though I had sworn the
contrary, if Hero would be my wife. 
BENEDICK Is't come to this? In faith, hath not the world
one man but he will wear his cap with suspicion?
Shall I never see a bachelor of three-score again?
Go to, i' faith; an thou wilt needs thrust thy neck
into a yoke, wear the print of it and sigh away
Sundays. Look Don Pedro is returned to seek you. 
[Re-enter DON PEDRO] 
DON PEDRO What secret hath held you here, that you followed
not to Leonato's? 
BENEDICK I would your grace would constrain me to tell. 
DON PEDRO I charge thee on thy allegiance. 
BENEDICK You hear, Count Claudio: I can be secret as a dumb
man; I would have you think so; but, on my
allegiance, mark you this, on my allegiance. He is
in love. With who? now that is your grace's part.
Mark how short his answer is;--With Hero, Leonato's
short daughter. 
CLAUDIO If this were so, so were it uttered. 
BENEDICK Like the old tale, my lord: 'it is not so, nor
'twas not so, but, indeed, God forbid it should be
so.' 
CLAUDIO If my passion change not shortly, God forbid it
should be otherwise. 
DON PEDRO Amen, if you love her; for the lady is very well worthy. 
CLAUDIO You speak this to fetch me in, my lord. 
DON PEDRO By my troth, I speak my thought. 
CLAUDIO And, in faith, my lord, I spoke mine. 
BENEDICK And, by my two faiths and troths, my lord, I spoke mine. 
CLAUDIO That I love her, I feel. 
DON PEDRO That she is worthy, I know. 
BENEDICK That I neither feel how she should 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. 
DON PEDRO Thou wast ever an obstinate heretic in the despite
of beauty. 
CLAUDIO And never could maintain his part but in the force
of his will. 
BENEDICK That a woman conceived me, I thank her; that she
brought me up, I likewise give her most humble
thanks: but that I will have a recheat winded in my
forehead, or hang my bugle in an invisible baldrick,
all women shall pardon me. Because I will not do
them the wrong to mistrust any, I will do myself the
right to trust none; and the fine is, for the which
I may go the finer, I will live a bachelor. 
DON PEDRO I shall see thee, ere I die, look pale with love. 
BENEDICK With anger, with sickness, or with hunger, my lord,
not with love: prove that ever I lose 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 sign of
blind Cupid. 
DON PEDRO Well, if ever thou dost fall from this faith, thou
wilt prove a notable argument. 
BENEDICK If I do, hang me in a bottle like a cat and shoot
at me; and he that hits me, let him be clapped on
the shoulder, and called Adam. 
DON PEDRO Well, as time shall try: 'In time the savage bull
doth bear the yoke.' 
BENEDICK The savage bull may; but if ever the sensible
Benedick bear it, pluck off the bull's horns and set
them in my forehead: and let me be vilely painted,
and in such great letters as they write 'Here is
good horse to hire,' let them signify under my sign
'Here you may see Benedick the married man.' 
CLAUDIO If this should ever happen, thou wouldst be horn-mad. 
DON PEDRO Nay, if Cupid have not spent all his quiver in
Venice, thou wilt quake for this shortly. 
BENEDICK I look for an earthquake too, then. 
DON PEDRO Well, you temporize with the hours. In the
meantime, good Signior Benedick, repair to
Leonato's: commend me to him and tell him I will
not fail him at supper; for indeed he hath made
great preparation. 
BENEDICK I have almost matter enough in me for such an
embassage; and so I commit you-- 
CLAUDIO To the tuition of God: From my house, if I had it,-- 
DON PEDRO The sixth of July: Your loving friend, Benedick. 
BENEDICK Nay, mock not, mock not. The body of your
discourse is sometime guarded with fragments, and
the guards are but slightly basted on neither: ere
you flout old ends any further, examine your
conscience: and so I leave you. 
[Exit] 
CLAUDIO My liege, your highness now may do me good. 
DON PEDRO My love is thine to teach: teach it but how,
And thou shalt see how apt it is to learn
Any hard lesson that may do thee good. 
CLAUDIO Hath Leonato any son, my lord? 
DON PEDRO No child but Hero; she's his only heir.
Dost thou affect her, Claudio? 
CLAUDIO O, my lord,
When you went onward on this ended action,
I look'd 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 return'd 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. 
DON PEDRO Thou wilt be like a lover presently
And tire the hearer with a book of words.
If thou dost 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'st to twist so fine a story? 
CLAUDIO 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. 
DON PEDRO What need the bridge much broader than the flood?
The fairest grant is the necessity.
Look, what will serve is fit: 'tis once, thou lovest,
And I will fit thee with the remedy.
I know we shall have revelling to-night:
I will assume thy part in some disguise
And tell fair Hero I am Claudio,
And in her bosom I'll unclasp my heart
And take her hearing prisoner with the force
And strong encounter of my amorous tale:
Then after to her father will I break;
And the conclusion is, she shall be thine.
In practise let us put it presently. 
[Exeunt] 

Scene II A room in LEONATO's house.

[Enter LEONATO and ANTONIO, meeting] 
LEONATO How now, brother! Where is my cousin, your son?
hath he provided this music? 
ANTONIO He is very busy about it. But, brother, I can tell
you strange news that you yet dreamt not of. 
LEONATO Are they good? 
ANTONIO As the event stamps them: but they have a good
cover; they show well outward. The prince and Count
Claudio, walking in a thick-pleached alley in mine
orchard, were thus much overheard by a man of mine:
the prince discovered to Claudio that he loved 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 present time by the
top and instantly break with you of it. 
LEONATO Hath the fellow any wit that told you this? 
ANTONIO A good sharp fellow: I will send for him; and
question him yourself. 
LEONATO No, no; we will hold it as a dream till it appear
itself: but I will acquaint my daughter withal,
that she may be the better prepared for an answer,
if peradventure this be true. Go you and tell her of it. 
[Enter Attendants] 
Cousins, you know what you have to do. O, I cry you
mercy, friend; go you with me, and I will use your
skill. Good cousin, have a care this busy time. 
[Exeunt] 

Scene III The same.

[Enter DON JOHN and CONRADE] 
CONRADE What the good-year, my lord! why are you thus out
of measure sad? 
DON JOHN There is no measure in the occasion that breeds;
therefore the sadness is without limit. 
CONRADE You should hear reason. 
DON JOHN And when I have heard it, what blessing brings it? 
CONRADE If not a present remedy, at least a patient
sufferance. 
DON JOHN I wonder that thou, being, as thou sayest thou art,
born under Saturn, goest about to apply a moral
medicine to a mortifying mischief. I cannot hide
what I am: I must be sad when I have cause and smile
at no man's jests, eat when I have stomach and wait
for no man's leisure, sleep when I am drowsy and
tend on no man's business, laugh when I am merry and
claw no man in his humour. 
CONRADE Yea, but you must not make the full show of this
till you may do it without controlment. You have of
late stood out against your brother, and he hath
ta'en you newly into his grace; where it is
impossible you should take true root but by the
fair weather that you make yourself: it is needful
that you frame the season for your own harvest. 
DON JOHN I had rather be a canker in a hedge than a rose in
his grace, and it better fits my blood to be
disdained of all than to fashion a carriage to rob
love from any: in this, though I cannot be said to
be a flattering honest man, it must not be denied
but I am a plain-dealing villain. I am trusted with
a muzzle and enfranchised with a clog; therefore I
have decreed not to sing in my cage. If I had my
mouth, I would bite; if I had my liberty, I would do
my liking: in the meantime let me be that I am and
seek not to alter me. 
CONRADE Can you make no use of your discontent? 
DON JOHN I make all use of it, for I use it only.
Who comes here? 
[Enter BORACHIO] 
What news, Borachio? 
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. 
DON JOHN Will it serve for any model to build mischief on?
What is he for a fool that betroths himself to
unquietness? 
BORACHIO Marry, it is your brother's right hand. 
DON JOHN Who? the most exquisite Claudio? 
BORACHIO Even he. 
DON JOHN A proper squire! And who, and who? which way looks
he? 
BORACHIO Marry, on Hero, the daughter and heir of Leonato. 
DON JOHN A very forward March-chick! How came you to this? 
BORACHIO 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 whipt 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. 
DON JOHN Come, come, let us thither: this may prove food to
my displeasure. That young start-up hath all the
glory of my overthrow: if I can cross him any way, I
bless myself every way. You are both sure, and will assist me? 
CONRADE To the death, my lord. 
DON JOHN Let us to the great supper: their cheer is the
greater that I am subdued. Would the cook were of
my mind! Shall we go prove what's to be done? 
BORACHIO We'll wait upon your lordship. 
[Exeunt] 

Act II

Scene I A hall in LEONATO'S house.

[Enter LEONATO, ANTONIO, HERO, BEATRICE, and others] 
LEONATO Was not Count John here at supper? 
ANTONIO I saw him not. 
BEATRICE How tartly that gentleman looks! I never can see
him but I am heart-burned an hour after. 
HERO He is of a very melancholy disposition. 
BEATRICE He were an excellent man that were made just in the
midway between him and Benedick: the one is too
like an image and says nothing, and the other too
like my lady's eldest son, evermore tattling. 
LEONATO Then half Signior Benedick's tongue in Count John's
mouth, and half Count John's melancholy in Signior
Benedick's face,-- 
BEATRICE With a good leg and a good foot, uncle, and money
enough in his purse, such a man would win any woman
in the world, if a' could get her good-will. 
LEONATO By my troth, niece, thou wilt never get thee a
husband, if thou be so shrewd of thy tongue. 
ANTONIO In faith, she's too curst. 
BEATRICE Too curst is more than curst: I shall lessen God's
sending that way; for it is said, 'God sends a curst
cow short horns;' but to a cow too curst he sends none. 
LEONATO So, by being too curst, God will send you no horns. 
BEATRICE Just, if he send me no husband; for the which
blessing I am at him upon my knees every morning and
evening. Lord, I could not endure a husband with a
beard on his face: I had rather lie in the woollen. 
LEONATO You may light on a husband that hath no beard. 
BEATRICE What should I do with him? dress him in my apparel
and make him my waiting-gentlewoman? He that hath a
beard is more than a youth, and he that hath no
beard is less than a man: and he that is more than
a youth is not for me, and he that is less than a
man, I am not for him: therefore, I will even take
sixpence in earnest of the bear-ward, and lead his
apes into hell. 
LEONATO Well, then, go you into hell? 
BEATRICE No, but to the gate; and there will the devil meet
me, like an old cuckold, with horns on his head, and
say 'Get you to heaven, Beatrice, get you to
heaven; here's no place for you maids:' so deliver
I up my apes, and away to Saint Peter for the
heavens; he shows me where the bachelors sit, and
there live we as merry as the day is long. 
ANTONIO [To HERO] Well, niece, I trust you will be ruled
by your father. 
BEATRICE Yes, faith; it is my cousin's duty to make curtsy
and say 'Father, as it please you.' But yet for all
that, cousin, let him be a handsome fellow, or else
make another curtsy and say 'Father, as it please
me.' 
LEONATO Well, niece, I hope to see you one day fitted with a husband. 
BEATRICE Not till God make men of some other metal than
earth. Would it not grieve a woman to be
overmastered with a pierce of valiant dust? to make
an account of her life to a clod of wayward marl?
No, uncle, I'll none: Adam's sons are my brethren;
and, truly, I hold it a sin to match in my kindred. 
LEONATO Daughter, remember what I told you: if the prince
do solicit you in that kind, you know your answer. 
BEATRICE The fault will be in the music, cousin, if you be
not wooed in good time: if the prince be too
important, tell him there is measure in every thing
and so dance out the answer. For, hear me, Hero:
wooing, wedding, and repenting, is as a Scotch jig,
a measure, and a cinque pace: the first suit is hot
and hasty, like a Scotch jig, and full as
fantastical; the wedding, mannerly-modest, as a
measure, full of state and ancientry; and then comes
repentance and, with his bad legs, falls into the
cinque pace faster and faster, till he sink into his grave. 
LEONATO Cousin, you apprehend passing shrewdly. 
BEATRICE I have a good eye, uncle; I can see a church by daylight. 
LEONATO The revellers are entering, brother: make good room. 
[All put on their masks] 
[Enter DON PEDRO, CLAUDIO, BENEDICK, BALTHASAR,
DON JOHN, BORACHIO, MARGARET, URSULA and others, masked] 
DON PEDRO Lady, will you walk about with your friend? 
HERO So you walk softly and look sweetly and say nothing,
I am yours for the walk; and especially when I walk away. 
DON PEDRO With me in your company? 
HERO I may say so, when I please. 
DON PEDRO And when please you to say so? 
HERO When I like your favour; for God defend the lute
should be like the case! 
DON PEDRO My visor is Philemon's roof; within the house is Jove. 
HERO Why, then, your visor should be thatched. 
DON PEDRO Speak low, if you speak love. 
[Drawing her aside] 
BALTHASAR Well, I would you did like me. 
MARGARET So would not I, for your own sake; for I have many
ill-qualities. 
BALTHASAR Which is one? 
MARGARET I say my prayers aloud. 
BALTHASAR I love you the better: the hearers may cry, Amen. 
MARGARET God match me with a good dancer! 
BALTHASAR Amen. 
MARGARET And God keep him out of my sight when the dance is
done! Answer, clerk. 
BALTHASAR No more words: the clerk is answered. 
URSULA I know you well enough; you are Signior Antonio. 
ANTONIO At a word, I am not. 
URSULA I know you by the waggling of your head. 
ANTONIO To tell you true, I counterfeit him. 
URSULA You could never do him so ill-well, unless you were
the very man. Here's his dry hand up and down: you
are he, you are he. 
ANTONIO At a word, I am not. 
URSULA Come, come, do you think I do not know you by your
excellent wit? can virtue hide itself? Go to,
mum, you are he: graces will appear, and there's an
end. 
BEATRICE Will you not tell me who told you so? 
BENEDICK No, you shall pardon me. 
BEATRICE Nor will you not tell me who you are? 
BENEDICK Not now. 
BEATRICE That I was disdainful, and that I had my good wit
out of the 'Hundred Merry Tales:'--well this was
Signior Benedick that said so. 
BENEDICK What's he? 
BEATRICE I am sure you know him well enough. 
BENEDICK Not I, believe me. 
BEATRICE Did he never make you laugh? 
BENEDICK I pray you, what is he? 
BEATRICE Why, he is the prince's jester: a very dull fool;
only his gift is in devising impossible slanders:
none but libertines delight in him; and the
commendation is not in his wit, but in his villany;
for he both pleases men and angers them, and then
they laugh at him and beat him. I am sure he is in
the fleet: I would he had boarded me. 
BENEDICK When I know the gentleman, I'll tell him what you say. 
BEATRICE Do, do: he'll but break a comparison or two on me;
which, peradventure not marked or not laughed at,
strikes him into melancholy; and then there's a
partridge wing saved, for the fool will eat no
supper that night. 
[Music] 
We must follow the leaders. 
BENEDICK In every good thing. 
BEATRICE Nay, if they lead to any ill, I will leave them at
the next turning. 
[Dance. Then exeunt all except DON JOHN, BORACHIO,
and CLAUDIO] 
DON JOHN Sure my brother is amorous on Hero and hath
withdrawn her father to break with him about it.
The ladies follow her and but one visor remains. 
BORACHIO And that is Claudio: I know him by his bearing. 
DON JOHN Are not you Signior Benedick? 
CLAUDIO You know me well; I am he. 
DON JOHN Signior, you are very near my brother in his love:
he is enamoured on Hero; I pray you, dissuade him
from her: she is no equal for his birth: you may
do the part of an honest man in it. 
CLAUDIO How know you he loves her? 
DON JOHN I heard him swear his affection. 
BORACHIO So did I too; and he swore he would marry her to-night. 
DON JOHN Come, let us to the banquet. 
[Exeunt DON JOHN and BORACHIO] 
CLAUDIO Thus answer I in the name of Benedick,
But hear these ill news with the ears of Claudio.
'Tis certain so; the prince wooes 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! 
[Re-enter BENEDICK] 
BENEDICK Count Claudio? 
CLAUDIO Yea, the same. 
BENEDICK Come, will you go with me? 
CLAUDIO Whither? 
BENEDICK Even to the next willow, about your own business,
county. What fashion will you wear the garland of?
about your neck, like an usurer's chain? or under
your arm, like a lieutenant's scarf? You must wear
it one way, for the prince hath got your Hero. 
CLAUDIO I wish him joy of her. 
BENEDICK Why, that's spoken like an honest drovier: so they
sell bullocks. But did you think the prince would
have served you thus? 
CLAUDIO I pray you, leave me. 
BENEDICK Ho! now you strike like the blind man: 'twas the
boy that stole your meat, and you'll beat the post. 
CLAUDIO If it will not be, I'll leave you. 
[Exit] 
BENEDICK Alas, poor hurt fowl! now will he creep into sedges.
But that my Lady Beatrice should know me, and not
know me! The prince's fool! Ha? It may be I go
under that title because I am merry. Yea, but so I
am apt to do myself wrong; I am not so reputed: it
is the base, though bitter, disposition of Beatrice
that puts the world into her person and so gives me
out. Well, I'll be revenged as I may. 
[Re-enter DON PEDRO] 
DON PEDRO Now, signior, where's the count? did you see him? 
BENEDICK Troth, my lord, I have played the part of Lady Fame.
I found him here as melancholy as a lodge in a
warren: I told him, and I think I told him true,
that your grace had got the good will of this young
lady; and I offered him my company to a willow-tree,
either to make him a garland, as being forsaken, or
to bind him up a rod, as being worthy to be whipped. 
DON PEDRO To be whipped! What's his fault? 
BENEDICK The flat transgression of a schoolboy, who, being
overjoyed with finding a birds' nest, shows it his
companion, and he steals it. 
DON PEDRO Wilt thou make a trust a transgression? The
transgression is in the stealer. 
BENEDICK Yet it had not been amiss the rod had been made,
and the garland too; for the garland he might have
worn himself, and the rod he might have bestowed on
you, who, as I take it, have stolen his birds' nest. 
DON PEDRO I will but teach them to sing, and restore them to
the owner. 
BENEDICK If their singing answer your saying, by my faith,
you say honestly. 
DON PEDRO The Lady Beatrice hath a quarrel to you: the
gentleman that danced with her told her she is much
wronged by you. 
BENEDICK O, she misused me past the endurance of a block!
an oak but with one green leaf on it would have
answered her; my very visor began to assume life and
scold with her. She told me, not thinking I had been
myself, that I was the prince's jester, that I was
duller than a great thaw; huddling jest upon jest
with such impossible conveyance upon me that I stood
like a man at a mark, with a whole army shooting at
me. She speaks poniards, and every word stabs:
if her breath were as terrible as her terminations,
there were no living near her; she would infect to
the north star. I would not marry her, though she
were endowed with all that Adam bad left him before
he transgressed: she would have made Hercules have
turned spit, yea, and have cleft his club to make
the fire too. Come, talk not of her: you shall find
her the infernal Ate in good apparel. I would to God
some scholar would conjure her; for certainly, while
she is here, a man may live as quiet in hell as in a
sanctuary; and people sin upon purpose, because they
would go thither; so, indeed, all disquiet, horror
and perturbation follows her. 
DON PEDRO Look, here she comes. 
[Enter CLAUDIO, BEATRICE, HERO, and LEONATO] 
BENEDICK Will your grace command me any service to the
world's end? I will go on the slightest errand now
to the Antipodes that you can devise to send me on;
I will fetch you a tooth-picker now from the
furthest inch of Asia, bring you the length of
Prester John's foot, fetch you a hair off the great
Cham's beard, do you any embassage to the Pigmies,
rather than hold three words' conference with this
harpy. You have no employment for me? 
DON PEDRO None, but to desire your good company. 
BENEDICK O God, sir, here's a dish I love not: I cannot
endure my Lady Tongue. 
[Exit] 
DON PEDRO Come, lady, come; you have lost the heart of
Signior Benedick. 
BEATRICE Indeed, my lord, he lent it me awhile; and I gave
him use for it, a double heart for his single one:
marry, once before he won it of me with false dice,
therefore your grace may well say I have lost it. 
DON PEDRO You have put him down, lady, you have put him down. 
BEATRICE So I would not he should do me, my lord, lest I
should prove the mother of fools. I have brought
Count Claudio, whom you sent me to seek. 
DON PEDRO Why, how now, count! wherefore are you sad? 
CLAUDIO Not sad, my lord. 
DON PEDRO How then? sick? 
CLAUDIO Neither, my lord. 
BEATRICE The count is neither sad, nor sick, nor merry, nor
well; but civil count, civil as an orange, and
something of that jealous complexion. 
DON PEDRO I' faith, lady, I think your blazon to be true;
though, I'll be sworn, if he be so, his conceit is
false. Here, Claudio, I have wooed in thy name, and
fair Hero is won: I have broke with her father,
and his good will obtained: name the day of
marriage, and God give thee joy! 
LEONATO Count, take of me my daughter, and with her my
fortunes: his grace hath made the match, and an
grace say Amen to it. 
BEATRICE Speak, count, 'tis your cue. 
CLAUDIO 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. 
BEATRICE Speak, cousin; or, if you cannot, stop his mouth
with a kiss, and let not him speak neither. 
DON PEDRO In faith, lady, you have a merry heart. 
BEATRICE Yea, my lord; I thank it, poor fool, it keeps on
the windy side of care. My cousin tells him in his
ear that he is in her heart. 
CLAUDIO And so she doth, cousin. 
BEATRICE Good Lord, for alliance! Thus goes every one to the
world but I, and I am sunburnt; I may sit in a
corner and cry heigh-ho for a husband! 
DON PEDRO Lady Beatrice, I will get you one. 
BEATRICE I would rather have one of your father's getting.
Hath your grace ne'er a brother like you? Your
father got excellent husbands, if a maid could come by them. 
DON PEDRO Will you have me, lady? 
BEATRICE No, my lord, unless I might have another for
working-days: your grace is too costly to wear
every day. But, I beseech your grace, pardon me: I
was born to speak all mirth and no matter. 
DON PEDRO Your silence most offends me, and to be merry best
becomes you; for, out of question, you were born in
a merry hour. 
BEATRICE No, sure, my lord, my mother cried; but then there
was a star danced, and under that was I born.
Cousins, God give you joy! 
LEONATO Niece, will you look to those things I told you of? 
BEATRICE I cry you mercy, uncle. By your grace's pardon. 
[Exit] 
DON PEDRO By my troth, a pleasant-spirited lady. 
LEONATO There's little of the melancholy element in her, my
lord: she is never sad but when she sleeps, and
not ever sad then; for I have heard my daughter say,
she hath often dreamed of unhappiness and waked
herself with laughing. 
DON PEDRO She cannot endure to hear tell of a husband. 
LEONATO O, by no means: she mocks all her wooers out of suit. 
DON PEDRO She were an excellent wife for Benedict. 
LEONATO O Lord, my lord, if they were but a week married,
they would talk themselves mad. 
DON PEDRO County Claudio, when mean you to go to church? 
CLAUDIO To-morrow, my lord: time goes on crutches till love
have all his rites. 
LEONATO Not till Monday, my dear son, which is hence a just
seven-night; and a time too brief, too, to have all
things answer my mind. 
DON PEDRO Come, you shake the head at so long a breathing:
but, I warrant thee, Claudio, the time shall not go
dully by us. I will in the interim undertake one of
Hercules' labours; which is, to bring Signior
Benedick and the Lady Beatrice into a mountain of
affection the one with the other. I would fain have
it a match, and I doubt not but to fashion it, if
you three will but minister such assistance as I
shall give you direction. 
LEONATO My lord, I am for you, though it cost me ten
nights' watchings. 
CLAUDIO And I, my lord. 
DON PEDRO And you too, gentle Hero? 
HERO I will do any modest office, my lord, to help my
cousin to a good husband. 
DON PEDRO And Benedick is not the unhopefullest husband that
I know. Thus far can I praise him; he is of a noble
strain, of approved valour and confirmed honesty. I
will teach you how to humour your cousin, that she
shall fall in love with Benedick; and I, with your
two helps, will so practise on Benedick that, in
despite of his quick wit and his queasy stomach, he
shall fall in love with Beatrice. If we can do this,
Cupid is no longer an archer: his glory shall be
ours, for we are the only love-gods. Go in with me,
and I will tell you my drift. 
[Exeunt] 

Scene II The same.

[Enter DON JOHN and BORACHIO] 
DON JOHN It is so; the Count Claudio shall marry the
daughter of Leonato. 
BORACHIO Yea, my lord; but I can cross it. 
DON JOHN Any bar, any cross, any impediment will be
medicinable to me: I am sick in displeasure to him,
and whatsoever comes athwart his affection ranges
evenly with mine. How canst thou cross this marriage? 
BORACHIO Not honestly, my lord; but so covertly that no
dishonesty shall appear in me. 
DON JOHN Show me briefly how. 
BORACHIO I think I told your lordship a year since, how much
I am in the favour of Margaret, the waiting
gentlewoman to Hero. 
DON JOHN I remember. 
BORACHIO I can, at any unseasonable instant of the night,
appoint her to look out at her lady's chamber window. 
DON JOHN What life is in that, to be the death of this marriage? 
BORACHIO 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 honour in marrying the renowned
Claudio--whose estimation do you mightily hold
up--to a contaminated stale, such a one as Hero. 
DON JOHN What proof shall I make of that? 
BORACHIO Proof enough to misuse the prince, to vex Claudio,
to undo Hero and kill Leonato. Look you for any
other issue? 
DON JOHN Only to despite them, I will endeavour any thing. 
BORACHIO 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
honour, 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. 
DON JOHN Grow this to what adverse issue it can, I will put
it in practise. Be cunning in the working this, and
thy fee is a thousand ducats. 
BORACHIO Be you constant in the accusation, and my cunning
shall not shame me. 
DON JOHN I will presently go learn their day of marriage. 
[Exeunt] 

Scene III LEONATO'S orchard.

[Enter BENEDICK] 
BENEDICK Boy! 
[Enter Boy] 
Boy Signior? 
BENEDICK In my chamber-window lies a book: bring it hither
to me in the orchard. 
Boy I am here already, sir. 
BENEDICK I know that; but I would have thee hence, and here again. 
[Exit Boy] 
I do much wonder that one man, seeing how much
another man is a fool when he dedicates his
behaviors to love, will, after he hath laughed at
such shallow follies in others, become the argument
of his own scorn by failing in love: and such a man
is Claudio. I have known when there was no music
with him but the drum and the fife; and now had he
rather hear the tabour and the pipe: I have known
when he would have walked ten mile a-foot to see a
good armour; and now will he lie ten nights awake,
carving the fashion of a new doublet. He was wont to
speak plain and to the purpose, like an honest man
and a soldier; and now is he turned orthography; his
words are a very fantastical banquet, just so many
strange dishes. May I be so converted and see with
these eyes? I cannot tell; I think not: I will not
be sworn, but love may transform me to an oyster; but
I'll take my oath on it, till he have made an oyster
of me, he shall never make me such a fool. One woman
is fair, yet I am well; another is wise, yet I am
well; another virtuous, yet I am well; but till all
graces be in one woman, one woman shall not come in
my grace. Rich she shall be, that's certain; wise,
or I'll none; virtuous, or I'll never cheapen her;
fair, or I'll never look on her; mild, or come not
near me; noble, or not I for an angel; of good
discourse, an excellent musician, and her hair shall
be of what colour it please God. Ha! the prince and
Monsieur Love! I will hide me in the arbour. 
[Withdraws] 
[Enter DON PEDRO, CLAUDIO, and LEONATO] 
DON PEDRO Come, shall we hear this music? 
CLAUDIO Yea, my good lord. How still the evening is,
As hush'd on purpose to grace harmony! 
DON PEDRO See you where Benedick hath hid himself? 
CLAUDIO O, very well, my lord: the music ended,
We'll fit the kid-fox with a pennyworth. 
[Enter BALTHASAR with Music] 
DON PEDRO Come, Balthasar, we'll hear that song again. 
BALTHASAR O, good my lord, tax not so bad a voice
To slander music any more than once. 
DON PEDRO It is the witness still of excellency
To put a strange face on his own perfection.
I pray thee, sing, and let me woo no more. 
BALTHASAR Because you talk of wooing, I will sing;
Since many a wooer doth commence his suit
To her he thinks not worthy, yet he wooes,
Yet will he swear he loves. 
DON PEDRO Now, pray thee, come;
Or, if thou wilt hold longer argument,
Do it in notes. 
BALTHASAR Note this before my notes;
There's not a note of mine that's worth the noting. 
DON PEDRO Why, these are very crotchets that he speaks;
Note, notes, forsooth, and nothing.
[Air] 
BENEDICK Now, divine air! now is his soul ravished! Is it
not strange that sheeps' guts should hale souls out
of men's bodies? Well, a horn for my money, when
all's done. 
[The Song] 
BALTHASAR Sigh no more, ladies, sigh no more,
Men were deceivers ever,
One foot in sea and one on shore,
To one thing constant never:
Then sigh not so, but let them go,
And be you blithe and bonny,
Converting all your sounds of woe
Into Hey nonny, nonny. 
Sing no more ditties, sing no moe,
Of dumps so dull and heavy;
The fraud of men was ever so,
Since summer first was leafy:
Then sigh not so, &c. 
DON PEDRO By my troth, a good song. 
BALTHASAR And an ill singer, my lord. 
DON PEDRO Ha, no, no, faith; thou singest well enough for a shift. 
BENEDICK An he had been a dog that should have howled thus,
they would have hanged him: and I pray God his bad
voice bode no mischief. I had as lief have heard the
night-raven, come what plague could have come after
it. 
DON PEDRO Yea, marry, dost thou hear, Balthasar? I pray thee,
get us some excellent music; for to-morrow night we
would have it at the Lady Hero's chamber-window. 
BALTHASAR The best I can, my lord. 
DON PEDRO Do so: farewell. 
[Exit BALTHASAR] 
Come hither, Leonato. What was it you told me of
to-day, that your niece Beatrice was in love with
Signior Benedick? 
CLAUDIO O, ay: stalk on. stalk on; the fowl sits. I did
never think that lady would have loved any man. 
LEONATO No, nor I neither; but most wonderful that she
should so dote on Signior Benedick, whom she hath in
all outward behaviors seemed ever to abhor. 
BENEDICK Is't possible? Sits the wind in that corner? 
LEONATO By my troth, my lord, I cannot tell what to think
of it but that she loves him with an enraged
affection: it is past the infinite of thought. 
DON PEDRO May be she doth but counterfeit. 
CLAUDIO Faith, like enough. 
LEONATO O God, counterfeit! There was never counterfeit of
passion came so near the life of passion as she
discovers it. 
DON PEDRO Why, what effects of passion shows she? 
CLAUDIO Bait the hook well; this fish will bite. 
LEONATO What effects, my lord? She will sit you, you heard
my daughter tell you how. 
CLAUDIO She did, indeed. 
DON PEDRO How, how, pray you? You amaze me: I would have I
thought her spirit had been invincible against all
assaults of affection. 
LEONATO I would have sworn it had, my lord; especially
against Benedick. 
BENEDICK I should think this a gull, but that the
white-bearded fellow speaks it: knavery cannot,
sure, hide himself in such reverence. 
CLAUDIO He hath ta'en the infection: hold it up. 
DON PEDRO Hath she made her affection known to Benedick? 
LEONATO No; and swears she never will: that's her torment. 
CLAUDIO '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?' 
LEONATO This says she now when she is beginning to write to
him; for she'll be up twenty times a night, and
there will she sit in her smock till she have writ a
sheet of paper: my daughter tells us all. 
CLAUDIO Now you talk of a sheet of paper, I remember a
pretty jest your daughter told us of. 
LEONATO O, when she had writ it and was reading it over, she
found Benedick and Beatrice between the sheet? 
CLAUDIO That. 
LEONATO O, she tore the letter into a thousand halfpence;
railed at herself, that she should be so immodest
to write to one that she knew would flout her; 'I
measure him,' says she, 'by my own spirit; for I
should flout him, if he writ to me; yea, though I
love him, I should.' 
CLAUDIO Then down upon her knees she falls, weeps, sobs,
beats her heart, tears her hair, prays, curses; 'O
sweet Benedick! God give me patience!' 
LEONATO She doth indeed; my daughter says so: and the
ecstasy hath so much overborne her that my daughter
is sometime afeared she will do a desperate outrage
to herself: it is very true. 
DON PEDRO It were good that Benedick knew of it by some
other, if she will not discover it. 
CLAUDIO To what end? He would make but a sport of it and
torment the poor lady worse. 
DON PEDRO An he should, it were an alms to hang him. She's an
excellent sweet lady; and, out of all suspicion,
she is virtuous. 
CLAUDIO And she is exceeding wise. 
DON PEDRO In every thing but in loving Benedick. 
LEONATO O, my lord, wisdom and blood combating in so tender
a body, we have ten proofs to one that blood hath
the victory. I am sorry for her, as I have just
cause, being her uncle and her guardian. 
DON PEDRO I would she had bestowed this dotage on me: I would
have daffed all other respects and made her half
myself. I pray you, tell Benedick of it, and hear
what a' will say. 
LEONATO Were it good, think you? 
CLAUDIO 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. 
DON PEDRO She doth well: if she should make tender of her
love, 'tis very possible he'll scorn it; for the
man, as you know all, hath a contemptible spirit. 
CLAUDIO He is a very proper man. 
DON PEDRO He hath indeed a good outward happiness. 
CLAUDIO Before God! and, in my mind, very wise. 
DON PEDRO He doth indeed show some sparks that are like wit. 
CLAUDIO And I take him to be valiant. 
DON PEDRO As Hector, I assure you: and in the managing of
quarrels you may say he is wise; for either he
avoids them with great discretion, or undertakes
them with a most Christian-like fear. 
LEONATO If he do fear God, a' must necessarily keep peace:
if he break the peace, he ought to enter into a
quarrel with fear and trembling. 
DON PEDRO And so will he do; for the man doth fear God,
howsoever it seems not in him by some large jests
he will make. Well I am sorry for your niece. Shall
we go seek Benedick, and tell him of her love? 
CLAUDIO Never tell him, my lord: let her wear it out with
good counsel. 
LEONATO Nay, that's impossible: she may wear her heart out first. 
DON PEDRO