Cland. Benedick, didit thou note the daughter of fignior Leonato ?

Bene. I noted her not; but I looked on her.
Claud. Is fhe not a modest young lady?

Bene. Do you question me, as an honeft man fhould do, for my fimple true judgement? or would you have me speak after my cuftom, as being a profeffed tyrant to their fex?

Claud. No, I pray thee, fpeak in fober judgement. Bene. Why, i'faith, methinks the is too low for a high praife, too brown for a fair praife, and too Ittle for a great praife; only this commendation I can afford her; that were the other than fhe is, fhe were unhandfome; and being no other but as she is, I do not like her.

Claud. Thou thinkeft I am in fport; I pray thee, tell me truly how thou likeft her.

Bene. Would you buy her, that you inquire after her?

Claud. Can the world buy such a jewel?

Bene. Yea, and a cafe to put it into. But fpeak 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 shall a man take you, to go in the song?

Claud. In mine eye, fhe is the sweetest lady that ever I looked on.

Bene. I can fee yet without spectacles, and I fee no fuch matter: there's her coufin, an fhe were not poffeffed 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?

Claud. I would fcarce truft myself, though I had fworn the contrary, if Hero would be my wife.

Bene. Is it come to this, i'faith? Hath not the world one man, but he will wear his cap with fufpi

cion? Shall I never fee a bachelor of threescore again? Go to, i'faith; an thou wilt needs thrust thy neck into a yoke, wear the print of it, and figh away Sundays. Look, Don Pedro is returned to feek you.

1

Re-enter Don PEDRO.

D. Pedro. What fecret hath held you here, that you followed not to Leonato's ?

Bene. I would, your grace would cor-train me

to tell.

D. 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 who?-now that is your grace's part.-Mark, how fhort his anfwer 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 not fo; but, indeed, God for bid it should be fo. Claud. If my paffion change not shortly, God forbid it fhould be otherwise.

D. Pedro. Amen, if you love her; for the lady is very well worthy.

Claud. You fpeak this to fetch me in, my lord. D. Pedro. By my troth, I fpeak my thought. Claud. And, in faith, my lord, I fpoke mine. Bene. And, by my two faiths and troths, my lord, I fpoke mine.

Claud. That I love her, I feel.

D. Pedro. That fhe 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 ftake.

D. Pedro. Thou waft ever an obftinate heretick in the defpite 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 likewise give her moft humble thanks: but that I will have a recheat winded in my forehead, or hang my bugle in an invifible baldrick, all women fhall pardon me : Because I will not do them the wrong to miftruft any, I will do myfelf the right to truft none; and the fine is, (for the which I may go the finer,) I will live a bachelor.

D. Pedro. I fhall fee thee, ere I die, look pale with love.

Bene. With anger, with fickness, or with hun ger, my lord; not with love: prove, that ever I lofe more blood with love, than I will get again with drinking, pick out mine eyes with a balladmaker's pen, and hang me up at the door of a brothel-houfe, for the fign of a blind Cupid.

D. 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 clapped on the fhoulder, and call'd Adam. D. 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 married man.

Claud. If this fhould ever happen, thou would'st be horn-mad.

D. Pedro. Nay, if Cupid have not spent all his quiver in Venice, thou wilt quake for this fhortly. Bene. I look for an earthquake too then,

D. Pedro. Well, you will temporize with the hours. In the mean time, good fignior 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

Claud. To the tuition of God: From my houfe, (if I had it,)

D. Pedro. The fixth of July: Your loving friend, Benedick.

Bene. Nay, mock not, mock not: The body of your difcourfe is fomething guarded with fragments, and the guards are but flightly basted on neither: ere you flout old ends any further, examine your confcience; and fo I leave you. [Exit BENEDICK. Claud. My liege, your highnefs now may do me good.

D. 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.
Claud. Hath Leonato any fon, my lord?

D. 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.

D. Pedro. Thou wilt be like a lover prefently, 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 fhalt 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.
D. Pedro. What need the bridge much broader
than the flood?

'The faireft grant is the neceffity:

Look, what will ferve, is fit: 'tis once, thou lov❜st;
And I will fit thee with the remedy.

I know, we shall have revelling to-night;
I will affume thy part in fome difguife,
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 strong encounter of my amorous tale :
Then, after, to her father will I break;
And the conclufion is, fhe shall be thine :
In practice let us put it presently.

SCENE II.

A Room in LEONATO's Houfe.

Enter LEONATO and ANTONIO.

[Exeunt.

Leon. How now, brother? Where is my coufin, your fon? Hath he provided this musick ?

Ant. He is very bufy about it. But, brother, I can tell you ftrange news that you yet dream'd not of.

Leon. Are they good?

Ant. As the event ftamps them; but they have a good cover, they fhow well outward. The prince and Count Claudio, walking in a thick-pleached alley in my orchard, were thus much overheard by