Claud. Is fhe not a modeft young lady?,

Bene. Do you question me, as an honest man should do, for my fimple true judgement? or would you have me speak after my custom, as being a professed tyrant to their fex?

Claud. No, I pray thee, speak in fober judgement.

Bene. Why, i' faith, methinks she is 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 the other than the is, fhe were unhandsome; and being no other but as fhe 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 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 fweetelt lady that ever I looked on.

Bene. I can fee yet without spectacles, and I fee no fuch matter: there's her cousin, 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 suspicion? Shall I never see a bachelor of threefcore 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.

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 constrain 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 answer is:-With Hero, Leonato's short daugh

ter.

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 forbid it should be fo.

Claud. If my passion change not shortly, God forbid it fhould be otherwife.

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

Claud. You speak this to fetch me in, my lord.

D. Pedro. By my troth, I fpeak my thought.

Claud. And, in faith, my lord, I spoke mine.

Bene. And, by my two faiths and troths, my lord, I spoke mine.

Claud. That I love her, I feel.

D. Pedro. That fhe is worthy, I know.

Bene. 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.

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 likewife give her most humble thanks but that I will have a recheat winded in my forehead, or hang my bugle in an invifible 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.

D. 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 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,

D. Pedro. Well, if ever thou doft fall from this faith, thou wilt prove a notable argument.

Bene. 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 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 shortly.

Bene.

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 such an embaffage; and fo I commit you

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

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

Bene. Nay, mock not, mock not: The body of your discourse is sometime 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 highness 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 affe&t her, Claudio?

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.

D. 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 fhalt have her: Was't not to this end,
That thou began'ft to twist so fine a story?

Claud. How sweetly 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 fairest 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 disguise,
And tell fair Hero I am Claudio;
And in her bofom I'll unclafp 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 conclufion is, fhe fhall be thine:
In practice let us put it presently.

SCENE II.

A Room in LEONATO's House.

Enter LEONATO and ANTONIO.

[Exeunt.

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

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

9

Leon.