Shakespeare Much Ado About Nothing - Benedick's Lines

Front 1

1 I,1,95
Leonato. Her mother hath many times told me so.

Back 1

Were you in doubt, sir, that you asked her?

Front 2

2 I,1,101
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.

Back 2

If Signior Leonato be her father, she would not
have his head on her shoulders for all Messina, as
like him as she is.

Front 3

3 I,1,106
Beatrice. I wonder that you will still be talking, Signior
Benedick: nobody marks you.

Back 3

What, my dear Lady Disdain! are you yet living?

Front 4

I,1,111
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.

Back 4

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.

Front 5

I,1,120
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.

Back 5

God keep your ladyship still in that mind! so some
gentleman or other shall 'scape a predestinate
scratched face.

Front 6

I,1,125
Beatrice. Scratching could not make it worse, an 'twere such a face as yours were.

Back 6

Well, you are a rare parrot-teacher.

Front 7

I,1,127
Beatrice. A bird of my tongue is better than a beast of yours.

Back 7

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.

Front 8

I,1,147
Claudio. Benedick, didst thou note the daughter of Signior Leonato?

Back 8

I noted her not; but I looked on her.

Front 9

I,1,149
Claudio. Is she not a modest young lady?

Back 9

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?

Front 10

I,1,153
Claudio. No; I pray thee speak in sober judgment.

Back 10

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.

Front 11

I,1,161
Claudio. Thou thinkest I am in sport: I pray thee tell me
truly how thou likest her.

Back 11

Would you buy her, that you inquire after her?

Front 12

I,1,163
Claudio. Can the world buy such a jewel?

Back 12

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?

Front 13

I,1,170
Claudio. In mine eye she is the sweetest lady that ever I
looked on.

Back 13

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?

Front 14

I,1,177
Claudio. I would scarce trust myself, though I had sworn the contrary, if Hero would be my wife.

Back 14

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.

Front 15

I,1,186
Don Pedro. What secret hath held you here, that you followed not to Leonato's?

Back 15

I would your grace would constrain me to tell.

Front 16

I,1,188
Don Pedro. I charge thee on thy allegiance.

Back 16

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.

Front 17

I,1,195
Claudio. If this were so, so were it uttered.

Back 17

Like the old tale, my lord: 'it is not so, nor
'twas not so, but, indeed, God forbid it should be
so.'

Front 18

I,1,204
Claudio. And, in faith, my lord, I spoke mine.

Back 18

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

Front 19

I,1,207
Don Pedro. That she is worthy, I know.

Back 19

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.

Front 20

I,1,214
Claudio. And never could maintain his part but in the force of his will.

Back 20

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.

Front 21

I,1,223
Don Pedro. I shall see thee, ere I die, look pale with love.

Back 21

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.

Front 22

I,1,231
Don Pedro. Well, if ever thou dost fall from this faith, thou wilt prove a notable argument.

Back 22

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.

Front 23

I,1,236
Don Pedro. Well, as time shall try: 'In time the savage bull
doth bear the yoke.'

Back 23

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.'

Front 24

I,1,245
Don Pedro. Nay, if Cupid have not spent all his quiver in
Venice, thou wilt quake for this shortly.

Back 24

I look for an earthquake too, then.

Front 25

I,1,251
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.

Back 25

I have almost matter enough in me for such an
embassage; and so I commit you—

Front 26

I,1,255
Don Pedro. The sixth of July: Your loving friend, Benedick.

Back 26

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.

Front 27

II,1,511
Beatrice. Will you not tell me who told you so?

Back 27

No, you shall pardon me.

Front 28

II,1,513
Beatrice. Nor will you not tell me who you are?

Back 28

Not now.

Front 29

II,1,517
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.

Back 29

What's he?

Front 30

II,1,519
Beatrice. I am sure you know him well enough.

Back 30

Not I, believe me.

Front 31

II,1,521
Beatrice. Did he never make you laugh?

Back 31

I pray you, what is he?

Front 32

II,1,529 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.

Back 32

When I know the gentleman, I'll tell him what you say.

Front 33

II,1,537
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.

Back 33

In every good thing.

Front 34

II,1,568
(stage directions). [Re-enter BENEDICK]

Back 34

Count Claudio?

Front 35

II,1,570
Claudio. Yea, the same.

Back 35

Come, will you go with me?

Front 36

II,1,572
Claudio. Whither?

Back 36

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.

Front 37

II,1,578
Claudio. I wish him joy of her.

Back 37

Why, that's spoken like an honest drovier: so they
sell bullocks. But did you think the prince would
have served you thus?

Front 38

II,1,582
Claudio. I pray you, leave me.

Back 38

Benedick. Ho! now you strike like the blind man: 'twas the
boy that stole your meat, and you'll beat the post.

Front 39

II,1,586
(stage directions). [Exit]

Back 39

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.

Front 40

II,1,596
Don Pedro. Now, signior, where's the count? did you see him?

Back 40

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.

Front 41

II,1,604
Don Pedro. To be whipped! What's his fault?

Back 41

The flat transgression of a schoolboy, who, being
overjoyed with finding a birds' nest, shows it his
companion, and he steals it.

Front 42

II,1,609
Don Pedro. Wilt thou make a trust a transgression? The transgression is in the stealer.

Back 42

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.

Front 43

II,1,615
Don Pedro. I will but teach them to sing, and restore them to the owner.

Back 43

If their singing answer your saying, by my faith,
you say honestly.

Front 44

II,1,620
Don Pedro. The Lady Beatrice hath a quarrel to you: the gentleman that danced with her told her she is much wronged by you.

Back 44

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.

Front 45

II,1,644
(stage directions). [Enter CLAUDIO, BEATRICE, HERO, and LEONATO]

Back 45

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?

Front 46

II,1,654
Don Pedro. None, but to desire your good company.

Back 46

O God, sir, here's a dish I love not: I cannot
endure my Lady Tongue.

Front 47

II,3,813
(stage directions). [Enter BENEDICK]

Back 47

Boy!

Front 48

II,3,816
Boy. Signior?

Back 48

In my chamber-window lies a book: bring it hither
to me in the orchard.

Front 49

II,3,819
Boy. I am here already, sir.

Back 49

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.

Front 50

II,3,877
(stage directions). [Air]

Back 50

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.

Front 51

II,3,898
Don Pedro. Ha, no, no, faith; thou singest well enough for a shift.

Back 51

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.

Front 52

II,3,917
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.

Back 52

Is't possible? Sits the wind in that corner?

Front 53

II,3,936
Leonato. I would have sworn it had, my lord; especially
against Benedick.

Back 53

I should think this a gull, but that the
white-bearded fellow speaks it: knavery cannot,
sure, hide himself in such reverence.

Front 54

II,3,1026
(stage directions). [Exeunt DON PEDRO, CLAUDIO, and LEONATO]

Back 54

[Coming forward] This can be no trick: the
conference was sadly borne. They have the truth of
this from Hero. They seem to pity the lady: it
seems her affections have their full bent. Love me!
why, it must be requited. I hear how I am censured:
they say I will bear myself proudly, if I perceive
the love come from her; they say too that she will
rather die than give any sign of affection. I did
never think to marry: I must not seem proud: happy
are they that hear their detractions and can put
them to mending. They say the lady is fair; 'tis a
truth, I can bear them witness; and virtuous; 'tis
so, I cannot reprove it; and wise, but for loving
me; by my troth, it is no addition to her wit, nor
no great argument of her folly, for I will be
horribly in love with her. I may chance have some
odd quirks and remnants of wit broken on me,
because I have railed so long against marriage: but
doth not the appetite alter? a man loves the meat
in his youth that he cannot endure in his age.
Shall quips and sentences and these paper bullets of
the brain awe a man from the career of his humour?
No, the world must be peopled. When I said I would
die a bachelor, I did not think I should live till I
were married. Here comes Beatrice. By this day!
she's a fair lady: I do spy some marks of love in
her.

Front 55

II,3,1055
Beatrice. Against my will I am sent to bid you come in to dinner.

Back 55

Fair Beatrice, I thank you for your pains.

Front 56

II,3,1059
Beatrice. I took no more pains for those thanks than you take pains to thank me: if it had been painful, I would not have come.

Back 56

You take pleasure then in the message?

Front 57

II,3,1064
(stage directions). [Exit]

Back 57

Ha! 'Against my will I am sent to bid you come in
to dinner;' there's a double meaning in that 'I took
no more pains for those thanks than you took pains
to thank me.' that's as much as to say, Any pains
that I take for you is as easy as thanks. If I do
not take pity of her, I am a villain; if I do not
love her, I am a Jew. I will go get her picture.

Front 58

III,2,1213
Don Pedro. Nay, that would be as great a soil in the new gloss
of your marriage as to show a child his new coat
and forbid him to wear it. I will only be bold
with Benedick for his company; for, from the crown
of his head to the sole of his foot, he is all
mirth: he hath twice or thrice cut Cupid's
bow-string and the little hangman dare not shoot at
him; he hath a heart as sound as a bell and his
tongue is the clapper, for what his heart thinks his
tongue speaks.

Back 58

Gallants, I am not as I have been.

Front 59

III,2,1219
Don Pedro. Hang him, truant! there's no true drop of blood in him, to be truly touched with love: if he be sad, he wants money.

Back 59

I have the toothache.

Front 60

III,2,1221
Don Pedro. Draw it.

Back 60

Hang it!

Front 61

III,2,1225
Leonato. Where is but a humour or a worm.

Back 61

Well, every one can master a grief but he that has
it.

Front 62

III,2,1260
Don Pedro. She shall be buried with her face upwards.

Back 62

Yet is this no charm for the toothache. Old
signior, walk aside with me: I have studied eight
or nine wise words to speak to you, which these
hobby-horses must not hear.

Front 63

IV,1,1661
Claudio. O, what men dare do! what men may do! what men daily do, not knowing what they do!

Back 63

How now! interjections? Why, then, some be of
laughing, as, ah, ha, he!

Front 64

IV,1,1710
Don John. Sir, they are spoken, and these things are true.

Back 64

This looks not like a nuptial.

Front 65

IV,1,1759
(stage directions). [Exeunt DON PEDRO, DON JOHN, and CLAUDIO]

Back 65

How doth the lady?

Front 66

IV,1,1793
Leonato. Wherefore! Why, doth not every earthly thing
Cry shame upon her? Could she here deny
The story that is printed in her blood?
Do not live, Hero; do not ope thine eyes:
For, did I think thou wouldst not quickly die,
Thought I thy spirits were stronger than thy shames,
Myself would, on the rearward of reproaches,
Strike at thy life. Grieved I, I had but one?
Chid I for that at frugal nature's frame?
O, one too much by thee! Why had I one?
Why ever wast thou lovely in my eyes?
Why had I not with charitable hand
Took up a beggar's issue at my gates,
Who smirch'd thus and mired with infamy,
I might have said 'No part of it is mine;
This shame derives itself from unknown loins'?
But mine and mine I loved and mine I praised
And mine that I was proud on, mine so much
That I myself was to myself not mine,
Valuing of her,—why, she, O, she is fallen
Into a pit of ink, that the wide sea
Hath drops too few to wash her clean again
And salt too little which may season give
To her foul-tainted flesh!

Back 66

Sir, sir, be patient.
For my part, I am so attired in wonder,
I know not what to say.

Front 67

IV,1,1797
Beatrice. O, on my soul, my cousin is belied!

Back 67

Lady, were you her bedfellow last night?

Front 68

IV,1,1837
Friar Francis. There is some strange misprision in the princes.

Back 68

Two of them have the very bent of honour;
And if their wisdoms be misled in this,
The practise of it lives in John the bastard,
Whose spirits toil in frame of villanies.

Front 69

IV,1,1896
Friar Francis. Marry, this well carried shall on her behalf
Change slander to remorse; that is some good:
But not for that dream I on this strange course,
But on this travail look for greater birth.
She dying, as it must so be maintain'd,
Upon the instant that she was accused,
Shall be lamented, pitied and excused
Of every hearer: for it so falls out
That what we have we prize not to the worth
Whiles we enjoy it, but being lack'd and lost,
Why, then we rack the value, then we find
The virtue that possession would not show us
Whiles it was ours. So will it fare with Claudio:
When he shall hear she died upon his words,
The idea of her life shall sweetly creep
Into his study of imagination,
And every lovely organ of her life
Shall come apparell'd in more precious habit,
More moving-delicate and full of life,
Into the eye and prospect of his soul,
Than when she lived indeed; then shall he mourn,
If ever love had interest in his liver,
And wish he had not so accused her,
No, though he thought his accusation true.
Let this be so, and doubt not but success
Will fashion the event in better shape
Than I can lay it down in likelihood.
But if all aim but this be levell'd false,
The supposition of the lady's death
Will quench the wonder of her infamy:
And if it sort not well, you may conceal her,
As best befits her wounded reputation,
In some reclusive and religious life,
Out of all eyes, tongues, minds and injuries.

Back 69

Signior Leonato, let the friar advise you:
And though you know my inwardness and love
Is very much unto the prince and Claudio,
Yet, by mine honour, I will deal in this
As secretly and justly as your soul
Should with your body.

Front 70

IV,1,1909
(stage directions). [Exeunt all but BENEDICK and BEATRICE]

Back 70

Lady Beatrice, have you wept all this while?

Front 71

IV,1,1911
Beatrice. Yea, and I will weep a while longer.

Back 71

I will not desire that.

Front 72

IV,1,1913
Beatrice. You have no reason; I do it freely.

Back 72

Surely I do believe your fair cousin is wronged.

Front 73

IV,1,1915
Beatrice. Ah, how much might the man deserve of me that would right her!

Back 73

Is there any way to show such friendship?

Front 74

IV,1,1917
Beatrice. A very even way, but no such friend.

Back 74

May a man do it?

Front 75

IV,1,1919
Beatrice. It is a man's office, but not yours.

Back 75

I do love nothing in the world so well as you: is
not that strange?

Front 76

IV,1,1925
Beatrice. As strange as the thing I know not. It were as
possible for me to say I loved nothing so well as
you: but believe me not; and yet I lie not; I
confess nothing, nor I deny nothing. I am sorry for my cousin.

Back 76

By my sword, Beatrice, thou lovest me.

Front 77

IV,1,1927
Do not swear, and eat it.

Back 77

I will swear by it that you love me; and I will make
him eat it that says I love not you.

Front 78

IV,1,1930
Beatrice. Will you not eat your word?

Back 78

With no sauce that can be devised to it. I protest
I love thee.

Front 79

IV,1,1933
Beatrice. Why, then, God forgive me!

Back 79

What offence, sweet Beatrice?

Front 80

IV,1,1936
Beatrice. You have stayed me in a happy hour: I was about to protest I loved you.

Back 80

And do it with all thy heart.

Front 81

IV,1,1939
Beatrice. I love you with so much of my heart that none is
left to protest.

Back 81

Come, bid me do any thing for thee.

Front 82

IV,1,1941
Beatrice. Kill Claudio.

Back 82

Ha! not for the wide world.

Front 83

IV,1,1943
Beatrice. You kill me to deny it. Farewell.

Back 83

Tarry, sweet Beatrice.

Front 84

IV,1,1946
Beatrice. I am gone, though I am here: there is no love in
you: nay, I pray you, let me go.

Back 84

Beatrice,—

Front 85

IV,1,1948
Beatrice. In faith, I will go.

Back 85

We'll be friends first.

Front 86

IV,1,1950
Beatrice. You dare easier be friends with me than fight with mine enemy.

Back 86

Is Claudio thine enemy?

Front 87

IV,1,1958
Beatrice. Is he not approved in the height a villain, that
hath slandered, scorned, dishonoured my kinswoman? O
that I were a man! What, bear her in hand until they
come to take hands; and then, with public
accusation, uncovered slander, unmitigated rancour,
—O God, that I were a man! I would eat his heart
in the market-place.

Back 87

Hear me, Beatrice,—

Front 88

IV,1,1960
Beatrice. Talk with a man out at a window! A proper saying!

Back 88

Nay, but, Beatrice,—

Front 89

IV,1,1962
Beatrice. Sweet Hero! She is wronged, she is slandered, she is undone.

Back 89

Beat—

Front 90

IV,1,1972
Beatrice. Princes and counties! Surely, a princely testimony,
a goodly count, Count Comfect; a sweet gallant,
surely! O that I were a man for his sake! or that I
had any friend would be a man for my sake! But
manhood is melted into courtesies, valour into
compliment, and men are only turned into tongue, and
trim ones too: he is now as valiant as Hercules
that only tells a lie and swears it. I cannot be a
man with wishing, therefore I will die a woman with grieving.

Back 90

Tarry, good Beatrice. By this hand, I love thee.

Front 91

IV,1,1974
Beatrice. Use it for my love some other way than swearing by it.

Back 91

Think you in your soul the Count Claudio hath wronged Hero?

Front 92

IV,1,1976
Beatrice. Yea, as sure as I have a thought or a soul.

Back 92

Enough, I am engaged; I will challenge him. I will
kiss your hand, and so I leave you. By this hand,
Claudio shall render me a dear account. As you
hear of me, so think of me. Go, comfort your
cousin: I must say she is dead: and so, farewell.

Front 93

V,1,2191
Claudio. Now, signior, what news?

Back 93

Good day, my lord.

Front 94

V,1,2198
Don Pedro. Leonato and his brother. What thinkest thou? Had we fought, I doubt we should have been too young for them.

Back 94

In a false quarrel there is no true valour. I came
to seek you both.

Front 95

V,1,2203
Claudio. 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?

Back 95

It is in my scabbard: shall I draw it?

Front 96

V,1,2212
Claudio. What, courage, man! What though care killed a cat, thou hast mettle enough in thee to kill care.

Back 96

Sir, I shall meet your wit in the career, and you
charge it against me. I pray you choose another subject.

Front 97

V,1,2219
Claudio. If he be, he knows how to turn his girdle.

Back 97

Shall I speak a word in your ear?

Front 98

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Claudio. God bless me from a challenge!

Back 98

[Aside to CLAUDIO] You are a villain; I jest not:
I will make it good how you dare, with what you
dare, and when you dare. Do me right, or I will
protest your cowardice. You have killed a sweet
lady, and her death shall fall heavy on you. Let me
hear from you.

Front 99

V,1,2233
Claudio. 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?

Back 99

Sir, your wit ambles well; it goes easily.

Front 100

V,1,2259
Claudio. Yea, and text underneath, 'Here dwells Benedick the married man'?

Back 100

Fare you well, boy: you know my mind. I will leave
you now to your gossip-like humour: you break jests
as braggarts do their blades, which God be thanked,
hurt not. My lord, for your many courtesies I thank
you: I must discontinue your company: your brother
the bastard is fled from Messina: you have among
you killed a sweet and innocent lady. For my Lord
Lackbeard there, he and I shall meet: and, till
then, peace be with him.

Front 101

V,2,2411
(stage directions). [Enter BENEDICK and MARGARET, meeting]

Back 101

Pray thee, sweet Mistress Margaret, deserve well at
my hands by helping me to the speech of Beatrice.

Front 102

V,2,2414
Margaret. Will you then write me a sonnet in praise of my beauty?

Back 102

In so high a style, Margaret, that no man living
shall come over it; for, in most comely truth, thou
deservest it.

Front 103

V,2,2419
Margaret. To have no man come over me! why, shall I always keep below stairs?

Back 103

Thy wit is as quick as the greyhound's mouth; it catches.

Front 104

V,2,2422
Margaret. And yours as blunt as the fencer's foils, which hit, but hurt not.

Back 104

A most manly wit, Margaret; it will not hurt a
woman: and so, I pray thee, call Beatrice: I give
thee the bucklers.

Front 105

V,2,2426
Margaret. Give us the swords; we have bucklers of our own.

Back 105

If you use them, Margaret, you must put in the
pikes with a vice; and they are dangerous weapons for maids.

Front 106

V,2,2429
Margaret. Well, I will call Beatrice to you, who I think hath legs.

Back 106

And therefore will come.
[Exit MARGARET]
[Sings]
The god of love,
That sits above,
And knows me, and knows me,
How pitiful I deserve,—
I mean in singing; but in loving, Leander the good
swimmer, Troilus the first employer of panders, and
a whole bookful of these quondam carpet-mangers,
whose names yet run smoothly in the even road of a
blank verse, why, they were never so truly turned
over and over as my poor self in love. Marry, I
cannot show it in rhyme; I have tried: I can find
out no rhyme to 'lady' but 'baby,' an innocent
rhyme; for 'scorn,' 'horn,' a hard rhyme; for,
'school,' 'fool,' a babbling rhyme; very ominous
endings: no, I was not born under a rhyming planet,
nor I cannot woo in festival terms.
[Enter BEATRICE]
Sweet Beatrice, wouldst thou come when I called thee?

Front 107

V,2,2451
Beatrice. Yea, signior, and depart when you bid me.

Back 107

O, stay but till then!

Front 108

V,2,2455
Beatrice. 'Then' is spoken; fare you well now: and yet, ere I go, let me go with that I came; which is, with
knowing what hath passed between you and Claudio.

Back 108

Only foul words; and thereupon I will kiss thee.

Front 109

V,2,2459
Beatrice. Foul words is but foul wind, and foul wind is but foul breath, and foul breath is noisome; therefore I
will depart unkissed.

Back 109

Thou hast frighted the word out of his right sense,
so forcible is thy wit. But I must tell thee
plainly, Claudio undergoes my challenge; and either
I must shortly hear from him, or I will subscribe
him a coward. And, I pray thee now, tell me for
which of my bad parts didst thou first fall in love with me?

Front 110

V,2,2469
Beatrice. For them all together; which maintained so politic a state of evil that they will not admit any good
part to intermingle with them. But for which of my
good parts did you first suffer love for me?

Back 110

Suffer love! a good epithet! I do suffer love
indeed, for I love thee against my will.

Front 111

V,2,2474
Beatrice. In spite of your heart, I think; alas, poor heart! If you spite it for my sake, I will spite it for
yours; for I will never love that which my friend hates.

Back 111

Thou and I are too wise to woo peaceably.

Front 112

V,2,2477
Beatrice. It appears not in this confession: there's not one wise man among twenty that will praise himself.

Back 112

An old, an old instance, Beatrice, that lived in
the lime of good neighbours. If a man do not erect
in this age his own tomb ere he dies, he shall live
no longer in monument than the bell rings and the
widow weeps.

Front 113

V,2,2483
Beatrice. And how long is that, think you?

Back 113

Question: why, an hour in clamour and a quarter in
rheum: therefore is it most expedient for the
wise, if Don Worm, his conscience, find no
impediment to the contrary, to be the trumpet of his
own virtues, as I am to myself. So much for
praising myself, who, I myself will bear witness, is
praiseworthy: and now tell me, how doth your cousin?

Front 114

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Beatrice. Very ill.

Back 114

And how do you?

Front 115

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Beatrice. Very ill too.

Back 115

Serve God, love me and mend. There will I leave
you too, for here comes one in haste.

Front 116

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Beatrice. Will you go hear this news, signior?

Back 116

I will live in thy heart, die in thy lap, and be
buried in thy eyes; and moreover I will go with
thee to thy uncle's.

Front 117

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Antonio. Well, I am glad that all things sort so well.

Back 117

And so am I, being else by faith enforced
To call young Claudio to a reckoning for it.

Front 118

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Antonio. Which I will do with confirm'd countenance.

Back 118

Friar, I must entreat your pains, I think.

Front 119

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Friar Francis. To do what, signior?

Back 119

To bind me, or undo me; one of them.
Signior Leonato, truth it is, good signior,
Your niece regards me with an eye of favour.

Front 120

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Leonato. That eye my daughter lent her: 'tis most true.

Back 120

And I do with an eye of love requite her.

Front 121

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Leonato. The sight whereof I think you had from me,
From Claudio and the prince: but what's your will?

Back 121

Your answer, sir, is enigmatical:
But, for my will, my will is your good will
May stand with ours, this day to be conjoin'd
In the state of honourable marriage:
In which, good friar, I shall desire your help.

Front 122

V,4,2596
Claudio. 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.

Back 122

Bull Jove, sir, had an amiable low;
And some such strange bull leap'd your father's cow,
And got a calf in that same noble feat
Much like to you, for you have just his bleat.

Front 123

V,4,2623
Friar Francis. All this amazement can I qualify:
When after that the holy rites are ended,
I'll tell you largely of fair Hero's death:
Meantime let wonder seem familiar,
And to the chapel let us presently.

Back 123

Soft and fair, friar. Which is Beatrice?

Front 124

V,4,2625
Beatrice. [Unmasking] I answer to that name. What is your will?

Back 124

Do not you love me?

Front 125

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Why, no; no more than reason.

Back 125

Why, then your uncle and the prince and Claudio
Have been deceived; they swore you did.

Front 126

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Beatrice. Do not you love me?

Back 126

Troth, no; no more than reason.

Front 127

V,4,2633
Beatrice. Why, then my cousin Margaret and Ursula
Are much deceived; for they did swear you did.

Back 127

They swore that you were almost sick for me.

Front 128

V,4,2635
Beatrice. They swore that you were well-nigh dead for me.

Back 128

'Tis no such matter. Then you do not love me?

Front 129

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Hero. And here's another
Writ in my cousin's hand, stolen from her pocket,
Containing her affection unto Benedick.

Back 129

A miracle! here's our own hands against our hearts.
Come, I will have thee; but, by this light, I take
thee for pity.

Front 130

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Beatrice. I would not deny you; but, by this good day, I yield upon great persuasion; and partly to save your life, for I was told you were in a consumption.

Back 130

Peace! I will stop your mouth.

Front 131

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Don Pedro. How dost thou, Benedick, the married man?

Back 131

I'll tell thee what, prince; a college of
wit-crackers cannot flout me out of my humour. Dost
thou think I care for a satire or an epigram? No:
if a man will be beaten with brains, a' shall wear
nothing handsome about him. In brief, since I do
purpose to marry, I will think nothing to any
purpose that the world can say against it; and
therefore never flout at me for what I have said
against it; for man is a giddy thing, and this is my
conclusion. For thy part, Claudio, I did think to
have beaten thee, but in that thou art like to be my
kinsman, live unbruised and love my cousin.

Front 132

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Claudio. I had well hoped thou wouldst have denied Beatrice,
that I might have cudgelled 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
exceedingly narrowly to thee.

Back 132

Come, come, we are friends: let's have a dance ere
we are married, that we may lighten our own hearts
and our wives' heels.

Front 133

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Leonato. We'll have dancing afterward.

Back 133

First, of my word; therefore play, music. Prince,
thou art sad; get thee a wife, get thee a wife:
there is no staff more reverend than one tipped with horn.

Front 134

V,4,2681
Messenger. My lord, your brother John is ta'en in flight,
And brought with armed men back to Messina.

Back 134

Think not on him till to-morrow:
I'll devise thee brave punishments for him.
Strike up, pipers.