Hero. They did entreat me to acquaint her of it. But I persuaded them, if they lov'd Benedick, To wish him wrestle with affection,

And never to let Beatrice know of it.

Doth not the gentleman

Urs. Why did you so?
Deserve as full, as fortunate a bed,

As ever Beatrice shall couch upon?

Hero. O, God of love! I know he doth deserve
As much as may be yielded to a man ;
But nature never fram'd a woman's heart
Of prouder stuff than that of Beatrice :
Disdain and scorn ride sparkling in her eyes,
Misprising what they look on; and her wit
Values itself so highly, that to her

All matter else seems weak: She cannot love,
Nor take no shape nor project of affection,
She is so self-endeared.

Urs.

Sure, I think so;

And therefore, certainly, it were not good
She knew his love, lest she make sport at it.

Hero. Why, you speak truth: I never yet saw

man,

How wise, how noble, young, how rarely featur'd,
But she would spell him backward: 3 if fair-fac'd,
She would swear the gentleman should be her sister:
If black, why, Nature, drawing of an antic,
Made a foul blot: if tall, a lance ill-headed:
If low, an agate very vilely cut:3

3 That is, misinterpret him. An allusion to the practice of witches in uttering prayers. In like sort, we often say of a man who refuses to take things in their plain natural meaning, as if he were on the lookout for some cheat,- -"He reads every thing backwards."

H.

4 A black man here means a man with a dark or thick beard, which is the blot in nature's drawing. The antic was the fool or buffoon of the old farces.

An agate is often used metaphorically for a very diminutive

If speaking, why, a vane blown with all winds:
If silent, why, a block moved with none.
So turns she every man the wrong side out;
And never gives to truth and virtue that
Which simpleness and merit purchaseth.

Urs. Sure, sure, such carping is not commendable. Hero. No; not to be so odd, and from all fashions, As Beatrice is, cannot be commendable:

But who dare tell her so? If I should speak,
She would mock me into air: O! she would laugh

me

Out of myself, press me to death with wit."
Therefore let Benedick, like cover'd fire,
Consume away in sighs, waste inwardly :
It were a better death than die with mocks;
Which is as bad as die with tickling."

Urs. Yet tell her of it: hear what she will say.
Hero. No; rather I will go to Benedick,
And counsel him to fight against his passion:
And, truly, I'll devise some honest slanders
To stain my cousin with: One doth not know
How much an ill word may empoison liking.

Urs. O! do not do your cousin such a wrong. She cannot be so much without true judgment, (Having so swift and excellent a wit,

As she is priz'd to have,) as to refuse
So rare a gentleman as signior Benedick.
Hero. He is the only man of Italy,

Always excepted my dear Claudio.

person, in allusion to the figures cut in agate for rings. Queen Mab is described "in shape no bigger than an agate stone on the forefinger of an alderman."

6 The allusion is to an ancient punishment inflicted on those who refused to plead to an indictment. If they continued silent, they were pressed to death by heavy weights laid on their stomach.

This word is intended to be pronounced as a trisyllable; it was sometimes written tickeling.

Urs. I pray you, be not angry with me, madamn, Speaking my fancy: signior Benedick,

For shape, for bearing, argument,“ and valour,
Goes foremost in report through Italy.

Hero. Indeed, he hath an excellent good name. Urs. His excellence did earn it, ere he had it. — When are you married, madam ?

Hero. Why, every day;

go in :

to-morrow.

Come,

I'll show thee some attires; and have thy counsel, Which is the best to furnish me to-morrow.

Urs. [Aside.] She's lim'd' I warrant you; we have caught her, madam.

Hero. [Aside.] If it prove so, then loving goes by haps:

Some Cupid kills with arrows, some with traps.
[Exeunt HERO and URSULA.
Beat. [Advancing.] What fire is in mine ears ? 1o
Can this be true?

Stand I condemn'd for pride and scorn so much?
Contempt, farewell! and maiden pride, adieu!
No glory lives behind the back of such.
And, Benedick, love on: I will requite thee,
Taming my wild heart to thy loving hand."
If thou dost love, my kindness shall incite thee
To bind our loves up in a holy band:
For others say thou dost deserve, and I
Believe it better than reportingly.

8 Conversation.

[Exit

9 That is, ensnared and entangled, as a sparrow with bird lime. 10 Alluding to the proverbial saying, which is as old as Pliny's time, "That when our ears do glow and tingle, some there be that in our absence do talke of us."

11 This image is taken from falconry. She has been chargea with being as wild as haggards of the rock; she therefore says, that wild as her heart is, she will tame it to the hand.

SCENE II. A Room in LEONATO's House.

Enter Don PEDRO, CLAUDIO, Benedick, and
LEONATO.

D. Pedro. I do but stay till your marriage be consummate, and then go I toward Arragon.

Claud. I'll bring you thither, my lord, if you'll vouchsafe me.

D. 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 bowstring, 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.

Bene. Gallants, I am not as I have been.
Leon. So say I: methinks

you are sadder.

Claud. I hope he be in love.

D. Pedro. Hang him, truant; there's no true drop of blood in him, to be truly touch'd with love: if he be sad, he wants money.

Bene. I have the tooth-ache.2
D. Pedro. Draw it.

Bene. Hang it!

Claud. You must hang it first, and draw it after

wards.

That is, executioner, slayer of hearts.

2 So, in The False One, by Beaumont and Fletcher :

"O! this sounds mangily,

Poorly, and scurvily, in a soldier's mouth;

You had best be troubled with the tooth-ache too
For lovers ever are."

D. Pedro. What! sigh for the tooth-ache? Leon. Where is but a humour, or a worm? Bene. Well, every one can master a grief, but he that has it.

Claud. Yet say I, he is in love.

4

D. Pedro. There is no appearance of fancy 3 ir him, unless it be a fancy that he hath to strange disguises; as, to be a Dutchman to-day, a Frenchman to-morrow, or in the shape of two countries at once ; as, a German from the waist downward, all slops; and a Spaniard from the hip upward, no doublet: Unless he have a fancy to this foolery, as it appears he hath, he is no fool for fancy, as you would have it to appear he is.

5

Claud. If he be not in love with some woman, there is no believing old signs: a' brushes his hat o' mornings; what should that bode?

D. Pedro. Hath any man seen him at the barber's?

Claud. No, but the barber's man hath been seen with him; and the old ornament of his cheek hath already stuff'd tennis-balls.

Leon. Indeed, he looks younger than he did, by the loss of a beard.

3 A play upon the word fancy, which Shakespeare uses for love, as well as for humour, caprice, or affectation.

4 So, in The Seven Deadly Sinnes of London, by Dekker, 1606: "For an Englishman's sute is like a traitor's body that hath beene hanged, drawne, and quartered, and is set up in several places: his codpiece, in Denmarke; the collar of his dublet and the belly, in France; the wing and narrow sleeve, in Italy; the short waste hangs over a botcher's stall in Utrich; his huge sloppes speak Spanish; Polonia gives him the bootes, &c.—and thus we mocke everie nation for keeping one fashion, yet steale patches from everie of them to piece out our pride; and are now laughing stocks to them, because their cut so scurvily becomes us."

Large, loose breeches or trousers. Hence a siop-seller for one who furnishes seamen, &c., with clothes.