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Bene. 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 they write, Here is good horse to hire, let-them signify under my sign, Here you may see Be nedick the married man. Claud. If this 'should would'st be horn-mad.

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

Bene. I look for an earthquake too then.

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

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

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

D. Pedro. The sixth 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 slightly basted on neither: ere you fout old ends any further, examine your conscience; and so 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 see how apt it is to learn
Any hard lessen that may do thee good.

Claud. Hath Leonato any son, my Lord?

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D. Pedro. No child but Hero, she's his only

heir:

Dost thou affect her Claudio?

Claud. O my Lord,

When you went onward on this ended action,

I look'd upon her with a soldier'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 soft and delicate desires,
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 presently,
And tire the nearer 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?
Claud. How sweetly do you minister to love,
That know love's grief by his complexion!
But lest my liking might too sudden seem,
I would have salv'd it with a longer treatise.
D. 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

lov'st;

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 practice let us put it presently.

SCENE II.

A Room in LEONATO's House.

[Exeunt.

Euter LEONATO and ANTONIO.

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

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

Leon. Are they good!

The

Ant. As the event stamps them; but they have a good cover, they show well outward. Prince and Count Claudio, walking in, a thick. pleached alley in my 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 might 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.

Leon. Hath the fellow any wit, that told you this ?...

Ant. A good sharp fellow; I will send for him, and question him yourself.

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Leon. 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.. you, and tell her of it. [Several persons cross the stage.] Cousins, you know what you have to O, I cry you mercy, friend; go you with

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me, and I will use your skill: Good cousins, have a care this busy time. [Exeunt.

SCENE

III.

Another Room in LEONATO's House.

Enter Don JOHN and CONRADE..

Con. What the gonjere, my Lord! why are you thus out of measure, sad?

D. John. There is no measure in the occasion \ that breeds it, therefore the sadness is without limit. Con. You should hear reason.

D. John. And when I have heard it, what blessing bringeth it?

Con. If not a present remedy, yet a patient sufferance.

D. 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.

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Con. 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.

D. John. I had rather be a canker in a hedge, than a rose in his grace; and it better fits my

blood to be disdain'd of all, 'than to fashion a carrriage 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 vil lain. 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 mean time, let me be that I am, and seek not

to alter me.

Con. Can you make no use of your discontent.? D. John. I make all use of it, for I use it only. Who comes here? What news, Borachio?

Enter BORACHIO.

Bora. I came youder from a great supper; the Prince, your brother, is royally entertain'd by Leonato ; and I can give you intelligence of an intended marriage.

D. John. Will it serve for any model to build mischief on? What is he for a fool, that betroths himself to unquietness?

Bora. Marry, it is your brother's right hand. D. John. Who? the most exquisite Claudio ? Bora. Even he.

D. John. A proper squire! And who, and who? which way looks he?

Bora. Marry, on Hero, the daughter and heir of Leonato.

`D. John. A very forward March-chick! How came you to this?

Bora. Being entertain'd 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

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