MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING

by William Shakespeare
 ACT I
Scene I
Enter Leonata, Governess of Messina, Hero her daughter,
and Beatrice, her niece, with Antonio, her uncle.

BEATRICE I pray you, is Signior Mountanto returned from the wars or no?
ANTONIO I know none of that name, lady.
LEONATA What is he that you ask for, niece?
HERO My cousin means Signior Benedick of Padua.
ANTONIO O, he’s returned, and as pleasant as ever he was.
BEATRICE I pray you, how many hath he killed and eaten in these wars? But how many
hath he killed? For indeed I promised to eat all of his killing.
ANTONIO He hath done good service. And a good soldier too, lady.
BEATRICE And a good soldier to a lady, but what is he to a lord?
ANTONIO A lord to a lord, a man to a man, stuffed with honourable virtues.
BEATRICE It is so indeed. He is no less than a stuffed man.
HERO You must not, dear mother, mistake Beatrice. There is a kind of merry war
betwixt Signior Benedick and her. They never meet but there’s a skirmish of wit
between them.
BEATRICE Who is his companion now? He hath every month a new sworn brother.
HERO Is’t possible?
BEATRICE Very easily possible. He wears his faith but as the fashion of his hat; it ever
changes with the next block.
ANTONIO I see, lady, the gentleman is not in your books.
BEATRICE No. An he were, I would burn my study. But I pray, you, who is his
companion?
ANTONIO He is most in the company of the right noble Claudio.
BEATRICE O Lord, he will hang upon him like a disease! God help the noble Claudio!
If he caught the Benedick, it will cost him a thousand pound ere he be cured.

Enter Don Pedro, with Claudio, Benedick,

Balthasar, and John the Bastard.

PRINCE
Good Leonata, are you come to meet your trouble? The fashion of the world
is to avoid cost, and you encounter it.
LEONATA Never came trouble to my house in the likeness of your Grace.
PRINCE [Turning to HERO] I think this is your daughter.

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LEONATA Her mother hath many times told me so.
BENEDICK Were you in doubt, sir, that you asked her? If Leonata be her mother, she
would not have her head on her shoulders for all Messina, as like her as she is.
BEATRICE I wonder that you will still be talking. Signior Benedick, nobody marks you.
BENEDICK What, my dear Lady Disdain! Are you yet living?
SIGNOR 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.
BENEDICK Then is courtesy a turncoat. But it is certain I am loved of all ladies, on you
excepted; and I would I could find in my heart that I had not a hard heart, for truly I
love none.
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.
BENEDICK God keep you Ladyship still in that mind, so some gentlemen or other shall
‘scape a predestinate scratched face.
BEATRICE Scratching could not make it wore an ‘there such a face as yours.
BENEDICK Well, you a rare parrot-teacher.
BEATRICE A bird of my tongue is better than a beast of yours.
BENEDICK I would my horse had the speed of your tongue and so good a continuer, but
keep your way.
LEONATA Please it your Grace lead on?
PRINCE We will go together

[All exit, except Benedick and Claudio.]

CLAUDIO Benedick, didst thou note the daughter of Leonata?

BENEDICK I noted her not, but I looked on her.
CLAUDIO Is she not a modest young lady?
BENEDICK Do you question me as an honest man should do, for my simple true
judgement? Or would you have me speak after my custom, as being a professed
tyrant to their sex?
CLAUDIO No, I pray thee, speak in sober judgement.
BENEDICK Why, i’ faith, methinks she’s too tall for great praise, too brown for a fair
praise, and too lean for a large 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.

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CLAUDIO Thou thinkest I am in sport. I pray thee tell me truly how thou lik’st her.
BENEDICK Would you buy her that you enquire after her?
CLAUDIO Can the world buy such a jewel?
BENEDICK Yea, and a case to put it into. But speak you this with a sad brow?
CLAUDIO In mine eye she is the sweetest lady that ever I looked on.
BENEDICK I can see yet without spectacles, and I see no such matter. There’s her
cousin, an she were not possessed with 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?
CLAUDIO I would scarce trust myself, though I had sworn the contrary, if Hero would
be my wife.
BENEDICK Is ’t come to this? Shall I never see a bachelor of threescore again?

Enter Don Pedro

PRINCE What secret hath held you here that you followed not to Leonata’s?
BENEDICK I would your Grace would constrain me to tell.
PRINCE I charge thee on thy allegiance.
BENEDICK You hear, Count Claudio, I can be as 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, Leonata’s short daughter.
PRINCE Amen, if you love her, for the lady is very well worthy.
CLAUDIO You speak this to fetch me in, my lady.
PRINCE By my troth, I speak my thought.
CLAUDIO And in faith, my lady, I spoke mine.
BENEDICK And by my faiths and troths, my lady, I spoke mine.
CLAUDIO That I love her, I feel.
PRINCE That she is worthy, I know.
BENEDICK That I neither feel how she should be loved nor know how she should be
worthy is the option that fire cannot melt out of me. I will die in it at the stake.
PRINCE Thou wast ever an obstinate heretic in the despite of beauty.
CLAUDIO And never could maintain his part but in the force of his will.
BENEDICK That a woman conceived me, I thank her, that she brought me up, I likewise
give her most thanks. But that I would hang my bugle in an invisible baldrick, all
women shall pardon me. I will live a bachelor.
PRINCE I shall see there, ere I do, look pale with love.

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BENEDICK With anger, with sickness, or with hunger, my lady, not with love.
PRINCE Well, if ever thou dost fall from this faith, thou will prove a notable
argument.
BENEDICK If I do, hang me in a bottle like a cat and shoot at me.
PRINCE Well, as time shall try. In time the savage bull doth bear the yoke.
BENEDICK 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”.
PRINCE Good Signior Benedick, repair to Leonata’s. Commend me to her, and tell
her I will not fail her at supper, for indeed she hath made great preparation.
BENEDICK I have almost matter enough in me for such an embassage, and so I commit
you—
CLAUDIO To the tuition of God. From my house, if I had it—
PRINCE The sixth of July. Your loving friend, Benedick.
BENEDICK Nay, mock not, mock not. Ere you flout old ends any further, examine your
conscience. And so I leave you. He exits.
CLAUDIO
Hath Leonata any son, my Lady?
PRINCE
No child but Hero; she’s her only heir.
Dost thou affect her, Claudio?
CLAUDIO
O, my lady,
When you went onward on this ended action,
I looked upon her with a soldier’s eye,
That liked, but had a rougher task in hand
Than to drive liking to the name of love.
But now I am returned 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 liked her ere I went to wars.
PRINCE
Thou wilt be like a lover presently
And tire the heavier with a book of words.
If thou dost love fair Hero, cherish it,

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And I will break with her and with her father,
And thou shalt have her.
I know we shall have revelling tonight.
I will assume thy part in some disguise
And tell fair Hero I am Claudio,
And in her bosom I’ll unclasp her 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. They exit.

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 Scene III
Enter Sir John the Bastard, and Conrade, his
companion.

CONRADE What the goodyear, my lord, why are you thus out of measure sad?
DON JOHN There is no measure in the occasion that breeds. Therefore the sadness is
without limit.
CONRADE You should hear reason.
DON JOHN And when I have heard it, what blessing brings it? 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.
CONRADE Yea, but you must not make the full show of this till you may do it without
cotrolment. 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.
DON JOHN I had rather be a canker in a hedge than a rose in his grace. In this, though I
cannot be said to be a flattering honest man, it must not be denied but I am a plain-
dealing villain. If I had my mouth, I would bite; if I had my liberty, I would do my
liking. In the meantime, let me be that I am, and seek not to alter me.
CONRADE Can you make no use of your discontent?
DON JOHN I make all use of it, for I use it only.

Enter Borachio

What news, Borachio?

BORACHIO I can give you intelligence of an intended marriage.
CONRADE Will it serve for any model to build mischief on?
DON JOHN What is he for a fool that betroths himself to unquietness?
BORACHIO Marry, it is your brother’s right hand.
DON JOHN Who, the most exquisite Claudio?
BORACHIO Even he.
DON JOHN And who, and who? Which way looks he?
BORACHIO Marry, on Hero, the daughter and heir of Leonata.
DON JOHN A very forward March chick! How came you to this?
BORACHIO As I was walking, I overheard it agreed upon that the Prince should woo
Hero for himself, and having obtained her, give her to Count Claudio.

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DON JOHN Come, come let us thither, This may prove food to my displeasure. That
young start-up hath all the glory of my overthrow. If I can cross him any way, I
bless myself every way. You are both sure, and will assist me?
CONRADE To the death, my lord.
BORACHIO We’ll wait upon your Lordship.
DON JOHN Let us to the great supper. They exit.

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 ACT 2
Scene I
Enter Leonata, Hero his daughter, and
Beatrice her niece, with Ursula and Margaret.

LEONATA Was not Count John here at supper?

HERO I saw him not.
BEATRICE How tartly that gentleman looks! I never can see him but I am heartburned
an hour after.
HERO He is of a very melancholy disposition.
BEATRICE He were an excellent man that were made just in the midway between him
and Benedick. The one is too like an image and says nothing, and the other too like
my lady’s eldest son, evermore tattling.
LEONATA Then half Signior Benedick’s tongue in Count John’s mouth, and half Count
John’s melancholy in Signior Benedick’s face—
BEATRICE With a good leg and a good foot, cousin, and money enough in his purse,
such a man would win any woman in the world if he could get her goodwill.
LEONATA By my troth, niece, thou wilt never get thee a husband if thou be so shrewd
of thy tongue.
BEATRICE I could not endure a husband with a beard on his face. I had rather lie in the
woolen!
LEONATA You may light on a husband that hath no beard.
BEATRICE What should I do with him? Dress him in my apparel and amen him my
waiting gentlewoman? He that hath a beard is more than a youth, and he that hath
no beard is less than a man; and he that is more than a youth is not for me, and he
that is less than a man, I am not for him.
HERO In faith, you are too curst!
LEONATA Well then, go you into hell?
BEATRICE No, but to the gate, and there will the devil meet me like an old cuckold
with horns on his head, and say “Get you to heaven, Beatrice, get you to heaven;
here’s no place for you maids.” So deliver I up my apes and away to Saint Peter; for
the heavens, he shows me where the bachelors sit, and there live we as merry as the
day is long.
LEONATA [to Hero] Well, daughter, I trust you will be ruled by your mother.
BEATRICE Yes, faith, it is my cousin’s duty to make curtsy and say, “Mother, as it
please you.” But yet for all that, cousin, let him be a handsome fellow, or else make
another curtsy and say “Mother, as it pleases me.”

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LEONATA Well, niece, I hope to see you one day fitted with a husband.
BEATRICE Not till God make men of some other metal than earth.
LEONATA Cousin, you apprehend passing shrewdly.
BEATRICE I have a good eye, uncle; I can see a church by daylight.
LEONATA The revellers are entering. Make good room.
[to Hero] Daughter, remember what I told you. If the Prince do solicit you
in that kind, you know your answer.

Enter, with a Drum, Don Pedro, Claudio, and

Benedick, Signior Antonio, and Balthasar, all in
masks with Borachio and Don John.

PRINCE [to Hero] Lady, will you wake a bout with your friend?
[They begin to dance.]
HERO So you walk softly, and look sweetly, and say nothing, I am yours for the
walk, and especially when I walk away.
[They move aside;
Benedick and Margaret move forward.]
BENEDICK [to Margaret] Well, I would you did like me.
MARGARET So would not I for your own sake, for I have many ill qualities.
BENEDICK Which is one?
MARGARET I say my prayers aloud.
BENEDICK I love you the better, the hearers may cry “Amen.”
[They move aside;
Ursula and Antonio move forward.]
URSULA I know you well enough. You are Signior Antonio.
ANTONIO At a word, I am not.
URSULA I know you by the waggling of your head.
ANTONIO To tell you true, I counterfeit him.
URSULA You could never dare do him so ill-well unless you were the very man.
Here’s his dry hand up and down. You are he, you are he.
[They move aside;
Benedick and Beatrice move forward.]
BEATRICE Will you note tell me who told you so?
BENEDICK No, you shall pardon me.
BEATRICE Nor will you not tell me who you are?
BENEDICK Not now.

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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.
BENEDICK What’s he?
BEATRICE I am sure you know him well enough.
BENEDICK Not I, believe me.
BEATRICE Did he never make you laugh?
BENEDICK I pray you, what is he?
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 villainy, 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.
BENEDICK When I know the gentleman, I’ll tell him what you say.
BEATRICE Do, do. [Music for the dance.] We must follow the leaders.
[Dance. Then exit all except
Don John, Borachio, and Claudio.]

DON JOHN Sure my sister is amorous on Hero, and hath withdrawn her father to break
with her about it.
BORACHIO And that is Claudio. I know him by his bearing.
DON JOHN [to Claudio] Are not you Signior Benedick?
CLAUDIO You know me well. I am he.
DON JOHN Signior, you are very near my sister in her love. She is enamoured on Hero.
I pray you dissuade her from Hero. She is no equal for her birth.
CLAUDIO How know you she loves her?
DON JOHN I heard her swear her affection.
BORACHIO I did too, and she swore she would marry Hero tonight.
DON JOHN Come, let us to the banquet.
They exit. Claudio remains.
CLAUDIO, unmasking
Thus answer I in the name of Benedick,
But hear these ill news with the ears of Claudio.
’Tis certain so. The prince woos for herself.
Friendship is constant in all other things
Save in the office and affairs of love.
Therefore all hearts in love use their own tongues.
Let every eye negotiate for itself

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 And trust no agent, for beauty is a witch
Against whose charms faith melteth into blood.
This is an accident of hourly proof,
Which I mistrusted not. Farewell therefore, Hero.

Enter Benedick

BENEDICK Count Claudio?

CLAUDIO Yea, the same.
BENEDICK Come, will you go with me?
CLAUDIO Wither?
BENEDICK Even to the next willow, about your own business, county. The Prince hath
got your Hero.
CLAUDIO I wish him joy of her.
BENEDICK Why, that’s spoken like an honest drover; so they sell bullocks.
CLAUDIO I pray you, leave me.
BENEDICK ’Twas the boy that stole your meat, and you’ll beat the post.
CLAUDIO If it will not be, I’ll leave you. He exits.
BENEDICK 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 give me out. Well, I’ll be revenged as I may.

Enter the Prince, Hero and Leonata

PRINCE Now signoir, where’s the Count? Did you see him?
BENEDICK Troth, my lady. I found him here as melancholy as a lodge in a warren. I
told him, and I think I told him true, that you Grace had got the goodwill of this
young lady, and I offered him company to a willow tree, because, as I take it, you
have stolen his bird’s nest.
PRINCE I will but teach them to sing and restore them to the owner.
BENEDICK If their singing answer your saying, by my faith, you say honestly.
PRINCE The Lady Beatrice hath a quarrel to you. The gentleman that danced with
her told her she is much wronged by you.
BENEDICK O, she misused me past the endurance of a block! She told me, not thinking
I had been myself, that I was the Prince’s jester, that I was duller than a great thaw,

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 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. Come, talk not of her.

Enter Claudio and Beatrice

PRINCE Here she comes.

BENEDICK Will your Grace command me any service to the world’s end? I will go on
the slightest errand now to the Antipodes rather than hold three words’ conference
with this harpy. You have no employment for me?
PRINCE None but to desire your good company.
BENEDICK O God, here’s a dish I love not! I cannot endure my Lady Tongue.
He exits.
PRINCE [to Beatrice] Come, lady, come, you have lost the heart of Signior
Benedick.
BEATRICE Indeed, my lady, he lent it me a while, and I gave him use for it, a double
heart for his single one. Marry, once before he won it of me with false dice.
Therefore your Grace may well say I have lost it.
PRINCE You have put him down, lady, you have put him down.
BEATRICE So I would not he should do me, my lady, lest I should prove the mother of
fools. I have brought Count Claudio, whom you sent me to seek.
PRINCE Why, how now, count, wherefore are you sad?
CLAUDIO Not sad, my lady.
PRINCE How then, sick?
CLAUDIO Neither.
BEATRICE The Count is neither sad, nor sick, nor merry, nor well, but civil count, civil
as an orange, and something of that jealous complexion.
PRINCE I’ faith, lady, I think your blazon to be true, though I’ll be sworn, if he be so,
his conceit is false. —Here, Claudio, I have wooed in thy name, and fair Hero is
won. I have broke with her father and his goodwill obtained. Name the day of
marriage, and God give thee joy.
LEONATA Count, take of me my daughter, and with her my fortunes. Her Grace hath
made the match, and all grace say “Amen” to it.
BEATRICE Speak, count, ’tis your cue.
CLAUDIO Silence is the perfectest herald of joy. I were but little happy if I could say
how much.—Last, as you are mine, I am yours.

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BEATRICE Speak, cousin, or if you cannot, stop his mouth with a kiss and let him not
speak neither.
PRINCE In faith, lady, you have a merry heart.
BEATRICE Yea, my lord. I thank it, poor fool, it keeps the windy side of care. My
cousin tells him in his ear that he is in her heart.
CLAUDIO And so she doth, cousin.
PRINCE Come, shall we hear music?
I pray thee, sing, and let me woo no more.
BALTHASAR
Because you talk of wooing, I will sing,
Since many a wooer doth commence his suit
To her he thinks not worthy, yet he woos,
Yet will he swear he loves.
PRINCE Nay, pray thee, come,
Or if thou wilt hold a longer argument,
Do it in notes.
BALTHASAR sings
Sigh no more, ladies, sigh no more,
Men were deceivers ever,
One foot in sea and one on shore,
To one thing constant never.
Then sigh not so, but let them go,
And be you blithe and bonny,
Converting all your sounds of woe
Into Hey, nonny nonny,

Sing no more ditties, sing no mo,

Of dumps so dull and heavy.
The fraud of men was ever so,
Since summer last was leavy.
Then sign not so, but let them go,
And be you blithe and bonny,
Converting all your sounds of woe
Into Hey, nonny, nonny.

PRINCE By my troth, a good song. Balthasar? I pray thee get us some excellent
music, for tomorrow night we would have it at the Lady Hero’s chamber window.

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BALTHASAR The very best I can, my lady.
PRINCE Do so. Farewell. Balthasar exits.
BEATRICE Good Lord for alliance! Thus goes everyone to the world. I may sit in a
corner and cry “Heigh-ho for a husband!”
PRINCE Lady Beatrice, I will get you one.
BEATRICE I would rather have one of your father’s getting. Hath your Grace ne’er a
brother like you? Your father got excellent husbands, if a maid could come by
them.
PRINCE Will you have me, lady?
BEATRICE No, my lady, unless I might have another for working days. Your Grace is
too costly to wear every day. But I beseech your Grace pardon me. I was born to
speak all mirth and no matter.
PRINCE Your silence most offends me, and to be merry best becomes you, for out o’
question you were born in a merry hour.
BEATRICE No, sure, my lady, my mother cried, but then there was a star danced, and
under that I was born.—Cousins, God give you joy!
LEONATA Niece, will you look to those things I told you of?
BEATRICE I cry you mercy, aunty,—By your Grace’s pardon.
Beatrice exits.
PRINCE By my troth, a pleasant-spirited lady.
LEONATA There’s little of the melancholy element in her, my lord. She is never sad
but when she sleeps, and not ever sad then, for I have heard my daughter say she
hath often dreamt of unhappiness and waked herself with laughing.
PRINCE She cannot endure to hear tell of a husband.
LEONATA O, by no means.
PRINCE She were an excellent wife for Benedick.
LEONATA O Lord, my lady, if they were but a week married, they would talk
themselves mad.
PRINCE County Claudio, when mean you go to church?
CLAUDIO Tomorrow, my lady. Time goes on crutches till love have all its rites.
LEONATA Not till Monday, my dear son, which is hence just a sevennight, and a time
too brief, too, to have all things answer my mind.
PRINCE I warrant thee, Claudio, the time shall not go dully by us. I will in the
interim undertake one of Hercules’ labors, which is to bring Signoir Benedick and
the Lady Beatrice into a mountain of affection, th’ one with th’ other. I would fain
have it a match, and I doubt not but to fashion it, if you three will but minister such
assistance as I shall give you direction. 5LEONATA My lady, I am for you.

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CLAUDIO And I, my lady.
HERO I will do any modest office, my lady, to help my cousin to a good husband.
PRINCE If we can do this, Cupid is no longer an archer; his glory shall be ours, for
we are the only love gods.
They exit.

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 Scene II
Enter Don John and Borachio

DON JOHN It is so. The Count Claudio shall marry the daughter of Leonata.
BORACHIO Yea, my lord, but I can cross it.
DON JOHN Any impediment will be med’cinable to me. I am sick in displeasure to him.
Show me briefly how.
BORACHIO I am in the favour of Margaret, the waiting gentlewoman to Hero.
CONRADE What life is in that to be the death of this marriage?
BORACHIO The poison of that lies in you to temper. Go you to the Prince your sister;
spare not to tell her that she hath wronged her honour in marrying the renowned
Claudio, to a contaminated stale, such a one as Hero.
DON JOHN What proof shall I make of that?
BORACHIO Proof enough to misuse the Prince, to vex Claudio, to undo Hero, and kill
Leonata. Look you for any other issue?
DON JOHN Only to despite them I will endeavour anything.
BORACHIO Go then, find Don Pedro and the Count Claudio alone. Tell them that you
know that Hero loves me.
CONRADE They will scarcely believe this.
BORACHIO Offer them instances, which shall bear no less likelihood than to see me at
her chamber window, hear me call Margaret “Hero”, hear Margaret term me
“Claudio”, and bring them to see this and there shall appear such seeming truth of
Hero’s disloyalty that jealously shall be called assurance and all the
preparation overthrown.
DON JOHN Grow this to what adverse issue it can, I will put it in practice. Be cunning
in the working this, and thy fee is a thousand ducats.
BORACHIO Be you constant in the accusation, and my cunning shall not shame me.
They exit.

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 Scene III
Enter Benedick alone.

BENEDICK Boy!
Enter Boy.
BOY Signior?
BENEDICK In my chamber window lies a book. Bring it hither to me in the orchard.
BOY I am here already, sir.
BENEDICK I know that, but I would have thee hence and here again.
Boy exits.
I do much wonder that one man, seeing how much another man is a fool
when he dedicates his behaviours to love, will, after he hath laughed at such
shallow follies in others, become the argument of his own scorn by falling
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 tabor and the
pipe; I have known when he would have walked ten mile afoot to see a good
armour, and now will he lie ten nights awake carving the fashion of a new doublet.
He was won’t to speak plain and to the purpose, like an honest. 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.
He hides.

Enter Prince, Leonata, Claudio and Balthasar

with music.

PRINCE Come hither, Leonata. What was it you told me of today, that your niece
Beatrice was in love with Signior Benedick?
CLAUDIO O, ay. I did never thing that lady would have loved any man.

II - 3 - 17
LEONATA No, nor I neither, but most wonderful that she should so dote on Signior
Benedick, whom she hath in all outward behaviours seemed ever to abhor.
8BENEDICK [aside] Is ’t possible? Sits the wind in that corner?
LEONATA By my troth, my lord, I cannot tell what to think of it, but that she loves him
with an enraged affection, it is past the infinite of thought.
PRINCE Maybe she doth but counterfeit.
CLAUDIO Faith, like enough.
LEONATA O God! Counterfeit. There was never counterfeit of passion came so near
the life of passion as she discovers it.
PRINCE Why, what effects of passion shows she?
CLAUDIO [aside to Leonata] Bait the hook well; this fish will bite.
LEONATA What effects, my lady? She will sit you—you heard my daughter tell you
how.
PRINCE How, how I pray you? You amaze me. I would have thought her spirit had
been invincible against all assaults of affection.
LEONATA I would have sworn it had, my lady, especially against Benedick.
BENEDICK [aside] I should think this is a full but that the white-bearded fellow speaks
it.
CLAUDIO [aside to Prince] He hath ta’en th’infection. Hold it up.
PRINCE Hath she made her affection known to Benedick?
LEONATA No, and swears she never will. That’s her torment.
CLAUDIO ’Tis true indeed, so your daughter says, “Shall I”, says she, “that have so oft
encountered him with scorn, to write to him that I love him?”
LEONATA O, she tore the letter into a thousand halfpence.
CLAUDIO Then down upon her knees she falls, weeps, sobs, beats her heart, tears her
hair, prays, curses: “O sweet Benedick, God give me patience!”
LEONATA She doth indeed, my daughter says so, and the ecstasy hath so much
overborne her that my daughter is sometimes afeared she will do a desperate
outrage to herself.
PRINCE It were good that Benedick knew of it by some other, if she will not
discover it.
CLAUDIO To what end? He would make but a sport of it and torment the poor lady
worse.
PRINCE An he should, it were an alms to hang him.
She’s an excellent sweet lady, and, out of all suspicion,
she is virtuous.
CLAUDIO And she is exceeding wise.

II - 3 - 18
PRINCE In everything but in loving Benedick.
LEONATA I pray you tell Benedick of it, and hear what he will say.
CLAUDIO Hero thinks surely she will die, for she says she will die if he love her not,
and she will die ere she make her love known, and she will die if he woo her.
PRINCE She doth well. If she should make tender of her love, ’tis very possible he’ll
scorn it. Well, I am sorry for your niece. Shall we go seek Benedick and tell him of
her love?
CLAUDIO Never tell him, my lady, let her wear it out with good counsel.
LEONATA Nay, that’s impossible; she may wear her heart out first.
PRINCE Well, we will hear further of it by your daughter. Let it cool the while. I love
Benedick well, and I could wish he would modestly examine himself to see how
much he is unworthy so good a lady.
LEONATA My lady, will you walk? Dinner is ready.
Leonata, Prince and Claudio begin to exit.
CLAUDIO [aside to Prince and Leonata] If he do not dote on her upon this, I will
never trust my expectation.
PRINCE [aside to Leonata] Let there be the same net spread for her, and that must
Hero and Margaret carry. Let us send her to call him in to dinner.
Prince, Leonata, and Claudio exit.
BENEDICK 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 up 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. And wise, 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. By this day, she’s a fair lady. I do spy
some marks of love in her.
Enter Beatrice

BEATRICE Against my will, I am sent to bid you come in to dinner?

II - 3 - 19
BENEDICK Fair Beatrice, I thank you for your pains.
BEATRICE I took no more pains for those thanks that you take pains to thank me, If it
had been painful, I would not have come.
BENEDICK You take pleasure then in the message?
BEATRICE Yea, just so much as you many take upon a knife’s point and choke a daw
withal. You have no stomach, signior. Fare you well.
She exits.
BENEDICK 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 to say “Any pains that I take for you is as easy as
thanks.” If I do not take pity on her, I am a villain; if I do not lover her, I am a fool.
I will go get her picture. He exits.

II - 3 - 20
 ACT III
Scene I
Enter Hero and two gentlewomen, Margaret and Ursula

HERO
Good Margaret, run thee to the parlour.
There shalt thou find my cousin Beatrice
Proposing with the Prince and Claudio.
Whisper her ear and tell her I and Ursula
Walk in the orchard, and our whole discourse
Is all of her. Say that thou overheardst us,
And bid her steal into the pleachèd bower.
There will she hide her
To listen to our purpose. This is thy office.
Bear thee well in it, and leave us alone.
MARGARET
I’ll make her come, I warrant you, presently.
She exits.
HERO
Now, Ursula, when Beatrice doth come,
Our talk must only be of how Benedick
Is sick in love with Beatrice.
Enter Beatrice who hides.
No truly, Ursula, she is too disdainful.
I know her spirits are as coy and wild
As haggards of the rock.
URSULA But are you sure
That Benedick loves Beatrice so entirely?
HERO
So says the Prince and my new-trothèd lord.
URSULA
And did they bid you tell her of it, madam?
HERO
They did entreat me to acquaint her of it,
But I persuaded them, if they loved Benedick
To wish him wrestle with affection
And never to let Beatrice know of it.

III - 1 - 21
URSULA
Why did you so? Doth not the gentleman
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 framed 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.
URSULA Sure, I think so,
And therefore certainly it were not good
She knew his love, lest she’ll make sport at it.
HERO
Why, you speak truth. I never yet saw a man,
How wise, how noble, young, how rarely featured,
But she would spell him backward.
URSULA
Sure, sure, such carping is not commendable.
HERO
No, not to be so odd and form 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 covered fire,
Consume away in sighs, waste inwardly.
It were a better death than die with mocks,
Which is as bad as die with tickling.
URSULA
Yet tell her of it. Hear what she will say.

III - 1 - 22
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.
URSULA
O, do not your cousin such a wrong!
She cannot be so much without true judgement,
Having so swift and excellent a wit
As she is so prized to have, as to refuse
So rare a gentleman as Signior Benedick.
HERO
Indeed, he hath an excellent good name.
URSULA
His excellence did earn it ere he had it.
When are you married, madam?
HERO
Why, every day, tomorrow. Come, go in.
I’ll show thee some attires and have thy counsel
Which is the best to furnish me tomorrow.
URSULA [aside to Hero]
She’s limed, I warrant you. We have caught her, madam.
HERO [aside to Ursula]
If it prove so, then loving goes by haps;
Some Cupid kills with arrows, some with traps.
Hero and Ursula exit.
BEATRICE [coming forward]
What fire is in mine ears? Can this be true?
Stand I condemned 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,
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 reprovingly. She exits.

III - 1 - 23
 Scene III
Enter Dogberry, and his companion Verges, with the Watch.

DOGBERRY Are you men good and true?

VERGES Yea, or else it were pity but they should suffer salvation, body and soul.
DOGBERRY Nay, that were a punishment too good for them if they should have any
allegiance in them, being chosen for the Prince’s watch.
VERGES Well, give them their charge, neighbour Dogberry.
DOGBERRY First, who think you the most desartless man to be constable?
VERGES Hugh Oatcake, sir, or George Seacoal, for they can speak and read Italian.
DOGBERRY Come hither, neighbour Seacaol. God hath blessed you with a good name.
To be a well-favoured man is the gift of fortune but to speak and read comes by
nature.
SEACAOL Both which, master constable—
DOGBERRY You have. I knew it would be your answer. Well, for your favour, sir, why,
give God thanks, and make no boast of it, and for your speaking and reading, let
that appear when there is no need of such vanity. You are thought here to be the
most senseless and fit man for the constable of the watch; therefore bear you the
lantern. This is your charge: you shall comprehend all vagrom men; you are to bid
any man stand, in the Prince’s name.
SEACOAL How if he will not stand?
DOGBERRY Why, then, take no note of him, but let him go, and presently call the rest of
the watch together and thank God you are rid of a knave.
VERGES If he will not stand when he is bidden, he is none of the Prince’s subjects.
DOGBERRY True, and they are to meddle with non but the Prince’s subjects.—You shall
also make no noise in the streets; for, for the watch to babble and to talk is most
tolerable and not to be endured.
OATCAKE We will rather sleep than talk. We know what belongs to a watch.
DOGBERRY Why, you speak like an ancient and most quiet watchman, for I cannot see
how sleeping should offend; only have a care that your bills be not stolen.
VERGES Well, you are to call at all the alehouses and bid those that are drunk get
them to bed.
SEACOAL How if they will not?
VERGES Why then, let them alone till they are sober. If they make you not then the
better answer, you may say they are not the men you took them for.
SEACOL Well, sir.

III - 3 - 24
DOGBERRY If you meet at thief, you may suspect him, by virtue of your office, to be no
true man, and for such kind of men, the less you meddle or make with them, why,
the more is for your honesty.
SEACOAL If we know him to be a thief, shall we not lay hands on him?
DOGBERRY Truly, by your office you may, but I think they that touch pitch will be
defiled. The most peaceable way for you, if you do take a thief, is to let him show
himself what he is and steal out of your company.
VERGES You have been always called a merciful man, partner.
DOGBERRY Truly, I would not hang a dog by my will, much more a man who hath any
honesty in him.
VERGES If you hear a child cry in the night, you must call to the nurse and bid her
still it.
OATCAKE How if the nurse be asleep and will not hear us?
DOGBERRY Why, then, depart in peace, and let the child wake her with crying, for the
ewe that will not hear her lamb when it baas will never answer a calf when he
bleats.
VERGES ’Tis very true.
DOGBERRY This is the end of the charge. Well, masters, goodnight. An there be any
matter of weight chances, call up me. Keep your fellows’ counsels and your own,
and goodnight.—Come, neighbour.
Dogberry and Verges begin to exit.
DOGBERRY One more word, honest neighbours. I pray, you watch about Madam
Leonata’s door, for the wedding being there tomorrow, there is a great coil tonight.
Adieu, be vigitant, I beseech you.
Dogberry and Verges exit.

III - 3 - 25
 Scene II
Enter Prince, Claudio, Benedick and Leonata.

PRINCE I do but stay till your marriage be consummate, and then I go toward
Aragon.
CLAUDIO I’ll bring you thither, my lady, if you’ll vouchsafe me.
PRINCE Nay, that would be as great a soil in the new gloss of our marriage as to
show a child his new coat and forbid him 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 a heart as sound as a bell, and his tongue is the clapper, for what his
heart thinks, his tongue speaks.
BENEDICK Gallants, I am not as I have been.
LEONATA So say I. Methinks you are sadder.
CLAUDIO I hope he be in love.
PRINCE 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.
BENEDICK I have the toothache.
LEONATA Where is but humour or a worm.
BENEDICK Well, everyone can master a grief but he that has it.
CLAUDIO Yes, say I, he is in love.
LEONATA Indeed he looks younger than he did.
PRINCE Nay, he rubs himself with civet. Can you smell him out by that?
CLAUDIO That’s as much to say, the sweet youth’s in love.
PRINCE The greatest note of it is his melancholy.
CLAUDIO And when was he wont to wash his face?
PRINCE Yea, or paint himself?
PRINCE Indeed, that tells a heavy tale for him. Conclude, conclude, he is in love.
CLAUDIO Yes, and his ill conditions; and, in despite of all, dies for him.
BENEDICK Yet is this no charm for the toothache.—
Old madam, walk aside with me. I have studied eight or nine worse words to speak
to you, which these hobby-horses must no hear.
Benedick and Leonata exit.
Enter John the Bastard.

DON JOHN My lady and brother, God save you.

PRINCE Good e’en, brother.
DON JOHN If your leisure served, I would speak with you.

III - 2 - 26
PRINCE In private?
DON JOHN If it pleases you. Yet Count Claudio may hear for what I would speak of
concerns him.
PRINCE What’s the matter?
DON JOHN [to Claudio] Means your lordship to be married tomorrow?
PRINCE You know he does.
DON JOHN I know not that, when he knows what I know.
CLAUDIO If there be any impediment, I pray you discover it.
DON JOHN You may think l love you not. Let that appear hereafter, and aim better at me
by that I now will manifest.
PRINCE Why, what’s the matter?
DON JOHN I came hither to tell you; the lady is disloyal.
CLAUDIO Who, Hero?
DON JOHN Even she: Leonata’s House, your Hero, every man’s Hero.
CLAUDIO Disloyal?
DON JOHN The word is too good to paint out her wickedness. I could say she were
worse. Think you of a worse title, and I will fit her to it. Go but with me now, you
shall see her chamber window entered, even the night before her wedding day. If
you love her then, tomorrow wed her. But it would better fit your honour to change
your mind.
CLAUDIO May this be so?
PRINCE I will not think it.
DON JOHN If you dare not trust that you see, confess not that you know. If you will
follow me, I will show you enough, and when you have seen more and heard
accordingly.
They exit.

The remnants of the festival occur here, music plays, loiterers dance and sing.
Enter Borachio and Margaret

BORACHIO You should so fashion to make Hero absent from her chamber.

We see Hero leaving her chamber, and Borachio and Margaret convening there, watched
by Don John, The Prince and Claudio.

III - 2 - 27
 Scene III.ii
Enter Conrade, Dogberry, and his companion Verges.

BORACHIO What, Conrade!

VERGES Peace, stir not.
BORACHIO Conrade, I say!
CONRADE Here, man, I am at thy elbow.
BORACHIO Mass, and my elbow itched, I thought there would a scab follow.
CONRADE I will owe thee an answer for that. And now forward with thy tale.
BORACHIO Stand thee close, then.
VERGES Some treason, masters. Yet stand close.
BORACHIO Therefore know, I have earned of Don John a thousand ducats.
CONRADE Is it possible that any villainy should be so dear?
BORACHIO Thou shouldst rather ask if it were possible any villainy should be so rich.
For when rich villains have need of poor ones, poor ones may make what price they
will.
DOGBERRY I know that Deformed. He has been a vile thief this seven year. He goes up
and down like a gentleman. I remember his name.
BORACHIO Didst thou not hear somebody?
CONRADE No, ’twas the vane on the house.
BORACHIO I have tonight wooed Margaret. The Lady Hero’s gentlewoman, by the
name of Hero.
CONRADE You tell this tale vilely.
BORACHIO I should first tell thee how the Prince, Claudio, and my master, planted nad
placed and possessed by my master Don John, saw this amiable encounter.
CONRADE And thought they Margaret was Hero?
BORACHIO Two of them did, the Prince and Claudio, but the devil my master knew she
was Margaret. And partly by his oaths, which first possessed them, partly by the
dark night, which did deceive them, but chiefly by my villainy, which did confirm
any slander that Don John had made, away went Claudio enraged, swore he would
meet her as he was appointed next morning at the temple, and there, before the
whole congregation, shame her with what he saw o’ernight and send her home
again without a husband.
DOGBERRY We charge you in the Prince’s name stand!
VERGES We have here recovered the most dangerous piece of lechery that ever was
known in the commonwealth. Masters, never speak, we charge you, let us obey you
to go with us. They exit.

III - 3 - 28
 Scene IV
Enter Hero, and Margaret, and Ursula.

HERO Good Ursula, wake my cousin Beatrice and desire her to rise.
USULA I will, lady.
URSULA Well. [shouting] Beatrice, your cousin desires you to rise and bid you come
hither.
MARGARET Troth, I think your other rebato were better.
HERO No, pray thee, good Meg, I’ll wear this.
MARGARET By my troth, ’s not so good, and I warrant your cousin will say so.
HERO My cousin’s a fool, and thou art another. I’ll wear none but this.
MARGARET By my troth, ’s but a nightgown in respect of yours.
HERO God give me joy to wear it, for my heart is exceeding heavy.
MARGARET ’Twill be heavier soon by the wright of a man.
HERO Fie upon thee! Art not ashamed?
MARGARET Of what, lady? Of speaking honourably? Is there any harm in “the heavier
for a husband”? None, I think, an it be the right husband and the right wife.
Otherwise, ’tis light and not heavy. Ask my lady Beatrice else.

Enter Beatrice.
HERO Good morrow, coz.
BEATRICE Good morrow, sweet Hero.
HERO Why, how now? Do you speak in the sick tune?
BEATRICE I am out of all other tune, methinks. ’Tis time you were ready. By my troth,
I am exceeding ill. Heigh-ho!
MARGARET For a hawk, a horse, or a husband?
BEATRICE What means the fool, trow?
MARGARET Nothing, I; but God send everyone their heart’s desire.
HERO These gloves the Count sent me, they are an excellent perfume.
BEATRICE I am stuffed, cousin. I cannot smell.
MARGARET A maid, and stuffed! There’s goodly catching of cold.
BEATRICE O, God help me, God help me! How long have you professed apprehension?
MARGARET Ever since you left it. Doth not my wit become me rarely?
BEATRICE By my troth, I am sick.
MARGARET Get you some of this distilled carduus benedictus and lay it to your heart. It
is the only thing for a qualm.
HERO There thou prick’st her with a thistle.

III - 4 - 29
BEATRICE Benedictus! Why benedictus? You have some oral in this benedictus?
MARGARET Moral? I have no moral meaning. You may think perchance that I think you
are in love. Nay, I cannot think my heart out of thinking, that you are in love or that
you will be in love or that you can be in love. And how you may be converted I
know not, but methinks you look with your eyes as other women do.
BEATRICE Why pace is this that thy tongue keeps?
MARGARET Not a false gallop.
Enter Ursula.
URSULA Madam, withdraw. The Prince, the Count, Signior Benedick, Don John, and
all the gallants of the town are come to fetch you to church.
They exit.

III - 4 - 30
 Scene V
Enter Leonata, and Dogberry, the Constable, and Verges.

LEONATA What would you with me, honest neighbour?

VERGES Marry, ma’am, our watch tonight, excepting your Worships’ presence, ha’
ta’en a couple of as arrant knaves as any in Messina.
DOGBERRY A good old man, ma’am. He will be talking. As they say, “When the age is
in, the wit is out.” God help us, it is a world to see!—Well said, i’ faith, neighbour
Verges.—Well, God’s a good man. An two men ride of a horse, one must ride
behind. All men are not alike, alas, good neighbour.
LEONATA Indeed, neighbour, he comes too short of you.
DOGBERRY Gifrs that God gives.
LEONATA Neighbours, you are tedious.
DOGBERRY It pleases your Worship to say so, but we are the poor duke’s officers. But
truly, for mine own part, if I were as tedious as a king, I could find in my heart to
bestow it all of your Worship.
LEONATA All thy tediousness on me, ah? I would fain know what you have to say.
DOGBERRY One word, ma’am. Our watch, ma’am, have indeed comprehended two
aspicious persons, and we would have them this morning examined before your
Worship.
LEONATA Take their examination yourself and bring it me. I am now in great haste, as
it may appear unto you.
LEONATA Drink some wine ere you go.
DOGBERRY We are now to examination these men. [to Verges] Meet me at the jail.

III - 5 - 31
 ACT 4
Scene I
Enter Prince, John the Bastard, Leonata, Friar, Claudio, Benedick, Hero, and Beatrice.

FRIAR [to Claudio] You come hither, my lord, to marry this lady?
CLAUDIO No.
LEONATA To be married to her.—Frair, you come to marry her.
FRIAR Lady, you come hither to be married to this count?
HERO I do.
FRIAR If either of you know any inward impediment why you should not be
conjoined, I charge you on your souls to utter it.
CLAUDIO Know of any, Hero?
HERO None, my Lord.
FRIAR Know you of any, count?
LEONATA I dare make his answer, none.
CLAUDIO O, what men dare do! What men may do! What men daily do, not knowing
what they do!
Will you with free and unconstrainèd soul
Give me this maid, your daughter?
LEONATA
As freely, son, as God did give her to me.
CLAUDIO
And what have I to give you back whose worth
May counterpoise this rich and precious gift?
PRINCE
Nothing, unless you render her again.

CLAUDIO
Sweet prince, you learn me noble thankfulness.—
There, Leonata, take her back again.
Give not this rotten orange to your friend.
She’s but the sign and semblance of her honour.
Would you not swear,
All that you see her, that she were a maid,
By these exterior shows? But she is none.
She knows the heat of a luxurious bed.
LEONATA

IV - 1 - 32
 What do you mean, my lord?
CLAUDIO Not to be married.
Not ot knit my soul to an approvèd wanton.
LEONATA
Dear my lord, if you in your own proof
Have vanquished the resistance of her youth,
And made defeat of her virginity—
CLAUDIO
No, Leonata
I never tempted her with word too large,
But, as a brother to his sister, showed
Bashful sincerity and comely love.
HERO
And seemed I ever otherwise to you?
CLAUDIO
You seem to me as Dian in her orb,
But you are more intemperate in your blood
Than Venus, or those pampered animals
That rage in savage sensuality.
HERO
Is my lord well that he doth speak so wide?
LEONATA
Sweet prince, why speak not you?
PRINCE Why should I speak?
I stand dishonoured that have gone about
To link my dear friend to a common stale.
LEONATA
Are these things spoken, or do I but dream?
DON JOHN
Sir, they are spoken, and these things are true.
BENEDICK
This looks not like a nuptial.
HERO
True! O God!
CLAUDIO Leonata, stand I here?
Is this the Prince’s? Is this the Prince’s brother?
Is this face Hero’s? Are our eyes our own?

IV - 1 - 33
HERO
Is it not Hero? Who can blot taht name
With any just reproach?
CLAUDIO Marry, that can Hero!
Hero itself can blot out Hero’s virtue.
What man was he talked with you yesternight
Out at your window betwixt twelve and one?
HERO
I talked with no man at that hour, my Lord.
PRINCE
Why, then, you are no maiden.—Leonata,
I am sorry you must hear. Upon mine honour,
Myself, my brother, and this grievèd count
Did see her, hear her, at that hour last night
Talk with ruffian at her chamber window,
Who hath indeed, most like a liberal villain,
Confessed the vile encounters they have had
A thousand times in secret.
DON JOHN
There is not chastity enough in language,
Without offence, to utter them.—Thus, pretty lady,
I am sorry for thy much misgovernment.
CLAUDIO
O Hero, what a Hero hadst thou been
If half thy outward graces had been placed
About thy thoughts and counsels of thy heart!
But fare thee well, most foul, most fair. Farewell,
Thou pure impiety and impious purity.
For thee I’ll lock up all the gates of love
And on my eyelids shall conjecture hang,
To turn all beauty into thoughts of harm,
And never shall it more be gracious.
LEONATA
Hath no man’s dagger here a point for me?
Hero falls.

IV - 1 - 34
BEATRICE
Why, how now, cousin, wherefore sink you down?
DON JOHN
Come, let us go. These things, come thus to light.
Smother her spirits up.
Claudio, Prince, and Don John exit.
BENEDICK
How doth the lady?
BEATRICE Dead, I think.—Help, uncle!—
Hero, why Hero! Uncle! Signior Benedick! Friar!
FRIAR
[to Hero] Have comfort, lady.
LEONATA
[to Hero] Dost thou look up?
FRIAR Yea, wherefore should she not?
LEONATA
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 open 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?
O, one too much by thee! Why I had one?
Why ever wast thou lovely in my eyes?
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 fall’n
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!
BENEDICK Sir, sir, be patient.
For my part, I am so attired in wonder
I know not what to say.

IV - 1 - 35
BEATRICE
O, on my soul, my cousin is belied!
BENEDICK
Lady, were you her bedfellow last night?
BEATRICE
No, truly not, although until last night
I have this twelvemonth been her bedfellow.
LEONATA
Confirmed, confirmed!
Would the two princes lie and Claudio lie,
Hence from her. Let her die!
FRIAR
Hear me a little,
For I have only been silent so long,
And given way unto this course of fortune,
By noting of the lady. I have marked
A thousand blessing apparitions
To start into her face, a thousand innocent shames
In angel whiteness beat away those blushes,
If this sweet lady lie not guiltless here
Under some biting error.
LEONATA Friar, it cannot be.
Thou seest that all the grace that she hath left
Is that she will not add to her damnation
A sin of perjury. She not denies it.
Why seek’st thou then to cover with excuse
That which appears in proper nakedness?

FRIAR
Lady, what man is he you are accused of?
HERO
They know that do accuse me. I know none.
If I know more of any more alive
Than that which maiden modesty doth warrant,
Let all my sins lack mercy!—O my father,
Prove you that any man with me conversed
At hours unmeet, or that I yesternight

IV - 1 - 36
 Maintained the change of words with any creature,
Refuse me, hate me, torture me to death!

FRIAR
There is some strange misprision in the princes.
BENEDICK
Two of them have the very bent of honour,
And if their wisdoms be misled in this,
The practice of it lives in John the Bastard.
LEONATA
I know not. If they speak but truth of her,
These hands shall tear her. If they wrong her honour,
The proudest of them shall well hear of it.
FRIAR Pause awhile,
And let my counsel sway you in this case.
Your daughter here the princes left for dead.
Let her awhile be secretly kept in,
And publish it that she is dead indeed.
Maintain in a mourning ostentation,
And on your family’s old monument
Hang mournful epitaphs and do all rites
That appertain unto a burial.
LEONATA
What shall become of this? What will this do?
FRIAR
She, dying, as it must be so maintained,
Upon the instant that she was accused,
Shall be lamented, pitied, and excused
Of every hearer.
So will it fare with Claudio.
When he shall hear she died upon his words,
Th’ idea of her life shall sweetly creep
Into his study of imagination,
And every lovely organ of her life
Shall come appareled in more precious habit,
More moving, delicate, and full of life,
Into the eye and prospect of his soul,

IV - 1 - 37
 Than when she lived indeed. Then shall be mourn,
And wish he had not so accused her.
BENEDICK
Madam Leonata, 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.
LEONATA
Being that I flow in grief.
The smallest twine may lead me.
FRIAR
Come, lady, die to live. This wedding day
Perhaps is but prolonged. Have patience and
endure.
All but Beatrice and Benedick exit.
BENEDICK Lady Beatrice, have you wept all this while?
BEATRICE Yea, and I will weep a while longer.
BENEDICK I will not desire that.
BEATRICE You have no reason. I do it freely.
BENEDICK Surely I do believe your fair cousin is wronged.
BEATRICE Ah, how much might the man deserve of me that would right her!
BENEDICK Is there any way to show such friendship?
BEATRICE A very even way, but not such friend.
BENEDICK May a man do it?
BEATRICE It is a man’s office, but not yours.
BENEDICK I do love nothing in the world so well as you. Is not that strange?
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.
BENEDICK By my sword, Beatrice, thou lovest me!
BEATRICE Do not swear it and eat it.
BENEDICK I will swear by it that you love me, and I will make him eat it that says I
love not you.
BEATRICE Why then, God forgive me.
BENEDICK What offence, sweet Beatrice?

IV - 1 - 38
BEATRICE You have stayed me in a happy hour. I was about to protest I loved you.
BENEDICK And do it with all thy heart.
BEATRICE I love you with so much of my heart that none is left to protest.
BENEDICK Come, bid me do anything for free.
BEATRICE Kill Claudio.
BENEDICK Ha! Not for the wide world.
BEATRICE You kill me to deny it. Farewell.
She begins to exit.
BENEDICK Tarry, sweet Beatrice.
BEATRICE I am gone, though I am here. There is no love in you. Nay, I pray you let me
go.
BENEDICK Beatrice—
BEATRICE In faith, I will go.
BENEDICK We’ll be friends first.
BEATRICE You dare easier be friends with me than fight with mine enemy.
BENEDICK Is Claudio thine enemy?
BEATRICE Is he not approved in the height of 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 rancor—O God, that I
were a man! I would eat his heart in the marketplace.
BENEDICK Hear me, Beatrice—
BEATRICE Talk with a man out at a window! A proper saying.
BENEDICK Nay, but Beatrice—
BEATRICE Sweet Hero, she is wronged, she is slandered, she is undone.
BENEDICK Beat—
BEATRICE Princes and counties! O, that I were a man for his sake! Or that I had any
friend would be a many for my sake! But manhood is melted into curtsies, 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.
BENEDICK By this hand, I love thee.
BEATRICE Use it for my love some other way than swearing by it.
BENEDICK Think you in your soul the Count Claudio hath wronged Hero?
BEATRICE Yea, as sure as I have a thought or a soul.

IV - 1 - 39
BENEDICK 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.
They exit.

IV - 1 - 40
 Scene II
Enter Dogberry and Verges, with Conrade and Borachio

DOGBERRY Is our whole dissembly appeared?

VERGES O, a stool and cushion for the Sexton.
A stool is brought in; the Sexton sits.
DOGBERRY Yea, marry, let them come before me.
Conrade and Borachio are brought forward.
What is your name, friend?
BORACHIO Borachio
DOGBERRY Pray, write down “Borachio.”—Yours, sirrah?
CONRADE I am a gentleman, sir, and my name is Conrade.
DOGBERRY Write down “Master Gentleman Conrade.”—
Masters, do you serve God?
BORACHIO/CONRADE Yes, sir, we hope.
DOGBERRY Write down that they hope they serve God; and write God first, for God
defend but God should go before such villains!—Masters, it is proved already that
you are little better than false knaves, and it will go near to be thought so shortly.
How answer you for yourselves?
CONRADE Marry, sir, we say we are none.
DOGBERRY A marvellous witty fellow, I assure you, but I will go about with him.—
Come you hither, sirrah, a word in your ear. Sir, I say to you it is thought you are
false knaves.
BORACHIO Sir, I say to you we are none.
DOGBERRY Well, stand aside.—‘Fore God, they are both in a tale. You must call forth
the watch that are accusers.
DOGBERRY Yea, marry, that’s the eftest way.—Let the watch come forth. Masters, I
charge you in the Prince’s name, accuse these men.
VERGES This mad said, sir, that Don John, the Prince’s brother, was a villain.
DOGBERRY Write down Prince John a villain. Why, this is flat perjury, to call a prince’s
brother a villain!
BORACHIO Master constable—
DOGBERRY Pray thee, fellow, peace. I do not like thy look, I promise thee.
SEXTON What heard you him say else?
VERGES Marry, that he had received a thousand ducats of Don John for accusing
Lady Hero wrongfully.
DOGBERRY Flat burglary as ever was committed.

IV - 2 - 41
VERGES Yes, by Mass, that it is.
SEXTON What else, follow.
VERGES And that Count Claudio did mean, upon his words, to disgrace Hero before
the whole assembly, and not marry her.
DOGBERRY [to Borachio] O, villain! Thou wilt be condemned into everlasting
redemption for this!
SEXTON What else?
VERGES This is all.
DOGBERRY And this is more, masters, than you can deny.
Prince John is this morning secretly stolen away.
Hero was in this manner accused, in this very manner refused, and upon the grief of
this suddenly died.—Master constable, let these men be bound and brought to
Leonata’s. I will go before and show him their examination. Come, let them be
opinioned.
VERGES Let them be in the hands—
CONRADE Off, coxcomb!
DOGBERRY God’s my life, where’s the Sexton? Let him write down the Prince’s officer
“coxcomb”. Come, bind them.—Thou naughty varlet!
CONRADE Away! You are an ass, you are an ass!
DOGBERRY Dost thou suspect my place? Dost thou not suspect my years? O, that he
were here to write me down an ass! But masters, remembers that I am an ass,
though it be not written down, yet forget not that I am an ass.—No, thou villain,
thou art full of piety, as shall be proved upon thee by good witness. I am a wise
fellow and, which is more, an officer and, which is more, a householder and, which
is more, as pretty a piece of flesh as any is in Messina, and one that knows the law,
go to, and a rich fellow enough, go to, and a fellow that hath had losses, and one
that hath two gowns and everything handsome about him.—Bring him away.—O,
that I had been writ down an ass!
They exit.

IV - 2 - 42
 ACT V
Scene I
Enter Leonata and Antonio

ANTONIO
If you go on thus, you will kill yourself,
And ’tis not wisdom thus to second grief
Against yourself.
LEONATA I pray thee, cease thy counsel,
Which falls into mine ears as profitless
As water in a sieve. Give me not counsel,
Nor let no comforter delight mine ear
But such a one whose wrongs do suit with mine.
Bring me a mother that so loved her child,
Whose joy of her is overwhelmed like mine,
And bid her speak of patience.
Measure her woe the length and breadth of mine.
Patch grief with proverbs, make misfortune drunk
With candle-wasters, bring her yet to me,
And I of her will gather patience.
But there is no such woman. For, brother, women
Can counsel and speak comfort to that grief
Which they themselves not feel, but tasting it.
Therefore give me no counsel.
My griefs cry louder than advertisement.
ANTONIO
Therein do men from children nothing differ.
LEONATA
I pray thee, peace. I will be fresh and blood,
For there was never yet philosopher
That could endure toothache patiently.
ANTONIO
Yet bend not all the harm upon yourself
Make those that do offend you suffer too.
LEONATA
There thou speak’st reason. Nay, I will do so.
My soul doth tell me Hero is belied,

V - 1 - 43
 And that shall Claudio know; so shall the Prince
And all of them that thus dishonour her.
Enter Prince and Claudio
CLAUDIO Good day to both of you.
LEONATA
Hear you, my lords—
PRINCE We have some haste,
Leonata.
LEONATA
Some haste, my lady! Well, fare you well.
Are you so hasty now? Well, all is one.
PRINCE
Nay, do not quarrel with us, good lady.
ANTONIO
If she could right herself with quarrelling,
Some of us would lie low.
CLAUDIO Who wrongs her?
LEONATA
Marry, thou dost wrong me, thou dissembler, thou.
I say thou hast belied mine innocent child.
Thy slander hath gone through and through her
heart,
And she lies buried with her ancestors,
O, in a tomb where never scandal slept,
Save this of hers, framed by thy villainy.
CLAUDIO
My villainy?
LEONATA Thine, Claudio, thine, I say.
CLAUDIO
Away! I will not have to do with you.

LEONATA
Canst thou so daff me? Thou hast killed my child.
If thou kill’st me, boy, thou shalt kill a woman.
PRINCE
Both, we will not wake your patience.
My heart is sorry for your daughter’s death,

V - 1 - 44
 But, on my honour, she was charged with nothing
But what was true and very full of proof.
LEONATA My lady, my lady—
PRINCE I will not hear you.
LEONATA
No? I will be heard.
Leonata and her brother exit.
Enter Benedick.
CLAUDIO Now, signior, what news?
BENEDICK [to Prince] Good day, my lady.
PRINCE Welcome, signior. You are almost come to part almost a fray.
CLAUDIO We have been up and down to seek thee, for we are high-proof melancholy
and would fain have it beaten away.
PRINCE As I am an honest man, he looks pale.—Art thou sick, or angry?
BENEDICK Shall I speak a word in your ear?
CLAUDIO God bless me from a challenge!
BENEDICK [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.
CLAUDIO Well, I meet you, so I may have good cheer.
BENEDICK Fare you well, boy. You know my mind. I must discontinue your company.
Your brother the Bastard is fled from Messina. You have among us killed a sweet
and innocent lady. For may Lord Lackbeard there, he and I shall meet, and till then
peace be with him.
Benedick exits.
PRINCE He is in earnest.
CLAUDIO In most profound earnest, and, I’ll warrant you, for the love of Beatrice.
PRINCE And hath challenged thee?
CLAUDIO Most sincerely.
PRINCE But soft you, let me be. Did he not say my brother was fled?

Enter Dogberry and Verges, with Conrade and Borachio.

DOGBERRY Come you, sir. If justice cannot tame you, she shall ne’er weigh more
reasons in her balance. Nay, an you be a cursing hypocrite once, you must be
looked to.

V - 1 - 45
PRINCE How now, two of my brother’s men bound? Borachio one! Officers, what
offence have these men done?
DOGBERRY Marry, sir, they have committed false report; moreover, they have spoke
untruths; secondarily, they are slanders; sixth and lastly, they have belied a lady;
thirdly, they have verified unjust things; and to conclude, they are lying knaves.
PRINCE First, I ask thee what they have done; thirdly, I ask thee what’s their offence;
sixth and lastly, why they are committed; and, to conclude, what you lay to their
charge. [to Borachio and Conrade] This learned constable is too cunning to be
understood. What’s your offence?
CONRADE We have deceived even your very eyes. What your wisdoms could not
discover, these shallow fools have brought to light, who in the night overheard me
confessing to this man how Don John your brother incensed me to slander the Lady
Hero, how you were brought into the orchard—
BORACHIO And saw me court Margaret in Hero’s garments, how you disgraced her
when you should marry her.
CONRADE My villainy they have upon record, which I had rather seal with my death
than repeat over to my shame. The lady is dead upon mine and my master’s false
accusation. And, briefly, I desire nothing but the reward of a villain.
PRINCE [to Claudio]
Runs not this speech like iron through your blood?
CLAUDIO
I have drunk poison whiles he uttered it.
PRINCE [to Borachio]
But did my brother set thee on to this?
BORACHIO Yea, and paid me richly for the practice of it.
PRINCE
He is composed and framed of treachery,
And fled he is upon this villainy.
CLAUDIO
Sweet Hero, now thy image doth appear
In the rare semblance that I loved it first.
DOGBERRY
And, masters, do not forget to specify, when time and place shall serve, that I am an
ass.
Enter Leonata, Antonio
LEONATA
Which is the villain? Let me see his eyes.

V - 1 - 46
BORACHIO
If you would know your wronger, look on me.
LEONATA
Art thou the knave that with thy breath hast killed
Mine innocent child?
BORACHIO Yea, even I alone.
LEONATA
No, not so, villain, thou beliest thyself.
Here stand a pair of honourable men—
A third is fled—that had a hand in it.—
I thank you, princes, for my daughter’s death.
Record it with your high and worthy deeds.
’Twas bravely done, if you bethink you of it.
CLAUDIO
I know how to pray your patience,
Yet I must speak. Choose your revenge yourself.
Impose me to what penance your invention
Can lay upon my sin. Yet sinned I not
But in mistaking.
PRINCE By my soul, nor I,
And yet to satisfy this good old man
I would bend under any heavy weight
That he’ll enjoin me to.
LEONATA
I cannot bid you bid my daughter live—
That were impossible—but, I pray you both,
Possess the people in Messina here
Tomorrow morning come you to my house,
And since you could not be my son-in-law,
Be yet my nephew. My brother hath a daughter,
Almost the copy of my child that’s dead,
And she alone is heir to both of us.
Give her the right you should have giv’n her cousin,
And so dies my revenge.
CLAUDIO O, noble madam!
Your overkindness doth wring tears from me.

V - 1 - 47
LEONATA
Tomorrow then I will expect your coming.
Tonight I take my leave. This naughty man
Shall face to face be brought to Margaret,
Who I believe was packed in all this wrong,
Hired to it by your brother.
BORACHIO
No, by my soul, she was not,
Nor knew not what she did when she spoke to me.
DOGBERRY [to Leoanta]
Moreover ma’am, which indeed is not under white and black, this plaintiff here, the
offender, did call me an ass. I beseech you, let it be remembered in his punishment.
LEONATA I thank thee for thy care and honest pains.
DOGBERRY Your Worship speaks like a most thankful and reverent youth, and I praise
God for you.
LEONATA Go, I discharge thee of thy prisoner, and I thank thee.
DOGBERRY I leave an arrant knave your Worship, which I beseech your Worship to
correct yourself, for the example of others. God keep your Worship! I wish your
Worship well. God restore you to health. I humbly give you leave to depart, and if a
merry meeting may be wished, God prohibit it.—Come, neighbour.
Dogberry and Verges exit.

V - 1 - 48
 Scene II
Enter Benedick and Margaret

BENEDICK Pray thee, sweet Mistress Margaret, deserve well at my hands by helping
my to the speech of Beatrice.
MARGARET Will you then write me a sonnet in praise of my beauty?
BENEDICK In so high a style, Margaret, that no man living shall come over it, for in
most comely truth thou deserves it.
MARGARET To have no man come over me? Why, shall I always keep below stairs?
BENEDICK Thy wit is as quick as the greyhound’s mouth; it catches.
MARGARET And yours as blunt as the fencer’s foils, which hit but hurt not.
BENEDICK A most manly wit, Margaret; it will not hurt a woman. And so, I pray thee,
call Beatrice.
Margaret exits.
[Sings] The god of love
That sits above,
And knows me, and knows me.
How pitiful I deserve—
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; 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?

BEATRICE Yea, signior, and depart when you bid me.
BENEDICK O, stay but till then!
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.
BENEDICK Only foul words, and thereupon I will kiss thee.
BEATRICE Foul words is but foul wind, and foul wind is but foul breath, and foul
breath is noisome. Therefore I will depart unkissed.
BENEDICK 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?

V - 2 - 49
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?
BENEDICK Suffer love! A good epithet. I do suffer love indeed, for I love thee against
my will.
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.
BENEDICK Thou and I are too wise to woo peaceably. How doth your cousin?
BEATRICE Very ill.
BENEDICK And how do you?
BEATRICE Very ill, too.
BENEDICK Serve God, love me, and mend.
Enter Ursula
URSULA Madam, you must come to your aunt. It is proved my Lady Hero hath been
falsely accused, the Prince and Claudio mightily abused, and Don John the author
of all, who is fled and gone. Will you come presently?
Ursula exits.
BEATRICE Will you go hear this news, signior?
BENEDICK 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.
They exit.

V - 2 - 50
 Scene III
Enter Claudio, Prince et. al

CLAUDIO Is this the monument of Leonata?

Epitaph
Done to death by slanderous tongues
Was the Hero that here lies
Death, in guerdon of her wrongs,
Gives her fame which never dies.
So the life that died with shame
Lives in death with glorious fame.
Song
Pardon, goddess of the night,
Those that slew thy virgin knight,
For the which with songs of woe,
Round her tomb they go.
Midnight, assist our moan.
Help us to sigh and groan
Heavily, heavily.
Graves, yawn and yield your dead,
Till death be utterèd,
Heavily, heavily.
Now, unto thy bones, goodnight.
Yearly will I do this rite.

HERO Sonnet 29?

V - 3 - 51
 Scene IV
Enter Benedick, Beatrice, Margaret, Ursula,
Antonio, Friar, Hero

FRIAR Did I not tell you she was innocent?

LEONATA
So are the Prince and Claudio, who accused her
Upon the error that you heard debated.
But Margaret was in some fault for this,
Although against her will, as it appears.
ANTONIO
Well, I am glad that all things sorts so well.
BENEDICK
And so am I, being else faith enforced
To call young Claudio to a reckoning for it.
Friar, I must entreat your pains, I think.
FRIAR To do what, Signior?
BENEDICK
To bind me, or undo me, one of them.—
Madam Leonata, truth it is, good lady,
Your niece regards me with an eye of favour.
And I do with an eye of love requite her.
But for my will, this day to be conjoined
In the state of honourable marriage—
In which, good friar, I shall desire your help.
LEONATA
My heart is with your liking.
FRIAR And my help.

Enter Prince, Claudio.

PRINCE Good morrow to this fair assembly.
LEONATA Good morrow, prince; good morrow, Claudio.
We here attend you. Are you yet determined
Today to marry with my brother’s daughter?
CLAUDIO
I’ll hold my mind.

V - 4 - 52
LEONATA
Call her forth, brother.
Antonio exits.
Enter Antonio, Hero, Beatrice, Margaret,
Ursula, the ladies masked.
CLAUDIO
Which is the lady I must seize upon?
LEONATA
This same is she, and I do give you her.
CLAUDIO
Why then, she’s mine.—Sweet, let me see your face.
LEONATA
No, that you shall not till you take her hand and swear to marry her.
CLAUDIO [to Hero]
Give me your hand.
I am your husband, if you like of me.
HERO
And when I lived, I was your other wife,
And when you loved, you were my other husband.
She unmasks.
CLAUDIO
Another Hero!
HERO Nothing certainer.
One Hero died defiled, but I do live,
And surely as I live, I am a maid.
PRINCE
The former Hero! Hero that is dead!
LEONATA
She died, my lady, but whiles her slander lived.
FRIAR
All this amazement can I qualify,
Meantime let wonder seem familiar,
And to the chapel let us presently.
BENEDICK
Soft and fair, friar.—Which his Beatrice?
BEATRICE [unmasking]
I answer to that name. What is your will?

V - 4 - 53
BENEDICK
Do you not love me?
BEATRICE Why no, no more than reason.
BENEDICK
Why then, your aunt and the Prince and Claudio
Have been deceived. They swore you did.
BEATRICE
Do not you love me?
BENEDICK Troth, no, no more than reason.
BEATRICE
Why, then, my cousin, Margaret, and Ursula
Are much deceived, for they did swear you did.
BENEDICK
They swore that you were almost sick for me.
BEATRICE
They swore that you were well-nigh dead for me.
BENEDICK
’Tis no such matter. Then you do not love me?
BEATRICE
No, truly, but in friendly recompense.
LEONATA
Come, cousin, I am sure you love the gentleman.
MARGARET
And I’ll be sworn upon ’t that he loves her,
For here’s paper written in his hand,
A halting sonnet of his own pure brain,
Fashioned to Beatrice.
She shows a paper.
HERO And here’s another,
Writ in my cousin’s hand, stol’n from her pocket,
Containing her affection unto Benedick.
She shows a paper.
BENEDICK
A miracle! Here’s our own hands against our hearts, Come, I will have thee, but by
this light I take thee for pity.

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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.
BENEDICK
Peace! I will stop your mouth.
They kiss.
PRINCE
How dost thou, Benedick, the married man?
BENEDICK I’ll tell thee what, prince; a college of wit-crackers cannot flout me out of
my humour. 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 to my cousin.
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 exceeding narrowly to thee.
BENEDICK 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.
Therefore play, music.—
Strike up, pipers!
Music plays. They dance.

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