All matter else seems weak: she cannot love,
Nor take no shape nor project of affection,

She is so self-endear'd.

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 featured,
But she would spell him backward: if fair-faced,
She'd 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 1 very vilely cut:

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'd 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 ;

1 A precious stone of the lowest class.

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 swift1 and excellent a wit
As she is prized 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.

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

For shape, for bearing, argument,2 and valor,

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 ;-to-morrow.

go in ;

Come,

I'll show thee some attires; and have thy counsel,

Which is the best to furnish me to-morrow.

Urs. She's limed,3 I warrant you;
caught her, madam.

we have

Hero. if it prove so, then loving goes by haps: Some Cupid kills with arrows, some with traps. [Exeunt Hero and Ursula.

Beatrice advances.

Bea. What fire is in mine ears? 1 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.

[Exit.

SCENE II.

A room in Leonato's house.

Enter DON PEDRO, CLAUDIO, BENEDICK, and

LEONATO.

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

Clau. I'll bring you thither, my lord, if you '11 vouchsafe me.

D. Pe. Nay, that would be as great a soil in the

1 In allusion to the proverb, that our ears burn when others are talking of us.

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.

Ben. Gallants, I am not as I have been.

Leo. So say I; methinks, you are sadder.
Clau. I hope, he be in love.

D. Pe. 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.

Ben. I have the tooth-ache.

D. Pe. Draw it.

Ben. Hang it!

Clau. You must hang it first, and draw it afterwards.

D. Pe. What? sigh for the tooth-ache?

Leo. Where is but a humor, or a worm?

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

Clau. Yet say I, he is in love.

D. Pe. There is no appearance of fancy 1 in him, unless it be a fancy that he hath to strange disguises; as, to be a Dutchman to-day, a Frenchman

I Love.

1

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 appear he is.

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

D. Pe. Hath any man seen him at the barber's? Clau. No, but the barber's man hath been seen with him; and the old ornament of his cheek hath already stuffed tennis-balls.

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

D. Pe. Nay, he rubs himself with civet: can you smell him out by that?

Clau. That's as much as to say, the sweet youth's in love.

D. Pe. The greatest note of it is his melancholy. Clau. And when was he wont to wash his face? D. Pe. Yea, or to paint himself? for the which, I hear what they say of him.

Clau. Nay, but his jesting spirit, which is now crept into a lutestring, and now governed by stops.

Slops are large loose breeches.

2 Or, in other words, all cloak.

2 Love songs, in our author's time, were usually sung to the music of the lute.