Leon. My heart is with your liking. Here comes the prince, and Claudio. Enter Don PEDRO and CLAUDIO, with Attendants. We here attend you: Are you yet determin'd D. Pedro. Good morrow, Benedick: Why, That you have such a February face, Tush, fear not, man, we'll tip thy horns with And all Europa shall rejoice at thee; When he would play the noble beast in love. Bene. Bull Jove, sir, had an amiable low; And some such strange bull leapt your father's cow, And got a calf in that same noble feat, Which is the lady I must seize upon? Ant. This same is she, and I do give you her. Claud. Why, then she's mine :-Sweet, let me see your face. Leon. No, that you shall not, till you take her hand Before this friar, and swear to marry her. Claud. Give me your hand before this holy I am your husband, if you like of me. band. Claud. Another Hero? Hero. Nothing certainer: One Hero died defil'd; but I do live, D. Pedro. The former Hero! Hero, that is Leon. She died, my lord, but whiles her slan- Friar. All this amazement can I qualify; Bene. They swore, that you were almost sick for me. Beat. They swore, that you were well nigh dead for me. Bene. 'Tis no such matter:-Then, you do not love me? Beat. No, truly, but in friendly recompense. Leon. Come, cousin, I am sure you love the gentleman. Claud. And I'll be sworn upon't, that he loves For here's a paper, written in his hand, Hero. And here's another, Containing her affection unto Benedick. Bene. A miracle! here's our own hands against our hearts!-Come, I will have thee; but, by this light, I take thee for pity. Beat. 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. Bene. Peace, I will stop your mouth. Bene. I'll tell thee what, prince; a college of wit-crackers cannot flout me out of my humour: Dost thou think, I care for a satire, or an epigram? No: if a man will be beaten with brains, he shall wear nothing handsome about him: In brief, since I do purpose to marry, I will think nothing to any purpose, that the world can say against it; and therefore never flout at me for what I have said against it; for man is a giddy thing, and this is my conclusion.-For thy part, Claudio, I did think to have beaten thee; but in that thou art like to be my kinsman, live unbruised, and love my cousin. Claud. I had well hoped, thou would'st 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 Bene. Soft and fair, friar.-Which is Bea- thee. trice? VOL. I. Bene. Come, come, we are friends :-let's have L a dance ere we are married, that we may lighten our own hearts, and our wives' heels. Leon. We'll have dancing afterwards. Bene. First, o' my word; therefore, play, musick.-Prince, thou art sad; get thee a wife, get thee a wife: there is no staff more reverend than one tipped with horn. Enter a Messenger. Mess. My lord, your brother John is ta'en in flight, And brought with armed men back to Messina. Bene. Think not on him till to-morrow; I'll devise thee brave punishments for him.-Strike up, pipers. [Dance. Exeunt. Hippolyta, I woo'd thee with my sword, With pomp, with triumph, and with revelling. Therefore, fair Hermia, question your desires, Enter EGEUS, HERMIA, LYSANDER, and DEME-To live a barren sister all your life, TRIUS. Ege. Happy be Theseus, our renowned duke! The. Thanks, good Egeus: What's the news with thee? : Ege. Full of vexation come I, with complaint And interchang'd love-tokens with my child: Of strong prevailment in unharden'd youth: heart; Turn'd her obedience, which is due to me, I beg the ancient privilege of Athens; The. What say you, Hermia? be advised, To you your father should be as a god; Chanting faint hymns to the cold fruitless moon. Her. So will I grow, so live, so die, my lord, new moon, (The sealing-day betwixt my love and me, For aye, austerity and single life. Dem. Relent, sweet Hermia :-And, Lysander, yield Thy crazed title to my certain right. Lys. You have her father's love, Demetrius; Let me have Hermia's: do you marry him. Ege. Scornful Lysander! true, he hath my love; And what is mine my love shall render him; Lys. I am, my lord, as well deriv'd as he, And, which is more than all these boasts can be, I am belov'd of beauteous Hermia: One that compos'd your beauties; yea, and one Why should not I then prosecute my right? To whom you are but as a form in wax, By him imprinted, and within his power The. In himself he is: Demetrius, I'll avouch it to his head, Upon this spotted and inconstant man. The. I must confess, that I have heard so much, And with Demetrius thought to have spoke thereof; But, being over-full of self-affairs, love? Against our nuptial; and confer with you Of something nearly that concerns yourselves. Ege. With duty and desire we follow you. [Exeunt Thes. Hip. Ege. Dem. and train. Lys. How now, my love? Why is your cheek so pale? How chance the roses there do fade so fast? Her. Belike, for want of rain; which I could well Beteem them from the tempest of mine eyes. Her. O cross! too high to be enthrall'd to low! Her. O hell! to choose love by another's eye! I have a widow aunt, a dowager Her. My good Lysander! I swear to thee by Cupid's strongest bow; By that which knitteth souls, and prospers loves; And by that fire, which burn'd the Carthage queen, When the false Trojan under sail was seen; Enter HELENA. Her. God speed fair Helena! Whither away? Hel. Call you me fair? that fair again unsay. Demetrius loves your fair: O, happy fair! Your eyes are lode-stars; and your tongue's sweet air More tuneable than lark to shepherd's ear, When wheat is green, when hawthorn buds ap pear. Sickness is catching; O, were favour so! Were the world mine, Demetrius being bated, Her. I frown upon him, yet he loves me still. Hel. O, that your frowns would teach my smiles such skill! Her. I give him curses, yet he gives me love. Hel. O, that my prayers could such affection move! Her. The more I hate, the more he follows Lysander and myself will fly this place.— Lys. Helen, to you our minds we will unfold: To-morrow night, when Phoebe doth behold Her silver visage in the wat'ry glass, Decking with liquid pearl the bladed grass, (A time that lovers' Alights doth still conceal,) Through Athens' gates have we devised to steal. Her. And in the wood, where often you and I Upon faint primrose-beds were wont to lie, Emptying our bosoms of their counsel sweet, There my Lysander and myself shall meet: And thence, from Athens, turn away our eyes, To seek new friends and stranger companies. Farewell, sweet playfellow; pray thou for us, And good luck grant thee thy Demetrius !— Keep word, Lysander: we must starve our sight From lovers' food, till morrow deep midnight. [Exit Hermia. Lys. I will, my Hermia.-Helena, adieu: As you on him, Demetrius dote on you! [Exit Lysander Hel. How happy some, o'er other some can be! Through Athens I am thought as fair as she. But what of that? Demetrius thinks not so; He will not know what all but he do know. And as he errs, doting on Hermia's eyes, |