Dogb. Yea, and 'twere a thousand times more than 'tis; for I hear as good exclamation on your worship, as of any man in the city; and though I be but a poor man, I am glad to hear it.

Verg. And so am I.

Leon. I would fain know what you have to say.

Verg. Marry, sir, our watch to-night, excepting your worship's presence, have ta'en a couple of as arrant knaves as any in Messina.

Dogb. A good old man, sir; 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, neighbor Verges: well, God's a good man; an two men ride of a horse, one must ride behind.-An honest soul, i'faith, sir; by my troth, he is, as ever broke bread; but God is to be worshipped. All men are not alike; alas! good neighbor!

Leon. Indeed, neighbor, he comes too short of you. Dogb. Gifts, that God gives.

Leon. I must leave you.

Dogb. One word, sir. Our watch, sir, have, indeed, comprehended two aspicious persons, and we would have them this morning examined before your worship.

Leon. Take their examination yourself, and bring it me; I am now in great haste, as it may appear unto you. Dogb. It shall be suffigance.

Leon. Drink some wine ere you go; fare you well.

Enter a Messenger.

Mess. My lord, they stay for you to give your daughter to her husband.

Leon. I will wait upon them; I am ready.

[Exeunt LEONATO and Messenger. Dogb. Go, good partner, go, get you to Francis Seacoal, bid him bring his pen and inkhorn to the gaol; we are now to examination these men.

Verg. And we must do it wisely.

Dogb. We will spare for no wit, I warrant you; here's that [touching his forehead] shall drive some of them to a non com. Only get the learned writer to set down our excommunication, and meet me at the gaol.

[Exeunt.

ACT IV.

SCENE I. The Inside of a Church.

Enter DON PEDRO, DON JOHN, LEONATO, Friar, CLAUDIO, BENEDICK, HERO, and BEATRICE, &c.

Leon. Come, friar Francis, be brief; only to the plain form of marriage, and you shall recount their particular duties afterwards.

Friar. You come hither, my lord, to marry this lady? Claud. No.

Leon. To be married to her, friar; 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.

Claud. Know you any, Hero?

Hero. None, my lord.

Friar. Know you any, count?

Leon. I dare make his answer; none.

Claud. O, what men dare do! What men may do! What men daily do, not knowing what they do!

Bene. How now! Interjections? Why, then some be of laughing, as, ha! ha! he!

Claud. Stand thee by, friar.-Father, by your leave! Will you with free and unconstrained soul

Give me this maid, your daughter?

Leon. As freely, son, as God did give her me.
Claud. And what have I to give you back, whose worth

May counterpoise this rich and precious gift?

D. Pedro. Nothing, unless you render her again. Claud. Sweet prince, you learn me noble thankfulness.— There, Leonato, take her back again.

Give not this rotten orange to your friend:

She's but the sign and semblance of her honor.
Behold, how like a maid she blushes here.

O, what authority and show of truth
Can cunning sin cover itself withal!
Comes not that blood, as modest evidence,

To witness simple virtue? Would you not swear,
All you that see her, that she were a maid,
By these exterior shows?-But she is none.

She knows the heat of a luxurious bed;
Her blush is guiltiness, not modesty.
Leon. What do you mean, my lord?

Claud.

Not to be married,

Not knit my soul to an approved wanton.

Leon. Dear my lord, if you, in your own proof Have vanquished the resistance of her youth,

And made defeat of her virginity,

Claud. I know what you would say. If I have known her, You'll say she did embrace me as a husband,

And so extenuate the 'forehand sin.

No, Leonato,

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?

Claud. Out on thy seeming! I will write against it. You seem to me as Dian in her orb;

As chaste as is the bud ere it be blown ;

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?
Leon. Sweet prince, why speak not you?
D. Pedro.

What should I speak?

I stand dishonored, that have gone about

To link my dear friend to a common stale.

Leon. Are these things spoken? Or do I but dream? D. John. Sir, they are spoken, and these things are true. Bene. This looks not like a nuptial.

Hero.

Claud. Leonato, stand I here?

True, O God!

Is this the prince? Is this the prince's brother?

Is this face Hero's? Are our eyes our own?

Leon. All this is so; but what of this, my lord? Claud. Let me but move one question to your daughter;

And by that fatherly and kindly power

That you have in her, bid her answer truly.

Leon. I charge thee do so, as thou art my child.
Hero. O God, defend me! How am I beset! -

What kind of catechizing call you this?

Claud. To make you answer truly to your name. Hero. Is it not Hero? Who can blot that name With any just reproach?

Claud.

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?
Now, if you are a maid, answer to this.

Hero. I talked with no man at that hour, my lord.
D. Pedro. Why then are you no maiden.-Leonato,
I am sorry you must hear. Upon my honor,
Myself, my brother, and this grieved count,
Did see her, hear her, at that hour last night,
Talk with a 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.

D. John.
Fie, fie! They are
Not to be named, my lord, not to be spoke of;
There is not chastity enough in language,
Without offence to utter them. Thus, pretty lady,
I am sorry for thy much misgovernment.

Claud. 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.

Leon. Hath no man's dagger here a point for me?
[HERO swoons.
Beat. Why, how now, cousin? Wherefore sink you

down?

D. John. Come, let us go: these things, come thus to

[Exeunt DON PEDRO, DON JOHN, and CLAUDIO. Bene. How doth the lady?

Beat.

Dead, I think;-help, uncle!

Hero! Why, Hero!-Uncle !-Seignior Benedick! Friar! Leon. O fate, take not away thy heavy hand!

Death is the fairest cover for her shame,

That may be wished for.

Beat.

How now, cousin Hero!

Friar. Have comfort, lady.

Leon. Dost thou look up?

Friar. Yea; wherefore should she not?

Leon. 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 ope 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?
Chid I for that at frugal nature's frame?
O, one too much by thee! Why had I one?
Why ever wast thou lovely in my eyes?
Why had I not, with charitable hand,
Took up a beggar's issue at my gates;
Who smirched thus, and mired with infamy,
I might have said, No part of it is mine;
This shame derives itself from unknown loins?
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 fallen
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!

Bene.

Sir, sir, be patient: For my part, I am so attired in wonder,

I know not what to say.

Beat. O, on my soul, my cousin is belied!

Bene. Lady, were you her bedfellow last night?
Beat. No, truly not; although, until last night,

I have this twelvemonth been her bedfellow.

Leon. Confirmed, confirmed! O, that is stronger made, Which was before barred up with ribs of iron! Would the two princes lie? and Claudio lie?

Who loved her so, that, speaking of her foulness,

Washed it with tears? 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 blushing apparitions start
Into her face; a thousand innocent shames
In angel whiteness bear away those blushes;
And in her eye there hath appeared a fire,
To burn the errors that these princes hold
Against her maiden truth.-Call me a fool;
Trust not my reading nor my observations,
Which with experimental zeal doth warrant
VOL. I.-24