ARKCODEX
Act II, Scene 3
1Leonato’sorchard.
2Enter Benedick.
3BenedickBoy!
4Enter Boy.
5BoySignior?
6BenedickIn my chamber-window lies a book: bring it hither to me in the orchard.
7BoyI am here already, sir.
8BenedickI know that; but I would have thee hence, and here again. Exit Boy. 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 a-foot to see a good armour; and now will he lie ten nights awake, carving the fashion of a new doublet. He was wont to speak plain and to the purpose, like an honest man and a soldier; and now is he turned orthography; his words are a very fantastical banquet, just so many strange dishes. 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 in the arbour. Withdraws.
9Enter Don Pedro, Claudio, and Leonato.
10Don PedroCome, shall we hear this music?
11ClaudioYea, my good lord. How still the evening is,
As hush’d on purpose to grace harmony!
12Don PedroSee you where Benedick hath hid himself?
13ClaudioO, very well, my lord: the music ended,
We’ll fit the kid-fox with a pennyworth.
14Enter Balthasar with Music.
15Don PedroCome, Balthasar, we’ll hear that song again.
16BalthasarO, good my lord, tax not so bad a voice
To slander music any more than once.
17Don PedroIt is the witness still of excellency
To put a strange face on his own perfection.
I pray thee, sing, and let me woo no more.
18BalthasarBecause you talk of wooing, I will sing;
Since many a wooer doth commence his suit
To her he thinks not worthy, yet he wooes,
Yet will he swear he loves.
19Don PedroNow, pray thee, come;
Or, if thou wilt hold longer argument,
Do it in notes.
20BalthasarNote this before my notes;
There’s not a note of mine that’s worth the noting.
21Don PedroWhy, these are very crotchets that he speaks;
Note, notes, forsooth, and nothing. Air.
22BenedickNow, divine air! now is his soul ravished! Is it not strange that sheeps’ guts should hale souls out of men’s bodies? Well, a horn for my money, when all’s done.
23The Song.
24BalthasarSigh 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 moe,
Of dumps so dull and heavy;
The fraud of men was ever so,
Since summer first was leavy:
Then sigh not so, etc.
25Don PedroBy my troth, a good song.
26BalthasarAnd an ill singer, my lord.
27Don PedroHa, no, no, faith; thou singest well enough for a shift.
28BenedickAn he had been a dog that should have howled thus, they would have hanged him: and I pray God his bad voice bode no mischief. I had as lief have heard the night-raven, come what plague could have come after it.
29Don PedroYea, marry, dost thou hear, Balthasar? I pray thee, get us some excellent music; for tomorrow night we would have it at the Lady Hero’s chamber-window.
30BalthasarThe best I can, my lord.
31Don PedroDo so: farewell. Exit Balthasar. Come hither, Leonato. What was it you told me of today, that your niece Beatrice was in love with Signior Benedick?
32ClaudioO, ay: stalk on, stalk on; the fowl sits. I did never think that lady would have loved any man.
33LeonatoNo, 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.
34BenedickIs’t possible? Sits the wind in that corner?
35LeonatoBy 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.
36Don PedroMaybe she doth but counterfeit.
37ClaudioFaith, like enough.
38LeonatoO God, counterfeit! There was never counterfeit of passion came so near the life of passion as she discovers it.
39Don PedroWhy, what effects of passion shows she?
40ClaudioBait the hook well; this fish will bite.
41LeonatoWhat effects, my lord? She will sit you, You heard my daughter tell you how.
42ClaudioShe did, indeed.
43Don PedroHow, how, I pray you? You amaze me: I would have thought her spirit had been invincible against all assaults of affection.
44LeonatoI would have sworn it had, my lord; especially against Benedick.
45BenedickI should think this a gull, but that the white-bearded fellow speaks it: knavery cannot, sure, hide itself in such reverence.
46ClaudioHe hath ta’en the infection: hold it up.
47Don PedroHath she made her affection known to Benedick?
48LeonatoNo; and swears she never will: that’s her torment.
49Claudio’Tis true, indeed; so your daughter says: “Shall I,” says she, “that have so oft encountered him with scorn, write to him that I love him?”
50LeonatoThis says she now when she is beginning to write to him; for she’ll be up twenty times a night, and there will she sit in her smock till she have writ a sheet of paper: my daughter tells us all.
51ClaudioNow you talk of a sheet of paper, I remember a pretty jest your daughter told us of.
52LeonatoO, when she had writ it, and was reading it over, she found Benedick and Beatrice between the sheet?
53ClaudioThat.
54LeonatoO, she tore the letter into a thousand halfpence; railed at herself, that she should be so immodest to write to one that she knew would flout her; “I measure him,” says she, “by my own spirit; for I should flout him, if he writ to me; yea, though I love him, I should.”
55ClaudioThen down upon her knees she falls, weeps, sobs, beats her heart, tears her hair, prays, curses; “O sweet Benedick! God give me patience!”
56LeonatoShe doth indeed; my daughter says so: and the ecstasy hath so much overborne her that my daughter is sometimes afeard she will do a desperate outrage to herself: it is very true.
57Don PedroIt were good that Benedick knew of it by some other, if she will not discover it.
58ClaudioTo what end? He would make but a sport of it and torment the poor lady worse.
59Don PedroAn he should, it were an alms to hang him. She’s an excellent sweet lady; and, out of all suspicion, she is virtuous.
60ClaudioAnd she is exceeding wise.
61Don PedroIn everything but in loving Benedick.
62LeonatoO, my lord, wisdom and blood combating in so tender a body, we have ten proofs to one that blood hath the victory. I am sorry for her, as I have just cause, being her uncle and her guardian.
63Don PedroI would she had bestowed this dotage on me: I would have daffed all other respects and made her half myself. I pray you, tell Benedick of it, and hear what a’ will say.
64LeonatoWere it good, think you?
65ClaudioHero 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, rather than she will bate one breath of her accustomed crossness.
66Don PedroShe doth well: if she should make tender of her love, ’tis very possible he’ll scorn it; for the man, as you know all, hath a contemptible spirit.
67ClaudioHe is a very proper man.
68Don PedroHe hath indeed a good outward happiness.
69ClaudioBefore God! and, in my mind, very wise.
70Don PedroHe doth indeed show some sparks that are like wit.
71ClaudioAnd I take him to be valiant.
72Don PedroAs Hector, I assure you: and in the managing of quarrels you may say he is wise; for either he avoids them with great discretion, or undertakes them with a most Christian-like fear.
73LeonatoIf he do fear God, a’ must necessarily keep peace: if he break the peace, he ought to enter into a quarrel with fear and trembling.
74Don PedroAnd so will he do; for the man doth fear God, howsoever it seems not in him by some large jests he will make. Well, I am sorry for your niece. Shall we go seek Benedick, and tell him of her love?
75ClaudioNever tell him, my lord: let her wear it out with good counsel.
76LeonatoNay, that’s impossible: she may wear her heart out first.
77Don PedroWell, 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.
78LeonatoMy lord, will you walk? dinner is ready.
79ClaudioIf he do not dote on her upon this, I will never trust my expectation.
80Don PedroLet there be the same net spread for her; and that must your daughter and her gentlewoman carry. The sport will be, when they hold one an opinion of another’s dotage, and no such matter: that’s the scene that I would see, which will be merely a dumb-show. Let us send her to call him in to dinner. Exeunt Don Pedro, Claudio, and Leonato.
81BenedickComing forward. 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 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. They say the lady is fair; ’tis a truth, I can bear them witness; and virtuous; ’tis so, I cannot 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. Here comes Beatrice. By this day! she’s a fair lady: I do spy some marks of love in her.
82Enter Beatrice.
83BeatriceAgainst my will I am sent to bid you come in to dinner.
84BenedickFair Beatrice, I thank you for your pains.
85BeatriceI took no more pains for those thanks than you take pains to thank me: if it had been painful, I would not have come.
86BenedickYou take pleasure then in the message?
87BeatriceYea, just so much as you may take upon a knife’s point and choke a daw withal. You have no stomach, signior: fare you well. Exit.
88BenedickHa! “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 as to say, Any pains that I take for you is as easy as thanks. If I do not take pity of her, I am a villain; if I do not love her, I am a Jew. I will go get her picture. Exit.