Enter Don Pedro, Don John, Leonato, Friar Francis, Claudio, Benedick, Hero, Beatrice &c. LEONATO. 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? CLAUDIO. No. LEONATO. 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. CLAUDIO. Know you any, Hero? HERO. None, my lord. FRIAR. Know you any, Count? LEONATO. 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! BENEDICK. How now! Interjections? Why then, some be of laughing, as ah! ha! he! CLAUDIO. Stand thee by, Friar. Father, by your leave: Will you with free and unconstrained soul Give me this maid, your daughter? LEONATO. As freely, son, as God did give her me. CLAUDIO. And what have I to give you back whose worth May counterpoise this rich and precious gift? DON PEDRO. Nothing, unless you render her again. CLAUDIO. 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 honour. 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. LEONATO. What do you mean, my lord? CLAUDIO. Not to be married, Not to knit my soul to an approved wanton. LEONATO. Dear my lord, if you, in your own proof, Have vanquish’d the resistance of her youth, And made defeat of her virginity,— CLAUDIO. I know what you would say: if I have known her, You will 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 show’d Bashful sincerity and comely love. HERO. And seem’d I ever otherwise to you? CLAUDIO. Out on thee! 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 pamper’d animals That rage in savage sensuality. HERO. Is my lord well, that he doth speak so wide? LEONATO. Sweet Prince, why speak not you? DON PEDRO. What should I speak? I stand dishonour’d, that have gone about To link my dear friend to a common stale. LEONATO. 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!