D. Pedro.
And Benedick is not the unhopefullest husband that I know:
thus far can I praise him: he is of a noble strain, of approved
valour, and confirm'd honesty. I will teach you how to humour
your cousin, that she shall fall in love with Benedick:--and I,
with your two helps, will so practise on Benedick, that, in
despite of his quick wit and his queasy stomach, he shall fall
in love with Beatrice. If we can do this, Cupid is no longer
an archer; his glory shall be ours, for we are the only love-gods.
Go in with me, and I will tell you my drift.
[Exeunt.]
Scene II.--Another Room in Leonato's House.
[Enter Don John and Borachio.]
D. John.
It is so; the count Claudio shall marry the daughter of Leonato.
Bora.
Yea, my lord, but I can cross it.
D. John.
Any bar, any cross, any impediment will be medicinable to me:
I am sick in displeasure to him; and whatsoever comes athwart his
affection ranges evenly with mine. How canst thou cross this
marriage?
Bora.
Not honestly, my lord; but so covertly that no dishonesty
shall appear in me.
D. John.
Show me briefly how.
Bora.
I think I told your lordship, a year since, how much I am in
the favour of Margaret, the waiting gentlewoman to Hero.
D. John.
I remember.
Bora.
I can, at any unseasonable instant of the night, appoint her
to look out at her lady's chamber-window.
D. John.
What life is in that, to be the death of this marriage?
Bora.
The poison of that lies in you to temper. Go you to the
prince your brother; spare not to tell him, that he hath wronged
his honour in marrying the renowned Claudio (whose estimation do
you mightily hold up) to a contaminated stale, such a one as
Hero.
D. John.
What proof shall I make of that?
Bora.
Proof enough to misuse the prince, to vex Claudio, to undo
Hero, and kill Leonato: look you for any other issue?
D. John.
Only to despite them, I will endeavour anything.
Bora.
Go then, find me a meet hour to draw don Pedro and the count
Claudio, alone: tell them that you know that Hero loves me;
intend a kind of zeal both to the prince and Claudio, as--in a
love of your brother's honour, who hath made this match; and his
friend's reputation, who is thus like to be cozened with the
semblance of a maid,--that you have discovered thus. They will
scarcely believe this without trial: offer them instances; which
shall bear no less likelihood than to see me at her chamber-window;
hear me call Margaret, Hero; hear Margaret term me Claudio; and
bring them to see this, the very night before the intended wedding:
for, in the mean time, I will so fashion the matter, that Hero
shall be absent; and there shall appear such seeming truth of
Hero's disloyalty, that jealousy shall be called assurance, and all
the preparation overthrown.
D. John.
Grow this to what adverse issue it can, I will put it in
practice: Be cunning in the working this, and thy fee is a
thousand ducats.
Bora.
Be you constant in the accusation, and my cunning shall not
shame me.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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