[Exeunt Hero and Ursula.]
[Beatrice advances from the arbour.]
Beat.
What fire is in mine ears? Can this be true?
Stand I condemn'd for pride and scorn so much?
Contempt, farewell! and maiden pride, adieu!
No glory lives behind the back of such.
And, Benedick, love on; I will requite thee,
Taming my wild heart to thy loving hand.
If thou dost love, my kindness shall incite thee
To bind our loves up in a holy band;
For others say thou dost deserve, and I
Believe it better than reportingly. [Exit.]
Scene II.
A room in Leonato's house.
[Enter Don Pedro, Claudio, Benedick, and Leonato.]
Pedro.
I do but stay till your marriage be consummate, and then go I
toward Arragon.
Claud.
I'll bring you thither, my lord, if you'll vouchsafe me.
Pedro.
Nay, that would be as great a soil in the new gloss of your
marriage as to show a child his new coat and forbid him to wear
it. I will only be bold with Benedick for his company; for,
from the crown of his head to the sole of his foot, he is all
mirth. He hath twice or thrice cut Cupid's bowstring, and the
little hangman dare not shoot at him. He hath a heart as sound as
a bell; and his tongue is the clapper, for what his heart thinks,
his tongue speaks.
Bene.
Gallants, I am not as I have been.
Leon.
So say I. Methinks you are sadder.
Claud.
I hope he be in love.
Pedro.
Hang him, truant! There's no true drop of blood in him to be
truly touch'd with love. If he be sad, he wants money.
Bene.
I have the toothache.
Pedro.
Draw it.
Bene.
Hang it!
Claud.
You must hang it first and draw it afterwards.
Pedro.
What? sigh for the toothache?
Leon.
Where is but a humour or a worm.
Bene.
Well, every one can master a grief but he that has it.
Claud.
Yet say I he is in love.
Pedro.
There is no appearance of fancy in him, unless it be a fancy that
he hath to strange disguises; as to be a Dutchman to-day, a
Frenchman to-morrow; or in the shape of two countries at once, as
a German from the waist downward, all slops, and a Spaniard from
the hip upward, no doublet. Unless he have a fancy to this
foolery, as it appears he hath, he is no fool for fancy, as you
would have it appear he is.
Claud.
If he be not in love with some woman, there is no believing old
signs. 'A brushes his hat o' mornings. What should that bode?
Pedro.
Hath any man seen him at the barber's?
Claud.
No, but the barber's man hath been seen with him, and the old
ornament of his cheek hath already stuff'd tennis balls.
Leon.
Indeed he looks younger than he did, by the loss of a beard.
Pedro.
Nay, 'a rubs himself with civet. Can you smell him out by that?
Claud.
That's as much as to say, the sweet youth's in love.
Pedro.
The greatest note of it is his melancholy.
Claud.
And when was he wont to wash his face?
Pedro.
Yea, or to paint himself? for the which I hear what they say of
him.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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