_Beat._ You had musty victual, and he hath help to eat it: he is a very valiant trencher-man; he hath an excellent stomach. _Mess._ And a good soldier too, lady. _Beat._ And a good soldier to a lady: but what is he to 45 a lord? _Mess._ A lord to a lord, a man to a man; stuffed with all honourable virtues. _Beat._ It is so, indeed; he is no less than a stuffed man: but for the stuffing,—well, we are all mortal. 50 _Leon._ You must not, sir, mistake my niece. There is a kind of merry war betwixt Signior Benedick and her: they never meet but there’s a skirmish of wit between them. _Beat._ Alas, he gets nothing by that! In our last conflict four of his five wits went halting off, and now is the 55 whole man governed with one: so that if he have wit enough to keep himself warm, let him bear it for a difference between himself and his horse; for it is all the wealth that he hath left, to be known a reasonable creature. Who is his companion now? He hath every month a new sworn brother. 60 _Mess._ Is’t possible? _Beat._ Very easily possible: he wears his faith but as the fashion of his hat; it ever changes with the next block. _Mess._ I see, lady, the gentleman is not in your books. _Beat._ No; an he were, I would burn my study. But, 65 pray you, who is his companion? Is there no young squarer now that will make a voyage with him to the devil? _Mess._ He is most in the company of the right noble Claudio. _Beat._ O Lord, he will hang upon him like a disease: 70 he is sooner caught than the pestilence, and the taker runs presently mad. God help the noble Claudio! if he have caught the Benedick, it will cost him a thousand pound ere a’ be cured. _Mess._ I will hold friends with you, lady. 75 _Beat._ Do, good friend. _Leon._ You will never run mad, niece. _Beat._ No, not till a hot January. _Mess._ Don Pedro is approached. _Enter_ DON PEDRO, DON JOHN, CLAUDIO, BENEDICK, _and_ BALTHASAR. _D. Pedro._ Good Signior Leonato, you are come to meet 80 your trouble: the fashion of the world is to avoid cost, and you encounter it. _Leon._ Never came trouble to my house in the likeness of your Grace: for trouble being gone, comfort should remain; but when you depart from me, sorrow abides, and 85 happiness takes his leave. _D. Pedro._ You embrace your charge too willingly. I think this is your daughter. _Leon._ Her mother hath many times told me so. _Bene._ Were you in doubt, sir, that you asked her? 90 _Leon._ Signior Benedick, no; for then were you a child. _D. Pedro._ You have it full, Benedick: we may guess by this what you are, being a man. Truly, the lady fathers herself. Be happy, lady; for you are like an honourable father. 95