home *** CD-ROM | disk | FTP | other *** search
- $Unique_ID{SSP00907}
- $Title{Much Ado About Nothing: Act III, Scene I}
- $Author{Shakespeare, William}
- $Subject{}
- $Log{Dramatis Personae*00900.txt}
-
- Portions copyright (c) CMC ReSearch, Inc., 1989
-
- The Complete Works of William Shakespeare
-
- MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING
-
-
- ACT III
- ................................................................................
-
-
- SCENE I: LEONATO'S garden.
- . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
-
- {Enter HERO, MARGARET, and URSULA.}
-
- HERO: Good Margaret, run thee to the parlor;
- There shalt thou find my cousin Beatrice
- Proposing with the prince and Claudio:
- Whisper her ear and tell her, I and Ursula
- Walk in the orchard and our whole discourse
- Is all of her; say that thou overheard'st us;
- And bid her steal into the pleached bower,
- Where honeysuckles, ripen'd by the sun,
- Forbid the sun to enter, like favorites,
- Made proud by princes, that advance their pride 10
- Against that power that bred it: there will she
- hide her,
- To listen our purpose. This is thy office;
- Bear thee well in it and leave us alone.
-
- MARGARET: I'll make her come, I warrant you, presently.
-
- [Exit.]
-
- HERO: Now, Ursula, when Beatrice doth come,
- As we do trace this alley up and down,
- Our talk must only be of Benedick.
- When I do name him, let it be thy part
- To praise him more than ever man did merit:
- My talk to thee must be how Benedick 20
- Is sick in love with Beatrice. Of this matter
- Is little Cupid's crafty arrow made,
- That only wounds by hearsay.
-
- {Enter BEATRICE, behind.}
-
- Now begin;
- For look where Beatrice, like a lapwing, runs
- Close by the ground, to hear our conference.
-
- URSULA: The pleasant'st angling is to see the fish
- Cut with her golden oars the silver stream,
- And greedily devour the treacherous bait:
- So angle we for Beatrice; who even now
- Is couched in the woodbine coverture. 30
- Fear you not my part of the dialogue.
-
- HERO: Then go we near her, that her ear lose nothing
- Of the false sweet bait that we lay for it.
-
- [Approaching the bower.]
-
- No, truly, Ursula, she is too disdainful;
- I know her spirits are as coy and wild
- As haggerds of the rock.
-
- URSULA: But are you sure
- That Benedick loves Beatrice so entirely?
-
- HERO: So says the prince and my new-trothed lord.
-
- URSULA: And did they bid you tell her of it, madam?
-
- HERO: They did entreat me to acquaint her of it; 40
- But I persuaded them, if they loved Benedick,
- To wish him wrestle with affection,
- And never to let Beatrice know of it.
-
- URSULA: Why did you so? Doth not the gentleman
- Deserve as full as fortunate a bed
- As ever Beatrice shall couch upon?
-
- HERO: O god of love! I know he doth deserve
- As much as may be yielded to a man:
- But Nature never framed a woman's heart
- Of prouder stuff than that of Beatrice; 50
- Disdain and scorn ride sparkling in her eyes,
- Misprising what they look on, and her wit
- Values itself so highly that to her
- All matter else seems weak: she cannot love,
- Nor take no shape nor project of affection,
- She is so self-endeared.
-
- URSULA: Sure, I think so;
- And therefore certainly it were not good
- She knew his love, lest she make sport at it.
-
- HERO: Why, you speak truth. I never yet saw man,
- How wise, how noble, young, how rarely featured, 60
- But she would spell him backward: if fair-faced,
- She would swear the gentleman should be her sister;
- If black, why, Nature, drawing of an antique,
- Made a foul blot; if tall, a lance ill-headed;
- If low, an agate very vilely cut;
- If speaking, why, a vane blown with all winds;
- If silent, why, a block moved with none.
- So turns she every man the wrong side out
- And never gives to truth and virtue that
- Which simpleness and merit purchaseth. 70
-
- URSULA: Sure, sure, such carping is not commendable.
-
- HERO: No, not to be so odd and from all fashions
- As Beatrice is, cannot be commendable:
- But who dare tell her so? If I should speak,
- She would mock me into air; O, she would laugh me
- Out of myself, press me to death with wit.
- Therefore let Benedick, like cover'd fire,
- Consume away in sighs, waste inwardly:
- It were a better death than die with mocks,
- Which is as bad as die with tickling. 80
-
- URSULA: Yet tell her of it: hear what she will say.
-
- HERO: No; rather I will go to Benedick
- And counsel him to fight against his passion.
- And, truly, I'll devise some honest slanders
- To stain my cousin with: one doth not know
- How much an ill word may empoison liking.
-
- URSULA: O, do not do your cousin such a wrong.
- She cannot be so much without true judgment--
- Having so swift and excellent a wit
- As she is prized to have--as to refuse 90
- So rare a gentleman as Signior Benedick.
-
- HERO: He is the only man of Italy.
- Always excepted my dear Claudio.
-
- URSULA: I pray you, be not angry with me, madam,
- Speaking my fancy: Signior Benedick,
- For shape, for bearing, argument and valor,
- Goes foremost in report through Italy.
-
- HERO: Indeed, he hath an excellent good name.
-
- URSULA: His excellence did earn it, ere he had it.
- When are you married, madam? 100
-
- HERO: Why, every day, to-morrow. Come, go in:
- I'll show thee some attires, and have thy counsel
- Which is the best to furnish me to-morrow.
-
- URSULA: She's limed, I warrant you: we have caught her, madam.
-
- HERO: If it proves so, then loving goes by haps:
- Some Cupid kills with arrows, some with traps.
-
- [Exeunt HERO and URSULA.]
-
- BEATRICE: [Coming forward]
- 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. 110
- 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.]
-