A Church.
 Enter DON PEDRO, DON JOHN the Bastard, LEONATO, FRIAR Francis, CLAUDIO,
 BENEDICK, HERO, BEATRICE, and ATTENDANTS.

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 unconstraind 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 approvd wanton.

Leonato	Dear my lord, if you, in your own proof,
	Have vanquished 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, showed
	Bashful sincerity and comely love.

Hero	And seemed 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 pampered 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 dishonoured, 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!

Claudio	Leonato, stand I here?
	Is this the prince? Is this the prince's brother?
	Is this face Hero's? Are our eyes our own?

Leonato	All this is so; but what of this, my lord?

Claudio	Let me but move one question to your daughter,
	And by that fatherly and kindly power
	That you have in her, bid her answer truly.

Leonato	I charge thee do so, as thou art my child.

Hero	O God defend me, how am I beset!
	What kind of catechizing call you this?

Claudio	To make you answer truly to your name.

Hero	Is it not Hero? Who can blot that name
	With any just reproach?

Claudio							Marry, that can Hero;
	Hero itself can blot out Hero's virtue.
	What man was he talked with you yesternight
	Out at your window betwixt twelve and one?
	Now, if you are a maid, answer to this.

Hero	I talked with no man at that hour, my lord.

Don Pedro	Why, then are you no maiden. Leonato,
	I am sorry you must hear. Upon mine honour,
	Myself, my brother, and this grievd count,
	Did see her, hear her, at that hour last night,
	Talk with a ruffian at her chamber window,
	Who hath indeed, most like a liberal villain,
	Confessed the vile encounters they have had
	A thousand times in secret.

Don John	Fie, fie! They are not to be named, my lord,
	Not to be spoke of;
	There is not chastity enough in language
	Without offence to utter them. Thus, pretty lady,
	I am sorry for thy much misgovernment.

Claudio	O Hero! What a Hero hadst thou been
	If half thy outward graces had been placed
	About thy thoughts and counsels of thy heart!
	But fare thee well, most foul most fair; farewell
	Thou pure impiety and impious purity.
	For thee I'll lock up all the gates of love,
	And on my eyelids shall conjecture hang,
	To turn all beauty into thoughts of harm,
	And never shall it more be gracious.

Leonato	Hath no man's dagger here a point for me?
													[HERO swoons.
Beatrice	Why, how now, cousin, wherefore sink you down?

Don John	Come, let us go. These things, come thus to light,
	Smother her spirits up.
						  [Exeunt DON PEDRO, DON JOHN, and CLAUDIO.

Benedick	How doth the lady?

Beatrice							Dead, I think. Help, uncle!
	Hero! Why, Hero! Uncle! Signor Benedick! Friar!

Leonato	O Fate, take not away thy heavy hand!
	Death is the fairest cover for her shame
	That may be wished for.

Beatrice							How now, cousin Hero!

Friar	Have comfort, lady.

Leonato	Dost thou look up?

Friar						Yea; wherefore should she not?

Leonato	Wherefore? Why, doth not every earthly thing
	Cry shame upon her? Could she here deny
	The story that is printed in her blood?
	Do not live, Hero, do not ope thine eyes,
	For did I think thou wouldst not quickly die,
	Thought I thy spirits were stronger than thy shames,
	Myself would, on the rearward of reproaches,
	Strike at thy life. Grieved I, I had but one?
	Chid I for that at frugal nature's frame?
	O, one too much by thee! Why had I one?
	Why ever wast thou lovely in my eyes?
	Why had I not with charitable hand
	Took up a beggar's issue at my gates,
	Who smirchd thus, and mired with infamy,
	I might have said 'No part of it is mine,
	This shame derives itself from unknown loins'?
	But mine, and mine I loved, and mine I praised,
	And mine that I was proud on, mine so much
	That I myself was to myself not mine,
	Valuing of her; why, she - O, she is fallen
	Into a pit of ink, that the wide sea
	Hath drops too few to wash her clean again,
	And salt too little which may season give
	To her foul-tainted flesh.

Benedick								Sir, sir, be patient.
	For my part, I am so attired in wonder
	I know not what to say.

Beatrice	O, on my soul, my cousin is belied!

Benedick	Lady, were you her bedfellow last night?

Beatrice	No, truly, not; although until last night
	I have this twelvemonth been her bedfellow.

Leonato	Confirmed, confirmed! O, that is stronger made
	Which was before barred up with ribs of iron.
	Would the two princes lie? And Claudio lie,
	Who loved her so, that, speaking of her foulness,
	Washed it with tears? Hence from her! Let her die!

Friar	Hear me a little;
	For I have only been silent so long,
	And given way unto this course of fortune,
	By noting of the lady. I have marked
	A thousand blushing apparitions
	To start into her face, a thousand innocent shames
	In angel whiteness beat away those blushes,
	And in her eye there hath appeared a fire
	To burn the errors that these princes hold
	Against her maiden truth. Call me a fool,
	Trust not my reading nor my observations,
	Which with experimental seal doth warrant
	The tenor of my book; trust not my age,
	My reverence, calling, nor divinity,
	If this sweet lady lie not guiltless here
	Under some biting error.

Leonato								Friar, it cannot be.
	Thou seest that all the grace that she hath left
	Is that she will not add to her damnation
	A sin of perjury. She not denies it;
	Why seek'st thou then to cover with excuse
	That which appears in proper nakedness?

Friar	Lady, what man is he you are accused of?

Hero	They know that do accuse me, I know none.
	If I know more of any man alive
	Than that which maiden modesty doth warrant,
	Let all my sins lack mercy! O my father,
	Prove you that any man with me conversed
	At hours unmeet, or that I yesternight
	Maintained the change of words with any creature,
	Refuse me, hate me, torture me to death.

Friar	There is some strange misprision in the princes.

Benedick	Two of them have the very bent of honour,
	And if their wisdoms be misled in this,
	The practice of it lives in John the bastard,
	Whose spirits toil in frame of villainies.

Leonato	I know not. If they speak but truth of her,
	These hands shall tear her; if they wrong her honour,
	The proudest of them shall well hear of it.
	Time hath not yet so dried this blood of mine,
	Nor age so eat up my invention,
	Nor fortune made such havoc of my means,
	Nor my bad life reft me so much of friends,
	But they shall find, awaked in such a kind,
	Both strength of limb and policy of mind,
	Ability in means and choice of friends,
	To quit me of them throughly.

Friar								Pause awhile,
	And let my counsel sway you in this case.
	Your daughter here the princes left for dead:
	Let her awhile be secretly kept in,
	And publish it that she is dead indeed.
	Maintain a mourning ostentation,
	And on your family's old monument
	Hang mournful epitaphs, and do all rites
	That appertain unto a burial.

Leonato	What shall become of this? What will this do?

Friar	Marry, this well carried shall on her behalf
	Change slander to remorse; that is some good.
	But not for that dream I on this strange course,
	But on this travail look for greater birth.
	She dying, as it must be so maintained,
	Upon the instant that she was accused,
	Shall be lamented, pitied, and excused
	Of every hearer; for it so falls out
	That what we have we prize not to the worth
	Whiles we enjoy it, but being lacked and lost,
	Why, then we rack the value, then we find
	The virtue that possession would not show us
	Whiles it was ours. So will it fare with Claudio.
	When he shall hear she died upon his words,
	Th'idea of her life shall sweetly creep
	Into his study of imagination,
	And every lovely organ of her life
	Shall come apparelled in more precious habit,
	More moving-delicate, and full of life,
	Into the eye and prospect of his soul
	Than when she lived indeed. Then shall he mourn
	If ever love had interest in his liver,
	And wish he had not so accusd her,
	No, though he thought his accusation true.
	Let this be so, and doubt not but success
	Will fashion the event in better shape
	Than I can lay it down in likelihood.
	But if all aim but this be levelled false,
	The supposition of the lady's death
	Will quench the wonder of her infamy.
	And if it sort not well, you may conceal her
	As best befits her wounded reputation,
	In some reclusive and religious life,
	Out of all eyes, tongues, minds, and injuries.

Benedick	Signor Leonato, let the friar advise you.
	And though you know my inwardness and love
	Is very much unto the prince and Claudio,
	Yet, by mine honour, I will deal in this
	As secretly and justly as your soul
	Should with your body.

Leonato							Being that I flow in grief,
	The smallest twine may lead me.

Friar	'Tis well consented. Presently away;
		For to strange sores strangely they strain the cure.
	Come, lady, die to live; this wedding-day
		Perhaps is but prolonged. Have patience and endure.
							 [Exeunt all but BENEDICK and BEATRICE.

Benedick	Lady Beatrice, have you wept all this while?

Beatrice	Yea, and I will weep a while longer.

Benedick	I will not desire that.

Beatrice	You have no reason; I do it freely.

Benedick	Surely I do believe your fair cousin is wronged.

Beatrice	Ah, how much might the man deserve of me that would right her.

Benedick	Is there any way to show such friendship?

Beatrice	A very even way, but no such friend.

Benedick	May a man do it?

Beatrice	It is a man's office, but not yours.

Benedick	I do love nothing in the world so well as you. Is not that 
	strange?

Beatrice	As strange as the thing I know not. It were as possible for me 
	to say I loved nothing so well as you, but believe me not; and 
	yet I lie not. I confess nothing, nor I deny nothing. I am 
	sorry for my cousin.

Benedick	By my sword, Beatrice, thou lovest me.

Beatrice	Do not swear and eat it.

Benedick	I will swear by it that you love me, and I will make him eat 
	it that says I love not you.

Beatrice	Will you not eat your word?

Benedick	With no sauce that can be devised to it. I protest I love 
	thee.

Beatrice	Why then, God forgive me.

Benedick	What offence, sweet Beatrice?

Beatrice	You have stayed me in a happy hour. I was about to protest I 
	loved you.

Benedick	And do it with all thy heart.

Beatrice	I love you with so much of my heart that none is left to 
	protest.

Benedick	Come, bid me do anything for thee.

Beatrice	Kill Claudio.

Benedick	Ha, not for the wide world.

Beatrice	You kill me to deny it. Farewell.

Benedick	Tarry, sweet Beatrice.

Beatrice	I am gone, though I am here. There is no love in you. Nay, I 
	pray you, let me go.

Benedick	Beatrice=-=

Beatrice	In faith, I will go.

Benedick	We'll be friends first.

Beatrice	You dare easier be friends with me than fight with mine enemy.

Benedick	Is Claudio thine enemy?

Beatrice	Is a' not approved in the height a villain, that hath 
	slandered, scorned, dishonoured my kinswoman? O that I were a 
	man! What, bear her in hand until they come to take hands, and 
	then with public accusation, uncovered slander, unmitigated 
	rancour - O God that I were a man! I would eat his heart in 
	the market-place.

Benedick	Hear me, Beatrice=-=

Beatrice	Talk with a man out at a window! A proper saying!

Benedick	Nay, but Beatrice=-=

Beatrice	Sweet Hero, she is wronged, she is slandered, she is undone.

Benedick	Beat=-=

Beatrice	Princes and counties! Surely a princely testimony, a goodly 
	count, Count Comfect; a sweet gallant surely! O, that I were a 
	man for his sake, or that I had any friend would be a man for 
	my sake! But manhood is melted into curtsies, valour into 
	compliment, and men are only turned into tongue, and trim ones 
	too. He is now as valiant as Hercules that only tells a lie 
	and swears it. I cannot be a man with wishing, therefore I 
	will die a woman with grieving.

Benedick	Tarry, good Beatrice. By this hand, I love thee.

Beatrice	Use it for my love some other way than swearing by it.

Benedick	Think you in your soul the Count Claudio hath wronged Hero?

Beatrice	Yea, as sure as I have a thought or a soul.

Benedick	Enough, I am engaged; I will challenge him. I will kiss your 
	hand, and so I leave you. By this hand, Claudio shall render 
	me a dear account. As you hear of me, so think of me. Go, 
	comfort your cousin. I must say she is dead. And so farewell.
													[Exeunt.
