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Scene I

[A Church]

Enter Prince [Don Pedro], Bastard [Don John], 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.(5)

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(10)
it.

CLAUDIO:

Know you any, Hero?

HERO:

None, my lord.

FRIAR:

Know you any, count?

LEONATO:

I dare make his answer—none.(15)

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:(20)
Will you with free and unconstrained 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?(25)

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.(30)
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,(35)
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?(40)

CLAUDIO:

Not to be married,
Not to knit my soul to an approved wanton.

LEONATO:

Dear my lord, if you, in your own proof,
Have vanquished the resistance of her youth
And made defeat of her virginity—(45)

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(50)
Bashful sincerity and comely love.

HERO:

And seemed I ever otherwise to you?

CLAUDIO:

Out on the 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;(55)
But you are more intemperate in your blood
Than Venus, or those pamp'red animals
That rage in savage sensuality.

HERO:

Is my lord well that he doth speak so wide?

LEONATO:

Sweet prince, why speak not you?(60)

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:

My lord, they are spoken, and these things are(65)
true.

BENEDICK:

This looks not like a nuptial.

HERO:

True! O God!

CLAUDIO:

Leonato, stand I here?
Is this the prince?(70)
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,(75)
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 catechising call you this?(80)

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.(85)
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,(90)
I am sorry you must hear. Upon my honour,
Myself, my brother, and this grieved 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,(95)
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(100)
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!(105)
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,(110)
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.(115)

[Exeunt Don Pedro, Don John, and Claudio.]

BENEDICK:

How doth the lady?

BEATRICE:

Dead, I think. Help, uncle!
Hero! why, Hero! Uncle! Signior Benedick! Friar!

LEONATO:

O Fate, take not away thy heavy hand!
Death is the fairest cover for her shame(120)
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?(125)

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,(130)
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?(135)
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 smirched thus and mired with infamy,
I might have said, 'No part of it is mine;(140)
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(145)
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 quotes a popular grammar book in response to Claudio's interjections]
• match
• proved
• whore
• annul
• previously committed
• Roman goddess of the moon and virginity
• the moon
• in full flower
• the goddess of sexual love
• untruthfully
• questioning (see glossary)
• suspicion

1. Strategies for Understanding Shakespeare's Language
2. Reading Pointers for Sharper Insight
3. Dramatis Personae
4. Act I
   1. Scene I
   2. Scene II
   3. Scene III
5. Act II
   1. Scene I
   2. Scene II
   3. Scene III
6. Act III
   1. Scene I
   2. Scene II
   3. Scene III
   4. Scene IV
   5. Scene V
7. Act IV
   1. Scene I
   2. Scene II
8. Act V
   1. Scene I
   2. Scene II
   3. Scene III
   4. Scene IV
9. Copyright

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