TPTT Much Ado about Nothing: ACT III
Introduction
ACT I
ACT II
ACT III
SCENE I. LEONATO'S garden.
SCENE II. A room in LEONATO'S house
SCENE III. A street.
SCENE IV. HERO's apartment.
SCENE V. Another room in LEONATO'S house.
ACT IV
ACT V
About the Play
Feedback
  Search:   
for:

Amazon Honor System Click Here to Pay Learn More
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
5     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 favourites,
10    Made proud by princes, that advance their pride
      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
15    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:
20    My talk to thee must be how Benedick
      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;
25    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:
30    So angle we for Beatrice; who even now
      Is couched in the woodbine coverture.
      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

35    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
40    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;
      But I persuaded them, if they loved Benedick,
      To wish him wrestle with affection,
45    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
50    As much as may be yielded to a man:
      But Nature never framed a woman's heart
      Of prouder stuff than that of Beatrice;
      Disdain and scorn ride sparkling in her eyes,
      Misprising what they look on, and her wit
55    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;
60    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,
      But she would spell him backward: if fair-faced,
65    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;
70    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.
URSULA
      Sure, sure, such carping is not commendable.
HERO
75    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.
80    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.
URSULA
      Yet tell her of it: hear what she will say.
HERO
85    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
90    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
      So rare a gentleman as Signior Benedick.
HERO
95    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 valour,
100   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?
HERO
      Why, every day, to-morrow. Come, go in:
105   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
      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.
115   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
120   Believe it better than reportingly.
Exit
Return to top of page ... or ... Go to next scene