Much Ado about Nothing: ACT IV
Introduction ACT I ACT II ACT III ACT IV SCENE I. A church. SCENE II. A prison. ACT V About the Play Feedback			Search: All the plays Hamlet Coriolanus Julius Caesar King Lear Macbeth Othello Romeo and Juliet Richard II Richard III Titus Andronicus Antony and Cleopatra Timon of Athens Henry IV Part 1 Henry IV Part 2 Henry the Fifth Henry VI Part 1 Henry VI Part 2 Henry VI Part 3 Henry VIII King John Pericles Troilus and Cressida All's Well... As You Like It The Comedy of Errors Cymbeline A Midsummer... Love's Labour's Lost Measure for Measure The Merry Wives... Much Ado about Nothing The Merchant of Venice Twelfth Night The Taming of... The Tempest The Two Gentlemen... The Winter's Tale    for: SCENE I. A church. Enter DON PEDRO, 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 FRANCIS       You come hither, my lord, to marry this lady. CLAUDIO 5     No. LEONATO       To be married to her: friar, you come to marry her. FRIAR FRANCIS       Lady, you come hither to be married to this count. HERO       I do. FRIAR FRANCIS       If either of you know any inward impediment why you 10    should not be conjoined, charge you, on your souls,       to utter it. CLAUDIO       Know you any, Hero? HERO       None, my lord. FRIAR FRANCIS       Know you any, count? LEONATO 15    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 20    Stand thee by, friar. Father, by your leave:       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 25    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; 30    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 35    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 40    What do you mean, my lord? 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 vanquish'd the resistance of her youth, 45    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, 50    I never tempted her with word too large;       But, as a brother to his sister, show'd       Bashful sincerity and comely love. HERO       And seem'd I ever otherwise to you? CLAUDIO       Out on thee! Seeming! I will write against it: 55    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 pamper'd animals       That rage in savage sensuality. HERO 60    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 dishonour'd, that have gone about       To link my dear friend to a common stale. LEONATO 65    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? 70    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 75    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? CLAUDIO       To make you answer truly to your name. HERO 80    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 talk'd with you yesternight 85    Out at your window betwixt twelve and one?       Now, if you are a maid, answer to this. HERO       I talk'd 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, 90    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,       Confess'd the vile encounters they have had 95    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, 100   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, 105   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 110   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 115   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       That may be wish'd for. BEATRICE 120   How now, cousin Hero! FRIAR FRANCIS       Have comfort, lady. LEONATO       Dost thou look up? FRIAR FRANCIS       Yea, wherefore should she not? LEONATO       Wherefore! Why, doth not every earthly thing 125   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, 130   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? 135   Why had I not with charitable hand       Took up a beggar's issue at my gates,       Who smirch'd thus and mired with infamy,       I might have said 'No part of it is mine;       This shame derives itself from unknown loins'? 140   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 145   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, 150   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 155   Confirm'd, confirm'd! O, that is stronger made       Which was before barr'd up with ribs of iron!       Would the two princes lie, and Claudio lie,       Who loved her so, that, speaking of her foulness,       Wash'd it with tears? Hence from her! let her die. FRIAR FRANCIS 160   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 mark'd       A thousand blushing apparitions 165   To start into her face, a thousand innocent shames       In angel whiteness beat away those blushes;       And in her eye there hath appear'd a fire,       To burn the errors that these princes hold       Against her maiden truth. Call me a fool; 170   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 175   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: 180   Why seek'st thou then to cover with excuse       That which appears in proper nakedness? FRIAR FRANCIS       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 185   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       Maintain'd the change of words with any creature, 190   Refuse me, hate me, torture me to death! FRIAR FRANCIS       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 practise of it lives in John the bastard, 195   Whose spirits toil in frame of villanies. 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, 200   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, 205   Ability in means and choice of friends,       To quit me of them throughly. FRIAR FRANCIS       Pause awhile,       And let my counsel sway you in this case.       Your daughter here the princes left for dead: 210   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 215   That appertain unto a burial. LEONATO       What shall become of this? what will this do? FRIAR FRANCIS       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, 220   But on this travail look for greater birth.       She dying, as it must so be maintain'd,       Upon the instant that she was accused,       Shall be lamented, pitied and excused       Of every hearer: for it so falls out 225   That what we have we prize not to the worth       Whiles we enjoy it, but being lack'd 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: 230   When he shall hear she died upon his words,       The idea of her life shall sweetly creep       Into his study of imagination,       And every lovely organ of her life       Shall come apparell'd in more precious habit, 235   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 accused her, 240   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 levell'd false, 245   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, 250   Out of all eyes, tongues, minds and injuries. BENEDICK       Signior 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 255   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 FRANCIS       'Tis well consented: presently away; 260   For to strange sores strangely they strain the cure.       Come, lady, die to live: this wedding-day       Perhaps is but prolong'd: 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 265   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 270   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 275   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 280   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 285   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 290   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 any thing for thee. BEATRICE       Kill Claudio. BENEDICK 295   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 300   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 305   Is he 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, 310   --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 315   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 320   had any friend would be a man for my sake! But       manhood is melted into courtesies, 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 325   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 330   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 Return to top of page ... or ... Go to next scene