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Claud. Sweet prince, you learn me noble thankfulThere, 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:
9, what authority and shew of truth
Can cunning sin cover itself withal!
Comes not that blood, as modest evidence,

[ness.-

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.
Leon. What do you mean, my lord?
Claud.

Not to be married,

Not knit my soul to an approved wanton.

Leon. Dear my lord, if you, in your own proof, Have vanquish'd the resistance of her youth,

And made defeat of her virginity-

[her,

Claud. I know what you would say: If I have known

You'll 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 a sister, shew'd

Bashful sincerity and comely love.

Hero. And seem'd I ever otherwise to you?

Claud. Out on thy 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 pamper'd animals,

That rage in savage sensuality.

Hero. Is my lord well, that he doth speak so wide?
Leon. Sweet prince, why speak not you?
D. Pedro.

What should I speak?

I stand dishonour'd, that have gone about
To link my dear friend to a common stale.

Leon. Are these things spoken? or do I but dream?
D. John. Sir, they are spoken, and these things are
Bene. This looks not like a nuptial.

Hero.

Claud. Leonato, stand I here ?

[true.

True, O God!

Is this the prince? Is this the prince's brother?

Is this face Hero's? Are our eyes our own?

Leon. All this is so: But what of this, my lord? Claud. 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.
Leon. 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?

Claud. To make you answer truly to your name.
Hero. Is it not Hero? Who can blot that name
With any just reproach ?

Claud.

Marry, that can Hero;
Hero itself can blot out Hero's virtue.

What man was he talk'd with you yesternight
Ouat 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.
D. Pedro. Why, then are you no maiden.-Leonato,
I am sorry you must hear: Upon mine honour,
Myself, my brother, and this grievéd 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
A thousand times in secret.

D. John.

Fy, fy! 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,
Jam sorry for thy much misgovernment.

Claud. 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.

Leon. Hath no man's dagger here a point for me?
(Hero swoons.)

Beat. Why, how now, cousin? wherefore sink you

down?

[light, D. John. Come let us go: these things, come thus to Smother her spirits up.

[Exeunt Don Pedro, Don John, and Claudio. Bene. How doth the lady?

Beat.

Dead, I think Help, uncle !

Hero! why, Hero!-Uncle!-Signior Benedick!--Friar!
Leon. O fate, take not away thy heavy hand!
Death is the fairest cover for her shame,
That may be wish'd for.

Beat.

How now, cousin Hero?

Dost thou look up?

Friar. Have comfort, lady.
Leon.

Friar. Yea: wherefore should she not?

[thing

Leon. Wherefore? Why, doth not every earthly
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 1, 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 smirched 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 !

Bene.

Sir, sir, be patient: For my part, I am so attired in wonder,

I know not what to say.

Reat. O, on my soul, my cousin is belied!

Bene. Lady, were you her bedfellow last night?
Beat. No, truly, not; although, until last night

I have this twelvemonth been her bedfellow.

Leon, 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. 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 start
Into her face; a thousand innocent shames
In angel whiteness bear away those blushes;
And in her eye there hath appear'd a fire,
To buru 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 tenour of my book: trust not my age,
My reverence, calling, nor divinity,
If this sweet lady lie not guiltless here
Under some biting error.

Leon.
Friar, it cannot be :
Thou see'st, 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:

Way 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

Maintain'd the change of words with any creature,
Refuse me, hate me, torture me to death.

Friar. There is some strange misprision in the princes. Bene. 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.

Leon. 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 havock 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 a while,
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.

Leon. 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 maintain'd,
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 lack'd and lost,
Why, then we rack the value, then we find
The virtue, that possession would not shew us
Whiles it was ours. So will it fare with Claudio:
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,

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;

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,
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.

Bene. 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

As secretly and justly as your soul

Should with your body.

Leon.

The smallest twine may lead me.

Being that I flow in grief,

cure.

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 prolong'd; have patience, and endure.

[Exeunt Friar, Hero, and Leonato. Bene. Lady Beatrice, have you wept all this while?

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