Much Ado About Nothing | Act I, Scene I - Page 3
- BENEDICK:
-
If I do, hang me in a bottle like a cat and shoot at(220)
me; and he that hits me, let him be clapped on the shoulder
and called Adam.
- DON PEDRO:
-
Well, as time shall try. ‘In time the savage bull
doth bear the yoke.’
- BENEDICK:
-
The savage bull may; but if ever the sensible(225)
Benedick bear it, pluck off the bull's horns and set them
in my forehead, and let me be vilely painted, and in such
great letters as they write ‘Here is good horse to hire,’ let
them signify under my sign. ‘Here you may see Benedick
the married man.’(230)
- CLAUDIO:
-
If this should ever happen, thou wouldst be horn-mad.
- DON PEDRO:
-
Nay, if Cupid have not spent all his quiver in Venice,
thou wilt quake for this shortly.
- BENEDICK:
-
I look for an earthquake too, then.
- DON PEDRO:
-
Well, you will temporize with the hours. In the(235)
meantime, good Signior Benedick, repair to Leonato's, commend
mend me to him and tell him I will not fail him at supper;
for indeed he hath made great preparation.
- BENEDICK:
-
I have almost matter enough in me for such an
embassage; and so I commit you—(240)
- CLAUDIO:
-
To the tuition of God. From my house—if I had it—
- DON PEDRO:
-
The sixth of July. Your loving friend, Benedick.
- BENEDICK:
-
Nay, mock not, mock not. The body of your discourse
is sometime guarded with fragments, and the guards are but
slightly basted on neither. Ere you flout old ends any further,(245)
examine your conscience. And so I leave you.
[Exit.]
- CLAUDIO:
-
My liege, your highness now may do me good.
- DON PEDRO:
-
My love is thine to teach. Teach it but how,
And thou shalt see how apt it is to learn
Any hard lesson that may do thee good.(250)
- CLAUDIO:
-
Hath Leonato any son, my lord?
- DON PEDRO:
-
No child but Hero; she's his only heir. Dost thou
affect her, Claudio?
- CLAUDIO:
-
O my lord,
When you went onward on this ended action,(255)
I looked upon her with a soldier's eye,
That liked, but had a rougher task in hand
Than to drive liking to the name of love;
But now I am returned and that war-thoughts
Have left their places vacant, in their rooms(260)
Come thronging soft and delicate desires,
All prompting me how fair young Hero is,
Saying I liked her ere I went to wars.
- DON PEDRO:
-
Thou wilt be like a lover presently
And tire the hearer with a book of words.(265)
If thou dost love fair Hero, cherish it,
And I will break with her and with her father,
And thou shalt have her. Wast not to this end
That thou began'st to twist so fine a story?
- CLAUDIO:
-
How sweetly you do minister to love,(270)
That know love's grief by his complexion!
But lest my liking might too sudden seem,
I would have salved it with a longer treatise.
- DON PEDRO:
-
What need the bridge much broader than the
flood?(275)
The fairest grant is the necessity.
Look, what will serve is fit.
'Tis once, thou lovest,
And I will fit thee with the remedy.
I know we shall have revelling to-night.(280)
I will assume thy part in some disguise
And tell fair Hero I am Claudio,
And in her bosom I'll unclasp my heart
And take her hearing prisoner with the force
And strong encounter of my amorous tale.(285)
Then after to her father will I break;
And the conclusion is, she shall be thine.
In practice let us put it presently.
Exeunt.
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