Much Ado About Nothing | Act II, Scene I - Page 2
[They step aside.]
- BEATRICE:
-
Will you not tell me who told you so?
- BENEDICK:
-
No, you shall pardon me.
- BEATRICE:
-
Nor will you not tell me who you are?
- BENEDICK:
-
Not now.(110)
- BEATRICE:
-
That I was disdainful, and that I had my good wit
out of the Hundred Merry Tales—well, this was Signior
Benedick that said so.
- BENEDICK:
-
What's he?
- BEATRICE:
-
I am sure you know him well enough.(115)
- BENEDICK:
-
Not I, believe me.
- BEATRICE:
-
Did he never make you laugh?
- BENEDICK:
-
I pray you, what is he?
- BEATRICE:
-
Why, he is the prince's jester, a very dull fool. Only
his gift is in devising impossible slanders. None but(120)
libertines delight in him; and the commendation is not in
his wit, but in his villainy; for he both pleases men and
angers them, and then they laugh at him and beat him. I
am sure he is in the fleet. I would he had boarded me.
- BENEDICK:
-
When I know the gentleman, I'll tell him what you(125)
say.
- BEATRICE:
-
Do, do. He'll but break a comparison or two on me;
which peradventure, not marked or not laughed at,
strikes him into melancholy; and then there's a partridge
wing saved, for the fool will eat no supper that night. We(130)
must follow the leaders.
- BENEDICK:
-
In every good thing.
- BEATRICE:
-
Nay, if they lead to any ill, I will leave them at the
next turning.
Music for the dance.
Exeunt. [All but Don John, Borachio, and Claudio.]
- DON JOHN:
-
Sure my brother is amorous on Hero and hath(135)
withdrawn her father to break with him about it. The
ladies follow her and but one visor remains.
- BORACHIO:
-
And that is Claudio. I know him by his bearing.
- DON JOHN:
-
Are you not Signior Benedick?
- CLAUDIO:
-
You know me well. I am he.(140)
- DON JOHN:
-
Signior, you are very near my brother in his love.
He is enamoured on Hero. I pray you dissuade him from
her; she is no equal for his birth. You may do the part of
an honest man in it.
- CLAUDIO:
-
How know you he loves her?(145)
- DON JOHN:
-
I heard him swear his affection.
- BORACHIO:
-
So did I too, and he swore he would marry her
tonight.
- DON JOHN:
-
Come, let us to the banquet.
Exeunt [Don John and Borachio.]
- CLAUDIO:
-
Thus answer I in name of Benedick,(150)
But hear these ill news with the ears of Claudio.
'Tis certain so; the prince wooes for himself.
Friendship is constant in all other things
Save in the office and affairs of love.
Therefore all hearts in love use their own tongues;(155)
let every eye negotiate for itself,
And trust no agent; for beauty is a witch
Against whose charms faith melteth into blood.
This is an accident of hourly proof,
Which I mistrusted not. Farewell therefore Hero!(160)
Enter Benedick [unmasked.]
- BENEDICK:
-
Count Claudio?
- CLAUDIO:
-
Yea, the same.
- BENEDICK:
-
Come, will you go with me?
- CLAUDIO:
-
Whither?
- BENEDICK:
-
Even to the next willow, about your own business,(165)
county. What fashion will you wear the garland of? about
your neck, like an usurer's chain? or under your arm, like a
lieutenant's scarf? You must wear it one way, for the prince
hath got your Hero.
- CLAUDIO:
-
I wish him joy of her.(170)
- BENEDICK:
-
Why, that's spoken like an honest drovier. So they
sell bullocks. But did you think the prince would have
served you thus?
- CLAUDIO:
-
I pray you leave me.
- BENEDICK:
-
Ho! now you strike like the blind man! 'Twas the boy(175)
that stole your meat, and you'll beat the post.
- CLAUDIO:
-
If it will not be, I'll leave you.
Exit.
- BENEDICK:
-
Alas, poor hurt fowl! now will he creep into sedges.
But, that my Lady Beatrice should know me, and not know
me! The prince's fool! Ha! it may be I go under that title(180)
because I am merry. Yea, but so I am apt to do myself wrong.
I am not so reputed. It is the base though bitter, disposition
of Beatrice that puts the world into her person and so gives
me out. Well, I'll be revenged as I may.
Enter [The Prince] Don Pedro.
- DON PEDRO:
-
Now, signior, where's the count? Did you see(185)
him?
- BENEDICK:
-
Troth, my lord, I have played the part of Lady
Fame. I found him here as melancholy as a lodge in a
warren. I told him, and I think I told him true, that your
grace had got the good will of this young lady, and I(190)
offered him my company to a willow tree, either to make
him a garland, as being forsaken, or to bind him up a rod,
as being worthy to be whipped.
- DON PEDRO:
-
To be whipped? What's his fault?
- BENEDICK:
-
The flat transgression of a schoolboy who, being(195)
overjoyed with finding a bird's nest, shows it his companion,
and he steals it.
- DON PEDRO:
-
Wilt thou make a trust a transgression? The
transgression is in the stealer.
- BENEDICK:
-
Yet it had not been amiss the rod had been made,(200)
and the garland too; for the garland he might have worn
himself, and the rod he might have bestowed on you,
who, as I take it, have stolen his birds' nest.
- DON PEDRO:
-
I will but teach them to sing and restore them to
the owner.(205)
- BENEDICK:
-
If their singing answer your saying, by my faith,
you say honestly.
- DON PEDRO:
-
The Lady Beatrice hath a quarrel to you. The
gentleman that danced with her told her she is much
wronged by you.(210)
- BENEDICK:
-
O, she misused me past the endurance of a block!
An oak but with one green leaf on it would have
answered her; my very visor began to assume life and
scold with her. She told me, not thinking I had been
myself, that I was the prince's jester, that I was duller than(215)
a great thaw; huddling jest upon jest with such
impossible conveyance upon me that I stood like a man at a
mark, with a whole army shooting at me. She speaks
poniards, and every word stabs. If her breath were as
terrible as her terminations, there were no living near her;(220)
she would infect to the North Star. I would not marry her
though she were endowed with all that Adam had left
him before he transgressed. She would have made
Hercules have turned spit, yea, and have cleft his club
to make the fire too. Come, talk not of her. You shall find(225)
her the infernal Ate in good apparel. I would to God
some scholar would conjure her, for certainly, while she is
here, a man may live as quiet in hell as in a sanctuary; and
people sin upon purpose, because they would go thither; so
indeed all disquiet, horror, and perturbation follows her.(230)
Join eNotes
Over 3,500 study guides, question and answer forums, literature criticism, reference content, and much more!
Navigate
See Also:
- - For teachers, the Much Ado About Nothing Lesson Plan.
- - Much Ado About Nothing summary and study guide in the eNotes.
Tell a friend about Much Ado About Nothing at eNotes.
