SCENE I. Before LEONATO’S house.
“there appears much joy in him (…) joy could not show itself modest enough without a badge of bitterness.”
LEONATO
“How much better is it to weep at joy than to joy at weeping!”
BEATRICE
“I pray you, how many hath he killed and eaten in these wars? But how many hath he killed? for indeed I promised to eat all of his killing.”
“You had musty victual, and he hath holp to eat it”
“Você tinha carne podre, e ele ajudou a comê-la”
“LEONATO
You must not, sir, mistake my niece. There is a
kind of merry war betwixt Signior Benedick and her:
they never meet but there’s a skirmish of wit
between them.”
BEATRICE
“Who is his companion now? He hath every month a new sworn brother.”
“he wears his faith but as the fashion of his hat”
“Messenger
I see, lady, the gentleman is not in your books.
BEATRICE
No; an he were, I would burn my study.”
“LEONATO
You will never run mad, niece.
BEATRICE
No, not till a hot January.”
“DON PEDRO
Good Signior Leonato, you are come to meet your
trouble: the fashion of the world is to avoid
cost, and you encounter it.
LEONATO
Never came trouble to my house in the likeness of
your grace: for trouble being gone, comfort should
remain; but when you depart from me, sorrow abides
and happiness takes his leave.
DON PEDRO
You embrace your charge too willingly. I think this
is your daughter.
LEONATO
Her mother hath many times told me so.”
“BEATRICE
Is it possible disdain should die while she hath
such meet food to feed it as Signior Benedick?
Courtesy itself must convert to disdain, if you come
in her presence.”
“But it is certain I am loved of all ladies, only you excepted: and I would I could find in my heart that I had not a hard heart; for, truly, I love none.”
“I had rather hear my dog bark at a crow than a man swear he loves me.”
“BENEDICK
God keep your ladyship still in that mind! so some
gentleman or other shall ‘scape a predestinate
scratched face.
BEATRICE
Scratching could not make it worse, an ‘twere such
a face as yours were.
BENEDICK
Well, you are a rare parrot-teacher.
BEATRICE
A bird of my tongue is better than a beast of yours.”
“Exeunt all except BENEDICK and CLAUDIO
CLAUDIO
Benedick, didst thou note the daughter of Signior Leonato?
BENEDICK
I noted her not; but I looked on her.
CLAUDIO
Is she not a modest young lady?
BENEDICK
Do you question me, as an honest man should do, for
my simple true judgment; or would you have me speak
after my custom, as being a professed tyrant to their sex?
CLAUDIO
No; I pray thee speak in sober judgment.
BENEDICK
Why, i’ faith, methinks she’s too low for a high
praise, too brown for a fair praise and too little
for a great praise: only this commendation I can
afford her, that were she other than she is, she
were unhandsome; and being no other but as she is, I
do not like her.
CLAUDIO
Thou thinkest I am in sport: I pray thee tell me
truly how thou likest her.
BENEDICK
Would you buy her, that you inquire after her?
CLAUDIO
Can the world buy such a jewel?”
“Come, in what key shall a man take you, to go in the song?”
“In mine eye she is the sweetest lady that ever I looked on.”
“BENEDICK
I can see yet without spectacles and I see no such
matter: there’s her cousin, an she were not
possessed with a fury, exceeds her as much in beauty
as the first of May doth the last of December. But I
hope you have no intent to turn husband, have you?
CLAUDIO
I would scarce trust myself, though I had sworn the
contrary, if Hero would be my wife.”
“DON PEDRO
I charge thee on thy allegiance.
BENEDICK
You hear, Count Claudio: I can be secret as a dumb
man; I would have you think so; but, on my
allegiance, mark you this, on my allegiance. He is
in love. With who? now that is your grace’s part.
Mark how short his answer is;–With Hero, Leonato’s
short daughter.
CLAUDIO
If this were so, so were it uttered.”
“CLAUDIO
If my passion change not shortly, God forbid it
should be otherwise.
DON PEDRO
Amen, if you love her; for the lady is very well worthy.”
Bateu os olhos e não encontrou obstáculos.
Bateu nela os olhos e sentiu dor, pois ela era muito pontuda.
Comenos o come-nos.
“BENEDICK
That I neither feel how she should be loved nor
know how she should be worthy, is the opinion that
fire cannot melt out of me: I will die in it at the stake.”
“BENEDICK
That a woman conceived me, I thank her; that she
brought me up, I likewise give her most humble
thanks: but that I will have a recheat winded in my
forehead, or hang my bugle in an invisible baldrick,
all women shall pardon me. Because I will not do
them the wrong to mistrust any, I will do myself the
right to trust none; and the fine is, for the which
I may go the finer, I will live a bachelor.
DON PEDRO
I shall see thee, ere I die, look pale with love.
BENEDICK
With anger, with sickness, or with hunger, my lord,
not with love: prove that ever I lose more blood
with love than I will get again with drinking, pick
out mine eyes with a ballad-maker’s pen and hang me
up at the door of a brothel-house for the sign of
blind Cupid.
DON PEDRO
Well, if ever thou dost fall from this faith, thou
wilt prove a notable argument.
BENEDICK
If I do, hang me in a bottle like a cat and shoot
at 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
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.’
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
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, examine your
conscience: and so I leave you.
Exit”
“CLAUDIO
Hath Leonato any son, my lord?
DON PEDRO
No child but Hero; she’s his only heir.
Dost thou affect her, Claudio?”
“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.
If thou dost love fair Hero, cherish it,
And I will break with her and with her father,
And thou shalt have her. Was’t not to this end
That thou began’st to twist so fine a story?”
“DON PEDRO
What need the bridge much broader than the flood?
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:
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:
Then after to her father will I break;
And the conclusion is, she shall be thine.
In practise let us put it presently.
Exeunt”
SCENE II. A room in LEONATO’s house.
“ANTONIO
…The prince and Count
Claudio, walking in a thick-pleached alley in mine
orchard, were thus much overheard by a man of mine:
the prince discovered to Claudio that he loved my
niece your daughter and meant to acknowledge it
this night in a dance: and if he found her
accordant, he meant to take the present time by the
top and instantly break with you of it.”
“LEONATO
No, no; we will hold it as a dream till it appear
itself: but I will acquaint my daughter withal,
that she may be the better prepared for an answer,
if peradventure this be true. Go you and tell her of it.”
SCENE III. The same.
“DON JOHN
…I cannot hide
what I am: I must be sad when I have cause and smile
at no man’s jests, eat when I have stomach and wait
for no man’s leisure, sleep when I am drowsy and
tend on no man’s business, laugh when I am merry and
claw no man in his humour.”
“…If I had my
mouth, I would bite; if I had my liberty, I would do
my liking: in the meantime let me be that I am and
seek not to alter me.”
ACT 2
SCENE I. A hall in LEONATO’S house.
“BEATRICE
How tartly that gentleman looks! I never can see
him but I am heart-burned an hour after.
HERO
He is of a very melancholy disposition.
BEATRICE
He were an excellent man that were made just in the
midway between him and Benedick: the one is too
like an image and says nothing, and the other too
like my lady’s eldest son, evermore tattling.
LEONATO
Then half Signior Benedick’s tongue in Count John’s
mouth, and half Count John’s melancholy in Signior
Benedick’s face,–
BEATRICE
With a good leg and a good foot, uncle, and money
enough in his purse, such a man would win any woman
in the world, if a’ could get her good-will.
LEONATO
By my troth, niece, thou wilt never get thee a
husband, if thou be so shrewd of thy tongue.
ANTONIO
In faith, she’s too curst.
BEATRICE
Too curst is more than curst: I shall lessen God’s
sending that way; for it is said, ‘God sends a curst
cow short horns;’ but to a cow too curst he sends none.”
“…Lord, I could not endure a husband with a beard on his face: I had rather lie in the woollen.”
“He that hath a beard is more than a youth, and he that hath no beard is less than a man: and he that is more than a youth is not for me, and he that is less than a man, I am not for him: therefore, I will even take 6-pence in earnest of the bear-ward, [constelação vizinha da Ursa Maior] and lead his apes into hell.”
“LEONATO
Well, then, go you into hell?
BEATRICE
No, but to the gate; and there will the devil meet
me, like an old cuckold, with horns on his head, and
say ‘Get you to heaven, Beatrice, get you to
heaven; here’s no place for you maids:’ so deliver
I up my apes, and away to Saint Peter for the
heavens; he shows me where the bachelors sit, and
there live we as merry as the day is long.
ANTONIO
[To HERO] Well, niece, I trust you will be ruled
by your father.”
“BEATRICE
Not till God make men of some other metal than
earth. Would it not grieve a woman to be
overmastered with a pierce of valiant dust? to make
an account of her life to a clod of wayward marl?
No, uncle, I’ll none: Adam’s sons are my brethren;
and, truly, I hold it a sin to match in my kindred.”
“For, hear me, Hero: wooing, wedding, and repenting, is as a Scotch jig, a measure, and a cinque pace: the first suit is hot and hasty, like a Scotch jig, and full as fantastical; the wedding, mannerly-modest, as a measure, full of state and ancientry; and then comes repentance and, with his bad legs, falls into the cinque pace faster and faster, till he sink into his grave.”
“I have a good eye, uncle; I can see a church by daylight.”
“All put on their masks
Enter DON PEDRO, CLAUDIO, BENEDICK, BALTHASAR, DON JOHN, BORACHIO, MARGARET, URSULA and others, masked”
“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.
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 libertines delight in him; and the
commendation is not in his wit, but in his villany;
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 say.”
“DON JOHN
Sure my brother is amorous on Hero and hath
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 not you Signior Benedick?
CLAUDIO
You know me well; I am he.”
“CLAUDIO [solilóquio]
Thus answer I in the name of Benedick,
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;
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!”
“DON PEDRO
I will but teach them to sing, and restore them to
the owner.
BENEDICK
If their singing answer your saying, by my faith,
you say honestly.”
“She told me, not thinking I had been myself, that I was the prince’s jester, that I was duller than 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; 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.”
“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.”
“BENEDICK
Will your grace command me any service to the
world’s end? I will go on the slightest errand now
to the Antipodes that you can devise to send me on;
I will fetch you a tooth-picker now from the
furthest inch of Asia, bring you the length of
Prester John’s foot, fetch you a hair off the great
Cham’s beard, do you any embassage to the Pigmies,
rather than hold 3 words’ conference with this
harpy. You have no employment for me?”
DON PEDRO
None, but to desire your good company.
BENEDICK
O God, sir, here’s a dish I love not: I cannot
endure my Lady Tongue.
Exit”
“BEATRICE
The count is neither sad, nor sick, nor merry, nor
well; but civil count, civil as an orange, and
something of that jealous complexion.
DON PEDRO
I’ faith, lady, I think your blazon to be true;
though, I’ll be sworn, if he be so, his conceit is
false. Here, Claudio, I have wooed in thy name, and
fair Hero is won: I have broke with her father,
and his good will obtained: name the day of
marriage, and God give thee joy!
LEONATO
Count, take of me my daughter, and with her my
fortunes: his grace hath made the match, and an
grace say Amen to it.
BEATRICE
Speak, count, ‘tis your cue.
CLAUDIO
Silence is the perfectest herald of joy: I were
but little happy, if I could say how much. Lady, as
you are mine, I am yours: I give away myself for
you and dote upon the exchange.
BEATRICE
Speak, cousin; or, if you cannot, stop his mouth
with a kiss, and let not him speak neither.
DON PEDRO
In faith, lady, you have a merry heart.”
“Thus goes every one to the world but I, and I am sunburnt; I may sit in a corner and cry heigh-ho for a husband!”
“DON PEDRO
By my troth, a pleasant-spirited lady.
LEONATO
There’s little of the melancholy element in her, my
lord: she is never sad but when she sleeps, and
not ever sad then; for I have heard my daughter say,
she hath often dreamed of unhappiness and waked
herself with laughing.”
“DON PEDRO
She were an excellent wife for Benedict.
LEONATO
O Lord, my lord, if they were but a week married,
they would talk themselves mad.”
“DON PEDRO
(…) I will in the interim undertake one of Hercules’ labours; which is, to bring Signior Benedick and the Lady Beatrice into a mountain of affection the one with the other. I would fain have it a match, and I doubt not but to fashion it, if you 3 will but minister such assistance as I shall give you direction.
LEONATO
My lord, I am for you, though it cost me ten
nights’ watchings.
CLAUDIO
And I, my lord.
DON PEDRO
And you too, gentle Hero?
HERO
I will do any modest office, my lord, to help my
cousin to a good husband.”
“…If we can do this, Cupid is no longer an archer: his glory shall be ours, for we are the only love-gods. Go in with me, and I will tell you my drift.
Exeunt”
ACT 2
SCENE II. The same.
“Enter DON JOHN and BORACHIO
DON JOHN
It is so; the Count Claudio shall marry the
daughter of Leonato.
BORACHIO
Yea, my lord; but I can cross it.
DON JOHN
Any bar, any cross, any impediment will be
medicinable to me: I am sick in displeasure to him,
and whatsoever comes athwart his affection ranges
evenly with mine. How canst thou cross this marriage?
BORACHIO
Not honestly, my lord; but so covertly that no
dishonesty shall appear in me.
DON JOHN
Show me briefly how.
BORACHIO
I think I told your lordship a year since, how much
I am in the favour of Margaret, the waiting
gentlewoman to Hero.”
“I can, at any unseasonable instant of the night, appoint her to look out at her lady’s chamber window.”
“The poison of that lies in you to temper. Go you to the prince your brother; spare not to tell him that he hath wronged his honour in marrying the renowned Claudio–whose estimation do you mightily hold up–to a contaminated stale, such a one as Hero.”
“–for in the meantime I will so fashion the matter that Hero shall be absent,–and there shall appear such seeming truth of Hero’s disloyalty that jealousy shall be called assurance and all the preparation overthrown.”
“[JOHN] …Be cunning in the working this, and thy fee is a thousand ducats.”
ACT 2
SCENE III. LEONATO’S orchard.
“[Grande monólogo de BENEDICK]
I do much wonder that one man, seeing how much
another man is a fool when he dedicates his
behaviors to love, will, after he hath laughed at
such shallow follies in others, become the argument
of his own scorn by falling in love: and such a man
is Claudio. I have known when there was no music
with him but the drum and the fife; and now had he
rather hear the tabour and the pipe: I have known
when he would have walked 10 miles a-foot to see a
good armour; and now will he lie 10 nights awake,
carving the fashion of a new doublet. He was wont to
speak plain and to the purpose, like an honest man
and a soldier; and now is he turned orthography; his
words are a very fantastical banquet, just so many
strange dishes. May I be so converted and see with
these eyes? I cannot tell; I think not: I will not
be sworn, but love may transform me to an oyster; but
I’ll take my oath on it, till he have made an oyster
of me, he shall never make me such a fool. One woman
is fair, yet I am well; another is wise, yet I am
well; another virtuous, yet I am well; but till all
graces be in one woman, one woman shall not come in
my grace. Rich she shall be, that’s certain; wise,
or I’ll none; virtuous, or I’ll never cheapen her;
fair, or I’ll never look on her; mild, or come not
near me; noble, or not I for an angel; of good
discourse, an excellent musician, and her hair shall
be of what colour it please God. Ha! the prince and
Monsieur Love! I will hide me in the arbour.”
“DON PEDRO
Come, Balthasar, we’ll hear that song again.
BALTHASAR
O, good my lord, tax not so bad a voice
To slander music any more than once.
DON PEDRO
It is the witness still of excellency
To put a strange face on his own perfection.
I pray thee, sing, and let me woo no more.”
“Air
BENEDICK [Oculto na moita.]
Now, divine air! now is his soul ravished! Is it
not strange that sheeps’ guts should hale souls out
of men’s bodies? Well, a horn for my money, when
all’s done.”
“Sigh no more, ladies, sigh no more,
Men were deceivers ever,
One foot in sea and one on shore,
To one thing constant never:
Then sigh not so, but let them go,
And be you blithe and bonny,
Converting all your sounds of woe
Into Hey nonny, nonny.
Sing no more ditties, sing no more,
Of dumps so dull and heavy;
The fraud of men was ever so,
Since summer first was leafy:
Then sigh not so, & c.”
“DON PEDRO
By my troth, a good song.
BALTHASAR
And an ill singer, my lord.
DON PEDRO
Ha, no, no, faith; thou singest well enough for a shift.”
BENEDICK [à parte]
An he had been a dog that should have howled thus,
they would have hanged him: and I pray God his bad
voice bode no mischief. I had as lief have heard the
night-raven, come what plague could have come after
it.”
“DON PEDRO
Do so: farewell.
Exit BALTHASAR
Come hither, Leonato. What was it you told me of
to-day, that your niece Beatrice was in love with
Signior Benedick?
CLAUDIO
O, ay: stalk on. stalk on; the fowl sits. I did
never think that lady would have loved any man.”
“BENEDICK
Is’t possible? Sits the wind in that corner?”
“DON PEDRO
May be she doth but counterfeit.
CLAUDIO
Faith, like enough.
LEONATO
O God, counterfeit! There was never counterfeit of
passion came so near the life of passion as she
discovers it.”
“DON PEDRO
Hath she made her affection known to Benedick?
LEONATO
No; and swears she never will: that’s her torment.”
“DON PEDRO
It were good that Benedick knew of it by some
other, if she will not discover it.
CLAUDIO
To what end? He would make but a sport of it and
torment the poor lady worse.”
“LEONATO
O, my lord, wisdom and blood combating in so tender
a body, we have 10 proofs to 1 that blood hath
the victory. I am sorry for her, as I have just
cause, being her uncle and her guardian.”
“CLAUDIO
Hero thinks surely she will die; for she says she
will die, if he love her not, and she will die, ere
she make her love known, and she will die, if he woo
her, rather than she will bate one breath of her
accustomed crossness.
DON PEDRO
She doth well: if she should make tender of her
love, ‘tis very possible he’ll scorn it; for the
man, as you know all, hath a contemptible spirit.
CLAUDIO
He is a very proper man.”
“DON PEDRO
And so will he do; for the man doth fear God,
howsoever it seems not in him by some large jests
he will make. Well I am sorry for your niece. Shall
we go seek Benedick, and tell him of her love?
CLAUDIO
Never tell him, my lord: let her wear it out with
good counsel.”
“They have the truth of this from Hero. They seem to pity the lady: it seems her affections have their full bent. Love me! why, it must be requited. I hear how I am censured: they say I will bear myself proudly, if I perceive the love come from her; they say too that she will rather die than give any sign of affection. I did never think to marry: I must not seem proud: happy are they that hear their detractions and can put them to mending. They say the lady is fair; ‘tis a truth, I can bear them witness; and virtuous; ‘tis so, I cannot reprove it; and wise, but for loving me; by my troth, it is no addition to her wit, nor no great argument of her folly, for I will be horribly in love with her. I may chance have some odd quirks and remnants of wit broken on me, because I have railed so long against marriage: but doth not the appetite alter? a man loves the meat in his youth that he cannot endure in his age. Shall quips and sentences and these paper bullets of the brain awe a man from the career of his humour? No, the world must be peopled. When I said I would die a bachelor, I did not think I should live till I were married. Here comes Beatrice. By this day! she’s a fair lady: I do spy some marks of love in her.
Enter BEATRICE
BEATRICE
Against my will I am sent to bid you come in to dinner.
BENEDICK
Fair Beatrice, I thank you for your pains.
BEATRICE
I took no more pains for those thanks than you take
pains to thank me: if it had been painful, I would
not have come.
BENEDICK
You take pleasure then in the message?
BEATRICE
Yea, just so much as you may take upon a knife’s
point and choke a daw withal. You have no stomach,
signior: fare you well.
Exit
BENEDICK
Ha! ‘Against my will I am sent to bid you come in
to dinner;’ there’s a double meaning in that ‘I took
no more pains for those thanks than you took pains
to thank me.’ that’s as much as to say, Any pains
that I take for you is as easy as thanks. If I do
not take pity of her, I am a villain; if I do not
love her, I am a Jew. I will go get her picture.
Exit”
ACT 3
SCENE I. LEONATO’S garden.
“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
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,
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.”
“HERO
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:
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;
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:
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
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
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,
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
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
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;
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,
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;
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
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.
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
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
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
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,
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:
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
[Coming forward]
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.
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
Believe it better than reportingly.
Exit”
Até para a pena frenética de Shakespeare isso foi muito mais rápido do que eu pensava!
ACT 3
SCENE II. A room in LEONATO’S house
“he hath a heart as sound as a bell and his tongue is the clapper, for what his heart thinks his tongue speaks.”
“BENEDICK
Gallants, I am not as I have been.
LEONATO
So say I methinks you are sadder.
CLAUDIO
I hope he be in love.
DON PEDRO
Hang him, truant! there’s no true drop of blood in
him, to be truly touched with love: if he be sad,
he wants money.
BENEDICK
I have the toothache.
DON PEDRO
Draw it.
BENEDICK
Hang it!
CLAUDIO
You must hang it first, and draw it afterwards.
DON PEDRO
What! sigh for the toothache?
LEONATO
Where is but a humour or a worm.
BENEDICK
Well, every one can master a grief but he that has
it.”
“LEONATO
Indeed, he looks younger than he did, by the loss of a beard.
DON PEDRO
Nay, a’ rubs himself with civet [fragrâncias, perfume africano ou oriental]: can you smell him
out by that?
CLAUDIO
That’s as much as to say, the sweet youth’s in love.”
“BENEDICK
Yet is this no charm for the toothache. Old
signior, walk aside with me: I have studied 8
or 9 wise words to speak to you, which these
hobby-horses must not hear.
Exeunt BENEDICK and LEONATO”
“the two bears will not bite one another when they meet.”
“CLAUDIO
Who, Hero?
DON PEDRO
Even she; Leonato’s Hero, your Hero, every man’s Hero:
CLAUDIO
Disloyal?”
“DON PEDRO
O day untowardly turned!
CLAUDIO
O mischief strangely thwarting!
DON JOHN [Don Juan]
O plague right well prevented! so will you say when
you have seen the sequel.
Exeunt”
ACT 3
SCENE III. A street.
“DOGBERRY
Come hither, neighbour Seacole. God hath blessed
you with a good name: to be a well-favoured man is
the gift of fortune; but to write and read comes by nature.”
“DOGBERRY
True, and they are to meddle with none but the
prince’s subjects. You shall also make no noise in
the streets; for, for the watch to babble and to
talk is most [in?]tolerable and not to be endured.
Watchman
We will rather sleep than talk: we know what
belongs to a watch.
DOGBERRY
Why, you speak like an ancient and most quiet
watchman; for I cannot see how sleeping should
offend: only, have a care that your bills be not
stolen. Well, you are to call at all the
ale-houses, and bid those that are drunk get them to bed.”
“Watchman
If we know him to be a thief, shall we not lay
hands on him?
DOGBERRY
Truly, by your office, you may; but I think they
that touch pitch will be defiled: the most peaceable
way for you, if you do take a thief, is to let him
show himself what he is and steal out of your company.
VERGES
You have been always called a merciful man, partner.
DOGBERRY
Truly, I would not hang a dog by my will, much more
a man who hath any honesty in him.
VERGES
If you hear a child cry in the night, you must call
to the nurse and bid her still it.
Watchman
How if the nurse be asleep and will not hear us?
DOGBERRY
Why, then, depart in peace, and let the child wake
her with crying; for the ewe that will not hear her
lamb when it baes will never answer a calf when he bleats.
“DOGBERRY
One word more, honest neighbours. I pray you watch
about Signior Leonato’s door; for the wedding being
there to-morrow, there is a great coil to-night.
Adieu: be vigilant, I beseech you.
Exeunt DOGBERRY and VERGES
Enter BORACHIO and CONRADE”
“BORACHIO
Stand thee close, then, under this pent-house, for
it drizzles rain; and I will, like a true drunkard,
utter all to thee.
Watchman
[Aside] Some treason, masters: yet stand close.
BORACHIO
Therefore know I have earned of Don John 1,000 ducats.
CONRADE
Is it possible that any villany should be so dear?
BORACHIO
Thou shouldst rather ask if it were possible any
villany should be so rich; for when rich villains
have need of poor ones, poor ones may make what
price they will.”
“CONRADE
Yes, it is apparel.
BORACHIO
I mean, the fashion.
CONRADE
Yes, the fashion is the fashion.
BORACHIO
Tush! I may as well say the fool’s the fool. But
seest thou not what a deformed thief this fashion
is?”
“BORACHIO
Seest thou not, I say, what a deformed thief this
fashion is? how giddily a’ turns about all the hot
bloods between 14 and five-and-thirty?
sometimes fashioning them like Pharaoh’s soldiers
in the reeky painting, sometime like god Bel’s
priests in the old church-window, sometime like the
shaven Hercules in the smirched worm-eaten tapestry,
where his codpiece seems as massy as his club?”
“CONRADE
And thought they Margaret was Hero?
BORACHIO
Two of them did, the prince and Claudio; but the
devil my master knew she was Margaret; and partly
by his oaths, which first possessed them, partly by
the dark night, which did deceive them, but chiefly
by my villany, which did confirm any slander that
Don John had made, away went Claudio enraged; swore
he would meet her, as he was appointed, next morning
at the temple, and there, before the whole
congregation, shame her with what he saw o’er night
and send her home again without a husband.”
First Watchman
We charge you, in the prince’s name, stand!
Second Watchman
Call up the right master constable. We have here
recovered the most dangerous piece of lechery that
ever was known in the commonwealth.
First Watchman
And one Deformed is one of them: I know him; a’
wears a lock.
CONRADE
Masters, masters,–
Second Watchman
You’ll be made bring Deformed forth, I warrant you.
CONRADE
Masters,–
First Watchman
Never speak: we charge you let us obey you to go with us.
BORACHIO
We are like to prove a goodly commodity, being taken
up of these men’s bills.
CONRADE
A commodity in question, I warrant you. Come, we’ll obey you.
Exeunt”
ACT 3
SCENE IV. HERO’s apartment.
“MARGARET
By my troth, ‘s not so good; and I warrant your
cousin will say so.
HERO
My cousin’s a fool, and thou art another: I’ll wear
none but this.”
“MARGARET
Of what, lady? of speaking honourably? Is not
marriage honourable in a beggar? Is not your lord
honourable without marriage? I think you would have
me say, ‘saving your reverence, a husband:’ and bad
thinking do not wrest true speaking, I’ll offend
nobody: is there any harm in ‘the heavier for a
husband’? None, I think, and it be the right husband
and the right wife; otherwise ‘tis light, and not
heavy: ask my Lady Beatrice else; here she comes.
Enter BEATRICE”
“HERO
Why how now? do you speak in the sick tune?
BEATRICE
I am out of all other tune, methinks.”
“BEATRICE
Ye light o’ love, with your heels! then, if your
husband have stables enough, you’ll see he shall
lack no barns.
MARGARET
O illegitimate construction! I scorn that with my heels.”
“…By my troth, I am exceeding ill: heigh-ho!
MARGARET
For a hawk, a horse, or a husband?
BEATRICE
For the letter that begins them all, H.
MARGARET
Well, and you be not turned Turk, there’s no more
sailing by the star.
BEATRICE
What means the fool, trow?
MARGARET
Nothing I; but God send every one their heart’s desire!”
“BEATRICE
I am stuffed, cousin; I cannot smell.
MARGARET
A maid, and stuffed! There’s goodly catching of cold.
BEATRICE
O, God help me! God help me! how long have you
professed apprehension?”
ACT 3
SCENE V. Another room in LEONATO’S house.
“DOGBERRY
A good old man, sir; he will be talking: as they
say, when the age is in, the wit is out: God help
us! it is a world to see. Well said, i’ faith,
neighbour Verges: well, God’s a good man; an 2 men
ride of a horse, one must ride behind. An honest
soul, i’ faith, sir; by my troth he is, as ever
broke bread; but God is to be worshipped; all men
are not alike; alas, good neighbour!
LEONATO
Indeed, neighbour, he comes too short of you.
DOGBERRY
Gifts that God gives.
LEONATO
I must leave you.
DOGBERRY
One word, sir: our watch, sir, have indeed
comprehended 2 auspicious persons, and we would
have them this morning examined before your worship.
LEONATO
Take their examination yourself and bring it me: I
am now in great haste, as it may appear unto you.
DOGBERRY
It shall be suffigance.”
“LEONATO
I’ll wait upon them: I am ready.
Exeunt LEONATO and Messenger
DOGBERRY
Go, good partner, go, get you to Francis Seacole;
bid him bring his pen and inkhorn to the gaol: we
are now to examination these men.”
ACT 4
SCENE I. A church. [na íntegra]
“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
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
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
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
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
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;
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
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
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,
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,
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:
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?
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
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?
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
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
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
Out at your window betwixt 12 and 1?
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,
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
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,
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,
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
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
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
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
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 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?
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’?
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!
BENEDICK
Sir, sir, be patient.
For my part, I am so attired in wonder,
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 12-month been her bedfellow.
LEONATO
Confirm’d, confirm’d! O, that is stronger made
Which was before barr’d up with ribs of iron!
Would the 2 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
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
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;
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
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:
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
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 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,
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,
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,
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:
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.
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,
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
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:
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.
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
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;
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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
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,
–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
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
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
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
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”
ACT 4
SCENE II. A prison.
“DOGBERRY
Write down, that they hope they serve God: and
write God first; for God defend but God should go
before such villains! Masters, it is proved already
that you are little better than false knaves; and it
will go near to be thought so shortly. How answer
you for yourselves?
CONRADE
Marry, sir, we say we are none.
DOGBERRY
A marvellous witty fellow, I assure you: but I
will go about with him. Come you hither, sirrah; a
word in your ear: sir, I say to you, it is thought
you are false knaves.
BORACHIO
Sir, I say to you we are none.”
“First Watchman
This man said, sir, that Don John, the prince’s
brother, was a villain.
DOGBERRY
Write down Prince John a villain. Why, this is flat
perjury, to call a prince’s brother villain.
BORACHIO
Master constable,–
DOGBERRY
Pray thee, fellow, peace: I do not like thy look,
I promise thee.
Sexton [o tocador do sino numa côrte de justiça ou assembléia]
What heard you him say else?
Second Watchman
Marry, that he had received a thousand ducats of
Don John for accusing the Lady Hero wrongfully.”
“Sexton
What else, fellow?
First Watchman
And that Count Claudio did mean, upon his words, to
disgrace Hero before the whole assembly. and not marry her.
DOGBERRY
O villain! thou wilt be condemned into everlasting
redemption for this.
Sexton
What else?
Watchman
This is all.
Sexton
And this is more, masters, than you can deny.
Prince John is this morning secretly stolen away;
Hero was in this manner accused, in this very manner
refused, and upon the grief of this suddenly died.
Master constable, let these men be bound, and
brought to Leonato’s: I will go before and show
him their examination.
Exit”
ACT 5
SCENE I. Before LEONATO’S house.
“Bring me a father that so loved his child,
Whose joy of her is overwhelm’d like mine,
And bid him speak of patience;
Measure his woe the length and breadth of mine
And let it answer every strain for strain,
As thus for thus and such a grief for such,
In every lineament, branch, shape, and form:
If such a one will smile and stroke his beard,
Bid sorrow wag, cry ‘hem!’ when he should groan,
Patch grief with proverbs, make misfortune drunk
With candle-wasters; bring him yet to me,
And I of him will gather patience.
But there is no such man: for, brother, men
Can counsel and speak comfort to that grief
Which they themselves not feel; but, tasting it,
Their counsel turns to passion, which before
Would give preceptial medicine to rage,
Fetter strong madness in a silken thread,
Charm ache with air and agony with words:
No, no; ‘tis all men’s office to speak patience
To those that wring under the load of sorrow,
But no man’s virtue nor sufficiency
To be so moral when he shall endure
The like himself. Therefore give me no counsel:
My griefs cry louder than advertisement.”
“I pray thee, peace. I will be flesh and blood;
For there was never yet philosopher
That could endure the toothache patiently,
However they have writ the style of gods
And made a push at chance and sufferance.”
“My soul doth tell me Hero is belied;
And that shall Claudio know; so shall the prince
And all of them that thus dishonour her.”
“DON PEDRO
Nay, do not quarrel with us, good old man.
ANTONIO
If he could right himself with quarreling,
Some of us would lie low.”
“Nay, never lay thy hand upon thy sword;
I fear thee not.”
“Tush, tush, man; never fleer and jest at me:
I speak not like a dotard nor a fool,
As under privilege of age to brag
What I have done being young, or what would do
Were I not old. Know, Claudio, to thy head,
Thou hast so wrong’d mine innocent child and me
That I am forced to lay my reverence by
And, with grey hairs and bruise of many days,
Do challenge thee to trial of a man.
I say thou hast belied mine innocent child;
Thy slander hath gone through and through her heart,
And she lies buried with her ancestors;
O, in a tomb where never scandal slept,
Save this of hers, framed by thy villany!”
“My lord, my lord,
I’ll prove it on his body, if he dare,
Despite his nice fence and his active practise,
His May of youth and bloom of lustihood.”
“Canst thou so daff me? Thou hast kill’d my child:
If thou kill’st me, boy, thou shalt kill a man.”
“ANTONIO
He shall kill 2 of us, and men indeed:
But that’s no matter; let him kill one first;
Win me and wear me; let him answer me.
Come, follow me, boy; come, sir boy, come, follow me:
Sir boy, I’ll whip you from your foining [pontuda] fence;
Nay, as I am a gentleman, I will.”
“Content yourself. God knows I loved my niece;
And she is dead, slander’d to death by villains,
That dare as well answer a man indeed
As I dare take a serpent by the tongue:
Boys, apes, braggarts, Jacks, milksops!”
“Hold you content. What, man! I know them, yea,
And what they weigh, even to the utmost scruple,–
Scrambling, out-facing, fashion-monging boys,
That lie and cog and flout, deprave and slander,
Go anticly, show outward hideousness,
And speak off half a dozen dangerous words,
How they might hurt their enemies, if they durst;
And this is all.”
“DON PEDRO
Gentlemen both, we will not wake your patience.
My heart is sorry for your daughter’s death:
But, on my honour, she was charged with nothing
But what was true and very full of proof.
LEONATO
My lord, my lord,–
DON PEDRO
I will not hear you.”
“DON PEDRO
Leonato and his brother. What thinkest thou? Had
we fought, I doubt we should have been too young for them.
BENEDICK
In a false quarrel there is no true valour. I came
to seek you both.”
“DON PEDRO
As I am an honest man, he looks pale. Art thou
sick, or angry?
CLAUDIO
What, courage, man! What though care killed a cat,
thou hast mettle enough in thee to kill care.
BENEDICK
Sir, I shall meet your wit in the career, and you
charge it against me. I pray you choose another subject.”
“BENEDICK
Shall I speak a word in your ear?
CLAUDIO
God bless me from a challenge!
BENEDICK
[Aside to CLAUDIO] You are a villain; I jest not:
I will make it good how you dare, with what you
dare, and when you dare. Do me right, or I will
protest your cowardice. You have killed a sweet
lady, and her death shall fall heavy on you. Let me
hear from you.
CLAUDIO
Well, I will meet you, so I may have good cheer.
DON PEDRO
What, a feast, a feast?
CLAUDIO
I’ faith, I thank him; he hath bid me to a calf’s
head and a capon; the which if I do not carve most
curiously, say my knife’s naught. Shall I not find
a woodcock too?”
“DON PEDRO
But when shall we set the savage bull’s horns on
the sensible Benedick’s head?
CLAUDIO
Yea, and text underneath, ‘Here dwells Benedick the
married man’?”
“I must discontinue your company: your brother the bastard is fled from Messina: you have among you killed a sweet and innocent lady. For my Lord Lackbeard there, he and I shall meet: and, till then, peace be with him.
Exit”
“CLAUDIO
He is then a giant to an ape; but then is an ape a
doctor to such a man.”
“DON PEDRO
…Did he not say, my brother was fled?
Enter DOGBERRY, VERGES, and the Watch, with CONRADE and BORACHIO”
“DOGBERRY
Marry, sir, they have committed false report;
moreover, they have spoken untruths; secondarily,
they are slanders; sixth and lastly, they have
belied a lady; thirdly, they have verified unjust
things; and, to conclude, they are lying knaves.
DON PEDRO
First, I ask thee what they have done; thirdly, I
ask thee what’s their offence; sixth and lastly, why
they are committed; and, to conclude, what you lay
to their charge.”
“I have deceived even your very eyes: what your wisdoms could not discover, these shallow fools have brought to light: who in the night overheard me confessing to this man how Don John your brother incensed me to slander the Lady Hero, how you were brought into the orchard and saw me court Margaret in Hero’s garments, how you disgraced her, when you should marry her: my villany they have upon record; which I had rather seal with my death than repeat over to my shame. The lady is dead upon mine and my master’s false accusation; and, briefly, I desire nothing but the reward of a villain.”
“DON PEDRO
Runs not this speech like iron through your blood?
CLAUDIO
I have drunk poison whiles he utter’d it.
DON PEDRO
But did my brother set thee on to this?
BORACHIO
Yea, and paid me richly for the practise of it.”
“CLAUDIO
Sweet Hero! now thy image doth appear
In the rare semblance that I loved it first.
DOGBERRY
Come, bring away the plaintiffs: by this time our
sexton hath reformed Signior Leonato of the matter:
and, masters, do not forget to specify, when time
and place shall serve, that I am an ass.
VERGES
Here, here comes master Signior Leonato, and the
Sexton too.
Re-enter LEONATO and ANTONIO, with the Sexton”
“LEONATO
Art thou the slave that with thy breath hast kill’d
Mine innocent child?
BORACHIO
Yea, even I alone.”
“Yet I must speak. Choose your revenge yourself;
Impose me to what penance your invention
Can lay upon my sin: yet sinn’d I not
But in mistaking.”
“LEONATO
I cannot bid you bid my daughter live;
That were impossible: but, I pray you both,
Possess the people in Messina here
How innocent she died; and if your love
Can labour ought in sad invention,
Hang her an epitaph upon her tomb
And sing it to her bones, sing it to-night:
To-morrow morning come you to my house,
And since you could not be my son-in-law,
Be yet my nephew: my brother hath a daughter,
Almost the copy of my child that’s dead,
And she alone is heir to both of us:
Give her the right you should have given her cousin,
And so dies my revenge.”
“DOGBERRY
Moreover, sir, which indeed is not under white and
black, this plaintiff here, the offender, did call
me ass: I beseech you, let it be remembered in his
punishment. And also, the watch heard them talk of
one Deformed: they say he wears a key in his ear and
a lock hanging by it, and borrows money in God’s
name, the which he hath used so long and never paid
that now men grow hard-hearted and will lend nothing
for God’s sake: pray you, examine him upon that point.”
“LEONATO
[To the Watch] Bring you these fellows on. We’ll
talk with Margaret,
How her acquaintance grew with this lewd fellow.
Exeunt, severally”
ACT 5
SCENE II. LEONATO’S garden.
“BENEDICK
Pray thee, sweet Mistress Margaret, deserve well at
my hands by helping me to the speech of Beatrice.
MARGARET
Will you then write me a sonnet in praise of my beauty?
BENEDICK
In so high a style, Margaret, that no man living
shall come over it; for, in most comely truth, thou
deservest it.
MARGARET
To have no man come over me! why, shall I always
keep below stairs?
BENEDICK
Thy wit is as quick as the greyhound’s mouth; it catches.
MARGARET
And yours as blunt as the fencer’s foils, which hit,
but hurt not.
BENEDICK
A most manly wit, Margaret; it will not hurt a
woman: and so, I pray thee, call Beatrice: I give
thee the bucklers.
MARGARET
Give us the swords; we have bucklers of our own.
BENEDICK
If you use them, Margaret, you must put in the
pikes with a vice; and they are dangerous weapons for maids.”
“Sings
The god of love,
That sits above,
And knows me, and knows me,
How pitiful I deserve,–
I mean in singing; but in loving, Leander the good
swimmer, Troilus the first employer of panders, and
a whole bookful of these quondam carpet-mangers,
whose names yet run smoothly in the even road of a
blank verse, why, they were never so truly turned
over and over as my poor self in love. Marry, I
cannot show it in rhyme; I have tried: I can find
out no rhyme to ‘lady’ but ‘baby,’ an innocent
rhyme; for ‘scorn,’ ‘horn,’ a hard rhyme; for,
‘school,’ ‘fool,’ a babbling rhyme; very ominous
endings: no, I was not born under a rhyming planet,
nor I cannot woo in festival terms.
Enter BEATRICE”
“BENEDICK
O, stay but till then!
BEATRICE
‘Then’ is spoken; fare you well now: and yet, ere
I go, let me go with that I came; which is, with
knowing what hath passed between you and Claudio.
BENEDICK
Only foul words; and thereupon I will kiss thee.
BEATRICE
Foul words is but foul wind, and foul wind is but
foul breath, and foul breath is noisome; therefore I
will depart unkissed.
BENEDICK
Thou hast frighted the word out of his right sense,
so forcible is thy wit. But I must tell thee
plainly, Claudio undergoes my challenge; and either
I must shortly hear from him, or I will subscribe
him a coward. And, I pray thee now, tell me for
which of my bad parts didst thou first fall in love with me?
BEATRICE
For them all together; which maintained so politic
a state of evil that they will not admit any good
part to intermingle with them. But for which of my
good parts did you first suffer love for me?
BENEDICK
Suffer love! a good epithet! I do suffer love
indeed, for I love thee against my will.
BEATRICE
In spite of your heart, I think; alas, poor heart!
If you spite it for my sake, I will spite it for
yours; for I will never love that which my friend hates.
BENEDICK
Thou and I are too wise to woo peaceably.
BEATRICE
It appears not in this confession: there’s not one
wise man among 20 that will praise himself.”
“If a man do not erect in this age his own tomb ere he dies, he shall live no longer in monument than the bell rings and the widow weeps.”
“BEATRICE
And how long is that, think you?
BENEDICK
Question: why, an hour in clamour and a quarter in
rheum: therefore is it most expedient for the
wise, if Don Worm, his conscience, find no
impediment to the contrary, to be the trumpet of his
own virtues, as I am to myself. So much for
praising myself, who, I myself will bear witness, is
praiseworthy: and now tell me, how doth your cousin?
BEATRICE
Very ill.
BENEDICK
And how do you?
BEATRICE
Very ill too.”
“URSULA
Madam, you must come to your uncle. Yonder’s old
coil at home: it is proved my Lady Hero hath been
falsely accused, the prince and Claudio mightily
abused; and Don John is the author of all, who is
fed and gone. Will you come presently?
BEATRICE
Will you go hear this news, signior?
BENEDICK
I will live in thy heart, die in thy lap, and be
buried in thy eyes; and moreover I will go with
thee to thy uncle’s.
Exeunt”
ACT 5
SCENE III. A church.
“CLAUDIO
Now, unto thy bones good night!
Yearly will I do this rite.
ACT 5
SCENE IV. A room in LEONATO’S house. [final]
“Enter LEONATO, ANTONIO, BENEDICK, BEATRICE, MARGARET, URSULA, FRIAR FRANCIS, and HERO.”
“FRIAR FRANCIS
Did I not tell you she was innocent?
LEONATO
So are the prince and Claudio, who accused her
Upon the error that you heard debated:
But Margaret was in some fault for this,
Although against her will, as it appears
In the true course of all the question.
ANTONIO
Well, I am glad that all things sort so well.
BENEDICK
And so am I, being else by faith enforced
To call young Claudio to a reckoning for it.
LEONATO
Well, daughter, and you gentle-women all,
Withdraw into a chamber by yourselves,
And when I send for you, come hither mask’d.
Exeunt Ladies
The prince and Claudio promised by this hour
To visit me. You know your office, brother:
You must be father to your brother’s daughter
And give her to young Claudio.”
“BENEDICK
Friar, I must entreat your pains, I think.
FRIAR FRANCIS
To do what, signior?
BENEDICK
To bind me, or undo me; one of them.
Signior Leonato, truth it is, good signior,
Your niece regards me with an eye of favour.
LEONATO
That eye my daughter lent her: ‘tis most true.
BENEDICK
And I do with an eye of love requite her.
LEONATO
The sight whereof I think you had from me,
From Claudio and the prince: but what’s your will?
BENEDICK
Your answer, sir, is enigmatical:
But, for my will, my will is your good will
May stand with ours, this day to be conjoin’d
In the state of honourable marriage:
In which, good friar, I shall desire your help.”
“Enter DON PEDRO and CLAUDIO, and two or three others.”
“LEONATO
Good morrow, prince; good morrow, Claudio:
We here attend you. Are you yet determined
To-day to marry with my brother’s daughter?
CLAUDIO
I’ll hold my mind, were she an Ethiope.”
“DON PEDRO
Good morrow, Benedick. Why, what’s the matter,
That you have such a February face,
So full of frost, of storm and cloudiness?
CLAUDIO
I think he thinks upon the savage bull.
Tush, fear not, man; we’ll tip thy horns with gold
And all Europa shall rejoice at thee,
As once Europa did at lusty Jove,
When he would play the noble beast in love.
BENEDICK
Bull Jove, sir, had an amiable low;
And some such strange bull leap’d your father’s cow,
And got a calf in that same noble feat
Much like to you, for you have just his bleat.”
“CLAUDIO
…
Re-enter ANTONIO, with the Ladies masked
Which is the lady I must seize upon?
ANTONIO
This same is she, and I do give you her.
CLAUDIO
Why, then she’s mine. Sweet, let me see your face.
LEONATO
No, that you shall not, till you take her hand
Before this friar and swear to marry her.
CLAUDIO
Give me your hand: before this holy friar,
I am your husband, if you like of me.
HERO
And when I lived, I was your other wife:
Unmasking
And when you loved, you were my other husband.
CLAUDIO
Another Hero!
HERO
Nothing certainer:
One Hero died defiled, but I do live,
And surely as I live, I am a maid.”
“LEONATO
She died, my lord, but whiles her slander lived.
FRIAR FRANCIS
All this amazement can I qualify:
When after that the holy rites are ended,
I’ll tell you largely of fair Hero’s death:
Meantime let wonder seem familiar,
And to the chapel let us presently.
BENEDICK
Soft and fair, friar. Which is Beatrice?
BEATRICE
[Unmasking] I answer to that name. What is your will?
BENEDICK
Do not you love me?
BEATRICE
Why, no; no more than reason.
BENEDICK
Why, then your uncle and the prince and Claudio
Have been deceived; they swore you did.
BEATRICE
Do not you love me?
BENEDICK
Troth, no; no more than reason.
BEATRICE
Why, then my cousin Margaret and Ursula
Are much deceived; for they did swear you did.
BENEDICK
They swore that you were almost sick for me.
BEATRICE
They swore that you were well-nigh dead for me.
BENEDICK
‘Tis no such matter. Then you do not love me?
BEATRICE
No, truly, but in friendly recompense.
LEONATO
Come, cousin, I am sure you love the gentleman.
CLAUDIO
And I’ll be sworn upon’t that he loves her;
For here’s a paper written in his hand,
A halting sonnet of his own pure brain,
Fashion’d to Beatrice.
HERO
And here’s another
Writ in my cousin’s hand, stolen from her pocket,
Containing her affection unto Benedick.
BENEDICK
A miracle! here’s our own hands against our hearts.
Come, I will have thee; but, by this light, I take
thee for pity.
BEATRICE
I would not deny you; but, by this good day, I yield
upon great persuasion; and partly to save your life,
for I was told you were in a consumption.
BENEDICK
Peace! I will stop your mouth.
Kissing her
DON PEDRO
How dost thou, Benedick, the married man?
BENEDICK
I’ll tell thee what, prince; a college of
wit-crackers cannot flout me out of my humour. Dost
thou think I care for a satire or an epigram? No:
if a man will be beaten with brains, a’ shall wear
nothing handsome about him. In brief, since I do
purpose to marry, I will think nothing to any
purpose that the world can say against it; and
therefore never flout at me for what I have said
against it; for man is a giddy thing, and this is my
conclusion. For thy part, Claudio, I did think to
have beaten thee, but in that thou art like to be my
kinsman, live unbruised and love my cousin.
CLAUDIO
I had well hoped thou wouldst have denied Beatrice,
that I might have cudgelled thee out of thy single
life, to make thee a double-dealer; which, out of
question, thou wilt be, if my cousin do not look
exceedingly narrowly to thee.”
“BENEDICK
First, of my word; therefore play, music. Prince,
thou art sad; get thee a wife, get thee a wife:
there is no staff more reverend than one tipped with horn.
Enter a Messenger
Messenger
My lord, your brother John is ta’en in flight,
And brought with armed men back to Messina.
BENEDICK
Think not on him till to-morrow:
I’ll devise thee brave punishments for him.
Strike up, pipers.
Dance
Exeunt”
GLOSSÁRIO:
bleat: balido
buckler: escudo
capon: galo capado
codpiece: braguilha
ewe: ovelha fêmewa
foining: espetar; arma afiada
gaol: jail, gaiola
racemes: “An inflorescence having stalked flowers arranged singly along an elongated unbranched axis, with the flowers at the bottom opening first.” = CACHO, aproximadamente.
sea cole: “1. perennial of coastal sands and shingles of northern Europe and Baltic and Black Seas having racemes of small white flowers and large fleshy blue-green leaves often used as potherbs
Crambe maritima, sea kale
2. Crambe, genus Crambe – annual or perennial herbs with large leaves that resemble the leaves of cabbages
3. herb, herbaceous plant – a plant lacking a permanent woody stem; many are flowering garden plants or potherbs; some having medicinal properties; some are pests”
shingles: “An acute viral infection characterized by inflammation of the sensory ganglia of certain spinal or cranial nerves and the eruption of vesicles along the affected nerve path. It usually strikes only one side of the body and is often accompanied by severe neuralgia. Also called herpes zoster.”
tartly: amargo
trow: “A trow was a type of cargo boat found in the past on the rivers Severn and Wye in Great Britain and used to transport goods.” encyclopedia.thefreedictionary.com
Seclusão Anagógica 