BEATRICE.
Very ill.
BENEDICK.
And how do you?
BEATRICE.
Very ill too.
BENEDICK. Serve God, love me, and mend. There will I leave you too, for here comes one in haste.
[Enter URSULA.]
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 fled 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.]
Scene 3. The Inside of a Church.
[Enter DON PEDRO, CLAUDIO, and Attendants, with music and tapers,]
CLAUDIO.
Is this the monument of Leonato?
A LORD.
It is, my lord.
CLAUDIO.
[Reads from a scroll.]
Done to death by slanderous tongues
Was the Hero that here lies:
Death, in guerdon of her wrongs,
Gives her fame which never dies.
So the life that died with shame
Lives in death with glorious fame.
Hang thou there upon the tomb,
Praising her when I am dumb.
Now, music, sound, and sing your solemn hymn.
SONG.
Pardon, goddess of the night,
Those that slew thy virgin knight;
For the which, with songs of woe,
Round about her tomb they go.
Midnight, assist our moan;
Help us to sigh and groan,
Heavily, heavily:
Graves, yawn and yield your dead,
Till death be uttered,
Heavily, heavily.
CLAUDIO.
Now, unto thy bones good night!
Yearly will I do this rite.
DON PEDRO.
Good morrow, masters: put your torches out.
The wolves have prey’d; and look, the gentle day,
Before the wheels of Phoebus, round about
Dapples the drowsy east with spots of grey.
Thanks to you all, and leave us: fare you well.
CLAUDIO.
Good morrow, masters: each his several way.
DON PEDRO. Come, let us hence, and put on other weeds; And then to Leonato’s we will go.
CLAUDIO.
And Hymen now with luckier issue speed’s,
Than this for whom we rend’red up this woe!
[Exeunt.]
Scene 4. A Room in LEONATO’S House.
[Enter LEONATO, ANTONIO, BENEDICK, BEATRICE, MARGARET, URSULA,
FRIAR FRANCIS, and HERO.]
FRIAR.
Did I not tell you she was innocent?
LEONATO.
So are the prince and Claudio, who accus’d 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 enforc’d
To call young Claudio to a reckoning for it.
LEONATO.
Well, daughter, and you gentlewomen all,
Withdraw into a chamber by yourselves,
And when I send for you, come hither mask’d:
The prince and Claudio promis’d by this hour
To visit me.
[Exeunt Ladies.]
You know your office, brother;
You must be father to your brother’s daughter,
And give her to young Claudio.
ANTONIO.
Which I will do with confirm’d countenance.
BENEDICK.
Friar, I must entreat your pains, I think.
FRIAR.
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.
LEONATO.
My heart is with your liking.
FRIAR.
And my help. Here comes the prince and Claudio.
[Enter DON PEDRO and CLAUDIO, with Attendants.]
DON PEDRO.
Good morrow to this fair assembly.
LEONATO.
Good morrow, prince; good morrow, Claudio:
We here attend you. Are you yet determin’d
To-day to marry with my brother’s daughter?
CLAUDIO.
I’ll hold my mind, were she an Ethiope.
LEONATO.
Call her forth, brother: here’s the friar ready.
[Exit ANTONIO.]
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