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Pedro. See, fee, here comes the man we went to feek.
Claud. Now, fignior, what news?

Bene. Good day, my lord.

Pedro. Welcome, fignior; you are almost come to part almost a fray.

Claud. We had like to have had our two noses fnap'd off with two old men without teeth.

Pedro. Leonato and his brother: what think'st thou? had we fought, I doubt, we should have been too young for them. Bene. In a falfe quarrel there is no true valour : I came to feek you both.

Claud. We have been up and down to seek thee; for we are high proof melancholy, and would fain have it beaten away: wilt thou use thy wit?

Bene. It is in my fcabbard; fhall I draw it?

Pedro. Doft thou wear thy wit by thy fide?

Claud. Never any did fo, though very many have been befide their wit. I will bid thee draw, as we do the minstrels; draw to pleasure us.

Pedro. As I am an honest man, he looks pale: art thou fick, or angry?

Claud. What! courage, man! what though care kill'd a cat, thou haft mettle enough in thee to kill care.

Bene. Sir, I fhall meet your wit in the career, if you charge it against me. I pray you, choose another subject.

Claud.

Claud. Nay, then give him another staff; this last was broke crofs.

Pedro. By this light, he changes more and more: I think, he be angry indeed.

Claud. If he be, he knows how to turn his girdle.

Bene. Shall I fpeak a word in your ear?

Claud. God bless me from a challenge!

Bene. You are a villain; I jeft not. I will make it good how you dare, with what you dare, and when you dare. Do me right, or I will proteft your cowardice. You have kill'd a sweet lady, and her death fhall fall heavy on you. Let me hear from you.

Claud. Well, I will meet you, fo I may have good cheer. Pedro. What, a feast?

Claud. I' faith, I thank him, he hath bid me to a calves-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?

Bene. Sir, your wit ambles well, it goes cafily.

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Pedro. I'll tell thee how Beatrice prais'd thy wit the other day: I said, thou hadft a fine wit; right, fays fhe, a fine little one; no, said I, a great wit; juft, faid fhe, a great grofs one; nay, faid I, a good wit; juft, faid fhe, it hurts no body; nay, faid I, the gentleman is wife; certain, faid fhe, a wife gentleman; nay, said I, he hath the tongues; that I believe, faid the, for he swore a thing to me on monday night which he forswore on tuesday morning; there's a double tongue, there's two tongues. Thus did fhe, an hour together, transfhape thy particular virtues; yet, at laft, fhe concluded with a figh, thou waft the properest man in Italy.

Claud. For the which the wept heartily, and faid, fhe car'd not. Pedro. Yea, that she did; but yet for all that, an if she did not hate him deadly, she would love him dearly: the old man's daughter told us all.

Claud. All, all; and moreover, god faw him when he was hid in the garden.

Pedro. But when fhall we fet the falvage bull's horns on the fenfible Benedick's head?

Claud.

Claud. Yea, and text underneath, Here dwells Benedick the marry'd man.

Bene. Fare you well, boy; you know my mind; I will leave you now to your goffip-like humour; you break jefts as braggarts do their blades, which, god be thank'd, hurt not. My lord, for your many courtefies I thank you; I must discontinue your company; your brother the bastard is fled from Messina; you have, among you, killed a fweet and innocent lady. For my lord Lack-beard there, he and I fhall meet; and 'till then, peace be with him! [Exit Benedick.

Pedro. He is in earnest.

Claud. In most profound earnest; and, I'll warrant you, for

the love of Beatrice.

Pedro. And hath challeng'd thee?

Claud. Moft fincerely.

Pedro. What a pretty thing man is, when he goes in his doublet and hofe, and leaves off his wit!

Claud. He is then a giant to an ape; but then is an ape a doctor to fuch a man.

Pedro. But, foft you, let me fee, pluck up my heart, and be fad; did he not fay, my brother was fled?

SCENE IV.

Enter Dogberry, Verges, Conrade and Borachio guarded. Dogb. Come you, fir, if justice cannot tame you, she shall ne'er weigh more reasons in her balance; nay, if you be a curfing hypocrite once, you must be look'd to.

Pedro. How now, two of my brother's one!

's men bound? Borachio

Claud. Hearken after their offence, my lord. Pedro. Officers, what offence have these men done? Dogb. Marry, fir, they have committed false report; moreover, fixth they have spoken untruths; fecondarily, they are flanders ; and lastly, they have bely'd a lady; thirdly, they have verify'd unjust things; and, to conclude, they are lying knaves.

Pedro.

Pedro. First, I ask thee what they have done; thirdly, I ask thee what's their offence; fixth and laftly, why they are committed; and, to conclude, what you lay to their charge?

Claud. Rightly reason'd, and in his own divifion; and, by my troth, there's one meaning well fuited.

Pedro. Whom have you offended, masters, that you are thus bound to your answer? This learned constable is too cunning to be understood. What's your offence?

Bora. Sweet prince, let me go no further to mine answer; do you hear me, and let this count kill me: I have deceiv'd even your very eyes; what your wifdoms could not difcover, these fhallow fools have brought to light; who, in the night, over-heard me confeffing to this man, how don John your brother incens'd me to slander the lady Hero; how you were brought into the orchard, and faw me court Margaret in Hero's garments; how you disgrac'd her when you fhould marry her: my villany they have upon record, which I had rather feal with my death, than repeat over to my fhame; the lady is dead upon mine and my mafter's falfe accufation; and briefly, I defire nothing but the reward of a villain.

Pedro. Runs not this speech like iron through your blood? Claud. I have drunk poison while he utter'd it. Pedro. But did my brother set thee on to this? Bora. Yea, pay'd me richly for the practice of it.. Pedro. He is compos'd and fram'd of treachery; And fled he is upon this villany.

Claud. Sweet Hero! now thy image doth appear In the rare femblance that I lov'd it firft.

Dogb. Come, bring away the plaintiffs; by this time, our fexton hath reform'd fignior Leonato of the matter: and, masters, do not forget to specify, when time and place shall serve, that I am an afs.

Verg. Here, here comes mafter fignior Leonato, and the. fexton too.

SCENE.

SCENE V.

Enter Leonato, and Sexton.

Leon. Which is the villain? let me fee his eyes;

That when I note another man like him,

I

may

avoid him: which of these is he?

Bora. If you would know your wronger, look on me. Leon. Art thou, art thou the flave that with thy breath Haft kill'd mine innocent child?

Bora. Even I alone.

Leon. No, not so, villain, thou bely'st thyself; Here ftand a pair of honourable men,

A third is fled, that had a hand in it:

I thank you, princes, for my daughter's death;
Record it with your high and worthy deeds;
'Twas bravely done, you bethink you of it.

Claud. I know not how to pray your patience,
Yet I must speak: choose your revenge yourself,
Expose me to what penance your invention
Can lay upon my fin; yet finn'd I not,
But in miftaking.

Pedro. By my foul, nor I;

And yet, to fatisfy this good old man,
I would bend under any heavy weight

That he'll enjoin me to.

Leon. You cannot bid my daughter live again, That were impoffible; but, I pray you both,

Poffefs the people in Messina here

How innocent she dy'd; and, if your love
Can labour ought in fad invention,

Hang her an epitaph upon her tomb,

And fing it to her bones; fing it to-night:
To-morrow morning come you to my house;
And fince could not be
you

my

fon-in-law, .

Almoft

Be yet my nephew; my brother hath a daughter

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