{"id":36,"date":"2019-05-08T14:26:06","date_gmt":"2019-05-08T14:26:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.seethingbrains.com\/muchado2019\/?page_id=36"},"modified":"2021-03-15T19:24:36","modified_gmt":"2021-03-15T19:24:36","slug":"act-4-scene-1","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.seethingbrains.com\/muchado2019\/act-4-scene-1\/","title":{"rendered":"Act 4, Scene 1"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

A church.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n[Enter DON PEDRO, DON JOHN, LEONATO, FRIAR FRANCIS,] [p]CLAUDIO, BENEDICK, HERO, BEATRICE, and Attendants]\n\n\n\n

Leonato.\u00a0<\/strong>Come, Friar Francis, be brief; only to the plain\u00a0
form of marriage, and you shall recount their
particular duties afterwards.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Friar Francis. <\/strong>You come hither, my lord, to marry this lady.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Claudio. <\/strong>No.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Leonato. <\/strong>To be married to her: friar, you come to marry her.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Friar Francis.\u00a0<\/strong>Lady, you come hither to be married to this count.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hero. <\/strong>I do.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Friar Francis. <\/strong>If either of you know any inward impediment why you 
should not be conjoined, charge you, on your souls, 
to utter it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Claudio.\u00a0<\/strong>Know you any, Hero?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hero. <\/strong>None, my lord.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Friar Francis. <\/strong>Know you any, count?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Leonato. <\/strong>I dare make his answer, none.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Claudio.\u00a0<\/strong>O, what men dare do! what men may do! what men daily\u00a0
do, not knowing what they do!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Benedick. <\/strong>How now! interjections? Why, then, some be of 
laughing, as, ah, ha, he!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Claudio.\u00a0<\/strong>Stand thee by, friar. Father, by your leave:\u00a0
Will you with free and unconstrained soul\u00a0
Give me this maid, your daughter?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Leonato. <\/strong>As freely, son, as God did give her me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Claudio. <\/strong>And what have I to give you back, whose worth 
May counterpoise this rich and precious gift?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Don Pedro. <\/strong>Nothing, unless you render her again.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Claudio.\u00a0<\/strong>Sweet prince, you learn me noble thankfulness.
There, Leonato, take her back again:\u00a0
Give not this rotten orange to your friend;\u00a0
She’s but the sign and semblance of her honour.\u00a0
Behold how like a maid she blushes here!\u00a0
O, what authority and show of truth
Can cunning sin cover itself withal!\u00a0
Comes not that blood as modest evidence\u00a0
To witness simple virtue? Would you not swear,\u00a0
All you that see her, that she were a maid,\u00a0
By these exterior shows? But she is none:
She knows the heat of a luxurious bed;\u00a0
Her blush is guiltiness, not modesty.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Leonato. <\/strong>What do you mean, my lord?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Claudio.\u00a0<\/strong>Not to be married,\u00a0
Not to knit my soul to an approved wanton.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Leonato. <\/strong>Dear my lord, if you, in your own proof, 
Have vanquish’d the resistance of her youth, 
And made defeat of her virginity,\u2014<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Claudio.\u00a0<\/strong>I know what you would say: if I have known her,\u00a0
You will say she did embrace me as a husband,
And so extenuate the ‘forehand sin:\u00a0
No, Leonato,\u00a0
I never tempted her with word too large;\u00a0
But, as a brother to his sister, show’d\u00a0
Bashful sincerity and comely love.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hero. <\/strong>And seem’d I ever otherwise to you?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Claudio.\u00a0<\/strong>Out on thee! Seeming! I will write against it:\u00a0
You seem to me as Dian in her orb,\u00a0
As chaste as is the bud ere it be blown;\u00a0
But you are more intemperate in your blood
Than Venus, or those pamper’d animals\u00a0
That rage in savage sensuality.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hero. <\/strong>Is my lord well, that he doth speak so wide?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Leonato. <\/strong>Sweet prince, why speak not you?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Don Pedro. <\/strong>What should I speak? 1705<\/strong>
I stand dishonour’d, that have gone about 
To link my dear friend to a common stale.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Leonato. <\/strong>Are these things spoken, or do I but dream?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Don John. <\/strong>Sir, they are spoken, and these things are true.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Benedick.\u00a0<\/strong>This looks not like a nuptial.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hero. <\/strong>True! O God!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Claudio. <\/strong>Leonato, stand I here? 
Is this the prince? is this the prince’s brother? 
Is this face Hero’s? are our eyes our own?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Leonato.\u00a0<\/strong>All this is so: but what of this, my lord?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Claudio. <\/strong>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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Leonato. <\/strong>I charge thee do so, as thou art my child.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hero.\u00a0<\/strong>O, God defend me! how am I beset!
What kind of catechising call you this?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Claudio. <\/strong>To make you answer truly to your name.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hero. <\/strong>Is it not Hero? Who can blot that name 
With any just reproach?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Claudio.\u00a0<\/strong>Marry, that can Hero;
Hero itself can blot out Hero’s virtue.\u00a0
What man was he talk’d with you yesternight\u00a0
Out at your window betwixt twelve and one?\u00a0
Now, if you are a maid, answer to this.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hero.\u00a0<\/strong>I talk’d with no man at that hour, my lord.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Don Pedro.\u00a0<\/strong>Why, then are you no maiden. Leonato,\u00a0
I am sorry you must hear: upon mine honour,\u00a0
Myself, my brother and this grieved count\u00a0
Did see her, hear her, at that hour last night\u00a0
Talk with a ruffian at her chamber-window
Who hath indeed, most like a liberal villain,\u00a0
Confess’d the vile encounters they have had\u00a0
A thousand times in secret.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Don John.\u00a0<\/strong>Fie, fie! they are not to be named, my lord,\u00a0
Not to be spoke of;
There is not chastity enough in language\u00a0
Without offence to utter them. Thus, pretty lady,\u00a0
I am sorry for thy much misgovernment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Claudio.\u00a0<\/strong>O Hero, what a Hero hadst thou been,\u00a0
If half thy outward graces had been placed
About thy thoughts and counsels of thy heart!\u00a0
But fare thee well, most foul, most fair! farewell,\u00a0
Thou pure impiety and impious purity!\u00a0
For thee I’ll lock up all the gates of love,\u00a0
And on my eyelids shall conjecture hang,
To turn all beauty into thoughts of harm,\u00a0
And never shall it more be gracious.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Leonato. <\/strong>Hath no man’s dagger here a point for me?<\/p>\n\n\n\n[HERO swoons]\n\n\n\n

Beatrice.\u00a0<\/strong>Why, how now, cousin! wherefore sink you down?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Don John. <\/strong>Come, let us go. These things, come thus to light, 
Smother her spirits up.<\/p>\n\n\n\n[Exeunt DON PEDRO, DON JOHN, and CLAUDIO]\n\n\n\n

Benedick. <\/strong>How doth the lady?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Beatrice.\u00a0<\/strong>Dead, I think. Help, uncle!
Hero! why, Hero! Uncle! Signior Benedick! Friar!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Leonato. <\/strong>O Fate! take not away thy heavy hand. 
Death is the fairest cover for her shame 
That may be wish’d for.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Beatrice.\u00a0<\/strong>How now, cousin Hero!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Friar Francis. <\/strong>Have comfort, lady.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Leonato. <\/strong>Dost thou look up?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Friar Francis. <\/strong>Yea, wherefore should she not?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Leonato.\u00a0<\/strong>Wherefore! Why, doth not every earthly thing\u00a0
Cry shame upon her? Could she here deny
The story that is printed in her blood?\u00a0
Do not live, Hero; do not ope thine eyes:\u00a0
For, did I think thou wouldst not quickly die,\u00a0
Thought I thy spirits were stronger than thy shames,\u00a0
Myself would, on the rearward of reproaches,
Strike at thy life. Grieved I, I had but one?\u00a0
Chid I for that at frugal nature’s frame?\u00a0
O, one too much by thee! Why had I one?\u00a0
Why ever wast thou lovely in my eyes?\u00a0
Why had I not with charitable hand
Took up a beggar’s issue at my gates,\u00a0
Who smirch’d thus and mired with infamy,\u00a0
I might have said ‘No part of it is mine;\u00a0
This shame derives itself from unknown loins’?\u00a0
But mine and mine I loved and mine I praised
And mine that I was proud on, mine so much\u00a0
That I myself was to myself not mine,\u00a0
Valuing of her,\u2014why, she, O, she is fallen\u00a0
Into a pit of ink, that the wide sea\u00a0
Hath drops too few to wash her clean again
And salt too little which may season give\u00a0
To her foul-tainted flesh!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Benedick.\u00a0<\/strong>Sir, sir, be patient.\u00a0
For my part, I am so attired in wonder,\u00a0
I know not what to say.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Beatrice. <\/strong>O, on my soul, my cousin is belied!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Benedick. <\/strong>Lady, were you her bedfellow last night?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Beatrice. <\/strong>No, truly not; although, until last night, 
I have this twelvemonth been her bedfellow.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Leonato.\u00a0<\/strong>Confirm’d, confirm’d! O, that is stronger made
Which was before barr’d up with ribs of iron!\u00a0
Would the two princes lie, and Claudio lie,\u00a0
Who loved her so, that, speaking of her foulness,\u00a0
Wash’d it with tears? Hence from her! let her die.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Friar Francis.\u00a0<\/strong>Hear me a little; for I have only been
Silent so long and given way unto\u00a0
This course of fortune\u00a0[\u2014]<\/em>\u00a0
By noting of the lady I have mark’d\u00a0
A thousand blushing apparitions\u00a0
To start into her face, a thousand innocent shames
In angel whiteness beat away those blushes;\u00a0
And in her eye there hath appear’d a fire,\u00a0
To burn the errors that these princes hold\u00a0
Against her maiden truth. Call me a fool;\u00a0
Trust not my reading nor my observations,
Which with experimental seal doth warrant\u00a0
The tenor of my book; trust not my age,\u00a0
My reverence, calling, nor divinity,\u00a0
If this sweet lady lie not guiltless here\u00a0
Under some biting error.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Leonato.\u00a0<\/strong>Friar, it cannot be.\u00a0
Thou seest that all the grace that she hath left\u00a0
Is that she will not add to her damnation\u00a0
A sin of perjury; she not denies it:\u00a0
Why seek’st thou then to cover with excuse
That which appears in proper nakedness?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Friar Francis. <\/strong>Lady, what man is he you are accused of?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hero.\u00a0<\/strong>They know that do accuse me; I know none:\u00a0
If I know more of any man alive\u00a0
Than that which maiden modesty doth warrant,
Let all my sins lack mercy! O my father,\u00a0
Prove you that any man with me conversed\u00a0
At hours unmeet, or that I yesternight\u00a0
Maintain’d the change of words with any creature,\u00a0
Refuse me, hate me, torture me to death!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Friar Francis. <\/strong>There is some strange misprision in the princes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Benedick.\u00a0<\/strong>Two of them have the very bent of honour;\u00a0
And if their wisdoms be misled in this,\u00a0
The practise of it lives in John the bastard,\u00a0
Whose spirits toil in frame of villanies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Leonato.\u00a0<\/strong>I know not. If they speak but truth of her,\u00a0
These hands shall tear her; if they wrong her honour,\u00a0
The proudest of them shall well hear of it.\u00a0
Time hath not yet so dried this blood of mine,\u00a0
Nor age so eat up my invention,
Nor fortune made such havoc of my means,\u00a0
Nor my bad life reft me so much of friends,\u00a0
But they shall find, awaked in such a kind,\u00a0
Both strength of limb and policy of mind,\u00a0
Ability in means and choice of friends,
To quit me of them throughly.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Friar Francis.\u00a0<\/strong>Pause awhile,\u00a0
And let my counsel sway you in this case.\u00a0
Your daughter here the princes left for dead:\u00a0
Let her awhile be secretly kept in,
And publish it that she is dead indeed;\u00a0
Maintain a mourning ostentation\u00a0
And on your family’s old monument\u00a0
Hang mournful epitaphs and do all rites\u00a0
That appertain unto a burial.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Leonato. <\/strong>What shall become of this? what will this do?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Friar Francis.\u00a0<\/strong>Marry, this well carried shall on her behalf\u00a0
Change slander to remorse; that is some good:\u00a0
But not for that dream I on this strange course,\u00a0
But on this travail look for greater birth.
She dying, as it must so be maintain’d,\u00a0
Upon the instant that she was accused,\u00a0
Shall be lamented, pitied and excused\u00a0
Of every hearer: for it so falls out\u00a0
That what we have we prize not to the worth
Whiles we enjoy it, but being lack’d and lost,\u00a0
Why, then we rack the value, then we find\u00a0
The virtue that possession would not show us\u00a0
Whiles it was ours. So will it fare with Claudio:\u00a0
When he shall hear she died upon his words,
The idea of her life shall sweetly creep\u00a0
Into his study of imagination,\u00a0
And every lovely organ of her life\u00a0
Shall come apparell’d in more precious habit,\u00a0
More moving-delicate and full of life,
Into the eye and prospect of his soul,\u00a0
Than when she lived indeed; then shall he mourn,\u00a0
If ever love had interest in his liver,\u00a0
And wish he had not so accused her,\u00a0
No, though he thought his accusation true.
Let this be so, and doubt not but success\u00a0
Will fashion the event in better shape\u00a0
Than I can lay it down in likelihood.\u00a0
But if all aim but this be levell’d false,\u00a0
The supposition of the lady’s death
Will quench the wonder of her infamy:\u00a0
And if it sort not well, you may conceal her,\u00a0
As best befits her wounded reputation,\u00a0
In some reclusive and religious life,\u00a0
Out of all eyes, tongues, minds and injuries.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Benedick.\u00a0<\/strong>Signior Leonato, let the friar advise you:\u00a0
And though you know my inwardness and love\u00a0
Is very much unto the prince and Claudio,\u00a0
Yet, by mine honour, I will deal in this\u00a0
As secretly and justly as your soul
Should with your body.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Leonato. <\/strong>Being that I flow in grief, 
The smallest twine may lead me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Friar Francis.\u00a0<\/strong>‘Tis well consented: presently away;\u00a0
For to strange sores strangely they strain the cure.
Come, lady, die to live: this wedding-day\u00a0
Perhaps is but prolong’d: have patience and endure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n[Exeunt all but BENEDICK and BEATRICE]\n\n\n\n

Benedick. <\/strong>Lady Beatrice, have you wept all this while?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Beatrice.\u00a0<\/strong>Yea, and I will weep a while longer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Benedick. <\/strong>I will not desire that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Beatrice. <\/strong>You have no reason; I do it freely.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Benedick. <\/strong>Surely I do believe your fair cousin is wronged.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Beatrice. <\/strong>Ah, how much might the man deserve of me that would right her!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Benedick.\u00a0<\/strong>Is there any way to show such friendship?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Beatrice. <\/strong>A very even way, but no such friend.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Benedick. <\/strong>May a man do it?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Beatrice. <\/strong>It is a man’s office, but not yours.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Benedick.\u00a0<\/strong>I do love nothing in the world so well as you: is\u00a0
not that strange?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Beatrice. <\/strong>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.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Benedick.\u00a0<\/strong>By my sword, Beatrice, thou lovest me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Beatrice. <\/strong>Do not swear, and eat it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Benedick. <\/strong>I will swear by it that you love me; and I will make 
him eat it that says I love not you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Beatrice. <\/strong>Will you not eat your word?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Benedick.\u00a0<\/strong>With no sauce that can be devised to it. I protest
I love thee.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Beatrice. <\/strong>Why, then, God forgive me!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Benedick. <\/strong>What offence, sweet Beatrice?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Beatrice.\u00a0<\/strong>You have stayed me in a happy hour: I was about to\u00a0
protest I loved you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Benedick. <\/strong>And do it with all thy heart.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Beatrice. <\/strong>I love you with so much of my heart that none is 
left to protest.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Benedick. <\/strong>Come, bid me do any thing for thee.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Beatrice.\u00a0<\/strong>Kill Claudio.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Benedick. <\/strong>Ha! not for the wide world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Beatrice. <\/strong>You kill me to deny it. Farewell.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Benedick. <\/strong>Tarry, sweet Beatrice.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Beatrice.\u00a0<\/strong>I am gone, though I am here: there is no love in\u00a0
you: nay, I pray you, let me go.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Benedick. <\/strong>Beatrice,\u2014<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Beatrice. <\/strong>In faith, I will go.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Benedick. <\/strong>We’ll be friends first.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Beatrice. <\/strong>You dare easier be friends with me than fight with mine enemy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Benedick.\u00a0<\/strong>Is Claudio thine enemy?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Beatrice.\u00a0<\/strong>Is he not approved in the height a villain, that\u00a0
hath slandered, scorned, dishonoured my kinswoman? O\u00a0
that I were a man! What, bear her in hand until they\u00a0
come to take hands; and then, with public\u00a0
accusation, uncovered slander, unmitigated rancour,
\u2014O God, that I were a man! I would eat his heart\u00a0
in the market-place.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Benedick. <\/strong>Hear me, Beatrice,\u2014<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Beatrice. <\/strong>Talk with a man out at a window! A proper saying!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Benedick.\u00a0<\/strong>Nay, but, Beatrice,\u2014<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Beatrice. <\/strong>Sweet Hero! She is wronged, she is slandered, she is undone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Benedick. <\/strong>Beat\u2014<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Beatrice.\u00a0<\/strong>Princes and counties! Surely, a princely testimony,\u00a0
a goodly count, Count Comfect; a sweet gallant,\u00a0
surely! O that I were a man for his sake! or that I
had any friend would be a man for my sake! But\u00a0
manhood is melted into courtesies, valour into\u00a0
compliment, and men are only turned into tongue, and\u00a0
trim ones too: he is now as valiant as Hercules\u00a0
that only tells a lie and swears it. I cannot be a
man with wishing, therefore I will die a woman with grieving.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Benedick. <\/strong>Tarry, good Beatrice. By this hand, I love thee.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Beatrice. <\/strong>Use it for my love some other way than swearing by it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Benedick. <\/strong>Think you in your soul the Count Claudio hath wronged Hero?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Beatrice.\u00a0<\/strong>Yea, as sure as I have a thought or a soul.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Benedick.\u00a0<\/strong>Enough, I am engaged; I will challenge him. I will\u00a0
kiss your hand, and so I leave you. By this hand,\u00a0
Claudio shall render me a dear account. As you\u00a0
hear of me, so think of me. Go, comfort your\u00a0
cousin: I must say she is dead: and so, farewell.<\/p>\n\n\n\n[Exeunt]\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A church. [Enter DON PEDRO, DON JOHN, LEONATO, FRIAR FRANCIS,] [p]CLAUDIO, BENEDICK, HERO, BEATRICE, and Attendants] Leonato.\u00a0Come, Friar Francis, be brief; only to the plain\u00a0form of marriage, and you shall recount theirparticular 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 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-36","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/PaXq7d-A","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.seethingbrains.com\/muchado2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/36","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.seethingbrains.com\/muchado2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.seethingbrains.com\/muchado2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.seethingbrains.com\/muchado2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.seethingbrains.com\/muchado2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=36"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.seethingbrains.com\/muchado2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/36\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":76,"href":"https:\/\/www.seethingbrains.com\/muchado2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/36\/revisions\/76"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.seethingbrains.com\/muchado2019\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=36"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}