 62407 Scene IV.
 62408 The French camp.
 62409 
 62410 Enter, with Drum and Colours, Cordelia, Doctor, and Soldiers.
 62411 
 62412   Cor. Alack, 'tis he! Why, he was met even now
 62413      As mad as the vex'd sea, singing aloud,
 62414      Crown'd with rank fumiter and furrow weeds,
 62415      With hardocks, hemlock, nettles, cuckoo flow'rs,
 62416      Darnel, and all the idle weeds that grow
 62417      In our sustaining corn. A century send forth.
 62418      Search every acre in the high-grown field
 62419      And bring him to our eye. [Exit an Officer.] What can man's
 62420         wisdom
 62421      In the restoring his bereaved sense?
 62422      He that helps him take all my outward worth.
 62423   Doct. There is means, madam.
 62424      Our foster nurse of nature is repose,
 62425      The which he lacks. That to provoke in him
 62426      Are many simples operative, whose power
 62427      Will close the eye of anguish.
 62428   Cor. All blest secrets,
 62429      All you unpublish'd virtues of the earth,
 62430      Spring with my tears! be aidant and remediate
 62431      In the good man's distress! Seek, seek for him!
 62432      Lest his ungovern'd rage dissolve the life
 62433      That wants the means to lead it.
 62434 
 62435                            Enter Messenger.
 62436 
 62437   Mess. News, madam.
 62438      The British pow'rs are marching hitherward.
 62439   Cor. 'Tis known before. Our preparation stands
 62440      In expectation of them. O dear father,
 62441      It is thy business that I go about.
 62442      Therefore great France
 62443      My mourning and important tears hath pitied.
 62444      No blown ambition doth our arms incite,
 62445      But love, dear love, and our ag'd father's right.
 62446      Soon may I hear and see him!
 62447                                                          Exeunt.
 62448 
 62449 
 62450 
 62451 
 62452 Scene V.
 62453 Gloucester's Castle.
 62454 
 62455 Enter Regan and [Oswald the] Steward.
 62456 
 62457   Reg. But are my brother's pow'rs set forth?
 62458   Osw. Ay, madam.
 62459   Reg. Himself in person there?
 62460   Osw. Madam, with much ado.
 62461      Your sister is the better soldier.
 62462   Reg. Lord Edmund spake not with your lord at home?
 62463   Osw. No, madam.
 62464   Reg. What might import my sister's letter to him?
 62465   Osw. I know not, lady.
 62466   Reg. Faith, he is posted hence on serious matter.
 62467      It was great ignorance, Gloucester's eyes being out,
 62468      To let him live. Where he arrives he moves
 62469      All hearts against us. Edmund, I think, is gone,
 62470      In pity of his misery, to dispatch
 62471      His nighted life; moreover, to descry
 62472      The strength o' th' enemy.
 62473   Osw. I must needs after him, madam, with my letter.
 62474   Reg. Our troops set forth to-morrow. Stay with us.
 62475      The ways are dangerous.
 62476   Osw. I may not, madam.
 62477      My lady charg'd my duty in this business.
 62478   Reg. Why should she write to Edmund? Might not you
 62479      Transport her purposes by word? Belike,
 62480      Something- I know not what- I'll love thee much-
 62481      Let me unseal the letter.
 62482   Osw. Madam, I had rather-
 62483   Reg. I know your lady does not love her husband;
 62484      I am sure of that; and at her late being here
 62485      She gave strange eliads and most speaking looks
 62486      To noble Edmund. I know you are of her bosom.
 62487   Osw. I, madam?
 62488   Reg. I speak in understanding. Y'are! I know't.
 62489      Therefore I do advise you take this note.
 62490      My lord is dead; Edmund and I have talk'd,
 62491      And more convenient is he for my hand
 62492      Than for your lady's. You may gather more.
 62493      If you do find him, pray you give him this;
 62494      And when your mistress hears thus much from you,
 62495      I pray desire her call her wisdom to her.
 62496      So farewell.
 62497      If you do chance to hear of that blind traitor,
 62498      Preferment falls on him that cuts him off.
 62499   Osw. Would I could meet him, madam! I should show
 62500      What party I do follow.
 62501   Reg. Fare thee well.                                   Exeunt.
 62502 
 62503 
 62504 
 62505 
 62506 Scene VI.
 62507 The country near Dover.
 62508 
 62509 Enter Gloucester, and Edgar [like a Peasant].
 62510 
 62511   Glou. When shall I come to th' top of that same hill?
 62512   Edg. You do climb up it now. Look how we labour.
 62513   Glou. Methinks the ground is even.
 62514   Edg. Horrible steep.
 62515      Hark, do you hear the sea?
 62516   Glou. No, truly.
 62517   Edg. Why, then, your other senses grow imperfect
 62518      By your eyes' anguish.
 62519   Glou. So may it be indeed.
 62520      Methinks thy voice is alter'd, and thou speak'st
 62521      In better phrase and matter than thou didst.
 62522   Edg. Y'are much deceiv'd. In nothing am I chang'd
 62523      But in my garments.
 62524   Glou. Methinks y'are better spoken.
 62525   Edg. Come on, sir; here's the place. Stand still. How fearful
 62526      And dizzy 'tis to cast one's eyes so low!
 62527      The crows and choughs that wing the midway air
 62528      Show scarce so gross as beetles. Halfway down
 62529      Hangs one that gathers sampire- dreadful trade!
 62530      Methinks he seems no bigger than his head.
 62531      The fishermen that walk upon the beach
 62532      Appear like mice; and yond tall anchoring bark,
 62533      Diminish'd to her cock; her cock, a buoy
 62534      Almost too small for sight. The murmuring surge
 62535      That on th' unnumb'red idle pebble chafes
 62536      Cannot be heard so high. I'll look no more,
 62537      Lest my brain turn, and the deficient sight
 62538      Topple down headlong.
 62539   Glou. Set me where you stand.
 62540   Edg. Give me your hand. You are now within a foot
 62541      Of th' extreme verge. For all beneath the moon
 62542      Would I not leap upright.
 62543   Glou. Let go my hand.
 62544      Here, friend, is another purse; in it a jewel
 62545      Well worth a poor man's taking. Fairies and gods
 62546      Prosper it with thee! Go thou further off;
 62547      Bid me farewell, and let me hear thee going.
 62548   Edg. Now fare ye well, good sir.
 62549   Glou. With all my heart.
 62550   Edg. [aside]. Why I do trifle thus with his despair
 62551      Is done to cure it.
 62552   Glou. O you mighty gods!                            He kneels.
 62553      This world I do renounce, and, in your sights,
 62554      Shake patiently my great affliction off.
 62555      If I could bear it longer and not fall
 62556      To quarrel with your great opposeless wills,
 62557      My snuff and loathed part of nature should
 62558      Burn itself out. If Edgar live, O, bless him!
 62559      Now, fellow, fare thee well.
 62560                                   He falls [forward and swoons].
 62561   Edg. Gone, sir, farewell.-
 62562      And yet I know not how conceit may rob
 62563      The treasury of life when life itself
 62564      Yields to the theft. Had he been where he thought,
 62565      By this had thought been past.- Alive or dead?
 62566      Ho you, sir! friend! Hear you, sir? Speak!-
 62567      Thus might he pass indeed. Yet he revives.
 62568      What are you, sir?
 62569   Glou. Away, and let me die.
 62570   Edg. Hadst thou been aught but gossamer, feathers, air,
 62571      So many fadom down precipitating,
 62572      Thou'dst shiver'd like an egg; but thou dost breathe;
 62573      Hast heavy substance; bleed'st not; speak'st; art sound.
 62574      Ten masts at each make not the altitude
 62575      Which thou hast perpendicularly fell.
 62576      Thy life is a miracle. Speak yet again.
 62577   Glou. But have I fall'n, or no?
 62578   Edg. From the dread summit of this chalky bourn.
 62579      Look up a-height. The shrill-gorg'd lark so far
 62580      Cannot be seen or heard. Do but look up.
 62581   Glou. Alack, I have no eyes!
 62582      Is wretchedness depriv'd that benefit
 62583      To end itself by death? 'Twas yet some comfort
 62584      When misery could beguile the tyrant's rage
 62585      And frustrate his proud will.
 62586   Edg. Give me your arm.
 62587      Up- so. How is't? Feel you your legs? You stand.
 62588   Glou. Too well, too well.
 62589   Edg. This is above all strangeness.
 62590      Upon the crown o' th' cliff what thing was that
 62591      Which parted from you?
 62592   Glou. A poor unfortunate beggar.
 62593   Edg. As I stood here below, methought his eyes
 62594      Were two full moons; he had a thousand noses,
 62595      Horns whelk'd and wav'd like the enridged sea.
 62596      It was some fiend. Therefore, thou happy father,
 62597      Think that the clearest gods, who make them honours
 62598      Of men's impossibility, have preserv'd thee.
 62599   Glou. I do remember now. Henceforth I'll bear
 62600      Affliction till it do cry out itself
 62601      'Enough, enough,' and die. That thing you speak of,
 62602      I took it for a man. Often 'twould say
 62603      'The fiend, the fiend'- he led me to that place.
 62604   Edg. Bear free and patient thoughts.
 62605 
 62606          Enter Lear, mad, [fantastically dressed with weeds].
 62607 
 62608      But who comes here?
 62609      The safer sense will ne'er accommodate
 62610      His master thus.
 62611   Lear. No, they cannot touch me for coming;
 62612      I am the King himself.
 62613   Edg. O thou side-piercing sight!
 62614   Lear. Nature 's above art in that respect. There's your press
 62615      money. That fellow handles his bow like a crow-keeper. Draw me
 62616      a clothier's yard. Look, look, a mouse! Peace, peace; this piece
 62617      of toasted cheese will do't. There's my gauntlet; I'll prove it
 62618      on a giant. Bring up the brown bills. O, well flown, bird! i'
 62619      th' clout, i' th' clout! Hewgh! Give the word.
 62620   Edg. Sweet marjoram.
 62621   Lear. Pass.
 62622   Glou. I know that voice.
 62623   Lear. Ha! Goneril with a white beard? They flatter'd me like a dog,
 62624      and told me I had white hairs in my beard ere the black ones
 62625      were there. To say 'ay' and 'no' to everything I said! 'Ay' and
 62626      'no' too was no good divinity. When the rain came to wet me
 62627      once, and the wind to make me chatter; when the thunder would
 62628      not peace at my bidding; there I found 'em, there I smelt 'em
 62629      out. Go to, they are not men o' their words! They told me I was
 62630      everything. 'Tis a lie- I am not ague-proof.
 62631   Glou. The trick of that voice I do well remember.
 62632      Is't not the King?
 62633   Lear. Ay, every inch a king!
 62634      When I do stare, see how the subject quakes.
 62635      I pardon that man's life. What was thy cause?
 62636      Adultery?
 62637      Thou shalt not die. Die for adultery? No.
 62638      The wren goes to't, and the small gilded fly
 62639      Does lecher in my sight.
 62640      Let copulation thrive; for Gloucester's bastard son
 62641      Was kinder to his father than my daughters
 62642      Got 'tween the lawful sheets.
 62643      To't, luxury, pell-mell! for I lack soldiers.
 62644      Behold yond simp'ring dame,
 62645      Whose face between her forks presageth snow,
 62646      That minces virtue, and does shake the head
 62647      To hear of pleasure's name.
 62648      The fitchew nor the soiled horse goes to't
 62649      With a more riotous appetite.
 62650      Down from the waist they are Centaurs,
 62651      Though women all above.
 62652      But to the girdle do the gods inherit,
 62653      Beneath is all the fiend's.
 62654      There's hell, there's darkness, there's the sulphurous pit;
 62655      burning, scalding, stench, consumption. Fie, fie, fie! pah, pah!
 62656      Give me an ounce of civet, good apothecary, to sweeten my
 62657      imagination. There's money for thee.
 62658   Glou. O, let me kiss that hand!
 62659   Lear. Let me wipe it first; it smells of mortality.
 62660   Glou. O ruin'd piece of nature! This great world
 62661      Shall so wear out to naught. Dost thou know me?
 62662   Lear. I remember thine eyes well enough. Dost thou squiny at me?
 62663      No, do thy worst, blind Cupid! I'll not love. Read thou this
 62664      challenge; mark but the penning of it.
 62665   Glou. Were all the letters suns, I could not see one.
 62666   Edg. [aside] I would not take this from report. It is,
 62667      And my heart breaks at it.
 62668   Lear. Read.
 62669   Glou. What, with the case of eyes?
 62670   Lear. O, ho, are you there with me? No eyes in your head, nor no
 62671      money in your purse? Your eyes are in a heavy case, your purse
 62672      in a light. Yet you see how this world goes.
 62673   Glou. I see it feelingly.
 62674   Lear. What, art mad? A man may see how the world goes with no eyes.
 62675      Look with thine ears. See how yond justice rails upon yond
 62676      simple thief. Hark in thine ear. Change places and, handy-dandy,
 62677      which is the justice, which is the thief? Thou hast seen a
 62678      farmer's dog bark at a beggar?
 62679   Glou. Ay, sir.
 62680   Lear. And the creature run from the cur? There thou mightst behold
 62681      the great image of authority: a dog's obeyed in office.
 62682      Thou rascal beadle, hold thy bloody hand!
 62683      Why dost thou lash that whore? Strip thine own back.
 62684      Thou hotly lusts to use her in that kind
 62685      For which thou whip'st her. The usurer hangs the cozener.
 62686      Through tatter'd clothes small vices do appear;
 62687      Robes and furr'd gowns hide all. Plate sin with gold,
 62688      And the strong lance of justice hurtless breaks;
 62689      Arm it in rags, a pygmy's straw does pierce it.
 62690      None does offend, none- I say none! I'll able 'em.
 62691      Take that of me, my friend, who have the power
 62692      To seal th' accuser's lips. Get thee glass eyes
 62693      And, like a scurvy politician, seem
 62694      To see the things thou dost not. Now, now, now, now!
 62695      Pull off my boots. Harder, harder! So.
 62696   Edg. O, matter and impertinency mix'd!
 62697      Reason, in madness!
 62698   Lear. If thou wilt weep my fortunes, take my eyes.
 62699      I know thee well enough; thy name is Gloucester.
 62700      Thou must be patient. We came crying hither;
 62701      Thou know'st, the first time that we smell the air
 62702      We wawl and cry. I will preach to thee. Mark.
 62703   Glou. Alack, alack the day!
 62704   Lear. When we are born, we cry that we are come
 62705      To this great stage of fools. This' a good block.
 62706      It were a delicate stratagem to shoe
 62707      A troop of horse with felt. I'll put't in proof,
 62708      And when I have stol'n upon these sons-in-law,
 62709      Then kill, kill, kill, kill, kill, kill!
 62710 
 62711                  Enter a Gentleman [with Attendants].
 62712 
 62713   Gent. O, here he is! Lay hand upon him.- Sir,
 62714      Your most dear daughter-
 62715   Lear. No rescue? What, a prisoner? I am even
 62716      The natural fool of fortune. Use me well;
 62717      You shall have ransom. Let me have a surgeon;
 62718      I am cut to th' brains.
 62719   Gent. You shall have anything.
 62720   Lear. No seconds? All myself?
 62721      Why, this would make a man a man of salt,
 62722      To use his eyes for garden waterpots,
 62723      Ay, and laying autumn's dust.
 62724   Gent. Good sir-
 62725   Lear. I will die bravely, like a smug bridegroom. What!
 62726      I will be jovial. Come, come, I am a king;
 62727      My masters, know you that?
 62728   Gent. You are a royal one, and we obey you.
 62729   Lear. Then there's life in't. Nay, an you get it, you shall get it
 62730      by running. Sa, sa, sa, sa!
 62731                               Exit running. [Attendants follow.]
 62732   Gent. A sight most pitiful in the meanest wretch,
 62733      Past speaking of in a king! Thou hast one daughter
 62734      Who redeems nature from the general curse
 62735      Which twain have brought her to.
 62736   Edg. Hail, gentle sir.
 62737   Gent. Sir, speed you. What's your will?
 62738   Edg. Do you hear aught, sir, of a battle toward?
 62739   Gent. Most sure and vulgar. Every one hears that
 62740      Which can distinguish sound.
 62741   Edg. But, by your favour,
 62742      How near's the other army?
 62743   Gent. Near and on speedy foot. The main descry
 62744      Stands on the hourly thought.
 62745   Edg. I thank you sir. That's all.
 62746   Gent. Though that the Queen on special cause is here,
 62747      Her army is mov'd on.
 62748   Edg. I thank you, sir
 62749                                                Exit [Gentleman].
 62750   Glou. You ever-gentle gods, take my breath from me;
 62751      Let not my worser spirit tempt me again
 62752      To die before you please!
 62753   Edg. Well pray you, father.
 62754   Glou. Now, good sir, what are you?
 62755   Edg. A most poor man, made tame to fortune's blows,
 62756      Who, by the art of known and feeling sorrows,
 62757      Am pregnant to good pity. Give me your hand;
 62758      I'll lead you to some biding.
 62759   Glou. Hearty thanks.
 62760      The bounty and the benison of heaven
 62761      To boot, and boot!
 62762 
 62763                      Enter [Oswald the] Steward.
 62764 
 62765   Osw. A proclaim'd prize! Most happy!
 62766      That eyeless head of thine was first fram'd flesh
 62767      To raise my fortunes. Thou old unhappy traitor,
 62768      Briefly thyself remember. The sword is out
 62769      That must destroy thee.
 62770   Glou. Now let thy friendly hand
 62771      Put strength enough to't.
 62772                                              [Edgar interposes.]
 62773   Osw. Wherefore, bold peasant,
 62774      Dar'st thou support a publish'd traitor? Hence!
 62775      Lest that th' infection of his fortune take
 62776      Like hold on thee. Let go his arm.
 62777   Edg. Chill not let go, zir, without vurther 'cagion.
 62778   Osw. Let go, slave, or thou diest!
 62779   Edg. Good gentleman, go your gait, and let poor voke pass. An chud
 62780      ha' bin zwagger'd out of my life, 'twould not ha' bin zo long as
 62781      'tis by a vortnight. Nay, come not near th' old man. Keep out,
 62782      che vore ye, or Ise try whether your costard or my ballow be the
 62783      harder. Chill be plain with you.
 62784   Osw. Out, dunghill!
 62785                                                      They fight.
 62786   Edg. Chill pick your teeth, zir. Come! No matter vor your foins.
 62787                                                  [Oswald falls.]
 62788   Osw. Slave, thou hast slain me. Villain, take my purse.
 62789      If ever thou wilt thrive, bury my body,
 62790      And give the letters which thou find'st about me
 62791      To Edmund Earl of Gloucester. Seek him out
 62792      Upon the British party. O, untimely death! Death!
 62793                                                         He dies.
 62794   Edg. I know thee well. A serviceable villain,
 62795      As duteous to the vices of thy mistress
 62796      As badness would desire.
 62797   Glou. What, is he dead?
 62798   Edg. Sit you down, father; rest you.
 62799      Let's see his pockets; these letters that he speaks of
 62800      May be my friends. He's dead. I am only sorry
 62801      He had no other deathsman. Let us see.
 62802      Leave, gentle wax; and, manners, blame us not.
 62803      To know our enemies' minds, we'ld rip their hearts;
 62804      Their papers, is more lawful.             Reads the letter.
 62805 
 62806        'Let our reciprocal vows be rememb'red. You have many
 62807      opportunities to cut him off. If your will want not, time and
 62808      place will be fruitfully offer'd. There is nothing done, if he
 62809      return the conqueror. Then am I the prisoner, and his bed my
 62810      jail; from the loathed warmth whereof deliver me, and supply the
 62811      place for your labour.
 62812            'Your (wife, so I would say) affectionate servant,
 62813                                                           'Goneril.'
 62814 
 62815      O indistinguish'd space of woman's will!
 62816      A plot upon her virtuous husband's life,
 62817      And the exchange my brother! Here in the sands
 62818      Thee I'll rake up, the post unsanctified
 62819      Of murtherous lechers; and in the mature time
 62820      With this ungracious paper strike the sight
 62821      Of the death-practis'd Duke, For him 'tis well
 62822      That of thy death and business I can tell.
 62823   Glou. The King is mad. How stiff is my vile sense,
 62824      That I stand up, and have ingenious feeling
 62825      Of my huge sorrows! Better I were distract.
 62826      So should my thoughts be sever'd from my griefs,
 62827      And woes by wrong imaginations lose
 62828      The knowledge of themselves.
 62829                                                 A drum afar off.
 62830   Edg. Give me your hand.
 62831      Far off methinks I hear the beaten drum.
 62832      Come, father, I'll bestow you with a friend.        Exeunt.
 62833 
 62834 
 62835 
 62836 
 62837 Scene VII.
 62838 A tent in the French camp.
 62839 
 62840 Enter Cordelia, Kent, Doctor, and Gentleman.
 62841 
 62842   Cor. O thou good Kent, how shall I live and work
 62843      To match thy goodness? My life will be too short
 62844      And every measure fail me.
 62845   Kent. To be acknowledg'd, madam, is o'erpaid.
 62846      All my reports go with the modest truth;
 62847      Nor more nor clipp'd, but so.
 62848   Cor. Be better suited.
 62849      These weeds are memories of those worser hours.
 62850      I prithee put them off.
 62851   Kent. Pardon, dear madam.
 62852      Yet to be known shortens my made intent.
 62853      My boon I make it that you know me not
 62854      Till time and I think meet.
 62855   Cor. Then be't so, my good lord. [To the Doctor] How, does the King?
 62856   Doct. Madam, sleeps still.
 62857   Cor. O you kind gods,
 62858      Cure this great breach in his abused nature!
 62859      Th' untun'd and jarring senses, O, wind up
 62860      Of this child-changed father!
 62861   Doct. So please your Majesty
 62862      That we may wake the King? He hath slept long.
 62863   Cor. Be govern'd by your knowledge, and proceed
 62864      I' th' sway of your own will. Is he array'd?
 62865 
 62866               Enter Lear in a chair carried by Servants.
 62867 
 62868   Gent. Ay, madam. In the heaviness of sleep
 62869      We put fresh garments on him.
 62870   Doct. Be by, good madam, when we do awake him.
 62871      I doubt not of his temperance.
 62872   Cor. Very well.
 62873                                                           Music.
 62874   Doct. Please you draw near. Louder the music there!
 62875   Cor. O my dear father, restoration hang
 62876      Thy medicine on my lips, and let this kiss
 62877      Repair those violent harms that my two sisters
 62878      Have in thy reverence made!
 62879   Kent. Kind and dear princess!
 62880   Cor. Had you not been their father, these white flakes
 62881      Had challeng'd pity of them. Was this a face
 62882      To be oppos'd against the warring winds?
 62883      To stand against the deep dread-bolted thunder?
 62884      In the most terrible and nimble stroke
 62885      Of quick cross lightning? to watch- poor perdu!-
 62886      With this thin helm? Mine enemy's dog,
 62887      Though he had bit me, should have stood that night
 62888      Against my fire; and wast thou fain, poor father,
 62889      To hovel thee with swine and rogues forlorn,
 62890      In short and musty straw? Alack, alack!
 62891      'Tis wonder that thy life and wits at once
 62892      Had not concluded all.- He wakes. Speak to him.
 62893   Doct. Madam, do you; 'tis fittest.
 62894   Cor. How does my royal lord? How fares your Majesty?
 62895   Lear. You do me wrong to take me out o' th' grave.
 62896      Thou art a soul in bliss; but I am bound
 62897      Upon a wheel of fire, that mine own tears
 62898      Do scald like molten lead.
 62899   Cor. Sir, do you know me?
 62900   Lear. You are a spirit, I know. When did you die?
 62901   Cor. Still, still, far wide!
 62902   Doct. He's scarce awake. Let him alone awhile.
 62903   Lear. Where have I been? Where am I? Fair daylight,
 62904      I am mightily abus'd. I should e'en die with pity,
 62905      To see another thus. I know not what to say.
 62906      I will not swear these are my hands. Let's see.
 62907      I feel this pin prick. Would I were assur'd
 62908      Of my condition!
 62909   Cor. O, look upon me, sir,
 62910      And hold your hands in benediction o'er me.
 62911      No, sir, you must not kneel.
 62912   Lear. Pray, do not mock me.
 62913      I am a very foolish fond old man,
 62914      Fourscore and upward, not an hour more nor less;
 62915      And, to deal plainly,
 62916      I fear I am not in my perfect mind.
 62917      Methinks I should know you, and know this man;
 62918      Yet I am doubtful; for I am mainly ignorant
 62919      What place this is; and all the skill I have
 62920      Remembers not these garments; nor I know not
 62921      Where I did lodge last night. Do not laugh at me;
 62922      For (as I am a man) I think this lady
 62923      To be my child Cordelia.
 62924   Cor. And so I am! I am!
 62925   Lear. Be your tears wet? Yes, faith. I pray weep not.
 62926      If you have poison for me, I will drink it.
 62927      I know you do not love me; for your sisters
 62928      Have, as I do remember, done me wrong.
 62929      You have some cause, they have not.
 62930   Cor. No cause, no cause.
 62931   Lear. Am I in France?
 62932   Kent. In your own kingdom, sir.
 62933   Lear. Do not abuse me.
 62934   Doct. Be comforted, good madam. The great rage
 62935      You see is kill'd in him; and yet it is danger
 62936      To make him even o'er the time he has lost.
 62937      Desire him to go in. Trouble him no more
 62938      Till further settling.
 62939   Cor. Will't please your Highness walk?
 62940   Lear. You must bear with me.
 62941      Pray you now, forget and forgive. I am old and foolish.
 62942                               Exeunt. Manent Kent and Gentleman.
 62943   Gent. Holds it true, sir, that the Duke of Cornwall was so slain?
 62944   Kent. Most certain, sir.
 62945   Gent. Who is conductor of his people?
 62946   Kent. As 'tis said, the bastard son of Gloucester.
 62947   Gent. They say Edgar, his banish'd son, is with the Earl of Kent
 62948      in Germany.
 62949   Kent. Report is changeable. 'Tis time to look about; the powers of
 62950      the kingdom approach apace.
 62951   Gent. The arbitrement is like to be bloody.
 62952      Fare you well, sir.                                 [Exit.]
 62953   Kent. My point and period will be throughly wrought,
 62954      Or well or ill, as this day's battle's fought.        Exit.
 62955 
 62956 
 62957 
 62958 
 62959 <<THIS ELECTRONIC VERSION OF THE COMPLETE WORKS OF WILLIAM
 62960 SHAKESPEARE IS COPYRIGHT 1990-1993 BY WORLD LIBRARY, INC., AND IS
 62961 PROVIDED BY PROJECT GUTENBERG ETEXT OF ILLINOIS BENEDICTINE COLLEGE
 62962 WITH PERMISSION.  ELECTRONIC AND MACHINE READABLE COPIES MAY BE
 62963 DISTRIBUTED SO LONG AS SUCH COPIES (1) ARE FOR YOUR OR OTHERS
 62964 PERSONAL USE ONLY, AND (2) ARE NOT DISTRIBUTED OR USED
 62965 COMMERCIALLY.  PROHIBITED COMMERCIAL DISTRIBUTION INCLUDES BY ANY
 62966 SERVICE THAT CHARGES FOR DOWNLOAD TIME OR FOR MEMBERSHIP.>>
 62967 
 62968 
 62969 
 62970 ACT V. Scene I.
 62971 The British camp near Dover.
 62972 
 62973 Enter, with Drum and Colours, Edmund, Regan, Gentleman, and Soldiers.
 62974 
 62975   Edm. Know of the Duke if his last purpose hold,
 62976      Or whether since he is advis'd by aught
 62977      To change the course. He's full of alteration
 62978      And self-reproving. Bring his constant pleasure.
 62979                                               [Exit an Officer.]
 62980   Reg. Our sister's man is certainly miscarried.
 62981   Edm. Tis to be doubted, madam.
 62982   Reg. Now, sweet lord,
 62983      You know the goodness I intend upon you.
 62984      Tell me- but truly- but then speak the truth-
 62985      Do you not love my sister?
 62986   Edm. In honour'd love.
 62987   Reg. But have you never found my brother's way
 62988      To the forfended place?
 62989   Edm. That thought abuses you.
 62990   Reg. I am doubtful that you have been conjunct
 62991      And bosom'd with her, as far as we call hers.
 62992   Edm. No, by mine honour, madam.
 62993   Reg. I never shall endure her. Dear my lord,
 62994      Be not familiar with her.
 62995   Edm. Fear me not.
 62996      She and the Duke her husband!
 62997 
 62998        Enter, with Drum and Colours, Albany, Goneril, Soldiers.
 62999 
 63000   Gon. [aside] I had rather lose the battle than that sister
 63001      Should loosen him and me.
 63002   Alb. Our very loving sister, well bemet.
 63003      Sir, this I hear: the King is come to his daughter,
 63004      With others whom the rigour of our state
 63005      Forc'd to cry out. Where I could not be honest,
 63006      I never yet was valiant. For this business,
 63007      It toucheth us as France invades our land,
 63008      Not bolds the King, with others whom, I fear,
 63009      Most just and heavy causes make oppose.
 63010   Edm. Sir, you speak nobly.
 63011   Reg. Why is this reason'd?
 63012   Gon. Combine together 'gainst the enemy;
 63013      For these domestic and particular broils
 63014      Are not the question here.
 63015   Alb. Let's then determine
 63016      With th' ancient of war on our proceeding.
 63017   Edm. I shall attend you presently at your tent.
 63018   Reg. Sister, you'll go with us?
 63019   Gon. No.
 63020   Reg. 'Tis most convenient. Pray you go with us.
 63021   Gon. [aside] O, ho, I know the riddle.- I will go.
 63022 
 63023           [As they are going out,] enter Edgar [disguised].
 63024 
 63025   Edg. If e'er your Grace had speech with man so poor,
 63026      Hear me one word.
 63027   Alb. I'll overtake you.- Speak.
 63028                               Exeunt [all but Albany and Edgar].
 63029   Edg. Before you fight the battle, ope this letter.
 63030      If you have victory, let the trumpet sound
 63031      For him that brought it. Wretched though I seem,
 63032      I can produce a champion that will prove
 63033      What is avouched there. If you miscarry,
 63034      Your business of the world hath so an end,
 63035      And machination ceases. Fortune love you!
 63036   Alb. Stay till I have read the letter.
 63037   Edg. I was forbid it.
 63038      When time shall serve, let but the herald cry,
 63039      And I'll appear again.
 63040   Alb. Why, fare thee well. I will o'erlook thy paper.
 63041                                                    Exit [Edgar].
 63042 
 63043                             Enter Edmund.
 63044 
 63045   Edm. The enemy 's in view; draw up your powers.
 63046      Here is the guess of their true strength and forces
 63047      By diligent discovery; but your haste
 63048      Is now urg'd on you.
 63049   Alb. We will greet the time.                             Exit.
 63050   Edm. To both these sisters have I sworn my love;
 63051      Each jealous of the other, as the stung
 63052      Are of the adder. Which of them shall I take?
 63053      Both? one? or neither? Neither can be enjoy'd,
 63054      If both remain alive. To take the widow
 63055      Exasperates, makes mad her sister Goneril;
 63056      And hardly shall I carry out my side,
 63057      Her husband being alive. Now then, we'll use
 63058      His countenance for the battle, which being done,
 63059      Let her who would be rid of him devise
 63060      His speedy taking off. As for the mercy
 63061      Which he intends to Lear and to Cordelia-
 63062      The battle done, and they within our power,
 63063      Shall never see his pardon; for my state
 63064      Stands on me to defend, not to debate.                Exit.
 63065 
 63066 
 63067 
 63068 
 63069 Scene II.
 63070 A field between the two camps.
 63071 
 63072 Alarum within. Enter, with Drum and Colours, the Powers of France
 63073 over the stage, Cordelia with her Father in her hand, and exeunt.
 63074 
 63075 Enter Edgar and Gloucester.
 63076 
 63077   Edg. Here, father, take the shadow of this tree
 63078      For your good host. Pray that the right may thrive.
 63079      If ever I return to you again,
 63080      I'll bring you comfort.
 63081   Glou. Grace go with you, sir!
 63082                                                    Exit [Edgar].
 63083 
 63084                Alarum and retreat within. Enter Edgar,
 63085 
 63086   Edg. Away, old man! give me thy hand! away!
 63087      King Lear hath lost, he and his daughter ta'en.
 63088      Give me thy hand! come on!
 63089   Glou. No further, sir. A man may rot even here.
 63090   Edg. What, in ill thoughts again? Men must endure
 63091      Their going hence, even as their coming hither;
 63092      Ripeness is all. Come on.
 63093   Glou. And that's true too.                             Exeunt.
 63094 
 63095 
 63096 
 63097 
 63098 Scene III.
 63099 The British camp, near Dover.
 63100 
 63101 Enter, in conquest, with Drum and Colours, Edmund; Lear and Cordelia
 63102 as prisoners; Soldiers, Captain.
 63103 
 63104   Edm. Some officers take them away. Good guard
 63105      Until their greater pleasures first be known
 63106      That are to censure them.
 63107   Cor. We are not the first
 63108      Who with best meaning have incurr'd the worst.
 63109      For thee, oppressed king, am I cast down;
 63110      Myself could else outfrown false Fortune's frown.
 63111      Shall we not see these daughters and these sisters?
 63112   Lear. No, no, no, no! Come, let's away to prison.
 63113      We two alone will sing like birds i' th' cage.
 63114      When thou dost ask me blessing, I'll kneel down
 63115      And ask of thee forgiveness. So we'll live,
 63116      And pray, and sing, and tell old tales, and laugh
 63117      At gilded butterflies, and hear poor rogues
 63118      Talk of court news; and we'll talk with them too-
 63119      Who loses and who wins; who's in, who's out-
 63120      And take upon 's the mystery of things,
 63121      As if we were God's spies; and we'll wear out,
 63122      In a wall'd prison, packs and sects of great ones
 63123      That ebb and flow by th' moon.
 63124   Edm. Take them away.
 63125   Lear. Upon such sacrifices, my Cordelia,
 63126      The gods themselves throw incense. Have I caught thee?
 63127      He that parts us shall bring a brand from heaven
 63128      And fire us hence like foxes. Wipe thine eyes.
 63129      The goodyears shall devour 'em, flesh and fell,
 63130      Ere they shall make us weep! We'll see 'em starv'd first.
 63131      Come.                  Exeunt [Lear and Cordelia, guarded].
 63132   Edm. Come hither, Captain; hark.
 63133      Take thou this note [gives a paper]. Go follow them to prison.
 63134      One step I have advanc'd thee. If thou dost
 63135      As this instructs thee, thou dost make thy way
 63136      To noble fortunes. Know thou this, that men
 63137      Are as the time is. To be tender-minded
 63138      Does not become a sword. Thy great employment
 63139      Will not bear question. Either say thou'lt do't,
 63140      Or thrive by other means.
 63141   Capt. I'll do't, my lord.
 63142   Edm. About it! and write happy when th' hast done.
 63143      Mark- I say, instantly; and carry it so
 63144      As I have set it down.
 63145   Capt. I cannot draw a cart, nor eat dried oats;
 63146      If it be man's work, I'll do't.                       Exit.
 63147 
 63148           Flourish. Enter Albany, Goneril, Regan, Soldiers.
 63149 
 63150   Alb. Sir, you have show'd to-day your valiant strain,
 63151      And fortune led you well. You have the captives
 63152      Who were the opposites of this day's strife.
 63153      We do require them of you, so to use them
 63154      As we shall find their merits and our safety
 63155      May equally determine.
 63156   Edm. Sir, I thought it fit
 63157      To send the old and miserable King
 63158      To some retention and appointed guard;
 63159      Whose age has charms in it, whose title more,
 63160      To pluck the common bosom on his side
 63161      And turn our impress'd lances in our eyes
 63162      Which do command them. With him I sent the Queen,
 63163      My reason all the same; and they are ready
 63164      To-morrow, or at further space, t' appear
 63165      Where you shall hold your session. At this time
 63166      We sweat and bleed: the friend hath lost his friend;
 63167      And the best quarrels, in the heat, are curs'd
 63168      By those that feel their sharpness.
 63169      The question of Cordelia and her father
 63170      Requires a fitter place.
 63171   Alb. Sir, by your patience,
 63172      I hold you but a subject of this war,
 63173      Not as a brother.
 63174   Reg. That's as we list to grace him.
 63175      Methinks our pleasure might have been demanded
 63176      Ere you had spoke so far. He led our powers,
 63177      Bore the commission of my place and person,
 63178      The which immediacy may well stand up
 63179      And call itself your brother.
 63180   Gon. Not so hot!
 63181      In his own grace he doth exalt himself
 63182      More than in your addition.
 63183   Reg. In my rights
 63184      By me invested, he compeers the best.
 63185   Gon. That were the most if he should husband you.
 63186   Reg. Jesters do oft prove prophets.
 63187   Gon. Holla, holla!
 63188      That eye that told you so look'd but asquint.
 63189   Reg. Lady, I am not well; else I should answer
 63190      From a full-flowing stomach. General,
 63191      Take thou my soldiers, prisoners, patrimony;
 63192      Dispose of them, of me; the walls are thine.
 63193      Witness the world that I create thee here
 63194      My lord and master.
 63195   Gon. Mean you to enjoy him?
 63196   Alb. The let-alone lies not in your good will.
 63197   Edm. Nor in thine, lord.
 63198   Alb. Half-blooded fellow, yes.
 63199   Reg. [to Edmund] Let the drum strike, and prove my title thine.
 63200   Alb. Stay yet; hear reason. Edmund, I arrest thee
 63201      On capital treason; and, in thine attaint,
 63202      This gilded serpent [points to Goneril]. For your claim, fair
 63203         sister,
 63204      I bar it in the interest of my wife.
 63205      'Tis she is subcontracted to this lord,
 63206      And I, her husband, contradict your banes.
 63207      If you will marry, make your loves to me;
 63208      My lady is bespoke.
 63209   Gon. An interlude!
 63210   Alb. Thou art arm'd, Gloucester. Let the trumpet sound.
 63211      If none appear to prove upon thy person
 63212      Thy heinous, manifest, and many treasons,
 63213      There is my pledge [throws down a glove]! I'll prove it on thy
 63214         heart,
 63215      Ere I taste bread, thou art in nothing less
 63216      Than I have here proclaim'd thee.
 63217   Reg. Sick, O, sick!
 63218   Gon. [aside] If not, I'll ne'er trust medicine.
 63219   Edm. There's my exchange [throws down a glove]. What in the world
 63220         he is
 63221      That names me traitor, villain-like he lies.
 63222      Call by thy trumpet. He that dares approach,
 63223      On him, on you, who not? I will maintain
 63224      My truth and honour firmly.
 63225   Alb. A herald, ho!
 63226   Edm. A herald, ho, a herald!
 63227   Alb. Trust to thy single virtue; for thy soldiers,
 63228      All levied in my name, have in my name
 63229      Took their discharge.
 63230   Reg. My sickness grows upon me.
 63231   Alb. She is not well. Convey her to my tent.
 63232                                               [Exit Regan, led.]
 63233 
 63234                            Enter a Herald.
 63235 
 63236      Come hither, herald. Let the trumpet sound,
 63237      And read out this.
 63238   Capt. Sound, trumpet!                        A trumpet sounds.
 63239 
 63240   Her. (reads) 'If any man of quality or degree within the lists of
 63241      the army will maintain upon Edmund, supposed Earl of Gloucester,
 63242      that he is a manifold traitor, let him appear by the third sound
 63243      of the trumpet. He is bold in his defence.'
 63244 
 63245   Edm. Sound!                                     First trumpet.
 63246   Her. Again!                                    Second trumpet.
 63247   Her. Again!                                     Third trumpet.
 63248                                          Trumpet answers within.
 63249 
 63250     Enter Edgar, armed, at the third sound, a Trumpet before him.
 63251 
 63252   Alb. Ask him his purposes, why he appears
 63253      Upon this call o' th' trumpet.
 63254   Her. What are you?
 63255      Your name, your quality? and why you answer
 63256      This present summons?
 63257   Edg. Know my name is lost;
 63258      By treason's tooth bare-gnawn and canker-bit.
 63259      Yet am I noble as the adversary
 63260      I come to cope.
 63261   Alb. Which is that adversary?
 63262   Edg. What's he that speaks for Edmund Earl of Gloucester?
 63263   Edm. Himself. What say'st thou to him?
 63264   Edg. Draw thy sword,
 63265      That, if my speech offend a noble heart,
 63266      Thy arm may do thee justice. Here is mine.
 63267      Behold, it is the privilege of mine honours,
 63268      My oath, and my profession. I protest-
 63269      Maugre thy strength, youth, place, and eminence,
 63270      Despite thy victor sword and fire-new fortune,
 63271      Thy valour and thy heart- thou art a traitor;
 63272      False to thy gods, thy brother, and thy father;
 63273      Conspirant 'gainst this high illustrious prince;
 63274      And from th' extremest upward of thy head
 63275      To the descent and dust beneath thy foot,
 63276      A most toad-spotted traitor. Say thou 'no,'
 63277      This sword, this arm, and my best spirits are bent
 63278      To prove upon thy heart, whereto I speak,
 63279      Thou liest.
 63280   Edm. In wisdom I should ask thy name;
 63281      But since thy outside looks so fair and warlike,
 63282      And that thy tongue some say of breeding breathes,
 63283      What safe and nicely I might well delay
 63284      By rule of knighthood, I disdain and spurn.
 63285      Back do I toss those treasons to thy head;
 63286      With the hell-hated lie o'erwhelm thy heart;
 63287      Which- for they yet glance by and scarcely bruise-
 63288      This sword of mine shall give them instant way
 63289      Where they shall rest for ever. Trumpets, speak!
 63290                                  Alarums. Fight. [Edmund falls.]
 63291   Alb. Save him, save him!
 63292   Gon. This is mere practice, Gloucester.
 63293      By th' law of arms thou wast not bound to answer
 63294      An unknown opposite. Thou art not vanquish'd,
 63295      But cozen'd and beguil'd.
 63296   Alb. Shut your mouth, dame,
 63297      Or with this paper shall I stop it. [Shows her her letter to
 63298      Edmund.]- [To Edmund]. Hold, sir.
 63299      [To Goneril] Thou worse than any name, read thine own evil.
 63300      No tearing, lady! I perceive you know it.
 63301   Gon. Say if I do- the laws are mine, not thine.
 63302      Who can arraign me for't?
 63303   Alb. Most monstrous!
 63304      Know'st thou this paper?
 63305   Gon. Ask me not what I know.                             Exit.
 63306   Alb. Go after her. She's desperate; govern her.
 63307                                               [Exit an Officer.]
 63308   Edm. What, you have charg'd me with, that have I done,
 63309      And more, much more. The time will bring it out.
 63310      'Tis past, and so am I.- But what art thou
 63311      That hast this fortune on me? If thou'rt noble,
 63312      I do forgive thee.
 63313   Edg. Let's exchange charity.
 63314      I am no less in blood than thou art, Edmund;
 63315      If more, the more th' hast wrong'd me.
 63316      My name is Edgar and thy father's son.
 63317      The gods are just, and of our pleasant vices
 63318      Make instruments to scourge us.
 63319      The dark and vicious place where thee he got
 63320      Cost him his eyes.
 63321   Edm. Th' hast spoken right; 'tis true.
 63322      The wheel is come full circle; I am here.
 63323   Alb. Methought thy very gait did prophesy
 63324      A royal nobleness. I must embrace thee.
 63325      Let sorrow split my heart if ever I
 63326      Did hate thee, or thy father!
 63327   Edg. Worthy prince, I know't.
 63328   Alb. Where have you hid yourself?
 63329      How have you known the miseries of your father?
 63330   Edg. By nursing them, my lord. List a brief tale;
 63331      And when 'tis told, O that my heart would burst!
 63332      The bloody proclamation to escape
 63333      That follow'd me so near (O, our lives' sweetness!
 63334      That with the pain of death would hourly die
 63335      Rather than die at once!) taught me to shift
 63336      Into a madman's rags, t' assume a semblance
 63337      That very dogs disdain'd; and in this habit
 63338      Met I my father with his bleeding rings,
 63339      Their precious stones new lost; became his guide,
 63340      Led him, begg'd for him, sav'd him from despair;
 63341      Never (O fault!) reveal'd myself unto him
 63342      Until some half hour past, when I was arm'd,
 63343      Not sure, though hoping of this good success,
 63344      I ask'd his blessing, and from first to last
 63345      Told him my pilgrimage. But his flaw'd heart
 63346      (Alack, too weak the conflict to support!)
 63347      'Twixt two extremes of passion, joy and grief,
 63348      Burst smilingly.
 63349   Edm. This speech of yours hath mov'd me,
 63350      And shall perchance do good; but speak you on;
 63351      You look as you had something more to say.
 63352   Alb. If there be more, more woful, hold it in;
 63353      For I am almost ready to dissolve,
 63354      Hearing of this.
 63355   Edg. This would have seem'd a period
 63356      To such as love not sorrow; but another,
 63357      To amplify too much, would make much more,
 63358      And top extremity.
 63359      Whilst I was big in clamour, came there a man,
 63360      Who, having seen me in my worst estate,
 63361      Shunn'd my abhorr'd society; but then, finding
 63362      Who 'twas that so endur'd, with his strong arms
 63363      He fastened on my neck, and bellowed out
 63364      As he'd burst heaven; threw him on my father;
 63365      Told the most piteous tale of Lear and him
 63366      That ever ear receiv'd; which in recounting
 63367      His grief grew puissant, and the strings of life
 63368      Began to crack. Twice then the trumpets sounded,
 63369      And there I left him tranc'd.
 63370   Alb. But who was this?
 63371   Edg. Kent, sir, the banish'd Kent; who in disguise
 63372      Followed his enemy king and did him service
 63373      Improper for a slave.
 63374 
 63375                 Enter a Gentleman with a bloody knife.
 63376 
 63377   Gent. Help, help! O, help!
 63378   Edg. What kind of help?
 63379   Alb. Speak, man.
 63380   Edg. What means that bloody knife?
 63381   Gent. 'Tis hot, it smokes.
 63382      It came even from the heart of- O! she's dead!
 63383   Alb. Who dead? Speak, man.
 63384   Gent. Your lady, sir, your lady! and her sister
 63385      By her is poisoned; she hath confess'd it.
 63386   Edm. I was contracted to them both. All three
 63387      Now marry in an instant.
 63388 
 63389                              Enter Kent.
 63390 
 63391   Edg. Here comes Kent.
 63392   Alb. Produce their bodies, be they alive or dead.
 63393                                                [Exit Gentleman.]
 63394      This judgement of the heavens, that makes us tremble
 63395      Touches us not with pity. O, is this he?
 63396      The time will not allow the compliment
 63397      That very manners urges.
 63398   Kent. I am come
 63399      To bid my king and master aye good night.
 63400      Is he not here?
 63401   Alb. Great thing of us forgot!
 63402      Speak, Edmund, where's the King? and where's Cordelia?
 63403                  The bodies of Goneril and Regan are brought in.
 63404      Seest thou this object, Kent?
 63405   Kent. Alack, why thus?
 63406   Edm. Yet Edmund was belov'd.
 63407      The one the other poisoned for my sake,
 63408      And after slew herself.
 63409   Alb. Even so. Cover their faces.
 63410   Edm. I pant for life. Some good I mean to do,
 63411      Despite of mine own nature. Quickly send
 63412      (Be brief in't) to the castle; for my writ
 63413      Is on the life of Lear and on Cordelia.
 63414      Nay, send in time.
 63415   Alb. Run, run, O, run!
 63416   Edg. To who, my lord? Who has the office? Send
 63417      Thy token of reprieve.
 63418   Edm. Well thought on. Take my sword;
 63419      Give it the Captain.
 63420   Alb. Haste thee for thy life.                    [Exit Edgar.]
 63421   Edm. He hath commission from thy wife and me
 63422      To hang Cordelia in the prison and
 63423      To lay the blame upon her own despair
 63424      That she fordid herself.
 63425   Alb. The gods defend her! Bear him hence awhile.
 63426                                           [Edmund is borne off.]
 63427 
 63428     Enter Lear, with Cordelia [dead] in his arms, [Edgar, Captain,
 63429                         and others following].
 63430 
 63431   Lear. Howl, howl, howl, howl! O, you are men of stone.
 63432      Had I your tongues and eyes, I'ld use them so
 63433      That heaven's vault should crack. She's gone for ever!
 63434      I know when one is dead, and when one lives.
 63435      She's dead as earth. Lend me a looking glass.
 63436      If that her breath will mist or stain the stone,
 63437      Why, then she lives.
 63438   Kent. Is this the promis'd end?
 63439   Edg. Or image of that horror?
 63440   Alb. Fall and cease!
 63441   Lear. This feather stirs; she lives! If it be so,
 63442      It is a chance which does redeem all sorrows
 63443      That ever I have felt.
 63444   Kent. O my good master!
 63445   Lear. Prithee away!
 63446   Edg. 'Tis noble Kent, your friend.
 63447   Lear. A plague upon you, murderers, traitors all!
 63448      I might have sav'd her; now she's gone for ever!
 63449      Cordelia, Cordelia! stay a little. Ha!
 63450      What is't thou say'st, Her voice was ever soft,
 63451      Gentle, and low- an excellent thing in woman.
 63452      I kill'd the slave that was a-hanging thee.
 63453   Capt. 'Tis true, my lords, he did.
 63454   Lear. Did I not, fellow?
 63455      I have seen the day, with my good biting falchion
 63456      I would have made them skip. I am old now,
 63457      And these same crosses spoil me. Who are you?
 63458      Mine eyes are not o' th' best. I'll tell you straight.
 63459   Kent. If fortune brag of two she lov'd and hated,
 63460      One of them we behold.
 63461   Lear. This' a dull sight. Are you not Kent?
 63462   Kent. The same-
 63463      Your servant Kent. Where is your servant Caius?
 63464   Lear. He's a good fellow, I can tell you that.
 63465      He'll strike, and quickly too. He's dead and rotten.
 63466   Kent. No, my good lord; I am the very man-
 63467   Lear. I'll see that straight.
 63468   Kent. That from your first of difference and decay
 63469      Have followed your sad steps.
 63470   Lear. You're welcome hither.
 63471   Kent. Nor no man else! All's cheerless, dark, and deadly.
 63472      Your eldest daughters have fordone themselves,
 63473      And desperately are dead.
 63474   Lear. Ay, so I think.
 63475   Alb. He knows not what he says; and vain is it
 63476      That we present us to him.
 63477   Edg. Very bootless.
 63478 
 63479                            Enter a Captain.
 63480 
 63481   Capt. Edmund is dead, my lord.
 63482   Alb. That's but a trifle here.
 63483      You lords and noble friends, know our intent.
 63484      What comfort to this great decay may come
 63485      Shall be applied. For us, we will resign,
 63486      During the life of this old Majesty,
 63487      To him our absolute power; [to Edgar and Kent] you to your
 63488         rights;
 63489      With boot, and Such addition as your honours
 63490      Have more than merited.- All friends shall taste
 63491      The wages of their virtue, and all foes
 63492      The cup of their deservings.- O, see, see!
 63493   Lear. And my poor fool is hang'd! No, no, no life!
 63494      Why should a dog, a horse, a rat, have life,
 63495      And thou no breath at all? Thou'lt come no more,
 63496      Never, never, never, never, never!
 63497      Pray you undo this button. Thank you, sir.
 63498      Do you see this? Look on her! look! her lips!
 63499      Look there, look there!                            He dies.
 63500   Edg. He faints! My lord, my lord!
 63501   Kent. Break, heart; I prithee break!
 63502   Edg. Look up, my lord.
 63503   Kent. Vex not his ghost. O, let him pass! He hates him
 63504      That would upon the rack of this tough world
 63505      Stretch him out longer.
 63506   Edg. He is gone indeed.
 63507   Kent. The wonder is, he hath endur'd so long.
 63508      He but usurp'd his life.
 63509   Alb. Bear them from hence. Our present business
 63510      Is general woe. [To Kent and Edgar] Friends of my soul, you
 63511         twain
 63512      Rule in this realm, and the gor'd state sustain.
 63513   Kent. I have a journey, sir, shortly to go.
 63514      My master calls me; I must not say no.
 63515   Alb. The weight of this sad time we must obey,
 63516      Speak what we feel, not what we ought to say.
 63517      The oldest have borne most; we that are young
 63518      Shall never see so much, nor live so long.
 63519                                        Exeunt with a dead march.
 63520 
 63521 
 63522 THE END
 63523 
 63524 
 63525 
 63526 <<THIS ELECTRONIC VERSION OF THE COMPLETE WORKS OF WILLIAM
 63527 SHAKESPEARE IS COPYRIGHT 1990-1993 BY WORLD LIBRARY, INC., AND IS
 63528 PROVIDED BY PROJECT GUTENBERG ETEXT OF ILLINOIS BENEDICTINE COLLEGE
 63529 WITH PERMISSION.  ELECTRONIC AND MACHINE READABLE COPIES MAY BE
 63530 DISTRIBUTED SO LONG AS SUCH COPIES (1) ARE FOR YOUR OR OTHERS
 63531 PERSONAL USE ONLY, AND (2) ARE NOT DISTRIBUTED OR USED
 63532 COMMERCIALLY.  PROHIBITED COMMERCIAL DISTRIBUTION INCLUDES BY ANY
 63533 SERVICE THAT CHARGES FOR DOWNLOAD TIME OR FOR MEMBERSHIP.>>
 63534 
 63535 
 63536 
 63537 
 63538 
 63539 
 63540 1595
 63541 
 63542 LOVE'S LABOUR'S LOST
 63543 
 63544 by William Shakespeare
 63545 
 63546 
 63547 
 63548 Dramatis Personae.
 63549 
 63550   FERDINAND, King of Navarre
 63551   BEROWNE,    lord attending on the King
 63552   LONGAVILLE,  "      "      "   "   "
 63553   DUMAIN,      "      "      "   "   "
 63554   BOYET,   lord attending on the Princess of France
 63555   MARCADE,   "     "       "  "     "      "    "
 63556   DON ADRIANO DE ARMADO, fantastical Spaniard
 63557   SIR NATHANIEL, a curate
 63558   HOLOFERNES, a schoolmaster
 63559   DULL, a constable
 63560   COSTARD, a clown
 63561   MOTH, page to Armado
 63562   A FORESTER
 63563 
 63564   THE PRINCESS OF FRANCE
 63565   ROSALINE, lady attending on the Princess
 63566   MARIA,      "     "       "  "     "
 63567   KATHARINE, lady attending on the Princess
 63568   JAQUENETTA, a country wench
 63569 
 63570   Lords, Attendants, etc.
 63571 
 63572 
 63573 
 63574 
 63575 <<THIS ELECTRONIC VERSION OF THE COMPLETE WORKS OF WILLIAM
 63576 SHAKESPEARE IS COPYRIGHT 1990-1993 BY WORLD LIBRARY, INC., AND IS
 63577 PROVIDED BY PROJECT GUTENBERG ETEXT OF ILLINOIS BENEDICTINE COLLEGE
 63578 WITH PERMISSION.  ELECTRONIC AND MACHINE READABLE COPIES MAY BE
 63579 DISTRIBUTED SO LONG AS SUCH COPIES (1) ARE FOR YOUR OR OTHERS
 63580 PERSONAL USE ONLY, AND (2) ARE NOT DISTRIBUTED OR USED
 63581 COMMERCIALLY.  PROHIBITED COMMERCIAL DISTRIBUTION INCLUDES BY ANY
 63582 SERVICE THAT CHARGES FOR DOWNLOAD TIME OR FOR MEMBERSHIP.>>
 63583 
 63584 
 63585 
 63586 SCENE:
 63587 Navarre
 63588 
 63589 
 63590 ACT I. SCENE I.
 63591 Navarre. The King's park
 63592 
 63593 Enter the King, BEROWNE, LONGAVILLE, and DUMAIN
 63594 
 63595   KING. Let fame, that all hunt after in their lives,
 63596     Live regist'red upon our brazen tombs,
 63597     And then grace us in the disgrace of death;
 63598     When, spite of cormorant devouring Time,
 63599     Th' endeavour of this present breath may buy
 63600     That honour which shall bate his scythe's keen edge,
 63601     And make us heirs of all eternity.
 63602     Therefore, brave conquerors- for so you are
 63603     That war against your own affections
 63604     And the huge army of the world's desires-
 63605     Our late edict shall strongly stand in force:
 63606     Navarre shall be the wonder of the world;
 63607     Our court shall be a little Academe,
 63608     Still and contemplative in living art.
 63609     You three, Berowne, Dumain, and Longaville,
 63610     Have sworn for three years' term to live with me
 63611     My fellow-scholars, and to keep those statutes
 63612     That are recorded in this schedule here.
 63613     Your oaths are pass'd; and now subscribe your names,
 63614     That his own hand may strike his honour down
 63615     That violates the smallest branch herein.
 63616     If you are arm'd to do as sworn to do,
 63617     Subscribe to your deep oaths, and keep it too.
 63618   LONGAVILLE. I am resolv'd; 'tis but a three years' fast.
 63619     The mind shall banquet, though the body pine.
 63620     Fat paunches have lean pates; and dainty bits
 63621     Make rich the ribs, but bankrupt quite the wits.
 63622   DUMAIN. My loving lord, Dumain is mortified.
 63623     The grosser manner of these world's delights
 63624     He throws upon the gross world's baser slaves;
 63625     To love, to wealth, to pomp, I pine and die,
 63626     With all these living in philosophy.
 63627   BEROWNE. I can but say their protestation over;
 63628     So much, dear liege, I have already sworn,
 63629     That is, to live and study here three years.
 63630     But there are other strict observances,
 63631     As: not to see a woman in that term,
 63632     Which I hope well is not enrolled there;
 63633     And one day in a week to touch no food,
 63634     And but one meal on every day beside,
 63635     The which I hope is not enrolled there;
 63636     And then to sleep but three hours in the night
 63637     And not be seen to wink of all the day-
 63638     When I was wont to think no harm all night,
 63639     And make a dark night too of half the day-
 63640     Which I hope well is not enrolled there.
 63641     O, these are barren tasks, too hard to keep,
 63642     Not to see ladies, study, fast, not sleep!
 63643   KING. Your oath is pass'd to pass away from these.
 63644   BEROWNE. Let me say no, my liege, an if you please:
 63645     I only swore to study with your Grace,
 63646     And stay here in your court for three years' space.
 63647   LONGAVILLE. You swore to that, Berowne, and to the rest.
 63648   BEROWNE. By yea and nay, sir, then I swore in jest.
 63649     What is the end of study, let me know.
 63650   KING. Why, that to know which else we should not know.
 63651   BEROWNE. Things hid and barr'd, you mean, from common sense?
 63652   KING. Ay, that is study's god-like recompense.
 63653   BEROWNE. Come on, then; I will swear to study so,
 63654     To know the thing I am forbid to know,
 63655     As thus: to study where I well may dine,
 63656     When I to feast expressly am forbid;
 63657     Or study where to meet some mistress fine,
 63658     When mistresses from common sense are hid;
 63659     Or, having sworn too hard-a-keeping oath,
 63660     Study to break it, and not break my troth.
 63661     If study's gain be thus, and this be so,
 63662     Study knows that which yet it doth not know.
 63663     Swear me to this, and I will ne'er say no.
 63664   KING. These be the stops that hinder study quite,
 63665     And train our intellects to vain delight.
 63666   BEROWNE. Why, all delights are vain; but that most vain
 63667     Which, with pain purchas'd, doth inherit pain,
 63668     As painfully to pore upon a book
 63669     To seek the light of truth; while truth the while
 63670     Doth falsely blind the eyesight of his look.
 63671     Light, seeking light, doth light of light beguile;
 63672     So, ere you find where light in darkness lies,
 63673     Your light grows dark by losing of your eyes.
 63674     Study me how to please the eye indeed,
 63675     By fixing it upon a fairer eye;
 63676     Who dazzling so, that eye shall be his heed,
 63677     And give him light that it was blinded by.
 63678     Study is like the heaven's glorious sun,
 63679     That will not be deep-search'd with saucy looks;
 63680     Small have continual plodders ever won,
 63681     Save base authority from others' books.
 63682     These earthly godfathers of heaven's lights
 63683     That give a name to every fixed star
 63684     Have no more profit of their shining nights
 63685     Than those that walk and wot not what they are.
 63686     Too much to know is to know nought but fame;
 63687     And every godfather can give a name.
 63688   KING. How well he's read, to reason against reading!
 63689   DUMAIN. Proceeded well, to stop all good proceeding!
 63690   LONGAVILLE. He weeds the corn, and still lets grow the weeding.
 63691   BEROWNE. The spring is near, when green geese are a-breeding.
 63692   DUMAIN. How follows that?
 63693   BEROWNE. Fit in his place and time.
 63694   DUMAIN. In reason nothing.
 63695   BEROWNE. Something then in rhyme.
 63696   LONGAVILLE. Berowne is like an envious sneaping frost
 63697     That bites the first-born infants of the spring.
 63698   BEROWNE. Well, say I am; why should proud summer boast
 63699     Before the birds have any cause to sing?
 63700     Why should I joy in any abortive birth?
 63701     At Christmas I no more desire a rose
 63702     Than wish a snow in May's new-fangled shows;
 63703     But like of each thing that in season grows;
 63704     So you, to study now it is too late,
 63705     Climb o'er the house to unlock the little gate.
 63706   KING. Well, sit out; go home, Berowne; adieu.
 63707   BEROWNE. No, my good lord; I have sworn to stay with you;
 63708     And though I have for barbarism spoke more
 63709     Than for that angel knowledge you can say,
 63710     Yet confident I'll keep what I have swore,
 63711     And bide the penance of each three years' day.
 63712     Give me the paper; let me read the same;
 63713     And to the strictest decrees I'll write my name.
 63714   KING. How well this yielding rescues thee from shame!
 63715   BEROWNE. [Reads] 'Item. That no woman shall come within a mile of
 63716     my court'- Hath this been proclaimed?
 63717   LONGAVILLE. Four days ago.
 63718   BEROWNE. Let's see the penalty. [Reads] '-on pain of losing her
 63719     tongue.' Who devis'd this penalty?
 63720   LONGAVILLE. Marry, that did I.
 63721   BEROWNE. Sweet lord, and why?
 63722   LONGAVILLE. To fright them hence with that dread penalty.
 63723   BEROWNE. A dangerous law against gentility.
 63724     [Reads] 'Item. If any man be seen to talk with a woman within
 63725     the term of three years, he shall endure such public shame as the
 63726     rest of the court can possibly devise.'
 63727     This article, my liege, yourself must break;
 63728     For well you know here comes in embassy
 63729     The French king's daughter, with yourself to speak-
 63730     A mild of grace and complete majesty-
 63731     About surrender up of Aquitaine
 63732     To her decrepit, sick, and bedrid father;
 63733     Therefore this article is made in vain,
 63734     Or vainly comes th' admired princess hither.
 63735   KING. What say you, lords? Why, this was quite forgot.
 63736   BEROWNE. So study evermore is over-shot.
 63737     While it doth study to have what it would,
 63738     It doth forget to do the thing it should;
 63739     And when it hath the thing it hunteth most,
 63740     'Tis won as towns with fire- so won, so lost.
 63741   KING. We must of force dispense with this decree;
 63742     She must lie here on mere necessity.
 63743   BEROWNE. Necessity will make us all forsworn
 63744     Three thousand times within this three years' space;
 63745     For every man with his affects is born,
 63746     Not by might mast'red, but by special grace.
 63747     If I break faith, this word shall speak for me:
 63748     I am forsworn on mere necessity.
 63749     So to the laws at large I write my name;        [Subscribes]
 63750     And he that breaks them in the least degree
 63751     Stands in attainder of eternal shame.
 63752     Suggestions are to other as to me;
 63753     But I believe, although I seem so loath,
 63754     I am the last that will last keep his oath.
 63755     But is there no quick recreation granted?
 63756   KING. Ay, that there is. Our court, you know, is haunted
 63757     With a refined traveller of Spain,
 63758     A man in all the world's new fashion planted,
 63759     That hath a mint of phrases in his brain;
 63760     One who the music of his own vain tongue
 63761     Doth ravish like enchanting harmony;
 63762     A man of complements, whom right and wrong
 63763     Have chose as umpire of their mutiny.
 63764     This child of fancy, that Armado hight,
 63765     For interim to our studies shall relate,
 63766     In high-born words, the worth of many a knight
 63767     From tawny Spain lost in the world's debate.
 63768     How you delight, my lords, I know not, I;
 63769     But I protest I love to hear him lie,
 63770     And I will use him for my minstrelsy.
 63771   BEROWNE. Armado is a most illustrious wight,
 63772     A man of fire-new words, fashion's own knight.
 63773   LONGAVILLE. Costard the swain and he shall be our sport;
 63774     And so to study three years is but short.
 63775 
 63776       Enter DULL, a constable, with a letter, and COSTARD
 63777 
 63778   DULL. Which is the Duke's own person?
 63779   BEROWNE. This, fellow. What wouldst?
 63780   DULL. I myself reprehend his own person, for I am his Grace's
 63781     farborough; but I would see his own person in flesh and blood.
 63782   BEROWNE. This is he.
 63783   DULL. Signior Arme- Arme- commends you. There's villainy abroad;
 63784     this letter will tell you more.
 63785   COSTARD. Sir, the contempts thereof are as touching me.
 63786   KING. A letter from the magnificent Armado.
 63787   BEROWNE. How low soever the matter, I hope in God for high words.
 63788   LONGAVILLE. A high hope for a low heaven. God grant us patience!
 63789   BEROWNE. To hear, or forbear hearing?
 63790   LONGAVILLE. To hear meekly, sir, and to laugh moderately; or, to
 63791     forbear both.
 63792   BEROWNE. Well, sir, be it as the style shall give us cause to climb
 63793     in the merriness.
 63794   COSTARD. The matter is to me, sir, as concerning Jaquenetta.
 63795     The manner of it is, I was taken with the manner.
 63796   BEROWNE. In what manner?
 63797   COSTARD. In manner and form following, sir; all those three: I was
 63798     seen with her in the manor-house, sitting with her upon the form,
 63799     and taken following her into the park; which, put together, is in
 63800     manner and form following. Now, sir, for the manner- it is the
 63801     manner of a man to speak to a woman. For the form- in some form.
 63802   BEROWNE. For the following, sir?
 63803   COSTARD. As it shall follow in my correction; and God defend the
 63804     right!
 63805   KING. Will you hear this letter with attention?
 63806   BEROWNE. As we would hear an oracle.
 63807   COSTARD. Such is the simplicity of man to hearken after the flesh.
 63808   KING. [Reads] 'Great deputy, the welkin's vicegerent and sole
 63809     dominator of Navarre, my soul's earth's god and body's fost'ring
 63810     patron'-
 63811   COSTARD. Not a word of Costard yet.
 63812   KING. [Reads] 'So it is'-
 63813   COSTARD. It may be so; but if he say it is so, he is, in telling
 63814     true, but so.
 63815   KING. Peace!
 63816   COSTARD. Be to me, and every man that dares not fight!
 63817   KING. No words!
 63818   COSTARD. Of other men's secrets, I beseech you.
 63819   KING. [Reads] 'So it is, besieged with sable-coloured melancholy, I
 63820     did commend the black oppressing humour to the most wholesome
 63821     physic of thy health-giving air; and, as I am a gentleman, betook
 63822     myself to walk. The time When? About the sixth hour; when beasts
 63823     most graze, birds best peck, and men sit down to that nourishment
 63824     which is called supper. So much for the time When. Now for the
 63825     ground Which? which, I mean, I upon; it is ycleped thy park. Then
 63826     for the place Where? where, I mean, I did encounter that obscene
 63827     and most prepost'rous event that draweth from my snow-white pen
 63828     the ebon-coloured ink which here thou viewest, beholdest,
 63829     surveyest, or seest. But to the place Where? It standeth
 63830     north-north-east and by east from the west corner of thy
 63831     curious-knotted garden. There did I see that low-spirited swain,
 63832     that base minnow of thy mirth,'
 63833   COSTARD. Me?
 63834   KING. 'that unlettered small-knowing soul,'
 63835   COSTARD. Me?
 63836   KING. 'that shallow vassal,'
 63837   COSTARD. Still me?
 63838   KING. 'which, as I remember, hight Costard,'
 63839   COSTARD. O, me!
 63840   KING. 'sorted and consorted, contrary to thy established proclaimed
 63841     edict and continent canon; which, with, O, with- but with this I
 63842     passion to say wherewith-'
 63843   COSTARD. With a wench.
 63844     King. 'with a child of our grandmother Eve, a female; or, for thy
 63845     more sweet understanding, a woman. Him I, as my ever-esteemed
 63846     duty pricks me on, have sent to thee, to receive the meed of
 63847     punishment, by thy sweet Grace's officer, Antony Dull, a man of
 63848     good repute, carriage, bearing, and estimation.'
 63849   DULL. Me, an't shall please you; I am Antony Dull.
 63850   KING. 'For Jaquenetta- so is the weaker vessel called, which I
 63851     apprehended with the aforesaid swain- I keep her as a vessel of
 63852     thy law's fury; and shall, at the least of thy sweet notice,
 63853     bring her to trial. Thine, in all compliments of devoted and
 63854     heart-burning heat of duty,
 63855                                          DON ADRIANO DE ARMADO.'
 63856 
 63857   BEROWNE. This is not so well as I look'd for, but the best that
 63858     ever I heard.
 63859   KING. Ay, the best for the worst. But, sirrah, what say you to
 63860     this?
 63861   COSTARD. Sir, I confess the wench.
 63862   KING. Did you hear the proclamation?
 63863   COSTARD. I do confess much of the hearing it, but little of the
 63864     marking of it.
 63865   KING. It was proclaimed a year's imprisonment to be taken with a
 63866     wench.
 63867   COSTARD. I was taken with none, sir; I was taken with a damsel.
 63868   KING. Well, it was proclaimed damsel.
 63869   COSTARD. This was no damsel neither, sir; she was a virgin.
 63870   KING. It is so varied too, for it was proclaimed virgin.
 63871   COSTARD. If it were, I deny her virginity; I was taken with a maid.
 63872   KING. This 'maid' not serve your turn, sir.
 63873   COSTARD. This maid will serve my turn, sir.
 63874   KING. Sir, I will pronounce your sentence: you shall fast a week
 63875     with bran and water.
 63876   COSTARD. I had rather pray a month with mutton and porridge.
 63877   KING. And Don Armado shall be your keeper.
 63878     My Lord Berowne, see him delivered o'er;
 63879     And go we, lords, to put in practice that
 63880     Which each to other hath so strongly sworn.
 63881                              Exeunt KING, LONGAVILLE, and DUMAIN
 63882   BEROWNE. I'll lay my head to any good man's hat
 63883     These oaths and laws will prove an idle scorn.
 63884     Sirrah, come on.
 63885   COSTARD. I suffer for the truth, sir; for true it is I was taken
 63886     with Jaquenetta, and Jaquenetta is a true girl; and therefore
 63887     welcome the sour cup of prosperity! Affliction may one day smile
 63888     again; and till then, sit thee down, sorrow.
 63889                                                           Exeunt
 63890 
 63891 
 63892 
 63893 
 63894 SCENE II.
 63895 The park
 63896 
 63897 Enter ARMADO and MOTH, his page
 63898 
 63899   ARMADO. Boy, what sign is it when a man of great spirit grows
 63900     melancholy?
 63901   MOTH. A great sign, sir, that he will look sad.
 63902   ARMADO. Why, sadness is one and the self-same thing, dear imp.
 63903   MOTH. No, no; O Lord, sir, no!
 63904   ARMADO. How canst thou part sadness and melancholy, my tender
 63905     juvenal?
 63906   MOTH. By a familiar demonstration of the working, my tough signior.
 63907   ARMADO. Why tough signior? Why tough signior?
 63908   MOTH. Why tender juvenal? Why tender juvenal?
 63909   ARMADO. I spoke it, tender juvenal, as a congruent epitheton
 63910     appertaining to thy young days, which we may nominate tender.
 63911   MOTH. And I, tough signior, as an appertinent title to your old
 63912     time, which we may name tough.
 63913   ARMADO. Pretty and apt.
 63914   MOTH. How mean you, sir? I pretty, and my saying apt? or I apt, and
 63915     my saying pretty?
 63916   ARMADO. Thou pretty, because little.
 63917   MOTH. Little pretty, because little. Wherefore apt?
 63918   ARMADO. And therefore apt, because quick.
 63919   MOTH. Speak you this in my praise, master?
 63920   ARMADO. In thy condign praise.
 63921   MOTH. I will praise an eel with the same praise.
 63922   ARMADO. that an eel is ingenious?
 63923   MOTH. That an eel is quick.
 63924   ARMADO. I do say thou art quick in answers; thou heat'st my blood.
 63925   MOTH. I am answer'd, sir.
 63926   ARMADO. I love not to be cross'd.
 63927   MOTH. [Aside] He speaks the mere contrary: crosses love not him.
 63928   ARMADO. I have promised to study three years with the Duke.
 63929   MOTH. You may do it in an hour, sir.
 63930   ARMADO. Impossible.
 63931   MOTH. How many is one thrice told?
 63932   ARMADO. I am ill at reck'ning; it fitteth the spirit of a tapster.
 63933   MOTH. You are a gentleman and a gamester, sir.
 63934   ARMADO. I confess both; they are both the varnish of a complete
 63935     man.
 63936   MOTH. Then I am sure you know how much the gross sum of deuce-ace
 63937     amounts to.
 63938   ARMADO. It doth amount to one more than two.
 63939   MOTH. Which the base vulgar do call three.
 63940   ARMADO. True.
 63941   MOTH. Why, sir, is this such a piece of study? Now here is three
 63942     studied ere ye'll thrice wink; and how easy it is to put 'years'
 63943     to the word 'three,' and study three years in two words, the
 63944     dancing horse will tell you.
 63945   ARMADO. A most fine figure!
 63946   MOTH. [Aside] To prove you a cipher.
 63947   ARMADO. I will hereupon confess I am in love. And as it is base for
 63948     a soldier to love, so am I in love with a base wench. If drawing
 63949     my sword against the humour of affection would deliver me from
 63950     the reprobate thought of it, I would take Desire prisoner, and
 63951     ransom him to any French courtier for a new-devis'd curtsy. I
 63952     think scorn to sigh; methinks I should out-swear Cupid. Comfort
 63953     me, boy; what great men have been in love?
 63954   MOTH. Hercules, master.
 63955   ARMADO. Most sweet Hercules! More authority, dear boy, name more;
 63956     and, sweet my child, let them be men of good repute and carriage.
 63957   MOTH. Samson, master; he was a man of good carriage, great
 63958     carriage, for he carried the town gates on his back like a
 63959     porter; and he was in love.
 63960   ARMADO. O well-knit Samson! strong-jointed Samson! I do excel thee
 63961     in my rapier as much as thou didst me in carrying gates. I am in
 63962     love too. Who was Samson's love, my dear Moth?
 63963   MOTH. A woman, master.
 63964   ARMADO. Of what complexion?
 63965   MOTH. Of all the four, or the three, or the two, or one of the
 63966     four.
 63967   ARMADO. Tell me precisely of what complexion.
 63968   MOTH. Of the sea-water green, sir.
 63969   ARMADO. Is that one of the four complexions?
 63970   MOTH. As I have read, sir; and the best of them too.
 63971   ARMADO. Green, indeed, is the colour of lovers; but to have a love
 63972     of that colour, methinks Samson had small reason for it. He
 63973     surely affected her for her wit.
 63974   MOTH. It was so, sir; for she had a green wit.
 63975   ARMADO. My love is most immaculate white and red.
 63976   MOTH. Most maculate thoughts, master, are mask'd under such
 63977     colours.
 63978   ARMADO. Define, define, well-educated infant.
 63979   MOTH. My father's wit my mother's tongue assist me!
 63980   ARMADO. Sweet invocation of a child; most pretty, and pathetical!
 63981   MOTH.      If she be made of white and red,
 63982                Her faults will ne'er be known;
 63983              For blushing cheeks by faults are bred,
 63984                And fears by pale white shown.
 63985              Then if she fear, or be to blame,
 63986                By this you shall not know;
 63987              For still her cheeks possess the same
 63988                Which native she doth owe.
 63989     A dangerous rhyme, master, against the reason of white and red.
 63990   ARMADO. Is there not a ballad, boy, of the King and the Beggar?
 63991   MOTH. The world was very guilty of such a ballad some three ages
 63992     since; but I think now 'tis not to be found; or if it were, it
 63993     would neither serve for the writing nor the tune.
 63994   ARMADO. I will have that subject newly writ o'er, that I may
 63995     example my digression by some mighty precedent. Boy, I do love
 63996     that country girl that I took in the park with the rational hind
 63997     Costard; she deserves well.
 63998   MOTH. [Aside] To be whipt; and yet a better love than my master.
 63999   ARMADO. Sing, boy; my spirit grows heavy in love.
 64000   MOTH. And that's great marvel, loving a light wench.
 64001   ARMADO. I say, sing.
 64002   MOTH. Forbear till this company be past.
 64003 
 64004                 Enter DULL, COSTARD, and JAQUENETTA
 64005 
 64006   DULL. Sir, the Duke's pleasure is that you keep Costard safe; and
 64007     you must suffer him to take no delight nor no penance; but 'a
 64008     must fast three days a week. For this damsel, I must keep her at
 64009     the park; she is allow'd for the day-woman. Fare you well.
 64010   ARMADO. I do betray myself with blushing. Maid!
 64011   JAQUENETTA. Man!
 64012   ARMADO. I will visit thee at the lodge.
 64013   JAQUENETTA. That's hereby.
 64014   ARMADO. I know where it is situate.
 64015   JAQUENETTA. Lord, how wise you are!
 64016   ARMADO. I will tell thee wonders.
 64017   JAQUENETTA. With that face?
 64018   ARMADO. I love thee.
 64019   JAQUENETTA. So I heard you say.
 64020   ARMADO. And so, farewell.
 64021   JAQUENETTA. Fair weather after you!
 64022   DULL. Come, Jaquenetta, away.             Exit with JAQUENETTA
 64023   ARMADO. Villain, thou shalt fast for thy offences ere thou be
 64024     pardoned.
 64025   COSTARD. Well, sir, I hope when I do it I shall do it on a full
 64026     stomach.
 64027   ARMADO. Thou shalt be heavily punished.
 64028   COSTARD. I am more bound to you than your fellows, for they are but
 64029     lightly rewarded.
 64030   ARMADO. Take away this villain; shut him up.
 64031   MOTH. Come, you transgressing slave, away.
 64032   COSTARD. Let me not be pent up, sir; I will fast, being loose.
 64033   MOTH. No, sir; that were fast, and loose. Thou shalt to prison.
 64034   COSTARD. Well, if ever I do see the merry days of desolation that I
 64035     have seen, some shall see.
 64036   MOTH. What shall some see?
 64037   COSTARD. Nay, nothing, Master Moth, but what they look upon. It is
 64038     not for prisoners to be too silent in their words, and therefore
 64039     I will say nothing. I thank God I have as little patience as
 64040     another man, and therefore I can be quiet.
 64041                                          Exeunt MOTH and COSTARD
 64042   ARMADO. I do affect the very ground, which is base, where her shoe,
 64043     which is baser, guided by her foot, which is basest, doth tread.
 64044     I shall be forsworn- which is a great argument of falsehood- if I
 64045     love. And how can that be true love which is falsely attempted?
 64046     Love is a familiar; Love is a devil. There is no evil angel but
 64047     Love. Yet was Samson so tempted, and he had an excellent
 64048     strength; yet was Solomon so seduced, and he had a very good wit.
 64049     Cupid's butt-shaft is too hard for Hercules' club, and therefore
 64050     too much odds for a Spaniard's rapier. The first and second cause
 64051     will not serve my turn; the passado he respects not, the duello
 64052     he regards not; his disgrace is to be called boy, but his glory
 64053     is to subdue men. Adieu, valour; rust, rapier; be still, drum;
 64054     for your manager is in love; yea, he loveth. Assist me, some
 64055     extemporal god of rhyme, for I am sure I shall turn sonnet.
 64056     Devise, wit; write, pen; for I am for whole volumes in folio.
 64057  Exit
 64058 
 64059 
 64060 
 64061 
 64062 <<THIS ELECTRONIC VERSION OF THE COMPLETE WORKS OF WILLIAM
 64063 SHAKESPEARE IS COPYRIGHT 1990-1993 BY WORLD LIBRARY, INC., AND IS
 64064 PROVIDED BY PROJECT GUTENBERG ETEXT OF ILLINOIS BENEDICTINE COLLEGE
 64065 WITH PERMISSION.  ELECTRONIC AND MACHINE READABLE COPIES MAY BE
 64066 DISTRIBUTED SO LONG AS SUCH COPIES (1) ARE FOR YOUR OR OTHERS
 64067 PERSONAL USE ONLY, AND (2) ARE NOT DISTRIBUTED OR USED
 64068 COMMERCIALLY.  PROHIBITED COMMERCIAL DISTRIBUTION INCLUDES BY ANY
 64069 SERVICE THAT CHARGES FOR DOWNLOAD TIME OR FOR MEMBERSHIP.>>
 64070 
 64071 
 64072 
 64073 ACT II. SCENE II.
 64074 The park
 64075 
 64076 Enter the PRINCESS OF FRANCE, with three attending ladies,
 64077 ROSALINE, MARIA, KATHARINE, BOYET, and two other LORDS
 64078 
 64079   BOYET. Now, madam, summon up your dearest spirits.
 64080     Consider who the King your father sends,
 64081     To whom he sends, and what's his embassy:
 64082     Yourself, held precious in the world's esteem,
 64083     To parley with the sole inheritor
 64084     Of all perfections that a man may owe,
 64085     Matchless Navarre; the plea of no less weight
 64086     Than Aquitaine, a dowry for a queen.
 64087     Be now as prodigal of all dear grace
 64088     As Nature was in making graces dear,
 64089     When she did starve the general world beside
 64090     And prodigally gave them all to you.
 64091   PRINCESS OF FRANCE. Good Lord Boyet, my beauty, though but mean,
 64092     Needs not the painted flourish of your praise.
 64093     Beauty is bought by judgment of the eye,
 64094     Not utt'red by base sale of chapmen's tongues;
 64095     I am less proud to hear you tell my worth
 64096     Than you much willing to be counted wise
 64097     In spending your wit in the praise of mine.
 64098     But now to task the tasker: good Boyet,
 64099     You are not ignorant all-telling fame
 64100     Doth noise abroad Navarre hath made a vow,
 64101     Till painful study shall outwear three years,
 64102     No woman may approach his silent court.
 64103     Therefore to's seemeth it a needful course,
 64104     Before we enter his forbidden gates,
 64105     To know his pleasure; and in that behalf,
 64106     Bold of your worthiness, we single you
 64107     As our best-moving fair solicitor.
 64108     Tell him the daughter of the King of France,
 64109     On serious business, craving quick dispatch,
 64110     Importunes personal conference with his Grace.
 64111     Haste, signify so much; while we attend,
 64112     Like humble-visag'd suitors, his high will.
 64113   BOYET. Proud of employment, willingly I go.
 64114   PRINCESS OF FRANCE. All pride is willing pride, and yours is so.
 64115                                                       Exit BOYET
 64116     Who are the votaries, my loving lords,
 64117     That are vow-fellows with this virtuous duke?
 64118   FIRST LORD. Lord Longaville is one.
 64119   PRINCESS OF FRANCE. Know you the man?
 64120   MARIA. I know him, madam; at a marriage feast,
 64121     Between Lord Perigort and the beauteous heir
 64122     Of Jaques Falconbridge, solemnized
 64123     In Normandy, saw I this Longaville.
 64124     A man of sovereign parts, peerless esteem'd,
 64125     Well fitted in arts, glorious in arms;
 64126     Nothing becomes him ill that he would well.
 64127     The only soil of his fair virtue's gloss,
 64128     If virtue's gloss will stain with any soil,
 64129     Is a sharp wit match'd with too blunt a will,
 64130     Whose edge hath power to cut, whose will still wills
 64131     It should none spare that come within his power.
 64132   PRINCESS OF FRANCE. Some merry mocking lord, belike; is't so?
 64133   MARIA. They say so most that most his humours know.
 64134   PRINCESS OF FRANCE. Such short-liv'd wits do wither as they grow.
 64135     Who are the rest?
 64136   KATHARINE. The young Dumain, a well-accomplish'd youth,
 64137     Of all that virtue love for virtue loved;
 64138     Most power to do most harm, least knowing ill,
 64139     For he hath wit to make an ill shape good,
 64140     And shape to win grace though he had no wit.
 64141     I saw him at the Duke Alencon's once;
 64142     And much too little of that good I saw
 64143     Is my report to his great worthiness.
 64144   ROSALINE. Another of these students at that time
 64145     Was there with him, if I have heard a truth.
 64146     Berowne they call him; but a merrier man,
 64147     Within the limit of becoming mirth,
 64148     I never spent an hour's talk withal.
 64149     His eye begets occasion for his wit,
 64150     For every object that the one doth catch
 64151     The other turns to a mirth-moving jest,
 64152     Which his fair tongue, conceit's expositor,
 64153     Delivers in such apt and gracious words
 64154     That aged ears play truant at his tales,
 64155     And younger hearings are quite ravished;
 64156     So sweet and voluble is his discourse.
 64157   PRINCESS OF FRANCE. God bless my ladies! Are they all in love,
 64158     That every one her own hath garnished
 64159     With such bedecking ornaments of praise?
 64160   FIRST LORD. Here comes Boyet.
 64161 
 64162                        Re-enter BOYET
 64163 
 64164   PRINCESS OF FRANCE. Now, what admittance, lord?
 64165   BOYET. Navarre had notice of your fair approach,
 64166     And he and his competitors in oath
 64167     Were all address'd to meet you, gentle lady,
 64168     Before I came. Marry, thus much I have learnt:
 64169     He rather means to lodge you in the field,
 64170     Like one that comes here to besiege his court,
 64171     Than seek a dispensation for his oath,
 64172     To let you enter his unpeopled house.
 64173                                     [The LADIES-IN-WAITING mask]
 64174 
 64175              Enter KING, LONGAVILLE, DUMAIN, BEROWNE,
 64176                          and ATTENDANTS
 64177 
 64178     Here comes Navarre.
 64179   KING. Fair Princess, welcome to the court of Navarre.
 64180   PRINCESS OF FRANCE. 'Fair' I give you back again; and 'welcome' I
 64181     have not yet. The roof of this court is too high to be yours, and
 64182     welcome to the wide fields too base to be mine.
 64183   KING. You shall be welcome, madam, to my court.
 64184   PRINCESS OF FRANCE. I will be welcome then; conduct me thither.
 64185   KING. Hear me, dear lady: I have sworn an oath-
 64186   PRINCESS OF FRANCE. Our Lady help my lord! He'll be forsworn.
 64187   KING. Not for the world, fair madam, by my will.
 64188   PRINCESS OF FRANCE. Why, will shall break it; will, and nothing
 64189     else.
 64190   KING. Your ladyship is ignorant what it is.
 64191   PRINCESS OF FRANCE. Were my lord so, his ignorance were wise,
 64192     Where now his knowledge must prove ignorance.
 64193     I hear your Grace hath sworn out house-keeping.
 64194     'Tis deadly sin to keep that oath, my lord,
 64195     And sin to break it.
 64196     But pardon me, I am too sudden bold;
 64197     To teach a teacher ill beseemeth me.
 64198     Vouchsafe to read the purpose of my coming,
 64199     And suddenly resolve me in my suit.         [Giving a paper]
 64200   KING. Madam, I will, if suddenly I may.
 64201   PRINCESS OF FRANCE. YOU Will the sooner that I were away,
 64202     For you'll prove perjur'd if you make me stay.
 64203   BEROWNE. Did not I dance with you in Brabant once?
 64204   KATHARINE. Did not I dance with you in Brabant once?
 64205   BEROWNE. I know you did.
 64206   KATHARINE. How needless was it then to ask the question!
 64207   BEROWNE. You must not be so quick.
 64208   KATHARINE. 'Tis long of you, that spur me with such questions.
 64209   BEROWNE. Your wit 's too hot, it speeds too fast, 'twill tire.
 64210   KATHARINE. Not till it leave the rider in the mire.
 64211   BEROWNE. What time o' day?
 64212   KATHARINE. The hour that fools should ask.
 64213   BEROWNE. Now fair befall your mask!
 64214   KATHARINE. Fair fall the face it covers!
 64215   BEROWNE. And send you many lovers!
 64216   KATHARINE. Amen, so you be none.
 64217   BEROWNE. Nay, then will I be gone.
 64218   KING. Madam, your father here doth intimate
 64219     The payment of a hundred thousand crowns;
 64220     Being but the one half of an entire sum
 64221     Disbursed by my father in his wars.
 64222     But say that he or we, as neither have,
 64223     Receiv'd that sum, yet there remains unpaid
 64224     A hundred thousand more, in surety of the which,
 64225     One part of Aquitaine is bound to us,
 64226     Although not valued to the money's worth.
 64227     If then the King your father will restore
 64228     But that one half which is unsatisfied,
 64229     We will give up our right in Aquitaine,
 64230     And hold fair friendship with his Majesty.
 64231     But that, it seems, he little purposeth,
 64232     For here he doth demand to have repaid
 64233     A hundred thousand crowns; and not demands,
 64234     On payment of a hundred thousand crowns,
 64235     To have his title live in Aquitaine;
 64236     Which we much rather had depart withal,
 64237     And have the money by our father lent,
 64238     Than Aquitaine so gelded as it is.
 64239     Dear Princess, were not his requests so far
 64240     From reason's yielding, your fair self should make
 64241     A yielding 'gainst some reason in my breast,
 64242     And go well satisfied to France again.
 64243   PRINCESS OF FRANCE. You do the King my father too much wrong,
 64244     And wrong the reputation of your name,
 64245     In so unseeming to confess receipt
 64246     Of that which hath so faithfully been paid.
 64247   KING. I do protest I never heard of it;
 64248     And, if you prove it, I'll repay it back
 64249     Or yield up Aquitaine.
 64250   PRINCESS OF FRANCE. We arrest your word.
 64251     Boyet, you can produce acquittances
 64252     For such a sum from special officers
 64253     Of Charles his father.
 64254   KING. Satisfy me so.
 64255   BOYET. So please your Grace, the packet is not come,
 64256     Where that and other specialties are bound;
 64257     To-morrow you shall have a sight of them.
 64258   KING. It shall suffice me; at which interview
 64259     All liberal reason I will yield unto.
 64260     Meantime receive such welcome at my hand
 64261     As honour, without breach of honour, may
 64262     Make tender of to thy true worthiness.
 64263     You may not come, fair Princess, within my gates;
 64264     But here without you shall be so receiv'd
 64265     As you shall deem yourself lodg'd in my heart,
 64266     Though so denied fair harbour in my house.
 64267     Your own good thoughts excuse me, and farewell.
 64268     To-morrow shall we visit you again.
 64269   PRINCESS OF FRANCE. Sweet health and fair desires consort your
 64270     Grace!
 64271   KING. Thy own wish wish I thee in every place.
 64272                                             Exit with attendants
 64273   BEROWNE. Lady, I will commend you to mine own heart.
 64274   ROSALINE. Pray you, do my commendations;
 64275     I would be glad to see it.
 64276   BEROWNE. I would you heard it groan.
 64277   ROSALINE. Is the fool sick?
 64278   BEROWNE. Sick at the heart.
 64279   ROSALINE. Alack, let it blood.
 64280   BEROWNE. Would that do it good?
 64281   ROSALINE. My physic says 'ay.'
 64282   BEROWNE. Will YOU prick't with your eye?
 64283   ROSALINE. No point, with my knife.
 64284   BEROWNE. Now, God save thy life!
 64285   ROSALINE. And yours from long living!
 64286   BEROWNE. I cannot stay thanksgiving.                [Retiring]
 64287   DUMAIN. Sir, I pray you, a word: what lady is that same?
 64288   BOYET. The heir of Alencon, Katharine her name.
 64289   DUMAIN. A gallant lady! Monsieur, fare you well.          Exit
 64290   LONGAVILLE. I beseech you a word: what is she in the white?
 64291   BOYET. A woman sometimes, an you saw her in the light.
 64292   LONGAVILLE. Perchance light in the light. I desire her name.
 64293   BOYET. She hath but one for herself; to desire that were a shame.
 64294   LONGAVILLE. Pray you, sir, whose daughter?
 64295   BOYET. Her mother's, I have heard.
 64296   LONGAVILLE. God's blessing on your beard!
 64297   BOYET. Good sir, be not offended;
 64298     She is an heir of Falconbridge.
 64299   LONGAVILLE. Nay, my choler is ended.
 64300     She is a most sweet lady.
 64301   BOYET. Not unlike, sir; that may be.           Exit LONGAVILLE
 64302   BEROWNE. What's her name in the cap?
 64303   BOYET. Rosaline, by good hap.
 64304   BEROWNE. Is she wedded or no?
 64305   BOYET. To her will, sir, or so.
 64306   BEROWNE. You are welcome, sir; adieu!
 64307   BOYET. Farewell to me, sir, and welcome to you.
 64308                                      Exit BEROWNE. LADIES Unmask
 64309   MARIA. That last is Berowne, the merry mad-cap lord;
 64310     Not a word with him but a jest.
 64311   BOYET. And every jest but a word.
 64312   PRINCESS OF FRANCE. It was well done of you to take him at his
 64313     word.
 64314   BOYET. I was as willing to grapple as he was to board.
 64315   KATHARINE. Two hot sheeps, marry!
 64316   BOYET. And wherefore not ships?
 64317     No sheep, sweet lamb, unless we feed on your lips.
 64318   KATHARINE. You sheep and I pasture- shall that finish the jest?
 64319   BOYET. So you grant pasture for me.     [Offering to kiss her]
 64320   KATHARINE. Not so, gentle beast;
 64321     My lips are no common, though several they be.
 64322   BOYET. Belonging to whom?
 64323   KATHARINE. To my fortunes and me.
 64324   PRINCESS OF FRANCE. Good wits will be jangling; but, gentles,
 64325       agree;
 64326     This civil war of wits were much better used
 64327     On Navarre and his book-men, for here 'tis abused.
 64328   BOYET. If my observation, which very seldom lies,
 64329     By the heart's still rhetoric disclosed with eyes,
 64330     Deceive me not now, Navarre is infected.
 64331   PRINCESS OF FRANCE. With what?
 64332   BOYET. With that which we lovers entitle 'affected.'
 64333   PRINCESS OF FRANCE. Your reason?
 64334   BOYET. Why, all his behaviours did make their retire
 64335     To the court of his eye, peeping thorough desire.
 64336     His heart, like an agate, with your print impressed,
 64337     Proud with his form, in his eye pride expressed;
 64338     His tongue, all impatient to speak and not see,
 64339     Did stumble with haste in his eyesight to be;
 64340     All senses to that sense did make their repair,
 64341     To feel only looking on fairest of fair.
 64342     Methought all his senses were lock'd in his eye,
 64343     As jewels in crystal for some prince to buy;
 64344     Who, tend'ring their own worth from where they were glass'd,
 64345     Did point you to buy them, along as you pass'd.
 64346     His face's own margent did quote such amazes
 64347     That all eyes saw his eyes enchanted with gazes.
 64348     I'll give you Aquitaine and all that is his,
 64349     An you give him for my sake but one loving kiss.
 64350   PRINCESS OF FRANCE. Come, to our pavilion. Boyet is dispos'd.
 64351   BOYET. But to speak that in words which his eye hath disclos'd;
 64352     I only have made a mouth of his eye,
 64353     By adding a tongue which I know will not lie.
 64354   MARIA. Thou art an old love-monger, and speakest skilfully.
 64355   KATHARINE. He is Cupid's grandfather, and learns news of him.
 64356   ROSALINE. Then was Venus like her mother; for her father is but
 64357     grim.
 64358   BOYET. Do you hear, my mad wenches?
 64359   MARIA. No.
 64360   BOYET. What, then; do you see?
 64361   MARIA. Ay, our way to be gone.
 64362   BOYET. You are too hard for me.                         Exeunt
 64363 
 64364 
 64365 
 64366 
 64367 <<THIS ELECTRONIC VERSION OF THE COMPLETE WORKS OF WILLIAM
 64368 SHAKESPEARE IS COPYRIGHT 1990-1993 BY WORLD LIBRARY, INC., AND IS
 64369 PROVIDED BY PROJECT GUTENBERG ETEXT OF ILLINOIS BENEDICTINE COLLEGE
 64370 WITH PERMISSION.  ELECTRONIC AND MACHINE READABLE COPIES MAY BE
 64371 DISTRIBUTED SO LONG AS SUCH COPIES (1) ARE FOR YOUR OR OTHERS
 64372 PERSONAL USE ONLY, AND (2) ARE NOT DISTRIBUTED OR USED
 64373 COMMERCIALLY.  PROHIBITED COMMERCIAL DISTRIBUTION INCLUDES BY ANY
 64374 SERVICE THAT CHARGES FOR DOWNLOAD TIME OR FOR MEMBERSHIP.>>
 64375 
 64376 
 64377 
 64378 ACT III. SCENE I.
 64379 The park
 64380 
 64381 Enter ARMADO and MOTH
 64382 
 64383   ARMADO. Warble, child; make passionate my sense of hearing.
 64384                                          [MOTH sings Concolinel]
 64385   ARMADO. Sweet air! Go, tenderness of years, take this key, give
 64386     enlargement to the swain, bring him festinately hither; I must
 64387     employ him in a letter to my love.
 64388   MOTH. Master, will you win your love with a French brawl?
 64389   ARMADO. How meanest thou? Brawling in French?
 64390   MOTH. No, my complete master; but to jig off a tune at the tongue's
 64391     end, canary to it with your feet, humour it with turning up your
 64392     eyelids, sigh a note and sing a note, sometime through the
 64393     throat, as if you swallowed love with singing love, sometime
 64394     through the nose, as if you snuff'd up love by smelling love,
 64395     with your hat penthouse-like o'er the shop of your eyes, with
 64396     your arms cross'd on your thin-belly doublet, like a rabbit on a
 64397     spit, or your hands in your pocket, like a man after the old
 64398     painting; and keep not too long in one tune, but a snip and away.
 64399     These are complements, these are humours; these betray nice
 64400     wenches, that would be betrayed without these; and make them men
 64401     of note- do you note me?- that most are affected to these.
 64402   ARMADO. How hast thou purchased this experience?
 64403   MOTH. By my penny of observation.
 64404   ARMADO. But O- but O-
 64405   MOTH. The hobby-horse is forgot.
 64406   ARMADO. Call'st thou my love 'hobby-horse'?
 64407   MOTH. No, master; the hobby-horse is but a colt, and your love
 64408     perhaps a hackney. But have you forgot your love?
 64409   ARMADO. Almost I had.
 64410   MOTH. Negligent student! learn her by heart.
 64411   ARMADO. By heart and in heart, boy.
 64412   MOTH. And out of heart, master; all those three I will prove.
 64413   ARMADO. What wilt thou prove?
 64414   MOTH. A man, if I live; and this, by, in, and without, upon the
 64415     instant. By heart you love her, because your heart cannot come by
 64416     her; in heart you love her, because your heart is in love with
 64417     her; and out of heart you love her, being out of heart that you
 64418     cannot enjoy her.
 64419   ARMADO. I am all these three.
 64420   MOTH. And three times as much more, and yet nothing at all.
 64421   ARMADO. Fetch hither the swain; he must carry me a letter.
 64422   MOTH. A message well sympathiz'd- a horse to be ambassador for an
 64423     ass.
 64424   ARMADO. Ha, ha, what sayest thou?
 64425   MOTH. Marry, sir, you must send the ass upon the horse, for he is
 64426     very slow-gaited. But I go.
 64427   ARMADO. The way is but short; away.
 64428   MOTH. As swift as lead, sir.
 64429   ARMADO. The meaning, pretty ingenious?
 64430     Is not lead a metal heavy, dull, and slow?
 64431   MOTH. Minime, honest master; or rather, master, no.
 64432   ARMADO. I say lead is slow.
 64433   MOTH. You are too swift, sir, to say so:
 64434     Is that lead slow which is fir'd from a gun?
 64435   ARMADO. Sweet smoke of rhetoric!
 64436     He reputes me a cannon; and the bullet, that's he;
 64437     I shoot thee at the swain.
 64438   MOTH. Thump, then, and I flee.                            Exit
 64439   ARMADO. A most acute juvenal; volable and free of grace!
 64440     By thy favour, sweet welkin, I must sigh in thy face;
 64441     Most rude melancholy, valour gives thee place.
 64442     My herald is return'd.
 64443 
 64444                        Re-enter MOTH with COSTARD
 64445 
 64446   MOTH. A wonder, master! here's a costard broken in a shin.
 64447   ARMADO. Some enigma, some riddle; come, thy l'envoy; begin.
 64448   COSTARD. No egma, no riddle, no l'envoy; no salve in the mail, sir.
 64449     O, sir, plantain, a plain plantain; no l'envoy, no l'envoy; no
 64450     salve, sir, but a plantain!
 64451   ARMADO. By virtue thou enforcest laughter; thy silly thought, my
 64452     spleen; the heaving of my lungs provokes me to ridiculous
 64453     smiling. O, pardon me, my stars! Doth the inconsiderate take
 64454     salve for l'envoy, and the word 'l'envoy' for a salve?
 64455   MOTH. Do the wise think them other? Is not l'envoy a salve?
 64456   ARMADO. No, page; it is an epilogue or discourse to make plain
 64457     Some obscure precedence that hath tofore been sain.
 64458     I will example it:
 64459            The fox, the ape, and the humble-bee,
 64460            Were still at odds, being but three.
 64461     There's the moral. Now the l'envoy.
 64462   MOTH. I will add the l'envoy. Say the moral again.
 64463   ARMADO.  The fox, the ape, and the humble-bee,
 64464            Were still at odds, being but three.
 64465   MOTH.    Until the goose came out of door,
 64466            And stay'd the odds by adding four.
 64467     Now will I begin your moral, and do you follow with my l'envoy.
 64468            The fox, the ape, and the humble-bee,
 64469            Were still at odds, being but three.
 64470   ARMADO.  Until the goose came out of door,
 64471            Staying the odds by adding four.
 64472   MOTH. A good l'envoy, ending in the goose; would you desire more?
 64473   COSTARD. The boy hath sold him a bargain, a goose, that's flat.
 64474     Sir, your pennyworth is good, an your goose be fat.
 64475     To sell a bargain well is as cunning as fast and loose;
 64476     Let me see: a fat l'envoy; ay, that's a fat goose.
 64477   ARMADO. Come hither, come hither. How did this argument begin?
 64478   MOTH. By saying that a costard was broken in a shin.
 64479     Then call'd you for the l'envoy.
 64480   COSTARD. True, and I for a plantain. Thus came your argument in;
 64481     Then the boy's fat l'envoy, the goose that you bought;
 64482     And he ended the market.
 64483   ARMADO. But tell me: how was there a costard broken in a shin?
 64484   MOTH. I will tell you sensibly.
 64485   COSTARD. Thou hast no feeling of it, Moth; I will speak that
 64486       l'envoy.
 64487     I, Costard, running out, that was safely within,
 64488     Fell over the threshold and broke my shin.
 64489   ARMADO. We will talk no more of this matter.
 64490   COSTARD. Till there be more matter in the shin.
 64491   ARMADO. Sirrah Costard. I will enfranchise thee.
 64492   COSTARD. O, Marry me to one Frances! I smell some l'envoy, some
 64493     goose, in this.
 64494   ARMADO. By my sweet soul, I mean setting thee at liberty,
 64495     enfreedoming thy person; thou wert immured, restrained,
 64496     captivated, bound.
 64497   COSTARD. True, true; and now you will be my purgation, and let me
 64498     loose.
 64499   ARMADO. I give thee thy liberty, set thee from durance; and, in
 64500     lieu thereof, impose on thee nothing but this: bear this
 64501     significant [giving a letter] to the country maid Jaquenetta;
 64502     there is remuneration, for the best ward of mine honour is
 64503     rewarding my dependents. Moth, follow.                  Exit
 64504   MOTH. Like the sequel, I. Signior Costard, adieu.
 64505   COSTARD. My sweet ounce of man's flesh, my incony Jew!
 64506                                                        Exit MOTH
 64507     Now will I look to his remuneration. Remuneration! O, that's the
 64508     Latin word for three farthings. Three farthings- remuneration.
 64509     'What's the price of this inkle?'- 'One penny.'- 'No, I'll give
 64510     you a remuneration.' Why, it carries it. Remuneration! Why, it is
 64511     a fairer name than French crown. I will never buy and sell out of
 64512     this word.
 64513 
 64514                           Enter BEROWNE
 64515 
 64516   BEROWNE. My good knave Costard, exceedingly well met!
 64517   COSTARD. Pray you, sir, how much carnation ribbon may a man buy for
 64518     a remuneration?
 64519   BEROWNE. What is a remuneration?
 64520   COSTARD. Marry, sir, halfpenny farthing.
 64521   BEROWNE. Why, then, three-farthing worth of silk.
 64522   COSTARD. I thank your worship. God be wi' you!
 64523   BEROWNE. Stay, slave; I must employ thee.
 64524     As thou wilt win my favour, good my knave,
 64525     Do one thing for me that I shall entreat.
 64526   COSTARD. When would you have it done, sir?
 64527   BEROWNE. This afternoon.
 64528   COSTARD. Well, I will do it, sir; fare you well.
 64529   BEROWNE. Thou knowest not what it is.
 64530   COSTARD. I shall know, sir, when I have done it.
 64531   BEROWNE. Why, villain, thou must know first.
 64532   COSTARD. I will come to your worship to-morrow morning.
 64533   BEROWNE. It must be done this afternoon.
 64534     Hark, slave, it is but this:
 64535     The Princess comes to hunt here in the park,
 64536     And in her train there is a gentle lady;
 64537     When tongues speak sweetly, then they name her name,
 64538     And Rosaline they call her. Ask for her,
 64539     And to her white hand see thou do commend
 64540     This seal'd-up counsel. There's thy guerdon; go.
 64541                                          [Giving him a shilling]
 64542   COSTARD. Gardon, O sweet gardon! better than remuneration; a
 64543     'leven-pence farthing better; most sweet gardon! I will do it,
 64544     sir, in print. Gardon- remuneration!                    Exit
 64545   BEROWNE. And I, forsooth, in love; I, that have been love's whip;
 64546     A very beadle to a humorous sigh;
 64547     A critic, nay, a night-watch constable;
 64548     A domineering pedant o'er the boy,
 64549     Than whom no mortal so magnificent!
 64550     This wimpled, whining, purblind, wayward boy,
 64551     This senior-junior, giant-dwarf, Dan Cupid;
 64552     Regent of love-rhymes, lord of folded arms,
 64553     Th' anointed sovereign of sighs and groans,
 64554     Liege of all loiterers and malcontents,
 64555     Dread prince of plackets, king of codpieces,
 64556     Sole imperator, and great general
 64557     Of trotting paritors. O my little heart!
 64558     And I to be a corporal of his field,
 64559     And wear his colours like a tumbler's hoop!
 64560     What! I love, I sue, I seek a wife-
 64561     A woman, that is like a German clock,
 64562     Still a-repairing, ever out of frame,
 64563     And never going aright, being a watch,
 64564     But being watch'd that it may still go right!
 64565     Nay, to be perjur'd, which is worst of all;
 64566     And, among three, to love the worst of all,
 64567     A whitely wanton with a velvet brow,
 64568     With two pitch balls stuck in her face for eyes;
 64569     Ay, and, by heaven, one that will do the deed,
 64570     Though Argus were her eunuch and her guard.
 64571     And I to sigh for her! to watch for her!
 64572     To pray for her! Go to; it is a plague
 64573     That Cupid will impose for my neglect
 64574     Of his almighty dreadful little might.
 64575     Well, I will love, write, sigh, pray, sue, and groan:
 64576     Some men must love my lady, and some Joan.              Exit
 64577 
 64578 
 64579 
 64580 
 64581 <<THIS ELECTRONIC VERSION OF THE COMPLETE WORKS OF WILLIAM
 64582 SHAKESPEARE IS COPYRIGHT 1990-1993 BY WORLD LIBRARY, INC., AND IS
 64583 PROVIDED BY PROJECT GUTENBERG ETEXT OF ILLINOIS BENEDICTINE COLLEGE
 64584 WITH PERMISSION.  ELECTRONIC AND MACHINE READABLE COPIES MAY BE
 64585 DISTRIBUTED SO LONG AS SUCH COPIES (1) ARE FOR YOUR OR OTHERS
 64586 PERSONAL USE ONLY, AND (2) ARE NOT DISTRIBUTED OR USED
 64587 COMMERCIALLY.  PROHIBITED COMMERCIAL DISTRIBUTION INCLUDES BY ANY
 64588 SERVICE THAT CHARGES FOR DOWNLOAD TIME OR FOR MEMBERSHIP.>>
 64589 
 64590 
 64591 
 64592 ACT IV. SCENE I.
 64593 The park
 64594 
 64595 Enter the PRINCESS, ROSALINE, MARIA, KATHARINE, BOYET, LORDS, ATTENDANTS,
 64596 and a FORESTER
 64597 
 64598   PRINCESS OF FRANCE. Was that the King that spurr'd his horse so
 64599       hard
 64600     Against the steep uprising of the hill?
 64601   BOYET. I know not; but I think it was not he.
 64602   PRINCESS OF FRANCE. Whoe'er 'a was, 'a show'd a mounting mind.
 64603     Well, lords, to-day we shall have our dispatch;
 64604     On Saturday we will return to France.
 64605     Then, forester, my friend, where is the bush
 64606     That we must stand and play the murderer in?
 64607   FORESTER. Hereby, upon the edge of yonder coppice;
 64608     A stand where you may make the fairest shoot.
 64609   PRINCESS OF FRANCE. I thank my beauty I am fair that shoot,
 64610     And thereupon thou speak'st the fairest shoot.
 64611   FORESTER. Pardon me, madam, for I meant not so.
 64612   PRINCESS OF FRANCE. What, what? First praise me, and again say no?
 64613     O short-liv'd pride! Not fair? Alack for woe!
 64614   FORESTER. Yes, madam, fair.
 64615   PRINCESS OF FRANCE. Nay, never paint me now;
 64616     Where fair is not, praise cannot mend the brow.
 64617     Here, good my glass, take this for telling true:
 64618                                              [ Giving him money]
 64619     Fair payment for foul words is more than due.
 64620   FORESTER. Nothing but fair is that which you inherit.
 64621   PRINCESS OF FRANCE. See, see, my beauty will be sav'd by merit.
 64622     O heresy in fair, fit for these days!
 64623     A giving hand, though foul, shall have fair praise.
 64624     But come, the bow. Now mercy goes to kill,
 64625     And shooting well is then accounted ill;
 64626     Thus will I save my credit in the shoot:
 64627     Not wounding, pity would not let me do't;
 64628     If wounding, then it was to show my skill,
 64629     That more for praise than purpose meant to kill.
 64630     And, out of question, so it is sometimes:
 64631     Glory grows guilty of detested crimes,
 64632     When, for fame's sake, for praise, an outward part,
 64633     We bend to that the working of the heart;
 64634     As I for praise alone now seek to spill
 64635     The poor deer's blood that my heart means no ill.
 64636   BOYET. Do not curst wives hold that self-sovereignty
 64637     Only for praise sake, when they strive to be
 64638     Lords o'er their lords?
 64639   PRINCESS OF FRANCE. Only for praise; and praise we may afford
 64640     To any lady that subdues a lord.
 64641 
 64642                        Enter COSTARD
 64643 
 64644   BOYET. Here comes a member of the commonwealth.
 64645   COSTARD. God dig-you-den all! Pray you, which is the head lady?
 64646   PRINCESS OF FRANCE. Thou shalt know her, fellow, by the rest that
 64647     have no heads.
 64648   COSTARD. Which is the greatest lady, the highest?
 64649   PRINCESS OF FRANCE. The thickest and the tallest.
 64650   COSTARD. The thickest and the tallest! It is so; truth is truth.
 64651     An your waist, mistress, were as slender as my wit,
 64652     One o' these maids' girdles for your waist should be fit.
 64653     Are not you the chief woman? You are the thickest here.
 64654   PRINCESS OF FRANCE. What's your will, sir? What's your will?
 64655   COSTARD. I have a letter from Monsieur Berowne to one
 64656     Lady Rosaline.
 64657   PRINCESS OF FRANCE. O, thy letter, thy letter! He's a good friend
 64658       of mine.
 64659     Stand aside, good bearer. Boyet, you can carve.
 64660     Break up this capon.
 64661   BOYET. I am bound to serve.
 64662     This letter is mistook; it importeth none here.
 64663     It is writ to Jaquenetta.
 64664   PRINCESS OF FRANCE. We will read it, I swear.
 64665     Break the neck of the wax, and every one give ear.
 64666   BOYET. [Reads] 'By heaven, that thou art fair is most infallible;
 64667     true that thou art beauteous; truth itself that thou art lovely.
 64668     More fairer than fair, beautiful than beauteous, truer than truth
 64669     itself, have commiseration on thy heroical vassal. The
 64670     magnanimous and most illustrate king Cophetua set eye upon the
 64671     pernicious and indubitate beggar Zenelophon; and he it was that
 64672     might rightly say, 'Veni, vidi, vici'; which to annothanize in
 64673     the vulgar,- O base and obscure vulgar!- videlicet, He came, saw,
 64674     and overcame. He came, one; saw, two; overcame, three. Who came?-
 64675     the king. Why did he come?- to see. Why did he see?-to overcome.
 64676     To whom came he?- to the beggar. What saw he?- the beggar. Who
 64677     overcame he?- the beggar. The conclusion is victory; on whose
 64678     side?- the king's. The captive is enrich'd; on whose side?- the
 64679     beggar's. The catastrophe is a nuptial; on whose side?- the
 64680     king's. No, on both in one, or one in both. I am the king, for so
 64681     stands the comparison; thou the beggar, for so witnesseth thy
 64682     lowliness. Shall I command thy love? I may. Shall I enforce thy
 64683     love? I could. Shall I entreat thy love? I will. What shalt thou
 64684     exchange for rags?- robes, for tittles?- titles, for thyself?
 64685     -me. Thus expecting thy reply, I profane my lips on thy foot, my
 64686     eyes on thy picture, and my heart on thy every part.
 64687                   Thine in the dearest design of industry,
 64688                                            DON ADRIANO DE ARMADO.
 64689 
 64690     'Thus dost thou hear the Nemean lion roar
 64691     'Gainst thee, thou lamb, that standest as his prey;
 64692     Submissive fall his princely feet before,
 64693     And he from forage will incline to play.
 64694     But if thou strive, poor soul, what are thou then?
 64695     Food for his rage, repasture for his den.'
 64696   PRINCESS OF FRANCE. What plume of feathers is he that indited this
 64697       letter?
 64698     What vane? What weathercock? Did you ever hear better?
 64699   BOYET. I am much deceived but I remember the style.
 64700   PRINCESS OF FRANCE. Else your memory is bad, going o'er it
 64701     erewhile.
 64702   BOYET. This Armado is a Spaniard, that keeps here in court;
 64703     A phantasime, a Monarcho, and one that makes sport
 64704     To the Prince and his book-mates.
 64705   PRINCESS OF FRANCE. Thou fellow, a word.
 64706     Who gave thee this letter?
 64707   COSTARD. I told you: my lord.
 64708   PRINCESS OF FRANCE. To whom shouldst thou give it?
 64709   COSTARD. From my lord to my lady.
 64710   PRINCESS OF FRANCE. From which lord to which lady?
 64711   COSTARD. From my Lord Berowne, a good master of mine,
 64712     To a lady of France that he call'd Rosaline.
 64713   PRINCESS OF FRANCE. Thou hast mistaken his letter. Come, lords,
 64714       away.
 64715     [To ROSALINE] Here, sweet, put up this; 'twill be thine another
 64716       day.                             Exeunt PRINCESS and TRAIN
 64717   BOYET. Who is the shooter? who is the shooter?
 64718   ROSALINE. Shall I teach you to know?
 64719   BOYET. Ay, my continent of beauty.
 64720   ROSALINE. Why, she that bears the bow.
 64721     Finely put off!
 64722   BOYET. My lady goes to kill horns; but, if thou marry,
 64723     Hang me by the neck, if horns that year miscarry.
 64724     Finely put on!
 64725   ROSALINE. Well then, I am the shooter.
 64726   BOYET. And who is your deer?
 64727   ROSALINE. If we choose by the horns, yourself come not near.
 64728     Finely put on indeed!
 64729   MARIA. You Still wrangle with her, Boyet, and she strikes at the
 64730     brow.
 64731   BOYET. But she herself is hit lower. Have I hit her now?
 64732   ROSALINE. Shall I come upon thee with an old saying, that was a man
 64733     when King Pepin of France was a little boy, as touching the hit
 64734     it?
 64735   BOYET. So I may answer thee with one as old, that was a woman when
 64736     Queen Guinever of Britain was a little wench, as touching the hit
 64737     it.
 64738   ROSALINE. [Singing]
 64739             Thou canst not hit it, hit it, hit it,
 64740             Thou canst not hit it, my good man.
 64741   BOYET.    An I cannot, cannot, cannot,
 64742             An I cannot, another can.
 64743                                    Exeunt ROSALINE and KATHARINE
 64744   COSTARD. By my troth, most pleasant! How both did fit it!
 64745   MARIA. A mark marvellous well shot; for they both did hit it.
 64746   BOYET. A mark! O, mark but that mark! A mark, says my lady!
 64747     Let the mark have a prick in't, to mete at, if it may be.
 64748   MARIA. Wide o' the bow-hand! I' faith, your hand is out.
 64749   COSTARD. Indeed, 'a must shoot nearer, or he'll ne'er hit the
 64750     clout.
 64751   BOYET. An if my hand be out, then belike your hand is in.
 64752   COSTARD. Then will she get the upshoot by cleaving the pin.
 64753   MARIA. Come, come, you talk greasily; your lips grow foul.
 64754   COSTARD. She's too hard for you at pricks, sir; challenge her to
 64755     bowl.
 64756   BOYET. I fear too much rubbing; good-night, my good owl.
 64757                                           Exeunt BOYET and MARIA
 64758   COSTARD. By my soul, a swain, a most simple clown!
 64759     Lord, Lord! how the ladies and I have put him down!
 64760     O' my troth, most sweet jests, most incony vulgar wit!
 64761     When it comes so smoothly off, so obscenely, as it were, so fit.
 64762     Armado a th' t'one side- O, a most dainty man!
 64763     To see him walk before a lady and to bear her fan!
 64764     To see him kiss his hand, and how most sweetly 'a will swear!
 64765     And his page a t' other side, that handful of wit!
 64766     Ah, heavens, it is a most pathetical nit!
 64767     Sola, sola!                                     Exit COSTARD
 64768 
 64769 
 64770 
 64771 
 64772 SCENE II.
 64773 The park
 64774 
 64775 From the shooting within, enter HOLOFERNES, SIR NATHANIEL, and DULL
 64776 
 64777   NATHANIEL. Very reverent sport, truly; and done in the testimony of
 64778     a good conscience.
 64779   HOLOFERNES. The deer was, as you know, sanguis, in blood; ripe as
 64780     the pomewater, who now hangeth like a jewel in the ear of caelo,
 64781     the sky, the welkin, the heaven; and anon falleth like a crab on
 64782     the face of terra, the soil, the land, the earth.
 64783   NATHANIEL. Truly, Master Holofernes, the epithets are sweetly
 64784     varied, like a scholar at the least; but, sir, I assure ye it was
 64785     a buck of the first head.
 64786   HOLOFERNES. Sir Nathaniel, haud credo.
 64787   DULL. 'Twas not a haud credo; 'twas a pricket.
 64788   HOLOFERNES. Most barbarous intimation! yet a kind of insinuation,
 64789     as it were, in via, in way, of explication; facere, as it were,
 64790     replication, or rather, ostentare, to show, as it were, his
 64791     inclination, after his undressed, unpolished, uneducated,
 64792     unpruned, untrained, or rather unlettered, or ratherest
 64793     unconfirmed fashion, to insert again my haud credo for a deer.
 64794   DULL. I Said the deer was not a haud credo; 'twas a pricket.
 64795   HOLOFERNES. Twice-sod simplicity, bis coctus!
 64796     O thou monster Ignorance, how deformed dost thou look!
 64797   NATHANIEL. Sir, he hath never fed of the dainties that are bred in
 64798       a book;
 64799     He hath not eat paper, as it were; he hath not drunk ink; his
 64800     intellect is not replenished; he is only an animal, only sensible
 64801     in the duller parts;
 64802     And such barren plants are set before us that we thankful should
 64803       be-
 64804     Which we of taste and feeling are- for those parts that do
 64805       fructify in us more than he.
 64806     For as it would ill become me to be vain, indiscreet, or a fool,
 64807     So, were there a patch set on learning, to see him in a school.
 64808     But, omne bene, say I, being of an old father's mind:
 64809     Many can brook the weather that love not the wind.
 64810   DULL. You two are book-men: can you tell me by your wit
 64811     What was a month old at Cain's birth that's not five weeks old as
 64812       yet?
 64813   HOLOFERNES. Dictynna, goodman Dull; Dictynna, goodman Dull.
 64814   DULL. What is Dictynna?
 64815   NATHANIEL. A title to Phoebe, to Luna, to the moon.
 64816   HOLOFERNES. The moon was a month old when Adam was no more,
 64817     And raught not to five weeks when he came to five-score.
 64818     Th' allusion holds in the exchange.
 64819   DULL. 'Tis true, indeed; the collusion holds in the exchange.
 64820   HOLOFERNES. God comfort thy capacity! I say th' allusion holds in
 64821     the exchange.
 64822   DULL. And I say the polusion holds in the exchange; for the moon is
 64823     never but a month old; and I say, beside, that 'twas a pricket
 64824     that the Princess kill'd.
 64825   HOLOFERNES. Sir Nathaniel, will you hear an extemporal epitaph on
 64826     the death of the deer? And, to humour the ignorant, call the deer
 64827     the Princess kill'd a pricket.
 64828   NATHANIEL. Perge, good Master Holofernes, perge, so it shall please
 64829     you to abrogate scurrility.
 64830   HOLOFERNES. I Will something affect the letter, for it argues
 64831     facility.
 64832 
 64833     The preyful Princess pierc'd and prick'd a pretty pleasing
 64834       pricket.
 64835     Some say a sore; but not a sore till now made sore with shooting.
 64836     The dogs did yell; put el to sore, then sorel jumps from thicket-
 64837     Or pricket sore, or else sorel; the people fall a-hooting.
 64838     If sore be sore, then L to sore makes fifty sores o' sorel.
 64839     Of one sore I an hundred make by adding but one more L.
 64840 
 64841   NATHANIEL. A rare talent!
 64842   DULL. [Aside] If a talent be a claw, look how he claws him with a
 64843     talent.
 64844   HOLOFERNES. This is a gift that I have, simple, simple; a foolish
 64845     extravagant spirit, full of forms, figures, shapes, objects,
 64846     ideas, apprehensions, motions, revolutions. These are begot in
 64847     the ventricle of memory, nourish'd in the womb of pia mater, and
 64848     delivered upon the mellowing of occasion. But the gift is good in
 64849     those in whom it is acute, and I am thankful for it.
 64850   NATHANIEL. Sir, I praise the Lord for you, and so may my
 64851     parishioners; for their sons are well tutor'd by you, and their
 64852     daughters profit very greatly under you. You are a good member of
 64853     the commonwealth.
 64854   HOLOFERNES. Mehercle, if their sons be ingenious, they shall want
 64855     no instruction; if their daughters be capable, I will put it to
 64856     them; but, vir sapit qui pauca loquitur. A soul feminine saluteth
 64857     us.
 64858 
 64859                     Enter JAQUENETTA and COSTARD
 64860 
 64861   JAQUENETTA. God give you good morrow, Master Person.
 64862   HOLOFERNES. Master Person, quasi pers-one. And if one should be
 64863     pierc'd which is the one?
 64864   COSTARD. Marry, Master Schoolmaster, he that is likest to a
 64865     hogshead.
 64866   HOLOFERNES. Piercing a hogshead! A good lustre of conceit in a turf
 64867     of earth; fire enough for a flint, pearl enough for a swine; 'tis
 64868     pretty; it is well.
 64869   JAQUENETTA. Good Master Parson, be so good as read me this letter;
 64870     it was given me by Costard, and sent me from Don Armado. I
 64871     beseech you read it.
 64872   HOLOFERNES. Fauste, precor gelida quando pecus omne sub umbra
 64873     Ruminat-
 64874     and so forth. Ah, good old Mantuan! I may speak of thee as
 64875     the traveller doth of Venice:
 64876                    Venetia, Venetia,
 64877                    Chi non ti vede, non ti pretia.
 64878     Old Mantuan, old Mantuan! Who understandeth thee not,
 64879     loves thee not-
 64880                       Ut, re, sol, la, mi, fa.
 64881     Under pardon, sir, what are the contents? or rather as
 64882     Horace says in his- What, my soul, verses?
 64883   NATHANIEL. Ay, sir, and very learned.
 64884   HOLOFERNES. Let me hear a staff, a stanze, a verse; lege, domine.
 64885   NATHANIEL. [Reads] 'If love make me forsworn, how shall I swear to
 64886       love?
 64887     Ah, never faith could hold, if not to beauty vowed!
 64888     Though to myself forsworn, to thee I'll faithful prove;
 64889     Those thoughts to me were oaks, to thee like osiers bowed.
 64890     Study his bias leaves, and makes his book thine eyes,
 64891     Where all those pleasures live that art would comprehend.
 64892     If knowledge be the mark, to know thee shall suffice;
 64893     Well learned is that tongue that well can thee commend;
 64894     All ignorant that soul that sees thee without wonder;
 64895     Which is to me some praise that I thy parts admire.
 64896     Thy eye Jove's lightning bears, thy voice his dreadful thunder,
 64897     Which, not to anger bent, is music and sweet fire.
 64898     Celestial as thou art, O, pardon love this wrong,
 64899     That singes heaven's praise with such an earthly tongue.'
 64900   HOLOFERNES. You find not the apostrophas, and so miss the accent:
 64901     let me supervise the canzonet. Here are only numbers ratified;
 64902     but, for the elegancy, facility, and golden cadence of poesy,
 64903     caret. Ovidius Naso was the man. And why, indeed, 'Naso' but for
 64904     smelling out the odoriferous flowers of fancy, the jerks of
 64905     invention? Imitari is nothing: so doth the hound his master, the
 64906     ape his keeper, the tired horse his rider. But, damosella virgin,
 64907     was this directed to you?
 64908   JAQUENETTA. Ay, sir, from one Monsieur Berowne, one of the strange
 64909     queen's lords.
 64910   HOLOFERNES. I will overglance the superscript: 'To the snow-white
 64911     hand of the most beauteous Lady Rosaline.' I will look again on
 64912     the intellect of the letter, for the nomination of the party
 64913     writing to the person written unto: 'Your Ladyship's in all
 64914     desired employment, Berowne.' Sir Nathaniel, this Berowne is one
 64915     of the votaries with the King; and here he hath framed a letter
 64916     to a sequent of the stranger queen's which accidentally, or by
 64917     the way of progression, hath miscarried. Trip and go, my sweet;
 64918     deliver this paper into the royal hand of the King; it may
 64919     concern much. Stay not thy compliment; I forgive thy duty. Adieu.
 64920   JAQUENETTA. Good Costard, go with me. Sir, God save your life!
 64921   COSTARD. Have with thee, my girl.
 64922                                    Exeunt COSTARD and JAQUENETTA
 64923   NATHANIEL. Sir, you have done this in the fear of God, very
 64924     religiously; and, as a certain father saith-
 64925   HOLOFERNES. Sir, tell not me of the father; I do fear colourable
 64926     colours. But to return to the verses: did they please you, Sir
 64927     Nathaniel?
 64928   NATHANIEL. Marvellous well for the pen.
 64929   HOLOFERNES. I do dine to-day at the father's of a certain pupil of
 64930     mine; where, if, before repast, it shall please you to gratify
 64931     the table with a grace, I will, on my privilege I have with the
 64932     parents of the foresaid child or pupil, undertake your ben
 64933     venuto; where I will prove those verses to be very unlearned,
 64934     neither savouring of poetry, wit, nor invention. I beseech your
 64935     society.
 64936   NATHANIEL. And thank you too; for society, saith the text, is the
 64937     happiness of life.
 64938   HOLOFERNES. And certes, the text most infallibly concludes it.
 64939     [To DULL] Sir, I do invite you too; you shall not say me nay:
 64940     pauca verba. Away; the gentles are at their game, and we will to
 64941     our recreation.                                       Exeunt
 64942 
 64943 
 64944 
 64945 
 64946 SCENE III.
 64947 The park
 64948 
 64949 Enter BEROWNE, with a paper his band, alone
 64950 
 64951   BEROWNE. The King he is hunting the deer: I am coursing myself.
 64952     They have pitch'd a toil: I am tolling in a pitch- pitch that
 64953     defiles. Defile! a foul word. Well, 'set thee down, sorrow!' for
 64954     so they say the fool said, and so say I, and I am the fool. Well
 64955     proved, wit. By the Lord, this love is as mad as Ajax: it kills
 64956     sheep; it kills me- I a sheep. Well proved again o' my side. I
 64957     will not love; if I do, hang me. I' faith, I will not. O, but her
 64958     eye! By this light, but for her eye, I would not love her- yes,
 64959     for her two eyes. Well, I do nothing in the world but lie, and
 64960     lie in my throat. By heaven, I do love; and it hath taught me to
 64961     rhyme, and to be melancholy; and here is part of my rhyme, and
 64962     here my melancholy. Well, she hath one o' my sonnets already; the
 64963     clown bore it, the fool sent it, and the lady hath it: sweet
 64964     clown, sweeter fool, sweetest lady! By the world, I would not
 64965     care a pin if the other three were in. Here comes one with a
 64966     paper; God give him grace to groan!
 64967                                             [Climbs into a tree]
 64968 
 64969                       Enter the KING, with a paper
 64970 
 64971   KING. Ay me!
 64972   BEROWNE. Shot, by heaven! Proceed, sweet Cupid; thou hast thump'd
 64973     him with thy bird-bolt under the left pap. In faith, secrets!
 64974   KING. [Reads]
 64975       'So sweet a kiss the golden sun gives not
 64976       To those fresh morning drops upon the rose,
 64977       As thy eye-beams, when their fresh rays have smote
 64978       The night of dew that on my cheeks down flows;
 64979       Nor shines the silver moon one half so bright
 64980       Through the transparent bosom of the deep,
 64981       As doth thy face through tears of mine give light.
 64982       Thou shin'st in every tear that I do weep;
 64983       No drop but as a coach doth carry thee;
 64984       So ridest thou triumphing in my woe.
 64985       Do but behold the tears that swell in me,
 64986       And they thy glory through my grief will show.
 64987       But do not love thyself; then thou wilt keep
 64988       My tears for glasses, and still make me weep.
 64989       O queen of queens! how far dost thou excel
 64990       No thought can think nor tongue of mortal tell.'
 64991     How shall she know my griefs? I'll drop the paper-
 64992     Sweet leaves, shade folly. Who is he comes here?
 64993                                                    [Steps aside]
 64994 
 64995                   Enter LONGAVILLE, with a paper
 64996 
 64997     What, Longaville, and reading! Listen, car.
 64998   BEROWNE. Now, in thy likeness, one more fool appear!
 64999   LONGAVILLE. Ay me, I am forsworn!
 65000   BEROWNE. Why, he comes in like a perjure, wearing papers.
 65001   KING. In love, I hope; sweet fellowship in shame!
 65002   BEROWNE. One drunkard loves another of the name.
 65003   LONGAVILLE. Am I the first that have been perjur'd so?
 65004   BEROWNE. I could put thee in comfort: not by two that I know;
 65005     Thou makest the triumviry, the corner-cap of society,
 65006     The shape of Love's Tyburn that hangs up simplicity.
 65007   LONGAVILLE. I fear these stubborn lines lack power to move.
 65008     O sweet Maria, empress of my love!
 65009     These numbers will I tear, and write in prose.
 65010   BEROWNE. O, rhymes are guards on wanton Cupid's hose:
 65011     Disfigure not his slop.
 65012   LONGAVILLE. This same shall go.          [He reads the sonnet]
 65013       'Did not the heavenly rhetoric of thine eye,
 65014       'Gainst whom the world cannot hold argument,
 65015       Persuade my heart to this false perjury?
 65016       Vows for thee broke deserve not punishment.
 65017       A woman I forswore; but I will prove,
 65018       Thou being a goddess, I forswore not thee:
 65019       My vow was earthly, thou a heavenly love;
 65020       Thy grace being gain'd cures all disgrace in me.
 65021       Vows are but breath, and breath a vapour is;
 65022       Then thou, fair sun, which on my earth dost shine,
 65023       Exhal'st this vapour-vow; in thee it is.
 65024       If broken, then it is no fault of mine;
 65025       If by me broke, what fool is not so wise
 65026       To lose an oath to win a paradise?'
 65027   BEROWNE. This is the liver-vein, which makes flesh a deity,
 65028     A green goose a goddess- pure, pure idolatry.
 65029     God amend us, God amend! We are much out o' th' way.
 65030 
 65031                       Enter DUMAIN, with a paper
 65032 
 65033   LONGAVILLE. By whom shall I send this?- Company! Stay.
 65034                                                    [Steps aside]
 65035   BEROWNE. 'All hid, all hid'- an old infant play.
 65036     Like a demigod here sit I in the sky,
 65037     And wretched fools' secrets heedfully o'er-eye.
 65038     More sacks to the mill! O heavens, I have my wish!
 65039     Dumain transformed! Four woodcocks in a dish!
 65040   DUMAIN. O most divine Kate!
 65041   BEROWNE. O most profane coxcomb!
 65042   DUMAIN. By heaven, the wonder in a mortal eye!
 65043   BEROWNE. By earth, she is not, corporal: there you lie.
 65044   DUMAIN. Her amber hairs for foul hath amber quoted.
 65045   BEROWNE. An amber-colour'd raven was well noted.
 65046   DUMAIN. As upright as the cedar.
 65047   BEROWNE. Stoop, I say;
 65048     Her shoulder is with child.
 65049   DUMAIN. As fair as day.
 65050   BEROWNE. Ay, as some days; but then no sun must shine.
 65051   DUMAIN. O that I had my wish!
 65052   LONGAVILLE. And I had mine!
 65053   KING. And I mine too,.good Lord!
 65054   BEROWNE. Amen, so I had mine! Is not that a good word?
 65055   DUMAIN. I would forget her; but a fever she
 65056     Reigns in my blood, and will rememb'red be.
 65057   BEROWNE. A fever in your blood? Why, then incision
 65058     Would let her out in saucers. Sweet misprision!
 65059   DUMAIN. Once more I'll read the ode that I have writ.
 65060   BEROWNE. Once more I'll mark how love can vary wit.
 65061   DUMAIN. [Reads]
 65062         'On a day-alack the day!-
 65063         Love, whose month is ever May,
 65064         Spied a blossom passing fair
 65065         Playing in the wanton air.
 65066         Through the velvet leaves the wind,
 65067         All unseen, can passage find;
 65068         That the lover, sick to death,
 65069         Wish'd himself the heaven's breath.
 65070         "Air," quoth he "thy cheeks may blow;
 65071         Air, would I might triumph so!
 65072         But, alack, my hand is sworn
 65073         Ne'er to pluck thee from thy thorn;
 65074         Vow, alack, for youth unmeet,
 65075         Youth so apt to pluck a sweet.
 65076         Do not call it sin in me
 65077         That I am forsworn for thee;
 65078         Thou for whom Jove would swear
 65079         Juno but an Ethiope were;
 65080         And deny himself for Jove,
 65081         Turning mortal for thy love."'
 65082     This will I send; and something else more plain
 65083     That shall express my true love's fasting pain.
 65084     O, would the King, Berowne and Longaville,
 65085     Were lovers too! Ill, to example ill,
 65086     Would from my forehead wipe a perjur'd note;
 65087     For none offend where all alike do dote.
 65088   LONGAVILLE. [Advancing] Dumain, thy love is far from charity,
 65089     That in love's grief desir'st society;
 65090     You may look pale, but I should blush, I know,
 65091     To be o'erheard and taken napping so.
 65092   KING. [Advancing] Come, sir, you blush; as his, your case is such.
 65093     You chide at him, offending twice as much:
 65094     You do not love Maria! Longaville
 65095     Did never sonnet for her sake compile;
 65096     Nor never lay his wreathed arms athwart
 65097     His loving bosom, to keep down his heart.
 65098     I have been closely shrouded in this bush,
 65099     And mark'd you both, and for you both did blush.
 65100     I heard your guilty rhymes, observ'd your fashion,
 65101     Saw sighs reek from you, noted well your passion.
 65102     'Ay me!' says one. 'O Jove!' the other cries.
 65103     One, her hairs were gold; crystal the other's eyes.
 65104     [To LONGAVILLE] You would for paradise break faith and troth;
 65105     [To Dumain] And Jove for your love would infringe an oath.
 65106     What will Berowne say when that he shall hear
 65107     Faith infringed which such zeal did swear?
 65108     How will he scorn, how will he spend his wit!
 65109     How will he triumph, leap, and laugh at it!
 65110     For all the wealth that ever I did see,
 65111     I would not have him know so much by me.
 65112   BEROWNE. [Descending] Now step I forth to whip hypocrisy,
 65113     Ah, good my liege, I pray thee pardon me.
 65114     Good heart, what grace hast thou thus to reprove
 65115     These worms for loving, that art most in love?
 65116     Your eyes do make no coaches; in your tears
 65117     There is no certain princess that appears;
 65118     You'll not be perjur'd; 'tis a hateful thing;
 65119     Tush, none but minstrels like of sonneting.
 65120     But are you not ashamed? Nay, are you not,
 65121     All three of you, to be thus much o'ershot?
 65122     You found his mote; the King your mote did see;
 65123     But I a beam do find in each of three.
 65124     O, what a scene of fool'ry have I seen,
 65125     Of sighs, of groans, of sorrow, and of teen!
 65126     O, me, with what strict patience have I sat,
 65127     To see a king transformed to a gnat!
 65128     To see great Hercules whipping a gig,
 65129     And profound Solomon to tune a jig,
 65130     And Nestor play at push-pin with the boys,
 65131     And critic Timon laugh at idle toys!
 65132     Where lies thy grief, O, tell me, good Dumain?
 65133     And, gentle Longaville, where lies thy pain?
 65134     And where my liege's? All about the breast.
 65135     A caudle, ho!
 65136   KING. Too bitter is thy jest.
 65137     Are we betrayed thus to thy over-view?
 65138   BEROWNE. Not you by me, but I betrayed to you.
 65139     I that am honest, I that hold it sin
 65140     To break the vow I am engaged in;
 65141     I am betrayed by keeping company
 65142     With men like you, men of inconstancy.
 65143     When shall you see me write a thing in rhyme?
 65144     Or groan for Joan? or spend a minute's time
 65145     In pruning me? When shall you hear that I
 65146     Will praise a hand, a foot, a face, an eye,
 65147     A gait, a state, a brow, a breast, a waist,
 65148     A leg, a limb-
 65149   KING. Soft! whither away so fast?
 65150     A true man or a thief that gallops so?
 65151   BEROWNE. I post from love; good lover, let me go.
 65152 
 65153                  Enter JAQUENETTA and COSTARD
 65154 
 65155   JAQUENETTA. God bless the King!
 65156   KING. What present hast thou there?
 65157   COSTARD. Some certain treason.
 65158   KING. What makes treason here?
 65159   COSTARD. Nay, it makes nothing, sir.
 65160   KING. If it mar nothing neither,
 65161     The treason and you go in peace away together.
 65162   JAQUENETTA. I beseech your Grace, let this letter be read;
 65163     Our person misdoubts it: 'twas treason, he said.
 65164   KING. Berowne, read it over.        [BEROWNE reads the letter]
 65165     Where hadst thou it?
 65166   JAQUENETTA. Of Costard.
 65167   KING. Where hadst thou it?
 65168   COSTARD. Of Dun Adramadio, Dun Adramadio.
 65169                                       [BEROWNE tears the letter]
 65170   KING. How now! What is in you? Why dost thou tear it?
 65171   BEROWNE. A toy, my liege, a toy! Your Grace needs not fear it.
 65172   LONGAVILLE. It did move him to passion, and therefore let's hear
 65173      it.
 65174   DUMAIN. It is Berowne's writing, and here is his name.
 65175                                        [Gathering up the pieces]
 65176   BEROWNE. [ To COSTARD] Ah, you whoreson loggerhead, you were born
 65177       to do me shame.
 65178     Guilty, my lord, guilty! I confess, I confess.
 65179   KING. What?
 65180   BEROWNE. That you three fools lack'd me fool to make up the mess;
 65181     He, he, and you- and you, my liege!- and I
 65182     Are pick-purses in love, and we deserve to die.
 65183     O, dismiss this audience, and I shall tell you more.
 65184     DUMAIN. Now the number is even.
 65185   BEROWNE. True, true, we are four.
 65186     Will these turtles be gone?
 65187   KING. Hence, sirs, away.
 65188   COSTARD. Walk aside the true folk, and let the traitors stay.
 65189                                    Exeunt COSTARD and JAQUENETTA
 65190   BEROWNE. Sweet lords, sweet lovers, O, let us embrace!
 65191     As true we are as flesh and blood can be.
 65192     The sea will ebb and flow, heaven show his face;
 65193     Young blood doth not obey an old decree.
 65194     We cannot cross the cause why we were born,
 65195     Therefore of all hands must we be forsworn.
 65196   KING. What, did these rent lines show some love of thine?
 65197   BEROWNE. 'Did they?' quoth you. Who sees the heavenly Rosaline
 65198     That, like a rude and savage man of Inde
 65199     At the first op'ning of the gorgeous east,
 65200     Bows not his vassal head and, strucken blind,
 65201     Kisses the base ground with obedient breast?
 65202     What peremptory eagle-sighted eye
 65203     Dares look upon the heaven of her brow
 65204     That is not blinded by her majesty?
 65205   KING. What zeal, what fury hath inspir'd thee now?
 65206     My love, her mistress, is a gracious moon;
 65207     She, an attending star, scarce seen a light.
 65208   BEROWNE. My eyes are then no eyes, nor I Berowne.
 65209     O, but for my love, day would turn to night!
 65210     Of all complexions the cull'd sovereignty
 65211     Do meet, as at a fair, in her fair cheek,
 65212     Where several worthies make one dignity,
 65213     Where nothing wants that want itself doth seek.
 65214     Lend me the flourish of all gentle tongues-
 65215     Fie, painted rhetoric! O, she needs it not!
 65216     To things of sale a seller's praise belongs:
 65217     She passes praise; then praise too short doth blot.
 65218     A wither'd hermit, five-score winters worn,
 65219     Might shake off fifty, looking in her eye.
 65220     Beauty doth varnish age, as if new-born,
 65221     And gives the crutch the cradle's infancy.
 65222     O, 'tis the sun that maketh all things shine!
 65223   KING. By heaven, thy love is black as ebony.
 65224   BEROWNE. Is ebony like her? O wood divine!
 65225     A wife of such wood were felicity.
 65226     O, who can give an oath? Where is a book?
 65227     That I may swear beauty doth beauty lack,
 65228     If that she learn not of her eye to look.
 65229     No face is fair that is not full so black.
 65230   KING. O paradox! Black is the badge of hell,
 65231     The hue of dungeons, and the school of night;
 65232     And beauty's crest becomes the heavens well.
 65233   BEROWNE. Devils soonest tempt, resembling spirits of light.
 65234     O, if in black my lady's brows be deckt,
 65235     It mourns that painting and usurping hair
 65236     Should ravish doters with a false aspect;
 65237     And therefore is she born to make black fair.
 65238     Her favour turns the fashion of the days;
 65239     For native blood is counted painting now;
 65240     And therefore red that would avoid dispraise
 65241     Paints itself black, to imitate her brow.
 65242   DUMAIN. To look like her are chimney-sweepers black.
 65243   LONGAVILLE. And since her time are colliers counted bright.
 65244   KING. And Ethiopes of their sweet complexion crack.
 65245   DUMAIN. Dark needs no candles now, for dark is light.
 65246   BEROWNE. Your mistresses dare never come in rain
 65247     For fear their colours should be wash'd away.
 65248   KING. 'Twere good yours did; for, sir, to tell you plain,
 65249     I'll find a fairer face not wash'd to-day.
 65250   BEROWNE. I'll prove her fair, or talk till doomsday here.
 65251   KING. No devil will fright thee then so much as she.
 65252   DUMAIN. I never knew man hold vile stuff so dear.
 65253   LONGAVILLE. Look, here's thy love: my foot and her face see.
 65254                                               [Showing his shoe]
 65255   BEROWNE. O, if the streets were paved with thine eyes,
 65256     Her feet were much too dainty for such tread!
 65257   DUMAIN. O vile! Then, as she goes, what upward lies
 65258     The street should see as she walk'd overhead.
 65259   KING. But what of this? Are we not all in love?
 65260   BEROWNE. Nothing so sure; and thereby all forsworn.
 65261   KING. Then leave this chat; and, good Berowne, now prove
 65262     Our loving lawful, and our faith not torn.
 65263   DUMAIN. Ay, marry, there; some flattery for this evil.
 65264   LONGAVILLE. O, some authority how to proceed;
 65265     Some tricks, some quillets, how to cheat the devil!
 65266   DUMAIN. Some salve for perjury.
 65267   BEROWNE. 'Tis more than need.
 65268     Have at you, then, affection's men-at-arms.
 65269     Consider what you first did swear unto:
 65270     To fast, to study, and to see no woman-
 65271     Flat treason 'gainst the kingly state of youth.
 65272     Say, can you fast? Your stomachs are too young,
 65273     And abstinence engenders maladies.
 65274     And, where that you you have vow'd to study, lords,
 65275     In that each of you have forsworn his book,
 65276     Can you still dream, and pore, and thereon look?
 65277     For when would you, my lord, or you, or you,
 65278     Have found the ground of study's excellence
 65279     Without the beauty of a woman's face?
 65280     From women's eyes this doctrine I derive:
 65281     They are the ground, the books, the academes,
 65282     From whence doth spring the true Promethean fire.
 65283     Why, universal plodding poisons up
 65284     The nimble spirits in the arteries,
 65285     As motion and long-during action tires
 65286     The sinewy vigour of the traveller.
 65287     Now, for not looking on a woman's face,
 65288     You have in that forsworn the use of eyes,
 65289     And study too, the causer of your vow;
 65290     For where is author in the world
 65291     Teaches such beauty as a woman's eye?
 65292     Learning is but an adjunct to ourself,
 65293     And where we are our learning likewise is;
 65294     Then when ourselves we see in ladies' eyes,
 65295     With ourselves.
 65296     Do we not likewise see our learning there?
 65297     O, we have made a vow to study, lords,
 65298     And in that vow we have forsworn our books.
 65299     For when would you, my liege, or you, or you,
 65300     In leaden contemplation have found out
 65301     Such fiery numbers as the prompting eyes
 65302     Of beauty's tutors have enrich'd you with?
 65303     Other slow arts entirely keep the brain;
 65304     And therefore, finding barren practisers,
 65305     Scarce show a harvest of their heavy toil;
 65306     But love, first learned in a lady's eyes,
 65307     Lives not alone immured in the brain,
 65308     But with the motion of all elements
 65309     Courses as swift as thought in every power,
 65310     And gives to every power a double power,
 65311     Above their functions and their offices.
 65312     It adds a precious seeing to the eye:
 65313     A lover's eyes will gaze an eagle blind.
 65314     A lover's ear will hear the lowest sound,
 65315     When the suspicious head of theft is stopp'd.
 65316     Love's feeling is more soft and sensible
 65317     Than are the tender horns of cockled snails:
 65318     Love's tongue proves dainty Bacchus gross in taste.
 65319     For valour, is not Love a Hercules,
 65320     Still climbing trees in the Hesperides?
 65321     Subtle as Sphinx; as sweet and musical
 65322     As bright Apollo's lute, strung with his hair.
 65323     And when Love speaks, the voice of all the gods
 65324     Make heaven drowsy with the harmony.
 65325     Never durst poet touch a pen to write
 65326     Until his ink were temp'red with Love's sighs;
 65327     O, then his lines would ravish savage ears,
 65328     And plant in tyrants mild humility.
 65329     From women's eyes this doctrine I derive.
 65330     They sparkle still the right Promethean fire;
 65331     They are the books, the arts, the academes,
 65332     That show, contain, and nourish, all the world,
 65333     Else none at all in aught proves excellent.
 65334     Then fools you were these women to forswear;
 65335     Or, keeping what is sworn, you will prove fools.
 65336     For wisdom's sake, a word that all men love;
 65337     Or for Love's sake, a word that loves all men;
 65338     Or for men's sake, the authors of these women;
 65339     Or women's sake, by whom we men are men-
 65340     Let us once lose our oaths to find ourselves,
 65341     Or else we lose ourselves to keep our oaths.
 65342     It is religion to be thus forsworn;
 65343     For charity itself fulfils the law,
 65344     And who can sever love from charity?
 65345   KING. Saint Cupid, then! and, soldiers, to the field!
 65346   BEROWNE. Advance your standards, and upon them, lords;
 65347     Pell-mell, down with them! be first advis'd,
 65348     In conflict, that you get the sun of them.
 65349   LONGAVILLE. Now to plain-dealing; lay these glozes by.
 65350     Shall we resolve to woo these girls of France?
 65351   KING. And win them too; therefore let us devise
 65352     Some entertainment for them in their tents.
 65353   BEROWNE. First, from the park let us conduct them thither;
 65354     Then homeward every man attach the hand
 65355     Of his fair mistress. In the afternoon
 65356     We will with some strange pastime solace them,
 65357     Such as the shortness of the time can shape;
 65358     For revels, dances, masks, and merry hours,
 65359     Forerun fair Love, strewing her way with flowers.
 65360   KING. Away, away! No time shall be omitted
 65361     That will betime, and may by us be fitted.
 65362   BEROWNE. Allons! allons! Sow'd cockle reap'd no corn,
 65363     And justice always whirls in equal measure.
 65364     Light wenches may prove plagues to men forsworn;
 65365     If so, our copper buys no better treasure.            Exeunt
 65366 
 65367 
 65368 
 65369 
 65370 <<THIS ELECTRONIC VERSION OF THE COMPLETE WORKS OF WILLIAM
 65371 SHAKESPEARE IS COPYRIGHT 1990-1993 BY WORLD LIBRARY, INC., AND IS
 65372 PROVIDED BY PROJECT GUTENBERG ETEXT OF ILLINOIS BENEDICTINE COLLEGE
 65373 WITH PERMISSION.  ELECTRONIC AND MACHINE READABLE COPIES MAY BE
 65374 DISTRIBUTED SO LONG AS SUCH COPIES (1) ARE FOR YOUR OR OTHERS
 65375 PERSONAL USE ONLY, AND (2) ARE NOT DISTRIBUTED OR USED
 65376 COMMERCIALLY.  PROHIBITED COMMERCIAL DISTRIBUTION INCLUDES BY ANY
 65377 SERVICE THAT CHARGES FOR DOWNLOAD TIME OR FOR MEMBERSHIP.>>
 65378 
 65379 
 65380 
 65381 ACT V. SCENE I.
 65382 The park
 65383 
 65384 Enter HOLOFERNES, SIR NATHANIEL, and DULL
 65385 
 65386   HOLOFERNES. Satis quod sufficit.
 65387   NATHANIEL. I praise God for you, sir. Your reasons at dinner have
 65388     been sharp and sententious; pleasant without scurrility, witty
 65389     without affection, audacious without impudency, learned without
 65390     opinion, and strange without heresy. I did converse this quondam
 65391     day with a companion of the King's who is intituled, nominated,
 65392     or called, Don Adriano de Armado.
 65393   HOLOFERNES. Novi hominem tanquam te. His humour is lofty, his
 65394     discourse peremptory, his tongue filed, his eye ambitious, his
 65395     gait majestical and his general behaviour vain, ridiculous, and
 65396     thrasonical. He is too picked, too spruce, too affected, too odd,
 65397     as it were, too peregrinate, as I may call it.
 65398   NATHANIEL. A most singular and choice epithet.
 65399                                       [Draws out his table-book]
 65400   HOLOFERNES. He draweth out the thread of his verbosity finer than
 65401     the staple of his argument. I abhor such fanatical phantasimes,
 65402     such insociable and point-devise companions; such rackers of
 65403     orthography, as to speak 'dout' fine, when he should say 'doubt';
 65404     'det' when he should pronounce 'debt'- d, e, b, t, not d, e, t.
 65405     He clepeth a calf 'cauf,' half 'hauf'; neighbour vocatur
 65406     'nebour'; 'neigh' abbreviated 'ne.' This is abhominable- which he
 65407     would call 'abbominable.' It insinuateth me of insanie: ne
 65408     intelligis, domine? to make frantic, lunatic.
 65409   NATHANIEL. Laus Deo, bone intelligo.
 65410   HOLOFERNES. 'Bone'?- 'bone' for 'bene.' Priscian a little
 65411     scratch'd; 'twill serve.
 65412 
 65413                  Enter ARMADO, MOTH, and COSTARD
 65414 
 65415   NATHANIEL. Videsne quis venit?
 65416   HOLOFERNES. Video, et gaudeo.
 65417   ARMADO. [To MOTH] Chirrah!
 65418   HOLOFERNES. Quare 'chirrah,' not 'sirrah'?
 65419   ARMADO. Men of peace, well encount'red.
 65420   HOLOFERNES. Most military sir, salutation.
 65421   MOTH. [Aside to COSTARD] They have been at a great feast of
 65422     languages and stol'n the scraps.
 65423   COSTARD. O, they have liv'd long on the alms-basket of words. I
 65424     marvel thy master hath not eaten thee for a word, for thou are
 65425     not so long by the head as honorificabilitudinitatibus; thou art
 65426     easier swallowed than a flap-dragon.
 65427   MOTH. Peace! the peal begins.
 65428   ARMADO. [To HOLOFERNES] Monsieur, are you not lett'red?
 65429   MOTH. Yes, yes; he teaches boys the hornbook. What is a, b, spelt
 65430     backward with the horn on his head?
 65431   HOLOFERNES. Ba, pueritia, with a horn added.
 65432   MOTH. Ba, most silly sheep with a horn. You hear his learning.
 65433   HOLOFERNES. Quis, quis, thou consonant?
 65434   MOTH. The third of the five vowels, if You repeat them; or the
 65435     fifth, if I.
 65436   HOLOFERNES. I will repeat them: a, e, I-
 65437   MOTH. The sheep; the other two concludes it: o, U.
 65438   ARMADO. Now, by the salt wave of the Mediterraneum, a sweet touch,
 65439     a quick venue of wit- snip, snap, quick and home. It rejoiceth my
 65440     intellect. True wit!
 65441   MOTH. Offer'd by a child to an old man; which is wit-old.
 65442   HOLOFERNES. What is the figure? What is the figure?
 65443   MOTH. Horns.
 65444   HOLOFERNES. Thou disputes like an infant; go whip thy gig.
 65445   MOTH. Lend me your horn to make one, and I will whip about your
 65446     infamy circum circa- a gig of a cuckold's horn.
 65447   COSTARD. An I had but one penny in the world, thou shouldst have it
 65448     to buy ginger-bread. Hold, there is the very remuneration I had
 65449     of thy master, thou halfpenny purse of wit, thou pigeon-egg of
 65450     discretion. O, an the heavens were so pleased that thou wert but
 65451     my bastard, what a joyful father wouldst thou make me! Go to;
 65452     thou hast it ad dunghill, at the fingers' ends, as they say.
 65453   HOLOFERNES. O, I smell false Latin; 'dunghill' for unguem.
 65454   ARMADO. Arts-man, preambulate; we will be singuled from the
 65455     barbarous. Do you not educate youth at the charge-house on the
 65456     top of the mountain?
 65457   HOLOFERNES. Or mons, the hill.
 65458   ARMADO. At your sweet pleasure, for the mountain.
 65459   HOLOFERNES. I do, sans question.
 65460   ARMADO. Sir, it is the King's most sweet pleasure and affection to
 65461     congratulate the Princess at her pavilion, in the posteriors of
 65462     this day; which the rude multitude call the afternoon.
 65463   HOLOFERNES. The posterior of the day, most generous sir, is liable,
 65464     congruent, and measurable, for the afternoon. The word is well
 65465     cull'd, chose, sweet, and apt, I do assure you, sir, I do assure.
 65466   ARMADO. Sir, the King is a noble gentleman, and my familiar, I do
 65467     assure ye, very good friend. For what is inward between us, let
 65468     it pass. I do beseech thee, remember thy courtesy. I beseech
 65469     thee, apparel thy head. And among other importunate and most
 65470     serious designs, and of great import indeed, too- but let that
 65471     pass; for I must tell thee it will please his Grace, by the
 65472     world, sometime to lean upon my poor shoulder, and with his royal
 65473     finger thus dally with my excrement, with my mustachio; but,
 65474     sweet heart, let that pass. By the world, I recount no fable:
 65475     some certain special honours it pleaseth his greatness to impart
 65476     to Armado, a soldier, a man of travel, that hath seen the world;
 65477     but let that pass. The very all of all is- but, sweet heart, I do
 65478     implore secrecy- that the King would have me present the
 65479     Princess, sweet chuck, with some delightful ostentation, or show,
 65480     or pageant, or antic, or firework. Now, understanding that the
 65481     curate and your sweet self are good at such eruptions and sudden
 65482     breaking-out of mirth, as it were, I have acquainted you withal,
 65483     to the end to crave your assistance.
 65484   HOLOFERNES. Sir, you shall present before her the Nine Worthies.
 65485     Sir Nathaniel, as concerning some entertainment of time, some
 65486     show in the posterior of this day, to be rend'red by our
 65487     assistance, the King's command, and this most gallant,
 65488     illustrate, and learned gentleman, before the Princess- I say
 65489     none so fit as to present the Nine Worthies.
 65490   NATHANIEL. Where will you find men worthy enough to present them?
 65491   HOLOFERNES. Joshua, yourself; myself, Alexander; this gallant
 65492     gentleman, Judas Maccabaeus; this swain, because of his great
 65493     limb or joint, shall pass Pompey the Great; the page, Hercules.
 65494   ARMADO. Pardon, sir; error: he is not quantity enough for that
 65495     Worthy's thumb; he is not so big as the end of his club.
 65496   HOLOFERNES. Shall I have audience? He shall present Hercules in
 65497     minority: his enter and exit shall be strangling a snake; and I
 65498     will have an apology for that purpose.
 65499   MOTH. An excellent device! So, if any of the audience hiss, you may
 65500     cry 'Well done, Hercules; now thou crushest the snake!' That is
 65501     the way to make an offence gracious, though few have the grace to
 65502     do it.
 65503   ARMADO. For the rest of the Worthies?
 65504   HOLOFERNES. I will play three myself.
 65505   MOTH. Thrice-worthy gentleman!
 65506   ARMADO. Shall I tell you a thing?
 65507   HOLOFERNES. We attend.
 65508   ARMADO. We will have, if this fadge not, an antic. I beseech you,
 65509     follow.
 65510   HOLOFERNES. Via, goodman Dull! Thou has spoken no word all this
 65511     while.
 65512   DULL. Nor understood none neither, sir.
 65513   HOLOFERNES. Allons! we will employ thee.
 65514   DULL. I'll make one in a dance, or so, or I will play
 65515     On the tabor to the Worthies, and let them dance the hay.
 65516   HOLOFERNES. Most dull, honest Dull! To our sport, away.
 65517                                                           Exeunt
 65518 
 65519 
 65520 
 65521 
 65522 SCENE II.
 65523 The park
 65524 
 65525 Enter the PRINCESS, MARIA, KATHARINE, and ROSALINE
 65526 
 65527   PRINCESS OF FRANCE. Sweet hearts, we shall be rich ere we depart,
 65528     If fairings come thus plentifully in.
 65529     A lady wall'd about with diamonds!
 65530     Look you what I have from the loving King.
 65531   ROSALINE. Madam, came nothing else along with that?
 65532   PRINCESS OF FRANCE. Nothing but this! Yes, as much love in rhyme
 65533     As would be cramm'd up in a sheet of paper
 65534     Writ o' both sides the leaf, margent and all,
 65535     That he was fain to seal on Cupid's name.
 65536   ROSALINE. That was the way to make his godhead wax;
 65537     For he hath been five thousand year a boy.
 65538   KATHARINE. Ay, and a shrewd unhappy gallows too.
 65539   ROSALINE. You'll ne'er be friends with him: 'a kill'd your sister.
 65540   KATHARINE. He made her melancholy, sad, and heavy;
 65541     And so she died. Had she been light, like you,
 65542     Of such a merry, nimble, stirring spirit,
 65543     She might 'a been a grandam ere she died.
 65544     And so may you; for a light heart lives long.
 65545   ROSALINE. What's your dark meaning, mouse, of this light word?
 65546   KATHARINE. A light condition in a beauty dark.
 65547   ROSALINE. We need more light to find your meaning out.
 65548   KATHARINE. You'll mar the light by taking it in snuff;
 65549     Therefore I'll darkly end the argument.
 65550   ROSALINE. Look what you do, you do it still i' th' dark.
 65551   KATHARINE. So do not you; for you are a light wench.
 65552   ROSALINE. Indeed, I weigh not you; and therefore light.
 65553   KATHARINE. You weigh me not? O, that's you care not for me.
 65554   ROSALINE. Great reason; for 'past cure is still past care.'
 65555   PRINCESS OF FRANCE. Well bandied both; a set of wit well play'd.
 65556     But, Rosaline, you have a favour too?
 65557     Who sent it? and what is it?
 65558   ROSALINE. I would you knew.
 65559     An if my face were but as fair as yours,
 65560     My favour were as great: be witness this.
 65561     Nay, I have verses too, I thank Berowne;
 65562     The numbers true, and, were the numb'ring too,
 65563     I were the fairest goddess on the ground.
 65564     I am compar'd to twenty thousand fairs.
 65565     O, he hath drawn my picture in his letter!
 65566   PRINCESS OF FRANCE. Anything like?
 65567   ROSALINE. Much in the letters; nothing in the praise.
 65568   PRINCESS OF FRANCE. Beauteous as ink- a good conclusion.
 65569   KATHARINE. Fair as a text B in a copy-book.
 65570   ROSALINE. Ware pencils, ho! Let me not die your debtor,
 65571     My red dominical, my golden letter:
 65572     O that your face were not so full of O's!
 65573   KATHARINE. A pox of that jest! and I beshrew all shrows!
 65574   PRINCESS OF FRANCE. But, Katharine, what was sent to you from fair
 65575     Dumain?
 65576   KATHARINE. Madam, this glove.
 65577   PRINCESS OF FRANCE. Did he not send you twain?
 65578   KATHARINE. Yes, madam; and, moreover,
 65579     Some thousand verses of a faithful lover;
 65580     A huge translation of hypocrisy,
 65581     Vilely compil'd, profound simplicity.
 65582   MARIA. This, and these pearl, to me sent Longaville;
 65583     The letter is too long by half a mile.
 65584   PRINCESS OF FRANCE. I think no less. Dost thou not wish in heart
 65585     The chain were longer and the letter short?
 65586   MARIA. Ay, or I would these hands might never part.
 65587   PRINCESS OF FRANCE. We are wise girls to mock our lovers so.
 65588   ROSALINE. They are worse fools to purchase mocking so.
 65589     That same Berowne I'll torture ere I go.
 65590     O that I knew he were but in by th' week!
 65591     How I would make him fawn, and beg, and seek,
 65592     And wait the season, and observe the times,
 65593     And spend his prodigal wits in bootless rhymes,
 65594     And shape his service wholly to my hests,
 65595     And make him proud to make me proud that jests!
 65596     So pertaunt-like would I o'ersway his state
 65597     That he should be my fool, and I his fate.
 65598   PRINCESS OF FRANCE. None are so surely caught, when they are
 65599       catch'd,
 65600     As wit turn'd fool; folly, in wisdom hatch'd,
 65601     Hath wisdom's warrant and the help of school,
 65602     And wit's own grace to grace a learned fool.
 65603   ROSALINE. The blood of youth burns not with such excess
 65604     As gravity's revolt to wantonness.
 65605   MARIA. Folly in fools bears not so strong a note
 65606     As fool'ry in the wise when wit doth dote,
 65607     Since all the power thereof it doth apply
 65608     To prove, by wit, worth in simplicity.
 65609 
 65610                           Enter BOYET
 65611 
 65612   PRINCESS OF FRANCE. Here comes Boyet, and mirth is in his face.
 65613   BOYET. O, I am stabb'd with laughter! Where's her Grace?
 65614   PRINCESS OF FRANCE. Thy news, Boyet?
 65615   BOYET. Prepare, madam, prepare!
 65616     Arm, wenches, arm! Encounters mounted are
 65617     Against your peace. Love doth approach disguis'd,
 65618     Armed in arguments; you'll be surpris'd.
 65619     Muster your wits; stand in your own defence;
 65620     Or hide your heads like cowards, and fly hence.
 65621   PRINCESS OF FRANCE. Saint Dennis to Saint Cupid! What are they
 65622     That charge their breath against us? Say, scout, say.
 65623   BOYET. Under the cool shade of a sycamore
 65624     I thought to close mine eyes some half an hour;
 65625     When, lo, to interrupt my purpos'd rest,
 65626     Toward that shade I might behold addrest
 65627     The King and his companions; warily
 65628     I stole into a neighbour thicket by,
 65629     And overheard what you shall overhear-
 65630     That, by and by, disguis'd they will be here.
 65631     Their herald is a pretty knavish page,
 65632     That well by heart hath conn'd his embassage.
 65633     Action and accent did they teach him there:
 65634     'Thus must thou speak' and 'thus thy body bear,'
 65635     And ever and anon they made a doubt
 65636     Presence majestical would put him out;
 65637     'For' quoth the King 'an angel shalt thou see;
 65638     Yet fear not thou, but speak audaciously.'
 65639     The boy replied 'An angel is not evil;
 65640     I should have fear'd her had she been a devil.'
 65641     With that all laugh'd, and clapp'd him on the shoulder,
 65642     Making the bold wag by their praises bolder.
 65643     One rubb'd his elbow, thus, and fleer'd, and swore
 65644     A better speech was never spoke before.
 65645     Another with his finger and his thumb
 65646     Cried 'Via! we will do't, come what will come.'
 65647     The third he caper'd, and cried 'All goes well.'
 65648     The fourth turn'd on the toe, and down he fell.
 65649     With that they all did tumble on the ground,
 65650     With such a zealous laughter, so profound,
 65651     That in this spleen ridiculous appears,
 65652     To check their folly, passion's solemn tears.
 65653   PRINCESS OF FRANCE. But what, but what, come they to visit us?
 65654   BOYET. They do, they do, and are apparell'd thus,
 65655     Like Muscovites or Russians, as I guess.
 65656     Their purpose is to parley, court, and dance;
 65657     And every one his love-feat will advance
 65658     Unto his several mistress; which they'll know
 65659     By favours several which they did bestow.
 65660   PRINCESS OF FRANCE. And will they so? The gallants shall be task'd,
 65661     For, ladies, we will every one be mask'd;
 65662     And not a man of them shall have the grace,
 65663     Despite of suit, to see a lady's face.
 65664     Hold, Rosaline, this favour thou shalt wear,
 65665     And then the King will court thee for his dear;
 65666     Hold, take thou this, my sweet, and give me thine,
 65667     So shall Berowne take me for Rosaline.
 65668     And change you favours too; so shall your loves
 65669     Woo contrary, deceiv'd by these removes.
 65670   ROSALINE. Come on, then, wear the favours most in sight.
 65671   KATHARINE. But, in this changing, what is your intent?
 65672   PRINCESS OF FRANCE. The effect of my intent is to cross theirs.
 65673     They do it but in mocking merriment,
 65674     And mock for mock is only my intent.
 65675     Their several counsels they unbosom shall
 65676     To loves mistook, and so be mock'd withal
 65677     Upon the next occasion that we meet
 65678     With visages display'd to talk and greet.
 65679   ROSALINE. But shall we dance, if they desire us to't?
 65680   PRINCESS OF FRANCE. No, to the death, we will not move a foot,
 65681     Nor to their penn'd speech render we no grace;
 65682     But while 'tis spoke each turn away her face.
 65683   BOYET. Why, that contempt will kill the speaker's heart,
 65684     And quite divorce his memory from his part.
 65685   PRINCESS OF FRANCE. Therefore I do it; and I make no doubt
 65686     The rest will ne'er come in, if he be out.
 65687     There's no such sport as sport by sport o'erthrown,
 65688     To make theirs ours, and ours none but our own;
 65689     So shall we stay, mocking intended game,
 65690     And they well mock'd depart away with shame.
 65691                                          [Trumpet sounds within]
 65692   BOYET. The trumpet sounds; be mask'd; the maskers come.
 65693                                                [The LADIES mask]
 65694 
 65695           Enter BLACKAMOORS music, MOTH as Prologue, the
 65696      KING and his LORDS as maskers, in the guise of Russians
 65697 
 65698   MOTH. All hail, the richest heauties on the earth!
 65699   BOYET. Beauties no richer than rich taffeta.
 65700   MOTH. A holy parcel of the fairest dames
 65701                             [The LADIES turn their backs to him]
 65702     That ever turn'd their- backs- to mortal views!
 65703   BEROWNE. Their eyes, villain, their eyes.
 65704   MOTH. That ever turn'd their eyes to mortal views!
 65705     Out-
 65706   BOYET. True; out indeed.
 65707   MOTH. Out of your favours, heavenly spirits, vouchsafe
 65708     Not to behold-
 65709   BEROWNE. Once to behold, rogue.
 65710   MOTH. Once to behold with your sun-beamed eyes- with your
 65711     sun-beamed eyes-
 65712   BOYET. They will not answer to that epithet;
 65713     You were best call it 'daughter-beamed eyes.'
 65714   MOTH. They do not mark me, and that brings me out.
 65715   BEROWNE. Is this your perfectness? Be gone, you rogue.
 65716                                                        Exit MOTH
 65717   ROSALINE. What would these strangers? Know their minds, Boyet.
 65718     If they do speak our language, 'tis our will
 65719     That some plain man recount their purposes.
 65720     Know what they would.
 65721   BOYET. What would you with the Princess?
 65722   BEROWNE. Nothing but peace and gentle visitation.
 65723   ROSALINE. What would they, say they?
 65724   BOYET. Nothing but peace and gentle visitation.
 65725   ROSALINE. Why, that they have; and bid them so be gone.
 65726   BOYET. She says you have it, and you may be gone.
 65727   KING. Say to her we have measur'd many miles
 65728     To tread a measure with her on this grass.
 65729   BOYET. They say that they have measur'd many a mile
 65730     To tread a measure with you on this grass.
 65731   ROSALINE. It is not so. Ask them how many inches
 65732     Is in one mile? If they have measured many,
 65733     The measure, then, of one is eas'ly told.
 65734   BOYET. If to come hither you have measur'd miles,
 65735     And many miles, the Princess bids you tell
 65736     How many inches doth fill up one mile.
 65737   BEROWNE. Tell her we measure them by weary steps.
 65738   BOYET. She hears herself.
 65739   ROSALINE. How many weary steps
 65740     Of many weary miles you have o'ergone
 65741     Are numb'red in the travel of one mile?
 65742   BEROWNE. We number nothing that we spend for you;
 65743     Our duty is so rich, so infinite,
 65744     That we may do it still without accompt.
 65745     Vouchsafe to show the sunshine of your face,
 65746     That we, like savages, may worship it.
 65747   ROSALINE. My face is but a moon, and clouded too.
 65748   KING. Blessed are clouds, to do as such clouds do.
 65749     Vouchsafe, bright moon, and these thy stars, to shine,
 65750     Those clouds removed, upon our watery eyne.
 65751   ROSALINE. O vain petitioner! beg a greater matter;
 65752     Thou now requests but moonshine in the water.
 65753   KING. Then in our measure do but vouchsafe one change.
 65754     Thou bid'st me beg; this begging is not strange.
 65755   ROSALINE. Play, music, then. Nay, you must do it soon.
 65756     Not yet? No dance! Thus change I like the moon.
 65757   KING. Will you not dance? How come you thus estranged?
 65758   ROSALINE. You took the moon at full; but now she's changed.
 65759   KING. Yet still she is the Moon, and I the Man.
 65760     The music plays; vouchsafe some motion to it.
 65761   ROSALINE. Our ears vouchsafe it.
 65762   KING. But your legs should do it.
 65763   ROSALINE. Since you are strangers, and come here by chance,
 65764     We'll not be nice; take hands. We will not dance.
 65765   KING. Why take we hands then?
 65766   ROSALINE. Only to part friends.
 65767     Curtsy, sweet hearts; and so the measure ends.
 65768   KING. More measure of this measure; be not nice.
 65769   ROSALINE. We can afford no more at such a price.
 65770   KING. Price you yourselves. What buys your company?
 65771   ROSALINE. Your absence only.
 65772   KING. That can never be.
 65773   ROSALINE. Then cannot we be bought; and so adieu-
 65774     Twice to your visor and half once to you.
 65775   KING. If you deny to dance, let's hold more chat.
 65776   ROSALINE. In private then.
 65777   KING. I am best pleas'd with that.       [They converse apart]
 65778   BEROWNE. White-handed mistress, one sweet word with thee.
 65779   PRINCESS OF FRANCE. Honey, and milk, and sugar; there is three.
 65780   BEROWNE. Nay, then, two treys, an if you grow so nice,
 65781     Metheglin, wort, and malmsey; well run dice!
 65782     There's half a dozen sweets.
 65783   PRINCESS OF FRANCE. Seventh sweet, adieu!
 65784     Since you can cog, I'll play no more with you.
 65785   BEROWNE. One word in secret.
 65786   PRINCESS OF FRANCE. Let it not be sweet.
 65787   BEROWNE. Thou grievest my gall.
 65788   PRINCESS OF FRANCE. Gall! bitter.
 65789   BEROWNE. Therefore meet.                 [They converse apart]
 65790   DUMAIN. Will you vouchsafe with me to change a word?
 65791   MARIA. Name it.
 65792   DUMAIN. Fair lady-
 65793   MARIA. Say you so? Fair lord-
 65794     Take that for your fair lady.
 65795   DUMAIN. Please it you,
 65796     As much in private, and I'll bid adieu.
 65797                                            [They converse apart]
 65798   KATHARINE. What, was your vizard made without a tongue?
 65799   LONGAVILLE. I know the reason, lady, why you ask.
 65800   KATHARINE. O for your reason! Quickly, sir; I long.
 65801   LONGAVILLE. You have a double tongue within your mask,
 65802     And would afford my speechless vizard half.
 65803   KATHARINE. 'Veal' quoth the Dutchman. Is not 'veal' a calf?
 65804   LONGAVILLE. A calf, fair lady!
 65805   KATHARINE. No, a fair lord calf.
 65806   LONGAVILLE. Let's part the word.
 65807   KATHARINE. No, I'll not be your half.
 65808     Take all and wean it; it may prove an ox.
 65809   LONGAVILLE. Look how you butt yourself in these sharp mocks!
 65810     Will you give horns, chaste lady? Do not so.
 65811   KATHARINE. Then die a calf, before your horns do grow.
 65812   LONGAVILLE. One word in private with you ere I die.
 65813   KATHARINE. Bleat softly, then; the butcher hears you cry.
 65814                                            [They converse apart]
 65815   BOYET. The tongues of mocking wenches are as keen
 65816     As is the razor's edge invisible,
 65817     Cutting a smaller hair than may be seen,
 65818     Above the sense of sense; so sensible
 65819     Seemeth their conference; their conceits have wings,
 65820     Fleeter than arrows, bullets, wind, thought, swifter things.
 65821   ROSALINE. Not one word more, my maids; break off, break off.
 65822   BEROWNE. By heaven, all dry-beaten with pure scoff!
 65823   KING. Farewell, mad wenches; you have simple wits.
 65824                              Exeunt KING, LORDS, and BLACKAMOORS
 65825   PRINCESS OF FRANCE. Twenty adieus, my frozen Muscovits.
 65826     Are these the breed of wits so wondered at?
 65827   BOYET. Tapers they are, with your sweet breaths puff'd out.
 65828   ROSALINE. Well-liking wits they have; gross, gross; fat, fat.
 65829   PRINCESS OF FRANCE. O poverty in wit, kingly-poor flout!
 65830     Will they not, think you, hang themselves to-night?
 65831     Or ever but in vizards show their faces?
 65832     This pert Berowne was out of count'nance quite.
 65833   ROSALINE. They were all in lamentable cases!
 65834     The King was weeping-ripe for a good word.
 65835   PRINCESS OF FRANCE. Berowne did swear himself out of all suit.
 65836   MARIA. Dumain was at my service, and his sword.
 65837     'No point' quoth I; my servant straight was mute.
 65838   KATHARINE. Lord Longaville said I came o'er his heart;
 65839     And trow you what he call'd me?
 65840   PRINCESS OF FRANCE. Qualm, perhaps.
 65841   KATHARINE. Yes, in good faith.
 65842   PRINCESS OF FRANCE. Go, sickness as thou art!
 65843   ROSALINE. Well, better wits have worn plain statute-caps.
 65844     But will you hear? The King is my love sworn.
 65845   PRINCESS OF FRANCE. And quick Berowne hath plighted faith to me.
 65846   KATHARINE. And Longaville was for my service born.
 65847   MARIA. Dumain is mine, as sure as bark on tree.
 65848   BOYET. Madam, and pretty mistresses, give ear:
 65849     Immediately they will again be here
 65850     In their own shapes; for it can never be
 65851     They will digest this harsh indignity.
 65852   PRINCESS OF FRANCE. Will they return?
 65853   BOYET. They will, they will, God knows,
 65854     And leap for joy, though they are lame with blows;
 65855     Therefore, change favours; and, when they repair,
 65856     Blow like sweet roses in this summer air.
 65857   PRINCESS OF FRANCE. How blow? how blow? Speak to be understood.
 65858   BOYET. Fair ladies mask'd are roses in their bud:
 65859     Dismask'd, their damask sweet commixture shown,
 65860     Are angels vailing clouds, or roses blown.
 65861   PRINCESS OF FRANCE. Avaunt, perplexity! What shall we do
 65862     If they return in their own shapes to woo?
 65863   ROSALINE. Good madam, if by me you'll be advis'd,
 65864     Let's mock them still, as well known as disguis'd.
 65865     Let us complain to them what fools were here,
 65866     Disguis'd like Muscovites, in shapeless gear;
 65867     And wonder what they were, and to what end
 65868     Their shallow shows and prologue vilely penn'd,
 65869     And their rough carriage so ridiculous,
 65870     Should be presented at our tent to us.
 65871   BOYET. Ladies, withdraw; the gallants are at hand.
 65872   PRINCESS OF FRANCE. Whip to our tents, as roes run o'er land.
 65873                  Exeunt PRINCESS, ROSALINE, KATHARINE, and MARIA
 65874 
 65875          Re-enter the KING, BEROWNE, LONGAVILLE, and DUMAIN,
 65876                         in their proper habits
 65877 
 65878   KING. Fair sir, God save you! Where's the Princess?
 65879   BOYET. Gone to her tent. Please it your Majesty
 65880     Command me any service to her thither?
 65881   KING. That she vouchsafe me audience for one word.
 65882   BOYET. I will; and so will she, I know, my lord.          Exit
 65883   BEROWNE. This fellow pecks up wit as pigeons pease,
 65884     And utters it again when God doth please.
 65885     He is wit's pedlar, and retails his wares
 65886     At wakes, and wassails, meetings, markets, fairs;
 65887     And we that sell by gross, the Lord doth know,
 65888     Have not the grace to grace it with such show.
 65889     This gallant pins the wenches on his sleeve;
 65890     Had he been Adam, he had tempted Eve.
 65891     'A can carve too, and lisp; why this is he
 65892     That kiss'd his hand away in courtesy;
 65893     This is the ape of form, Monsieur the Nice,
 65894     That, when he plays at tables, chides the dice
 65895     In honourable terms; nay, he can sing
 65896     A mean most meanly; and in ushering,
 65897     Mend him who can. The ladies call him sweet;
 65898     The stairs, as he treads on them, kiss his feet.
 65899     This is the flow'r that smiles on every one,
 65900     To show his teeth as white as whales-bone;
 65901     And consciences that will not die in debt
 65902     Pay him the due of 'honey-tongued Boyet.'
 65903   KING. A blister on his sweet tongue, with my heart,
 65904     That put Armado's page out of his part!
 65905 
 65906         Re-enter the PRINCESS, ushered by BOYET; ROSALINE,
 65907                       MARIA, and KATHARINE
 65908 
 65909   BEROWNE. See where it comes! Behaviour, what wert thou
 65910     Till this man show'd thee? And what art thou now?
 65911   KING. All hail, sweet madam, and fair time of day!
 65912   PRINCESS OF FRANCE. 'Fair' in 'all hail' is foul, as I conceive.
 65913   KING. Construe my speeches better, if you may.
 65914   PRINCESS OF FRANCE. Then wish me better; I will give you leave.
 65915   KING. We came to visit you, and purpose now
 65916     To lead you to our court; vouchsafe it then.
 65917   PRINCESS OF FRANCE. This field shall hold me, and so hold your vow:
 65918     Nor God, nor I, delights in perjur'd men.
 65919   KING. Rebuke me not for that which you provoke.
 65920     The virtue of your eye must break my oath.
 65921   PRINCESS OF FRANCE. You nickname virtue: vice you should have
 65922       spoke;
 65923     For virtue's office never breaks men's troth.
 65924     Now by my maiden honour, yet as pure
 65925     As the unsullied lily, I protest,
 65926     A world of torments though I should endure,
 65927     I would not yield to be your house's guest;
 65928     So much I hate a breaking cause to be
 65929     Of heavenly oaths, vowed with integrity.
 65930   KING. O, you have liv'd in desolation here,
 65931     Unseen, unvisited, much to our shame.
 65932   PRINCESS OF FRANCE. Not so, my lord; it is not so, I swear;
 65933     We have had pastimes here, and pleasant game;
 65934     A mess of Russians left us but of late.
 65935   KING. How, madam! Russians!
 65936   PRINCESS OF FRANCE. Ay, in truth, my lord;
 65937     Trim gallants, full of courtship and of state.
 65938   ROSALINE. Madam, speak true. It is not so, my lord.
 65939     My lady, to the manner of the days,
 65940     In courtesy gives undeserving praise.
 65941     We four indeed confronted were with four
 65942     In Russian habit; here they stayed an hour
 65943     And talk'd apace; and in that hour, my lord,
 65944     They did not bless us with one happy word.
 65945     I dare not call them fools; but this I think,
 65946     When they are thirsty, fools would fain have drink.
 65947   BEROWNE. This jest is dry to me. Fair gentle sweet,
 65948     Your wit makes wise things foolish; when we greet,
 65949     With eyes best seeing, heaven's fiery eye,
 65950     By light we lose light; your capacity
 65951     Is of that nature that to your huge store
 65952     Wise things seem foolish and rich things but poor.
 65953   ROSALINE. This proves you wise and rich, for in my eye-
 65954   BEROWNE. I am a fool, and full of poverty.
 65955   ROSALINE. But that you take what doth to you belong,
 65956     It were a fault to snatch words from my tongue.
 65957   BEROWNE. O, I am yours, and all that I possess.
 65958   ROSALINE. All the fool mine?
 65959   BEROWNE. I cannot give you less.
 65960   ROSALINE. Which of the vizards was it that you wore?
 65961   BEROWNE. Where? when? what vizard? Why demand you this?
 65962   ROSALINE. There, then, that vizard; that superfluous case
 65963     That hid the worse and show'd the better face.
 65964   KING. We were descried; they'll mock us now downright.
 65965   DUMAIN. Let us confess, and turn it to a jest.
 65966   PRINCESS OF FRANCE. Amaz'd, my lord? Why looks your Highness sad?
 65967   ROSALINE. Help, hold his brows! he'll swoon! Why look you pale?
 65968     Sea-sick, I think, coming from Muscovy.
 65969   BEROWNE. Thus pour the stars down plagues for perjury.
 65970     Can any face of brass hold longer out?
 65971     Here stand I, lady- dart thy skill at me,
 65972     Bruise me with scorn, confound me with a flout,
 65973     Thrust thy sharp wit quite through my ignorance,
 65974     Cut me to pieces with thy keen conceit;
 65975     And I will wish thee never more to dance,
 65976     Nor never more in Russian habit wait.
 65977     O, never will I trust to speeches penn'd,
 65978     Nor to the motion of a school-boy's tongue,
 65979     Nor never come in vizard to my friend,
 65980     Nor woo in rhyme, like a blind harper's song.
 65981     Taffeta phrases, silken terms precise,
 65982     Three-pil'd hyperboles, spruce affectation,
 65983     Figures pedantical- these summer-flies
 65984     Have blown me full of maggot ostentation.
 65985     I do forswear them; and I here protest,
 65986     By this white glove- how white the hand, God knows!-
 65987     Henceforth my wooing mind shall be express'd
 65988     In russet yeas, and honest kersey noes.
 65989     And, to begin, wench- so God help me, law!-
 65990     My love to thee is sound, sans crack or flaw.
 65991   ROSALINE. Sans 'sans,' I pray you.
 65992   BEROWNE. Yet I have a trick
 65993     Of the old rage; bear with me, I am sick;
 65994     I'll leave it by degrees. Soft, let us see-
 65995     Write 'Lord have mercy on us' on those three;
 65996     They are infected; in their hearts it lies;
 65997     They have the plague, and caught it of your eyes.
 65998     These lords are visited; you are not free,
 65999     For the Lord's tokens on you do I see.
 66000   PRINCESS OF FRANCE. No, they are free that gave these tokens to us.
 66001   BEROWNE. Our states are forfeit; seek not to undo us.
 66002   ROSALINE. It is not so; for how can this be true,
 66003     That you stand forfeit, being those that sue?
 66004   BEROWNE. Peace; for I will not have to do with you.
 66005   ROSALINE. Nor shall not, if I do as I intend.
 66006   BEROWNE. Speak for yourselves; my wit is at an end.
 66007   KING. Teach us, sweet madam, for our rude transgression
 66008     Some fair excuse.
 66009   PRINCESS OF FRANCE. The fairest is confession.
 66010     Were not you here but even now, disguis'd?
 66011   KING. Madam, I was.
 66012   PRINCESS OF FRANCE. And were you well advis'd?
 66013   KING. I was, fair madam.
 66014   PRINCESS OF FRANCE. When you then were here,
 66015     What did you whisper in your lady's ear?
 66016   KING. That more than all the world I did respect her.
 66017   PRINCESS OF FRANCE. When she shall challenge this, you will reject
 66018     her.
 66019   KING. Upon mine honour, no.
 66020   PRINCESS OF FRANCE. Peace, peace, forbear;
 66021     Your oath once broke, you force not to forswear.
 66022   KING. Despise me when I break this oath of mine.
 66023   PRINCESS OF FRANCE. I will; and therefore keep it. Rosaline,
 66024     What did the Russian whisper in your ear?
 66025   ROSALINE. Madam, he swore that he did hold me dear
 66026     As precious eyesight, and did value me
 66027     Above this world; adding thereto, moreover,
 66028     That he would wed me, or else die my lover.
 66029   PRINCESS OF FRANCE. God give thee joy of him! The noble lord
 66030      Most honourably doth uphold his word.
 66031   KING. What mean you, madam? By my life, my troth,
 66032     I never swore this lady such an oath.
 66033   ROSALINE. By heaven, you did; and, to confirm it plain,
 66034     You gave me this; but take it, sir, again.
 66035   KING. My faith and this the Princess I did give;
 66036     I knew her by this jewel on her sleeve.
 66037   PRINCESS OF FRANCE. Pardon me, sir, this jewel did she wear;
 66038     And Lord Berowne, I thank him, is my dear.
 66039     What, will you have me, or your pearl again?
 66040  BEROWNE. Neither of either; I remit both twain.
 66041     I see the trick on't: here was a consent,
 66042     Knowing aforehand of our merriment,
 66043     To dash it like a Christmas comedy.
 66044     Some carry-tale, some please-man, some slight zany,
 66045     Some mumble-news, some trencher-knight, some Dick,
 66046     That smiles his cheek in years and knows the trick
 66047     To make my lady laugh when she's dispos'd,
 66048     Told our intents before; which once disclos'd,
 66049     The ladies did change favours; and then we,
 66050     Following the signs, woo'd but the sign of she.
 66051     Now, to our perjury to add more terror,
 66052     We are again forsworn in will and error.
 66053     Much upon this it is; [To BOYET] and might not you
 66054     Forestall our sport, to make us thus untrue?
 66055     Do not you know my lady's foot by th' squier,
 66056     And laugh upon the apple of her eye?
 66057     And stand between her back, sir, and the fire,
 66058     Holding a trencher, jesting merrily?
 66059     You put our page out. Go, you are allow'd;
 66060     Die when you will, a smock shall be your shroud.
 66061     You leer upon me, do you? There's an eye
 66062     Wounds like a leaden sword.
 66063   BOYET. Full merrily
 66064     Hath this brave manage, this career, been run.
 66065   BEROWNE. Lo, he is tilting straight! Peace; I have done.
 66066 
 66067                           Enter COSTARD
 66068 
 66069     Welcome, pure wit! Thou part'st a fair fray.
 66070   COSTARD. O Lord, sir, they would know
 66071      Whether the three Worthies shall come in or no?
 66072   BEROWNE. What, are there but three?
 66073   COSTARD. No, sir; but it is vara fine,
 66074     For every one pursents three.
 66075   BEROWNE. And three times thrice is nine.
 66076   COSTARD. Not so, sir; under correction, sir,
 66077     I hope it is not so.
 66078     You cannot beg us, sir, I can assure you, sir; we know what we
 66079       know;
 66080     I hope, sir, three times thrice, sir-
 66081   BEROWNE. Is not nine.
 66082   COSTARD. Under correction, sir, we know whereuntil it doth amount.
 66083   BEROWNE. By Jove, I always took three threes for nine.
 66084   COSTARD. O Lord, sir, it were pity you should get your living by
 66085     reck'ning, sir.
 66086   BEROWNE. How much is it?
 66087   COSTARD. O Lord, sir, the parties themselves, the actors, sir, will
 66088     show whereuntil it doth amount. For mine own part, I am, as they
 66089     say, but to parfect one man in one poor man, Pompion the Great,
 66090     sir.
 66091   BEROWNE. Art thou one of the Worthies?
 66092   COSTARD. It pleased them to think me worthy of Pompey the Great;
 66093     for mine own part, I know not the degree of the Worthy; but I am
 66094     to stand for him.
 66095   BEROWNE. Go, bid them prepare.
 66096   COSTARD. We will turn it finely off, sir; we will take some care.
 66097                                                     Exit COSTARD
 66098   KING. Berowne, they will shame us; let them not approach.
 66099   BEROWNE. We are shame-proof, my lord, and 'tis some policy
 66100     To have one show worse than the King's and his company.
 66101   KING. I say they shall not come.
 66102   PRINCESS OF FRANCE. Nay, my good lord, let me o'errule you now.
 66103     That sport best pleases that doth least know how;
 66104     Where zeal strives to content, and the contents
 66105     Dies in the zeal of that which it presents.
 66106     Their form confounded makes most form in mirth,
 66107     When great things labouring perish in their birth.
 66108   BEROWNE. A right description of our sport, my lord.
 66109 
 66110                         Enter ARMADO
 66111 
 66112   ARMADO. Anointed, I implore so much expense of thy royal sweet
 66113     breath as will utter a brace of words.
 66114            [Converses apart with the KING, and delivers a paper]
 66115   PRINCESS OF FRANCE. Doth this man serve God?
 66116   BEROWNE. Why ask you?
 66117   PRINCESS OF FRANCE. 'A speaks not like a man of God his making.
 66118   ARMADO. That is all one, my fair, sweet, honey monarch; for, I
 66119     protest, the schoolmaster is exceeding fantastical; too too vain,
 66120     too too vain; but we will put it, as they say, to fortuna de la
 66121     guerra. I wish you the peace of mind, most royal couplement!
 66122                                                      Exit ARMADO
 66123   KING. Here is like to be a good presence of Worthies. He presents
 66124     Hector of Troy; the swain, Pompey the Great; the parish curate,
 66125     Alexander; Arinado's page, Hercules; the pedant, Judas
 66126     Maccabaeus.
 66127     And if these four Worthies in their first show thrive,
 66128     These four will change habits and present the other five.
 66129   BEROWNE. There is five in the first show.
 66130   KING. You are deceived, 'tis not so.
 66131   BEROWNE. The pedant, the braggart, the hedge-priest, the fool, and
 66132     the boy:
 66133     Abate throw at novum, and the whole world again
 66134     Cannot pick out five such, take each one in his vein.
 66135   KING. The ship is under sail, and here she comes amain.
 66136 
 66137                    Enter COSTARD, armed for POMPEY
 66138 
 66139   COSTARD. I Pompey am-
 66140   BEROWNE. You lie, you are not he.
 66141   COSTARD. I Pompey am-
 66142   BOYET. With libbard's head on knee.
 66143   BEROWNE. Well said, old mocker; I must needs be friends with thee.
 66144   COSTARD. I Pompey am, Pompey surnam'd the Big-
 66145    DUMAIN. The Great.
 66146   COSTARD. It is Great, sir.
 66147     Pompey surnam'd the Great,
 66148     That oft in field, with targe and shield, did make my foe to
 66149       sweat;
 66150     And travelling along this coast, I bere am come by chance,
 66151     And lay my arms before the legs of this sweet lass of France.
 66152 
 66153     If your ladyship would say 'Thanks, Pompey,' I had done.
 66154   PRINCESS OF FRANCE. Great thanks, great Pompey.
 66155   COSTARD. 'Tis not so much worth; but I hope I was perfect.
 66156     I made a little fault in Great.
 66157   BEROWNE. My hat to a halfpenny, Pompey proves the best Worthy.
 66158 
 66159                  Enter SIR NATHANIEL, for ALEXANDER
 66160 
 66161   NATHANIEL. When in the world I liv'd, I was the world's commander;
 66162     By east, west, north, and south, I spread my conquering might.
 66163     My scutcheon plain declares that I am Alisander-
 66164   BOYET. Your nose says, no, you are not; for it stands to right.
 66165   BEROWNE. Your nose smells 'no' in this, most tender-smelling
 66166     knight.
 66167   PRINCESS OF FRANCE. The conqueror is dismay'd. Proceed, good
 66168     Alexander.
 66169   NATHANIEL. When in the world I liv'd, I was the world's commander-
 66170   BOYET. Most true, 'tis right, you were so, Alisander.
 66171   BEROWNE. Pompey the Great!
 66172   COSTARD. Your servant, and Costard.
 66173   BEROWNE. Take away the conqueror, take away Alisander.
 66174   COSTARD. [To Sir Nathaniel] O, Sir, you have overthrown Alisander
 66175     the conqueror! You will be scrap'd out of the painted cloth for
 66176     this. Your lion, that holds his poleaxe sitting on a close-stool,
 66177     will be given to Ajax. He will be the ninth Worthy. A conqueror
 66178     and afeard to speak! Run away for shame, Alisander.
 66179     [Sir Nathaniel retires] There, an't shall please you, a foolish
 66180     mild man; an honest man, look you, and soon dash'd. He is a
 66181     marvellous good neighbour, faith, and a very good bowler; but for
 66182     Alisander- alas! you see how 'tis- a little o'erparted. But there
 66183     are Worthies a-coming will speak their mind in some other sort.
 66184   PRINCESS OF FRANCE. Stand aside, good Pompey.
 66185 
 66186          Enter HOLOFERNES, for JUDAS; and MOTH, for HERCULES
 66187 
 66188   HOLOFERNES. Great Hercules is presented by this imp,
 66189     Whose club kill'd Cerberus, that three-headed canus;
 66190     And when be was a babe, a child, a shrimp,
 66191     Thus did he strangle serpents in his manus.
 66192     Quoniam he seemeth in minority,
 66193     Ergo I come with this apology.
 66194     Keep some state in thy exit, and vanish.      [MOTH retires]
 66195     Judas I am-
 66196   DUMAIN. A Judas!
 66197   HOLOFERNES. Not Iscariot, sir.
 66198     Judas I am, ycliped Maccabaeus.
 66199   DUMAIN. Judas Maccabaeus clipt is plain Judas.
 66200   BEROWNE. A kissing traitor. How art thou prov'd Judas?
 66201   HOLOFERNES. Judas I am-
 66202   DUMAIN. The more shame for you, Judas!
 66203   HOLOFERNES. What mean you, sir?
 66204   BOYET. To make Judas hang himself.
 66205   HOLOFERNES. Begin, sir; you are my elder.
 66206   BEROWNE. Well followed: Judas was hanged on an elder.
 66207   HOLOFERNES. I will not be put out of countenance.
 66208   BEROWNE. Because thou hast no face.
 66209   HOLOFERNES. What is this?
 66210   BOYET. A cittern-head.
 66211   DUMAIN. The head of a bodkin.
 66212   BEROWNE. A death's face in a ring.
 66213   LONGAVILLE. The face of an old Roman coin, scarce seen.
 66214   BOYET. The pommel of Coesar's falchion.
 66215   DUMAIN. The carv'd-bone face on a flask.
 66216   BEROWNE. Saint George's half-cheek in a brooch.
 66217   DUMAIN. Ay, and in a brooch of lead.
 66218   BEROWNE. Ay, and worn in the cap of a tooth-drawer. And now,
 66219     forward; for we have put thee in countenance.
 66220   HOLOFERNES. You have put me out of countenance.
 66221   BEROWNE. False: we have given thee faces.
 66222   HOLOFERNES. But you have outfac'd them all.
 66223   BEROWNE. An thou wert a lion we would do so.
 66224   BOYET. Therefore, as he is an ass, let him go.
 66225     And so adieu, sweet Jude! Nay, why dost thou stay?
 66226   DUMAIN. For the latter end of his name.
 66227   BEROWNE. For the ass to the Jude; give it him- Jud-as, away.
 66228   HOLOFERNES. This is not generous, not gentle, not humble.
 66229   BOYET. A light for Monsieur Judas! It grows dark, he may stumble.
 66230                                             [HOLOFERNES retires]
 66231   PRINCESS OF FRANCE. Alas, poor Maccabaeus, how hath he been baited!
 66232 
 66233                    Enter ARMADO, for HECTOR
 66234 
 66235   BEROWNE. Hide thy head, Achilles; here comes Hector in arms.
 66236   DUMAIN. Though my mocks come home by me, I will now be merry.
 66237   KING. Hector was but a Troyan in respect of this.
 66238   BOYET. But is this Hector?
 66239   DUMAIN. I think Hector was not so clean-timber'd.
 66240   LONGAVILLE. His leg is too big for Hector's.
 66241   DUMAIN. More calf, certain.
 66242   BOYET. No; he is best indued in the small.
 66243   BEROWNE. This cannot be Hector.
 66244   DUMAIN. He's a god or a painter, for he makes faces.
 66245   ARMADO. The armipotent Mars, of lances the almighty,
 66246     Gave Hector a gift-
 66247   DUMAIN. A gilt nutmeg.
 66248   BEROWNE. A lemon.
 66249   LONGAVILLE. Stuck with cloves.
 66250   DUMAIN. No, cloven.
 66251   ARMADO. Peace!
 66252     The armipotent Mars, of lances the almighty,
 66253     Gave Hector a gift, the heir of Ilion;
 66254     A man so breathed that certain he would fight ye,
 66255     From morn till night out of his pavilion.
 66256     I am that flower-
 66257   DUMAIN. That mint.
 66258   LONGAVILLE. That columbine.
 66259   ARMADO. Sweet Lord Longaville, rein thy tongue.
 66260   LONGAVILLE. I must rather give it the rein, for it runs against
 66261     Hector.
 66262   DUMAIN. Ay, and Hector's a greyhound.
 66263   ARMADO. The sweet war-man is dead and rotten; sweet chucks, beat
 66264     not the bones of the buried; when he breathed, he was a man. But
 66265     I will forward with my device. [To the PRINCESS] Sweet royalty,
 66266     bestow on me the sense of hearing.
 66267 
 66268           [BEROWNE steps forth, and speaks to COSTARD]
 66269 
 66270   PRINCESS OF FRANCE. Speak, brave Hector; we are much delighted.
 66271   ARMADO. I do adore thy sweet Grace's slipper.
 66272   BOYET. [Aside to DUMAIN] Loves her by the foot.
 66273   DUMAIN. [Aside to BOYET] He may not by the yard.
 66274   ARMADO. This Hector far surmounted Hannibal-
 66275   COSTARD. The party is gone, fellow Hector, she is gone; she is two
 66276     months on her way.
 66277   ARMADO. What meanest thou?
 66278   COSTARD. Faith, unless you play the honest Troyan, the poor wench
 66279     is cast away. She's quick; the child brags in her belly already;
 66280     'tis yours.
 66281   ARMADO. Dost thou infamonize me among potentates? Thou shalt die.
 66282   COSTARD. Then shall Hector be whipt for Jaquenetta that is quick by
 66283     him, and hang'd for Pompey that is dead by him.
 66284   DUMAIN. Most rare Pompey!
 66285   BOYET. Renowned Pompey!
 66286   BEROWNE. Greater than Great! Great, great, great Pompey! Pompey the
 66287     Huge!
 66288   DUMAIN. Hector trembles.
 66289   BEROWNE. Pompey is moved. More Ates, more Ates! Stir them on! stir
 66290     them on!
 66291   DUMAIN. Hector will challenge him.
 66292   BEROWNE. Ay, if 'a have no more man's blood in his belly than will
 66293     sup a flea.
 66294   ARMADO. By the North Pole, I do challenge thee.
 66295   COSTARD. I will not fight with a pole, like a Northern man; I'll
 66296     slash; I'll do it by the sword. I bepray you, let me borrow my
 66297     arms again.
 66298   DUMAIN. Room for the incensed Worthies!
 66299   COSTARD. I'll do it in my shirt.
 66300   DUMAIN. Most resolute Pompey!
 66301   MOTH. Master, let me take you a buttonhole lower. Do you not see
 66302     Pompey is uncasing for the combat? What mean you? You will lose
 66303     your reputation.
 66304   ARMADO. Gentlemen and soldiers, pardon me; I will not combat in my
 66305     shirt.
 66306   DUMAIN. You may not deny it: Pompey hath made the challenge.
 66307   ARMADO. Sweet bloods, I both may and will.
 66308   BEROWNE. What reason have you for 't?
 66309   ARMADO. The naked truth of it is: I have no shirt; I go woolward
 66310     for penance.
 66311   BOYET. True, and it was enjoined him in Rome for want of linen;
 66312     since when, I'll be sworn, he wore none but a dishclout of
 66313     Jaquenetta's, and that 'a wears next his heart for a favour.
 66314 
 66315                  Enter as messenger, MONSIEUR MARCADE
 66316 
 66317   MARCADE. God save you, madam!
 66318   PRINCESS OF FRANCE. Welcome, Marcade;
 66319     But that thou interruptest our merriment.
 66320   MARCADE. I am sorry, madam; for the news I bring
 66321     Is heavy in my tongue. The King your father-
 66322   PRINCESS OF FRANCE. Dead, for my life!
 66323   MARCADE. Even so; my tale is told.
 66324   BEROWNE. WOrthies away; the scene begins to cloud.
 66325   ARMADO. For mine own part, I breathe free breath. I have seen the
 66326     day of wrong through the little hole of discretion, and I will
 66327     right myself like a soldier.                 Exeunt WORTHIES
 66328   KING. How fares your Majesty?
 66329   PRINCESS OF FRANCE. Boyet, prepare; I will away to-night.
 66330   KING. Madam, not so; I do beseech you stay.
 66331   PRINCESS OF FRANCE. Prepare, I say. I thank you, gracious lords,
 66332     For all your fair endeavours, and entreat,
 66333     Out of a new-sad soul, that you vouchsafe
 66334     In your rich wisdom to excuse or hide
 66335     The liberal opposition of our spirits,
 66336     If over-boldly we have borne ourselves
 66337     In the converse of breath- your gentleness
 66338     Was guilty of it. Farewell, worthy lord.
 66339     A heavy heart bears not a nimble tongue.
 66340     Excuse me so, coming too short of thanks
 66341     For my great suit so easily obtain'd.
 66342   KING. The extreme parts of time extremely forms
 66343     All causes to the purpose of his speed;
 66344     And often at his very loose decides
 66345     That which long process could not arbitrate.
 66346     And though the mourning brow of progeny
 66347     Forbid the smiling courtesy of love
 66348     The holy suit which fain it would convince,
 66349     Yet, since love's argument was first on foot,
 66350     Let not the cloud of sorrow justle it
 66351     From what it purpos'd; since to wail friends lost
 66352     Is not by much so wholesome-profitable
 66353     As to rejoice at friends but newly found.
 66354   PRINCESS OF FRANCE. I understand you not; my griefs are double.
 66355   BEROWNE. Honest plain words best pierce the ear of grief;
 66356     And by these badges understand the King.
 66357     For your fair sakes have we neglected time,
 66358     Play'd foul play with our oaths; your beauty, ladies,
 66359     Hath much deformed us, fashioning our humours
 66360     Even to the opposed end of our intents;
 66361     And what in us hath seem'd ridiculous,
 66362     As love is full of unbefitting strains,
 66363     All wanton as a child, skipping and vain;
 66364     Form'd by the eye and therefore, like the eye,
 66365     Full of strange shapes, of habits, and of forms,
 66366     Varying in subjects as the eye doth roll
 66367     To every varied object in his glance;
 66368     Which parti-coated presence of loose love
 66369     Put on by us, if in your heavenly eyes
 66370     Have misbecom'd our oaths and gravities,
 66371     Those heavenly eyes that look into these faults
 66372     Suggested us to make. Therefore, ladies,
 66373     Our love being yours, the error that love makes
 66374     Is likewise yours. We to ourselves prove false,
 66375     By being once false for ever to be true
 66376     To those that make us both- fair ladies, you;
 66377     And even that falsehood, in itself a sin,
 66378     Thus purifies itself and turns to grace.
 66379   PRINCESS OF FRANCE. We have receiv'd your letters, full of love;
 66380     Your favours, the ambassadors of love;
 66381     And, in our maiden council, rated them
 66382     At courtship, pleasant jest, and courtesy,
 66383     As bombast and as lining to the time;
 66384     But more devout than this in our respects
 66385     Have we not been; and therefore met your loves
 66386     In their own fashion, like a merriment.
 66387   DUMAIN. Our letters, madam, show'd much more than jest.
 66388   LONGAVILLE. So did our looks.
 66389   ROSALINE. We did not quote them so.
 66390   KING. Now, at the latest minute of the hour,
 66391     Grant us your loves.
 66392   PRINCESS OF FRANCE. A time, methinks, too short
 66393     To make a world-without-end bargain in.
 66394     No, no, my lord, your Grace is perjur'd much,
 66395     Full of dear guiltiness; and therefore this,
 66396     If for my love, as there is no such cause,
 66397     You will do aught- this shall you do for me:
 66398     Your oath I will not trust; but go with speed
 66399     To some forlorn and naked hermitage,
 66400     Remote from all the pleasures of the world;
 66401     There stay until the twelve celestial signs
 66402     Have brought about the annual reckoning.
 66403     If this austere insociable life
 66404     Change not your offer made in heat of blood,
 66405     If frosts and fasts, hard lodging and thin weeds,
 66406     Nip not the gaudy blossoms of your love,
 66407     But that it bear this trial, and last love,
 66408     Then, at the expiration of the year,
 66409     Come, challenge me, challenge me by these deserts;
 66410     And, by this virgin palm now kissing thine,
 66411     I will be thine; and, till that instant, shut
 66412     My woeful self up in a mournful house,
 66413     Raining the tears of lamentation
 66414     For the remembrance of my father's death.
 66415     If this thou do deny, let our hands part,
 66416     Neither intitled in the other's heart.
 66417   KING. If this, or more than this, I would deny,
 66418     To flatter up these powers of mine with rest,
 66419     The sudden hand of death close up mine eye!
 66420     Hence hermit then, my heart is in thy breast.
 66421   BEROWNE. And what to me, my love? and what to me?
 66422   ROSALINE. You must he purged too, your sins are rack'd;
 66423     You are attaint with faults and perjury;
 66424     Therefore, if you my favour mean to get,
 66425     A twelvemonth shall you spend, and never rest,
 66426     But seek the weary beds of people sick.
 66427   DUMAIN. But what to me, my love? but what to me?
 66428     A wife?
 66429   KATHARINE. A beard, fair health, and honesty;
 66430     With threefold love I wish you all these three.
 66431   DUMAIN. O, shall I say I thank you, gentle wife?
 66432   KATHARINE. No so, my lord; a twelvemonth and a day
 66433     I'll mark no words that smooth-fac'd wooers say.
 66434     Come when the King doth to my lady come;
 66435     Then, if I have much love, I'll give you some.
 66436   DUMAIN. I'll serve thee true and faithfully till then.
 66437   KATHARINE. Yet swear not, lest ye be forsworn again.
 66438   LONGAVILLE. What says Maria?
 66439   MARIA. At the twelvemonth's end
 66440     I'll change my black gown for a faithful friend.
 66441   LONGAVILLE. I'll stay with patience; but the time is long.
 66442   MARIA. The liker you; few taller are so young.
 66443   BEROWNE. Studies my lady? Mistress, look on me;
 66444     Behold the window of my heart, mine eye,
 66445     What humble suit attends thy answer there.
 66446     Impose some service on me for thy love.
 66447   ROSALINE. Oft have I heard of you, my Lord Berowne,
 66448     Before I saw you; and the world's large tongue
 66449     Proclaims you for a man replete with mocks,
 66450     Full of comparisons and wounding flouts,
 66451     Which you on all estates will execute
 66452     That lie within the mercy of your wit.
 66453     To weed this wormwood from your fruitful brain,
 66454     And therewithal to win me, if you please,
 66455     Without the which I am not to be won,
 66456     You shall this twelvemonth term from day to day
 66457     Visit the speechless sick, and still converse
 66458     With groaning wretches; and your task shall be,
 66459     With all the fierce endeavour of your wit,
 66460     To enforce the pained impotent to smile.
 66461   BEROWNE. To move wild laughter in the throat of death?
 66462     It cannot be; it is impossible;
 66463     Mirth cannot move a soul in agony.
 66464   ROSALINE. Why, that's the way to choke a gibing spirit,
 66465     Whose influence is begot of that loose grace
 66466     Which shallow laughing hearers give to fools.
 66467     A jest's prosperity lies in the ear
 66468     Of him that hears it, never in the tongue
 66469     Of him that makes it; then, if sickly ears,
 66470     Deaf'd with the clamours of their own dear groans,
 66471     Will hear your idle scorns, continue then,
 66472     And I will have you and that fault withal.
 66473     But if they will not, throw away that spirit,
 66474     And I shall find you empty of that fault,
 66475     Right joyful of your reformation.
 66476   BEROWNE. A twelvemonth? Well, befall what will befall,
 66477     I'll jest a twelvemonth in an hospital.
 66478   PRINCESS OF FRANCE. [ To the King] Ay, sweet my lord, and so I take
 66479     my leave.
 66480   KING. No, madam; we will bring you on your way.
 66481   BEROWNE. Our wooing doth not end like an old play:
 66482     Jack hath not Jill. These ladies' courtesy
 66483     Might well have made our sport a comedy.
 66484   KING. Come, sir, it wants a twelvemonth an' a day,
 66485     And then 'twill end.
 66486   BEROWNE. That's too long for a play.
 66487 
 66488                           Re-enter ARMADO
 66489 
 66490   ARMADO. Sweet Majesty, vouchsafe me-
 66491   PRINCESS OF FRANCE. Was not that not Hector?
 66492   DUMAIN. The worthy knight of Troy.
 66493   ARMADO. I will kiss thy royal finger, and take leave. I am a
 66494     votary: I have vow'd to Jaquenetta to hold the plough for her
 66495     sweet love three year. But, most esteemed greatness, will you
 66496     hear the dialogue that the two learned men have compiled in
 66497     praise of the Owl and the Cuckoo? It should have followed in the
 66498     end of our show.
 66499   KING. Call them forth quickly; we will do so.
 66500   ARMADO. Holla! approach.
 66501 
 66502                             Enter All
 66503 
 66504     This side is Hiems, Winter; this Ver, the Spring- the one
 66505     maintained by the Owl, th' other by the Cuckoo. Ver, begin.
 66506 
 66507                       SPRING
 66508          When daisies pied and violets blue
 66509          And lady-smocks all silver-white
 66510          And cuckoo-buds of yellow hue
 66511          Do paint the meadows with delight,
 66512          The cuckoo then on every tree
 66513          Mocks married men, for thus sings he:
 66514               'Cuckoo;
 66515          Cuckoo, cuckoo'- O word of fear,
 66516          Unpleasing to a married ear!
 66517 
 66518          When shepherds pipe on oaten straws,
 66519          And merry larks are ploughmen's clocks;
 66520          When turtles tread, and rooks and daws,
 66521          And maidens bleach their summer smocks;
 66522          The cuckoo then on every tree
 66523          Mocks married men, for thus sings he:
 66524               'Cuckoo;
 66525          Cuckoo, cuckoo'- O word of fear,
 66526          Unpleasing to a married ear!
 66527 
 66528 
 66529                     WINTER
 66530 
 66531          When icicles hang by the wall,
 66532          And Dick the shepherd blows his nail,
 66533          And Tom bears logs into the hall,
 66534          And milk comes frozen home in pail,
 66535          When blood is nipp'd, and ways be foul,
 66536          Then nightly sings the staring owl:
 66537               'Tu-who;
 66538          Tu-whit, Tu-who'- A merry note,
 66539          While greasy Joan doth keel the pot.
 66540 
 66541          When all aloud the wind doth blow,
 66542          And coughing drowns the parson's saw,
 66543          And birds sit brooding in the snow,
 66544          And Marian's nose looks red and raw,
 66545          When roasted crabs hiss in the bowl,
 66546          Then nightly sings the staring owl:
 66547               'Tu-who;
 66548          Tu-whit, To-who'- A merry note,
 66549          While greasy Joan doth keel the pot.
 66550 
 66551   ARMADO. The words of Mercury are harsh after the songs of Apollo.
 66552     You that way: we this way.                            Exeunt
 66553 
 66554 THE END
 66555 
 66556 
 66557 
 66558 <<THIS ELECTRONIC VERSION OF THE COMPLETE WORKS OF WILLIAM
 66559 SHAKESPEARE IS COPYRIGHT 1990-1993 BY WORLD LIBRARY, INC., AND IS
 66560 PROVIDED BY PROJECT GUTENBERG ETEXT OF ILLINOIS BENEDICTINE COLLEGE
 66561 WITH PERMISSION.  ELECTRONIC AND MACHINE READABLE COPIES MAY BE
 66562 DISTRIBUTED SO LONG AS SUCH COPIES (1) ARE FOR YOUR OR OTHERS
 66563 PERSONAL USE ONLY, AND (2) ARE NOT DISTRIBUTED OR USED
 66564 COMMERCIALLY.  PROHIBITED COMMERCIAL DISTRIBUTION INCLUDES BY ANY
 66565 SERVICE THAT CHARGES FOR DOWNLOAD TIME OR FOR MEMBERSHIP.>>
 66566 
 66567 
 66568 
 66569 
 66570 
 66571 
 66572 1606
 66573 
 66574 THE TRAGEDY OF MACBETH
 66575 
 66576 
 66577 by William Shakespeare
 66578 
 66579 
 66580 
 66581 Dramatis Personae
 66582 
 66583   DUNCAN, King of Scotland
 66584   MACBETH, Thane of Glamis and Cawdor, a general in the King's army
 66585   LADY MACBETH, his wife
 66586   MACDUFF, Thane of Fife, a nobleman of Scotland
 66587   LADY MACDUFF, his wife
 66588   MALCOLM, elder son of Duncan
 66589   DONALBAIN, younger son of Duncan
 66590   BANQUO, Thane of Lochaber, a general in the King's army
 66591   FLEANCE, his son
 66592   LENNOX, nobleman of Scotland
 66593   ROSS, nobleman of Scotland
 66594   MENTEITH nobleman of Scotland
 66595   ANGUS, nobleman of Scotland
 66596   CAITHNESS, nobleman of Scotland
 66597   SIWARD, Earl of Northumberland, general of the English forces
 66598   YOUNG SIWARD, his son
 66599   SEYTON, attendant to Macbeth
 66600   HECATE, Queen of the Witches
 66601   The Three Witches
 66602   Boy, Son of Macduff
 66603   Gentlewoman attending on Lady Macbeth
 66604   An English Doctor
 66605   A Scottish Doctor
 66606   A Sergeant
 66607   A Porter
 66608   An Old Man
 66609   The Ghost of Banquo and other Apparitions
 66610   Lords, Gentlemen, Officers, Soldiers, Murtherers, Attendants,
 66611      and Messengers
 66612 
 66613 
 66614 
 66615 
 66616 <<THIS ELECTRONIC VERSION OF THE COMPLETE WORKS OF WILLIAM
 66617 SHAKESPEARE IS COPYRIGHT 1990-1993 BY WORLD LIBRARY, INC., AND IS
 66618 PROVIDED BY PROJECT GUTENBERG ETEXT OF ILLINOIS BENEDICTINE COLLEGE
 66619 WITH PERMISSION.  ELECTRONIC AND MACHINE READABLE COPIES MAY BE
 66620 DISTRIBUTED SO LONG AS SUCH COPIES (1) ARE FOR YOUR OR OTHERS
 66621 PERSONAL USE ONLY, AND (2) ARE NOT DISTRIBUTED OR USED
 66622 COMMERCIALLY.  PROHIBITED COMMERCIAL DISTRIBUTION INCLUDES BY ANY
 66623 SERVICE THAT CHARGES FOR DOWNLOAD TIME OR FOR MEMBERSHIP.>>
 66624 
 66625 
 66626 
 66627 SCENE: Scotland and England
 66628 
 66629 
 66630 ACT I. SCENE I.
 66631 A desert place. Thunder and lightning.
 66632 
 66633 Enter three Witches.
 66634 
 66635   FIRST WITCH. When shall we three meet again?
 66636     In thunder, lightning, or in rain?
 66637   SECOND WITCH. When the hurlyburly's done,
 66638     When the battle's lost and won.
 66639   THIRD WITCH. That will be ere the set of sun.
 66640   FIRST WITCH. Where the place?
 66641   SECOND WITCH. Upon the heath.
 66642   THIRD WITCH. There to meet with Macbeth.
 66643   FIRST WITCH. I come, Graymalkin.
 66644   ALL. Paddock calls. Anon!
 66645     Fair is foul, and foul is fair.
 66646     Hover through the fog and filthy air.                Exeunt.
 66647 
 66648 
 66649 
 66650 
 66651 SCENE II.
 66652 A camp near Forres. Alarum within.
 66653 
 66654 Enter Duncan, Malcolm, Donalbain, Lennox, with Attendants,
 66655 meeting a bleeding Sergeant.
 66656 
 66657   DUNCAN. What bloody man is that? He can report,
 66658     As seemeth by his plight, of the revolt
 66659     The newest state.
 66660   MALCOLM. This is the sergeant
 66661     Who like a good and hardy soldier fought
 66662     'Gainst my captivity. Hail, brave friend!
 66663     Say to the King the knowledge of the broil
 66664     As thou didst leave it.
 66665   SERGEANT. Doubtful it stood,
 66666     As two spent swimmers that do cling together
 66667     And choke their art. The merciless Macdonwald-
 66668     Worthy to be a rebel, for to that
 66669     The multiplying villainies of nature
 66670     Do swarm upon him -from the Western Isles
 66671     Of kerns and gallowglasses is supplied;
 66672     And Fortune, on his damned quarrel smiling,
 66673     Show'd like a rebel's whore. But all's too weak;
 66674     For brave Macbeth -well he deserves that name-
 66675     Disdaining Fortune, with his brandish'd steel,
 66676     Which smoked with bloody execution,
 66677     Like Valor's minion carved out his passage
 66678     Till he faced the slave,
 66679     Which ne'er shook hands, nor bade farewell to him,
 66680     Till he unseam'd him from the nave to the chaps,
 66681     And fix'd his head upon our battlements.
 66682   DUNCAN. O valiant cousin! Worthy gentleman!
 66683   SERGEANT. As whence the sun 'gins his reflection
 66684     Shipwrecking storms and direful thunders break,
 66685     So from that spring whence comfort seem'd to come
 66686     Discomfort swells. Mark, King of Scotland, mark.
 66687     No sooner justice had, with valor arm'd,
 66688     Compell'd these skipping kerns to trust their heels,
 66689     But the Norweyan lord, surveying vantage,
 66690     With furbish'd arms and new supplies of men,
 66691     Began a fresh assault.
 66692   DUNCAN. Dismay'd not this
 66693     Our captains, Macbeth and Banquo.?
 66694   SERGEANT. Yes,
 66695     As sparrows eagles, or the hare the lion.
 66696     If I say sooth, I must report they were
 66697     As cannons overcharged with double cracks,
 66698     So they
 66699     Doubly redoubled strokes upon the foe.
 66700     Except they meant to bathe in reeking wounds,
 66701     Or memorize another Golgotha,
 66702     I cannot tell-
 66703     But I am faint; my gashes cry for help.
 66704   DUNCAN. So well thy words become thee as thy wounds;
 66705     They smack of honor both. Go get him surgeons.
 66706                                         Exit Sergeant, attended.
 66707     Who comes here?
 66708 
 66709                        Enter Ross.
 66710 
 66711   MALCOLM The worthy Thane of Ross.
 66712   LENNOX. What a haste looks through his eyes! So should he look
 66713     That seems to speak things strange.
 66714   ROSS. God save the King!
 66715   DUNCAN. Whence camest thou, worthy Thane?
 66716   ROSS. From Fife, great King,
 66717     Where the Norweyan banners flout the sky
 66718     And fan our people cold.
 66719     Norway himself, with terrible numbers,
 66720     Assisted by that most disloyal traitor
 66721     The Thane of Cawdor, began a dismal conflict,
 66722     Till that Bellona's bridegroom, lapp'd in proof,
 66723     Confronted him with self-comparisons,
 66724     Point against point rebellious, arm 'gainst arm,
 66725     Curbing his lavish spirit; and, to conclude,
 66726     The victory fell on us.
 66727   DUNCAN. Great happiness!
 66728   ROSS. That now
 66729     Sweno, the Norways' king, craves composition;
 66730     Nor would we deign him burial of his men
 66731     Till he disbursed, at Saint Colme's Inch,
 66732     Ten thousand dollars to our general use.
 66733   DUNCAN. No more that Thane of Cawdor shall deceive
 66734     Our bosom interest. Go pronounce his present death,
 66735     And with his former title greet Macbeth.
 66736   ROSS. I'll see it done.
 66737   DUNCAN. What he hath lost, noble Macbeth hath won.
 66738                                                          Exeunt.
 66739 
 66740 
 66741 
 66742 
 66743 SCENE III.
 66744 A heath. Thunder.
 66745 
 66746 Enter the three Witches.
 66747 
 66748   FIRST WITCH. Where hast thou been, sister?
 66749   SECOND WITCH. Killing swine.
 66750   THIRD WITCH. Sister, where thou?
 66751   FIRST WITCH. A sailor's wife had chestnuts in her lap,
 66752     And mounch'd, and mounch'd, and mounch'd. "Give me," quoth I.
 66753     "Aroint thee, witch!" the rump-fed ronyon cries.
 66754     Her husband's to Aleppo gone, master the Tiger;
 66755     But in a sieve I'll thither sail,
 66756     And, like a rat without a tail,
 66757     I'll do, I'll do, and I'll do.
 66758   SECOND WITCH. I'll give thee a wind.
 66759   FIRST WITCH. Thou'rt kind.
 66760   THIRD WITCH. And I another.
 66761   FIRST WITCH. I myself have all the other,
 66762     And the very ports they blow,
 66763     All the quarters that they know
 66764     I' the shipman's card.
 66765     I will drain him dry as hay:
 66766     Sleep shall neither night nor day
 66767     Hang upon his penthouse lid;
 66768     He shall live a man forbid.
 66769     Weary se'nnights nine times nine
 66770     Shall he dwindle, peak, and pine;
 66771     Though his bark cannot be lost,
 66772     Yet it shall be tempest-toss'd.
 66773     Look what I have.
 66774   SECOND WITCH. Show me, show me.
 66775   FIRST WITCH. Here I have a pilot's thumb,
 66776     Wreck'd as homeward he did come.                Drum within.
 66777   THIRD WITCH. A drum, a drum!
 66778     Macbeth doth come.
 66779   ALL. The weird sisters, hand in hand,
 66780     Posters of the sea and land,
 66781     Thus do go about, about,
 66782     Thrice to thine, and thrice to mine,
 66783     And thrice again, to make up nine.
 66784     Peace! The charm's wound up.
 66785 
 66786                  Enter Macbeth and Banquo.
 66787 
 66788   MACBETH. So foul and fair a day I have not seen.
 66789   BANQUO. How far is't call'd to Forres? What are these
 66790     So wither'd and so wild in their attire,
 66791     That look not like the inhabitants o' the earth,
 66792     And yet are on't? Live you? or are you aught
 66793     That man may question? You seem to understand me,
 66794     By each at once her choppy finger laying
 66795     Upon her skinny lips. You should be women,
 66796     And yet your beards forbid me to interpret
 66797     That you are so.
 66798   MACBETH. Speak, if you can. What are you?
 66799   FIRST WITCH. All hail, Macbeth, hail to thee, Thane of Glamis!
 66800   SECOND WITCH. All hail, Macbeth, hail to thee, Thane of Cawdor!
 66801   THIRD WITCH. All hail, Macbeth, that shalt be King hereafter!
 66802   BANQUO. Good sir, why do you start, and seem to fear
 66803     Things that do sound so fair? I' the name of truth,
 66804     Are ye fantastical or that indeed
 66805     Which outwardly ye show? My noble partner
 66806     You greet with present grace and great prediction
 66807     Of noble having and of royal hope,
 66808     That he seems rapt withal. To me you speak not.
 66809     If you can look into the seeds of time,
 66810     And say which grain will grow and which will not,
 66811     Speak then to me, who neither beg nor fear
 66812     Your favors nor your hate.
 66813   FIRST WITCH. Hail!
 66814   SECOND WITCH. Hail!
 66815   THIRD WITCH. Hail!
 66816   FIRST WITCH. Lesser than Macbeth, and greater.
 66817   SECOND WITCH. Not so happy, yet much happier.
 66818   THIRD WITCH. Thou shalt get kings, though thou be none.
 66819     So all hail, Macbeth and Banquo!
 66820   FIRST WITCH. Banquo and Macbeth, all hail!
 66821   MACBETH. Stay, you imperfect speakers, tell me more.
 66822     By Sinel's death I know I am Thane of Glamis;
 66823     But how of Cawdor? The Thane of Cawdor lives,
 66824     A prosperous gentleman; and to be King
 66825     Stands not within the prospect of belief,
 66826     No more than to be Cawdor. Say from whence
 66827     You owe this strange intelligence, or why
 66828     Upon this blasted heath you stop our way
 66829     With such prophetic greeting? Speak, I charge you.
 66830                                                  Witches vanish.
 66831   BANQUO. The earth hath bubbles as the water has,
 66832     And these are of them. Whither are they vanish'd?
 66833   MACBETH. Into the air, and what seem'd corporal melted
 66834     As breath into the wind. Would they had stay'd!
 66835   BANQUO. Were such things here as we do speak about?
 66836     Or have we eaten on the insane root
 66837     That takes the reason prisoner?
 66838   MACBETH. Your children shall be kings.
 66839   BANQUO. You shall be King.
 66840   MACBETH. And Thane of Cawdor too. Went it not so?
 66841   BANQUO. To the selfsame tune and words. Who's here?
 66842 
 66843                 Enter Ross and Angus.
 66844 
 66845   ROSS. The King hath happily received, Macbeth,
 66846     The news of thy success; and when he reads
 66847     Thy personal venture in the rebels' fight,
 66848     His wonders and his praises do contend
 66849     Which should be thine or his. Silenced with that,
 66850     In viewing o'er the rest o' the selfsame day,
 66851     He finds thee in the stout Norweyan ranks,
 66852     Nothing afeard of what thyself didst make,
 66853     Strange images of death. As thick as hail
 66854     Came post with post, and every one did bear
 66855     Thy praises in his kingdom's great defense,
 66856     And pour'd them down before him.
 66857   ANGUS. We are sent
 66858     To give thee, from our royal master, thanks;
 66859     Only to herald thee into his sight,
 66860     Not pay thee.
 66861   ROSS. And for an earnest of a greater honor,
 66862     He bade me, from him, call thee Thane of Cawdor.
 66863     In which addition, hail, most worthy Thane,
 66864     For it is thine.
 66865   BANQUO. What, can the devil speak true?
 66866   MACBETH. The Thane of Cawdor lives. Why do you dress me
 66867     In borrow'd robes?
 66868   ANGUS. Who was the Thane lives yet,
 66869     But under heavy judgement bears that life
 66870     Which he deserves to lose. Whether he was combined
 66871     With those of Norway, or did line the rebel
 66872     With hidden help and vantage, or that with both
 66873     He labor'd in his country's wreck, I know not;
 66874     But treasons capital, confess'd and proved,
 66875     Have overthrown him.
 66876   MACBETH. [Aside.] Glamis, and Thane of Cawdor!
 66877     The greatest is behind. [To Ross and Angus] Thanks for your
 66878       pains.
 66879     [Aside to Banquo] Do you not hope your children shall be kings,
 66880     When those that gave the Thane of Cawdor to me
 66881     Promised no less to them?
 66882   BANQUO. [Aside to Macbeth.] That, trusted home,
 66883     Might yet enkindle you unto the crown,
 66884     Besides the Thane of Cawdor. But 'tis strange;
 66885     And oftentimes, to win us to our harm,
 66886     The instruments of darkness tell us truths,
 66887     Win us with honest trifles, to betray's
 66888     In deepest consequence-
 66889     Cousins, a word, I pray you.
 66890   MACBETH. [Aside.] Two truths are told,
 66891     As happy prologues to the swelling act
 66892     Of the imperial theme-I thank you, gentlemen.
 66893     [Aside.] This supernatural soliciting
 66894     Cannot be ill, cannot be good. If ill,
 66895     Why hath it given me earnest of success,
 66896     Commencing in a truth? I am Thane of Cawdor.
 66897     If good, why do I yield to that suggestion
 66898     Whose horrid image doth unfix my hair
 66899     And make my seated heart knock at my ribs,
 66900     Against the use of nature? Present fears
 66901     Are less than horrible imaginings:
 66902     My thought, whose murther yet is but fantastical,
 66903     Shakes so my single state of man that function
 66904     Is smother'd in surmise, and nothing is
 66905     But what is not.
 66906   BANQUO. Look, how our partner's rapt.
 66907   MACBETH. [Aside.] If chance will have me King, why, chance may
 66908       crown me
 66909     Without my stir.
 66910   BANQUO. New honors come upon him,
 66911     Like our strange garments, cleave not to their mould
 66912     But with the aid of use.
 66913   MACBETH. [Aside.] Come what come may,
 66914     Time and the hour runs through the roughest day.
 66915   BANQUO. Worthy Macbeth, we stay upon your leisure.
 66916   MACBETH. Give me your favor; my dull brain was wrought
 66917     With things forgotten. Kind gentlemen, your pains
 66918     Are register'd where every day I turn
 66919     The leaf to read them. Let us toward the King.
 66920     Think upon what hath chanced, and at more time,
 66921     The interim having weigh'd it, let us speak
 66922     Our free hearts each to other.
 66923   BANQUO. Very gladly.
 66924   MACBETH. Till then, enough. Come, friends.             Exeunt.
 66925 
 66926 
 66927 
 66928 
 66929 SCENE IV.
 66930 Forres. The palace.
 66931 
 66932 Flourish. Enter Duncan, Malcolm, Donalbain, Lennox, and Attendants.
 66933 
 66934   DUNCAN. Is execution done on Cawdor? Are not
 66935     Those in commission yet return'd?
 66936   MALCOLM. My liege,
 66937     They are not yet come back. But I have spoke
 66938     With one that saw him die, who did report
 66939     That very frankly he confess'd his treasons,
 66940     Implored your Highness' pardon, and set forth
 66941     A deep repentance. Nothing in his life
 66942     Became him like the leaving it; he died
 66943     As one that had been studied in his death,
 66944     To throw away the dearest thing he owed
 66945     As 'twere a careless trifle.
 66946   DUNCAN. There's no art
 66947     To find the mind's construction in the face:
 66948     He was a gentleman on whom I built
 66949     An absolute trust.
 66950 
 66951              Enter Macbeth, Banquo, Ross, and Angus.
 66952 
 66953     O worthiest cousin!
 66954     The sin of my ingratitude even now
 66955     Was heavy on me. Thou art so far before,
 66956     That swiftest wing of recompense is slow
 66957     To overtake thee. Would thou hadst less deserved,
 66958     That the proportion both of thanks and payment
 66959     Might have been mine! Only I have left to say,
 66960     More is thy due than more than all can pay.
 66961   MACBETH. The service and the loyalty lowe,
 66962     In doing it, pays itself. Your Highness' part
 66963     Is to receive our duties, and our duties
 66964     Are to your throne and state, children and servants,
 66965     Which do but what they should, by doing everything
 66966     Safe toward your love and honor.
 66967   DUNCAN. Welcome hither.
 66968     I have begun to plant thee, and will labor
 66969     To make thee full of growing. Noble Banquo,
 66970     That hast no less deserved, nor must be known
 66971     No less to have done so; let me infold thee
 66972     And hold thee to my heart.
 66973   BANQUO. There if I grow,
 66974     The harvest is your own.
 66975   DUNCAN. My plenteous joys,
 66976     Wanton in fullness, seek to hide themselves
 66977     In drops of sorrow. Sons, kinsmen, thanes,
 66978     And you whose places are the nearest, know
 66979     We will establish our estate upon
 66980     Our eldest, Malcolm, whom we name hereafter
 66981     The Prince of Cumberland; which honor must
 66982     Not unaccompanied invest him only,
 66983     But signs of nobleness, like stars, shall shine
 66984     On all deservers. From hence to Inverness,
 66985     And bind us further to you.
 66986   MACBETH. The rest is labor, which is not used for you.
 66987     I'll be myself the harbinger, and make joyful
 66988     The hearing of my wife with your approach;
 66989     So humbly take my leave.
 66990   DUNCAN. My worthy Cawdor!
 66991   MACBETH. [Aside.] The Prince of Cumberland! That is a step
 66992     On which I must fall down, or else o'erleap,
 66993     For in my way it lies. Stars, hide your fires;
 66994     Let not light see my black and deep desires.
 66995     The eye wink at the hand; yet let that be
 66996     Which the eye fears, when it is done, to see.          Exit.
 66997   DUNCAN. True, worthy Banquo! He is full so valiant,
 66998     And in his commendations I am fed;
 66999     It is a banquet to me. Let's after him,
 67000     Whose care is gone before to bid us welcome.
 67001     It is a peerless kinsman.                  Flourish. Exeunt.
 67002 
 67003 
 67004 
 67005 
 67006 SCENE V.
 67007 Inverness. Macbeth's castle.
 67008 
 67009 Enter Lady Macbeth, reading a letter.
 67010 
 67011   LADY MACBETH. "They met me in the day of success, and I have
 67012     learned by the perfectest report they have more in them than
 67013     mortal knowledge. When I burned in desire to question them
 67014     further, they made themselves air, into which they vanished.
 67015     Whiles I stood rapt in the wonder of it, came missives from the
 67016     King, who all-hailed me 'Thane of Cawdor'; by which title,
 67017     before, these weird sisters saluted me and referred me to the
 67018     coming on of time with 'Hail, King that shalt be!' This have I
 67019     thought good to deliver thee, my dearest partner of greatness,
 67020     that thou mightst not lose the dues of rejoicing, by being
 67021     ignorant of what greatness is promised thee. Lay it to thy heart,
 67022     and farewell."
 67023 
 67024     Glamis thou art, and Cawdor, and shalt be
 67025     What thou art promised. Yet do I fear thy nature.
 67026     It is too full o' the milk of human kindness
 67027     To catch the nearest way. Thou wouldst be great;
 67028     Art not without ambition, but without
 67029     The illness should attend it. What thou wouldst highly,
 67030     That wouldst thou holily; wouldst not play false,
 67031     And yet wouldst wrongly win. Thou'ldst have, great Glamis,
 67032     That which cries, "Thus thou must do, if thou have it;
 67033     And that which rather thou dost fear to do
 67034     Than wishest should be undone." Hie thee hither,
 67035     That I may pour my spirits in thine ear,
 67036     And chastise with the valor of my tongue
 67037     All that impedes thee from the golden round,
 67038     Which fate and metaphysical aid doth seem
 67039     To have thee crown'd withal.
 67040 
 67041                      Enter a Messenger.
 67042 
 67043     What is your tidings?
 67044   MESSENGER. The King comes here tonight.
 67045   LADY MACBETH. Thou'rt mad to say it!
 67046     Is not thy master with him? who, were't so,
 67047     Would have inform'd for preparation.
 67048   MESSENGER. So please you, it is true; our Thane is coming.
 67049     One of my fellows had the speed of him,
 67050     Who, almost dead for breath, had scarcely more
 67051     Than would make up his message.
 67052   LADY MACBETH. Give him tending;
 67053     He brings great news.                        Exit Messenger.
 67054     The raven himself is hoarse
 67055     That croaks the fatal entrance of Duncan
 67056     Under my battlements. Come, you spirits
 67057     That tend on mortal thoughts, unsex me here
 67058     And fill me from the crown to the toe top-full
 67059     Of direst cruelty! Make thick my blood,
 67060     Stop up the access and passage to remorse,
 67061     That no compunctious visitings of nature
 67062     Shake my fell purpose nor keep peace between
 67063     The effect and it! Come to my woman's breasts,
 67064     And take my milk for gall, your murthering ministers,
 67065     Wherever in your sightless substances
 67066     You wait on nature's mischief! Come, thick night,
 67067     And pall thee in the dunnest smoke of hell
 67068     That my keen knife see not the wound it makes
 67069     Nor heaven peep through the blanket of the dark
 67070     To cry, "Hold, hold!"
 67071 
 67072                     Enter Macbeth.
 67073 
 67074     Great Glamis! Worthy Cawdor!
 67075     Greater than both, by the all-hail hereafter!
 67076     Thy letters have transported me beyond
 67077     This ignorant present, and I feel now
 67078     The future in the instant.
 67079   MACBETH. My dearest love,
 67080     Duncan comes here tonight.
 67081   LADY MACBETH. And when goes hence?
 67082   MACBETH. Tomorrow, as he purposes.
 67083   LADY MACBETH. O, never
 67084     Shall sun that morrow see!
 67085     Your face, my Thane, is as a book where men
 67086     May read strange matters. To beguile the time,
 67087     Look like the time; bear welcome in your eye,
 67088     Your hand, your tongue; look like the innocent flower,
 67089     But be the serpent under it. He that's coming
 67090     Must be provided for; and you shall put
 67091     This night's great business into my dispatch,
 67092     Which shall to all our nights and days to come
 67093     Give solely sovereign sway and masterdom.
 67094   MACBETH. We will speak further.
 67095   LADY MACBETH. Only look up clear;
 67096     To alter favor ever is to fear.
 67097     Leave all the rest to me.                            Exeunt.
 67098 
 67099 
 67100 
 67101 
 67102 SCENE VI.
 67103 Before Macbeth's castle.  Hautboys and torches.
 67104 
 67105 Enter Duncan, Malcolm, Donalbain, Banquo, Lennox, Macduff, Ross, Angus,
 67106 and Attendants.
 67107 
 67108   DUNCAN. This castle hath a pleasant seat; the air
 67109     Nimbly and sweetly recommends itself
 67110     Unto our gentle senses.
 67111   BANQUO. This guest of summer,
 67112     The temple-haunting martlet, does approve
 67113     By his loved mansionry that the heaven's breath
 67114     Smells wooingly here. No jutty, frieze,
 67115     Buttress, nor coign of vantage, but this bird
 67116     Hath made his pendant bed and procreant cradle;
 67117     Where they most breed and haunt, I have observed
 67118     The air is delicate.
 67119 
 67120                      Enter Lady Macbeth.
 67121 
 67122   DUNCAN. See, see, our honor'd hostess!
 67123     The love that follows us sometime is our trouble,
 67124     Which still we thank as love. Herein I teach you
 67125     How you shall bid God 'ield us for your pains,
 67126     And thank us for your trouble.
 67127   LADY MACBETH. All our service
 67128     In every point twice done, and then done double,
 67129     Were poor and single business to contend
 67130     Against those honors deep and broad wherewith
 67131     Your Majesty loads our house. For those of old,
 67132     And the late dignities heap'd up to them,
 67133     We rest your hermits.
 67134   DUNCAN. Where's the Thane of Cawdor?
 67135     We coursed him at the heels and had a purpose
 67136     To be his purveyor; but he rides well,
 67137     And his great love, sharp as his spur, hath holp him
 67138     To his home before us. Fair and noble hostess,
 67139     We are your guest tonight.
 67140   LADY MACBETH. Your servants ever
 67141     Have theirs, themselves, and what is theirs, in compt,
 67142     To make their audit at your Highness' pleasure,
 67143     Still to return your own.
 67144   DUNCAN. Give me your hand;
 67145     Conduct me to mine host. We love him highly,
 67146     And shall continue our graces towards him.
 67147     By your leave, hostess.                              Exeunt.
 67148 
 67149 
 67150 
 67151 
 67152 SCENE VII
 67153 Macbeth's castle.  Hautboys and torches.
 67154 
 67155 Enter a Sewer and divers Servants with dishes and service, who pass over
 67156 the stage.  Then enter Macbeth.
 67157 
 67158   MACBETH. If it were done when 'tis done, then 'twere well
 67159     It were done quickly. If the assassination
 67160     Could trammel up the consequence, and catch,
 67161     With his surcease, success; that but this blow
 67162     Might be the be-all and the end-all -here,
 67163     But here, upon this bank and shoal of time,
 67164     We'ld jump the life to come. But in these cases
 67165     We still have judgement here, that we but teach
 67166     Bloody instructions, which being taught return
 67167     To plague the inventor. This even-handed justice
 67168     Commends the ingredients of our poison'd chalice
 67169     To our own lips. He's here in double trust:
 67170     First, as I am his kinsman and his subject,
 67171     Strong both against the deed; then, as his host,
 67172     Who should against his murtherer shut the door,
 67173     Not bear the knife myself. Besides, this Duncan
 67174     Hath borne his faculties so meek, hath been
 67175     So clear in his great office, that his virtues
 67176     Will plead like angels trumpet-tongued against
 67177     The deep damnation of his taking-off,
 67178     And pity, like a naked new-born babe
 67179     Striding the blast, or heaven's cherubin horsed
 67180     Upon the sightless couriers of the air,
 67181     Shall blow the horrid deed in every eye,
 67182     That tears shall drown the wind. I have no spur
 67183     To prick the sides of my intent, but only
 67184     Vaulting ambition, which o'erleaps itself
 67185     And falls on the other.
 67186 
 67187                  Enter Lady Macbeth.
 67188 
 67189     How now, what news?
 67190   LADY MACBETH. He has almost supp'd. Why have you left the chamber?
 67191   MACBETH. Hath he ask'd for me?
 67192   LADY MACBETH. Know you not he has?
 67193   MACBETH. We will proceed no further in this business:
 67194     He hath honor'd me of late, and I have bought
 67195     Golden opinions from all sorts of people,
 67196     Which would be worn now in their newest gloss,
 67197     Not cast aside so soon.
 67198   LADY MACBETH. Was the hope drunk
 67199     Wherein you dress'd yourself? Hath it slept since?
 67200     And wakes it now, to look so green and pale
 67201     At what it did so freely? From this time
 67202     Such I account thy love. Art thou afeard
 67203     To be the same in thine own act and valor
 67204     As thou art in desire? Wouldst thou have that
 67205     Which thou esteem'st the ornament of life
 67206     And live a coward in thine own esteem,
 67207     Letting "I dare not" wait upon "I would"
 67208     Like the poor cat i' the adage?
 67209   MACBETH. Prithee, peace!
 67210     I dare do all that may become a man;
 67211     Who dares do more is none.
 67212   LADY MACBETH. What beast wast then
 67213     That made you break this enterprise to me?
 67214     When you durst do it, then you were a man,
 67215     And, to be more than what you were, you would
 67216     Be so much more the man. Nor time nor place
 67217     Did then adhere, and yet you would make both.
 67218     They have made themselves, and that their fitness now
 67219     Does unmake you. I have given suck and know
 67220     How tender 'tis to love the babe that milks me-
 67221     I would, while it was smiling in my face,
 67222     Have pluck'd my nipple from his boneless gums
 67223     And dash'd the brains out had I so sworn as you
 67224     Have done to this.
 67225   MACBETH. If we should fail?
 67226   LADY MACBETH. We fail?
 67227     But screw your courage to the sticking-place
 67228     And we'll not fail. When Duncan is asleep-
 67229     Whereto the rather shall his day's hard journey
 67230     Soundly invite him- his two chamberlains
 67231     Will I with wine and wassail so convince
 67232     That memory, the warder of the brain,
 67233     Shall be a fume and the receipt of reason
 67234     A limbeck only. When in swinish sleep
 67235     Their drenched natures lie as in a death,
 67236     What cannot you and I perform upon
 67237     The unguarded Duncan? What not put upon
 67238     His spongy officers, who shall bear the guilt
 67239     Of our great quell?
 67240   MACBETH. Bring forth men-children only,
 67241     For thy undaunted mettle should compose
 67242     Nothing but males. Will it not be received,
 67243     When we have mark'd with blood those sleepy two
 67244     Of his own chamber and used their very daggers,
 67245     That they have done't?
 67246   LADY MACBETH. Who dares receive it other,
 67247     As we shall make our griefs and clamor roar
 67248     Upon his death?
 67249   MACBETH. I am settled and bend up
 67250     Each corporal agent to this terrible feat.
 67251     Away, and mock the time with fairest show:
 67252     False face must hide what the false heart doth know.
 67253                                                          Exeunt.
 67254 
 67255 
 67256 
 67257 
 67258 <<THIS ELECTRONIC VERSION OF THE COMPLETE WORKS OF WILLIAM
 67259 SHAKESPEARE IS COPYRIGHT 1990-1993 BY WORLD LIBRARY, INC., AND IS
 67260 PROVIDED BY PROJECT GUTENBERG ETEXT OF ILLINOIS BENEDICTINE COLLEGE
 67261 WITH PERMISSION.  ELECTRONIC AND MACHINE READABLE COPIES MAY BE
 67262 DISTRIBUTED SO LONG AS SUCH COPIES (1) ARE FOR YOUR OR OTHERS
 67263 PERSONAL USE ONLY, AND (2) ARE NOT DISTRIBUTED OR USED
 67264 COMMERCIALLY.  PROHIBITED COMMERCIAL DISTRIBUTION INCLUDES BY ANY
 67265 SERVICE THAT CHARGES FOR DOWNLOAD TIME OR FOR MEMBERSHIP.>>
 67266 
 67267 
 67268 
 67269 ACT II. SCENE I.
 67270 Inverness. Court of Macbeth's castle.
 67271 
 67272 Enter Banquo and Fleance, bearing a torch before him.
 67273 
 67274   BANQUO. How goes the night, boy?
 67275   FLEANCE. The moon is down; I have not heard the clock.
 67276   BANQUO. And she goes down at twelve.
 67277   FLEANCE. I take't 'tis later, sir.
 67278   BANQUO. Hold, take my sword. There's husbandry in heaven,
 67279     Their candles are all out. Take thee that too.
 67280     A heavy summons lies like lead upon me,
 67281     And yet I would not sleep. Merciful powers,
 67282     Restrain in me the cursed thoughts that nature
 67283     Gives way to in repose!
 67284 
 67285            Enter Macbeth and a Servant with a torch.
 67286 
 67287     Give me my sword.
 67288     Who's there?
 67289   MACBETH. A friend.
 67290   BANQUO. What, sir, not yet at rest? The King's abed.
 67291     He hath been in unusual pleasure and
 67292     Sent forth great largess to your offices.
 67293     This diamond he greets your wife withal,
 67294     By the name of most kind hostess, and shut up
 67295     In measureless content.
 67296   MACBETH. Being unprepared,
 67297     Our will became the servant to defect,
 67298     Which else should free have wrought.
 67299   BANQUO. All's well.
 67300     I dreamt last night of the three weird sisters:
 67301     To you they have show'd some truth.
 67302   MACBETH. I think not of them;
 67303     Yet, when we can entreat an hour to serve,
 67304     We would spend it in some words upon that business,
 67305     If you would grant the time.
 67306   BANQUO. At your kind'st leisure.
 67307   MACBETH. If you shall cleave to my consent, when 'tis,
 67308     It shall make honor for you.
 67309   BANQUO. So I lose none
 67310     In seeking to augment it, but still keep
 67311     My bosom franchised and allegiance clear,
 67312     I shall be counsel'd.
 67313   MACBETH. Good repose the while.
 67314   BANQUO. Thanks, sir, the like to you.
 67315                                      Exeunt Banquo. and Fleance.
 67316   MACBETH. Go bid thy mistress, when my drink is ready,
 67317     She strike upon the bell. Get thee to bed.     Exit Servant.
 67318     Is this a dagger which I see before me,
 67319     The handle toward my hand? Come, let me clutch thee.
 67320     I have thee not, and yet I see thee still.
 67321     Art thou not, fatal vision, sensible
 67322     To feeling as to sight? Or art thou but
 67323     A dagger of the mind, a false creation,
 67324     Proceeding from the heat-oppressed brain?
 67325     I see thee yet, in form as palpable
 67326     As this which now I draw.
 67327     Thou marshal'st me the way that I was going,
 67328     And such an instrument I was to use.
 67329     Mine eyes are made the fools o' the other senses,
 67330     Or else worth all the rest. I see thee still,
 67331     And on thy blade and dudgeon gouts of blood,
 67332     Which was not so before. There's no such thing:
 67333     It is the bloody business which informs
 67334     Thus to mine eyes. Now o'er the one half-world
 67335     Nature seems dead, and wicked dreams abuse
 67336     The curtain'd sleep; witchcraft celebrates
 67337     Pale Hecate's offerings; and wither'd Murther,
 67338     Alarum'd by his sentinel, the wolf,
 67339     Whose howl's his watch, thus with his stealthy pace,
 67340     With Tarquin's ravishing strides, towards his design
 67341     Moves like a ghost. Thou sure and firm-set earth,
 67342     Hear not my steps, which way they walk, for fear
 67343     Thy very stones prate of my whereabout,
 67344     And take the present horror from the time,
 67345     Which now suits with it. Whiles I threat, he lives;
 67346     Words to the heat of deeds too cold breath gives.
 67347                                                    A bell rings.
 67348     I go, and it is done; the bell invites me.
 67349     Hear it not, Duncan, for it is a knell
 67350     That summons thee to heaven, or to hell.               Exit.
 67351 
 67352 
 67353 
 67354 
 67355 SCENE II.
 67356 The same.
 67357 
 67358 Enter Lady Macbeth.
 67359 
 67360   LADY MACBETH. That which hath made them drunk hath made me bold;
 67361     What hath quench'd them hath given me fire. Hark! Peace!
 67362     It was the owl that shriek'd, the fatal bellman,
 67363     Which gives the stern'st good night. He is about it:
 67364     The doors are open, and the surfeited grooms
 67365     Do mock their charge with snores. I have drugg'd their possets
 67366     That death and nature do contend about them,
 67367     Whether they live or die.
 67368   MACBETH. [Within.] Who's there' what, ho!
 67369   LADY MACBETH. Alack, I am afraid they have awaked
 67370     And 'tis not done. The attempt and not the deed
 67371     Confounds us. Hark! I laid their daggers ready;
 67372     He could not miss 'em. Had he not resembled
 67373     My father as he slept, I had done't.
 67374 
 67375                       Enter Macbeth,
 67376 
 67377     My husband!
 67378   MACBETH. I have done the deed. Didst thou not hear a noise?
 67379   LADY MACBETH. I heard the owl scream and the crickets cry.
 67380     Did not you speak?
 67381   MACBETH. When?
 67382   LADY MACBETH. Now.
 67383   MACBETH. As I descended?
 67384   LADY MACBETH. Ay.
 67385   MACBETH. Hark!
 67386     Who lies i' the second chamber?
 67387   LADY MACBETH. Donalbain.
 67388   MACBETH. This is a sorry sight.           [Looks on his hands.
 67389   LADY MACBETH. A foolish thought, to say a sorry sight.
 67390   MACBETH. There's one did laugh in 's sleep, and one cried,
 67391       "Murther!"
 67392     That they did wake each other. I stood and heard them,
 67393     But they did say their prayers and address'd them
 67394     Again to sleep.
 67395   LADY MACBETH. There are two lodged together.
 67396   MACBETH. One cried, "God bless us!" and "Amen" the other,
 67397     As they had seen me with these hangman's hands.
 67398     Listening their fear, I could not say "Amen,"
 67399     When they did say, "God bless us!"
 67400   LADY MACBETH. Consider it not so deeply.
 67401   MACBETH. But wherefore could not I pronounce "Amen"?
 67402     I had most need of blessing, and "Amen"
 67403     Stuck in my throat.
 67404   LADY MACBETH. These deeds must not be thought
 67405     After these ways; so, it will make us mad.
 67406   MACBETH. I heard a voice cry, "Sleep no more!
 67407     Macbeth does murther sleep" -the innocent sleep,
 67408     Sleep that knits up the ravel'd sleave of care,
 67409     The death of each day's life, sore labor's bath,
 67410     Balm of hurt minds, great nature's second course,
 67411     Chief nourisher in life's feast-
 67412   LADY MACBETH. What do you mean?
 67413   MACBETH. Still it cried, "Sleep no more!" to all the house;
 67414     "Glamis hath murther'd sleep, and therefore Cawdor
 67415     Shall sleep no more. Macbeth shall sleep no more."
 67416   LADY MACBETH. Who was it that thus cried? Why, worthy Thane,
 67417     You do unbend your noble strength, to think
 67418     So brainsickly of things. Go, get some water
 67419     And wash this filthy witness from your hand.
 67420     Why did you bring these daggers from the place?
 67421     They must lie there. Go carry them, and smear
 67422     The sleepy grooms with blood.
 67423   MACBETH. I'll go no more.
 67424     I am afraid to think what I have done;
 67425     Look on't again I dare not.
 67426   LADY MACBETH. Infirm of purpose!
 67427     Give me the daggers. The sleeping and the dead
 67428     Are but as pictures; 'tis the eye of childhood
 67429     That fears a painted devil. If he do bleed,
 67430     I'll gild the faces of the grooms withal,
 67431     For it must seem their guilt.         Exit. Knocking within.
 67432   MACBETH. Whence is that knocking?
 67433     How is't with me, when every noise appals me?
 67434     What hands are here? Ha, they pluck out mine eyes!
 67435     Will all great Neptune's ocean wash this blood
 67436     Clean from my hand? No, this my hand will rather
 67437     The multitudinous seas incarnadine,
 67438     Making the green one red.
 67439 
 67440                    Re-enter Lady Macbeth.
 67441 
 67442   LADY MACBETH. My hands are of your color, but I shame
 67443     To wear a heart so white. [Knocking within.] I hear knocking
 67444     At the south entry. Retire we to our chamber.
 67445     A little water clears us of this deed.
 67446     How easy is it then! Your constancy
 67447     Hath left you unattended. [Knocking within.] Hark, more knocking.
 67448     Get on your nightgown, lest occasion call us
 67449     And show us to be watchers. Be not lost
 67450     So poorly in your thoughts.
 67451   MACBETH. To know my deed, 'twere best not know myself.
 67452                                                 Knocking within.
 67453     Wake Duncan with thy knocking! I would thou couldst!
 67454                                                          Exeunt.
 67455 
 67456 
 67457 
 67458 
 67459 SCENE III.
 67460 The same.
 67461 
 67462 Enter a Porter. Knocking within.
 67463 
 67464   PORTER. Here's a knocking indeed! If a man were porter of Hell
 67465     Gate, he should have old turning the key. [Knocking within.]
 67466     Knock, knock, knock! Who's there, i' the name of Belzebub? Here's
 67467     a farmer that hanged himself on th' expectation of plenty. Come
 67468     in time! Have napkins enow about you; here you'll sweat fort.
 67469     [Knocking within.] Knock, knock! Who's there, in th' other
 67470     devil's name? Faith, here's an equivocator that could swear in
 67471     both the scales against either scale, who committed treason
 67472     enough for God's sake, yet could not equivocate to heaven. O,
 67473     come in, equivocator. [Knocking within.] Knock, knock, knock!
 67474     Who's there? Faith, here's an English tailor come hither, for
 67475     stealing out of a French hose. Come in, tailor; here you may
 67476     roast your goose. [Knocking within.] Knock, knock! Never at
 67477     quiet! What are you? But this place is too cold for hell. I'll
 67478     devil-porter it no further. I had thought to have let in some of
 67479     all professions, that go the primrose way to the everlasting
 67480     bonfire. [Knocking within.] Anon, anon! I pray you, remember the
 67481     porter.
 67482                                                  Opens the gate.
 67483 
 67484                        Enter Macduff and Lennox.
 67485 
 67486   MACDUFF. Was it so late, friend, ere you went to bed,
 67487     That you do lie so late?
 67488   PORTER. Faith, sir, we were carousing till the second cock; and
 67489     drink, sir, is a great provoker of three things.
 67490   MACDUFF. What three things does drink especially provoke?
 67491   PORTER. Marry, sir, nose-painting, sleep, and urine. Lechery, sir,
 67492     it provokes and unprovokes: it provokes the desire, but it takes
 67493     away the performance. Therefore much drink may be said to be an
 67494     equivocator with lechery: it makes him, and it mars him; it sets
 67495     him on, and it takes him off; it persuades him and disheartens
 67496     him; makes him stand to and not stand to; in conclusion,
 67497     equivocates him in a sleep, and giving him the lie, leaves him.
 67498   MACDUFF. I believe drink gave thee the lie last night.
 67499   PORTER. That it did, sir, i' the very throat on me; but requited
 67500     him for his lie, and, I think, being too strong for him, though
 67501     he took up my legs sometime, yet I made shift to cast him.
 67502   MACDUFF. Is thy master stirring?
 67503 
 67504                              Enter Macbeth.
 67505 
 67506     Our knocking has awaked him; here he comes.
 67507   LENNOX. Good morrow, noble sir.
 67508   MACBETH. morrow, both.
 67509   MACDUFF. Is the King stirring, worthy Thane?
 67510   MACBETH. Not yet.
 67511   MACDUFF. He did command me to call timely on him;
 67512     I have almost slipp'd the hour.
 67513   MACBETH. I'll bring you to him.
 67514   MACDUFF. I know this is a joyful trouble to you,
 67515     But yet 'tis one.
 67516   MACBETH. The labor we delight in physics pain.
 67517     This is the door.
 67518   MACDUFF I'll make so bold to call,
 67519     For 'tis my limited service.                           Exit.
 67520   LENNOX. Goes the King hence today?
 67521   MACBETH. He does; he did appoint so.
 67522   LENNOX. The night has been unruly. Where we lay,
 67523     Our chimneys were blown down, and, as they say,
 67524     Lamentings heard i' the air, strange screams of death,
 67525     And prophesying with accents terrible
 67526     Of dire combustion and confused events
 67527     New hatch'd to the woeful time. The obscure bird
 67528     Clamor'd the livelong night. Some say the earth
 67529     Was feverous and did shake.
 67530   MACBETH. 'Twas a rough fight.
 67531   LENNOX. My young remembrance cannot parallel
 67532     A fellow to it.
 67533 
 67534                       Re-enter Macduff.
 67535 
 67536   MACDUFF. O horror, horror, horror! Tongue nor heart
 67537     Cannot conceive nor name thee.
 67538   MACBETH. LENNOX. What's the matter?
 67539   MACDUFF. Confusion now hath made his masterpiece.
 67540     Most sacrilegious murther hath broke ope
 67541     The Lord's anointed temple and stole thence
 67542     The life o' the building.
 67543   MACBETH. What is't you say? the life?
 67544   LENNOX. Mean you his Majesty?
 67545   MACDUFF. Approach the chamber, and destroy your sight
 67546     With a new Gorgon. Do not bid me speak;
 67547     See, and then speak yourselves.
 67548                                       Exeunt Macbeth and Lennox.
 67549     Awake, awake!
 67550     Ring the alarum bell. Murther and treason!
 67551     Banquo and Donalbain! Malcolm, awake!
 67552     Shake off this downy sleep, death's counterfeit,
 67553     And look on death itself! Up, up, and see
 67554     The great doom's image! Malcolm! Banquo!
 67555     As from your graves rise up, and walk like sprites
 67556     To countenance this horror! Ring the bell.       Bell rings.
 67557 
 67558                      Enter Lady Macbeth.
 67559 
 67560   LADY MACBETH. What's the business,
 67561     That such a hideous trumpet calls to parley
 67562     The sleepers of the house? Speak, speak!
 67563   MACDUFF. O gentle lady,
 67564     'Tis not for you to hear what I can speak:
 67565     The repetition in a woman's ear
 67566     Would murther as it fell.
 67567 
 67568                      Enter Banquo.
 67569 
 67570     O Banquo, Banquo!
 67571     Our royal master's murther'd.
 67572   LADY MACBETH. Woe, alas!
 67573     What, in our house?
 67574   BANQUO. Too cruel anywhere.
 67575     Dear Duff, I prithee, contradict thyself,
 67576     And say it is not so.
 67577 
 67578           Re-enter Macbeth and Lennox, with Ross.
 67579 
 67580   MACBETH. Had I but died an hour before this chance,
 67581     I had lived a blessed time, for from this instant
 67582     There's nothing serious in mortality.
 67583     All is but toys; renown and grace is dead,
 67584     The wine of life is drawn, and the mere lees
 67585     Is left this vault to brag of.
 67586 
 67587                 Enter Malcolm and Donalbain.
 67588 
 67589   DONALBAIN. What is amiss?
 67590   MACBETH. You are, and do not know't.
 67591     The spring, the head, the fountain of your blood
 67592     Is stopped, the very source of it is stopp'd.
 67593   MACDUFF. Your royal father's murther'd.
 67594    MALCOLM. O, by whom?
 67595   LENNOX. Those of his chamber, as it seem'd, had done't.
 67596     Their hands and faces were all badged with blood;
 67597     So were their daggers, which unwiped we found
 67598     Upon their pillows.
 67599     They stared, and were distracted; no man's life
 67600     Was to be trusted with them.
 67601   MACBETH. O, yet I do repent me of my fury,
 67602     That I did kill them.
 67603   MACDUFF. Wherefore did you so?
 67604   MACBETH. Who can be wise, amazed, temperate and furious,
 67605     Loyal and neutral, in a moment? No man.
 67606     The expedition of my violent love
 67607     Outrun the pauser reason. Here lay Duncan,
 67608     His silver skin laced with his golden blood,
 67609     And his gash'd stabs look'd like a breach in nature
 67610     For ruin's wasteful entrance; there, the murtherers,
 67611     Steep'd in the colors of their trade, their daggers
 67612     Unmannerly breech'd with gore. Who could refrain,
 67613     That had a heart to love, and in that heart
 67614     Courage to make 's love known?
 67615   LADY MACBETH. Help me hence, ho!
 67616   MACDUFF. Look to the lady.
 67617   MALCOLM. [Aside to Donalbain.] Why do we hold our tongues,
 67618     That most may claim this argument for ours?
 67619   DONALBAIN. [Aside to Malcolm.] What should be spoken here, where
 67620       our fate,
 67621     Hid in an auger hole, may rush and seize us?
 67622     Let's away,
 67623     Our tears are not yet brew'd.
 67624   MALCOLM. [Aside to Donalbain.] Nor our strong sorrow
 67625     Upon the foot of motion.
 67626   BANQUO. Look to the lady.
 67627                                     Lady Macbeth is carried out.
 67628     And when we have our naked frailties hid,
 67629     That suffer in exposure, let us meet
 67630     And question this most bloody piece of work
 67631     To know it further. Fears and scruples shake us.
 67632     In the great hand of God I stand, and thence
 67633     Against the undivulged pretense I fight
 67634     Of treasonous malice.
 67635   MACDUFF. And so do I.
 67636   ALL. So all.
 67637   MACBETH. Let's briefly put on manly readiness
 67638     And meet i' the hall together.
 67639   ALL. Well contented.
 67640                            Exeunt all but Malcolm and Donalbain.
 67641   MALCOLM. What will you do? Let's not consort with them.
 67642     To show an unfelt sorrow is an office
 67643     Which the false man does easy. I'll to England.
 67644   DONALBAIN. To Ireland, I; our separated fortune
 67645     Shall keep us both the safer. Where we are
 67646     There's daggers in men's smiles; the near in blood,
 67647     The nearer bloody.
 67648   MALCOLM. This murtherous shaft that's shot
 67649     Hath not yet lighted, and our safest way
 67650     Is to avoid the aim. Therefore to horse;
 67651     And let us not be dainty of leave-taking,
 67652     But shift away. There's warrant in that theft
 67653     Which steals itself when there's no mercy left.
 67654                                                          Exeunt.
 67655 
 67656 
 67657 
 67658 
 67659 SCENE IV.
 67660 Outside Macbeth's castle.
 67661 
 67662 Enter Ross with an Old Man.
 67663 
 67664   OLD MAN. Threescore and ten I can remember well,
 67665     Within the volume of which time I have seen
 67666     Hours dreadful and things strange, but this sore night
 67667     Hath trifled former knowings.
 67668   ROSS. Ah, good father,
 67669     Thou seest the heavens, as troubled with man's act,
 67670     Threaten his bloody stage. By the clock 'tis day,
 67671     And yet dark night strangles the traveling lamp.
 67672     Is't night's predominance, or the day's shame,
 67673     That darkness does the face of earth entomb,
 67674     When living light should kiss it?
 67675   OLD MAN. 'Tis unnatural,
 67676     Even like the deed that's done. On Tuesday last
 67677     A falcon towering in her pride of place
 67678     Was by a mousing owl hawk'd at and kill'd.
 67679   ROSS. And Duncan's horses-a thing most strange and certain-
 67680     Beauteous and swift, the minions of their race,
 67681     Turn'd wild in nature, broke their stalls, flung out,
 67682     Contending 'gainst obedience, as they would make
 67683     War with mankind.
 67684   OLD MAN. 'Tis said they eat each other.
 67685   ROSS. They did so, to the amazement of mine eyes
 67686     That look'd upon't.
 67687 
 67688                      Enter Macduff.
 67689 
 67690     Here comes the good Macduff.
 67691     How goes the world, sir, now?
 67692   MACDUFF. Why, see you not?
 67693   ROSS. Is't known who did this more than bloody deed?
 67694   MACDUFF. Those that Macbeth hath slain.
 67695   ROSS. Alas, the day!
 67696     What good could they pretend?
 67697   MACDUFF. They were suborn'd:
 67698     Malcolm and Donalbain, the King's two sons,
 67699     Are stol'n away and fled, which puts upon them
 67700     Suspicion of the deed.
 67701   ROSS. 'Gainst nature still!
 67702     Thriftless ambition, that wilt ravin up
 67703     Thine own life's means! Then 'tis most like
 67704     The sovereignty will fall upon Macbeth.
 67705   MACDUFF. He is already named, and gone to Scone
 67706     To be invested.
 67707   ROSS. Where is Duncan's body?
 67708   MACDUFF. Carried to Colmekill,
 67709     The sacred storehouse of his predecessors
 67710     And guardian of their bones.
 67711   ROSS. Will you to Scone?
 67712   MACDUFF. No, cousin, I'll to Fife.
 67713   ROSS. Well, I will thither.
 67714   MACDUFF. Well, may you see things well done there.
 67715     Adieu,
 67716     Lest our old robes sit easier than our new!
 67717   ROSS. Farewell, father.
 67718   OLD MAN. God's benison go with you and with those
 67719     That would make good of bad and friends of foes!
 67720                                                          Exeunt.
 67721 
 67722 
 67723 
 67724 
 67725 <<THIS ELECTRONIC VERSION OF THE COMPLETE WORKS OF WILLIAM
 67726 SHAKESPEARE IS COPYRIGHT 1990-1993 BY WORLD LIBRARY, INC., AND IS
 67727 PROVIDED BY PROJECT GUTENBERG ETEXT OF ILLINOIS BENEDICTINE COLLEGE
 67728 WITH PERMISSION.  ELECTRONIC AND MACHINE READABLE COPIES MAY BE
 67729 DISTRIBUTED SO LONG AS SUCH COPIES (1) ARE FOR YOUR OR OTHERS
 67730 PERSONAL USE ONLY, AND (2) ARE NOT DISTRIBUTED OR USED
 67731 COMMERCIALLY.  PROHIBITED COMMERCIAL DISTRIBUTION INCLUDES BY ANY
 67732 SERVICE THAT CHARGES FOR DOWNLOAD TIME OR FOR MEMBERSHIP.>>
 67733 
 67734 
 67735 
 67736 ACT III. SCENE I.
 67737 Forres. The palace.
 67738 
 67739 Enter Banquo.
 67740 
 67741   BANQUO. Thou hast it now: King, Cawdor, Glamis, all,
 67742     As the weird women promised, and I fear
 67743     Thou play'dst most foully for't; yet it was said
 67744     It should not stand in thy posterity,
 67745     But that myself should be the root and father
 67746     Of many kings. If there come truth from them
 67747     (As upon thee, Macbeth, their speeches shine)
 67748     Why, by the verities on thee made good,
 67749     May they not be my oracles as well
 67750     And set me up in hope? But hush, no more.
 67751 
 67752       Sennet sounds. Enter Macbeth as King, Lady Macbeth
 67753     as Queen, Lennox, Ross, Lords, Ladies, and Attendants.
 67754 
 67755   MACBETH. Here's our chief guest.
 67756   LADY MACBETH. If he had been forgotten,
 67757     It had been as a gap in our great feast
 67758     And all thing unbecoming.
 67759   MACBETH. Tonight we hold a solemn supper, sir,
 67760     And I'll request your presence.
 67761   BANQUO. Let your Highness
 67762     Command upon me, to the which my duties
 67763     Are with a most indissoluble tie
 67764     Forever knit.
 67765   MACBETH. Ride you this afternoon?
 67766   BANQUO. Ay, my good lord.
 67767   MACBETH. We should have else desired your good advice,
 67768     Which still hath been both grave and prosperous
 67769     In this day's council; but we'll take tomorrow.
 67770     Is't far you ride'!
 67771   BANQUO. As far, my lord, as will fill up the time
 67772     'Twixt this and supper. Go not my horse the better,
 67773     I must become a borrower of the night
 67774     For a dark hour or twain.
 67775   MACBETH. Fail not our feast.
 67776   BANQUO. My lord, I will not.
 67777   MACBETH. We hear our bloody cousins are bestow'd
 67778     In England and in Ireland, not confessing
 67779     Their cruel parricide, filling their hearers
 67780     With strange invention. But of that tomorrow,
 67781     When therewithal we shall have cause of state
 67782     Craving us jointly. Hie you to horse; adieu,
 67783     Till you return at night. Goes Fleance with you?
 67784   BANQUO. Ay, my good lord. Our time does call upon 's.
 67785   MACBETH. I wish your horses swift and sure of foot,
 67786     And so I do commend you to their backs.
 67787     Farewell.                                       Exit Banquo.
 67788     Let every man be master of his time
 67789     Till seven at night; to make society
 67790     The sweeter welcome, we will keep ourself
 67791     Till supper time alone. While then, God be with you!
 67792                         Exeunt all but Macbeth and an Attendant.
 67793     Sirrah, a word with you. Attend those men
 67794     Our pleasure?
 67795   ATTENDANT. They are, my lord, without the palace gate.
 67796   MACBETH. Bring them before us.                 Exit Attendant.
 67797     To be thus is nothing,
 67798     But to be safely thus. Our fears in Banquo.
 67799     Stick deep, and in his royalty of nature
 67800     Reigns that which would be fear'd. 'Tis much he dares,
 67801     And, to that dauntless temper of his mind,
 67802     He hath a wisdom that doth guide his valor
 67803     To act in safety. There is none but he
 67804     Whose being I do fear; and under him
 67805     My genius is rebuked, as it is said
 67806     Mark Antony's was by Caesar. He chid the sisters
 67807     When first they put the name of King upon me
 67808     And bade them speak to him; then prophet-like
 67809     They hail'd him father to a line of kings.
 67810     Upon my head they placed a fruitless crown
 67811     And put a barren sceptre in my gripe,
 67812     Thence to be wrench'd with an unlineal hand,
 67813     No son of mine succeeding. If't be so,
 67814     For Banquo's issue have I filed my mind,
 67815     For them the gracious Duncan have I murther'd,
 67816     Put rancors in the vessel of my peace
 67817     Only for them, and mine eternal jewel
 67818     Given to the common enemy of man,
 67819     To make them kings -the seed of Banquo kings!
 67820     Rather than so, come, Fate, into the list,
 67821     And champion me to the utterance! Who's there?
 67822 
 67823         Re-enter Attendant, with two Murtherers.
 67824 
 67825     Now go to the door, and stay there till we call.
 67826                                                  Exit Attendant.
 67827     Was it not yesterday we spoke together?
 67828   FIRST MURTHERER. It was, so please your Highness.
 67829   MACBETH. Well then, now
 67830     Have you consider'd of my speeches? Know
 67831     That it was he in the times past which held you
 67832     So under fortune, which you thought had been
 67833     Our innocent self? This I made good to you
 67834     In our last conference, pass'd in probation with you:
 67835     How you were borne in hand, how cross'd, the instruments,
 67836     Who wrought with them, and all things else that might
 67837     To half a soul and to a notion crazed
 67838     Say, "Thus did Banquo."
 67839   FIRST MURTHERER. You made it known to us.
 67840   MACBETH. I did so, and went further, which is now
 67841     Our point of second meeting. Do you find
 67842     Your patience so predominant in your nature,
 67843     That you can let this go? Are you so gospel'd,
 67844     To pray for this good man and for his issue,
 67845     Whose heavy hand hath bow'd you to the grave
 67846     And beggar'd yours forever?
 67847   FIRST MURTHERER. We are men, my liege.
 67848   MACBETH. Ay, in the catalogue ye go for men,
 67849     As hounds and greyhounds, mongrels, spaniels, curs,
 67850     Shoughs, waterrugs, and demi-wolves are clept
 67851     All by the name of dogs. The valued file
 67852     Distinguishes the swift, the slow, the subtle,
 67853     The housekeeper, the hunter, every one
 67854     According to the gift which bounteous nature
 67855     Hath in him closed, whereby he does receive
 67856     Particular addition, from the bill
 67857     That writes them all alike; and so of men.
 67858     Now if you have a station in the file,
 67859     Not i' the worst rank of manhood, say it,
 67860     And I will put that business in your bosoms
 67861     Whose execution takes your enemy off,
 67862     Grapples you to the heart and love of us,
 67863     Who wear our health but sickly in his life,
 67864     Which in his death were perfect.
 67865   SECOND MURTHERER. I am one, my liege,
 67866     Whom the vile blows and buffets of the world
 67867     Have so incensed that I am reckless what
 67868     I do to spite the world.
 67869   FIRST MURTHERER. And I another
 67870     So weary with disasters, tugg'd with fortune,
 67871     That I would set my life on any chance,
 67872     To mend it or be rid on't.
 67873   MACBETH. Both of you
 67874     Know Banquo was your enemy.
 67875   BOTH MURTHERERS. True, my lord.
 67876   MACBETH. So is he mine, and in such bloody distance
 67877     That every minute of his being thrusts
 67878     Against my near'st of life; and though I could
 67879     With barefaced power sweep him from my sight
 67880     And bid my will avouch it, yet I must not,
 67881     For certain friends that are both his and mine,
 67882     Whose loves I may not drop, but wail his fall
 67883     Who I myself struck down. And thence it is
 67884     That I to your assistance do make love,
 67885     Masking the business from the common eye
 67886     For sundry weighty reasons.
 67887   SECOND MURTHERER. We shall, my lord,
 67888     Perform what you command us.
 67889   FIRST MURTHERER. Though our lives-
 67890   MACBETH. Your spirits shine through you. Within this hour at most
 67891     I will advise you where to plant yourselves,
 67892     Acquaint you with the perfect spy o' the time,
 67893     The moment on't; fort must be done tonight
 67894     And something from the palace (always thought
 67895     That I require a clearness); and with him-
 67896     To leave no rubs nor botches in the work-
 67897     Fleance his son, that keeps him company,
 67898     Whose absence is no less material to me
 67899     Than is his father's, must embrace the fate
 67900     Of that dark hour. Resolve yourselves apart;
 67901     I'll come to you anon.
 67902   BOTH MURTHERERS. We are resolved, my lord.
 67903   MACBETH. I'll call upon you straight. Abide within.
 67904                                               Exeunt Murtherers.
 67905     It is concluded: Banquo, thy soul's flight,
 67906     If it find heaven, must find it out tonight.           Exit.
 67907 
 67908 
 67909 
 67910 
 67911 SCENE II.
 67912 The palace.
 67913 
 67914 Enter Lady Macbeth and a Servant.
 67915 
 67916   LADY MACBETH. Is Banquo gone from court?
 67917   SERVANT. Ay, madam, but returns again tonight.
 67918   LADY MACBETH. Say to the King I would attend his leisure
 67919     For a few words.
 67920   SERVANT. Madam, I will.                                  Exit.
 67921   LADY MACBETH. Nought's had, all's spent,
 67922     Where our desire is got without content.
 67923     'Tis safer to be that which we destroy
 67924     Than by destruction dwell in doubtful joy.
 67925 
 67926                     Enter Macbeth.
 67927 
 67928     How now, my lord? Why do you keep alone,
 67929     Of sorriest fancies your companions making,
 67930     Using those thoughts which should indeed have died
 67931     With them they think on? Things without all remedy
 67932     Should be without regard. What's done is done.
 67933   MACBETH. We have scotch'd the snake, not kill'd it.
 67934     She'll close and be herself, whilst our poor malice
 67935     Remains in danger of her former tooth.
 67936     But let the frame of things disjoint, both the worlds suffer,
 67937     Ere we will eat our meal in fear and sleep
 67938     In the affliction of these terrible dreams
 67939     That shake us nightly. Better be with the dead,
 67940     Whom we, to gain our peace, have sent to peace,
 67941     Than on the torture of the mind to lie
 67942     In restless ecstasy. Duncan is in his grave;
 67943     After life's fitful fever he sleeps well.
 67944     Treason has done his worst; nor steel, nor poison,
 67945     Malice domestic, foreign levy, nothing,
 67946     Can touch him further.
 67947   LADY MACBETH. Come on,
 67948     Gentle my lord, sleek o'er your rugged looks;
 67949     Be bright and jovial among your guests tonight.
 67950   MACBETH. So shall I, love, and so, I pray, be you.
 67951     Let your remembrance apply to Banquo;
 67952     Present him eminence, both with eye and tongue:
 67953     Unsafe the while, that we
 67954     Must lave our honors in these flattering streams,
 67955     And make our faces vizards to our hearts,
 67956     Disguising what they are.
 67957   LADY MACBETH. You must leave this.
 67958   MACBETH. O, full of scorpions is my mind, dear wife!
 67959     Thou know'st that Banquo and his Fleance lives.
 67960   LADY MACBETH. But in them nature's copy's not eterne.
 67961   MACBETH. There's comfort yet; they are assailable.
 67962     Then be thou jocund. Ere the bat hath flown
 67963     His cloister'd flight, ere to black Hecate's summons
 67964     The shard-borne beetle with his drowsy hums
 67965     Hath rung night's yawning peal, there shall be done
 67966     A deed of dreadful note.
 67967   LADY MACBETH. What's to be done?
 67968   MACBETH. Be innocent of the knowledge, dearest chuck,
 67969     Till thou applaud the deed. Come, seeling night,
 67970     Scarf up the tender eye of pitiful day,
 67971     And with thy bloody and invisible hand
 67972     Cancel and tear to pieces that great bond
 67973     Which keeps me pale! Light thickens, and the crow
 67974     Makes wing to the rooky wood;
 67975     Good things of day begin to droop and drowse,
 67976     Whiles night's black agents to their preys do rouse.
 67977     Thou marvel'st at my words, but hold thee still:
 67978     Things bad begun make strong themselves by ill.
 67979     So, prithee, go with me.                             Exeunt.
 67980 
 67981 
 67982 
 67983 
 67984 SCENE III.
 67985 A park near the palace.
 67986 
 67987 Enter three Murtherers.
 67988 
 67989   FIRST MURTHERER. But who did bid thee join with us?
 67990   THIRD MURTHERER. Macbeth.
 67991   SECOND MURTHERER. He needs not our mistrust, since he delivers
 67992     Our offices and what we have to do
 67993     To the direction just.
 67994   FIRST MURTHERER. Then stand with us.
 67995     The west yet glimmers with some streaks of day;
 67996     Now spurs the lated traveler apace
 67997     To gain the timely inn, and near approaches
 67998     The subject of our watch.
 67999   THIRD MURTHERER. Hark! I hear horses.
 68000   BANQUO. [Within.] Give us a light there, ho!
 68001   SECOND MURTHERER. Then 'tis he; the rest
 68002     That are within the note of expectation
 68003     Already are i' the court.
 68004   FIRST MURTHERER. His horses go about.
 68005   THIRD MURTHERER. Almost a mile, but he does usually-
 68006     So all men do -from hence to the palace gate
 68007     Make it their walk.
 68008   SECOND MURTHERER. A light, a light!
 68009 
 68010               Enter Banquo, and Fleance with a torch.
 68011 
 68012   THIRD MURTHERER. 'Tis he.
 68013   FIRST MURTHERER. Stand to't.
 68014   BANQUO. It will be rain tonight.
 68015   FIRST MURTHERER. Let it come down.
 68016                                            They set upon Banquo.
 68017   BANQUO. O, treachery! Fly, good Fleance, fly, fly, fly!
 68018     Thou mayst revenge. O slave!          Dies. Fleance escapes.
 68019   THIRD MURTHERER. Who did strike out the light?
 68020   FIRST MURTHERER. Wast not the way?
 68021   THIRD MURTHERER. There's but one down; the son is fled.
 68022   SECOND MURTHERER. We have lost
 68023     Best half of our affair.
 68024   FIRST MURTHERER. Well, let's away and say how much is done.
 68025                                                          Exeunt.
 68026 
 68027 
 68028 
 68029 
 68030 SCENE IV.
 68031 A Hall in the palace. A banquet prepared.
 68032 
 68033 Enter Macbeth, Lady Macbeth, Ross, Lennox, Lords, and Attendants.
 68034 
 68035   MACBETH. You know your own degrees; sit down. At first
 68036     And last the hearty welcome.
 68037   LORDS. Thanks to your Majesty.
 68038   MACBETH. Ourself will mingle with society
 68039     And play the humble host.
 68040     Our hostess keeps her state, but in best time
 68041     We will require her welcome.
 68042   LADY MACBETH. Pronounce it for me, sir, to all our friends,
 68043     For my heart speaks they are welcome.
 68044 
 68045                 Enter first Murtherer to the door.
 68046 
 68047   MACBETH. See, they encounter thee with their hearts' thanks.
 68048     Both sides are even; here I'll sit i' the midst.
 68049     Be large in mirth; anon we'll drink a measure
 68050     The table round. [Approaches the door.] There's blood upon thy
 68051       face.
 68052   MURTHERER. 'Tis Banquo's then.
 68053   MACBETH. 'Tis better thee without than he within.
 68054     Is he dispatch'd?
 68055   MURTHERER. My lord, his throat is cut; that I did for him.
 68056   MACBETH. Thou art the best o' the cut-throats! Yet he's good
 68057     That did the like for Fleance. If thou didst it,
 68058     Thou art the nonpareil.
 68059   MURTHERER. Most royal sir,
 68060     Fleance is 'scaped.
 68061   MACBETH. [Aside.] Then comes my fit again. I had else been perfect,
 68062     Whole as the marble, founded as the rock,
 68063     As broad and general as the casing air;
 68064     But now I am cabin'd, cribb'd, confin'd, bound in
 68065     To saucy doubts and fears -But Banquo's safe?
 68066   MURTHERER. Ay, my good lord. Safe in a ditch he bides,
 68067     With twenty trenched gashes on his head,
 68068     The least a death to nature.
 68069   MACBETH. Thanks for that.
 68070     There the grown serpent lies; the worm that's fled
 68071     Hath nature that in time will venom breed,
 68072     No teeth for the present. Get thee gone. Tomorrow
 68073     We'll hear ourselves again.
 68074                                                  Exit Murtherer.
 68075   LADY MACBETH. My royal lord,
 68076     You do not give the cheer. The feast is sold
 68077     That is not often vouch'd, while 'tis amaking,
 68078     'Tis given with welcome. To feed were best at home;
 68079     From thence the sauce to meat is ceremony;
 68080     Meeting were bare without it.
 68081   MACBETH. Sweet remembrancer!
 68082     Now good digestion wait on appetite,
 68083     And health on both!
 68084   LENNOX. May't please your Highness sit.
 68085 
 68086       The Ghost of Banquo enters and sits in Macbeth's place.
 68087 
 68088   MACBETH. Here had we now our country's honor roof'd,
 68089     Were the graced person of our Banquo present,
 68090     Who may I rather challenge for unkindness
 68091     Than pity for mischance!
 68092   ROSS. His absence, sir,
 68093     Lays blame upon his promise. Please't your Highness
 68094     To grace us with your royal company?
 68095   MACBETH. The table's full.
 68096   LENNOX. Here is a place reserved, sir.
 68097   MACBETH. Where?
 68098   LENNOX. Here, my good lord. What is't that moves your Highness?
 68099   MACBETH. Which of you have done this?
 68100   LORDS. What, my good lord?
 68101   MACBETH. Thou canst not say I did it; never shake
 68102     Thy gory locks at me.
 68103   ROSS. Gentlemen, rise; his Highness is well.
 68104   LADY MACBETH. Sit, worthy friends; my lord is often thus,
 68105     And hath been from his youth. Pray you, keep seat.
 68106     The fit is momentary; upon a thought
 68107     He will again be well. If much you note him,
 68108     You shall offend him and extend his passion.
 68109     Feed, and regard him not-Are you a man?
 68110   MACBETH. Ay, and a bold one, that dare look on that
 68111     Which might appal the devil.
 68112   LADY MACBETH. O proper stuff!
 68113     This is the very painting of your fear;
 68114     This is the air-drawn dagger which you said
 68115     Led you to Duncan. O, these flaws and starts,
 68116     Impostors to true fear, would well become
 68117     A woman's story at a winter's fire,
 68118     Authorized by her grandam. Shame itself!
 68119     Why do you make such faces? When all's done,
 68120     You look but on a stool.
 68121   MACBETH. Prithee, see there! Behold! Look! Lo! How say you?
 68122     Why, what care I? If thou canst nod, speak too.
 68123     If charnel houses and our graves must send
 68124     Those that we bury back, our monuments
 68125     Shall be the maws of kites.                      Exit Ghost.
 68126   LADY MACBETH. What, quite unmann'd in folly?
 68127   MACBETH. If I stand here, I saw him.
 68128   LADY MACBETH. Fie, for shame!
 68129   MACBETH. Blood hath been shed ere now, i' the olden time,
 68130     Ere humane statute purged the gentle weal;
 68131     Ay, and since too, murthers have been perform'd
 68132     Too terrible for the ear. The time has been,
 68133     That, when the brains were out, the man would die,
 68134     And there an end; but now they rise again,
 68135     With twenty mortal murthers on their crowns,
 68136     And push us from our stools. This is more strange
 68137     Than such a murther is.
 68138   LADY MACBETH. My worthy lord,
 68139     Your noble friends do lack you.
 68140   MACBETH. I do forget.
 68141     Do not muse at me, my most worthy friends.
 68142     I have a strange infirmity, which is nothing
 68143     To those that know me. Come, love and health to all;
 68144     Then I'll sit down. Give me some wine, fill full.
 68145     I drink to the general joy o' the whole table,
 68146     And to our dear friend Banquo, whom we miss.
 68147     Would he were here! To all and him we thirst,
 68148     And all to all.
 68149   LORDS. Our duties and the pledge.
 68150 
 68151                      Re-enter Ghost.
 68152 
 68153   MACBETH. Avaunt, and quit my sight! Let the earth hide thee!
 68154     Thy bones are marrowless, thy blood is cold;
 68155     Thou hast no speculation in those eyes
 68156     Which thou dost glare with.
 68157   LADY MACBETH. Think of this, good peers,
 68158     But as a thing of custom. 'Tis no other,
 68159     Only it spoils the pleasure of the time.
 68160   MACBETH. What man dare, I dare.
 68161     Approach thou like the rugged Russian bear,
 68162     The arm'd rhinoceros, or the Hyrcan tiger;
 68163     Take any shape but that, and my firm nerves
 68164     Shall never tremble. Or be alive again,
 68165     And dare me to the desert with thy sword.
 68166     If trembling I inhabit then, protest me
 68167     The baby of a girl. Hence, horrible shadow!
 68168     Unreal mockery, hence!                           Exit Ghost.
 68169     Why, so, being gone,
 68170     I am a man again. Pray you sit still.
 68171   LADY MACBETH. You have displaced the mirth, broke the good meeting,
 68172     With most admired disorder.
 68173   MACBETH. Can such things be,
 68174     And overcome us like a summer's cloud,
 68175     Without our special wonder? You make me strange
 68176     Even to the disposition that I owe
 68177     When now I think you can behold such sights
 68178     And keep the natural ruby of your cheeks
 68179     When mine is blanch'd with fear.
 68180   ROSS. What sights, my lord?
 68181   LADY MACBETH. I pray you, speak not; he grows worse and worse;
 68182     Question enrages him. At once, good night.
 68183     Stand not upon the order of your going,
 68184     But go at once.
 68185   LENNOX. Good night, and better health
 68186     Attend his Majesty!
 68187   LADY MACBETH. A kind good night to all!
 68188                         Exeunt all but Macbeth and Lady Macbeth.
 68189   MACBETH. will have blood; they say blood will have blood.
 68190     Stones have been known to move and trees to speak;
 68191     Augures and understood relations have
 68192     By maggot pies and choughs and rooks brought forth
 68193     The secret'st man of blood. What is the night?
 68194   LADY MACBETH. Almost at odds with morning, which is which.
 68195   MACBETH. How say'st thou, that Macduff denies his person
 68196     At our great bidding?
 68197   LADY MACBETH. Did you send to him, sir?
 68198   MACBETH. I hear it by the way, but I will send.
 68199     There's not a one of them but in his house
 68200     I keep a servant feed. I will tomorrow,
 68201     And betimes I will, to the weird sisters.
 68202     More shall they speak; for now I am bent to know,
 68203     By the worst means, the worst. For mine own good
 68204     All causes shall give way. I am in blood
 68205     Stepp'd in so far that, should I wade no more,
 68206     Returning were as tedious as go o'er.
 68207     Strange things I have in head that will to hand,
 68208     Which must be acted ere they may be scann'd.
 68209   LADY MACBETH. You lack the season of all natures, sleep.
 68210   MACBETH. Come, we'll to sleep. My strange and self-abuse
 68211     Is the initiate fear that wants hard use.
 68212     We are yet but young in deed.                       Exeunt.
 68213 
 68214 
 68215 
 68216 
 68217 SCENE V.
 68218 A heath. Thunder.
 68219 
 68220 Enter the three Witches, meeting Hecate.
 68221 
 68222   FIRST WITCH. Why, how now, Hecate? You look angerly.
 68223   HECATE. Have I not reason, beldams as you are,
 68224     Saucy and overbold? How did you dare
 68225     To trade and traffic with Macbeth
 68226     In riddles and affairs of death,
 68227     And I, the mistress of your charms,
 68228     The close contriver of all harms,
 68229     Was never call'd to bear my part,
 68230     Or show the glory of our art?
 68231     And, which is worse, all you have done
 68232     Hath been but for a wayward son,
 68233     Spiteful and wrathful, who, as others do,
 68234     Loves for his own ends, not for you.
 68235     But make amends now. Get you gone,
 68236     And at the pit of Acheron
 68237     Meet me i' the morning. Thither he
 68238     Will come to know his destiny.
 68239     Your vessels and your spells provide,
 68240     Your charms and everything beside.
 68241     I am for the air; this night I'll spend
 68242     Unto a dismal and a fatal end.
 68243     Great business must be wrought ere noon:
 68244     Upon the corner of the moon
 68245     There hangs a vaporous drop profound;
 68246     I'll catch it ere it come to ground.
 68247     And that distill'd by magic sleights
 68248     Shall raise such artificial sprites
 68249     As by the strength of their illusion
 68250     Shall draw him on to his confusion.
 68251     He shall spurn fate, scorn death, and bear
 68252     His hopes 'bove wisdom, grace, and fear.
 68253     And you all know security
 68254     Is mortals' chiefest enemy.
 68255                                         Music and a song within,
 68256                                          "Come away, come away."
 68257     Hark! I am call'd; my little spirit, see,
 68258     Sits in a foggy cloud and stays for me.                Exit.
 68259   FIRST WITCH. Come, let's make haste; she'll soon be back again.
 68260                                                          Exeunt.
 68261 
 68262 
 68263 
 68264 
 68265 SCENE VI.
 68266 Forres. The palace.
 68267 
 68268 Enter Lennox and another Lord.
 68269 
 68270   LENNOX. My former speeches have but hit your thoughts,
 68271     Which can interpret farther; only I say
 68272     Thing's have been strangely borne. The gracious Duncan
 68273     Was pitied of Macbeth; marry, he was dead.
 68274     And the right valiant Banquo walk'd too late,
 68275     Whom, you may say, if't please you, Fleance kill'd,
 68276     For Fleance fled. Men must not walk too late.
 68277     Who cannot want the thought, how monstrous
 68278     It was for Malcolm and for Donalbain
 68279     To kill their gracious father? Damned fact!
 68280     How it did grieve Macbeth! Did he not straight,
 68281     In pious rage, the two delinquents tear
 68282     That were the slaves of drink and thralls of sleep?
 68283     Was not that nobly done? Ay, and wisely too,
 68284     For 'twould have anger'd any heart alive
 68285     To hear the men deny't. So that, I say,
 68286     He has borne all things well; and I do think
 68287     That, had he Duncan's sons under his key-
 68288     As, an't please heaven, he shall not -they should find
 68289     What 'twere to kill a father; so should Fleance.
 68290     But, peace! For from broad words, and 'cause he fail'd
 68291     His presence at the tyrant's feast, I hear,
 68292     Macduff lives in disgrace. Sir, can you tell
 68293     Where he bestows himself?
 68294   LORD. The son of Duncan,
 68295     From whom this tyrant holds the due of birth,
 68296     Lives in the English court and is received
 68297     Of the most pious Edward with such grace
 68298     That the malevolence of fortune nothing
 68299     Takes from his high respect. Thither Macduff
 68300     Is gone to pray the holy King, upon his aid
 68301     To wake Northumberland and warlike Siward;
 68302     That by the help of these, with Him above
 68303     To ratify the work, we may again
 68304     Give to our tables meat, sleep to our nights,
 68305     Free from our feasts and banquets bloody knives,
 68306     Do faithful homage, and receive free honors-
 68307     All which we pine for now. And this report
 68308     Hath so exasperate the King that he
 68309     Prepares for some attempt of war.
 68310   LENNOX. Sent he to Macduff?
 68311   LORD. He did, and with an absolute "Sir, not I,"
 68312     The cloudy messenger turns me his back,
 68313     And hums, as who should say, "You'll rue the time
 68314     That clogs me with this answer."
 68315   LENNOX. And that well might
 68316     Advise him to a caution, to hold what distance
 68317     His wisdom can provide. Some holy angel
 68318     Fly to the court of England and unfold
 68319     His message ere he come, that a swift blessing
 68320     May soon return to this our suffering country
 68321     Under a hand accursed!
 68322   LORD. I'll send my prayers with him.
 68323                                                          Exeunt.
 68324 
 68325 
 68326 
 68327 
 68328 <<THIS ELECTRONIC VERSION OF THE COMPLETE WORKS OF WILLIAM
 68329 SHAKESPEARE IS COPYRIGHT 1990-1993 BY WORLD LIBRARY, INC., AND IS
 68330 PROVIDED BY PROJECT GUTENBERG ETEXT OF ILLINOIS BENEDICTINE COLLEGE
 68331 WITH PERMISSION.  ELECTRONIC AND MACHINE READABLE COPIES MAY BE
 68332 DISTRIBUTED SO LONG AS SUCH COPIES (1) ARE FOR YOUR OR OTHERS
 68333 PERSONAL USE ONLY, AND (2) ARE NOT DISTRIBUTED OR USED
 68334 COMMERCIALLY.  PROHIBITED COMMERCIAL DISTRIBUTION INCLUDES BY ANY
 68335 SERVICE THAT CHARGES FOR DOWNLOAD TIME OR FOR MEMBERSHIP.>>
 68336 
 68337 
 68338 
 68339 ACT IV. SCENE I.
 68340 A cavern. In the middle, a boiling cauldron. Thunder.
 68341 
 68342 Enter the three Witches.
 68343   FIRST WITCH. Thrice the brinded cat hath mew'd.
 68344   SECOND WITCH. Thrice and once the hedge-pig whined.
 68345   THIRD WITCH. Harpier cries, "'Tis time, 'tis time."
 68346   FIRST WITCH. Round about the cauldron go;
 68347     In the poison'd entrails throw.
 68348     Toad, that under cold stone
 68349     Days and nights has thirty-one
 68350     Swelter'd venom sleeping got,
 68351     Boil thou first i' the charmed pot.
 68352   ALL. Double, double, toil and trouble;
 68353     Fire burn and cauldron bubble.
 68354   SECOND WITCH. Fillet of a fenny snake,
 68355     In the cauldron boil and bake;
 68356     Eye of newt and toe of frog,
 68357     Wool of bat and tongue of dog,
 68358     Adder's fork and blind-worm's sting,
 68359     Lizard's leg and howlet's wing,
 68360     For a charm of powerful trouble,
 68361     Like a hell-broth boil and bubble.
 68362   ALL. Double, double, toil and trouble;
 68363     Fire burn and cauldron bubble.
 68364   THIRD WITCH. Scale of dragon, tooth of wolf,
 68365     Witch's mummy, maw and gulf
 68366     Of the ravin'd salt-sea shark,
 68367     Root of hemlock digg'd i' the dark,
 68368     Liver of blaspheming Jew,
 68369     Gall of goat and slips of yew
 68370     Sliver'd in the moon's eclipse,
 68371     Nose of Turk and Tartar's lips,
 68372     Finger of birth-strangled babe
 68373     Ditch-deliver'd by a drab,
 68374     Make the gruel thick and slab.
 68375     Add thereto a tiger's chawdron,
 68376     For the ingredients of our cawdron.
 68377   ALL. Double, double, toil and trouble;
 68378     Fire burn and cauldron bubble.
 68379   SECOND WITCH. Cool it with a baboon's blood,
 68380     Then the charm is firm and good.
 68381 
 68382             Enter Hecate to the other three Witches.
 68383 
 68384   HECATE. O, well done! I commend your pains,
 68385     And everyone shall share i' the gains.
 68386     And now about the cauldron sing,
 68387     Like elves and fairies in a ring,
 68388     Enchanting all that you put in.
 68389                               Music and a song, "Black spirits."
 68390                                                  Hecate retires.
 68391   SECOND WITCH. By the pricking of my thumbs,
 68392     Something wicked this way comes.
 68393     Open, locks,
 68394     Whoever knocks!
 68395 
 68396                       Enter Macbeth.
 68397 
 68398   MACBETH. How now, you secret, black, and midnight hags?
 68399     What is't you do?
 68400   ALL. A deed without a name.
 68401   MACBETH. I conjure you, by that which you profess
 68402     (Howeer you come to know it) answer me:
 68403     Though you untie the winds and let them fight
 68404     Against the churches, though the yesty waves
 68405     Confound and swallow navigation up,
 68406     Though bladed corn be lodged and trees blown down,
 68407     Though castles topple on their warders' heads,
 68408     Though palaces and pyramids do slope
 68409     Their heads to their foundations, though the treasure
 68410     Of nature's germaines tumble all together
 68411     Even till destruction sicken, answer me
 68412     To what I ask you.
 68413   FIRST WITCH. Speak.
 68414   SECOND WITCH. Demand.
 68415   THIRD WITCH. We'll answer.
 68416   FIRST WITCH. Say, if thou'dst rather hear it from our mouths,
 68417     Or from our masters'?
 68418   MACBETH. Call 'em, let me see 'em.
 68419   FIRST WITCH. Pour in sow's blood that hath eaten
 68420     Her nine farrow; grease that's sweaten
 68421     From the murtherer's gibbet throw
 68422     Into the flame.
 68423   ALL. Come, high or low;
 68424     Thyself and office deftly show!
 68425 
 68426             Thunder. First Apparition: an armed Head.
 68427 
 68428   MACBETH. Tell me, thou unknown power-
 68429   FIRST WITCH. He knows thy thought:
 68430     Hear his speech, but say thou nought.
 68431   FIRST APPARITION. Macbeth! Macbeth! Macbeth! Beware Macduff,
 68432     Beware the Thane of Fife. Dismiss me. Enough.
 68433                                                        Descends.
 68434   MACBETH. Whate'er thou art, for thy good caution, thanks;
 68435     Thou hast harp'd my fear aright. But one word more-
 68436   FIRST WITCH. He will not be commanded. Here's another,
 68437     More potent than the first.
 68438 
 68439           Thunder. Second Apparition: a bloody Child.
 68440 
 68441   SECOND APPARITION. Macbeth! Macbeth! Macbeth!
 68442   MACBETH. Had I three ears, I'd hear thee.
 68443   SECOND APPARITION. Be bloody, bold, and resolute: laugh to scorn
 68444     The power of man, for none of woman born
 68445     Shall harm Macbeth.                                Descends.
 68446   MACBETH. Then live, Macduff. What need I fear of thee?
 68447     But yet I'll make assurance double sure,
 68448     And take a bond of fate: thou shalt not live,
 68449     That I may tell pale-hearted fear it lies,
 68450     And sleep in spite of thunder.
 68451 
 68452        Thunder. Third Apparition: a Child crowned,
 68453                with a tree in his hand.
 68454 
 68455     What is this,
 68456     That rises like the issue of a king,
 68457     And wears upon his baby brow the round
 68458     And top of sovereignty?
 68459   ALL. Listen, but speak not to't.
 68460   THIRD APPARITION. Be lion-mettled, proud, and take no care
 68461     Who chafes, who frets, or where conspirers are.
 68462     Macbeth shall never vanquish'd be until
 68463     Great Birnam Wood to high Dunsinane Hill
 68464     Shall come against him.                            Descends.
 68465   MACBETH. That will never be.
 68466     Who can impress the forest, bid the tree
 68467     Unfix his earth-bound root? Sweet bodements, good!
 68468     Rebellion's head, rise never till the Wood
 68469     Of Birnam rise, and our high-placed Macbeth
 68470     Shall live the lease of nature, pay his breath
 68471     To time and mortal custom. Yet my heart
 68472     Throbs to know one thing: tell me, if your art
 68473     Can tell so much, shall Banquo's issue ever
 68474     Reign in this kingdom?
 68475   ALL. Seek to know no more.
 68476   MACBETH. I will be satisfied! Deny me this,
 68477     And an eternal curse fall on you! Let me know.
 68478     Why sinks that cauldron, and what noise is this?
 68479                                                        Hautboys.
 68480   FIRST WITCH. Show!
 68481   SECOND WITCH. Show!
 68482   THIRD. WITCH. Show!
 68483   ALL. Show his eyes, and grieve his heart;
 68484     Come like shadows, so depart!
 68485 
 68486     A show of eight Kings, the last with a glass in his hand;
 68487                    Banquo's Ghost following.
 68488 
 68489   MACBETH. Thou are too like the spirit of Banquo Down!
 68490     Thy crown does sear mine eyeballs. And thy hair,
 68491     Thou other gold-bound brow, is like the first.
 68492     A third is like the former. Filthy hags!
 68493     Why do you show me this? A fourth! Start, eyes!
 68494     What, will the line stretch out to the crack of doom?
 68495     Another yet! A seventh! I'll see no more!
 68496     And yet the eighth appears, who bears a glass
 68497     Which shows me many more; and some I see
 68498     That twofold balls and treble sceptres carry.
 68499     Horrible sight! Now I see 'tis true;
 68500     For the blood-bolter'd Banquo smiles upon me,
 68501     And points at them for his. What, is this so?
 68502   FIRST WITCH. Ay, sir, all this is so. But why
 68503     Stands Macbeth thus amazedly?
 68504     Come,sisters, cheer we up his sprites,
 68505     And show the best of our delights.
 68506     I'll charm the air to give a sound,
 68507     While you perform your antic round,
 68508     That this great King may kindly say
 68509     Our duties did his welcome pay.
 68510                                     Music. The Witches dance and
 68511                                         then vanish with Hecate.
 68512   MACBETH. are they? Gone? Let this pernicious hour
 68513     Stand ay accursed in the calendar!
 68514     Come in, without there!
 68515 
 68516                     Enter Lennox.
 68517 
 68518   LENNOX. What's your Grace's will?
 68519   MACBETH. Saw you the weird sisters?
 68520   LENNOX. No, my lord.
 68521   MACBETH. Came they not by you?
 68522   LENNOX. No indeed, my lord.
 68523   MACBETH. Infected be the 'air whereon they ride,
 68524     And damn'd all those that trust them! I did hear
 68525     The galloping of horse. Who wast came by?
 68526   LENNOX. 'Tis two or three, my lord, that bring you word
 68527     Macduff is fled to England.
 68528   MACBETH. Fled to England?
 68529   LENNOX. Ay, my good lord.
 68530   MACBETH. [Aside.] Time, thou anticipatest my dread exploits.
 68531     The flighty purpose never is o'ertook
 68532     Unless the deed go with it. From this moment
 68533     The very firstlings of my heart shall be
 68534     The firstlings of my hand. And even now,
 68535     To crown my thoughts with acts, be it thought and done:
 68536     The castle of Macduff I will surprise,
 68537     Seize upon Fife, give to the edge o' the sword
 68538     His wife, his babes, and all unfortunate souls
 68539     That trace him in his line. No boasting like a fool;
 68540     This deed I'll do before this purpose cool.
 68541     But no more sights! -Where are these gentlemen?
 68542     Come, bring me where they are.                       Exeunt.
 68543 
 68544 
 68545 
 68546 
 68547 SCENE II.
 68548 Fife. Macduff's castle.
 68549 
 68550 Enter Lady Macduff, her Son, and Ross.
 68551 
 68552   LADY MACDUFF. What had he done, to make him fly the land?
 68553   ROSS. You must have patience, madam.
 68554   LADY MACDUFF. He had none;
 68555     His flight was madness. When our actions do not,
 68556     Our fears do make us traitors.
 68557   ROSS. You know not
 68558     Whether it was his wisdom or his fear.
 68559   LADY MACDUFF. Wisdom? To leave his wife, to leave his babes,
 68560     His mansion, and his titles, in a place
 68561     From whence himself does fly? He loves us not;
 68562     He wants the natural touch; for the poor wren,
 68563     The most diminutive of birds, will fight,
 68564     Her young ones in her nest, against the owl.
 68565     All is the fear and nothing is the love;
 68566     As little is the wisdom, where the flight
 68567     So runs against all reason.
 68568   ROSS. My dearest coz,
 68569     I pray you, school yourself. But for your husband,
 68570     He is noble, wise, Judicious, and best knows
 68571     The fits o' the season. I dare not speak much further;
 68572     But cruel are the times when we are traitors
 68573     And do not know ourselves; when we hold rumor
 68574     From what we fear, yet know not what we fear,
 68575     But float upon a wild and violent sea
 68576     Each way and move. I take my leave of you;
 68577     Shall not be long but I'll be here again.
 68578     Things at the worst will cease or else climb upward
 68579     To what they were before. My pretty cousin,
 68580     Blessing upon you!
 68581   LADY MACDUFF. Father'd he is, and yet he's fatherless.
 68582   ROSS. I am so much a fool, should I stay longer,
 68583     It would be my disgrace and your discomfort.
 68584     I take my leave at once.                               Exit.
 68585   LADY MACDUFF. Sirrah, your father's dead.
 68586     And what will you do now? How will you live?
 68587   SON. As birds do, Mother.
 68588   LADY MACDUFF. What, with worms and flies?
 68589   SON. With what I get, I mean; and so do they.
 68590   LADY MACDUFF. Poor bird! Thou'ldst never fear the net nor lime,
 68591     The pitfall nor the gin.
 68592   SON. Why should I, Mother? Poor birds they are not set for.
 68593     My father is not dead, for all your saying.
 68594   LADY MACDUFF. Yes, he is dead. How wilt thou do for father?
 68595   SON. Nay, how will you do for a husband?
 68596   LADY MACDUFF. Why, I can buy me twenty at any market.
 68597   SON. Then you'll buy 'em to sell again.
 68598   LADY MACDUFF. Thou speak'st with all thy wit, and yet, i' faith,
 68599     With wit enough for thee.
 68600   SON. Was my father a traitor, Mother?
 68601   LADY MACDUFF. Ay, that he was.
 68602   SON. What is a traitor?
 68603   LADY MACDUFF. Why one that swears and lies.
 68604   SON. And be all traitors that do so?
 68605   LADY MACDUFF. Everyone that does so is a traitor and must be
 68606      hanged.
 68607   SON. And must they all be hanged that swear and lie?
 68608   LADY MACDUFF. Everyone.
 68609   SON. Who must hang them?
 68610   LADY MACDUFF. Why, the honest men.
 68611   SON. Then the liars and swearers are fools, for there are liars and
 68612     swearers enow to beat the honest men and hang up them.
 68613   LADY MACDUFF. Now, God help thee, poor monkey! But how wilt thou do
 68614     for a father?
 68615   SON. If he were dead, you'ld weep for him; if you would not, it
 68616     were a good sign that I should quickly have a new father.
 68617   LADY MACDUFF. Poor prattler, how thou talk'st!
 68618 
 68619                     Enter a Messenger.
 68620 
 68621   MESSENGER. Bless you, fair dame! I am not to you known,
 68622     Though in your state of honor I am perfect.
 68623     I doubt some danger does approach you nearly.
 68624     If you will take a homely man's advice,
 68625     Be not found here; hence, with your little ones.
 68626     To fright you thus, methinks I am too savage;
 68627     To do worse to you were fell cruelty,
 68628     Which is too nigh your person. Heaven preserve you!
 68629     I dare abide no longer.                                Exit.
 68630   LADY MACDUFF. Whither should I fly?
 68631     I have done no harm. But I remember now
 68632     I am in this earthly world, where to do harm
 68633     Is often laudable, to do good sometime
 68634     Accounted dangerous folly. Why then, alas,
 68635     Do I put up that womanly defense,
 68636     To say I have done no harm -What are these faces?
 68637 
 68638                       Enter Murtherers.
 68639 
 68640   FIRST MURTHERER. Where is your husband?
 68641   LADY MACDUFF. I hope, in no place so unsanctified
 68642     Where such as thou mayst find him.
 68643   FIRST MURTHERER. He's a traitor.
 68644   SON. Thou liest, thou shag-ear'd villain!
 68645   FIRST MURTHERER. What, you egg!
 68646                                                       Stabs him.
 68647     Young fry of treachery!
 68648   SON. He has kill'd me, Mother.
 68649     Run away, I pray you!                                  Dies.
 68650                             Exit Lady Macduff, crying "Murther!"
 68651                                Exeunt Murtherers, following her.
 68652 
 68653 
 68654 
 68655 
 68656 SCENE III.
 68657 England. Before the King's palace.
 68658 
 68659 Enter Malcolm and Macduff.
 68660 
 68661   MALCOLM. Let us seek out some desolate shade and there
 68662     Weep our sad bosoms empty.
 68663   MACDUFF. Let us rather
 68664     Hold fast the mortal sword, and like good men
 68665     Bestride our downfall'n birthdom. Each new morn
 68666     New widows howl, new orphans cry, new sorrows
 68667     Strike heaven on the face, that it resounds
 68668     As if it felt with Scotland and yell'd out
 68669     Like syllable of dolor.
 68670   MALCOLM. What I believe, I'll wall;
 68671     What know, believe; and what I can redress,
 68672     As I shall find the time to friend, I will.
 68673     What you have spoke, it may be so perchance.
 68674     This tyrant, whose sole name blisters our tongues,
 68675     Was once thought honest. You have loved him well;
 68676     He hath not touch'd you yet. I am young, but something
 68677     You may deserve of him through me, and wisdom
 68678     To offer up a weak, poor, innocent lamb
 68679     To appease an angry god.
 68680   MACDUFF. I am not treacherous.
 68681   MALCOLM. But Macbeth is.
 68682     A good and virtuous nature may recoil
 68683     In an imperial charge. But I shall crave your pardon;
 68684     That which you are, my thoughts cannot transpose.
 68685     Angels are bright still, though the brightest fell.
 68686     Though all things foul would wear the brows of grace,
 68687     Yet grace must still look so.
 68688   MACDUFF. I have lost my hopes.
 68689   MALCOLM. Perchance even there where I did find my doubts.
 68690     Why in that rawness left you wife and child,
 68691     Those precious motives, those strong knots of love,
 68692     Without leave-taking? I pray you,
 68693     Let not my jealousies be your dishonors,
 68694     But mine own safeties. You may be rightly just,
 68695     Whatever I shall think.
 68696   MACDUFF. Bleed, bleed, poor country!
 68697     Great tyranny, lay thou thy basis sure,
 68698     For goodness dare not check thee. Wear thou thy wrongs;
 68699     The title is affeer'd. Fare thee well, lord.
 68700     I would not be the villain that thou think'st
 68701     For the whole space that's in the tyrant's grasp
 68702     And the rich East to boot.
 68703   MALCOLM. Be not offended;
 68704     I speak not as in absolute fear of you.
 68705     I think our country sinks beneath the yoke;
 68706     It weeps, it bleeds, and each new day a gash
 68707     Is added to her wounds. I think withal
 68708     There would be hands uplifted in my right;
 68709     And here from gracious England have I offer
 68710     Of goodly thousands. But for all this,
 68711     When I shall tread upon the tyrant's head,
 68712     Or wear it on my sword, yet my poor country
 68713     Shall have more vices than it had before,
 68714     More suffer and more sundry ways than ever,
 68715     By him that shall succeed.
 68716   MACDUFF. What should he be?
 68717   MALCOLM. It is myself I mean, in whom I know
 68718     All the particulars of vice so grafted
 68719     That, when they shall be open'd, black Macbeth
 68720     Will seem as pure as snow, and the poor state
 68721     Esteem him as a lamb, being compared
 68722     With my confineless harms.
 68723   MACDUFF. Not in the legions
 68724     Of horrid hell can come a devil more damn'd
 68725     In evils to top Macbeth.
 68726   MALCOLM. I grant him bloody,
 68727     Luxurious, avaricious, false, deceitful,
 68728     Sudden, malicious, smacking of every sin
 68729     That has a name. But there's no bottom, none,
 68730     In my voluptuousness. Your wives, your daughters,
 68731     Your matrons, and your maids could not fill up
 68732     The cestern of my lust, and my desire
 68733     All continent impediments would o'erbear
 68734     That did oppose my will. Better Macbeth
 68735     Than such an one to reign.
 68736   MACDUFF. Boundless intemperance
 68737     In nature is a tyranny; it hath been
 68738     The untimely emptying of the happy throne,
 68739     And fall of many kings. But fear not yet
 68740     To take upon you what is yours. You may
 68741     Convey your pleasures in a spacious plenty
 68742     And yet seem cold, the time you may so hoodwink.
 68743     We have willing dames enough; there cannot be
 68744     That vulture in you to devour so many
 68745     As will to greatness dedicate themselves,
 68746     Finding it so inclined.
 68747   MALCOLM. With this there grows
 68748     In my most ill-composed affection such
 68749     A stanchless avarice that, were I King,
 68750     I should cut off the nobles for their lands,
 68751     Desire his jewels and this other's house,
 68752     And my more-having would be as a sauce
 68753     To make me hunger more, that I should forge
 68754     Quarrels unjust against the good and loyal,
 68755     Destroying them for wealth.
 68756   MACDUFF. This avarice
 68757     Sticks deeper, grows with more pernicious root
 68758     Than summer-seeming lust, and it hath been
 68759     The sword of our slain kings. Yet do not fear;
 68760     Scotland hath foisons to fill up your will
 68761     Of your mere own. All these are portable,
 68762     With other graces weigh'd.
 68763   MALCOLM. But I have none. The king-becoming graces,
 68764     As justice, verity, temperance, stableness,
 68765     Bounty, perseverance, mercy, lowliness,
 68766     Devotion, patience, courage, fortitude,
 68767     I have no relish of them, but abound
 68768     In the division of each several crime,
 68769     Acting it many ways. Nay, had I power, I should
 68770     Pour the sweet milk of concord into hell,
 68771     Uproar the universal peace, confound
 68772     All unity on earth.
 68773   MACDUFF. O Scotland, Scotland!
 68774   MALCOLM. If such a one be fit to govern, speak.
 68775     I am as I have spoken.
 68776   MACDUFF. Fit to govern?
 68777     No, not to live. O nation miserable!
 68778     With an untitled tyrant bloody-scepter'd,
 68779     When shalt thou see thy wholesome days again,
 68780     Since that the truest issue of thy throne
 68781     By his own interdiction stands accursed
 68782     And does blaspheme his breed? Thy royal father
 68783     Was a most sainted king; the queen that bore thee,
 68784     Oftener upon her knees than on her feet,
 68785     Died every day she lived. Fare thee well!
 68786     These evils thou repeat'st upon thyself
 68787     Have banish'd me from Scotland. O my breast,
 68788     Thy hope ends here!
 68789   MALCOLM. Macduff, this noble passion,
 68790     Child of integrity, hath from my soul
 68791     Wiped the black scruples, reconciled my thoughts
 68792     To thy good truth and honor. Devilish Macbeth
 68793     By many of these trains hath sought to win me
 68794     Into his power, and modest wisdom plucks me
 68795     From over-credulous haste. But God above
 68796     Deal between thee and me! For even now
 68797     I put myself to thy direction and
 68798     Unspeak mine own detraction; here abjure
 68799     The taints and blames I laid upon myself,
 68800     For strangers to my nature. I am yet
 68801     Unknown to woman, never was forsworn,
 68802     Scarcely have coveted what was mine own,
 68803     At no time broke my faith, would not betray
 68804     The devil to his fellow, and delight
 68805     No less in truth than life. My first false speaking
 68806     Was this upon myself. What I am truly
 68807     Is thine and my poor country's to command.
 68808     Whither indeed, before thy here-approach,
 68809     Old Siward, with ten thousand warlike men
 68810     Already at a point, was setting forth.
 68811     Now we'll together, and the chance of goodness
 68812     Be like our warranted quarrel! Why are you silent?
 68813   MACDUFF. Such welcome and unwelcome things at once
 68814     'Tis hard to reconcile.
 68815 
 68816                      Enter a Doctor.
 68817 
 68818   MALCOLM. Well, more anon. Comes the King forth, I pray you?
 68819   DOCTOR. Ay, sir, there are a crew of wretched souls
 68820     That stay his cure. Their malady convinces
 68821     The great assay of art, but at his touch,
 68822     Such sanctity hath heaven given his hand,
 68823     They presently amend.
 68824   MALCOLM. I thank you, Doctor.                     Exit Doctor.
 68825   MACDUFF. What's the disease he means?
 68826   MALCOLM. 'Tis call'd the evil:
 68827     A most miraculous work in this good King,
 68828     Which often, since my here-remain in England,
 68829     I have seen him do. How he solicits heaven,
 68830     Himself best knows; but strangely-visited people,
 68831     All swol'n and ulcerous, pitiful to the eye,
 68832     The mere despair of surgery, he cures,
 68833     Hanging a golden stamp about their necks
 68834     Put on with holy prayers; and 'tis spoken,
 68835     To the succeeding royalty he leaves
 68836     The healing benediction. With this strange virtue
 68837     He hath a heavenly gift of prophecy,
 68838     And sundry blessings hang about his throne
 68839     That speak him full of grace.
 68840 
 68841                     Enter Ross.
 68842 
 68843   MACDUFF. See, who comes here?
 68844   MALCOLM. My countryman, but yet I know him not.
 68845   MACDUFF. My ever gentle cousin, welcome hither.
 68846   MALCOLM. I know him now. Good God, betimes remove
 68847     The means that makes us strangers!
 68848   ROSS. Sir, amen.
 68849   MACDUFF. Stands Scotland where it did?
 68850   ROSS. Alas, poor country,
 68851     Almost afraid to know itself! It cannot
 68852     Be call'd our mother, but our grave. Where nothing,
 68853     But who knows nothing, is once seen to smile;
 68854     Where sighs and groans and shrieks that rend the air,
 68855     Are made, not mark'd; where violent sorrow seems
 68856     A modern ecstasy. The dead man's knell
 68857     Is there scarce ask'd for who, and good men's lives
 68858     Expire before the flowers in their caps,
 68859     Dying or ere they sicken.
 68860   MACDUFF. O, relation
 68861     Too nice, and yet too true!
 68862   MALCOLM. What's the newest grief?
 68863   ROSS. That of an hour's age doth hiss the speaker;
 68864     Each minute teems a new one.
 68865   MACDUFF. How does my wife?
 68866   ROSS. Why, well.
 68867   MACDUFF. And all my children?
 68868   ROSS. Well too.
 68869   MACDUFF. The tyrant has not batter'd at their peace?
 68870   ROSS. No, they were well at peace when I did leave 'em.
 68871   MACDUFF. Be not a niggard of your speech. How goest?
 68872   ROSS. When I came hither to transport the tidings,
 68873     Which I have heavily borne, there ran a rumor
 68874     Of many worthy fellows that were out,
 68875     Which was to my belief witness'd the rather,
 68876     For that I saw the tyrant's power afoot.
 68877     Now is the time of help; your eye in Scotland
 68878     Would create soldiers, make our women fight,
 68879     To doff their dire distresses.
 68880   MALCOLM. Be't their comfort
 68881     We are coming thither. Gracious England hath
 68882     Lent us good Siward and ten thousand men;
 68883     An older and a better soldier none
 68884     That Christendom gives out.
 68885   ROSS. Would I could answer
 68886     This comfort with the like! But I have words
 68887     That would be howl'd out in the desert air,
 68888     Where hearing should not latch them.
 68889   MACDUFF. What concern they?
 68890     The general cause? Or is it a fee-grief
 68891     Due to some single breast?
 68892   ROSS. No mind that's honest
 68893     But in it shares some woe, though the main part
 68894     Pertains to you alone.
 68895   MACDUFF. If it be mine,
 68896     Keep it not from me, quickly let me have it.
 68897   ROSS. Let not your ears despise my tongue forever,
 68898     Which shall possess them with the heaviest sound
 68899     That ever yet they heard.
 68900   MACDUFF. Humh! I guess at it.
 68901   ROSS. Your castle is surprised; your wife and babes
 68902     Savagely slaughter'd. To relate the manner
 68903     Were, on the quarry of these murther'd deer,
 68904     To add the death of you.
 68905   MALCOLM. Merciful heaven!
 68906     What, man! Neer pull your hat upon your brows;
 68907     Give sorrow words. The grief that does not speak
 68908     Whispers the o'erfraught heart, and bids it break.
 68909   MACDUFF. My children too?
 68910   ROSS. Wife, children, servants, all
 68911     That could be found.
 68912   MACDUFF. And I must be from thence!
 68913     My wife kill'd too?
 68914   ROSS. I have said.
 68915   MALCOLM. Be comforted.
 68916     Let's make us medicines of our great revenge,
 68917     To cure this deadly grief.
 68918   MACDUFF. He has no children. All my pretty ones?
 68919     Did you say all? O hell-kite! All?
 68920     What, all my pretty chickens and their dam
 68921     At one fell swoop?
 68922   MALCOLM. Dispute it like a man.
 68923   MACDUFF. I shall do so,
 68924     But I must also feel it as a man.
 68925     I cannot but remember such things were
 68926     That were most precious to me. Did heaven look on,
 68927     And would not take their part? Sinful Macduff,
 68928     They were all struck for thee! Naught that I am,
 68929     Not for their own demerits, but for mine,
 68930     Fell slaughter on their souls. Heaven rest them now!
 68931   MALCOLM. Be this the whetstone of your sword. Let grief
 68932     Convert to anger; blunt not the heart, enrage it.
 68933   MACDUFF. O, I could play the woman with mine eyes
 68934     And braggart with my tongue! But, gentle heavens,
 68935     Cut short all intermission; front to front
 68936     Bring thou this fiend of Scotland and myself;
 68937     Within my sword's length set him; if he 'scape,
 68938     Heaven forgive him too!
 68939   MALCOLM. This tune goes manly.
 68940     Come, go we to the King; our power is ready,
 68941     Our lack is nothing but our leave. Macbeth
 68942     Is ripe for shaking, and the powers above
 68943     Put on their instruments. Receive what cheer you may,
 68944     The night is long that never finds the day.          Exeunt.
 68945 
 68946 
 68947 
 68948 
 68949 <<THIS ELECTRONIC VERSION OF THE COMPLETE WORKS OF WILLIAM
 68950 SHAKESPEARE IS COPYRIGHT 1990-1993 BY WORLD LIBRARY, INC., AND IS
 68951 PROVIDED BY PROJECT GUTENBERG ETEXT OF ILLINOIS BENEDICTINE COLLEGE
 68952 WITH PERMISSION.  ELECTRONIC AND MACHINE READABLE COPIES MAY BE
 68953 DISTRIBUTED SO LONG AS SUCH COPIES (1) ARE FOR YOUR OR OTHERS
 68954 PERSONAL USE ONLY, AND (2) ARE NOT DISTRIBUTED OR USED
 68955 COMMERCIALLY.  PROHIBITED COMMERCIAL DISTRIBUTION INCLUDES BY ANY
 68956 SERVICE THAT CHARGES FOR DOWNLOAD TIME OR FOR MEMBERSHIP.>>
 68957 
 68958 
 68959 
 68960 ACT V. SCENE I.
 68961 Dunsinane. Anteroom in the castle.
 68962 
 68963 Enter a Doctor of Physic and a Waiting Gentlewoman.
 68964 
 68965   DOCTOR. I have two nights watched with you, but can perceive no
 68966     truth in your report. When was it she last walked?
 68967   GENTLEWOMAN. Since his Majesty went into the field, have seen her
 68968     rise from her bed, throw her nightgown upon her, unlock her
 68969     closet, take forth paper, fold it, write upon't, read it,
 68970     afterwards seal it, and again return to bed; yet all this while
 68971     in a most fast sleep.
 68972   DOCTOR. A great perturbation in nature, to receive at once the
 68973     benefit of sleep and do the effects of watching! In this slumbery
 68974     agitation, besides her walking and other actual performances,
 68975     what, at any time, have you heard her say?
 68976   GENTLEWOMAN. That, sir, which I will not report after her.
 68977   DOCTOR. You may to me, and 'tis most meet you should.
 68978   GENTLEWOMAN. Neither to you nor anyone, having no witness to
 68979     confirm my speech.
 68980 
 68981                 Enter Lady Macbeth with a taper.
 68982 
 68983     Lo you, here she comes! This is her very guise, and, upon my
 68984     life, fast asleep. Observe her; stand close.
 68985   DOCTOR. How came she by that light?
 68986   GENTLEWOMAN. Why, it stood by her. She has light by her
 68987      continually; 'tis her command.
 68988   DOCTOR. You see, her eyes are open.
 68989   GENTLEWOMAN. Ay, but their sense is shut.
 68990   DOCTOR. What is it she does now? Look how she rubs her hands.
 68991   GENTLEWOMAN. It is an accustomed action with her, to seem thus
 68992     washing her hands. I have known her continue in this a quarter of
 68993     an hour.
 68994   LADY MACBETH. Yet here's a spot.
 68995   DOCTOR. Hark, she speaks! I will set down what comes from her, to
 68996     satisfy my remembrance the more strongly.
 68997   LADY MACBETH. Out, damned spot! Out, I say! One- two -why then 'tis
 68998     time to do't. Hell is murky. Fie, my lord, fie! A soldier, and
 68999     afeard? What need we fear who knows it, when none can call our
 69000     power to account? Yet who would have thought the old man to have
 69001     had so much blood in him?
 69002   DOCTOR. Do you mark that?
 69003   LADY MACBETH. The Thane of Fife had a wife; where is she now? What,
 69004     will these hands neer be clean? No more o' that, my lord, no more
 69005     o' that. You mar all with this starting.
 69006   DOCTOR. Go to, go to; you have known what you should not.
 69007   GENTLEWOMAN. She has spoke what she should not, I am sure of that.
 69008     Heaven knows what she has known.
 69009   LADY MACBETH. Here's the smell of the blood still. All the perfumes
 69010     of Arabia will not sweeten this little hand. Oh, oh, oh!
 69011   DOCTOR. What a sigh is there! The heart is sorely charged.
 69012   GENTLEWOMAN. I would not have such a heart in my bosom for the
 69013     dignity of the whole body.
 69014   DOCTOR. Well, well, well-
 69015   GENTLEWOMAN. Pray God it be, sir.
 69016   DOCTOR. This disease is beyond my practice. Yet I have known those
 69017     which have walked in their sleep who have died holily in their
 69018     beds.
 69019   LADY MACBETH. Wash your hands, put on your nightgown, look not so
 69020     pale. I tell you yet again, Banquo's buried; he cannot come out
 69021     on's grave.
 69022   DOCTOR. Even so?
 69023   LADY MACBETH. To bed, to bed; there's knocking at the gate. Come,
 69024     come, come, come, give me your hand.What's done cannot be undone.
 69025     To bed, to bed, to bed.
 69026 Exit.
 69027   DOCTOR. Will she go now to bed?
 69028   GENTLEWOMAN. Directly.
 69029   DOCTOR. Foul whisperings are abroad. Unnatural deeds
 69030     Do breed unnatural troubles; infected minds
 69031     To their deaf pillows will discharge their secrets.
 69032     More needs she the divine than the physician.
 69033     God, God, forgive us all! Look after her;
 69034     Remove from her the means of all annoyance,
 69035     And still keep eyes upon her. So good night.
 69036     My mind she has mated and amazed my sight.
 69037     I think, but dare not speak.
 69038   GENTLEWOMAN. Good night, good doctor.
 69039                                                          Exeunt.
 69040 
 69041 
 69042 
 69043 
 69044 SCENE II.
 69045 The country near Dunsinane. Drum and colors.
 69046 
 69047 Enter Menteith, Caithness, Angus, Lennox, and Soldiers.
 69048 
 69049   MENTEITH. The English power is near, led on by Malcolm,
 69050     His uncle Siward, and the good Macduff.
 69051     Revenges burn in them, for their dear causes
 69052     Would to the bleeding and the grim alarm
 69053     Excite the mortified man.
 69054   ANGUS. Near Birnam Wood
 69055     Shall we well meet them; that way are they coming.
 69056   CAITHNESS. Who knows if Donalbain be with his brother?
 69057   LENNOX. For certain, sir, he is not; I have a file
 69058     Of all the gentry. There is Seward's son
 69059     And many unrough youths that even now
 69060     Protest their first of manhood.
 69061   MENTEITH. What does the tyrant?
 69062   CAITHNESS. Great Dunsinane he strongly fortifies.
 69063     Some say he's mad; others, that lesser hate him,
 69064     Do call it valiant fury; but, for certain,
 69065     He cannot buckle his distemper'd cause
 69066     Within the belt of rule.
 69067   ANGUS. Now does he feel
 69068     His secret murthers sticking on his hands,
 69069     Now minutely revolts upbraid his faith-breach;
 69070     Those he commands move only in command,
 69071     Nothing in love. Now does he feel his title
 69072     Hang loose about him, like a giant's robe
 69073     Upon a dwarfish thief.
 69074   MENTEITH. Who then shall blame
 69075     His pester'd senses to recoil and start,
 69076     When all that is within him does condemn
 69077     Itself for being there?
 69078   CAITHNESS. Well, march we on
 69079     To give obedience where 'tis truly owed.
 69080     Meet we the medicine of the sickly weal,
 69081     And with him pour we, in our country's purge,
 69082     Each drop of us.
 69083   LENNOX. Or so much as it needs
 69084     To dew the sovereign flower and drown the weeds.
 69085     Make we our march towards Birnam.           Exeunt marching.
 69086 
 69087 
 69088 
 69089 
 69090 SCENE III.
 69091 Dunsinane. A room in the castle.
 69092 
 69093 Enter Macbeth, Doctor, and Attendants.
 69094 
 69095   MACBETH. Bring me no more reports; let them fly all!
 69096     Till Birnam Wood remove to Dunsinane
 69097     I cannot taint with fear. What's the boy Malcolm?
 69098     Was he not born of woman? The spirits that know
 69099     All mortal consequences have pronounced me thus:
 69100     "Fear not, Macbeth; no man that's born of woman
 69101     Shall e'er have power upon thee." Then fly, false Thanes,
 69102     And mingle with the English epicures!
 69103     The mind I sway by and the heart I bear
 69104     Shall never sag with doubt nor shake with fear.
 69105 
 69106                        Enter a Servant.
 69107 
 69108     The devil damn thee black, thou cream-faced loon!
 69109     Where got'st thou that goose look?
 69110   SERVANT. There is ten thousand-
 69111   MACBETH. Geese, villain?
 69112   SERVANT. Soldiers, sir.
 69113   MACBETH. Go prick thy face and over-red thy fear,
 69114     Thou lily-liver'd boy. What soldiers, patch?
 69115     Death of thy soul! Those linen cheeks of thine
 69116     Are counselors to fear. What soldiers, whey-face?
 69117   SERVANT. The English force, so please you.
 69118   MACBETH. Take thy face hence.                    Exit Servant.
 69119     Seyton-I am sick at heart,
 69120     When I behold- Seyton, I say!- This push
 69121     Will cheer me ever or disseat me now.
 69122     I have lived long enough. My way of life
 69123     Is fall'n into the sear, the yellow leaf,
 69124     And that which should accompany old age,
 69125     As honor, love, obedience, troops of friends,
 69126     I must not look to have; but in their stead,
 69127     Curses, not loud but deep, mouth-honor, breath,
 69128     Which the poor heart would fain deny and dare not.
 69129     Seyton!
 69130 
 69131                        Enter Seyton.
 69132 
 69133   SEYTON. What's your gracious pleasure?
 69134   MACBETH. What news more?
 69135   SEYTON. All is confirm'd, my lord, which was reported.
 69136   MACBETH. I'll fight, 'til from my bones my flesh be hack'd.
 69137     Give me my armor.
 69138   SEYTON. 'Tis not needed yet.
 69139   MACBETH. I'll put it on.
 69140     Send out more horses, skirr the country round,
 69141     Hang those that talk of fear. Give me mine armor.
 69142     How does your patient, doctor?
 69143   DOCTOR. Not so sick, my lord,
 69144     As she is troubled with thick-coming fancies,
 69145     That keep her from her rest.
 69146   MACBETH. Cure her of that.
 69147     Canst thou not minister to a mind diseased,
 69148     Pluck from the memory a rooted sorrow,
 69149     Raze out the written troubles of the brain,
 69150     And with some sweet oblivious antidote
 69151     Cleanse the stuff'd bosom of that perilous stuff
 69152     Which weighs upon the heart?
 69153   DOCTOR. Therein the patient
 69154     Must minister to himself.
 69155   MACBETH. Throw physic to the dogs, I'll none of it.
 69156     Come, put mine armor on; give me my staff.
 69157     Seyton, send out. Doctor, the Thanes fly from me.
 69158     Come, sir, dispatch. If thou couldst, doctor, cast
 69159     The water of my land, find her disease
 69160     And purge it to a sound and pristine health,
 69161     I would applaud thee to the very echo,
 69162     That should applaud again. Pull't off, I say.
 69163     What rhubarb, cyme, or what purgative drug
 69164     Would scour these English hence? Hearst thou of them?
 69165   DOCTOR. Ay, my good lord, your royal preparation
 69166     Makes us hear something.
 69167   MACBETH. Bring it after me.
 69168     I will not be afraid of death and bane
 69169     Till Birnam Forest come to Dunsinane.
 69170   DOCTOR. [Aside.] Were I from Dunsinane away and clear,
 69171     Profit again should hardly draw me here.             Exeunt.
 69172 
 69173 
 69174 
 69175 
 69176 SCENE IV.
 69177 Country near Birnam Wood. Drum and colors.
 69178 
 69179 Enter Malcolm, old Seward and his Son, Macduff, Menteith, Caithness,
 69180 Angus, Lennox, Ross, and Soldiers, marching.
 69181 
 69182   MALCOLM. Cousins, I hope the days are near at hand
 69183     That chambers will be safe.
 69184   MENTEITH. We doubt it nothing.
 69185   SIWARD. What wood is this before us?
 69186   MENTEITH. The Wood of Birnam.
 69187   MALCOLM. Let every soldier hew him down a bough,
 69188     And bear't before him; thereby shall we shadow
 69189     The numbers of our host, and make discovery
 69190     Err in report of us.
 69191   SOLDIERS. It shall be done.
 69192   SIWARD. We learn no other but the confident tyrant
 69193     Keeps still in Dunsinane and will endure
 69194     Our setting down before't.
 69195   MALCOLM. 'Tis his main hope;
 69196     For where there is advantage to be given,
 69197     Both more and less have given him the revolt,
 69198     And none serve with him but constrained things
 69199     Whose hearts are absent too.
 69200   MACDUFF. Let our just censures
 69201     Attend the true event, and put we on
 69202     Industrious soldiership.
 69203   SIWARD. The time approaches
 69204     That will with due decision make us know
 69205     What we shall say we have and what we owe.
 69206     Thoughts speculative their unsure hopes relate,
 69207     But certain issue strokes must arbitrate.
 69208     Towards which advance the war.
 69209                                                 Exeunt Marching.
 69210 
 69211 
 69212 
 69213 
 69214 SCENE V.
 69215 Dunsinane. Within the castle.
 69216 
 69217 Enter Macbeth, Seyton, and Soldiers, with drum and colors.
 69218 
 69219   MACBETH. Hang out our banners on the outward walls;
 69220     The cry is still, "They come!" Our castle's strength
 69221     Will laugh a siege to scorn. Here let them lie
 69222     Till famine and the ague eat them up.
 69223     Were they not forced with those that should be ours,
 69224     We might have met them dareful, beard to beard,
 69225     And beat them backward home.
 69226                                           A cry of women within.
 69227     What is that noise?
 69228   SEYTON. It is the cry of women, my good lord.            Exit.
 69229   MACBETH. I have almost forgot the taste of fears:
 69230     The time has been, my senses would have cool'd
 69231     To hear a night-shriek, and my fell of hair
 69232     Would at a dismal treatise rouse and stir
 69233     As life were in't. I have supp'd full with horrors;
 69234     Direness, familiar to my slaughterous thoughts,
 69235     Cannot once start me.
 69236 
 69237                   Re-enter Seyton.
 69238      Wherefore was that cry?
 69239   SEYTON. The Queen, my lord, is dead.
 69240   MACBETH. She should have died hereafter;
 69241     There would have been a time for such a word.
 69242     Tomorrow, and tomorrow, and tomorrow
 69243     Creeps in this petty pace from day to day
 69244     To the last syllable of recorded time;
 69245     And all our yesterdays have lighted fools
 69246     The way to dusty death. Out, out, brief candle!
 69247     Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player
 69248     That struts and frets his hour upon the stage
 69249     And then is heard no more. It is a tale
 69250     Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury,
 69251     Signifying nothing.
 69252 
 69253                  Enter a Messenger.
 69254 
 69255     Thou comest to use thy tongue; thy story quickly.
 69256   MESSENGER. Gracious my lord,
 69257     I should report that which I say I saw,
 69258     But know not how to do it.
 69259   MACBETH. Well, say, sir.
 69260   MESSENGER. As I did stand my watch upon the hill,
 69261     I look'd toward Birnam, and anon, methought,
 69262     The Wood began to move.
 69263   MACBETH. Liar and slave!
 69264   MESSENGER. Let me endure your wrath, if't be not so.
 69265     Within this three mile may you see it coming;
 69266     I say, a moving grove.
 69267   MACBETH. If thou speak'st false,
 69268     Upon the next tree shalt thou hang alive,
 69269     Till famine cling thee; if thy speech be sooth,
 69270     I care not if thou dost for me as much.
 69271     I pull in resolution and begin
 69272     To doubt the equivocation of the fiend
 69273     That lies like truth. "Fear not, till Birnam Wood
 69274     Do come to Dunsinane," and now a wood
 69275     Comes toward Dunsinane. Arm, arm, and out!
 69276     If this which he avouches does appear,
 69277     There is nor flying hence nor tarrying here.
 69278     I 'gin to be aweary of the sun
 69279     And wish the estate o' the world were now undone.
 69280     Ring the alarum bell! Blow, wind! Come, wrack!
 69281     At least we'll die with harness on our back.         Exeunt.
 69282 
 69283 
 69284 
 69285 
 69286 SCENE VI.
 69287 Dunsinane.  Before the castle.
 69288 
 69289 Enter Malcolm, old Siward, Macduff, and their Army, with boughs.
 69290 Drum and colors.
 69291 
 69292   MALCOLM. Now near enough; your leavy screens throw down,
 69293     And show like those you are. You, worthy uncle,
 69294     Shall with my cousin, your right noble son,
 69295     Lead our first battle. Worthy Macduff and we
 69296     Shall take upon 's what else remains to do,
 69297     According to our order.
 69298   SIWARD. Fare you well.
 69299     Do we but find the tyrant's power tonight,
 69300     Let us be beaten if we cannot fight.
 69301   MACDUFF. Make all our trumpets speak, give them all breath,
 69302     Those clamorous harbingers of blood and death.
 69303                                                          Exeunt.
 69304 
 69305 
 69306 
 69307 
 69308 SCENE VII.
 69309 Dunsinane.  Before the castle.  Alarums.
 69310 
 69311 Enter Macbeth.
 69312 
 69313   MACBETH. They have tied me to a stake; I cannot fly,
 69314     But bear-like I must fight the course. What's he
 69315     That was not born of woman? Such a one
 69316     Am I to fear, or none.
 69317 
 69318                      Enter young Siward.
 69319 
 69320   YOUNG SIWARD. What is thy name?
 69321   MACBETH. Thou'lt be afraid to hear it.
 69322   YOUNG SIWARD. No, though thou call'st thyself a hotter name
 69323     Than any is in hell.
 69324   MACBETH. My name's Macbeth.
 69325   YOUNG SIWARD. The devil himself could not pronounce a title
 69326     More hateful to mine ear.
 69327   MACBETH. No, nor more fearful.
 69328   YOUNG SIWARD O Thou liest, abhorred tyrant; with my sword
 69329     I'll prove the lie thou speak'st.
 69330                           They fight, and young Seward is slain.
 69331   MACBETH. Thou wast born of woman.
 69332     But swords I smile at, weapons laugh to scorn,
 69333     Brandish'd by man that's of a woman born.              Exit.
 69334 
 69335                 Alarums. Enter Macduff.
 69336 
 69337   MACDUFF. That way the noise is. Tyrant, show thy face!
 69338     If thou best slain and with no stroke of mine,
 69339     My wife and children's ghosts will haunt me still.
 69340     I cannot strike at wretched kerns, whose arms
 69341     Are hired to bear their staves. Either thou, Macbeth,
 69342     Or else my sword, with an unbatter'd edge,
 69343     I sheathe again undeeded. There thou shouldst be;
 69344     By this great clatter, one of greatest note
 69345     Seems bruited. Let me find him, Fortune!
 69346     And more I beg not.                           Exit. Alarums.
 69347 
 69348                 Enter Malcolm and old Siward.
 69349 
 69350   SIWARD. This way, my lord; the castle's gently render'd.
 69351     The tyrant's people on both sides do fight,
 69352     The noble Thanes do bravely in the war,
 69353     The day almost itself professes yours,
 69354     And little is to do.
 69355   MALCOLM. We have met with foes
 69356     That strike beside us.
 69357   SIWARD. Enter, sir, the castle.
 69358                                                  Exeunt. Alarum.
 69359 
 69360 
 69361 
 69362 
 69363 SCENE VIII.
 69364 Another part of the field.
 69365 
 69366 Enter Macbeth.
 69367 
 69368   MACBETH. Why should I play the Roman fool and die
 69369     On mine own sword? Whiles I see lives, the gashes
 69370     Do better upon them.
 69371 
 69372                       Enter Macduff.
 69373 
 69374   MACDUFF. Turn, hell hound, turn!
 69375   MACBETH. Of all men else I have avoided thee.
 69376     But get thee back, my soul is too much charged
 69377     With blood of thine already.
 69378   MACDUFF. I have no words.
 69379     My voice is in my sword, thou bloodier villain
 69380     Than terms can give thee out!                    They fight.
 69381   MACBETH. Thou losest labor.
 69382     As easy mayst thou the intrenchant air
 69383     With thy keen sword impress as make me bleed.
 69384     Let fall thy blade on vulnerable crests;
 69385     I bear a charmed life, which must not yield
 69386     To one of woman born.
 69387   MACDUFF. Despair thy charm,
 69388     And let the angel whom thou still hast served
 69389     Tell thee, Macduff was from his mother's womb
 69390     Untimely ripp'd.
 69391   MACBETH. Accursed be that tongue that tells me so,
 69392     For it hath cow'd my better part of man!
 69393     And be these juggling fiends no more believed
 69394     That patter with us in a double sense,
 69395     That keep the word of promise to our ear
 69396     And break it to our hope. I'll not fight with thee.
 69397   MACDUFF. Then yield thee, coward,
 69398     And live to be the show and gaze o' the time.
 69399     We'll have thee, as our rarer monsters are,
 69400     Painted upon a pole, and underwrit,
 69401     "Here may you see the tyrant."
 69402   MACBETH. I will not yield,
 69403     To kiss the ground before young Malcolm's feet,
 69404     And to be baited with the rabble's curse.
 69405     Though Birnam Wood be come to Dunsinane,
 69406     And thou opposed, being of no woman born,
 69407     Yet I will try the last. Before my body
 69408     I throw my warlike shield! Lay on, Macduff,
 69409     And damn'd be him that first cries, "Hold, enough!"
 69410                                        Exeunt fighting. Alarums.
 69411 
 69412 
 69413 
 69414 
 69415 SCENE IX.
 69416 
 69417 Retreat. Flourish. Enter, with drum and colors, Malcolm, old Siward, Ross,
 69418 the other Thanes, and Soldiers.
 69419 
 69420   MALCOLM. I would the friends we miss were safe arrived.
 69421   SIWARD. Some must go off, and yet, by these I see,
 69422     So great a day as this is cheaply bought.
 69423   MALCOLM. Macduff is missing, and your noble son.
 69424   ROSS. Your son, my lord, has paid a soldier's debt.
 69425     He only lived but till he was a man,
 69426     The which no sooner had his prowess confirm'd
 69427     In the unshrinking station where he fought,
 69428     But like a man he died.
 69429   SIWARD. Then he is dead?
 69430   ROSS. Ay, and brought off the field. Your cause of sorrow
 69431     Must not be measured by his worth, for then
 69432     It hath no end.
 69433   SIWARD. Had he his hurts before?
 69434   ROSS. Ay, on the front.
 69435   SIWARD. Why then, God's soldier be he!
 69436     Had I as many sons as I have hairs,
 69437     I would not wish them to a fairer death.
 69438     And so his knell is knoll'd.
 69439   MALCOLM. He's worth more sorrow,
 69440     And that I'll spend for him.
 69441   SIWARD. He's worth no more:
 69442     They say he parted well and paid his score,
 69443     And so God be with him! Here comes newer comfort.
 69444 
 69445              Re-enter Macduff, with Macbeth's head.
 69446 
 69447   MACDUFF. Hail, King, for so thou art. Behold where stands
 69448     The usurper's cursed head. The time is free.
 69449     I see thee compass'd with thy kingdom's pearl
 69450     That speak my salutation in their minds,
 69451     Whose voices I desire aloud with mine-
 69452     Hail, King of Scotland!
 69453   ALL. Hail, King of Scotland!                         Flourish.
 69454   MALCOLM. We shall not spend a large expense of time
 69455     Before we reckon with your several loves
 69456     And make us even with you. My Thanes and kinsmen,
 69457     Henceforth be Earls, the first that ever Scotland
 69458     In such an honor named. What's more to do,
 69459     Which would be planted newly with the time,
 69460     As calling home our exiled friends abroad
 69461     That fled the snares of watchful tyranny,
 69462     Producing forth the cruel ministers
 69463     Of this dead butcher and his fiend-like queen,
 69464     Who, as 'tis thought, by self and violent hands
 69465     Took off her life; this, and what needful else
 69466     That calls upon us, by the grace of Grace
 69467     We will perform in measure, time, and place.
 69468     So thanks to all at once and to each one,
 69469     Whom we invite to see us crown'd at Scone.
 69470                                                Flourish. Exeunt.
 69471                  -THE END-
 69472 
 69473 
 69474 
 69475 <<THIS ELECTRONIC VERSION OF THE COMPLETE WORKS OF WILLIAM
 69476 SHAKESPEARE IS COPYRIGHT 1990-1993 BY WORLD LIBRARY, INC., AND IS
 69477 PROVIDED BY PROJECT GUTENBERG ETEXT OF ILLINOIS BENEDICTINE COLLEGE
 69478 WITH PERMISSION.  ELECTRONIC AND MACHINE READABLE COPIES MAY BE
 69479 DISTRIBUTED SO LONG AS SUCH COPIES (1) ARE FOR YOUR OR OTHERS
 69480 PERSONAL USE ONLY, AND (2) ARE NOT DISTRIBUTED OR USED
 69481 COMMERCIALLY.  PROHIBITED COMMERCIAL DISTRIBUTION INCLUDES BY ANY
 69482 SERVICE THAT CHARGES FOR DOWNLOAD TIME OR FOR MEMBERSHIP.>>
 69483 
 69484 
 69485 
 69486 
 69487 
 69488 1605
 69489 
 69490 
 69491 MEASURE FOR MEASURE
 69492 
 69493 by William Shakespeare
 69494 
 69495 
 69496 
 69497 DRAMATIS PERSONAE
 69498 
 69499   VINCENTIO, the Duke
 69500   ANGELO, the Deputy
 69501   ESCALUS, an ancient Lord
 69502   CLAUDIO, a young gentleman
 69503   LUCIO, a fantastic
 69504   Two other like Gentlemen
 69505   VARRIUS, a gentleman, servant to the Duke
 69506   PROVOST
 69507   THOMAS, friar
 69508   PETER, friar
 69509   A JUSTICE
 69510   ELBOW, a simple constable
 69511   FROTH, a foolish gentleman
 69512   POMPEY, a clown and servant to Mistress Overdone
 69513   ABHORSON, an executioner
 69514   BARNARDINE, a dissolute prisoner
 69515 
 69516   ISABELLA, sister to Claudio
 69517   MARIANA, betrothed to Angelo
 69518   JULIET, beloved of Claudio
 69519   FRANCISCA, a nun
 69520   MISTRESS OVERDONE, a bawd
 69521 
 69522   Lords, Officers, Citizens, Boy, and Attendants
 69523 
 69524 
 69525 
 69526 
 69527 <<THIS ELECTRONIC VERSION OF THE COMPLETE WORKS OF WILLIAM
 69528 SHAKESPEARE IS COPYRIGHT 1990-1993 BY WORLD LIBRARY, INC., AND IS
 69529 PROVIDED BY PROJECT GUTENBERG ETEXT OF ILLINOIS BENEDICTINE COLLEGE
 69530 WITH PERMISSION.  ELECTRONIC AND MACHINE READABLE COPIES MAY BE
 69531 DISTRIBUTED SO LONG AS SUCH COPIES (1) ARE FOR YOUR OR OTHERS
 69532 PERSONAL USE ONLY, AND (2) ARE NOT DISTRIBUTED OR USED
 69533 COMMERCIALLY.  PROHIBITED COMMERCIAL DISTRIBUTION INCLUDES BY ANY
 69534 SERVICE THAT CHARGES FOR DOWNLOAD TIME OR FOR MEMBERSHIP.>>
 69535 
 69536 
 69537 
 69538 SCENE:
 69539 Vienna
 69540 
 69541 
 69542 ACT I. SCENE I.
 69543 The DUKE'S palace
 69544 
 69545 Enter DUKE, ESCALUS, LORDS, and ATTENDANTS
 69546 
 69547   DUKE. Escalus!
 69548   ESCALUS. My lord.
 69549   DUKE. Of government the properties to unfold
 69550     Would seem in me t' affect speech and discourse,
 69551     Since I am put to know that your own science
 69552     Exceeds, in that, the lists of all advice
 69553     My strength can give you; then no more remains
 69554     But that to your sufficiency- as your worth is able-
 69555     And let them work. The nature of our people,
 69556     Our city's institutions, and the terms
 69557     For common justice, y'are as pregnant in
 69558     As art and practice hath enriched any
 69559     That we remember. There is our commission,
 69560     From which we would not have you warp. Call hither,
 69561     I say, bid come before us, Angelo.         Exit an ATTENDANT
 69562     What figure of us think you he will bear?
 69563     For you must know we have with special soul
 69564     Elected him our absence to supply;
 69565     Lent him our terror, dress'd him with our love,
 69566     And given his deputation all the organs
 69567     Of our own power. What think you of it?
 69568   ESCALUS. If any in Vienna be of worth
 69569     To undergo such ample grace and honour,
 69570     It is Lord Angelo.
 69571 
 69572                           Enter ANGELO
 69573 
 69574   DUKE. Look where he comes.
 69575   ANGELO. Always obedient to your Grace's will,
 69576     I come to know your pleasure.
 69577   DUKE. Angelo,
 69578     There is a kind of character in thy life
 69579     That to th' observer doth thy history
 69580     Fully unfold. Thyself and thy belongings
 69581     Are not thine own so proper as to waste
 69582     Thyself upon thy virtues, they on thee.
 69583     Heaven doth with us as we with torches do,
 69584     Not light them for themselves; for if our virtues
 69585     Did not go forth of us, 'twere all alike
 69586     As if we had them not. Spirits are not finely touch'd
 69587     But to fine issues; nor Nature never lends
 69588     The smallest scruple of her excellence
 69589     But, like a thrifty goddess, she determines
 69590     Herself the glory of a creditor,
 69591     Both thanks and use. But I do bend my speech
 69592     To one that can my part in him advertise.
 69593     Hold, therefore, Angelo-
 69594     In our remove be thou at full ourself;
 69595     Mortality and mercy in Vienna
 69596     Live in thy tongue and heart. Old Escalus,
 69597     Though first in question, is thy secondary.
 69598     Take thy commission.
 69599   ANGELO. Now, good my lord,
 69600     Let there be some more test made of my metal,
 69601     Before so noble and so great a figure
 69602     Be stamp'd upon it.
 69603   DUKE. No more evasion!
 69604     We have with a leaven'd and prepared choice
 69605     Proceeded to you; therefore take your honours.
 69606     Our haste from hence is of so quick condition
 69607     That it prefers itself, and leaves unquestion'd
 69608     Matters of needful value. We shall write to you,
 69609     As time and our concernings shall importune,
 69610     How it goes with us, and do look to know
 69611     What doth befall you here. So, fare you well.
 69612     To th' hopeful execution do I leave you
 69613     Of your commissions.
 69614   ANGELO. Yet give leave, my lord,
 69615     That we may bring you something on the way.
 69616   DUKE. My haste may not admit it;
 69617     Nor need you, on mine honour, have to do
 69618     With any scruple: your scope is as mine own,
 69619     So to enforce or qualify the laws
 69620     As to your soul seems good. Give me your hand;
 69621     I'll privily away. I love the people,
 69622     But do not like to stage me to their eyes;
 69623     Though it do well, I do not relish well
 69624     Their loud applause and Aves vehement;
 69625     Nor do I think the man of safe discretion
 69626     That does affect it. Once more, fare you well.
 69627   ANGELO. The heavens give safety to your purposes!
 69628   ESCALUS. Lead forth and bring you back in happiness!
 69629   DUKE. I thank you. Fare you well.                         Exit
 69630   ESCALUS. I shall desire you, sir, to give me leave
 69631     To have free speech with you; and it concerns me
 69632     To look into the bottom of my place:
 69633     A pow'r I have, but of what strength and nature
 69634     I am not yet instructed.
 69635   ANGELO. 'Tis so with me. Let us withdraw together,
 69636     And we may soon our satisfaction have
 69637     Touching that point.
 69638   ESCALUS. I'll wait upon your honour.                    Exeunt
 69639 
 69640 
 69641 
 69642 
 69643 SCENE II.
 69644 A street
 69645 
 69646 Enter Lucio and two other GENTLEMEN
 69647 
 69648   LUCIO. If the Duke, with the other dukes, come not to composition
 69649     with the King of Hungary, why then all the dukes fall upon the
 69650     King.
 69651   FIRST GENTLEMAN. Heaven grant us its peace, but not the King of
 69652     Hungary's!
 69653   SECOND GENTLEMAN. Amen.
 69654   LUCIO. Thou conclud'st like the sanctimonious pirate that went to
 69655     sea with the Ten Commandments, but scrap'd one out of the table.
 69656   SECOND GENTLEMAN. 'Thou shalt not steal'?
 69657   LUCIO. Ay, that he raz'd.
 69658   FIRST GENTLEMAN. Why, 'twas a commandment to command the captain
 69659     and all the rest from their functions: they put forth to steal.
 69660     There's not a soldier of us all that, in the thanksgiving before
 69661     meat, do relish the petition well that prays for peace.
 69662   SECOND GENTLEMAN. I never heard any soldier dislike it.
 69663   LUCIO. I believe thee; for I think thou never wast where grace was
 69664     said.
 69665   SECOND GENTLEMAN. No? A dozen times at least.
 69666   FIRST GENTLEMAN. What, in metre?
 69667   LUCIO. In any proportion or in any language.
 69668   FIRST GENTLEMAN. I think, or in any religion.
 69669   LUCIO. Ay, why not? Grace is grace, despite of all controversy; as,
 69670     for example, thou thyself art a wicked villain, despite of all
 69671     grace.
 69672   FIRST GENTLEMAN. Well, there went but a pair of shears between us.
 69673   LUCIO. I grant; as there may between the lists and the velvet.
 69674     Thou art the list.
 69675   FIRST GENTLEMAN. And thou the velvet; thou art good velvet; thou'rt
 69676     a three-pil'd piece, I warrant thee. I had as lief be a list of
 69677     an English kersey as be pil'd, as thou art pil'd, for a French
 69678     velvet. Do I speak feelingly now?
 69679   LUCIO. I think thou dost; and, indeed, with most painful feeling of
 69680     thy speech. I will, out of thine own confession, learn to begin
 69681     thy health; but, whilst I live, forget to drink after thee.
 69682   FIRST GENTLEMAN. I think I have done myself wrong, have I not?
 69683   SECOND GENTLEMAN. Yes, that thou hast, whether thou art tainted or
 69684     free.
 69685 
 69686                         Enter MISTRESS OVERDONE
 69687 
 69688   LUCIO. Behold, behold, where Madam Mitigation comes! I have
 69689     purchas'd as many diseases under her roof as come to-
 69690   SECOND GENTLEMAN. To what, I pray?
 69691   FIRST GENTLEMAN. Judge.
 69692   SECOND GENTLEMAN. To three thousand dolours a year.
 69693   FIRST GENTLEMAN. Ay, and more.
 69694   LUCIO. A French crown more.
 69695   FIRST GENTLEMAN. Thou art always figuring diseases in me, but thou
 69696     art full of error; I am sound.
 69697   LUCIO. Nay, not, as one would say, healthy; but so sound as things
 69698     that are hollow: thy bones are hollow; impiety has made a feast
 69699     of thee.
 69700   FIRST GENTLEMAN. How now! which of your hips has the most profound
 69701     sciatica?
 69702   MRS. OVERDONE. Well, well! there's one yonder arrested and carried
 69703     to prison was worth five thousand of you all.
 69704   FIRST GENTLEMAN. Who's that, I pray thee?
 69705   MRS. OVERDONE. Marry, sir, that's Claudio, Signior Claudio.
 69706   FIRST GENTLEMAN. Claudio to prison? 'Tis not so.
 69707   MRS. OVERDONE. Nay, but I know 'tis so: I saw him arrested; saw him
 69708     carried away; and, which is more, within these three days his
 69709     head to be chopp'd off.
 69710   LUCIO. But, after all this fooling, I would not have it so. Art
 69711     thou sure of this?
 69712   MRS. OVERDONE. I am too sure of it; and it is for getting Madam
 69713     Julietta with child.
 69714   LUCIO. Believe me, this may be; he promis'd to meet me two hours
 69715     since, and he was ever precise in promise-keeping.
 69716   SECOND GENTLEMAN. Besides, you know, it draws something near to the
 69717     speech we had to such a purpose.
 69718   FIRST GENTLEMAN. But most of all agreeing with the proclamation.
 69719   LUCIO. Away; let's go learn the truth of it.
 69720                                       Exeunt Lucio and GENTLEMEN
 69721   MRS. OVERDONE. Thus, what with the war, what with the sweat, what
 69722     with the gallows, and what with poverty, I am custom-shrunk.
 69723 
 69724                                Enter POMPEY
 69725 
 69726     How now! what's the news with you?
 69727   POMPEY. Yonder man is carried to prison.
 69728   MRS. OVERDONE. Well, what has he done?
 69729   POMPEY. A woman.
 69730   MRS. OVERDONE. But what's his offence?
 69731   POMPEY. Groping for trouts in a peculiar river.
 69732   MRS. OVERDONE. What! is there a maid with child by him?
 69733   POMPEY. No; but there's a woman with maid by him. You have not
 69734    heard of the proclamation, have you?
 69735   MRS. OVERDONE. What proclamation, man?
 69736   POMPEY. All houses in the suburbs of Vienna must be pluck'd down.
 69737   MRS. OVERDONE. And what shall become of those in the city?
 69738   POMPEY. They shall stand for seed; they had gone down too, but that
 69739     a wise burgher put in for them.
 69740   MRS. OVERDONE. But shall all our houses of resort in the suburbs be
 69741     pull'd down?
 69742   POMPEY. To the ground, mistress.
 69743   MRS. OVERDONE. Why, here's a change indeed in the commonwealth!
 69744     What shall become of me?
 69745   POMPEY. Come, fear not you: good counsellors lack no clients.
 69746     Though you change your place you need not change your trade; I'll
 69747     be your tapster still. Courage, there will be pity taken on you;
 69748     you that have worn your eyes almost out in the service, you will
 69749     be considered.
 69750   MRS. OVERDONE. What's to do here, Thomas Tapster? Let's withdraw.
 69751   POMPEY. Here comes Signior Claudio, led by the provost to prison;
 69752     and there's Madam Juliet.                             Exeunt
 69753 
 69754             Enter PROVOST, CLAUDIO, JULIET, and OFFICERS;
 69755                             LUCIO following
 69756 
 69757   CLAUDIO. Fellow, why dost thou show me thus to th' world?
 69758     Bear me to prison, where I am committed.
 69759   PROVOST. I do it not in evil disposition,
 69760     But from Lord Angelo by special charge.
 69761   CLAUDIO. Thus can the demigod Authority
 69762     Make us pay down for our offence by weight
 69763     The words of heaven: on whom it will, it will;
 69764     On whom it will not, so; yet still 'tis just.
 69765   LUCIO. Why, how now, Claudio, whence comes this restraint?
 69766   CLAUDIO. From too much liberty, my Lucio, liberty;
 69767     As surfeit is the father of much fast,
 69768     So every scope by the immoderate use
 69769     Turns to restraint. Our natures do pursue,
 69770     Like rats that ravin down their proper bane,
 69771     A thirsty evil; and when we drink we die.
 69772   LUCIO. If I could speak so wisely under an arrest, I would send for
 69773     certain of my creditors; and yet, to say the truth, I had as lief
 69774     have the foppery of freedom as the morality of imprisonment.
 69775     What's thy offence, Claudio?
 69776   CLAUDIO. What but to speak of would offend again.
 69777   LUCIO. What, is't murder?
 69778   CLAUDIO. No.
 69779   LUCIO. Lechery?
 69780   CLAUDIO. Call it so.
 69781   PROVOST. Away, sir; you must go.
 69782   CLAUDIO. One word, good friend. Lucio, a word with you.
 69783   LUCIO. A hundred, if they'll do you any good. Is lechery so look'd
 69784     after?
 69785   CLAUDIO. Thus stands it with me: upon a true contract
 69786     I got possession of Julietta's bed.
 69787     You know the lady; she is fast my wife,
 69788     Save that we do the denunciation lack
 69789     Of outward order; this we came not to,
 69790     Only for propagation of a dow'r
 69791     Remaining in the coffer of her friends.
 69792     From whom we thought it meet to hide our love
 69793     Till time had made them for us. But it chances
 69794     The stealth of our most mutual entertainment,
 69795     With character too gross, is writ on Juliet.
 69796   LUCIO. With child, perhaps?
 69797   CLAUDIO. Unhappily, even so.
 69798     And the new deputy now for the Duke-
 69799     Whether it be the fault and glimpse of newness,
 69800     Or whether that the body public be
 69801     A horse whereon the governor doth ride,
 69802     Who, newly in the seat, that it may know
 69803     He can command, lets it straight feel the spur;
 69804     Whether the tyranny be in his place,
 69805     Or in his eminence that fills it up,
 69806     I stagger in. But this new governor
 69807     Awakes me all the enrolled penalties
 69808     Which have, like unscour'd armour, hung by th' wall
 69809     So long that nineteen zodiacs have gone round
 69810     And none of them been worn; and, for a name,
 69811     Now puts the drowsy and neglected act
 69812     Freshly on me. 'Tis surely for a name.
 69813   LUCIO. I warrant it is; and thy head stands so tickle on thy
 69814     shoulders that a milkmaid, if she be in love, may sigh it off.
 69815     Send after the Duke, and appeal to him.
 69816   CLAUDIO. I have done so, but he's not to be found.
 69817     I prithee, Lucio, do me this kind service:
 69818     This day my sister should the cloister enter,
 69819     And there receive her approbation;
 69820     Acquaint her with the danger of my state;
 69821     Implore her, in my voice, that she make friends
 69822     To the strict deputy; bid herself assay him.
 69823     I have great hope in that; for in her youth
 69824     There is a prone and speechless dialect
 69825     Such as move men; beside, she hath prosperous art
 69826     When she will play with reason and discourse,
 69827     And well she can persuade.
 69828   LUCIO. I pray she may; as well for the encouragement of the like,
 69829     which else would stand under grievous imposition, as for the
 69830     enjoying of thy life, who I would be sorry should be thus
 69831     foolishly lost at a game of tick-tack. I'll to her.
 69832   CLAUDIO. I thank you, good friend Lucio.
 69833   LUCIO. Within two hours.
 69834   CLAUDIO. Come, officer, away.                           Exeunt
 69835 
 69836 
 69837 
 69838 
 69839 SCENE III.
 69840 A monastery
 69841 
 69842 Enter DUKE and FRIAR THOMAS
 69843 
 69844   DUKE. No, holy father; throw away that thought;
 69845     Believe not that the dribbling dart of love
 69846     Can pierce a complete bosom. Why I desire thee
 69847     To give me secret harbour hath a purpose
 69848     More grave and wrinkled than the aims and ends
 69849     Of burning youth.
 69850   FRIAR. May your Grace speak of it?
 69851   DUKE. My holy sir, none better knows than you
 69852     How I have ever lov'd the life removed,
 69853     And held in idle price to haunt assemblies
 69854     Where youth, and cost, a witless bravery keeps.
 69855     I have deliver'd to Lord Angelo,
 69856     A man of stricture and firm abstinence,
 69857     My absolute power and place here in Vienna,
 69858     And he supposes me travell'd to Poland;
 69859     For so I have strew'd it in the common ear,
 69860     And so it is received. Now, pious sir,
 69861     You will demand of me why I do this.
 69862   FRIAR. Gladly, my lord.
 69863   DUKE. We have strict statutes and most biting laws,
 69864     The needful bits and curbs to headstrong steeds,
 69865     Which for this fourteen years we have let slip;
 69866     Even like an o'ergrown lion in a cave,
 69867     That goes not out to prey. Now, as fond fathers,
 69868     Having bound up the threat'ning twigs of birch,
 69869     Only to stick it in their children's sight
 69870     For terror, not to use, in time the rod
 69871     Becomes more mock'd than fear'd; so our decrees,
 69872     Dead to infliction, to themselves are dead;
 69873     And liberty plucks justice by the nose;
 69874     The baby beats the nurse, and quite athwart
 69875     Goes all decorum.
 69876   FRIAR. It rested in your Grace
 69877     To unloose this tied-up justice when you pleas'd;
 69878     And it in you more dreadful would have seem'd
 69879     Than in Lord Angelo.
 69880   DUKE. I do fear, too dreadful.
 69881     Sith 'twas my fault to give the people scope,
 69882     'Twould be my tyranny to strike and gall them
 69883     For what I bid them do; for we bid this be done,
 69884     When evil deeds have their permissive pass
 69885     And not the punishment. Therefore, indeed, my father,
 69886     I have on Angelo impos'd the office;
 69887     Who may, in th' ambush of my name, strike home,
 69888     And yet my nature never in the fight
 69889     To do in slander. And to behold his sway,
 69890     I will, as 'twere a brother of your order,
 69891     Visit both prince and people. Therefore, I prithee,
 69892     Supply me with the habit, and instruct me
 69893     How I may formally in person bear me
 69894     Like a true friar. Moe reasons for this action
 69895     At our more leisure shall I render you.
 69896     Only, this one: Lord Angelo is precise;
 69897     Stands at a guard with envy; scarce confesses
 69898     That his blood flows, or that his appetite
 69899     Is more to bread than stone. Hence shall we see,
 69900     If power change purpose, what our seemers be.         Exeunt
 69901 
 69902 
 69903 
 69904 
 69905 SCENE IV.
 69906 A nunnery
 69907 
 69908 Enter ISABELLA and FRANCISCA
 69909 
 69910   ISABELLA. And have you nuns no farther privileges?
 69911   FRANCISCA. Are not these large enough?
 69912   ISABELLA. Yes, truly; I speak not as desiring more,
 69913     But rather wishing a more strict restraint
 69914     Upon the sisterhood, the votarists of Saint Clare.
 69915   LUCIO. [ Within] Ho! Peace be in this place!
 69916   ISABELLA. Who's that which calls?
 69917   FRANCISCA. It is a man's voice. Gentle Isabella,
 69918     Turn you the key, and know his business of him:
 69919     You may, I may not; you are yet unsworn;
 69920     When you have vow'd, you must not speak with men
 69921     But in the presence of the prioress;
 69922     Then, if you speak, you must not show your face,
 69923     Or, if you show your face, you must not speak.
 69924     He calls again; I pray you answer him.        Exit FRANCISCA
 69925   ISABELLA. Peace and prosperity! Who is't that calls?
 69926 
 69927                            Enter LUCIO
 69928 
 69929   LUCIO. Hail, virgin, if you be, as those cheek-roses
 69930     Proclaim you are no less. Can you so stead me
 69931     As bring me to the sight of Isabella,
 69932     A novice of this place, and the fair sister
 69933     To her unhappy brother Claudio?
 69934   ISABELLA. Why her 'unhappy brother'? Let me ask
 69935     The rather, for I now must make you know
 69936     I am that Isabella, and his sister.
 69937   LUCIO. Gentle and fair, your brother kindly greets you.
 69938     Not to be weary with you, he's in prison.
 69939   ISABELLA. Woe me! For what?
 69940   LUCIO. For that which, if myself might be his judge,
 69941     He should receive his punishment in thanks:
 69942     He hath got his friend with child.
 69943   ISABELLA. Sir, make me not your story.
 69944   LUCIO. It is true.
 69945     I would not- though 'tis my familiar sin
 69946     With maids to seem the lapwing, and to jest,
 69947     Tongue far from heart- play with all virgins so:
 69948     I hold you as a thing enskied and sainted,
 69949     By your renouncement an immortal spirit,
 69950     And to be talk'd with in sincerity,
 69951     As with a saint.
 69952   ISABELLA. You do blaspheme the good in mocking me.
 69953   LUCIO. Do not believe it. Fewness and truth, 'tis thus:
 69954     Your brother and his lover have embrac'd.
 69955     As those that feed grow full, as blossoming time
 69956     That from the seedness the bare fallow brings
 69957     To teeming foison, even so her plenteous womb
 69958     Expresseth his full tilth and husbandry.
 69959   ISABELLA. Some one with child by him? My cousin Juliet?
 69960   LUCIO. Is she your cousin?
 69961   ISABELLA. Adoptedly, as school-maids change their names
 69962     By vain though apt affection.
 69963   LUCIO. She it is.
 69964   ISABELLA. O, let him marry her!
 69965   LUCIO. This is the point.
 69966     The Duke is very strangely gone from hence;
 69967     Bore many gentlemen, myself being one,
 69968     In hand, and hope of action; but we do learn,
 69969     By those that know the very nerves of state,
 69970     His givings-out were of an infinite distance
 69971     From his true-meant design. Upon his place,
 69972     And with full line of his authority,
 69973     Governs Lord Angelo, a man whose blood
 69974     Is very snow-broth, one who never feels
 69975     The wanton stings and motions of the sense,
 69976     But doth rebate and blunt his natural edge
 69977     With profits of the mind, study and fast.
 69978     He- to give fear to use and liberty,
 69979     Which have for long run by the hideous law,
 69980     As mice by lions- hath pick'd out an act
 69981     Under whose heavy sense your brother's life
 69982     Falls into forfeit; he arrests him on it,
 69983     And follows close the rigour of the statute
 69984     To make him an example. All hope is gone,
 69985     Unless you have the grace by your fair prayer
 69986     To soften Angelo. And that's my pith of business
 69987     'Twixt you and your poor brother.
 69988   ISABELLA. Doth he so seek his life?
 69989   LUCIO. Has censur'd him
 69990     Already, and, as I hear, the Provost hath
 69991     A warrant for his execution.
 69992   ISABELLA. Alas! what poor ability's in me
 69993     To do him good?
 69994   LUCIO. Assay the pow'r you have.
 69995   ISABELLA. My power, alas, I doubt!
 69996   LUCIO. Our doubts are traitors,
 69997     And make us lose the good we oft might win
 69998     By fearing to attempt. Go to Lord Angelo,
 69999     And let him learn to know, when maidens sue,
 70000     Men give like gods; but when they weep and kneel,
 70001     All their petitions are as freely theirs
 70002     As they themselves would owe them.
 70003   ISABELLA. I'll see what I can do.
 70004   LUCIO. But speedily.
 70005   ISABELLA. I will about it straight;
 70006     No longer staying but to give the Mother
 70007     Notice of my affair. I humbly thank you.
 70008     Commend me to my brother; soon at night
 70009     I'll send him certain word of my success.
 70010   LUCIO. I take my leave of you.
 70011   ISABELLA. Good sir, adieu.                              Exeunt
 70012 
 70013 
 70014 
 70015 
 70016 <<THIS ELECTRONIC VERSION OF THE COMPLETE WORKS OF WILLIAM
 70017 SHAKESPEARE IS COPYRIGHT 1990-1993 BY WORLD LIBRARY, INC., AND IS
 70018 PROVIDED BY PROJECT GUTENBERG ETEXT OF ILLINOIS BENEDICTINE COLLEGE
 70019 WITH PERMISSION.  ELECTRONIC AND MACHINE READABLE COPIES MAY BE
 70020 DISTRIBUTED SO LONG AS SUCH COPIES (1) ARE FOR YOUR OR OTHERS
 70021 PERSONAL USE ONLY, AND (2) ARE NOT DISTRIBUTED OR USED
 70022 COMMERCIALLY.  PROHIBITED COMMERCIAL DISTRIBUTION INCLUDES BY ANY
 70023 SERVICE THAT CHARGES FOR DOWNLOAD TIME OR FOR MEMBERSHIP.>>
 70024 
 70025 
 70026 
 70027 ACT II. Scene I.
 70028 A hall in ANGELO'S house
 70029 
 70030 Enter ANGELO, ESCALUS, a JUSTICE, PROVOST, OFFICERS, and other ATTENDANTS
 70031 
 70032   ANGELO. We must not make a scarecrow of the law,
 70033     Setting it up to fear the birds of prey,
 70034     And let it keep one shape till custom make it
 70035     Their perch, and not their terror.
 70036   ESCALUS. Ay, but yet
 70037     Let us be keen, and rather cut a little
 70038     Than fall and bruise to death. Alas! this gentleman,
 70039     Whom I would save, had a most noble father.
 70040     Let but your honour know,
 70041     Whom I believe to be most strait in virtue,
 70042     That, in the working of your own affections,
 70043     Had time coher'd with place, or place with wishing,
 70044     Or that the resolute acting of our blood
 70045     Could have attain'd th' effect of your own purpose
 70046     Whether you had not sometime in your life
 70047     Err'd in this point which now you censure him,
 70048     And pull'd the law upon you.
 70049   ANGELO. 'Tis one thing to be tempted, Escalus,
 70050     Another thing to fall. I not deny
 70051     The jury, passing on the prisoner's life,
 70052     May in the sworn twelve have a thief or two
 70053     Guiltier than him they try. What's open made to justice,
 70054     That justice seizes. What knows the laws
 70055     That thieves do pass on thieves? 'Tis very pregnant,
 70056     The jewel that we find, we stoop and take't,
 70057     Because we see it; but what we do not see
 70058     We tread upon, and never think of it.
 70059     You may not so extenuate his offence
 70060     For I have had such faults; but rather tell me,
 70061     When I, that censure him, do so offend,
 70062     Let mine own judgment pattern out my death,
 70063     And nothing come in partial. Sir, he must die.
 70064   ESCALUS. Be it as your wisdom will.
 70065   ANGELO. Where is the Provost?
 70066   PROVOST. Here, if it like your honour.
 70067   ANGELO. See that Claudio
 70068     Be executed by nine to-morrow morning;
 70069     Bring him his confessor; let him be prepar'd;
 70070     For that's the utmost of his pilgrimage.        Exit PROVOST
 70071   ESCALUS. [Aside] Well, heaven forgive him! and forgive us all!
 70072     Some rise by sin, and some by virtue fall;
 70073     Some run from breaks of ice, and answer none,
 70074     And some condemned for a fault alone.
 70075 
 70076          Enter ELBOW and OFFICERS with FROTH and POMPEY
 70077 
 70078   ELBOW. Come, bring them away; if these be good people in a
 70079     commonweal that do nothing but use their abuses in common houses,
 70080     I know no law; bring them away.
 70081   ANGELO. How now, sir! What's your name, and what's the matter?
 70082   ELBOW. If it please your honour, I am the poor Duke's constable,
 70083     and my name is Elbow; I do lean upon justice, sir, and do bring
 70084     in here before your good honour two notorious benefactors.
 70085   ANGELO. Benefactors! Well- what benefactors are they? Are they not
 70086     malefactors?
 70087   ELBOW. If it please your honour, I know not well what they are; but
 70088     precise villains they are, that I am sure of, and void of all
 70089     profanation in the world that good Christians ought to have.
 70090   ESCALUS. This comes off well; here's a wise officer.
 70091   ANGELO. Go to; what quality are they of? Elbow is your name? Why
 70092     dost thou not speak, Elbow?
 70093   POMPEY. He cannot, sir; he's out at elbow.
 70094   ANGELO. What are you, sir?
 70095   ELBOW. He, sir? A tapster, sir; parcel-bawd; one that serves a bad
 70096     woman; whose house, sir, was, as they say, pluck'd down in the
 70097     suburbs; and now she professes a hot-house, which, I think, is a
 70098     very ill house too.
 70099   ESCALUS. How know you that?
 70100   ELBOW. My Wife, sir, whom I detest before heaven and your honour-
 70101   ESCALUS. How! thy wife!
 70102   ELBOW. Ay, sir; whom I thank heaven, is an honest woman-
 70103   ESCALUS. Dost thou detest her therefore?
 70104   ELBOW. I say, sir, I will detest myself also, as well as she, that
 70105     this house, if it be not a bawd's house, it is pity of her life,
 70106     for it is a naughty house.
 70107   ESCALUS. How dost thou know that, constable?
 70108   ELBOW. Marry, sir, by my wife; who, if she had been a woman
 70109     cardinally given, might have been accus'd in fornication,
 70110     adultery, and all uncleanliness there.
 70111   ESCALUS. By the woman's means?
 70112   ELBOW. Ay, sir, by Mistress Overdone's means; but as she spit in
 70113     his face, so she defied him.
 70114   POMPEY. Sir, if it please your honour, this is not so.
 70115   ELBOW. Prove it before these varlets here, thou honourable man,
 70116     prove it.
 70117   ESCALUS. Do you hear how he misplaces?
 70118   POMPEY. Sir, she came in great with child; and longing, saving your
 70119     honour's reverence, for stew'd prunes. Sir, we had but two in the
 70120     house, which at that very distant time stood, as it were, in a
 70121     fruit dish, a dish of some three pence; your honours have seen
 70122     such dishes; they are not China dishes, but very good dishes.
 70123   ESCALUS. Go to, go to; no matter for the dish, sir.
 70124   POMPEY. No, indeed, sir, not of a pin; you are therein in the
 70125     right; but to the point. As I say, this Mistress Elbow, being, as
 70126     I say, with child, and being great-bellied, and longing, as I
 70127     said, for prunes; and having but two in the dish, as I said,
 70128     Master Froth here, this very man, having eaten the rest, as I
 70129     said, and, as I say, paying for them very honestly; for, as you
 70130     know, Master Froth, I could not give you three pence again-
 70131   FROTH. No, indeed.
 70132   POMPEY. Very well; you being then, if you be rememb'red, cracking
 70133     the stones of the foresaid prunes-
 70134   FROTH. Ay, so I did indeed.
 70135   POMPEY. Why, very well; I telling you then, if you be rememb'red,
 70136     that such a one and such a one were past cure of the thing you
 70137     wot of, unless they kept very good diet, as I told you-
 70138   FROTH. All this is true.
 70139   POMPEY. Why, very well then-
 70140   ESCALUS. Come, you are a tedious fool. To the purpose: what was
 70141     done to Elbow's wife that he hath cause to complain of? Come me
 70142     to what was done to her.
 70143   POMPEY. Sir, your honour cannot come to that yet.
 70144   ESCALUS. No, sir, nor I mean it not.
 70145   POMPEY. Sir, but you shall come to it, by your honour's leave. And,
 70146     I beseech you, look into Master Froth here, sir, a man of
 70147     fourscore pound a year; whose father died at Hallowmas- was't not
 70148     at Hallowmas, Master Froth?
 70149   FROTH. All-hallond eve.
 70150   POMPEY. Why, very well; I hope here be truths. He, sir, sitting, as
 70151     I say, in a lower chair, sir; 'twas in the Bunch of Grapes,
 70152     where, indeed, you have a delight to sit, have you not?
 70153   FROTH. I have so; because it is an open room, and good for winter.
 70154   POMPEY. Why, very well then; I hope here be truths.
 70155   ANGELO. This will last out a night in Russia,
 70156     When nights are longest there; I'll take my leave,
 70157     And leave you to the hearing of the cause,
 70158     Hoping you'll find good cause to whip them all.
 70159   ESCALUS. I think no less. Good morrow to your lordship.
 70160     [Exit ANGELO] Now, sir, come on; what was done to Elbow's wife,
 70161     once more?
 70162   POMPEY. Once?- sir. There was nothing done to her once.
 70163   ELBOW. I beseech you, sir, ask him what this man did to my wife.
 70164   POMPEY. I beseech your honour, ask me.
 70165   ESCALUS. Well, sir, what did this gentleman to her?
 70166   POMPEY. I beseech you, sir, look in this gentleman's face. Good
 70167     Master Froth, look upon his honour; 'tis for a good purpose. Doth
 70168     your honour mark his face?
 70169   ESCALUS. Ay, sir, very well.
 70170   POMPEY. Nay, I beseech you, mark it well.
 70171   ESCALUS. Well, I do so.
 70172   POMPEY. Doth your honour see any harm in his face?
 70173   ESCALUS. Why, no.
 70174   POMPEY. I'll be suppos'd upon a book his face is the worst thing
 70175     about him. Good then; if his face be the worst thing about him,
 70176     how could Master Froth do the constable's wife any harm? I would
 70177     know that of your honour.
 70178   ESCALUS. He's in the right, constable; what say you to it?
 70179   ELBOW. First, an it like you, the house is a respected house; next,
 70180     this is a respected fellow; and his mistress is a respected
 70181     woman.
 70182   POMPEY. By this hand, sir, his wife is a more respected person than
 70183     any of us all.
 70184   ELBOW. Varlet, thou liest; thou liest, wicket varlet; the time is
 70185     yet to come that she was ever respected with man, woman, or
 70186     child.
 70187   POMPEY. Sir, she was respected with him before he married with her.
 70188   ESCALUS. Which is the wiser here, Justice or Iniquity? Is this
 70189     true?
 70190   ELBOW. O thou caitiff! O thou varlet! O thou wicked Hannibal! I
 70191     respected with her before I was married to her! If ever I was
 70192     respected with her, or she with me, let not your worship think me
 70193     the poor Duke's officer. Prove this, thou wicked Hannibal, or
 70194     I'll have mine action of batt'ry on thee.
 70195   ESCALUS. If he took you a box o' th' ear, you might have your
 70196     action of slander too.
 70197   ELBOW. Marry, I thank your good worship for it. What is't your
 70198     worship's pleasure I shall do with this wicked caitiff?
 70199   ESCALUS. Truly, officer, because he hath some offences in him that
 70200     thou wouldst discover if thou couldst, let him continue in his
 70201     courses till thou know'st what they are.
 70202   ELBOW. Marry, I thank your worship for it. Thou seest, thou wicked
 70203     varlet, now, what's come upon thee: thou art to continue now,
 70204     thou varlet; thou art to continue.
 70205   ESCALUS. Where were you born, friend?
 70206   FROTH. Here in Vienna, sir.
 70207   ESCALUS. Are you of fourscore pounds a year?
 70208   FROTH. Yes, an't please you, sir.
 70209   ESCALUS. So. What trade are you of, sir?
 70210   POMPEY. A tapster, a poor widow's tapster.
 70211   ESCALUS. Your mistress' name?
 70212   POMPEY. Mistress Overdone.
 70213   ESCALUS. Hath she had any more than one husband?
 70214   POMPEY. Nine, sir; Overdone by the last.
 70215   ESCALUS. Nine! Come hither to me, Master Froth. Master Froth, I
 70216     would not have you acquainted with tapsters: they will draw you,
 70217     Master Froth, and you will hang them. Get you gone, and let me
 70218     hear no more of you.
 70219   FROTH. I thank your worship. For mine own part, I never come into
 70220     any room in a taphouse but I am drawn in.
 70221   ESCALUS. Well, no more of it, Master Froth; farewell. [Exit FROTH]
 70222     Come you hither to me, Master Tapster; what's your name, Master
 70223     Tapster?
 70224   POMPEY. Pompey.
 70225   ESCALUS. What else?
 70226   POMPEY. Bum, sir.
 70227   ESCALUS. Troth, and your bum is the greatest thing about you; so
 70228     that, in the beastliest sense, you are Pompey the Great. Pompey,
 70229     you are partly a bawd, Pompey, howsoever you colour it in being a
 70230     tapster. Are you not? Come, tell me true; it shall be the better
 70231     for you.
 70232   POMPEY. Truly, sir, I am a poor fellow that would live.
 70233   ESCALUS. How would you live, Pompey- by being a bawd? What do you
 70234     think of the trade, Pompey? Is it a lawful trade?
 70235   POMPEY. If the law would allow it, sir.
 70236   ESCALUS. But the law will not allow it, Pompey; nor it shall not be
 70237     allowed in Vienna.
 70238   POMPEY. Does your worship mean to geld and splay all the youth of
 70239     the city?
 70240   ESCALUS. No, Pompey.
 70241   POMPEY. Truly, sir, in my poor opinion, they will to't then. If
 70242     your worship will take order for the drabs and the knaves, you
 70243     need not to fear the bawds.
 70244   ESCALUS. There is pretty orders beginning, I can tell you: but it
 70245     is but heading and hanging.
 70246   POMPEY. If you head and hang all that offend that way but for ten
 70247     year together, you'll be glad to give out a commission for more
 70248     heads; if this law hold in Vienna ten year, I'll rent the fairest
 70249     house in it, after threepence a bay. If you live to see this come
 70250     to pass, say Pompey told you so.
 70251   ESCALUS. Thank you, good Pompey; and, in requital of your prophecy,
 70252     hark you: I advise you, let me not find you before me again upon
 70253     any complaint whatsoever- no, not for dwelling where you do; if I
 70254     do, Pompey, I shall beat you to your tent, and prove a shrewd
 70255     Caesar to you; in plain dealing, Pompey, I shall have you whipt.
 70256     So for this time, Pompey, fare you well.
 70257   POMPEY. I thank your worship for your good counsel; [Aside] but I
 70258     shall follow it as the flesh and fortune shall better determine.
 70259     Whip me? No, no; let carman whip his jade;
 70260     The valiant heart's not whipt out of his trade.         Exit
 70261   ESCALUS. Come hither to me, Master Elbow; come hither, Master
 70262     Constable. How long have you been in this place of constable?
 70263   ELBOW. Seven year and a half, sir.
 70264   ESCALUS. I thought, by the readiness in the office, you had
 70265     continued in it some time. You say seven years together?
 70266   ELBOW. And a half, sir.
 70267   ESCALUS. Alas, it hath been great pains to you! They do you wrong
 70268     to put you so oft upon't. Are there not men in your ward
 70269     sufficient to serve it?
 70270   ELBOW. Faith, sir, few of any wit in such matters; as they are
 70271     chosen, they are glad to choose me for them; I do it for some
 70272     piece of money, and go through with all.
 70273   ESCALUS. Look you, bring me in the names of some six or seven, the
 70274     most sufficient of your parish.
 70275   ELBOW. To your worship's house, sir?
 70276   ESCALUS. To my house. Fare you well.              [Exit ELBOW]
 70277     What's o'clock, think you?
 70278   JUSTICE. Eleven, sir.
 70279   ESCALUS. I pray you home to dinner with me.
 70280   JUSTICE. I humbly thank you.
 70281   ESCALUS. It grieves me for the death of Claudio;
 70282     But there's no remedy.
 70283   JUSTICE. Lord Angelo is severe.
 70284   ESCALUS. It is but needful:
 70285     Mercy is not itself that oft looks so;
 70286     Pardon is still the nurse of second woe.
 70287     But yet, poor Claudio! There is no remedy.
 70288     Come, sir.                                            Exeunt
 70289 
 70290 
 70291 
 70292 
 70293 SCENE II.
 70294 Another room in ANGELO'S house
 70295 
 70296 Enter PROVOST and a SERVANT
 70297 
 70298   SERVANT. He's hearing of a cause; he will come straight.
 70299     I'll tell him of you.
 70300   PROVOST. Pray you do. [Exit SERVANT] I'll know
 70301     His pleasure; may be he will relent. Alas,
 70302     He hath but as offended in a dream!
 70303     All sects, all ages, smack of this vice; and he
 70304     To die for 't!
 70305 
 70306                             Enter ANGELO
 70307 
 70308   ANGELO. Now, what's the matter, Provost?
 70309   PROVOST. Is it your will Claudio shall die to-morrow?
 70310   ANGELO. Did not I tell thee yea? Hadst thou not order?
 70311     Why dost thou ask again?
 70312   PROVOST. Lest I might be too rash;
 70313     Under your good correction, I have seen
 70314     When, after execution, judgment hath
 70315     Repented o'er his doom.
 70316   ANGELO. Go to; let that be mine.
 70317     Do you your office, or give up your place,
 70318     And you shall well be spar'd.
 70319   PROVOST. I crave your honour's pardon.
 70320     What shall be done, sir, with the groaning Juliet?
 70321     She's very near her hour.
 70322   ANGELO. Dispose of her
 70323     To some more fitter place, and that with speed.
 70324 
 70325                            Re-enter SERVANT
 70326 
 70327   SERVANT. Here is the sister of the man condemn'd
 70328     Desires access to you.
 70329   ANGELO. Hath he a sister?
 70330   PROVOST. Ay, my good lord; a very virtuous maid,
 70331     And to be shortly of a sisterhood,
 70332     If not already.
 70333   ANGELO. Well, let her be admitted.                Exit SERVANT
 70334     See you the fornicatress be remov'd;
 70335     Let her have needful but not lavish means;
 70336     There shall be order for't.
 70337 
 70338                          Enter Lucio and ISABELLA
 70339 
 70340   PROVOST. [Going] Save your honour!
 70341   ANGELO. Stay a little while. [To ISABELLA] Y'are welcome; what's
 70342     your will?
 70343   ISABELLA. I am a woeful suitor to your honour,
 70344     Please but your honour hear me.
 70345   ANGELO. Well; what's your suit?
 70346   ISABELLA. There is a vice that most I do abhor,
 70347     And most desire should meet the blow of justice;
 70348     For which I would not plead, but that I must;
 70349     For which I must not plead, but that I am
 70350     At war 'twixt will and will not.
 70351   ANGELO. Well; the matter?
 70352   ISABELLA. I have a brother is condemn'd to die;
 70353     I do beseech you, let it be his fault,
 70354     And not my brother.
 70355   PROVOST. [Aside] Heaven give thee moving graces.
 70356   ANGELO. Condemn the fault and not the actor of it!
 70357     Why, every fault's condemn'd ere it be done;
 70358     Mine were the very cipher of a function,
 70359     To fine the faults whose fine stands in record,
 70360     And let go by the actor.
 70361   ISABELLA. O just but severe law!
 70362     I had a brother, then. Heaven keep your honour!
 70363   LUCIO. [To ISABELLA] Give't not o'er so; to him again, entreat him,
 70364     Kneel down before him, hang upon his gown;
 70365     You are too cold: if you should need a pin,
 70366     You could not with more tame a tongue desire it.
 70367     To him, I say.
 70368   ISABELLA. Must he needs die?
 70369   ANGELO. Maiden, no remedy.
 70370   ISABELLA. Yes; I do think that you might pardon him.
 70371     And neither heaven nor man grieve at the mercy.
 70372   ANGELO. I will not do't.
 70373   ISABELLA. But can you, if you would?
 70374   ANGELO. Look, what I will not, that I cannot do.
 70375   ISABELLA. But might you do't, and do the world no wrong,
 70376     If so your heart were touch'd with that remorse
 70377     As mine is to him?
 70378   ANGELO. He's sentenc'd; 'tis too late.
 70379   LUCIO. [To ISABELLA] You are too cold.
 70380   ISABELLA. Too late? Why, no; I, that do speak a word,
 70381     May call it back again. Well, believe this:
 70382     No ceremony that to great ones longs,
 70383     Not the king's crown nor the deputed sword,
 70384     The marshal's truncheon nor the judge's robe,
 70385     Become them with one half so good a grace
 70386     As mercy does.
 70387     If he had been as you, and you as he,
 70388     You would have slipp'd like him; but he, like you,
 70389     Would not have been so stern.
 70390   ANGELO. Pray you be gone.
 70391   ISABELLA. I would to heaven I had your potency,
 70392     And you were Isabel! Should it then be thus?
 70393     No; I would tell what 'twere to be a judge
 70394     And what a prisoner.
 70395   LUCIO. [To ISABELLA] Ay, touch him; there's the vein.
 70396   ANGELO. Your brother is a forfeit of the law,
 70397     And you but waste your words.
 70398   ISABELLA. Alas! Alas!
 70399     Why, all the souls that were were forfeit once;
 70400     And He that might the vantage best have took
 70401     Found out the remedy. How would you be
 70402     If He, which is the top of judgment, should
 70403     But judge you as you are? O, think on that;
 70404     And mercy then will breathe within your lips,
 70405     Like man new made.
 70406   ANGELO. Be you content, fair maid.
 70407     It is the law, not I condemn your brother.
 70408     Were he my kinsman, brother, or my son,
 70409     It should be thus with him. He must die to-morrow.
 70410   ISABELLA. To-morrow! O, that's sudden! Spare him, spare him.
 70411     He's not prepar'd for death. Even for our kitchens
 70412     We kill the fowl of season; shall we serve heaven
 70413     With less respect than we do minister
 70414     To our gross selves? Good, good my lord, bethink you.
 70415     Who is it that hath died for this offence?
 70416     There's many have committed it.
 70417   LUCIO. [Aside] Ay, well said.
 70418   ANGELO. The law hath not been dead, though it hath slept.
 70419     Those many had not dar'd to do that evil
 70420     If the first that did th' edict infringe
 70421     Had answer'd for his deed. Now 'tis awake,
 70422     Takes note of what is done, and, like a prophet,
 70423     Looks in a glass that shows what future evils-
 70424     Either now or by remissness new conceiv'd,
 70425     And so in progress to be hatch'd and born-
 70426     Are now to have no successive degrees,
 70427     But here they live to end.
 70428   ISABELLA. Yet show some pity.
 70429   ANGELO. I show it most of all when I show justice;
 70430     For then I pity those I do not know,
 70431     Which a dismiss'd offence would after gall,
 70432     And do him right that, answering one foul wrong,
 70433     Lives not to act another. Be satisfied;
 70434     Your brother dies to-morrow; be content.
 70435   ISABELLA. So you must be the first that gives this sentence,
 70436     And he that suffers. O, it is excellent
 70437     To have a giant's strength! But it is tyrannous
 70438     To use it like a giant.
 70439   LUCIO. [To ISABELLA] That's well said.
 70440   ISABELLA. Could great men thunder
 70441     As Jove himself does, Jove would never be quiet,
 70442     For every pelting petty officer
 70443     Would use his heaven for thunder,
 70444     Nothing but thunder. Merciful Heaven,
 70445     Thou rather, with thy sharp and sulphurous bolt,
 70446     Splits the unwedgeable and gnarled oak
 70447     Than the soft myrtle. But man, proud man,
 70448     Dress'd in a little brief authority,
 70449     Most ignorant of what he's most assur'd,
 70450     His glassy essence, like an angry ape,
 70451     Plays such fantastic tricks before high heaven
 70452     As makes the angels weep; who, with our speens,
 70453     Would all themselves laugh mortal.
 70454   LUCIO. [To ISABELLA] O, to him, to him, wench! He will relent;
 70455     He's coming; I perceive 't.
 70456   PROVOST. [Aside] Pray heaven she win him.
 70457   ISABELLA. We cannot weigh our brother with ourself.
 70458     Great men may jest with saints: 'tis wit in them;
 70459     But in the less foul profanation.
 70460   LUCIO. [To ISABELLA] Thou'rt i' th' right, girl; more o' that.
 70461   ISABELLA. That in the captain's but a choleric word
 70462     Which in the soldier is flat blasphemy.
 70463   LUCIO. [To ISABELLA] Art avis'd o' that? More on't.
 70464   ANGELO. Why do you put these sayings upon me?
 70465   ISABELLA. Because authority, though it err like others,
 70466     Hath yet a kind of medicine in itself
 70467     That skins the vice o' th' top. Go to your bosom,
 70468     Knock there, and ask your heart what it doth know
 70469     That's like my brother's fault. If it confess
 70470     A natural guiltiness such as is his,
 70471     Let it not sound a thought upon your tongue
 70472     Against my brother's life.
 70473   ANGELO. [Aside] She speaks, and 'tis
 70474     Such sense that my sense breeds with it.- Fare you well.
 70475   ISABELLA. Gentle my lord, turn back.
 70476   ANGELO. I will bethink me. Come again to-morrow.
 70477   ISABELLA. Hark how I'll bribe you; good my lord, turn back.
 70478   ANGELO. How, bribe me?
 70479   ISABELLA. Ay, with such gifts that heaven shall share with you.
 70480   LUCIO. [To ISABELLA) You had marr'd all else.
 70481   ISABELLA. Not with fond sicles of the tested gold,
 70482     Or stones, whose rate are either rich or poor
 70483     As fancy values them; but with true prayers
 70484     That shall be up at heaven and enter there
 70485     Ere sun-rise, prayers from preserved souls,
 70486     From fasting maids, whose minds are dedicate
 70487     To nothing temporal.
 70488   ANGELO. Well; come to me to-morrow.
 70489   LUCIO. [To ISABELLA] Go to; 'tis well; away.
 70490   ISABELLA. Heaven keep your honour safe!
 70491   ANGELO. [Aside] Amen; for I
 70492     Am that way going to temptation
 70493     Where prayers cross.
 70494   ISABELLA. At what hour to-morrow
 70495     Shall I attend your lordship?
 70496   ANGELO. At any time 'fore noon.
 70497   ISABELLA. Save your honour!              Exeunt all but ANGELO
 70498   ANGELO. From thee; even from thy virtue!
 70499     What's this, what's this? Is this her fault or mine?
 70500     The tempter or the tempted, who sins most?
 70501     Ha!
 70502     Not she; nor doth she tempt; but it is I
 70503     That, lying by the violet in the sun,
 70504     Do as the carrion does, not as the flow'r,
 70505     Corrupt with virtuous season. Can it be
 70506     That modesty may more betray our sense
 70507     Than woman's lightness? Having waste ground enough,
 70508     Shall we desire to raze the sanctuary,
 70509     And pitch our evils there? O, fie, fie, fie!
 70510     What dost thou, or what art thou, Angelo?
 70511     Dost thou desire her foully for those things
 70512     That make her good? O, let her brother live!
 70513     Thieves for their robbery have authority
 70514     When judges steal themselves. What, do I love her,
 70515     That I desire to hear her speak again,
 70516     And feast upon her eyes? What is't I dream on?
 70517     O cunning enemy, that, to catch a saint,
 70518     With saints dost bait thy hook! Most dangerous
 70519     Is that temptation that doth goad us on
 70520     To sin in loving virtue. Never could the strumpet,
 70521     With all her double vigour, art and nature,
 70522     Once stir my temper; but this virtuous maid
 70523     Subdues me quite. Ever till now,
 70524     When men were fond, I smil'd and wond'red how.          Exit
 70525 
 70526 
 70527 
 70528 
 70529 SCENE III.
 70530 A prison
 70531 
 70532 Enter, severally, DUKE, disguised as a FRIAR, and PROVOST
 70533 
 70534   DUKE. Hail to you, Provost! so I think you are.
 70535   PROVOST. I am the Provost. What's your will, good friar?
 70536   DUKE. Bound by my charity and my blest order,
 70537     I come to visit the afflicted spirits
 70538     Here in the prison. Do me the common right
 70539     To let me see them, and to make me know
 70540     The nature of their crimes, that I may minister
 70541     To them accordingly.
 70542   PROVOST. I would do more than that, if more were needful.
 70543 
 70544                           Enter JULIET
 70545 
 70546     Look, here comes one; a gentlewoman of mine,
 70547     Who, falling in the flaws of her own youth,
 70548     Hath blister'd her report. She is with child;
 70549     And he that got it, sentenc'd- a young man
 70550     More fit to do another such offence
 70551     Than die for this.
 70552   DUKE. When must he die?
 70553   PROVOST. As I do think, to-morrow.
 70554     [To JULIET] I have provided for you; stay awhile
 70555     And you shall be conducted.
 70556   DUKE. Repent you, fair one, of the sin you carry?
 70557   JULIET. I do; and bear the shame most patiently.
 70558   DUKE. I'll teach you how you shall arraign your conscience,
 70559     And try your penitence, if it be sound
 70560     Or hollowly put on.
 70561   JULIET. I'll gladly learn.
 70562   DUKE. Love you the man that wrong'd you?
 70563   JULIET. Yes, as I love the woman that wrong'd him.
 70564   DUKE. So then, it seems, your most offenceful act
 70565     Was mutually committed.
 70566   JULIET. Mutually.
 70567   DUKE. Then was your sin of heavier kind than his.
 70568   JULIET. I do confess it, and repent it, father.
 70569   DUKE. 'Tis meet so, daughter; but lest you do repent
 70570     As that the sin hath brought you to this shame,
 70571     Which sorrow is always toward ourselves, not heaven,
 70572     Showing we would not spare heaven as we love it,
 70573     But as we stand in fear-
 70574   JULIET. I do repent me as it is an evil,
 70575     And take the shame with joy.
 70576   DUKE. There rest.
 70577     Your partner, as I hear, must die to-morrow,
 70578     And I am going with instruction to him.
 70579     Grace go with you! Benedicite!                          Exit
 70580   JULIET. Must die to-morrow! O, injurious law,
 70581     That respites me a life whose very comfort
 70582     Is still a dying horror!
 70583   PROVOST. 'Tis pity of him.                              Exeunt
 70584 
 70585 
 70586 
 70587 
 70588 SCENE IV.
 70589 ANGELO'S house
 70590 
 70591 Enter ANGELO
 70592 
 70593   ANGELO. When I would pray and think, I think and pray
 70594     To several subjects. Heaven hath my empty words,
 70595     Whilst my invention, hearing not my tongue,
 70596     Anchors on Isabel. Heaven in my mouth,
 70597     As if I did but only chew his name,
 70598     And in my heart the strong and swelling evil
 70599     Of my conception. The state whereon I studied
 70600     Is, like a good thing being often read,
 70601     Grown sere and tedious; yea, my gravity,
 70602     Wherein- let no man hear me- I take pride,
 70603     Could I with boot change for an idle plume
 70604     Which the air beats for vain. O place, O form,
 70605     How often dost thou with thy case, thy habit,
 70606     Wrench awe from fools, and tie the wiser souls
 70607     To thy false seeming! Blood, thou art blood.
 70608     Let's write 'good angel' on the devil's horn;
 70609     'Tis not the devil's crest.
 70610 
 70611                            Enter SERVANT
 70612 
 70613     How now, who's there?
 70614   SERVANT. One Isabel, a sister, desires access to you.
 70615   ANGELO. Teach her the way. [Exit SERVANT] O heavens!
 70616     Why does my blood thus muster to my heart,
 70617     Making both it unable for itself
 70618     And dispossessing all my other parts
 70619     Of necessary fitness?
 70620     So play the foolish throngs with one that swoons;
 70621     Come all to help him, and so stop the air
 70622     By which he should revive; and even so
 70623     The general subject to a well-wish'd king
 70624     Quit their own part, and in obsequious fondness
 70625     Crowd to his presence, where their untaught love
 70626     Must needs appear offence.
 70627 
 70628                             Enter ISABELLA
 70629 
 70630     How now, fair maid?
 70631   ISABELLA. I am come to know your pleasure.
 70632   ANGELO. That you might know it would much better please me
 70633     Than to demand what 'tis. Your brother cannot live.
 70634   ISABELLA. Even so! Heaven keep your honour!
 70635   ANGELO. Yet may he live awhile, and, it may be,
 70636     As long as you or I; yet he must die.
 70637   ISABELLA. Under your sentence?
 70638   ANGELO. Yea.
 70639   ISABELLA. When? I beseech you; that in his reprieve,
 70640     Longer or shorter, he may be so fitted
 70641     That his soul sicken not.
 70642   ANGELO. Ha! Fie, these filthy vices! It were as good
 70643     To pardon him that hath from nature stol'n
 70644     A man already made, as to remit
 70645     Their saucy sweetness that do coin heaven's image
 70646     In stamps that are forbid; 'tis all as easy
 70647     Falsely to take away a life true made
 70648     As to put metal in restrained means
 70649     To make a false one.
 70650   ISABELLA. 'Tis set down so in heaven, but not in earth.
 70651   ANGELO. Say you so? Then I shall pose you quickly.
 70652     Which had you rather- that the most just law
 70653     Now took your brother's life; or, to redeem him,
 70654     Give up your body to such sweet uncleanness
 70655     As she that he hath stain'd?
 70656   ISABELLA. Sir, believe this:
 70657     I had rather give my body than my soul.
 70658   ANGELO. I talk not of your soul; our compell'd sins
 70659     Stand more for number than for accompt.
 70660   ISABELLA. How say you?
 70661   ANGELO. Nay, I'll not warrant that; for I can speak
 70662     Against the thing I say. Answer to this:
 70663     I, now the voice of the recorded law,
 70664     Pronounce a sentence on your brother's life;
 70665     Might there not be a charity in sin
 70666     To save this brother's life?
 70667   ISABELLA. Please you to do't,
 70668     I'll take it as a peril to my soul
 70669     It is no sin at all, but charity.
 70670   ANGELO. Pleas'd you to do't at peril of your soul,
 70671     Were equal poise of sin and charity.
 70672   ISABELLA. That I do beg his life, if it be sin,
 70673     Heaven let me bear it! You granting of my suit,
 70674     If that be sin, I'll make it my morn prayer
 70675     To have it added to the faults of mine,
 70676     And nothing of your answer.
 70677   ANGELO. Nay, but hear me;
 70678     Your sense pursues not mine; either you are ignorant
 70679     Or seem so, craftily; and that's not good.
 70680   ISABELLA. Let me be ignorant, and in nothing good
 70681     But graciously to know I am no better.
 70682   ANGELO. Thus wisdom wishes to appear most bright
 70683     When it doth tax itself; as these black masks
 70684     Proclaim an enshielded beauty ten times louder
 70685     Than beauty could, display'd. But mark me:
 70686     To be received plain, I'll speak more gross-
 70687     Your brother is to die.
 70688   ISABELLA. So.
 70689   ANGELO. And his offence is so, as it appears,
 70690     Accountant to the law upon that pain.
 70691   ISABELLA. True.
 70692   ANGELO. Admit no other way to save his life,
 70693     As I subscribe not that, nor any other,
 70694     But, in the loss of question, that you, his sister,
 70695     Finding yourself desir'd of such a person
 70696     Whose credit with the judge, or own great place,
 70697     Could fetch your brother from the manacles
 70698     Of the all-binding law; and that there were
 70699     No earthly mean to save him but that either
 70700     You must lay down the treasures of your body
 70701     To this supposed, or else to let him suffer-
 70702     What would you do?
 70703   ISABELLA. As much for my poor brother as myself;
 70704     That is, were I under the terms of death,
 70705     Th' impression of keen whips I'd wear as rubies,
 70706     And strip myself to death as to a bed
 70707     That longing have been sick for, ere I'd yield
 70708     My body up to shame.
 70709   ANGELO. Then must your brother die.
 70710   ISABELLA. And 'twere the cheaper way:
 70711     Better it were a brother died at once
 70712     Than that a sister, by redeeming him,
 70713     Should die for ever.
 70714   ANGELO. Were not you, then, as cruel as the sentence
 70715     That you have slander'd so?
 70716   ISABELLA. Ignominy in ransom and free pardon
 70717     Are of two houses: lawful mercy
 70718     Is nothing kin to foul redemption.
 70719   ANGELO. You seem'd of late to make the law a tyrant;
 70720     And rather prov'd the sliding of your brother
 70721     A merriment than a vice.
 70722   ISABELLA. O, pardon me, my lord! It oft falls out,
 70723     To have what we would have, we speak not what we mean:
 70724     I something do excuse the thing I hate
 70725     For his advantage that I dearly love.
 70726   ANGELO. We are all frail.
 70727   ISABELLA. Else let my brother die,
 70728     If not a fedary but only he
 70729     Owe and succeed thy weakness.
 70730   ANGELO. Nay, women are frail too.
 70731   ISABELLA. Ay, as the glasses where they view themselves,
 70732     Which are as easy broke as they make forms.
 70733     Women, help heaven! Men their creation mar
 70734     In profiting by them. Nay, call us ten times frail;
 70735     For we are soft as our complexions are,
 70736     And credulous to false prints.
 70737   ANGELO. I think it well;
 70738     And from this testimony of your own sex,
 70739     Since I suppose we are made to be no stronger
 70740     Than faults may shake our frames, let me be bold.
 70741     I do arrest your words. Be that you are,
 70742     That is, a woman; if you be more, you're none;
 70743     If you be one, as you are well express'd
 70744     By all external warrants, show it now
 70745     By putting on the destin'd livery.
 70746   ISABELLA. I have no tongue but one; gentle, my lord,
 70747     Let me intreat you speak the former language.
 70748   ANGELO. Plainly conceive, I love you.
 70749   ISABELLA. My brother did love Juliet,
 70750     And you tell me that he shall die for't.
 70751   ANGELO. He shall not, Isabel, if you give me love.
 70752   ISABELLA. I know your virtue hath a license in't,
 70753     Which seems a little fouler than it is,
 70754     To pluck on others.
 70755   ANGELO. Believe me, on mine honour,
 70756     My words express my purpose.
 70757   ISABELLA. Ha! little honour to be much believ'd,
 70758     And most pernicious purpose! Seeming, seeming!
 70759     I will proclaim thee, Angelo, look for't.
 70760     Sign me a present pardon for my brother
 70761     Or, with an outstretch'd throat, I'll tell the world aloud
 70762     What man thou art.
 70763   ANGELO. Who will believe thee, Isabel?
 70764     My unsoil'd name, th' austereness of my life,
 70765     My vouch against you, and my place i' th' state,
 70766     Will so your accusation overweigh
 70767     That you shall stifle in your own report,
 70768     And smell of calumny. I have begun,
 70769     And now I give my sensual race the rein:
 70770     Fit thy consent to my sharp appetite;
 70771     Lay by all nicety and prolixious blushes
 70772     That banish what they sue for; redeem thy brother
 70773     By yielding up thy body to my will;
 70774     Or else he must not only die the death,
 70775     But thy unkindness shall his death draw out
 70776     To ling'ring sufferance. Answer me to-morrow,
 70777     Or, by the affection that now guides me most,
 70778     I'll prove a tyrant to him. As for you,
 70779     Say what you can: my false o'erweighs your true.        Exit
 70780   ISABELLA. To whom should I complain? Did I tell this,
 70781     Who would believe me? O perilous mouths
 70782     That bear in them one and the self-same tongue
 70783     Either of condemnation or approof,
 70784     Bidding the law make curtsy to their will;
 70785     Hooking both right and wrong to th' appetite,
 70786     To follow as it draws! I'll to my brother.
 70787     Though he hath fall'n by prompture of the blood,
 70788     Yet hath he in him such a mind of honour
 70789     That, had he twenty heads to tender down
 70790     On twenty bloody blocks, he'd yield them up
 70791     Before his sister should her body stoop
 70792     To such abhorr'd pollution.
 70793     Then, Isabel, live chaste, and, brother, die:
 70794     More than our brother is our chastity.
 70795     I'll tell him yet of Angelo's request,
 70796     And fit his mind to death, for his soul's rest.         Exit
 70797 
 70798 
 70799 
 70800 
 70801 <<THIS ELECTRONIC VERSION OF THE COMPLETE WORKS OF WILLIAM
 70802 SHAKESPEARE IS COPYRIGHT 1990-1993 BY WORLD LIBRARY, INC., AND IS
 70803 PROVIDED BY PROJECT GUTENBERG ETEXT OF ILLINOIS BENEDICTINE COLLEGE
 70804 WITH PERMISSION.  ELECTRONIC AND MACHINE READABLE COPIES MAY BE
 70805 DISTRIBUTED SO LONG AS SUCH COPIES (1) ARE FOR YOUR OR OTHERS
 70806 PERSONAL USE ONLY, AND (2) ARE NOT DISTRIBUTED OR USED
 70807 COMMERCIALLY.  PROHIBITED COMMERCIAL DISTRIBUTION INCLUDES BY ANY
 70808 SERVICE THAT CHARGES FOR DOWNLOAD TIME OR FOR MEMBERSHIP.>>
 70809 
 70810 
 70811 
 70812 ACT III. SCENE I.
 70813 The prison
 70814 
 70815 Enter DUKE, disguised as before, CLAUDIO, and PROVOST
 70816 
 70817   DUKE. So, then you hope of pardon from Lord Angelo?
 70818   CLAUDIO. The miserable have no other medicine
 70819     But only hope:
 70820     I have hope to Eve, and am prepar'd to die.
 70821   DUKE. Be absolute for death; either death or life
 70822     Shall thereby be the sweeter. Reason thus with life.
 70823     If I do lose thee, I do lose a thing
 70824     That none but fools would keep. A breath thou art,
 70825     Servile to all the skyey influences,
 70826     That dost this habitation where thou keep'st
 70827     Hourly afflict. Merely, thou art Death's fool;
 70828     For him thou labour'st by thy flight to shun
 70829     And yet run'st toward him still. Thou art not noble;
 70830     For all th' accommodations that thou bear'st
 70831     Are nurs'd by baseness. Thou 'rt by no means valiant;
 70832     For thou dost fear the soft and tender fork
 70833     Of a poor worm. Thy best of rest is sleep,
 70834     And that thou oft provok'st; yet grossly fear'st
 70835     Thy death, which is no more. Thou art not thyself;
 70836     For thou exists on many a thousand grains
 70837     That issue out of dust. Happy thou art not;
 70838     For what thou hast not, still thou striv'st to get,
 70839     And what thou hast, forget'st. Thou art not certain;
 70840     For thy complexion shifts to strange effects,
 70841     After the moon. If thou art rich, thou'rt poor;
 70842     For, like an ass whose back with ingots bows,
 70843     Thou bear'st thy heavy riches but a journey,
 70844     And Death unloads thee. Friend hast thou none;
 70845     For thine own bowels which do call thee sire,
 70846     The mere effusion of thy proper loins,
 70847     Do curse the gout, serpigo, and the rheum,
 70848     For ending thee no sooner. Thou hast nor youth nor age,
 70849     But, as it were, an after-dinner's sleep,
 70850     Dreaming on both; for all thy blessed youth
 70851     Becomes as aged, and doth beg the alms
 70852     Of palsied eld; and when thou art old and rich,
 70853     Thou hast neither heat, affection, limb, nor beauty,
 70854     To make thy riches pleasant. What's yet in this
 70855     That bears the name of life? Yet in this life
 70856     Lie hid moe thousand deaths; yet death we fear,
 70857     That makes these odds all even.
 70858   CLAUDIO. I humbly thank you.
 70859     To sue to live, I find I seek to die;
 70860     And, seeking death, find life. Let it come on.
 70861   ISABELLA. [Within] What, ho! Peace here; grace and good company!
 70862   PROVOST. Who's there? Come in; the wish deserves a welcome.
 70863   DUKE. Dear sir, ere long I'll visit you again.
 70864   CLAUDIO. Most holy sir, I thank you.
 70865 
 70866                         Enter ISABELLA
 70867 
 70868   ISABELLA. My business is a word or two with Claudio.
 70869   PROVOST. And very welcome. Look, signior, here's your sister.
 70870   DUKE. Provost, a word with you.
 70871   PROVOST. As many as you please.
 70872   DUKE. Bring me to hear them speak, where I may be conceal'd.
 70873                                          Exeunt DUKE and PROVOST
 70874   CLAUDIO. Now, sister, what's the comfort?
 70875   ISABELLA. Why,
 70876     As all comforts are; most good, most good, indeed.
 70877     Lord Angelo, having affairs to heaven,
 70878     Intends you for his swift ambassador,
 70879     Where you shall be an everlasting leiger.
 70880     Therefore, your best appointment make with speed;
 70881     To-morrow you set on.
 70882   CLAUDIO. Is there no remedy?
 70883   ISABELLA. None, but such remedy as, to save a head,
 70884     To cleave a heart in twain.
 70885   CLAUDIO. But is there any?
 70886   ISABELLA. Yes, brother, you may live:
 70887     There is a devilish mercy in the judge,
 70888     If you'll implore it, that will free your life,
 70889     But fetter you till death.
 70890   CLAUDIO. Perpetual durance?
 70891   ISABELLA. Ay, just; perpetual durance, a restraint,
 70892     Though all the world's vastidity you had,
 70893     To a determin'd scope.
 70894   CLAUDIO. But in what nature?
 70895   ISABELLA. In such a one as, you consenting to't,
 70896     Would bark your honour from that trunk you bear,
 70897     And leave you naked.
 70898   CLAUDIO. Let me know the point.
 70899   ISABELLA. O, I do fear thee, Claudio; and I quake,
 70900     Lest thou a feverous life shouldst entertain,
 70901     And six or seven winters more respect
 70902     Than a perpetual honour. Dar'st thou die?
 70903     The sense of death is most in apprehension;
 70904     And the poor beetle that we tread upon
 70905     In corporal sufferance finds a pang as great
 70906     As when a giant dies.
 70907   CLAUDIO. Why give you me this shame?
 70908     Think you I can a resolution fetch
 70909     From flow'ry tenderness? If I must die,
 70910     I will encounter darkness as a bride
 70911     And hug it in mine arms.
 70912   ISABELLA. There spake my brother; there my father's grave
 70913     Did utter forth a voice. Yes, thou must die:
 70914     Thou art too noble to conserve a life
 70915     In base appliances. This outward-sainted deputy,
 70916     Whose settled visage and deliberate word
 70917     Nips youth i' th' head, and follies doth enew
 70918     As falcon doth the fowl, is yet a devil;
 70919     His filth within being cast, he would appear
 70920     A pond as deep as hell.
 70921   CLAUDIO. The precise Angelo!
 70922   ISABELLA. O, 'tis the cunning livery of hell
 70923     The damned'st body to invest and cover
 70924     In precise guards! Dost thou think, Claudio,
 70925     If I would yield him my virginity
 70926     Thou mightst be freed?
 70927   CLAUDIO. O heavens! it cannot be.
 70928   ISABELLA. Yes, he would give't thee, from this rank offence,
 70929     So to offend him still. This night's the time
 70930     That I should do what I abhor to name,
 70931     Or else thou diest to-morrow.
 70932   CLAUDIO. Thou shalt not do't.
 70933   ISABELLA. O, were it but my life!
 70934     I'd throw it down for your deliverance
 70935     As frankly as a pin.
 70936   CLAUDIO. Thanks, dear Isabel.
 70937   ISABELLA. Be ready, Claudio, for your death to-morrow.
 70938   CLAUDIO. Yes. Has he affections in him
 70939     That thus can make him bite the law by th' nose
 70940     When he would force it? Sure it is no sin;
 70941     Or of the deadly seven it is the least.
 70942   ISABELLA. Which is the least?
 70943   CLAUDIO. If it were damnable, he being so wise,
 70944     Why would he for the momentary trick
 70945     Be perdurably fin'd?- O Isabel!
 70946   ISABELLA. What says my brother?
 70947   CLAUDIO. Death is a fearful thing.
 70948   ISABELLA. And shamed life a hateful.
 70949   CLAUDIO. Ay, but to die, and go we know not where;
 70950     To lie in cold obstruction, and to rot;
 70951     This sensible warm motion to become
 70952     A kneaded clod; and the delighted spirit
 70953     To bathe in fiery floods or to reside
 70954     In thrilling region of thick-ribbed ice;
 70955     To be imprison'd in the viewless winds,
 70956     And blown with restless violence round about
 70957     The pendent world; or to be worse than worst
 70958     Of those that lawless and incertain thought
 70959     Imagine howling- 'tis too horrible.
 70960     The weariest and most loathed worldly life
 70961     That age, ache, penury, and imprisonment,
 70962     Can lay on nature is a paradise
 70963     To what we fear of death.
 70964   ISABELLA. Alas, alas!
 70965   CLAUDIO. Sweet sister, let me live.
 70966     What sin you do to save a brother's life,
 70967     Nature dispenses with the deed so far
 70968     That it becomes a virtue.
 70969   ISABELLA. O you beast!
 70970     O faithless coward! O dishonest wretch!
 70971     Wilt thou be made a man out of my vice?
 70972     Is't not a kind of incest to take life
 70973     From thine own sister's shame? What should I think?
 70974     Heaven shield my mother play'd my father fair!
 70975     For such a warped slip of wilderness
 70976     Ne'er issu'd from his blood. Take my defiance;
 70977     Die; perish. Might but my bending down
 70978     Reprieve thee from thy fate, it should proceed.
 70979     I'll pray a thousand prayers for thy death,
 70980     No word to save thee.
 70981   CLAUDIO. Nay, hear me, Isabel.
 70982   ISABELLA. O fie, fie, fie!
 70983     Thy sin's not accidental, but a trade.
 70984     Mercy to thee would prove itself a bawd;
 70985     'Tis best that thou diest quickly.
 70986   CLAUDIO. O, hear me, Isabella.
 70987 
 70988                             Re-enter DUKE
 70989 
 70990   DUKE. Vouchsafe a word, young sister, but one word.
 70991   ISABELLA. What is your will?
 70992   DUKE. Might you dispense with your leisure, I would by and by have
 70993     some speech with you; the satisfaction I would require is
 70994     likewise your own benefit.
 70995   ISABELLA. I have no superfluous leisure; my stay must be stolen out
 70996     of other affairs; but I will attend you awhile.
 70997                                                    [Walks apart]
 70998   DUKE. Son, I have overheard what hath pass'd between you and your
 70999     sister. Angelo had never the purpose to corrupt her; only he hath
 71000     made an assay of her virtue to practise his judgment with the
 71001     disposition of natures. She, having the truth of honour in her,
 71002     hath made him that gracious denial which he is most glad to
 71003     receive. I am confessor to Angelo, and I know this to be true;
 71004     therefore prepare yourself to death. Do not satisfy your
 71005     resolution with hopes that are fallible; to-morrow you must die;
 71006     go to your knees and make ready.
 71007   CLAUDIO. Let me ask my sister pardon. I am so out of love with life
 71008     that I will sue to be rid of it.
 71009   DUKE. Hold you there. Farewell. [Exit CLAUDIO] Provost, a word with
 71010     you.
 71011 
 71012                           Re-enter PROVOST
 71013 
 71014   PROVOST. What's your will, father?
 71015   DUKE. That, now you are come, you will be gone. Leave me a while
 71016     with the maid; my mind promises with my habit no loss shall touch
 71017     her by my company.
 71018   PROVOST. In good time.                            Exit PROVOST
 71019   DUKE. The hand that hath made you fair hath made you good; the
 71020     goodness that is cheap in beauty makes beauty brief in goodness;
 71021     but grace, being the soul of your complexion, shall keep the body
 71022     of it ever fair. The assault that Angelo hath made to you,
 71023     fortune hath convey'd to my understanding; and, but that frailty
 71024     hath examples for his falling, I should wonder at Angelo. How
 71025     will you do to content this substitute, and to save your brother?
 71026   ISABELLA. I am now going to resolve him; I had rather my brother
 71027     die by the law than my son should be unlawfully born. But, O, how
 71028     much is the good Duke deceiv'd in Angelo! If ever he return, and
 71029     I can speak to him, I will open my lips in vain, or discover his
 71030     government.
 71031   DUKE. That shall not be much amiss; yet, as the matter now stands,
 71032     he will avoid your accusation: he made trial of you only.
 71033     Therefore fasten your ear on my advisings; to the love I have in
 71034     doing good a remedy presents itself. I do make myself believe
 71035     that you may most uprighteously do a poor wronged lady a merited
 71036     benefit; redeem your brother from the angry law; do no stain to
 71037     your own gracious person; and much please the absent Duke, if
 71038     peradventure he shall ever return to have hearing of this
 71039     business.
 71040   ISABELLA. Let me hear you speak farther; I have spirit to do
 71041     anything that appears not foul in the truth of my spirit.
 71042   DUKE. Virtue is bold, and goodness never fearful. Have you not
 71043     heard speak of Mariana, the sister of Frederick, the great
 71044     soldier who miscarried at sea?
 71045   ISABELLA. I have heard of the lady, and good words went with her
 71046     name.
 71047   DUKE. She should this Angelo have married; was affianced to her by
 71048     oath, and the nuptial appointed; between which time of the
 71049     contract and limit of the solemnity her brother Frederick was
 71050     wreck'd at sea, having in that perished vessel the dowry of his
 71051     sister. But mark how heavily this befell to the poor gentlewoman:
 71052     there she lost a noble and renowned brother, in his love toward
 71053     her ever most kind and natural; with him the portion and sinew of
 71054     her fortune, her marriage-dowry; with both, her combinate
 71055     husband, this well-seeming Angelo.
 71056   ISABELLA. Can this be so? Did Angelo so leave her?
 71057   DUKE. Left her in her tears, and dried not one of them with his
 71058     comfort; swallowed his vows whole, pretending in her discoveries
 71059     of dishonour; in few, bestow'd her on her own lamentation, which
 71060     she yet wears for his sake; and he, a marble to her tears, is
 71061     washed with them, but relents not.
 71062   ISABELLA. What a merit were it in death to take this poor maid from
 71063     the world! What corruption in this life that it will let this man
 71064     live! But how out of this can she avail?
 71065   DUKE. It is a rupture that you may easily heal; and the cure of it
 71066     not only saves your brother, but keeps you from dishonour in
 71067     doing it.
 71068   ISABELLA. Show me how, good father.
 71069   DUKE. This forenamed maid hath yet in her the continuance of her
 71070     first affection; his unjust unkindness, that in all reason should
 71071     have quenched her love, hath, like an impediment in the current,
 71072     made it more violent and unruly. Go you to Angelo; answer his
 71073     requiring with a plausible obedience; agree with his demands to
 71074     the point; only refer yourself to this advantage: first, that
 71075     your stay with him may not be long; that the time may have all
 71076     shadow and silence in it; and the place answer to convenience.
 71077     This being granted in course- and now follows all: we shall
 71078     advise this wronged maid to stead up your appointment, go in your
 71079     place. If the encounter acknowledge itself hereafter, it may
 71080     compel him to her recompense; and here, by this, is your brother
 71081     saved, your honour untainted, the poor Mariana advantaged, and
 71082     the corrupt deputy scaled. The maid will I frame and make fit for
 71083     his attempt. If you think well to carry this as you may, the
 71084     doubleness of the benefit defends the deceit from reproof. What
 71085     think you of it?
 71086   ISABELLA. The image of it gives me content already; and I trust it
 71087     will grow to a most prosperous perfection.
 71088   DUKE. It lies much in your holding up. Haste you speedily to
 71089     Angelo; if for this night he entreat you to his bed, give him
 71090     promise of satisfaction. I will presently to Saint Luke's; there,
 71091     at the moated grange, resides this dejected Mariana. At that
 71092     place call upon me; and dispatch with Angelo, that it may be
 71093     quickly.
 71094   ISABELLA. I thank you for this comfort. Fare you well, good father.
 71095                                                 Exeunt severally
 71096 
 71097 
 71098 
 71099 
 71100 Scene II.
 71101 The street before the prison
 71102 
 71103 Enter, on one side, DUKE disguised as before; on the other, ELBOW,
 71104 and OFFICERS with POMPEY
 71105 
 71106   ELBOW. Nay, if there be no remedy for it, but that you will needs
 71107     buy and sell men and women like beasts, we shall have all the
 71108     world drink brown and white bastard.
 71109   DUKE. O heavens! what stuff is here?
 71110   POMPEY. 'Twas never merry world since, of two usuries, the merriest
 71111     was put down, and the worser allow'd by order of law a furr'd
 71112     gown to keep him warm; and furr'd with fox on lamb-skins too, to
 71113     signify that craft, being richer than innocency, stands for the
 71114     facing.
 71115   ELBOW. Come your way, sir. Bless you, good father friar.
 71116   DUKE. And you, good brother father. What offence hath this man made
 71117     you, sir?
 71118   ELBOW. Marry, sir, he hath offended the law; and, sir, we take him
 71119     to be a thief too, sir, for we have found upon him, sir, a
 71120     strange picklock, which we have sent to the deputy.
 71121   DUKE. Fie, sirrah, a bawd, a wicked bawd!
 71122     The evil that thou causest to be done,
 71123     That is thy means to live. Do thou but think
 71124     What 'tis to cram a maw or clothe a back
 71125     From such a filthy vice; say to thyself
 71126     'From their abominable and beastly touches
 71127     I drink, I eat, array myself, and live.'
 71128     Canst thou believe thy living is a life,
 71129     So stinkingly depending? Go mend, go mend.
 71130   POMPEY. Indeed, it does stink in some sort, sir; but yet, sir,
 71131     I would prove-
 71132   DUKE. Nay, if the devil have given thee proofs for sin,
 71133     Thou wilt prove his. Take him to prison, officer;
 71134     Correction and instruction must both work
 71135     Ere this rude beast will profit.
 71136   ELBOW. He must before the deputy, sir; he has given him warning.
 71137     The deputy cannot abide a whoremaster; if he be a whoremonger,
 71138     and comes before him, he were as good go a mile on his errand.
 71139   DUKE. That we were all, as some would seem to be,
 71140     From our faults, as his faults from seeming, free.
 71141   ELBOW. His neck will come to your waist- a cord, sir.
 71142 
 71143                           Enter LUCIO
 71144 
 71145   POMPEY. I spy comfort; I cry bail. Here's a gentleman, and a friend
 71146     of mine.
 71147   LUCIO. How now, noble Pompey! What, at the wheels of Caesar? Art
 71148     thou led in triumph? What, is there none of Pygmalion's images,
 71149     newly made woman, to be had now for putting the hand in the
 71150     pocket and extracting it clutch'd? What reply, ha? What say'st
 71151     thou to this tune, matter, and method? Is't not drown'd i' th'
 71152     last rain, ha? What say'st thou, trot? Is the world as it was,
 71153     man? Which is the way? Is it sad, and few words? or how? The
 71154     trick of it?
 71155   DUKE. Still thus, and thus; still worse!
 71156   LUCIO. How doth my dear morsel, thy mistress? Procures she still,
 71157     ha?
 71158   POMPEY. Troth, sir, she hath eaten up all her beef, and she is
 71159     herself in the tub.
 71160   LUCIO. Why, 'tis good; it is the right of it; it must be so; ever
 71161     your fresh whore and your powder'd bawd- an unshunn'd
 71162     consequence; it must be so. Art going to prison, Pompey?
 71163   POMPEY. Yes, faith, sir.
 71164   LUCIO. Why, 'tis not amiss, Pompey. Farewell; go, say I sent thee
 71165     thither. For debt, Pompey- or how?
 71166   ELBOW. For being a bawd, for being a bawd.
 71167   LUCIO. Well, then, imprison him. If imprisonment be the due of a
 71168     bawd, why, 'tis his right. Bawd is he doubtless, and of
 71169     antiquity, too; bawd-born. Farewell, good Pompey. Commend me to
 71170     the prison, Pompey. You will turn good husband now, Pompey; you
 71171     will keep the house.
 71172   POMPEY. I hope, sir, your good worship will be my bail.
 71173   LUCIO. No, indeed, will I not, Pompey; it is not the wear. I will
 71174     pray, Pompey, to increase your bondage. If you take it not
 71175     patiently, why, your mettle is the more. Adieu trusty Pompey.
 71176     Bless you, friar.
 71177   DUKE. And you.
 71178   LUCIO. Does Bridget paint still, Pompey, ha?
 71179   ELBOW. Come your ways, sir; come.
 71180   POMPEY. You will not bail me then, sir?
 71181   LUCIO. Then, Pompey, nor now. What news abroad, friar? what news?
 71182   ELBOW. Come your ways, sir; come.
 71183   LUCIO. Go to kennel, Pompey, go.
 71184 
 71185                                Exeunt ELBOW, POMPEY and OFFICERS
 71186 
 71187     What news, friar, of the Duke?
 71188   DUKE. I know none. Can you tell me of any?
 71189   LUCIO. Some say he is with the Emperor of Russia; other some, he is
 71190     in Rome; but where is he, think you?
 71191   DUKE. I know not where; but wheresoever, I wish him well.
 71192   LUCIO. It was a mad fantastical trick of him to steal from the
 71193     state and usurp the beggary he was never born to. Lord Angelo
 71194     dukes it well in his absence; he puts transgression to't.
 71195   DUKE. He does well in't.
 71196   LUCIO. A little more lenity to lechery would do no harm in him;
 71197     something too crabbed that way, friar.
 71198   DUKE. It is too general a vice, and severity must cure it.
 71199   LUCIO. Yes, in good sooth, the vice is of a great kindred; it is
 71200     well allied; but it is impossible to extirp it quite, friar, till
 71201     eating and drinking be put down. They say this Angelo was not
 71202     made by man and woman after this downright way of creation. Is it
 71203     true, think you?
 71204   DUKE. How should he be made, then?
 71205   LUCIO. Some report a sea-maid spawn'd him; some, that he was begot
 71206     between two stock-fishes. But it is certain that when he makes
 71207     water his urine is congeal'd ice; that I know to be true. And he
 71208     is a motion generative; that's infallible.
 71209   DUKE. You are pleasant, sir, and speak apace.
 71210   LUCIO. Why, what a ruthless thing is this in him, for the rebellion
 71211     of a codpiece to take away the life of a man! Would the Duke that
 71212     is absent have done this? Ere he would have hang'd a man for the
 71213     getting a hundred bastards, he would have paid for the nursing a
 71214     thousand. He had some feeling of the sport; he knew the service,
 71215     and that instructed him to mercy.
 71216   DUKE. I never heard the absent Duke much detected for women; he was
 71217     not inclin'd that way.
 71218   LUCIO. O, sir, you are deceiv'd.
 71219   DUKE. 'Tis not possible.
 71220   LUCIO. Who- not the Duke? Yes, your beggar of fifty; and his use
 71221     was to put a ducat in her clack-dish. The Duke had crotchets in
 71222     him. He would be drunk too; that let me inform you.
 71223   DUKE. You do him wrong, surely.
 71224   LUCIO. Sir, I was an inward of his. A shy fellow was the Duke; and
 71225     I believe I know the cause of his withdrawing.
 71226   DUKE. What, I prithee, might be the cause?
 71227   LUCIO. No, pardon; 'tis a secret must be lock'd within the teeth
 71228     and the lips; but this I can let you understand: the greater file
 71229     of the subject held the Duke to be wise.
 71230   DUKE. Wise? Why, no question but he was.
 71231   LUCIO. A very superficial, ignorant, unweighing fellow.
 71232   DUKE. Either this is envy in you, folly, or mistaking; the very
 71233     stream of his life, and the business he hath helmed, must, upon a
 71234     warranted need, give him a better proclamation. Let him be but
 71235     testimonied in his own bringings-forth, and he shall appear to
 71236     the envious a scholar, a statesman, and a soldier. Therefore you
 71237     speak unskilfully; or, if your knowledge be more, it is much
 71238     dark'ned in your malice.
 71239   LUCIO. Sir, I know him, and I love him.
 71240   DUKE. Love talks with better knowledge, and knowledge with dearer
 71241     love.
 71242   LUCIO. Come, sir, I know what I know.
 71243   DUKE. I can hardly believe that, since you know not what you speak.
 71244     But, if ever the Duke return, as our prayers are he may, let me
 71245     desire you to make your answer before him. If it be honest you
 71246     have spoke, you have courage to maintain it; I am bound to call
 71247     upon you; and I pray you your name?
 71248   LUCIO. Sir, my name is Lucio, well known to the Duke.
 71249   DUKE. He shall know you better, sir, if I may live to report you.
 71250   LUCIO. I fear you not.
 71251   DUKE. O, you hope the Duke will return no more; or you imagine me
 71252     too unhurtful an opposite. But, indeed, I can do you little harm:
 71253     you'll forswear this again.
 71254   LUCIO. I'll be hang'd first. Thou art deceiv'd in me, friar. But no
 71255     more of this. Canst thou tell if Claudio die to-morrow or no?
 71256   DUKE. Why should he die, sir?
 71257   LUCIO. Why? For filling a bottle with a tun-dish. I would the Duke
 71258     we talk of were return'd again. This ungenitur'd agent will
 71259     unpeople the province with continency; sparrows must not build in
 71260     his house-eaves because they are lecherous. The Duke yet would
 71261     have dark deeds darkly answered; he would never bring them to
 71262     light. Would he were return'd! Marry, this Claudio is condemned
 71263     for untrussing. Farewell, good friar; I prithee pray for me. The
 71264     Duke, I say to thee again, would eat mutton on Fridays. He's not
 71265     past it yet; and, I say to thee, he would mouth with a beggar
 71266     though she smelt brown bread and garlic. Say that I said so.
 71267     Farewell.                                               Exit
 71268   DUKE. No might nor greatness in mortality
 71269     Can censure scape; back-wounding calumny
 71270     The whitest virtue strikes. What king so strong
 71271     Can tie the gall up in the slanderous tongue?
 71272     But who comes here?
 71273 
 71274              Enter ESCALUS, PROVOST, and OFFICERS with
 71275                            MISTRESS OVERDONE
 71276 
 71277   ESCALUS. Go, away with her to prison.
 71278   MRS. OVERDONE. Good my lord, be good to me; your honour is
 71279     accounted a merciful man; good my lord.
 71280   ESCALUS. Double and treble admonition, and still forfeit in the
 71281     same kind! This would make mercy swear and play the tyrant.
 71282   PROVOST. A bawd of eleven years' continuance, may it please your
 71283     honour.
 71284   MRS. OVERDONE. My lord, this is one Lucio's information against me.
 71285     Mistress Kate Keepdown was with child by him in the Duke's time;
 71286     he promis'd her marriage. His child is a year and a quarter old
 71287     come Philip and Jacob; I have kept it myself; and see how he goes
 71288     about to abuse me.
 71289   ESCALUS. That fellow is a fellow of much license. Let him be call'd
 71290     before us. Away with her to prison. Go to; no more words. [Exeunt
 71291     OFFICERS with MISTRESS OVERDONE]  Provost, my brother Angelo will
 71292     not be alter'd: Claudio must die to-morrow. Let him be furnish'd
 71293     with divines, and have all charitable preparation. If my brother
 71294     wrought by my pity, it should not be so with him.
 71295   PROVOST. So please you, this friar hath been with him, and advis'd
 71296     him for th' entertainment of death.
 71297   ESCALUS. Good even, good father.
 71298   DUKE. Bliss and goodness on you!
 71299   ESCALUS. Of whence are you?
 71300   DUKE. Not of this country, though my chance is now
 71301     To use it for my time. I am a brother
 71302     Of gracious order, late come from the See
 71303     In special business from his Holiness.
 71304   ESCALUS. What news abroad i' th' world?
 71305   DUKE. None, but that there is so great a fever on goodness that the
 71306     dissolution of it must cure it. Novelty is only in request; and,
 71307     as it is, as dangerous to be aged in any kind of course as it is
 71308     virtuous to be constant in any undertakeing. There is scarce
 71309     truth enough alive to make societies secure; but security enough
 71310     to make fellowships accurst. Much upon this riddle runs the
 71311     wisdom of the world. This news is old enough, yet it is every
 71312     day's news. I pray you, sir, of what disposition was the Duke?
 71313   ESCALUS. One that, above all other strifes, contended especially to
 71314     know himself.
 71315   DUKE. What pleasure was he given to?
 71316   ESCALUS. Rather rejoicing to see another merry than merry at
 71317     anything which profess'd to make him rejoice; a gentleman of all
 71318     temperance. But leave we him to his events, with a prayer they
 71319     may prove prosperous; and let me desire to know how you find
 71320     Claudio prepar'd. I am made to understand that you have lent him
 71321     visitation.
 71322   DUKE. He professes to have received no sinister measure from his
 71323     judge, but most willingly humbles himself to the determination of
 71324     justice. Yet had he framed to himself, by the instruction of his
 71325     frailty, many deceiving promises of life; which I, by my good
 71326     leisure, have discredited to him, and now he is resolv'd to die.
 71327   ESCALUS. You have paid the heavens your function, and the prisoner
 71328     the very debt of your calling. I have labour'd for the poor
 71329     gentleman to the extremest shore of my modesty; but my brother
 71330     justice have I found so severe that he hath forc'd me to tell him
 71331     he is indeed Justice.
 71332   DUKE. If his own life answer the straitness of his proceeding, it
 71333     shall become him well; wherein if he chance to fail, he hath
 71334     sentenc'd himself.
 71335   ESCALUS. I am going to visit the prisoner. Fare you well.
 71336   DUKE. Peace be with you!            Exeunt ESCALUS and PROVOST
 71337 
 71338          He who the sword of heaven will bear
 71339          Should be as holy as severe;
 71340          Pattern in himself to know,
 71341          Grace to stand, and virtue go;
 71342          More nor less to others paying
 71343          Than by self-offences weighing.
 71344          Shame to him whose cruel striking
 71345          Kills for faults of his own liking!
 71346          Twice treble shame on Angelo,
 71347          To weed my vice and let his grow!
 71348          O, what may man within him hide,
 71349          Though angel on the outward side!
 71350          How may likeness, made in crimes,
 71351          Make a practice on the times,
 71352          To draw with idle spiders' strings
 71353          Most ponderous and substantial things!
 71354          Craft against vice I must apply.
 71355          With Angelo to-night shall lie
 71356          His old betrothed but despised;
 71357          So disguise shall, by th' disguised,
 71358          Pay with falsehood false exacting,
 71359          And perform an old contracting.                    Exit
 71360 
 71361 
 71362 
 71363 
 71364 Act IV. Scene I.
 71365 The moated grange at Saint Duke's
 71366 
 71367 Enter MARIANA; and BOY singing
 71368 
 71369                              SONG
 71370 
 71371            Take, O, take those lips away,
 71372              That so sweetly were forsworn;
 71373            And those eyes, the break of day,
 71374              Lights that do mislead the morn;
 71375            But my kisses bring again, bring again;
 71376            Seals of love, but seal'd in vain, seal'd in vain.
 71377 
 71378                   Enter DUKE, disguised as before
 71379 
 71380   MARIANA. Break off thy song, and haste thee quick away;
 71381     Here comes a man of comfort, whose advice
 71382     Hath often still'd my brawling discontent.          Exit BOY
 71383     I cry you mercy, sir, and well could wish
 71384     You had not found me here so musical.
 71385     Let me excuse me, and believe me so,
 71386     My mirth it much displeas'd, but pleas'd my woe.
 71387   DUKE. 'Tis good; though music oft hath such a charm
 71388     To make bad good and good provoke to harm.
 71389     I pray you tell me hath anybody inquir'd for me here to-day. Much
 71390     upon this time have I promis'd here to meet.
 71391   MARIANA. You have not been inquir'd after; I have sat here all day.
 71392 
 71393                          Enter ISABELLA
 71394 
 71395   DUKE. I do constantly believe you. The time is come even now. I
 71396     shall crave your forbearance a little. May be I will call upon
 71397     you anon, for some advantage to yourself.
 71398   MARIANA. I am always bound to you.                        Exit
 71399   DUKE. Very well met, and well come.
 71400     What is the news from this good deputy?
 71401   ISABELLA. He hath a garden circummur'd with brick,
 71402     Whose western side is with a vineyard back'd;
 71403     And to that vineyard is a planched gate
 71404     That makes his opening with this bigger key;
 71405     This other doth command a little door
 71406     Which from the vineyard to the garden leads.
 71407     There have I made my promise
 71408     Upon the heavy middle of the night
 71409     To call upon him.
 71410   DUKE. But shall you on your knowledge find this way?
 71411   ISABELLA. I have ta'en a due and wary note upon't;
 71412     With whispering and most guilty diligence,
 71413     In action all of precept, he did show me
 71414     The way twice o'er.
 71415   DUKE. Are there no other tokens
 71416     Between you 'greed concerning her observance?
 71417   ISABELLA. No, none, but only a repair i' th' dark;
 71418     And that I have possess'd him my most stay
 71419     Can be but brief; for I have made him know
 71420     I have a servant comes with me along,
 71421     That stays upon me; whose persuasion is
 71422     I come about my brother.
 71423   DUKE. 'Tis well borne up.
 71424     I have not yet made known to Mariana
 71425     A word of this. What ho, within! come forth.
 71426 
 71427                        Re-enter MARIANA
 71428 
 71429     I pray you be acquainted with this maid;
 71430     She comes to do you good.
 71431   ISABELLA. I do desire the like.
 71432   DUKE. Do you persuade yourself that I respect you?
 71433   MARIANA. Good friar, I know you do, and have found it.
 71434   DUKE. Take, then, this your companion by the hand,
 71435     Who hath a story ready for your ear.
 71436     I shall attend your leisure; but make haste;
 71437     The vaporous night approaches.
 71438   MARIANA. Will't please you walk aside?
 71439                                      Exeunt MARIANA and ISABELLA
 71440   DUKE. O place and greatness! Millions of false eyes
 71441     Are stuck upon thee. Volumes of report
 71442     Run with these false, and most contrarious quest
 71443     Upon thy doings. Thousand escapes of wit
 71444     Make thee the father of their idle dream,
 71445     And rack thee in their fancies.
 71446 
 71447                  Re-enter MARIANA and ISABELLA
 71448 
 71449     Welcome, how agreed?
 71450   ISABELLA. She'll take the enterprise upon her, father,
 71451     If you advise it.
 71452   DUKE. It is not my consent,
 71453     But my entreaty too.
 71454   ISABELLA. Little have you to say,
 71455     When you depart from him, but, soft and low,
 71456     'Remember now my brother.'
 71457   MARIANA. Fear me not.
 71458   DUKE. Nor, gentle daughter, fear you not at all.
 71459     He is your husband on a pre-contract.
 71460     To bring you thus together 'tis no sin,
 71461     Sith that the justice of your title to him
 71462     Doth flourish the deceit. Come, let us go;
 71463     Our corn's to reap, for yet our tithe's to sow.       Exeunt
 71464 
 71465 
 71466 
 71467 
 71468 SCENE II.
 71469 The prison
 71470 
 71471 Enter PROVOST and POMPEY
 71472 
 71473   PROVOST. Come hither, sirrah. Can you cut off a man's head?
 71474   POMPEY. If the man be a bachelor, sir, I can; but if he be a
 71475     married man, he's his wife's head, and I can never cut of a
 71476     woman's head.
 71477   PROVOST. Come, sir, leave me your snatches and yield me a direct
 71478     answer. To-morrow morning are to die Claudio and Barnardine. Here
 71479     is in our prison a common executioner, who in his office lacks a
 71480     helper; if you will take it on you to assist him, it shall redeem
 71481     you from your gyves; if not, you shall have your full time of
 71482     imprisonment, and your deliverance with an unpitied whipping, for
 71483     you have been a notorious bawd.
 71484   POMPEY. Sir, I have been an unlawful bawd time out of mind; but yet
 71485     I will be content to be a lawful hangman. I would be glad to
 71486     receive some instructions from my fellow partner.
 71487   PROVOST. What ho, Abhorson! Where's Abhorson there?
 71488 
 71489                           Enter ABHORSON
 71490 
 71491   ABHORSON. Do you call, sir?
 71492   PROVOST. Sirrah, here's a fellow will help you to-morrow in your
 71493     execution. If you think it meet, compound with him by the year,
 71494     and let him abide here with you; if not, use him for the present,
 71495     and dismiss him. He cannot plead his estimation with you; he hath
 71496     been a bawd.
 71497   ABHORSON. A bawd, sir? Fie upon him! He will discredit our mystery.
 71498   PROVOST. Go to, sir; you weigh equally; a feather will turn the
 71499     scale.                                                  Exit
 71500   POMPEY. Pray, sir, by your good favour- for surely, sir, a good
 71501     favour you have but that you have a hanging look- do you call,
 71502     sir, your occupation a mystery?
 71503   ABHORSON. Ay, sir; a mystery.
 71504   POMPEY. Painting, sir, I have heard say, is a mystery; and your
 71505     whores, sir, being members of my occupation, using painting, do
 71506     prove my occupation a mystery; but what mystery there should be
 71507     in hanging, if I should be hang'd, I cannot imagine.
 71508   ABHORSON. Sir, it is a mystery.
 71509   POMPEY. Proof?
 71510   ABHORSON. Every true man's apparel fits your thief: if it be too
 71511     little for your thief, your true man thinks it big enough; if it
 71512     be too big for your thief, your thief thinks it little enough; so
 71513     every true man's apparel fits your thief.
 71514 
 71515                           Re-enter PROVOST
 71516 
 71517   PROVOST. Are you agreed?
 71518   POMPEY. Sir, I will serve him; for I do find your hangman is a more
 71519     penitent trade than your bawd; he doth oftener ask forgiveness.
 71520   PROVOST. You, sirrah, provide your block and your axe to-morrow
 71521     four o'clock.
 71522   ABHORSON. Come on, bawd; I will instruct thee in my trade; follow.
 71523   POMPEY. I do desire to learn, sir; and I hope, if you have occasion
 71524     to use me for your own turn, you shall find me yare; for truly,
 71525     sir, for your kindness I owe you a good turn.
 71526   PROVOST. Call hither Barnardine and Claudio.
 71527                                       Exeunt ABHORSON and POMPEY
 71528     Th' one has my pity; not a jot the other,
 71529     Being a murderer, though he were my brother.
 71530 
 71531                            Enter CLAUDIO
 71532 
 71533     Look, here's the warrant, Claudio, for thy death;
 71534     'Tis now dead midnight, and by eight to-morrow
 71535     Thou must be made immortal. Where's Barnardine?
 71536   CLAUDIO. As fast lock'd up in sleep as guiltless labour
 71537     When it lies starkly in the traveller's bones.
 71538     He will not wake.
 71539   PROVOST. Who can do good on him?
 71540     Well, go, prepare yourself. [Knocking within] But hark, what
 71541       noise?
 71542     Heaven give your spirits comfort!               Exit CLAUDIO
 71543     [Knocking continues] By and by.
 71544     I hope it is some pardon or reprieve
 71545     For the most gentle Claudio.
 71546 
 71547                  Enter DUKE, disguised as before
 71548 
 71549     Welcome, father.
 71550   DUKE. The best and wholesom'st spirits of the night
 71551     Envelop you, good Provost! Who call'd here of late?
 71552   PROVOST. None, since the curfew rung.
 71553   DUKE. Not Isabel?
 71554   PROVOST. No.
 71555   DUKE. They will then, ere't be long.
 71556   PROVOST. What comfort is for Claudio?
 71557   DUKE. There's some in hope.
 71558   PROVOST. It is a bitter deputy.
 71559   DUKE. Not so, not so; his life is parallel'd
 71560     Even with the stroke and line of his great justice;
 71561     He doth with holy abstinence subdue
 71562     That in himself which he spurs on his pow'r
 71563     To qualify in others. Were he meal'd with that
 71564     Which he corrects, then were he tyrannous;
 71565     But this being so, he's just. [Knocking within] Now are they
 71566       come.                                         Exit PROVOST
 71567     This is a gentle provost; seldom when
 71568     The steeled gaoler is the friend of men. [Knocking within]
 71569     How now, what noise! That spirit's possess'd with haste
 71570     That wounds th' unsisting postern with these strokes.
 71571 
 71572                         Re-enter PROVOST
 71573 
 71574   PROVOST. There he must stay until the officer
 71575     Arise to let him in; he is call'd up.
 71576   DUKE. Have you no countermand for Claudio yet
 71577     But he must die to-morrow?
 71578   PROVOST. None, sir, none.
 71579   DUKE. As near the dawning, Provost, as it is,
 71580     You shall hear more ere morning.
 71581   PROVOST. Happily
 71582     You something know; yet I believe there comes
 71583     No countermand; no such example have we.
 71584     Besides, upon the very siege of justice,
 71585     Lord Angelo hath to the public ear
 71586     Profess'd the contrary.
 71587 
 71588                          Enter a MESSENGER
 71589     This is his lordship's man.
 71590   DUKE. And here comes Claudio's pardon.
 71591   MESSENGER. My lord hath sent you this note; and by me this further
 71592     charge, that you swerve not from the smallest article of it,
 71593     neither in time, matter, or other circumstance. Good morrow; for
 71594     as I take it, it is almost day.
 71595   PROVOST. I shall obey him.                      Exit MESSENGER
 71596   DUKE. [Aside] This is his pardon, purchas'd by such sin
 71597     For which the pardoner himself is in;
 71598     Hence hath offence his quick celerity,
 71599     When it is borne in high authority.
 71600     When vice makes mercy, mercy's so extended
 71601     That for the fault's love is th' offender friended.
 71602     Now, sir, what news?
 71603   PROVOST. I told you: Lord Angelo, belike thinking me remiss in mine
 71604     office, awakens me with this unwonted putting-on; methinks
 71605     strangely, for he hath not us'd it before.
 71606   DUKE. Pray you, let's hear.
 71607   PROVOST. [Reads] 'Whatsoever you may hear to the contrary, let
 71608     Claudio be executed by four of the clock, and, in the afternoon,
 71609     Barnardine. For my better satisfaction, let me have Claudio's
 71610     head sent me by five. Let this be duly performed, with a thought
 71611     that more depends on it than we must yet deliver. Thus fail not
 71612     to do your office, as you will answer it at your peril.'
 71613     What say you to this, sir?
 71614   DUKE. What is that Barnardine who is to be executed in th'
 71615     afternoon?
 71616   PROVOST. A Bohemian born; but here nurs'd up and bred.
 71617     One that is a prisoner nine years old.
 71618   DUKE. How came it that the absent Duke had not either deliver'd him
 71619     to his liberty or executed him? I have heard it was ever his
 71620     manner to do so.
 71621   PROVOST. His friends still wrought reprieves for him; and, indeed,
 71622     his fact, till now in the government of Lord Angelo, came not to
 71623     an undoubted proof.
 71624   DUKE. It is now apparent?
 71625   PROVOST. Most manifest, and not denied by himself.
 71626   DUKE. Hath he borne himself penitently in prison? How seems he to
 71627     be touch'd?
 71628   PROVOST. A man that apprehends death no more dreadfully but as a
 71629     drunken sleep; careless, reckless, and fearless, of what's past,
 71630     present, or to come; insensible of mortality and desperately
 71631     mortal.
 71632   DUKE. He wants advice.
 71633   PROVOST. He will hear none. He hath evermore had the liberty of the
 71634     prison; give him leave to escape hence, he would not; drunk many
 71635     times a day, if not many days entirely drunk. We have very oft
 71636     awak'd him, as if to carry him to execution, and show'd him a
 71637     seeming warrant for it; it hath not moved him at all.
 71638   DUKE. More of him anon. There is written in your brow, Provost,
 71639     honesty and constancy. If I read it not truly, my ancient skill
 71640     beguiles me; but in the boldness of my cunning I will lay myself
 71641     in hazard. Claudio, whom here you have warrant to execute, is no
 71642     greater forfeit to the law than Angelo who hath sentenc'd him. To
 71643     make you understand this in a manifested effect, I crave but four
 71644     days' respite; for the which you are to do me both a present and
 71645     a dangerous courtesy.
 71646   PROVOST. Pray, sir, in what?
 71647   DUKE. In the delaying death.
 71648   PROVOST. Alack! How may I do it, having the hour limited, and an
 71649     express command, under penalty, to deliver his head in the view
 71650     of Angelo? I may make my case as Claudio's, to cross this in the
 71651     smallest.
 71652   DUKE. By the vow of mine order, I warrant you, if my instructions
 71653     may be your guide. Let this Barnardine be this morning executed,
 71654     and his head borne to Angelo.
 71655   PROVOST. Angelo hath seen them both, and will discover the favour.
 71656   DUKE. O, death's a great disguiser; and you may add to it. Shave
 71657     the head and tie the beard; and say it was the desire of the
 71658     penitent to be so bar'd before his death. You know the course is
 71659     common. If anything fall to you upon this more than thanks and
 71660     good fortune, by the saint whom I profess, I will plead against
 71661     it with my life.
 71662   PROVOST. Pardon me, good father; it is against my oath.
 71663   DUKE. Were you sworn to the Duke, or to the deputy?
 71664   PROVOST. To him and to his substitutes.
 71665   DUKE. You will think you have made no offence if the Duke avouch
 71666     the justice of your dealing?
 71667   PROVOST. But what likelihood is in that?
 71668   DUKE. Not a resemblance, but a certainty. Yet since I see you
 71669     fearful, that neither my coat, integrity, nor persuasion, can
 71670     with ease attempt you, I will go further than I meant, to pluck
 71671     all fears out of you. Look you, sir, here is the hand and seal of
 71672     the Duke. You know the character, I doubt not; and the signet is
 71673     not strange to you.
 71674   PROVOST. I know them both.
 71675   DUKE. The contents of this is the return of the Duke; you shall
 71676     anon over-read it at your pleasure, where you shall find within
 71677     these two days he will be here. This is a thing that Angelo knows
 71678     not; for he this very day receives letters of strange tenour,
 71679     perchance of the Duke's death, perchance entering into some
 71680     monastery; but, by chance, nothing of what is writ. Look, th'
 71681     unfolding star calls up the shepherd. Put not yourself into
 71682     amazement how these things should be: all difficulties are but
 71683     easy when they are known. Call your executioner, and off with
 71684     Barnardine's head. I will give him a present shrift, and advise
 71685     him for a better place. Yet you are amaz'd, but this shall
 71686     absolutely resolve you. Come away; it is almost clear dawn.
 71687                                                           Exeunt
 71688 
 71689 
 71690 
 71691 
 71692 SCENE III.
 71693 The prison
 71694 
 71695 Enter POMPEY
 71696 
 71697   POMPEY. I am as well acquainted here as I was in our house of
 71698     profession; one would think it were Mistress Overdone's own
 71699     house, for here be many of her old customers. First, here's young
 71700     Master Rash; he's in for a commodity of brown paper and old
 71701     ginger, nine score and seventeen pounds, of which he made five
 71702     marks ready money. Marry, then ginger was not much in request,
 71703     for the old women were all dead. Then is there here one Master
 71704     Caper, at the suit of Master Threepile the mercer, for some four
 71705     suits of peach-colour'd satin, which now peaches him a beggar.
 71706     Then have we here young Dizy, and young Master Deepvow, and
 71707     Master Copperspur, and Master Starvelackey, the rapier and dagger
 71708     man, and young Dropheir that kill'd lusty Pudding, and Master
 71709     Forthlight the tilter, and brave Master Shootie the great
 71710     traveller, and wild Halfcan that stabb'd Pots, and, I think,
 71711     forty more- all great doers in our trade, and are now 'for the
 71712     Lord's sake.'
 71713 
 71714                             Enter ABHORSON
 71715 
 71716   ABHORSON. Sirrah, bring Barnardine hither.
 71717   POMPEY. Master Barnardine! You must rise and be hang'd, Master
 71718     Barnardine!
 71719   ABHORSON. What ho, Barnardine!
 71720   BARNARDINE. [Within] A pox o' your throats! Who makes that noise
 71721     there? What are you?
 71722   POMPEY. Your friends, sir; the hangman. You must be so good, sir,
 71723     to rise and be put to death.
 71724   BARNARDINE. [ Within ] Away, you rogue, away; I am sleepy.
 71725   ABHORSON. Tell him he must awake, and that quickly too.
 71726   POMPEY. Pray, Master Barnardine, awake till you are executed, and
 71727     sleep afterwards.
 71728   ABHORSON. Go in to him, and fetch him out.
 71729   POMPEY. He is coming, sir, he is coming; I hear his straw rustle.
 71730 
 71731                              Enter BARNARDINE
 71732 
 71733   ABHORSON. Is the axe upon the block, sirrah?
 71734   POMPEY. Very ready, sir.
 71735   BARNARDINE. How now, Abhorson, what's the news with you?
 71736   ABHORSON. Truly, sir, I would desire you to clap into your prayers;
 71737     for, look you, the warrant's come.
 71738   BARNARDINE. You rogue, I have been drinking all night; I am not
 71739     fitted for't.
 71740   POMPEY. O, the better, sir! For he that drinks all night and is
 71741     hanged betimes in the morning may sleep the sounder all the next
 71742     day.
 71743 
 71744                   Enter DUKE, disguised as before
 71745 
 71746   ABHORSON. Look you, sir, here comes your ghostly father.
 71747     Do we jest now, think you?
 71748   DUKE. Sir, induced by my charity, and hearing how hastily you are
 71749     to depart, I am come to advise you, comfort you, and pray with
 71750     you.
 71751   BARNARDINE. Friar, not I; I have been drinking hard all night, and
 71752     I will have more time to prepare me, or they shall beat out my
 71753     brains with billets. I will not consent to die this day, that's
 71754     certain.
 71755   DUKE. O, Sir, you must; and therefore I beseech you
 71756     Look forward on the journey you shall go.
 71757   BARNARDINE. I swear I will not die to-day for any man's persuasion.
 71758   DUKE. But hear you-
 71759   BARNARDINE. Not a word; if you have anything to say to me, come to
 71760     my ward; for thence will not I to-day.                  Exit
 71761   DUKE. Unfit to live or die. O gravel heart!
 71762     After him, fellows; bring him to the block.
 71763                                       Exeunt ABHORSON and POMPEY
 71764 
 71765                             Enter PROVOST
 71766 
 71767   PROVOST. Now, sir, how do you find the prisoner?
 71768   DUKE. A creature unprepar'd, unmeet for death;
 71769     And to transport him in the mind he is
 71770     Were damnable.
 71771   PROVOST. Here in the prison, father,
 71772     There died this morning of a cruel fever
 71773     One Ragozine, a most notorious pirate,
 71774     A man of Claudio's years; his beard and head
 71775     Just of his colour. What if we do omit
 71776     This reprobate till he were well inclin'd,
 71777     And satisfy the deputy with the visage
 71778     Of Ragozine, more like to Claudio?
 71779   DUKE. O, 'tis an accident that heaven provides!
 71780     Dispatch it presently; the hour draws on
 71781     Prefix'd by Angelo. See this be done,
 71782     And sent according to command; whiles I
 71783     Persuade this rude wretch willingly to die.
 71784   PROVOST. This shall be done, good father, presently.
 71785     But Barnardine must die this afternoon;
 71786     And how shall we continue Claudio,
 71787     To save me from the danger that might come
 71788     If he were known alive?
 71789   DUKE. Let this be done:
 71790     Put them in secret holds, both Barnardine and Claudio.
 71791     Ere twice the sun hath made his journal greeting
 71792     To the under generation, you shall find
 71793     Your safety manifested.
 71794   PROVOST. I am your free dependant.
 71795   DUKE. Quick, dispatch, and send the head to Angelo.
 71796                                                     Exit PROVOST
 71797     Now will I write letters to Angelo-
 71798     The Provost, he shall bear them- whose contents
 71799     Shall witness to him I am near at home,
 71800     And that, by great injunctions, I am bound
 71801     To enter publicly. Him I'll desire
 71802     To meet me at the consecrated fount,
 71803     A league below the city; and from thence,
 71804     By cold gradation and well-balanc'd form.
 71805     We shall proceed with Angelo.
 71806 
 71807                          Re-enter PROVOST
 71808 
 71809   PROVOST. Here is the head; I'll carry it myself.
 71810   DUKE. Convenient is it. Make a swift return;
 71811     For I would commune with you of such things
 71812     That want no ear but yours.
 71813   PROVOST. I'll make all speed.                             Exit
 71814   ISABELLA. [ Within ] Peace, ho, be here!
 71815   DUKE. The tongue of Isabel. She's come to know
 71816     If yet her brother's pardon be come hither;
 71817     But I will keep her ignorant of her good,
 71818     To make her heavenly comforts of despair
 71819     When it is least expected.
 71820 
 71821                            Enter ISABELLA
 71822 
 71823   ISABELLA. Ho, by your leave!
 71824   DUKE. Good morning to you, fair and gracious daughter.
 71825   ISABELLA. The better, given me by so holy a man.
 71826     Hath yet the deputy sent my brother's pardon?
 71827   DUKE. He hath releas'd him, Isabel, from the world.
 71828     His head is off and sent to Angelo.
 71829   ISABELLA. Nay, but it is not so.
 71830   DUKE. It is no other.
 71831     Show your wisdom, daughter, in your close patience,
 71832   ISABELLA. O, I will to him and pluck out his eyes!
 71833   DUKE. You shall not be admitted to his sight.
 71834   ISABELLA. Unhappy Claudio! Wretched Isabel!
 71835     Injurious world! Most damned Angelo!
 71836   DUKE. This nor hurts him nor profits you a jot;
 71837     Forbear it, therefore; give your cause to heaven.
 71838     Mark what I say, which you shall find
 71839     By every syllable a faithful verity.
 71840     The Duke comes home to-morrow. Nay, dry your eyes.
 71841     One of our covent, and his confessor,
 71842     Gives me this instance. Already he hath carried
 71843     Notice to Escalus and Angelo,
 71844     Who do prepare to meet him at the gates,
 71845     There to give up their pow'r. If you can, pace your wisdom
 71846     In that good path that I would wish it go,
 71847     And you shall have your bosom on this wretch,
 71848     Grace of the Duke, revenges to your heart,
 71849     And general honour.
 71850   ISABELLA. I am directed by you.
 71851   DUKE. This letter, then, to Friar Peter give;
 71852     'Tis that he sent me of the Duke's return.
 71853     Say, by this token, I desire his company
 71854     At Mariana's house to-night. Her cause and yours
 71855     I'll perfect him withal; and he shall bring you
 71856     Before the Duke; and to the head of Angelo
 71857     Accuse him home and home. For my poor self,
 71858     I am combined by a sacred vow,
 71859     And shall be absent. Wend you with this letter.
 71860     Command these fretting waters from your eyes
 71861     With a light heart; trust not my holy order,
 71862     If I pervert your course. Who's here?
 71863 
 71864                            Enter LUCIO
 71865 
 71866   LUCIO. Good even. Friar, where's the Provost?
 71867   DUKE. Not within, sir.
 71868   LUCIO. O pretty Isabella, I am pale at mine heart to see thine eyes
 71869     so red. Thou must be patient. I am fain to dine and sup with
 71870     water and bran; I dare not for my head fill my belly; one
 71871     fruitful meal would set me to't. But they say the Duke will be
 71872     here to-morrow. By my troth, Isabel, I lov'd thy brother. If the
 71873     old fantastical Duke of dark corners had been at home, he had
 71874     lived.                                         Exit ISABELLA
 71875   DUKE. Sir, the Duke is marvellous little beholding to your reports;
 71876     but the best is, he lives not in them.
 71877   LUCIO. Friar, thou knowest not the Duke so well as I do; he's a
 71878     better woodman than thou tak'st him for.
 71879   DUKE. Well, you'll answer this one day. Fare ye well.
 71880   LUCIO. Nay, tarry; I'll go along with thee; I can tell thee pretty
 71881     tales of the Duke.
 71882   DUKE. You have told me too many of him already, sir, if they be
 71883     true; if not true, none were enough.
 71884   LUCIO. I was once before him for getting a wench with child.
 71885   DUKE. Did you such a thing?
 71886   LUCIO. Yes, marry, did I; but I was fain to forswear it: they would
 71887     else have married me to the rotten medlar.
 71888   DUKE. Sir, your company is fairer than honest. Rest you well.
 71889   LUCIO. By my troth, I'll go with thee to the lane's end. If bawdy
 71890     talk offend you, we'll have very little of it. Nay, friar, I am a
 71891     kind of burr; I shall stick.                          Exeunt
 71892 
 71893 
 71894 
 71895 
 71896 SCENE IV.
 71897 ANGELO'S house
 71898 
 71899 Enter ANGELO and ESCALUS
 71900 
 71901   ESCALUS. Every letter he hath writ hath disvouch'd other.
 71902   ANGELO. In most uneven and distracted manner. His actions show much
 71903     like to madness; pray heaven his wisdom be not tainted! And why
 71904     meet him at the gates, and redeliver our authorities there?
 71905   ESCALUS. I guess not.
 71906   ANGELO. And why should we proclaim it in an hour before his
 71907     ent'ring that, if any crave redress of injustice, they should
 71908     exhibit their petitions in the street?
 71909   ESCALUS. He shows his reason for that: to have a dispatch of
 71910      complaints; and to deliver us from devices hereafter, which
 71911     shall then have no power to stand against us.
 71912   ANGELO. Well, I beseech you, let it be proclaim'd;
 71913     Betimes i' th' morn I'll call you at your house;
 71914     Give notice to such men of sort and suit
 71915     As are to meet him.
 71916   ESCALUS. I shall, sir; fare you well.
 71917   ANGELO. Good night.                               Exit ESCALUS
 71918     This deed unshapes me quite, makes me unpregnant
 71919     And dull to all proceedings. A deflow'red maid!
 71920     And by an eminent body that enforc'd
 71921     The law against it! But that her tender shame
 71922     Will not proclaim against her maiden loss,
 71923     How might she tongue me! Yet reason dares her no;
 71924     For my authority bears a so credent bulk
 71925     That no particular scandal once can touch
 71926     But it confounds the breather. He should have liv'd,
 71927     Save that his riotous youth, with dangerous sense,
 71928     Might in the times to come have ta'en revenge,
 71929     By so receiving a dishonour'd life
 71930     With ransom of such shame. Would yet he had liv'd!
 71931     Alack, when once our grace we have forgot,
 71932     Nothing goes right; we would, and we would not.         Exit
 71933 
 71934 
 71935 
 71936 
 71937 SCENE V.
 71938 Fields without the town
 71939 
 71940 Enter DUKE in his own habit, and Friar PETER
 71941 
 71942   DUKE. These letters at fit time deliver me.   [Giving letters]
 71943     The Provost knows our purpose and our plot.
 71944     The matter being afoot, keep your instruction
 71945     And hold you ever to our special drift;
 71946     Though sometimes you do blench from this to that
 71947     As cause doth minister. Go, call at Flavius' house,
 71948     And tell him where I stay; give the like notice
 71949     To Valentinus, Rowland, and to Crassus,
 71950     And bid them bring the trumpets to the gate;
 71951     But send me Flavius first.
 71952     PETER. It shall be speeded well.                  Exit FRIAR
 71953 
 71954                              Enter VARRIUS
 71955 
 71956   DUKE. I thank thee, Varrius; thou hast made good haste.
 71957     Come, we will walk. There's other of our friends
 71958     Will greet us here anon. My gentle Varrius!           Exeunt
 71959 
 71960 
 71961 
 71962 
 71963 SCENE VI.
 71964 A street near the city gate
 71965 
 71966 Enter ISABELLA and MARIANA
 71967 
 71968   ISABELLA. To speak so indirectly I am loath;
 71969     I would say the truth; but to accuse him so,
 71970     That is your part. Yet I am advis'd to do it;
 71971     He says, to veil full purpose.
 71972   MARIANA. Be rul'd by him.
 71973   ISABELLA. Besides, he tells me that, if peradventure
 71974     He speak against me on the adverse side,
 71975     I should not think it strange; for 'tis a physic
 71976     That's bitter to sweet end.
 71977   MARIANA. I would Friar Peter-
 71978 
 71979                          Enter FRIAR PETER
 71980 
 71981   ISABELLA. O, peace! the friar is come.
 71982   PETER. Come, I have found you out a stand most fit,
 71983     Where you may have such vantage on the Duke
 71984     He shall not pass you. Twice have the trumpets sounded;
 71985     The generous and gravest citizens
 71986     Have hent the gates, and very near upon
 71987     The Duke is ent'ring; therefore, hence, away.         Exeunt
 71988 
 71989 
 71990 
 71991 
 71992 <<THIS ELECTRONIC VERSION OF THE COMPLETE WORKS OF WILLIAM
 71993 SHAKESPEARE IS COPYRIGHT 1990-1993 BY WORLD LIBRARY, INC., AND IS
 71994 PROVIDED BY PROJECT GUTENBERG ETEXT OF ILLINOIS BENEDICTINE COLLEGE
 71995 WITH PERMISSION.  ELECTRONIC AND MACHINE READABLE COPIES MAY BE
 71996 DISTRIBUTED SO LONG AS SUCH COPIES (1) ARE FOR YOUR OR OTHERS
 71997 PERSONAL USE ONLY, AND (2) ARE NOT DISTRIBUTED OR USED
 71998 COMMERCIALLY.  PROHIBITED COMMERCIAL DISTRIBUTION INCLUDES BY ANY
 71999 SERVICE THAT CHARGES FOR DOWNLOAD TIME OR FOR MEMBERSHIP.>>
 72000 
 72001 
 72002 
 72003 ACT V. SCENE I.
 72004 The city gate
 72005 
 72006 Enter at several doors DUKE, VARRIUS, LORDS; ANGELO, ESCALUS, Lucio,
 72007 PROVOST, OFFICERS, and CITIZENS
 72008 
 72009   DUKE. My very worthy cousin, fairly met!
 72010     Our old and faithful friend, we are glad to see you.
 72011   ANGELO, ESCALUS. Happy return be to your royal Grace!
 72012   DUKE. Many and hearty thankings to you both.
 72013     We have made inquiry of you, and we hear
 72014     Such goodness of your justice that our soul
 72015     Cannot but yield you forth to public thanks,
 72016     Forerunning more requital.
 72017   ANGELO. You make my bonds still greater.
 72018   DUKE. O, your desert speaks loud; and I should wrong it
 72019     To lock it in the wards of covert bosom,
 72020     When it deserves, with characters of brass,
 72021     A forted residence 'gainst the tooth of time
 72022     And razure of oblivion. Give me your hand.
 72023     And let the subject see, to make them know
 72024     That outward courtesies would fain proclaim
 72025     Favours that keep within. Come, Escalus,
 72026     You must walk by us on our other hand,
 72027     And good supporters are you.
 72028 
 72029                  Enter FRIAR PETER and ISABELLA
 72030 
 72031   PETER. Now is your time; speak loud, and kneel before him.
 72032   ISABELLA. Justice, O royal Duke! Vail your regard
 72033     Upon a wrong'd- I would fain have said a maid!
 72034     O worthy Prince, dishonour not your eye
 72035     By throwing it on any other object
 72036     Till you have heard me in my true complaint,
 72037     And given me justice, justice, justice, justice.
 72038   DUKE. Relate your wrongs. In what? By whom? Be brief.
 72039     Here is Lord Angelo shall give you justice;
 72040     Reveal yourself to him.
 72041   ISABELLA. O worthy Duke,
 72042     You bid me seek redemption of the devil!
 72043     Hear me yourself; for that which I must speak
 72044     Must either punish me, not being believ'd,
 72045     Or wring redress from you. Hear me, O, hear me, here!
 72046   ANGELO. My lord, her wits, I fear me, are not firm;
 72047     She hath been a suitor to me for her brother,
 72048     Cut off by course of justice-
 72049   ISABELLA. By course of justice!
 72050   ANGELO. And she will speak most bitterly and strange.
 72051   ISABELLA. Most strange, but yet most truly, will I speak.
 72052     That Angelo's forsworn, is it not strange?
 72053     That Angelo's a murderer, is't not strange?
 72054     That Angelo is an adulterous thief,
 72055     An hypocrite, a virgin-violator,
 72056     Is it not strange and strange?
 72057   DUKE. Nay, it is ten times strange.
 72058   ISABELLA. It is not truer he is Angelo
 72059     Than this is all as true as it is strange;
 72060     Nay, it is ten times true; for truth is truth
 72061     To th' end of reck'ning.
 72062   DUKE. Away with her. Poor soul,
 72063     She speaks this in th' infirmity of sense.
 72064   ISABELLA. O Prince! I conjure thee, as thou believ'st
 72065     There is another comfort than this world,
 72066     That thou neglect me not with that opinion
 72067     That I am touch'd with madness. Make not impossible
 72068     That which but seems unlike: 'tis not impossible
 72069     But one, the wicked'st caitiff on the ground,
 72070     May seem as shy, as grave, as just, as absolute,
 72071     As Angelo; even so may Angelo,
 72072     In all his dressings, characts, titles, forms,
 72073     Be an arch-villain. Believe it, royal Prince,
 72074     If he be less, he's nothing; but he's more,
 72075     Had I more name for badness.
 72076   DUKE. By mine honesty,
 72077     If she be mad, as I believe no other,
 72078     Her madness hath the oddest frame of sense,
 72079     Such a dependency of thing on thing,
 72080     As e'er I heard in madness.
 72081   ISABELLA. O gracious Duke,
 72082     Harp not on that; nor do not banish reason
 72083     For inequality; but let your reason serve
 72084     To make the truth appear where it seems hid,
 72085     And hide the false seems true.
 72086   DUKE. Many that are not mad
 72087     Have, sure, more lack of reason. What would you say?
 72088   ISABELLA. I am the sister of one Claudio,
 72089     Condemn'd upon the act of fornication
 72090     To lose his head; condemn'd by Angelo.
 72091     I, in probation of a sisterhood,
 72092     Was sent to by my brother; one Lucio
 72093     As then the messenger-
 72094   LUCIO. That's I, an't like your Grace.
 72095     I came to her from Claudio, and desir'd her
 72096     To try her gracious fortune with Lord Angelo
 72097     For her poor brother's pardon.
 72098   ISABELLA. That's he, indeed.
 72099   DUKE. You were not bid to speak.
 72100   LUCIO. No, my good lord;
 72101     Nor wish'd to hold my peace.
 72102   DUKE. I wish you now, then;
 72103     Pray you take note of it; and when you have
 72104     A business for yourself, pray heaven you then
 72105     Be perfect.
 72106   LUCIO. I warrant your honour.
 72107   DUKE. The warrant's for yourself; take heed to't.
 72108   ISABELLA. This gentleman told somewhat of my tale.
 72109   LUCIO. Right.
 72110   DUKE. It may be right; but you are i' the wrong
 72111     To speak before your time. Proceed.
 72112   ISABELLA. I went
 72113     To this pernicious caitiff deputy.
 72114   DUKE. That's somewhat madly spoken.
 72115   ISABELLA. Pardon it;
 72116     The phrase is to the matter.
 72117   DUKE. Mended again. The matter- proceed.
 72118   ISABELLA. In brief- to set the needless process by,
 72119     How I persuaded, how I pray'd, and kneel'd,
 72120     How he refell'd me, and how I replied,
 72121     For this was of much length- the vile conclusion
 72122     I now begin with grief and shame to utter:
 72123     He would not, but by gift of my chaste body
 72124     To his concupiscible intemperate lust,
 72125     Release my brother; and, after much debatement,
 72126     My sisterly remorse confutes mine honour,
 72127     And I did yield to him. But the next morn betimes,
 72128     His purpose surfeiting, he sends a warrant
 72129     For my poor brother's head.
 72130   DUKE. This is most likely!
 72131   ISABELLA. O that it were as like as it is true!
 72132   DUKE. By heaven, fond wretch, thou know'st not what thou speak'st,
 72133     Or else thou art suborn'd against his honour
 72134     In hateful practice. First, his integrity
 72135     Stands without blemish; next, it imports no reason
 72136     That with such vehemency he should pursue
 72137     Faults proper to himself. If he had so offended,
 72138     He would have weigh'd thy brother by himself,
 72139     And not have cut him off. Some one hath set you on;
 72140     Confess the truth, and say by whose advice
 72141     Thou cam'st here to complain.
 72142   ISABELLA. And is this all?
 72143     Then, O you blessed ministers above,
 72144     Keep me in patience; and, with ripened time,
 72145     Unfold the evil which is here wrapt up
 72146     In countenance! Heaven shield your Grace from woe,
 72147     As I, thus wrong'd, hence unbelieved go!
 72148   DUKE. I know you'd fain be gone. An officer!
 72149     To prison with her! Shall we thus permit
 72150     A blasting and a scandalous breath to fall
 72151     On him so near us? This needs must be a practice.
 72152     Who knew of your intent and coming hither?
 72153   ISABELLA. One that I would were here, Friar Lodowick.
 72154   DUKE. A ghostly father, belike. Who knows that Lodowick?
 72155   LUCIO. My lord, I know him; 'tis a meddling friar.
 72156     I do not like the man; had he been lay, my lord,
 72157     For certain words he spake against your Grace
 72158     In your retirement, I had swing'd him soundly.
 72159   DUKE. Words against me? This's a good friar, belike!
 72160     And to set on this wretched woman here
 72161     Against our substitute! Let this friar be found.
 72162   LUCIO. But yesternight, my lord, she and that friar,
 72163     I saw them at the prison; a saucy friar,
 72164     A very scurvy fellow.
 72165   PETER. Blessed be your royal Grace!
 72166     I have stood by, my lord, and I have heard
 72167     Your royal ear abus'd. First, hath this woman
 72168     Most wrongfully accus'd your substitute;
 72169     Who is as free from touch or soil with her
 72170     As she from one ungot.
 72171   DUKE. We did believe no less.
 72172     Know you that Friar Lodowick that she speaks of?
 72173   PETER. I know him for a man divine and holy;
 72174     Not scurvy, nor a temporary meddler,
 72175     As he's reported by this gentleman;
 72176     And, on my trust, a man that never yet
 72177     Did, as he vouches, misreport your Grace.
 72178   LUCIO. My lord, most villainously; believe it.
 72179   PETER. Well, he in time may come to clear himself;
 72180     But at this instant he is sick, my lord,
 72181     Of a strange fever. Upon his mere request-
 72182     Being come to knowledge that there was complaint
 72183     Intended 'gainst Lord Angelo- came I hither
 72184     To speak, as from his mouth, what he doth know
 72185     Is true and false; and what he, with his oath
 72186     And all probation, will make up full clear,
 72187     Whensoever he's convented. First, for this woman-
 72188     To justify this worthy nobleman,
 72189     So vulgarly and personally accus'd-
 72190     Her shall you hear disproved to her eyes,
 72191     Till she herself confess it.
 72192   DUKE. Good friar, let's hear it.         Exit ISABELLA guarded
 72193     Do you not smile at this, Lord Angelo?
 72194     O heaven, the vanity of wretched fools!
 72195     Give us some seats. Come, cousin Angelo;
 72196     In this I'll be impartial; be you judge
 72197     Of your own cause.
 72198 
 72199                      Enter MARIANA veiled
 72200 
 72201     Is this the witness, friar?
 72202   FIRST let her show her face, and after speak.
 72203   MARIANA. Pardon, my lord; I will not show my face
 72204     Until my husband bid me.
 72205   DUKE. What, are you married?
 72206   MARIANA. No, my lord.
 72207   DUKE. Are you a maid?
 72208   MARIANA. No, my lord.
 72209   DUKE. A widow, then?
 72210   MARIANA. Neither, my lord.
 72211   DUKE. Why, you are nothing then; neither maid, widow, nor wife.
 72212   LUCIO. My lord, she may be a punk; for many of them are neither
 72213     maid, widow, nor wife.
 72214   DUKE. Silence that fellow. I would he had some cause
 72215     To prattle for himself.
 72216   LUCIO. Well, my lord.
 72217   MARIANA. My lord, I do confess I ne'er was married,
 72218     And I confess, besides, I am no maid.
 72219     I have known my husband; yet my husband
 72220     Knows not that ever he knew me.
 72221   LUCIO. He was drunk, then, my lord; it can be no better.
 72222   DUKE. For the benefit of silence, would thou wert so too!
 72223   LUCIO. Well, my lord.
 72224   DUKE. This is no witness for Lord Angelo.
 72225   MARIANA. Now I come to't, my lord:
 72226     She that accuses him of fornication,
 72227     In self-same manner doth accuse my husband;
 72228     And charges him, my lord, with such a time
 72229     When I'll depose I had him in mine arms,
 72230     With all th' effect of love.
 72231   ANGELO. Charges she moe than me?
 72232   MARIANA. Not that I know.
 72233   DUKE. No? You say your husband.
 72234   MARIANA. Why, just, my lord, and that is Angelo,
 72235     Who thinks he knows that he ne'er knew my body,
 72236     But knows he thinks that he knows Isabel's.
 72237   ANGELO. This is a strange abuse. Let's see thy face.
 72238   MARIANA. My husband bids me; now I will unmask.
 72239                                                      [Unveiling]
 72240     This is that face, thou cruel Angelo,
 72241     Which once thou swor'st was worth the looking on;
 72242     This is the hand which, with a vow'd contract,
 72243     Was fast belock'd in thine; this is the body
 72244     That took away the match from Isabel,
 72245     And did supply thee at thy garden-house
 72246     In her imagin'd person.
 72247   DUKE. Know you this woman?
 72248   LUCIO. Carnally, she says.
 72249   DUKE. Sirrah, no more.
 72250   LUCIO. Enough, my lord.
 72251   ANGELO. My lord, I must confess I know this woman;
 72252     And five years since there was some speech of marriage
 72253     Betwixt myself and her; which was broke off,
 72254     Partly for that her promised proportions
 72255     Came short of composition; but in chief
 72256     For that her reputation was disvalued
 72257     In levity. Since which time of five years
 72258     I never spake with her, saw her, nor heard from her,
 72259     Upon my faith and honour.
 72260   MARIANA. Noble Prince,
 72261     As there comes light from heaven and words from breath,
 72262     As there is sense in truth and truth in virtue,
 72263     I am affianc'd this man's wife as strongly
 72264     As words could make up vows. And, my good lord,
 72265     But Tuesday night last gone, in's garden-house,
 72266     He knew me as a wife. As this is true,
 72267     Let me in safety raise me from my knees,
 72268     Or else for ever be confixed here,
 72269     A marble monument!
 72270   ANGELO. I did but smile till now.
 72271     Now, good my lord, give me the scope of justice;
 72272     My patience here is touch'd. I do perceive
 72273     These poor informal women are no more
 72274     But instruments of some more mightier member
 72275     That sets them on. Let me have way, my lord,
 72276     To find this practice out.
 72277   DUKE. Ay, with my heart;
 72278     And punish them to your height of pleasure.
 72279     Thou foolish friar, and thou pernicious woman,
 72280     Compact with her that's gone, think'st thou thy oaths,
 72281     Though they would swear down each particular saint,
 72282     Were testimonies against his worth and credit,
 72283     That's seal'd in approbation? You, Lord Escalus,
 72284     Sit with my cousin; lend him your kind pains
 72285     To find out this abuse, whence 'tis deriv'd.
 72286     There is another friar that set them on;
 72287     Let him be sent for.
 72288   PETER. Would lie were here, my lord! For he indeed
 72289     Hath set the women on to this complaint.
 72290     Your provost knows the place where he abides,
 72291     And he may fetch him.
 72292   DUKE. Go, do it instantly.                        Exit PROVOST
 72293     And you, my noble and well-warranted cousin,
 72294     Whom it concerns to hear this matter forth,
 72295     Do with your injuries as seems you best
 72296     In any chastisement. I for a while will leave you;
 72297     But stir not you till you have well determin'd
 72298     Upon these slanderers.
 72299   ESCALUS. My lord, we'll do it throughly.             Exit DUKE
 72300     Signior Lucio, did not you say you knew that Friar Lodowick to be
 72301     a dishonest person?
 72302   LUCIO. 'Cucullus non facit monachum': honest in nothing but in his
 72303     clothes; and one that hath spoke most villainous speeches of the
 72304     Duke.
 72305   ESCALUS. We shall entreat you to abide here till he come and
 72306     enforce them against him. We shall find this friar a notable
 72307     fellow.
 72308   LUCIO. As any in Vienna, on my word.
 72309   ESCALUS. Call that same Isabel here once again; I would speak with
 72310     her. [Exit an ATTENDANT] Pray you, my lord, give me leave to
 72311     question; you shall see how I'll handle her.
 72312   LUCIO. Not better than he, by her own report.
 72313   ESCALUS. Say you?
 72314   LUCIO. Marry, sir, I think, if you handled her privately, she would
 72315     sooner confess; perchance, publicly, she'll be asham'd.
 72316 
 72317        Re-enter OFFICERS with ISABELLA; and PROVOST with the
 72318                     DUKE in his friar's habit
 72319 
 72320   ESCALUS. I will go darkly to work with her.
 72321   LUCIO. That's the way; for women are light at midnight.
 72322   ESCALUS. Come on, mistress; here's a gentlewoman denies all that
 72323     you have said.
 72324   LUCIO. My lord, here comes the rascal I spoke of, here with the
 72325     Provost.
 72326   ESCALUS. In very good time. Speak not you to him till we call upon
 72327     you.
 72328   LUCIO. Mum.
 72329   ESCALUS. Come, sir; did you set these women on to slander Lord
 72330     Angelo? They have confess'd you did.
 72331   DUKE. 'Tis false.
 72332   ESCALUS. How! Know you where you are?
 72333   DUKE. Respect to your great place! and let the devil
 72334     Be sometime honour'd for his burning throne!
 72335     Where is the Duke? 'Tis he should hear me speak.
 72336   ESCALUS. The Duke's in us; and we will hear you speak;
 72337     Look you speak justly.
 72338   DUKE. Boldly, at least. But, O, poor souls,
 72339     Come you to seek the lamb here of the fox,
 72340     Good night to your redress! Is the Duke gone?
 72341     Then is your cause gone too. The Duke's unjust
 72342     Thus to retort your manifest appeal,
 72343     And put your trial in the villain's mouth
 72344     Which here you come to accuse.
 72345   LUCIO. This is the rascal; this is he I spoke of.
 72346   ESCALUS. Why, thou unreverend and unhallowed friar,
 72347     Is't not enough thou hast suborn'd these women
 72348     To accuse this worthy man, but, in foul mouth,
 72349     And in the witness of his proper ear,
 72350     To call him villain; and then to glance from him
 72351     To th' Duke himself, to tax him with injustice?
 72352     Take him hence; to th' rack with him! We'll touze you
 72353     Joint by joint, but we will know his purpose.
 72354     What, 'unjust'!
 72355   DUKE. Be not so hot; the Duke
 72356     Dare no more stretch this finger of mine than he
 72357     Dare rack his own; his subject am I not,
 72358     Nor here provincial. My business in this state
 72359     Made me a looker-on here in Vienna,
 72360     Where I have seen corruption boil and bubble
 72361     Till it o'errun the stew: laws for all faults,
 72362     But faults so countenanc'd that the strong statutes
 72363     Stand like the forfeits in a barber's shop,
 72364     As much in mock as mark.
 72365   ESCALUS. Slander to th' state! Away with him to prison!
 72366   ANGELO. What can you vouch against him, Signior Lucio?
 72367     Is this the man that you did tell us of?
 72368   LUCIO. 'Tis he, my lord. Come hither, good-man bald-pate.
 72369     Do you know me?
 72370   DUKE. I remember you, sir, by the sound of your voice. I met you at
 72371     the prison, in the absence of the Duke.
 72372   LUCIO. O did you so? And do you remember what you said of the Duke?
 72373   DUKE. Most notedly, sir.
 72374   LUCIO. Do you so, sir? And was the Duke a fleshmonger, a fool, and
 72375     a coward, as you then reported him to be?
 72376   DUKE. You must, sir, change persons with me ere you make that my
 72377     report; you, indeed, spoke so of him; and much more, much worse.
 72378   LUCIO. O thou damnable fellow! Did not I pluck thee by the nose for
 72379     thy speeches?
 72380   DUKE. I protest I love the Duke as I love myself.
 72381   ANGELO. Hark how the villain would close now, after his treasonable
 72382     abuses!
 72383   ESCALUS. Such a fellow is not to be talk'd withal. Away with him to
 72384     prison! Where is the Provost? Away with him to prison! Lay bolts
 72385     enough upon him; let him speak no more. Away with those giglets
 72386     too, and with the other confederate companion!
 72387                             [The PROVOST lays bands on the DUKE]
 72388   DUKE. Stay, sir; stay awhile.
 72389   ANGELO. What, resists he? Help him, Lucio.
 72390   LUCIO. Come, sir; come, sir; come, sir; foh, sir! Why, you
 72391     bald-pated lying rascal, you must be hooded, must you? Show your
 72392     knave's visage, with a pox to you! Show your sheep-biting face,
 72393     and be hang'd an hour! Will't not off?
 72394              [Pulls off the FRIAR'S bood and discovers the DUKE]
 72395   DUKE. Thou art the first knave that e'er mad'st a duke.
 72396     First, Provost, let me bail these gentle three.
 72397     [To Lucio] Sneak not away, sir, for the friar and you
 72398     Must have a word anon. Lay hold on him.
 72399   LUCIO. This may prove worse than hanging.
 72400   DUKE. [To ESCALUS] What you have spoke I pardon; sit you down.
 72401     We'll borrow place of him. [To ANGELO] Sir, by your leave.
 72402     Hast thou or word, or wit, or impudence,
 72403     That yet can do thee office? If thou hast,
 72404     Rely upon it till my tale be heard,
 72405     And hold no longer out.
 72406   ANGELO. O my dread lord,
 72407     I should be guiltier than my guiltiness,
 72408     To think I can be undiscernible,
 72409     When I perceive your Grace, like pow'r divine,
 72410     Hath look'd upon my passes. Then, good Prince,
 72411     No longer session hold upon my shame,
 72412     But let my trial be mine own confession;
 72413     Immediate sentence then, and sequent death,
 72414     Is all the grace I beg.
 72415   DUKE. Come hither, Mariana.
 72416     Say, wast thou e'er contracted to this woman?
 72417   ANGELO. I was, my lord.
 72418   DUKE. Go, take her hence and marry her instantly.
 72419     Do you the office, friar; which consummate,
 72420     Return him here again. Go with him, Provost.
 72421                 Exeunt ANGELO, MARIANA, FRIAR PETER, and PROVOST
 72422   ESCALUS. My lord, I am more amaz'd at his dishonour
 72423     Than at the strangeness of it.
 72424   DUKE. Come hither, Isabel.
 72425     Your friar is now your prince. As I was then
 72426     Advertising and holy to your business,
 72427     Not changing heart with habit, I am still
 72428     Attorney'd at your service.
 72429   ISABELLA. O, give me pardon,
 72430     That I, your vassal have employ'd and pain'd
 72431     Your unknown sovereignty.
 72432   DUKE. You are pardon'd, Isabel.
 72433     And now, dear maid, be you as free to us.
 72434     Your brother's death, I know, sits at your heart;
 72435     And you may marvel why I obscur'd myself,
 72436     Labouring to save his life, and would not rather
 72437     Make rash remonstrance of my hidden pow'r
 72438     Than let him so be lost. O most kind maid,
 72439     It was the swift celerity of his death,
 72440     Which I did think with slower foot came on,
 72441     That brain'd my purpose. But peace be with him!
 72442     That life is better life, past fearing death,
 72443     Than that which lives to fear. Make it your comfort,
 72444     So happy is your brother.
 72445   ISABELLA. I do, my lord.
 72446 
 72447        Re-enter ANGELO, MARIANA, FRIAR PETER, and PROVOST
 72448 
 72449   DUKE. For this new-married man approaching here,
 72450     Whose salt imagination yet hath wrong'd
 72451     Your well-defended honour, you must pardon
 72452     For Mariana's sake; but as he adjudg'd your brother-
 72453     Being criminal in double violation
 72454     Of sacred chastity and of promise-breach,
 72455     Thereon dependent, for your brother's life-
 72456     The very mercy of the law cries out
 72457     Most audible, even from his proper tongue,
 72458     'An Angelo for Claudio, death for death!'
 72459     Haste still pays haste, and leisure answers leisure;
 72460     Like doth quit like, and Measure still for Measure.
 72461     Then, Angelo, thy fault's thus manifested,
 72462     Which, though thou wouldst deny, denies thee vantage.
 72463     We do condemn thee to the very block
 72464     Where Claudio stoop'd to death, and with like haste.
 72465     Away with him!
 72466   MARIANA. O my most gracious lord,
 72467     I hope you will not mock me with a husband.
 72468   DUKE. It is your husband mock'd you with a husband.
 72469     Consenting to the safeguard of your honour,
 72470     I thought your marriage fit; else imputation,
 72471     For that he knew you, might reproach your life,
 72472     And choke your good to come. For his possessions,
 72473     Although by confiscation they are ours,
 72474     We do instate and widow you withal
 72475     To buy you a better husband.
 72476   MARIANA. O my dear lord,
 72477     I crave no other, nor no better man.
 72478   DUKE. Never crave him; we are definitive.
 72479   MARIANA. Gentle my liege-                           [Kneeling]
 72480   DUKE. You do but lose your labour.
 72481     Away with him to death! [To LUCIO] Now, sir, to you.
 72482   MARIANA. O my good lord! Sweet Isabel, take my part;
 72483     Lend me your knees, and all my life to come
 72484     I'll lend you all my life to do you service.
 72485   DUKE. Against all sense you do importune her.
 72486     Should she kneel down in mercy of this fact,
 72487     Her brother's ghost his paved bed would break,
 72488     And take her hence in horror.
 72489   MARIANA. Isabel,
 72490     Sweet Isabel, do yet but kneel by me;
 72491     Hold up your hands, say nothing; I'll speak all.
 72492     They say best men moulded out of faults;
 72493     And, for the most, become much more the better
 72494     For being a little bad; so may my husband.
 72495     O Isabel, will you not lend a knee?
 72496   DUKE. He dies for Claudio's death.
 72497   ISABELLA. [Kneeling] Most bounteous sir,
 72498     Look, if it please you, on this man condemn'd,
 72499     As if my brother liv'd. I partly think
 72500     A due sincerity govern'd his deeds
 72501     Till he did look on me; since it is so,
 72502     Let him not die. My brother had but justice,
 72503     In that he did the thing for which he died;
 72504     For Angelo,
 72505     His act did not o'ertake his bad intent,
 72506     And must be buried but as an intent
 72507     That perish'd by the way. Thoughts are no subjects;
 72508     Intents but merely thoughts.
 72509   MARIANA. Merely, my lord.
 72510   DUKE. Your suit's unprofitable; stand up, I say.
 72511     I have bethought me of another fault.
 72512     Provost, how came it Claudio was beheaded
 72513     At an unusual hour?
 72514   PROVOST. It was commanded so.
 72515   DUKE. Had you a special warrant for the deed?
 72516   PROVOST. No, my good lord; it was by private message.
 72517   DUKE. For which I do discharge you of your office;
 72518     Give up your keys.
 72519   PROVOST. Pardon me, noble lord;
 72520     I thought it was a fault, but knew it not;
 72521     Yet did repent me, after more advice;
 72522     For testimony whereof, one in the prison,
 72523     That should by private order else have died,
 72524     I have reserv'd alive.
 72525   DUKE. What's he?
 72526   PROVOST. His name is Barnardine.
 72527   DUKE. I would thou hadst done so by Claudio.
 72528     Go fetch him hither; let me look upon him.      Exit PROVOST
 72529   ESCALUS. I am sorry one so learned and so wise
 72530     As you, Lord Angelo, have still appear'd,
 72531     Should slip so grossly, both in the heat of blood
 72532     And lack of temper'd judgment afterward.
 72533   ANGELO. I am sorry that such sorrow I procure;
 72534     And so deep sticks it in my penitent heart
 72535     That I crave death more willingly than mercy;
 72536     'Tis my deserving, and I do entreat it.
 72537 
 72538        Re-enter PROVOST, with BARNARDINE, CLAUDIO (muffled)
 72539                             and JULIET
 72540 
 72541   DUKE. Which is that Barnardine?
 72542   PROVOST. This, my lord.
 72543   DUKE. There was a friar told me of this man.
 72544     Sirrah, thou art said to have a stubborn soul,
 72545     That apprehends no further than this world,
 72546     And squar'st thy life according. Thou'rt condemn'd;
 72547     But, for those earthly faults, I quit them all,
 72548     And pray thee take this mercy to provide
 72549     For better times to come. Friar, advise him;
 72550     I leave him to your hand. What muffl'd fellow's that?
 72551   PROVOST. This is another prisoner that I sav'd,
 72552     Who should have died when Claudio lost his head;
 72553     As like almost to Claudio as himself.    [Unmuffles CLAUDIO]
 72554   DUKE. [To ISABELLA] If he be like your brother, for his sake
 72555     Is he pardon'd; and for your lovely sake,
 72556     Give me your hand and say you will be mine,
 72557     He is my brother too. But fitter time for that.
 72558     By this Lord Angelo perceives he's safe;
 72559     Methinks I see a quick'ning in his eye.
 72560     Well, Angelo, your evil quits you well.
 72561     Look that you love your wife; her worth worth yours.
 72562     I find an apt remission in myself;
 72563     And yet here's one in place I cannot pardon.
 72564     To Lucio] You, sirrah, that knew me for a fool, a coward,
 72565     One all of luxury, an ass, a madman!
 72566     Wherein have I so deserv'd of you
 72567     That you extol me thus?
 72568   LUCIO. Faith, my lord, I spoke it but according to the trick.
 72569     If you will hang me for it, you may; but I had rather it would
 72570     please you I might be whipt.
 72571   DUKE. Whipt first, sir, and hang'd after.
 72572     Proclaim it, Provost, round about the city,
 72573     If any woman wrong'd by this lewd fellow-
 72574     As I have heard him swear himself there's one
 72575     Whom he begot with child, let her appear,
 72576     And he shall marry her. The nuptial finish'd,
 72577     Let him be whipt and hang'd.
 72578   LUCIO. I beseech your Highness, do not marry me to a whore. Your
 72579     Highness said even now I made you a duke; good my lord, do not
 72580     recompense me in making me a cuckold.
 72581   DUKE. Upon mine honour, thou shalt marry her.
 72582     Thy slanders I forgive; and therewithal
 72583     Remit thy other forfeits. Take him to prison;
 72584     And see our pleasure herein executed.
 72585   LUCIO. Marrying a punk, my lord, is pressing to death, whipping,
 72586     and hanging.
 72587   DUKE. Slandering a prince deserves it.
 72588                                       Exeunt OFFICERS with LUCIO
 72589     She, Claudio, that you wrong'd, look you restore.
 72590     Joy to you, Mariana! Love her, Angelo;
 72591     I have confess'd her, and I know her virtue.
 72592     Thanks, good friend Escalus, for thy much goodness;
 72593     There's more behind that is more gratulate.
 72594     Thanks, Provost, for thy care and secrecy;
 72595     We shall employ thee in a worthier place.
 72596     Forgive him, Angelo, that brought you home
 72597     The head of Ragozine for Claudio's:
 72598     Th' offence pardons itself. Dear Isabel,
 72599     I have a motion much imports your good;
 72600     Whereto if you'll a willing ear incline,
 72601     What's mine is yours, and what is yours is mine.
 72602     So, bring us to our palace, where we'll show
 72603     What's yet behind that's meet you all should know.
 72604                                                           Exeunt
 72605 
 72606 THE END
 72607 
 72608 
 72609 
 72610 <<THIS ELECTRONIC VERSION OF THE COMPLETE WORKS OF WILLIAM
 72611 SHAKESPEARE IS COPYRIGHT 1990-1993 BY WORLD LIBRARY, INC., AND IS
 72612 PROVIDED BY PROJECT GUTENBERG ETEXT OF ILLINOIS BENEDICTINE COLLEGE
 72613 WITH PERMISSION.  ELECTRONIC AND MACHINE READABLE COPIES MAY BE
 72614 DISTRIBUTED SO LONG AS SUCH COPIES (1) ARE FOR YOUR OR OTHERS
 72615 PERSONAL USE ONLY, AND (2) ARE NOT DISTRIBUTED OR USED
 72616 COMMERCIALLY.  PROHIBITED COMMERCIAL DISTRIBUTION INCLUDES BY ANY
 72617 SERVICE THAT CHARGES FOR DOWNLOAD TIME OR FOR MEMBERSHIP.>>
 72618 
 72619 
 72620 
 72621 
 72622 
 72623 1597
 72624 
 72625 THE MERCHANT OF VENICE
 72626 
 72627 by William Shakespeare
 72628 
 72629 
 72630 
 72631 DRAMATIS PERSONAE
 72632 
 72633   THE DUKE OF VENICE
 72634   THE PRINCE OF MOROCCO, suitor to Portia
 72635   THE PRINCE OF ARRAGON,    "    "    "
 72636   ANTONIO, a merchant of Venice
 72637   BASSANIO, his friend, suitor to Portia
 72638   SOLANIO,   friend to Antonio and Bassanio
 72639   SALERIO,      "    "    "     "     "
 72640   GRATIANO,     "    "    "     "     "
 72641   LORENZO, in love with Jessica
 72642   SHYLOCK, a rich Jew
 72643   TUBAL, a Jew, his friend
 72644   LAUNCELOT GOBBO, a clown, servant to Shylock
 72645   OLD GOBBO, father to Launcelot
 72646   LEONARDO, servant to Bassanio
 72647   BALTHASAR, servant to Portia
 72648   STEPHANO,     "     "    "
 72649 
 72650   PORTIA, a rich heiress
 72651   NERISSA, her waiting-maid
 72652   JESSICA, daughter to Shylock
 72653 
 72654   Magnificoes of Venice, Officers of the Court of Justice,
 72655     Gaoler, Servants, and other Attendants
 72656 
 72657 
 72658 
 72659 
 72660 <<THIS ELECTRONIC VERSION OF THE COMPLETE WORKS OF WILLIAM
 72661 SHAKESPEARE IS COPYRIGHT 1990-1993 BY WORLD LIBRARY, INC., AND IS
 72662 PROVIDED BY PROJECT GUTENBERG ETEXT OF ILLINOIS BENEDICTINE COLLEGE
 72663 WITH PERMISSION.  ELECTRONIC AND MACHINE READABLE COPIES MAY BE
 72664 DISTRIBUTED SO LONG AS SUCH COPIES (1) ARE FOR YOUR OR OTHERS
 72665 PERSONAL USE ONLY, AND (2) ARE NOT DISTRIBUTED OR USED
 72666 COMMERCIALLY.  PROHIBITED COMMERCIAL DISTRIBUTION INCLUDES BY ANY
 72667 SERVICE THAT CHARGES FOR DOWNLOAD TIME OR FOR MEMBERSHIP.>>
 72668 
 72669 
 72670 
 72671 SCENE:
 72672 Venice, and PORTIA'S house at Belmont
 72673 
 72674 
 72675 ACT I. SCENE I.
 72676 Venice. A street
 72677 
 72678 Enter ANTONIO, SALERIO, and SOLANIO
 72679 
 72680   ANTONIO. In sooth, I know not why I am so sad.
 72681     It wearies me; you say it wearies you;
 72682     But how I caught it, found it, or came by it,
 72683     What stuff 'tis made of, whereof it is born,
 72684     I am to learn;
 72685     And such a want-wit sadness makes of me
 72686     That I have much ado to know myself.
 72687   SALERIO. Your mind is tossing on the ocean;
 72688     There where your argosies, with portly sail-
 72689     Like signiors and rich burghers on the flood,
 72690     Or as it were the pageants of the sea-
 72691     Do overpeer the petty traffickers,
 72692     That curtsy to them, do them reverence,
 72693     As they fly by them with their woven wings.
 72694   SOLANIO. Believe me, sir, had I such venture forth,
 72695     The better part of my affections would
 72696     Be with my hopes abroad. I should be still
 72697     Plucking the grass to know where sits the wind,
 72698     Peering in maps for ports, and piers, and roads;
 72699     And every object that might make me fear
 72700     Misfortune to my ventures, out of doubt,
 72701     Would make me sad.
 72702   SALERIO. My wind, cooling my broth,
 72703     Would blow me to an ague when I thought
 72704     What harm a wind too great might do at sea.
 72705     I should not see the sandy hour-glass run
 72706     But I should think of shallows and of flats,
 72707     And see my wealthy Andrew dock'd in sand,
 72708     Vailing her high top lower than her ribs
 72709     To kiss her burial. Should I go to church
 72710     And see the holy edifice of stone,
 72711     And not bethink me straight of dangerous rocks,
 72712     Which, touching but my gentle vessel's side,
 72713     Would scatter all her spices on the stream,
 72714     Enrobe the roaring waters with my silks,
 72715     And, in a word, but even now worth this,
 72716     And now worth nothing? Shall I have the thought
 72717     To think on this, and shall I lack the thought
 72718     That such a thing bechanc'd would make me sad?
 72719     But tell not me; I know Antonio
 72720     Is sad to think upon his merchandise.
 72721   ANTONIO. Believe me, no; I thank my fortune for it,
 72722     My ventures are not in one bottom trusted,
 72723     Nor to one place; nor is my whole estate
 72724     Upon the fortune of this present year;
 72725     Therefore my merchandise makes me not sad.
 72726   SOLANIO. Why then you are in love.
 72727   ANTONIO. Fie, fie!
 72728   SOLANIO. Not in love neither? Then let us say you are sad
 72729     Because you are not merry; and 'twere as easy
 72730     For you to laugh and leap and say you are merry,
 72731     Because you are not sad. Now, by two-headed Janus,
 72732     Nature hath fram'd strange fellows in her time:
 72733     Some that will evermore peep through their eyes,
 72734     And laugh like parrots at a bag-piper;
 72735     And other of such vinegar aspect
 72736     That they'll not show their teeth in way of smile
 72737     Though Nestor swear the jest be laughable.
 72738 
 72739                Enter BASSANIO, LORENZO, and GRATIANO
 72740 
 72741     Here comes Bassanio, your most noble kinsman,
 72742     Gratiano and Lorenzo. Fare ye well;
 72743     We leave you now with better company.
 72744   SALERIO. I would have stay'd till I had made you merry,
 72745     If worthier friends had not prevented me.
 72746   ANTONIO. Your worth is very dear in my regard.
 72747     I take it your own business calls on you,
 72748     And you embrace th' occasion to depart.
 72749   SALERIO. Good morrow, my good lords.
 72750   BASSANIO. Good signiors both, when shall we laugh? Say when.
 72751     You grow exceeding strange; must it be so?
 72752   SALERIO. We'll make our leisures to attend on yours.
 72753                                       Exeunt SALERIO and SOLANIO
 72754   LORENZO. My Lord Bassanio, since you have found Antonio,
 72755     We two will leave you; but at dinner-time,
 72756     I pray you, have in mind where we must meet.
 72757   BASSANIO. I will not fail you.
 72758   GRATIANO. You look not well, Signior Antonio;
 72759     You have too much respect upon the world;
 72760     They lose it that do buy it with much care.
 72761     Believe me, you are marvellously chang'd.
 72762   ANTONIO. I hold the world but as the world, Gratiano-
 72763     A stage, where every man must play a part,
 72764     And mine a sad one.
 72765   GRATIANO. Let me play the fool.
 72766     With mirth and laughter let old wrinkles come;
 72767     And let my liver rather heat with wine
 72768     Than my heart cool with mortifying groans.
 72769     Why should a man whose blood is warm within
 72770     Sit like his grandsire cut in alabaster,
 72771     Sleep when he wakes, and creep into the jaundice
 72772     By being peevish? I tell thee what, Antonio-
 72773     I love thee, and 'tis my love that speaks-
 72774     There are a sort of men whose visages
 72775     Do cream and mantle like a standing pond,
 72776     And do a wilful stillness entertain,
 72777     With purpose to be dress'd in an opinion
 72778     Of wisdom, gravity, profound conceit;
 72779     As who should say 'I am Sir Oracle,
 72780     And when I ope my lips let no dog bark.'
 72781     O my Antonio, I do know of these
 72782     That therefore only are reputed wise
 72783     For saying nothing; when, I am very sure,
 72784     If they should speak, would almost damn those ears
 72785     Which, hearing them, would call their brothers fools.
 72786     I'll tell thee more of this another time.
 72787     But fish not with this melancholy bait
 72788     For this fool gudgeon, this opinion.
 72789     Come, good Lorenzo. Fare ye well awhile;
 72790     I'll end my exhortation after dinner.
 72791   LORENZO. Well, we will leave you then till dinner-time.
 72792     I must be one of these same dumb wise men,
 72793     For Gratiano never lets me speak.
 72794   GRATIANO. Well, keep me company but two years moe,
 72795     Thou shalt not know the sound of thine own tongue.
 72796   ANTONIO. Fare you well; I'll grow a talker for this gear.
 72797   GRATIANO. Thanks, i' faith, for silence is only commendable
 72798     In a neat's tongue dried, and a maid not vendible.
 72799                                      Exeunt GRATIANO and LORENZO
 72800   ANTONIO. Is that anything now?
 72801   BASSANIO. Gratiano speaks an infinite deal of nothing, more than
 72802     any man in all Venice. His reasons are as two grains of wheat hid
 72803     in, two bushels of chaff: you shall seek all day ere you find
 72804     them, and when you have them they are not worth the search.
 72805   ANTONIO. Well; tell me now what lady is the same
 72806     To whom you swore a secret pilgrimage,
 72807     That you to-day promis'd to tell me of?
 72808   BASSANIO. 'Tis not unknown to you, Antonio,
 72809     How much I have disabled mine estate
 72810     By something showing a more swelling port
 72811     Than my faint means would grant continuance;
 72812     Nor do I now make moan to be abridg'd
 72813     From such a noble rate; but my chief care
 72814     Is to come fairly off from the great debts
 72815     Wherein my time, something too prodigal,
 72816     Hath left me gag'd. To you, Antonio,
 72817     I owe the most, in money and in love;
 72818     And from your love I have a warranty
 72819     To unburden all my plots and purposes
 72820     How to get clear of all the debts I owe.
 72821   ANTONIO. I pray you, good Bassanio, let me know it;
 72822     And if it stand, as you yourself still do,
 72823     Within the eye of honour, be assur'd
 72824     My purse, my person, my extremest means,
 72825     Lie all unlock'd to your occasions.
 72826   BASSANIO. In my school-days, when I had lost one shaft,
 72827     I shot his fellow of the self-same flight
 72828     The self-same way, with more advised watch,
 72829     To find the other forth; and by adventuring both
 72830     I oft found both. I urge this childhood proof,
 72831     Because what follows is pure innocence.
 72832     I owe you much; and, like a wilful youth,
 72833     That which I owe is lost; but if you please
 72834     To shoot another arrow that self way
 72835     Which you did shoot the first, I do not doubt,
 72836     As I will watch the aim, or to find both,
 72837     Or bring your latter hazard back again
 72838     And thankfully rest debtor for the first.
 72839   ANTONIO. You know me well, and herein spend but time
 72840     To wind about my love with circumstance;
 72841     And out of doubt you do me now more wrong
 72842     In making question of my uttermost
 72843     Than if you had made waste of all I have.
 72844     Then do but say to me what I should do
 72845     That in your knowledge may by me be done,
 72846     And I am prest unto it; therefore, speak.
 72847   BASSANIO. In Belmont is a lady richly left,
 72848     And she is fair and, fairer than that word,
 72849     Of wondrous virtues. Sometimes from her eyes
 72850     I did receive fair speechless messages.
 72851     Her name is Portia- nothing undervalu'd
 72852     To Cato's daughter, Brutus' Portia.
 72853     Nor is the wide world ignorant of her worth;
 72854     For the four winds blow in from every coast
 72855     Renowned suitors, and her sunny locks
 72856     Hang on her temples like a golden fleece,
 72857     Which makes her seat of Belmont Colchos' strond,
 72858     And many Jasons come in quest of her.
 72859     O my Antonio, had I but the means
 72860     To hold a rival place with one of them,
 72861     I have a mind presages me such thrift
 72862     That I should questionless be fortunate.
 72863   ANTONIO. Thou know'st that all my fortunes are at sea;
 72864     Neither have I money nor commodity
 72865     To raise a present sum; therefore go forth,
 72866     Try what my credit can in Venice do;
 72867     That shall be rack'd, even to the uttermost,
 72868     To furnish thee to Belmont to fair Portia.
 72869     Go presently inquire, and so will I,
 72870     Where money is; and I no question make
 72871     To have it of my trust or for my sake.                Exeunt
 72872 
 72873 
 72874 
 72875 
 72876 
 72877 SCENE II.
 72878 Belmont. PORTIA'S house
 72879 
 72880 Enter PORTIA with her waiting-woman, NERISSA
 72881 
 72882   PORTIA. By my troth, Nerissa, my little body is aweary of this
 72883     great world.
 72884   NERISSA. You would be, sweet madam, if your miseries were in the
 72885     same abundance as your good fortunes are; and yet, for aught I
 72886     see, they are as sick that surfeit with too much as they that
 72887     starve with nothing. It is no mean happiness, therefore, to be
 72888     seated in the mean: superfluity come sooner by white hairs, but
 72889     competency lives longer.
 72890   PORTIA. Good sentences, and well pronounc'd.
 72891   NERISSA. They would be better, if well followed.
 72892   PORTIA. If to do were as easy as to know what were good to do,
 72893     chapels had been churches, and poor men's cottages princes'
 72894     palaces. It is a good divine that follows his own instructions; I
 72895     can easier teach twenty what were good to be done than to be one
 72896     of the twenty to follow mine own teaching. The brain may devise
 72897     laws for the blood, but a hot temper leaps o'er a cold decree;
 72898     such a hare is madness the youth, to skip o'er the meshes of good
 72899     counsel the cripple. But this reasoning is not in the fashion to
 72900     choose me a husband. O me, the word 'choose'! I may neither
 72901     choose who I would nor refuse who I dislike; so is the will of a
 72902     living daughter curb'd by the will of a dead father. Is it not
 72903     hard, Nerissa, that I cannot choose one, nor refuse none?
 72904   NERISSA. Your father was ever virtuous, and holy men at their death
 72905     have good inspirations; therefore the lott'ry that he hath
 72906     devised in these three chests, of gold, silver, and lead- whereof
 72907     who chooses his meaning chooses you- will no doubt never be
 72908     chosen by any rightly but one who you shall rightly love. But
 72909     what warmth is there in your affection towards any of these
 72910     princely suitors that are already come?
 72911   PORTIA. I pray thee over-name them; and as thou namest them, I will
 72912     describe them; and according to my description, level at my
 72913     affection.
 72914   NERISSA. First, there is the Neapolitan prince.
 72915   PORTIA. Ay, that's a colt indeed, for he doth nothing but talk of
 72916     his horse; and he makes it a great appropriation to his own good
 72917     parts that he can shoe him himself; I am much afear'd my lady his
 72918     mother play'd false with a smith.
 72919   NERISSA. Then is there the County Palatine.
 72920   PORTIA. He doth nothing but frown, as who should say 'An you will
 72921     not have me, choose.' He hears merry tales and smiles not. I fear
 72922     he will prove the weeping philosopher when he grows old, being so
 72923     full of unmannerly sadness in his youth. I had rather be married
 72924     to a death's-head with a bone in his mouth than to either of
 72925     these. God defend me from these two!
 72926   NERISSA. How say you by the French lord, Monsieur Le Bon?
 72927   PORTIA. God made him, and therefore let him pass for a man. In
 72928     truth, I know it is a sin to be a mocker, but he- why, he hath a
 72929     horse better than the Neapolitan's, a better bad habit of
 72930     frowning than the Count Palatine; he is every man in no man. If a
 72931     throstle sing he falls straight a-cap'ring; he will fence with
 72932     his own shadow; if I should marry him, I should marry twenty
 72933     husbands. If he would despise me, I would forgive him; for if he
 72934     love me to madness, I shall never requite him.
 72935   NERISSA. What say you then to Falconbridge, the young baron of
 72936     England?
 72937   PORTIA. You know I say nothing to him, for he understands not me,
 72938     nor I him: he hath neither Latin, French, nor Italian, and you
 72939     will come into the court and swear that I have a poor pennyworth
 72940     in the English. He is a proper man's picture; but alas, who can
 72941     converse with a dumb-show? How oddly he is suited! I think he
 72942     bought his doublet in Italy, his round hose in France, his bonnet
 72943     in Germany, and his behaviour everywhere.
 72944   NERISSA. What think you of the Scottish lord, his neighbour?
 72945   PORTIA. That he hath a neighbourly charity in him, for he borrowed
 72946     a box of the ear of the Englishman, and swore he would pay him
 72947     again when he was able; I think the Frenchman became his surety,
 72948     and seal'd under for another.
 72949   NERISSA. How like you the young German, the Duke of Saxony's
 72950     nephew?
 72951   PORTIA. Very vilely in the morning when he is sober; and most
 72952     vilely in the afternoon when he is drunk. When he is best, he is
 72953     a little worse than a man, and when he is worst, he is little
 72954     better than a beast. An the worst fall that ever fell, I hope I
 72955     shall make shift to go without him.
 72956   NERISSA. If he should offer to choose, and choose the right casket,
 72957     you should refuse to perform your father's will, if you should
 72958     refuse to accept him.
 72959   PORTIA. Therefore, for fear of the worst, I pray thee set a deep
 72960     glass of Rhenish wine on the contrary casket; for if the devil be
 72961     within and that temptation without, I know he will choose it. I
 72962     will do anything, Nerissa, ere I will be married to a sponge.
 72963   NERISSA. You need not fear, lady, the having any of these lords;
 72964     they have acquainted me with their determinations, which is
 72965     indeed to return to their home, and to trouble you with no more
 72966     suit, unless you may be won by some other sort than your father's
 72967     imposition, depending on the caskets.
 72968   PORTIA. If I live to be as old as Sibylla, I will die as chaste as
 72969     Diana, unless I be obtained by the manner of my father's will. I
 72970     am glad this parcel of wooers are so reasonable; for there is not
 72971     one among them but I dote on his very absence, and I pray God
 72972     grant them a fair departure.
 72973   NERISSA. Do you not remember, lady, in your father's time, a
 72974     Venetian, a scholar and a soldier, that came hither in company of
 72975     the Marquis of Montferrat?
 72976   PORTIA. Yes, yes, it was Bassanio; as I think, so was he call'd.
 72977   NERISSA. True, madam; he, of all the men that ever my foolish eyes
 72978     look'd upon, was the best deserving a fair lady.
 72979   PORTIA. I remember him well, and I remember him worthy of thy
 72980     praise.
 72981 
 72982                          Enter a SERVINGMAN
 72983 
 72984     How now! what news?
 72985   SERVINGMAN. The four strangers seek for you, madam, to take their
 72986     leave; and there is a forerunner come from a fifth, the Prince of
 72987     Morocco, who brings word the Prince his master will be here
 72988     to-night.
 72989   PORTIA. If I could bid the fifth welcome with so good heart as I
 72990     can bid the other four farewell, I should be glad of his
 72991     approach; if he have the condition of a saint and the complexion
 72992     of a devil, I had rather he should shrive me than wive me.
 72993     Come, Nerissa. Sirrah, go before.
 72994     Whiles we shut the gate upon one wooer, another knocks at the
 72995       door.                                               Exeunt
 72996 
 72997 
 72998 
 72999 
 73000 SCENE III.
 73001 Venice. A public place
 73002 
 73003 Enter BASSANIO With SHYLOCK the Jew
 73004 
 73005   SHYLOCK. Three thousand ducats- well.
 73006   BASSANIO. Ay, sir, for three months.
 73007   SHYLOCK. For three months- well.
 73008   BASSANIO. For the which, as I told you, Antonio shall be bound.
 73009   SHYLOCK. Antonio shall become bound- well.
 73010   BASSANIO. May you stead me? Will you pleasure me? Shall I know your
 73011     answer?
 73012   SHYLOCK. Three thousand ducats for three months, and Antonio bound.
 73013   BASSANIO. Your answer to that.
 73014   SHYLOCK. Antonio is a good man.
 73015   BASSANIO. Have you heard any imputation to the contrary?
 73016   SHYLOCK. Ho, no, no, no, no; my meaning in saying he is a good man
 73017     is to have you understand me that he is sufficient; yet his means
 73018     are in supposition: he hath an argosy bound to Tripolis, another
 73019     to the Indies; I understand, moreover, upon the Rialto, he hath a
 73020     third at Mexico, a fourth for England- and other ventures he
 73021     hath, squand'red abroad. But ships are but boards, sailors but
 73022     men; there be land-rats and water-rats, water-thieves and
 73023     land-thieves- I mean pirates; and then there is the peril of
 73024     waters, winds, and rocks. The man is, notwithstanding,
 73025     sufficient. Three thousand ducats- I think I may take his bond.
 73026   BASSANIO. Be assur'd you may.
 73027   SHYLOCK. I will be assur'd I may; and, that I may be assured, I
 73028     will bethink me. May I speak with Antonio?
 73029   BASSANIO. If it please you to dine with us.
 73030   SHYLOCK. Yes, to smell pork, to eat of the habitation which your
 73031     prophet, the Nazarite, conjured the devil into! I will buy with
 73032     you, sell with you, talk with you, walk with you, and so
 73033     following; but I will not eat with you, drink with you, nor pray
 73034     with you. What news on the Rialto? Who is he comes here?
 73035 
 73036                             Enter ANTONIO
 73037 
 73038   BASSANIO. This is Signior Antonio.
 73039   SHYLOCK.  [Aside]  How like a fawning publican he looks!
 73040     I hate him for he is a Christian;
 73041     But more for that in low simplicity
 73042     He lends out money gratis, and brings down
 73043     The rate of usance here with us in Venice.
 73044     If I can catch him once upon the hip,
 73045     I will feed fat the ancient grudge I bear him.
 73046     He hates our sacred nation; and he rails,
 73047     Even there where merchants most do congregate,
 73048     On me, my bargains, and my well-won thrift,
 73049     Which he calls interest. Cursed be my tribe
 73050     If I forgive him!
 73051   BASSANIO. Shylock, do you hear?
 73052   SHYLOCK. I am debating of my present store,
 73053     And, by the near guess of my memory,
 73054     I cannot instantly raise up the gross
 73055     Of full three thousand ducats. What of that?
 73056     Tubal, a wealthy Hebrew of my tribe,
 73057     Will furnish me. But soft! how many months
 73058     Do you desire?  [To ANTONIO]  Rest you fair, good signior;
 73059     Your worship was the last man in our mouths.
 73060   ANTONIO. Shylock, albeit I neither lend nor borrow
 73061     By taking nor by giving of excess,
 73062     Yet, to supply the ripe wants of my friend,
 73063     I'll break a custom.  [To BASSANIO]  Is he yet possess'd
 73064     How much ye would?
 73065   SHYLOCK. Ay, ay, three thousand ducats.
 73066   ANTONIO. And for three months.
 73067   SHYLOCK. I had forgot- three months; you told me so.
 73068     Well then, your bond; and, let me see- but hear you,
 73069     Methoughts you said you neither lend nor borrow
 73070     Upon advantage.
 73071   ANTONIO. I do never use it.
 73072   SHYLOCK. When Jacob graz'd his uncle Laban's sheep-
 73073     This Jacob from our holy Abram was,
 73074     As his wise mother wrought in his behalf,
 73075     The third possessor; ay, he was the third-
 73076   ANTONIO. And what of him? Did he take interest?
 73077   SHYLOCK. No, not take interest; not, as you would say,
 73078     Directly int'rest; mark what Jacob did:
 73079     When Laban and himself were compromis'd
 73080     That all the eanlings which were streak'd and pied
 73081     Should fall as Jacob's hire, the ewes, being rank,
 73082     In end of autumn turned to the rams;
 73083     And when the work of generation was
 73084     Between these woolly breeders in the act,
 73085     The skilful shepherd pill'd me certain wands,
 73086     And, in the doing of the deed of kind,
 73087     He stuck them up before the fulsome ewes,
 73088     Who, then conceiving, did in eaning time
 73089     Fall parti-colour'd lambs, and those were Jacob's.
 73090     This was a way to thrive, and he was blest;
 73091     And thrift is blessing, if men steal it not.
 73092   ANTONIO. This was a venture, sir, that Jacob serv'd for;
 73093     A thing not in his power to bring to pass,
 73094     But sway'd and fashion'd by the hand of heaven.
 73095     Was this inserted to make interest good?
 73096     Or is your gold and silver ewes and rams?
 73097   SHYLOCK. I cannot tell; I make it breed as fast.
 73098     But note me, signior.
 73099   ANTONIO.  [Aside]  Mark you this, Bassanio,
 73100     The devil can cite Scripture for his purpose.
 73101     An evil soul producing holy witness
 73102     Is like a villain with a smiling cheek,
 73103     A goodly apple rotten at the heart.
 73104     O, what a goodly outside falsehood hath!
 73105   SHYLOCK. Three thousand ducats- 'tis a good round sum.
 73106     Three months from twelve; then let me see, the rate-
 73107   ANTONIO. Well, Shylock, shall we be beholding to you?
 73108   SHYLOCK. Signior Antonio, many a time and oft
 73109     In the Rialto you have rated me
 73110     About my moneys and my usances;
 73111     Still have I borne it with a patient shrug,
 73112     For suff'rance is the badge of all our tribe;
 73113     You call me misbeliever, cut-throat dog,
 73114     And spit upon my Jewish gaberdine,
 73115     And all for use of that which is mine own.
 73116     Well then, it now appears you need my help;
 73117     Go to, then; you come to me, and you say
 73118     'Shylock, we would have moneys.' You say so-
 73119     You that did void your rheum upon my beard
 73120     And foot me as you spurn a stranger cur
 73121     Over your threshold; moneys is your suit.
 73122     What should I say to you? Should I not say
 73123     'Hath a dog money? Is it possible
 73124     A cur can lend three thousand ducats?' Or
 73125     Shall I bend low and, in a bondman's key,
 73126     With bated breath and whisp'ring humbleness,
 73127     Say this:
 73128     'Fair sir, you spit on me on Wednesday last,
 73129     You spurn'd me such a day; another time
 73130     You call'd me dog; and for these courtesies
 73131     I'll lend you thus much moneys'?
 73132   ANTONIO. I am as like to call thee so again,
 73133     To spit on thee again, to spurn thee too.
 73134     If thou wilt lend this money, lend it not
 73135     As to thy friends- for when did friendship take
 73136     A breed for barren metal of his friend?-
 73137     But lend it rather to thine enemy,
 73138     Who if he break thou mayst with better face
 73139     Exact the penalty.
 73140   SHYLOCK. Why, look you, how you storm!
 73141     I would be friends with you, and have your love,
 73142     Forget the shames that you have stain'd me with,
 73143     Supply your present wants, and take no doit
 73144     Of usance for my moneys, and you'll not hear me.
 73145     This is kind I offer.
 73146   BASSANIO. This were kindness.
 73147   SHYLOCK. This kindness will I show.
 73148     Go with me to a notary, seal me there
 73149     Your single bond, and, in a merry sport,
 73150     If you repay me not on such a day,
 73151     In such a place, such sum or sums as are
 73152     Express'd in the condition, let the forfeit
 73153     Be nominated for an equal pound
 73154     Of your fair flesh, to be cut off and taken
 73155     In what part of your body pleaseth me.
 73156   ANTONIO. Content, in faith; I'll seal to such a bond,
 73157     And say there is much kindness in the Jew.
 73158   BASSANIO. You shall not seal to such a bond for me;
 73159     I'll rather dwell in my necessity.
 73160   ANTONIO. Why, fear not, man; I will not forfeit it;
 73161     Within these two months- that's a month before
 73162     This bond expires- I do expect return
 73163     Of thrice three times the value of this bond.
 73164   SHYLOCK. O father Abram, what these Christians are,
 73165     Whose own hard dealings teaches them suspect
 73166     The thoughts of others! Pray you, tell me this:
 73167     If he should break his day, what should I gain
 73168     By the exaction of the forfeiture?
 73169     A pound of man's flesh taken from a man
 73170     Is not so estimable, profitable neither,
 73171     As flesh of muttons, beefs, or goats. I say,
 73172     To buy his favour, I extend this friendship;
 73173     If he will take it, so; if not, adieu;
 73174     And, for my love, I pray you wrong me not.
 73175   ANTONIO. Yes, Shylock, I will seal unto this bond.
 73176   SHYLOCK. Then meet me forthwith at the notary's;
 73177     Give him direction for this merry bond,
 73178     And I will go and purse the ducats straight,
 73179     See to my house, left in the fearful guard
 73180     Of an unthrifty knave, and presently
 73181     I'll be with you.
 73182   ANTONIO. Hie thee, gentle Jew.                    Exit SHYLOCK
 73183     The Hebrew will turn Christian: he grows kind.
 73184   BASSANIO. I like not fair terms and a villain's mind.
 73185   ANTONIO. Come on; in this there can be no dismay;
 73186     My ships come home a month before the day.            Exeunt
 73187 
 73188 
 73189 
 73190 
 73191 <<THIS ELECTRONIC VERSION OF THE COMPLETE WORKS OF WILLIAM
 73192 SHAKESPEARE IS COPYRIGHT 1990-1993 BY WORLD LIBRARY, INC., AND IS
 73193 PROVIDED BY PROJECT GUTENBERG ETEXT OF ILLINOIS BENEDICTINE COLLEGE
 73194 WITH PERMISSION.  ELECTRONIC AND MACHINE READABLE COPIES MAY BE
 73195 DISTRIBUTED SO LONG AS SUCH COPIES (1) ARE FOR YOUR OR OTHERS
 73196 PERSONAL USE ONLY, AND (2) ARE NOT DISTRIBUTED OR USED
 73197 COMMERCIALLY.  PROHIBITED COMMERCIAL DISTRIBUTION INCLUDES BY ANY
 73198 SERVICE THAT CHARGES FOR DOWNLOAD TIME OR FOR MEMBERSHIP.>>
 73199 
 73200 
 73201 
 73202 ACT II. SCENE I.
 73203 Belmont. PORTIA'S house
 73204 
 73205 Flourish of cornets. Enter the PRINCE of MOROCCO, a tawny Moor all in white,
 73206 and three or four FOLLOWERS accordingly, with PORTIA, NERISSA, and train
 73207 
 73208   PRINCE OF Morocco. Mislike me not for my complexion,
 73209     The shadowed livery of the burnish'd sun,
 73210     To whom I am a neighbour, and near bred.
 73211     Bring me the fairest creature northward born,
 73212     Where Phoebus' fire scarce thaws the icicles,
 73213     And let us make incision for your love
 73214     To prove whose blood is reddest, his or mine.
 73215     I tell thee, lady, this aspect of mine
 73216     Hath fear'd the valiant; by my love, I swear
 73217     The best-regarded virgins of our clime
 73218     Have lov'd it too. I would not change this hue,
 73219     Except to steal your thoughts, my gentle queen.
 73220   PORTIA. In terms of choice I am not solely led
 73221     By nice direction of a maiden's eyes;
 73222     Besides, the lott'ry of my destiny
 73223     Bars me the right of voluntary choosing.
 73224     But, if my father had not scanted me,
 73225     And hedg'd me by his wit to yield myself
 73226     His wife who wins me by that means I told you,
 73227     Yourself, renowned Prince, then stood as fair
 73228     As any comer I have look'd on yet
 73229     For my affection.
 73230   PRINCE OF MOROCCO. Even for that I thank you.
 73231     Therefore, I pray you, lead me to the caskets
 73232     To try my fortune. By this scimitar,
 73233     That slew the Sophy and a Persian prince,
 73234     That won three fields of Sultan Solyman,
 73235     I would o'erstare the sternest eyes that look,
 73236     Outbrave the heart most daring on the earth,
 73237     Pluck the young sucking cubs from the she-bear,
 73238     Yea, mock the lion when 'a roars for prey,
 73239     To win thee, lady. But, alas the while!
 73240     If Hercules and Lichas play at dice
 73241     Which is the better man, the greater throw
 73242     May turn by fortune from the weaker band.
 73243     So is Alcides beaten by his page;
 73244     And so may I, blind Fortune leading me,
 73245     Miss that which one unworthier may attain,
 73246     And die with grieving.
 73247   PORTIA. You must take your chance,
 73248     And either not attempt to choose at all,
 73249     Or swear before you choose, if you choose wrong,
 73250     Never to speak to lady afterward
 73251     In way of marriage; therefore be advis'd.
 73252   PRINCE OF MOROCCO. Nor will not; come, bring me unto my chance.
 73253   PORTIA. First, forward to the temple. After dinner
 73254     Your hazard shall be made.
 73255   PRINCE OF MOROCCO. Good fortune then,
 73256     To make me blest or cursed'st among men!
 73257                                            [Cornets, and exeunt]
 73258 
 73259 
 73260 
 73261 
 73262 SCENE II.
 73263 Venice. A street
 73264 
 73265 Enter LAUNCELOT GOBBO
 73266 
 73267   LAUNCELOT. Certainly my conscience will serve me to run from this
 73268     Jew my master. The fiend is at mine elbow and tempts me, saying
 73269     to me 'Gobbo, Launcelot Gobbo, good Launcelot' or 'good Gobbo' or
 73270     'good Launcelot Gobbo, use your legs, take the start, run away.'
 73271     My conscience says 'No; take heed, honest Launcelot, take heed,
 73272     honest Gobbo' or, as aforesaid, 'honest Launcelot Gobbo, do not
 73273     run; scorn running with thy heels.' Well, the most courageous
 73274     fiend bids me pack. 'Via!' says the fiend; 'away!' says the
 73275     fiend. 'For the heavens, rouse up a brave mind' says the fiend
 73276     'and run.' Well, my conscience, hanging about the neck of my
 73277     heart, says very wisely to me 'My honest friend Launcelot, being
 73278     an honest man's son' or rather 'an honest woman's son'; for
 73279     indeed my father did something smack, something grow to, he had a
 73280     kind of taste- well, my conscience says 'Launcelot, budge not.'
 73281     'Budge,' says the fiend. 'Budge not,' says my conscience.
 73282     'Conscience,' say I, (you counsel well.' 'Fiend,' say I, 'you
 73283     counsel well.' To be rul'd by my conscience, I should stay with
 73284     the Jew my master, who- God bless the mark!- is a kind of devil;
 73285     and, to run away from the Jew, I should be ruled by the fiend,
 73286     who- saving your reverence!- is the devil himself. Certainly the
 73287     Jew is the very devil incarnation; and, in my conscience, my
 73288     conscience is but a kind of hard conscience to offer to counsel
 73289     me to stay with the Jew. The fiend gives the more friendly
 73290     counsel. I will run, fiend; my heels are at your commandment; I
 73291     will run.
 73292 
 73293                      Enter OLD GOBBO, with a basket
 73294 
 73295   GOBBO. Master young man, you, I pray you, which is the way to
 73296     master Jew's?
 73297   LAUNCELOT.  [Aside]  O heavens! This is my true-begotten father,
 73298     who, being more than sand-blind, high-gravel blind, knows me not.
 73299     I will try confusions with him.
 73300   GOBBO. Master young gentleman, I pray you, which is the way to
 73301     master Jew's?
 73302   LAUNCELOT. Turn up on your right hand at the next turning, but, at
 73303     the next turning of all, on your left; marry, at the very next
 73304     turning, turn of no hand, but turn down indirectly to the Jew's
 73305     house.
 73306   GOBBO. Be God's sonties, 'twill be a hard way to hit! Can you tell
 73307     me whether one Launcelot, that dwells with him, dwell with him or
 73308     no?
 73309   LAUNCELOT. Talk you of young Master Launcelot?  [Aside]  Mark me
 73310     now; now will I raise the waters.- Talk you of young Master
 73311     Launcelot?
 73312   GOBBO. No master, sir, but a poor man's son; his father, though I
 73313     say't, is an honest exceeding poor man, and, God be thanked, well
 73314     to live.
 73315   LAUNCELOT. Well, let his father be what 'a will, we talk of young
 73316     Master Launcelot.
 73317   GOBBO. Your worship's friend, and Launcelot, sir.
 73318   LAUNCELOT. But I pray you, ergo, old man, ergo, I beseech you, talk
 73319     you of young Master Launcelot?
 73320   GOBBO. Of Launcelot, an't please your mastership.
 73321   LAUNCELOT. Ergo, Master Launcelot. Talk not of Master Launcelot,
 73322     father; for the young gentleman, according to Fates and Destinies
 73323     and such odd sayings, the Sisters Three and such branches of
 73324     learning, is indeed deceased; or, as you would say in plain
 73325     terms, gone to heaven.
 73326   GOBBO. Marry, God forbid! The boy was the very staff of my age, my
 73327     very prop.
 73328   LAUNCELOT. Do I look like a cudgel or a hovel-post, a staff or a
 73329     prop? Do you know me, father?
 73330   GOBBO. Alack the day, I know you not, young gentleman; but I pray
 73331     you tell me, is my boy- God rest his soul!- alive or dead?
 73332   LAUNCELOT. Do you not know me, father?
 73333   GOBBO. Alack, sir, I am sand-blind; I know you not.
 73334   LAUNCELOT. Nay, indeed, if you had your eyes, you might fail of the
 73335     knowing me: it is a wise father that knows his own child. Well,
 73336     old man, I will tell you news of your son. Give me your blessing;
 73337     truth will come to light; murder cannot be hid long; a man's son
 73338     may, but in the end truth will out.
 73339   GOBBO. Pray you, sir, stand up; I am sure you are not Launcelot my
 73340     boy.
 73341   LAUNCELOT. Pray you, let's have no more fooling about it, but give
 73342     me your blessing; I am Launcelot, your boy that was, your son
 73343     that is, your child that shall be.
 73344   GOBBO. I cannot think you are my son.
 73345   LAUNCELOT. I know not what I shall think of that; but I am
 73346     Launcelot, the Jew's man, and I am sure Margery your wife is my
 73347     mother.
 73348   GOBBO. Her name is Margery, indeed. I'll be sworn, if thou be
 73349     Launcelot, thou art mine own flesh and blood. Lord worshipp'd
 73350     might he be, what a beard hast thou got! Thou hast got more hair
 73351     on thy chin than Dobbin my fill-horse has on his tail.
 73352   LAUNCELOT. It should seem, then, that Dobbin's tail grows backward;
 73353     I am sure he had more hair of his tail than I have of my face
 73354     when I last saw him.
 73355   GOBBO. Lord, how art thou chang'd! How dost thou and thy master
 73356     agree? I have brought him a present. How 'gree you now?
 73357   LAUNCELOT. Well, well; but, for mine own part, as I have set up my
 73358     rest to run away, so I will not rest till I have run some ground.
 73359     My master's a very Jew. Give him a present! Give him a halter. I
 73360     am famish'd in his service; you may tell every finger I have with
 73361     my ribs. Father, I am glad you are come; give me your present to
 73362     one Master Bassanio, who indeed gives rare new liveries; if I
 73363     serve not him, I will run as far as God has any ground. O rare
 73364     fortune! Here comes the man. To him, father, for I am a Jew, if I
 73365     serve the Jew any longer.
 73366 
 73367          Enter BASSANIO, with LEONARDO, with a FOLLOWER or two
 73368 
 73369   BASSANIO. You may do so; but let it be so hasted that supper be
 73370     ready at the farthest by five of the clock. See these letters
 73371     delivered, put the liveries to making, and desire Gratiano to
 73372     come anon to my lodging.                      Exit a SERVANT
 73373   LAUNCELOT. To him, father.
 73374   GOBBO. God bless your worship!
 73375   BASSANIO. Gramercy; wouldst thou aught with me?
 73376   GOBBO. Here's my son, sir, a poor boy-
 73377   LAUNCELOT. Not a poor boy, sir, but the rich Jew's man, that would,
 73378     sir, as my father shall specify-
 73379   GOBBO. He hath a great infection, sir, as one would say, to serve-
 73380   LAUNCELOT. Indeed the short and the long is, I serve the Jew, and
 73381     have a desire, as my father shall specify-
 73382   GOBBO. His master and he, saving your worship's reverence, are
 73383     scarce cater-cousins-
 73384   LAUNCELOT. To be brief, the very truth is that the Jew, having done
 73385     me wrong, doth cause me, as my father, being I hope an old man,
 73386     shall frutify unto you-
 73387   GOBBO. I have here a dish of doves that I would bestow upon your
 73388     worship; and my suit is-
 73389   LAUNCELOT. In very brief, the suit is impertinent to myself, as
 73390     your worship shall know by this honest old man; and, though I say
 73391     it, though old man, yet poor man, my father.
 73392   BASSANIO. One speak for both. What would you?
 73393   LAUNCELOT. Serve you, sir.
 73394   GOBBO. That is the very defect of the matter, sir.
 73395   BASSANIO. I know thee well; thou hast obtain'd thy suit.
 73396     Shylock thy master spoke with me this day,
 73397     And hath preferr'd thee, if it be preferment
 73398     To leave a rich Jew's service to become
 73399     The follower of so poor a gentleman.
 73400   LAUNCELOT. The old proverb is very well parted between my master
 73401     Shylock and you, sir: you have the grace of God, sir, and he hath
 73402     enough.
 73403   BASSANIO. Thou speak'st it well. Go, father, with thy son.
 73404     Take leave of thy old master, and inquire
 73405     My lodging out.  [To a SERVANT]  Give him a livery
 73406     More guarded than his fellows'; see it done.
 73407   LAUNCELOT. Father, in. I cannot get a service, no! I have ne'er a
 73408     tongue in my head!  [Looking on his palm]  Well; if any man in
 73409     Italy have a fairer table which doth offer to swear upon a book- I
 73410     shall have good fortune. Go to, here's a simple line of life;
 73411     here's a small trifle of wives; alas, fifteen wives is nothing;
 73412     a'leven widows and nine maids is a simple coming-in for one man.
 73413     And then to scape drowning thrice, and to be in peril of my life
 73414     with the edge of a feather-bed-here are simple scapes. Well, if
 73415     Fortune be a woman, she's a good wench for this gear. Father,
 73416     come; I'll take my leave of the Jew in the twinkling.
 73417                                   Exeunt LAUNCELOT and OLD GOBBO
 73418   BASSANIO. I pray thee, good Leonardo, think on this.
 73419     These things being bought and orderly bestowed,
 73420     Return in haste, for I do feast to-night
 73421     My best esteem'd acquaintance; hie thee, go.
 73422   LEONARDO. My best endeavours shall be done herein.
 73423 
 73424                           Enter GRATIANO
 73425 
 73426   GRATIANO. Where's your master?
 73427   LEONARDO. Yonder, sir, he walks.                          Exit
 73428   GRATIANO. Signior Bassanio!
 73429   BASSANIO. Gratiano!
 73430   GRATIANO. I have suit to you.
 73431   BASSANIO. You have obtain'd it.
 73432   GRATIANO. You must not deny me: I must go with you to Belmont.
 73433   BASSANIO. Why, then you must. But hear thee, Gratiano:
 73434     Thou art too wild, too rude, and bold of voice-
 73435     Parts that become thee happily enough,
 73436     And in such eyes as ours appear not faults;
 73437     But where thou art not known, why there they show
 73438     Something too liberal. Pray thee, take pain
 73439     To allay with some cold drops of modesty
 73440     Thy skipping spirit; lest through thy wild behaviour
 73441     I be misconst'red in the place I go to
 73442     And lose my hopes.
 73443   GRATIANO. Signior Bassanio, hear me:
 73444     If I do not put on a sober habit,
 73445     Talk with respect, and swear but now and then,
 73446     Wear prayer-books in my pocket, look demurely,
 73447     Nay more, while grace is saying hood mine eyes
 73448     Thus with my hat, and sigh, and say amen,
 73449     Use all the observance of civility
 73450     Like one well studied in a sad ostent
 73451     To please his grandam, never trust me more.
 73452   BASSANIO. Well, we shall see your bearing.
 73453   GRATIANO. Nay, but I bar to-night; you shall not gauge me
 73454     By what we do to-night.
 73455   BASSANIO. No, that were pity;
 73456     I would entreat you rather to put on
 73457     Your boldest suit of mirth, for we have friends
 73458     That purpose merriment. But fare you well;
 73459     I have some business.
 73460   GRATIANO. And I must to Lorenzo and the rest;
 73461     But we will visit you at supper-time.                 Exeunt
 73462 
 73463 
 73464 
 73465 
 73466 SCENE III.
 73467 Venice. SHYLOCK'S house
 73468 
 73469 Enter JESSICA and LAUNCELOT
 73470 
 73471   JESSICA. I am sorry thou wilt leave my father so.
 73472     Our house is hell; and thou, a merry devil,
 73473     Didst rob it of some taste of tediousness.
 73474     But fare thee well; there is a ducat for thee;
 73475     And, Launcelot, soon at supper shalt thou see
 73476     Lorenzo, who is thy new master's guest.
 73477     Give him this letter; do it secretly.
 73478     And so farewell. I would not have my father
 73479     See me in talk with thee.
 73480   LAUNCELOT. Adieu! tears exhibit my tongue. Most beautiful pagan,
 73481     most sweet Jew! If a Christian do not play the knave and get
 73482     thee, I am much deceived. But, adieu! these foolish drops do
 73483     something drown my manly spirit; adieu!
 73484   JESSICA. Farewell, good Launcelot.              Exit LAUNCELOT
 73485     Alack, what heinous sin is it in me
 73486     To be asham'd to be my father's child!
 73487     But though I am a daughter to his blood,
 73488     I am not to his manners. O Lorenzo,
 73489     If thou keep promise, I shall end this strife,
 73490     Become a Christian and thy loving wife.                 Exit
 73491 
 73492 
 73493 
 73494 
 73495 SCENE IV.
 73496 Venice. A street
 73497 
 73498 Enter GRATIANO, LORENZO, SALERIO, and SOLANIO
 73499 
 73500   LORENZO. Nay, we will slink away in suppertime,
 73501     Disguise us at my lodging, and return
 73502     All in an hour.
 73503   GRATIANO. We have not made good preparation.
 73504   SALERIO. We have not spoke us yet of torch-bearers.
 73505   SOLANIO. 'Tis vile, unless it may be quaintly ordered;
 73506     And better in my mind not undertook.
 73507   LORENZO. 'Tis now but four o'clock; we have two hours
 73508     To furnish us.
 73509 
 73510                  Enter LAUNCELOT, With a letter
 73511 
 73512     Friend Launcelot, what's the news?
 73513   LAUNCELOT. An it shall please you to break up this, it shall seem
 73514     to signify.
 73515   LORENZO. I know the hand; in faith, 'tis a fair hand,
 73516     And whiter than the paper it writ on
 73517     Is the fair hand that writ.
 73518   GRATIANO. Love-news, in faith!
 73519   LAUNCELOT. By your leave, sir.
 73520   LORENZO. Whither goest thou?
 73521   LAUNCELOT. Marry, sir, to bid my old master, the Jew, to sup
 73522     to-night with my new master, the Christian.
 73523   LORENZO. Hold, here, take this. Tell gentle Jessica
 73524     I will not fail her; speak it privately.
 73525     Go, gentlemen,                                Exit LAUNCELOT
 73526     Will you prepare you for this masque to-night?
 73527     I am provided of a torch-bearer.
 73528   SALERIO. Ay, marry, I'll be gone about it straight.
 73529   SOLANIO. And so will I.
 73530   LORENZO. Meet me and Gratiano
 73531     At Gratiano's lodging some hour hence.
 73532   SALERIO. 'Tis good we do so.        Exeunt SALERIO and SOLANIO
 73533   GRATIANO. Was not that letter from fair Jessica?
 73534   LORENZO. I must needs tell thee all. She hath directed
 73535     How I shall take her from her father's house;
 73536     What gold and jewels she is furnish'd with;
 73537     What page's suit she hath in readiness.
 73538     If e'er the Jew her father come to heaven,
 73539     It will be for his gentle daughter's sake;
 73540     And never dare misfortune cross her foot,
 73541     Unless she do it under this excuse,
 73542     That she is issue to a faithless Jew.
 73543     Come, go with me, peruse this as thou goest;
 73544     Fair Jessica shall be my torch-bearer.                Exeunt
 73545 
 73546 
 73547 
 73548 
 73549 SCENE V.
 73550 Venice. Before SHYLOCK'S house
 73551 
 73552 Enter SHYLOCK and LAUNCELOT
 73553 
 73554   SHYLOCK. Well, thou shalt see; thy eyes shall be thy judge,
 73555     The difference of old Shylock and Bassanio.-
 73556     What, Jessica!- Thou shalt not gormandize
 73557     As thou hast done with me- What, Jessica!-
 73558     And sleep and snore, and rend apparel out-
 73559     Why, Jessica, I say!
 73560   LAUNCELOT. Why, Jessica!
 73561   SHYLOCK. Who bids thee call? I do not bid thee call.
 73562   LAUNCELOT. Your worship was wont to tell me I could do nothing
 73563     without bidding.
 73564 
 73565                           Enter JESSICA
 73566 
 73567   JESSICA. Call you? What is your will?
 73568   SHYLOCK. I am bid forth to supper, Jessica;
 73569     There are my keys. But wherefore should I go?
 73570     I am not bid for love; they flatter me;
 73571     But yet I'll go in hate, to feed upon
 73572     The prodigal Christian. Jessica, my girl,
 73573     Look to my house. I am right loath to go;
 73574     There is some ill a-brewing towards my rest,
 73575     For I did dream of money-bags to-night.
 73576   LAUNCELOT. I beseech you, sir, go; my young master doth expect your
 73577     reproach.
 73578   SHYLOCK. So do I his.
 73579   LAUNCELOT. And they have conspired together; I will not say you
 73580     shall see a masque, but if you do, then it was not for nothing
 73581     that my nose fell a-bleeding on Black Monday last at six o'clock
 73582     i' th' morning, falling out that year on Ash Wednesday was four
 73583     year, in th' afternoon.
 73584   SHYLOCK. What, are there masques? Hear you me, Jessica:
 73585     Lock up my doors, and when you hear the drum,
 73586     And the vile squealing of the wry-neck'd fife,
 73587     Clamber not you up to the casements then,
 73588     Nor thrust your head into the public street
 73589     To gaze on Christian fools with varnish'd faces;
 73590     But stop my house's ears- I mean my casements;
 73591     Let not the sound of shallow fopp'ry enter
 73592     My sober house. By Jacob's staff, I swear
 73593     I have no mind of feasting forth to-night;
 73594     But I will go. Go you before me, sirrah;
 73595     Say I will come.
 73596   LAUNCELOT. I will go before, sir. Mistress, look out at window for
 73597     all this.
 73598         There will come a Christian by
 73599         Will be worth a Jewess' eye.                        Exit
 73600   SHYLOCK. What says that fool of Hagar's offspring, ha?
 73601   JESSICA. His words were 'Farewell, mistress'; nothing else.
 73602   SHYLOCK. The patch is kind enough, but a huge feeder,
 73603     Snail-slow in profit, and he sleeps by day
 73604     More than the wild-cat; drones hive not with me,
 73605     Therefore I part with him; and part with him
 73606     To one that I would have him help to waste
 73607     His borrowed purse. Well, Jessica, go in;
 73608     Perhaps I will return immediately.
 73609     Do as I bid you, shut doors after you.
 73610     Fast bind, fast find-
 73611     A proverb never stale in thrifty mind.                  Exit
 73612   JESSICA. Farewell; and if my fortune be not crost,
 73613     I have a father, you a daughter, lost.                  Exit
 73614 
 73615 
 73616 
 73617 
 73618 SCENE VI.
 73619 Venice. Before SHYLOCK'S house
 73620 
 73621 Enter the maskers, GRATIANO and SALERIO
 73622 
 73623   GRATIANO. This is the pent-house under which Lorenzo
 73624     Desired us to make stand.
 73625   SALERIO. His hour is almost past.
 73626   GRATIANO. And it is marvel he out-dwells his hour,
 73627     For lovers ever run before the clock.
 73628   SALERIO. O, ten times faster Venus' pigeons fly
 73629     To seal love's bonds new made than they are wont
 73630     To keep obliged faith unforfeited!
 73631   GRATIANO. That ever holds: who riseth from a feast
 73632     With that keen appetite that he sits down?
 73633     Where is the horse that doth untread again
 73634     His tedious measures with the unbated fire
 73635     That he did pace them first? All things that are
 73636     Are with more spirit chased than enjoyed.
 73637     How like a younker or a prodigal
 73638     The scarfed bark puts from her native bay,
 73639     Hugg'd and embraced by the strumpet wind;
 73640     How like the prodigal doth she return,
 73641     With over-weather'd ribs and ragged sails,
 73642     Lean, rent, and beggar'd by the strumpet wind!
 73643 
 73644                        Enter LORENZO
 73645 
 73646   SALERIO. Here comes Lorenzo; more of this hereafter.
 73647   LORENZO. Sweet friends, your patience for my long abode!
 73648     Not I, but my affairs, have made you wait.
 73649     When you shall please to play the thieves for wives,
 73650     I'll watch as long for you then. Approach;
 73651     Here dwells my father Jew. Ho! who's within?
 73652 
 73653            Enter JESSICA, above, in boy's clothes
 73654 
 73655   JESSICA. Who are you? Tell me, for more certainty,
 73656     Albeit I'll swear that I do know your tongue.
 73657   LORENZO. Lorenzo, and thy love.
 73658   JESSICA. Lorenzo, certain; and my love indeed;
 73659     For who love I so much? And now who knows
 73660     But you, Lorenzo, whether I am yours?
 73661   LORENZO. Heaven and thy thoughts are witness that thou art.
 73662   JESSICA. Here, catch this casket; it is worth the pains.
 73663     I am glad 'tis night, you do not look on me,
 73664     For I am much asham'd of my exchange;
 73665     But love is blind, and lovers cannot see
 73666     The pretty follies that themselves commit,
 73667     For, if they could, Cupid himself would blush
 73668     To see me thus transformed to a boy.
 73669   LORENZO. Descend, for you must be my torch-bearer.
 73670   JESSICA. What! must I hold a candle to my shames?
 73671     They in themselves, good sooth, are too too light.
 73672     Why, 'tis an office of discovery, love,
 73673     And I should be obscur'd.
 73674   LORENZO. So are you, sweet,
 73675     Even in the lovely garnish of a boy.
 73676     But come at once,
 73677     For the close night doth play the runaway,
 73678     And we are stay'd for at Bassanio's feast.
 73679   JESSICA. I will make fast the doors, and gild myself
 73680     With some moe ducats, and be with you straight.
 73681                                                       Exit above
 73682 
 73683   GRATIANO. Now, by my hood, a gentle, and no Jew.
 73684   LORENZO. Beshrew me, but I love her heartily,
 73685     For she is wise, if I can judge of her,
 73686     And fair she is, if that mine eyes be true,
 73687     And true she is, as she hath prov'd herself;
 73688     And therefore, like herself, wise, fair, and true,
 73689     Shall she be placed in my constant soul.
 73690 
 73691                      Enter JESSICA, below
 73692 
 73693     What, art thou come? On, gentlemen, away;
 73694     Our masquing mates by this time for us stay.
 73695                                    Exit with JESSICA and SALERIO
 73696 
 73697                         Enter ANTONIO
 73698 
 73699   ANTONIO. Who's there?
 73700   GRATIANO. Signior Antonio?
 73701   ANTONIO. Fie, fie, Gratiano, where are all the rest?
 73702     'Tis nine o'clock; our friends all stay for you;
 73703     No masque to-night; the wind is come about;
 73704     Bassanio presently will go aboard;
 73705     I have sent twenty out to seek for you.
 73706   GRATIANO. I am glad on't; I desire no more delight
 73707     Than to be under sail and gone to-night.              Exeunt
 73708 
 73709 
 73710 
 73711 
 73712 SCENE VII.
 73713 Belmont. PORTIA's house
 73714 
 73715 Flourish of cornets. Enter PORTIA, with the PRINCE OF MOROCCO,
 73716 and their trains
 73717 
 73718   PORTIA. Go draw aside the curtains and discover
 73719     The several caskets to this noble Prince.
 73720     Now make your choice.
 73721   PRINCE OF MOROCCO. The first, of gold, who this inscription bears:
 73722     'Who chooseth me shall gain what many men desire.'
 73723     The second, silver, which this promise carries:
 73724     'Who chooseth me shall get as much as he deserves.'
 73725     This third, dull lead, with warning all as blunt:
 73726     'Who chooseth me must give and hazard all he hath.'
 73727     How shall I know if I do choose the right?
 73728   PORTIA. The one of them contains my picture, Prince;
 73729     If you choose that, then I am yours withal.
 73730   PRINCE OF MOROCCO. Some god direct my judgment! Let me see;
 73731     I will survey th' inscriptions back again.
 73732     What says this leaden casket?
 73733     'Who chooseth me must give and hazard all he hath.'
 73734     Must give- for what? For lead? Hazard for lead!
 73735     This casket threatens; men that hazard all
 73736     Do it in hope of fair advantages.
 73737     A golden mind stoops not to shows of dross;
 73738     I'll then nor give nor hazard aught for lead.
 73739     What says the silver with her virgin hue?
 73740     'Who chooseth me shall get as much as he deserves.'
 73741     As much as he deserves! Pause there, Morocco,
 73742     And weigh thy value with an even hand.
 73743     If thou beest rated by thy estimation,
 73744     Thou dost deserve enough, and yet enough
 73745     May not extend so far as to the lady;
 73746     And yet to be afeard of my deserving
 73747     Were but a weak disabling of myself.
 73748     As much as I deserve? Why, that's the lady!
 73749     I do in birth deserve her, and in fortunes,
 73750     In graces, and in qualities of breeding;
 73751     But more than these, in love I do deserve.
 73752     What if I stray'd no farther, but chose here?
 73753     Let's see once more this saying grav'd in gold:
 73754     'Who chooseth me shall gain what many men desire.'
 73755     Why, that's the lady! All the world desires her;
 73756     From the four corners of the earth they come
 73757     To kiss this shrine, this mortal-breathing saint.
 73758     The Hyrcanian deserts and the vasty wilds
 73759     Of wide Arabia are as throughfares now
 73760     For princes to come view fair Portia.
 73761     The watery kingdom, whose ambitious head
 73762     Spits in the face of heaven, is no bar
 73763     To stop the foreign spirits, but they come
 73764     As o'er a brook to see fair Portia.
 73765     One of these three contains her heavenly picture.
 73766     Is't like that lead contains her? 'Twere damnation
 73767     To think so base a thought; it were too gross
 73768     To rib her cerecloth in the obscure grave.
 73769     Or shall I think in silver she's immur'd,
 73770     Being ten times undervalued to tried gold?
 73771     O sinful thought! Never so rich a gem
 73772     Was set in worse than gold. They have in England
 73773     A coin that bears the figure of an angel
 73774     Stamp'd in gold; but that's insculp'd upon.
 73775     But here an angel in a golden bed
 73776     Lies all within. Deliver me the key;
 73777     Here do I choose, and thrive I as I may!
 73778   PORTIA. There, take it, Prince, and if my form lie there,
 73779     Then I am yours.                [He opens the golden casket]
 73780   PRINCE OF MOROCCO. O hell! what have we here?
 73781     A carrion Death, within whose empty eye
 73782     There is a written scroll! I'll read the writing.
 73783          'All that glisters is not gold,
 73784          Often have you heard that told;
 73785          Many a man his life hath sold
 73786          But my outside to behold.
 73787          Gilded tombs do worms infold.
 73788          Had you been as wise as bold,
 73789          Young in limbs, in judgment old,
 73790          Your answer had not been inscroll'd.
 73791          Fare you well, your suit is cold.'
 73792       Cold indeed, and labour lost,
 73793       Then farewell, heat, and welcome, frost.
 73794     Portia, adieu! I have too griev'd a heart
 73795     To take a tedious leave; thus losers part.
 73796                         Exit with his train. Flourish of cornets
 73797   PORTIA. A gentle riddance. Draw the curtains, go.
 73798     Let all of his complexion choose me so.               Exeunt
 73799 
 73800 
 73801 
 73802 
 73803 SCENE VIII.
 73804 Venice. A street
 73805 
 73806 Enter SALERIO and SOLANIO
 73807 
 73808   SALERIO. Why, man, I saw Bassanio under sail;
 73809     With him is Gratiano gone along;
 73810     And in their ship I am sure Lorenzo is not.
 73811   SOLANIO. The villain Jew with outcries rais'd the Duke,
 73812     Who went with him to search Bassanio's ship.
 73813   SALERIO. He came too late, the ship was under sail;
 73814     But there the Duke was given to understand
 73815     That in a gondola were seen together
 73816     Lorenzo and his amorous Jessica;
 73817     Besides, Antonio certified the Duke
 73818     They were not with Bassanio in his ship.
 73819   SOLANIO. I never heard a passion so confus'd,
 73820     So strange, outrageous, and so variable,
 73821     As the dog Jew did utter in the streets.
 73822     'My daughter! O my ducats! O my daughter!
 73823     Fled with a Christian! O my Christian ducats!
 73824     Justice! the law! My ducats and my daughter!
 73825     A sealed bag, two sealed bags of ducats,
 73826     Of double ducats, stol'n from me by my daughter!
 73827     And jewels- two stones, two rich and precious stones,
 73828     Stol'n by my daughter! Justice! Find the girl;
 73829     She hath the stones upon her and the ducats.'
 73830   SALERIO. Why, all the boys in Venice follow him,
 73831     Crying, his stones, his daughter, and his ducats.
 73832   SOLANIO. Let good Antonio look he keep his day,
 73833     Or he shall pay for this.
 73834   SALERIO. Marry, well rememb'red;
 73835     I reason'd with a Frenchman yesterday,
 73836     Who told me, in the narrow seas that part
 73837     The French and English, there miscarried
 73838     A vessel of our country richly fraught.
 73839     I thought upon Antonio when he told me,
 73840     And wish'd in silence that it were not his.
 73841   SOLANIO. You were best to tell Antonio what you hear;
 73842     Yet do not suddenly, for it may grieve him.
 73843   SALERIO. A kinder gentleman treads not the earth.
 73844     I saw Bassanio and Antonio part.
 73845     Bassanio told him he would make some speed
 73846     Of his return. He answered 'Do not so;
 73847     Slubber not business for my sake, Bassanio,
 73848     But stay the very riping of the time;
 73849     And for the Jew's bond which he hath of me,
 73850     Let it not enter in your mind of love;
 73851     Be merry, and employ your chiefest thoughts
 73852     To courtship, and such fair ostents of love
 73853     As shall conveniently become you there.'
 73854     And even there, his eye being big with tears,
 73855     Turning his face, he put his hand behind him,
 73856     And with affection wondrous sensible
 73857     He wrung Bassanio's hand; and so they parted.
 73858   SOLANIO. I think he only loves the world for him.
 73859     I pray thee, let us go and find him out,
 73860     And quicken his embraced heaviness
 73861     With some delight or other.
 73862   SALERIO. Do we so.                                      Exeunt
 73863 
 73864 
 73865 
 73866 
 73867 SCENE IX.
 73868 Belmont. PORTIA'S house
 73869 
 73870 Enter NERISSA, and a SERVITOR
 73871 
 73872   NERISSA. Quick, quick, I pray thee, draw the curtain straight;
 73873     The Prince of Arragon hath ta'en his oath,
 73874     And comes to his election presently.
 73875 
 73876        Flourish of cornets. Enter the PRINCE OF ARRAGON,
 73877                     PORTIA, and their trains
 73878 
 73879   PORTIA. Behold, there stand the caskets, noble Prince.
 73880     If you choose that wherein I am contain'd,
 73881     Straight shall our nuptial rites be solemniz'd;
 73882     But if you fail, without more speech, my lord,
 73883     You must be gone from hence immediately.
 73884   ARRAGON. I am enjoin'd by oath to observe three things:
 73885     First, never to unfold to any one
 73886     Which casket 'twas I chose; next, if I fail
 73887     Of the right casket, never in my life
 73888     To woo a maid in way of marriage;
 73889     Lastly,
 73890     If I do fail in fortune of my choice,
 73891     Immediately to leave you and be gone.
 73892   PORTIA. To these injunctions every one doth swear
 73893     That comes to hazard for my worthless self.
 73894   ARRAGON. And so have I address'd me. Fortune now
 73895     To my heart's hope! Gold, silver, and base lead.
 73896     'Who chooseth me must give and hazard all he hath.'
 73897     You shall look fairer ere I give or hazard.
 73898     What says the golden chest? Ha! let me see:
 73899     'Who chooseth me shall gain what many men desire.'
 73900     What many men desire- that 'many' may be meant
 73901     By the fool multitude, that choose by show,
 73902     Not learning more than the fond eye doth teach;
 73903     Which pries not to th' interior, but, like the martlet,
 73904     Builds in the weather on the outward wall,
 73905     Even in the force and road of casualty.
 73906     I will not choose what many men desire,
 73907     Because I will not jump with common spirits
 73908     And rank me with the barbarous multitudes.
 73909     Why, then to thee, thou silver treasure-house!
 73910     Tell me once more what title thou dost bear.
 73911     'Who chooseth me shall get as much as he deserves.'
 73912     And well said too; for who shall go about
 73913     To cozen fortune, and be honourable
 73914     Without the stamp of merit? Let none presume
 73915     To wear an undeserved dignity.
 73916     O that estates, degrees, and offices,
 73917     Were not deriv'd corruptly, and that clear honour
 73918     Were purchas'd by the merit of the wearer!
 73919     How many then should cover that stand bare!
 73920     How many be commanded that command!
 73921     How much low peasantry would then be gleaned
 73922     From the true seed of honour! and how much honour
 73923     Pick'd from the chaff and ruin of the times,
 73924     To be new varnish'd! Well, but to my choice.
 73925     'Who chooseth me shall get as much as he deserves.'
 73926     I will assume desert. Give me a key for this,
 73927     And instantly unlock my fortunes here.
 73928                                     [He opens the silver casket]
 73929   PORTIA.  [Aside]  Too long a pause for that which you find there.
 73930   ARRAGON. What's here? The portrait of a blinking idiot
 73931     Presenting me a schedule! I will read it.
 73932     How much unlike art thou to Portia!
 73933     How much unlike my hopes and my deservings!
 73934     'Who chooseth me shall have as much as he deserves.'
 73935     Did I deserve no more than a fool's head?
 73936     Is that my prize? Are my deserts no better?
 73937   PORTIA. To offend and judge are distinct offices
 73938     And of opposed natures.
 73939   ARRAGON. What is here?  [Reads]
 73940 
 73941          'The fire seven times tried this;
 73942          Seven times tried that judgment is
 73943          That did never choose amiss.
 73944          Some there be that shadows kiss,
 73945          Such have but a shadow's bliss.
 73946          There be fools alive iwis
 73947          Silver'd o'er, and so was this.
 73948          Take what wife you will to bed,
 73949          I will ever be your head.
 73950          So be gone; you are sped.'
 73951 
 73952          Still more fool I shall appear
 73953          By the time I linger here.
 73954          With one fool's head I came to woo,
 73955          But I go away with two.
 73956          Sweet, adieu! I'll keep my oath,
 73957          Patiently to bear my wroth.         Exit with his train
 73958 
 73959   PORTIA. Thus hath the candle sing'd the moth.
 73960     O, these deliberate fools! When they do choose,
 73961     They have the wisdom by their wit to lose.
 73962   NERISSA. The ancient saying is no heresy:
 73963     Hanging and wiving goes by destiny.
 73964   PORTIA. Come, draw the curtain, Nerissa.
 73965 
 73966                        Enter a SERVANT
 73967 
 73968   SERVANT. Where is my lady?
 73969   PORTIA. Here; what would my lord?
 73970   SERVANT. Madam, there is alighted at your gate
 73971     A young Venetian, one that comes before
 73972     To signify th' approaching of his lord,
 73973     From whom he bringeth sensible regreets;
 73974     To wit, besides commends and courteous breath,
 73975     Gifts of rich value. Yet I have not seen
 73976     So likely an ambassador of love.
 73977     A day in April never came so sweet
 73978     To show how costly summer was at hand
 73979     As this fore-spurrer comes before his lord.
 73980   PORTIA. No more, I pray thee; I am half afeard
 73981     Thou wilt say anon he is some kin to thee,
 73982     Thou spend'st such high-day wit in praising him.
 73983     Come, come, Nerissa, for I long to see
 73984     Quick Cupid's post that comes so mannerly.
 73985   NERISSA. Bassanio, Lord Love, if thy will it be!        Exeunt
 73986 
 73987 
 73988 
 73989 
 73990 <<THIS ELECTRONIC VERSION OF THE COMPLETE WORKS OF WILLIAM
 73991 SHAKESPEARE IS COPYRIGHT 1990-1993 BY WORLD LIBRARY, INC., AND IS
 73992 PROVIDED BY PROJECT GUTENBERG ETEXT OF ILLINOIS BENEDICTINE COLLEGE
 73993 WITH PERMISSION.  ELECTRONIC AND MACHINE READABLE COPIES MAY BE
 73994 DISTRIBUTED SO LONG AS SUCH COPIES (1) ARE FOR YOUR OR OTHERS
 73995 PERSONAL USE ONLY, AND (2) ARE NOT DISTRIBUTED OR USED
 73996 COMMERCIALLY.  PROHIBITED COMMERCIAL DISTRIBUTION INCLUDES BY ANY
 73997 SERVICE THAT CHARGES FOR DOWNLOAD TIME OR FOR MEMBERSHIP.>>
 73998 
 73999 
 74000 
 74001 ACT III. SCENE I.
 74002 Venice. A street
 74003 
 74004 Enter SOLANIO and SALERIO
 74005 
 74006   SOLANIO. Now, what news on the Rialto?
 74007   SALERIO. Why, yet it lives there uncheck'd that Antonio hath a ship
 74008     of rich lading wreck'd on the narrow seas; the Goodwins I think
 74009     they call the place, a very dangerous flat and fatal, where the
 74010     carcases of many a tall ship lie buried, as they say, if my
 74011     gossip Report be an honest woman of her word.
 74012   SOLANIO. I would she were as lying a gossip in that as ever knapp'd
 74013     ginger or made her neighbours believe she wept for the death of a
 74014     third husband. But it is true, without any slips of prolixity or
 74015     crossing the plain highway of talk, that the good Antonio, the
 74016     honest Antonio- O that I had a title good enough to keep his name
 74017     company!-
 74018   SALERIO. Come, the full stop.
 74019   SOLANIO. Ha! What sayest thou? Why, the end is, he hath lost a
 74020     ship.
 74021   SALERIO. I would it might prove the end of his losses.
 74022   SOLANIO. Let me say amen betimes, lest the devil cross my prayer,
 74023     for here he comes in the likeness of a Jew.
 74024 
 74025                              Enter SHYLOCK
 74026 
 74027     How now, Shylock? What news among the merchants?
 74028   SHYLOCK. You knew, none so well, none so well as you, of my
 74029     daughter's flight.
 74030   SALERIO. That's certain; I, for my part, knew the tailor that made
 74031     the wings she flew withal.
 74032   SOLANIO. And Shylock, for his own part, knew the bird was flidge;
 74033     and then it is the complexion of them all to leave the dam.
 74034   SHYLOCK. She is damn'd for it.
 74035   SALERIO. That's certain, if the devil may be her judge.
 74036   SHYLOCK. My own flesh and blood to rebel!
 74037   SOLANIO. Out upon it, old carrion! Rebels it at these years?
 74038   SHYLOCK. I say my daughter is my flesh and my blood.
 74039   SALERIO. There is more difference between thy flesh and hers than
 74040     between jet and ivory; more between your bloods than there is
 74041     between red wine and Rhenish. But tell us, do you hear whether
 74042     Antonio have had any loss at sea or no?
 74043   SHYLOCK. There I have another bad match: a bankrupt, a prodigal,
 74044     who dare scarce show his head on the Rialto; a beggar, that was
 74045     us'd to come so smug upon the mart. Let him look to his bond. He
 74046     was wont to call me usurer; let him look to his bond. He was wont
 74047     to lend money for a Christian courtesy; let him look to his bond.
 74048   SALERIO. Why, I am sure, if he forfeit, thou wilt not take his
 74049     flesh. What's that good for?
 74050   SHYLOCK. To bait fish withal. If it will feed nothing else, it will
 74051     feed my revenge. He hath disgrac'd me and hind'red me half a
 74052     million; laugh'd at my losses, mock'd at my gains, scorned my
 74053     nation, thwarted my bargains, cooled my friends, heated mine
 74054     enemies. And what's his reason? I am a Jew. Hath not a Jew eyes?
 74055     Hath not a Jew hands, organs, dimensions, senses, affections,
 74056     passions, fed with the same food, hurt with the same weapons,
 74057     subject to the same diseases, healed by the same means, warmed
 74058     and cooled by the same winter and summer, as a Christian is? If
 74059     you prick us, do we not bleed? If you tickle us, do we not laugh?
 74060     If you poison us, do we not die? And if you wrong us, shall we
 74061     not revenge? If we are like you in the rest, we will resemble you
 74062     in that. If a Jew wrong a Christian, what is his humility?
 74063     Revenge. If a Christian wrong a Jew, what should his sufferance
 74064     be by Christian example? Why, revenge. The villainy you teach me
 74065     I will execute; and itshall go hard but I will better the
 74066     instruction.
 74067 
 74068                     Enter a MAN from ANTONIO
 74069 
 74070   MAN. Gentlemen, my master Antonio is at his house, and desires to
 74071     speak with you both.
 74072   SALERIO. We have been up and down to seek him.
 74073 
 74074                           Enter TUBAL
 74075 
 74076   SOLANIO. Here comes another of the tribe; a third cannot be
 74077     match'd, unless the devil himself turn Jew.
 74078                                 Exeunt SOLANIO, SALERIO, and MAN
 74079   SHYLOCK. How now, Tubal, what news from Genoa? Hast thou found my
 74080     daughter?
 74081   TUBAL. I often came where I did hear of her, but cannot find her.
 74082   SHYLOCK. Why there, there, there, there! A diamond gone, cost me
 74083     two thousand ducats in Frankfort! The curse never fell upon our
 74084     nation till now; I never felt it till now. Two thousand ducats in
 74085     that, and other precious, precious jewels. I would my daughter
 74086     were dead at my foot, and the jewels in her ear; would she were
 74087     hears'd at my foot, and the ducats in her coffin! No news of
 74088     them? Why, so- and I know not what's spent in the search. Why,
 74089     thou- loss upon loss! The thief gone with so much, and so much to
 74090     find the thief; and no satisfaction, no revenge; nor no ill luck
 74091     stirring but what lights o' my shoulders; no sighs but o' my
 74092     breathing; no tears but o' my shedding!
 74093   TUBAL. Yes, other men have ill luck too: Antonio, as I heard in
 74094     Genoa-
 74095   SHYLOCK. What, what, what? Ill luck, ill luck?
 74096   TUBAL. Hath an argosy cast away coming from Tripolis.
 74097   SHYLOCK. I thank God, I thank God. Is it true, is it true?
 74098   TUBAL. I spoke with some of the sailors that escaped the wreck.
 74099   SHYLOCK. I thank thee, good Tubal. Good news, good news- ha, ha!-
 74100     heard in Genoa.
 74101   TUBAL. Your daughter spent in Genoa, as I heard, one night,
 74102     fourscore ducats.
 74103   SHYLOCK. Thou stick'st a dagger in me- I shall never see my gold
 74104     again. Fourscore ducats at a sitting! Fourscore ducats!
 74105   TUBAL. There came divers of Antonio's creditors in my company to
 74106     Venice that swear he cannot choose but break.
 74107   SHYLOCK. I am very glad of it; I'll plague him, I'll torture him; I
 74108     am glad of it.
 74109   TUBAL. One of them showed me a ring that he had of your daughter
 74110     for a monkey.
 74111   SHYLOCK. Out upon her! Thou torturest me, Tubal. It was my
 74112     turquoise; I had it of Leah when I was a bachelor; I would not
 74113     have given it for a wilderness of monkeys.
 74114   TUBAL. But Antonio is certainly undone.
 74115   SHYLOCK. Nay, that's true; that's very true. Go, Tubal, fee me an
 74116     officer; bespeak him a fortnight before. I will have the heart of
 74117     him, if he forfeit; for, were he out of Venice, I can make what
 74118     merchandise I will. Go, Tubal, and meet me at our synagogue; go,
 74119     good Tubal; at our synagogue, Tubal.                  Exeunt
 74120 
 74121 
 74122 
 74123 
 74124 SCENE II.
 74125 Belmont. PORTIA'S house
 74126 
 74127 Enter BASSANIO, PORTIA, GRATIANO, NERISSA, and all their trains
 74128 
 74129   PORTIA. I pray you tarry; pause a day or two
 74130     Before you hazard; for, in choosing wrong,
 74131     I lose your company; therefore forbear a while.
 74132     There's something tells me- but it is not love-
 74133     I would not lose you; and you know yourself
 74134     Hate counsels not in such a quality.
 74135     But lest you should not understand me well-
 74136     And yet a maiden hath no tongue but thought-
 74137     I would detain you here some month or two
 74138     Before you venture for me. I could teach you
 74139     How to choose right, but then I am forsworn;
 74140     So will I never be; so may you miss me;
 74141     But if you do, you'll make me wish a sin,
 74142     That I had been forsworn. Beshrew your eyes!
 74143     They have o'erlook'd me and divided me;
 74144     One half of me is yours, the other half yours-
 74145     Mine own, I would say; but if mine, then yours,
 74146     And so all yours. O! these naughty times
 74147     Puts bars between the owners and their rights;
 74148     And so, though yours, not yours. Prove it so,
 74149     Let fortune go to hell for it, not I.
 74150     I speak too long, but 'tis to peize the time,
 74151     To eke it, and to draw it out in length,
 74152     To stay you from election.
 74153   BASSANIO. Let me choose;
 74154     For as I am, I live upon the rack.
 74155   PORTIA. Upon the rack, Bassanio? Then confess
 74156     What treason there is mingled with your love.
 74157   BASSANIO. None but that ugly treason of mistrust
 74158     Which makes me fear th' enjoying of my love;
 74159     There may as well be amity and life
 74160     'Tween snow and fire as treason and my love.
 74161   PORTIA. Ay, but I fear you speak upon the rack,
 74162     Where men enforced do speak anything.
 74163   BASSANIO. Promise me life, and I'll confess the truth.
 74164   PORTIA. Well then, confess and live.
 74165   BASSANIO. 'Confess' and 'love'
 74166     Had been the very sum of my confession.
 74167     O happy torment, when my torturer
 74168     Doth teach me answers for deliverance!
 74169     But let me to my fortune and the caskets.
 74170   PORTIA. Away, then; I am lock'd in one of them.
 74171     If you do love me, you will find me out.
 74172     Nerissa and the rest, stand all aloof;
 74173     Let music sound while he doth make his choice;
 74174     Then, if he lose, he makes a swan-like end,
 74175     Fading in music. That the comparison
 74176     May stand more proper, my eye shall be the stream
 74177     And wat'ry death-bed for him. He may win;
 74178     And what is music then? Then music is
 74179     Even as the flourish when true subjects bow
 74180     To a new-crowned monarch; such it is
 74181     As are those dulcet sounds in break of day
 74182     That creep into the dreaming bridegroom's ear
 74183     And summon him to marriage. Now he goes,
 74184     With no less presence, but with much more love,
 74185     Than young Alcides when he did redeem
 74186     The virgin tribute paid by howling Troy
 74187     To the sea-monster. I stand for sacrifice;
 74188     The rest aloof are the Dardanian wives,
 74189     With bleared visages come forth to view
 74190     The issue of th' exploit. Go, Hercules!
 74191     Live thou, I live. With much much more dismay
 74192     I view the fight than thou that mak'st the fray.
 74193 
 74194                             A SONG
 74195 
 74196       the whilst BASSANIO comments on the caskets to himself
 74197 
 74198                  Tell me where is fancy bred,
 74199                  Or in the heart or in the head,
 74200                  How begot, how nourished?
 74201                    Reply, reply.
 74202                  It is engend'red in the eyes,
 74203                  With gazing fed; and fancy dies
 74204                  In the cradle where it lies.
 74205                    Let us all ring fancy's knell:
 74206                    I'll begin it- Ding, dong, bell.
 74207   ALL.           Ding, dong, bell.
 74208 
 74209   BASSANIO. So may the outward shows be least themselves;
 74210     The world is still deceiv'd with ornament.
 74211     In law, what plea so tainted and corrupt
 74212     But, being season'd with a gracious voice,
 74213     Obscures the show of evil? In religion,
 74214     What damned error but some sober brow
 74215     Will bless it, and approve it with a text,
 74216     Hiding the grossness with fair ornament?
 74217     There is no vice so simple but assumes
 74218     Some mark of virtue on his outward parts.
 74219     How many cowards, whose hearts are all as false
 74220     As stairs of sand, wear yet upon their chins
 74221     The beards of Hercules and frowning Mars;
 74222     Who, inward search'd, have livers white as milk!
 74223     And these assume but valour's excrement
 74224     To render them redoubted. Look on beauty
 74225     And you shall see 'tis purchas'd by the weight,
 74226     Which therein works a miracle in nature,
 74227     Making them lightest that wear most of it;
 74228     So are those crisped snaky golden locks
 74229     Which make such wanton gambols with the wind
 74230     Upon supposed fairness often known
 74231     To be the dowry of a second head-
 74232     The skull that bred them in the sepulchre.
 74233     Thus ornament is but the guiled shore
 74234     To a most dangerous sea; the beauteous scarf
 74235     Veiling an Indian beauty; in a word,
 74236     The seeming truth which cunning times put on
 74237     To entrap the wisest. Therefore, thou gaudy gold,
 74238     Hard food for Midas, I will none of thee;
 74239     Nor none of thee, thou pale and common drudge
 74240     'Tween man and man; but thou, thou meagre lead,
 74241     Which rather threaten'st than dost promise aught,
 74242     Thy plainness moves me more than eloquence,
 74243     And here choose I. Joy be the consequence!
 74244   PORTIA.  [Aside]  How all the other passions fleet to air,
 74245     As doubtful thoughts, and rash-embrac'd despair,
 74246     And shudd'ring fear, and green-ey'd jealousy!
 74247     O love, be moderate, allay thy ecstasy,
 74248     In measure rain thy joy, scant this excess!
 74249     I feel too much thy blessing. Make it less,
 74250     For fear I surfeit.
 74251   BASSANIO.  [Opening the leaden casket]  What find I here?
 74252     Fair Portia's counterfeit! What demi-god
 74253     Hath come so near creation? Move these eyes?
 74254     Or whether riding on the balls of mine
 74255     Seem they in motion? Here are sever'd lips,
 74256     Parted with sugar breath; so sweet a bar
 74257     Should sunder such sweet friends. Here in her hairs
 74258     The painter plays the spider, and hath woven
 74259     A golden mesh t' entrap the hearts of men
 74260     Faster than gnats in cobwebs. But her eyes-
 74261     How could he see to do them? Having made one,
 74262     Methinks it should have power to steal both his,
 74263     And leave itself unfurnish'd. Yet look how far
 74264     The substance of my praise doth wrong this shadow
 74265     In underprizing it, so far this shadow
 74266     Doth limp behind the substance. Here's the scroll,
 74267     The continent and summary of my fortune.
 74268          'You that choose not by the view,
 74269          Chance as fair and choose as true!
 74270          Since this fortune falls to you,
 74271          Be content and seek no new.
 74272          If you be well pleas'd with this,
 74273          And hold your fortune for your bliss,
 74274          Turn to where your lady is
 74275          And claim her with a loving kiss.'
 74276     A gentle scroll. Fair lady, by your leave;
 74277     I come by note, to give and to receive.
 74278     Like one of two contending in a prize,
 74279     That thinks he hath done well in people's eyes,
 74280     Hearing applause and universal shout,
 74281     Giddy in spirit, still gazing in a doubt
 74282     Whether those peals of praise be his or no;
 74283     So, thrice-fair lady, stand I even so,
 74284     As doubtful whether what I see be true,
 74285     Until confirm'd, sign'd, ratified by you.
 74286   PORTIA. You see me, Lord Bassanio, where I stand,
 74287     Such as I am. Though for myself alone
 74288     I would not be ambitious in my wish
 74289     To wish myself much better, yet for you
 74290     I would be trebled twenty times myself,
 74291     A thousand times more fair, ten thousand times more rich,
 74292     That only to stand high in your account
 74293     I might in virtues, beauties, livings, friends,
 74294     Exceed account. But the full sum of me
 74295     Is sum of something which, to term in gross,
 74296     Is an unlesson'd girl, unschool'd, unpractis'd;
 74297     Happy in this, she is not yet so old
 74298     But she may learn; happier than this,
 74299     She is not bred so dull but she can learn;
 74300     Happiest of all is that her gentle spirit
 74301     Commits itself to yours to be directed,
 74302     As from her lord, her governor, her king.
 74303     Myself and what is mine to you and yours
 74304     Is now converted. But now I was the lord
 74305     Of this fair mansion, master of my servants,
 74306     Queen o'er myself; and even now, but now,
 74307     This house, these servants, and this same myself,
 74308     Are yours- my lord's. I give them with this ring,
 74309     Which when you part from, lose, or give away,
 74310     Let it presage the ruin of your love,
 74311     And be my vantage to exclaim on you.
 74312   BASSANIO. Madam, you have bereft me of all words;
 74313     Only my blood speaks to you in my veins;
 74314     And there is such confusion in my powers
 74315     As, after some oration fairly spoke
 74316     By a beloved prince, there doth appear
 74317     Among the buzzing pleased multitude,
 74318     Where every something, being blent together,
 74319     Turns to a wild of nothing, save of joy
 74320     Express'd and not express'd. But when this ring
 74321     Parts from this finger, then parts life from hence;
 74322     O, then be bold to say Bassanio's dead!
 74323   NERISSA. My lord and lady, it is now our time
 74324     That have stood by and seen our wishes prosper
 74325     To cry 'Good joy.' Good joy, my lord and lady!
 74326   GRATIANO. My Lord Bassanio, and my gentle lady,
 74327     I wish you all the joy that you can wish,
 74328     For I am sure you can wish none from me;
 74329     And, when your honours mean to solemnize
 74330     The bargain of your faith, I do beseech you
 74331     Even at that time I may be married too.
 74332   BASSANIO. With all my heart, so thou canst get a wife.
 74333   GRATIANO. I thank your lordship, you have got me one.
 74334     My eyes, my lord, can look as swift as yours:
 74335     You saw the mistress, I beheld the maid;
 74336     You lov'd, I lov'd; for intermission
 74337     No more pertains to me, my lord, than you.
 74338     Your fortune stood upon the caskets there,
 74339     And so did mine too, as the matter falls;
 74340     For wooing here until I sweat again,
 74341     And swearing till my very roof was dry
 74342     With oaths of love, at last- if promise last-
 74343     I got a promise of this fair one here
 74344     To have her love, provided that your fortune
 74345     Achiev'd her mistress.
 74346   PORTIA. Is this true, Nerissa?
 74347   NERISSA. Madam, it is, so you stand pleas'd withal.
 74348   BASSANIO. And do you, Gratiano, mean good faith?
 74349   GRATIANO. Yes, faith, my lord.
 74350   BASSANIO. Our feast shall be much honoured in your marriage.
 74351   GRATIANO. We'll play with them: the first boy for a thousand
 74352     ducats.
 74353   NERISSA. What, and stake down?
 74354   GRATIANO. No; we shall ne'er win at that sport, and stake down-
 74355     But who comes here? Lorenzo and his infidel?
 74356     What, and my old Venetian friend, Salerio!
 74357 
 74358           Enter LORENZO, JESSICA, and SALERIO, a messenger
 74359                            from Venice
 74360 
 74361   BASSANIO. Lorenzo and Salerio, welcome hither,
 74362     If that the youth of my new int'rest here
 74363     Have power to bid you welcome. By your leave,
 74364     I bid my very friends and countrymen,
 74365     Sweet Portia, welcome.
 74366   PORTIA. So do I, my lord;
 74367     They are entirely welcome.
 74368   LORENZO. I thank your honour. For my part, my lord,
 74369     My purpose was not to have seen you here;
 74370     But meeting with Salerio by the way,
 74371     He did entreat me, past all saying nay,
 74372     To come with him along.
 74373   SALERIO. I did, my lord,
 74374     And I have reason for it. Signior Antonio
 74375     Commends him to you.               [Gives BASSANIO a letter]
 74376   BASSANIO. Ere I ope his letter,
 74377     I pray you tell me how my good friend doth.
 74378   SALERIO. Not sick, my lord, unless it be in mind;
 74379     Nor well, unless in mind; his letter there
 74380     Will show you his estate.        [BASSANIO opens the letter]
 74381   GRATIANO. Nerissa, cheer yond stranger; bid her welcome.
 74382     Your hand, Salerio. What's the news from Venice?
 74383     How doth that royal merchant, good Antonio?
 74384     I know he will be glad of our success:
 74385     We are the Jasons, we have won the fleece.
 74386   SALERIO. I would you had won the fleece that he hath lost.
 74387   PORTIA. There are some shrewd contents in yond same paper
 74388     That steals the colour from Bassanio's cheek:
 74389     Some dear friend dead, else nothing in the world
 74390     Could turn so much the constitution
 74391     Of any constant man. What, worse and worse!
 74392     With leave, Bassanio: I am half yourself,
 74393     And I must freely have the half of anything
 74394     That this same paper brings you.
 74395   BASSANIO. O sweet Portia,
 74396     Here are a few of the unpleasant'st words
 74397     That ever blotted paper! Gentle lady,
 74398     When I did first impart my love to you,
 74399     I freely told you all the wealth I had
 74400     Ran in my veins- I was a gentleman;
 74401     And then I told you true. And yet, dear lady,
 74402     Rating myself at nothing, you shall see
 74403     How much I was a braggart. When I told you
 74404     My state was nothing, I should then have told you
 74405     That I was worse than nothing; for indeed
 74406     I have engag'd myself to a dear friend,
 74407     Engag'd my friend to his mere enemy,
 74408     To feed my means. Here is a letter, lady,
 74409     The paper as the body of my friend,
 74410     And every word in it a gaping wound
 74411     Issuing life-blood. But is it true, Salerio?
 74412     Hath all his ventures fail'd? What, not one hit?
 74413     From Tripolis, from Mexico, and England,
 74414     From Lisbon, Barbary, and India,
 74415     And not one vessel scape the dreadful touch
 74416     Of merchant-marring rocks?
 74417   SALERIO. Not one, my lord.
 74418     Besides, it should appear that, if he had
 74419     The present money to discharge the Jew,
 74420     He would not take it. Never did I know
 74421     A creature that did bear the shape of man
 74422     So keen and greedy to confound a man.
 74423     He plies the Duke at morning and at night,
 74424     And doth impeach the freedom of the state,
 74425     If they deny him justice. Twenty merchants,
 74426     The Duke himself, and the magnificoes
 74427     Of greatest port, have all persuaded with him;
 74428     But none can drive him from the envious plea
 74429     Of forfeiture, of justice, and his bond.
 74430   JESSICA. When I was with him, I have heard him swear
 74431     To Tubal and to Chus, his countrymen,
 74432     That he would rather have Antonio's flesh
 74433     Than twenty times the value of the sum
 74434     That he did owe him; and I know, my lord,
 74435     If law, authority, and power, deny not,
 74436     It will go hard with poor Antonio.
 74437   PORTIA. Is it your dear friend that is thus in trouble?
 74438   BASSANIO. The dearest friend to me, the kindest man,
 74439     The best condition'd and unwearied spirit
 74440     In doing courtesies; and one in whom
 74441     The ancient Roman honour more appears
 74442     Than any that draws breath in Italy.
 74443   PORTIA. What sum owes he the Jew?
 74444   BASSANIO. For me, three thousand ducats.
 74445   PORTIA. What! no more?
 74446     Pay him six thousand, and deface the bond;
 74447     Double six thousand, and then treble that,
 74448     Before a friend of this description
 74449     Shall lose a hair through Bassanio's fault.
 74450     First go with me to church and call me wife,
 74451     And then away to Venice to your friend;
 74452     For never shall you lie by Portia's side
 74453     With an unquiet soul. You shall have gold
 74454     To pay the petty debt twenty times over.
 74455     When it is paid, bring your true friend along.
 74456     My maid Nerissa and myself meantime
 74457     Will live as maids and widows. Come, away;
 74458     For you shall hence upon your wedding day.
 74459     Bid your friends welcome, show a merry cheer;
 74460     Since you are dear bought, I will love you dear.
 74461     But let me hear the letter of your friend.
 74462   BASSANIO.  [Reads]  'Sweet Bassanio, my ships have all miscarried,
 74463     my creditors grow cruel, my estate is very low, my bond to the
 74464     Jew is forfeit; and since, in paying it, it is impossible I
 74465     should live, all debts are clear'd between you and I, if I might
 74466     but see you at my death. Notwithstanding, use your pleasure; if
 74467     your love do not persuade you to come, let not my letter.'
 74468   PORTIA. O love, dispatch all business and be gone!
 74469   BASSANIO. Since I have your good leave to go away,
 74470     I will make haste; but, till I come again,
 74471     No bed shall e'er be guilty of my stay,
 74472     Nor rest be interposer 'twixt us twain.               Exeunt
 74473 
 74474 
 74475 
 74476 
 74477 SCENE III.
 74478 Venice. A street
 74479 
 74480 Enter SHYLOCK, SOLANIO, ANTONIO, and GAOLER
 74481 
 74482   SHYLOCK. Gaoler, look to him. Tell not me of mercy-
 74483     This is the fool that lent out money gratis.
 74484     Gaoler, look to him.
 74485   ANTONIO. Hear me yet, good Shylock.
 74486   SHYLOCK. I'll have my bond; speak not against my bond.
 74487     I have sworn an oath that I will have my bond.
 74488     Thou call'dst me dog before thou hadst a cause,
 74489     But, since I am a dog, beware my fangs;
 74490     The Duke shall grant me justice. I do wonder,
 74491     Thou naughty gaoler, that thou art so fond
 74492     To come abroad with him at his request.
 74493   ANTONIO. I pray thee hear me speak.
 74494   SHYLOCK. I'll have my bond. I will not hear thee speak;
 74495     I'll have my bond; and therefore speak no more.
 74496     I'll not be made a soft and dull-ey'd fool,
 74497     To shake the head, relent, and sigh, and yield,
 74498     To Christian intercessors. Follow not;
 74499     I'll have no speaking; I will have my bond.             Exit
 74500   SOLANIO. It is the most impenetrable cur
 74501     That ever kept with men.
 74502   ANTONIO. Let him alone;
 74503     I'll follow him no more with bootless prayers.
 74504     He seeks my life; his reason well I know:
 74505     I oft deliver'd from his forfeitures
 74506     Many that have at times made moan to me;
 74507     Therefore he hates me.
 74508   SOLANIO. I am sure the Duke
 74509     Will never grant this forfeiture to hold.
 74510   ANTONIO. The Duke cannot deny the course of law;
 74511     For the commodity that strangers have
 74512     With us in Venice, if it be denied,
 74513     Will much impeach the justice of the state,
 74514     Since that the trade and profit of the city
 74515     Consisteth of all nations. Therefore, go;
 74516     These griefs and losses have so bated me
 74517     That I shall hardly spare a pound of flesh
 74518     To-morrow to my bloody creditor.
 74519     Well, gaoler, on; pray God Bassanio come
 74520     To see me pay his debt, and then I care not.          Exeunt
 74521 
 74522 
 74523 
 74524 
 74525 SCENE IV.
 74526 Belmont. PORTIA'S house
 74527 
 74528 Enter PORTIA, NERISSA, LORENZO, JESSICA, and BALTHASAR
 74529 
 74530   LORENZO. Madam, although I speak it in your presence,
 74531     You have a noble and a true conceit
 74532     Of godlike amity, which appears most strongly
 74533     In bearing thus the absence of your lord.
 74534     But if you knew to whom you show this honour,
 74535     How true a gentleman you send relief,
 74536     How dear a lover of my lord your husband,
 74537     I know you would be prouder of the work
 74538     Than customary bounty can enforce you.
 74539   PORTIA. I never did repent for doing good,
 74540     Nor shall not now; for in companions
 74541     That do converse and waste the time together,
 74542     Whose souls do bear an equal yoke of love,
 74543     There must be needs a like proportion
 74544     Of lineaments, of manners, and of spirit,
 74545     Which makes me think that this Antonio,
 74546     Being the bosom lover of my lord,
 74547     Must needs be like my lord. If it be so,
 74548     How little is the cost I have bestowed
 74549     In purchasing the semblance of my soul
 74550     From out the state of hellish cruelty!
 74551     This comes too near the praising of myself;
 74552     Therefore, no more of it; hear other things.
 74553     Lorenzo, I commit into your hands
 74554     The husbandry and manage of my house
 74555     Until my lord's return; for mine own part,
 74556     I have toward heaven breath'd a secret vow
 74557     To live in prayer and contemplation,
 74558     Only attended by Nerissa here,
 74559     Until her husband and my lord's return.
 74560     There is a monastery two miles off,
 74561     And there we will abide. I do desire you
 74562     Not to deny this imposition,
 74563     The which my love and some necessity
 74564     Now lays upon you.
 74565   LORENZO. Madam, with all my heart
 74566     I shall obey you in an fair commands.
 74567   PORTIA. My people do already know my mind,
 74568     And will acknowledge you and Jessica
 74569     In place of Lord Bassanio and myself.
 74570     So fare you well till we shall meet again.
 74571   LORENZO. Fair thoughts and happy hours attend on you!
 74572   JESSICA. I wish your ladyship all heart's content.
 74573   PORTIA. I thank you for your wish, and am well pleas'd
 74574     To wish it back on you. Fare you well, Jessica.
 74575                                       Exeunt JESSICA and LORENZO
 74576     Now, Balthasar,
 74577     As I have ever found thee honest-true,
 74578     So let me find thee still. Take this same letter,
 74579     And use thou all th' endeavour of a man
 74580     In speed to Padua; see thou render this
 74581     Into my cousin's hands, Doctor Bellario;
 74582     And look what notes and garments he doth give thee,
 74583     Bring them, I pray thee, with imagin'd speed
 74584     Unto the traject, to the common ferry
 74585     Which trades to Venice. Waste no time in words,
 74586     But get thee gone; I shall be there before thee.
 74587   BALTHASAR. Madam, I go with all convenient speed.         Exit
 74588   PORTIA. Come on, Nerissa, I have work in hand
 74589     That you yet know not of; we'll see our husbands
 74590     Before they think of us.
 74591   NERISSA. Shall they see us?
 74592   PORTIA. They shall, Nerissa; but in such a habit
 74593     That they shall think we are accomplished
 74594     With that we lack. I'll hold thee any wager,
 74595     When we are both accoutred like young men,
 74596     I'll prove the prettier fellow of the two,
 74597     And wear my dagger with the braver grace,
 74598     And speak between the change of man and boy
 74599     With a reed voice; and turn two mincing steps
 74600     Into a manly stride; and speak of frays
 74601     Like a fine bragging youth; and tell quaint lies,
 74602     How honourable ladies sought my love,
 74603     Which I denying, they fell sick and died-
 74604     I could not do withal. Then I'll repent,
 74605     And wish for all that, that I had not kill'd them.
 74606     And twenty of these puny lies I'll tell,
 74607     That men shall swear I have discontinued school
 74608     About a twelvemonth. I have within my mind
 74609     A thousand raw tricks of these bragging Jacks,
 74610     Which I will practise.
 74611   NERISSA. Why, shall we turn to men?
 74612   PORTIA. Fie, what a question's that,
 74613     If thou wert near a lewd interpreter!
 74614     But come, I'll tell thee all my whole device
 74615     When I am in my coach, which stays for us
 74616     At the park gate; and therefore haste away,
 74617     For we must measure twenty miles to-day.              Exeunt
 74618 
 74619 
 74620 
 74621 
 74622 SCENE V.
 74623 Belmont. The garden
 74624 
 74625 Enter LAUNCELOT and JESSICA
 74626 
 74627   LAUNCELOT. Yes, truly; for, look you, the sins of the father are to
 74628     be laid upon the children; therefore, I promise you, I fear you.
 74629     I was always plain with you, and so now I speak my agitation of
 74630     the matter; therefore be o' good cheer, for truly I think you are
 74631     damn'd. There is but one hope in it that can do you any good, and
 74632     that is but a kind of bastard hope, neither.
 74633   JESSICA. And what hope is that, I pray thee?
 74634   LAUNCELOT. Marry, you may partly hope that your father got you not-
 74635    that you are not the Jew's daughter.
 74636   JESSICA. That were a kind of bastard hope indeed; so the sins of my
 74637     mother should be visited upon me.
 74638   LAUNCELOT. Truly then I fear you are damn'd both by father and
 74639     mother; thus when I shun Scylla, your father, I fall into
 74640     Charybdis, your mother; well, you are gone both ways.
 74641   JESSICA. I shall be sav'd by my husband; he hath made me a
 74642     Christian.
 74643   LAUNCELOT. Truly, the more to blame he; we were Christians enow
 74644     before, e'en as many as could well live one by another. This
 74645     making of Christians will raise the price of hogs; if we grow all
 74646     to be pork-eaters, we shall not shortly have a rasher on the
 74647     coals for money.
 74648 
 74649                              Enter LORENZO
 74650 
 74651   JESSICA. I'll tell my husband, Launcelot, what you say; here he
 74652     comes.
 74653   LORENZO. I shall grow jealous of you shortly, Launcelot, if you
 74654     thus get my wife into corners.
 74655   JESSICA. Nay, you need nor fear us, Lorenzo; Launcelot and I are
 74656     out; he tells me flatly there's no mercy for me in heaven,
 74657     because I am a Jew's daughter; and he says you are no good member
 74658     of the commonwealth, for in converting Jews to Christians you
 74659     raise the price of pork.
 74660   LORENZO. I shall answer that better to the commonwealth than you
 74661     can the getting up of the negro's belly; the Moor is with child
 74662     by you, Launcelot.
 74663   LAUNCELOT. It is much that the Moor should be more than reason; but
 74664     if she be less than an honest woman, she is indeed more than I
 74665     took her for.
 74666   LORENZO. How every fool can play upon the word! I think the best
 74667     grace of wit will shortly turn into silence, and discourse grow
 74668     commendable in none only but parrots. Go in, sirrah; bid them
 74669     prepare for dinner.
 74670   LAUNCELOT. That is done, sir; they have all stomachs.
 74671   LORENZO. Goodly Lord, what a wit-snapper are you! Then bid them
 74672     prepare dinner.
 74673   LAUNCELOT. That is done too, sir, only 'cover' is the word.
 74674   LORENZO. Will you cover, then, sir?
 74675   LAUNCELOT. Not so, sir, neither; I know my duty.
 74676   LORENZO. Yet more quarrelling with occasion! Wilt thou show the
 74677     whole wealth of thy wit in an instant? I pray thee understand a
 74678     plain man in his plain meaning: go to thy fellows, bid them cover
 74679     the table, serve in the meat, and we will come in to dinner.
 74680   LAUNCELOT. For the table, sir, it shall be serv'd in; for the meat,
 74681     sir, it shall be cover'd; for your coming in to dinner, sir, why,
 74682     let it be as humours and conceits shall govern.
 74683  Exit
 74684   LORENZO. O dear discretion, how his words are suited!
 74685     The fool hath planted in his memory
 74686     An army of good words; and I do know
 74687     A many fools that stand in better place,
 74688     Garnish'd like him, that for a tricksy word
 74689     Defy the matter. How cheer'st thou, Jessica?
 74690     And now, good sweet, say thy opinion,
 74691     How dost thou like the Lord Bassanio's wife?
 74692   JESSICA. Past all expressing. It is very meet
 74693     The Lord Bassanio live an upright life,
 74694     For, having such a blessing in his lady,
 74695     He finds the joys of heaven here on earth;
 74696     And if on earth he do not merit it,
 74697     In reason he should never come to heaven.
 74698     Why, if two gods should play some heavenly match,
 74699     And on the wager lay two earthly women,
 74700     And Portia one, there must be something else
 74701     Pawn'd with the other; for the poor rude world
 74702     Hath not her fellow.
 74703   LORENZO. Even such a husband
 74704     Hast thou of me as she is for a wife.
 74705   JESSICA. Nay, but ask my opinion too of that.
 74706   LORENZO. I will anon; first let us go to dinner.
 74707   JESSICA. Nay, let me praise you while I have a stomach.
 74708   LORENZO. No, pray thee, let it serve for table-talk;
 74709     Then howsome'er thou speak'st, 'mong other things
 74710     I shall digest it.
 74711   JESSICA. Well, I'll set you forth.                      Exeunt
 74712 
 74713 
 74714 
 74715 
 74716 ACT IV. SCENE I.
 74717 Venice. The court of justice
 74718 
 74719 Enter the DUKE, the MAGNIFICOES, ANTONIO, BASSANIO, GRATIANO, SALERIO,
 74720 and OTHERS
 74721 
 74722   DUKE OF VENICE. What, is Antonio here?
 74723   ANTONIO. Ready, so please your Grace.
 74724   DUKE OF VENICE. I am sorry for thee; thou art come to answer
 74725     A stony adversary, an inhuman wretch,
 74726     Uncapable of pity, void and empty
 74727     From any dram of mercy.
 74728   ANTONIO. I have heard
 74729     Your Grace hath ta'en great pains to qualify
 74730     His rigorous course; but since he stands obdurate,
 74731     And that no lawful means can carry me
 74732     Out of his envy's reach, I do oppose
 74733     My patience to his fury, and am arm'd
 74734     To suffer with a quietness of spirit
 74735     The very tyranny and rage of his.
 74736   DUKE OF VENICE. Go one, and call the Jew into the court.
 74737   SALERIO. He is ready at the door; he comes, my lord.
 74738 
 74739                           Enter SHYLOCK
 74740 
 74741   DUKE OF VENICE. Make room, and let him stand before our face.
 74742     Shylock, the world thinks, and I think so too,
 74743     That thou but leadest this fashion of thy malice
 74744     To the last hour of act; and then, 'tis thought,
 74745     Thou'lt show thy mercy and remorse, more strange
 74746     Than is thy strange apparent cruelty;
 74747     And where thou now exacts the penalty,
 74748     Which is a pound of this poor merchant's flesh,
 74749     Thou wilt not only loose the forfeiture,
 74750     But, touch'd with human gentleness and love,
 74751     Forgive a moiety of the principal,
 74752     Glancing an eye of pity on his losses,
 74753     That have of late so huddled on his back-
 74754     Enow to press a royal merchant down,
 74755     And pluck commiseration of his state
 74756     From brassy bosoms and rough hearts of flint,
 74757     From stubborn Turks and Tartars, never train'd
 74758     To offices of tender courtesy.
 74759     We all expect a gentle answer, Jew.
 74760   SHYLOCK. I have possess'd your Grace of what I purpose,
 74761     And by our holy Sabbath have I sworn
 74762     To have the due and forfeit of my bond.
 74763     If you deny it, let the danger light
 74764     Upon your charter and your city's freedom.
 74765     You'll ask me why I rather choose to have
 74766     A weight of carrion flesh than to receive
 74767     Three thousand ducats. I'll not answer that,
 74768     But say it is my humour- is it answer'd?
 74769     What if my house be troubled with a rat,
 74770     And I be pleas'd to give ten thousand ducats
 74771     To have it ban'd? What, are you answer'd yet?
 74772     Some men there are love not a gaping pig;
 74773     Some that are mad if they behold a cat;
 74774     And others, when the bagpipe sings i' th' nose,
 74775     Cannot contain their urine; for affection,
 74776     Mistress of passion, sways it to the mood
 74777     Of what it likes or loathes. Now, for your answer:
 74778     As there is no firm reason to be rend'red
 74779     Why he cannot abide a gaping pig;
 74780     Why he, a harmless necessary cat;
 74781     Why he, a woollen bagpipe, but of force
 74782     Must yield to such inevitable shame
 74783     As to offend, himself being offended;
 74784     So can I give no reason, nor I will not,
 74785     More than a lodg'd hate and a certain loathing
 74786     I bear Antonio, that I follow thus
 74787     A losing suit against him. Are you answered?
 74788   BASSANIO. This is no answer, thou unfeeling man,
 74789     To excuse the current of thy cruelty.
 74790   SHYLOCK. I am not bound to please thee with my answers.
 74791   BASSANIO. Do all men kill the things they do not love?
 74792   SHYLOCK. Hates any man the thing he would not kill?
 74793   BASSANIO. Every offence is not a hate at first.
 74794   SHYLOCK. What, wouldst thou have a serpent sting thee twice?
 74795   ANTONIO. I pray you, think you question with the Jew.
 74796     You may as well go stand upon the beach
 74797     And bid the main flood bate his usual height;
 74798     You may as well use question with the wolf,
 74799     Why he hath made the ewe bleat for the lamb;
 74800     You may as well forbid the mountain pines
 74801     To wag their high tops and to make no noise
 74802     When they are fretten with the gusts of heaven;
 74803     You may as well do anything most hard
 74804     As seek to soften that- than which what's harder?-
 74805     His jewish heart. Therefore, I do beseech you,
 74806     Make no moe offers, use no farther means,
 74807     But with all brief and plain conveniency
 74808     Let me have judgment, and the Jew his will.
 74809   BASSANIO. For thy three thousand ducats here is six.
 74810   SHYLOCK. If every ducat in six thousand ducats
 74811     Were in six parts, and every part a ducat,
 74812     I would not draw them; I would have my bond.
 74813   DUKE OF VENICE. How shalt thou hope for mercy, rend'ring none?
 74814   SHYLOCK. What judgment shall I dread, doing no wrong?
 74815     You have among you many a purchas'd slave,
 74816     Which, fike your asses and your dogs and mules,
 74817     You use in abject and in slavish parts,
 74818     Because you bought them; shall I say to you
 74819     'Let them be free, marry them to your heirs-
 74820     Why sweat they under burdens?- let their beds
 74821     Be made as soft as yours, and let their palates
 74822     Be season'd with such viands'? You will answer
 74823     'The slaves are ours.' So do I answer you:
 74824     The pound of flesh which I demand of him
 74825     Is dearly bought, 'tis mine, and I will have it.
 74826     If you deny me, fie upon your law!
 74827     There is no force in the decrees of Venice.
 74828     I stand for judgment; answer; shall I have it?
 74829   DUKE OF VENICE. Upon my power I may dismiss this court,
 74830     Unless Bellario, a learned doctor,
 74831     Whom I have sent for to determine this,
 74832     Come here to-day.
 74833   SALERIO. My lord, here stays without
 74834     A messenger with letters from the doctor,
 74835     New come from Padua.
 74836   DUKE OF VENICE. Bring us the letters; call the messenger.
 74837   BASSANIO. Good cheer, Antonio! What, man, courage yet!
 74838     The Jew shall have my flesh, blood, bones, and all,
 74839     Ere thou shalt lose for me one drop of blood.
 74840   ANTONIO. I am a tainted wether of the flock,
 74841     Meetest for death; the weakest kind of fruit
 74842     Drops earliest to the ground, and so let me.
 74843     You cannot better be employ'd, Bassanio,
 74844     Than to live still, and write mine epitaph.
 74845 
 74846            Enter NERISSA dressed like a lawyer's clerk
 74847 
 74848   DUKE OF VENICE. Came you from Padua, from Bellario?
 74849   NERISSA. From both, my lord. Bellario greets your Grace.
 74850                                              [Presents a letter]
 74851   BASSANIO. Why dost thou whet thy knife so earnestly?
 74852   SHYLOCK. To cut the forfeiture from that bankrupt there.
 74853   GRATIANO. Not on thy sole, but on thy soul, harsh Jew,
 74854     Thou mak'st thy knife keen; but no metal can,
 74855     No, not the hangman's axe, bear half the keenness
 74856     Of thy sharp envy. Can no prayers pierce thee?
 74857   SHYLOCK. No, none that thou hast wit enough to make.
 74858   GRATIANO. O, be thou damn'd, inexecrable dog!
 74859     And for thy life let justice be accus'd.
 74860     Thou almost mak'st me waver in my faith,
 74861     To hold opinion with Pythagoras
 74862     That souls of animals infuse themselves
 74863     Into the trunks of men. Thy currish spirit
 74864     Govern'd a wolf who, hang'd for human slaughter,
 74865     Even from the gallows did his fell soul fleet,
 74866     And, whilst thou layest in thy unhallowed dam,
 74867     Infus'd itself in thee; for thy desires
 74868     Are wolfish, bloody, starv'd and ravenous.
 74869   SHYLOCK. Till thou canst rail the seal from off my bond,
 74870     Thou but offend'st thy lungs to speak so loud;
 74871     Repair thy wit, good youth, or it will fall
 74872     To cureless ruin. I stand here for law.
 74873   DUKE OF VENICE. This letter from Bellario doth commend
 74874     A young and learned doctor to our court.
 74875     Where is he?
 74876   NERISSA. He attendeth here hard by
 74877     To know your answer, whether you'll admit him.
 74878   DUKE OF VENICE. With all my heart. Some three or four of you
 74879     Go give him courteous conduct to this place.
 74880     Meantime, the court shall hear Bellario's letter.
 74881   CLERK.  [Reads]  'Your Grace shall understand that at the receipt
 74882     of your letter I am very sick; but in the instant that your
 74883     messenger came, in loving visitation was with me a young doctor
 74884     of Rome- his name is Balthazar. I acquainted him with the cause
 74885     in controversy between the Jew and Antonio the merchant; we
 74886     turn'd o'er many books together; he is furnished with my opinion
 74887     which, bettered with his own learning-the greatness whereof I
 74888     cannot enough commend- comes with him at my importunity to fill
 74889     up your Grace's request in my stead. I beseech you let his lack
 74890     of years be no impediment to let him lack a reverend estimation,
 74891     for I never knew so young a body with so old a head. I leave him
 74892     to your gracious acceptance, whose trial shall better publish his
 74893     commendation.'
 74894 
 74895       Enter PORTIA for BALTHAZAR, dressed like a Doctor of Laws
 74896 
 74897   DUKE OF VENICE. YOU hear the learn'd Bellario, what he writes;
 74898     And here, I take it, is the doctor come.
 74899     Give me your hand; come you from old Bellario?
 74900   PORTIA. I did, my lord.
 74901   DUKE OF VENICE. You are welcome; take your place.
 74902     Are you acquainted with the difference
 74903     That holds this present question in the court?
 74904   PORTIA. I am informed throughly of the cause.
 74905     Which is the merchant here, and which the Jew?
 74906   DUKE OF VENICE. Antonio and old Shylock, both stand forth.
 74907   PORTIA. Is your name Shylock?
 74908   SHYLOCK. Shylock is my name.
 74909   PORTIA. Of a strange nature is the suit you follow;
 74910     Yet in such rule that the Venetian law
 74911     Cannot impugn you as you do proceed.
 74912     You stand within his danger, do you not?
 74913   ANTONIO. Ay, so he says.
 74914   PORTIA. Do you confess the bond?
 74915   ANTONIO. I do.
 74916   PORTIA. Then must the Jew be merciful.
 74917   SHYLOCK. On what compulsion must I? Tell me that.
 74918   PORTIA. The quality of mercy is not strain'd;
 74919     It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven
 74920     Upon the place beneath. It is twice blest:
 74921     It blesseth him that gives and him that takes.
 74922     'Tis mightiest in the mightiest; it becomes
 74923     The throned monarch better than his crown;
 74924     His sceptre shows the force of temporal power,
 74925     The attribute to awe and majesty,
 74926     Wherein doth sit the dread and fear of kings;
 74927     But mercy is above this sceptred sway,
 74928     It is enthroned in the hearts of kings,
 74929     It is an attribute to God himself;
 74930     And earthly power doth then show likest God's
 74931     When mercy seasons justice. Therefore, Jew,
 74932     Though justice be thy plea, consider this-
 74933     That in the course of justice none of us
 74934     Should see salvation; we do pray for mercy,
 74935     And that same prayer doth teach us all to render
 74936     The deeds of mercy. I have spoke thus much
 74937     To mitigate the justice of thy plea,
 74938     Which if thou follow, this strict court of Venice
 74939     Must needs give sentence 'gainst the merchant there.
 74940   SHYLOCK. My deeds upon my head! I crave the law,
 74941     The penalty and forfeit of my bond.
 74942   BASSANIO. Yes; here I tender it for him in the court;
 74943     Yea, twice the sum; if that will not suffice,
 74944     I will be bound to pay it ten times o'er
 74945     On forfeit of my hands, my head, my heart;
 74946     If this will not suffice, it must appear
 74947     That malice bears down truth. And, I beseech you,
 74948     Wrest once the law to your authority;
 74949     To do a great right do a little wrong,
 74950     And curb this cruel devil of his will.
 74951   PORTIA. It must not be; there is no power in Venice
 74952     Can alter a decree established;
 74953     'Twill be recorded for a precedent,
 74954     And many an error, by the same example,
 74955     Will rush into the state; it cannot be.
 74956   SHYLOCK. A Daniel come to judgment! Yea, a Daniel!
 74957     O wise young judge, how I do honour thee!
 74958   PORTIA. I pray you, let me look upon the bond.
 74959   SHYLOCK. Here 'tis, most reverend Doctor; here it is.
 74960   PORTIA. Shylock, there's thrice thy money off'red thee.
 74961   SHYLOCK. An oath, an oath! I have an oath in heaven.
 74962     Shall I lay perjury upon my soul?
 74963     No, not for Venice.
 74964   PORTIA. Why, this bond is forfeit;
 74965     And lawfully by this the Jew may claim
 74966     A pound of flesh, to be by him cut off
 74967     Nearest the merchant's heart. Be merciful.
 74968     Take thrice thy money; bid me tear the bond.
 74969   SHYLOCK. When it is paid according to the tenour.
 74970     It doth appear you are a worthy judge;
 74971     You know the law; your exposition
 74972     Hath been most sound; I charge you by the law,
 74973     Whereof you are a well-deserving pillar,
 74974     Proceed to judgment. By my soul I swear
 74975     There is no power in the tongue of man
 74976     To alter me. I stay here on my bond.
 74977   ANTONIO. Most heartily I do beseech the court
 74978     To give the judgment.
 74979   PORTIA. Why then, thus it is:
 74980     You must prepare your bosom for his knife.
 74981   SHYLOCK. O noble judge! O excellent young man!
 74982   PORTIA. For the intent and purpose of the law
 74983     Hath full relation to the penalty,
 74984     Which here appeareth due upon the bond.
 74985   SHYLOCK. 'Tis very true. O wise and upright judge,
 74986     How much more elder art thou than thy looks!
 74987   PORTIA. Therefore, lay bare your bosom.
 74988   SHYLOCK. Ay, his breast-
 74989     So says the bond; doth it not, noble judge?
 74990     'Nearest his heart,' those are the very words.
 74991   PORTIA. It is so. Are there balance here to weigh
 74992     The flesh?
 74993   SHYLOCK. I have them ready.
 74994   PORTIA. Have by some surgeon, Shylock, on your charge,
 74995     To stop his wounds, lest he do bleed to death.
 74996   SHYLOCK. Is it so nominated in the bond?
 74997   PORTIA. It is not so express'd, but what of that?
 74998     'Twere good you do so much for charity.
 74999   SHYLOCK. I cannot find it; 'tis not in the bond.
 75000   PORTIA. You, merchant, have you anything to say?
 75001   ANTONIO. But little: I am arm'd and well prepar'd.
 75002     Give me your hand, Bassanio; fare you well.
 75003     Grieve not that I am fall'n to this for you,
 75004     For herein Fortune shows herself more kind
 75005     Than is her custom. It is still her use
 75006     To let the wretched man outlive his wealth,
 75007     To view with hollow eye and wrinkled brow
 75008     An age of poverty; from which ling'ring penance
 75009     Of such misery doth she cut me off.
 75010     Commend me to your honourable wife;
 75011     Tell her the process of Antonio's end;
 75012     Say how I lov'd you; speak me fair in death;
 75013     And, when the tale is told, bid her be judge
 75014     Whether Bassanio had not once a love.
 75015     Repent but you that you shall lose your friend,
 75016     And he repents not that he pays your debt;
 75017     For if the Jew do cut but deep enough,
 75018     I'll pay it instantly with all my heart.
 75019   BASSANIO. Antonio, I am married to a wife
 75020     Which is as dear to me as life itself;
 75021     But life itself, my wife, and all the world,
 75022     Are not with me esteem'd above thy life;
 75023     I would lose all, ay, sacrifice them all
 75024     Here to this devil, to deliver you.
 75025   PORTIA. Your wife would give you little thanks for that,
 75026     If she were by to hear you make the offer.
 75027   GRATIANO. I have a wife who I protest I love;
 75028     I would she were in heaven, so she could
 75029     Entreat some power to change this currish Jew.
 75030   NERISSA. 'Tis well you offer it behind her back;
 75031     The wish would make else an unquiet house.
 75032   SHYLOCK.  [Aside]  These be the Christian husbands! I have a
 75033     daughter-
 75034     Would any of the stock of Barrabas
 75035     Had been her husband, rather than a Christian!-
 75036     We trifle time; I pray thee pursue sentence.
 75037   PORTIA. A pound of that same merchant's flesh is thine.
 75038     The court awards it and the law doth give it.
 75039   SHYLOCK. Most rightful judge!
 75040   PORTIA. And you must cut this flesh from off his breast.
 75041     The law allows it and the court awards it.
 75042   SHYLOCK. Most learned judge! A sentence! Come, prepare.
 75043   PORTIA. Tarry a little; there is something else.
 75044     This bond doth give thee here no jot of blood:
 75045     The words expressly are 'a pound of flesh.'
 75046     Take then thy bond, take thou thy pound of flesh;
 75047     But, in the cutting it, if thou dost shed
 75048     One drop of Christian blood, thy lands and goods
 75049     Are, by the laws of Venice, confiscate
 75050     Unto the state of Venice.
 75051   GRATIANO. O upright judge! Mark, Jew. O learned judge!
 75052   SHYLOCK. Is that the law?
 75053   PORTIA. Thyself shalt see the act;
 75054     For, as thou urgest justice, be assur'd
 75055     Thou shalt have justice, more than thou desir'st.
 75056   GRATIANO. O learned judge! Mark, Jew. A learned judge!
 75057   SHYLOCK. I take this offer then: pay the bond thrice,
 75058     And let the Christian go.
 75059   BASSANIO. Here is the money.
 75060   PORTIA. Soft!
 75061     The Jew shall have all justice. Soft! No haste.
 75062     He shall have nothing but the penalty.
 75063   GRATIANO. O Jew! an upright judge, a learned judge!
 75064   PORTIA. Therefore, prepare thee to cut off the flesh.
 75065     Shed thou no blood, nor cut thou less nor more
 75066     But just a pound of flesh; if thou tak'st more
 75067     Or less than a just pound- be it but so much
 75068     As makes it light or heavy in the substance,
 75069     Or the division of the twentieth part
 75070     Of one poor scruple; nay, if the scale do turn
 75071     But in the estimation of a hair-
 75072     Thou diest, and all thy goods are confiscate.
 75073   GRATIANO. A second Daniel, a Daniel, Jew!
 75074     Now, infidel, I have you on the hip.
 75075   PORTIA. Why doth the Jew pause? Take thy forfeiture.
 75076   SHYLOCK. Give me my principal, and let me go.
 75077   BASSANIO. I have it ready for thee; here it is.
 75078   PORTIA. He hath refus'd it in the open court;
 75079     He shall have merely justice, and his bond.
 75080   GRATIANO. A Daniel still say I, a second Daniel!
 75081     I thank thee, Jew, for teaching me that word.
 75082   SHYLOCK. Shall I not have barely my principal?
 75083   PORTIA. Thou shalt have nothing but the forfeiture
 75084     To be so taken at thy peril, Jew.
 75085   SHYLOCK. Why, then the devil give him good of it!
 75086     I'll stay no longer question.
 75087   PORTIA. Tarry, Jew.
 75088     The law hath yet another hold on you.
 75089     It is enacted in the laws of Venice,
 75090     If it be proved against an alien
 75091     That by direct or indirect attempts
 75092     He seek the life of any citizen,
 75093     The party 'gainst the which he doth contrive
 75094     Shall seize one half his goods; the other half
 75095     Comes to the privy coffer of the state;
 75096     And the offender's life lies in the mercy
 75097     Of the Duke only, 'gainst all other voice.
 75098     In which predicament, I say, thou stand'st;
 75099     For it appears by manifest proceeding
 75100     That indirectly, and directly too,
 75101     Thou hast contrived against the very life
 75102     Of the defendant; and thou hast incurr'd
 75103     The danger formerly by me rehears'd.
 75104     Down, therefore, and beg mercy of the Duke.
 75105   GRATIANO. Beg that thou mayst have leave to hang thyself;
 75106     And yet, thy wealth being forfeit to the state,
 75107     Thou hast not left the value of a cord;
 75108     Therefore thou must be hang'd at the state's charge.
 75109   DUKE OF VENICE. That thou shalt see the difference of our spirit,
 75110     I pardon thee thy life before thou ask it.
 75111     For half thy wealth, it is Antonio's;
 75112     The other half comes to the general state,
 75113     Which humbleness may drive unto a fine.
 75114   PORTIA. Ay, for the state; not for Antonio.
 75115   SHYLOCK. Nay, take my life and all, pardon not that.
 75116     You take my house when you do take the prop
 75117     That doth sustain my house; you take my life
 75118     When you do take the means whereby I live.
 75119   PORTIA. What mercy can you render him, Antonio?
 75120   GRATIANO. A halter gratis; nothing else, for God's sake!
 75121   ANTONIO. So please my lord the Duke and all the court
 75122     To quit the fine for one half of his goods;
 75123     I am content, so he will let me have
 75124     The other half in use, to render it
 75125     Upon his death unto the gentleman
 75126     That lately stole his daughter-
 75127     Two things provided more; that, for this favour,
 75128     He presently become a Christian;
 75129     The other, that he do record a gift,
 75130     Here in the court, of all he dies possess'd
 75131     Unto his son Lorenzo and his daughter.
 75132   DUKE OF VENICE. He shall do this, or else I do recant
 75133     The pardon that I late pronounced here.
 75134   PORTIA. Art thou contented, Jew? What dost thou say?
 75135   SHYLOCK. I am content.
 75136   PORTIA. Clerk, draw a deed of gift.
 75137   SHYLOCK. I pray you, give me leave to go from hence;
 75138     I am not well; send the deed after me
 75139     And I will sign it.
 75140   DUKE OF VENICE. Get thee gone, but do it.
 75141   GRATIANO. In christ'ning shalt thou have two god-fathers;
 75142     Had I been judge, thou shouldst have had ten more,
 75143     To bring thee to the gallows, not to the font.
 75144                                                     Exit SHYLOCK
 75145   DUKE OF VENICE. Sir, I entreat you home with me to dinner.
 75146   PORTIA. I humbly do desire your Grace of pardon;
 75147     I must away this night toward Padua,
 75148     And it is meet I presently set forth.
 75149   DUKE OF VENICE. I am sorry that your leisure serves you not.
 75150     Antonio, gratify this gentleman,
 75151     For in my mind you are much bound to him.
 75152                              Exeunt DUKE, MAGNIFICOES, and train
 75153   BASSANIO. Most worthy gentleman, I and my friend
 75154     Have by your wisdom been this day acquitted
 75155     Of grievous penalties; in lieu whereof
 75156     Three thousand ducats, due unto the Jew,
 75157     We freely cope your courteous pains withal.
 75158   ANTONIO. And stand indebted, over and above,
 75159     In love and service to you evermore.
 75160   PORTIA. He is well paid that is well satisfied,
 75161     And I, delivering you, am satisfied,
 75162     And therein do account myself well paid.
 75163     My mind was never yet more mercenary.
 75164     I pray you, know me when we meet again;
 75165     I wish you well, and so I take my leave.
 75166   BASSANIO. Dear sir, of force I must attempt you further;
 75167     Take some remembrance of us, as a tribute,
 75168     Not as fee. Grant me two things, I pray you,
 75169     Not to deny me, and to pardon me.
 75170   PORTIA. You press me far, and therefore I will yield.
 75171     [To ANTONIO]  Give me your gloves, I'll wear them for your sake.
 75172     [To BASSANIO]  And, for your love, I'll take this ring from you.
 75173     Do not draw back your hand; I'll take no more,
 75174     And you in love shall not deny me this.
 75175   BASSANIO. This ring, good sir- alas, it is a trifle;
 75176     I will not shame myself to give you this.
 75177   PORTIA. I will have nothing else but only this;
 75178     And now, methinks, I have a mind to it.
 75179   BASSANIO.. There's more depends on this than on the value.
 75180     The dearest ring in Venice will I give you,
 75181     And find it out by proclamation;
 75182     Only for this, I pray you, pardon me.
 75183   PORTIA. I see, sir, you are liberal in offers;
 75184     You taught me first to beg, and now, methinks,
 75185     You teach me how a beggar should be answer'd.
 75186   BASSANIO. Good sir, this ring was given me by my wife;
 75187     And, when she put it on, she made me vow
 75188     That I should neither sell, nor give, nor lose it.
 75189   PORTIA. That 'scuse serves many men to save their gifts.
 75190     And if your wife be not a mad woman,
 75191     And know how well I have deserv'd this ring,
 75192     She would not hold out enemy for ever
 75193     For giving it to me. Well, peace be with you!
 75194                                        Exeunt PORTIA and NERISSA
 75195   ANTONIO. My Lord Bassanio, let him have the ring.
 75196     Let his deservings, and my love withal,
 75197     Be valued 'gainst your wife's commandment.
 75198   BASSANIO. Go, Gratiano, run and overtake him;
 75199     Give him the ring, and bring him, if thou canst,
 75200     Unto Antonio's house. Away, make haste.        Exit GRATIANO
 75201     Come, you and I will thither presently;
 75202     And in the morning early will we both
 75203     Fly toward Belmont. Come, Antonio.                    Exeunt
 75204 
 75205 
 75206 
 75207 
 75208 SCENE II.
 75209 Venice. A street
 75210 
 75211 Enter PORTIA and NERISSA
 75212 
 75213   PORTIA. Inquire the Jew's house out, give him this deed,
 75214     And let him sign it; we'll away tonight,
 75215     And be a day before our husbands home.
 75216     This deed will be well welcome to Lorenzo.
 75217 
 75218                           Enter GRATIANO
 75219 
 75220   GRATIANO. Fair sir, you are well o'erta'en.
 75221     My Lord Bassanio, upon more advice,
 75222     Hath sent you here this ring, and doth entreat
 75223     Your company at dinner.
 75224   PORTIA. That cannot be.
 75225     His ring I do accept most thankfully,
 75226     And so, I pray you, tell him. Furthermore,
 75227     I pray you show my youth old Shylock's house.
 75228   GRATIANO. That will I do.
 75229   NERISSA. Sir, I would speak with you.
 75230     [Aside to PORTIA]  I'll See if I can get my husband's ring,
 75231     Which I did make him swear to keep for ever.
 75232   PORTIA.  [To NERISSA]  Thou Mayst, I warrant. We shall have old
 75233       swearing
 75234     That they did give the rings away to men;
 75235     But we'll outface them, and outswear them too.
 75236     [Aloud]  Away, make haste, thou know'st where I will tarry.
 75237   NERISSA. Come, good sir, will you show me to this house?
 75238                                                           Exeunt
 75239 
 75240 
 75241 
 75242 
 75243 ACT V. SCENE I.
 75244 Belmont. The garden before PORTIA'S house
 75245 
 75246 Enter LORENZO and JESSICA
 75247 
 75248   LORENZO. The moon shines bright. In such a night as this,
 75249     When the sweet wind did gently kiss the trees,
 75250     And they did make no noise- in such a night,
 75251     Troilus methinks mounted the Troyan walls,
 75252     And sigh'd his soul toward the Grecian tents,
 75253     Where Cressid lay that night.
 75254   JESSICA. In such a night
 75255     Did Thisby fearfully o'ertrip the dew,
 75256     And saw the lion's shadow ere himself,
 75257     And ran dismayed away.
 75258   LORENZO. In such a night
 75259     Stood Dido with a willow in her hand
 75260     Upon the wild sea-banks, and waft her love
 75261     To come again to Carthage.
 75262   JESSICA. In such a night
 75263     Medea gathered the enchanted herbs
 75264     That did renew old AEson.
 75265  LORENZO. In such a night
 75266     Did Jessica steal from the wealthy Jew,
 75267     And with an unthrift love did run from Venice
 75268     As far as Belmont.
 75269   JESSICA. In such a night
 75270     Did young Lorenzo swear he lov'd her well,
 75271     Stealing her soul with many vows of faith,
 75272     And ne'er a true one.
 75273   LORENZO. In such a night
 75274     Did pretty Jessica, like a little shrew,
 75275     Slander her love, and he forgave it her.
 75276   JESSICA. I would out-night you, did no body come;
 75277     But, hark, I hear the footing of a man.
 75278 
 75279                        Enter STEPHANO
 75280 
 75281   LORENZO. Who comes so fast in silence of the night?
 75282   STEPHANO. A friend.
 75283   LORENZO. A friend! What friend? Your name, I pray you, friend?
 75284   STEPHANO. Stephano is my name, and I bring word
 75285     My mistress will before the break of day
 75286     Be here at Belmont; she doth stray about
 75287     By holy crosses, where she kneels and prays
 75288     For happy wedlock hours.
 75289   LORENZO. Who comes with her?
 75290   STEPHANO. None but a holy hermit and her maid.
 75291     I pray you, is my master yet return'd?
 75292   LORENZO. He is not, nor we have not heard from him.
 75293     But go we in, I pray thee, Jessica,
 75294     And ceremoniously let us prepare
 75295     Some welcome for the mistress of the house.
 75296 
 75297                          Enter LAUNCELOT
 75298 
 75299   LAUNCELOT. Sola, sola! wo ha, ho! sola, sola!
 75300   LORENZO. Who calls?
 75301   LAUNCELOT. Sola! Did you see Master Lorenzo? Master Lorenzo! Sola,
 75302     sola!
 75303   LORENZO. Leave holloaing, man. Here!
 75304   LAUNCELOT. Sola! Where, where?
 75305   LORENZO. Here!
 75306   LAUNCELOT. Tell him there's a post come from my master with his
 75307     horn full of good news; my master will be here ere morning.
 75308  Exit
 75309   LORENZO. Sweet soul, let's in, and there expect their coming.
 75310     And yet no matter- why should we go in?
 75311     My friend Stephano, signify, I pray you,
 75312     Within the house, your mistress is at hand;
 75313     And bring your music forth into the air.       Exit STEPHANO
 75314     How sweet the moonlight sleeps upon this bank!
 75315     Here will we sit and let the sounds of music
 75316     Creep in our ears; soft stillness and the night
 75317     Become the touches of sweet harmony.
 75318     Sit, Jessica. Look how the floor of heaven
 75319     Is thick inlaid with patines of bright gold;
 75320     There's not the smallest orb which thou behold'st
 75321     But in his motion like an angel sings,
 75322     Still quiring to the young-ey'd cherubins;
 75323     Such harmony is in immortal souls,
 75324     But whilst this muddy vesture of decay
 75325     Doth grossly close it in, we cannot hear it.
 75326 
 75327                           Enter MUSICIANS
 75328 
 75329     Come, ho, and wake Diana with a hymn;
 75330     With sweetest touches pierce your mistress' ear.
 75331     And draw her home with music.                        [Music]
 75332   JESSICA. I am never merry when I hear sweet music.
 75333   LORENZO. The reason is your spirits are attentive;
 75334     For do but note a wild and wanton herd,
 75335     Or race of youthful and unhandled colts,
 75336     Fetching mad bounds, bellowing and neighing loud,
 75337     Which is the hot condition of their blood-
 75338     If they but hear perchance a trumpet sound,
 75339     Or any air of music touch their ears,
 75340     You shall perceive them make a mutual stand,
 75341     Their savage eyes turn'd to a modest gaze
 75342     By the sweet power of music. Therefore the poet
 75343     Did feign that Orpheus drew trees, stones, and floods;
 75344     Since nought so stockish, hard, and full of rage,
 75345     But music for the time doth change his nature.
 75346     The man that hath no music in himself,
 75347     Nor is not mov'd with concord of sweet sounds,
 75348     Is fit for treasons, stratagems, and spoils;
 75349     The motions of his spirit are dull:as night,
 75350     And his affections dark as Erebus.
 75351     Let no such man be trusted. Mark the music.
 75352 
 75353                     Enter PORTIA and NERISSA
 75354 
 75355   PORTIA. That light we see is burning in my hall.
 75356     How far that little candle throws his beams!
 75357     So shines a good deed in a naughty world.
 75358   NERISSA. When the moon shone, we did not see the candle.
 75359   PORTIA. So doth the greater glory dim the less:
 75360     A substitute shines brightly as a king
 75361     Until a king be by, and then his state
 75362     Empties itself, as doth an inland brook
 75363     Into the main of waters. Music! hark!
 75364   NERISSA. It is your music, madam, of the house.
 75365   PORTIA. Nothing is good, I see, without respect;
 75366     Methinks it sounds much sweeter than by day.
 75367   NERISSA. Silence bestows that virtue on it, madam.
 75368   PORTIA. The crow doth sing as sweetly as the lark
 75369     When neither is attended; and I think
 75370     ne nightingale, if she should sing by day,
 75371     When every goose is cackling, would be thought
 75372     No better a musician than the wren.
 75373     How many things by season season'd are
 75374     To their right praise and true perfection!
 75375     Peace, ho! The moon sleeps with Endymion,
 75376     And would not be awak'd.                      [Music ceases]
 75377   LORENZO. That is the voice,
 75378     Or I am much deceiv'd, of Portia.
 75379   PORTIA. He knows me as the blind man knows the cuckoo,
 75380     By the bad voice.
 75381   LORENZO. Dear lady, welcome home.
 75382   PORTIA. We have been praying for our husbands' welfare,
 75383     Which speed, we hope, the better for our words.
 75384     Are they return'd?
 75385   LORENZO. Madam, they are not yet;
 75386     But there is come a messenger before,
 75387     To signify their coming.
 75388   PORTIA.. Go in, Nerissa;
 75389     Give order to my servants that they take
 75390     No note at all of our being absent hence;
 75391     Nor you, Lorenzo; Jessica, nor you.        [A tucket sounds]
 75392   LORENZO. Your husband is at hand; I hear his trumpet.
 75393     We are no tell-tales, madam, fear you not.
 75394   PORTIA. This night methinks is but the daylight sick;
 75395     It looks a little paler; 'tis a day
 75396     Such as the day is when the sun is hid.
 75397 
 75398        Enter BASSANIO, ANTONIO, GRATIANO, and their followers
 75399 
 75400   BASSANIO. We should hold day with the Antipodes,
 75401     If you would walk in absence of the sun.
 75402   PORTIA. Let me give light, but let me not be light,
 75403     For a light wife doth make a heavy husband,
 75404     And never be Bassanio so for me;
 75405     But God sort all! You are welcome home, my lord.
 75406   BASSANIO. I thank you, madam; give welcome to my friend.
 75407     This is the man, this is Antonio,
 75408     To whom I am so infinitely bound.
 75409   PORTIA. You should in all sense be much bound to him,
 75410     For, as I hear, he was much bound for you.
 75411   ANTONIO. No more than I am well acquitted of.
 75412   PORTIA. Sir, you are very welcome to our house.
 75413     It must appear in other ways than words,
 75414     Therefore I scant this breathing courtesy.
 75415   GRATIANO.  [To NERISSA]  By yonder moon I swear you do me wrong;
 75416     In faith, I gave it to the judge's clerk.
 75417     Would he were gelt that had it, for my part,
 75418     Since you do take it, love, so much at heart.
 75419   PORTIA. A quarrel, ho, already! What's the matter?
 75420   GRATIANO. About a hoop of gold, a paltry ring
 75421     That she did give me, whose posy was
 75422     For all the world like cutler's poetry
 75423     Upon a knife, 'Love me, and leave me not.'
 75424   NERISSA. What talk you of the posy or the value?
 75425     You swore to me, when I did give it you,
 75426     That you would wear it till your hour of death,
 75427     And that it should lie with you in your grave;
 75428     Though not for me, yet for your vehement oaths,
 75429     You should have been respective and have kept it.
 75430     Gave it a judge's clerk! No, God's my judge,
 75431     The clerk will ne'er wear hair on's face that had it.
 75432   GRATIANO. He will, an if he live to be a man.
 75433   NERISSA. Ay, if a woman live to be a man.
 75434   GRATIANO. Now by this hand I gave it to a youth,
 75435     A kind of boy, a little scrubbed boy
 75436     No higher than thyself, the judge's clerk;
 75437     A prating boy that begg'd it as a fee;
 75438     I could not for my heart deny it him.
 75439   PORTIA. You were to blame, I must be plain with you,
 75440     To part so slightly with your wife's first gift,
 75441     A thing stuck on with oaths upon your finger
 75442     And so riveted with faith unto your flesh.
 75443     I gave my love a ring, and made him swear
 75444     Never to part with it, and here he stands;
 75445     I dare be sworn for him he would not leave it
 75446     Nor pluck it from his finger for the wealth
 75447     That the world masters. Now, in faith, Gratiano,
 75448     You give your wife too unkind a cause of grief;
 75449     An 'twere to me, I should be mad at it.
 75450   BASSANIO.  [Aside]  Why, I were best to cut my left hand off,
 75451     And swear I lost the ring defending it.
 75452   GRATIANO. My Lord Bassanio gave his ring away
 75453     Unto the judge that begg'd it, and indeed
 75454     Deserv'd it too; and then the boy, his clerk,
 75455     That took some pains in writing, he begg'd mine;
 75456     And neither man nor master would take aught
 75457     But the two rings.
 75458   PORTIA. What ring gave you, my lord?
 75459     Not that, I hope, which you receiv'd of me.
 75460   BASSANIO. If I could add a lie unto a fault,
 75461     I would deny it; but you see my finger
 75462     Hath not the ring upon it; it is gone.
 75463   PORTIA. Even so void is your false heart of truth;
 75464     By heaven, I will ne'er come in your bed
 75465     Until I see the ring.
 75466   NERISSA. Nor I in yours
 75467     Till I again see mine.
 75468   BASSANIO. Sweet Portia,
 75469     If you did know to whom I gave the ring,
 75470     If you did know for whom I gave the ring,
 75471     And would conceive for what I gave the ring,
 75472     And how unwillingly I left the ring,
 75473     When nought would be accepted but the ring,
 75474     You would abate the strength of your displeasure.
 75475   PORTIA. If you had known the virtue of the ring,
 75476     Or half her worthiness that gave the ring,
 75477     Or your own honour to contain the ring,
 75478     You would not then have parted with the ring.
 75479     What man is there so much unreasonable,
 75480     If you had pleas'd to have defended it
 75481     With any terms of zeal, wanted the modesty
 75482     To urge the thing held as a ceremony?
 75483     Nerissa teaches me what to believe:
 75484     I'll die for't but some woman had the ring.
 75485   BASSANIO. No, by my honour, madam, by my soul,
 75486     No woman had it, but a civil doctor,
 75487     Which did refuse three thousand ducats of me,
 75488     And begg'd the ring; the which I did deny him,
 75489     And suffer'd him to go displeas'd away-
 75490     Even he that had held up the very life
 75491     Of my dear friend. What should I say, sweet lady?
 75492     I was enforc'd to send it after him;
 75493     I was beset with shame and courtesy;
 75494     My honour would not let ingratitude
 75495     So much besmear it. Pardon me, good lady;
 75496     For by these blessed candles of the night,
 75497     Had you been there, I think you would have begg'd
 75498     The ring of me to give the worthy doctor.
 75499   PORTIA. Let not that doctor e'er come near my house;
 75500     Since he hath got the jewel that I loved,
 75501     And that which you did swear to keep for me,
 75502     I will become as liberal as you;
 75503     I'll not deny him anything I have,
 75504     No, not my body, nor my husband's bed.
 75505     Know him I shall, I am well sure of it.
 75506     Lie not a night from home; watch me like Argus;
 75507     If you do not, if I be left alone,
 75508     Now, by mine honour which is yet mine own,
 75509     I'll have that doctor for mine bedfellow.
 75510   NERISSA. And I his clerk; therefore be well advis'd
 75511     How you do leave me to mine own protection.
 75512   GRATIANO. Well, do you so, let not me take him then;
 75513     For, if I do, I'll mar the young clerk's pen.
 75514   ANTONIO. I am th' unhappy subject of these quarrels.
 75515   PORTIA. Sir, grieve not you; you are welcome not withstanding.
 75516   BASSANIO. Portia, forgive me this enforced wrong;
 75517     And in the hearing of these many friends
 75518     I swear to thee, even by thine own fair eyes,
 75519     Wherein I see myself-
 75520   PORTIA. Mark you but that!
 75521     In both my eyes he doubly sees himself,
 75522     In each eye one; swear by your double self,
 75523     And there's an oath of credit.
 75524   BASSANIO. Nay, but hear me.
 75525     Pardon this fault, and by my soul I swear
 75526     I never more will break an oath with thee.
 75527   ANTONIO. I once did lend my body for his wealth,
 75528     Which, but for him that had your husband's ring,
 75529     Had quite miscarried; I dare be bound again,
 75530     My soul upon the forfeit, that your lord
 75531     Will never more break faith advisedly.
 75532   PORTIA. Then you shall be his surety. Give him this,
 75533     And bid him keep it better than the other.
 75534   ANTONIO. Here, Lord Bassanio, swear to keep this ring.
 75535   BASSANIO. By heaven, it is the same I gave the doctor!
 75536   PORTIA. I had it of him. Pardon me, Bassanio,
 75537     For, by this ring, the doctor lay with me.
 75538   NERISSA. And pardon me, my gentle Gratiano,
 75539     For that same scrubbed boy, the doctor's clerk,
 75540     In lieu of this, last night did lie with me.
 75541   GRATIANO. Why, this is like the mending of highways
 75542     In summer, where the ways are fair enough.
 75543     What, are we cuckolds ere we have deserv'd it?
 75544   PORTIA. Speak not so grossly. You are all amaz'd.
 75545     Here is a letter; read it at your leisure;
 75546     It comes from Padua, from Bellario;
 75547     There you shall find that Portia was the doctor,
 75548     Nerissa there her clerk. Lorenzo here
 75549     Shall witness I set forth as soon as you,
 75550     And even but now return'd; I have not yet
 75551     Enter'd my house. Antonio, you are welcome;
 75552     And I have better news in store for you
 75553     Than you expect. Unseal this letter soon;
 75554     There you shall find three of your argosies
 75555     Are richly come to harbour suddenly.
 75556     You shall not know by what strange accident
 75557     I chanced on this letter.
 75558   ANTONIO. I am dumb.
 75559   BASSANIO. Were you the doctor, and I knew you not?
 75560   GRATIANO. Were you the clerk that is to make me cuckold?
 75561   NERISSA. Ay, but the clerk that never means to do it,
 75562     Unless he live until he be a man.
 75563   BASSANIO. Sweet doctor, you shall be my bedfellow;
 75564     When I am absent, then lie with my wife.
 75565   ANTONIO. Sweet lady, you have given me life and living;
 75566     For here I read for certain that my ships
 75567     Are safely come to road.
 75568   PORTIA. How now, Lorenzo!
 75569     My clerk hath some good comforts too for you.
 75570   NERISSA. Ay, and I'll give them him without a fee.
 75571     There do I give to you and Jessica,
 75572     From the rich Jew, a special deed of gift,
 75573     After his death, of all he dies possess'd of.
 75574   LORENZO. Fair ladies, you drop manna in the way
 75575     Of starved people.
 75576   PORTIA. It is almost morning,
 75577     And yet I am sure you are not satisfied
 75578     Of these events at full. Let us go in,
 75579     And charge us there upon inter'gatories,
 75580     And we will answer all things faithfully.
 75581   GRATIANO. Let it be so. The first inter'gatory
 75582     That my Nerissa shall be sworn on is,
 75583     Whether till the next night she had rather stay,
 75584     Or go to bed now, being two hours to day.
 75585     But were the day come, I should wish it dark,
 75586     Till I were couching with the doctor's clerk.
 75587     Well, while I live, I'll fear no other thing
 75588     So sore as keeping safe Nerissa's ring.               Exeunt
 75589 
 75590 THE END
 75591 
 75592 
 75593 
 75594 <<THIS ELECTRONIC VERSION OF THE COMPLETE WORKS OF WILLIAM
 75595 SHAKESPEARE IS COPYRIGHT 1990-1993 BY WORLD LIBRARY, INC., AND IS
 75596 PROVIDED BY PROJECT GUTENBERG ETEXT OF ILLINOIS BENEDICTINE COLLEGE
 75597 WITH PERMISSION.  ELECTRONIC AND MACHINE READABLE COPIES MAY BE
 75598 DISTRIBUTED SO LONG AS SUCH COPIES (1) ARE FOR YOUR OR OTHERS
 75599 PERSONAL USE ONLY, AND (2) ARE NOT DISTRIBUTED OR USED
 75600 COMMERCIALLY.  PROHIBITED COMMERCIAL DISTRIBUTION INCLUDES BY ANY
 75601 SERVICE THAT CHARGES FOR DOWNLOAD TIME OR FOR MEMBERSHIP.>>
 75602 
 75603 
 75604 
 75605 
 75606 
 75607 1601
 75608 
 75609 THE MERRY WIVES OF WINDSOR
 75610 
 75611 by William Shakespeare
 75612 
 75613 
 75614 
 75615 Dramatis Personae
 75616 
 75617   SIR JOHN FALSTAFF
 75618   FENTON, a young gentleman
 75619   SHALLOW, a country justice
 75620   SLENDER, cousin to Shallow
 75621 
 75622     Gentlemen of Windsor
 75623   FORD
 75624   PAGE
 75625   WILLIAM PAGE, a boy, son to Page
 75626   SIR HUGH EVANS, a Welsh parson
 75627   DOCTOR CAIUS, a French physician
 75628   HOST of the Garter Inn
 75629 
 75630     Followers of Falstaff
 75631   BARDOLPH
 75632   PISTOL
 75633   NYM
 75634   ROBIN, page to Falstaff
 75635   SIMPLE, servant to Slender
 75636   RUGBY, servant to Doctor Caius
 75637 
 75638   MISTRESS FORD
 75639   MISTRESS PAGE
 75640   MISTRESS ANNE PAGE, her daughter
 75641   MISTRESS QUICKLY, servant to Doctor Caius
 75642   SERVANTS to Page, Ford, etc.
 75643 
 75644 
 75645 
 75646 
 75647 <<THIS ELECTRONIC VERSION OF THE COMPLETE WORKS OF WILLIAM
 75648 SHAKESPEARE IS COPYRIGHT 1990-1993 BY WORLD LIBRARY, INC., AND IS
 75649 PROVIDED BY PROJECT GUTENBERG ETEXT OF ILLINOIS BENEDICTINE COLLEGE
 75650 WITH PERMISSION.  ELECTRONIC AND MACHINE READABLE COPIES MAY BE
 75651 DISTRIBUTED SO LONG AS SUCH COPIES (1) ARE FOR YOUR OR OTHERS
 75652 PERSONAL USE ONLY, AND (2) ARE NOT DISTRIBUTED OR USED
 75653 COMMERCIALLY.  PROHIBITED COMMERCIAL DISTRIBUTION INCLUDES BY ANY
 75654 SERVICE THAT CHARGES FOR DOWNLOAD TIME OR FOR MEMBERSHIP.>>
 75655 
 75656 
 75657 
 75658 SCENE:
 75659 Windsor, and the neighbourhood
 75660 
 75661 
 75662 The Merry Wives of Windsor
 75663 
 75664 
 75665 
 75666 ACT I. SCENE 1.
 75667 
 75668 Windsor. Before PAGE'S house
 75669 
 75670 Enter JUSTICE SHALLOW, SLENDER, and SIR HUGH EVANS
 75671 
 75672   SHALLOW. Sir Hugh, persuade me not; I will make a Star
 75673     Chamber matter of it; if he were twenty Sir John Falstaffs,
 75674     he shall not abuse Robert Shallow, esquire.
 75675   SLENDER. In the county of Gloucester, Justice of Peace, and
 75676     Coram.
 75677   SHALLOW. Ay, cousin Slender, and Custalorum.
 75678   SLENDER. Ay, and Ratolorum too; and a gentleman born,
 75679     Master Parson, who writes himself 'Armigero' in any bill,
 75680     warrant, quittance, or obligation-'Armigero.'
 75681   SHALLOW. Ay, that I do; and have done any time these three
 75682     hundred years.
 75683   SLENDER. All his successors, gone before him, hath done't;
 75684     and all his ancestors, that come after him, may: they may
 75685     give the dozen white luces in their coat.
 75686   SHALLOW. It is an old coat.
 75687   EVANS. The dozen white louses do become an old coat well;
 75688     it agrees well, passant; it is a familiar beast to man, and
 75689     signifies love.
 75690   SHALLOW. The luce is the fresh fish; the salt fish is an old
 75691     coat.
 75692   SLENDER. I may quarter, coz.
 75693   SHALLOW. You may, by marrying.
 75694   EVANS. It is marring indeed, if he quarter it.
 75695   SHALLOW. Not a whit.
 75696   EVANS. Yes, py'r lady! If he has a quarter of your coat, there
 75697     is but three skirts for yourself, in my simple conjectures;
 75698     but that is all one. If Sir John Falstaff have committed
 75699     disparagements unto you, I am of the church, and will be
 75700     glad to do my benevolence, to make atonements and
 75701     compremises between you.
 75702   SHALLOW. The Council shall hear it; it is a riot.
 75703   EVANS. It is not meet the Council hear a riot; there is no
 75704     fear of Got in a riot; the Council, look you, shall desire
 75705     to hear the fear of Got, and not to hear a riot; take your
 75706     vizaments in that.
 75707   SHALLOW. Ha! o' my life, if I were young again, the sword
 75708     should end it.
 75709   EVANS. It is petter that friends is the sword and end it;
 75710     and there is also another device in my prain, which
 75711     peradventure prings goot discretions with it. There is Anne
 75712     Page, which is daughter to Master George Page, which is
 75713     pretty virginity.
 75714   SLENDER. Mistress Anne Page? She has brown hair, and
 75715     speaks small like a woman.
 75716   EVANS. It is that fery person for all the orld, as just as you
 75717     will desire; and seven hundred pounds of moneys, and
 75718     gold, and silver, is her grandsire upon his death's-bed-Got
 75719     deliver to a joyful resurrections!-give, when she is able to
 75720     overtake seventeen years old. It were a goot motion if we
 75721     leave our pribbles and prabbles, and desire a marriage
 75722     between Master Abraham and Mistress Anne Page.
 75723   SHALLOW. Did her grandsire leave her seven hundred pound?
 75724   EVANS. Ay, and her father is make her a petter penny.
 75725   SHALLOW. I know the young gentlewoman; she has good
 75726     gifts.
 75727   EVANS. Seven hundred pounds, and possibilities, is goot gifts.
 75728   SHALLOW. Well, let us see honest Master Page. Is Falstaff
 75729     there?
 75730   EVANS. Shall I tell you a lie? I do despise a liar as I do
 75731     despise one that is false; or as I despise one that is not
 75732     true. The knight Sir John is there; and, I beseech you, be
 75733     ruled by your well-willers. I will peat the door for Master
 75734     Page.
 75735     [Knocks]  What, hoa! Got pless your house here!
 75736   PAGE.  [Within]  Who's there?
 75737 
 75738                             Enter PAGE
 75739 
 75740   EVANS. Here is Got's plessing, and your friend, and Justice
 75741   Shallow; and here young Master Slender, that peradventures
 75742     shall tell you another tale, if matters grow to your
 75743     likings.
 75744   PAGE. I am glad to see your worships well. I thank you for
 75745     my venison, Master Shallow.
 75746   SHALLOW. Master Page, I am glad to see you; much good do
 75747     it your good heart! I wish'd your venison better; it was ill
 75748     kill'd. How doth good Mistress Page?-and I thank you
 75749     always with my heart, la! with my heart.
 75750   PAGE. Sir, I thank you.
 75751   SHALLOW. Sir, I thank you; by yea and no, I do.
 75752   PAGE. I am glad to see you, good Master Slender.
 75753   SLENDER. How does your fallow greyhound, sir? I heard say
 75754     he was outrun on Cotsall.
 75755   PAGE. It could not be judg'd, sir.
 75756   SLENDER. You'll not confess, you'll not confess.
 75757   SHALLOW. That he will not. 'Tis your fault; 'tis your fault;
 75758     'tis a good dog.
 75759   PAGE. A cur, sir.
 75760   SHALLOW. Sir, he's a good dog, and a fair dog. Can there be
 75761     more said? He is good, and fair. Is Sir John Falstaff here?
 75762   PAGE. Sir, he is within; and I would I could do a good office
 75763     between you.
 75764   EVANS. It is spoke as a Christians ought to speak.
 75765   SHALLOW. He hath wrong'd me, Master Page.
 75766   PAGE. Sir, he doth in some sort confess it.
 75767   SHALLOW. If it be confessed, it is not redressed; is not that
 75768     so, Master Page? He hath wrong'd me; indeed he hath; at a
 75769     word, he hath, believe me; Robert Shallow, esquire, saith
 75770     he is wronged.
 75771   PAGE. Here comes Sir John.
 75772 
 75773       Enter SIR JOHN FALSTAFF, BARDOLPH, NYM, and PISTOL
 75774 
 75775   FALSTAFF. Now, Master Shallow, you'll complain of me to
 75776     the King?
 75777   SHALLOW. Knight, you have beaten my men, kill'd my deer,
 75778     and broke open my lodge.
 75779   FALSTAFF. But not kiss'd your keeper's daughter.
 75780   SHALLOW. Tut, a pin! this shall be answer'd.
 75781   FALSTAFF. I will answer it straight: I have done all this.
 75782     That is now answer'd.
 75783   SHALLOW. The Council shall know this.
 75784   FALSTAFF. 'Twere better for you if it were known in counsel:
 75785     you'll be laugh'd at.
 75786   EVANS. Pauca verba, Sir John; goot worts.
 75787   FALSTAFF. Good worts! good cabbage! Slender, I broke your
 75788     head; what matter have you against me?
 75789   SLENDER. Marry, sir, I have matter in my head against you;
 75790     and against your cony-catching rascals, Bardolph, Nym,
 75791     and Pistol. They carried me to the tavern, and made me
 75792     drunk, and afterwards pick'd my pocket.
 75793   BARDOLPH. You Banbury cheese!
 75794   SLENDER. Ay, it is no matter.
 75795   PISTOL. How now, Mephostophilus!
 75796   SLENDER. Ay, it is no matter.
 75797   NYM. Slice, I say! pauca, pauca; slice! That's my humour.
 75798   SLENDER. Where's Simple, my man? Can you tell, cousin?
 75799   EVANS. Peace, I pray you. Now let us understand. There is
 75800     three umpires in this matter, as I understand: that is,
 75801     Master Page, fidelicet Master Page; and there is myself,
 75802     fidelicet myself; and the three party is, lastly and
 75803     finally, mine host of the Garter.
 75804   PAGE. We three to hear it and end it between them.
 75805   EVANS. Fery goot. I will make a prief of it in my note-book;
 75806     and we will afterwards ork upon the cause with as great
 75807     discreetly as we can.
 75808   FALSTAFF. Pistol!
 75809   PISTOL. He hears with ears.
 75810   EVANS. The tevil and his tam! What phrase is this, 'He hears
 75811     with ear'? Why, it is affectations.
 75812   FALSTAFF. Pistol, did you pick Master Slender's purse?
 75813   SLENDER. Ay, by these gloves, did he-or I would I might
 75814     never come in mine own great chamber again else!-of
 75815     seven groats in mill-sixpences, and two Edward
 75816     shovel-boards that cost me two shilling and two pence apiece
 75817     of Yead Miller, by these gloves.
 75818   FALSTAFF. Is this true, Pistol?
 75819   EVANS. No, it is false, if it is a pick-purse.
 75820   PISTOL. Ha, thou mountain-foreigner! Sir John and master
 75821     mine,
 75822     I combat challenge of this latten bilbo.
 75823     Word of denial in thy labras here!
 75824     Word of denial! Froth and scum, thou liest.
 75825   SLENDER. By these gloves, then, 'twas he.
 75826   NYM. Be avis'd, sir, and pass good humours; I will say
 75827     'marry trap' with you, if you run the nuthook's humour on
 75828     me; that is the very note of it.
 75829   SLENDER. By this hat, then, he in the red face had it; for
 75830     though I cannot remember what I did when you made me
 75831     drunk, yet I am not altogether an ass.
 75832   FALSTAFF. What say you, Scarlet and John?
 75833   BARDOLPH. Why, sir, for my part, I say the gentleman had
 75834     drunk himself out of his five sentences.
 75835   EVANS. It is his five senses; fie, what the ignorance is!
 75836   BARDOLPH. And being fap, sir, was, as they say, cashier'd;
 75837     and so conclusions pass'd the careers.
 75838   SLENDER. Ay, you spake in Latin then too; but 'tis no matter;
 75839     I'll ne'er be drunk whilst I live again, but in honest,
 75840     civil, godly company, for this trick. If I be drunk, I'll be
 75841     drunk with those that have the fear of God, and not with
 75842     drunken knaves.
 75843   EVANS. So Got udge me, that is a virtuous mind.
 75844   FALSTAFF. You hear all these matters deni'd, gentlemen; you
 75845     hear it.
 75846 
 75847           Enter MISTRESS ANNE PAGE with wine; MISTRESS
 75848                FORD and MISTRESS PAGE, following
 75849 
 75850   PAGE. Nay, daughter, carry the wine in; we'll drink within.
 75851                                                   Exit ANNE PAGE
 75852   SLENDER. O heaven! this is Mistress Anne Page.
 75853   PAGE. How now, Mistress Ford!
 75854   FALSTAFF. Mistress Ford, by my troth, you are very well
 75855     met; by your leave, good mistress.              [Kisses her]
 75856   PAGE. Wife, bid these gentlemen welcome. Come, we have a
 75857     hot venison pasty to dinner; come, gentlemen, I hope we
 75858     shall drink down all unkindness.
 75859                       Exeunt all but SHALLOW, SLENDER, and EVANS
 75860   SLENDER. I had rather than forty shillings I had my Book of
 75861     Songs and Sonnets here.
 75862 
 75863                           Enter SIMPLE
 75864 
 75865     How, Simple! Where have you been? I must wait on
 75866     myself, must I? You have not the Book of Riddles about you,
 75867     have you?
 75868   SIMPLE. Book of Riddles! Why, did you not lend it to Alice
 75869     Shortcake upon Allhallowmas last, a fortnight afore
 75870     Michaelmas?
 75871   SHALLOW. Come, coz; come, coz; we stay for you. A word
 75872     with you, coz; marry, this, coz: there is, as 'twere, a
 75873     tender, a kind of tender, made afar off by Sir Hugh here. Do
 75874     you understand me?
 75875   SLENDER. Ay, sir, you shall find me reasonable; if it be so, I
 75876     shall do that that is reason.
 75877   SHALLOW. Nay, but understand me.
 75878   SLENDER. So I do, sir.
 75879   EVANS. Give ear to his motions: Master Slender, I will
 75880     description the matter to you, if you be capacity of it.
 75881   SLENDER. Nay, I will do as my cousin Shallow says; I pray
 75882     you pardon me; he's a justice of peace in his country,
 75883     simple though I stand here.
 75884   EVANS. But that is not the question. The question is
 75885     concerning your marriage.
 75886   SHALLOW. Ay, there's the point, sir.
 75887   EVANS. Marry is it; the very point of it; to Mistress Anne
 75888     Page.
 75889   SLENDER. Why, if it be so, I will marry her upon any
 75890     reasonable demands.
 75891   EVANS. But can you affection the oman? Let us command to
 75892     know that of your mouth or of your lips; for divers philosophers
 75893     hold that the lips is parcel of the mouth. Therefore,
 75894     precisely, can you carry your good will to the maid?
 75895   SHALLOW. Cousin Abraham Slender, can you love her?
 75896   SLENDER. I hope, sir, I will do as it shall become one that
 75897     would do reason.
 75898   EVANS. Nay, Got's lords and his ladies! you must speak possitable,
 75899     if you can carry her your desires towards her.
 75900   SHALLOW. That you must. Will you, upon good dowry,
 75901     marry her?
 75902   SLENDER. I will do a greater thing than that upon your request,
 75903     cousin, in any reason.
 75904   SHALLOW. Nay, conceive me, conceive me, sweet coz; what
 75905     I do is to pleasure you, coz. Can you love the maid?
 75906   SLENDER. I will marry her, sir, at your request; but if there
 75907     be no great love in the beginning, yet heaven may decrease
 75908     it upon better acquaintance, when we are married and
 75909     have more occasion to know one another. I hope upon
 75910     familiarity will grow more contempt. But if you say
 75911     'marry her,' I will marry her; that I am freely dissolved,
 75912     and dissolutely.
 75913   EVANS. It is a fery discretion answer, save the fall is in the
 75914     ord 'dissolutely': the ort is, according to our meaning,
 75915     'resolutely'; his meaning is good.
 75916   SHALLOW. Ay, I think my cousin meant well.
 75917   SLENDER. Ay, or else I would I might be hang'd, la!
 75918 
 75919                        Re-enter ANNE PAGE
 75920 
 75921   SHALLOW. Here comes fair Mistress Anne. Would I were
 75922     young for your sake, Mistress Anne!
 75923   ANNE. The dinner is on the table; my father desires your
 75924     worships' company.
 75925   SHALLOW. I will wait on him, fair Mistress Anne!
 75926   EVANS. Od's plessed will! I will not be absence at the grace.
 75927                                         Exeunt SHALLOW and EVANS
 75928   ANNE. Will't please your worship to come in, sir?
 75929   SLENDER. No, I thank you, forsooth, heartily; I am very
 75930     well.
 75931   ANNE. The dinner attends you, sir.
 75932   SLENDER. I am not a-hungry, I thank you, forsooth. Go,
 75933     sirrah, for all you are my man, go wait upon my cousin
 75934   Shallow.  [Exit SIMPLE]  A justice of peace sometime may
 75935     be beholding to his friend for a man. I keep but three men
 75936     and a boy yet, till my mother be dead. But what though?
 75937     Yet I live like a poor gentleman born.
 75938   ANNE. I may not go in without your worship; they will not
 75939     sit till you come.
 75940   SLENDER. I' faith, I'll eat nothing; I thank you as much as
 75941     though I did.
 75942   ANNE. I pray you, sir, walk in.
 75943   SLENDER. I had rather walk here, I thank you. I bruis'd my
 75944     shin th' other day with playing at sword and dagger with
 75945     a master of fence-three veneys for a dish of stew'd prunes
 75946     -and, I with my ward defending my head, he hot my shin,
 75947     and, by my troth, I cannot abide the smell of hot meat
 75948     since. Why do your dogs bark so? Be there bears i' th'
 75949     town?
 75950   ANNE. I think there are, sir; I heard them talk'd of.
 75951   SLENDER. I love the sport well; but I shall as soon quarrel at
 75952     it as any man in England. You are afraid, if you see the
 75953     bear loose, are you not?
 75954   ANNE. Ay, indeed, sir.
 75955   SLENDER. That's meat and drink to me now. I have seen
 75956     Sackerson loose twenty times, and have taken him by the
 75957     chain; but I warrant you, the women have so cried and
 75958     shriek'd at it that it pass'd; but women, indeed, cannot
 75959     abide 'em; they are very ill-favour'd rough things.
 75960 
 75961                          Re-enter PAGE
 75962 
 75963   PAGE. Come, gentle Master Slender, come; we stay for you.
 75964   SLENDER. I'll eat nothing, I thank you, sir.
 75965   PAGE. By cock and pie, you shall not choose, sir! Come,
 75966     come.
 75967   SLENDER. Nay, pray you lead the way.
 75968   PAGE. Come on, sir.
 75969   SLENDER. Mistress Anne, yourself shall go first.
 75970   ANNE. Not I, sir; pray you keep on.
 75971   SLENDER. Truly, I will not go first; truly, la! I will not do
 75972     you that wrong.
 75973   ANNE. I pray you, sir.
 75974   SLENDER. I'll rather be unmannerly than troublesome. You
 75975     do yourself wrong indeed, la!                         Exeunt
 75976 
 75977 
 75978 
 75979 
 75980 SCENE 2.
 75981 
 75982 Before PAGE'S house
 75983 
 75984 Enter SIR HUGH EVANS and SIMPLE
 75985 
 75986   EVANS. Go your ways, and ask of Doctor Caius' house which
 75987     is the way; and there dwells one Mistress Quickly, which
 75988     is in the manner of his nurse, or his dry nurse, or his cook,
 75989     or his laundry, his washer, and his wringer.
 75990   SIMPLE. Well, sir.
 75991   EVANS. Nay, it is petter yet. Give her this letter; for it is a
 75992     oman that altogether's acquaintance with Mistress Anne
 75993     Page; and the letter is to desire and require her to solicit
 75994     your master's desires to Mistress Anne Page. I pray you
 75995     be gone. I will make an end of my dinner; there's pippins
 75996     and cheese to come.                                   Exeunt
 75997 
 75998 
 75999 
 76000 
 76001 SCENE 3.
 76002 
 76003 The Garter Inn
 76004 
 76005 Enter FALSTAFF, HOST, BARDOLPH, NYM, PISTOL, and ROBIN
 76006 
 76007   FALSTAFF. Mine host of the Garter!
 76008   HOST. What says my bully rook? Speak scholarly and
 76009     wisely.
 76010   FALSTAFF. Truly, mine host, I must turn away some of my
 76011     followers.
 76012   HOST. Discard, bully Hercules; cashier; let them wag; trot,
 76013     trot.
 76014   FALSTAFF. I sit at ten pounds a week.
 76015   HOST. Thou'rt an emperor-Caesar, Keiser, and Pheazar. I
 76016     will entertain Bardolph; he shall draw, he shall tap; said I
 76017     well, bully Hector?
 76018   FALSTAFF. Do so, good mine host.
 76019   HOST. I have spoke; let him follow.  [To BARDOLPH]  Let me
 76020     see thee froth and lime. I am at a word; follow.   Exit HOST
 76021   FALSTAFF. Bardolph, follow him. A tapster is a good trade;
 76022     an old cloak makes a new jerkin; a wither'd serving-man a
 76023     fresh tapster. Go; adieu.
 76024   BARDOLPH. It is a life that I have desir'd; I will thrive.
 76025   PISTOL. O base Hungarian wight! Wilt thou the spigot
 76026     wield?                                         Exit BARDOLPH
 76027   NYM. He was gotten in drink. Is not the humour conceited?
 76028   FALSTAFF. I am glad I am so acquit of this tinder-box: his
 76029     thefts were too open; his filching was like an unskilful
 76030     singer-he kept not time.
 76031   NYM. The good humour is to steal at a minute's rest.
 76032   PISTOL. 'Convey' the wise it call. 'Steal' foh! A fico for the
 76033     phrase!
 76034   FALSTAFF. Well, sirs, I am almost out at heels.
 76035   PISTOL. Why, then, let kibes ensue.
 76036   FALSTAFF. There is no remedy; I must cony-catch; I must
 76037     shift.
 76038   PISTOL. Young ravens must have food.
 76039   FALSTAFF. Which of you know Ford of this town?
 76040   PISTOL. I ken the wight; he is of substance good.
 76041   FALSTAFF. My honest lads, I will tell you what I am about.
 76042   PISTOL. Two yards, and more.
 76043   FALSTAFF. No quips now, Pistol. Indeed, I am in the waist
 76044     two yards about; but I am now about no waste; I am about
 76045     thrift. Briefly, I do mean to make love to Ford's wife; I
 76046     spy entertainment in her; she discourses, she carves, she
 76047     gives the leer of invitation; I can construe the action of her
 76048     familiar style; and the hardest voice of her behaviour, to be
 76049     English'd rightly, is 'I am Sir John Falstaff's.'
 76050     PISTOL. He hath studied her well, and translated her will out
 76051     of honesty into English.
 76052   NYM. The anchor is deep; will that humour pass?
 76053   FALSTAFF. Now, the report goes she has all the rule of her
 76054     husband's purse; he hath a legion of angels.
 76055   PISTOL. As many devils entertain; and 'To her, boy,' say I.
 76056   NYM. The humour rises; it is good; humour me the angels.
 76057   FALSTAFF. I have writ me here a letter to her; and here
 76058     another to Page's wife, who even now gave me good eyes
 76059     too, examin'd my parts with most judicious oeillades;
 76060     sometimes the beam of her view gilded my foot, sometimes my
 76061     portly belly.
 76062   PISTOL. Then did the sun on dunghill shine.
 76063   NYM. I thank thee for that humour.
 76064   FALSTAFF. O, she did so course o'er my exteriors with such
 76065     a greedy intention that the appetite of her eye did seem to
 76066     scorch me up like a burning-glass! Here's another letter to
 76067     her. She bears the purse too; she is a region in Guiana, all
 76068     gold and bounty. I will be cheaters to them both, and they
 76069     shall be exchequers to me; they shall be my East and West
 76070     Indies, and I will trade to them both. Go, bear thou this
 76071     letter to Mistress Page; and thou this to Mistress Ford. We
 76072     will thrive, lads, we will thrive.
 76073   PISTOL. Shall I Sir Pandarus of Troy become,
 76074     And by my side wear steel? Then Lucifer take all!
 76075   NYM. I will run no base humour. Here, take the
 76076     humour-letter; I will keep the haviour of reputation.
 76077   FALSTAFF.  [To ROBIN]  Hold, sirrah; bear you these letters
 76078     tightly;
 76079     Sail like my pinnace to these golden shores.
 76080     Rogues, hence, avaunt! vanish like hailstones, go;
 76081     Trudge, plod away i' th' hoof; seek shelter, pack!
 76082     Falstaff will learn the humour of the age;
 76083     French thrift, you rogues; myself, and skirted page.
 76084                                        Exeunt FALSTAFF and ROBIN
 76085   PISTOL. Let vultures gripe thy guts! for gourd and fullam
 76086     holds,
 76087     And high and low beguiles the rich and poor;
 76088     Tester I'll have in pouch when thou shalt lack,
 76089     Base Phrygian Turk!
 76090   NYM. I have operations in my head which be humours of
 76091     revenge.
 76092   PISTOL. Wilt thou revenge?
 76093   NYM. By welkin and her star!
 76094   PISTOL. With wit or steel?
 76095   NYM. With both the humours, I.
 76096     I will discuss the humour of this love to Page.
 76097   PISTOL. And I to Ford shall eke unfold
 76098     How Falstaff, varlet vile,
 76099     His dove will prove, his gold will hold,
 76100     And his soft couch defile.
 76101   NYM. My humour shall not cool; I will incense Page to deal
 76102     with poison; I will possess him with yellowness; for the
 76103     revolt of mine is dangerous. That is my true humour.
 76104   PISTOL. Thou art the Mars of malcontents; I second thee;
 76105     troop on.                                             Exeunt
 76106 
 76107 
 76108 
 76109 
 76110 SCENE 4.
 76111 
 76112 DOCTOR CAIUS'S house
 76113 
 76114 Enter MISTRESS QUICKLY, SIMPLE, and RUGBY
 76115 
 76116   QUICKLY. What, John Rugby! I pray thee go to the casement
 76117     and see if you can see my master, Master Doctor
 76118     Caius, coming. If he do, i' faith, and find anybody in the
 76119     house, here will be an old abusing of God's patience and
 76120     the King's English.
 76121   RUGBY. I'll go watch.
 76122   QUICKLY. Go; and we'll have a posset for't soon at night, in
 76123     faith, at the latter end of a sea-coal fire.  [Exit RUGBY]  An
 76124     honest, willing, kind fellow, as ever servant shall come in
 76125     house withal; and, I warrant you, no tell-tale nor no
 76126     breed-bate; his worst fault is that he is given to prayer; he is
 76127     something peevish that way; but nobody but has his fault;
 76128     but let that pass. Peter Simple you say your name is?
 76129   SIMPLE. Ay, for fault of a better.
 76130   QUICKLY. And Master Slender's your master?
 76131   SIMPLE. Ay, forsooth.
 76132   QUICKLY. Does he not wear a great round beard, like a
 76133     glover's paring-knife?
 76134   SIMPLE. No, forsooth; he hath but a little whey face, with a
 76135     little yellow beard, a Cain-colour'd beard.
 76136   QUICKLY. A softly-sprighted man, is he not?
 76137   SIMPLE. Ay, forsooth; but he is as tall a man of his hands as
 76138     any is between this and his head; he hath fought with a
 76139     warrener.
 76140   QUICKLY. How say you? O, I should remember him. Does
 76141     he not hold up his head, as it were, and strut in his gait?
 76142   SIMPLE. Yes, indeed, does he.
 76143   QUICKLY. Well, heaven send Anne Page no worse fortune!
 76144     Tell Master Parson Evans I will do what I can for your
 76145     master. Anne is a good girl, and I wish-
 76146 
 76147                          Re-enter RUGBY
 76148 
 76149   RUGBY. Out, alas! here comes my master.
 76150   QUICKLY. We shall all be shent. Run in here, good young
 76151     man; go into this closet.  [Shuts SIMPLE in the closet]  He
 76152     will not stay long. What, John Rugby! John! what, John,
 76153     I say! Go, John, go inquire for my master; I doubt he be
 76154     not well that he comes not home.  [Singing]
 76155     And down, down, adown-a, etc.
 76156 
 76157                        Enter DOCTOR CAIUS
 76158 
 76159   CAIUS. Vat is you sing? I do not like des toys. Pray you, go
 76160     and vetch me in my closet un boitier vert-a box, a green-a
 76161     box. Do intend vat I speak? A green-a box.
 76162   QUICKLY. Ay, forsooth, I'll fetch it you.  [Aside]  I am glad
 76163     he went not in himself; if he had found the young man,
 76164     he would have been horn-mad.
 76165   CAIUS. Fe, fe, fe fe! ma foi, il fait fort chaud. Je m'en vais a
 76166     la cour-la grande affaire.
 76167   QUICKLY. Is it this, sir?
 76168   CAIUS. Oui; mette le au mon pocket: depeche, quickly. Vere
 76169     is dat knave, Rugby?
 76170   QUICKLY. What, John Rugby? John!
 76171   RUGBY. Here, sir.
 76172   CAIUS. You are John Rugby, and you are Jack Rugby.
 76173     Come, take-a your rapier, and come after my heel to the
 76174     court.
 76175   RUGBY. 'Tis ready, sir, here in the porch.
 76176     CAIUS. By my trot, I tarry too long. Od's me! Qu'ai j'oublie?
 76177     Dere is some simples in my closet dat I vill not for the
 76178     varld I shall leave behind.
 76179   QUICKLY. Ay me, he'll find the young man there, and be
 76180     mad!
 76181   CAIUS. O diable, diable! vat is in my closet? Villainy! larron!
 76182     [Pulling SIMPLE out]  Rugby, my rapier!
 76183   QUICKLY. Good master, be content.
 76184   CAIUS. Wherefore shall I be content-a?
 76185   QUICKLY. The young man is an honest man.
 76186   CAIUS. What shall de honest man do in my closet? Dere is
 76187     no honest man dat shall come in my closet.
 76188   QUICKLY. I beseech you, be not so phlegmatic; hear the
 76189     truth of it. He came of an errand to me from Parson Hugh.
 76190   CAIUS. Vell?
 76191   SIMPLE. Ay, forsooth, to desire her to-
 76192   QUICKLY. Peace, I pray you.
 76193   CAIUS. Peace-a your tongue. Speak-a your tale.
 76194   SIMPLE. To desire this honest gentlewoman, your maid, to
 76195     speak a good word to Mistress Anne Page for my master,
 76196     in the way of marriage.
 76197   QUICKLY. This is all, indeed, la! but I'll ne'er put my finger
 76198     in the fire, and need not.
 76199   CAIUS. Sir Hugh send-a you? Rugby, baillez me some paper.
 76200     Tarry you a little-a-while.                        [Writes]
 76201   QUICKLY.  [Aside to SIMPLE]  I am glad he is so quiet; if he
 76202     had been throughly moved, you should have heard him
 76203     so loud and so melancholy. But notwithstanding, man, I'll
 76204     do you your master what good I can; and the very yea and
 76205     the no is, the French doctor, my master-I may call him
 76206     my master, look you, for I keep his house; and I wash,
 76207     wring, brew, bake, scour, dress meat and drink, make the
 76208     beds, and do all myself-
 76209   SIMPLE.  [Aside to QUICKLY]  'Tis a great charge to come
 76210     under one body's hand.
 76211   QUICKLY.  [Aside to SIMPLE]  Are you avis'd o' that? You
 76212     shall find it a great charge; and to be up early and down
 76213     late; but notwithstanding-to tell you in your ear, I would
 76214     have no words of it-my master himself is in love with
 76215     Mistress Anne Page; but notwithstanding that, I know
 76216     Anne's mind-that's neither here nor there.
 76217   CAIUS. You jack'nape; give-a this letter to Sir Hugh; by gar,
 76218     it is a shallenge; I will cut his troat in de park; and I will
 76219     teach a scurvy jack-a-nape priest to meddle or make. You
 76220     may be gone; it is not good you tarry here. By gar, I will
 76221     cut all his two stones; by gar, he shall not have a stone
 76222     to throw at his dog.                             Exit SIMPLE
 76223   QUICKLY. Alas, he speaks but for his friend.
 76224   CAIUS. It is no matter-a ver dat. Do not you tell-a me dat I
 76225     shall have Anne Page for myself? By gar, I vill kill de Jack
 76226     priest; and I have appointed mine host of de Jarteer to
 76227     measure our weapon. By gar, I will myself have Anne
 76228     Page.
 76229   QUICKLY. Sir, the maid loves you, and all shall be well. We
 76230     must give folks leave to prate. What the good-year!
 76231   CAIUS. Rugby, come to the court with me. By gar, if I have
 76232     not Anne Page, I shall turn your head out of my door.
 76233     Follow my heels, Rugby.               Exeunt CAIUS and RUGBY
 76234   QUICKLY. You shall have-An fool's-head of your own. No,
 76235     I know Anne's mind for that; never a woman in Windsor
 76236     knows more of Anne's mind than I do; nor can do more
 76237     than I do with her, I thank heaven.
 76238   FENTON.  [Within]  Who's within there? ho!
 76239   QUICKLY. Who's there, I trow? Come near the house, I pray
 76240     you.
 76241 
 76242                           Enter FENTON
 76243 
 76244   FENTON. How now, good woman, how dost thou?
 76245   QUICKLY. The better that it pleases your good worship to
 76246     ask.
 76247   FENTON. What news? How does pretty Mistress Anne?
 76248   QUICKLY. In truth, sir, and she is pretty, and honest, and
 76249     gentle; and one that is your friend, I can tell you that by
 76250     the way; I praise heaven for it.
 76251   FENTON. Shall I do any good, think'st thou? Shall I not lose
 76252     my suit?
 76253   QUICKLY. Troth, sir, all is in His hands above; but
 76254     notwithstanding, Master Fenton, I'll be sworn on a book
 76255     she loves you. Have not your worship a wart above your eye?
 76256   FENTON. Yes, marry, have I; what of that?
 76257   QUICKLY. Well, thereby hangs a tale; good faith, it is such
 76258     another Nan; but, I detest, an honest maid as ever broke
 76259     bread. We had an hour's talk of that wart; I shall never
 76260     laugh but in that maid's company! But, indeed, she is
 76261     given too much to allicholy and musing; but for you-well,
 76262     go to.
 76263   FENTON. Well, I shall see her to-day. Hold, there's money
 76264     for thee; let me have thy voice in my behalf. If thou seest
 76265     her before me, commend me.
 76266   QUICKLY. Will I? I' faith, that we will; and I will tell your
 76267     worship more of the wart the next time we have confidence;
 76268     and of other wooers.
 76269   FENTON. Well, farewell; I am in great haste now.
 76270   QUICKLY. Farewell to your worship.  [Exit FENTON]  Truly,
 76271     an honest gentleman; but Anne loves him not; for I know
 76272     Anne's mind as well as another does. Out upon 't, what
 76273     have I forgot?                                          Exit
 76274 
 76275 
 76276 
 76277 
 76278 <<THIS ELECTRONIC VERSION OF THE COMPLETE WORKS OF WILLIAM
 76279 SHAKESPEARE IS COPYRIGHT 1990-1993 BY WORLD LIBRARY, INC., AND IS
 76280 PROVIDED BY PROJECT GUTENBERG ETEXT OF ILLINOIS BENEDICTINE COLLEGE
 76281 WITH PERMISSION.  ELECTRONIC AND MACHINE READABLE COPIES MAY BE
 76282 DISTRIBUTED SO LONG AS SUCH COPIES (1) ARE FOR YOUR OR OTHERS
 76283 PERSONAL USE ONLY, AND (2) ARE NOT DISTRIBUTED OR USED
 76284 COMMERCIALLY.  PROHIBITED COMMERCIAL DISTRIBUTION INCLUDES BY ANY
 76285 SERVICE THAT CHARGES FOR DOWNLOAD TIME OR FOR MEMBERSHIP.>>
 76286 
 76287 
 76288 
 76289 ACT II. SCENE 1.
 76290 
 76291 Before PAGE'S house
 76292 
 76293 Enter MISTRESS PAGE, with a letter
 76294 
 76295   MRS. PAGE. What! have I scap'd love-letters in the holiday-time
 76296     of my beauty, and am I now a subject for them? Let
 76297     me see.                                              [Reads]
 76298     'Ask me no reason why I love you; for though Love use
 76299     Reason for his precisian, he admits him not for his counsellor.
 76300     You are not young, no more am I; go to, then, there's
 76301     sympathy. You are merry, so am I; ha! ha! then there's
 76302     more sympathy. You love sack, and so do I; would you
 76303     desire better sympathy? Let it suffice thee, Mistress Page
 76304     at the least, if the love of soldier can suffice-that I love
 76305     thee. I will not say, Pity me: 'tis not a soldier-like phrase;
 76306     but I say, Love me. By me,
 76307     Thine own true knight,
 76308     By day or night,
 76309     Or any kind of light,
 76310     With all his might,
 76311     For thee to fight,
 76312     JOHN FALSTAFF.'
 76313     What a Herod of Jewry is this! O wicked, wicked world!
 76314     One that is well-nigh worn to pieces with age to show
 76315     himself a young gallant! What an unweighed behaviour
 76316     hath this Flemish drunkard pick'd-with the devil's name!
 76317     -out of my conversation, that he dares in this manner
 76318     assay me? Why, he hath not been thrice in my company!
 76319     What should I say to him? I was then frugal of my mirth.
 76320     Heaven forgive me! Why, I'll exhibit a bill in the parliament
 76321     for the putting down of men. How shall I be
 76322     reveng'd on him? for reveng'd I will be, as sure as his guts
 76323     are made of puddings.
 76324 
 76325                        Enter MISTRESS FORD
 76326 
 76327   MRS. FORD. Mistress Page! trust me, I was going to your
 76328     house.
 76329   MRS. PAGE. And, trust me, I was coming to you. You look
 76330     very ill.
 76331   MRS. FORD. Nay, I'll ne'er believe that; I have to show to
 76332     the contrary.
 76333   MRS. PAGE. Faith, but you do, in my mind.
 76334   MRS. FORD. Well, I do, then; yet, I say, I could show you to
 76335     the contrary. O Mistress Page, give me some counsel.
 76336   MRS. PAGE. What's the matter, woman?
 76337   MRS. FORD. O woman, if it were not for one trifling respect,
 76338     I could come to such honour!
 76339   MRS. PAGE. Hang the trifle, woman; take the honour. What
 76340     is it? Dispense with trifles; what is it?
 76341   MRS. FORD. If I would but go to hell for an eternal moment
 76342     or so, I could be knighted.
 76343   MRS. PAGE. What? Thou liest. Sir Alice Ford! These knights
 76344     will hack; and so thou shouldst not alter the article of thy
 76345     gentry.
 76346   MRS. FORD. We burn daylight. Here, read, read; perceive
 76347     how I might be knighted. I shall think the worse of fat
 76348     men as long as I have an eye to make difference of men's
 76349     liking. And yet he would not swear; prais'd women's
 76350     modesty, and gave such orderly and well-behaved reproof
 76351     to all uncomeliness that I would have sworn his disposition
 76352     would have gone to the truth of his words; but they do no
 76353     more adhere and keep place together than the Hundredth
 76354     Psalm to the tune of 'Greensleeves.' What tempest, I trow,
 76355     threw this whale, with so many tuns of oil in his belly,
 76356     ashore at Windsor? How shall I be revenged on him? I
 76357     think the best way were to entertain him with hope, till
 76358     the wicked fire of lust have melted him in his own grease.
 76359     Did you ever hear the like?
 76360   MRS. PAGE. Letter for letter, but that the name of Page and
 76361     Ford differs. To thy great comfort in this mystery of ill
 76362     opinions, here's the twin-brother of thy letter; but let thine
 76363     inherit first, for, I protest, mine never shall. I warrant he
 76364     hath a thousand of these letters, writ with blank space for
 76365     different names-sure, more!-and these are of the second
 76366     edition. He will print them, out of doubt; for he cares not
 76367     what he puts into the press when he would put us two. I
 76368     had rather be a giantess and lie under Mount Pelion. Well,
 76369     I will find you twenty lascivious turtles ere one chaste
 76370     man.
 76371   MRS. FORD. Why, this is the very same; the very hand, the
 76372     very words. What doth he think of us?
 76373   MRS. PAGE. Nay, I know not; it makes me almost ready to
 76374     wrangle with mine own honesty. I'll entertain myself like
 76375     one that I am not acquainted withal; for, sure, unless he
 76376     know some strain in me that I know not myself, he would
 76377     never have boarded me in this fury.
 76378   MRS. FORD. 'Boarding' call you it? I'll be sure to keep him
 76379     above deck.
 76380   MRS. PAGE. So will I; if he come under my hatches, I'll never
 76381     to sea again. Let's be reveng'd on him; let's appoint him a
 76382     meeting, give him a show of comfort in his suit, and lead
 76383     him on with a fine-baited delay, till he hath pawn'd his
 76384     horses to mine host of the Garter.
 76385   MRS. FORD. Nay, I will consent to act any villainy against
 76386     him that may not sully the chariness of our honesty. O
 76387     that my husband saw this letter! It would give eternal food
 76388     to his jealousy.
 76389   MRS. PAGE. Why, look where he comes; and my good man
 76390     too; he's as far from jealousy as I am from giving him
 76391     cause; and that, I hope, is an unmeasurable distance.
 76392   MRS. FORD. You are the happier woman.
 76393   MRS. PAGE. Let's consult together against this greasy knight.
 76394     Come hither.                                   [They retire]
 76395 
 76396            Enter FORD with PISTOL, and PAGE with Nym
 76397 
 76398   FORD. Well, I hope it be not so.
 76399   PISTOL. Hope is a curtal dog in some affairs.
 76400     Sir John affects thy wife.
 76401   FORD. Why, sir, my wife is not young.
 76402   PISTOL. He woos both high and low, both rich and poor,
 76403     Both young and old, one with another, Ford;
 76404     He loves the gallimaufry. Ford, perpend.
 76405   FORD. Love my wife!
 76406   PISTOL. With liver burning hot. Prevent, or go thou,
 76407     Like Sir Actaeon he, with Ringwood at thy heels.
 76408     O, odious is the name!
 76409   FORD. What name, sir?
 76410   PISTOL. The horn, I say. Farewell.
 76411     Take heed, have open eye, for thieves do foot by night;
 76412     Take heed, ere summer comes, or cuckoo birds do sing.
 76413     Away, Sir Corporal Nym.
 76414     Believe it, Page; he speaks sense.               Exit PISTOL
 76415   FORD.  [Aside]  I will be patient; I will find out this.
 76416   NYM.  [To PAGE]  And this is true; I like not the humour of
 76417     lying. He hath wronged me in some humours; I should
 76418     have borne the humour'd letter to her; but I have a sword,
 76419     and it shall bite upon my necessity. He loves your wife;
 76420     there's the short and the long.
 76421     My name is Corporal Nym; I speak, and I avouch;
 76422     'Tis true. My name is Nym, and Falstaff loves your wife.
 76423     Adieu! I love not the humour of bread and cheese; and
 76424     there's the humour of it. Adieu.                    Exit Nym
 76425   PAGE. 'The humour of it,' quoth 'a! Here's a fellow frights
 76426     English out of his wits.
 76427   FORD. I will seek out Falstaff.
 76428   PAGE. I never heard such a drawling, affecting rogue.
 76429   FORD. If I do find it-well.
 76430   PAGE. I will not believe such a Cataian though the priest o'
 76431     th' town commended him for a true man.
 76432   FORD. 'Twas a good sensible fellow. Well.
 76433 
 76434              MISTRESS PAGE and MISTRESS FORD come forward
 76435 
 76436   PAGE. How now, Meg!
 76437   MRS. PAGE. Whither go you, George? Hark you.
 76438   MRS. FORD. How now, sweet Frank, why art thou melancholy?
 76439   FORD. I melancholy! I am not melancholy. Get you home;
 76440     go.
 76441   MRS. FORD. Faith, thou hast some crotchets in thy head now.
 76442     Will you go, Mistress Page?
 76443 
 76444                      Enter MISTRESS QUICKLY
 76445 
 76446   MRS. PAGE. Have with you. You'll come to dinner, George?
 76447     [Aside to MRS. FORD]  Look who comes yonder; she shall
 76448     be our messenger to this paltry knight.
 76449   MRS. FORD.  [Aside to MRS. PAGE]  Trust me, I thought on
 76450     her; she'll fit it.
 76451   MRS. PAGE. You are come to see my daughter Anne?
 76452   QUICKLY. Ay, forsooth; and, I pray, how does good Mistress Anne?
 76453   MRS. PAGE. Go in with us and see; we have an hour's talk
 76454     with you.           Exeunt MISTRESS PAGE, MISTRESS FORD, and
 76455                                                 MISTRESS QUICKLY
 76456   PAGE. How now, Master Ford!
 76457   FORD. You heard what this knave told me, did you not?
 76458   PAGE. Yes; and you heard what the other told me?
 76459   FORD. Do you think there is truth in them?
 76460   PAGE. Hang 'em, slaves! I do not think the knight would offer it;
 76461     but these that accuse him in his intent towards our
 76462     wives are a yoke of his discarded men; very rogues, now
 76463     they be out of service.
 76464   FORD. Were they his men?
 76465   PAGE. Marry, were they.
 76466   FORD. I like it never the better for that. Does he lie at the
 76467     Garter?
 76468   PAGE. Ay, marry, does he. If he should intend this voyage
 76469     toward my wife, I would turn her loose to him; and what
 76470     he gets more of her than sharp words, let it lie on my head.
 76471   FORD. I do not misdoubt my wife; but I would be loath to
 76472     turn them together. A man may be too confident. I would
 76473     have nothing lie on my head. I cannot be thus satisfied.
 76474 
 76475                            Enter HOST
 76476 
 76477   PAGE. Look where my ranting host of the Garter comes.
 76478     There is either liquor in his pate or money in his purse
 76479     when he looks so merrily. How now, mine host!
 76480   HOST. How now, bully rook! Thou'rt a gentleman.  [To
 76481     SHALLOW following]  Cavaleiro Justice, I say.
 76482 
 76483                          Enter SHALLOW
 76484 
 76485   SHALLOW. I follow, mine host, I follow. Good even and
 76486     twenty, good Master Page! Master Page, will you go with
 76487     us? We have sport in hand.
 76488   HOST. Tell him, Cavaleiro Justice; tell him, bully rook.
 76489   SHALLOW. Sir, there is a fray to be fought between Sir Hugh
 76490     the Welsh priest and Caius the French doctor.
 76491   FORD. Good mine host o' th' Garter, a word with you.
 76492   HOST. What say'st thou, my bully rook?         [They go aside]
 76493   SHALLOW.  [To PAGE] Will you go with us to behold it? My
 76494     merry host hath had the measuring of their weapons; and,
 76495     I think, hath appointed them contrary places; for, believe
 76496     me, I hear the parson is no jester. Hark, I will tell you
 76497     what our sport shall be.               [They converse apart]
 76498   HOST. Hast thou no suit against my knight, my guest-cavaleiro.
 76499   FORD. None, I protest; but I'll give you a pottle of burnt
 76500     sack to give me recourse to him, and tell him my name is
 76501     Brook-only for a jest.
 76502   HOST. My hand, bully; thou shalt have egress and regress-
 76503     said I well?-and thy name shall be Brook. It is a merry
 76504     knight. Will you go, Mynheers?
 76505   SHALLOW. Have with you, mine host.
 76506   PAGE. I have heard the Frenchman hath good skill in his
 76507     rapier.
 76508   SHALLOW. Tut, sir, I could have told you more. In these
 76509     times you stand on distance, your passes, stoccadoes, and
 76510     I know not what. 'Tis the heart, Master Page; 'tis here,
 76511     'tis here. I have seen the time with my long sword I would
 76512     have made you four tall fellows skip like rats.
 76513   HOST. Here, boys, here, here! Shall we wag?
 76514   PAGE. Have with you. I had rather hear them scold than
 76515     fight.                                   Exeunt all but FORD
 76516   FORD. Though Page be a secure fool, and stands so firmly on
 76517     his wife's frailty, yet I cannot put off my opinion so
 76518     easily. She was in his company at Page's house, and what
 76519     they made there I know not. Well, I will look further into
 76520     't, and I have a disguise to sound Falstaff. If I find her
 76521     honest, I lose not my labour; if she be otherwise, 'tis labour
 76522     well bestowed.                                          Exit
 76523 
 76524 
 76525 
 76526 
 76527 SCENE 2.
 76528 
 76529 A room in the Garter Inn
 76530 
 76531 Enter FALSTAFF and PISTOL
 76532 
 76533   FALSTAFF. I will not lend thee a penny.
 76534   PISTOL. I will retort the sum in equipage.
 76535   FALSTAFF. Not a penny.
 76536   PISTOL. Why, then the world's mine oyster. Which I with
 76537     sword will open.
 76538   FALSTAFF. Not a penny. I have been content, sir, you should
 76539     lay my countenance to pawn. I have grated upon my good
 76540     friends for three reprieves for you and your coach-fellow,
 76541     Nym; or else you had look'd through the grate, like a
 76542     geminy of baboons. I am damn'd in hell for swearing to
 76543     gentlemen my friends you were good soldiers and tall fellows;
 76544     and when Mistress Bridget lost the handle of her fan,
 76545     I took 't upon mine honour thou hadst it not.
 76546   PISTOL. Didst not thou share? Hadst thou not fifteen pence?
 76547   FALSTAFF. Reason, you rogue, reason. Think'st thou I'll
 76548     endanger my soul gratis? At a word, hang no more about me,
 76549     I am no gibbet for you. Go-a short knife and a throng!-
 76550     to your manor of Pickt-hatch; go. You'll not bear a letter
 76551     for me, you rogue! You stand upon your honour! Why,
 76552     thou unconfinable baseness, it is as much as I can do to
 76553     keep the terms of my honour precise. I, I, I myself
 76554     sometimes, leaving the fear of God on the left hand, and hiding
 76555     mine honour in my necessity, am fain to shuffle, to hedge,
 76556     and to lurch; and yet you, rogue, will ensconce your rags,
 76557     your cat-a-mountain looks, your red-lattice phrases, and
 76558     your bold-beating oaths, under the shelter of your honour!
 76559     You will not do it, you!
 76560   PISTOL. I do relent; what would thou more of man?
 76561 
 76562                           Enter ROBIN
 76563 
 76564   ROBIN. Sir, here's a woman would speak with you.
 76565   FALSTAFF. Let her approach.
 76566 
 76567                      Enter MISTRESS QUICKLY
 76568 
 76569   QUICKLY. Give your worship good morrow.
 76570   FALSTAFF. Good morrow, good wife.
 76571   QUICKLY. Not so, an't please your worship.
 76572   FALSTAFF. Good maid, then.
 76573   QUICKLY. I'll be sworn;
 76574     As my mother was, the first hour I was born.
 76575   FALSTAFF. I do believe the swearer. What with me?
 76576   QUICKLY. Shall I vouchsafe your worship a word or two?
 76577   FALSTAFF. Two thousand, fair woman; and I'll vouchsafe
 76578     thee the hearing.
 76579   QUICKLY. There is one Mistress Ford, sir-I pray, come a little
 76580     nearer this ways. I myself dwell with Master Doctor
 76581     Caius.
 76582   FALSTAFF. Well, on: Mistress Ford, you say-
 76583   QUICKLY. Your worship says very true. I pray your worship
 76584     come a little nearer this ways.
 76585   FALSTAFF. I warrant thee nobody hears-mine own people,
 76586     mine own people.
 76587   QUICKLY. Are they so? God bless them, and make them his
 76588     servants!
 76589   FALSTAFF. Well; Mistress Ford, what of her?
 76590   QUICKLY. Why, sir, she's a good creature. Lord, Lord, your
 76591     worship's a wanton! Well, heaven forgive you, and all of
 76592     us, I pray.
 76593   FALSTAFF. Mistress Ford; come, Mistress Ford-
 76594   QUICKLY. Marry, this is the short and the long of it: you
 76595     have brought her into such a canaries as 'tis wonderful.
 76596     The best courtier of them all, when the court lay at Windsor,
 76597     could never have brought her to such a canary. Yet
 76598     there has been knights, and lords, and gentlemen, with
 76599     their coaches; I warrant you, coach after coach, letter after
 76600     letter, gift after gift; smelling so sweetly, all musk, and so
 76601     rushling, I warrant you, in silk and gold; and in such alligant
 76602     terms; and in such wine and sugar of the best and the
 76603     fairest, that would have won any woman's heart; and I
 76604     warrant you, they could never get an eye-wink of her.
 76605     I had myself twenty angels given me this morning; but I
 76606     defy all angels, in any such sort, as they say, but in the
 76607     way of honesty; and, I warrant you, they could never get
 76608     her so much as sip on a cup with the proudest of them all;
 76609     and yet there has been earls, nay, which is more,
 76610     pensioners; but, I warrant you, all is one with her.
 76611   FALSTAFF. But what says she to me? Be brief, my good she-
 76612     Mercury.
 76613   QUICKLY. Marry, she hath receiv'd your letter; for the
 76614     which she thanks you a thousand times; and she gives you
 76615     to notify that her husband will be absence from his house
 76616     between ten and eleven.
 76617   FALSTAFF. Ten and eleven?
 76618   QUICKLY. Ay, forsooth; and then you may come and see
 76619     the picture, she says, that you wot of. Master Ford, her
 76620     husband, will be from home. Alas, the sweet woman leads
 76621     an ill life with him! He's a very jealousy man; she leads a
 76622     very frampold life with him, good heart.
 76623   FALSTAFF. Ten and eleven. Woman, commend me to her; I
 76624     will not fail her.
 76625   QUICKLY. Why, you say well. But I have another messenger
 76626     to your worship. Mistress Page hath her hearty commendations
 76627     to you too; and let me tell you in your ear, she's as
 76628     fartuous a civil modest wife, and one, I tell you, that will
 76629     not miss you morning nor evening prayer, as any is in
 76630     Windsor, whoe'er be the other; and she bade me tell your
 76631     worship that her husband is seldom from home, but she
 76632     hopes there will come a time. I never knew a woman so
 76633     dote upon a man: surely I think you have charms, la! Yes,
 76634     in truth.
 76635   FALSTAFF. Not I, I assure thee; setting the attraction of my
 76636     good parts aside, I have no other charms.
 76637   QUICKLY. Blessing on your heart for 't!
 76638   FALSTAFF. But, I pray thee, tell me this: has Ford's wife and
 76639     Page's wife acquainted each other how they love me?
 76640   QUICKLY. That were a jest indeed! They have not so little
 76641     grace, I hope-that were a trick indeed! But Mistress Page
 76642     would desire you to send her your little page of all loves.
 76643     Her husband has a marvellous infection to the little page;
 76644     and truly Master Page is an honest man. Never a wife in
 76645     Windsor leads a better life than she does; do what she will,
 76646     say what she will, take all, pay all, go to bed when she
 76647     list, rise when she list, all is as she will; and truly she
 76648     deserves it; for if there be a kind woman in Windsor, she
 76649     is one. You must send her your page; no remedy.
 76650   FALSTAFF. Why, I will.
 76651   QUICKLY. Nay, but do so then; and, look you, he may come
 76652     and go between you both; and in any case have a
 76653     nay-word, that you may know one another's mind, and the boy
 76654     never need to understand any thing; for 'tis not good that
 76655     children should know any wickedness. Old folks, you
 76656     know, have discretion, as they say, and know the world.
 76657   FALSTAFF. Fare thee well; commend me to them both.
 76658     There's my purse; I am yet thy debtor. Boy, go along with
 76659     this woman.  [Exeunt QUICKLY and ROBIN]  This news
 76660     distracts me.
 76661   PISTOL.  [Aside]  This punk is one of Cupid's carriers;
 76662     Clap on more sails; pursue; up with your fights;
 76663     Give fire; she is my prize, or ocean whelm them all!    Exit
 76664   FALSTAFF. Say'st thou so, old Jack; go thy ways; I'll make
 76665     more of thy old body than I have done. Will they yet look
 76666     after thee? Wilt thou, after the expense of so much money,
 76667     be now a gainer? Good body, I thank thee. Let them say
 76668     'tis grossly done; so it be fairly done, no matter.
 76669 
 76670                          Enter BARDOLPH
 76671 
 76672   BARDOLPH. Sir John, there's one Master Brook below would
 76673     fain speak with you, and be acquainted with you; and hath
 76674     sent your worship a moming's draught of sack.
 76675   FALSTAFF. Brook is his name?
 76676   BARDOLPH. Ay, sir.
 76677   FALSTAFF. Call him in.  [Exit BARDOLPH]  Such Brooks are
 76678     welcome to me, that o'erflows such liquor. Ah, ha! Mistress
 76679     Ford and Mistress Page, have I encompass'd you? Go to;
 76680     via!
 76681 
 76682               Re-enter BARDOLPH, with FORD disguised
 76683 
 76684   FORD. Bless you, sir!
 76685   FALSTAFF. And you, sir! Would you speak with me?
 76686   FORD. I make bold to press with so little preparation upon
 76687     you.
 76688   FALSTAFF. You're welcome. What's your will? Give us leave,
 76689     drawer.                                        Exit BARDOLPH
 76690   FORD. Sir, I am a gentleman that have spent much; my name
 76691     is Brook.
 76692   FALSTAFF. Good Master Brook, I desire more acquaintance
 76693     of you.
 76694   FORD. Good Sir John, I sue for yours-not to charge you; for I
 76695     must let you understand I think myself in better plight for
 76696     a lender than you are; the which hath something
 76697     embold'ned me to this unseason'd intrusion; for they say, if
 76698     money go before, all ways do lie open.
 76699   FALSTAFF. Money is a good soldier, sir, and will on.
 76700   FORD. Troth, and I have a bag of money here troubles me; if
 76701     you will help to bear it, Sir John, take all, or half, for easing
 76702     me of the carriage.
 76703   FALSTAFF. Sir, I know not how I may deserve to be your
 76704     porter.
 76705   FORD. I will tell you, sir, if you will give me the hearing.
 76706   FALSTAFF. Speak, good Master Brook; I shall be glad to be
 76707     your servant.
 76708   FORD. Sir, I hear you are a scholar-I will be brief with you
 76709     -and you have been a man long known to me, though I
 76710     had never so good means as desire to make myself acquainted
 76711     with you. I shall discover a thing to you, wherein
 76712     I must very much lay open mine own imperfection; but,
 76713     good Sir John, as you have one eye upon my follies, as you
 76714     hear them unfolded, turn another into the register of your
 76715     own, that I may pass with a reproof the easier, sith you
 76716     yourself know how easy is it to be such an offender.
 76717   FALSTAFF. Very well, sir; proceed.
 76718   FORD. There is a gentlewoman in this town, her husband's
 76719     name is Ford.
 76720   FALSTAFF. Well, sir.
 76721   FORD. I have long lov'd her, and, I protest to you, bestowed
 76722     much on her; followed her with a doting observance;
 76723     engross'd opportunities to meet her; fee'd every slight occasion
 76724     that could but niggardly give me sight of her; not
 76725     only bought many presents to give her, but have given
 76726     largely to many to know what she would have given;
 76727     briefly, I have pursu'd her as love hath pursued me; which
 76728     hath been on the wing of all occasions. But whatsoever I
 76729     have merited, either in my mind or in my means, meed, I
 76730     am sure, I have received none, unless experience be a jewel;
 76731     that I have purchased at an infinite rate, and that hath
 76732     taught me to say this:
 76733     'Love like a shadow flies when substance love pursues;
 76734     Pursuing that that flies, and flying what pursues.'
 76735   FALSTAFF. Have you receiv'd no promise of satisfaction at
 76736     her hands?
 76737   FORD. Never.
 76738   FALSTAFF. Have you importun'd her to such a purpose?
 76739   FORD. Never.
 76740     FALSTAFF. Of what quality was your love, then?
 76741   FORD. Like a fair house built on another man's ground; so
 76742     that I have lost my edifice by mistaking the place where
 76743     erected it.
 76744   FALSTAFF. To what purpose have you unfolded this to me?
 76745   FORD. When I have told you that, I have told you all. Some
 76746     say that though she appear honest to me, yet in other
 76747     places she enlargeth her mirth so far that there is shrewd
 76748     construction made of her. Now, Sir John, here is the heart
 76749     of my purpose: you are a gentleman of excellent
 76750     breeding, admirable discourse, of great admittance, authentic in
 76751     your place and person, generally allow'd for your many
 76752     war-like, courtlike, and learned preparations.
 76753   FALSTAFF. O, sir!
 76754   FORD. Believe it, for you know it. There is money; spend it,
 76755     spend it; spend more; spend all I have; only give me so
 76756     much of your time in exchange of it as to lay an amiable
 76757     siege to the honesty of this Ford's wife; use your art of
 76758     wooing, win her to consent to you; if any man may, you
 76759     may as soon as any.
 76760     FALSTAFF. Would it apply well to the vehemency of your
 76761     affection, that I should win what you would enjoy?
 76762     Methinks you prescribe to yourself very preposterously.
 76763   FORD. O, understand my drift. She dwells so securely on the
 76764     excellency of her honour that the folly of my soul dares
 76765     not present itself; she is too bright to be look'd against.
 76766     Now, could I come to her with any detection in my hand,
 76767     my desires had instance and argument to commend themselves;
 76768     I could drive her then from the ward of her purity,
 76769     her reputation, her marriage vow, and a thousand other her
 76770     defences, which now are too too strongly embattl'd against
 76771     me. What say you to't, Sir John?
 76772   FALSTAFF. Master Brook, I will first make bold with your
 76773     money; next, give me your hand; and last, as I am a gentleman,
 76774     you shall, if you will, enjoy Ford's wife.
 76775   FORD. O good sir!
 76776   FALSTAFF. I say you shall.
 76777   FORD. Want no money, Sir John; you shall want none.
 76778   FALSTAFF. Want no Mistress Ford, Master Brook; you shall
 76779     want none. I shall be with her, I may tell you, by her own
 76780     appointment; even as you came in to me her assistant, or
 76781     go-between, parted from me; I say I shall be with her between
 76782     ten and eleven; for at that time the jealous rascally
 76783     knave, her husband, will be forth. Come you to me at
 76784     night; you shall know how I speed.
 76785   FORD. I am blest in your acquaintance. Do you know Ford,
 76786     Sir?
 76787   FALSTAFF. Hang him, poor cuckoldly knave! I know him
 76788     not; yet I wrong him to call him poor; they say the
 76789     jealous wittolly knave hath masses of money; for the which
 76790     his wife seems to me well-favour'd. I will use her as the
 76791     key of the cuckoldly rogue's coffer; and there's my harvest-home.
 76792   FORD. I would you knew Ford, sir, that you might avoid him
 76793     if you saw him.
 76794   FALSTAFF. Hang him, mechanical salt-butter rogue! I will
 76795     stare him out of his wits; I will awe him with my cudgel;
 76796     it shall hang like a meteor o'er the cuckold's horns. Master
 76797     Brook, thou shalt know I will predominate over the
 76798     peasant, and thou shalt lie with his wife. Come to me soon at
 76799     night. Ford's a knave, and I will aggravate his style; thou,
 76800     Master Brook, shalt know him for knave and cuckold.
 76801     Come to me soon at night.                               Exit
 76802   FORD. What a damn'd Epicurean rascal is this! My heart is
 76803     ready to crack with impatience. Who says this is improvident
 76804     jealousy? My wife hath sent to him; the hour is fix'd;
 76805     the match is made. Would any man have thought this? See
 76806     the hell of having a false woman! My bed shall be abus'd,
 76807     my coffers ransack'd, my reputation gnawn at; and I shall
 76808     not only receive this villainous wrong, but stand under the
 76809     adoption of abominable terms, and by him that does me
 76810     this wrong. Terms! names! Amaimon sounds well; Lucifer,
 76811     well; Barbason, well; yet they are devils' additions, the names
 76812     of fiends. But cuckold! Wittol! Cuckold! the devil himself
 76813     hath not such a name. Page is an ass, a secure ass; he will trust
 76814     his wife; he will not be jealous; I will rather trust a Fleming
 76815     with my butter, Parson Hugh the Welshman with my
 76816     cheese, an Irishman with my aqua-vitae bottle, or a thief to
 76817     walk my ambling gelding, than my wife with herself. Then
 76818     she plots, then she ruminates, then she devises; and what
 76819     they think in their hearts they may effect, they will break
 76820     their hearts but they will effect. God be prais'd for my
 76821     jealousy! Eleven o'clock the hour. I will prevent this, detect
 76822     my wife, be reveng'd on Falstaff, and laugh at Page.
 76823     I will about it; better three hours too soon than a minute
 76824     too late. Fie, fie, fie! cuckold! cuckold! cuckold!     Exit
 76825 
 76826 
 76827 
 76828 
 76829 SCENE 3.
 76830 
 76831 A field near Windsor
 76832 
 76833 Enter CAIUS and RUGBY
 76834 
 76835   CAIUS. Jack Rugby!
 76836   RUGBY. Sir?
 76837   CAIUS. Vat is de clock, Jack?
 76838   RUGBY. 'Tis past the hour, sir, that Sir Hugh promis'd to
 76839     meet.
 76840   CAIUS. By gar, he has save his soul dat he is no come; he has
 76841     pray his Pible well dat he is no come; by gar, Jack Rugby,
 76842     he is dead already, if he be come.
 76843   RUGBY. He is wise, sir; he knew your worship would kill
 76844     him if he came.
 76845   CAIUS. By gar, de herring is no dead so as I vill kill him. Take
 76846     your rapier, Jack; I vill tell you how I vill kill him.
 76847   RUGBY. Alas, sir, I cannot fence!
 76848   CAIUS. Villainy, take your rapier.
 76849   RUGBY. Forbear; here's company.
 76850 
 76851             Enter HOST, SHALLOW, SLENDER, and PAGE
 76852 
 76853   HOST. Bless thee, bully doctor!
 76854   SHALLOW. Save you, Master Doctor Caius!
 76855   PAGE. Now, good Master Doctor!
 76856   SLENDER. Give you good morrow, sir.
 76857   CAIUS. Vat be all you, one, two, tree, four, come for?
 76858   HOST. To see thee fight, to see thee foin, to see thee traverse;
 76859     to see thee here, to see thee there; to see thee pass thy
 76860     punto, thy stock, thy reverse, thy distance, thy montant.
 76861     Is he dead, my Ethiopian? Is he dead, my Francisco? Ha,
 76862     bully! What says my Aesculapius? my Galen? my heart
 76863     of elder? Ha! is he dead, bully stale? Is he dead?
 76864   CAIUS. By gar, he is de coward Jack priest of de world; he is
 76865     not show his face.
 76866   HOST. Thou art a Castalion-King-Urinal. Hector of Greece,
 76867     my boy!
 76868   CAIUS. I pray you, bear witness that me have stay six or
 76869     seven, two tree hours for him, and he is no come.
 76870   SHALLOW. He is the wiser man, Master Doctor: he is a curer
 76871     of souls, and you a curer of bodies; if you should fight,
 76872     you go against the hair of your professions. Is it not true,
 76873     Master Page?
 76874   PAGE. Master Shallow, you have yourself been a great fighter,
 76875     though now a man of peace.
 76876   SHALLOW. Bodykins, Master Page, though I now be old, and
 76877     of the peace, if I see a sword out, my finger itches to make
 76878     one. Though we are justices, and doctors, and churchmen,
 76879     Master Page, we have some salt of our youth in us; we are
 76880     the sons of women, Master Page.
 76881   PAGE. 'Tis true, Master Shallow.
 76882   SHALLOW. It will be found so, Master Page. Master Doctor
 76883   CAIUS, I come to fetch you home. I am sworn of the peace;
 76884     you have show'd yourself a wise physician, and Sir Hugh
 76885     hath shown himself a wise and patient churchman. You
 76886     must go with me, Master Doctor.
 76887   HOST. Pardon, Guest Justice. A word, Mounseur Mockwater.
 76888   CAIUS. Mock-vater! Vat is dat?
 76889   HOST. Mockwater, in our English tongue, is valour, bully.
 76890   CAIUS. By gar, then I have as much mockvater as de Englishman.
 76891     Scurvy jack-dog priest! By gar, me vill cut his ears.
 76892   HOST. He will clapper-claw thee tightly, bully.
 76893   CAIUS. Clapper-de-claw! Vat is dat?
 76894   HOST. That is, he will make thee amends.
 76895   CAIUS. By gar, me do look he shall clapper-de-claw me; for,
 76896     by gar, me vill have it.
 76897   HOST. And I will provoke him to't, or let him wag.
 76898   CAIUS. Me tank you for dat.
 76899   HOST. And, moreover, bully-but first:  [Aside to the others]
 76900     Master Guest, and Master Page, and eke Cavaleiro Slender,
 76901     go you through the town to Frogmore.
 76902   PAGE.  [Aside]  Sir Hugh is there, is he?
 76903   HOST.  [Aside]  He is there. See what humour he is in; and
 76904     I will bring the doctor about by the fields. Will it do well?
 76905   SHALLOW.  [Aside]  We will do it.
 76906   PAGE, SHALLOW, and SLENDER. Adieu, good Master Doctor.
 76907                                Exeunt PAGE, SHALLOW, and SLENDER
 76908   CAIUS. By gar, me vill kill de priest; for he speak for a jack-
 76909     an-ape to Anne Page.
 76910   HOST. Let him die. Sheathe thy impatience; throw cold water
 76911     on thy choler; go about the fields with me through Frogmore;
 76912     I will bring thee where Mistress Anne Page is, at a a
 76913     farm-house, a-feasting; and thou shalt woo her. Cried
 76914     game! Said I well?
 76915   CAIUS. By gar, me dank you vor dat; by gar, I love you; and
 76916     I shall procure-a you de good guest, de earl, de knight, de
 76917     lords, de gentlemen, my patients.
 76918   HOST. For the which I will be thy adversary toward Anne
 76919     Page. Said I well?
 76920   CAIUS. By gar, 'tis good; vell said.
 76921   HOST. Let us wag, then.
 76922   CAIUS. Come at my heels, Jack Rugby.                    Exeunt
 76923 
 76924 
 76925 
 76926 
 76927 <<THIS ELECTRONIC VERSION OF THE COMPLETE WORKS OF WILLIAM
 76928 SHAKESPEARE IS COPYRIGHT 1990-1993 BY WORLD LIBRARY, INC., AND IS
 76929 PROVIDED BY PROJECT GUTENBERG ETEXT OF ILLINOIS BENEDICTINE COLLEGE
 76930 WITH PERMISSION.  ELECTRONIC AND MACHINE READABLE COPIES MAY BE
 76931 DISTRIBUTED SO LONG AS SUCH COPIES (1) ARE FOR YOUR OR OTHERS
 76932 PERSONAL USE ONLY, AND (2) ARE NOT DISTRIBUTED OR USED
 76933 COMMERCIALLY.  PROHIBITED COMMERCIAL DISTRIBUTION INCLUDES BY ANY
 76934 SERVICE THAT CHARGES FOR DOWNLOAD TIME OR FOR MEMBERSHIP.>>
 76935 
 76936 
 76937 
 76938 ACT III SCENE 1.
 76939 
 76940 A field near Frogmore
 76941 
 76942 Enter SIR HUGH EVANS and SIMPLE
 76943 
 76944   EVANS. I pray you now, good Master Slender's serving-man,
 76945     and friend Simple by your name, which way have you
 76946     look'd for Master Caius, that calls himself Doctor of
 76947     Physic?
 76948   SIMPLE. Marry, sir, the pittie-ward, the park-ward; every
 76949     way; old Windsor way, and every way but the town way.
 76950   EVANS. I most fehemently desire you you will also look that
 76951     way.
 76952   SIMPLE. I will, Sir.                                      Exit
 76953   EVANS. Pless my soul, how full of chollors I am, and trempling
 76954     of mind! I shall be glad if he have deceived me. How
 76955     melancholies I am! I will knog his urinals about his knave's
 76956     costard when I have goot opportunities for the ork. Pless
 76957     my soul!                                             [Sings]
 76958     To shallow rivers, to whose falls
 76959     Melodious birds sings madrigals;
 76960     There will we make our peds of roses,
 76961     And a thousand fragrant posies.
 76962     To shallow-
 76963     Mercy on me! I have a great dispositions to cry.     [Sings]
 76964     Melodious birds sing madrigals-
 76965     Whenas I sat in Pabylon-
 76966     And a thousand vagram posies.
 76967     To shallow, etc.
 76968 
 76969                        Re-enter SIMPLE
 76970 
 76971   SIMPLE. Yonder he is, coming this way, Sir Hugh.
 76972   EVANS. He's welcome.                                   [Sings]
 76973     To shallow rivers, to whose falls-
 76974     Heaven prosper the right! What weapons is he?
 76975   SIMPLE. No weapons, sir. There comes my master, Master
 76976     Shallow, and another gentleman, from Frogmore, over the
 76977     stile, this way.
 76978   EVANS. Pray you give me my gown; or else keep it in your
 76979     arms.                                     [Takes out a book]
 76980 
 76981                Enter PAGE, SHALLOW, and SLENDER
 76982 
 76983   SHALLOW. How now, Master Parson! Good morrow, good
 76984     Sir Hugh. Keep a gamester from the dice, and a good student
 76985      from his book, and it is wonderful.
 76986   SLENDER.  [Aside]  Ah, sweet Anne Page!
 76987   PAGE. Save you, good Sir Hugh!
 76988   EVANS. Pless you from his mercy sake, all of you!
 76989   SHALLOW. What, the sword and the word! Do you study
 76990     them both, Master Parson?
 76991   PAGE. And youthful still, in your doublet and hose, this raw
 76992     rheumatic day!
 76993   EVANS. There is reasons and causes for it.
 76994   PAGE. We are come to you to do a good office, Master
 76995     Parson.
 76996   EVANS. Fery well; what is it?
 76997   PAGE. Yonder is a most reverend gentleman, who, belike having
 76998     received wrong by some person, is at most odds with
 76999     his own gravity and patience that ever you saw.
 77000   SHALLOW. I have lived fourscore years and upward; I never
 77001     heard a man of his place, gravity, and learning, so wide of
 77002     his own respect.
 77003   EVANS. What is he?
 77004   PAGE. I think you know him: Master Doctor Caius, the
 77005     renowned French physician.
 77006   EVANS. Got's will and his passion of my heart! I had as lief
 77007     you would tell me of a mess of porridge.
 77008   PAGE. Why?
 77009   EVANS. He has no more knowledge in Hibocrates and
 77010     Galen, and he is a knave besides-a cowardly knave as you
 77011     would desires to be acquainted withal.
 77012   PAGE. I warrant you, he's the man should fight with him.
 77013   SLENDER.  [Aside]  O sweet Anne Page!
 77014   SHALLOW. It appears so, by his weapons. Keep them asunder;
 77015     here comes Doctor Caius.
 77016 
 77017                  Enter HOST, CAIUS, and RUGBY
 77018 
 77019   PAGE. Nay, good Master Parson, keep in your weapon.
 77020   SHALLOW. So do you, good Master Doctor.
 77021   HOST. Disarm them, and let them question; let them keep
 77022     their limbs whole and hack our English.
 77023   CAIUS. I pray you, let-a me speak a word with your ear.
 77024     Verefore will you not meet-a me?
 77025   EVANS.  [Aside to CAIUS]  Pray you use your patience; in
 77026     good time.
 77027   CAIUS. By gar, you are de coward, de Jack dog, John ape.
 77028   EVANS.  [Aside to CAIUS]  Pray you, let us not be
 77029     laughing-stocks to other men's humours; I desire you in
 77030     friendship, and I will one way or other make you amends.
 77031     [Aloud]  I will knog your urinals about your knave's cogscomb
 77032     for missing your meetings and appointments.
 77033   CAIUS. Diable! Jack Rugby-mine Host de Jarteer-have I
 77034     not stay for him to kill him? Have I not, at de place I did
 77035     appoint?
 77036   EVANS. As I am a Christians soul, now, look you, this is the
 77037     place appointed. I'll be judgment by mine host of the
 77038     Garter.
 77039   HOST. Peace, I say, Gallia and Gaul, French and Welsh,
 77040     soul-curer and body-curer.
 77041   CAIUS. Ay, dat is very good! excellent!
 77042   HOST. Peace, I say. Hear mine host of the Garter. Am I
 77043     politic? am I subtle? am I a Machiavel? Shall I lose my
 77044     doctor? No; he gives me the potions and the motions. Shall I
 77045     lose my parson, my priest, my Sir Hugh? No; he gives me
 77046     the proverbs and the noverbs. Give me thy hand, terrestrial;
 77047     so. Give me thy hand, celestial; so. Boys of art, I have
 77048     deceiv'd you both; I have directed you to wrong places;
 77049     your hearts are mighty, your skins are whole, and let burnt
 77050     sack be the issue. Come, lay their swords to pawn. Follow
 77051     me, lads of peace; follow, follow, follow.
 77052   SHALLOW. Trust me, a mad host. Follow, gentlemen, follow.
 77053   SLENDER.  [Aside]  O sweet Anne Page!
 77054                                   Exeunt all but CAIUS and EVANS
 77055   CAIUS. Ha, do I perceive dat? Have you make-a de sot of us,
 77056     ha, ha?
 77057   EVANS. This is well; he has made us his vlouting-stog. I
 77058     desire you that we may be friends; and let us knog our prains
 77059     together to be revenge on this same scall, scurvy, cogging
 77060     companion, the host of the Garter.
 77061   CAIUS. By gar, with all my heart. He promise to bring me
 77062     where is Anne Page; by gar, he deceive me too.
 77063   EVANS. Well, I will smite his noddles. Pray you follow.
 77064                                                           Exeunt
 77065 
 77066 
 77067 
 77068 
 77069 <<THIS ELECTRONIC VERSION OF THE COMPLETE WORKS OF WILLIAM
 77070 SHAKESPEARE IS COPYRIGHT 1990-1993 BY WORLD LIBRARY, INC., AND IS
 77071 PROVIDED BY PROJECT GUTENBERG ETEXT OF ILLINOIS BENEDICTINE COLLEGE
 77072 WITH PERMISSION.  ELECTRONIC AND MACHINE READABLE COPIES MAY BE
 77073 DISTRIBUTED SO LONG AS SUCH COPIES (1) ARE FOR YOUR OR OTHERS
 77074 PERSONAL USE ONLY, AND (2) ARE NOT DISTRIBUTED OR USED
 77075 COMMERCIALLY.  PROHIBITED COMMERCIAL DISTRIBUTION INCLUDES BY ANY
 77076 SERVICE THAT CHARGES FOR DOWNLOAD TIME OR FOR MEMBERSHIP.>>
 77077 
 77078 
 77079 
 77080 SCENE 2.
 77081 
 77082 The street in Windsor
 77083 
 77084 Enter MISTRESS PAGE and ROBIN
 77085 
 77086   MRS. PAGE. Nay, keep your way, little gallant; you were
 77087     wont to be a follower, but now you are a leader. Whether
 77088     had you rather lead mine eyes, or eye your master's heels?
 77089   ROBIN. I had rather, forsooth, go before you like a man than
 77090     follow him like a dwarf.
 77091   MRS. PAGE. O, you are a flattering boy; now I see you'll be a
 77092     courtier.
 77093 
 77094                           Enter FORD
 77095 
 77096   FORD. Well met, Mistress Page. Whither go you?
 77097   MRS. PAGE. Truly, sir, to see your wife. Is she at home?
 77098   FORD. Ay; and as idle as she may hang together, for want of
 77099     company. I think, if your husbands were dead, you two
 77100     would marry.
 77101   MRS. PAGE. Be sure of that-two other husbands.
 77102   FORD. Where had you this pretty weathercock?
 77103   MRS. PAGE. I cannot tell what the dickens his name is my
 77104     husband had him of. What do you call your knight's
 77105     name, sirrah?
 77106   ROBIN. Sir John Falstaff.
 77107   FORD. Sir John Falstaff!
 77108   MRS. PAGE. He, he; I can never hit on's name. There is such
 77109     a league between my good man and he! Is your wife at
 77110     home indeed?
 77111   FORD. Indeed she is.
 77112   MRS. PAGE. By your leave, sir. I am sick till I see her.
 77113                                       Exeunt MRS. PAGE and ROBIN
 77114   FORD. Has Page any brains? Hath he any eyes? Hath he any
 77115     thinking? Sure, they sleep; he hath no use of them. Why,
 77116     this boy will carry a letter twenty mile as easy as a cannon
 77117     will shoot pointblank twelve score. He pieces out his wife's
 77118     inclination; he gives her folly motion and advantage; and
 77119     now she's going to my wife, and Falstaff's boy with her. A
 77120     man may hear this show'r sing in the wind. And Falstaff's
 77121     boy with her! Good plots! They are laid; and our revolted
 77122     wives share damnation together. Well; I will take him,
 77123     then torture my wife, pluck the borrowed veil of modesty
 77124     from the so seeming Mistress Page, divulge Page himself
 77125     for a secure and wilful Actaeon; and to these violent proceedings
 77126     all my neighbours shall cry aim.  [Clock strikes]
 77127     The clock gives me my cue, and my assurance bids me
 77128     search; there I shall find Falstaff. I shall be rather prais'd
 77129     for this than mock'd; for it is as positive as the earth is firm
 77130     that Falstaff is there. I will go.
 77131 
 77132      Enter PAGE, SHALLOW, SLENDER, HOST, SIR HUGH EVANS,
 77133                               CAIUS, and RUGBY
 77134 
 77135   SHALLOW, PAGE, &C. Well met, Master Ford.
 77136   FORD. Trust me, a good knot; I have good cheer at home,
 77137     and I pray you all go with me.
 77138   SHALLOW. I must excuse myself, Master Ford.
 77139   SLENDER. And so must I, sir; we have appointed to dine with
 77140     Mistress Anne, and I would not break with her for more
 77141     money than I'll speak of.
 77142   SHALLOW. We have linger'd about a match between Anne
 77143     Page and my cousin Slender, and this day we shall have
 77144     our answer.
 77145   SLENDER. I hope I have your good will, father Page.
 77146   PAGE. You have, Master Slender; I stand wholly for you. But
 77147     my wife, Master Doctor, is for you altogether.
 77148   CAIUS. Ay, be-gar; and de maid is love-a me; my nursh-a
 77149     Quickly tell me so mush.
 77150   HOST. What say you to young Master Fenton? He capers,
 77151     he dances, he has eyes of youth, he writes verses, he speaks
 77152     holiday, he smells April and May; he will carry 't, he will
 77153     carry 't; 'tis in his buttons; he will carry 't.
 77154   PAGE. Not by my consent, I promise you. The gentleman is
 77155     of no having: he kept company with the wild Prince and
 77156     Poins; he is of too high a region, he knows too much. No,
 77157     he shall not knit a knot in his fortunes with the finger of
 77158     my substance; if he take her, let him take her simply; the
 77159     wealth I have waits on my consent, and my consent goes
 77160     not that way.
 77161   FORD. I beseech you, heartily, some of you go home with me
 77162     to dinner: besides your cheer, you shall have sport; I will
 77163     show you a monster. Master Doctor, you shall go; so shall
 77164     you, Master Page; and you, Sir Hugh.
 77165   SHALLOW. Well, fare you well; we shall have the freer
 77166     wooing at Master Page's.          Exeunt SHALLOW and SLENDER
 77167   CAIUS. Go home, John Rugby; I come anon.            Exit RUGBY
 77168   HOST. Farewell, my hearts; I will to my honest knight
 77169     Falstaff, and drink canary with him.               Exit HOST
 77170   FORD.  [Aside]  I think I shall drink in pipe-wine first with
 77171     him. I'll make him dance. Will you go, gentles?
 77172   ALL. Have with you to see this monster.                 Exeunt
 77173 
 77174 
 77175 
 77176 
 77177 <<THIS ELECTRONIC VERSION OF THE COMPLETE WORKS OF WILLIAM
 77178 SHAKESPEARE IS COPYRIGHT 1990-1993 BY WORLD LIBRARY, INC., AND IS
 77179 PROVIDED BY PROJECT GUTENBERG ETEXT OF ILLINOIS BENEDICTINE COLLEGE
 77180 WITH PERMISSION.  ELECTRONIC AND MACHINE READABLE COPIES MAY BE
 77181 DISTRIBUTED SO LONG AS SUCH COPIES (1) ARE FOR YOUR OR OTHERS
 77182 PERSONAL USE ONLY, AND (2) ARE NOT DISTRIBUTED OR USED
 77183 COMMERCIALLY.  PROHIBITED COMMERCIAL DISTRIBUTION INCLUDES BY ANY
 77184 SERVICE THAT CHARGES FOR DOWNLOAD TIME OR FOR MEMBERSHIP.>>
 77185 
 77186 
 77187 
 77188 SCENE 3.
 77189 
 77190 FORD'S house
 77191 
 77192 Enter MISTRESS FORD and MISTRESS PAGE
 77193 
 77194   MRS. FORD. What, John! what, Robert!
 77195   MRS. PAGE. Quickly, quickly! Is the buck-basket-
 77196   MRS. FORD. I warrant. What, Robin, I say!
 77197 
 77198                  Enter SERVANTS with a basket
 77199 
 77200   MRS. PAGE. Come, come, come.
 77201   MRS. FORD. Here, set it down.
 77202   MRS. PAGE. Give your men the charge; we must be brief.
 77203   MRS. FORD. Marry, as I told you before, John and Robert, be
 77204     ready here hard by in the brew-house; and when I suddenly
 77205     call you, come forth, and, without any pause or
 77206     staggering, take this basket on your shoulders. That done,
 77207     trudge with it in all haste, and carry it among the whitsters
 77208     in Datchet Mead, and there empty it in the muddy ditch
 77209     close by the Thames side.
 77210   Mrs. PAGE. You will do it?
 77211   MRS. FORD. I ha' told them over and over; they lack no
 77212     direction. Be gone, and come when you are call'd.
 77213                                                Exeunt SERVANTS
 77214   MRS. PAGE. Here comes little Robin.
 77215 
 77216                          Enter ROBIN
 77217 
 77218   MRS. FORD. How now, my eyas-musket, what news with
 77219     you?
 77220   ROBIN. My Master Sir John is come in at your back-door,
 77221     Mistress Ford, and requests your company.
 77222   MRS. PAGE. You little Jack-a-Lent, have you been true to us?
 77223   ROBIN. Ay, I'll be sworn. My master knows not of your
 77224     being here, and hath threat'ned to put me into everlasting
 77225     liberty, if I tell you of it; for he swears he'll turn me away.
 77226   MRS. PAGE. Thou 'rt a good boy; this secrecy of thine shall
 77227     be a tailor to thee, and shall make thee a new doublet and
 77228     hose. I'll go hide me.
 77229   MRS. FORD. Do so. Go tell thy master I am alone.  [Exit
 77230   ROBIN]  Mistress Page, remember you your cue.
 77231   MRS. PAGE. I warrant thee; if I do not act it, hiss me.
 77232                                                 Exit MRS. PAGE
 77233   MRS. FORD. Go to, then; we'll use this unwholesome
 77234     humidity, this gross wat'ry pumpion; we'll teach him to
 77235     know turtles from jays.
 77236 
 77237                       Enter FALSTAFF
 77238 
 77239   FALSTAFF. Have I caught thee, my heavenly jewel?
 77240     Why, now let me die, for I have liv'd long enough; this is
 77241     the period of my ambition. O this blessed hour!
 77242   MRS. FORD. O sweet Sir John!
 77243   FALSTAFF. Mistress Ford, I cannot cog, I cannot prate,
 77244     Mistress Ford. Now shall I sin in my wish; I would thy
 77245     husband were dead; I'll speak it before the best lord, I
 77246     would make thee my lady.
 77247   MRS. FORD. I your lady, Sir John? Alas, I should be a pitiful
 77248     lady.
 77249   FALSTAFF. Let the court of France show me such another. I
 77250     see how thine eye would emulate the diamond; thou hast
 77251     the right arched beauty of the brow that becomes the
 77252     ship-tire, the tire-valiant, or any tire of Venetian admittance.
 77253   MRS. FORD. A plain kerchief, Sir John; my brows become
 77254     nothing else, nor that well neither.
 77255   FALSTAFF. By the Lord, thou art a tyrant to say so; thou
 77256     wouldst make an absolute courtier, and the firm fixture of
 77257     thy foot would give an excellent motion to thy gait in a
 77258     semi-circled farthingale. I see what thou wert, if Fortune
 77259     thy foe were, not Nature, thy friend. Come, thou canst not
 77260     hide it.
 77261   MRS. FORD. Believe me, there's no such thing in me.
 77262   FALSTAFF. What made me love thee? Let that persuade thee
 77263     there's something extra-ordinary in thee. Come, I cannot
 77264     cog, and say thou art this and that, like a many of these
 77265     lisping hawthorn-buds that come like women in men's
 77266     apparel, and smell like Bucklersbury in simple time; I
 77267     cannot; but I love thee, none but thee; and thou deserv'st it.
 77268   MRS. FORD. Do not betray me, sir; I fear you love Mistress
 77269     Page.
 77270   FALSTAFF. Thou mightst as well say I love to walk by the
 77271     Counter-gate, which is as hateful to me as the reek of a
 77272     lime-kiln.
 77273   MRS. FORD. Well, heaven knows how I love you; and you
 77274     shall one day find it.
 77275   FALSTAFF. Keep in that mind; I'll deserve it.
 77276   MRS. FORD. Nay, I must tell you, so you do; or else I could
 77277     not be in that mind.
 77278   ROBIN.  [Within]  Mistress Ford, Mistress Ford! here's
 77279     Mistress Page at the door, sweating and blowing and looking
 77280     wildly, and would needs speak with you presently.
 77281   FALSTAFF. She shall not see me; I will ensconce me behind
 77282     the arras.
 77283   MRS. FORD. Pray you, do so; she's a very tattling woman.
 77284                                       [FALSTAFF hides himself]
 77285 
 77286                Re-enter MISTRESS PAGE and ROBIN
 77287 
 77288     What's the matter? How now!
 77289   MRS. PAGE. O Mistress Ford, what have you done? You're
 77290     sham'd, y'are overthrown, y'are undone for ever.
 77291   MRS. FORD. What's the matter, good Mistress Page?
 77292   MRS. PAGE. O well-a-day, Mistress Ford, having an honest
 77293     man to your husband, to give him such cause of suspicion!
 77294   MRS. FORD. What cause of suspicion?
 77295   MRS. PAGE. What cause of suspicion? Out upon you, how
 77296     am I mistook in you!
 77297   MRS. FORD. Why, alas, what's the matter?
 77298   MRS. PAGE. Your husband's coming hither, woman, with all
 77299     the officers in Windsor, to search for a gentleman that he
 77300     says is here now in the house, by your consent, to take an
 77301     ill advantage of his absence. You are undone.
 77302   MRS. FORD. 'Tis not so, I hope.
 77303   MRS. PAGE. Pray heaven it be not so that you have such a
 77304     man here; but 'tis most certain your husband's coming,
 77305     with half Windsor at his heels, to search for such a one. I
 77306     come before to tell you. If you know yourself clear, why,
 77307     I am glad of it; but if you have a friend here, convey,
 77308     convey him out. Be not amaz'd; call all your senses to you;
 77309     defend your reputation, or bid farewell to your good life
 77310     for ever.
 77311   MRS. FORD. What shall I do? There is a gentleman, my dear
 77312     friend; and I fear not mine own shame as much as his peril.
 77313     I had rather than a thousand pound he were out of the
 77314     house.
 77315   MRS. PAGE. For shame, never stand 'you had rather' and 'you
 77316     had rather'! Your husband's here at hand; bethink you of
 77317     some conveyance; in the house you cannot hide him. O,
 77318     how have you deceiv'd me! Look, here is a basket; if he be
 77319     of any reasonable stature, he may creep in here; and throw
 77320     foul linen upon him, as if it were going to bucking, or-it is
 77321     whiting-time-send him by your two men to Datchet
 77322     Mead.
 77323   MRS. FORD. He's too big to go in there. What shall I do?
 77324   FALSTAFF.  [Coming forward]  Let me see 't, let me see 't. O,
 77325     let me see 't! I'll in, I'll in; follow your friend's counsel;
 77326     I'll in.
 77327   MRS. PAGE. What, Sir John Falstaff!      [Aside to FALSTAFF]
 77328     Are these your letters, knight?
 77329   FALSTAFF.  [Aside to MRS. PAGE]  I love thee and none but
 77330     thee; help me away.-Let me creep in here; I'll never-
 77331     [Gets into the basket; they cover him with foul linen]
 77332   MRS. PAGE. Help to cover your master, boy. Call your men,
 77333     Mistress Ford. You dissembling knight!
 77334   MRS. FORD. What, John! Robert! John!                Exit ROBIN
 77335 
 77336                  Re-enter SERVANTS
 77337 
 77338     Go, take up these clothes here, quickly; where's the
 77339     cowl-staff? Look how you drumble. Carry them to the laundress
 77340     in Datchet Mead; quickly, come.
 77341 
 77342          Enter FORD, PAGE, CAIUS, and SIR HUGH EVANS
 77343 
 77344   FORD. Pray you come near. If I suspect without cause, why
 77345     then make sport at me, then let me be your jest; I deserve
 77346     it. How now, whither bear you this?
 77347   SERVANT. To the laundress, forsooth.
 77348   MRS. FORD. Why, what have you to do whither they bear it?
 77349     You were best meddle with buck-washing.
 77350   FORD. Buck? I would I could wash myself of the buck!
 77351     Buck, buck, buck! ay, buck! I warrant you, buck; and of
 77352     the season too, it shall appear.  [Exeunt SERVANTS with
 77353     basket]  Gentlemen, I have dream'd to-night; I'll tell you my
 77354     dream. Here, here, here be my keys; ascend my chambers,
 77355     search, seek, find out. I'll warrant we'll unkennel the fox.
 77356     Let me stop this way first.  [Locking the door]  So, now
 77357     uncape.
 77358   PAGE. Good Master Ford, be contented; you wrong yourself
 77359     too much.
 77360   FORD. True, Master Page. Up, gentlemen, you shall see sport
 77361     anon; follow me, gentlemen.                             Exit
 77362   EVANS. This is fery fantastical humours and jealousies.
 77363   CAIUS. By gar, 'tis no the fashion of France; it is not jealous
 77364     in France.
 77365   PAGE. Nay, follow him, gentlemen; see the issue of his
 77366     search.                        Exeunt EVANS, PAGE, and CAIUS
 77367   MRS. PAGE. Is there not a double excellency in this?
 77368   MRS. FORD. I know not which pleases me better, that my
 77369     husband is deceived, or Sir John.
 77370   MRS. PAGE. What a taking was he in when your husband
 77371     ask'd who was in the basket!
 77372   MRS. FORD. I am half afraid he will have need of washing; so
 77373     throwing him into the water will do him a benefit.
 77374   MRS. PAGE. Hang him, dishonest rascal! I would all of the
 77375     same strain were in the same distress.
 77376   MRS. FORD. I think my husband hath some special suspicion
 77377     of Falstaff's being here, for I never saw him so gross in his
 77378     jealousy till now.
 77379   MRS. PAGE. I Will lay a plot to try that, and we will yet have
 77380     more tricks with Falstaff. His dissolute disease will scarce
 77381     obey this medicine.
 77382   MRS. FORD. Shall we send that foolish carrion, Mistress
 77383     Quickly, to him, and excuse his throwing into the water,
 77384     and give him another hope, to betray him to another
 77385     punishment?
 77386   MRS. PAGE. We will do it; let him be sent for to-morrow
 77387     eight o'clock, to have amends.
 77388 
 77389        Re-enter FORD, PAGE, CAIUS, and SIR HUGH EVANS
 77390 
 77391   FORD. I cannot find him; may be the knave bragg'd of that
 77392     he could not compass.
 77393   MRS. PAGE.  [Aside to MRS. FORD]  Heard you that?
 77394   MRS. FORD. You use me well, Master Ford, do you?
 77395   FORD. Ay, I do so.
 77396   MRS. FORD. Heaven make you better than your thoughts!
 77397   FORD. Amen.
 77398   MRS. PAGE. You do yourself mighty wrong, Master Ford.
 77399   FORD. Ay, ay; I must bear it.
 77400   EVANS. If there be any pody in the house, and in the
 77401     chambers, and in the coffers, and in the presses, heaven forgive
 77402     my sins at the day of judgment!
 77403   CAIUS. Be gar, nor I too; there is no bodies.
 77404   PAGE. Fie, fie, Master Ford, are you not asham'd? What
 77405     spirit, what devil suggests this imagination? I would not ha'
 77406     your distemper in this kind for the wealth of Windsor
 77407     Castle.
 77408   FORD. 'Tis my fault, Master Page; I suffer for it.
 77409   EVANS. You suffer for a pad conscience. Your wife is as
 77410     honest a omans as I will desires among five thousand, and five
 77411     hundred too.
 77412   CAIUS. By gar, I see 'tis an honest woman.
 77413   FORD. Well, I promis'd you a dinner. Come, come, walk in
 77414     the Park. I pray you pardon me; I will hereafter make
 77415     known to you why I have done this. Come, wife, come,
 77416     Mistress Page; I pray you pardon me; pray heartly,
 77417     pardon me.
 77418   PAGE. Let's go in, gentlemen; but, trust me, we'll mock him.
 77419     I do invite you to-morrow morning to my house to breakfast;
 77420     after, we'll a-birding together; I have a fine hawk for
 77421     the bush. Shall it be so?
 77422   FORD. Any thing.
 77423   EVANS. If there is one, I shall make two in the company.
 77424   CAIUS. If there be one or two, I shall make-a the turd.
 77425   FORD. Pray you go, Master Page.
 77426   EVANS. I pray you now, remembrance to-morrow on the
 77427     lousy knave, mine host.
 77428   CAIUS. Dat is good; by gar, with all my heart.
 77429   EVANS. A lousy knave, to have his gibes and his mockeries!
 77430                                                           Exeunt
 77431 
 77432 
 77433 
 77434 
 77435 SCENE 4.
 77436 
 77437 Before PAGE'S house
 77438 
 77439 Enter FENTON and ANNE PAGE
 77440 
 77441   FENTON. I see I cannot get thy father's love;
 77442     Therefore no more turn me to him, sweet Nan.
 77443   ANNE. Alas, how then?
 77444   FENTON. Why, thou must be thyself.
 77445     He doth object I am too great of birth;
 77446     And that, my state being gall'd with my expense,
 77447     I seek to heal it only by his wealth.
 77448     Besides these, other bars he lays before me,
 77449     My riots past, my wild societies;
 77450     And tells me 'tis a thing impossible
 77451     I should love thee but as a property.
 77452   ANNE.. May be he tells you true.
 77453   FENTON. No, heaven so speed me in my time to come!
 77454     Albeit I will confess thy father's wealth
 77455     Was the first motive that I woo'd thee, Anne;
 77456     Yet, wooing thee, I found thee of more value
 77457     Than stamps in gold, or sums in sealed bags;
 77458     And 'tis the very riches of thyself
 77459     That now I aim at.
 77460   ANNE. Gentle Master Fenton,
 77461     Yet seek my father's love; still seek it, sir.
 77462     If opportunity and humblest suit
 77463     Cannot attain it, why then-hark you hither.
 77464                                            [They converse apart]
 77465 
 77466         Enter SHALLOW, SLENDER, and MISTRESS QUICKLY
 77467 
 77468   SHALLOW. Break their talk, Mistress Quickly; my kinsman
 77469     shall speak for himself.
 77470   SLENDER. I'll make a shaft or a bolt on 't; 'slid, 'tis but
 77471     venturing.
 77472   SHALLOW. Be not dismay'd.
 77473   SLENDER. No, she shall not dismay me. I care not for that,
 77474     but that I am afeard.
 77475   QUICKLY. Hark ye, Master Slender would speak a word
 77476     with you.
 77477   ANNE. I come to him.  [Aside]  This is my father's choice.
 77478     O, what a world of vile ill-favour'd faults
 77479     Looks handsome in three hundred pounds a year!
 77480   QUICKLY. And how does good Master Fenton? Pray you, a
 77481     word with you.
 77482   SHALLOW. She's coming; to her, coz. O boy, thou hadst a
 77483     father!
 77484   SLENDER. I had a father, Mistress Anne; my uncle can tell
 77485     you good jests of him. Pray you, uncle, tell Mistress Anne
 77486     the jest how my father stole two geese out of a pen, good
 77487     uncle.
 77488   SHALLOW. Mistress Anne, my cousin loves you.
 77489   SLENDER. Ay, that I do; as well as I love any woman in
 77490     Gloucestershire.
 77491   SHALLOW. He will maintain you like a gentlewoman.
 77492   SLENDER. Ay, that I will come cut and longtail, under the
 77493     degree of a squire.
 77494   SHALLOW. He will make you a hundred and fifty pounds
 77495     jointure.
 77496   ANNE. Good Master Shallow, let him woo for himself.
 77497   SHALLOW. Marry, I thank you for it; I thank you for that
 77498     good comfort. She calls you, coz; I'll leave you.
 77499   ANNE. Now, Master Slender-
 77500   SLENDER. Now, good Mistress Anne-
 77501   ANNE. What is your will?
 77502   SLENDER. My Will! 'Od's heartlings, that's a pretty jest
 77503     indeed! I ne'er made my will yet, I thank heaven; I am not
 77504     such a sickly creature, I give heaven praise.
 77505   ANNE. I mean, Master Slender, what would you with me?
 77506   SLENDER. Truly, for mine own part I would little or nothing
 77507     with you. Your father and my uncle hath made motions;
 77508     if it be my luck, so; if not, happy man be his dole! They
 77509     can tell you how things go better than I can. You may ask
 77510     your father; here he comes.
 77511 
 77512             Enter PAGE and MISTRESS PAGE
 77513 
 77514   PAGE. Now, Master Slender! Love him, daughter Anne-
 77515     Why, how now, what does Master Fenton here?
 77516     You wrong me, sir, thus still to haunt my house.
 77517     I told you, sir, my daughter is dispos'd of.
 77518   FENTON. Nay, Master Page, be not impatient.
 77519   MRS. PAGE. Good Master Fenton, come not to my child.
 77520   PAGE. She is no match for you.
 77521   FENTON. Sir, will you hear me?
 77522   PAGE. No, good Master Fenton.
 77523     Come, Master Shallow; come, son Slender; in.
 77524     Knowing my mind, you wrong me, Master Fenton.
 77525                                Exeunt PAGE, SHALLOW, and SLENDER
 77526   QUICKLY. Speak to Mistress Page.
 77527   FENTON. Good Mistress Page, for that I love your daughter
 77528     In such a righteous fashion as I do,
 77529     Perforce, against all checks, rebukes, and manners,
 77530     I must advance the colours of my love,
 77531     And not retire. Let me have your good will.
 77532   ANNE. Good mother, do not marry me to yond fool.
 77533   MRS. PAGE. I mean it not; I seek you a better husband.
 77534   QUICKLY. That's my master, Master Doctor.
 77535   ANNE. Alas, I had rather be set quick i' th' earth.
 77536     And bowl'd to death with turnips.
 77537   MRS. PAGE. Come, trouble not yourself. Good Master
 77538     Fenton,
 77539     I will not be your friend, nor enemy;
 77540     My daughter will I question how she loves you,
 77541     And as I find her, so am I affected;
 77542     Till then, farewell, sir; she must needs go in;
 77543     Her father will be angry.
 77544   FENTON. Farewell, gentle mistress; farewell, Nan.
 77545                                        Exeunt MRS. PAGE and ANNE
 77546   QUICKLY. This is my doing now: 'Nay,' said I 'will you cast
 77547     away your child on a fool, and a physician? Look on
 77548     Master Fenton.' This is my doing.
 77549   FENTON. I thank thee; and I pray thee, once to-night
 77550     Give my sweet Nan this ring. There's for thy pains.
 77551   QUICKLY. Now Heaven send thee good fortune!  [Exit
 77552     FENTON]  A kind heart he hath; a woman would run through
 77553     fire and water for such a kind heart. But yet I would my
 77554     master had Mistress Anne; or I would Master Slender had
 77555     her; or, in sooth, I would Master Fenton had her; I will
 77556     do what I can for them all three, for so I have promis'd,
 77557     and I'll be as good as my word; but speciously for Master
 77558     Fenton. Well, I must of another errand to Sir John Falstaff
 77559     from my two mistresses. What a beast am I to slack it!
 77560  Exit
 77561 
 77562 
 77563 
 77564 
 77565 SCENE 5.
 77566 
 77567 The Garter Inn
 77568 
 77569 Enter FALSTAFF and BARDOLPH
 77570 
 77571   FALSTAFF. Bardolph, I say!
 77572   BARDOLPH. Here, sir.
 77573   FALSTAFF. Go fetch me a quart of sack; put a toast in 't.
 77574                                                    Exit BARDOLPH
 77575     Have I liv'd to be carried in a basket, like a barrow of
 77576     butcher's offal, and to be thrown in the Thames? Well, if
 77577     I be serv'd such another trick, I'll have my brains ta'en out
 77578     and butter'd, and give them to a dog for a new-year's gift.
 77579     The rogues slighted me into the river with as little remorse
 77580     as they would have drown'd a blind bitch's puppies, fifteen
 77581     i' th' litter; and you may know by my size that I have
 77582     a kind of alacrity in sinking; if the bottom were as deep as
 77583     hell I should down. I had been drown'd but that the shore
 77584     was shelvy and shallow-a death that I abhor; for the water
 77585     swells a man; and what a thing should I have been when
 77586     had been swell'd! I should have been a mountain of
 77587     mummy.
 77588 
 77589                   Re-enter BARDOLPH, with sack
 77590 
 77591   BARDOLPH. Here's Mistress Quickly, sir, to speak with you
 77592   FALSTAFF. Come, let me pour in some sack to the Thames
 77593     water; for my belly's as cold as if I had swallow'd
 77594     snowballs for pills to cool the reins. Call her in.
 77595   BARDOLPH. Come in, woman.
 77596 
 77597                      Enter MISTRESS QUICKLY
 77598 
 77599   QUICKLY. By your leave; I cry you mercy. Give your
 77600     worship good morrow.
 77601   FALSTAFF. Take away these chalices. Go, brew me a pottle
 77602     of sack finely.
 77603   BARDOLPH. With eggs, sir?
 77604   FALSTAFF. Simple of itself; I'll no pullet-sperm in my
 77605     brewage.  [Exit BARDOLPH]  How now!
 77606   QUICKLY. Marry, sir, I come to your worship from Mistress
 77607     Ford.
 77608   FALSTAFF. Mistress Ford! I have had ford enough; I was
 77609     thrown into the ford; I have my belly full of ford.
 77610   QUICKLY. Alas the day, good heart, that was not her fault!
 77611     She does so take on with her men; they mistook their
 77612     erection.
 77613   FALSTAFF. So did I mine, to build upon a foolish woman's
 77614     promise.
 77615   QUICKLY. Well, she laments, sir, for it, that it would yearn
 77616     your heart to see it. Her husband goes this morning
 77617     a-birding; she desires you once more to come to her between
 77618     eight and nine; I must carry her word quickly. She'll make
 77619     you amends, I warrant you.
 77620   FALSTAFF. Well, I Will visit her. Tell her so; and bid her
 77621     think what a man is. Let her consider his frailty, and then
 77622     judge of my merit.
 77623   QUICKLY. I will tell her.
 77624   FALSTAFF. Do so. Between nine and ten, say'st thou?
 77625   QUICKLY. Eight and nine, sir.
 77626   FALSTAFF. Well, be gone; I will not miss her.
 77627   QUICKLY. Peace be with you, sir.                          Exit
 77628   FALSTAFF. I marvel I hear not of Master Brook; he sent me
 77629     word to stay within. I like his money well. O, here he
 77630     comes.
 77631 
 77632                        Enter FORD disguised
 77633 
 77634   FORD. Bless you, sir!
 77635   FALSTAFF. Now, Master Brook, you come to know what
 77636     hath pass'd between me and Ford's wife?
 77637   FORD. That, indeed, Sir John, is my business.
 77638   FALSTAFF. Master Brook, I will not lie to you; I was at her
 77639     house the hour she appointed me.
 77640   FORD. And sped you, sir?
 77641   FALSTAFF. Very ill-favouredly, Master Brook.
 77642   FORD. How so, sir; did she change her determination?
 77643   FALSTAFF. No. Master Brook; but the peaking cornuto her
 77644     husband, Master Brook, dwelling in a continual 'larum of
 77645     jealousy, comes me in the instant of our, encounter, after
 77646     we had embrac'd, kiss'd, protested, and, as it were, spoke
 77647     the prologue of our comedy; and at his heels a rabble of his
 77648     companions, thither provoked and instigated by his
 77649     distemper, and, forsooth, to search his house for his wife's
 77650     love.
 77651   FORD. What, while you were there?
 77652   FALSTAFF. While I was there.
 77653   FORD. And did he search for you, and could not find you?
 77654   FALSTAFF. You shall hear. As good luck would have it, comes
 77655     in one Mistress Page, gives intelligence of Ford's approach;
 77656     and, in her invention and Ford's wife's distraction, they
 77657     convey'd me into a buck-basket.
 77658   FORD. A buck-basket!
 77659   FALSTAFF. By the Lord, a buck-basket! Ramm'd me in with
 77660     foul shirts and smocks, socks, foul stockings, greasy
 77661     napkins, that, Master Brook, there was the rankest compound
 77662     of villainous smell that ever offended nostril.
 77663   FORD. And how long lay you there?
 77664   FALSTAFF. Nay, you shall hear, Master Brook, what I have
 77665     suffer'd to bring this woman to evil for your good. Being
 77666     thus cramm'd in the basket, a couple of Ford's knaves, his
 77667     hinds, were call'd forth by their mistress to carry me in
 77668     the name of foul clothes to Datchet Lane; they took me on
 77669     their shoulders; met the jealous knave their master in the
 77670     door; who ask'd them once or twice what they had in their
 77671     basket. I quak'd for fear lest the lunatic knave would have
 77672     search'd it; but Fate, ordaining he should be a cuckold,
 77673     held his hand. Well, on went he for a search, and away
 77674     went I for foul clothes. But mark the sequel, Master
 77675     Brook-I suffered the pangs of three several deaths: first,
 77676     an intolerable fright to be detected with a jealous rotten
 77677     bell-wether; next, to be compass'd like a good bilbo in the
 77678     circumference of a peck, hilt to point, heel to head; and
 77679     then, to be stopp'd in, like a strong distillation, with
 77680     stinking clothes that fretted in their own grease. Think of that
 77681     -a man of my kidney. Think of that-that am as subject to
 77682     heat as butter; a man of continual dissolution and thaw. It
 77683     was a miracle to scape suffocation. And in the height of
 77684     this bath, when I was more than half-stew'd in grease, like
 77685     a Dutch dish, to be thrown into the Thames, and cool'd,
 77686     glowing hot, in that surge, like a horse-shoe; think of that
 77687     -hissing hot. Think of that, Master Brook.
 77688   FORD. In good sadness, sir, I am sorry that for my sake you
 77689     have suffer'd all this. My suit, then, is desperate;
 77690     you'll undertake her no more.
 77691   FALSTAFF. Master Brook, I will be thrown into Etna, as I
 77692     have been into Thames, ere I will leave her thus. Her
 77693     husband is this morning gone a-birding; I have received from
 77694     her another embassy of meeting; 'twixt eight and nine is
 77695     the hour, Master Brook.
 77696   FORD. 'Tis past eight already, sir.
 77697   FALSTAFF. Is it? I Will then address me to my appointment.
 77698     Come to me at your convenient leisure, and you shall
 77699     know how I speed; and the conclusion shall be crowned
 77700     with your enjoying her. Adieu. You shall have her, Master
 77701     Brook; Master Brook, you shall cuckold Ford.            Exit
 77702   FORD. Hum! ha! Is this a vision? Is this a dream? Do I sleep?
 77703     Master Ford, awake; awake, Master Ford. There's a hole
 77704     made in your best coat, Master Ford. This 'tis to be
 77705     married; this 'tis to have linen and buck-baskets! Well, I will
 77706     proclaim myself what I am; I will now take the lecher; he
 77707     is at my house. He cannot scape me; 'tis impossible he
 77708     should; he cannot creep into a halfpenny purse nor into
 77709     a pepper box. But, lest the devil that guides him should aid
 77710     him, I will search impossible places. Though what I am I
 77711     cannot avoid, yet to be what I would not shall not make
 77712     me tame. If I have horns to make one mad, let the proverb
 77713     go with me-I'll be horn mad.                            Exit
 77714 
 77715 
 77716 
 77717 
 77718 <<THIS ELECTRONIC VERSION OF THE COMPLETE WORKS OF WILLIAM
 77719 SHAKESPEARE IS COPYRIGHT 1990-1993 BY WORLD LIBRARY, INC., AND IS
 77720 PROVIDED BY PROJECT GUTENBERG ETEXT OF ILLINOIS BENEDICTINE COLLEGE
 77721 WITH PERMISSION.  ELECTRONIC AND MACHINE READABLE COPIES MAY BE
 77722 DISTRIBUTED SO LONG AS SUCH COPIES (1) ARE FOR YOUR OR OTHERS
 77723 PERSONAL USE ONLY, AND (2) ARE NOT DISTRIBUTED OR USED
 77724 COMMERCIALLY.  PROHIBITED COMMERCIAL DISTRIBUTION INCLUDES BY ANY
 77725 SERVICE THAT CHARGES FOR DOWNLOAD TIME OR FOR MEMBERSHIP.>>
 77726 
 77727 
 77728 
 77729 ACT IV. SCENE I.
 77730 
 77731 Windsor. A street
 77732 
 77733 Enter MISTRESS PAGE, MISTRESS QUICKLY, and WILLIAM
 77734 
 77735   MRS. PAGE. Is he at Master Ford's already, think'st thou?
 77736   QUICKLY. Sure he is by this; or will be presently; but truly
 77737     he is very courageous mad about his throwing into the
 77738     water. Mistress Ford desires you to come suddenly.
 77739   MRS. PAGE. I'll be with her by and by; I'll but bring my
 77740     young man here to school. Look where his master comes;
 77741     'tis a playing day, I see.
 77742 
 77743                      Enter SIR HUGH EVANS
 77744 
 77745     How now, Sir Hugh, no school to-day?
 77746   EVANS. No; Master Slender is let the boys leave to play.
 77747   QUICKLY. Blessing of his heart!
 77748   MRS. PAGE. Sir Hugh, my husband says my son profits
 77749     nothing in the world at his book; I pray you ask him some
 77750     questions in his accidence.
 77751   EVANS. Come hither, William; hold up your head; come.
 77752   MRS. PAGE. Come on, sirrah; hold up your head; answer your
 77753     master; be not afraid.
 77754   EVANS. William, how many numbers is in nouns?
 77755   WILLIAM. Two.
 77756   QUICKLY. Truly, I thought there had been one number
 77757     more, because they say 'Od's nouns.'
 77758   EVANS. Peace your tattlings. What is 'fair,' William?
 77759   WILLIAM. Pulcher.
 77760   QUICKLY. Polecats! There are fairer things than polecats,
 77761     sure.
 77762   EVANS. You are a very simplicity oman; I pray you, peace.
 77763     What is 'lapis,' William?
 77764   WILLIAM. A stone.
 77765   EVANS. And what is 'a stone,' William?
 77766   WILLIAM. A pebble.
 77767   EVANS. No, it is 'lapis'; I pray you remember in your prain.
 77768   WILLIAM. Lapis.
 77769   EVANS. That is a good William. What is he, William, that
 77770     does lend articles?
 77771   WILLIAM. Articles are borrowed of the pronoun, and be
 77772     thus declined: Singulariter, nominativo; hic, haec, hoc.
 77773   EVANS. Nominativo, hig, hag, hog; pray you, mark: genitivo,
 77774     hujus. Well, what is your accusative case?
 77775   WILLIAM. Accusativo, hinc.
 77776   EVANS. I pray you, have your remembrance, child.
 77777     Accusativo, hung, hang, hog.
 77778   QUICKLY. 'Hang-hog' is Latin for bacon, I warrant you.
 77779   EVANS. Leave your prabbles, oman. What is the focative
 77780     case, William?
 77781   WILLIAM. O-vocativo, O.
 77782   EVANS. Remember, William: focative is caret.
 77783   QUICKLY. And that's a good root.
 77784   EVANS. Oman, forbear.
 77785   MRS. PAGE. Peace.
 77786   EVANS. What is your genitive case plural, William?
 77787   WILLIAM. Genitive case?
 77788   EVANS. Ay.
 77789   WILLIAM. Genitive: horum, harum, horum.
 77790   QUICKLY. Vengeance of Jenny's case; fie on her! Never
 77791     name her, child, if she be a whore.
 77792   EVANS. For shame, oman.
 77793   QUICKLY. YOU do ill to teach the child such words. He
 77794     teaches him to hick and to hack, which they'll do fast
 77795     enough of themselves; and to call 'horum'; fie upon you!
 77796   EVANS. Oman, art thou lunatics? Hast thou no understandings
 77797     for thy cases, and the numbers of the genders? Thou
 77798     art as foolish Christian creatures as I would desires.
 77799   MRS. PAGE. Prithee hold thy peace.
 77800   EVANS. Show me now, William, some declensions of your
 77801     pronouns.
 77802   WILLIAM. Forsooth, I have forgot.
 77803   EVANS. It is qui, quae, quod; if you forget your qui's, your
 77804     quae's, and your quod's, you must be preeches. Go your
 77805     ways and play; go.
 77806   MRS. PAGE. He is a better scholar than I thought he was.
 77807   EVANS. He is a good sprag memory. Farewell, Mistress Page.
 77808   MRS. PAGE. Adieu, good Sir Hugh.                 Exit SIR HUGH
 77809     Get you home, boy. Come, we stay too long.            Exeunt
 77810 
 77811 
 77812 
 77813 
 77814 SCENE 2.
 77815 
 77816 FORD'S house
 77817 
 77818 Enter FALSTAFF and MISTRESS FORD
 77819 
 77820   FALSTAFF. Mistress Ford, your sorrow hath eaten up my
 77821     sufferance. I see you are obsequious in your love, and I
 77822     profess requital to a hair's breadth; not only, Mistress Ford, in
 77823     the simple office of love, but in all the accoutrement,
 77824     complement, and ceremony of it. But are you sure of your
 77825     husband now?
 77826   MRS. FORD. He's a-birding, sweet Sir John.
 77827   MRS. PAGE.  [Within]  What hoa, gossip Ford, what hoa!
 77828   MRS. FORD. Step into th' chamber, Sir John.      Exit FALSTAFF
 77829 
 77830                       Enter MISTRESS PAGE
 77831 
 77832   MRS. PAGE. How now, sweetheart, who's at home besides
 77833     yourself?
 77834   MRS. FORD. Why, none but mine own people.
 77835   MRS. PAGE. Indeed?
 77836   MRS. FORD. No, certainly.  [Aside to her]  Speak louder.
 77837   MRS. PAGE. Truly, I am so glad you have nobody here.
 77838   MRS. FORD. Why?
 77839   MRS. PAGE. Why, woman, your husband is in his old lunes
 77840     again. He so takes on yonder with my husband; so rails
 77841     against all married mankind; so curses an Eve's daughters,
 77842     of what complexion soever; and so buffets himself on the
 77843     forehead, crying 'Peer-out, peer-out!' that any madness I
 77844     ever yet beheld seem'd but tameness, civility, and patience,
 77845     to this his distemper he is in now. I am glad the fat knight
 77846     is not here.
 77847   MRS. FORD. Why, does he talk of him?
 77848   MRS. PAGE. Of none but him; and swears he was carried out,
 77849     the last time he search'd for him, in a basket; protests to
 77850     my husband he is now here; and hath drawn him and the
 77851     rest of their company from their sport, to make another
 77852     experiment of his suspicion. But I am glad the knight is not
 77853     here; now he shall see his own foolery.
 77854   MRS. FORD. How near is he, Mistress Page?
 77855   MRS. PAGE. Hard by, at street end; he will be here anon.
 77856   MRS. FORD. I am undone: the knight is here.
 77857   MRS. PAGE. Why, then, you are utterly sham'd, and he's but
 77858     a dead man. What a woman are you! Away with him,
 77859     away with him; better shame than murder.
 77860   MRS. FORD. Which way should he go? How should I bestow
 77861     him? Shall I put him into the basket again?
 77862 
 77863                   Re-enter FALSTAFF
 77864 
 77865   FALSTAFF. No, I'll come no more i' th' basket. May I not go
 77866     out ere he come?
 77867   MRS. PAGE. Alas, three of Master Ford's brothers watch the
 77868     door with pistols, that none shall issue out; otherwise you
 77869     might slip away ere he came. But what make you here?
 77870   FALSTAFF. What shall I do? I'll creep up into the chimney.
 77871   MRS. FORD. There they always use to discharge their
 77872     birding-pieces.
 77873   MRS. PAGE. Creep into the kiln-hole.
 77874   FALSTAFF. Where is it?
 77875   MRS. FORD. He will seek there, on my word. Neither press,
 77876     coffer, chest, trunk, well, vault, but he hath an abstract for
 77877     the remembrance of such places, and goes to them by his
 77878     note. There is no hiding you in the house.
 77879   FALSTAFF. I'll go out then.
 77880   MRS. PAGE. If you go out in your own semblance, you die,
 77881     Sir John. Unless you go out disguis'd.
 77882   MRS. FORD. How might we disguise him?
 77883   MRS. PAGE. Alas the day, I know not! There is no woman's
 77884     gown big enough for him; otherwise he might put on a
 77885     hat, a muffler, and a kerchief, and so escape.
 77886   FALSTAFF. Good hearts, devise something; any extremity
 77887     rather than a mischief.
 77888   MRS. FORD. My Maid's aunt, the fat woman of Brainford, has
 77889     a gown above.
 77890   MRS. PAGE. On my word, it will serve him; she's as big as he
 77891     is; and there's her thrumm'd hat, and her muffler too. Run
 77892     up, Sir John.
 77893   MRS. FORD. Go, go, sweet Sir John. Mistress Page and I will
 77894     look some linen for your head.
 77895   MRS. PAGE. Quick, quick; we'll come dress you straight. Put
 77896     on the gown the while.                         Exit FALSTAFF
 77897   MRS. FORD. I would my husband would meet him in this
 77898     shape; he cannot abide the old woman of Brainford; he
 77899     swears she's a witch, forbade her my house, and hath
 77900     threat'ned to beat her.
 77901   MRS. PAGE. Heaven guide him to thy husband's cudgel; and
 77902     the devil guide his cudgel afterwards!
 77903   MRS. FORD. But is my husband coming?
 77904   MRS. PAGE. Ay, in good sadness is he; and talks of the basket
 77905     too, howsoever he hath had intelligence.
 77906   MRS. FORD. We'll try that; for I'll appoint my men to carry
 77907     the basket again, to meet him at the door with it as they
 77908     did last time.
 77909   MRS. PAGE. Nay, but he'll be here presently; let's go dress
 77910     him like the witch of Brainford.
 77911   MRS. FORD. I'll first direct my men what they shall do with
 77912     the basket. Go up; I'll bring linen for him straight.   Exit
 77913   MRS. PAGE. Hang him, dishonest varlet! we cannot misuse
 77914     him enough.
 77915     We'll leave a proof, by that which we will do,
 77916     Wives may be merry and yet honest too.
 77917     We do not act that often jest and laugh;
 77918     'Tis old but true: Still swine eats all the draff.      Exit
 77919 
 77920             Re-enter MISTRESS FORD, with two SERVANTS
 77921 
 77922   MRS. FORD. Go, sirs, take the basket again on your shoulders;
 77923     your master is hard at door; if he bid you set it down, obey
 77924     him; quickly, dispatch.                                 Exit
 77925   FIRST SERVANT. Come, come, take it up.
 77926   SECOND SERVANT. Pray heaven it be not full of knight again.
 77927   FIRST SERVANT. I hope not; I had lief as bear so much lead.
 77928 
 77929     Enter FORD, PAGE, SHALLOW, CAIUS, and SIR HUGH EVANS
 77930 
 77931   FORD. Ay, but if it prove true, Master Page, have you any
 77932     way then to unfool me again? Set down the basket, villain!
 77933     Somebody call my wife. Youth in a basket! O you panderly
 77934     rascals, there's a knot, a ging, a pack, a conspiracy
 77935     against me. Now shall the devil be sham'd. What, wife, I
 77936     say! Come, come forth; behold what honest clothes you
 77937     send forth to bleaching.
 77938   PAGE. Why, this passes, Master Ford; you are not to go loose
 77939     any longer; you must be pinion'd.
 77940   EVANS. Why, this is lunatics. This is mad as a mad dog.
 77941   SHALLOW. Indeed, Master Ford, this is not well, indeed.
 77942   FORD. So say I too, sir.
 77943 
 77944                      Re-enter MISTRESS FORD
 77945 
 77946     Come hither, Mistress Ford; Mistress Ford, the honest
 77947     woman, the modest wife, the virtuous creature, that hath
 77948     the jealous fool to her husband! I suspect without cause,
 77949     Mistress, do I?
 77950   MRS. FORD. Heaven be my witness, you do, if you suspect
 77951     me in any dishonesty.
 77952   FORD. Well said, brazen-face; hold it out. Come forth, sirrah.
 77953                            [Pulling clothes out of the basket]
 77954   PAGE. This passes!
 77955   MRS. FORD. Are you not asham'd? Let the clothes alone.
 77956   FORD. I shall find you anon.
 77957   EVANS. 'Tis unreasonable. Will you take up your wife's
 77958     clothes? Come away.
 77959   FORD. Empty the basket, I say.
 77960   MRS. FORD. Why, man, why?
 77961   FORD. Master Page, as I am a man, there was one convey'd
 77962     out of my house yesterday in this basket. Why may not
 77963     he be there again? In my house I am sure he is; my
 77964     intelligence is true; my jealousy is reasonable.
 77965     Pluck me out all the linen.
 77966   MRS. FORD. If you find a man there, he shall die a flea's
 77967     death.
 77968   PAGE. Here's no man.
 77969   SHALLOW. By my fidelity, this is not well, Master Ford; this
 77970     wrongs you.
 77971   EVANS. Master Ford, you must pray, and not follow the
 77972     imaginations of your own heart; this is jealousies.
 77973   FORD. Well, he's not here I seek for.
 77974   PAGE. No, nor nowhere else but in your brain.
 77975   FORD. Help to search my house this one time. If I find not
 77976     what I seek, show no colour for my extremity; let me for
 77977     ever be your table sport; let them say of me 'As jealous as
 77978     Ford, that search'd a hollow walnut for his wife's leman.'
 77979     Satisfy me once more; once more search with me.
 77980   MRS. FORD. What, hoa, Mistress Page! Come you and the old
 77981     woman down; my husband will come into the chamber.
 77982   FORD. Old woman? what old woman's that?
 77983   MRS. FORD. Why, it is my maid's aunt of Brainford.
 77984   FORD. A witch, a quean, an old cozening quean! Have I not
 77985     forbid her my house? She comes of errands, does she? We
 77986     are simple men; we do not know what's brought to pass
 77987     under the profession of fortune-telling. She works by
 77988     charms, by spells, by th' figure, and such daub'ry as this
 77989     is, beyond our element. We know nothing. Come down, you
 77990     witch, you hag you; come down, I say.
 77991   MRS. FORD. Nay, good sweet husband! Good gentlemen, let
 77992     him not strike the old woman.
 77993 
 77994    Re-enter FALSTAFF in woman's clothes, and MISTRESS PAGE
 77995 
 77996   MRS. PAGE. Come, Mother Prat; come. give me your hand.
 77997   FORD. I'll prat her.  [Beating him]  Out of my door, you
 77998     witch, you hag, you. baggage, you polecat, you ronyon!
 77999     Out, out! I'll conjure you, I'll fortune-tell you.
 78000                                                    Exit FALSTAFF
 78001   MRS. PAGE. Are you not asham'd? I think you have kill'd the
 78002     poor woman.
 78003   MRS. FORD. Nay, he will do it. 'Tis a goodly credit for you.
 78004   FORD. Hang her, witch!
 78005   EVANS. By yea and no, I think the oman is a witch indeed; I
 78006     like not when a oman has a great peard; I spy a great peard
 78007     under his muffler.
 78008   FORD. Will you follow, gentlemen? I beseech you follow;
 78009     see but the issue of my jealousy; if I cry out thus upon no
 78010     trail, never trust me when I open again.
 78011   PAGE. Let's obey his humour a little further. Come,
 78012     gentlemen.            Exeunt all but MRS. FORD and MRS. PAGE
 78013   MRS. PAGE. Trust me, he beat him most pitifully.
 78014   MRS. FORD. Nay, by th' mass, that he did not; he beat him
 78015     most unpitifully methought.
 78016   MRS. PAGE. I'll have the cudgel hallow'd and hung o'er the
 78017     altar; it hath done meritorious service.
 78018   MRS. FORD. What think you? May we, with the warrant of
 78019     womanhood and the witness of a good conscience, pursue
 78020     him with any further revenge?
 78021   MRS. PAGE. The spirit of wantonness is sure scar'd out of
 78022     him; if the devil have him not in fee-simple, with fine and
 78023     recovery, he will never, I think, in the way of waste,
 78024     attempt us again.
 78025   MRS. FORD. Shall we tell our husbands how we have serv'd
 78026     him?
 78027   MRS. PAGE. Yes, by all means; if it be but to scrape the
 78028     figures out of your husband's brains. If they can find in their
 78029     hearts the poor unvirtuous fat knight shall be any further
 78030     afflicted, we two will still be the ministers.
 78031   MRS. FORD. I'll warrant they'll have him publicly sham'd;
 78032     and methinks there would be no period to the jest, should
 78033     he not be publicly sham'd.
 78034   MRS. PAGE. Come, to the forge with it then; shape it. I
 78035     would not have things cool.                           Exeunt
 78036 
 78037 
 78038 
 78039 
 78040 SCENE 3.
 78041 
 78042 The Garter Inn
 78043 
 78044 Enter HOST and BARDOLPH
 78045 
 78046   BARDOLPH. Sir, the Germans desire to have three of your
 78047     horses; the Duke himself will be to-morrow at court, and
 78048     they are going to meet him.
 78049   HOST. What duke should that be comes so secretly? I hear
 78050     not of him in the court. Let me speak with the gentlemen;
 78051     they speak English?
 78052   BARDOLPH. Ay, sir; I'll call them to you.
 78053   HOST. They shall have my horses, but I'll make them pay;
 78054     I'll sauce them; they have had my house a week at
 78055     command; I have turn'd away my other guests. They must
 78056     come off; I'll sauce them. Come.                      Exeunt
 78057 
 78058 
 78059 
 78060 
 78061 SCENE 4
 78062 
 78063 FORD'S house
 78064 
 78065 Enter PAGE, FORD, MISTRESS PAGE, MISTRESS FORD, and SIR HUGH EVANS
 78066 
 78067   EVANS. 'Tis one of the best discretions of a oman as ever
 78068     did look upon.
 78069   PAGE. And did he send you both these letters at an instant?
 78070   MRS. PAGE. Within a quarter of an hour.
 78071   FORD. Pardon me, wife. Henceforth, do what thou wilt;
 78072     I rather will suspect the sun with cold
 78073     Than thee with wantonness. Now doth thy honour stand,
 78074     In him that was of late an heretic,
 78075     As firm as faith.
 78076   PAGE. 'Tis well, 'tis well; no more.
 78077     Be not as extreme in submission as in offence;
 78078     But let our plot go forward. Let our wives
 78079     Yet once again, to make us public sport,
 78080     Appoint a meeting with this old fat fellow,
 78081     Where we may take him and disgrace him for it.
 78082   FORD. There is no better way than that they spoke of.
 78083   PAGE. How? To send him word they'll meet him in the Park
 78084     at midnight? Fie, fie! he'll never come!
 78085   EVANS. You say he has been thrown in the rivers; and has
 78086     been grievously peaten as an old oman; methinks there
 78087     should be terrors in him, that he should not come;
 78088     methinks his flesh is punish'd; he shall have no desires.
 78089   PAGE. So think I too.
 78090   MRS. FORD. Devise but how you'll use him when he comes,
 78091     And let us two devise to bring him thither.
 78092   MRS. PAGE. There is an old tale goes that Heme the Hunter,
 78093     Sometime a keeper here in Windsor Forest,
 78094     Doth all the winter-time, at still midnight,
 78095     Walk round about an oak, with great ragg'd horns;
 78096     And there he blasts the tree, and takes the cattle,
 78097     And makes milch-kine yield blood, and shakes a chain
 78098     In a most hideous and dreadful manner.
 78099     You have heard of such a spirit, and well you know
 78100     The superstitious idle-headed eld
 78101     Receiv'd, and did deliver to our age,
 78102     This tale of Heme the Hunter for a truth.
 78103   PAGE. Why yet there want not many that do fear
 78104     In deep of night to walk by this Herne's oak.
 78105     But what of this?
 78106   MRS. FORD. Marry, this is our device-
 78107     That Falstaff at that oak shall meet with us,
 78108     Disguis'd, like Heme, with huge horns on his head.
 78109   PAGE. Well, let it not be doubted but he'll come,
 78110     And in this shape. When you have brought him thither,
 78111     What shall be done with him? What is your plot?
 78112   MRS. PAGE. That likewise have we thought upon, and
 78113     thus:
 78114     Nan Page my daughter, and my little son,
 78115     And three or four more of their growth, we'll dress
 78116     Like urchins, ouphes, and fairies, green and white,
 78117     With rounds of waxen tapers on their heads,
 78118     And rattles in their hands; upon a sudden,
 78119     As Falstaff, she, and I, are newly met,
 78120     Let them from forth a sawpit rush at once
 78121     With some diffused song; upon their sight
 78122     We two in great amazedness will fly.
 78123     Then let them all encircle him about,
 78124     And fairy-like, to pinch the unclean knight;
 78125     And ask him why, that hour of fairy revel,
 78126     In their so sacred paths he dares to tread
 78127     In shape profane.
 78128   MRS. FORD. And till he tell the truth,
 78129     Let the supposed fairies pinch him sound,
 78130     And burn him with their tapers.
 78131   MRS. PAGE. The truth being known,
 78132     We'll all present ourselves; dis-horn the spirit,
 78133     And mock him home to Windsor.
 78134   FORD. The children must
 78135     Be practis'd well to this or they'll nev'r do 't.
 78136   EVANS. I will teach the children their behaviours; and I will
 78137     be like a jack-an-apes also, to burn the knight with my
 78138     taber.
 78139   FORD. That will be excellent. I'll go buy them vizards.
 78140   MRS. PAGE. My Nan shall be the Queen of all the Fairies,
 78141     Finely attired in a robe of white.
 78142   PAGE. That silk will I go buy.  [Aside]  And in that time
 78143     Shall Master Slender steal my Nan away,
 78144     And marry her at Eton.-Go, send to Falstaff straight.
 78145   FORD. Nay, I'll to him again, in name of Brook;
 78146     He'll tell me all his purpose. Sure, he'll come.
 78147   MRS. PAGE. Fear not you that. Go get us properties
 78148     And tricking for our fairies.
 78149   EVANS. Let us about it. It is admirable pleasures, and fery
 78150     honest knaveries.               Exeunt PAGE, FORD, and EVANS
 78151   MRS. PAGE. Go, Mistress Ford.
 78152     Send Quickly to Sir John to know his mind.
 78153                                                   Exit MRS. FORD
 78154     I'll to the Doctor; he hath my good will,
 78155     And none but he, to marry with Nan Page.
 78156     That Slender, though well landed, is an idiot;
 78157     And he my husband best of all affects.
 78158     The Doctor is well money'd, and his friends
 78159     Potent at court; he, none but he, shall have her,
 78160     Though twenty thousand worthier come to crave her.      Exit
 78161 
 78162 
 78163 
 78164 
 78165 SCENE 5.
 78166 
 78167 The Garter Inn
 78168 
 78169 Enter HOST and SIMPLE
 78170 
 78171   HOST. What wouldst thou have, boor? What, thick-skin?
 78172     Speak, breathe, discuss; brief, short, quick, snap.
 78173   SIMPLE. Marry, sir, I come to speak with Sir John Falstaff
 78174     from Master Slender.
 78175   HOST. There's his chamber, his house, his castle, his
 78176     standing-bed and truckle-bed; 'tis painted about with the
 78177     story of the Prodigal, fresh and new. Go, knock and can; he'll
 78178     speak like an Anthropophaginian unto thee. Knock, I say.
 78179   SIMPLE. There's an old woman, a fat woman, gone up into
 78180     his chamber; I'll be so bold as stay, sir, till she come down;
 78181     I come to speak with her, indeed.
 78182   HOST. Ha! a fat woman? The knight may be robb'd. I'll call.
 78183     Bully knight! Bully Sir John! Speak from thy lungs
 78184     military. Art thou there? It is thine host, thine Ephesian, calls.
 78185   FALSTAFF.  [Above]  How now, mine host?
 78186   HOST. Here's a Bohemian-Tartar tarries the coming down of
 78187     thy fat woman. Let her descend, bully, let her descend;
 78188     my chambers are honourible. Fie, privacy, fie!
 78189 
 78190                     Enter FALSTAFF
 78191 
 78192   FALSTAFF. There was, mine host, an old fat woman even
 78193     now with, me; but she's gone.
 78194   SIMPLE. Pray you, sir, was't not the wise woman of
 78195     Brainford?
 78196   FALSTAFF. Ay, marry was it, mussel-shell. What would you
 78197     with her?
 78198   SIMPLE. My master, sir, my Master Slender, sent to her,
 78199     seeing her go thorough the streets, to know, sir, whether one
 78200     Nym, sir, that beguil'd him of a chain, had the chain or no.
 78201   FALSTAFF. I spake with the old woman about it.
 78202   SIMPLE. And what says she, I pray, sir?
 78203   FALSTAFF Marry, she says that the very same man that
 78204     beguil'd Master Slender of his chain cozen'd him of it.
 78205   SIMPLE. I would I could have spoken with the woman
 78206     herself; I had other things to have spoken with her too,
 78207     from him.
 78208   FALSTAFF. What are they? Let us know.
 78209   HOST. Ay, come; quick.
 78210   SIMPLE. I may not conceal them, sir.
 78211   FALSTAFF. Conceal them, or thou diest.
 78212     SIMPLE.. Why, sir, they were nothing but about Mistress
 78213     Anne Page: to know if it were my master's fortune to
 78214     have her or no.
 78215   FALSTAFF. 'Tis, 'tis his fortune.
 78216   SIMPLE. What sir?
 78217   FALSTAFF. To have her, or no. Go; say the woman told me
 78218     so.
 78219   SIMPLE. May I be bold to say so, sir?
 78220   FALSTAFF. Ay, sir, like who more bold?
 78221   SIMPLE., I thank your worship; I shall make my master glad
 78222     with these tidings.                              Exit SIMPLE
 78223   HOST. Thou art clerkly, thou art clerkly, Sir John. Was
 78224     there a wise woman with thee?
 78225   FALSTAFF. Ay, that there was, mine host; one that hath
 78226     taught me more wit than ever I learn'd before in my life;
 78227     and I paid nothing for it neither, but was paid for my
 78228     learning.
 78229 
 78230                     Enter BARDOLPH
 78231 
 78232   BARDOLPH. Out, alas, sir, cozenage, mere cozenage!
 78233   HOST. Where be my horses? Speak well of them, varletto.
 78234   BARDOLPH. Run away with the cozeners; for so soon as I
 78235     came beyond Eton, they threw me off from behind one of
 78236     them, in a slough of mire; and set spurs and away, like
 78237     three German devils, three Doctor Faustuses.
 78238   HOST. They are gone but to meet the Duke, villain; do not
 78239     say they be fled. Germans are honest men.
 78240 
 78241                  Enter SIR HUGH EVANS
 78242 
 78243   EVANS. Where is mine host?
 78244   HOST. What is the matter, sir?
 78245   EVANS. Have a care of your entertainments. There is a friend
 78246     of mine come to town tells me there is three
 78247     cozen-germans that has cozen'd all the hosts of Readins,
 78248     of Maidenhead, of Colebrook, of horses and money. I tell you for
 78249     good will, look you; you are wise, and full of gibes and
 78250     vlouting-stogs, and 'tis not convenient you should be
 78251     cozened. Fare you well.                                 Exit
 78252 
 78253                   Enter DOCTOR CAIUS
 78254 
 78255   CAIUS. Vere is mine host de Jarteer?
 78256   HOST. Here, Master Doctor, in perplexity and doubtful
 78257     dilemma.
 78258   CAIUS. I cannot tell vat is dat; but it is tell-a me dat you
 78259     make grand preparation for a Duke de Jamany. By my
 78260     trot, dere is no duke that the court is know to come; I
 78261     tell you for good will. Adieu.                          Exit
 78262   HOST. Hue and cry, villain, go! Assist me, knight; I am
 78263     undone. Fly, run, hue and cry, villain; I am undone.
 78264                                         Exeunt HOST and BARDOLPH
 78265   FALSTAFF. I would all the world might be cozen'd, for I have
 78266     been cozen'd and beaten too. If it should come to the car
 78267     of the court how I have been transformed, and how my
 78268     transformation hath been wash'd and cudgell'd, they
 78269     would melt me out of my fat, drop by drop, and liquor
 78270     fishermen's boots with me; I warrant they would whip me
 78271     with their fine wits till I were as crestfall'n as a dried pear.
 78272     I never prosper'd since I forswore myself at primero. Well,
 78273     if my wind were but long enough to say my prayers,
 78274     would repent.
 78275 
 78276                 Enter MISTRESS QUICKLY
 78277 
 78278     Now! whence come you?
 78279   QUICKLY. From the two parties, forsooth.
 78280   FALSTAFF. The devil take one party and his dam the other!
 78281     And so they shall be both bestowed. I have suffer'd more
 78282     for their sakes, more than the villainous inconstancy of
 78283     man's disposition is able to bear.
 78284   QUICKLY. And have not they suffer'd? Yes, I warrant;
 78285     speciously one of them; Mistress Ford, good heart, is beaten
 78286     black and blue, that you cannot see a white spot about her.
 78287   FALSTAFF. What tell'st thou me of black and blue? I was
 78288     beaten myself into all the colours of the rainbow; and
 78289     was like to be apprehended for the witch of Brainford. But
 78290     that my admirable dexterity of wit, my counterfeiting the
 78291     action of an old woman, deliver'd me, the knave constable
 78292     had set me i' th' stocks, i' th' common stocks, for a witch.
 78293   QUICKLY. Sir, let me speak with you in your chamber; you
 78294     shall hear how things go, and, I warrant, to your content.
 78295     Here is a letter will say somewhat. Good hearts, what ado
 78296     here is to bring you together! Sure, one of you does not
 78297     serve heaven well, that you are so cross'd.
 78298   FALSTAFF. Come up into my chamber.                      Exeunt
 78299 
 78300 
 78301 
 78302 
 78303 SCENE 6.
 78304 
 78305 The Garter Inn
 78306 
 78307 Enter FENTON and HOST
 78308 
 78309   HOST. Master Fenton, talk not to me; my mind is heavy; I
 78310     will give over all.
 78311   FENTON. Yet hear me speak. Assist me in my purpose,
 78312     And, as I am a gentleman, I'll give the
 78313     A hundred pound in gold more than your loss.
 78314   HOST. I will hear you, Master Fenton; and I will, at the least,
 78315     keep your counsel.
 78316   FENTON. From time to time I have acquainted you
 78317     With the dear love I bear to fair Anne Page;
 78318     Who, mutually, hath answer'd my affection,
 78319     So far forth as herself might be her chooser,
 78320     Even to my wish. I have a letter from her
 78321     Of such contents as you will wonder at;
 78322     The mirth whereof so larded with my matter
 78323     That neither, singly, can be manifested
 78324     Without the show of both. Fat Falstaff
 78325     Hath a great scene. The image of the jest
 78326     I'll show you here at large. Hark, good mine host:
 78327     To-night at Heme's oak, just 'twixt twelve and one,
 78328     Must my sweet Nan present the Fairy Queen-
 78329     The purpose why is here-in which disguise,
 78330     While other jests are something rank on foot,
 78331     Her father hath commanded her to slip
 78332     Away with Slender, and with him at Eton
 78333     Immediately to marry; she hath consented.
 78334     Now, sir,
 78335     Her mother, even strong against that match
 78336     And firm for Doctor Caius, hath appointed
 78337     That he shall likewise shuffle her away
 78338     While other sports are tasking of their minds,
 78339     And at the dean'ry, where a priest attends,
 78340     Straight marry her. To this her mother's plot
 78341     She seemingly obedient likewise hath
 78342     Made promise to the doctor. Now thus it rests:
 78343     Her father means she shall be all in white;
 78344     And in that habit, when Slender sees his time
 78345     To take her by the hand and bid her go,
 78346     She shall go with him; her mother hath intended
 78347     The better to denote her to the doctor-
 78348     For they must all be mask'd and vizarded-
 78349     That quaint in green she shall be loose enrob'd,
 78350     With ribands pendent, flaring 'bout her head;
 78351     And when the doctor spies his vantage ripe,
 78352     To pinch her by the hand, and, on that token,
 78353     The maid hath given consent to go with him.
 78354   HOST. Which means she to deceive, father or mother?
 78355   FENTON. Both, my good host, to go along with me.
 78356     And here it rests-that you'll procure the vicar
 78357     To stay for me at church, 'twixt twelve and one,
 78358     And in the lawful name of marrying,
 78359     To give our hearts united ceremony.
 78360   HOST. Well, husband your device; I'll to the vicar.
 78361     Bring you the maid, you shall not lack a priest.
 78362   FENTON. So shall I evermore be bound to thee;
 78363     Besides, I'll make a present recompense.              Exeunt
 78364 
 78365 
 78366 
 78367 
 78368 <<THIS ELECTRONIC VERSION OF THE COMPLETE WORKS OF WILLIAM
 78369 SHAKESPEARE IS COPYRIGHT 1990-1993 BY WORLD LIBRARY, INC., AND IS
 78370 PROVIDED BY PROJECT GUTENBERG ETEXT OF ILLINOIS BENEDICTINE COLLEGE
 78371 WITH PERMISSION.  ELECTRONIC AND MACHINE READABLE COPIES MAY BE
 78372 DISTRIBUTED SO LONG AS SUCH COPIES (1) ARE FOR YOUR OR OTHERS
 78373 PERSONAL USE ONLY, AND (2) ARE NOT DISTRIBUTED OR USED
 78374 COMMERCIALLY.  PROHIBITED COMMERCIAL DISTRIBUTION INCLUDES BY ANY
 78375 SERVICE THAT CHARGES FOR DOWNLOAD TIME OR FOR MEMBERSHIP.>>
 78376 
 78377 
 78378 
 78379 ACT V. SCENE 1.
 78380 
 78381 The Garter Inn
 78382 
 78383 Enter FALSTAFF and MISTRESS QUICKLY
 78384 
 78385   FALSTAFF. Prithee, no more prattling; go. I'll, hold. This is
 78386     the third time; I hope good luck lies in odd numbers.
 78387     Away, go; they say there is divinity in odd numbers, either
 78388     in nativity, chance, or death. Away.
 78389   QUICKLY. I'll provide you a chain, and I'll do what I can to
 78390     get you a pair of horns.
 78391   FALSTAFF. Away, I say; time wears; hold up your head, and
 78392     mince.                                     Exit MRS. QUICKLY
 78393 
 78394                  Enter FORD disguised
 78395 
 78396     How now, Master Brook. Master Brook, the matter will
 78397     be known tonight or never. Be you in the Park about
 78398     midnight, at Herne's oak, and you shall see wonders.
 78399   FORD. Went you not to her yesterday, sir, as you told me
 78400     you had appointed?
 78401   FALSTAFF. I went to her, Master Brook, as you see, like a
 78402     poor old man; but I came from her, Master Brook, like a
 78403     poor old woman. That same knave Ford, her husband, hath
 78404     the finest mad devil of jealousy in him, Master Brook, that
 78405     ever govern'd frenzy. I will tell you-he beat me grievously
 78406     in the shape of a woman; for in the shape of man, Master
 78407     Brook, I fear not Goliath with a weaver's beam; because
 78408     I know also life is a shuttle. I am in haste; go along with
 78409     me; I'll. tell you all, Master Brook. Since I pluck'd geese,
 78410     play'd truant, and whipp'd top, I knew not what 'twas to
 78411     be beaten till lately. Follow me. I'll tell you strange things
 78412     of this knave-Ford, on whom to-night I will be revenged,
 78413     and I will deliver his wife into your hand. Follow. Strange
 78414     things in hand, Master Brook! Follow.                 Exeunt
 78415 
 78416 
 78417 
 78418 
 78419 SCENE 2.
 78420 
 78421 Windsor Park
 78422 
 78423 Enter PAGE, SHALLOW, and SLENDER
 78424 
 78425   PAGE. Come, come; we'll couch i' th' Castle ditch till we
 78426     see the light of our fairies. Remember, son Slender, my daughter.
 78427   SLENDER. Ay, forsooth; I have spoke with her, and we have
 78428     a nay-word how to know one another. I come to her in
 78429     white and cry 'mum'; she cries 'budget,' and by that we
 78430     know one another.
 78431   SHALLOW. That's good too; but what needs either your mum
 78432     or her budget? The white will decipher her well enough.
 78433     It hath struck ten o'clock.
 78434   PAGE. The night is dark; light and spirits will become it well.
 78435     Heaven prosper our sport! No man means evil but the
 78436     devil, and we shall know him by his horns. Let's away;
 78437     follow me.                                            Exeunt
 78438 
 78439 
 78440 
 78441 
 78442 SCENE 3.
 78443 
 78444 A street leading to the Park
 78445 
 78446 Enter MISTRESS PAGE, MISTRESS FORD, and DOCTOR CAIUS
 78447 
 78448   MRS. PAGE. Master Doctor, my daughter is in green; when
 78449     you see your time, take her by the hand, away with her to
 78450     the deanery, and dispatch it quickly. Go before into the
 78451     Park; we two must go together.
 78452   CAIUS. I know vat I have to do; adieu.
 78453   MRS. PAGE. Fare you well, sir.  [Exit CAIUS]  My husband
 78454     will not rejoice so much at the abuse of Falstaff as he will
 78455     chafe at the doctor's marrying my daughter; but 'tis no
 78456     matter; better a little chiding than a great deal of
 78457     heartbreak.
 78458   MRS. FORD. Where is Nan now, and her troop of fairies, and
 78459     the Welsh devil, Hugh?
 78460   MRS. PAGE. They are all couch'd in a pit hard by Heme's
 78461     oak, with obscur'd lights; which, at the very instant of
 78462     Falstaff's and our meeting, they will at once display to the
 78463     night.
 78464   MRS. FORD. That cannot choose but amaze him.
 78465   MRS. PAGE. If he be not amaz'd, he will be mock'd; if he be
 78466     amaz'd, he will every way be mock'd.
 78467   MRS. FORD. We'll betray him finely.
 78468   MRS. PAGE. Against such lewdsters and their lechery,
 78469     Those that betray them do no treachery.
 78470   MRS. FORD. The hour draws on. To the oak, to the oak!
 78471                                                           Exeunt
 78472 
 78473 
 78474 
 78475 
 78476 SCENE 4.
 78477 
 78478 Windsor Park
 78479 
 78480 Enter SIR HUGH EVANS like a satyr, with OTHERS as fairies
 78481 
 78482   EVANS. Trib, trib, fairies; come; and remember your parts.
 78483     Be pold, I pray you; follow me into the pit; and when I
 78484     give the watch-ords, do as I pid you. Come, come; trib,
 78485     trib.                                                 Exeunt
 78486 
 78487 
 78488 
 78489 
 78490 SCENE 5.
 78491 
 78492 Another part of the Park
 78493 
 78494 Enter FALSTAFF disguised as HERNE
 78495 
 78496   FALSTAFF. The Windsor bell hath struck twelve; the minute
 78497     draws on. Now the hot-blooded gods assist me!
 78498     Remember, Jove, thou wast a bull for thy Europa; love set on thy
 78499     horns. O powerful love! that in some respects makes a
 78500     beast a man; in some other a man a beast. You were also,
 78501     Jupiter, a swan, for the love of Leda. O omnipotent love!
 78502     how near the god drew to the complexion of a goose! A
 78503     fault done first in the form of a beast-O Jove, a beastly
 78504     fault!-and then another fault in the semblance of a fowl-
 78505     think on't, Jove, a foul fault! When gods have hot backs
 78506     what shall poor men do? For me, I am here a Windsor
 78507     stag; and the fattest, I think, i' th' forest. Send me a cool
 78508     rut-time, Jove, or who can blame me to piss my tallow?
 78509     Who comes here? my doe?
 78510 
 78511         Enter MISTRESS FORD and MISTRESS PAGE
 78512 
 78513   MRS. FORD. Sir John! Art thou there, my deer, my male deer.
 78514   FALSTAFF. My doe with the black scut! Let the sky rain
 78515     potatoes; let it thunder to the tune of Greensleeves, hail
 78516     kissing-comfits, and snow eringoes; let there come a tempest
 78517     of provocation, I will shelter me here.      [Embracing her]
 78518   MRS. FORD. Mistress Page is come with me, sweetheart.
 78519   FALSTAFF. Divide me like a brib'd buck, each a haunch; I
 78520     will keep my sides to myself, my shoulders for the fellow
 78521     of this walk, and my horns I bequeath your husbands. Am
 78522     I a woodman, ha? Speak I like Heme the Hunter? Why,
 78523     now is Cupid a child of conscience; he makes restitution.
 78524     As I am a true spirit, welcome!           [A noise of horns]
 78525   MRS. PAGE. Alas, what noise?
 78526   MRS. FORD. Heaven forgive our sins!
 78527   FALSTAFF. What should this be?
 78528   MRS. FORD. } Away, away.
 78529   MRS. PAGE. } Away, away.                        [They run off]
 78530   FALSTAFF. I think the devil will not have me damn'd, lest the
 78531     oil that's in me should set hell on fire; he would never else
 78532     cross me thus.
 78533 
 78534         Enter SIR HUGH EVANS like a satyr, ANNE PAGE as
 78535       a fairy, and OTHERS as the Fairy Queen, fairies, and
 78536                Hobgoblin; all with tapers
 78537 
 78538   FAIRY QUEEN. Fairies, black, grey, green, and white,
 78539     You moonshine revellers, and shades of night,
 78540     You orphan heirs of fixed destiny,
 78541     Attend your office and your quality.
 78542     Crier Hobgoblin, make the fairy oyes.
 78543   PUCK. Elves, list your names; silence, you airy toys.
 78544     Cricket, to Windsor chimneys shalt thou leap;
 78545     Where fires thou find'st unrak'd, and hearths unswept,
 78546     There pinch the maids as blue as bilberry;
 78547     Our radiant Queen hates sluts and sluttery.
 78548   FALSTAFF. They are fairies; he that speaks to them shall die.
 78549     I'll wink and couch; no man their works must eye.
 78550                                        [Lies down upon his face]
 78551   EVANS. Where's Pede? Go you, and where you find a maid
 78552     That, ere she sleep, has thrice her prayers said,
 78553     Raise up the organs of her fantasy
 78554     Sleep she as sound as careless infancy;
 78555     But those as sleep and think not on their sins,
 78556     Pinch them, arms, legs, backs, shoulders, sides, and shins.
 78557   FAIRY QUEEN. About, about;
 78558     Search Windsor castle, elves, within and out;
 78559     Strew good luck, ouphes, on every sacred room,
 78560     That it may stand till the perpetual doom
 78561     In state as wholesome as in state 'tis fit,
 78562     Worthy the owner and the owner it.
 78563     The several chairs of order look you scour
 78564     With juice of balm and every precious flower;
 78565     Each fair instalment, coat, and sev'ral crest,
 78566     With loyal blazon, evermore be blest!
 78567     And nightly, meadow-fairies, look you sing,
 78568     Like to the Garter's compass, in a ring;
 78569     Th' expressure that it bears, green let it be,
 78570     More fertile-fresh than all the field to see;
 78571     And 'Honi soit qui mal y pense' write
 78572     In em'rald tufts, flow'rs purple, blue and white;
 78573     Like sapphire, pearl, and rich embroidery,
 78574     Buckled below fair knighthood's bending knee.
 78575     Fairies use flow'rs for their charactery.
 78576     Away, disperse; but till 'tis one o'clock,
 78577     Our dance of custom round about the oak
 78578     Of Herne the Hunter let us not forget.
 78579   EVANS. Pray you, lock hand in hand; yourselves in order set;
 78580     And twenty glow-worms shall our lanterns be,
 78581     To guide our measure round about the tree.
 78582     But, stay. I smell a man of middle earth.
 78583   FALSTAFF. Heavens defend me from that Welsh fairy, lest he
 78584     transform me to a piece of cheese!
 78585   PUCK. Vile worm, thou wast o'erlook'd even in thy birth.
 78586   FAIRY QUEEN. With trial-fire touch me his finger-end;
 78587     If he be chaste, the flame will back descend,
 78588     And turn him to no pain; but if he start,
 78589     It is the flesh of a corrupted heart.
 78590   PUCK. A trial, come.
 78591   EVANS. Come, will this wood take fire?
 78592              [They put the tapers to his fingers, and he starts]
 78593   FALSTAFF. Oh, oh, oh!
 78594   FAIRY QUEEN. Corrupt, corrupt, and tainted in desire!
 78595     About him, fairies; sing a scornful rhyme;
 78596     And, as you trip, still pinch him to your time.
 78597   THE SONG.
 78598     Fie on sinful fantasy!
 78599     Fie on lust and luxury!
 78600     Lust is but a bloody fire,
 78601     Kindled with unchaste desire,
 78602     Fed in heart, whose flames aspire,
 78603     As thoughts do blow them, higher and higher.
 78604     Pinch him, fairies, mutually;
 78605     Pinch him for his villainy;
 78606     Pinch him and burn him and turn him about,
 78607     Till candles and star-light and moonshine be out.
 78608 
 78609         During this song they pinch FALSTAFF. DOCTOR
 78610         CAIUS comes one way, and steals away a fairy in
 78611         green; SLENDER another way, and takes off a fairy in
 78612         white; and FENTON steals away ANNE PAGE. A noise
 78613         of hunting is heard within. All the fairies run away.
 78614         FALSTAFF pulls off his buck's head, and rises
 78615 
 78616        Enter PAGE, FORD, MISTRESS PAGE, MISTRESS FORD, and
 78617                         SIR HUGH EVANS
 78618 
 78619   PAGE. Nay, do not fly; I think we have watch'd you now.
 78620     Will none but Heme the Hunter serve your turn?
 78621   MRS. PAGE. I pray you, come, hold up the jest no higher.
 78622     Now, good Sir John, how like you Windsor wives?
 78623     See you these, husband? Do not these fair yokes
 78624     Become the forest better than the town?
 78625   FORD. Now, sir, who's a cuckold now? Master Brook,
 78626     Falstaff's a knave, a cuckoldly knave; here are his horns,
 78627     Master Brook; and, Master Brook, he hath enjoyed nothing of
 78628     Ford's but his buck-basket, his cudgel, and twenty pounds
 78629     of money, which must be paid to Master Brook; his horses
 78630     are arrested for it, Master Brook.
 78631   MRS. FORD. Sir John, we have had ill luck; we could never
 78632     meet. I will never take you for my love again; but I will
 78633     always count you my deer.
 78634   FALSTAFF. I do begin to perceive that I am made an ass.
 78635   FORD. Ay, and an ox too; both the proofs are extant.
 78636   FALSTAFF. And these are not fairies? I was three or four
 78637     times in the thought they were not fairies; and yet the
 78638     guiltiness of my mind, the sudden surprise of my powers,
 78639     drove the grossness of the foppery into a receiv'd belief,
 78640     in despite of the teeth of all rhyme and reason, that they
 78641     were fairies. See now how wit may be made a Jack-a-Lent
 78642     when 'tis upon ill employment.
 78643   EVANS. Sir John Falstaff, serve Got, and leave your desires,
 78644     and fairies will not pinse you.
 78645   FORD. Well said, fairy Hugh.
 78646   EVANS. And leave you your jealousies too, I pray you.
 78647   FORD. I will never mistrust my wife again, till thou art able
 78648     to woo her in good English.
 78649   FALSTAFF. Have I laid my brain in the sun, and dried it, that
 78650     it wants matter to prevent so gross, o'er-reaching as this?
 78651     Am I ridden with a Welsh goat too? Shall I have a cox-comb
 78652     of frieze? 'Tis time I were chok'd with a piece of
 78653     toasted cheese.
 78654   EVANS. Seese is not good to give putter; your belly is all
 78655     putter.
 78656   FALSTAFF. 'Seese' and 'putter'! Have I liv'd to stand at the
 78657     taunt of one that makes fritters of English? This is enough
 78658     to be the decay of lust and late-walking through the realm.
 78659   MRS. PAGE. Why, Sir John, do you think, though we would
 78660     have thrust virtue out of our hearts by the head and
 78661     shoulders, and have given ourselves without scruple to hell,
 78662     that ever the devil could have made you our delight?
 78663   FORD. What, a hodge-pudding? a bag of flax?
 78664   MRS. PAGE. A puff'd man?
 78665   PAGE. Old, cold, wither'd, and of intolerable entrails?
 78666   FORD. And one that is as slanderous as Satan?
 78667   PAGE. And as poor as Job?
 78668   FORD. And as wicked as his wife?
 78669   EVANS. And given to fornications, and to taverns, and sack,
 78670     and wine, and metheglins, and to drinkings, and swearings,
 78671     and starings, pribbles and prabbles?
 78672   FALSTAFF. Well, I am your theme; you have the start of me;
 78673     I am dejected; I am not able to answer the Welsh flannel;
 78674     ignorance itself is a plummet o'er me; use me as you will.
 78675   FORD. Marry, sir, we'll bring you to Windsor, to one Master
 78676     Brook, that you have cozen'd of money, to whom you
 78677     should have been a pander. Over and above that you have
 78678     suffer'd, I think to repay that money will be a biting
 78679     affliction.
 78680   PAGE. Yet be cheerful, knight; thou shalt eat a posset
 78681     tonight at my house, where I will desire thee to laugh at my
 78682     wife, that now laughs at thee. Tell her Master Slender hath
 78683     married her daughter.
 78684   MRS. PAGE.  [Aside]  Doctors doubt that; if Anne Page be
 78685     my daughter, she is, by this, Doctor Caius' wife.
 78686 
 78687                         Enter SLENDER
 78688 
 78689   SLENDER. Whoa, ho, ho, father Page!
 78690   PAGE. Son, how now! how now, son! Have you dispatch'd'?
 78691   SLENDER. Dispatch'd! I'll make the best in Gloucestershire
 78692     know on't; would I were hang'd, la, else!
 78693   PAGE. Of what, son?
 78694   SLENDER. I came yonder at Eton to marry Mistress Anne
 78695     Page, and she's a great lubberly boy. If it had not been i'
 78696     th' church, I would have swing'd him, or he should have
 78697     swing'd me. If I did not think it had been Anne Page,
 78698     would I might never stir!-and 'tis a postmaster's boy.
 78699   PAGE. Upon my life, then, you took the wrong.
 78700   SLENDER. What need you tell me that? I think so, when I
 78701     took a boy for a girl. If I had been married to him, for all
 78702     he was in woman's apparel, I would not have had him.
 78703   PAGE. Why, this is your own folly. Did not I tell you how
 78704     you should know my daughter by her garments?
 78705   SLENDER. I went to her in white and cried 'mum' and she
 78706     cried 'budget' as Anne and I had appointed; and yet it was
 78707     not Anne, but a postmaster's boy.
 78708   MRS. PAGE. Good George, be not angry. I knew of your
 78709     purpose; turn'd my daughter into green; and, indeed, she
 78710     is now with the Doctor at the dean'ry, and there married.
 78711 
 78712                          Enter CAIUS
 78713 
 78714   CAIUS. Vere is Mistress Page? By gar, I am cozened; I ha'
 78715     married un garcon, a boy; un paysan, by gar, a boy; it is
 78716     not Anne Page; by gar, I am cozened.
 78717   MRS. PAGE. Why, did you take her in green?
 78718   CAIUS. Ay, be gar, and 'tis a boy; be gar, I'll raise all
 78719     Windsor.                                          Exit CAIUS
 78720   FORD. This is strange. Who hath got the right Anne?
 78721   PAGE. My heart misgives me; here comes Master Fenton.
 78722 
 78723                   Enter FENTON and ANNE PAGE
 78724 
 78725     How now, Master Fenton!
 78726   ANNE. Pardon, good father. Good my mother, pardon.
 78727   PAGE. Now, Mistress, how chance you went not with Master
 78728     Slender?
 78729   MRS. PAGE. Why went you not with Master Doctor, maid?
 78730   FENTON. You do amaze her. Hear the truth of it.
 78731     You would have married her most shamefully,
 78732     Where there was no proportion held in love.
 78733     The truth is, she and I, long since contracted,
 78734     Are now so sure that nothing can dissolve us.
 78735     Th' offence is holy that she hath committed;
 78736     And this deceit loses the name of craft,
 78737     Of disobedience, or unduteous title,
 78738     Since therein she doth evitate and shun
 78739     A thousand irreligious cursed hours,
 78740     Which forced marriage would have brought upon her.
 78741   FORD. Stand not amaz'd; here is no remedy.
 78742     In love, the heavens themselves do guide the state;
 78743     Money buys lands, and wives are sold by fate.
 78744   FALSTAFF. I am glad, though you have ta'en a special stand
 78745     to strike at me, that your arrow hath glanc'd.
 78746   PAGE. Well, what remedy? Fenton, heaven give thee joy!
 78747     What cannot be eschew'd must be embrac'd.
 78748   FALSTAFF. When night-dogs run, all sorts of deer are chas'd.
 78749   MRS. PAGE. Well, I will muse no further. Master Fenton,
 78750     Heaven give you many, many merry days!
 78751     Good husband, let us every one go home,
 78752     And laugh this sport o'er by a country fire;
 78753     Sir John and all.
 78754   FORD. Let it be so. Sir John,
 78755     To Master Brook you yet shall hold your word;
 78756     For he, to-night, shall lie with Mistress Ford.       Exeunt
 78757 
 78758 THE END
 78759 
 78760 
 78761 
 78762 <<THIS ELECTRONIC VERSION OF THE COMPLETE WORKS OF WILLIAM
 78763 SHAKESPEARE IS COPYRIGHT 1990-1993 BY WORLD LIBRARY, INC., AND IS
 78764 PROVIDED BY PROJECT GUTENBERG ETEXT OF ILLINOIS BENEDICTINE COLLEGE
 78765 WITH PERMISSION.  ELECTRONIC AND MACHINE READABLE COPIES MAY BE
 78766 DISTRIBUTED SO LONG AS SUCH COPIES (1) ARE FOR YOUR OR OTHERS
 78767 PERSONAL USE ONLY, AND (2) ARE NOT DISTRIBUTED OR USED
 78768 COMMERCIALLY.  PROHIBITED COMMERCIAL DISTRIBUTION INCLUDES BY ANY
 78769 SERVICE THAT CHARGES FOR DOWNLOAD TIME OR FOR MEMBERSHIP.>>
 78770 
 78771 
 78772 
 78773 
 78774 
 78775 1596
 78776 
 78777 A MIDSUMMER NIGHT'S DREAM
 78778 
 78779 by William Shakespeare
 78780 
 78781 
 78782 
 78783 DRAMATIS PERSONAE
 78784 
 78785   THESEUS, Duke of Athens
 78786   EGEUS, father to Hermia
 78787   LYSANDER, in love with Hermia
 78788   DEMETRIUS, in love with Hermia
 78789   PHILOSTRATE, Master of the Revels to Theseus
 78790   QUINCE, a carpenter
 78791   SNUG, a joiner
 78792   BOTTOM, a weaver
 78793   FLUTE, a bellows-mender
 78794   SNOUT, a tinker
 78795   STARVELING, a tailor
 78796 
 78797   HIPPOLYTA, Queen of the Amazons, bethrothed to Theseus
 78798   HERMIA, daughter to Egeus, in love with Lysander
 78799   HELENA, in love with Demetrius
 78800 
 78801   OBERON, King of the Fairies
 78802   TITANIA, Queen of the Fairies
 78803   PUCK, or ROBIN GOODFELLOW
 78804   PEASEBLOSSOM, fairy
 78805   COBWEB, fairy
 78806   MOTH, fairy
 78807   MUSTARDSEED, fairy
 78808 
 78809   PROLOGUE, PYRAMUS, THISBY, WALL, MOONSHINE, LION are presented by:
 78810     QUINCE, BOTTOM, FLUTE, SNOUT, STARVELING, AND SNUG
 78811 
 78812   Other Fairies attending their King and Queen
 78813   Attendants on Theseus and Hippolyta
 78814 
 78815 
 78816 
 78817 
 78818 <<THIS ELECTRONIC VERSION OF THE COMPLETE WORKS OF WILLIAM
 78819 SHAKESPEARE IS COPYRIGHT 1990-1993 BY WORLD LIBRARY, INC., AND IS
 78820 PROVIDED BY PROJECT GUTENBERG ETEXT OF ILLINOIS BENEDICTINE COLLEGE
 78821 WITH PERMISSION.  ELECTRONIC AND MACHINE READABLE COPIES MAY BE
 78822 DISTRIBUTED SO LONG AS SUCH COPIES (1) ARE FOR YOUR OR OTHERS
 78823 PERSONAL USE ONLY, AND (2) ARE NOT DISTRIBUTED OR USED
 78824 COMMERCIALLY.  PROHIBITED COMMERCIAL DISTRIBUTION INCLUDES BY ANY
 78825 SERVICE THAT CHARGES FOR DOWNLOAD TIME OR FOR MEMBERSHIP.>>
 78826 
 78827 
 78828 
 78829 SCENE:
 78830 Athens and a wood near it
 78831 
 78832 
 78833 ACT I. SCENE I.
 78834 Athens. The palace of THESEUS
 78835 
 78836 Enter THESEUS, HIPPOLYTA, PHILOSTRATE, and ATTENDANTS
 78837 
 78838   THESEUS. Now, fair Hippolyta, our nuptial hour
 78839     Draws on apace; four happy days bring in
 78840     Another moon; but, O, methinks, how slow
 78841     This old moon wanes! She lingers my desires,
 78842     Like to a step-dame or a dowager,
 78843     Long withering out a young man's revenue.
 78844   HIPPOLYTA. Four days will quickly steep themselves in night;
 78845     Four nights will quickly dream away the time;
 78846     And then the moon, like to a silver bow
 78847     New-bent in heaven, shall behold the night
 78848     Of our solemnities.
 78849   THESEUS. Go, Philostrate,
 78850     Stir up the Athenian youth to merriments;
 78851     Awake the pert and nimble spirit of mirth;
 78852     Turn melancholy forth to funerals;
 78853     The pale companion is not for our pomp.     Exit PHILOSTRATE
 78854     Hippolyta, I woo'd thee with my sword,
 78855     And won thy love doing thee injuries;
 78856     But I will wed thee in another key,
 78857     With pomp, with triumph, and with revelling.
 78858 
 78859           Enter EGEUS, and his daughter HERMIA, LYSANDER,
 78860                            and DEMETRIUS
 78861 
 78862   EGEUS. Happy be Theseus, our renowned Duke!
 78863   THESEUS. Thanks, good Egeus; what's the news with thee?
 78864   EGEUS. Full of vexation come I, with complaint
 78865     Against my child, my daughter Hermia.
 78866     Stand forth, Demetrius. My noble lord,
 78867     This man hath my consent to marry her.
 78868     Stand forth, Lysander. And, my gracious Duke,
 78869     This man hath bewitch'd the bosom of my child.
 78870     Thou, thou, Lysander, thou hast given her rhymes,
 78871     And interchang'd love-tokens with my child;
 78872     Thou hast by moonlight at her window sung,
 78873     With feigning voice, verses of feigning love,
 78874     And stol'n the impression of her fantasy
 78875     With bracelets of thy hair, rings, gawds, conceits,
 78876     Knacks, trifles, nosegays, sweetmeats- messengers
 78877     Of strong prevailment in unhardened youth;
 78878     With cunning hast thou filch'd my daughter's heart;
 78879     Turn'd her obedience, which is due to me,
 78880     To stubborn harshness. And, my gracious Duke,
 78881     Be it so she will not here before your Grace
 78882     Consent to marry with Demetrius,
 78883     I beg the ancient privilege of Athens:
 78884     As she is mine I may dispose of her;
 78885     Which shall be either to this gentleman
 78886     Or to her death, according to our law
 78887     Immediately provided in that case.
 78888   THESEUS. What say you, Hermia? Be advis'd, fair maid.
 78889     To you your father should be as a god;
 78890     One that compos'd your beauties; yea, and one
 78891     To whom you are but as a form in wax,
 78892     By him imprinted, and within his power
 78893     To leave the figure, or disfigure it.
 78894     Demetrius is a worthy gentleman.
 78895   HERMIA. So is Lysander.
 78896   THESEUS. In himself he is;
 78897     But, in this kind, wanting your father's voice,
 78898     The other must be held the worthier.
 78899   HERMIA. I would my father look'd but with my eyes.
 78900   THESEUS. Rather your eyes must with his judgment look.
 78901   HERMIA. I do entreat your Grace to pardon me.
 78902     I know not by what power I am made bold,
 78903     Nor how it may concern my modesty
 78904     In such a presence here to plead my thoughts;
 78905     But I beseech your Grace that I may know
 78906     The worst that may befall me in this case,
 78907     If I refuse to wed Demetrius.
 78908   THESEUS. Either to die the death, or to abjure
 78909     For ever the society of men.
 78910     Therefore, fair Hermia, question your desires,
 78911     Know of your youth, examine well your blood,
 78912     Whether, if you yield not to your father's choice,
 78913     You can endure the livery of a nun,
 78914     For aye to be shady cloister mew'd,
 78915     To live a barren sister all your life,
 78916     Chanting faint hymns to the cold fruitless moon.
 78917     Thrice-blessed they that master so their blood
 78918     To undergo such maiden pilgrimage;
 78919     But earthlier happy is the rose distill'd
 78920     Than that which withering on the virgin thorn
 78921     Grows, lives, and dies, in single blessedness.
 78922   HERMIA. So will I grow, so live, so die, my lord,
 78923     Ere I will yield my virgin patent up
 78924     Unto his lordship, whose unwished yoke
 78925     My soul consents not to give sovereignty.
 78926   THESEUS. Take time to pause; and by the next new moon-
 78927     The sealing-day betwixt my love and me
 78928     For everlasting bond of fellowship-
 78929     Upon that day either prepare to die
 78930     For disobedience to your father's will,
 78931     Or else to wed Demetrius, as he would,
 78932     Or on Diana's altar to protest
 78933     For aye austerity and single life.
 78934   DEMETRIUS. Relent, sweet Hermia; and, Lysander, yield
 78935     Thy crazed title to my certain right.
 78936   LYSANDER. You have her father's love, Demetrius;
 78937     Let me have Hermia's; do you marry him.
 78938   EGEUS. Scornful Lysander, true, he hath my love;
 78939     And what is mine my love shall render him;
 78940     And she is mine; and all my right of her
 78941     I do estate unto Demetrius.
 78942   LYSANDER. I am, my lord, as well deriv'd as he,
 78943     As well possess'd; my love is more than his;
 78944     My fortunes every way as fairly rank'd,
 78945     If not with vantage, as Demetrius';
 78946     And, which is more than all these boasts can be,
 78947     I am belov'd of beauteous Hermia.
 78948     Why should not I then prosecute my right?
 78949     Demetrius, I'll avouch it to his head,
 78950     Made love to Nedar's daughter, Helena,
 78951     And won her soul; and she, sweet lady, dotes,
 78952     Devoutly dotes, dotes in idolatry,
 78953     Upon this spotted and inconstant man.
 78954   THESEUS. I must confess that I have heard so much,
 78955     And with Demetrius thought to have spoke thereof;
 78956     But, being over-full of self-affairs,
 78957     My mind did lose it. But, Demetrius, come;
 78958     And come, Egeus; you shall go with me;
 78959     I have some private schooling for you both.
 78960     For you, fair Hermia, look you arm yourself
 78961     To fit your fancies to your father's will,
 78962     Or else the law of Athens yields you up-
 78963     Which by no means we may extenuate-
 78964     To death, or to a vow of single life.
 78965     Come, my Hippolyta; what cheer, my love?
 78966     Demetrius, and Egeus, go along;
 78967     I must employ you in some business
 78968     Against our nuptial, and confer with you
 78969     Of something nearly that concerns yourselves.
 78970   EGEUS. With duty and desire we follow you.
 78971                               Exeunt all but LYSANDER and HERMIA
 78972   LYSANDER. How now, my love! Why is your cheek so pale?
 78973     How chance the roses there do fade so fast?
 78974   HERMIA. Belike for want of rain, which I could well
 78975     Beteem them from the tempest of my eyes.
 78976   LYSANDER. Ay me! for aught that I could ever read,
 78977     Could ever hear by tale or history,
 78978     The course of true love never did run smooth;
 78979     But either it was different in blood-
 78980   HERMIA. O cross! too high to be enthrall'd to low.
 78981   LYSANDER. Or else misgraffed in respect of years-
 78982   HERMIA. O spite! too old to be engag'd to young.
 78983   LYSANDER. Or else it stood upon the choice of friends-
 78984   HERMIA. O hell! to choose love by another's eyes.
 78985   LYSANDER. Or, if there were a sympathy in choice,
 78986     War, death, or sickness, did lay siege to it,
 78987     Making it momentary as a sound,
 78988     Swift as a shadow, short as any dream,
 78989     Brief as the lightning in the collied night
 78990     That, in a spleen, unfolds both heaven and earth,
 78991     And ere a man hath power to say 'Behold!'
 78992     The jaws of darkness do devour it up;
 78993     So quick bright things come to confusion.
 78994   HERMIA. If then true lovers have ever cross'd,
 78995     It stands as an edict in destiny.
 78996     Then let us teach our trial patience,
 78997     Because it is a customary cross,
 78998     As due to love as thoughts and dreams and sighs,
 78999     Wishes and tears, poor Fancy's followers.
 79000   LYSANDER. A good persuasion; therefore, hear me, Hermia.
 79001     I have a widow aunt, a dowager
 79002     Of great revenue, and she hath no child-
 79003     From Athens is her house remote seven leagues-
 79004     And she respects me as her only son.
 79005     There, gentle Hermia, may I marry thee;
 79006     And to that place the sharp Athenian law
 79007     Cannot pursue us. If thou lovest me then,
 79008     Steal forth thy father's house to-morrow night;
 79009     And in the wood, a league without the town,
 79010     Where I did meet thee once with Helena
 79011     To do observance to a morn of May,
 79012     There will I stay for thee.
 79013   HERMIA. My good Lysander!
 79014     I swear to thee by Cupid's strongest bow,
 79015     By his best arrow, with the golden head,
 79016     By the simplicity of Venus' doves,
 79017     By that which knitteth souls and prospers loves,
 79018     And by that fire which burn'd the Carthage Queen,
 79019     When the false Troyan under sail was seen,
 79020     By all the vows that ever men have broke,
 79021     In number more than ever women spoke,
 79022     In that same place thou hast appointed me,
 79023     To-morrow truly will I meet with thee.
 79024   LYSANDER. Keep promise, love. Look, here comes Helena.
 79025 
 79026                          Enter HELENA
 79027 
 79028   HERMIA. God speed fair Helena! Whither away?
 79029   HELENA. Call you me fair? That fair again unsay.
 79030     Demetrius loves your fair. O happy fair!
 79031     Your eyes are lode-stars and your tongue's sweet air
 79032     More tuneable than lark to shepherd's ear,
 79033     When wheat is green, when hawthorn buds appear.
 79034     Sickness is catching; O, were favour so,
 79035     Yours would I catch, fair Hermia, ere I go!
 79036     My ear should catch your voice, my eye your eye,
 79037     My tongue should catch your tongue's sweet melody.
 79038     Were the world mine, Demetrius being bated,
 79039     The rest I'd give to be to you translated.
 79040     O, teach me how you look, and with what art
 79041     You sway the motion of Demetrius' heart!
 79042   HERMIA. I frown upon him, yet he loves me still.
 79043   HELENA. O that your frowns would teach my smiles such skill!
 79044   HERMIA. I give him curses, yet he gives me love.
 79045   HELENA. O that my prayers could such affection move!
 79046   HERMIA. The more I hate, the more he follows me.
 79047   HELENA. The more I love, the more he hateth me.
 79048   HERMIA. His folly, Helena, is no fault of mine.
 79049   HELENA. None, but your beauty; would that fault were mine!
 79050   HERMIA. Take comfort: he no more shall see my face;
 79051     Lysander and myself will fly this place.
 79052     Before the time I did Lysander see,
 79053     Seem'd Athens as a paradise to me.
 79054     O, then, what graces in my love do dwell,
 79055     That he hath turn'd a heaven unto a hell!
 79056   LYSANDER. Helen, to you our minds we will unfold:
 79057     To-morrow night, when Phoebe doth behold
 79058     Her silver visage in the wat'ry glass,
 79059     Decking with liquid pearl the bladed grass,
 79060     A time that lovers' flights doth still conceal,
 79061     Through Athens' gates have we devis'd to steal.
 79062   HERMIA. And in the wood where often you and I
 79063     Upon faint primrose beds were wont to lie,
 79064     Emptying our bosoms of their counsel sweet,
 79065     There my Lysander and myself shall meet;
 79066     And thence from Athens turn away our eyes,
 79067     To seek new friends and stranger companies.
 79068     Farewell, sweet playfellow; pray thou for us,
 79069     And good luck grant thee thy Demetrius!
 79070     Keep word, Lysander; we must starve our sight
 79071     From lovers' food till morrow deep midnight.
 79072   LYSANDER. I will, my Hermia. [Exit HERMIA] Helena, adieu;
 79073     As you on him, Demetrius dote on you.                   Exit
 79074   HELENA. How happy some o'er other some can be!
 79075     Through Athens I am thought as fair as she.
 79076     But what of that? Demetrius thinks not so;
 79077     He will not know what all but he do know.
 79078     And as he errs, doting on Hermia's eyes,
 79079     So I, admiring of his qualities.
 79080     Things base and vile, holding no quantity,
 79081     Love can transpose to form and dignity.
 79082     Love looks not with the eyes, but with the mind;
 79083     And therefore is wing'd Cupid painted blind.
 79084     Nor hath Love's mind of any judgment taste;
 79085     Wings and no eyes figure unheedy haste;
 79086     And therefore is Love said to be a child,
 79087     Because in choice he is so oft beguil'd.
 79088     As waggish boys in game themselves forswear,
 79089     So the boy Love is perjur'd everywhere;
 79090     For ere Demetrius look'd on Hermia's eyne,
 79091     He hail'd down oaths that he was only mine;
 79092     And when this hail some heat from Hermia felt,
 79093     So he dissolv'd, and show'rs of oaths did melt.
 79094     I will go tell him of fair Hermia's flight;
 79095     Then to the wood will he to-morrow night
 79096     Pursue her; and for this intelligence
 79097     If I have thanks, it is a dear expense.
 79098     But herein mean I to enrich my pain,
 79099     To have his sight thither and back again.               Exit
 79100 
 79101 
 79102 
 79103 
 79104 SCENE II.
 79105 Athens. QUINCE'S house
 79106 
 79107 Enter QUINCE, SNUG, BOTTOM FLUTE, SNOUT, and STARVELING
 79108 
 79109   QUINCE. Is all our company here?
 79110   BOTTOM. You were best to call them generally, man by man, according
 79111     to the scrip.
 79112   QUINCE. Here is the scroll of every man's name which is thought
 79113     fit, through all Athens, to play in our interlude before the Duke
 79114     and the Duchess on his wedding-day at night.
 79115   BOTTOM. First, good Peter Quince, say what the play treats on; then
 79116     read the names of the actors; and so grow to a point.
 79117   QUINCE. Marry, our play is 'The most Lamentable Comedy and most
 79118     Cruel Death of Pyramus and Thisby.'
 79119   BOTTOM. A very good piece of work, I assure you, and a merry. Now,
 79120     good Peter Quince, call forth your actors by the scroll. Masters,
 79121     spread yourselves.
 79122   QUINCE. Answer, as I call you. Nick Bottom, the weaver.
 79123   BOTTOM. Ready. Name what part I am for, and proceed.
 79124   QUINCE. You, Nick Bottom, are set down for Pyramus.
 79125   BOTTOM. What is Pyramus? A lover, or a tyrant?
 79126   QUINCE. A lover, that kills himself most gallant for love.
 79127   BOTTOM. That will ask some tears in the true performing of it. If I
 79128     do it, let the audience look to their eyes; I will move storms; I
 79129     will condole in some measure. To the rest- yet my chief humour is
 79130     for a tyrant. I could play Ercles rarely, or a part to tear a cat
 79131     in, to make all split.
 79132 
 79133                  'The raging rocks
 79134                  And shivering shocks
 79135                  Shall break the locks
 79136                    Of prison gates;
 79137 
 79138                  And Phibbus' car
 79139                  Shall shine from far,
 79140                  And make and mar
 79141                    The foolish Fates.'
 79142 
 79143     This was lofty. Now name the rest of the players. This is
 79144     Ercles' vein, a tyrant's vein: a lover is more condoling.
 79145   QUINCE. Francis Flute, the bellows-mender.
 79146   FLUTE. Here, Peter Quince.
 79147   QUINCE. Flute, you must take Thisby on you.
 79148   FLUTE. What is Thisby? A wand'ring knight?
 79149   QUINCE. It is the lady that Pyramus must love.
 79150   FLUTE. Nay, faith, let not me play a woman; I have a beard coming.
 79151   QUINCE. That's all one; you shall play it in a mask, and you may
 79152     speak as small as you will.
 79153   BOTTOM. An I may hide my face, let me play Thisby too.
 79154     I'll speak in a monstrous little voice: 'Thisne, Thisne!'
 79155     [Then speaking small] 'Ah Pyramus, my lover dear! Thy
 79156     Thisby dear, and lady dear!'
 79157   QUINCE. No, no, you must play Pyramus; and, Flute, you Thisby.
 79158   BOTTOM. Well, proceed.
 79159   QUINCE. Robin Starveling, the tailor.
 79160   STARVELING. Here, Peter Quince.
 79161   QUINCE. Robin Starveling, you must play Thisby's mother.
 79162     Tom Snout, the tinker.
 79163   SNOUT. Here, Peter Quince.
 79164   QUINCE. You, Pyramus' father; myself, Thisby's father; Snug, the
 79165     joiner, you, the lion's part. And, I hope, here is a play fitted.
 79166   SNUG. Have you the lion's part written? Pray you, if it be, give it
 79167     me, for I am slow of study.
 79168   QUINCE. You may do it extempore, for it is nothing but roaring.
 79169   BOTTOM. Let me play the lion too. I will roar that I will do any
 79170     man's heart good to hear me; I will roar that I will make the
 79171     Duke say 'Let him roar again, let him roar again.'
 79172   QUINCE. An you should do it too terribly, you would fright the
 79173     Duchess and the ladies, that they would shriek; and that were
 79174     enough to hang us all.
 79175   ALL. That would hang us, every mother's son.
 79176   BOTTOM. I grant you, friends, if you should fright the ladies out
 79177     of their wits, they would have no more discretion but to hang us;
 79178     but I will aggravate my voice so, that I will roar you as gently
 79179     as any sucking dove; I will roar you an 'twere any nightingale.
 79180   QUINCE. You can play no part but Pyramus; for Pyramus is a
 79181     sweet-fac'd man; a proper man, as one shall see in a summer's
 79182     day; a most lovely gentleman-like man; therefore you must needs
 79183     play Pyramus.
 79184   BOTTOM. Well, I will undertake it. What beard were I best to play
 79185     it in?
 79186   QUINCE. Why, what you will.
 79187   BOTTOM. I will discharge it in either your straw-colour beard, your
 79188     orange-tawny beard, your purple-in-grain beard, or your
 79189     French-crown-colour beard, your perfect yellow.
 79190   QUINCE. Some of your French crowns have no hair at all, and then
 79191     you will play bare-fac'd. But, masters, here are your parts; and
 79192     I am to entreat you, request you, and desire you, to con them by
 79193     to-morrow night; and meet me in the palace wood, a mile without
 79194     the town, by moonlight; there will we rehearse; for if we meet in
 79195     the city, we shall be dogg'd with company, and our devices known.
 79196     In the meantime I will draw a bill of properties, such as our
 79197     play wants. I pray you, fail me not.
 79198   BOTTOM. We will meet; and there we may rehearse most obscenely and
 79199     courageously. Take pains; be perfect; adieu.
 79200   QUINCE. At the Duke's oak we meet.
 79201   BOTTOM. Enough; hold, or cut bow-strings.               Exeunt
 79202 
 79203 
 79204 
 79205 
 79206 <<THIS ELECTRONIC VERSION OF THE COMPLETE WORKS OF WILLIAM
 79207 SHAKESPEARE IS COPYRIGHT 1990-1993 BY WORLD LIBRARY, INC., AND IS
 79208 PROVIDED BY PROJECT GUTENBERG ETEXT OF ILLINOIS BENEDICTINE COLLEGE
 79209 WITH PERMISSION.  ELECTRONIC AND MACHINE READABLE COPIES MAY BE
 79210 DISTRIBUTED SO LONG AS SUCH COPIES (1) ARE FOR YOUR OR OTHERS
 79211 PERSONAL USE ONLY, AND (2) ARE NOT DISTRIBUTED OR USED
 79212 COMMERCIALLY.  PROHIBITED COMMERCIAL DISTRIBUTION INCLUDES BY ANY
 79213 SERVICE THAT CHARGES FOR DOWNLOAD TIME OR FOR MEMBERSHIP.>>
 79214 
 79215 
 79216 
 79217 ACT II. SCENE I.
 79218 A wood near Athens
 79219 
 79220 Enter a FAIRY at One door, and PUCK at another
 79221 
 79222   PUCK. How now, spirit! whither wander you?
 79223   FAIRY.      Over hill, over dale,
 79224                 Thorough bush, thorough brier,
 79225               Over park, over pale,
 79226                 Thorough flood, thorough fire,
 79227               I do wander every where,
 79228               Swifter than the moon's sphere;
 79229               And I serve the Fairy Queen,
 79230               To dew her orbs upon the green.
 79231               The cowslips tall her pensioners be;
 79232               In their gold coats spots you see;
 79233               Those be rubies, fairy favours,
 79234               In those freckles live their savours.
 79235 
 79236     I must go seek some dewdrops here,
 79237     And hang a pearl in every cowslip's ear.
 79238     Farewell, thou lob of spirits; I'll be gone.
 79239     Our Queen and all her elves come here anon.
 79240   PUCK. The King doth keep his revels here to-night;
 79241     Take heed the Queen come not within his sight;
 79242     For Oberon is passing fell and wrath,
 79243     Because that she as her attendant hath
 79244     A lovely boy, stolen from an Indian king.
 79245     She never had so sweet a changeling;
 79246     And jealous Oberon would have the child
 79247     Knight of his train, to trace the forests wild;
 79248     But she perforce withholds the loved boy,
 79249     Crowns him with flowers, and makes him all her joy.
 79250     And now they never meet in grove or green,
 79251     By fountain clear, or spangled starlight sheen,
 79252     But they do square, that all their elves for fear
 79253     Creep into acorn cups and hide them there.
 79254   FAIRY. Either I mistake your shape and making quite,
 79255     Or else you are that shrewd and knavish sprite
 79256     Call'd Robin Goodfellow. Are not you he
 79257     That frights the maidens of the villagery,
 79258     Skim milk, and sometimes labour in the quern,
 79259     And bootless make the breathless housewife churn,
 79260     And sometime make the drink to bear no barm,
 79261     Mislead night-wanderers, laughing at their harm?
 79262     Those that Hobgoblin call you, and sweet Puck,
 79263     You do their work, and they shall have good luck.
 79264     Are not you he?
 79265   PUCK. Thou speakest aright:
 79266     I am that merry wanderer of the night.
 79267     I jest to Oberon, and make him smile
 79268     When I a fat and bean-fed horse beguile,
 79269     Neighing in likeness of a filly foal;
 79270     And sometime lurk I in a gossip's bowl
 79271     In very likeness of a roasted crab,
 79272     And, when she drinks, against her lips I bob,
 79273     And on her withered dewlap pour the ale.
 79274     The wisest aunt, telling the saddest tale,
 79275     Sometime for three-foot stool mistaketh me;
 79276     Then slip I from her bum, down topples she,
 79277     And 'tailor' cries, and falls into a cough;
 79278     And then the whole quire hold their hips and laugh,
 79279     And waxen in their mirth, and neeze, and swear
 79280     A merrier hour was never wasted there.
 79281     But room, fairy, here comes Oberon.
 79282   FAIRY. And here my mistress. Would that he were gone!
 79283 
 79284        Enter OBERON at one door, with his TRAIN, and TITANIA,
 79285                         at another, with hers
 79286 
 79287   OBERON. Ill met by moonlight, proud Titania.
 79288   TITANIA. What, jealous Oberon! Fairies, skip hence;
 79289     I have forsworn his bed and company.
 79290   OBERON. Tarry, rash wanton; am not I thy lord?
 79291   TITANIA. Then I must be thy lady; but I know
 79292     When thou hast stolen away from fairy land,
 79293     And in the shape of Corin sat all day,
 79294     Playing on pipes of corn, and versing love
 79295     To amorous Phillida. Why art thou here,
 79296     Come from the farthest steep of India,
 79297     But that, forsooth, the bouncing Amazon,
 79298     Your buskin'd mistress and your warrior love,
 79299     To Theseus must be wedded, and you come
 79300     To give their bed joy and prosperity?
 79301   OBERON. How canst thou thus, for shame, Titania,
 79302     Glance at my credit with Hippolyta,
 79303     Knowing I know thy love to Theseus?
 79304     Didst not thou lead him through the glimmering night
 79305     From Perigouna, whom he ravished?
 79306     And make him with fair Aegles break his faith,
 79307     With Ariadne and Antiopa?
 79308   TITANIA. These are the forgeries of jealousy;
 79309     And never, since the middle summer's spring,
 79310     Met we on hill, in dale, forest, or mead,
 79311     By paved fountain, or by rushy brook,
 79312     Or in the beached margent of the sea,
 79313     To dance our ringlets to the whistling wind,
 79314     But with thy brawls thou hast disturb'd our sport.
 79315     Therefore the winds, piping to us in vain,
 79316     As in revenge, have suck'd up from the sea
 79317     Contagious fogs; which, falling in the land,
 79318     Hath every pelting river made so proud
 79319     That they have overborne their continents.
 79320     The ox hath therefore stretch'd his yoke in vain,
 79321     The ploughman lost his sweat, and the green corn
 79322     Hath rotted ere his youth attain'd a beard;
 79323     The fold stands empty in the drowned field,
 79324     And crows are fatted with the murrion flock;
 79325     The nine men's morris is fill'd up with mud,
 79326     And the quaint mazes in the wanton green,
 79327     For lack of tread, are undistinguishable.
 79328     The human mortals want their winter here;
 79329     No night is now with hymn or carol blest;
 79330     Therefore the moon, the governess of floods,
 79331     Pale in her anger, washes all the air,
 79332     That rheumatic diseases do abound.
 79333     And thorough this distemperature we see
 79334     The seasons alter: hoary-headed frosts
 79335     Fall in the fresh lap of the crimson rose;
 79336     And on old Hiems' thin and icy crown
 79337     An odorous chaplet of sweet summer buds
 79338     Is, as in mockery, set. The spring, the summer,
 79339     The childing autumn, angry winter, change
 79340     Their wonted liveries; and the mazed world,
 79341     By their increase, now knows not which is which.
 79342     And this same progeny of evils comes
 79343     From our debate, from our dissension;
 79344     We are their parents and original.
 79345   OBERON. Do you amend it, then; it lies in you.
 79346     Why should Titania cross her Oberon?
 79347     I do but beg a little changeling boy
 79348     To be my henchman.
 79349   TITANIA. Set your heart at rest;
 79350     The fairy land buys not the child of me.
 79351     His mother was a vot'ress of my order;
 79352     And, in the spiced Indian air, by night,
 79353     Full often hath she gossip'd by my side;
 79354     And sat with me on Neptune's yellow sands,
 79355     Marking th' embarked traders on the flood;
 79356     When we have laugh'd to see the sails conceive,
 79357     And grow big-bellied with the wanton wind;
 79358     Which she, with pretty and with swimming gait
 79359     Following- her womb then rich with my young squire-
 79360     Would imitate, and sail upon the land,
 79361     To fetch me trifles, and return again,
 79362     As from a voyage, rich with merchandise.
 79363     But she, being mortal, of that boy did die;
 79364     And for her sake do I rear up her boy;
 79365     And for her sake I will not part with him.
 79366   OBERON. How long within this wood intend you stay?
 79367   TITANIA. Perchance till after Theseus' wedding-day.
 79368     If you will patiently dance in our round,
 79369     And see our moonlight revels, go with us;
 79370     If not, shun me, and I will spare your haunts.
 79371   OBERON. Give me that boy and I will go with thee.
 79372   TITANIA. Not for thy fairy kingdom. Fairies, away.
 79373     We shall chide downright if I longer stay.
 79374                                      Exit TITANIA with her train
 79375   OBERON. Well, go thy way; thou shalt not from this grove
 79376     Till I torment thee for this injury.
 79377     My gentle Puck, come hither. Thou rememb'rest
 79378     Since once I sat upon a promontory,
 79379     And heard a mermaid on a dolphin's back
 79380     Uttering such dulcet and harmonious breath
 79381     That the rude sea grew civil at her song,
 79382     And certain stars shot madly from their spheres
 79383     To hear the sea-maid's music.
 79384   PUCK. I remember.
 79385   OBERON. That very time I saw, but thou couldst not,
 79386     Flying between the cold moon and the earth
 79387     Cupid, all arm'd; a certain aim he took
 79388     At a fair vestal, throned by the west,
 79389     And loos'd his love-shaft smartly from his bow,
 79390     As it should pierce a hundred thousand hearts;
 79391     But I might see young Cupid's fiery shaft
 79392     Quench'd in the chaste beams of the wat'ry moon;
 79393     And the imperial vot'ress passed on,
 79394     In maiden meditation, fancy-free.
 79395     Yet mark'd I where the bolt of Cupid fell.
 79396     It fell upon a little western flower,
 79397     Before milk-white, now purple with love's wound,
 79398     And maidens call it Love-in-idleness.
 79399     Fetch me that flow'r, the herb I showed thee once.
 79400     The juice of it on sleeping eyelids laid
 79401     Will make or man or woman madly dote
 79402     Upon the next live creature that it sees.
 79403     Fetch me this herb, and be thou here again
 79404     Ere the leviathan can swim a league.
 79405   PUCK. I'll put a girdle round about the earth
 79406     In forty minutes.                                  Exit PUCK
 79407   OBERON. Having once this juice,
 79408     I'll watch Titania when she is asleep,
 79409     And drop the liquor of it in her eyes;
 79410     The next thing then she waking looks upon,
 79411     Be it on lion, bear, or wolf, or bull,
 79412     On meddling monkey, or on busy ape,
 79413     She shall pursue it with the soul of love.
 79414     And ere I take this charm from off her sight,
 79415     As I can take it with another herb,
 79416     I'll make her render up her page to me.
 79417     But who comes here? I am invisible;
 79418     And I will overhear their conference.
 79419 
 79420                Enter DEMETRIUS, HELENA following him
 79421 
 79422   DEMETRIUS. I love thee not, therefore pursue me not.
 79423     Where is Lysander and fair Hermia?
 79424     The one I'll slay, the other slayeth me.
 79425     Thou told'st me they were stol'n unto this wood,
 79426     And here am I, and wood within this wood,
 79427     Because I cannot meet my Hermia.
 79428     Hence, get thee gone, and follow me no more.
 79429   HELENA. You draw me, you hard-hearted adamant;
 79430     But yet you draw not iron, for my heart
 79431     Is true as steel. Leave you your power to draw,
 79432     And I shall have no power to follow you.
 79433   DEMETRIUS. Do I entice you? Do I speak you fair?
 79434     Or, rather, do I not in plainest truth
 79435     Tell you I do not nor I cannot love you?
 79436   HELENA. And even for that do I love you the more.
 79437     I am your spaniel; and, Demetrius,
 79438     The more you beat me, I will fawn on you.
 79439     Use me but as your spaniel, spurn me, strike me,
 79440     Neglect me, lose me; only give me leave,
 79441     Unworthy as I am, to follow you.
 79442     What worser place can I beg in your love,
 79443     And yet a place of high respect with me,
 79444     Than to be used as you use your dog?
 79445   DEMETRIUS. Tempt not too much the hatred of my spirit;
 79446     For I am sick when I do look on thee.
 79447   HELENA. And I am sick when I look not on you.
 79448   DEMETRIUS. You do impeach your modesty too much
 79449     To leave the city and commit yourself
 79450     Into the hands of one that loves you not;
 79451     To trust the opportunity of night,
 79452     And the ill counsel of a desert place,
 79453     With the rich worth of your virginity.
 79454   HELENA. Your virtue is my privilege for that:
 79455     It is not night when I do see your face,
 79456     Therefore I think I am not in the night;
 79457     Nor doth this wood lack worlds of company,
 79458     For you, in my respect, are all the world.
 79459     Then how can it be said I am alone
 79460     When all the world is here to look on me?
 79461   DEMETRIUS. I'll run from thee and hide me in the brakes,
 79462     And leave thee to the mercy of wild beasts.
 79463   HELENA. The wildest hath not such a heart as you.
 79464     Run when you will; the story shall be chang'd:
 79465     Apollo flies, and Daphne holds the chase;
 79466     The dove pursues the griffin; the mild hind
 79467     Makes speed to catch the tiger- bootless speed,
 79468     When cowardice pursues and valour flies.
 79469   DEMETRIUS. I will not stay thy questions; let me go;
 79470     Or, if thou follow me, do not believe
 79471     But I shall do thee mischief in the wood.
 79472   HELENA. Ay, in the temple, in the town, the field,
 79473     You do me mischief. Fie, Demetrius!
 79474     Your wrongs do set a scandal on my sex.
 79475     We cannot fight for love as men may do;
 79476     We should be woo'd, and were not made to woo.
 79477                                                   Exit DEMETRIUS
 79478     I'll follow thee, and make a heaven of hell,
 79479     To die upon the hand I love so well.             Exit HELENA
 79480   OBERON. Fare thee well, nymph; ere he do leave this grove,
 79481     Thou shalt fly him, and he shall seek thy love.
 79482 
 79483                             Re-enter PUCK
 79484 
 79485     Hast thou the flower there? Welcome, wanderer.
 79486   PUCK. Ay, there it is.
 79487   OBERON. I pray thee give it me.
 79488     I know a bank where the wild thyme blows,
 79489     Where oxlips and the nodding violet grows,
 79490     Quite over-canopied with luscious woodbine,
 79491     With sweet musk-roses, and with eglantine;
 79492     There sleeps Titania sometime of the night,
 79493     Lull'd in these flowers with dances and delight;
 79494     And there the snake throws her enamell'd skin,
 79495     Weed wide enough to wrap a fairy in;
 79496     And with the juice of this I'll streak her eyes,
 79497     And make her full of hateful fantasies.
 79498     Take thou some of it, and seek through this grove:
 79499     A sweet Athenian lady is in love
 79500     With a disdainful youth; anoint his eyes;
 79501     But do it when the next thing he espies
 79502     May be the lady. Thou shalt know the man
 79503     By the Athenian garments he hath on.
 79504     Effect it with some care, that he may prove
 79505     More fond on her than she upon her love.
 79506     And look thou meet me ere the first cock crow.
 79507   PUCK. Fear not, my lord; your servant shall do so.      Exeunt
 79508 
 79509 
 79510 
 79511 
 79512 SCENE II.
 79513 Another part of the wood
 79514 
 79515 Enter TITANIA, with her train
 79516 
 79517   TITANIA. Come now, a roundel and a fairy song;
 79518     Then, for the third part of a minute, hence:
 79519     Some to kill cankers in the musk-rose buds;
 79520     Some war with rere-mice for their leathern wings,
 79521     To make my small elves coats; and some keep back
 79522     The clamorous owl that nightly hoots and wonders
 79523     At our quaint spirits. Sing me now asleep;
 79524     Then to your offices, and let me rest.
 79525 
 79526                           The FAIRIES Sing
 79527 
 79528   FIRST FAIRY. You spotted snakes with double tongue,
 79529                Thorny hedgehogs, be not seen;
 79530                Newts and blind-worms, do no wrong,
 79531                Come not near our fairy Queen.
 79532   CHORUS.      Philomel with melody
 79533                Sing in our sweet lullaby.
 79534                Lulla, lulla, lullaby; lulla, lulla, lullaby.
 79535                Never harm
 79536                Nor spell nor charm
 79537                Come our lovely lady nigh.
 79538                So good night, with lullaby.
 79539   SECOND FAIRY.  Weaving spiders, come not here;
 79540                  Hence, you long-legg'd spinners, hence.
 79541                  Beetles black, approach not near;
 79542                  Worm nor snail do no offence.
 79543   CHORUS.      Philomel with melody, etc.       [TITANIA Sleeps]
 79544   FIRST FAIRY. Hence away; now all is well.
 79545                One aloof stand sentinel.          Exeunt FAIRIES
 79546 
 79547       Enter OBERON and squeezes the flower on TITANIA'S eyelids
 79548 
 79549   OBERON. What thou seest when thou dost wake,
 79550     Do it for thy true-love take;
 79551     Love and languish for his sake.
 79552     Be it ounce, or cat, or bear,
 79553     Pard, or boar with bristled hair,
 79554     In thy eye that shall appear
 79555     When thou wak'st, it is thy dear.
 79556     Wake when some vile thing is near.                      Exit
 79557 
 79558                      Enter LYSANDER and HERMIA
 79559 
 79560   LYSANDER. Fair love, you faint with wand'ring in the wood;
 79561     And, to speak troth, I have forgot our way;
 79562     We'll rest us, Hermia, if you think it good,
 79563     And tarry for the comfort of the day.
 79564   HERMIA. Be it so, Lysander: find you out a bed,
 79565     For I upon this bank will rest my head.
 79566   LYSANDER. One turf shall serve as pillow for us both;
 79567     One heart, one bed, two bosoms, and one troth.
 79568   HERMIA. Nay, good Lysander; for my sake, my dear,
 79569     Lie further off yet; do not lie so near.
 79570   LYSANDER. O, take the sense, sweet, of my innocence!
 79571     Love takes the meaning in love's conference.
 79572     I mean that my heart unto yours is knit,
 79573     So that but one heart we can make of it;
 79574     Two bosoms interchained with an oath,
 79575     So then two bosoms and a single troth.
 79576     Then by your side no bed-room me deny,
 79577     For lying so, Hermia, I do not lie.
 79578   HERMIA. Lysander riddles very prettily.
 79579     Now much beshrew my manners and my pride,
 79580     If Hermia meant to say Lysander lied!
 79581     But, gentle friend, for love and courtesy
 79582     Lie further off, in human modesty;
 79583     Such separation as may well be said
 79584     Becomes a virtuous bachelor and a maid,
 79585     So far be distant; and good night, sweet friend.
 79586     Thy love ne'er alter till thy sweet life end!
 79587   LYSANDER. Amen, amen, to that fair prayer say I;
 79588     And then end life when I end loyalty!
 79589     Here is my bed; sleep give thee all his rest!
 79590   HERMIA. With half that wish the wisher's eyes be press'd!
 79591                                                     [They sleep]
 79592 
 79593                           Enter PUCK
 79594 
 79595   PUCK.      Through the forest have I gone,
 79596              But Athenian found I none
 79597              On whose eyes I might approve
 79598              This flower's force in stirring love.
 79599              Night and silence- Who is here?
 79600              Weeds of Athens he doth wear:
 79601              This is he, my master said,
 79602              Despised the Athenian maid;
 79603              And here the maiden, sleeping sound,
 79604              On the dank and dirty ground.
 79605              Pretty soul! she durst not lie
 79606              Near this lack-love, this kill-courtesy.
 79607              Churl, upon thy eyes I throw
 79608              All the power this charm doth owe:
 79609              When thou wak'st let love forbid
 79610              Sleep his seat on thy eyelid.
 79611              So awake when I am gone;
 79612              For I must now to Oberon.                      Exit
 79613 
 79614                Enter DEMETRIUS and HELENA, running
 79615 
 79616   HELENA. Stay, though thou kill me, sweet Demetrius.
 79617   DEMETRIUS. I charge thee, hence, and do not haunt me thus.
 79618   HELENA. O, wilt thou darkling leave me? Do not so.
 79619   DEMETRIUS. Stay on thy peril; I alone will go.            Exit
 79620   HELENA. O, I am out of breath in this fond chase!
 79621     The more my prayer, the lesser is my grace.
 79622     Happy is Hermia, wheresoe'er she lies,
 79623     For she hath blessed and attractive eyes.
 79624     How came her eyes so bright? Not with salt tears;
 79625     If so, my eyes are oft'ner wash'd than hers.
 79626     No, no, I am as ugly as a bear,
 79627     For beasts that meet me run away for fear;
 79628     Therefore no marvel though Demetrius
 79629     Do, as a monster, fly my presence thus.
 79630     What wicked and dissembling glass of mine
 79631     Made me compare with Hermia's sphery eyne?
 79632     But who is here? Lysander! on the ground!
 79633     Dead, or asleep? I see no blood, no wound.
 79634     Lysander, if you live, good sir, awake.
 79635   LYSANDER. [Waking] And run through fire I will for thy sweet sake.
 79636     Transparent Helena! Nature shows art,
 79637     That through thy bosom makes me see thy heart.
 79638     Where is Demetrius? O, how fit a word
 79639     Is that vile name to perish on my sword!
 79640   HELENA. Do not say so, Lysander; say not so.
 79641     What though he love your Hermia? Lord, what though?
 79642     Yet Hermia still loves you; then be content.
 79643   LYSANDER. Content with Hermia! No: I do repent
 79644     The tedious minutes I with her have spent.
 79645     Not Hermia but Helena I love:
 79646     Who will not change a raven for a dove?
 79647     The will of man is by his reason sway'd,
 79648     And reason says you are the worthier maid.
 79649     Things growing are not ripe until their season;
 79650     So I, being young, till now ripe not to reason;
 79651     And touching now the point of human skill,
 79652     Reason becomes the marshal to my will,
 79653     And leads me to your eyes, where I o'erlook
 79654     Love's stories, written in Love's richest book.
 79655   HELENA. Wherefore was I to this keen mockery born?
 79656     When at your hands did I deserve this scorn?
 79657     Is't not enough, is't not enough, young man,
 79658     That I did never, no, nor never can,
 79659     Deserve a sweet look from Demetrius' eye,
 79660     But you must flout my insufficiency?
 79661     Good troth, you do me wrong, good sooth, you do,
 79662     In such disdainful manner me to woo.
 79663     But fare you well; perforce I must confess
 79664     I thought you lord of more true gentleness.
 79665     O, that a lady of one man refus'd
 79666     Should of another therefore be abus'd!                  Exit
 79667   LYSANDER. She sees not Hermia. Hermia, sleep thou there;
 79668     And never mayst thou come Lysander near!
 79669     For, as a surfeit of the sweetest things
 79670     The deepest loathing to the stomach brings,
 79671     Or as the heresies that men do leave
 79672     Are hated most of those they did deceive,
 79673     So thou, my surfeit and my heresy,
 79674     Of all be hated, but the most of me!
 79675     And, all my powers, address your love and might
 79676     To honour Helen, and to be her knight!                  Exit
 79677   HERMIA. [Starting] Help me, Lysander, help me; do thy best
 79678     To pluck this crawling serpent from my breast.
 79679     Ay me, for pity! What a dream was here!
 79680     Lysander, look how I do quake with fear.
 79681     Methought a serpent eat my heart away,
 79682     And you sat smiling at his cruel prey.
 79683     Lysander! What, remov'd? Lysander! lord!
 79684     What, out of hearing gone? No sound, no word?
 79685     Alack, where are you? Speak, an if you hear;
 79686     Speak, of all loves! I swoon almost with fear.
 79687     No? Then I well perceive you are not nigh.
 79688     Either death or you I'll find immediately.              Exit
 79689 
 79690 
 79691 
 79692 
 79693 <<THIS ELECTRONIC VERSION OF THE COMPLETE WORKS OF WILLIAM
 79694 SHAKESPEARE IS COPYRIGHT 1990-1993 BY WORLD LIBRARY, INC., AND IS
 79695 PROVIDED BY PROJECT GUTENBERG ETEXT OF ILLINOIS BENEDICTINE COLLEGE
 79696 WITH PERMISSION.  ELECTRONIC AND MACHINE READABLE COPIES MAY BE
 79697 DISTRIBUTED SO LONG AS SUCH COPIES (1) ARE FOR YOUR OR OTHERS
 79698 PERSONAL USE ONLY, AND (2) ARE NOT DISTRIBUTED OR USED
 79699 COMMERCIALLY.  PROHIBITED COMMERCIAL DISTRIBUTION INCLUDES BY ANY
 79700 SERVICE THAT CHARGES FOR DOWNLOAD TIME OR FOR MEMBERSHIP.>>
 79701 
 79702 
 79703 
 79704 ACT III. SCENE I.
 79705 The wood. TITANIA lying asleep
 79706 
 79707 Enter QUINCE, SNUG, BOTTOM, FLUTE, SNOUT, and STARVELING
 79708 
 79709   BOTTOM. Are we all met?
 79710   QUINCE. Pat, pat; and here's a marvellous convenient place for our
 79711     rehearsal. This green plot shall be our stage, this hawthorn
 79712     brake our tiring-house; and we will do it in action, as we will
 79713     do it before the Duke.
 79714   BOTTOM. Peter Quince!
 79715   QUINCE. What sayest thou, bully Bottom?
 79716   BOTTOM. There are things in this comedy of Pyramus and Thisby that
 79717     will never please. First, Pyramus must draw a sword to kill
 79718     himself; which the ladies cannot abide. How answer you that?
 79719   SNOUT. By'r lakin, a parlous fear.
 79720   STARVELING. I believe we must leave the killing out, when all is
 79721     done.
 79722   BOTTOM. Not a whit; I have a device to make all well. Write me a
 79723     prologue; and let the prologue seem to say we will do no harm
 79724     with our swords, and that Pyramus is not kill'd indeed; and for
 79725     the more better assurance, tell them that I Pyramus am not
 79726     Pyramus but Bottom the weaver. This will put them out of fear.
 79727   QUINCE. Well, we will have such a prologue; and it shall be written
 79728     in eight and six.
 79729   BOTTOM. No, make it two more; let it be written in eight and eight.
 79730   SNOUT. Will not the ladies be afeard of the lion?
 79731   STARVELING. I fear it, I promise you.
 79732   BOTTOM. Masters, you ought to consider with yourself to bring in-
 79733     God shield us!- a lion among ladies is a most dreadful thing; for
 79734     there is not a more fearful wild-fowl than your lion living; and
 79735     we ought to look to't.
 79736   SNOUT. Therefore another prologue must tell he is not a lion.
 79737   BOTTOM. Nay, you must name his name, and half his face must be seen
 79738     through the lion's neck; and he himself must speak through,
 79739     saying thus, or to the same defect: 'Ladies,' or 'Fair ladies, I
 79740     would wish you' or 'I would request you' or 'I would entreat you
 79741     not to fear, not to tremble. My life for yours! If you think I
 79742     come hither as a lion, it were pity of my life. No, I am no such
 79743     thing; I am a man as other men are.' And there, indeed, let him
 79744     name his name, and tell them plainly he is Snug the joiner.
 79745   QUINCE. Well, it shall be so. But there is two hard things- that
 79746     is, to bring the moonlight into a chamber; for, you know, Pyramus
 79747     and Thisby meet by moonlight.
 79748   SNOUT. Doth the moon shine that night we play our play?
 79749   BOTTOM. A calendar, a calendar! Look in the almanack; find out
 79750     moonshine, find out moonshine.
 79751   QUINCE. Yes, it doth shine that night.
 79752   BOTTOM. Why, then may you leave a casement of the great chamber
 79753     window, where we play, open; and the moon may shine in at the
 79754     casement.
 79755   QUINCE. Ay; or else one must come in with a bush of thorns and a
 79756     lantern, and say he comes to disfigure or to present the person
 79757     of Moonshine. Then there is another thing: we must have a wall in
 79758     the great chamber; for Pyramus and Thisby, says the story, did
 79759     talk through the chink of a wall.
 79760   SNOUT. You can never bring in a wall. What say you, Bottom?
 79761   BOTTOM. Some man or other must present Wall; and let him have some
 79762     plaster, or some loam, or some rough-cast about him, to signify
 79763     wall; and let him hold his fingers thus, and through that cranny
 79764     shall Pyramus and Thisby whisper.
 79765   QUINCE. If that may be, then all is well. Come, sit down, every
 79766     mother's son, and rehearse your parts. Pyramus, you begin; when
 79767     you have spoken your speech, enter into that brake; and so every
 79768     one according to his cue.
 79769 
 79770                           Enter PUCK behind
 79771 
 79772   PUCK. What hempen homespuns have we swagg'ring here,
 79773     So near the cradle of the Fairy Queen?
 79774     What, a play toward! I'll be an auditor;
 79775     An actor too perhaps, if I see cause.
 79776   QUINCE. Speak, Pyramus. Thisby, stand forth.
 79777   BOTTOM. Thisby, the flowers of odious savours sweet-
 79778   QUINCE. 'Odious'- odorous!
 79779   BOTTOM. -odours savours sweet;
 79780     So hath thy breath, my dearest Thisby dear.
 79781     But hark, a voice! Stay thou but here awhile,
 79782     And by and by I will to thee appear.                    Exit
 79783   PUCK. A stranger Pyramus than e'er played here!           Exit
 79784   FLUTE. Must I speak now?
 79785   QUINCE. Ay, marry, must you; for you must understand he goes but to
 79786     see a noise that he heard, and is to come again.
 79787   FLUTE. Most radiant Pyramus, most lily-white of hue,
 79788     Of colour like the red rose on triumphant brier,
 79789     Most brisky juvenal, and eke most lovely Jew,
 79790     As true as truest horse, that would never tire,
 79791     I'll meet thee, Pyramus, at Ninny's tomb.
 79792   QUINCE. 'Ninus' tomb,' man! Why, you must not speak that yet; that
 79793     you answer to Pyramus. You speak all your part at once, cues, and
 79794     all. Pyramus enter: your cue is past; it is 'never tire.'
 79795   FLUTE. O- As true as truest horse, that y et would never tire.
 79796 
 79797             Re-enter PUCK, and BOTTOM with an ass's head
 79798 
 79799   BOTTOM. If I were fair, Thisby, I were only thine.
 79800   QUINCE. O monstrous! O strange! We are haunted. Pray, masters! fly,
 79801     masters! Help!
 79802                                   Exeunt all but BOTTOM and PUCK
 79803   PUCK. I'll follow you; I'll lead you about a round,
 79804     Through bog, through bush, through brake, through brier;
 79805     Sometime a horse I'll be, sometime a hound,
 79806     A hog, a headless bear, sometime a fire;
 79807     And neigh, and bark, and grunt, and roar, and burn,
 79808     Like horse, hound, hog, bear, fire, at every turn.
 79809 Exit
 79810   BOTTOM. Why do they run away? This is a knavery of them to make me
 79811     afeard.
 79812 
 79813                           Re-enter SNOUT
 79814 
 79815   SNOUT. O Bottom, thou art chang'd! What do I see on thee?
 79816   BOTTOM. What do you see? You see an ass-head of your own, do you?
 79817                                                       Exit SNOUT
 79818 
 79819                           Re-enter QUINCE
 79820 
 79821   QUINCE. Bless thee, Bottom, bless thee! Thou art translated.
 79822  Exit
 79823   BOTTOM. I see their knavery: this is to make an ass of me; to
 79824     fright me, if they could. But I will not stir from this place, do
 79825     what they can; I will walk up and down here, and will sing, that
 79826     they shall hear I am not afraid.                     [Sings]
 79827 
 79828           The ousel cock, so black of hue,
 79829             With orange-tawny bill,
 79830           The throstle with his note so true,
 79831             The wren with little quill.
 79832 
 79833   TITANIA. What angel wakes me from my flow'ry bed?
 79834   BOTTOM. [Sings]
 79835           The finch, the sparrow, and the lark,
 79836             The plain-song cuckoo grey,
 79837           Whose note full many a man doth mark,
 79838             And dares not answer nay-
 79839     for, indeed, who would set his wit to so foolish a bird?
 79840     Who would give a bird the he, though he cry 'cuckoo' never so?
 79841   TITANIA. I pray thee, gentle mortal, sing again.
 79842     Mine ear is much enamoured of thy note;
 79843     So is mine eye enthralled to thy shape;
 79844     And thy fair virtue's force perforce doth move me,
 79845     On the first view, to say, to swear, I love thee.
 79846   BOTTOM. Methinks, mistress, you should have little reason for that.
 79847     And yet, to say the truth, reason and love keep little company
 79848     together now-a-days. The more the pity that some honest
 79849     neighbours will not make them friends. Nay, I can gleek upon
 79850     occasion.
 79851   TITANIA. Thou art as wise as thou art beautiful.
 79852   BOTTOM. Not so, neither; but if I had wit enough to get out of this
 79853     wood, I have enough to serve mine own turn.
 79854   TITANIA. Out of this wood do not desire to go;
 79855     Thou shalt remain here whether thou wilt or no.
 79856     I am a spirit of no common rate;
 79857     The summer still doth tend upon my state;
 79858     And I do love thee; therefore, go with me.
 79859     I'll give thee fairies to attend on thee;
 79860     And they shall fetch thee jewels from the deep,
 79861     And sing, while thou on pressed flowers dost sleep;
 79862     And I will purge thy mortal grossness so
 79863     That thou shalt like an airy spirit go.
 79864     Peaseblossom! Cobweb! Moth! and Mustardseed!
 79865 
 79866        Enter PEASEBLOSSOM, COBWEB, MOTH, and MUSTARDSEED
 79867 
 79868   PEASEBLOSSOM. Ready.
 79869   COBWEB. And I.
 79870   MOTH. And I.
 79871   MUSTARDSEED. And I.
 79872   ALL. Where shall we go?
 79873   TITANIA. Be kind and courteous to this gentleman;
 79874     Hop in his walks and gambol in his eyes;
 79875     Feed him with apricocks and dewberries,
 79876     With purple grapes, green figs, and mulberries;
 79877     The honey bags steal from the humble-bees,
 79878     And for night-tapers crop their waxen thighs,
 79879     And light them at the fiery glow-worm's eyes,
 79880     To have my love to bed and to arise;
 79881     And pluck the wings from painted butterflies,
 79882     To fan the moonbeams from his sleeping eyes.
 79883     Nod to him, elves, and do him courtesies.
 79884   PEASEBLOSSOM. Hail, mortal!
 79885   COBWEB. Hail!
 79886   MOTH. Hail!
 79887   MUSTARDSEED. Hail!
 79888   BOTTOM. I cry your worships mercy, heartily; I beseech your
 79889     worship's name.
 79890   COBWEB. Cobweb.
 79891   BOTTOM. I shall desire you of more acquaintance, good Master
 79892     Cobweb. If I cut my finger, I shall make bold with you. Your
 79893     name, honest gentleman?
 79894   PEASEBLOSSOM. Peaseblossom.
 79895   BOTTOM. I pray you, commend me to Mistress Squash, your mother, and
 79896     to Master Peascod, your father. Good Master Peaseblossom, I shall
 79897     desire you of more acquaintance too. Your name, I beseech you,
 79898     sir?
 79899   MUSTARDSEED. Mustardseed.
 79900   BOTTOM. Good Master Mustardseed, I know your patience well. That
 79901     same cowardly giant-like ox-beef hath devour'd many a gentleman
 79902     of your house. I promise you your kindred hath made my eyes water
 79903     ere now. I desire you of more acquaintance, good Master
 79904     Mustardseed.
 79905   TITANIA. Come, wait upon him; lead him to my bower.
 79906     The moon, methinks, looks with a wat'ry eye;
 79907     And when she weeps, weeps every little flower;
 79908     Lamenting some enforced chastity.
 79909     Tie up my love's tongue, bring him silently.          Exeunt
 79910 
 79911 
 79912 
 79913 
 79914 SCENE II.
 79915 Another part of the wood
 79916 
 79917 Enter OBERON
 79918 
 79919   OBERON. I wonder if Titania be awak'd;
 79920     Then, what it was that next came in her eye,
 79921     Which she must dote on in extremity.
 79922 
 79923                           Enter PUCK
 79924 
 79925     Here comes my messenger. How now, mad spirit!
 79926     What night-rule now about this haunted grove?
 79927   PUCK. My mistress with a monster is in love.
 79928     Near to her close and consecrated bower,
 79929     While she was in her dull and sleeping hour,
 79930     A crew of patches, rude mechanicals,
 79931     That work for bread upon Athenian stalls,
 79932     Were met together to rehearse a play
 79933     Intended for great Theseus' nuptial day.
 79934     The shallowest thickskin of that barren sort,
 79935     Who Pyramus presented, in their sport
 79936     Forsook his scene and ent'red in a brake;
 79937     When I did him at this advantage take,
 79938     An ass's nole I fixed on his head.
 79939     Anon his Thisby must be answered,
 79940     And forth my mimic comes. When they him spy,
 79941     As wild geese that the creeping fowler eye,
 79942     Or russet-pated choughs, many in sort,
 79943     Rising and cawing at the gun's report,
 79944     Sever themselves and madly sweep the sky,
 79945     So at his sight away his fellows fly;
 79946     And at our stamp here, o'er and o'er one falls;
 79947     He murder cries, and help from Athens calls.
 79948     Their sense thus weak, lost with their fears thus strong,
 79949     Made senseless things begin to do them wrong,
 79950     For briers and thorns at their apparel snatch;
 79951     Some sleeves, some hats, from yielders all things catch.
 79952     I led them on in this distracted fear,
 79953     And left sweet Pyramus translated there;
 79954     When in that moment, so it came to pass,
 79955     Titania wak'd, and straightway lov'd an ass.
 79956   OBERON. This falls out better than I could devise.
 79957     But hast thou yet latch'd the Athenian's eyes
 79958     With the love-juice, as I did bid thee do?
 79959   PUCK. I took him sleeping- that is finish'd too-
 79960     And the Athenian woman by his side;
 79961     That, when he wak'd, of force she must be ey'd.
 79962 
 79963                  Enter DEMETRIUS and HERMIA
 79964 
 79965   OBERON. Stand close; this is the same Athenian.
 79966   PUCK. This is the woman, but not this the man.
 79967   DEMETRIUS. O, why rebuke you him that loves you so?
 79968     Lay breath so bitter on your bitter foe.
 79969   HERMIA. Now I but chide, but I should use thee worse,
 79970     For thou, I fear, hast given me cause to curse.
 79971     If thou hast slain Lysander in his sleep,
 79972     Being o'er shoes in blood, plunge in the deep,
 79973     And kill me too.
 79974     The sun was not so true unto the day
 79975     As he to me. Would he have stolen away
 79976     From sleeping Hermia? I'll believe as soon
 79977     This whole earth may be bor'd, and that the moon
 79978     May through the centre creep and so displease
 79979     Her brother's noontide with th' Antipodes.
 79980     It cannot be but thou hast murd'red him;
 79981     So should a murderer look- so dead, so grim.
 79982   DEMETRIUS. So should the murdered look; and so should I,
 79983     Pierc'd through the heart with your stern cruelty;
 79984     Yet you, the murderer, look as bright, as clear,
 79985     As yonder Venus in her glimmering sphere.
 79986   HERMIA. What's this to my Lysander? Where is he?
 79987     Ah, good Demetrius, wilt thou give him me?
 79988   DEMETRIUS. I had rather give his carcass to my hounds.
 79989   HERMIA. Out, dog! out, cur! Thou driv'st me past the bounds
 79990     Of maiden's patience. Hast thou slain him, then?
 79991     Henceforth be never numb'red among men!
 79992     O, once tell true; tell true, even for my sake!
 79993     Durst thou have look'd upon him being awake,
 79994     And hast thou kill'd him sleeping? O brave touch!
 79995     Could not a worm, an adder, do so much?
 79996     An adder did it; for with doubler tongue
 79997     Than thine, thou serpent, never adder stung.
 79998   DEMETRIUS. You spend your passion on a mispris'd mood:
 79999     I am not guilty of Lysander's blood;
 80000     Nor is he dead, for aught that I can tell.
 80001   HERMIA. I pray thee, tell me then that he is well.
 80002   DEMETRIUS. An if I could, what should I get therefore?
 80003   HERMIA. A privilege never to see me more.
 80004     And from thy hated presence part I so;
 80005     See me no more whether he be dead or no.                Exit
 80006   DEMETRIUS. There is no following her in this fierce vein;
 80007     Here, therefore, for a while I will remain.
 80008     So sorrow's heaviness doth heavier grow
 80009     For debt that bankrupt sleep doth sorrow owe;
 80010     Which now in some slight measure it will pay,
 80011     If for his tender here I make some stay.         [Lies down]
 80012   OBERON. What hast thou done? Thou hast mistaken quite,
 80013     And laid the love-juice on some true-love's sight.
 80014     Of thy misprision must perforce ensue
 80015     Some true love turn'd, and not a false turn'd true.
 80016   PUCK. Then fate o'er-rules, that, one man holding troth,
 80017     A million fail, confounding oath on oath.
 80018   OBERON. About the wood go swifter than the wind,
 80019     And Helena of Athens look thou find;
 80020     All fancy-sick she is and pale of cheer,
 80021     With sighs of love that costs the fresh blood dear.
 80022     By some illusion see thou bring her here;
 80023     I'll charm his eyes against she do appear.
 80024   PUCK. I go, I go; look how I go,
 80025     Swifter than arrow from the Tartar's bow.               Exit
 80026   OBERON.       Flower of this purple dye,
 80027                 Hit with Cupid's archery,
 80028                 Sink in apple of his eye.
 80029                 When his love he doth espy,
 80030                 Let her shine as gloriously
 80031                 As the Venus of the sky.
 80032                 When thou wak'st, if she be by,
 80033                 Beg of her for remedy.
 80034 
 80035                        Re-enter PUCK
 80036 
 80037   PUCK.         Captain of our fairy band,
 80038                 Helena is here at hand,
 80039                 And the youth mistook by me
 80040                 Pleading for a lover's fee;
 80041                 Shall we their fond pageant see?
 80042                 Lord, what fools these mortals be!
 80043   OBERON.       Stand aside. The noise they make
 80044                 Will cause Demetrius to awake.
 80045   PUCK.         Then will two at once woo one.
 80046                 That must needs be sport alone;
 80047                 And those things do best please me
 80048                 That befall prepost'rously.
 80049 
 80050                    Enter LYSANDER and HELENA
 80051 
 80052   LYSANDER. Why should you think that I should woo in scorn?
 80053     Scorn and derision never come in tears.
 80054     Look when I vow, I weep; and vows so born,
 80055     In their nativity all truth appears.
 80056     How can these things in me seem scorn to you,
 80057     Bearing the badge of faith, to prove them true?
 80058   HELENA. You do advance your cunning more and more.
 80059     When truth kills truth, O devilish-holy fray!
 80060     These vows are Hermia's. Will you give her o'er?
 80061     Weigh oath with oath, and you will nothing weigh:
 80062     Your vows to her and me, put in two scales,
 80063     Will even weigh; and both as light as tales.
 80064   LYSANDER. I hod no judgment when to her I swore.
 80065   HELENA. Nor none, in my mind, now you give her o'er.
 80066   LYSANDER. Demetrius loves her, and he loves not you.
 80067   DEMETRIUS. [Awaking] O Helen, goddess, nymph, perfect, divine!
 80068     To what, my love, shall I compare thine eyne?
 80069     Crystal is muddy. O, how ripe in show
 80070     Thy lips, those kissing cherries, tempting grow!
 80071     That pure congealed white, high Taurus' snow,
 80072     Fann'd with the eastern wind, turns to a crow
 80073     When thou hold'st up thy hand. O, let me kiss
 80074     This princess of pure white, this seal of bliss!
 80075   HELENA. O spite! O hell! I see you all are bent
 80076     To set against me for your merriment.
 80077     If you were civil and knew courtesy,
 80078     You would not do me thus much injury.
 80079     Can you not hate me, as I know you do,
 80080     But you must join in souls to mock me too?
 80081     If you were men, as men you are in show,
 80082     You would not use a gentle lady so:
 80083     To vow, and swear, and superpraise my parts,
 80084     When I am sure you hate me with your hearts.
 80085     You both are rivals, and love Hermia;
 80086     And now both rivals, to mock Helena.
 80087     A trim exploit, a manly enterprise,
 80088     To conjure tears up in a poor maid's eyes
 80089     With your derision! None of noble sort
 80090     Would so offend a virgin, and extort
 80091     A poor soul's patience, all to make you sport.
 80092   LYSANDER. You are unkind, Demetrius; be not so;
 80093     For you love Hermia. This you know I know;
 80094     And here, with all good will, with all my heart,
 80095     In Hermia's love I yield you up my part;
 80096     And yours of Helena to me bequeath,
 80097     Whom I do love and will do till my death.
 80098   HELENA. Never did mockers waste more idle breath.
 80099   DEMETRIUS. Lysander, keep thy Hermia; I will none.
 80100     If e'er I lov'd her, all that love is gone.
 80101     My heart to her but as guest-wise sojourn'd,
 80102     And now to Helen is it home return'd,
 80103     There to remain.
 80104   LYSANDER. Helen, it is not so.
 80105   DEMETRIUS. Disparage not the faith thou dost not know,
 80106     Lest, to thy peril, thou aby it dear.
 80107     Look where thy love comes; yonder is thy dear.
 80108 
 80109                        Enter HERMIA
 80110 
 80111   HERMIA. Dark night, that from the eye his function takes,
 80112     The ear more quick of apprehension makes;
 80113     Wherein it doth impair the seeing sense,
 80114     It pays the hearing double recompense.
 80115     Thou art not by mine eye, Lysander, found;
 80116     Mine ear, I thank it, brought me to thy sound.
 80117     But why unkindly didst thou leave me so?
 80118   LYSANDER. Why should he stay whom love doth press to go?
 80119   HERMIA. What love could press Lysander from my side?
 80120   LYSANDER. Lysander's love, that would not let him bide-
 80121     Fair Helena, who more engilds the night
 80122     Than all yon fiery oes and eyes of light.
 80123     Why seek'st thou me? Could not this make thee know
 80124     The hate I bare thee made me leave thee so?
 80125   HERMIA. You speak not as you think; it cannot be.
 80126   HELENA. Lo, she is one of this confederacy!
 80127     Now I perceive they have conjoin'd all three
 80128     To fashion this false sport in spite of me.
 80129     Injurious Hermia! most ungrateful maid!
 80130     Have you conspir'd, have you with these contriv'd,
 80131     To bait me with this foul derision?
 80132     Is all the counsel that we two have shar'd,
 80133     The sisters' vows, the hours that we have spent,
 80134     When we have chid the hasty-footed time
 80135     For parting us- O, is all forgot?
 80136     All school-days' friendship, childhood innocence?
 80137     We, Hermia, like two artificial gods,
 80138     Have with our needles created both one flower,
 80139     Both on one sampler, sitting on one cushion,
 80140     Both warbling of one song, both in one key;
 80141     As if our hands, our sides, voices, and minds,
 80142     Had been incorporate. So we grew together,
 80143     Like to a double cherry, seeming parted,
 80144     But yet an union in partition,
 80145     Two lovely berries moulded on one stern;
 80146     So, with two seeming bodies, but one heart;
 80147     Two of the first, like coats in heraldry,
 80148     Due but to one, and crowned with one crest.
 80149     And will you rent our ancient love asunder,
 80150     To join with men in scorning your poor friend?
 80151     It is not friendly, 'tis not maidenly;
 80152     Our sex, as well as I, may chide you for it,
 80153     Though I alone do feel the injury.
 80154   HERMIA. I am amazed at your passionate words;
 80155     I scorn you not; it seems that you scorn me.
 80156   HELENA. Have you not set Lysander, as in scorn,
 80157     To follow me and praise my eyes and face?
 80158     And made your other love, Demetrius,
 80159     Who even but now did spurn me with his foot,
 80160     To call me goddess, nymph, divine, and rare,
 80161     Precious, celestial? Wherefore speaks he this
 80162     To her he hates? And wherefore doth Lysander
 80163     Deny your love, so rich within his soul,
 80164     And tender me, forsooth, affection,
 80165     But by your setting on, by your consent?
 80166     What though I be not so in grace as you,
 80167     So hung upon with love, so fortunate,
 80168     But miserable most, to love unlov'd?
 80169     This you should pity rather than despise.
 80170   HERMIA. I understand not what you mean by this.
 80171   HELENA. Ay, do- persever, counterfeit sad looks,
 80172     Make mouths upon me when I turn my back,
 80173     Wink each at other; hold the sweet jest up;
 80174     This sport, well carried, shall be chronicled.
 80175     If you have any pity, grace, or manners,
 80176     You would not make me such an argument.
 80177     But fare ye well; 'tis partly my own fault,
 80178     Which death, or absence, soon shall remedy.
 80179   LYSANDER. Stay, gentle Helena; hear my excuse;
 80180     My love, my life, my soul, fair Helena!
 80181   HELENA. O excellent!
 80182   HERMIA. Sweet, do not scorn her so.
 80183   DEMETRIUS. If she cannot entreat, I can compel.
 80184   LYSANDER. Thou canst compel no more than she entreat;
 80185     Thy threats have no more strength than her weak prayers
 80186     Helen, I love thee, by my life I do;
 80187     I swear by that which I will lose for thee
 80188     To prove him false that says I love thee not.
 80189   DEMETRIUS. I say I love thee more than he can do.
 80190   LYSANDER. If thou say so, withdraw, and prove it too.
 80191   DEMETRIUS. Quick, come.
 80192   HERMIA. Lysander, whereto tends all this?
 80193   LYSANDER. Away, you Ethiope!
 80194   DEMETRIUS. No, no, he will
 80195     Seem to break loose- take on as you would follow,
 80196     But yet come not. You are a tame man; go!
 80197   LYSANDER. Hang off, thou cat, thou burr; vile thing, let loose,
 80198     Or I will shake thee from me like a serpent.
 80199   HERMIA. Why are you grown so rude? What change is this,
 80200     Sweet love?
 80201   LYSANDER. Thy love! Out, tawny Tartar, out!
 80202     Out, loathed med'cine! O hated potion, hence!
 80203   HERMIA. Do you not jest?
 80204   HELENA. Yes, sooth; and so do you.
 80205   LYSANDER. Demetrius, I will keep my word with thee.
 80206   DEMETRIUS. I would I had your bond; for I perceive
 80207     A weak bond holds you; I'll not trust your word.
 80208   LYSANDER. What, should I hurt her, strike her, kill her dead?
 80209     Although I hate her, I'll not harm her so.
 80210   HERMIA. What! Can you do me greater harm than hate?
 80211     Hate me! wherefore? O me! what news, my love?
 80212     Am not I Hermia? Are not you Lysander?
 80213     I am as fair now as I was erewhile.
 80214     Since night you lov'd me; yet since night you left me.
 80215     Why then, you left me- O, the gods forbid!-
 80216     In earnest, shall I say?
 80217   LYSANDER. Ay, by my life!
 80218     And never did desire to see thee more.
 80219     Therefore be out of hope, of question, of doubt;
 80220     Be certain, nothing truer; 'tis no jest
 80221     That I do hate thee and love Helena.
 80222   HERMIA. O me! you juggler! you cankerblossom!
 80223     You thief of love! What! Have you come by night,
 80224     And stol'n my love's heart from him?
 80225   HELENA. Fine, i' faith!
 80226     Have you no modesty, no maiden shame,
 80227     No touch of bashfulness? What! Will you tear
 80228     Impatient answers from my gentle tongue?
 80229     Fie, fie! you counterfeit, you puppet you!
 80230   HERMIA. 'Puppet!' why so? Ay, that way goes the game.
 80231     Now I perceive that she hath made compare
 80232     Between our statures; she hath urg'd her height;
 80233     And with her personage, her tall personage,
 80234     Her height, forsooth, she hath prevail'd with him.
 80235     And are you grown so high in his esteem
 80236     Because I am so dwarfish and so low?
 80237     How low am I, thou painted maypole? Speak.
 80238     How low am I? I am not yet so low
 80239     But that my nails can reach unto thine eyes.
 80240   HELENA. I pray you, though you mock me, gentlemen,
 80241     Let her not hurt me. I was never curst;
 80242     I have no gift at all in shrewishness;
 80243     I am a right maid for my cowardice;
 80244     Let her not strike me. You perhaps may think,
 80245     Because she is something lower than myself,
 80246     That I can match her.
 80247   HERMIA. 'Lower' hark, again.
 80248   HELENA. Good Hermia, do not be so bitter with me.
 80249     I evermore did love you, Hermia,
 80250     Did ever keep your counsels, never wrong'd you;
 80251     Save that, in love unto Demetrius,
 80252     I told him of your stealth unto this wood.
 80253     He followed you; for love I followed him;
 80254     But he hath chid me hence, and threat'ned me
 80255     To strike me, spurn me, nay, to kill me too;
 80256     And now, so you will let me quiet go,
 80257     To Athens will I bear my folly back,
 80258     And follow you no further. Let me go.
 80259     You see how simple and how fond I am.
 80260   HERMIA. Why, get you gone! Who is't that hinders you?
 80261   HELENA. A foolish heart that I leave here behind.
 80262   HERMIA. What! with Lysander?
 80263   HELENA. With Demetrius.
 80264   LYSANDER. Be not afraid; she shall not harm thee, Helena.
 80265   DEMETRIUS. No, sir, she shall not, though you take her part.
 80266   HELENA. O, when she is angry, she is keen and shrewd;
 80267     She was a vixen when she went to school;
 80268     And, though she be but little, she is fierce.
 80269   HERMIA. 'Little' again! Nothing but 'low' and 'little'!
 80270     Why will you suffer her to flout me thus?
 80271     Let me come to her.
 80272   LYSANDER. Get you gone, you dwarf;
 80273     You minimus, of hind'ring knot-grass made;
 80274     You bead, you acorn.
 80275   DEMETRIUS. You are too officious
 80276     In her behalf that scorns your services.
 80277     Let her alone; speak not of Helena;
 80278     Take not her part; for if thou dost intend
 80279     Never so little show of love to her,
 80280     Thou shalt aby it.
 80281   LYSANDER. Now she holds me not.
 80282     Now follow, if thou dar'st, to try whose right,
 80283     Of thine or mine, is most in Helena.
 80284   DEMETRIUS. Follow! Nay, I'll go with thee, cheek by jowl.
 80285                                    Exeunt LYSANDER and DEMETRIUS
 80286   HERMIA. You, mistress, all this coil is long of you.
 80287     Nay, go not back.
 80288   HELENA. I will not trust you, I;
 80289     Nor longer stay in your curst company.
 80290     Your hands than mine are quicker for a fray;
 80291     My legs are longer though, to run away.                 Exit
 80292   HERMIA. I am amaz'd, and know not what to say.            Exit
 80293   OBERON. This is thy negligence. Still thou mistak'st,
 80294     Or else committ'st thy knaveries wilfully.
 80295   PUCK. Believe me, king of shadows, I mistook.
 80296     Did not you tell me I should know the man
 80297     By the Athenian garments he had on?
 80298     And so far blameless proves my enterprise
 80299     That I have 'nointed an Athenian's eyes;
 80300     And so far am I glad it so did sort,
 80301     As this their jangling I esteem a sport.
 80302   OBERON. Thou seest these lovers seek a place to fight.
 80303     Hie therefore, Robin, overcast the night;
 80304     The starry welkin cover thou anon
 80305     With drooping fog as black as Acheron,
 80306     And lead these testy rivals so astray
 80307     As one come not within another's way.
 80308     Like to Lysander sometime frame thy tongue,
 80309     Then stir Demetrius up with bitter wrong;
 80310     And sometime rail thou like Demetrius;
 80311     And from each other look thou lead them thus,
 80312     Till o'er their brows death-counterfeiting sleep
 80313     With leaden legs and batty wings doth creep.
 80314     Then crush this herb into Lysander's eye;
 80315     Whose liquor hath this virtuous property,
 80316     To take from thence all error with his might
 80317     And make his eyeballs roll with wonted sight.
 80318     When they next wake, all this derision
 80319     Shall seem a dream and fruitless vision;
 80320     And back to Athens shall the lovers wend
 80321     With league whose date till death shall never end.
 80322     Whiles I in this affair do thee employ,
 80323     I'll to my queen, and beg her Indian boy;
 80324     And then I will her charmed eye release
 80325     From monster's view, and all things shall be peace.
 80326   PUCK. My fairy lord, this must be done with haste,
 80327     For night's swift dragons cut the clouds full fast;
 80328     And yonder shines Aurora's harbinger,
 80329     At whose approach ghosts, wand'ring here and there,
 80330     Troop home to churchyards. Damned spirits all
 80331     That in cross-ways and floods have burial,
 80332     Already to their wormy beds are gone,
 80333     For fear lest day should look their shames upon;
 80334     They wilfully themselves exil'd from light,
 80335     And must for aye consort with black-brow'd night.
 80336   OBERON. But we are spirits of another sort:
 80337     I with the Morning's love have oft made sport;
 80338     And, like a forester, the groves may tread
 80339     Even till the eastern gate, all fiery red,
 80340     Opening on Neptune with fair blessed beams,
 80341     Turns into yellow gold his salt green streams.
 80342     But, notwithstanding, haste, make no delay;
 80343     We may effect this business yet ere day.         Exit OBERON
 80344   PUCK.      Up and down, up and down,
 80345              I will lead them up and down.
 80346              I am fear'd in field and town.
 80347              Goblin, lead them up and down.
 80348     Here comes one.
 80349 
 80350                       Enter LYSANDER
 80351 
 80352   LYSANDER. Where art thou, proud Demetrius? Speak thou now.
 80353   PUCK. Here, villain, drawn and ready. Where art thou?
 80354   LYSANDER. I will be with thee straight.
 80355   PUCK. Follow me, then,
 80356     To plainer ground.      Exit LYSANDER as following the voice
 80357 
 80358                       Enter DEMETRIUS
 80359 
 80360   DEMETRIUS. Lysander, speak again.
 80361     Thou runaway, thou coward, art thou fled?
 80362     Speak! In some bush? Where dost thou hide thy head?
 80363   PUCK. Thou coward, art thou bragging to the stars,
 80364     Telling the bushes that thou look'st for wars,
 80365     And wilt not come? Come, recreant, come, thou child;
 80366     I'll whip thee with a rod. He is defil'd
 80367     That draws a sword on thee.
 80368   DEMETRIUS. Yea, art thou there?
 80369   PUCK. Follow my voice; we'll try no manhood here.       Exeunt
 80370 
 80371                       Re-enter LYSANDER
 80372 
 80373   LYSANDER. He goes before me, and still dares me on;
 80374     When I come where he calls, then he is gone.
 80375     The villain is much lighter heel'd than I.
 80376     I followed fast, but faster he did fly,
 80377     That fallen am I in dark uneven way,
 80378     And here will rest me. [Lies down] Come, thou gentle day.
 80379     For if but once thou show me thy grey light,
 80380     I'll find Demetrius, and revenge this spite.        [Sleeps]
 80381 
 80382                  Re-enter PUCK and DEMETRIUS
 80383 
 80384   PUCK. Ho, ho, ho! Coward, why com'st thou not?
 80385   DEMETRIUS. Abide me, if thou dar'st; for well I wot
 80386     Thou run'st before me, shifting every place,
 80387     And dar'st not stand, nor look me in the face.
 80388     Where art thou now?
 80389   PUCK. Come hither; I am here.
 80390   DEMETRIUS. Nay, then, thou mock'st me. Thou shalt buy this dear,
 80391     If ever I thy face by daylight see;
 80392     Now, go thy way. Faintness constraineth me
 80393     To measure out my length on this cold bed.
 80394     By day's approach look to be visited.
 80395                                           [Lies down and sleeps]
 80396 
 80397                        Enter HELENA
 80398 
 80399   HELENA. O weary night, O long and tedious night,
 80400     Abate thy hours! Shine comforts from the east,
 80401     That I may back to Athens by daylight,
 80402     From these that my poor company detest.
 80403     And sleep, that sometimes shuts up sorrow's eye,
 80404     Steal me awhile from mine own company.              [Sleeps]
 80405   PUCK.       Yet but three? Come one more;
 80406               Two of both kinds makes up four.
 80407               Here she comes, curst and sad.
 80408               Cupid is a knavish lad,
 80409               Thus to make poor females mad.
 80410 
 80411                      Enter HERMIA
 80412 
 80413   HERMIA. Never so weary, never so in woe,
 80414     Bedabbled with the dew, and torn with briers,
 80415     I can no further crawl, no further go;
 80416     My legs can keep no pace with my desires.
 80417     Here will I rest me till the break of day.
 80418     Heavens shield Lysander, if they mean a fray!
 80419                                           [Lies down and sleeps]
 80420   PUCK.          On the ground
 80421                  Sleep sound;
 80422                  I'll apply
 80423                  To your eye,
 80424           Gentle lover, remedy.
 80425                         [Squeezing the juice on LYSANDER'S eyes]
 80426                  When thou wak'st,
 80427                  Thou tak'st
 80428                  True delight
 80429                  In the sight
 80430           Of thy former lady's eye;
 80431           And the country proverb known,
 80432           That every man should take his own,
 80433           In your waking shall be shown:
 80434                  Jack shall have Jill;
 80435                  Nought shall go ill;
 80436     The man shall have his mare again, and all shall be well.
 80437  Exit
 80438 
 80439 
 80440 
 80441 
 80442 <<THIS ELECTRONIC VERSION OF THE COMPLETE WORKS OF WILLIAM
 80443 SHAKESPEARE IS COPYRIGHT 1990-1993 BY WORLD LIBRARY, INC., AND IS
 80444 PROVIDED BY PROJECT GUTENBERG ETEXT OF ILLINOIS BENEDICTINE COLLEGE
 80445 WITH PERMISSION.  ELECTRONIC AND MACHINE READABLE COPIES MAY BE
 80446 DISTRIBUTED SO LONG AS SUCH COPIES (1) ARE FOR YOUR OR OTHERS
 80447 PERSONAL USE ONLY, AND (2) ARE NOT DISTRIBUTED OR USED
 80448 COMMERCIALLY.  PROHIBITED COMMERCIAL DISTRIBUTION INCLUDES BY ANY
 80449 SERVICE THAT CHARGES FOR DOWNLOAD TIME OR FOR MEMBERSHIP.>>
 80450 
 80451 
 80452 
 80453 ACT IV. SCENE I.
 80454 The wood. LYSANDER, DEMETRIUS, HELENA, and HERMIA, lying asleep
 80455 
 80456 Enter TITANIA and Bottom; PEASEBLOSSOM, COBWEB, MOTH, MUSTARDSEED,
 80457 and other FAIRIES attending;
 80458                       OBERON behind, unseen
 80459 
 80460   TITANIA. Come, sit thee down upon this flow'ry bed,
 80461     While I thy amiable cheeks do coy,
 80462     And stick musk-roses in thy sleek smooth head,
 80463     And kiss thy fair large ears, my gentle joy.
 80464   BOTTOM. Where's Peaseblossom?
 80465   PEASEBLOSSOM. Ready.
 80466   BOTTOM. Scratch my head, Peaseblossom.
 80467     Where's Mounsieur Cobweb?
 80468   COBWEB. Ready.
 80469   BOTTOM. Mounsieur Cobweb; good mounsieur, get you your weapons in
 80470     your hand and kill me a red-hipp'd humble-bee on the top of a
 80471     thistle; and, good mounsieur, bring me the honey-bag. Do not fret
 80472     yourself too much in the action, mounsieur; and, good mounsieur,
 80473     have a care the honey-bag break not; I would be loath to have you
 80474     overflown with a honey-bag, signior. Where's Mounsieur
 80475     Mustardseed?
 80476   MUSTARDSEED. Ready.
 80477   BOTTOM. Give me your neaf, Mounsieur Mustardseed. Pray you, leave
 80478     your curtsy, good mounsieur.
 80479   MUSTARDSEED. What's your will?
 80480   BOTTOM. Nothing, good mounsieur, but to help Cavalery Cobweb to
 80481     scratch. I must to the barber's, mounsieur; for methinks I am
 80482     marvellous hairy about the face; and I am such a tender ass, if
 80483     my hair do but tickle me I must scratch.
 80484   TITANIA. What, wilt thou hear some music, my sweet love?
 80485   BOTTOM. I have a reasonable good ear in music. Let's have the tongs
 80486     and the bones.
 80487   TITANIA. Or say, sweet love, what thou desirest to eat.
 80488   BOTTOM. Truly, a peck of provender; I could munch your good dry
 80489     oats. Methinks I have a great desire to a bottle of hay. Good
 80490     hay, sweet hay, hath no fellow.
 80491   TITANIA. I have a venturous fairy that shall seek
 80492     The squirrel's hoard, and fetch thee new nuts.
 80493   BOTTOM. I had rather have a handful or two of dried peas. But, I
 80494     pray you, let none of your people stir me; I have an exposition
 80495     of sleep come upon me.
 80496   TITANIA. Sleep thou, and I will wind thee in my arms.
 80497     Fairies, be gone, and be all ways away.       Exeunt FAIRIES
 80498     So doth the woodbine the sweet honeysuckle
 80499     Gently entwist; the female ivy so
 80500     Enrings the barky fingers of the elm.
 80501     O, how I love thee! how I dote on thee!         [They sleep]
 80502 
 80503                          Enter PUCK
 80504 
 80505   OBERON. [Advancing] Welcome, good Robin. Seest thou this sweet
 80506       sight?
 80507     Her dotage now I do begin to pity;
 80508     For, meeting her of late behind the wood,
 80509     Seeking sweet favours for this hateful fool,
 80510     I did upbraid her and fall out with her.
 80511     For she his hairy temples then had rounded
 80512     With coronet of fresh and fragrant flowers;
 80513     And that same dew which sometime on the buds
 80514     Was wont to swell like round and orient pearls
 80515     Stood now within the pretty flowerets' eyes,
 80516     Like tears that did their own disgrace bewail.
 80517     When I had at my pleasure taunted her,
 80518     And she in mild terms begg'd my patience,
 80519     I then did ask of her her changeling child;
 80520     Which straight she gave me, and her fairy sent
 80521     To bear him to my bower in fairy land.
 80522     And now I have the boy, I will undo
 80523     This hateful imperfection of her eyes.
 80524     And, gentle Puck, take this transformed scalp
 80525     From off the head of this Athenian swain,
 80526     That he awaking when the other do
 80527     May all to Athens back again repair,
 80528     And think no more of this night's accidents
 80529     But as the fierce vexation of a dream.
 80530     But first I will release the Fairy Queen.
 80531                                              [Touching her eyes]
 80532            Be as thou wast wont to be;
 80533            See as thou was wont to see.
 80534            Dian's bud o'er Cupid's flower
 80535            Hath such force and blessed power.
 80536     Now, my Titania; wake you, my sweet queen.
 80537   TITANIA. My Oberon! What visions have I seen!
 80538     Methought I was enamour'd of an ass.
 80539   OBERON. There lies your love.
 80540   TITANIA. How came these things to pass?
 80541     O, how mine eyes do loathe his visage now!
 80542   OBERON. Silence awhile. Robin, take off this head.
 80543     Titania, music call; and strike more dead
 80544     Than common sleep of all these five the sense.
 80545   TITANIA. Music, ho, music, such as charmeth sleep!
 80546   PUCK. Now when thou wak'st with thine own fool's eyes peep.
 80547   OBERON. Sound, music. Come, my Queen, take hands with me,
 80548                                                          [Music]
 80549     And rock the ground whereon these sleepers be.
 80550     Now thou and I are new in amity,
 80551     And will to-morrow midnight solemnly
 80552     Dance in Duke Theseus' house triumphantly,
 80553     And bless it to all fair prosperity.
 80554     There shall the pairs of faithful lovers be
 80555     Wedded, with Theseus, an in jollity.
 80556   PUCK.       Fairy King, attend and mark;
 80557               I do hear the morning lark.
 80558   OBERON.     Then, my Queen, in silence sad,
 80559               Trip we after night's shade.
 80560               We the globe can compass soon,
 80561               Swifter than the wand'ring moon.
 80562   TITANIA.    Come, my lord; and in our flight,
 80563               Tell me how it came this night
 80564               That I sleeping here was found
 80565               With these mortals on the ground.           Exeunt
 80566 
 80567         To the winding of horns, enter THESEUS, HIPPOLYTA,
 80568                       EGEUS, and train
 80569 
 80570   THESEUS. Go, one of you, find out the forester;
 80571     For now our observation is perform'd,
 80572     And since we have the vaward of the day,
 80573     My love shall hear the music of my hounds.
 80574     Uncouple in the western valley; let them go.
 80575     Dispatch, I say, and find the forester.    Exit an ATTENDANT
 80576     We will, fair Queen, up to the mountain's top,
 80577     And mark the musical confusion
 80578     Of hounds and echo in conjunction.
 80579   HIPPOLYTA. I was with Hercules and Cadmus once
 80580     When in a wood of Crete they bay'd the bear
 80581     With hounds of Sparta; never did I hear
 80582     Such gallant chiding, for, besides the groves,
 80583     The skies, the fountains, every region near
 80584     Seem'd all one mutual cry. I never heard
 80585     So musical a discord, such sweet thunder.
 80586   THESEUS. My hounds are bred out of the Spartan kind,
 80587     So flew'd, so sanded; and their heads are hung
 80588     With ears that sweep away the morning dew;
 80589     Crook-knee'd and dew-lapp'd like Thessalian bulls;
 80590     Slow in pursuit, but match'd in mouth like bells,
 80591     Each under each. A cry more tuneable
 80592     Was never holla'd to, nor cheer'd with horn,
 80593     In Crete, in Sparta, nor in Thessaly.
 80594     Judge when you hear. But, soft, what nymphs are these?
 80595   EGEUS. My lord, this is my daughter here asleep,
 80596     And this Lysander, this Demetrius is,
 80597     This Helena, old Nedar's Helena.
 80598     I wonder of their being here together.
 80599   THESEUS. No doubt they rose up early to observe
 80600     The rite of May; and, hearing our intent,
 80601     Came here in grace of our solemnity.
 80602     But speak, Egeus; is not this the day
 80603     That Hermia should give answer of her choice?
 80604   EGEUS. It is, my lord.
 80605   THESEUS. Go, bid the huntsmen wake them with their horns.
 80606                            [Horns and shout within. The sleepers
 80607                                      awake and kneel to THESEUS]
 80608     Good-morrow, friends. Saint Valentine is past;
 80609     Begin these wood-birds but to couple now?
 80610   LYSANDER. Pardon, my lord.
 80611   THESEUS. I pray you all, stand up.
 80612     I know you two are rival enemies;
 80613     How comes this gentle concord in the world
 80614     That hatred is so far from jealousy
 80615     To sleep by hate, and fear no enmity?
 80616   LYSANDER. My lord, I shall reply amazedly,
 80617     Half sleep, half waking; but as yet, I swear,
 80618     I cannot truly say how I came here,
 80619     But, as I think- for truly would I speak,
 80620     And now I do bethink me, so it is-
 80621     I came with Hermia hither. Our intent
 80622     Was to be gone from Athens, where we might,
 80623     Without the peril of the Athenian law-
 80624   EGEUS. Enough, enough, my Lord; you have enough;
 80625     I beg the law, the law upon his head.
 80626     They would have stol'n away, they would, Demetrius,
 80627     Thereby to have defeated you and me:
 80628     You of your wife, and me of my consent,
 80629     Of my consent that she should be your wife.
 80630   DEMETRIUS. My lord, fair Helen told me of their stealth,
 80631     Of this their purpose hither to this wood;
 80632     And I in fury hither followed them,
 80633     Fair Helena in fancy following me.
 80634     But, my good lord, I wot not by what power-
 80635     But by some power it is- my love to Hermia,
 80636     Melted as the snow, seems to me now
 80637     As the remembrance of an idle gaud
 80638     Which in my childhood I did dote upon;
 80639     And all the faith, the virtue of my heart,
 80640     The object and the pleasure of mine eye,
 80641     Is only Helena. To her, my lord,
 80642     Was I betroth'd ere I saw Hermia.
 80643     But, like a sickness, did I loathe this food;
 80644     But, as in health, come to my natural taste,
 80645     Now I do wish it, love it, long for it,
 80646     And will for evermore be true to it.
 80647   THESEUS. Fair lovers, you are fortunately met;
 80648     Of this discourse we more will hear anon.
 80649     Egeus, I will overbear your will;
 80650     For in the temple, by and by, with us
 80651     These couples shall eternally be knit.
 80652     And, for the morning now is something worn,
 80653     Our purpos'd hunting shall be set aside.
 80654     Away with us to Athens, three and three;
 80655     We'll hold a feast in great solemnity.
 80656     Come, Hippolyta.
 80657                      Exeunt THESEUS, HIPPOLYTA, EGEUS, and train
 80658   DEMETRIUS. These things seem small and undistinguishable,
 80659     Like far-off mountains turned into clouds.
 80660   HERMIA. Methinks I see these things with parted eye,
 80661     When every thing seems double.
 80662   HELENA. So methinks;
 80663     And I have found Demetrius like a jewel,
 80664     Mine own, and not mine own.
 80665   DEMETRIUS. Are you sure
 80666     That we are awake? It seems to me
 80667     That yet we sleep, we dream. Do not you think
 80668     The Duke was here, and bid us follow him?
 80669   HERMIA. Yea, and my father.
 80670   HELENA. And Hippolyta.
 80671   LYSANDER. And he did bid us follow to the temple.
 80672   DEMETRIUS. Why, then, we are awake; let's follow him;
 80673     And by the way let us recount our dreams.             Exeunt
 80674   BOTTOM. [Awaking] When my cue comes, call me, and I will answer. My
 80675     next is 'Most fair Pyramus.' Heigh-ho! Peter Quince! Flute, the
 80676     bellows-mender! Snout, the tinker! Starveling! God's my life,
 80677     stol'n hence, and left me asleep! I have had a most rare vision.
 80678     I have had a dream, past the wit of man to say what dream it was.
 80679     Man is but an ass if he go about to expound this dream. Methought
 80680     I was- there is no man can tell what. Methought I was, and
 80681     methought I had, but man is but a patch'd fool, if he will offer
 80682     to say what methought I had. The eye of man hath not heard, the
 80683     ear of man hath not seen, man's hand is not able to taste, his
 80684     tongue to conceive, nor his heart to report, what my dream was. I
 80685     will get Peter Quince to write a ballad of this dream. It shall
 80686     be call'd 'Bottom's Dream,' because it hath no bottom; and I will
 80687     sing it in the latter end of a play, before the Duke.
 80688     Peradventure, to make it the more gracious, I shall sing it at
 80689     her death.                                              Exit
 80690 
 80691 
 80692 
 80693 
 80694 SCENE II.
 80695 Athens. QUINCE'S house
 80696 
 80697 Enter QUINCE, FLUTE, SNOUT, and STARVELING
 80698 
 80699   QUINCE. Have you sent to Bottom's house? Is he come home yet?
 80700   STARVELING. He cannot be heard of. Out of doubt he is transported.
 80701   FLUTE. If he come not, then the play is marr'd; it goes not
 80702     forward, doth it?
 80703   QUINCE. It is not possible. You have not a man in all Athens able
 80704     to discharge Pyramus but he.
 80705   FLUTE. No; he hath simply the best wit of any handicraft man in
 80706     Athens.
 80707   QUINCE. Yea, and the best person too; and he is a very paramour for
 80708     a sweet voice.
 80709   FLUTE. You must say 'paragon.' A paramour is- God bless us!- A
 80710     thing of naught.
 80711 
 80712                            Enter SNUG
 80713 
 80714   SNUG. Masters, the Duke is coming from the temple; and there is two
 80715     or three lords and ladies more married. If our sport had gone
 80716     forward, we had all been made men.
 80717   FLUTE. O sweet bully Bottom! Thus hath he lost sixpence a day
 80718     during his life; he could not have scaped sixpence a day. An the
 80719     Duke had not given him sixpence a day for playing Pyramus, I'll
 80720     be hanged. He would have deserved it: sixpence a day in Pyramus,
 80721     or nothing.
 80722 
 80723                            Enter BOTTOM
 80724 
 80725   BOTTOM. Where are these lads? Where are these hearts?
 80726   QUINCE. Bottom! O most courageous day! O most happy hour!
 80727   BOTTOM. Masters, I am to discourse wonders; but ask me not what;
 80728     for if I tell you, I am not true Athenian. I will tell you
 80729     everything, right as it fell out.
 80730   QUINCE. Let us hear, sweet Bottom.
 80731   BOTTOM. Not a word of me. All that I will tell you is, that the
 80732     Duke hath dined. Get your apparel together; good strings to your
 80733     beards, new ribbons to your pumps; meet presently at the palace;
 80734     every man look o'er his part; for the short and the long is, our
 80735     play is preferr'd. In any case, let Thisby have clean linen; and
 80736     let not him that plays the lion pare his nails, for they shall
 80737     hang out for the lion's claws. And, most dear actors, eat no
 80738     onions nor garlic, for we are to utter sweet breath; and I do not
 80739     doubt but to hear them say it is a sweet comedy. No more words.
 80740     Away, go, away!                                       Exeunt
 80741 
 80742 
 80743 
 80744 
 80745 <<THIS ELECTRONIC VERSION OF THE COMPLETE WORKS OF WILLIAM
 80746 SHAKESPEARE IS COPYRIGHT 1990-1993 BY WORLD LIBRARY, INC., AND IS
 80747 PROVIDED BY PROJECT GUTENBERG ETEXT OF ILLINOIS BENEDICTINE COLLEGE
 80748 WITH PERMISSION.  ELECTRONIC AND MACHINE READABLE COPIES MAY BE
 80749 DISTRIBUTED SO LONG AS SUCH COPIES (1) ARE FOR YOUR OR OTHERS
 80750 PERSONAL USE ONLY, AND (2) ARE NOT DISTRIBUTED OR USED
 80751 COMMERCIALLY.  PROHIBITED COMMERCIAL DISTRIBUTION INCLUDES BY ANY
 80752 SERVICE THAT CHARGES FOR DOWNLOAD TIME OR FOR MEMBERSHIP.>>
 80753 
 80754 
 80755 
 80756 ACT V. SCENE I.
 80757 Athens. The palace of THESEUS
 80758 
 80759 Enter THESEUS, HIPPOLYTA, PHILOSTRATE, LORDS, and ATTENDANTS
 80760 
 80761   HIPPOLYTA. 'Tis strange, my Theseus, that these lovers speak of.
 80762   THESEUS. More strange than true. I never may believe
 80763     These antique fables, nor these fairy toys.
 80764     Lovers and madmen have such seething brains,
 80765     Such shaping fantasies, that apprehend
 80766     More than cool reason ever comprehends.
 80767     The lunatic, the lover, and the poet,
 80768     Are of imagination all compact.
 80769     One sees more devils than vast hell can hold;
 80770     That is the madman. The lover, all as frantic,
 80771     Sees Helen's beauty in a brow of Egypt.
 80772     The poet's eye, in a fine frenzy rolling,
 80773     Doth glance from heaven to earth, from earth to heaven;
 80774     And as imagination bodies forth
 80775     The forms of things unknown, the poet's pen
 80776     Turns them to shapes, and gives to airy nothing
 80777     A local habitation and a name.
 80778     Such tricks hath strong imagination
 80779     That, if it would but apprehend some joy,
 80780     It comprehends some bringer of that joy;
 80781     Or in the night, imagining some fear,
 80782     How easy is a bush suppos'd a bear?
 80783   HIPPOLYTA. But all the story of the night told over,
 80784     And all their minds transfigur'd so together,
 80785     More witnesseth than fancy's images,
 80786     And grows to something of great constancy,
 80787     But howsoever strange and admirable.
 80788 
 80789           Enter LYSANDER, DEMETRIUS, HERMIA, and HELENA
 80790 
 80791   THESEUS. Here come the lovers, full of joy and mirth.
 80792     Joy, gentle friends, joy and fresh days of love
 80793     Accompany your hearts!
 80794   LYSANDER. More than to us
 80795     Wait in your royal walks, your board, your bed!
 80796   THESEUS. Come now; what masques, what dances shall we have,
 80797     To wear away this long age of three hours
 80798     Between our after-supper and bed-time?
 80799     Where is our usual manager of mirth?
 80800     What revels are in hand? Is there no play
 80801     To ease the anguish of a torturing hour?
 80802     Call Philostrate.
 80803   PHILOSTRATE. Here, mighty Theseus.
 80804   THESEUS. Say, what abridgment have you for this evening?
 80805     What masque? what music? How shall we beguile
 80806     The lazy time, if not with some delight?
 80807   PHILOSTRATE. There is a brief how many sports are ripe;
 80808     Make choice of which your Highness will see first.
 80809                                                 [Giving a paper]
 80810   THESEUS. 'The battle with the Centaurs, to be sung
 80811     By an Athenian eunuch to the harp.'
 80812     We'll none of that: that have I told my love,
 80813     In glory of my kinsman Hercules.
 80814     'The riot of the tipsy Bacchanals,
 80815     Tearing the Thracian singer in their rage.'
 80816     That is an old device, and it was play'd
 80817     When I from Thebes came last a conqueror.
 80818     'The thrice three Muses mourning for the death
 80819     Of Learning, late deceas'd in beggary.'
 80820     That is some satire, keen and critical,
 80821     Not sorting with a nuptial ceremony.
 80822     'A tedious brief scene of young Pyramus
 80823     And his love Thisby; very tragical mirth.'
 80824     Merry and tragical! tedious and brief!
 80825     That is hot ice and wondrous strange snow.
 80826     How shall we find the concord of this discord?
 80827   PHILOSTRATE. A play there is, my lord, some ten words long,
 80828     Which is as brief as I have known a play;
 80829     But by ten words, my lord, it is too long,
 80830     Which makes it tedious; for in all the play
 80831     There is not one word apt, one player fitted.
 80832     And tragical, my noble lord, it is;
 80833     For Pyramus therein doth kill himself.
 80834     Which when I saw rehears'd, I must confess,
 80835     Made mine eyes water; but more merry tears
 80836     The passion of loud laughter never shed.
 80837   THESEUS. What are they that do play it?
 80838   PHILOSTRATE. Hard-handed men that work in Athens here,
 80839     Which never labour'd in their minds till now;
 80840     And now have toil'd their unbreathed memories
 80841     With this same play against your nuptial.
 80842   THESEUS. And we will hear it.
 80843   PHILOSTRATE. No, my noble lord,
 80844     It is not for you. I have heard it over,
 80845     And it is nothing, nothing in the world;
 80846     Unless you can find sport in their intents,
 80847     Extremely stretch'd and conn'd with cruel pain,
 80848     To do you service.
 80849   THESEUS. I will hear that play;
 80850     For never anything can be amiss
 80851     When simpleness and duty tender it.
 80852     Go, bring them in; and take your places, ladies.
 80853                                                 Exit PHILOSTRATE
 80854   HIPPOLYTA. I love not to see wretchedness o'er-charged,
 80855     And duty in his service perishing.
 80856   THESEUS. Why, gentle sweet, you shall see no such thing.
 80857   HIPPOLYTA. He says they can do nothing in this kind.
 80858   THESEUS. The kinder we, to give them thanks for nothing.
 80859     Our sport shall be to take what they mistake;
 80860     And what poor duty cannot do, noble respect
 80861     Takes it in might, not merit.
 80862     Where I have come, great clerks have purposed
 80863     To greet me with premeditated welcomes;
 80864     Where I have seen them shiver and look pale,
 80865     Make periods in the midst of sentences,
 80866     Throttle their practis'd accent in their fears,
 80867     And, in conclusion, dumbly have broke off,
 80868     Not paying me a welcome. Trust me, sweet,
 80869     Out of this silence yet I pick'd a welcome;
 80870     And in the modesty of fearful duty
 80871     I read as much as from the rattling tongue
 80872     Of saucy and audacious eloquence.
 80873     Love, therefore, and tongue-tied simplicity
 80874     In least speak most to my capacity.
 80875 
 80876                        Re-enter PHILOSTRATE
 80877 
 80878   PHILOSTRATE. SO please your Grace, the Prologue is address'd.
 80879   THESEUS. Let him approach.              [Flourish of trumpets]
 80880 
 80881                  Enter QUINCE as the PROLOGUE
 80882 
 80883   PROLOGUE. If we offend, it is with our good will.
 80884     That you should think, we come not to offend,
 80885     But with good will. To show our simple skill,
 80886     That is the true beginning of our end.
 80887     Consider then, we come but in despite.
 80888     We do not come, as minding to content you,
 80889     Our true intent is. All for your delight
 80890     We are not here. That you should here repent you,
 80891     The actors are at band; and, by their show,
 80892     You shall know all, that you are like to know,
 80893   THESEUS. This fellow doth not stand upon points.
 80894   LYSANDER. He hath rid his prologue like a rough colt; he knows not
 80895     the stop. A good moral, my lord: it is not enough to speak, but
 80896     to speak true.
 80897   HIPPOLYTA. Indeed he hath play'd on this prologue like a child on a
 80898     recorder- a sound, but not in government.
 80899   THESEUS. His speech was like a tangled chain; nothing im paired,
 80900     but all disordered. Who is next?
 80901 
 80902           Enter, with a trumpet before them, as in dumb show,
 80903             PYRAMUS and THISBY, WALL, MOONSHINE, and LION
 80904 
 80905   PROLOGUE. Gentles, perchance you wonder at this show;
 80906     But wonder on, till truth make all things plain.
 80907     This man is Pyramus, if you would know;
 80908     This beauteous lady Thisby is certain.
 80909     This man, with lime and rough-cast, doth present
 80910     Wall, that vile Wall which did these lovers sunder;
 80911     And through Walls chink, poor souls, they are content
 80912     To whisper. At the which let no man wonder.
 80913     This man, with lanthorn, dog, and bush of thorn,
 80914     Presenteth Moonshine; for, if you will know,
 80915     By moonshine did these lovers think no scorn
 80916     To meet at Ninus' tomb, there, there to woo.
 80917     This grisly beast, which Lion hight by name,
 80918     The trusty Thisby, coming first by night,
 80919     Did scare away, or rather did affright;
 80920     And as she fled, her mantle she did fall;
 80921     Which Lion vile with bloody mouth did stain.
 80922     Anon comes Pyramus, sweet youth and tall,
 80923     And finds his trusty Thisby's mantle slain;
 80924     Whereat with blade, with bloody blameful blade,
 80925     He bravely broach'd his boiling bloody breast;
 80926     And Thisby, tarrying in mulberry shade,
 80927     His dagger drew, and died. For all the rest,
 80928     Let Lion, Moonshine, Wall, and lovers twain,
 80929     At large discourse while here they do remain.
 80930                                Exeunt PROLOGUE, PYRAMUS, THISBY,
 80931                                              LION, and MOONSHINE
 80932   THESEUS. I wonder if the lion be to speak.
 80933   DEMETRIUS. No wonder, my lord: one lion may, when many asses do.
 80934   WALL. In this same interlude it doth befall
 80935     That I, one Snout by name, present a wall;
 80936     And such a wall as I would have you think
 80937     That had in it a crannied hole or chink,
 80938     Through which the lovers, Pyramus and Thisby,
 80939     Did whisper often very secretly.
 80940     This loam, this rough-cast, and this stone, doth show
 80941     That I am that same wall; the truth is so;
 80942     And this the cranny is, right and sinister,
 80943     Through which the fearful lovers are to whisper.
 80944   THESEUS. Would you desire lime and hair to speak better?
 80945   DEMETRIUS. It is the wittiest partition that ever I heard
 80946     discourse, my lord.
 80947 
 80948                        Enter PYRAMUS
 80949 
 80950   THESEUS. Pyramus draws near the wall; silence.
 80951   PYRAMUS. O grim-look'd night! O night with hue so black!
 80952     O night, which ever art when day is not!
 80953     O night, O night, alack, alack, alack,
 80954     I fear my Thisby's promise is forgot!
 80955     And thou, O wall, O sweet, O lovely wall,
 80956     That stand'st between her father's ground and mine;
 80957     Thou wall, O wall, O sweet and lovely wall,
 80958     Show me thy chink, to blink through with mine eyne.
 80959                                      [WALL holds up his fingers]
 80960     Thanks, courteous wall. Jove shield thee well for this!
 80961     But what see what see I? No Thisby do I see.
 80962     O wicked wall, through whom I see no bliss,
 80963     Curs'd he thy stones for thus deceiving me!
 80964   THESEUS. The wall, methinks, being sensible, should curse again.
 80965   PYRAMUS. No, in truth, sir, he should not. Deceiving me is Thisby's
 80966     cue. She is to enter now, and I am to spy her through the wall.
 80967     You shall see it will fall pat as I told you; yonder she comes.
 80968 
 80969                           Enter THISBY
 80970 
 80971   THISBY. O wall, full often hast thou beard my moans,
 80972     For parting my fair Pyramus and me!
 80973     My cherry lips have often kiss'd thy stones,
 80974     Thy stones with lime and hair knit up in thee.
 80975   PYRAMUS. I see a voice; now will I to the chink,
 80976     To spy an I can hear my Thisby's face.
 80977     Thisby!
 80978   THISBY. My love! thou art my love, I think.
 80979   PYRAMUS. Think what thou wilt, I am thy lover's grace;
 80980     And like Limander am I trusty still.
 80981   THISBY. And I like Helen, till the Fates me kill.
 80982   PYRAMUS. Not Shafalus to Procrus was so true.
 80983   THISBY. As Shafalus to Procrus, I to you.
 80984   PYRAMUS. O, kiss me through the hole of this vile wall.
 80985   THISBY. I kiss the wall's hole, not your lips at all.
 80986   PYRAMUS. Wilt thou at Ninny's tomb meet me straightway?
 80987   THISBY. Tide life, tide death, I come without delay.
 80988                                        Exeunt PYRAMUS and THISBY
 80989   WALL. Thus have I, Wall, my part discharged so;
 80990     And, being done, thus Wall away doth go.           Exit WALL
 80991   THESEUS. Now is the moon used between the two neighbours.
 80992   DEMETRIUS. No remedy, my lord, when walls are so wilful to hear
 80993     without warning.
 80994   HIPPOLYTA. This is the silliest stuff that ever I heard.
 80995   THESEUS. The best in this kind are but shadows; and the worst are
 80996     no worse, if imagination amend them.
 80997   HIPPOLYTA. It must be your imagination then, and not theirs.
 80998   THESEUS. If we imagine no worse of them than they of themselves,
 80999     they may pass for excellent men. Here come two noble beasts in, a
 81000     man and a lion.
 81001 
 81002                    Enter LION and MOONSHINE
 81003 
 81004   LION. You, ladies, you, whose gentle hearts do fear
 81005     The smallest monstrous mouse that creeps on floor,
 81006     May now, perchance, both quake and tremble here,
 81007     When lion rough in wildest rage doth roar.
 81008     Then know that I as Snug the joiner am
 81009     A lion fell, nor else no lion's dam;
 81010     For, if I should as lion come in strife
 81011     Into this place, 'twere pity on my life.
 81012   THESEUS. A very gentle beast, and of a good conscience.
 81013   DEMETRIUS. The very best at a beast, my lord, that e'er I saw.
 81014   LYSANDER. This lion is a very fox for his valour.
 81015   THESEUS. True; and a goose for his discretion.
 81016   DEMETRIUS. Not so, my lord; for his valour cannot carry his
 81017     discretion, and the fox carries the goose.
 81018   THESEUS. His discretion, I am sure, cannot carry his valour; for
 81019     the goose carries not the fox. It is well. Leave it to his
 81020     discretion, and let us listen to the Moon.
 81021   MOONSHINE. This lanthorn doth the horned moon present-
 81022   DEMETRIUS. He should have worn the horns on his head.
 81023   THESEUS. He is no crescent, and his horns are invisible within the
 81024     circumference.
 81025   MOONSHINE. This lanthorn doth the horned moon present;
 81026     Myself the Man i' th' Moon do seem to be.
 81027   THESEUS. This is the greatest error of all the rest; the man should
 81028     be put into the lantern. How is it else the man i' th' moon?
 81029   DEMETRIUS. He dares not come there for the candle; for, you see, it
 81030     is already in snuff.
 81031   HIPPOLYTA. I am aweary of this moon. Would he would change!
 81032   THESEUS. It appears, by his small light of discretion, that he is
 81033     in the wane; but yet, in courtesy, in all reason, we must stay
 81034     the time.
 81035   LYSANDER. Proceed, Moon.
 81036   MOON. All that I have to say is to tell you that the lanthorn is
 81037     the moon; I, the Man i' th' Moon; this thorn-bush, my thorn-bush;
 81038     and this dog, my dog.
 81039   DEMETRIUS. Why, all these should be in the lantern; for all these
 81040     are in the moon. But silence; here comes Thisby.
 81041 
 81042                         Re-enter THISBY
 81043 
 81044   THISBY. This is old Ninny's tomb. Where is my love?
 81045   LION. [Roaring] O-                           [THISBY runs off]
 81046   DEMETRIUS. Well roar'd, Lion.
 81047   THESEUS. Well run, Thisby.
 81048   HIPPOLYTA. Well shone, Moon. Truly, the moon shines with a good
 81049     grace.            [The LION tears THISBY'S Mantle, and exit]
 81050   THESEUS. Well mous'd, Lion.
 81051 
 81052                         Re-enter PYRAMUS
 81053 
 81054   DEMETRIUS. And then came Pyramus.
 81055   LYSANDER. And so the lion vanish'd.
 81056   PYRAMUS. Sweet Moon, I thank thee for thy sunny beams;
 81057     I thank thee, Moon, for shining now so bright;
 81058     For, by thy gracious golden, glittering gleams,
 81059     I trust to take of truest Thisby sight.
 81060              But stay, O spite!
 81061              But mark, poor knight,
 81062            What dreadful dole is here!
 81063              Eyes, do you see?
 81064              How can it he?
 81065            O dainty duck! O dear!
 81066              Thy mantle good,
 81067              What! stain'd with blood?
 81068            Approach, ye Furies fell.
 81069              O Fates! come, come;
 81070              Cut thread and thrum;
 81071            Quail, crush, conclude, and quell.
 81072   THESEUS. This passion, and the death of a dear friend, would go
 81073     near to make a man look sad.
 81074   HIPPOLYTA. Beshrew my heart, but I pity the man.
 81075   PYRAMUS. O wherefore, Nature, didst thou lions frame?
 81076     Since lion vile hath here deflower'd my dear;
 81077     Which is- no, no- which was the fairest dame
 81078     That liv'd, that lov'd, that lik'd, that look'd with cheer.
 81079              Come, tears, confound;
 81080              Out, sword, and wound
 81081            The pap of Pyramus;
 81082              Ay, that left pap,
 81083              Where heart doth hop.               [Stabs himself]
 81084            Thus die I, thus, thus, thus.
 81085              Now am I dead,
 81086              Now am I fled;
 81087            My soul is in the sky.
 81088              Tongue, lose thy light;
 81089              Moon, take thy flight.             [Exit MOONSHINE]
 81090            Now die, die, die, die, die.                   [Dies]
 81091   DEMETRIUS. No die, but an ace, for him; for he is but one.
 81092   LYSANDER. Less than an ace, man; for he is dead; he is nothing.
 81093   THESEUS. With the help of a surgeon he might yet recover and yet
 81094     prove an ass.
 81095   HIPPOLYTA. How chance Moonshine is gone before Thisby comes back
 81096     and finds her lover?
 81097 
 81098                        Re-enter THISBY
 81099 
 81100   THESEUS. She will find him by starlight. Here she comes; and her
 81101     passion ends the play.
 81102   HIPPOLYTA. Methinks she should not use a long one for such a
 81103     Pyramus; I hope she will be brief.
 81104   DEMETRIUS. A mote will turn the balance, which Pyramus, which
 81105     Thisby, is the better- he for a man, God warrant us: She for a
 81106     woman, God bless us!
 81107   LYSANDER. She hath spied him already with those sweet eyes.
 81108   DEMETRIUS. And thus she moans, videlicet:-
 81109   THISBY.      Asleep, my love?
 81110                What, dead, my dove?
 81111              O Pyramus, arise,
 81112                Speak, speak. Quite dumb?
 81113                Dead, dead? A tomb
 81114              Must cover thy sweet eyes.
 81115                These lily lips,
 81116                This cherry nose,
 81117              These yellow cowslip cheeks,
 81118                Are gone, are gone;
 81119                Lovers, make moan;
 81120              His eyes were green as leeks.
 81121                O Sisters Three,
 81122                Come, come to me,
 81123              With hands as pale as milk;
 81124                Lay them in gore,
 81125                Since you have shore
 81126              With shears his thread of silk.
 81127                Tongue, not a word.
 81128                Come, trusty sword;
 81129              Come, blade, my breast imbrue.      [Stabs herself]
 81130                And farewell, friends;
 81131                Thus Thisby ends;
 81132              Adieu, adieu, adieu.                         [Dies]
 81133   THESEUS. Moonshine and Lion are left to bury the dead.
 81134   DEMETRIUS. Ay, and Wall too.
 81135   BOTTOM. [Starting up] No, I assure you; the wall is down that
 81136     parted their fathers. Will it please you to see the Epilogue, or
 81137     to hear a Bergomask dance between two of our company?
 81138   THESEUS. No epilogue, I pray you; for your play needs no excuse.
 81139     Never excuse; for when the players are all dead there need none
 81140     to be blamed. Marry, if he that writ it had played Pyramus, and
 81141     hang'd himself in Thisby's garter, it would have been a fine
 81142     tragedy. And so it is, truly; and very notably discharg'd. But
 81143     come, your Bergomask; let your epilogue alone.     [A dance]
 81144     The iron tongue of midnight hath told twelve.
 81145     Lovers, to bed; 'tis almost fairy time.
 81146     I fear we shall out-sleep the coming morn,
 81147     As much as we this night have overwatch'd.
 81148     This palpable-gross play hath well beguil'd
 81149     The heavy gait of night. Sweet friends, to bed.
 81150     A fortnight hold we this solemnity,
 81151     In nightly revels and new jollity.                    Exeunt
 81152 
 81153                      Enter PUCK with a broom
 81154 
 81155   PUCK.      Now the hungry lion roars,
 81156              And the wolf behowls the moon;
 81157              Whilst the heavy ploughman snores,
 81158              All with weary task fordone.
 81159              Now the wasted brands do glow,
 81160              Whilst the screech-owl, screeching loud,
 81161              Puts the wretch that lies in woe
 81162              In remembrance of a shroud.
 81163              Now it is the time of night
 81164              That the graves, all gaping wide,
 81165              Every one lets forth his sprite,
 81166              In the church-way paths to glide.
 81167              And we fairies, that do run
 81168              By the triple Hecate's team
 81169              From the presence of the sun,
 81170              Following darkness like a dream,
 81171              Now are frolic. Not a mouse
 81172              Shall disturb this hallowed house.
 81173              I am sent with broom before,
 81174              To sweep the dust behind the door.
 81175 
 81176          Enter OBERON and TITANIA, with all their train
 81177 
 81178   OBERON.    Through the house give glimmering light,
 81179              By the dead and drowsy fire;
 81180              Every elf and fairy sprite
 81181              Hop as light as bird from brier;
 81182              And this ditty, after me,
 81183              Sing and dance it trippingly.
 81184   TITANIA.      First, rehearse your song by rote,
 81185                 To each word a warbling note;
 81186                 Hand in hand, with fairy grace,
 81187                 Will we sing, and bless this place.
 81188 
 81189            [OBERON leading, the FAIRIES sing and dance]
 81190 
 81191   OBERON.    Now, until the break of day,
 81192              Through this house each fairy stray.
 81193              To the best bride-bed will we,
 81194              Which by us shall blessed be;
 81195              And the issue there create
 81196              Ever shall be fortunate.
 81197              So shall all the couples three
 81198              Ever true in loving be;
 81199              And the blots of Nature's hand
 81200              Shall not in their issue stand;
 81201              Never mole, hare-lip, nor scar,
 81202              Nor mark prodigious, such as are
 81203              Despised in nativity,
 81204              Shall upon their children be.
 81205              With this field-dew consecrate,
 81206              Every fairy take his gait,
 81207              And each several chamber bless,
 81208              Through this palace, with sweet peace;
 81209              And the owner of it blest
 81210              Ever shall in safety rest.
 81211              Trip away; make no stay;
 81212              Meet me all by break of day.    Exeunt all but PUCK
 81213   PUCK.      If we shadows have offended,
 81214              Think but this, and all is mended,
 81215              That you have but slumb'red here
 81216              While these visions did appear.
 81217              And this weak and idle theme,
 81218              No more yielding but a dream,
 81219              Gentles, do not reprehend.
 81220              If you pardon, we will mend.
 81221              And, as I am an honest Puck,
 81222              If we have unearned luck
 81223              Now to scape the serpent's tongue,
 81224              We will make amends ere long;
 81225              Else the Puck a liar call.
 81226              So, good night unto you all.
 81227              Give me your hands, if we be friends,
 81228              And Robin shall restore amends.                Exit
 81229 
 81230 THE END
 81231 
 81232 
 81233 
 81234 <<THIS ELECTRONIC VERSION OF THE COMPLETE WORKS OF WILLIAM
 81235 SHAKESPEARE IS COPYRIGHT 1990-1993 BY WORLD LIBRARY, INC., AND IS
 81236 PROVIDED BY PROJECT GUTENBERG ETEXT OF ILLINOIS BENEDICTINE COLLEGE
 81237 WITH PERMISSION.  ELECTRONIC AND MACHINE READABLE COPIES MAY BE
 81238 DISTRIBUTED SO LONG AS SUCH COPIES (1) ARE FOR YOUR OR OTHERS
 81239 PERSONAL USE ONLY, AND (2) ARE NOT DISTRIBUTED OR USED
 81240 COMMERCIALLY.  PROHIBITED COMMERCIAL DISTRIBUTION INCLUDES BY ANY
 81241 SERVICE THAT CHARGES FOR DOWNLOAD TIME OR FOR MEMBERSHIP.>>
 81242 
 81243 
 81244 
 81245 
 81246 
 81247 1599
 81248 
 81249 
 81250 MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING
 81251 
 81252 
 81253 by William Shakespeare
 81254 
 81255 
 81256 
 81257 Dramatis Personae
 81258 
 81259   Don Pedro, Prince of Arragon.
 81260   Don John, his bastard brother.
 81261   Claudio, a young lord of Florence.
 81262   Benedick, a Young lord of Padua.
 81263   Leonato, Governor of Messina.
 81264   Antonio, an old man, his brother.
 81265   Balthasar, attendant on Don Pedro.
 81266   Borachio, follower of Don John.
 81267   Conrade, follower of Don John.
 81268   Friar Francis.
 81269   Dogberry, a Constable.
 81270   Verges, a Headborough.
 81271   A Sexton.
 81272   A Boy.
 81273 
 81274   Hero, daughter to Leonato.
 81275   Beatrice, niece to Leonato.
 81276   Margaret, waiting gentlewoman attending on Hero.
 81277   Ursula, waiting gentlewoman attending on Hero.
 81278 
 81279   Messengers, Watch, Attendants, etc.
 81280 
 81281 
 81282 
 81283 
 81284 <<THIS ELECTRONIC VERSION OF THE COMPLETE WORKS OF WILLIAM
 81285 SHAKESPEARE IS COPYRIGHT 1990-1993 BY WORLD LIBRARY, INC., AND IS
 81286 PROVIDED BY PROJECT GUTENBERG ETEXT OF ILLINOIS BENEDICTINE COLLEGE
 81287 WITH PERMISSION.  ELECTRONIC AND MACHINE READABLE COPIES MAY BE
 81288 DISTRIBUTED SO LONG AS SUCH COPIES (1) ARE FOR YOUR OR OTHERS
 81289 PERSONAL USE ONLY, AND (2) ARE NOT DISTRIBUTED OR USED
 81290 COMMERCIALLY.  PROHIBITED COMMERCIAL DISTRIBUTION INCLUDES BY ANY
 81291 SERVICE THAT CHARGES FOR DOWNLOAD TIME OR FOR MEMBERSHIP.>>
 81292 
 81293 
 81294 
 81295 SCENE.--Messina.
 81296 
 81297 
 81298 ACT I. Scene I.
 81299 An orchard before Leonato's house.
 81300 
 81301 Enter Leonato (Governor of Messina), Hero (his Daughter),
 81302 and Beatrice (his Niece), with a Messenger.
 81303 
 81304   Leon. I learn in this letter that Don Pedro of Arragon comes this
 81305     night to Messina.
 81306   Mess. He is very near by this. He was not three leagues off when I
 81307     left him.
 81308   Leon. How many gentlemen have you lost in this action?
 81309   Mess. But few of any sort, and none of name.
 81310   Leon. A victory is twice itself when the achiever brings home full
 81311     numbers. I find here that Don Pedro hath bestowed much honour on
 81312     a young Florentine called Claudio.
 81313   Mess. Much deserv'd on his part, and equally rememb'red by Don
 81314     Pedro. He hath borne himself beyond the promise of his age, doing
 81315     in the figure of a lamb the feats of a lion. He hath indeed
 81316     better bett'red expectation than you must expect of me to tell
 81317     you how.
 81318   Leon. He hath an uncle here in Messina will be very much glad of it.
 81319   Mess. I have already delivered him letters, and there appears much
 81320     joy in him; even so much that joy could not show itself modest
 81321     enough without a badge of bitterness.
 81322   Leon. Did he break out into tears?
 81323   Mess. In great measure.
 81324   Leon. A kind overflow of kindness. There are no faces truer than
 81325     those that are so wash'd. How much better is it to weep at joy
 81326     than to joy at weeping!
 81327   Beat. I pray you, is Signior Mountanto return'd from the wars or no?
 81328   Mess. I know none of that name, lady. There was none such in the
 81329     army of any sort.
 81330   Leon. What is he that you ask for, niece?
 81331   Hero. My cousin means Signior Benedick of Padua.
 81332   Mess. O, he's return'd, and as pleasant as ever he was.
 81333   Beat. He set up his bills here in Messina and challeng'd Cupid at
 81334     the flight, and my uncle's fool, reading the challenge,
 81335     subscrib'd for Cupid and challeng'd him at the burbolt. I pray
 81336     you, how many hath he kill'd and eaten in these wars? But how
 81337     many hath he kill'd? For indeed I promised to eat all of his
 81338     killing.
 81339   Leon. Faith, niece, you tax Signior Benedick too much; but he'll
 81340     be meet with you, I doubt it not.
 81341   Mess. He hath done good service, lady, in these wars.
 81342   Beat. You had musty victual, and he hath holp to eat it. He is a
 81343     very valiant trencherman; he hath an excellent stomach.
 81344   Mess. And a good soldier too, lady.
 81345   Beat. And a good soldier to a lady; but what is he to a lord?
 81346   Mess. A lord to a lord, a man to a man; stuff'd with all honourable
 81347     virtues.
 81348   Beat. It is so indeed. He is no less than a stuff'd man; but for
 81349     the stuffing--well, we are all mortal.
 81350   Leon. You must not, sir, mistake my niece. There is a kind of merry
 81351     war betwixt Signior Benedick and her. They never meet but there's
 81352     a skirmish of wit between them.
 81353   Beat. Alas, he gets nothing by that! In our last conflict four of
 81354     his five wits went halting off, and now is the whole man govern'd
 81355     with one; so that if he have wit enough to keep himself warm, let
 81356     him bear it for a difference between himself and his horse; for
 81357     it is all the wealth that he hath left to be known a reasonable
 81358     creature. Who is his companion now? He hath every month a new
 81359     sworn brother.
 81360   Mess. Is't possible?
 81361   Beat. Very easily possible. He wears his faith but as the fashion
 81362     of his hat; it ever changes with the next block.
 81363   Mess. I see, lady, the gentleman is not in your books.
 81364   Beat. No. An he were, I would burn my study. But I pray you, who is
 81365     his companion? Is there no young squarer now that will make a
 81366     voyage with him to the devil?
 81367   Mess. He is most in the company of the right noble Claudio.
 81368   Beat. O Lord, he will hang upon him like a disease! He is sooner
 81369     caught than the pestilence, and the taker runs presently mad. God
 81370     help the noble Claudio! If he have caught the Benedick, it will
 81371     cost him a thousand pound ere 'a be cured.
 81372   Mess. I will hold friends with you, lady.
 81373   Beat. Do, good friend.
 81374   Leon. You will never run mad, niece.
 81375   Beat. No, not till a hot January.
 81376   Mess. Don Pedro is approach'd.
 81377 
 81378   Enter Don Pedro, Claudio, Benedick, Balthasar, and John the Bastard.
 81379 
 81380   Pedro. Good Signior Leonato, are you come to meet your trouble? The
 81381     fashion of the world is to avoid cost, and you encounter it.
 81382   Leon. Never came trouble to my house in the likeness of your Grace;
 81383     for trouble being gone, comfort should remain; but when you depart
 81384     from me, sorrow abides and happiness takes his leave.
 81385   Pedro. You embrace your charge too willingly. I think this is your
 81386     daughter.
 81387   Leon. Her mother hath many times told me so.
 81388   Bene. Were you in doubt, sir, that you ask'd her?
 81389   Leon. Signior Benedick, no; for then were you a child.
 81390   Pedro. You have it full, Benedick. We may guess by this what you
 81391     are, being a man. Truly the lady fathers herself. Be happy, lady;
 81392     for you are like an honourable father.
 81393   Bene. If Signior Leonato be her father, she would not have his head
 81394     on her shoulders for all Messina, as like him as she is.
 81395   Beat. I wonder that you will still be talking, Signior Benedick.
 81396     Nobody marks you.
 81397   Bene. What, my dear Lady Disdain! are you yet living?
 81398   Beat. Is it possible Disdain should die while she hath such meet
 81399     food to feed it as Signior Benedick? Courtesy itself must convert
 81400     to disdain if you come in her presence.
 81401   Bene. Then is courtesy a turncoat. But it is certain I am loved of
 81402     all ladies, only you excepted; and I would I could find in my
 81403     heart that I had not a hard heart, for truly I love none.
 81404   Beat. A dear happiness to women! They would else have been troubled
 81405     with a pernicious suitor. I thank God and my cold blood, I am of
 81406     your humour for that. I had rather hear my dog bark at a crow
 81407     than a man swear he loves me.
 81408   Bene. God keep your ladyship still in that mind! So some gentleman
 81409     or other shall scape a predestinate scratch'd face.
 81410   Beat. Scratching could not make it worse an 'twere such a face as
 81411     yours were.
 81412   Bene. Well, you are a rare parrot-teacher.
 81413   Beat. A bird of my tongue is better than a beast of yours.
 81414   Bene. I would my horse had the speed of your tongue, and so good a
 81415     continuer. But keep your way, a God's name! I have done.
 81416   Beat. You always end with a jade's trick. I know you of old.
 81417   Pedro. That is the sum of all, Leonato. Signior Claudio and Signior
 81418     Benedick, my dear friend Leonato hath invited you all. I tell him
 81419     we shall stay here at the least a month, and he heartly prays
 81420     some occasion may detain us longer. I dare swear he is no
 81421     hypocrite, but prays from his heart.
 81422   Leon. If you swear, my lord, you shall not be forsworn. [To Don
 81423     John] Let me bid you welcome, my lord. Being reconciled to the
 81424     Prince your brother, I owe you all duty.
 81425   John. I thank you. I am not of many words, but I thank you.
 81426   Leon. Please it your Grace lead on?
 81427   Pedro. Your hand, Leonato. We will go together.
 81428                             Exeunt. Manent Benedick and Claudio.
 81429   Claud. Benedick, didst thou note the daughter of Signior Leonato?
 81430   Bene. I noted her not, but I look'd on her.
 81431   Claud. Is she not a modest young lady?
 81432   Bene. Do you question me, as an honest man should do, for my simple
 81433     true judgment? or would you have me speak after my custom, as
 81434     being a professed tyrant to their sex?
 81435   Claud. No. I pray thee speak in sober judgment.
 81436   Bene. Why, i' faith, methinks she's too low for a high praise,
 81437     too brown for a fair praise, and too little for a great praise.
 81438     Only this commendation I can afford her, that were she other
 81439     than she is, she were unhandsome, and being no other but as she
 81440     is, I do not like her.
 81441   Claud. Thou thinkest I am in sport. I pray thee tell me truly how
 81442     thou lik'st her.
 81443   Bene. Would you buy her, that you enquire after her?
 81444   Claud. Can the world buy such a jewel?
 81445   Bene. Yea, and a case to put it into. But speak you this with a sad
 81446     brow? or do you play the flouting Jack, to tell us Cupid is a
 81447     good hare-finder and Vulcan a rare carpenter? Come, in what key
 81448     shall a man take you to go in the song?
 81449   Claud. In mine eye she is the sweetest lady that ever I look'd on.
 81450   Bene. I can see yet without spectacles, and I see no such matter.
 81451     There's her cousin, an she were not possess'd with a fury,exceeds
 81452     her as much in beauty as the first of May doth the last of
 81453     December. But I hope you have no intent to turn husband, have
 81454     you?
 81455   Claud. I would scarce trust myself, though I had sworn the
 81456     contrary, if Hero would be my wife.
 81457   Bene. Is't come to this? In faith, hath not the world one man but
 81458     he will wear his cap with suspicion? Shall I never see a
 81459     bachelor of threescore again? Go to, i' faith! An thou wilt needs
 81460     thrust thy neck into a yoke, wear the print of it and sigh away
 81461     Sundays.
 81462 
 81463                        Enter Don Pedro.
 81464 
 81465     Look! Don Pedro is returned to seek you.
 81466   Pedro. What secret hath held you here, that you followed not to
 81467     Leonato's?
 81468   Bene. I would your Grace would constrain me to tell.
 81469   Pedro. I charge thee on thy allegiance.
 81470   Bene. You hear, Count Claudio. I can be secret as a dumb man, I
 81471     would have you think so; but, on my allegiance--mark you this-on
 81472     my allegiance! he is in love. With who? Now that is your Grace's
 81473     part. Mark how short his answer is: With Hero, Leonato's short
 81474     daughter.
 81475   Claud. If this were so, so were it utt'red.
 81476   Bene. Like the old tale, my lord: 'It is not so, nor 'twas not so;
 81477     but indeed, God forbid it should be so!'
 81478   Claud. If my passion change not shortly, God forbid it should be
 81479     otherwise.
 81480   Pedro. Amen, if you love her; for the lady is very well worthy.
 81481   Claud. You speak this to fetch me in, my lord.
 81482   Pedro. By my troth, I speak my thought.
 81483   Claud. And, in faith, my lord, I spoke mine.
 81484   Bene. And, by my two faiths and troths, my lord, I spoke mine.
 81485   Claud. That I love her, I feel.
 81486   Pedro. That she is worthy, I know.
 81487   Bene. That I neither feel how she should be loved, nor know how she
 81488     should be worthy, is the opinion that fire cannot melt out of me.
 81489     I will die in it at the stake.
 81490   Pedro. Thou wast ever an obstinate heretic in the despite of
 81491     beauty.
 81492   Claud. And never could maintain his part but in the force of his
 81493     will.
 81494   Bene. That a woman conceived me, I thank her; that she brought me
 81495     up, I likewise give her most humble thanks; but that I will have
 81496     a rechate winded in my forehead, or hang my bugle in an invisible
 81497     baldrick, all women shall pardon me. Because I will not do them
 81498     the wrong to mistrust any, I will do myself the right to trust
 81499     none; and the fine is (for the which I may go the finer), I will
 81500     live a bachelor.
 81501   Pedro. I shall see thee, ere I die, look pale with love.
 81502   Bene. With anger, with sickness, or with hunger, my lord; not with
 81503     love. Prove that ever I lose more blood with love than I will get
 81504     again with drinking, pick out mine eyes with a ballad-maker's pen
 81505     and hang me up at the door of a brothel house for the sign of
 81506     blind Cupid.
 81507   Pedro. Well, if ever thou dost fall from this faith, thou wilt
 81508     prove a notable argument.
 81509   Bene. If I do, hang me in a bottle like a cat and shoot at me; and
 81510     he that hits me, let him be clapp'd on the shoulder and call'd
 81511     Adam.
 81512   Pedro. Well, as time shall try.
 81513     'In time the savage bull doth bear the yoke.'
 81514   Bene. The savage bull may; but if ever the sensible Benedick bear
 81515     it, pluck off the bull's horns and set them in my forehead, and
 81516     let me be vilely painted, and in such great letters as they write
 81517     'Here is good horse to hire,' let them signify under my sign
 81518     'Here you may see Benedick the married man.'
 81519   Claud. If this should ever happen, thou wouldst be horn-mad.
 81520   Pedro. Nay, if Cupid have not spent all his quiver in Venice, thou
 81521     wilt quake for this shortly.
 81522   Bene. I look for an earthquake too then.
 81523   Pedro. Well, you will temporize with the hours. In the meantime,
 81524     good Signior Benedick, repair to Leonato's, commend me to him and
 81525     tell him I will not fail him at supper; for indeed he hath made
 81526     great preparation.
 81527   Bene. I have almost matter enough in me for such an embassage; and
 81528     so I commit you--
 81529   Claud. To the tuition of God. From my house--if I had it--
 81530   Pedro. The sixth of July. Your loving friend, Benedick.
 81531   Bene. Nay, mock not, mock not. The body of your discourse is
 81532     sometime guarded with fragments, and the guards are but slightly
 81533     basted on neither. Ere you flout old ends any further, examine
 81534     your conscience. And so I leave you.                   Exit.
 81535   Claud. My liege, your Highness now may do me good.
 81536   Pedro. My love is thine to teach. Teach it but how,
 81537     And thou shalt see how apt it is to learn
 81538     Any hard lesson that may do thee good.
 81539   Claud. Hath Leonato any son, my lord?
 81540   Pedro. No child but Hero; she's his only heir.
 81541     Dost thou affect her, Claudio?
 81542   Claud.O my lord,
 81543     When you went onward on this ended action,
 81544     I look'd upon her with a soldier's eye,
 81545     That lik'd, but had a rougher task in hand
 81546     Than to drive liking to the name of love;
 81547     But now I am return'd and that war-thoughts
 81548     Have left their places vacant, in their rooms
 81549     Come thronging soft and delicate desires,
 81550     All prompting me how fair young Hero is,
 81551     Saying I lik'd her ere I went to wars.
 81552   Pedro. Thou wilt be like a lover presently
 81553     And tire the hearer with a book of words.
 81554     If thou dost love fair Hero, cherish it,
 81555     And I will break with her and with her father,
 81556     And thou shalt have her. Wast not to this end
 81557     That thou began'st to twist so fine a story?
 81558   Claud. How sweetly you do minister to love,
 81559     That know love's grief by his complexion!
 81560     But lest my liking might too sudden seem,
 81561     I would have salv'd it with a longer treatise.
 81562   Pedro. What need the bridge much broader than the flood?
 81563     The fairest grant is the necessity.
 81564     Look, what will serve is fit. 'Tis once, thou lovest,
 81565     And I will fit thee with the remedy.
 81566     I know we shall have revelling to-night.
 81567     I will assume thy part in some disguise
 81568     And tell fair Hero I am Claudio,
 81569     And in her bosom I'll unclasp my heart
 81570     And take her hearing prisoner with the force
 81571     And strong encounter of my amorous tale.
 81572     Then after to her father will I break,
 81573     And the conclusion is, she shall be thine.
 81574     In practice let us put it presently.                 Exeunt.
 81575 
 81576 
 81577 
 81578 
 81579 Scene II.
 81580 A room in Leonato's house.
 81581 
 81582 Enter [at one door] Leonato and [at another door, Antonio] an old man,
 81583 brother to Leonato.
 81584 
 81585   Leon. How now, brother? Where is my cousin your son? Hath he
 81586     provided this music?
 81587   Ant. He is very busy about it. But, brother, I can tell you strange
 81588     news that you yet dreamt not of.
 81589   Leon. Are they good?
 81590   Ant. As the event stamps them; but they have a good cover, they
 81591     show well outward. The Prince and Count Claudio, walking in a
 81592     thick-pleached alley in mine orchard, were thus much overheard by
 81593     a man of mine: the Prince discovered to Claudio that he loved my
 81594     niece your daughter and meant to acknowledge it this night in a
 81595     dance, and if he found her accordant, he meant to take the
 81596     present time by the top and instantly break with you of it.
 81597   Leon. Hath the fellow any wit that told you this?
 81598   Ant. A good sharp fellow. I will send for him, and question him
 81599     yourself.
 81600   Leon. No, no. We will hold it as a dream till it appear itself; but
 81601     I will acquaint my daughter withal, that she may be the better
 81602     prepared for an answer, if peradventure this be true. Go you and
 81603     tell her of it.                              [Exit Antonio.]
 81604 
 81605          [Enter Antonio's Son with a Musician, and others.]
 81606 
 81607     [To the Son] Cousin, you know what you have to do.
 81608     --[To the Musician] O, I cry you mercy, friend. Go you with me,
 81609     and I will use your skill.--Good cousin, have a care this busy
 81610     time.                                                Exeunt.
 81611 
 81612 
 81613 
 81614 
 81615 Scene III.
 81616 Another room in Leonato's house.]
 81617 
 81618 Enter Sir John the Bastard and Conrade, his companion.
 81619 
 81620   Con. What the goodyear, my lord! Why are you thus out of measure
 81621     sad?
 81622   John. There is no measure in the occasion that breeds; therefore
 81623     the sadness is without limit.
 81624   Con. You should hear reason.
 81625   John. And when I have heard it, what blessings brings it?
 81626   Con. If not a present remedy, at least a patient sufferance.
 81627   John. I wonder that thou (being, as thou say'st thou art, born
 81628     under Saturn) goest about to apply a moral medicine to a
 81629     mortifying mischief. I cannot hide what I am: I must be sad when
 81630     I have cause, and smile at no man's jests; eat when I have
 81631     stomach, and wait for no man's leisure; sleep when I am drowsy,
 81632     and tend on no man's business; laugh when I am merry, and claw no
 81633     man in his humour.
 81634   Con. Yea, but you must not make the full show of this till you may
 81635     do it without controlment. You have of late stood out against
 81636     your brother, and he hath ta'en you newly into his grace, where
 81637     it is impossible you should take true root but by the fair
 81638     weather that you make yourself. It is needful that you frame the
 81639     season for your own harvest.
 81640   John. I had rather be a canker in a hedge than a rose in his grace,
 81641     and it better fits my blood to be disdain'd of all than to
 81642     fashion a carriage to rob love from any. In this, though I cannot
 81643     be said to be a flattering honest man, it must not be denied but
 81644     I am a plain-dealing villain. I am trusted with a muzzle and
 81645     enfranchis'd with a clog; therefore I have decreed not to sing in
 81646     my cage. If I had my mouth, I would bite; if I had my liberty, I
 81647     would do my liking. In the meantime let me be that I am, and seek
 81648     not to alter me.
 81649   Con. Can you make no use of your discontent?
 81650   John. I make all use of it, for I use it only.
 81651 
 81652                        Enter Borachio.
 81653 
 81654     Who comes here? What news, Borachio?
 81655   Bora. I came yonder from a great supper. The Prince your brother is
 81656     royally entertain'd by Leonato, and I can give you intelligence
 81657     of an intended marriage.
 81658   John. Will it serve for any model to build mischief on?
 81659     What is he for a fool that betroths himself to unquietness?
 81660   Bora. Marry, it is your brother's right hand.
 81661   John. Who? the most exquisite Claudio?
 81662   Bora. Even he.
 81663   John. A proper squire! And who? and who? which way looks he?
 81664   Bora. Marry, on Hero, the daughter and heir of Leonato.
 81665   John. A very forward March-chick! How came you to this?
 81666   Bora. Being entertain'd for a perfumer, as I was smoking a musty
 81667     room, comes me the Prince and Claudio, hand in hand in sad
 81668     conference. I whipt me behind the arras and there heard it agreed
 81669     upon that the Prince should woo Hero for himself, and having
 81670     obtain'd her, give her to Count Claudio.
 81671   John. Come, come, let us thither. This may prove food to my
 81672     displeasure. That young start-up hath all the glory of my
 81673     overthrow. If I can cross him any way, I bless myself every way.
 81674     You are both sure, and will assist me?
 81675   Con. To the death, my lord.
 81676   John. Let us to the great supper. Their cheer is the greater that
 81677     I am subdued. Would the cook were o' my mind! Shall we go prove
 81678     what's to be done?
 81679   Bora. We'll wait upon your lordship.
 81680                                                          Exeunt.
 81681 
 81682 
 81683 
 81684 
 81685 <<THIS ELECTRONIC VERSION OF THE COMPLETE WORKS OF WILLIAM
 81686 SHAKESPEARE IS COPYRIGHT 1990-1993 BY WORLD LIBRARY, INC., AND IS
 81687 PROVIDED BY PROJECT GUTENBERG ETEXT OF ILLINOIS BENEDICTINE COLLEGE
 81688 WITH PERMISSION.  ELECTRONIC AND MACHINE READABLE COPIES MAY BE
 81689 DISTRIBUTED SO LONG AS SUCH COPIES (1) ARE FOR YOUR OR OTHERS
 81690 PERSONAL USE ONLY, AND (2) ARE NOT DISTRIBUTED OR USED
 81691 COMMERCIALLY.  PROHIBITED COMMERCIAL DISTRIBUTION INCLUDES BY ANY
 81692 SERVICE THAT CHARGES FOR DOWNLOAD TIME OR FOR MEMBERSHIP.>>
 81693 
 81694 
 81695 
 81696 ACT II. Scene I.
 81697 A hall in Leonato's house.
 81698 
 81699 Enter Leonato, [Antonio] his Brother, Hero his Daughter,
 81700 and Beatrice his Niece, and a Kinsman; [also Margaret and Ursula].
 81701 
 81702   Leon. Was not Count John here at supper?
 81703   Ant. I saw him not.
 81704   Beat. How tartly that gentleman looks! I never can see him but I am
 81705     heart-burn'd an hour after.
 81706   Hero. He is of a very melancholy disposition.
 81707   Beat. He were an excellent man that were made just in the midway
 81708     between him and Benedick. The one is too like an image and says
 81709     nothing, and the other too like my lady's eldest son, evermore
 81710     tattling.
 81711   Leon. Then half Signior Benedick's tongue in Count John's mouth,
 81712     and half Count John's melancholy in Signior Benedick's face--
 81713   Beat. With a good leg and a good foot, uncle, and money enough in
 81714     his purse, such a man would win any woman in the world--if 'a
 81715     could get her good will.
 81716   Leon. By my troth, niece, thou wilt never get thee a husband if
 81717     thou be so shrewd of thy tongue.
 81718   Ant. In faith, she's too curst.
 81719   Beat. Too curst is more than curst. I shall lessen God's sending
 81720     that way, for it is said, 'God sends a curst cow short horns,'
 81721     but to a cow too curst he sends none.
 81722   Leon. So, by being too curst, God will send you no horns.
 81723   Beat. Just, if he send me no husband; for the which blessing I am
 81724     at him upon my knees every morning and evening. Lord, I could not
 81725     endure a husband with a beard on his face. I had rather lie in
 81726     the woollen!
 81727   Leon. You may light on a husband that hath no beard.
 81728   Beat. What should I do with him? dress him in my apparel and make
 81729     him my waiting gentlewoman? He that hath a beard is more than a
 81730     youth, and he that hath no beard is less than a man; and he that
 81731     is more than a youth is not for me; and he that is less than a
 81732     man, I am not for him. Therefore I will even take sixpence in
 81733     earnest of the berrord and lead his apes into hell.
 81734   Leon. Well then, go you into hell?
 81735   Beat. No; but to the gate, and there will the devil meet me like an
 81736     old cuckold with horns on his head, and say 'Get you to heaven,
 81737     Beatrice, get you to heaven. Here's no place for you maids.' So
 81738     deliver I up my apes, and away to Saint Peter--for the heavens.
 81739     He shows me where the bachelors sit, and there live we as merry
 81740     as the day is long.
 81741   Ant. [to Hero] Well, niece, I trust you will be rul'd by your
 81742     father.
 81743   Beat. Yes faith. It is my cousin's duty to make cursy and say,
 81744     'Father, as it please you.' But yet for all that, cousin, let him
 81745     be a handsome fellow, or else make another cursy, and say,
 81746     'Father, as it please me.'
 81747   Leon. Well, niece, I hope to see you one day fitted with a husband.
 81748   Beat. Not till God make men of some other metal than earth. Would
 81749     it not grieve a woman to be overmaster'd with a piece of valiant
 81750     dust? to make an account of her life to a clod of wayward marl?
 81751     No, uncle, I'll none. Adam's sons are my brethren, and truly I
 81752     hold it a sin to match in my kinred.
 81753   Leon. Daughter, remember what I told you. If the Prince do solicit
 81754     you in that kind, you know your answer.
 81755   Beat. The fault will be in the music, cousin, if you be not wooed
 81756     in good time. If the Prince be too important, tell him there is
 81757     measure in everything, and so dance out the answer. For, hear me,
 81758     Hero: wooing, wedding, and repenting is as a Scotch jig, a
 81759     measure, and a cinque-pace: the first suit is hot and hasty like
 81760     a Scotch jig--and full as fantastical; the wedding, mannerly
 81761     modest, as a measure, full of state and ancientry; and then comes
 81762     Repentance and with his bad legs falls into the cinque-pace
 81763     faster and faster, till he sink into his grave.
 81764   Leon. Cousin, you apprehend passing shrewdly.
 81765   Beat. I have a good eye, uncle; I can see a church by daylight.
 81766   Leon. The revellers are ent'ring, brother. Make good room.
 81767                                                  [Exit Antonio.]
 81768 
 81769     Enter, [masked,] Don Pedro, Claudio, Benedick, and Balthasar.
 81770        [With them enter Antonio, also masked. After them enter]
 81771        Don John [and Borachio (without masks), who stand aside
 81772                  and look on during the dance].
 81773 
 81774   Pedro. Lady, will you walk a bout with your friend?
 81775   Hero. So you walk softly and look sweetly and say nothing,
 81776     I am yours for the walk; and especially when I walk away.
 81777   Pedro. With me in your company?
 81778   Hero. I may say so when I please.
 81779   Pedro. And when please you to say so?
 81780   Hero. When I like your favour, for God defend the lute should be
 81781     like the case!
 81782   Pedro. My visor is Philemon's roof; within the house is Jove.
 81783   Hero. Why then, your visor should be thatch'd.
 81784   Pedro. Speak low if you speak love.         [Takes her aside.]
 81785   Balth. Well, I would you did like me.
 81786   Marg. So would not I for your own sake, for I have many ill
 81787     qualities.
 81788   Balth. Which is one?
 81789   Marg. I say my prayers aloud.
 81790   Balth. I love you the better. The hearers may cry Amen.
 81791   Marg. God match me with a good dancer!
 81792   Balth. Amen.
 81793   Marg. And God keep him out of my sight when the dance is done!
 81794     Answer, clerk.
 81795   Balth. No more words. The clerk is answered.
 81796                                               [Takes her aside.]
 81797   Urs. I know you well enough. You are Signior Antonio.
 81798   Ant. At a word, I am not.
 81799   Urs. I know you by the waggling of your head.
 81800   Ant. To tell you true, I counterfeit him.
 81801   Urs. You could never do him so ill-well unless you were the very
 81802     man. Here's his dry hand up and down. You are he, you are he!
 81803   Ant. At a word, I am not.
 81804   Urs. Come, come, do you think I do not know you by your excellent
 81805     wit? Can virtue hide itself? Go to, mum you are he. Graces will
 81806     appear, and there's an end.              [ They step aside.]
 81807   Beat. Will you not tell me who told you so?
 81808   Bene. No, you shall pardon me.
 81809   Beat. Nor will you not tell me who you are?
 81810   Bene. Not now.
 81811   Beat. That I was disdainful, and that I had my good wit out of the
 81812     'Hundred Merry Tales.' Well, this was Signior Benedick that said
 81813     so.
 81814   Bene. What's he?
 81815   Beat. I am sure you know him well enough.
 81816   Bene. Not I, believe me.
 81817   Beat. Did he never make you laugh?
 81818   Bene. I pray you, what is he?
 81819   Beat. Why, he is the Prince's jester, a very dull fool. Only his
 81820     gift is in devising impossible slanders. None but libertines
 81821     delight in him; and the commendation is not in his wit, but in
 81822     his villany; for he both pleases men and angers them, and then
 81823     they laugh at him and beat him. I am sure he is in the fleet.
 81824     I would he had boarded me.
 81825   Bene. When I know the gentleman, I'll tell him what you say.
 81826   Beat. Do, do. He'll but break a comparison or two on me; which
 81827     peradventure, not marked or not laugh'd at, strikes him into
 81828     melancholy; and then there's a partridge wing saved, for the fool
 81829     will eat no supper that night.
 81830                                                         [Music.]
 81831     We must follow the leaders.
 81832   Bene. In every good thing.
 81833   Beat. Nay, if they lead to any ill, I will leave them at the next
 81834     turning.
 81835         Dance. Exeunt (all but Don John, Borachio, and Claudio].
 81836   John. Sure my brother is amorous on Hero and hath withdrawn her
 81837     father to break with him about it. The ladies follow her and but
 81838     one visor remains.
 81839   Bora. And that is Claudio. I know him by his bearing.
 81840   John. Are you not Signior Benedick?
 81841   Claud. You know me well. I am he.
 81842   John. Signior, you are very near my brother in his love. He is
 81843     enamour'd on Hero. I pray you dissuade him from her; she is no
 81844     equal for his birth. You may do the part of an honest man in it.
 81845   Claud. How know you he loves her?
 81846   John. I heard him swear his affection.
 81847   Bora. So did I too, and he swore he would marry her tonight.
 81848   John. Come, let us to the banquet.
 81849                                           Exeunt. Manet Claudio.
 81850   Claud. Thus answer I in name of Benedick
 81851     But hear these ill news with the ears of Claudio.
 81852                                                       [Unmasks.]
 81853     'Tis certain so. The Prince wooes for himself.
 81854     Friendship is constant in all other things
 81855     Save in the office and affairs of love.
 81856     Therefore all hearts in love use their own tongues;
 81857     Let every eye negotiate for itself
 81858     And trust no agent; for beauty is a witch
 81859     Against whose charms faith melteth into blood.
 81860     This is an accident of hourly proof,
 81861     Which I mistrusted not. Farewell therefore Hero!
 81862 
 81863                   Enter Benedick [unmasked].
 81864 
 81865   Bene. Count Claudio?
 81866   Claud. Yea, the same.
 81867   Bene. Come, will you go with me?
 81868   Claud. Whither?
 81869   Bene. Even to the next willow, about your own business, County. What
 81870     fashion will you wear the garland of? about your neck, like an
 81871     usurer's chain? or under your arm, like a lieutenant's scarf? You
 81872     must wear it one way, for the Prince hath got your Hero.
 81873   Claud. I wish him joy of her.
 81874   Bene. Why, that's spoken like an honest drovier. So they sell
 81875     bullocks. But did you think the Prince would have served you
 81876     thus?
 81877   Claud. I pray you leave me.
 81878   Bene. Ho! now you strike like the blind man! 'Twas the boy that
 81879     stole your meat, and you'll beat the post.
 81880   Claud. If it will not be, I'll leave you.                Exit.
 81881   Bene. Alas, poor hurt fowl! now will he creep into sedges. But,
 81882     that my Lady Beatrice should know me, and not know me! The
 81883     Prince's fool! Ha! it may be I go under that title because I am
 81884     merry. Yea, but so I am apt to do myself wrong. I am not so
 81885     reputed. It is the base (though bitter) disposition of Beatrice
 81886     that puts the world into her person and so gives me out. Well,
 81887     I'll be revenged as I may.
 81888 
 81889                          Enter Don Pedro.
 81890 
 81891   Pedro. Now, signior, where's the Count? Did you see him?
 81892   Bene. Troth, my lord, I have played the part of Lady Fame, I found
 81893     him here as melancholy as a lodge in a warren. I told him, and I
 81894     think I told him true, that your Grace had got the good will of
 81895     this young lady, and I off'red him my company to a willow tree,
 81896     either to make him a garland, as being forsaken, or to bind him
 81897     up a rod, as being worthy to be whipt.
 81898   Pedro. To be whipt? What's his fault?
 81899   Bene. The flat transgression of a schoolboy who, being overjoyed
 81900     with finding a bird's nest, shows it his companion, and he steals
 81901     it.
 81902   Pedro. Wilt thou make a trust a transgression? The transgression is
 81903     in the stealer.
 81904   Bene. Yet it had not been amiss the rod had been made, and the
 81905     garland too; for the garland he might have worn himself, and the
 81906     rod he might have bestowed on you, who, as I take it, have stol'n
 81907     his bird's nest.
 81908   Pedro. I will but teach them to sing and restore them to the owner.
 81909   Bene. If their singing answer your saying, by my faith you say
 81910     honestly.
 81911   Pedro. The Lady Beatrice hath a quarrel to you. The gentleman that
 81912     danc'd with her told her she is much wrong'd by you.
 81913   Bene. O, she misus'd me past the endurance of a block! An oak but
 81914     with one green leaf on it would have answered her; my very visor
 81915     began to assume life and scold with her. She told me, not
 81916     thinking I had been myself, that I was the Prince's jester, that
 81917     I was duller than a great thaw; huddling jest upon jest with such
 81918     impossible conveyance upon me that I stood like a man at a mark,
 81919     with a whole army shooting at me. She speaks poniards, and every
 81920     word stabs. If her breath were as terrible as her terminations,
 81921     there were no living near her; she would infect to the North
 81922     Star. I would not marry her though she were endowed with all that
 81923     Adam had left him before he transgress'd. She would have made
 81924     Hercules have turn'd spit, yea, and have cleft his club to make
 81925     the fire too. Come, talk not of her. You shall find her the
 81926     infernal Ate in good apparel. I would to God some scholar would
 81927     conjure her, for certainly, while she is here, a man may live as
 81928     quiet in hell as in a sanctuary; and people sin upon purpose,
 81929     because they would go thither; so indeed all disquiet, horror,
 81930     and perturbation follows her.
 81931 
 81932            Enter Claudio and Beatrice, Leonato, Hero.
 81933 
 81934   Pedro. Look, here she comes.
 81935   Bene. Will your Grace command me any service to the world's end? I
 81936     will go on the slightest errand now to the Antipodes that you can
 81937     devise to send me on; I will fetch you a toothpicker now from the
 81938     furthest inch of Asia; bring you the length of Prester John's
 81939     foot; fetch you a hair off the great Cham's beard; do you any
 81940     embassage to the Pygmies--rather than hold three words'
 81941     conference with this harpy. You have no employment for me?
 81942   Pedro. None, but to desire your good company.
 81943   Bene. O God, sir, here's a dish I love not! I cannot endure my Lady
 81944     Tongue.                                              [Exit.]
 81945   Pedro. Come, lady, come; you have lost the heart of Signior
 81946     Benedick.
 81947   Beat. Indeed, my lord, he lent it me awhile, and I gave him use for
 81948     it--a double heart for his single one. Marry, once before he won
 81949     it of me with false dice; therefore your Grace may well say I
 81950     have lost it.
 81951   Pedro. You have put him down, lady; you have put him down.
 81952   Beat. So I would not he should do me, my lord, lest I should prove
 81953     the mother of fools. I have brought Count Claudio, whom you sent
 81954     me to seek.
 81955   Pedro. Why, how now, Count? Wherefore are you sad?
 81956   Claud. Not sad, my lord.
 81957   Pedro. How then? sick?
 81958   Claud. Neither, my lord.
 81959   Beat. The Count is neither sad, nor sick, nor merry, nor well; but
 81960     civil count--civil as an orange, and something of that jealous
 81961     complexion.
 81962   Pedro. I' faith, lady, I think your blazon to be true; though I'll
 81963     be sworn, if he be so, his conceit is false. Here, Claudio, I
 81964     have wooed in thy name, and fair Hero is won. I have broke with
 81965     her father, and his good will obtained. Name the day of marriage,
 81966     and God give thee joy!
 81967   Leon. Count, take of me my daughter, and with her my fortunes. His
 81968     Grace hath made the match, and all grace say Amen to it!
 81969   Beat. Speak, Count, 'tis your cue.
 81970   Claud. Silence is the perfectest herald of joy. I were but little
 81971     happy if I could say how much. Lady, as you are mine, I am yours.
 81972     I give away myself for you and dote upon the exchange.
 81973   Beat. Speak, cousin; or, if you cannot, stop his mouth with a kiss
 81974     and let not him speak neither.
 81975   Pedro. In faith, lady, you have a merry heart.
 81976   Beat. Yea, my lord; I thank it, poor fool, it keeps on the windy
 81977     side of care. My cousin tells him in his ear that he is in her
 81978     heart.
 81979   Claud. And so she doth, cousin.
 81980   Beat. Good Lord, for alliance! Thus goes every one to the world but
 81981     I, and I am sunburnt. I may sit in a corner and cry 'Heigh-ho for
 81982     a husband!'
 81983   Pedro. Lady Beatrice, I will get you one.
 81984   Beat. I would rather have one of your father's getting. Hath your
 81985     Grace ne'er a brother like you? Your father got excellent
 81986     husbands, if a maid could come by them.
 81987   Pedro. Will you have me, lady?
 81988   Beat. No, my lord, unless I might have another for working days:
 81989     your Grace is too costly to wear every day. But I beseech your
 81990     Grace pardon me. I was born to speak all mirth and no matter.
 81991   Pedro. Your silence most offends me, and to be merry best becomes
 81992     you, for out o' question you were born in a merry hour.
 81993   Beat. No, sure, my lord, my mother cried; but then there was a star
 81994     danc'd, and under that was I born. Cousins, God give you joy!
 81995   Leon. Niece, will you look to those things I told you of?
 81996   Beat. I cry you mercy, uncle, By your Grace's pardon.    Exit.
 81997   Pedro. By my troth, a pleasant-spirited lady.
 81998   Leon. There's little of the melancholy element in her, my lord. She
 81999     is never sad but when she sleeps, and not ever sad then; for I
 82000     have heard my daughter say she hath often dreamt of unhappiness
 82001     and wak'd herself with laughing.
 82002   Pedro. She cannot endure to hear tell of a husband.
 82003   Leon. O, by no means! She mocks all her wooers out of suit.
 82004   Pedro. She were an excellent wife for Benedick.
 82005   Leon. O Lord, my lord! if they were but a week married, they would
 82006     talk themselves mad.
 82007   Pedro. County Claudio, when mean you to go to church?
 82008   Claud. To-morrow, my lord. Time goes on crutches till love have all
 82009     his rites.
 82010   Leon. Not till Monday, my dear son, which is hence a just
 82011     sevennight; and a time too brief too, to have all things answer
 82012     my mind.
 82013   Pedro. Come, you shake the head at so long a breathing;
 82014     but I warrant thee, Claudio, the time shall not go dully by us.
 82015     I will in the interim undertake one of Hercules' labours, which
 82016     is, to bring Signior Benedick and the Lady Beatrice into a
 82017     mountain of affection th' one with th' other. I would fain have
 82018     it a match, and I doubt not but to fashion it if you three will
 82019     but minister such assistance as I shall give you direction.
 82020   Leon. My lord, I am for you, though it cost me ten nights'
 82021     watchings.
 82022   Claud. And I, my lord.
 82023   Pedro. And you too, gentle Hero?
 82024   Hero. I will do any modest office, my lord, to help my cousin to a
 82025     good husband.
 82026   Pedro. And Benedick is not the unhopefullest husband that I know.
 82027     Thus far can I praise him: he is of a noble strain, of approved
 82028     valour, and confirm'd honesty. I will teach you how to humour
 82029     your cousin, that she shall fall in love with Benedick; and I,
 82030     [to Leonato and Claudio] with your two helps, will so practise on
 82031     Benedick that, in despite of his quick wit and his queasy
 82032     stomach, he shall fall in love with Beatrice. If we can do this,
 82033     Cupid is no longer an archer; his glory shall be ours, for we are
 82034     the only love-gods. Go in with me, and I will tell you my drift.
 82035                                                          Exeunt.
 82036 
 82037 
 82038 
 82039 
 82040 Scene II.
 82041 A hall in Leonato's house.
 82042 
 82043 Enter [Don] John and Borachio.
 82044 
 82045   John. It is so. The Count Claudio shall marry the daughter of
 82046     Leonato.
 82047   Bora. Yea, my lord; but I can cross it.
 82048   John. Any bar, any cross, any impediment will be med'cinable to me.
 82049     I am sick in displeasure to him, and whatsoever comes athwart his
 82050     affection ranges evenly with mine. How canst thou cross this
 82051     marriage?
 82052   Bora. Not honestly, my lord, but so covertly that no dishonesty
 82053     shall appear in me.
 82054   John. Show me briefly how.
 82055   Bora. I think I told your lordship, a year since, how much I am in
 82056     the favour of Margaret, the waiting gentlewoman to Hero.
 82057   John. I remember.
 82058   Bora. I can, at any unseasonable instant of the night, appoint her
 82059     to look out at her lady's chamber window.
 82060   John. What life is in that to be the death of this marriage?
 82061   Bora. The poison of that lies in you to temper. Go you to the
 82062     Prince your brother; spare not to tell him that he hath wronged
 82063     his honour in marrying the renowned Claudio (whose estimation do
 82064     you mightily hold up) to a contaminated stale, such a one as
 82065     Hero.
 82066   John. What proof shall I make of that?
 82067   Bora. Proof enough to misuse the Prince, to vex Claudio, to undo
 82068     Hero, and kill Leonato. Look you for any other issue?
 82069   John. Only to despite them I will endeavour anything.
 82070   Bora. Go then; find me a meet hour to draw Don Pedro and the Count
 82071     Claudio alone; tell them that you know that Hero loves me; intend
 82072     a kind of zeal both to the Prince and Claudio, as--in love of
 82073     your brother's honour, who hath made this match, and his friend's
 82074     reputation, who is thus like to be cozen'd with the semblance of
 82075     a maid--that you have discover'd thus. They will scarcely believe
 82076     this without trial. Offer them instances; which shall bear no
 82077     less likelihood than to see me at her chamber window, hear me
 82078     call Margaret Hero, hear Margaret term me Claudio; and bring them
 82079     to see this the very night before the intended wedding (for in
 82080     the meantime I will so fashion the matter that Hero shall be
 82081     absent) and there shall appear such seeming truth of Hero's
 82082     disloyalty that jealousy shall be call'd assurance and all the
 82083     preparation overthrown.
 82084   John. Grow this to what adverse issue it can, I will put it in
 82085     practice. Be cunning in the working this, and thy fee is a
 82086     thousand ducats.
 82087   Bora. Be you constant in the accusation, and my cunning shall not
 82088     shame me.
 82089   John. I will presently go learn their day of marriage.
 82090                                                          Exeunt.
 82091 
 82092 
 82093 
 82094 
 82095 Scene III.
 82096 Leonato's orchard.
 82097 
 82098 Enter Benedick alone.
 82099 
 82100   Bene. Boy!
 82101 
 82102                     [Enter Boy.]
 82103 
 82104   Boy. Signior?
 82105   Bene. In my chamber window lies a book. Bring it hither to me in
 82106     the orchard.
 82107   Boy. I am here already, sir.
 82108   Bene. I know that, but I would have thee hence and here again.
 82109     (Exit Boy.) I do much wonder that one man, seeing how much
 82110     another man is a fool when he dedicates his behaviours to love,
 82111     will, after he hath laugh'd at such shallow follies in others,
 82112     become the argument of his own scorn by falling in love; and such
 82113     a man is Claudio. I have known when there was no music with him
 82114     but the drum and the fife; and now had he rather hear the tabor
 82115     and the pipe. I have known when he would have walk'd ten mile
 82116     afoot to see a good armour; and now will he lie ten nights awake
 82117     carving the fashion of a new doublet. He was wont to speak plain
 82118     and to the purpose, like an honest man and a soldier; and now is
 82119     he turn'd orthography; his words are a very fantastical banquet--
 82120     just so many strange dishes. May I be so converted and see with
 82121     these eyes? I cannot tell; I think not. I will not be sworn but
 82122     love may transform me to an oyster; but I'll take my oath on it,
 82123     till he have made an oyster of me he shall never make me such a
 82124     fool. One woman is fair, yet I am well; another is wise, yet I am
 82125     well; another virtuous, yet I am well; but till all graces be in
 82126     one woman, one woman shall not come in my grace. Rich she shall
 82127     be, that's certain; wise, or I'll none; virtuous, or I'll never
 82128     cheapen her; fair, or I'll never look on her; mild, or come not
 82129     near me; noble, or not I for an angel; of good discourse, an
 82130     excellent musician, and her hair shall be of what colour it
 82131     please God. Ha, the Prince and Monsieur Love! I will hide me in
 82132     the arbour.                                         [Hides.]
 82133 
 82134               Enter Don Pedro, Leonato, Claudio.
 82135                       Music [within].
 82136 
 82137   Pedro. Come, shall we hear this music?
 82138   Claud. Yea, my good lord. How still the evening is,
 82139     As hush'd on purpose to grace harmony!
 82140   Pedro. See you where Benedick hath hid himself?
 82141   Claud. O, very well, my lord. The music ended,
 82142     We'll fit the kid-fox with a pennyworth.
 82143 
 82144                    Enter Balthasar with Music.
 82145 
 82146   Pedro. Come, Balthasar, we'll hear that song again.
 82147   Balth. O, good my lord, tax not so bad a voice
 82148     To slander music any more than once.
 82149   Pedro. It is the witness still of excellency
 82150     To put a strange face on his own perfection.
 82151     I pray thee sing, and let me woo no more.
 82152   Balth. Because you talk of wooing, I will sing,
 82153     Since many a wooer doth commence his suit
 82154     To her he thinks not worthy, yet he wooes,
 82155     Yet will he swear he loves.
 82156   Pedro. Nay, pray thee come;
 82157     Or if thou wilt hold longer argument,
 82158     Do it in notes.
 82159   Balth. Note this before my notes:
 82160     There's not a note of mine that's worth the noting.
 82161   Pedro. Why, these are very crotchets that he speaks!
 82162     Note notes, forsooth, and nothing!                  [Music.]
 82163   Bene. [aside] Now divine air! Now is his soul ravish'd! Is it not
 82164     strange that sheep's guts should hale souls out of men's bodies?
 82165     Well, a horn for my money, when all's done.
 82166                                               [Balthasar sings.]
 82167                       The Song.
 82168 
 82169         Sigh no more, ladies, sigh no more!
 82170           Men were deceivers ever,
 82171         One foot in sea, and one on shore;
 82172           To one thing constant never.
 82173             Then sigh not so,
 82174             But let them go,
 82175           And be you blithe and bonny,
 82176         Converting all your sounds of woe
 82177           Into Hey nonny, nonny.
 82178 
 82179         Sing no more ditties, sing no moe,
 82180           Of dumps so dull and heavy!
 82181         The fraud of men was ever so,
 82182           Since summer first was leavy.
 82183             Then sigh not so, &c.
 82184 
 82185   Pedro. By my troth, a good song.
 82186   Balth. And an ill singer, my lord.
 82187   Pedro. Ha, no, no, faith! Thou sing'st well enough for a shift.
 82188   Bene. [aside] An he had been a dog that should have howl'd thus,
 82189     they would have hang'd him; and I pray God his bad voice bode no
 82190     mischief. I had as live have heard the night raven, come what
 82191     plague could have come after it.
 82192   Pedro. Yea, marry. Dost thou hear, Balthasar? I pray thee get us
 82193     some excellent music; for to-morrow night we would have it at the
 82194     Lady Hero's chamber window.
 82195   Balth. The best I can, my lord.
 82196   Pedro. Do so. Farewell.
 82197                                 Exit Balthasar [with Musicians].
 82198     Come hither, Leonato. What was it you told me of to-day? that
 82199     your niece Beatrice was in love with Signior Benedick?
 82200   Claud. O, ay!-[Aside to Pedro] Stalk on, stalk on; the fowl sits.
 82201     --I did never think that lady would have loved any man.
 82202   Leon. No, nor I neither; but most wonderful that she should so dote
 82203     on Signior Benedick, whom she hath in all outward behaviours
 82204     seem'd ever to abhor.
 82205   Bene. [aside] Is't possible? Sits the wind in that corner?
 82206   Leon. By my troth, my lord, I cannot tell what to think of it, but
 82207     that she loves him with an enraged affection. It is past the
 82208     infinite of thought.
 82209   Pedro. May be she doth but counterfeit.
 82210   Claud. Faith, like enough.
 82211   Leon. O God, counterfeit? There was never counterfeit of passion
 82212     came so near the life of passion as she discovers it.
 82213   Pedro. Why, what effects of passion shows she?
 82214   Claud. [aside] Bait the hook well! This fish will bite.
 82215   Leon. What effects, my lord? She will sit you--you heard my
 82216     daughter tell you how.
 82217   Claud. She did indeed.
 82218   Pedro. How, how, I pray you? You amaze me. I would have thought her
 82219     spirit had been invincible against all assaults of affection.
 82220   Leon. I would have sworn it had, my lord--especially against
 82221     Benedick.
 82222   Bene. [aside] I should think this a gull but that the white-bearded
 82223     fellow speaks it. Knavery cannot, sure, hide himself in such
 82224     reverence.
 82225   Claud. [aside] He hath ta'en th' infection. Hold it up.
 82226   Pedro. Hath she made her affection known to Benedick?
 82227   Leon. No, and swears she never will. That's her torment.
 82228   Claud. 'Tis true indeed. So your daughter says. 'Shall I,' says
 82229     she, 'that have so oft encount'red him with scorn, write to him
 82230     that I love him?'"
 82231   Leon. This says she now when she is beginning to write to him; for
 82232     she'll be up twenty times a night, and there will she sit in her
 82233     smock till she have writ a sheet of paper. My daughter tells us
 82234     all.
 82235   Claud. Now you talk of a sheet of paper, I remember a pretty jest
 82236     your daughter told us of.
 82237   Leon. O, when she had writ it, and was reading it over, she found
 82238     'Benedick' and 'Beatrice' between the sheet?
 82239   Claud. That.
 82240   Leon. O, she tore the letter into a thousand halfpence, rail'd at
 82241     herself that she should be so immodest to write to one that she
 82242     knew would flout her. 'I measure him,' says she, 'by my own
 82243     spirit; for I should flout him if he writ to me. Yea, though I
 82244     love him, I should.'
 82245   Claud. Then down upon her knees she falls, weeps, sobs, beats her
 82246     heart, tears her hair, prays, curses--'O sweet Benedick! God give
 82247     me patience!'
 82248   Leon. She doth indeed; my daughter says so. And the ecstasy hath so
 82249     much overborne her that my daughter is sometime afeard she will
 82250     do a desperate outrage to herself. It is very true.
 82251   Pedro. It were good that Benedick knew of it by some other, if she
 82252     will not discover it.
 82253   Claud. To what end? He would make but a sport of it and torment the
 82254     poor lady worse.
 82255   Pedro. An he should, it were an alms to hang him! She's an
 82256     excellent sweet lady, and (out of all suspicion) she is virtuous.
 82257   Claud. And she is exceeding wise.
 82258   Pedro. In everything but in loving Benedick.
 82259   Leon. O, my lord, wisdom and blood combating in so tender a body,
 82260     we have ten proofs to one that blood hath the victory. I am sorry
 82261     for her, as I have just cause, being her uncle and her guardian.
 82262   Pedro. I would she had bestowed this dotage on me. I would have
 82263     daff'd all other respects and made her half myself. I pray you
 82264     tell Benedick of it and hear what 'a will say.
 82265   Leon. Were it good, think you?
 82266   Claud. Hero thinks surely she will die; for she says she will die
 82267     if he love her not, and she will die ere she make her love known,
 82268     and she will die, if he woo her, rather than she will bate one
 82269     breath of her accustomed crossness.
 82270   Pedro. She doth well. If she should make tender of her love, 'tis
 82271     very possible he'll scorn it; for the man (as you know all) hath
 82272     a contemptible spirit.
 82273   Claud. He is a very proper man.
 82274   Pedro. He hath indeed a good outward happiness.
 82275   Claud. Before God! and in my mind, very wise.
 82276   Pedro. He doth indeed show some sparks that are like wit.
 82277   Claud. And I take him to be valiant.
 82278   Pedro. As Hector, I assure you; and in the managing of quarrels you
 82279     may say he is wise, for either he avoids them with great
 82280     discretion, or undertakes them with a most Christianlike fear.
 82281   Leon. If he do fear God, 'a must necessarily keep peace. If he
 82282     break the peace, he ought to enter into a quarrel with fear and
 82283     trembling.
 82284   Pedro. And so will he do; for the man doth fear God, howsoever it
 82285     seems not in him by some large jests he will make. Well, I am
 82286     sorry for your niece. Shall we go seek Benedick and tell him of
 82287     her love?
 82288   Claud. Never tell him, my lord. Let her wear it out with good
 82289     counsel.
 82290   Leon. Nay, that's impossible; she may wear her heart out first.
 82291   Pedro. Well, we will hear further of it by your daughter. Let it
 82292     cool the while. I love Benedick well, and I could wish he would
 82293     modestly examine himself to see how much he is unworthy so good a
 82294     lady.
 82295   Leon. My lord, will you .walk? Dinner is ready.
 82296                                                [They walk away.]
 82297   Claud. If he dote on her upon this, I will never trust my
 82298     expectation.
 82299   Pedro. Let there be the same net spread for her, and that must your
 82300     daughter and her gentlewomen carry. The sport will be, when they
 82301     hold one an opinion of another's dotage, and no such matter.
 82302     That's the scene that I would see, which will be merely a dumb
 82303     show. Let us send her to call him in to dinner.
 82304                        Exeunt [Don Pedro, Claudio, and Leonato].
 82305 
 82306                 [Benedick advances from the arbour.]
 82307 
 82308   Bene. This can be no trick. The conference was sadly borne; they
 82309     have the truth of this from Hero; they seem to pity the lady.
 82310     It seems her affections have their full bent. Love me? Why, it
 82311     must be requited. I hear how I am censur'd. They say I will bear
 82312     myself proudly if I perceive the love come from her. They say too
 82313     that she will rather die than give any sign of affection. I did
 82314     never think to marry. I must not seem proud. Happy are they that
 82315     hear their detractions and can put them to mending. They say the
 82316     lady is fair--'tis a truth, I can bear them witness; and virtuous
 82317     --'tis so, I cannot reprove it; and wise, but for loving me--by
 82318     my troth, it is no addition to her wit, nor no great argument of
 82319     her folly, for I will be horribly in love with her. I may chance
 82320     have some odd quirks and remnants of wit broken on me because I
 82321     have railed so long against marriage. But doth not the appetite
 82322     alters? A man loves the meat in his youth that he cannot endure
 82323     in his age. Shall quips and sentences and these paper bullets of
 82324     the brain awe a man from the career of his humour? No, the world
 82325     must be peopled. When I said I would die a bachelor, I did not
 82326     think I should live till I were married.
 82327 
 82328                  Enter Beatrice.
 82329 
 82330     Here comes Beatrice. By this day, she's a fair lady! I do spy
 82331     some marks of love in her.
 82332   Beat. Against my will I am sent to bid You come in to dinner.
 82333   Bene. Fair Beatrice, I thank you for your pains.
 82334   Beat. I took no more pains for those thanks than you take pains to
 82335     thank me. If it had been painful, I would not have come.
 82336   Bene. You take pleasure then in the message?
 82337   Beat. Yea, just so much as you may take upon a knives point, and
 82338     choke a daw withal. You have no stomach, signior. Fare you well.
 82339 Exit.
 82340   Bene. Ha! 'Against my will I am sent to bid you come in to dinner.'
 82341     There's a double meaning in that. 'I took no more pains for those
 82342     thanks than you took pains to thank me.' That's as much as to
 82343     say, 'Any pains that I take for you is as easy as thanks.' If I
 82344     do not take pity of her, I am a villain; if I do not love her, I
 82345     am a Jew. I will go get her picture.                   Exit.
 82346 
 82347 
 82348 
 82349 
 82350 <<THIS ELECTRONIC VERSION OF THE COMPLETE WORKS OF WILLIAM
 82351 SHAKESPEARE IS COPYRIGHT 1990-1993 BY WORLD LIBRARY, INC., AND IS
 82352 PROVIDED BY PROJECT GUTENBERG ETEXT OF ILLINOIS BENEDICTINE COLLEGE
 82353 WITH PERMISSION.  ELECTRONIC AND MACHINE READABLE COPIES MAY BE
 82354 DISTRIBUTED SO LONG AS SUCH COPIES (1) ARE FOR YOUR OR OTHERS
 82355 PERSONAL USE ONLY, AND (2) ARE NOT DISTRIBUTED OR USED
 82356 COMMERCIALLY.  PROHIBITED COMMERCIAL DISTRIBUTION INCLUDES BY ANY
 82357 SERVICE THAT CHARGES FOR DOWNLOAD TIME OR FOR MEMBERSHIP.>>
 82358 
 82359 
 82360 
 82361 ACT III. Scene I.
 82362 Leonato's orchard.
 82363 
 82364 Enter Hero and two Gentlewomen, Margaret and Ursula.
 82365 
 82366   Hero. Good Margaret, run thee to the parlour.
 82367     There shalt thou find my cousin Beatrice
 82368     Proposing with the Prince and Claudio.
 82369     Whisper her ear and tell her, I and Ursley
 82370     Walk in the orchard, and our whole discourse
 82371     Is all of her. Say that thou overheard'st us;
 82372     And bid her steal into the pleached bower,
 82373     Where honeysuckles, ripened by the sun,
 82374     Forbid the sun to enter--like favourites,
 82375     Made proud by princes, that advance their pride
 82376     Against that power that bred it. There will she hide her
 82377     To listen our propose. This is thy office.
 82378     Bear thee well in it and leave us alone.
 82379   Marg. I'll make her come, I warrant you, presently.    [Exit.]
 82380   Hero. Now, Ursula, when Beatrice doth come,
 82381     As we do trace this alley up and down,
 82382     Our talk must only be of Benedick.
 82383     When I do name him, let it be thy part
 82384     To praise him more than ever man did merit.
 82385     My talk to thee must be how Benedick
 82386     Is sick in love with Beatrice. Of this matter
 82387     Is little Cupid's crafty arrow made,
 82388     That only wounds by hearsay.
 82389 
 82390                    [Enter Beatrice.]
 82391 
 82392     Now begin;
 82393     For look where Beatrice like a lapwing runs
 82394     Close by the ground, to hear our conference.
 82395 
 82396                [Beatrice hides in the arbour].
 82397 
 82398   Urs. The pleasant'st angling is to see the fish
 82399     Cut with her golden oars the silver stream
 82400     And greedily devour the treacherous bait.
 82401     So angle we for Beatrice, who even now
 82402     Is couched in the woodbine coverture.
 82403     Fear you not my part of the dialogue.
 82404   Hero. Then go we near her, that her ear lose nothing
 82405     Of the false sweet bait that we lay for it.
 82406                                      [They approach the arbour.]
 82407     No, truly, Ursula, she is too disdainful.
 82408     I know her spirits are as coy and wild
 82409     As haggards of the rock.
 82410   Urs. But are you sure
 82411     That Benedick loves Beatrice so entirely?
 82412   Hero. So says the Prince, and my new-trothed lord.
 82413   Urs. And did they bid you tell her of it, madam?
 82414   Hero. They did entreat me to acquaint her of it;
 82415     But I persuaded them, if they lov'd Benedick,
 82416     To wish him wrestle with affection
 82417     And never to let Beatrice know of it.
 82418   Urs. Why did you so? Doth not the gentleman
 82419     Deserve as full, as fortunate a bed
 82420     As ever Beatrice shall couch upon?
 82421   Hero. O god of love! I know he doth deserve
 82422     As much as may be yielded to a man:
 82423     But Nature never fram'd a woman's heart
 82424     Of prouder stuff than that of Beatrice.
 82425     Disdain and scorn ride sparkling in her eyes,
 82426     Misprizing what they look on; and her wit
 82427     Values itself so highly that to her
 82428     All matter else seems weak. She cannot love,
 82429     Nor take no shape nor project of affection,
 82430     She is so self-endeared.
 82431   Urs. Sure I think so;
 82432     And therefore certainly it were not good
 82433     She knew his love, lest she'll make sport at it.
 82434   Hero. Why, you speak truth. I never yet saw man,
 82435     How wise, how noble, young, how rarely featur'd,
 82436     But she would spell him backward. If fair-fac'd,
 82437     She would swear the gentleman should be her sister;
 82438     If black, why, Nature, drawing of an antic,
 82439     Made a foul blot; if tall, a lance ill-headed;
 82440     If low, an agate very vilely cut;
 82441     If speaking, why, a vane blown with all winds;
 82442     If silent, why, a block moved with none.
 82443     So turns she every man the wrong side out
 82444     And never gives to truth and virtue that
 82445     Which simpleness and merit purchaseth.
 82446   Urs. Sure, sure, such carping is not commendable.
 82447   Hero. No, not to be so odd, and from all fashions,
 82448     As Beatrice is, cannot be commendable.
 82449     But who dare tell her so? If I should speak,
 82450     She would mock me into air; O, she would laugh me
 82451     Out of myself, press me to death with wit!
 82452     Therefore let Benedick, like cover'd fire,
 82453     Consume away in sighs, waste inwardly.
 82454     It were a better death than die with mocks,
 82455     Which is as bad as die with tickling.
 82456   Urs. Yet tell her of it. Hear what she will say.
 82457   Hero. No; rather I will go to Benedick
 82458     And counsel him to fight against his passion.
 82459     And truly, I'll devise some honest slanders
 82460     To stain my cousin with. One doth not know
 82461     How much an ill word may empoison liking.
 82462   Urs. O, do not do your cousin such a wrong!
 82463     She cannot be so much without true judgment
 82464     (Having so swift and excellent a wit
 82465     As she is priz'd to have) as to refuse
 82466     So rare a gentleman as Signior Benedick.
 82467   Hero. He is the only man of Italy,
 82468     Always excepted my dear Claudio.
 82469   Urs. I pray you be not angry with me, madam,
 82470     Speaking my fancy: Signior Benedick,
 82471     For shape, for bearing, argument, and valour,
 82472     Goes foremost in report through Italy.
 82473   Hero. Indeed he hath an excellent good name.
 82474   Urs. His excellence did earn it ere he had it.
 82475     When are you married, madam?
 82476   Hero. Why, every day to-morrow! Come, go in.
 82477     I'll show thee some attires, and have thy counsel
 82478     Which is the best to furnish me to-morrow.
 82479                                                [They walk away.]
 82480   Urs. She's lim'd, I warrant you! We have caught her, madam.
 82481   Hero. If it prove so, then loving goes by haps;
 82482     Some Cupid kills with arrows, some with traps.
 82483                                        Exeunt [Hero and Ursula].
 82484 
 82485     [Beatrice advances from the arbour.]
 82486 
 82487   Beat. What fire is in mine ears? Can this be true?
 82488     Stand I condemn'd for pride and scorn so much?
 82489     Contempt, farewell! and maiden pride, adieu!
 82490     No glory lives behind the back of such.
 82491     And, Benedick, love on; I will requite thee,
 82492     Taming my wild heart to thy loving hand.
 82493     If thou dost love, my kindness shall incite thee
 82494     To bind our loves up in a holy band;
 82495     For others say thou dost deserve, and I
 82496     Believe it better than reportingly.                    Exit.
 82497 
 82498 
 82499 
 82500 
 82501 Scene II.
 82502 A room in Leonato's house.
 82503 
 82504 Enter Don Pedro, Claudio, Benedick, and Leonato.
 82505 
 82506   Pedro. I do but stay till your marriage be consummate, and then go
 82507     I toward Arragon.
 82508   Claud. I'll bring you thither, my lord, if you'll vouchsafe me.
 82509   Pedro. Nay, that would be as great a soil in the new gloss of your
 82510     marriage as to show a child his new coat and forbid him to wear
 82511     it. I will only be bold with Benedick for his company; for, from
 82512     the crown of his head to the sole of his foot, he is all mirth.
 82513     He hath twice or thrice cut Cupid's bowstring, and the little
 82514     hangman dare not shoot at him. He hath a heart as sound as a
 82515     bell; and his tongue is the clapper, for what his heart thinks,
 82516     his tongue speaks.
 82517   Bene. Gallants, I am not as I have been.
 82518   Leon. So say I. Methinks you are sadder.
 82519   Claud. I hope he be in love.
 82520   Pedro. Hang him, truant! There's no true drop of blood in him to be
 82521     truly touch'd with love. If he be sad, he wants money.
 82522   Bene. I have the toothache.
 82523   Pedro. Draw it.
 82524   Bene. Hang it!
 82525   Claud. You must hang it first and draw it afterwards.
 82526   Pedro. What? sigh for the toothache?
 82527   Leon. Where is but a humour or a worm.
 82528   Bene. Well, every one can master a grief but he that has it.
 82529   Claud. Yet say I he is in love.
 82530   Pedro. There is no appearance of fancy in him, unless it be a fancy
 82531     that he hath to strange disguises; as to be a Dutchman to-day, a
 82532     Frenchman to-morrow; or in the shape of two countries at once, as
 82533     a German from the waist downward, all slops, and a Spaniard from
 82534     the hip upward, no doublet. Unless he have a fancy to this
 82535     foolery, as it appears he hath, he is no fool for fancy, as you
 82536     would have it appear he is.
 82537   Claud. If he be not in love with some woman, there is no believing
 82538     old signs. 'A brushes his hat o' mornings. What should that bode?
 82539   Pedro. Hath any man seen him at the barber's?
 82540   Claud. No, but the barber's man hath been seen with him, and the
 82541      old ornament of his cheek hath already stuff'd tennis balls.
 82542   Leon. Indeed he looks younger than he did, by the loss of a beard.
 82543   Pedro. Nay, 'a rubs himself with civet. Can you smell him out by
 82544     that?
 82545   Claud. That's as much as to say, the sweet youth's in love.
 82546   Pedro. The greatest note of it is his melancholy.
 82547   Claud. And when was he wont to wash his face?
 82548   Pedro. Yea, or to paint himself? for the which I hear what they say
 82549     of him.
 82550   Claud. Nay, but his jesting spirit, which is new-crept into a
 82551     lutestring, and now govern'd by stops.
 82552   Pedro. Indeed that tells a heavy tale for him. Conclude, conclude,
 82553     he is in love.
 82554   Claud. Nay, but I know who loves him.
 82555   Pedro. That would I know too. I warrant, one that knows him not.
 82556   Claud. Yes, and his ill conditions; and in despite of all, dies for
 82557     him.
 82558   Pedro. She shall be buried with her face upwards.
 82559   Bene. Yet is this no charm for the toothache. Old signior, walk
 82560     aside with me. I have studied eight or nine wise words to speak
 82561     to you, which these hobby-horses must not hear.
 82562                                   [Exeunt Benedick and Leonato.]
 82563   Pedro. For my life, to break with him about Beatrice!
 82564   Claud. 'Tis even so. Hero and Margaret have by this played their
 82565     parts with Beatrice, and then the two bears will not bite one
 82566     another when they meet.
 82567 
 82568                  Enter John the Bastard.
 82569 
 82570   John. My lord and brother, God save you.
 82571   Pedro. Good den, brother.
 82572   John. If your leisure serv'd, I would speak with you.
 82573   Pedro. In private?
 82574   John. If it please you. Yet Count Claudio may hear, for what I
 82575     would speak of concerns him.
 82576   Pedro. What's the matter?
 82577   John. [to Claudio] Means your lordship to be married tomorrow?
 82578   Pedro. You know he does.
 82579   John. I know not that, when he knows what I know.
 82580   Claud. If there be any impediment, I pray you discover it.
 82581   John. You may think I love you not. Let that appear hereafter, and
 82582     aim better at me by that I now will manifest. For my brother, I
 82583     think he holds you well and in dearness of heart hath holp to
 82584     effect your ensuing marriage--surely suit ill spent and labour
 82585     ill bestowed!
 82586   Pedro. Why, what's the matter?
 82587   John. I came hither to tell you, and, circumstances short'ned (for
 82588     she has been too long a-talking of), the lady is disloyal.
 82589   Claud. Who? Hero?
 82590   John. Even she--Leonato's Hero, your Hero, every man's Hero.
 82591   Claud. Disloyal?
 82592   John. The word is too good to paint out her wickedness. I could say
 82593     she were worse; think you of a worse title, and I will fit her to
 82594     it. Wonder not till further warrant. Go but with me to-night, you
 82595     shall see her chamber window ent'red, even the night before her
 82596     wedding day. If you love her then, to-morrow wed her. But it
 82597     would better fit your honour to change your mind.
 82598   Claud. May this be so?
 82599   Pedro. I will not think it.
 82600   John. If you dare not trust that you see, confess not that you
 82601     know. If you will follow me, I will show you enough; and when you
 82602     have seen more and heard more, proceed accordingly.
 82603   Claud. If I see anything to-night why I should not marry her
 82604     to-morrow, in the congregation where I should wed, there will I
 82605     shame her.
 82606   Pedro. And, as I wooed for thee to obtain her, I will join with
 82607     thee to disgrace her.
 82608   John. I will disparage her no farther till you are my witnesses.
 82609     Bear it coldly but till midnight, and let the issue show itself.
 82610   Pedro. O day untowardly turned!
 82611   Claud. O mischief strangely thwarting!
 82612   John. O plague right well prevented!
 82613     So will you say when you have seen the Sequel.
 82614                                                          Exeunt.
 82615 
 82616 
 82617 
 82618 
 82619 Scene III.
 82620 A street.
 82621 
 82622 Enter Dogberry and his compartner [Verges], with the Watch.
 82623 
 82624   Dog. Are you good men and true?
 82625   Verg. Yea, or else it were pity but they should suffer salvation,
 82626     body and soul.
 82627   Dog. Nay, that were a punishment too good for them if they should
 82628     have any allegiance in them, being chosen for the Prince's watch.
 82629   Verg. Well, give them their charge, neighbour Dogberry.
 82630   Dog. First, who think you the most desartless man to be constable?
 82631   1. Watch. Hugh Oatcake, sir, or George Seacoal; for they can write
 82632     and read.
 82633   Dog. Come hither, neighbour Seacoal. God hath bless'd you with a
 82634     good name. To be a well-favoured man is the gift of fortune, but
 82635     to write and read comes by nature.
 82636   2. Watch. Both which, Master Constable--
 82637   Dog. You have. I knew it would be your answer. Well, for your
 82638     favour, sir, why, give God thanks and make no boast of it; and
 82639     for your writing and reading, let that appear when there is no
 82640     need of such vanity. You are thought here to be the most
 82641     senseless and fit man for the constable of the watch. Therefore
 82642     bear you the lanthorn. This is your charge: you shall comprehend
 82643     all vagrom men; you are to bid any man stand, in the Prince's
 82644     name.
 82645   2. Watch. How if 'a will not stand?
 82646   Dog. Why then, take no note of him, but let him go, and presently
 82647     call the rest of the watch together and thank God you are rid of
 82648     a knave.
 82649   Verg. If he will not stand when he is bidden, he is none of the
 82650     Prince's subjects.
 82651   Dog. True, and they are to meddle with none but the Prince's
 82652     subjects. You shall also make no noise in the streets; for for
 82653     the watch to babble and to talk is most tolerable, and not to be
 82654     endured.
 82655   2. Watch. We will rather sleep than talk. We know what belongs to
 82656     a watch.
 82657   Dog. Why, you speak like an ancient and most quiet watchman, for I
 82658     cannot see how sleeping should offend. Only have a care that your
 82659     bills be not stol'n. Well, you are to call at all the alehouses
 82660     and bid those that are drunk get them to bed.
 82661   2. Watch. How if they will not?
 82662   Dog. Why then, let them alone till they are sober. If they make you
 82663     not then the better answer, You may say they are not the men you
 82664     took them for.
 82665   2. Watch. Well, sir.
 82666   Dog. If you meet a thief, you may suspect him, by virtue of your
 82667     office, to be no true man; and for such kind of men, the less you
 82668     meddle or make with them, why, the more your honesty.
 82669   2. Watch. If we know him to be a thief, shall we not lay hands on
 82670     him?
 82671   Dog. Truly, by your office you may; but I think they that touch
 82672     pitch will be defil'd. The most peaceable way for you, if you do
 82673     take a thief, is to let him show himself what he is, and steal
 82674     out of your company.
 82675   Verg. You have been always called a merciful man, partner.
 82676   Dog. Truly, I would not hang a dog by my will, much more a man who
 82677     hath any honesty in him.
 82678   Verg. If you hear a child cry in the night, you must call to the
 82679     nurse and bid her still it.
 82680   2. Watch. How if the nurse be asleep and will not hear us?
 82681   Dog. Why then, depart in peace and let the child wake her with
 82682     crying; for the ewe that will not hear her lamb when it baes will
 82683     never answer a calf when he bleats.
 82684   Verg. 'Tis very true.
 82685   Dog. This is the end of the charge: you, constable, are to present
 82686     the Prince's own person. If you meet the Prince in the night,
 82687     you may stay him.
 82688   Verg. Nay, by'r lady, that I think 'a cannot.
 82689   Dog. Five shillings to one on't with any man that knows the
 82690     statutes, he may stay him! Marry, not without the Prince be
 82691     willing; for indeed the watch ought to offend no man, and it is
 82692     an offence to stay a man against his will.
 82693   Verg. By'r lady, I think it be so.
 82694   Dog. Ha, ah, ha! Well, masters, good night. An there be any matter
 82695     of weight chances, call up me. Keep your fellows' counsels and
 82696     your own, and good night. Come, neighbour.
 82697   2. Watch. Well, masters, we hear our charge. Let us go sit here
 82698     upon the church bench till two, and then all to bed.
 82699   Dog. One word more, honest neighbours. I pray you watch about
 82700     Signior Leonato's door; for the wedding being there tomorrow,
 82701     there is a great coil to-night. Adieu. Be vigitant, I beseech
 82702     you.                           Exeunt [Dogberry and Verges].
 82703 
 82704                      Enter Borachio and Conrade.
 82705 
 82706   Bora. What, Conrade!
 82707   2. Watch. [aside] Peace! stir not!
 82708   Bora. Conrade, I say!
 82709   Con. Here, man. I am at thy elbow.
 82710   Bora. Mass, and my elbow itch'd! I thought there would a scab
 82711     follow.
 82712   Con. I will owe thee an answer for that; and now forward with thy
 82713     tale.
 82714   Bora. Stand thee close then under this penthouse, for it drizzles
 82715     rain, and I will, like a true drunkard, utter all to thee.
 82716   2. Watch. [aside] Some treason, masters. Yet stand close.
 82717   Bora. Therefore know I have earned of Don John a thousand ducats.
 82718   Con. Is it possible that any villany should be so dear?
 82719   Bora. Thou shouldst rather ask if it were possible any villany
 82720     should be so rich; for when rich villains have need of poor ones,
 82721     poor ones may make what price they will.
 82722   Con. I wonder at it.
 82723   Bora. That shows thou art unconfirm'd. Thou knowest that the
 82724     fashion of a doublet, or a hat, or a cloak, is nothing to a man.
 82725   Con. Yes, it is apparel.
 82726   Bora. I mean the fashion.
 82727   Con. Yes, the fashion is the fashion.
 82728   Bora. Tush! I may as well say the fool's the fool. But seest thou
 82729     not what a deformed thief this fashion is?
 82730   2. Watch. [aside] I know that Deformed. 'A bas been a vile thief
 82731     this seven year; 'a goes up and down like a gentleman. I remember
 82732     his name.
 82733   Bora. Didst thou not hear somebody?
 82734   Con. No; 'twas the vane on the house.
 82735   Bora. Seest thou not, I say, what a deformed thief this fashion is?
 82736     how giddily 'a turns about all the hot-bloods between fourteen
 82737     and five-and-thirty? sometimes fashioning them like Pharaoh's
 82738     soldiers in the reechy painting, sometime like god Bel's priests
 82739     in the old church window, sometime like the shaven Hercules in
 82740     the smirch'd worm-eaten tapestry, where his codpiece seems as
 82741     massy as his club?
 82742   Con. All this I see; and I see that the fashion wears out more
 82743     apparel than the man. But art not thou thyself giddy with the
 82744     fashion too, that thou hast shifted out of thy tale into telling
 82745     me of the fashion?
 82746   Bora. Not so neither. But know that I have to-night wooed Margaret,
 82747     the Lady Hero's gentlewoman, by the name of Hero. She leans me
 82748     out at her mistress' chamber window, bids me a thousand times
 82749     good night--I tell this tale vilely; I should first tell thee how
 82750     the Prince, Claudio and my master, planted and placed and
 82751     possessed by my master Don John, saw afar off in the orchard this
 82752     amiable encounter.
 82753   Con. And thought they Margaret was Hero?
 82754   Bora. Two of them did, the Prince and Claudio; but the devil my
 82755     master knew she was Margaret; and partly by his oaths, which
 82756     first possess'd them, partly by the dark night, which did deceive
 82757     them, but chiefly by my villany, which did confirm any slander
 82758     that Don John had made, away went Claudio enrag'd; swore he would
 82759     meet her, as he was appointed, next morning at the temple, and
 82760     there, before the whole congregation, shame her with what he saw
 82761     o'ernight and send her home again without a husband.
 82762   2. Watch. We charge you in the Prince's name stand!
 82763   1. Watch. Call up the right Master Constable. We have here
 82764     recover'd the most dangerous piece of lechery that ever was known
 82765     in the commonwealth.
 82766   2. Watch. And one Deformed is one of them. I know him; 'a wears a
 82767     lock.
 82768   Con. Masters, masters--
 82769   1. Watch. You'll be made bring Deformed forth, I warrant you.
 82770   Con. Masters--
 82771   2. Watch. Never speak, we charge you. Let us obey you to go with
 82772     us.
 82773   Bora. We are like to prove a goodly commodity, being taken up of
 82774     these men's bills.
 82775   Con. A commodity in question, I warrant you. Come, we'll obey you.
 82776                                                          Exeunt.
 82777 
 82778 
 82779 
 82780 
 82781 Scene IV.
 82782 A Room in Leonato's house.
 82783 
 82784 Enter Hero, and Margaret and Ursula.
 82785 
 82786   Hero. Good Ursula, wake my cousin Beatrice and desire her to rise.
 82787   Urs. I will, lady.
 82788   Hero. And bid her come hither.
 82789   Urs. Well.                                             [Exit.]
 82790   Marg. Troth, I think your other rebato were better.
 82791   Hero. No, pray thee, good Meg, I'll wear this.
 82792   Marg. By my troth, 's not so good, and I warrant your cousin will
 82793     say so.
 82794   Hero. My cousin's a fool, and thou art another. I'll wear none but
 82795     this.
 82796   Marg. I like the new tire within excellently, if the hair were a
 82797     thought browner; and your gown's a most rare fashion, i' faith.
 82798     I saw the Duchess of Milan's gown that they praise so.
 82799   Hero. O, that exceeds, they say.
 82800   Marg. By my troth, 's but a nightgown in respect of yours--
 82801     cloth-o'-gold and cuts, and lac'd with silver, set with pearls
 82802     down sleeves, side-sleeves, and skirts, round underborne with
 82803     a blush tinsel. But for a fine, quaint, graceful, and excellent
 82804     fashion, yours is worth ten on't.
 82805   Hero. God give me joy to wear it! for my heart is exceeding heavy.
 82806   Marg. 'Twill be heavier soon by the weight of a man.
 82807   Hero. Fie upon thee! art not ashamed?
 82808   Marg. Of what, lady? of speaking honourably? Is not marriage
 82809     honourable in a beggar? Is not your lord honourable without
 82810     marriage? I think you would have me say, 'saving your reverence,
 82811     a husband.' An bad thinking do not wrest true speaking, I'll
 82812     offend nobody. Is there any harm in 'the heavier for a husband'?
 82813     None, I think, an it be the right husband and the right wife.
 82814     Otherwise 'tis light, and not heavy. Ask my Lady Beatrice else.
 82815     Here she comes.
 82816 
 82817                                Enter Beatrice.
 82818 
 82819   Hero. Good morrow, coz.
 82820   Beat. Good morrow, sweet Hero.
 82821   Hero. Why, how now? Do you speak in the sick tune?
 82822   Beat. I am out of all other tune, methinks.
 82823   Marg. Clap's into 'Light o' love.' That goes without a burden. Do
 82824     you sing it, and I'll dance it.
 82825   Beat. Yea, 'Light o' love' with your heels! then, if your husband
 82826     have stables enough, you'll see he shall lack no barnes.
 82827   Marg. O illegitimate construction! I scorn that with my heels.
 82828   Beat. 'Tis almost five o'clock, cousin; 'tis time you were ready.
 82829     By my troth, I am exceeding ill. Hey-ho!
 82830   Marg. For a hawk, a horse, or a husband?
 82831   Beat. For the letter that begins them all, H.
 82832   Marg. Well, an you be not turn'd Turk, there's no more sailing by
 82833     the star.
 82834   Beat. What means the fool, trow?
 82835   Marg. Nothing I; but God send every one their heart's desire!
 82836   Hero. These gloves the Count sent me, they are an excellent
 82837     perfume.
 82838   Beat. I am stuff'd, cousin; I cannot smell.
 82839   Marg. A maid, and stuff'd! There's goodly catching of cold.
 82840   Beat. O, God help me! God help me! How long have you profess'd
 82841     apprehension?
 82842   Marg. Ever since you left it. Doth not my wit become me rarely?
 82843   Beat. It is not seen enough. You should wear it in your cap. By my
 82844     troth, I am sick.
 82845   Marg. Get you some of this distill'd carduus benedictus and lay it
 82846     to your heart. It is the only thing for a qualm.
 82847   Hero. There thou prick'st her with a thistle.
 82848   Beat. Benedictus? why benedictus? You have some moral in this
 82849     'benedictus.'
 82850   Marg. Moral? No, by my troth, I have no moral meaning; I meant
 82851     plain holy thistle. You may think perchance that I think you are
 82852     in love. Nay, by'r lady, I am not such a fool to think what I
 82853     list; nor I list not to think what I can; nor indeed I cannot
 82854     think, if I would think my heart out of thinking, that you are in
 82855     love, or that you will be in love, or that you can be in love.
 82856     Yet Benedick was such another, and now is he become a man. He
 82857     swore he would never marry; and yet now in despite of his heart
 82858     he eats his meat without grudging; and how you may be converted I
 82859     know not, but methinks you look with your eyes as other women do.
 82860   Beat. What pace is this that thy tongue keeps?
 82861   Marg. Not a false gallop.
 82862 
 82863                          Enter Ursula.
 82864 
 82865   Urs. Madam, withdraw. The Prince, the Count, Signior Benedick, Don
 82866     John, and all the gallants of the town are come to fetch you to
 82867     church.
 82868   Hero. Help to dress me, good coz, good Meg, good Ursula.
 82869                                                        [Exeunt.]
 82870 
 82871 
 82872 
 82873 
 82874 Scene V.
 82875 The hall in Leonato's house.
 82876 
 82877 Enter Leonato and the Constable [Dogberry] and the Headborough [verges].
 82878 
 82879   Leon. What would you with me, honest neighbour?
 82880   Dog. Marry, sir, I would have some confidence with you that decerns
 82881     you nearly.
 82882   Leon. Brief, I pray you; for you see it is a busy time with me.
 82883   Dog. Marry, this it is, sir.
 82884   Verg. Yes, in truth it is, sir.
 82885   Leon. What is it, my good friends?
 82886   Dog. Goodman Verges, sir, speaks a little off the matter--an old
 82887     man, sir, and his wits are not so blunt as, God help, I would
 82888     desire they were; but, in faith, honest as the skin between his
 82889     brows.
 82890   Verg. Yes, I thank God I am as honest as any man living that is an
 82891     old man and no honester than I.
 82892   Dog. Comparisons are odorous. Palabras, neighbour Verges.
 82893   Leon. Neighbours, you are tedious.
 82894   Dog. It pleases your worship to say so, but we are the poor Duke's
 82895     officers; but truly, for mine own part, if I were as tedious as a
 82896     king, I could find in my heart to bestow it all of your worship.
 82897   Leon. All thy tediousness on me, ah?
 82898   Dog. Yea, in 'twere a thousand pound more than 'tis; for I hear as
 82899     good exclamation on your worship as of any man in the city; and
 82900     though I be but a poor man, I am glad to hear it.
 82901   Verg. And so am I.
 82902   Leon. I would fain know what you have to say.
 82903   Verg. Marry, sir, our watch to-night, excepting your worship's
 82904     presence, ha' ta'en a couple of as arrant knaves as any in
 82905     Messina.
 82906   Dog. A good old man, sir; he will be talking. As they say, 'When
 82907     the age is in, the wit is out.' God help us! it is a world to
 82908     see! Well said, i' faith, neighbour Verges. Well, God's a good
 82909     man. An two men ride of a horse, one must ride behind. An honest
 82910     soul, i' faith, sir, by my troth he is, as ever broke bread; but
 82911     God is to be worshipp'd; all men are not alike, alas, good
 82912     neighbour!
 82913   Leon. Indeed, neighbour, he comes too short of you.
 82914   Dog. Gifts that God gives.
 82915   Leon. I must leave you.
 82916   Dog. One word, sir. Our watch, sir, have indeed comprehended two
 82917     aspicious persons, and we would have them this morning examined
 82918     before your worship.
 82919   Leon. Take their examination yourself and bring it me. I am now in
 82920     great haste, as it may appear unto you.
 82921   Dog. It shall be suffigance.
 82922   Leon. Drink some wine ere you go. Fare you well.
 82923 
 82924                        [Enter a Messenger.]
 82925 
 82926   Mess. My lord, they stay for you to give your daughter to her
 82927     husband.
 82928   Leon. I'll wait upon them. I am ready.
 82929                                  [Exeunt Leonato and Messenger.]
 82930   Dog. Go, good partner, go get you to Francis Seacoal; bid him bring
 82931     his pen and inkhorn to the jail. We are now to examination these
 82932     men.
 82933   Verg. And we must do it wisely.
 82934   Dog. We will spare for no wit, I warrant you. Here's that shall
 82935     drive some of them to a non-come. Only get the learned writer to
 82936     set down our excommunication, and meet me at the jail.
 82937                                                        [Exeunt.]
 82938 
 82939 
 82940 
 82941 
 82942 <<THIS ELECTRONIC VERSION OF THE COMPLETE WORKS OF WILLIAM
 82943 SHAKESPEARE IS COPYRIGHT 1990-1993 BY WORLD LIBRARY, INC., AND IS
 82944 PROVIDED BY PROJECT GUTENBERG ETEXT OF ILLINOIS BENEDICTINE COLLEGE
 82945 WITH PERMISSION.  ELECTRONIC AND MACHINE READABLE COPIES MAY BE
 82946 DISTRIBUTED SO LONG AS SUCH COPIES (1) ARE FOR YOUR OR OTHERS
 82947 PERSONAL USE ONLY, AND (2) ARE NOT DISTRIBUTED OR USED
 82948 COMMERCIALLY.  PROHIBITED COMMERCIAL DISTRIBUTION INCLUDES BY ANY
 82949 SERVICE THAT CHARGES FOR DOWNLOAD TIME OR FOR MEMBERSHIP.>>
 82950 
 82951 
 82952 
 82953 ACT IV. Scene I.
 82954 A church.
 82955 
 82956 Enter Don Pedro, [John the] Bastard, Leonato, Friar [Francis], Claudio,
 82957 Benedick, Hero, Beatrice, [and Attendants].
 82958 
 82959   Leon. Come, Friar Francis, be brief. Only to the plain form of
 82960     marriage, and you shall recount their particular duties
 82961     afterwards.
 82962   Friar. You come hither, my lord, to marry this lady?
 82963   Claud. No.
 82964   Leon. To be married to her. Friar, you come to marry her.
 82965   Friar. Lady, you come hither to be married to this count?
 82966   Hero. I do.
 82967   Friar. If either of you know any inward impediment why you should
 82968     not be conjoined, I charge you on your souls to utter it.
 82969   Claud. Know you any, Hero?
 82970   Hero. None, my lord.
 82971   Friar. Know you any, Count?
 82972   Leon. I dare make his answer--none.
 82973   Claud. O, what men dare do! what men may do! what men daily do, not
 82974     knowing what they do!
 82975   Bene. How now? interjections? Why then, some be of laughing, as,
 82976     ah, ha, he!
 82977   Claud. Stand thee by, friar. Father, by your leave:
 82978     Will you with free and unconstrained soul
 82979     Give me this maid your daughter?
 82980   Leon. As freely, son, as God did give her me.
 82981   Claud. And what have I to give you back whose worth
 82982     May counterpoise this rich and precious gift?
 82983   Pedro. Nothing, unless you render her again.
 82984   Claud. Sweet Prince, you learn me noble thankfulness.
 82985     There, Leonato, take her back again.
 82986     Give not this rotten orange to your friend.
 82987     She's but the sign and semblance of her honour.
 82988     Behold how like a maid she blushes here!
 82989     O, what authority and show of truth
 82990     Can cunning sin cover itself withal!
 82991     Comes not that blood as modest evidence
 82992     To witness simple virtue, Would you not swear,
 82993     All you that see her, that she were a maid
 82994     By these exterior shows? But she is none:
 82995     She knows the heat of a luxurious bed;
 82996     Her blush is guiltiness, not modesty.
 82997   Leon. What do you mean, my lord?
 82998   Claud. Not to be married,
 82999     Not to knit my soul to an approved wanton.
 83000   Leon. Dear my lord, if you, in your own proof,
 83001     Have vanquish'd the resistance of her youth
 83002     And made defeat of her virginity--
 83003   Claud. I know what you would say. If I have known her,
 83004     You will say she did embrace me as a husband,
 83005     And so extenuate the forehand sin.
 83006     No, Leonato,
 83007     I never tempted her with word too large,
 83008     But, as a brother to his sister, show'd
 83009     Bashful sincerity and comely love.
 83010   Hero. And seem'd I ever otherwise to you?
 83011   Claud. Out on the seeming! I will write against it.
 83012     You seem to me as Dian in her orb,
 83013     As chaste as is the bud ere it be blown;
 83014     But you are more intemperate in your blood
 83015     Than Venus, or those pamp'red animals
 83016     That rage in savage sensuality.
 83017   Hero. Is my lord well that he doth speak so wide?
 83018   Leon. Sweet Prince, why speak not you?
 83019   Pedro. What should I speak?
 83020     I stand dishonour'd that have gone about
 83021     To link my dear friend to a common stale.
 83022   Leon. Are these things spoken, or do I but dream?
 83023   John. Sir, they are spoken, and these things are true.
 83024   Bene. This looks not like a nuptial.
 83025   Hero. 'True!' O God!
 83026   Claud. Leonato, stand I here?
 83027     Is this the Prince, Is this the Prince's brother?
 83028     Is this face Hero's? Are our eyes our own?
 83029   Leon. All this is so; but what of this, my lord?
 83030   Claud. Let me but move one question to your daughter,
 83031     And by that fatherly and kindly power
 83032     That you have in her, bid her answer truly.
 83033   Leon. I charge thee do so, as thou art my child.
 83034   Hero. O, God defend me! How am I beset!
 83035     What kind of catechising call you this?
 83036   Claud. To make you answer truly to your name.
 83037   Hero. Is it not Hero? Who can blot that name
 83038     With any just reproach?
 83039   Claud. Marry, that can Hero!
 83040     Hero itself can blot out Hero's virtue.
 83041     What man was he talk'd with you yesternight,
 83042     Out at your window betwixt twelve and one?
 83043     Now, if you are a maid, answer to this.
 83044   Hero. I talk'd with no man at that hour, my lord.
 83045   Pedro. Why, then are you no maiden. Leonato,
 83046     I am sorry you must hear. Upon my honour,
 83047     Myself, my brother, and this grieved Count
 83048     Did see her, hear her, at that hour last night
 83049     Talk with a ruffian at her chamber window,
 83050     Who hath indeed, most like a liberal villain,
 83051     Confess'd the vile encounters they have had
 83052     A thousand times in secret.
 83053   John. Fie, fie! they are not to be nam'd, my lord--
 83054     Not to be spoke of;
 83055     There is not chastity, enough in language
 83056     Without offence to utter them. Thus, pretty lady,
 83057     I am sorry for thy much misgovernment.
 83058   Claud. O Hero! what a Hero hadst thou been
 83059     If half thy outward graces had been plac'd
 83060     About thy thoughts and counsels of thy heart!
 83061     But fare thee well, most foul, most fair! Farewell,
 83062     Thou pure impiety and impious purity!
 83063     For thee I'll lock up all the gates of love,
 83064     And on my eyelids shall conjecture hang,
 83065     To turn all beauty into thoughts of harm,
 83066     And never shall it more be gracious.
 83067   Leon. Hath no man's dagger here a point for me?
 83068                                                   [Hero swoons.]
 83069   Beat. Why, how now, cousin? Wherefore sink you down?
 83070   John. Come let us go. These things, come thus to light,
 83071     Smother her spirits up.
 83072                       [Exeunt Don Pedro, Don Juan, and Claudio.]
 83073   Bene. How doth the lady?
 83074   Beat. Dead, I think. Help, uncle!
 83075     Hero! why, Hero! Uncle! Signior Benedick! Friar!
 83076   Leon. O Fate, take not away thy heavy hand!
 83077     Death is the fairest cover for her shame
 83078     That may be wish'd for.
 83079   Beat. How now, cousin Hero?
 83080   Friar. Have comfort, lady.
 83081   Leon. Dost thou look up?
 83082   Friar. Yea, wherefore should she not?
 83083   Leon. Wherefore? Why, doth not every earthly thing
 83084     Cry shame upon her? Could she here deny
 83085     The story that is printed in her blood?
 83086     Do not live, Hero; do not ope thine eyes;
 83087     For, did I think thou wouldst not quickly die,
 83088     Thought I thy spirits were stronger than thy shames,
 83089     Myself would on the rearward of reproaches
 83090     Strike at thy life. Griev'd I, I had but one?
 83091     Child I for that at frugal nature's frame?
 83092     O, one too much by thee! Why had I one?
 83093     Why ever wast thou lovely in my eyes?
 83094     Why had I not with charitable hand
 83095     Took up a beggar's issue at my gates,
 83096     Who smirched thus and mir'd with infamy,
 83097     I might have said, 'No part of it is mine;
 83098     This shame derives itself from unknown loins'?
 83099     But mine, and mine I lov'd, and mine I prais'd,
 83100     And mine that I was proud on--mine so much
 83101     That I myself was to myself not mine,
 83102     Valuing of her--why, she, O, she is fall'n
 83103     Into a pit of ink, that the wide sea
 83104     Hath drops too few to wash her clean again,
 83105     And salt too little which may season give
 83106     To her foul tainted flesh!
 83107   Bene. Sir, sir, be patient.
 83108     For my part, I am so attir'd in wonder,
 83109     I know not what to say.
 83110   Beat. O, on my soul, my cousin is belied!
 83111   Bene. Lady, were you her bedfellow last night?
 83112   Beat. No, truly, not; although, until last night,
 83113     I have this twelvemonth been her bedfellow
 83114   Leon. Confirm'd, confirm'd! O, that is stronger made
 83115     Which was before barr'd up with ribs of iron!
 83116     Would the two princes lie? and Claudio lie,
 83117     Who lov'd her so that, speaking of her foulness,
 83118     Wash'd it with tears? Hence from her! let her die.
 83119   Friar. Hear me a little;
 83120     For I have only been silent so long,
 83121     And given way unto this course of fortune,
 83122     By noting of the lady. I have mark'd
 83123     A thousand blushing apparitions
 83124     To start into her face, a thousand innocent shames
 83125     In angel whiteness beat away those blushes,
 83126     And in her eye there hath appear'd a fire
 83127     To burn the errors that these princes hold
 83128     Against her maiden truth. Call me a fool;
 83129     Trust not my reading nor my observation,
 83130     Which with experimental seal doth warrant
 83131     The tenure of my book; trust not my age,
 83132     My reverence, calling, nor divinity,
 83133     If this sweet lady lie not guiltless here
 83134     Under some biting error.
 83135   Leon. Friar, it cannot be.
 83136     Thou seest that all the grace that she hath left
 83137     Is that she will not add to her damnation
 83138     A sin of perjury: she not denies it.
 83139     Why seek'st thou then to cover with excuse
 83140     That which appears in proper nakedness?
 83141   Friar. Lady, what man is he you are accus'd of?
 83142   Hero. They know that do accuse me; I know none.
 83143     If I know more of any man alive
 83144     Than that which maiden modesty doth warrant,
 83145     Let all my sins lack mercy! O my father,
 83146     Prove you that any man with me convers'd
 83147     At hours unmeet, or that I yesternight
 83148     Maintain'd the change of words with any creature,
 83149     Refuse me, hate me, torture me to death!
 83150   Friar. There is some strange misprision in the princes.
 83151   Bene. Two of them have the very bent of honour;
 83152     And if their wisdoms be misled in this,
 83153     The practice of it lives in John the bastard,
 83154     Whose spirits toil in frame of villanies.
 83155   Leon. I know not. If they speak but truth of her,
 83156     These hands shall tear her. If they wrong her honour,
 83157     The proudest of them shall well hear of it.
 83158     Time hath not yet so dried this blood of mine,
 83159     Nor age so eat up my invention,
 83160     Nor fortune made such havoc of my means,
 83161     Nor my bad life reft me so much of friends,
 83162     But they shall find awak'd in such a kind
 83163     Both strength of limb and policy of mind,
 83164     Ability in means, and choice of friends,
 83165     To quit me of them throughly.
 83166   Friar. Pause awhile
 83167     And let my counsel sway you in this case.
 83168     Your daughter here the princes left for dead,
 83169     Let her awhile be secretly kept in,
 83170     And publish it that she is dead indeed;
 83171     Maintain a mourning ostentation,
 83172     And on your family's old monument
 83173     Hang mournful epitaphs, and do all rites
 83174     That appertain unto a burial.
 83175   Leon. What shall become of this? What will this do?
 83176   Friar. Marry, this well carried shall on her behalf
 83177     Change slander to remorse. That is some good.
 83178     But not for that dream I on this strange course,
 83179     But on this travail look for greater birth.
 83180     She dying, as it must be so maintain'd,
 83181     Upon the instant that she was accus'd,
 83182     Shall be lamented, pitied, and excus'd
 83183     Of every hearer; for it so falls out
 83184     That what we have we prize not to the worth
 83185     Whiles we enjoy it, but being lack'd and lost,
 83186     Why, then we rack the value, then we find
 83187     The virtue that possession would not show us
 83188     Whiles it was ours. So will it fare with Claudio.
 83189     When he shall hear she died upon his words,
 83190     Th' idea of her life shall sweetly creep
 83191     Into his study of imagination,
 83192     And every lovely organ of her life
 83193     Shall come apparell'd in more precious habit,
 83194     More moving, delicate, and full of life,
 83195     Into the eye and prospect of his soul
 83196     Than when she liv'd indeed. Then shall he mourn
 83197     (If ever love had interest in his liver)
 83198     And wish he had not so accused her--
 83199     No, though be thought his accusation true.
 83200     Let this be so, and doubt not but success
 83201     Will fashion the event in better shape
 83202     Than I can lay it down in likelihood.
 83203     But if all aim but this be levell'd false,
 83204     The supposition of the lady's death
 83205     Will quench the wonder of her infamy.
 83206     And if it sort not well, you may conceal her,
 83207     As best befits her wounded reputation,
 83208     In some reclusive and religious life,
 83209     Out of all eyes, tongues, minds, and injuries.
 83210   Bene. Signior Leonato, let the friar advise you;
 83211     And though you know my inwardness and love
 83212     Is very much unto the Prince and Claudio,
 83213     Yet, by mine honour, I will deal in this
 83214     As secretly and justly as your soul
 83215     Should with your body.
 83216   Leon. Being that I flow in grief,
 83217     The smallest twine may lead me.
 83218   Friar. 'Tis well consented. Presently away;
 83219     For to strange sores strangely they strain the cure.
 83220     Come, lady, die to live. This wedding day
 83221     Perhaps is but prolong'd. Have patience and endure.
 83222                          Exeunt [all but Benedick and Beatrice].