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brain awe a man from the career of his humour? No, the world must be peopled When I said I would die a bachelor, I did not think I should live till I were married. Here comes Beatrice. By this day! she's a fair lady: I do spy some marks of love in her.

Enter BEATRICE

BEAT. Against my will I am sent to bid you come in to dinner.

BENE. Fair Beatrice, I thank you for your pains.

BEAT. I took no more pains for those thanks than you take pains to thank me: if it had been painful, I would not have come.

BENE. You take pleasure, then, in the message? BEAT. Yea, just so much as you may take upon a knife's point, and choke a daw withal. You have no stomach, signior: fare you well. [Exit.

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BENE. Ha!" Against my will I am sent to bid you come in to dinner; there's a double meaning in that. "I took no more pains for those thanks than you took pains to thank me; "that's as much as to say, Any pains that I take for you is as easy as thanks. If I do not take pity of her, I am a villain; if I do not love her, I am a Jew. I will go get her picture.

223

230

[Exit. 240

239–240 I am a Jew] Cf. 1 Hen. IV, II, iv, 172: “Or I am a Jew

else."

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OOD MARGARET, RUN
thee to the parlour;

There shalt thou find my cousin
Beatrice

Proposing with the prince and
Claudio:

Whisper her ear, and tell her, I
and Ursula

Walk in the orchard, and our whole discourse

Is all of her; say that thou overheard'st us;

And bid her steal into the
pleached bower,

Where honeysuckles, ripen'd by the sun,
Forbid the sun to enter; like favourites,

3 proposing] talking. Cf. line 12, infra, where "propose" is the substantive and means "talk.”

Made proud by princes, that advance their pride
Against that power that bred it: there will she hide her,
To listen our propose. This is thy office;
Bear thee well in it, and leave us alone.

MARG. I'll make her come, I warrant you, presently. [Exit.

HERO. NOW, Ursula, when Beatrice doth come,
As we do trace this alley up and down,
Our talk must only be of Benedick.
When I do name him, let it be thy part

To praise him more than ever man did merit:
My talk to thee must be, how Benedick

Is sick in love with Beatrice.

Of this matter

Is little Cupid's crafty arrow made,

That only wounds by hearsay.

Enter BEATRICE, behind

Now begin;

For look where Beatrice, like a lapwing, runs
Close by the ground, to hear our conference.
URS. The pleasant'st angling is to see the fish
Cut with her golden oars the silver stream,
And greedily devour the treacherous bait:
So angle we for Beatrice; who even now

7 pleached] twined about, or plaited with boughs. Cf. I, ii, 8, supra, "thick-pleached alley."

12 propose] This is the Quarto reading. The Folios substitute "purpose." See note on line 3, supra.

24 lapwing] the female green plover, also called "peewit," which has the habit of flying with much fluttering of wings near the ground.

10

20

Is couched in the woodbine coverture.
Fear you not my part of the dialogue.

HERO. Then go we near her, that her ear lose nothing Of the false sweet bait that we lay for it.

[Approaching the bower.

No, truly, Ursula, she is too disdainful;
I know her spirits are as coy and wild
As haggards of the rock.

URS.

But are you sure That Benedick loves Beatrice so entirely?

HERO. So says the prince and my new-trothed lord. URS. And did they bid you tell her of it, madam? HERO. They did entreat me to acquaint her of it; But I persuaded them, if they loved Benedick, To wish him wrestle with affection,

And never to let Beatrice know of it.

URS. Why did you so? Doth not the gentleman Deserve as full as fortunate a bed

As ever Beatrice shall couch upon?

HERO. O god of love! I know he doth deserve
As much as may be yielded to a man:

But Nature never framed a woman's heart
Of prouder stuff than that of Beatrice;
Disdain and scorn ride sparkling in her eyes,
Misprising what they look on; and her wit
Values itself so highly, that to her

All matter else seems weak: she cannot love,
Nor take no shape nor project of affection,
She is so self-endeared.

so

55 project] idea, notion.

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And therefore certainly it were not good
She knew his love, lest she make sport at it.

HERO. Why, you speak truth. I never yet saw man,
How wise, how noble, young, how rarely featured,
But she would spell him backward: if fair-faced,
She would swear the gentleman should be her sister;
If black, why, Nature, drawing of an antique,
Made a foul blot; if tall, a lance ill-headed;
If low, an agate very vilely cut;

If speaking, why, a vane blown with all winds;
If silent, why, a block moved with none.
So turns she every man the wrong side out;
And never gives to truth and virtue that
Which simpleness and merit purchaseth.

URS. Sure, sure, such carping is not commendable. HERO. No, not to be so odd, and from all fashions, As Beatrice is, cannot be commendable:

But who dare tell her so? If I should speak,

61 spell him backward] speak ill of him, turn him "the wrong side out"; cf. line 68, infra. Ralegh and his friends, who were suspected of irreligion, were charged with teaching young men among other things "to spell God backwards" (Robert Parsons' Advertisement, 1592, p. 18). Witches' incantations were formed of familiar words spelt backwards.

63 antique] grotesque figure. This is the Quarto reading. The Folio reads anticke, and modern editors antic.

65 If low, an agate . . . cut] If short of stature, the man is likened to one of the miniature heads with which agate stones in rings or brooches were frequently cut or engraved. Cf. 2 Hen. IV, I, ii, 16: "I was never manned with an agate till now.'

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