Benedick falls in Love
First of all we must Intro duce Benedick, He is one of Don Pedro’s soldiers. Benedick fancies himself a witty man, and enjoys trading insults with Beatrice, Leonato’s niece. He is exceptionally honorable, and holds everyone to his high standards. Benedick has sworn off love, claiming that he could never find a woman good enough for him.
DON PEDRO
Come hither, Leonato. What was it you told me of
to-day, that your niece Beatrice was in love with
Signior Benedick?
CLAUDIO
O, ay: stalk on. stalk on; the fowl sits. I did
never think that lady would have loved any man.
LEONATO
No, nor I neither; but most wonderful that she
should so dote on Signior Benedick, whom she hath in
all outward behaviors seemed ever to abhor.
BENEDICK
Is’t possible? Sits the wind in that corner?
LEONATO
By my troth, my lord, I cannot tell what to think
of it but that she loves him with an enraged
affection: it is past the infinite of thought.
DON PEDRO
May be she doth but counterfeit.
CLAUDIO
Faith, like enough.
LEONATO
O God, counterfeit! There was never counterfeit of
passion came so near the life of passion as she
discovers it.
DON PEDRO
Why, what effects of passion shows she?
CLAUDIO
Bait the hook well; this fish will bite.
LEONATO
What effects, my lord? She will sit you, you heard
my daughter tell you how.
CLAUDIO
She did, indeed.
DON PEDRO
How, how, pray you? You amaze me: I would have I
thought her spirit had been invincible against all
assaults of affection.
LEONATO
I would have sworn it had, my lord; especially
against Benedick.
BENEDICK
I should think this a gull, but that the
white-bearded fellow speaks it: knavery cannot,
sure, hide himself in such reverence.
CLAUDIO
He hath ta’en the infection: hold it up.
DON PEDRO
Hath she made her affection known to Benedick?
LEONATO
No; and swears she never will: that’s her torment.
CLAUDIO
‘Tis true, indeed; so your daughter says: ‘Shall
I,’ says she, ‘that have so oft encountered him
with scorn, write to him that I love him?’
LEONATO
This says she now when she is beginning to write to
him; for she’ll be up twenty times a night, and
there will she sit in her smock till she have writ a
sheet of paper: my daughter tells us all.
CLAUDIO
Now you talk of a sheet of paper, I remember a
pretty jest your daughter told us of.
LEONATO
O, when she had writ it and was reading it over, she
found Benedick and Beatrice between the sheet?
CLAUDIO
That.
LEONATO
O, she tore the letter into a thousand halfpence;
railed at herself, that she should be so immodest
to write to one that she knew would flout her; ‘I
measure him,’ says she, ‘by my own spirit; for I
should flout him, if he writ to me; yea, though I
love him, I should.’
CLAUDIO
Then down upon her knees she falls, weeps, sobs,
beats her heart, tears her hair, prays, curses; ‘O
sweet Benedick! God give me patience!’
LEONATO
She doth indeed; my daughter says so: and the
ecstasy hath so much overborne her that my daughter
is sometime afeared she will do a desperate outrage
to herself: it is very true.
DON PEDRO
It were good that Benedick knew of it by some
other, if she will not discover it.
CLAUDIO
To what end? He would make but a sport of it and
torment the poor lady worse.
DON PEDRO
An he should, it were an alms to hang him. She’s an
excellent sweet lady; and, out of all suspicion,
she is virtuous.
CLAUDIO
And she is exceeding wise.
DON PEDRO
In every thing but in loving Benedick.
LEONATO
O, my lord, wisdom and blood combating in so tender
a body, we have ten proofs to one that blood hath
the victory. I am sorry for her, as I have just
cause, being her uncle and her guardian.
DON PEDRO
I would she had bestowed this dotage on me: I would
have daffed all other respects and made her half
myself. I pray you, tell Benedick of it, and hear
what a’ will say.
LEONATO
Were it good, think you?
CLAUDIO
Hero thinks surely she will die; for she says she
will die, if he love her not, and she will die, ere
she make her love known, and she will die, if he woo
her, rather than she will bate one breath of her
accustomed crossness.
DON PEDRO
She doth well: if she should make tender of her
love, ’tis very possible he’ll scorn it; for the
man, as you know all, hath a contemptible spirit.
CLAUDIO
He is a very proper man.
DON PEDRO
He hath indeed a good outward happiness.
CLAUDIO
Before God! and, in my mind, very wise.
DON PEDRO
He doth indeed show some sparks that are like wit.
CLAUDIO
And I take him to be valiant.
DON PEDRO
As Hector, I assure you: and in the managing of
quarrels you may say he is wise; for either he
avoids them with great discretion, or undertakes
them with a most Christian-like fear.
LEONATO
If he do fear God, a’ must necessarily keep peace:
if he break the peace, he ought to enter into a
quarrel with fear and trembling.
DON PEDRO
And so will he do; for the man doth fear God,
howsoever it seems not in him by some large jests
he will make. Well I am sorry for your niece. Shall
we go seek Benedick, and tell him of her love?
CLAUDIO
Never tell him, my lord: let her wear it out with
good counsel.
LEONATO
Nay, that’s impossible: she may wear her heart out first.
DON PEDRO
Well, we will hear further of it by your daughter:
let it cool the while. I love Benedick well; and I
could wish he would modestly examine himself, to see
how much he is unworthy so good a lady.
LEONATO
My lord, will you walk? dinner is ready.
CLAUDIO
If he do not dote on her upon this, I will never
trust my expectation.
DON PEDRO
Let there be the same net spread for her; and that
must your daughter and her gentlewomen carry. The
sport will be, when they hold one an opinion of
another’s dotage, and no such matter: that’s the
scene that I would see, which will be merely a
dumb-show. Let us send her to call him in to dinner.
Exeunt DON PEDRO, CLAUDIO, and LEONATO
BENEDICK
[Coming forward] This can be no trick: the
conference was sadly borne. They have the truth of
this from Hero. They seem to pity the lady: it
seems her affections have their full bent. Love me!
why, it must be requited. I hear how I am censured:
they say I will bear myself proudly, if I perceive
the love come from her; they say too that she will
rather die than give any sign of affection. I did
never think to marry: I must not seem proud: happy
are they that hear their detractions and can put
them to mending. They say the lady is fair; ’tis a
truth, I can bear them witness; and virtuous; ’tis
so, I cannot reprove it; and wise, but for loving
me; by my troth, it is no addition to her wit, nor
no great argument of her folly, for I will be
horribly in love with her. I may chance have some
odd quirks and remnants of wit broken on me,
because I have railed so long against marriage: but
doth not the appetite alter? a man loves the meat
in his youth that he cannot endure in his age.
Shall quips and sentences and these paper bullets of
the 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