酷兔英语

章节正文

Claud. You speak this to fetch me in, my lord.
Pedro. By my troth, I speak my thought.

Claud. And, in faith, my lord, I spoke mine.
Bene. And, by my two faiths and troths, my lord, I spoke mine.

Claud. That I love her, I feel.
Pedro. That she is worthy, I know.

Bene. That I neither feel how she should be loved, nor know how she
should be worthy, is the opinion that fire cannot melt out of me.

I will die in it at the stake.
Pedro. Thou wast ever an obstinateheretic in the despite of

beauty.
Claud. And never could maintain his part but in the force of his

will.
Bene. That a woman conceived me, I thank her; that she brought me

up, I likewise give her most humble thanks; but that I will have
a rechate winded in my forehead, or hang my bugle in an invisible

baldrick, all women shall pardon me. Because I will not do them
the wrong to mistrust any, I will do myself the right to trust

none; and the fine is (for the which I may go the finer), I will
live a bachelor.

Pedro. I shall see thee, ere I die, look pale with love.
Bene. With anger, with sickness, or with hunger, my lord; not with

love. Prove that ever I lose more blood with love than I will get
again with drinking, pick out mine eyes with a ballad-maker's pen

and hang me up at the door of a brothel house for the sign of
blind Cupid.

Pedro. Well, if ever thou dost fall from this faith, thou wilt
prove a notable argument.

Bene. If I do, hang me in a bottle like a cat and shoot at me; and
he that hits me, let him be clapp'd on the shoulder and call'd

Adam.
Pedro. Well, as time shall try.

'In time the savage bull doth bear the yoke.'
Bene. The savage bull may; but if ever the sensible Benedick bear

it, pluck off the bull's horns and set them in my forehead, and
let me be vilely painted, and in such great letters as they write

'Here is good horse to hire,' let them signify under my sign
'Here you may see Benedick the married man.'

Claud. If this should ever happen, thou wouldst be horn-mad.
Pedro. Nay, if Cupid have not spent all his quiver in Venice, thou

wilt quake for this shortly.
Bene. I look for an earthquake too then.

Pedro. Well, you will temporize with the hours. In the meantime,
good Signior Benedick, repair to Leonato's, commend me to him and

tell him I will not fail him at supper; for indeed he hath made
great preparation.

Bene. I have almost matter enough in me for such an embassage; and
so I commit you--

Claud. To the tuition of God. From my house--if I had it--
Pedro. The sixth of July. Your loving friend, Benedick.

Bene. Nay, mock not, mock not. The body of your discourse is
sometime guarded with fragments, and the guards are but slightly

basted on neither. Ere you flout old ends any further, examine
your conscience. And so I leave you. Exit.

Claud. My liege, your Highness now may do me good.
Pedro. My love is thine to teach. Teach it but how,

And thou shalt see how apt it is to learn
Any hard lesson that may do thee good.

Claud. Hath Leonato any son, my lord?
Pedro. No child but Hero; she's his only heir.

Dost thou affect her, Claudio?
Claud.O my lord,

When you went onward on this ended action,
I look'd upon her with a soldier's eye,

That lik'd, but had a rougher task in hand
Than to drive liking to the name of love;

But now I am return'd and that war-thoughts
Have left their places vacant, in their rooms

Come thronging soft and delicate desires,
All prompting me how fair young Hero is,

Saying I lik'd her ere I went to wars.
Pedro. Thou wilt be like a lover presently

And tire the hearer with a book of words.
If thou dost love fair Hero, cherish it,

And I will break with her and with her father,
And thou shalt have her. Wast not to this end

That thou began'st to twist so fine a story?
Claud. How sweetly you do minister to love,

That know love's grief by his complexion!
But lest my liking might too sudden seem,

I would have salv'd it with a longer treatise.
Pedro. What need the bridge much broader than the flood?

The fairest grant is the necessity.
Look, what will serve is fit. 'Tis once, thou lovest,

And I will fit thee with the remedy.
I know we shall have revelling to-night.

I will assume thy part in some disguise
And tell fair Hero I am Claudio,

And in her bosom I'll unclasp my heart
And take her hearing prisoner with the force

And strong encounter of my amorous tale.
Then after to her father will I break,

And the conclusion is, she shall be thine.
In practice let us put it presently. Exeunt.

Scene II.
A room in Leonato's house.

Enter [at one door] Leonato and [at another door, Antonio]
an old man, brother to Leonato.

Leon. How now, brother? Where is my cousin your son? Hath he
provided this music?

Ant. He is very busy about it. But, brother, I can tell you strange
news that you yet dreamt not of.

Leon. Are they good?
Ant. As the event stamps them; but they have a good cover, they

show well outward. The Prince and Count Claudio, walking in a
thick-pleached alley in mine orchard, were thus much overheard by

a man of mine: the Prince discovered to Claudio that he loved my
niece your daughter and meant to acknowledge it this night in a

dance, and if he found her accordant, he meant to take the
present time by the top and instantly break with you of it.

Leon. Hath the fellow any wit that told you this?
Ant. A good sharp fellow. I will send for him, and question him

yourself.
Leon. No, no. We will hold it as a dream till it appear itself; but

I will acquaint my daughter withal, that she may be the better
prepared for an answer, if peradventure this be true. Go you and

tell her of it. [Exit Antonio.]
[Enter Antonio's Son with a Musician, and others.]

[To the Son] Cousin, you know what you have to do.
--[To the Musician] O, I cry you mercy, friend. Go you with me,

and I will use your skill.--Good cousin, have a care this busy
time. Exeunt.

Scene III.
Another room in Leonato's house.]

Enter Sir John the Bastard and Conrade, his companion.
Con. What the goodyear, my lord! Why are you thus out of measure

sad?
John. There is no measure in the occasion that breeds; therefore

the sadness is without limit.
Con. You should hear reason.

John. And when I have heard it, what blessings brings it?
Con. If not a present remedy, at least a patient sufferance.

John. I wonder that thou (being, as thou say'st thou art, born
under Saturn) goest about to apply a moral medicine to a

mortifying mischief. I cannot hide what I am: I must be sad when
I have cause, and smile at no man's jests; eat when I have

stomach, and wait for no man's leisure; sleep when I am drowsy,
and tend on no man's business; laugh when I am merry, and claw no

man in his humour.
Con. Yea, but you must not make the full show of this till you may

do it without controlment. You have of late stood out against
your brother, and he hath ta'en you newly into his grace, where

it is impossible you should take true root but by the fair
weather that you make yourself. It is needful that you frame the

season for your own harvest.
John. I had rather be a canker in a hedge than a rose in his grace,

and it better fits my blood to be disdain'd of all than to
fashion a carriage to rob love from any. In this, though I cannot

be said to be a flattering honest man, it must not be denied but
I am a plain-dealing villain. I am trusted with a muzzle and

enfranchis'd with a clog; therefore I have decreed not to sing in
my cage. If I had my mouth, I would bite; if I had my liberty, I

would do my liking. In the meantime let me be that I am, and seek
not to alter me.

Con. Can you make no use of your discontent?
John. I make all use of it, for I use it only.

Enter Borachio.
Who comes here? What news, Borachio?

Bora. I came yonder from a great supper. The Prince your brother is
royally entertain'd by Leonato, and I can give you intelligence

of an intended marriage.
John. Will it serve for any model to build mischief on?

What is he for a fool that betroths himself to unquietness?
Bora. Marry, it is your brother's right hand.

John. Who? the most exquisite Claudio?
Bora. Even he.

John. A proper squire! And who? and who? which way looks he?
Bora. Marry, on Hero, the daughter and heir of Leonato.

John. A very forward March-chick! How came you to this?
Bora. Being entertain'd for a perfumer, as I was smoking a musty

room, comes me the Prince and Claudio, hand in hand in sad
conference. I whipt me behind the arras and there heard it agreed

upon that the Prince should woo Hero for himself, and having
obtain'd her, give her to Count Claudio.

John. Come, come, let us thither. This may prove food to my
displeasure. That young start-up hath all the glory of my

overthrow. If I can cross him any way, I bless myself every way.
You are both sure, and will assist me?

Con. To the death, my lord.
John. Let us to the great supper. Their cheer is the greater that

I am subdued. Would the cook were o' my mind! Shall we go prove
what's to be done?

Bora. We'll wait upon your lordship.
Exeunt.

ACT II. Scene I.
A hall in Leonato's house.

Enter Leonato, [Antonio] his Brother, Hero his Daughter, and
Beatrice his Niece, and a Kinsman; [also Margaret and Ursula].

Leon. Was not Count John here at supper?
Ant. I saw him not.

Beat. How tartly that gentleman looks! I never can see him but I am
heart-burn'd an hour after.

Hero. He is of a very melancholy disposition.
Beat. He were an excellent man that were made just in the midway

between him and Benedick. The one is too like an image and says
nothing, and the other too like my lady's eldest son, evermore

tattling.
Leon. Then half Signior Benedick's tongue in Count John's mouth,

and half Count John's melancholy in Signior Benedick's face--
Beat. With a good leg and a good foot, uncle, and money enough in

his purse, such a man would win any woman in the world--if 'a


文章标签:名著  

章节正文