SCENE I. LEONATO'S garden. Much Ado About Nothing  Shakespeare homepage  |  Much Ado About Nothing  | Act 3, Scene 1 

 Previous scene  |  Next scene  SCENE I. LEONATO'S garden. 

 Enter HERO, MARGARET, and URSULA  HERO  Good Margaret, run thee to the parlor; 

 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, 

 Made proud by princes, that advance their pride 

 Against that power that bred it: there will she hide her, 

 To listen our purpose.  This is thy office; 

 Bear thee well in it and leave us alone. 

 MARGARET  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. 

 URSULA  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 

 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 haggerds of the rock. 

 URSULA  But are you sure 

 That Benedick loves Beatrice so entirely? 

 HERO  So says the prince and my new-trothed lord. 

 URSULA  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. 

 URSULA  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. 

 URSULA  Sure, I think so; 

 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. 

 URSULA  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, 

 She would mock me into air; O, she would laugh me 

 Out of myself, press me to death with wit. 

 Therefore let Benedick, like cover'd fire, 

 Consume away in sighs, waste inwardly: 

 It were a better death than die with mocks, 

 Which is as bad as die with tickling. 

 URSULA  Yet tell her of it: hear what she will say. 

 HERO  No; rather I will go to Benedick 

 And counsel him to fight against his passion. 

 And, truly, I'll devise some honest slanders 

 To stain my cousin with: one doth not know 

 How much an ill word may empoison liking. 

 URSULA  O, do not do your cousin such a wrong. 

 She cannot be so much without true judgment-- 

 Having so swift and excellent a wit 

 As she is prized to have--as to refuse 

 So rare a gentleman as Signior Benedick. 

 HERO  He is the only man of Italy. 

 Always excepted my dear Claudio. 

 URSULA  I pray you, be not angry with me, madam, 

 Speaking my fancy: Signior Benedick, 

 For shape, for bearing, argument and valour, 

 Goes foremost in report through Italy. 

 HERO  Indeed, he hath an excellent good name. 

 URSULA  His excellence did earn it, ere he had it. 

 When are you married, madam? 

 HERO  Why, every day, to-morrow. Come, go in: 

 I'll show thee some attires, and have thy counsel 

 Which is the best to furnish me to-morrow. 

 URSULA  She's limed, I warrant you: we have caught her, madam. 

 HERO  If it proves so, then loving goes by haps: 

 Some Cupid kills with arrows, some with traps. 



 Exeunt HERO and URSULA  BEATRICE  [Coming forward] 

 What fire is in mine ears? Can this be true? 

 Stand I condemn'd for pride and scorn so much? 

 Contempt, farewell! and maiden pride, adieu! 

 No glory lives behind the back of such. 

 And, Benedick, love on; I will requite thee, 

 Taming my wild heart to thy loving hand: 

 If thou dost love, my kindness shall incite thee 

 To bind our loves up in a holy band; 

 For others say thou dost deserve, and I 

 Believe it better than reportingly. 



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