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What kind of catechizing call you this?

Claud. To make you answer truly to your name. Hero. Is it not Hero? who can blot that name With any just reproach?

Claud. Marry, that can Hero;

Hero her felf can blot out Hero's virtue.
What man was he talk'd with you yesternight
Out at your window betwixt twelve and one?
Now, if you are a maid, answer to this.

Hero. I talk'd with no man at that hour, my Lord. Pedro. Why, then you are no maiden. Leonato, I am forry, you must hear; upon mine Honour, My felf, my Brother, and this grieved Count Did fee her, hear her, at that hour last night Talk with a ruffian at her chamber-window; Who hath, indeed, most like a liberal villain, Confefs'd the vile encounters they have had A thousand times in fecret..

John. Fie, fie, they are not to be nam'd, my Lord, Not to be spoken of;

There is not chastity enough in language,

Without offence, to utter them: thus, pretty lady,
I am forry for thy much mifgovernment.

Claud. O Hero! what a Hero hadst thou been,
If half thy outward graces had been plac'd
About the thoughts and counfels of thy heart?
But fare thee well, moft foul, moft fair! farewel,
Thou pure impiety, and impious purity!
For thee I'll lock up all the gates of love,.
And on my eyelids fhall Conjecture hang,
To turn all beauty into thoughts of harm;
And never fhall it more be gracious.

Leon. Hath no man's dagger here a point for me? Beat. Why, how now, Coufin, wherefore fink you down?

John. Come, let us go; these things, come thus to light,

Smother her fpirits up.

[Exe. D. Pedro, D. John and Claud.

Bene. How doth the lady?

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Beat. Dead, I think; help, uncle.

Hero! why, Hero! uncle! Signior Benedick! friar! Leon. O fate! take not away thy heavy hand; Death is the fairest cover for her fhame,

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Friar. Yea, wherefore should she not?

Leon. Wherefore? why, doth not every earthly thing Cry fhame upon her? could fhe here deny

The ftory that is printed in her blood?

Do not live, Hero, do not ope thine

eyes:
For did I think, thou wouldst not quickly die,

Thought I, thy fpirits were stronger than thy fhames,
My felf would on the rereward of reproaches
Strike at thy life. Griev'd I, I had but one?
Chid I for That at frugal nature's frame ?
I've one too much by thee. Why had I one?
Why ever waft thou lovely in my eyes?
Why had I not, with charitable hand,
Took up a beggar's iffue at my gates?
Who fmeered thus, and mir'd with infamy,
I might have faid, no part of it is mine;
This fhame derives it felf from unknown loins:
But mine, and mine I lov'd, and mine I prais'd,
And mine that I was proud on, mine fo much,
That I my felf was to my felf not mine,

Valuing of her; why, fhe,

O, fhe is fall'n Into a pit of ink, that the wide fea

Hath drops too few to wash her clean again; feafon give

And falt too little, which

To her foul tainted flesh!

may

Bene. Sir, Sir, be patient;

For my part, I am fo attir'd in wonder,
I know not what to say.

Beat. O, on my foul, my coufin is bely'd.
Bene. Lady, were you her bedfellow last night?
Beat. No, truly, not; altho' until last night
I have this twelvemonth been her bedfellow.

Leon.

Leon. Confirm'd, confirm'd! O, That is ftronger

made,

Which was before barr'd up with ribs of iron.
Would the two Princes lie? and Claudio lie?
Who lov'd her fo, that, fpeaking of her foulness,
Wash'd it with tears? hence from her, let her die.
Friar. Hear me a little,

For I have only been filent fo long,

And given way unto this course of fortune,
By noting of the lady. I have mark'd
A thousand blufhing apparitions

To start into her face; a thousand innocent shames
In angel whitenefs bear away those blushes ;
And in her eye there hath appear'd a fire,
To burn the errors that these Princes hold
Against her maiden truth. Call me a fool,
Truft not my reading, nor my obfervations,
Which with experimental feal do warrant
The tenour of my book; truft not my age,
My reverence, calling, nor divinity,
If this sweet lady lie not guiltless here
Under fome biting error.

Leon. Friar, it cannot be ;

Thou seeft, that all the grace, that she hath left,
Is, that she will not add to her damnation

A fin of perjury; fhe not denies it:

Why feek'st thou then to cover with excuse

That, which appears in proper nakedness?

Friar. Lady, what man is he you are accus'd of? Hero. They know, that do accufe me; I know none:

If I know more of any man alive,

Than that which maiden modefty doth warrant,
Let all my fins lack mercy! O my father,

Prove you that any man with me convers'd
At hours unmeet, or that I yefternight

Maintain'd the change of words with any creature,
Refufe me, hate me, torture me to death.

Friar. There is fome ftrange mifprifion in the Princes.
Bene. Two of them have the very bent of honour,

And if their wifdoms be mif-led in this,

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The Practice of it lives in John the baftard,
Whofe fpirits toil in frame of villanies.

Leon. I know not: if they speak but truth of her,
These hands shall tear her; if they wrong
her honour,
The proudeft of them fhall well hear of it.
Time hath not yet fo dry'd this blood of mine,
Nor age fo eat up my invention,

Nor fortune made fuch havock of my means,
Nor my bad life reft me fo much of friends,
But they fhall find awak'd, in such a kind,
Both ftrength of limb, and policy of mind,
Ability in means, and choice of friends,
To quit me of them throughly.

Friar. Paufe a while,

And let my counsel fway you in this case.
Your daughter here the Princes left for dead; (14)
Let her awhile be fecretly kept in,

And publish it, that fhe is dead, indeed:
Maintain a mourning oftentation,
And on your family's old Monument
Hang mournful Epitaphs, and do all rites

That appertain unto a burial.

Leon. What fhall become of this? what will this do? Friar. Marry, this, well carry'd, fhall on her behalf Change flander to remorfe; that is fome good: But not for that dream I on this strange course, But on this travel look for greater birth: She dying, as it must be fo maintain'd, Upon the inftant that she was accus'd, Shall be lamented, pity'd, and excus'd, Of every hearer: for it fo falls out,

(14) Tour Daughter here the Princess (left for dead)] But how comes Hero to start up a Princess here? We have no Intimation of her Father being a Prince; and this is the first and only Time that She is complimented with this Dignity. The Remotion of a fingle Letter, and of the Parenthefis, will bring her to her own Rank, and the Place to its true Meaning.

Tour Daughter here the Princes left for dead;

i, c. Don Pedro, Prince of Arragon; and his-Baflard Brother who is likewife call'd a Prince.

That

That what we have we prize not to the worth,
Whiles we enjoy it; but being lack'd and loft,
Why, then we rack the value; then we find
The virtue that poffeffion would not fhew us
Whilft it was ours; fo will it fare with Claudio:
When he shall hear the dy'd upon his words,
Th' idea of her Life fhall fweetly creep
Into his ftudy of imagination,

And every lovely organ of her life

Shall come apparel'd in more precious habit ;
More moving, delicate, and full of life,
Into the eye and profpect of his foul,

Than when the liv'd indeed. Then fhall he mourn,
If ever love had interest in his liver,
And wifh, he had not fo accused her;
No, though he thought his accusation true :
Let this be fo, and doubt not, but fuccefs
Will fashion the event in better shape
Than I can lay it down in likelihood.
But if all Aim but this be levell'd false,
The fuppofition of the lady's death
Will quench the wonder of her infamy.
And, if it fort not well, you may conceal her,
As beft befits her wounded reputation,

In fome reclufive and religious life,

Out of all eyes, tongues, minds, and injuries.
Bene. Signior Leonato, let the friar advise you:
And though, you know, my inwardness and love
very much unto the Prince and Claudio,

Is

Yet, by mine honour, I will deal in this

As fecretly and juftly as your foul

Should with your body.

Leon. Being that I flow in grief,

The smallest twine may lead me.

Friar. 'Tis well confented, prefently away;

For to ftrange fores, ftrangely they ftrain the cure,

Come, lady, die to live; this wedding day,

Perhaps, is but prolong'd: have patience and en

dure,

[Exeunt.

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