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| Much Ado About Nothing |
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| Much Ado About Nothing
| Act 5, Scene 2
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Enter BENEDICK and MARGARET, meetingBENEDICK
Pray thee, sweet Mistress Margaret, deserve well atMARGARET
my hands by helping me to the speech of Beatrice.
Will you then write me a sonnet in praise of my beauty?BENEDICK
In so high a style, Margaret, that no man livingMARGARET
shall come over it; for, in most comely truth, thou
deservest it.
To have no man come over me! why, shall I alwaysBENEDICK
keep below stairs?
Thy wit is as quick as the greyhound's mouth; it catches.MARGARET
And yours as blunt as the fencer's foils, which hit,BENEDICK
but hurt not.
A most manly wit, Margaret; it will not hurt aMARGARET
woman: and so, I pray thee, call Beatrice: I give
thee the bucklers.
Give us the swords; we have bucklers of our own.BENEDICK
If you use them, Margaret, you must put in theMARGARET
pikes with a vice; and they are dangerous weapons for maids.
Well, I will call Beatrice to you, who I think hath legs.BENEDICK
And therefore will come.BEATRICE
Exit MARGARET
Sings
The god of love,
That sits above,
And knows me, and knows me,
How pitiful I deserve,--
I mean in singing; but in loving, Leander the good
swimmer, Troilus the first employer of panders, and
a whole bookful of these quondam carpet-mangers,
whose names yet run smoothly in the even road of a
blank verse, why, they were never so truly turned
over and over as my poor self in love. Marry, I
cannot show it in rhyme; I have tried: I can find
out no rhyme to 'lady' but 'baby,' an innocent
rhyme; for 'scorn,' 'horn,' a hard rhyme; for,
'school,' 'fool,' a babbling rhyme; very ominous
endings: no, I was not born under a rhyming planet,
nor I cannot woo in festival terms.
Enter BEATRICE
Sweet Beatrice, wouldst thou come when I called thee?
Yea, signior, and depart when you bid me.BENEDICK
O, stay but till then!BEATRICE
'Then' is spoken; fare you well now: and yet, ereBENEDICK
I go, let me go with that I came; which is, with
knowing what hath passed between you and Claudio.
Only foul words; and thereupon I will kiss thee.BEATRICE
Foul words is but foul wind, and foul wind is butBENEDICK
foul breath, and foul breath is noisome; therefore I
will depart unkissed.
Thou hast frighted the word out of his right sense,BEATRICE
so forcible is thy wit. But I must tell thee
plainly, Claudio undergoes my challenge; and either
I must shortly hear from him, or I will subscribe
him a coward. And, I pray thee now, tell me for
which of my bad parts didst thou first fall in love with me?
For them all together; which maintained so politicBENEDICK
a state of evil that they will not admit any good
part to intermingle with them. But for which of my
good parts did you first suffer love for me?
Suffer love! a good epithet! I do suffer loveBEATRICE
indeed, for I love thee against my will.
In spite of your heart, I think; alas, poor heart!BENEDICK
If you spite it for my sake, I will spite it for
yours; for I will never love that which my friend hates.
Thou and I are too wise to woo peaceably.BEATRICE
It appears not in this confession: there's not oneBENEDICK
wise man among twenty that will praise himself.
An old, an old instance, Beatrice, that lived inBEATRICE
the lime of good neighbours. If a man do not erect
in this age his own tomb ere he dies, he shall live
no longer in monument than the bell rings and the
widow weeps.
And how long is that, think you?BENEDICK
Question: why, an hour in clamour and a quarter inBEATRICE
rheum: therefore is it most expedient for the
wise, if Don Worm, his conscience, find no
impediment to the contrary, to be the trumpet of his
own virtues, as I am to myself. So much for
praising myself, who, I myself will bear witness, is
praiseworthy: and now tell me, how doth your cousin?
Very ill.BENEDICK
And how do you?BEATRICE
Very ill too.BENEDICK
Serve God, love me and mend. There will I leaveURSULA
you too, for here comes one in haste.
Enter URSULA
Madam, you must come to your uncle. Yonder's oldBEATRICE
coil at home: it is proved my Lady Hero hath been
falsely accused, the prince and Claudio mightily
abused; and Don John is the author of all, who is
fed and gone. Will you come presently?
Will you go hear this news, signior?BENEDICK
I will live in thy heart, die in thy lap, and be
buried in thy eyes; and moreover I will go with
thee to thy uncle's.
Exeunt
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| Much Ado About Nothing
| Act 5, Scene 2
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 | Ahoy Mates! We're happy to announce that 2006 is the year of Moby Dick. Join us before the mast! For more information, please check out Moby Dick or email Drake. Free downloadable copies are available at Moby Dick, and we hope that ye join us in discussing the novel at the Moby Dick Campfire. Invite yer friends! We would like to unite the world in reading what is perhaps the greatest work of fiction ever penned on the American shores. Written in the rich context of Shakespeare and the Bible, Moby Dick was Herman Melville's definitive masterpiece. If you've already read the epic, we invite you to read it again. And be sure to pick up Hamlet and the Bible throughout November, as the novel shall only be enhanced by the deeper context. The White Whale, symbolic of the truth and freedom which the greatest spirits in Western Civilization have ever pursued, yet swims free. Concerning Moby Dick, Melville wrote, "It ... is of the horrible texture of a fabric that should be woven of ships' cables and hausers. A Polar wind blows through it, & birds of prey hover over it. Warn all gentle fastidious people from so much as peeping into the book..." Moby Dick was the first "Great Book" posted at jollyroger.com, over six years ago, and Melville's masterpiece has inspired a lot of our poetry and prose. Check out Drake's new film at Moby Dick Film and Moby Dick.  Amazon Computers | |