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Much Ado About Nothing
William Shakespeare
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eBook - ePub
Much Ado About Nothing
William Shakespeare
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About This Book
Two couples—Benedick and Beatrice, and Hero and Claudio—must overcome deception, gossip, and, occasionally, their own misplaced pride if their love is to persevere. Aided by military commander Don Pedro and impeded by his brother Don John, the friends go to great lengths in the pursuit of marriage.
Known as "The Bard of Avon, " William Shakespeare is arguably the greatest English-language writer known. Enormously popular during his life, Shakespeare's works continue to resonate more than three centuries after his death, as has his influence on theatre and literature. Shakespeare's innovative use of character, language, and experimentation with romance as tragedy served as a foundation for later playwrights and dramatists, and some of his most famous lines of dialogue have become part of everyday speech.
HarperPerennial Classics brings great works of literature to life in digital format, upholding the highest standards in ebook production and celebrating reading in all its forms. Look for more titles in the HarperPerennial Classics collection to build your digital library.
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LiteraturaSubtopic
Arte dramático shakespearianoACT FIVE
SCENE I. Before Leonato’s house.
Enter LEONATO and ANTONIO.
ANTONIO If you go on thus, you will kill yourself,
And ’tis not wisdom thus to second grief
Against yourself.
LEONATO I pray thee cease thy counsel,
Which falls into mine ears as profitless
[5]
As water in a sieve. Give not me counsel;
Nor let no comforter delight mine ear
But such a one whose wrongs do suit with mine.
Bring me a father that so lov’d his child,
Whose joy of her is overwhelm’d like mine,
[10]
And bid him speak of patience;
Measure his woe the length and breadth of mine,
And let it answer every strain for strain;
As thus for thus, and such a grief for such,
In every lineament, branch, shape, and form.
[15]
If such a one will smile and stroke his beard,
And sorrow wag, cry ‘hem!’ when he should groan,
Patch grief with proverbs, make misfortune drunk
With candle-wasters – bring him yet to me,
And I of him will gather patience.
[20]
But there is no such man; for, brother, men
Can counsel and speak comfort to that grief
Which they themselves not feel; but, tasting it,
Their counsel turns to passion, which before
Would give preceptial medicine to rage,
[25]
Fetter strong madness in a silken thread,
Charm ache with air and agony with words.
No, no; ’tis all men’s office to speak patience
To those that wring under the load of sorrow,
But no man’s virtue nor sufficiency
[30]
To be so moral when he shall endure
The like himself. Therefore, give me no counsel;
My griefs cry louder than advertisement.
ANTONIO Therein do men from children nothing differ.
LEONATO I pray thee peace; I will be flesh and blood;
[35]
For there was never yet philosopher
That could endure the toothache patiently,
However they have writ the style of gods,
And made a push at chance and sufferance.
ANTONIO Yet bend not all the harm upon yourself;
[40]
Make those that do offend you suffer too.
LEONATO There thou speak’st reason; nay, I will do so.
My soul doth tell me Hero is belied;
And that shall Claudio know; so shall the Prince,
And all of them that thus dishonour her.
[45]
ANTONIO Here comes the Prince and Claudio hastily.
Enter DON PEDRO and CLAUDIO.
DON PEDRO Good den, good den.
CLAUDIO Good day to both of you.
LEONATO Hear you, my lords!
DON PEDRO We have some haste, Leonato.
LEONATO Some haste, my lord! Well, fare you well, my lord.
Are you so hasty now? Well, all is one.
[50]
DON PEDRO Nay, do not quarrel with us, good old man.
ANTONIO If he could right himself with quarrelling,
Some of us would lie low.
CLAUDIO Who wrongs him?
LEONATO Marry, thou dost wrong me; thou
[53]
dissembler, thou!
Nay, never lay thy hand upon thy sword;
I fear thee not.
CLAUDIO Marry, beshrew my hand
If it should give your age such cause of fear!
In faith, my hand meant nothing to my sword.
LEONATO Tush, tush, man; never fleer and jest at me;
I speak not like a dotard nor a fool,
[60]
As under privilege of age to brag
What I have done being young, or what would do
Were I not old. Know, Claudio, to thy head,
Thou hast so wrong’d mine innocent child and me
That I am forc’d to lay my reverence by,
[65]
And with grey hairs and bruise of many days
Do challenge thee to trial of a man.
I say thou hast belied mine innocent child;
Thy slander hath gone through and through her heart,
And she lies buried with her ancestors –
[70]
O! in a tomb where never scandal slept,
Save this of hers, fram’d by thy villainy.
CLAUDIO My villainy!
LEONATO Thine, Claudio; thine, I say.
DON PEDRO You say not right, old man.
LEONATO My lord, my lord,
I’ll prove it on his body if he dare,
[75]
Despite his nice fence and his active practice,
His May of youth and bloom of lustihood.
CLAUDIO Away! I will not have to do with you.
LEONATO Canst thou so daff me? Thou hast kill’d my child;
If thou kill’st me, boy, thou shalt kill a man.
ANTONIO He shall kill two of us, and men
[80]
indeed;
But that’s no matter; let him kill one first.
Win me and wear me; let him answer me.
Come, follow me, boy; come, sir boy, come follow me;
Sir boy, I’ll whip you from your foining fence;
[85]
Nay, as I am a gentleman, I will.
LEONATO Brother –
ANTONIO Content yourself. God knows I lov’d my niece;
And she is dead, slander’d to death by villains,
That dare as well answer a man indeed
[90]
As I dare take a serpent by the tongue.
Boys, apes, braggarts, Jacks, milksops!
LEONATO Brother Antony –
ANTONIO Hold you content. What, man! I know them, yea,
And what they weigh, even to the utmost scruple –
Scambling, out-facing, fashion-monging boys,
[95]
That lie and cog and flout, deprave and slander,
Go anticly, and show outward hideousness,
And speak off half a dozen dang’rous words,
How they might hurt their enemies, if they durst;
[99]
And this is all.
LEONATO But, brother Antony –
ANTONIO Come, ’tis no matter;
Do not you meddle; let me deal in this.
DON PEDRO Gentlemen both, we will not wake your patience.
My heart is sorry for your daughter’s death;
But, on my honour, she was charg’d with nothing
[105]
But what was true, and very full of proof.
LEONATO My lord, my lord –
DON PEDRO I will not hear you.
LEONATO No?
Come, brother, away. I will be heard.
ANTONIO And shall, or some of us will smart for it. [Exeunt Leonato and Antonio.
[110]
DON PEDRO See, see; here comes the man we went to seek.
Enter BENEDICK.
CLAUDIO Now, signior, what news?
BENEDICK Good day, my lord.
DON PEDRO Welcome, signior; you are almost come to part almost a fray.
[116]
CLAUDIO We had lik’d to have had our two noses snapp’d off with two old men without teeth.
DON PEDRO Leonato and his brother. What think’st thou? Had we fought, I doubt we should have been too young for them.
[121]
BENEDICK In a false quarrel there is no true valour. I came to seek you both.
CLAUDIO We have been up and down to seek thee; for we are high-proof melancholy, and would fain have it beaten away. Wilt thou use thy wit?
[125]
BENEDICK It is in my scabbard; shall I draw it?
DON PEDRO D...