144
MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING.
[Act II.
Claud. O, very well, my lord: the musickended,
We’ll fit the kid fox with a penny-worth.
Enter Balthazar, with musick.
D. Pedro. Come, Balthazar, well hear thatsong again.
Balth. O good my lord, tax not so had avoice
To slander musick any more than once.
D. Pedro. It is the witness still of excellency,To put a strange face on his own perfection :—I pray thee, sing, and let me woo no more.Balth. Because you talk of w 7 ooing, I willsing;
Since many a wooer doth commence his suitTo her he thinks not worthy ; yet he wooes;Yet will he swear, he loves.
D. Pedro. Nay, pray thee, come:
Or, if thou wilt hold longer argument,
Do it in notes.
Balth. Note this before my notes,
There’s not a note of mine, that’s worth thenoting.
D. Pedro. Why these are very crotchets, thathe speaks;
Note, notes, forsooth, and noting ! [^Musick.
Bene. Now, Divine air ! now' is his soul ra-vished !—Is it not strange, that sheeps’ gutsshould hale souls out of men’s bodies?—Well,a horn for my money, when all’s done.
Balthazar sings.
I.
Balth. Sigh no more, ladies, sigh no more,
Men were deceivers ever ;
One foot in sea, ami one on shore ;
To one thing constant never :
Then sigh not so,
But let them go,
And he you Myth and htmvy ;Converting all your sounds of woeInto, Hey nonny, nanny.
II.
Sing no more ditties, sing no moOf dumps so dull and heavy ;
The fraud of men was ever so,
Since summer first was leavy.
Then sigh not so, Sjc.
D. Pedro. By my troth, a good song.
Balth. And an ill singer, my lord.
I). Pedro. Ida ? no ; no, faith ; thou singestwell enough for a shift.
Bene. \\Asidef} An he had been a dog, thatshould have howled thus, they would havehanged him: and, I pray God , his bad voicebode no mischief! I had as lief have heard thenight-raven, come what plague could have comeafter it.
D. Pedro. Yea, marry; £7b ClaudioT \—■Dost thou hear, Balthazar ? I pray thee, getus some excellent musick ; for to-morrow nightwe would have it at the lady Hero’s chamber-window.
Balth. The best I can, my lord.
D. Pedro. Do so : farewell. ^Exeunt Baltha-zar and musick Come hither, Leonato: Wliatwas it you told me of to-day ? that your nieceBeatrice was in love with signior Benedick ?
Claud. 0, ay :—Stalk on, stalk on; the fowlsits, \\4side to PcdroA] I did never think thatlady w'ould have loved any man.
Leon. No, nor I neither ; but most wonder-ful, that she should so dote on signior Benedick,whom she hath in all outward behaviours seemedever to abhor.
Bene. Is’t possible ? Sits the wind in thatcorner ? L Aside.
Leon. By my troth, my lord, I cannot tellwhat to think of it ; but that she loves himwith an enraged affection,—it is past the infiniteof thought.
I) . Pedro. May be, she doth but counterfeit.
Claud. ’Faith, like enough.
Leon. O God ! counterfeit! There never wascounterfeit of passion came so near the life ofpassion, as she discovers it.
D. Pedro. Why, what effects of passion showsshe ?
Claud. Bait the hook well; this fish will bite.
[ 'Aside.
Leon. What effects, my lord! She will sityou,—
You heard my daughter tell you how.
Claud. She did, indeed.
J) . Pedro. IIow, how, I pray you ? You amazeme : I would have thought her spirit had beeninvincible against all assaults of affection.
Leon. I would have sworn it had, my lord ;especially against Benedick.
Bene, [glsidef] I should think this a gull,but that the rvhite-bearded fellow speaks it:knavery cannot, sure, hide itself in such reve-rence.
Claud. He hath ta’en the infection; hold itup. \Aside.
D. Pedro. Hath she made her affection knownto Benedick ?
Leon. No; and swears she never will: that’sher torment.
Claud. ’Tis true, indeed; so your daughtersays : Shall I, says she, that have so oft encoun-tered him with scorn, write to him, that I lovehim ?
Leon. This says she now, when she is begin-ning to write to him: for she'll be up twentytimes a night; and there will she sit in hersmock, till she have writ a sheet of paper:—mydaughter tells us all.
Claud. Now you talk of a sheet of paper, I re-member a pretty jest your daughter told us of.
Leon. 0 !—When she had writ it, and was