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Much Ado About Nothing: Act III, Scene 1

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Much Ado About Nothing
Act III, Scene 1

Scene 1

Leonato’s garden.

  1. Enter Hero and two gentlewomen, Margaret and Ursula.

Hero

1 - 13
  1. Good Margaret, run thee to the parlor,
  2. There shalt thou find my cousin Beatrice
  3. Proposing with the Prince and Claudio.
  4. Whisper her ear, and tell her I and Ursley
  5. Walk in the orchard, and our whole discourse
  6. Is all of her. Say that thou overheardst us,
  7. And bid her steal into the pleached bower,
  8. Where honeysuckles, ripened by the sun,
  9. Forbid the sun to enter, like favorites
  10. Made proud by princes, that advance their pride
  11. Against that power that bred it. There will she hide her,
  12. To listen our propose. This is thy office;
  13. Bear thee well in it, and leave us alone.

Margaret

14
  1. I’ll make her come, I warrant you, presently.
  1. Exit.

Hero

15 - 26
  1. Now, Ursula, when Beatrice doth come,
  2. As we do trace this alley up and down,
  3. Our talk must only be of Benedick.
  4. When I do name him, let it be thy part
  5. To praise him more than ever man did merit.
  6. My talk to thee must be how Benedick
  7. Is sick in love with Beatrice. Of this matter
  8. Is little Cupid’s crafty arrow made,
  9. That only wounds by hearsay.
  10. Enter Beatrice behind.
  11.                              Now begin,
  12. For look where Beatrice like a lapwing runs
  13. Close by the ground, to hear our conference.

Ursula

27 - 32
  1. The pleasant’st angling is to see the fish
  2. Cut with her golden oars the silver stream,
  3. And greedily devour the treacherous bait;
  4. So angle we for Beatrice, who even now
  5. Is couched in the woodbine coverture.
  6. Fear you not my part of the dialogue.

Hero

33 - 37
  1. Then go we near her, that her ear lose nothing
  2. Of the false sweet bait that we lay for it.
  3. They advance to the bower.
  4. No, truly, Ursula, she is too disdainful,
  5. I know her spirits are as coy and wild
  6. As haggards of the rock.

Ursula

38 - 39
  1.                          But are you sure
  2. That Benedick loves Beatrice so entirely?

Hero

40
  1. So says the Prince and my new-trothed lord.

Ursula

41
  1. And did they bid you tell her of it, madam?

Hero

42 - 45
  1. They did entreat me to acquaint her of it,
  2. But I persuaded them, if they lov’d Benedick,
  3. To wish him wrestle with affection,
  4. And never to let Beatrice know of it.
The Flowers of Shakspeare

From: The Flowers of Shakspeare

Viola, 1883

Ursula

46 - 48
  1. Why did you so? Doth not the gentleman
  2. Deserve as full as fortunate a bed
  3. As ever Beatrice shall couch upon?

Hero

49 - 58
  1. O god of love! I know he doth deserve
  2. As much as may be yielded to a man;
  3. But nature never fram’d a woman’s heart
  4. Of prouder stuff than that of Beatrice.
  5. Disdain and scorn ride sparkling in her eyes,
  6. Misprising what they look on, and her wit
  7. Values itself so highly that to her
  8. All matter else seems weak. She cannot love,
  9. Nor take no shape nor project of affection,
  10. She is so self-endeared.

Ursula

59 - 61
  1.                          Sure I think so,
  2. And therefore certainly it were not good
  3. She knew his love, lest she’ll make sport at it.

Hero

62 - 73
  1. Why, you speak truth. I never yet saw man,
  2. How wise, how noble, young, how rarely featur’d,
  3. But she would spell him backward. If fair-fac’d,
  4. She would swear the gentleman should be her sister;
  5. If black, why, Nature, drawing of an antic,
  6. Made a foul blot; if tall, a lance ill-headed;
  7. If low, an agot very vildly cut;
  8. If speaking, why, a vane blown with all winds;
  9. If silent, why, a block moved with none.
  10. So turns she every man the wrong side out,
  11. And never gives to truth and virtue that
  12. Which simpleness and merit purchaseth.

Ursula

74
  1. Sure, sure, such carping is not commendable.

Hero

75 - 83
  1. No, not to be so odd, and from all fashions,
  2. As Beatrice is, cannot be commendable.
  3. But who dare tell her so? If I should speak,
  4. She would mock me into air; O, she would laugh me
  5. Out of myself, press me to death with wit.
  6. Therefore let Benedick, like cover’d fire,
  7. Consume away in sighs, waste inwardly.
  8. It were a better death than die with mocks,
  9. Which is as bad as die with tickling.

Ursula

84
  1. Yet tell her of it, hear what she will say.

Hero

85 - 89
  1. No, rather I will go to Benedick,
  2. And counsel him to fight against his passion,
  3. And truly I’ll devise some honest slanders
  4. To stain my cousin with. One doth not know
  5. How much an ill word may empoison liking.

But are you sure that Benedick loves Beatrice so entirely?

John E. Sutcliffe, 1904

Ursula

90 - 94
  1. O, do not do your cousin such a wrong.
  2. She cannot be so much without true judgment—
  3. Having so swift and excellent a wit
  4. As she is priz’d to have—as to refuse
  5. So rare a gentleman as Signior Benedick.

Hero

95 - 96
  1. He is the only man of Italy,
  2. Always excepted my dear Claudio.

Ursula

97 - 100
  1. I pray you be not angry with me, madam,
  2. Speaking my fancy: Signior Benedick,
  3. For shape, for bearing, argument, and valor,
  4. Goes foremost in report through Italy.

Hero

101
  1. Indeed he hath an excellent good name.

Ursula

102 - 103
  1. His excellence did earn it, ere he had it.
  2. When are you married, madam?

Hero

104 - 106
  1. Why, every day tomorrow. Come go in,
  2. I’ll show thee some attires, and have thy counsel
  3. Which is the best to furnish me tomorrow.

Ursula

107
  1. Aside.
  2. She’s limed, I warrant you. We have caught her, madam.

Hero

108 - 109
  1. Aside.
  2. If it prove so, then loving goes by haps:
  3. Some Cupid kills with arrows, some with traps.
  1. Exeunt Hero and Ursula.

Beatrice

110 - 119
  1. Coming forward.
  2. What fire is in mine ears? Can this be true?
  3. Stand I condemn’d for pride and scorn so much?
  4. Contempt, farewell, and maiden pride, adieu!
  5. No glory lives behind the back of such.
  6. And, Benedick, love on, I will requite thee,
  7. Taming my wild heart to thy loving hand.
  8. If thou dost love, my kindness shall incite thee
  9. To bind our loves up in a holy band;
  10. For others say thou dost deserve, and I
  11. Believe it better than reportingly.
  1. Exit.
Hero

Hero

William Henry Mote, John William Wright, mid-19th century

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