FRIAR (to Claudio) You come hither, my lord, to marry this lady?

CLAUDIO No.

LEONATO To be married to her. Friar, you come to marry her.

FRIAR (to Hero) Lady, you come hither to be married to this count?

HERO I do.

FRIAR If either of you know any inward impediment why you should not be conjoined, I charge you on your souls to utter it.

CLAUDIO Know you any, Hero?

HERO None, my lord.

FRIAR Know you any, Count?

LEONATO I dare make his answer—none.

CLAUDIO O, what men dare do! What men may do! What men daily do, not knowing what they do!

BENEDICK How now! Interjections ? Why then, some be of laughing, as ‘ah, ha, he!’

CLAUDIO

Stand thee by, Friar. Father, by your leave,

Will you with free and unconstrained soul

Give me this maid, your daughter?

LEONATO

As freely, son, as God did give her me.

CLAUDIO

And what have I to give you back whose worth

May counterpoise this rich and precious gift?

DON PEDRO

Nothing, unless you render her again.

CLAUDIO

Sweet Prince, you learn me noble thankfulness.

There, Leonato, take her back again.

Give not this rotten orange to your friend.

She’s but the sign and semblance of her honour.

Behold how like a maid she blushes here!

O, what authority and show of truth

Can cunning sin cover itself withal !

Comes not that blood as modest evidence

To witness simple virtue? Would you not swear,

All you that see her, that she were a maid,

By these exterior shows? But she is none.

She knows the heat of a luxurious bed.

Her blush is guiltiness, not modesty.

LEONATO

What do you mean, my lord?

CLAUDIO Not to be married,

Not to knit my soul to an approved wanton.

LEONATO

Dear my lord, if you in your own proof

Have vanquished the resistance of her youth

And made defeat of her virginity—

CLAUDIO

I know what you would say. If I have known her,

You will say she did embrace me as a husband,

And so extenuate the forehand sin.

No, Leonato,

I never tempted her with word too large,

But as a brother to his sister showed

Bashful sincerity and comely love.

HERO

And seemed I ever otherwise to you?

CLAUDIO

Out on thee, seeming! I will write against it.

You seem to me as Dian in her orb,

As chaste as is the bud ere it be blown.

But you are more intemperate in your blood

Than Venus or those pampered animals

That rage in savage sensuality.

HERO

Is my lord well that he doth speak so wide?

LEONATO

Sweet Prince, why speak not you?

DON PEDRO What should I speak?

I stand dishonoured, that have gone about

To link my dear friend to a common stale.

LEONATO

Are these things spoken, or do I but dream?

DON JOHN

Sir, they are spoken, and these things are true.

BENEDICK This looks not like a nuptial.

HERO ‘True’! O God !

CLAUDIO Leonato, stand I here?

Is this the Prince? Is this the Prince’s brother?

Is this face Hero’s? Are our eyes our own?

LEONATO

All this is so. But what of this, my lord?

CLAUDIO

Let me but move one question to your daughter,

And by that fatherly and kindly power

That you have in her, bid her answer truly.

LEONATO (to Hero)

I charge thee do so, as thou art my child.

HERO

O God defend me, how am I beset!

What kind of catechizing call you this?

CLAUDIO

To make you answer truly to your name.

HERO

Is it not Hero? Who can blot that name

With any just reproach?

CLAUDIO Marry, that can Hero. Hero itself can blot out Hero’s virtue.

What man was he talked with you yesternight

Out at your window betwixt twelve and one?

Now if you are a maid, answer to this.

HERO

I talked with no man at that hour, my lord.

DON PEDRO

Why, then are you no maiden. Leonato,

I am sorry you must hear. Upon mine honour,

Myself, my brother, and this grieved Count

Did see her, hear her, at that hour last night

Talk with a ruffian at her chamber window,

Who hath indeed, most like a liberal villain,

Confessed the vile encounters they have had

A thousand times in secret.

DON JOHN Fie, fie, they are

Not to be named, my lord, not to be spoke of.

There is not chastity enough in language

Without offence to utter them. Thus, pretty lady,

I am sorry for thy much misgovernment.

CLAUDIO

O Hero! What a Hero hadst thou been

If half thy outward graces had been placed

About thy thoughts and counsels of thy heart!

But fare thee well, most foul, most fair, farewell

Thou pure impiety and impious purity.

For thee I’ll lock up all the gates of love,

And on my eyelids shall conjecture hang

To turn all beauty into thoughts of harm,

And never shall it more be gracious.

LEONATO

Hath no man’s dagger here a point for me?

Hero falls to the ground

BEATRICE

Why, how now, cousin, wherefore sink you down?

DON JOHN

Come. Let us go. These things come thus to light

Smother her spirits up.

Exeunt Don Pedro, Don John, and Claudio

BENEDICK

How doth the lady?

BEATRICE Dead, I think. Help, uncle.

Hero, why Hero! Uncle, Signor Benedick, Friar—

LEONATO

O fate, take not away thy heavy hand.

Death is the fairest cover for her shame

That may be wished for.

BEATRICE How now, cousin Hero?

FRIAR (to Hero) Have comfort, lady.

LEONATO (to Hero) Dost thou look up?

FRIAR Yea, wherefore should she not?

LEONATO

Wherefore? Why, doth not every earthly thing