Will you with free and unconstrained soul Give me this maid, your daughter? Leon. As freely, son, as God did give her me. Claud. And what have I to give you back, whose worth May counterpoise this rich and precious gift? D. Pedro. Nothing, unless you render her again. Claud. Sweet prince, you learn me noble thankfulness. There, Leonato, take her back again; Give not this rotten orange to your friend; Comes not that blood, as modest evidence, Claud. Not to be married, Not to knit my soul to an approved wanton. Claud. I know what you would say; If I have known her, You'll say, she did embrace me as a husband, And so extenuate the 'forehand sin: No, Leonato, I never tempted her with word too large; Bashful sincerity, and comely love. 2 Lascivious. 3 i. e. if in your own trial.' VOL. II. R 4 Licentious. Hero. And seem'd I ever otherwise to you? Claud. Out on thy seeming! I will write against it: You seem to me as Dian in her orb; blood As chaste as is the bud ere it be blown; D. Pedro. Hero. Is my lord well, that he doth speak so wide"? Leon. Are these things spoken? or do I but dream? are true. Bene. This looks not like a nuptial. Hero. True, O God! Claud. Leonato, stand I here? Leon. All this is so; But what of this, my lord? And, by that fatherly and kindly power6 Leon. 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? Claud. To make you answer truly to your name. Hero. Is it not Hero? Who can blot that name With any just reproach? 5 i. e. So remotely from the present business.' wide of the matter,' is a familiar phrase still in use. • You are 6 i. e. 'natural power.' Kind is used for nature. So in The Induction to The Taming of the Shrew This do, and do it kindly, gentle sirs.' which here also signifies naturally. Claud. Marry, that can Hero; Hero itself can blot out Hero's virtue. lord. Hero. I talk'd with no man at that hour, my nato, I am sorry you must hear; Upon mine honour, D. John. Fye, fye! they are Not to be nam'd, 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. Claud. 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 3. Leon. Hath no man's dagger here a point for me? [HERO Swoons. 7 Liberal here, as in many places of these plays, means licentious beyond honesty or decency. This sense of the word is not peculiar to Shakspeare. 8 i. e. graced, favoured, countenanced. note 22, and As You Like It, Act i. Sc. 2. See vol. i. p. 148, Beat. Why, how now, cousin? wherefore sink you down? D. John. Come, let us go: these things, come thus to light, Smother her spirits up. [Exeunt DON PEDRO, DON JOHN, and Bene. How doth the lady? Beat. CLAUDIO. Dead, I think;-help, uncle; Hero! why, Hero!-Uncle!-Signior Benedick! friar? Leon. O fate, take not away thy heavy hand! Death is the fairest cover for her shame, That may be wish'd for. Beat. Friar. Have comfort, lady. How now, cousin Hero? Yea; Wherefore should she not? Leon. Dost thou look up? Friar. Leon. Wherefore? Why, doth not every earthly thing Cry shame upon her? Could she here deny 9. That is, which her blushes discovered to be true.' I might have said, No part of it is mine, Hath drops too few to wash her clean again 1o; Bene. Sir, sir, be patient: Beat. O, on my soul, my cousin is belied! Which was before barr'd up with ribs of iron! For I have only been silent so long, And given way unto this course of fortune, 12 The same thought is repeated in Macbeth: Will all great Neptune's ocean wash this blood |