[to Hero] Well, niece, I trust you will be rul'd by your
    father.

  Beat. Yes faith. It is my cousin's duty to make cursy and say,
    'Father, as it please you.' But yet for all that, cousin, let him
    be a handsome fellow, or else make another cursy, and say,
    'Father, as it please me.'

Leon. Well, niece, I hope to see you one day fitted with a husband.

Beat. Not till God make men of some other metal than earth. Would it not grieve a woman to be overmaster'd with a piece of valiant dust? to make an account of her life to a clod of wayward marl? No, uncle, I'll none. Adam's sons are my brethren, and truly I hold it a sin to match in my kinred.

Leon. Daughter, remember what I told you. If the Prince do solicit you in that kind, you know your answer.

Beat. The fault will be in the music, cousin, if you be not wooed in good time. If the Prince be too important, tell him there is measure in everything, and so dance out the answer. For, hear me, Hero: wooing, wedding, and repenting is as a Scotch jig, a measure, and a cinque-pace: the first suit is hot and hasty like a Scotch jig—and full as fantastical; the wedding, mannerly modest, as a measure, full of state and ancientry; and then comes Repentance and with his bad legs falls into the cinque-pace faster and faster, till he sink into his grave.

Leon. Cousin, you apprehend passing shrewdly.

Beat. I have a good eye, uncle; I can see a church by daylight.

  Leon. The revellers are ent'ring, brother. Make good room.
                                                 [Exit Antonio.]

    Enter, [masked,] Don Pedro, Claudio, Benedick, and Balthasar.
       [With them enter Antonio, also masked. After them enter]
       Don John [and Borachio (without masks), who stand aside
                 and look on during the dance].

Pedro. Lady, will you walk a bout with your friend?

  Hero. So you walk softly and look sweetly and say nothing,
    I am yours for the walk; and especially when I walk away.

Pedro. With me in your company?

Hero. I may say so when I please.

Pedro. And when please you to say so?

Hero. When I like your favour, for God defend the lute should be like the case!

Pedro. My visor is Philemon's roof; within the house is Jove.

Hero. Why then, your visor should be thatch'd.

Pedro. Speak low if you speak love. [Takes her aside.]

Balth. Well, I would you did like me.

Marg. So would not I for your own sake, for I have many ill qualities.

Balth. Which is one?

Marg. I say my prayers aloud.

Balth. I love you the better. The hearers may cry Amen.

Marg. God match me with a good dancer!

Balth. Amen.

  Marg. And God keep him out of my sight when the dance is done!
    Answer, clerk.

  Balth. No more words. The clerk is answered.
                                              [Takes her aside.]

Urs. I know you well enough. You are Signior Antonio.

Ant. At a word, I am not.

Urs. I know you by the waggling of your head.

Ant. To tell you true, I counterfeit him.

Urs. You could never do him so ill-well unless you were the very man. Here's his dry hand up and down. You are he, you are he!

Ant. At a word, I am not.

Urs. Come, come, do you think I do not know you by your excellent wit? Can virtue hide itself? Go to, mum you are he. Graces will appear, and there's an end. [ They step aside.]

Beat. Will you not tell me who told you so?

Bene. No, you shall pardon me.

Beat. Nor will you not tell me who you are?

Bene. Not now.

Beat. That I was disdainful, and that I had my good wit out of the 'Hundred Merry Tales.' Well, this was Signior Benedick that said so.

Bene. What's he?

Beat. I am sure you know him well enough.

Bene. Not I, believe me.

Beat. Did he never make you laugh?

Bene. I pray you, what is he?

Beat. Why, he is the Prince's jester, a very dull fool. Only his gift is in devising impossible slanders. None but libertines delight in him; and the commendation is not in his wit, but in his villany; for he both pleases men and angers them, and then they laugh at him and beat him. I am sure he is in the fleet. I would he had boarded me.

Bene. When I know the gentleman, I'll tell him what you say.

Beat. Do, do. He'll but break a comparison or two on me; which peradventure, not marked or not laugh'd at, strikes him into melancholy; and then there's a partridge wing saved, for the fool will eat no supper that night. [Music.] We must follow the leaders.

Bene. In every good thing.

  Beat. Nay, if they lead to any ill, I will leave them at the next
    turning.
        Dance. Exeunt (all but Don John, Borachio, and Claudio].

  John. Sure my brother is amorous on Hero and hath withdrawn her
    father to break with him about it. The ladies follow her and but
    one visor remains.

Bora. And that is Claudio. I know him by his bearing.

John. Are you not Signior Benedick?

Claud. You know me well. I am he.

John. Signior, you are very near my brother in his love. He is enamour'd on Hero. I pray you dissuade him from her; she is no equal for his birth. You may do the part of an honest man in it.

Claud. How know you he loves her?

John. I heard him swear his affection.

Bora. So did I too, and he swore he would marry her tonight.

  John. Come, let us to the banquet.
                                          Exeunt. Manet Claudio.

  Claud. Thus answer I in name of Benedick
    But hear these ill news with the ears of Claudio.
                                                      [Unmasks.]
    'Tis certain so. The Prince wooes for himself.
    Friendship is constant in all other things
    Save in the office and affairs of love.
    Therefore all hearts in love use their own tongues;
    Let every eye negotiate for itself