<SPEECH 1><ACT 1><SCENE 1><1%>
<HERO>	<2%>
	My cousin means Signior Benedick of Padua.
</HERO>

<SPEECH 2><ACT 2><SCENE 1><15%>
<HERO>	<16%>
	He is of a very melancholy disposition.
</HERO>

<SPEECH 3><ACT 2><SCENE 1><18%>
<HERO>	<19%>
	So you walk softly and look sweetly and say nothing, I am yours for the walk; and especially when I walk away.
</HERO>

<SPEECH 4><ACT 2><SCENE 1><18%>
<HERO>	<19%>
	I may say so, when I please.
</HERO>

<SPEECH 5><ACT 2><SCENE 1><18%>
<HERO>	<19%>
	When I like your favour; for God defend the lute should be like the case!
</HERO>

<SPEECH 6><ACT 2><SCENE 1><18%>
<HERO>	<19%>
	Why, then, your visor should be thatch'd.
</HERO>

<SPEECH 7><ACT 2><SCENE 1><28%>
<HERO>	<29%>
	I will do any modest office, my lord, to help my cousin to a good husband.
</HERO>

<SPEECH 8><ACT 3><SCENE 1><40%>
<HERO>	<41%>
	Good Margaret, run thee to the parlour;
	There shalt thou find my cousin Beatrice
	Proposing with the prince and Claudio:
	Whisper her ear, and tell her, I and Ursula
	Walk in the orchard, and our whole discourse
	Is all of her; say that thou overheard'st us,
	And bid her steal into the pleached bower,
	Where honey-suckles, ripen'd by the sun,
	Forbid the sun to enter; like favourites,
	Made proud by princes, that advance their pride
	Against that power that bred it. There will she hide her,
	To listen our propose. This is thy office;
	Bear thee well in it and leave us alone.
</HERO>

<SPEECH 9><ACT 3><SCENE 1><41%>
<HERO>	<42%>
	Now, Ursula, when Beatrice doth come,
	As we do trace this alley up and down,
	Our talk must only be of Benedick:
	When I do name him, let it be thy part
	To praise him more than ever man did merit.
	My talk to thee must be how Benedick
	Is sick in love with Beatrice: of this matter
	Is little Cupid's crafty arrow made,
	That only wounds by hearsay.

<STAGE DIR>
<Enter Beatrice, behind.>
</STAGE DIR>
	Now begin;
	For look where Beatrice, like a lapwing, runs
</HERO>

<SPEECH 10><ACT 3><SCENE 1><41%>
<HERO>	<42%>
	Then go we near her, that her ear lose nothing
	Of the false sweet bait that we lay for it.
<STAGE DIR>
<They advance to the bower.>
</STAGE DIR>
	No, truly, Ursula, she is too disdainful;
	I know her spirits are as coy and wild
	As haggerds of the rock.
</HERO>

<SPEECH 11><ACT 3><SCENE 1><42%>
<HERO>	<43%>
	So says the prince, and my new-trothed lord.
</HERO>

<SPEECH 12><ACT 3><SCENE 1><42%>
<HERO>	<43%>
	They did entreat me to acquaint her of it;
	But I persuaded them, if they lov'd Benedick,
	To wish him wrestle with affection,
	And never to let Beatrice know of it.
</HERO>

<SPEECH 13><ACT 3><SCENE 1><42%>
<HERO>	<43%>
	O god of love! I know he doth deserve
	As much as may be yielded to a man;
	But nature never fram'd a woman's heart
	Of prouder stuff than that of Beatrice;
	Disdain and scorn ride sparkling in her eyes,
	Misprising what they look on, and her wit
	Values itself so highly, that to her
	All matter else seems weak. She cannot love,
	Nor take no shape nor project of affection,
	She is so self-endear'd.
</HERO>

<SPEECH 14><ACT 3><SCENE 1><42%>
<HERO>	<43%>
	Why, you speak truth. I never yet saw man,
	How wise, how noble, young, how rarely featur'd,
	But she would spell him backward: if fair-fac'd,
	She would swear the gentleman should be her sister;
	If black, why, Nature, drawing of an antick,
	Made a foul blot; if tall, a lance ill-headed;
	If low, an agate very vilely cut;
	If speaking, why, a vane blown with all winds;
	If silent, why, a block moved with none.
	So turns she every man the wrong side out,
	And never gives to truth and virtue that
	Which simpleness and merit purchaseth.
</HERO>

<SPEECH 15><ACT 3><SCENE 1><43%>
<HERO>	<44%>
	No; not to be so odd and from all fashions
	As Beatrice is, cannot be commendable.
	But who dare tell her so? If I should speak,
	She would mock me into air: O! she would laugh me
	Out of myself, press me to death with wit.
	Therefore let Benedick, like cover'd fire,
	Consume away in sighs, waste inwardly:
	It were a better death than die with mocks,
	Which is as bad as die with tickling.
</HERO>

<SPEECH 16><ACT 3><SCENE 1><43%>
<HERO>	<44%>
	No; rather I will go to Benedick,
	And counsel him to fight against his passion.
	And, truly, I'll devise some honest slanders
	To stain my cousin with. One doth not know
	How much an ill word may empoison liking.
</HERO>

<SPEECH 17><ACT 3><SCENE 1><43%>
<HERO>	<45%>
	He is the only man of Italy,
	Always excepted my dear Claudio.
</HERO>

<SPEECH 18><ACT 3><SCENE 1><44%>
<HERO>	<45%>
	Indeed, he hath an excellent good name.
</HERO>

<SPEECH 19><ACT 3><SCENE 1><44%>
<HERO>	<45%>
	Why, every day, to-morrow. Come, go in:
	I'll show thee some attires, and have thy counsel
	Which is the best to furnish me to-morrow.
</HERO>

<SPEECH 20><ACT 3><SCENE 1><44%>
<HERO>	<45%>
	If it prove so, then loving goes by haps:
	Some Cupid kills with arrows, some with traps.
</HERO>

<SPEECH 21><ACT 3><SCENE 4><56%>
<HERO>	<57%>
	Good Ursula, wake my cousin Beatrice, and desire her to rise.
</HERO>

<SPEECH 22><ACT 3><SCENE 4><56%>
<HERO>	<57%>
	And bid her come hither.
</HERO>

<SPEECH 23><ACT 3><SCENE 4><56%>
<HERO>	<57%>
	No, pray thee, good Meg, I'll wear this.
</HERO>

<SPEECH 24><ACT 3><SCENE 4><56%>
<HERO>	<57%>
	My cousin's a fool, and thou art another: I'll wear none but this.
</HERO>

<SPEECH 25><ACT 3><SCENE 4><56%>
<HERO>	<57%>
	O! that exceeds, they say.
</HERO>

<SPEECH 26><ACT 3><SCENE 4><56%>
<HERO>	<57%>
	God give me joy to wear it! for my heart is exceeding heavy.
</HERO>

<SPEECH 27><ACT 3><SCENE 4><57%>
<HERO>	<58%>
	Fie upon thee! art not ashamed?
</HERO>

<SPEECH 28><ACT 3><SCENE 4><57%>
<HERO>	<58%>
	Good morrow, coz.
</HERO>

<SPEECH 29><ACT 3><SCENE 4><57%>
<HERO>	<58%>
	Why, how now! do you speak in the sick tune?
</HERO>

<SPEECH 30><ACT 3><SCENE 4><58%>
<HERO>	<59%>
	These gloves the count sent me; they are an excellent perfume.
</HERO>

<SPEECH 31><ACT 3><SCENE 4><58%>
<HERO>	<59%>
	There thou prick'st her with a thistle.
</HERO>

<SPEECH 32><ACT 3><SCENE 4><59%>
<HERO>	<60%>
	Help to dress me, good coz, good Meg, good Ursula.
</HERO>

<SPEECH 33><ACT 4><SCENE 1><62%>
<HERO>	<63%>
	I do.
</HERO>

<SPEECH 34><ACT 4><SCENE 1><62%>
<HERO>	<63%>
	None, my lord.
</HERO>

<SPEECH 35><ACT 4><SCENE 1><64%>
<HERO>	<64%>
	And seem'd I ever otherwise to you?
</HERO>

<SPEECH 36><ACT 4><SCENE 1><64%>
<HERO>	<64%>
	Is my lord well, that he doth speak so wide?
</HERO>

<SPEECH 37><ACT 4><SCENE 1><64%>
<HERO>	<65%>
	True! O God!
</HERO>

<SPEECH 38><ACT 4><SCENE 1><64%>
<HERO>	<65%>
	O, God defend me! how am I beset!
	What kind of catechizing call you this?
</HERO>

<SPEECH 39><ACT 4><SCENE 1><65%>
<HERO>	<65%>
	Is it not Hero? Who can blot that name
	With any just reproach?
</HERO>

<SPEECH 40><ACT 4><SCENE 1><65%>
<HERO>	<65%>
	I talk'd with no man at that hour, my lord.
</HERO>

<SPEECH 41><ACT 4><SCENE 1><68%>
<HERO>	<69%>
	They know that do accuse me, I know none;
	If I know more of any man alive
	Than that which maiden modesty doth warrant,
	Let all my sins lack mercy! O, my father!
	Prove you that any man with me convers'd
	At hours unmeet, or that I yesternight
	Maintain'd the change of words with any creature,
	Refuse me, hate me, torture me to death.
</HERO>

<SPEECH 42><ACT 5><SCENE 4><97%>
<HERO>	<97%>
	And when I liv'd, I was your other wife:
<STAGE DIR>
<Unmasking.>
</STAGE DIR>
	And when you lov'd, you were my other husband.
</HERO>

<SPEECH 43><ACT 5><SCENE 4><97%>
<HERO>	<97%>
	Nothing certainer:
	One Hero died defil'd, but I do live,
	And surely as I live, I am a maid.
</HERO>

<SPEECH 44><ACT 5><SCENE 4><98%>
<HERO>	<98%>
	And here's another,
	Writ in my cousin's hand, stolen from her pocket,
	Containing her affection unto Benedick.
</HERO>

