I do but stay till your marriage be consummate
Prince
I do but stay till your marriage be consummate,
and then go I toward Aragon.
Claudio
I’ll bring you thither, my lord, if you’ll vouchsafe me.
Well, everyone can master a grief but he that has it.
Prince
Nay, that would be as great a soil in the new
gloss of your marriage as to show a child his new
coat and forbid him to wear it. I will only be bold
with Benedick for his company, for from the crown
of his head to the sole of his foot he is all mirth. He
hath twice or thrice cut Cupid’s bowstring, and the
little hangman dare not shoot at him. He hath a
heart as sound as a bell, and his tongue is the
clapper, for what his heart thinks, his tongue speaks.
Benedick
Gallants, I am not as I have been.
Leonato
So say I. Methinks you are sadder.
Claudio
I hope he be in love.
Prince
Hang him, truant! There’s no true drop of
blood in him to be truly touched with love. If he be
sad, he wants money.
Benedick
I have the toothache.
Prince
Draw it.
Benedick
Hang it!
Claudio
You must hang it first, and draw it afterwards.
Prince
What, sigh for the toothache?
Leonato
Where is but a humor or a worm.
Benedick
Well, everyone can master a grief but he
that has it.
Claudio
Yet say I, he is in love.
Prince
There is no appearance of fancy in him, unless
it be a fancy that he hath to strange disguises, as to
be a Dutchman today, a Frenchman tomorrow, or
in the shape of two countries at once, as a German
from the waist downward, all slops, and a Spaniard
from the hip upward, no doublet. Unless he have a
fancy to this foolery, as it appears he hath, he is no
fool for fancy, as you would have it appear he is.
Claudio
If he be not in love with some woman, there
is no believing old signs. He brushes his hat o’
mornings. What should that bode?
Prince
Hath any man seen him at the barber’s?
Claudio
No, but the barber’s man hath been seen
with him, and the old ornament of his cheek hath
already stuffed tennis balls.
Leonato
Indeed he looks younger than he did, by the
loss of a beard.
Prince
Nay, he rubs himself with civet. Can you smell
him out by that?
Claudio
That’s as much as to say, the sweet youth’s in love.
Prince
The greatest note of it is his melancholy.
Claudio
And when was he wont to wash his face?
Prince
Yea, or to paint himself? For the which I hear
what they say of him.
Claudio
Nay, but his jesting spirit, which is now crept
into a lute string and now governed by stops—
Prince
Indeed, that tells a heavy tale for him. Conclude,
conclude, he is in love.
Claudio
Nay, but I know who loves him.
Prince
That would I know, too. I warrant, one that
knows him not.
Claudio
Yes, and his ill conditions; and, in despite of
all, dies for him.
Prince
She shall be buried with her face upwards.
Benedick
Yet is this no charm for the toothache.—
Old signior, walk aside with me. I have studied eight
or nine wise words to speak to you, which these
hobby-horses must not hear.
Benedick and Leonato exit.
Prince
For my life, to break with him about Beatrice!
Claudio
’Tis even so. Hero and Margaret have by this
played their parts with Beatrice, and then the two
bears will not bite one another when they meet.