Before Leonato’s house.]

Enter Leonato, Governor of Messina, Hero his
daughter, and Beatrice his niece, with a Messenger.

Leonato. I learn in this letter that Don Pedro of Aragon comes this night to Messina.

Messenger. He is very near by this. He was not three leagues off when I left him.

Leonato. How many gentlemen°2 have you lost in this action?

Messenger. But few of any sort,° and none of name.°

Leonato. A victory is twice itself when the achiever brings home full numbers. I find here that Don Pedro hath bestowed much honor on a young Florentine called Claudio.

1.1.5 gentlemen men of upper class

7 sort rank

7 name distinguished family

Messenger. Much deserved on hjs part, and equally re memb‘red by Don Pedro. He hath borne himself beyond the promise of his age, doing, in the figure of a lamb, the feats of a lion. He hath indeed better bett’red expectation° than you must expect of me to tell you how.

Leonato. He hath an uncle° here in Messina will be very much glad of it.

Messenger. I have already delivered him letters, and there appears much joy in him; even so much that joy could not show itself modest enough without a badge° of bitterness.

Leonato. Did he break out into tears?

Messenger. In great measure.

Leonato. A kind overflow of kindness.° There are no faces truer than those that are so washed. How much better is it to weep at joy than to joy at weeping!

Beatrice. I pray you, is Signior Mountanto° returned from the wars or no?

Messenger. I know none of that name, lady. There was none such in the army of any sort.

Leonato. What is he that you ask for, niece?

Hero. My cousin means Signior Benedick of Padua.

Messenger. O, he’s returned, and as pleasant° as ever he was.

Beatrice. He set up his bills° here in Messina and challenged Cupid at the flight;° and my uncle’s fool, reading the challenge, subscribed° for Cupid and challenged him at the burbolt.° I pray you, how many hath he killed and eaten in these wars? But how many hath he killed? For indeed, I promised to eat all of his killing.

15-16 better bett‘red expectation greatly exceeded anticipated valor

18 uncle (does not appear in the play)

23 badge emblem

26 kind overflow of kindness natural overflow of tenderness

29 Mountanto a fencing thrust

35 pleasant lively

37 bills advertising placards

37 flight shooting contest (i.c., he thought himself a lady-killer)

39 subscribed signed up

40 burbolt blunt arrow

Leonato. Faith, niece, you tax° Signior Benedick too much; but he’ll be meet° with you, I doubt it not.

Messenger. He hath done good service, lady, in these wars.

Beatrice. You had musty victual, and he hath holp to eat it. He is a very valiant trencherman;° he hath an excellent stomach.

Messenger. And a good soldier too, lady.

Beatrice. And a good soldier to° a lady. But what is he to a lord?

Messenger. A lord to a lord, a man to a man; stuffed with all honorable virtues.

Beatrice. It is so, indeed; he is no less than a stuffed man.° But for the stuffing—well, we are all mortal.

Leonato. You must not, sir, mistake my niece. There is a kind of merry war betwixt Signior Benedick and her. They never meet but there’s a skirmish of wit between them.

Beatrice. Alas, he gets nothing by that! In our last conflict four of his five wits° went halting° off, and now is the whole man governed with one; so that if he have wit enough to keep himself warm, let him bear it for a difference between himself and his horse. For it is all the wealth that he hath left to be known a reasonable creature. Who is his companion now? He hath every month a new sworn brother.

Messenger. Is’t possible?

Beatrice. Very easily possible. He wears his faith but as the fashion of his hat; it ever changes with the next block.°

44 tax i.e., tease too hard

45 meet even

49 trencherman eater

52 to in comparison with

56-57 stuffed man dummy

63 five wits common sense, imagination, fancy, estimation, memory

63 halting limping

73 next block most recent shape

Messenger. I see, lady, the gentleman is not in your books.°

Beatrice. No. And° he were, I would burn my study. But I pray you, who is his companion? Is there no young squarer° now that will make a voyage with him to the devil?

Messenger. He is most in the company of the right noble Claudio.

Beatrice. O Lord, he will hang upon him like a disease. He is sooner caught than the pestilence, and the taker runs presently° mad. God help the noble Claudio if he have caught the Benedict;° it will cost him a thousand pound ere ‘a° be cured.

Messenger. I will hold friends with you, lady.

Beatrice. Do, good friend.

Leonato. You will never run mad,° niece.

Beatrice. No, not till a hot January.

Messenger. Don Pedro is approached.

Enter Don Pedro, Claudio, Benedick, Balthasar, and John the Bastard.

Don Pedro. Good Signior Leonato, are you come to meet your trouble? The fashion of the world is to avoid cost, and you encounter it.

Leonato. Never came trouble to my house in the likeness of your Grace; for trouble being gone, comfort should remain. But when you depart from me, sorrow abides, and happiness takes his leave.

Don Pedro. You embrace your charge° too willingly. I think this is your daughter.

Leonato. Her mother hath many times told me so.

75 books favor

76 And if

78 squarer brawler

84 presently immediately (the usual sense in Shakespeare)

85 Benedict (the change in spelling suggests a disease based on Benedick’s name)

86 ‘a he

89 run mad catch the Benedict

99 charge burden (of my visit)

Benedick. Were you in doubt, sir, that you asked her?

Leonato. Signior Benedick, no; for then were you a child.

Don Pedro. You have it full, Benedick. We may guess by this what you are, being a man. Truly the lady fathers herself.° Be happy, lady, for you are like an honorable father.

Benedick. If Signior Leonato be her father, she would not have his head° on her shoulders for all Messina, as like him as she is.

Beatrice. I wonder that you will still° be talking, Signior Benedick; nobody marks you.

Benedick. What, my dear Lady Disdain! Are you yet living?

Beatrice. Is it possible Disdain should die while she hath such meet food to feed it as Signior Benedick? Courtesy itself must convert to Disdain if you come in her presence.

Benedick. Then is courtesy a turncoat. But it is certain I am loved of all ladies,° only you excepted; and I would I could find in my heart that I had not a hard heart; for truly I love none.

Beatrice. A dear happiness to women! They would else have been troubled with a pernicious suitor. I thank God and my cold blood, I am of your humor for that.° I had rather hear my dog bark at a crow than a man swear he loves me.

Benedick. God keep your ladyship still in that mind, so some gentleman or other shall scape a predesti- nate scratched face.

Beatrice. Scratching could not make it worse and ‘twere such a face as yours were.

107 fathers herself shows who her father is by resembling him

110 his head white-haired and bearded (?)

112 still always (the susual sense in Shakespeare)

121 loved of all ladies (he had “challenged Cupid”)

126-27 of your humor for that in agreement on that

Benedick. Well, you are a rare parrot-teacher.°

Beatrice. A bird of my tongue is better than a beast of yours.

Benedick. I would my horse had the speed of your tongue, and so good a continuer.° But keep your way, a God’s name! I have done.

Beatrice. You always end with a jade’s trick.° I know you of old.

Don Pedro. That is the sum of all,° Leonato. Signior Claudio and Signior Benedick, my dear friend Leonato hath invited you all.