| Leonato: What is he you ask for, niece? | Hero: My cousin means Signor Benedick of Padua. |
| Beatrice: …heart burned an hour after. | Hero: He is of a very melancholy disposition. |
| Don Pedro: Lady, will you walk about with your friend? | Hero: I am yours for the walk, and especially when I walk away. |
| Don Pedro: And you too, gentle Hero? | Hero: I will do any modest office, my lord, to help my cousin to a good husband. |
| Benedick:…I will go get her picture. | Hero: Good Margaret, run thee to the parlour, there shalt thou find my cousin Beatrice. Whisper her ear and tell her I and Ursley walk in the orchard, and our whole discourse is all of her. This is thy office, bear thee well in it, and leave us alone. |
| Margaret: I’ll make her come I warrant you, presently. | Hero: Now, Ursula, when Beatrice doth come, as we do trace this alley up and down, our talk must only be of Benedict. pause For look where Beatrice like a lapwing runs close by the ground, to hear our conference. |
| Ursula: But are you sure, that Benedick loves Beatrice so entirely? | Hero: So says the prince, and my new trothéd lord. |
| Ursula: And did they bid you tell her of it, madam? | Hero: They did entreat me to acquaint her of it, But I persuaded them, if they loved Benedick, to wish him wrestle with affection, and never to let Beatrice know of it. |
| Ursula: Why did you so? Doth not the gentlemen deserve as full as fortunate a bed, as Beatrice shall couch upon? | Hero: Oh God of Love! I know he doth deserve, as much as may be yielded to a man, but nature never framed 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. |
| Ursula: Sure I think so, yet tell her of it, hear what she will say. | Hero: No rather I will go to Benedick, and counsel him to fight against his passion. |
| Ursula: Do not do your cousin such a wrong.She cannot be so much without true judgmentHaving so swift and excellent a witAs she is prized to have as to refuseSo rare a gentleman as Signior Benedick. | Hero: He is the only man of Italy. Always excepted my dear Claudio. |
| Ursula: When are you married madam? | Hero: Why ever day tomorrow. |
| Ursula: She’s limed I warrant you, we have caught her, madam. | Hero: If it proves so, then loving goes by haps:Some Cupid kills with arrows, some with traps. |
| Conrade: ..I warrant you come, we’ll obey you. | Hero: Good morrow, coz. |
| Beatrice: Good morrow, sweet Hero. | Hero: Why how now? |
| Friar: Lady, you come hither to be married to this count? | Hero: I do. |
| Claudio: Know you any Hero? | Hero: None, my lord. |
| Claudio:..Bashful sincerity and comely love. | Hero: And seemed I ever otherwise to you? |
| Claudio: What man was he talk’d with you yesternightOut at your window betwixt twelve and one? | Hero: I talked with no man at that hour, my lord. |
| Friar: Lady, what man is he you are accused of? | Hero: They know that do accuse me, I know none. |
| Claudio: Give me your hand: before this holy friar, I am your husband, if you like of me. | Hero: And when I lived, I was your other wife, And when you loved, you were my other husband. |
| Claudio: Another Hero? | Hero: Nothing certainer:One Hero died defiled, but I do live,And surely as I live, I am a maid. |
| Claudio: And I’ll be sworn upon’t that he loves her;For here’s a paper written in his hand,A halting sonnet of his own pure brain,Fashion’d to Beatrice. | Hero: And here’s anotherWrit in my cousin’s hand, stolen from her pocket,Containing her affection unto Benedick. |
Much Ado Lines
July 20, 2019