Much Ado about Nothing by William Shakespeare
Act 1 - Scene 3
The same.
Conrade : What the good-year, my lord! why are you thus out
[p]of measure sad?
Don John : There is no measure in the occasion that breeds;
[p]therefore the
sadness is without limit.
Conrade : You should hear reason.
Don John : And when I have heard it, what blessing brings it?
Conrade : If not a present remedy, at least a patient
[p]sufferance.
Don John : I wonder that thou, being, as thou sayest thou art,
[p]born under
Saturn, goest about to apply a moral
[p]medicine to a mortifying
mischief. I cannot hide
[p]what I am: I must be sad when I have cause
and smile
[p]at no man's jests, eat when I have stomach and
wait
[p]for no man's leisure, sleep when I am drowsy and
[p]tend on no
man's business, laugh when I am merry and
[p]claw no man in his
humour.
Conrade : Yea, but you must not make the full show of this
[p]till you may do it
without controlment. You have of
[p]late stood out against your
brother, and he hath
[p]ta'en you newly into his grace; where it
is
[p]impossible you should take true root but by the
[p]fair weather
that you make yourself: it is needful
[p]that you frame the season for
your own harvest.
Don John : I had rather be a canker in a hedge than a rose in
[p]his grace, and
it better fits my blood to be
[p]disdained of all than to fashion a
carriage to rob
[p]love from any: in this, though I cannot be said
to
[p]be a flattering honest man, it must not be denied
[p]but I am a
plain-dealing villain. I am trusted with
[p]a muzzle and enfranchised
with a clog; therefore I
[p]have decreed not to sing in my cage. If I
had my
[p]mouth, I would bite; if I had my liberty, I would do
[p]my
liking: in the meantime let me be that I am and
[p]seek not to alter
me.
Conrade : Can you make no use of your discontent?
Don John : I make all use of it, for I use it only.
[p]Who comes here?
[p][Enter
BORACHIO]
[p]What news, Borachio?
Borachio : I came yonder from a great supper: the prince your
[p]brother is
royally entertained by Leonato: and I
[p]can give you intelligence of
an intended marriage.
Don John : Will it serve for any model to build mischief on?
[p]What is he for a
fool that betroths himself to
[p]unquietness?
Borachio : Marry, it is your brother's right hand.
Don John : Who? the most exquisite Claudio?
Borachio : Even he.
Don John : A proper squire! And who, and who? which way looks
[p]he?
Borachio : Marry, on Hero, the daughter and heir of Leonato.
Don John : A very forward March-chick! How came you to this?
Borachio : Being entertained for a perfumer, as I was smoking a
[p]musty room,
comes me the prince and Claudio, hand
[p]in hand in sad conference: I
whipt me behind the
[p]arras; and there heard it agreed upon that
the
[p]prince should woo Hero for himself, and having
[p]obtained her,
give her to Count Claudio.
Don John : Come, come, let us thither: this may prove food to
[p]my displeasure.
That young start-up hath all the
[p]glory of my overthrow: if I can
cross him any way, I
[p]bless myself every way. You are both sure, and
will assist me?
Conrade : To the death, my lord.
Don John : Let us to the great supper: their cheer is the
[p]greater that I am
subdued. Would the cook were of
[p]my mind! Shall we go prove what's
to be done?
Borachio : We'll wait upon your lordship.
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