Page 1339 - Shakespeare - Vol. 2

Than to drive liking to the name of love;
But now I am returned and that war-thoughts
Have left their places vacant, in their rooms [280]
Come thronging soft and delicate desires,

All prompting me how fair young Hero is,
Saying I liked her ere I went to wars.

DON PEDRO
Thou wilt be like a lover presently
And tire the hearer with a book of words. [285]

If thou dost love fair Hero, cherish it,
And I will break with her and with her father
And thou shalt have her. Was’t not to this end
That thou began’st to twist so fine a story?

CLAUDIO
How sweetly you do minister to love, [290]

That know love’s grief by his complexion!
But lest my liking might too sudden seem,
I would have salved it with a longer treatise.

DON PEDRO
What need the bridge much broader than the flood?

The fairest grant is the necessity. [295]
Look what will serve is fit. ’Tis once, thou lovest,
And I will fit thee with the remedy.
I know we shall have revelling tonight;
I will assume thy part in some disguise

And tell fair Hero I am Claudio, [300]
And in her bosom I’ll unclasp my heart,
And take her hearing prisoner with the force

And strong encounter of my amorous tale.
Then after, to her father will I break,
And the conclusion is, she shall be thine. [305]
In practice let us put it presently.
Exeunt.

Scene II IT