Page 1350 - Shakespeare - Vol. 2

BENEDICK

Not I, believe me.

BEATRICE
Did he never make you laugh? [120]

BENEDICK
I pray you, what is he?

BEATRICE
Why, he is the Prince’s jester, a very dull fool; only his gift is in devising
impossible slanders. None but libertines delight in him, and the

commendation is not in his wit, but in his villainy; for he both pleases men
and [125] angers them, and then they laugh at him and beat him. I am sure
he is in the fleet; I would he had boarded me.

BENEDICK
When I know the gentleman, I’ll tell him what you say.

BEATRICE
Do, do; he’ll but break a comparison or two on [130] me, which,

peradventure not marked or not laughed at, strikes him into melancholy; and
then there’s a partridge wing saved, for the fool will eat no supper that night.
Music for the dance.
We must follow the leaders.

BENEDICK

In every good thing. [135]

BEATRICE

Nay, if they lead to any ill, I will leave them at the next turning.
Exeunt all dancing, except Don John, Borachio, and Claudio.

DON JOHN
Sure my brother is amorous on Hero and hath withdrawn her father to break
with him about it. The ladies follow her and but one visor remains. [140]