Page 1400 - Shakespeare - Vol. 2

O, what authority and show of truth
Can cunning sin cover itself withal! [35]
Comes not that blood as modest evidence
To witness simple virtue? Would you not swear,

All you that see her, that she were a maid
By these exterior shows? But she is none;
She knows the heat of a luxurious bed. [40]
Her blush is guiltiness, not modesty.

LEONATO

What do you mean, my lord?

CLAUDIO

Not to be married,
Not to knit my soul to an approvèd wanton.

LEONATO
Dear my lord, if you, in your own proof,
Have vanquished the resistance of her youth, [45]
And made defeat of her virginity −

CLAUDIO
I know what you would say. If I have known her,
You will say she did embrace me as a husband,
And so extenuate the ’forehand sin.
No, Leonato, [50]

I never tempted her with word too large,
But, as a brother to his sister, showed
Bashful sincerity and comely love.

HERO
And seemed I ever otherwise to you?

CLAUDIO
Out on thee! Seeming! I will write against it. [55]

You seem to me as Dian in her orb,
As chaste as is the bud ere it be blown;