| ACT I SCENE III | The same. | |
| | Enter DON JOHN and CONRADE | |
| CONRADE | What the good-year, my lord! why are you thus out | |
| | of measure sad? | |
| DON JOHN | There is no measure in the occasion that breeds; | |
| | therefore the sadness is without limit. | 5 |
| 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 | |
| | sufferance. | |
| DON JOHN | I wonder that thou, being, as thou sayest thou art, | 10 |
| | born under Saturn, goest about to apply a moral | |
| | medicine to a mortifying mischief. I cannot hide | |
| | what I am: I must be sad when I have cause and smile | |
| | at no man's jests, eat when I have stomach and wait | |
| | for no man's leisure, sleep when I am drowsy and | 15 |
| | tend on no man's business, laugh when I am merry and | |
| | claw no man in his humour. | |
| CONRADE | Yea, but you must not make the full show of this | |
| | till you may do it without controlment. You have of | |
| | late stood out against your brother, and he hath | 20 |
| | ta'en you newly into his grace; where it is | |
| | impossible you should take true root but by the | |
| | fair weather that you make yourself: it is needful | |
| | that you frame the season for your own harvest. | |
| DON JOHN | I had rather be a canker in a hedge than a rose in | 25 |
| | his grace, and it better fits my blood to be | |
| | disdained of all than to fashion a carriage to rob | |
| | love from any: in this, though I cannot be said to | |
| | be a flattering honest man, it must not be denied | |
| | but I am a plain-dealing villain. I am trusted with | 30 |
| | a muzzle and enfranchised with a clog; therefore I | |
| | have decreed not to sing in my cage. If I had my | |
| | mouth, I would bite; if I had my liberty, I would do | |
| | my liking: in the meantime let me be that I am and | |
| | seek not to alter me. | 35 |
| CONRADE | Can you make no use of your discontent? | |
| DON JOHN | I make all use of it, for I use it only. | |
| | Who comes here? | |
| | Enter BORACHIO | |
| | What news, Borachio? | |
| BORACHIO | I came yonder from a great supper: the prince your | 40 |
| | brother is royally entertained by Leonato: and I | |
| | can give you intelligence of an intended marriage. | |
| DON JOHN | Will it serve for any model to build mischief on? | |
| | What is he for a fool that betroths himself to | |
| | unquietness? | 45 |
| 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 | |
| | he? | 50 |
| 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 | |
| | musty room, comes me the prince and Claudio, hand | |
| | in hand in sad conference: I whipt me behind the | 55 |
| | arras; and there heard it agreed upon that the | |
| | prince should woo Hero for himself, and having | |
| | obtained her, give her to Count Claudio. | |
| DON JOHN | Come, come, let us thither: this may prove food to | |
| | my displeasure. That young start-up hath all the | 60 |
| | glory of my overthrow: if I can cross him any way, I | |
| | 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 | |
| | greater that I am subdued. Would the cook were of | 65 |
| | my mind! Shall we go prove what's to be done? | |
| BORACHIO | We'll wait upon your lordship. | |
| | Exeunt | |
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