READ STUDY GUIDE: Act I, scenes ii–iii |
|
Act I, Scene iii:
Another room in Leonato's house.
Another room in Leonato's house.
| [Enter Don John and Conrade.] |
| Con. : |
| What the good year, my lord! why are you thus out of measure |
| sad? |
| D. John. |
| There is no measure in the occasion that breeds, therefore |
| the sadness is without limit. |
| Con. : |
| You should hear reason. |
| D. John. |
| And when I have heard it, what blessing bringeth it? |
| Con. : |
| If not a present remedy, yet a patient sufferance. |
| D. John. |
| I wonder that thou, being (as thou say'st thou art), 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 tend on no man's business; laugh when I am merry, and claw no |
| man in his humour. |
| Con. : |
| 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 ta'en you newly into his grace; where |
| it is impossible you should take root, but by the fair |
| weather that you make yourself: it is needful that you frame the |
| season for your own harvest. |
| D. John. |
| had rather be a canker in a hedge than a rose in his grace; |
| and it better fits my blood to be disdain'd 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 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. |
| Con. : |
| Can you make no use of your discontent? |
| D. John. |
| I make all use of it, for I use it only. Who comes here? |
| What news, Borachio? |
| [Enter Borachio.] |
| Bora. : |
| I came yonder from a great supper; the prince, your brother, is |
| royally entertained by Leonato; and I can give you intelligence |
| of an intended marriage. |
| D. John. |
| Will it serve for any model to build mischief on? |
| What is he for a fool that betroths himself to unquietness? |
| Bora. : |
| Marry, it is your brother's right hand. |
| D. John. |
| Who? the most exquisite Claudio? |
| Bora. : |
| Even he. |
| D. John. |
| A proper squire! And who? and who? which way looks he? |
| Bora. : |
| Marry, on Hero, the daughter and heir of Leonato. |
| D. John. |
| A very forward March-chick! How came you to this? |
| Bora. : |
| 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 arras; and there heard it |
| agreed upon, that the prince should woo Hero for himself, |
| and having obtained her give her to Count Claudio. |
| D. John. |
| Come, come, let us thither; this may prove food to my |
| displeasure: that young start-up hath all the glory of my |
| overthrow; if I can cross him any way, I bless myself every way: |
| You are both sure, and will assist me? |
| Con. : |
| To the death, my lord. |
| D. John. |
| Let us to the great supper: their cheer is the greater that |
| I am subdued: 'Would the cook were of my mind! Shall we go prove |
| what's to be done? |
| Bora. : |
| We'll wait upon your lordship. |
| [Exeunt.] |
|
|
||||
|
