rown
of Sicily.
Thus have we seen the patient virtues of the long-suffering Hermione
rewarded. That excellent lady lived many years with her Leontes and her
Perdita, the happiest of mothers and of queens.
[Illustration]
MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING
There lived in the palace at Messina two ladies, whose names were Hero
and Beatrice. Hero was the daughter, and Beatrice the niece, of Leonato,
the governor of Messina.
Beatrice was of a lively temper, and loved to divert her cousin Hero,
who was of a more serious disposition, with her sprightly sallies.
Whatever was going forward was sure to make matter of mirth for the
light-hearted Beatrice.
At the time the history of these ladies commences some young men of high
rank in the army, as they were passing through Messina on their return
from a war that was just ended, in which they had distinguished
themselves by their great bravery, came to visit Leonato. Among these
were Don Pedro, the Prince of Arragon; and his friend Claudio, who was a
lord of Florence; and with them came the wild and witty Benedick, and he
was a lord of Padua.
These strangers had been at Messina before, and the hospitable governor
introduced them to his daughter and his niece as their old friends and
acquaintance.
Benedick, the moment he entered the room, began a lively conversation
with Leonato and the prince. Beatrice, who liked not to be left out of
any discourse, interrupted Benedick with saying, "I wonder that you will
still be talking, Signior Benedick: nobody marks you." Benedick was
just such another rattle-brain as Beatrice, yet he was not pleased at
this free salutation; he thought it did not become a well-bred lady to
be so flippant with her tongue; and he remembered, when he was last at
Messina, that Beatrice used to select him to make her merry jests upon.
And as there is no one who so little likes to be made a jest of as those
who are apt to take the same liberty themselves, so it was with Benedick
and Beatrice; these two sharp wits never met in former times but a
perfect war of raillery was kept up between them, and they always parted
mutually displeased with each other. Therefore when Beatrice stopped him
in the middle of his discourse with telling him nobody marked what he
was saying, Benedick, affecting not to have observed before that she was
present, said, "What, my dear Lady Disdain, are you yet living?" And now
war broke out afresh between them, and a long jangli
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