ng argument ensued,
during which Beatrice, although she knew he had so well approved his
valour in the late war, said that she would eat all he had killed there:
and observing the prince take delight in Benedick's conversation, she
called him "the prince's jester." This sarcasm sunk deeper into the mind
of Benedick than all Beatrice had said before. The hint she gave him
that he was a coward, by saying she would eat all he had killed, he did
not regard, knowing himself to be a brave man; but there is nothing that
great wits so much dread as the imputation of buffoonery, because the
charge comes sometimes a little too near the truth: therefore Benedick
perfectly hated Beatrice when she called him "the prince's jester."

The modest lady Hero was silent before the noble guests; and while
Claudio was attentively observing the improvement which time had made in
her beauty, and was contemplating the exquisite graces of her fine
figure (for she was an admirable young lady), the prince was highly
amused with listening to the humorous dialogue between Benedick and
Beatrice; and he said in a whisper to Leonato, "This is a
pleasant-spirited young lady. She were an excellent wife for Benedick."
Leonato replied to this suggestion, "O, my lord, my lord, if they were
but a week married, they would talk themselves mad." But though Leonato
thought they would make a discordant pair, the prince did not give up
the idea of matching these two keen wits together.

When the prince returned with Claudio from the palace, he found that the
marriage he had devised between Benedick and Beatrice was not the only
one projected in that good company, for Claudio spoke in such terms of
Hero, as made the prince guess at what was passing in his heart; and he
liked it well, and he said to Claudio, "Do you affect Hero?" To this
question Claudio replied, "O my lord, when I was last at Messina, I
looked upon her with a soldier's eye, that liked, but had no leisure for
loving; but now, in this happy time of peace, thoughts of war have left
their places vacant in my mind, and in their room come thronging soft
and delicate thoughts, all prompting me how fair young Hero is,
reminding me that I liked her before I went to the wars." Claudio's
confession of his love for Hero so wrought upon the prince, that he lost
no time in soliciting the consent of Leonato to accept of Claudio for a
son-in-law. Leonato agreed to this proposal, and the prince found no
great diff