Much Ado About Nothing(3)

(enter BORACHIO)

DON JOHN:What news, Borachio?

BORACHIO: I came yonder[ˈjɒndə(r)]那边的 from a great supper. The prince your brother is royally entertained[ˌentəˈteɪnd]娱乐的 by Leonato, and I can give you intelligence of an intended marriage.

DON JOHN:Will it serve for any model to build mischief[ˈmɪstʃɪf]淘气 on? What is he for a fool that betroths[bɪˈtrəʊðz]订婚 himself to unquietness?

BORACHIO Marry, it is your brother's right hand.

DON JOHN Who, the most exquisite[ɪkˈskwɪzɪt]精致 Claudio?

BORACHIO: Even he.

DON JOHN：A proper squire[ˈskwaɪə(r)]乡绅，扈从! And who, and who? Which way looks he?

BORACHIO:Merry, 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[ˈmʌsti]有霉味的 room comes me the prince and Claudio, hand in hand in sad conference[ˈkɒnfərəns]会议. I whipped[wɪpt]鞭打 me behind the arras["ærəs]挂毯/阿拉斯, and there heard it agreed upon that the prince should woo争取 Hero for himself, and having obtained[əbˈteɪnd]获得 her, give her to Count Claudio.

DON JOHN Come, come, let us thither[ˈðɪðə(r)]那里; this may prove food to my displeasure. That young start-up has 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?

BORACHIO: To the death, my lord.

DON JOHN Let us to the great supper; their cheer is the greater that I am subdued[səbˈdjuːd]征服. Would the cook were o'my mind. Shall we go prove what's to be done?

BORACHIO We'll wait upon your lordship.

Exeunt.

[2.1] Enter LEONATO, his brother [ANTONIO],HERO his daughter and BEATRICE his niece.

LEONATO: Was not Count John here at supper?

ANTONIO: I saw him not.

BEATRICE: How tartly["tɑrtli]锋利地 that gentleman looks! I never can see him but I am heart-burned an hour after.

HERO: He is of a very melancholy [ˈmelənkəli]悲哀的disposition[ˌdɪspəˈzɪʃn]性情.

BEATRICE He were an excellent man that were made just in the midway between him and Benedick: the one is too like an image and says nothing, and the other too like my lady's eldest son, evermore tattling[ˈtætlɪŋ]打小报告.

LEONATO Then half Signor Benedick's tongue in Count John's mouth, and half Count John's melancholy in Signor Benedick's face...

BEATRICE With a good leg and a good foot, uncle, and money enough in his purse, such a man would win any woman in the world-if 'a could get her good will.

LEONATO: By my troth[trəʊθ]誓言，大转子 niece, thou wilt never get thee a husband, if thou be so shrewd of thy tongue.

ANTONIO: In faith, she's too curst.

BEATRICE: Too curst is more than curst. I shall lessen God's sending that way; for it is said 'God sends a curst cow short horns'-but to a cow too curst he sends none

LEONATO:So, by being too curst, God will send you no horns.

BEATRICE: Just, if he send me no husband. For the which blessing I am at him upon my knees every morning and evening. Lord, I could not endure[ɪnˈdjʊə(r)]忍受 a husband with a beard on his face! I had rather lie in the woollen.

LEONATO:You may light on a husband that hath no beard.

BEATRICE What should I do with him? Dress him in my apparel and make him my waiting-gentlewoman? He that hath a beard is more than a youth, and he that hath no beard is less than a man; and he that is more than a youth is not for me, and he that is less than a man, I am not for him. Therefore I will even take sixpence in earnest of the bearward and lead his apes into hell.

LEONATO Well then, go you into hell?

BEATRICE No, but to the gate, and there will the devil meet me like an old cuckold[ˈkʌkəʊld]被骗 with horns on his head,and say, 'Get you to heaven, Beatrice, get you to heaven. Here's no place for you maids!'So deliver I up my apes and away to Saint Peter fore the heavens. He shows me where the bachelors sit, and there live we as merry as the day is long.

ANTONIO [to Hero] Well, niece, I trust you wil be ruled by your father.

BEATRICE Yes, faith, it is my cousin's duty to make curtsy, and say, 'Father, as it please you.'But yet for all that, cousin, let him be a handsome fellow, or else make another curtsy, and say, 'Father, as it please me.'

LEONATO: Wel, niece, I hope to see you one day fitted with a husband.

BEATRICE Not till God make men of some other metal than earth. Would it not grieve a woman to be over-mastered with a piece of valiant[ˈvæliənt]勇敢的 dust? To make an account of her life to a clod of wayward[ˈweɪwəd]任性的 marl[mɑːl]泥灰岩? No, uncle, I'll none. Adam's sons are my brethren[ˈbreðrən]兄弟, and truly, I hold it a sin to match in my kindred.

LEONATO Daughter, remember what I told you. If the prince do solicit you in that kind, you know your answer.

BEATRICE The fault wil be in the music, cousin, if you be not wooed in good time. If the prince be too important,tel him there is measure in everything, and so dance out the answer. For hear me, Hero; wooing, wedding and repenting[rɪˈpentɪŋ]忏悔 is as a Scotch jig, a measure and a cinque-pace. The first suit is hot and hasty[ˈheɪsti]匆忙的, like a Scotch jig,and ful as fantastical; the wedding mannerly-modest as a measure, full of state and ancientry; and then comes Repentance, and with his bad legs falls into the cinque-pace faster and faster, til he sink into his grave.

LEONATO:Cousin, you apprehend passing shrewdly. daylight.

BEATRICE:Cousin, you apprehend passing shrewdly.daylight.I have a good eye, uncle; I can see a church by LEONATO [to Antonio] The revellers are entering, brother.Make good room. [Antonio steps aside, and masks.

Benedick and Beatrice come forward.]

BEATRICE Will you not tell me who told you so?

BENEDICK No, you shall pardon me.

BEATRICE Nor will you not tell me who you are?

BENEDICK: Not now.

BEATRICE That I was disdainful[dɪsˈdeɪnfl]轻蔑的, and that I had my good wit out of The Hundred Merry Tales! Well, this was Signor Benedick that said so.

BENEDICK: What's he?

BEATRICE: I am sure you know him well enough.

BENEDICK: Not I, believe me.

BEATRICE:Did he never make you laugh?

BENEDICK: I pray you, what is he?

BEATRICE: Why he is the prince's jester, a very dull fool; only his gift is in devising/dɪˈvaɪzɪŋ/设计impossible slanders. None but libertines delight in him, and the commendation[ˌkɒmenˈdeɪʃn]赞扬 is not in his wit but in his villainy[ˈvɪləni]罪恶, for he both pleases men and angers them, and then they laugh at him and beat him.I am sure he is in the fleet; I would he had boarded me.

BENEDICK: When I know the gentleman, I'll tell him what you say.

BEATRICE: Do, do. He'll but break a comparison or two on me, which, peradventure[ˌp:əd"ventʃə]或者 not marked, or not laughed at, strikes him into melancholy, and then there's a partridge wing saved, for the fool will eat no supper that night. We must follow the leaders.

BENEDICK: In every good thing.

BEATRICE: Nay, if they lead to any il I wil leave them at the next turning. Dance.

Exeunt [all but Don John, Borachio and Claudio].

DON JOHN: Sure my brother is amorous on Hero and hath withdrawn her father to break with him about it. The ladies follow her, and but one visor remains.

BORACHIO [aside to Don John] And that is Claudio; I know him by his bearing.

DON JOHN Are not you Signor Benedick?

CLAUDIO You know me well. I am he.

DON JOHN Signor, you are very near my brother in his love. He is enamoured on Hero. I pray you, him from her; she is no equal for his birth. You may do the part of an honest man in it.

CLAUDIO:How know you he loves her

DON JOHN: heard him swear his affection.

BORACHIO: So did I too, and he swore he would marry he tonight.

DON JOHN: Come, let us to the banquet.