Much Ado – Friar Francis

Leonato: Come Friar Francis be brief; only to the plain form of marriage, and you shall recount their particular duties awfterwards. You come hither, my lord, to marry this lady.
Claudio: NoLeonato: To be married to her: friar, you come to marry her. Lady, you come hither to be married to this count.
Hero: I do. If either of you know any inward impediment why you should not be conjoined, charge you, on your souls, to utter it.
Claudio: Know you any, Hero?Hero: None, my lord. Know you any, count?
Leonato: O Fate! take not away thy heavy hand. Death is the fairest cover for her shame that may be wish’d for.Beatrice: How now, cousin Hero! Have comfort, lady.
Leonato: Dost thou look up? Yea, wherefore should she not?
Benedick: Sir, sir, be patient. For my part, I am so attired in wonder, I know not what to say.Beatrice: O, on my soul, my cousin is belied! Hear me a little; For I have only be to start into her face, a thou Lady, what man is he you are accused of?
Hero: They know that do accuse me; I know none: There is some strange misprision in the princes.
Leonato: If they wrong her honour, the proudest of them shall well hear of it. Pause awhile, and let my counsel sway you in this case. Your daughter here the princes left for dead: Let her awhile be secretly kept in, and publish it that she is dead indeed;
Leonato: What shall become of this? What will this do? She dying, as it must so be maintain’d, upon the instant that she was accused, shall be lamented, pitied and excused of every hearer: So will it fare with Claudio: When he shall hear she died upon his words, the idea of her life shall sweetly creep into the study of his imagination…
ME: …into the study of his imagination… …and every lovely organ of her life shall come apparell’d in more precious habit, more moving-delicate and full of life, into the eye and prospect of his soul, than when she lived indeed; then shall he mourn, and wish he had not so accused her.
Leonato: Being that I flow in grief, the smallest twine may lead me. Come, lady, die to live: this wedding-day perhaps is but prolong’d: have patience and endure.
Act 5, Scene 4 Did I not tell you she was innocent?
Leonato: Well, daughter, and you gentle-women all, withdraw into a chamber by yourselves, and when I send for you, come hither mask’d.(Ladies Exit) Here comes the prince and Claudio
Don Pedro: The former Hero! Hero that is dead!Leonato: She died, my lord, but whiles her slander lived. All this amazement can I qualify: When after that the holy rites are ended, I’ll tell you largely of fair Hero’s death: Meantime let wonder seem familiar.
July 6, 2019