William Shakespeare: Much Ado About Nothing

ACT 5. 1. Scene I. Before LEONATO'S House. (continued)

ANTONIO.
Here comes the prince and Claudio hastily.

[Enter DON PEDRO and CLAUDIO.]

DON PEDRO.
Good den, good den.

CLAUDIO.
Good day to both of you.

LEONATO.
Hear you, my lords,--

DON PEDRO.
We have some haste, Leonato.

LEONATO.
Some haste, my lord! well, fare you well, my lord:
Are you so hasty now?--well, all is one.

DON PEDRO.
Nay, do not quarrel with us, good old man.

ANTONIO.
If he could right himself with quarrelling,
Some of us would lie low.

CLAUDIO.
Who wrongs him?

LEONATO.
Marry, thou dost wrong me; thou dissembler, thou.
Nay, never lay thy hand upon thy sword; I fear thee not.

CLAUDIO.
Marry, beshrew my hand,
If it should give your age such cause of fear.
In faith, my hand meant nothing to my sword.

LEONATO.
Tush, tush, man! never fleer and jest at me:
I speak not like a dotard nor a fool,
As, under privilege of age, to brag
What I have done being young, or what would do,
Were I not old. Know, Claudio, to thy head,
Thou hast so wrong'd mine innocent child and me
That I am forc'd to lay my reverence by,
And, with grey hairs and bruise of many days,
Do challenge thee to trial of a man.
I say thou hast belied mine innocent child:
Thy slander hath gone through and through her heart,
And she lied buried with her ancestors;
O! in a tomb where never scandal slept,
Save this of hers, fram'd by thy villany!

CLAUDIO.
My villany?

LEONATO.
Thine, Claudio; thine, I say.

DON PEDRO.
You say not right, old man,