Ant.
Here comes the Prince and Claudio hastily.

Pedro.
Good den, good den.

Claud.
Good day to both of you.

Leon.
Hear you, my lords?

Pedro.
We have some haste, Leonato.

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

Pedro.
Nay do not quatrel with us, good old man.

Ant.
If he could right himself with quarrelling,
Some of us would lye low.

Claud.
Who wrongs him?

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

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

Leon.
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 my 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 tryal of a man;
I say, thou hast bely'd my innocent child,

Thy slander hath gone through and through her heart,
And she lyes bury'd with her ancestors,
O in a tomb where never scandal slept,
Save this of hers, fram'd by thy villany!

Claud.
My villany?

Leon.
Thine Claudio, thine I say.

Pedro.
You say not right, old man.

Leon.
My lord, my lord,
I'll prove it on his body if he dare;
Despight his nice fence and his active practice,
His May of youth and bloom of lustyhood.

Claud.
Away, I will not have to do with you.

Leon.
Canst thou so † ^notedaffe me? thou hast kill'd my child;
If thou kill'st me, boy, thou shalt kill a man.

Ant.
He shall kill two of us, and men indeed;
But that's no matter, let him kill one first;
Win me and wear me, let him answer me;
Come, follow me, boy, come, boy, follow me,
Sir boy, I'll whip you from your ‡ ^notefoining fence;
Nay, as I am a gentleman, I will.

Leon.
Brother.

Ant.
Content your self; God knows I lov'd my neice.
And she is dead, slander'd to death by villains,
That dare as well answer a man indeed,
As I dare take a serpent by the tongue.
Boys, apes, braggarts, jacks, milksops!

Leon.
Brother Anthony.

Ant.
Hold you content; what, man? I know them, yea
And what they weigh, even to the utmost scruple:
Scambling, out-facing, fashion-mongring boys,

That lye, and cog, and flout, deprave and slander,
Go antickly, and show an outward hideousness,
And speak of half a dozen dangerous words,
How they might hurt their enemies if they durst;
And this is all.

Leon.
But brother Anthony.

Ant.
Come, 'tis no matter,
Do not you meddle, let me deal in this.

Pedro.
Gentlemen both, we will not wake your patience.
My heart is sorry for your daughter's death;
But on my honour she was charg'd with nothing
But what was true, and very full of proof.

Leon.
My lord, my lord—

Pedro.
I will not hear you.

Leon.
No! come brother away, I will be heard.

Ant.
And shall, or some of us will smart for it. [Exe. ambo.

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