Act 4 scene 1

Hath no man’s dagger here a point for me?

Why sweet Hero does whereforce bring you down

How doth the lady?

Dead I think, help uncle, hero why hero, uncle, signior benedick, friar!

O Fate, take not away thy heavy hand!
 Death is the fairest cover for her shame
 That may be wished for.

How now cousin Hero!

Sir, sir, be patient.
 For my part, I am so attired in wonder
 I know not what to say.

I swear my cousin is belied!

Lady, were you her bedfellow last night?

No truly not, although until last night I have this twelvemonths been her bedfellow

Lady Beatrice, have you wept all this while?

Yae and I will continue to weep a while longer

I will not desire that.

You have no reason I do it freely

Surely I do believe your fair cousin is
 wronged.

And what would a man deserve of me that would right her!

Is there any way to show such friendship?

A very even way, but no such friend

May a man do it?

It is a mans office but not yours

I do love nothing in the world so well as
 you. Is not that strange?

As strange as the thing I know not, it were as possible for me to say I have loved nothing in this world so well as you. And yet believe me not, and yet I lie not, I confess nothing nor do i deny nothing. I feel sorry for my cousin.

  By my sword, Beatrice, thou lovest me!

Do not swear and eat it!

I will swear by it that you love me, and I will
 make him eat it that says I love not you.

Will you not eat thy word?

With no sauce that can be devised to it. I
 protest I love thee.

Why then, god forbid me

What offense, sweet Beatrice?

You have stayed me in a happy hour, I was about to protest you loved me!

And do it with all thy heart.

I love you with so much of my heart that there is nothing left to protest

Come, bid me do anything for thee.

Kill Claudio

Ha! Not for the wide world.

You kill me to deny it Farewell

Tarry, sweet Beatrice.

I am gone yet I am here, there is no love in you, I pray, let me go

Beatrice—

In faith I will go

We’ll be friends first.

You dare easier be friends with me then fight with mine enemy?

Is Claudio thine enemy?

Is he not approved in the height, a villain, who has racoured scorned and hishonored my kinswomen, oh god that I were a man I would bear her in hand until come to take hands, and then with public acusation, uncovered slander, unmidigated rancour. Oh god that I were a man, I would eat his heart in the marketplace

Hear me, Beatrice—

Speak with a man out a window a proper saying

Nay, but Beatrice—

Sweet hero, she is slandered she is wronged she is undone!

Beat—

Princes and Counties surely a princley testimony and a goodly count, Count Confect surely a sweet fellow. Oh that I were a man for his sake or that I had a friend who would be a man for my sake. But MANHOOD is turned into curtsies, valor into COMPLIMENR, and men only turned to tounge and trim ones too. He is now as valient as Herculis who tells a lie and swears by it. I can not be a man with wishing, therefore I will die a woman with grieving.

Tarry, good Beatrice. By this hand, I love
thee.

Use it for my love in some other way then by swearing by it

Think you in your soul the Count Claudio
 hath wronged Hero?

Yae, as sure as I have a soul or a thought.