“I shall see you, before I die, look pale with love,” said Don Pedro.
“With anger, with sickness, with hunger, my lord, but never with love,” declared Benedick.
“Well, if ever you fall from this faith you will prove a notable argument.”
“If I do, hang me in a bottle and shoot at me,” laughed Benedick.
“Well, as time shall try. ‘In time the savage bull doth bear the yoke,’” quoted Don Pedro.
“The savage bull may, but if ever the sensible Benedick bear it, pluck off the bull’s horns, and set them in my forehead; and let me be vilely painted, and in such great letters as they write ‘Here is good horse to hire,’ let them signify under my sign, ‘Here you may see Benedick the married man!’”
Benedick’s self-assured declaration that he never intended to fall in love or get married, and Beatrice’s equal scorn on the same subject, put a mischievous idea into Don Pedro’s head, and it occurred to him that the week which had to elapse before the wedding might be most amusingly occupied.
“I will warrant that the time shall not pass dully,” he said to Leonato and Claudio. “I will in the meanwhile undertake one of Hercules’ labours, which is to bring Signor Benedick and the Lady Beatrice into a mountain of affection one for the other. I would fain have it a match, and I do not doubt of bringing it about, if you three will but help me in the way I point out.”
“My lord, I am for you, though it cost me ten nights’ watching,” said Leonato.
“And I, my lord,” said Claudio.