Leonato

“ When Hero had recovered from the swoon into which she had fallen, the friar said to her: 'Lady, what man is he you are accused of?' Hero replied: 'They know that do accuse me; I know of none': then turning to Leonato, she said: 'O my father, if you can prove that any man has ever conversed with me at hours unmeet, or that I yesternight changed words with any creature, refuse me, hate me, torture me to death.'
'There is,' said the friar, 'some strange misunderstanding in the prince and Claudio'; and then he counselled Leonato, that he should report that Hero was dead ”

“ But the self-satisfaction of the Prince and Claudio were soon to receive a severe shock. The watchmen now approached, bringing with them their capture of the night before, the culprits Borachio and Conrade, and the whole miserable tale of treachery was duly unfolded. Leonato was sent for in haste.
“Are you the slave that with your slander slew my innocent child?” he asked of Borachio.
“Yes, even I alone.”
“No, not so, villain; you belie yourself,” said Leonato. “Here stand a pair of honourable men; a third is fled that had a hand in it. ”

“ Claudio was overwhelmed with remorse; he dared not ask pardon of the deeply-wronged Leonato, but he besought him to chose his own revenge, and to impose on him any penance he choose to invent. Don Pedro also joined him in expressing his deep penitence.
“I cannot bid you bid my daughter live,” replied Leonato, “but I pray you both proclaim to all the people in Messina how innocent she died. Hang an epitaph upon her tomb, and sing it there to-night. To-morrow morning come to my house, and since you cannot be my son-in-law, be my nephew. ”

“ Leonato was not present at this examination, but he was nevertheless now thoroughly convinced Of Hero's innocence. He played the part of bereaved father very well, and when Don Pedro and Claudio called on him in a friendly way, he said to the Italian, “You have slandered my child to death, and I challenge you to combat.”
“I cannot fight an old man,” said Claudio.
“You could kill a girl,” sneered Leonato, and Claudio crimsoned.
Hot words grew from hot words, and both Don Pedro and Claudio were feeling scorched when Leonato left the room and Benedick entered. ”

“ The penance Leonato enjoined him was to marry the next morning a cousin of Hero’s, who, he said, was now his heir, and in person very like Hero. Claudio, regarding the solemn promise he made to Leonato, said he would marry this unknown lady, even though she were an Ethiop. ”

“ It must have been a pleasant sight to see these old enemies converted into new and loving friends, and to behold their first meeting after being cheated into mutual liking by the merry artifice of the good-humored prince. But a sad reverse in the fortunes of Hero must now be thought of. The morrow, which was to have been her wedding-day, brought sorrow on the heart of Hero and her good father, Leonato. ”

“ ACT I. Scene I. An orchard before Leonato's house.
[Enter Leonato (Governor of Messina) , Hero (his Daughter) , and
Beatrice (his Niece) , with a Messenger.]
Leon. I learn in this letter that Don Pedro of Arragon comes this night to Messina.
Mess. He is very near by this. He was not three leagues off when I left him.
Leon.
How many gentlemen have you lost in this action?
Mess.
But few of any sort, and none of name.
Leon. A victory is twice itself when the achiever brings home full numbers. I find here that Don Pedro hath bestowed much honour on a young Florentine called Claudio. ”

“ For, indeed, I promised to eat all of his killing.”
“Faith, niece, you are too hard on Signor Benedick,” said Leonato. “But he will be even with you, I do not doubt.”
“He has done good service, lady, in these wars,” said the messenger; and then he went on to praise warmly the valour and noble qualities of the young lord; but Beatrice would do nothing but laugh and mock at all he said.
“You must not, sir, mistake my niece,” said Leonato at [Pg 56] last. “There is a kind of merry war betwixt Signor Benedick and her; they never meet but there is a skirmish of wit between them.” ”

“ Scene II.—Another Room in Leonato's House. [Enter Don John and Borachio.]
D. John.
It is so; the count Claudio shall marry the daughter of Leonato.
Bora.
Yea, my lord, but I can cross it.
D. John. Any bar, any cross, any impediment will be medicinable to me: I am sick in displeasure to him; and whatsoever comes athwart his affection ranges evenly with mine. How canst thou cross this marriage?
Bora. Not honestly, my lord; but so covertly that no dishonesty shall appear in me. ”

“ While Beatrice was thus powerfully pleading with Benedick, and working his gallant temper by the spirit of her angry words, to engage in the cause of Hero, and fight even with his dear friend Claudio, Leonato was challenging the prince and Claudio to answer with their swords the injury they had done his child, who, he affirmed, had died for grief. But they respected his age and his sorrow, and they said, "Nay, do not quarrel with us, good old man." ”

“ Enter don Pedro, Claudio, Benedicke, Balthasar, and Iohn the bastard.
Pedro. Good Signior Leonato, you are come to meet your trouble: the fashion of the world is to auoid cost, and you encounter it
Leon. Neuer came trouble to my house in the likenes of your Grace: for trouble being gone, comfort should remaine: but when you depart from me, sorrow abides, and happinesse takes his leaue
Pedro. You embrace your charge too willingly: I thinke this is your daughter
Leonato. Her mother hath many times told me so
Bened. Were you in doubt that you askt her? Leonato. ”

“ Exit Beatrice.
Prince. By my troth a pleasant spirited Lady
Leon. There's little of the melancholy element in her my Lord, she is neuer sad, but when she sleepes, and not euer sad then: for I haue heard my daughter say, she hath often dreamt of vnhappinesse, and wakt her selfe with laughing
Pedro. Shee cannot indure to heare tell of a husband
Leonato. O, by no meanes, she mocks all her wooers out of suite
Prince. She were an excellent wife for Benedick
Leonato. O Lord, my Lord, if they were but a weeke
married, they would talke themselues madde
Prince. ”

“ Leonato. You may light vpon a husband that hath no beard
Beatrice. What should I doe with him? dresse him in my apparell, and make him my waiting gentlewoman? he that hath a beard, is more then a youth: and he that hath no beard, is lesse then a man: and hee that is more then a youth, is not for mee: and he that is lesse then a man, I am not for him: therefore I will euen take sixepence in earnest of the Berrord, and leade his Apes into hell
Leon. Well then, goe you into hell
Beat. ”

“ Leonato. Well neece, I hope to see you one day fitted with a husband
Beatrice. Not till God make men of some other mettall then earth, would it not grieue a woman to be ouermastred with a peece of valiant dust: to make account of her life to a clod of waiward marle? no vnckle, ile none: Adams sonnes are my brethren, and truly I hold it a sinne to match in my kinred
Leon. Daughter, remember what I told you, if the
Prince doe solicit you in that kinde, you know your answere
Beatrice. ”

“ Enjoy sweet life, Leoncio, whilst thou may;
Remain within the town, for I would spurn
By act of mine thy blooming youth to slay.
Alone I have to go, alone return,
Beladen with the richest spoil and rare,
Which constant faith and fervent love can earn.
Leoncio.
If so, Morandro, thou art well aware
How my desires, in good or evil fate,
Go hand in hand with thine in equal share,
Then wilt thou feel, no fears however great,
Not Death itself, nor other power malign,
Can keep me from thy fortunes separate. ”

“ Amongst his dozen of nephews there was not one worthy of succeeding to the title.
"They are all ugly, awkward lads, more like peasants than noblemen; all their education has been given them by a pack of ignorant priests; and so it is not to be wondered that the marquis does not care for them much."
"But is Leonilda really happy?"
"She is, though her husband cannot be quite so ardent as she would like at her age."
"He doesn't seem to me to be a very jealous man."
"He is entirely free from jealousy, and if Leonilda would take a lover I am sure he would be his best friend. ”

“ Being of a brave and heroic disposition, Leonora was not afraid to risk her life for the sake of the man she loved; and so, having donned masculine attire, she boldly made her way to the fortress where her husband pined in captivity, and, giving her name as Fidelio, humbly requested the jailer to engage her as his assistant, hoping that in this way she would at last discover how Don Florestan was faring, and perhaps be able to plan some means of escape for him. ”

“ Leonatus always laughed loudly when one of his companions, a Frenchman, seemed sorrowful because he had left behind him in his own country a lady whom he loved. “Fancy a man sighing for the bondage of any woman!” Leonatus had said.
It pained Imogen to think that Leonatus cared so little about her, as Iachimo’s words implied; but when this smooth-tongued Italian gentleman went on to pity her for the way in which her husband seemed to have forgotten her, and counselled her to take revenge, she began to be on her guard. ”

“ Twice Leonora drew back the curtain and looked out. Once she asked, "Where is my father? Is this all true, signor maestro, or am I dreaming still?"
"Your father is at the citadel waiting for the French and Roman lords," replied Leonardo. "All is real, my child, and happy is it that it is so; for both Antonio and I had nearly been too late. The number of men we could introduce last night was too small; and, had you not left the postern key in my hands, the Lord of Vitry and the French forces could hardly have entered ere the axe had fallen." ”

“ Lorenzo! Lorenzo! you have made my misery! Pray God that you have not made your own too. What has become of good Leonardo's auguries? what of his dream, that by the features you could read the spirit? But it matters not. I will steel myself to meet you, should you come--to gaze upon this fair wife you have preferred to Leonora, and who, men say, is so light, and so unworthy of the man I thought you. Perhaps she may suit you better than I should have done; for God knows she cannot be more fickle than you are. Yes, the momentary madness is passing away. ”

“ Leonora, the heroine of Miss Edgeworth’s novel of the same name. The object of the tale is to make the reader feel what is good, and desirous of being so (1806) .
Leonora, wife of Fernando Florestan, a State prisoner in Seville. In order to effect her husband’s release, she assumed the attire of a man, and the name of Fidelio. In this disguise she entered the service of Rocco, the jailer, and Marcellina, the jailer’s daughter, fell in love with her. Pizzaro, the governor of the prison resolving to assassinate Fernando Florestan, sent Rocco and Fidelio to dig his grave in the prison-cell. ”

“ What do you think he ought to have?"
"Whatever he asks," replied Lorenzo; "a couple of hundred ducats."
"Oh! the extravagance of youth!" exclaimed Antonio; "he would poniard his own father for a quarter of that sum. If I understand you right, I am to offer him anything he seeks under two hundred ducats."
"Nay, I placed not that limit absolutely, my good friend," answered the youth; "the truth is, Antonio, this marriage must take place at once. I will not leave my Leonora again, and now she can only go with me as my wife. Whatever he asks he must have. ”

“ In 1569, the death of his father, who had been made governor of Ostiglia by the Duke of Mantua, cost the loving son a fit of illness; but the continuation of his Jerusalem, an Oration spoken at the opening of the Ferrarese academy, the marriage of Leonora's sister Lucrezia with the Prince of Urbino, and the society of Leonora herself, who led the retired life of a person in delicate health, and was fond of the company of men of letters, helped to divert him from melancholy recollections ”

“ Old people have only to pray and sleep. But, indeed, you had better come to rest; we have all to rise betimes."
After a word or two more, Leonora parted from her lover, and soon seeking her bed, lay down and dreamed, but not asleep.
As if the painter had heard her light foot on the stairs, she had not been gone a minute when Leonardo appeared. He took Lorenzo's hand eagerly in his, and said, in a low, earnest tone:
"Let her not go to Rome, I beseech you, young gentleman--let her not go to Rome." ”

“ Enter Leonora. Alon. When nature ends with anguish like to this, Sinners shall take their last leave of the sun, And bid his light adieu. Leon. The mighty conqueror Dismay'd! I thought you gave the foe your sorrows. Alon. Oh, cruel insult! are those tears your sport, Which nothing but a love for you could draw? Afric I quell'd, in hope by that to purchase Your leave to sigh unscorn'd; but I complain not; 'Twas but a world, and you are—Leonora. Leon. That passion which you boast of is your guilt, A treason to your friend. ”

“ It is a new creed I have got, but I think it is a good one."
"Old creeds are best," replied Leonardo, seriously. "We can advance from one to another, as we can mount the steps of a temple to the holy of holies, but each step must be founded upon that which went before, and each must rest upon truth."
"Alas! where shall we find truth?" asked Leonora; and then she added, in a melancholy but sweet tone, "Let us not approach painful subjects, my good friend. We cannot meet without thinking of them. If we speak of them we shall think of them still more. ”