| William Shakespeare (1564–1616). The Oxford Shakespeare. 1914. | | | |
| Much Ado about Nothing | | | | Act V. Scene III. |
| | The Inside of a Church. | |
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Enter DON PEDRO, CLAUDIO, and Attendants, with music and tapers. | |
| Claud. Is this the monument of Leonato? | |
| A Lord. It is, my lord. | |
Claud. [Reads from a scroll.] | Done to death by slanderous tongues |
| Was the Hero that here lies: |
| Death, in guerdon of her wrongs, |
| Gives her fame which never dies. |
| So the life that died with shame |
| Lives in death with glorious fame. |
| 5 |
| Hang thou there upon the tomb, | |
| Praising her when I am dumb. | |
| Now, music, sound, and sing your solemn hymn. | |
| SONG. |
| Pardon, goddess of the night, |
| Those that slew thy virgin knight; |
| For the which, with songs of woe, |
| Round about her tomb they go. |
| Midnight, assist our moan; |
| Help us to sigh and groan, |
| Heavily, heavily: |
| Graves, yawn and yield your dead, |
| Till death be uttered, |
| Heavily, heavily. |
| |
| Claud. Now, unto thy bones good night! | 10 |
| Yearly will I do this rite. | |
| D. Pedro. Good morrow, masters: put your torches out. | |
| The wolves have prey’d; and look, the gentle day, | |
| Before the wheels of Phœbus, round about | |
| Dapples the drowsy east with spots of grey. | 15 |
| Thanks to you all, and leave us: fare you well. | |
| Claud. Good morrow, masters: each his several way. | |
| D. Pedro. Come, let us hence, and put on other weeds; | |
| And then to Leonato’s we will go. | |
| Claud. And Hymen now with luckier issue speed’s, | 20 |
| Than this for whom we render’d up this woe! [Exeunt. | | | |
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