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Home  »  The Oxford Shakespeare  »  Much Ado about Nothing

William Shakespeare (1564–1616). The Oxford Shakespeare. 1914.

Act V. Scene III.

Much Ado about Nothing

The Inside of a Church.

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.
  • 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!

    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.

    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,

    Than this for whom we render’d up this woe![Exeunt.