Read the following extract from Much Ado About Nothing. Then answer the question that follows.
Claudio
Stand thee by, Friar. Father, by your leave,
Will you with free and unconstrained soul
Give me this maid, your daughter?
Leonato
As freely, son, as God did give her me.
Claudio
And what have I to give you back whose worth
May counterpoise this rich and precious gift?
Don Pedro
Nothing, unless you render her again.
Claudio
Sweet Prince, you learn me noble thankfulness.
There, Leonato, take her back again.
Give not this rotten orange to your friend.
She's but the sign and semblance of her honour.
Behold how like a maid she blushes here!
O, what authority and show of truth
Can cunning sin cover itself withal!
Comes not that blood as modest evidence
To witness simple virtue? Would you not swear,
All you that see her, that she were a maid,
By these exterior shows? But she is none.
She knows the heat of a luxurious bed.
Her blush is guiltiness, not modesty.
Leonato
What do you mean, my lord?
Claudio
Not to be married,
Not to knit my soul to an approved wanton.
Leonato
Dear my lord, if you in your own proof
Have vanquished the resistance of her youth
And made defeat of her virginity—
Claudio
I know what you would say. If I have known her,
You will say she did embrace me as a husband,
And so extenuate the forehand sin.
No, Leonato,
I never tempted her with word too large,
But as a brother to his sister showed
Bashful sincerity and comely love.
Hero
And seemed I ever otherwise to you?
Claudio
Out on thee, seeming! I will write against it.
You seem to me as Dian in her orb,
As chaste as is the bud ere it be blown.
But you are more intemperate in your blood
Than Venus or those pampered animals
That rage in savage sensuality.
Hero
Is my lord well that he doth speak so wide?
Leonato
Sweet Prince, why speak not you?
Don Pedro
What should I speak?
I stand dishonoured, that have gone about
To link my dear friend to a common stale.
Leonato
Are these things spoken, or do I but dream?
Don John
Sir, they are spoken, and these things are true.
Benedick
This looks not like a nuptial.
Hero
'True'! O God!
Claudio
Leonato, stand I here?
Is this the Prince? Is this the Prince's brother?
Is this face Hero's? Are our eyes our own?
Look at how the characters speak and behave here. How do you think an audience might respond to this part of the play? Refer closely to details from the extract to support your answer.
[15 marks]
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