Read this extract, and then answer the question that follows it: Don Pedro See, see; here comes the man we went to seek. Enter Benedick. Claudio: Now, signior, what news? Benedick: Good day, my lord. Don Pedro: Welcome, signior; you are almost come to part almost a fray. Claudio: We had lik'd to have had our two noses snapp'd off with two old men without teeth. 5 Don Pedro: Leonato and his brother. What think'st thou? Had we fought, I doubt we should have been too young for them. Benedick: In a false quarrel there is no true valour. I came to seek you both. 10 Claudio: We have been up and down to seek thee; for we are high-proof melancholy, and would fain have it beaten away. Wilt thou use thy wit? Benedick: It is in my scabbard; shall I draw it? 15 Don Pedro: Dost thou wear thy wit by thy side? Claudio: Never any did so, though very many have beside their wit. I will bid thee draw, as we do the minstrels – draw to pleasure us. Don Pedro: As I am an honest man, he looks pale. Art thou sick or angry? Claudio: What, courage, man! What though care kill'd a cat, thou hast mettle enough in thee to kill care. 20 Benedick: Sir, I shall meet your wit in the career, an you charge it against me. I pray you choose another subject. Claudio: Nay, then, give him another staff; this last was broke cross. Don Pedro: By this light, he changes more and more; I think he be angry indeed. 25 Claudio: If he be, he knows to turn his girdle. Benedick: Shall I speak a word in your ear? Claudio: God bless me from a challenge! 30 Benedick: [Aside to Claudio] You are a villain; I jest not; I will make it good how you dare, with what you dare, and when you dare. Do me right, or I will protest your cowardice. You have kill'd a sweet lady, and her death shall fall heavy on you. Let me hear from you. Claudio: Well, I will meet you, so I may have good cheer. Don Pedro: What, a feast? a feast? Claudio: I' faith, I thank him; he hath bid me to a calf's head and a capon, the which if I do not carve most curiously, say my knife's naught. Shall I not find a woodcock too? Benedick: Sir, your wit ambles well; it goes easily. Don Pedro: I'll tell thee how Beatrice prais'd thy wit the other day. I said thou hadst a fine wit. 'True,' said she 'a fine little one.' 'No,' 35 40 said I 'a great wit.' ‘Right,' says she 'a great gross one.' 'Nay,' said I 'a good wit.' 'Just,' said she ‘it hurts nobody.' 'Nay,” said I 'the gentleman is wise.” ‘Certain,' said she ‘a wise gentleman.' 'Nay,' said I 'he hath the tongues.” ‘That I believe,' said she ‘for he swore a thing to me on Monday night, which he forswore on Tuesday morning. There's a double tongue; there's two tongues.' Thus did she, an hour together, trans-shape thy particular virtues; yet, at last, she concluded, with a sigh, thou wast the proper'st man in Italy. For the which she wept heartily, and said she cared not. 45 50 Claudio: Don Pedro: Yea, that she did; but yet, for all that, an if she did not hate him deadly, she would love him dearly. The old man's daughter told us all. 55 Claudio: All, all; and, moreover, 'God saw him when he was hid in the garden'. Don Pedro: But when shall we set the savage bull's horns on the sensible Benedick's head? Claudio: Yea, and text underneath, 'Here dwells Benedick the married man'? Benedick: Fare you well, boy; you know my mind. I will leave you now to your gossip-like humour; you break jests as braggarts do their blades, which, God be thanked, hurt not. My lord, for your many courtesies I thank you. I must discontinue your company. Your brother the bastard is fled from Messina. You have among you kill'd a sweet and innocent lady. For my Lord Lackbeard there, he and I shall meet; and till then, peace be with him. [Exit Benedick. 60 65 70

1. How does Shakespeare make you admire Benedick at this moment in the play?[25]