Monologue text
Act 4, Scene 1. On her wedding day, Beatrice — no longer a virgin after paying De Flores with her body for murder — dreads the wedding night with the perceptive Alsemero, then spots his unlocked closet and begins plotting her next deception.
This fellow has undone me endlessly; Never was bride so fearfully distress’d: The more I think upon th' ensuing night, And whom I am to cope with in embraces, One who’s ennobled both in blood and mind, So clear in understanding,—that’s my plague now,— Before whose judgment will my fault appear Like malefactors' crimes before tribunals; There is no hiding on’t, the more I dive Into my own distress: how a wise man Stands for a great calamity! there’s no venturing Into his bed, what course soe’er I light upon, Without my shame, which may grow up to danger; He cannot but in justice strangle me As I lie by him, as a cheater use me; ’Tis a precious craft to play with a false die Before a cunning gamester. Here’s his closet; The key left in’t, and he abroad i' th' park? Sure ’twas forgot; I'll be so bold as look in’t.
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