Much Ado About Nothing (Folger Shakespeare Library)

by William Shakespeare

I pray thee, cease thy counsel, 4 Which falls into mine ears as profitless 5 As water in a sieve. Give not me counsel, 6 Nor let no comforter delight mine ear 7 But such a one whose wrongs do suit with mine. 8 Bring me a father that so loved his child, 9 Whose joy of her is overwhelmed like mine, 10 And bid him speak of patience. 11 Measure his woe the length and breadth of mine, 12 And let it answer every strain for strain, 13 As thus for thus, and such a grief for such, 14 In every lineament, branch, shape, and form. 15 If such a one will smile and stroke his beard, 16 <Bid> sorrow wag, cry “hem” when he should 17 groan, 18 Patch grief with proverbs, make misfortune drunk 19 With candle-wasters, bring him yet to me, 20 And I of him will gather patience. 21 But there is no such man. For, brother, men 22 Can counsel and speak comfort to that grief 23 Which they themselves not feel, but tasting it, 24 Their counsel turns to passion, which before 25 Would give preceptial med’cine to rage, 26 Fetter strong madness in a silken thread, 27 Charm ache with air and agony with words. 28 No, no, ’tis all men’s office to speak patience 29 To those that wring under the load of sorrow, 30 But no man’s virtue nor sufficiency 31 To be so moral when he shall endure 32 The like himself. Therefore give me no counsel. 33 My griefs cry louder than advertisement.