Act 5, Scene 3

The Inside of a Church.

[Enter DON PEDRO, CLAUDIO, and Attendants, with music and tapers,]
Claudio
2097 Is this the monument of Leonato?
Lord
2098 It is, my lord.
[Reads from a scroll.]
Claudio
2099 Done to death by slanderous tongues
2100 Was the Hero that here lies:
2101 Death, in guerdon of her wrongs,
2102 Gives her fame which never dies.
2103 So the life that died with shame
2104 Lives in death with glorious fame.
Claudio
2105 Hang thou there upon the tomb,
2106 Praising her when I am dumb.
Claudio
2107 Now, music, sound, and sing your solemn hymn.
Song
2108 Pardon, goddess of the night,
2109 Those that slew thy virgin knight;
2110 For the which, with songs of woe,
2111 Round about her tomb they go.
2112 Midnight, assist our moan;
2113 Help us to sigh and groan,
2114 Heavily, heavily:
2115 Graves, yawn and yield your dead,
2116 Till death be uttered,
2117 Heavily, heavily.
Claudio
2118 Now, unto thy bones good night!
2119 Yearly will I do this rite.
Don Pedro
2120 Good morrow, masters: put your torches out.
2121 The wolves have prey'd; and look, the gentle day,
2122 Before the wheels of Phoebus, round about
2123 Dapples the drowsy east with spots of grey.
2124 Thanks to you all, and leave us: fare you well.
Claudio
2125 Good morrow, masters: each his several way.
Don Pedro
2126 Come, let us hence, and put on other weeds; And then to Leonato's
2127 we will go.
Claudio
2128 And Hymen now with luckier issue speed's,
2129 Than this for whom we rend'red up this woe!
[Exeunt.]

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Notes

TLN 2101archaic vocab
“Death, in guerdon of her wrongs”
'Guerdon' means reward or recompense. Claudio's epitaph argues that Death, as payment for the wrong done to Hero by slander, gives her an undying fame — her reputation outlasts her supposed disgrace.
TLN 2108classical allusion
“Pardon, goddess of the night, Those that slew thy virgin knight”
'Goddess of the night' is Diana (Greek Artemis), goddess of the moon and of chastity. Hero is called her 'virgin knight' because she was a chaste, unmarried girl — a member, so to speak, of Diana's company of virgins. The mourners beg Diana's pardon for those whose slander 'slew' her.
classical Diana, virgin goddess of the moon
TLN 2122classical allusion
“Before the wheels of Phoebus, round about Dapples the drowsy east with spots of grey”
Phoebus is the sun-god (Apollo in his role as the sun), imagined driving a chariot across the sky. 'Before the wheels of Phoebus' means just before sunrise — the eastern sky is brightening ahead of the chariot. Don Pedro uses the image to signal that dawn has come and the night-vigil at the tomb is over.
TLN 2128classical allusion
“Hymen now with luckier issue speed's”
Hymen was the classical god of marriage, invoked at weddings; his name stood for the wedding ceremony itself. Claudio prays that Hymen will bring his next marriage a happier outcome ('luckier issue') than the disaster that 'this' one — Hero's supposed death — brought about. The prayer signals that the comedy's resolution is now imminent.