Introduction.

'MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING' was first printed in 1600. There was no other separate edition. The variations between the text of the quarto and that of the folio are very few. The chronology of this comedy is sufficiently fixed by the circumstance of its publication in 1600, coupled with the fact that it is not mentioned by Meres in 1598.

"The story is taken from Ariosto," says Pope. To Ariosto then we turn; and we are repaid for our labour by the pleasure of reading that long but by no means tedious story of Genevra, which occupies the whole of the fifth book, and part of the sixth, of the Orlando Furioso.' "The tale is a pretty comical matter," as Harrington quaintly pronounces it. The famous town of St. Andrew's forms its scene; and here was enacted something like that piece of villainy by which the Claudio of Shakspere was deceived, and his Hero "done to death by slanderous tongues." But here the resemAriosto found the incident of a lady betrayed to suspicion and danger, by the personation of her own waiting-woman, amongst the popular traditions of the south of Europe-this story has been traced to Spain and he interwove it with the adventures of his Rinaldo as an integral part of his chivalrous romance. Spenser has told a similar story in The Fairy

blance ceases.

VOL. II.

R

Queen' (Book II., Canto IV.). The European story, which Ariosto and Spenser have thus adopted, has formed also the groundwork of one of Bandello's Italian novels. It was for Shakspere to surround the main incident with those accessories which he could nowhere borrow, and to make of it such a comedy as no other man has made—a comedy not of manners or of senti ment, but of life viewed under its profoundest aspects, whether of the grave or the ludicrous. The title of this comedy, rightly considered, is the best expositor of the idea of this comedy. It is "a representation of the contrast and contradiction between life in its real essence and the aspect which it presents to those who are engaged in its struggle."

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The Much Ado about Nothing was acted under the name of Benedick and Beatrice,' even during the life of its author. These two characters absorb very much of the acting interest of the play; but they can not be separated from the play without being liable to

misconstruction.

The character of Beatrice cannot

be understood, except in connection with the injuries done to Hero; and except we view it, as well as the characters of all the other agents in the scene, with reference to the one leading idea, that there is a real aspect of things which is to be seen by the audience and not seen by the agents. The character of Don John, for example, and the characters of his loose confede rates, are understood by the spectators; and their

villainy is purposely transparent.

the plot could not move.

Without Don Jolin

He is not a rival in Clau

Idio's love, as the "wicked duke" of Ariosto: he is

simply a moody, ill-conditioned, spiteful rascal;-such a one as ordinarily takes to backbiting and hinting away character. Shakspere gets rid of him as soon as he can he fires the train and disappears. He would be out of harmony with the happiness which he has suspended, but not destroyed; and so he passes from the stage, with

"Think not on him till to-morrow."

But his instrumentality has been of the utmost importance. It has given us that beautiful altar-scene, that would be almost too tragical if we did not know that the "Much Ado" was "about Nothing." But that maiden's sorrows, and that father's passion, are real aspects of life, however unreal be the cause of them. The instrumentality, too, of the hateful Don John has given us Dogberry and Verges. Coleridge has said,

somewhat hastily we think," Any other less ingeniously absurd watchmen and night-constables would have answered the mere necessities of the action." Surely not. Make Dogberry in the slightest degree less self-satisfied, loquacious, full of the official stuff of which functionaries are still cut out, and the action breaks down before the rejection of Hero by her lover. For it is not the ingenious absurdity that prevents the detection of the plot against Hero; it is the absurdity which prevents the prompt disclosure of it after the detection. Truly did Don Pedro say, "This learned constable is too cunning to be understood." The wise fellow, and the rich fellow, and the fellow that hath had losses, and one that hath two gowns, and everything handsome about him, nevertheless holds his prisoners

fast;

and when he comes to the Prince, with "Marry, sir, they have committed false report; moreover, they have spoken untruths; secondarily, they are slanders; sixth and lastly, they have belied a lady; thirdly, they have verified unjust things; and, to conclude, they are lying knaves," though his method be not logical, his matter is all-sufficient. The passionate lover, the calm and sagacious Prince, the doting father, were the dupes of a treachery, not well compact, and carried through by dangerous instruments. They make no effort to detect what would not have been very difficult of detection: they are satisfied to quarrel and to lament. Accident discovers what intelligence could not pene. trate; and the treacherous slander is manifest in all its blackness to the wise Dogberry :

:

"Flat burglary as ever was committed." Here is the crowning irony of the philosophical poet. The players of the game of life see nothing, or see minute parts only; but the dullest by-stander glimpses of something more.

has