65 In state as wholesome as in state 't is fit, 70 Till candles and starlight and moonshine be out. Here they pinch FALSTAFF and sing about him. DOCTOR CAIUS comes one way, and steals away a boy in green; SLENDER another way, and takes a boy in white; and FENTON comes, and steals ANNE PAGE. A noise of hunting is made within. All the Fairies run away. FALSTAFF pulls off his buck's head, and rises up. Enter PAGE, FORD, MISTRESS PAGE, MISTRESS FORD, and SHALLOW. Page. Nay, do not fly; I think we have watch'd you now. Will none but Herne the hunter serve your turn? See you these, husband? Do not these fair oaks Become the forest better than the town? Ford. Now, sir, who's a cuckold now? Ma ter Brook, Falstaff's a knave, a cuckold knave; here are his horns, Master Brook; an Master Brook, he hath enjoyed nothing of Ford's but his buck-basket, his cudgel, an twenty pounds of money, which must be pa to Master Brook. His horses are arrested f it, Master Brook. Mrs. Ford. Sir John, we have had ill luck! we could never meet. I will never take you f my love again; but I will always count you n deer. Fal. I do begin to perceive that I am ma an ass. Ford. Ay, and an ox too; both the proo are extant. Fal. And these are not fairies? I was thr or four times in the thought they were not f ries; and yet the guiltiness of my mind, t sudden surprise of my powers, drove the grossness of the foppery into a receiv'd beli in despite of the teeth of all rhyme and reas that they were fairies. See now how wit m be made a Jack-a-Lent, when 't is ill upon ployment! Evans. Sir John Falstaff, serve Got. a leave your desires, and fairies will not pir you. Ford. Well said, fairy Hugh. e Evans. And leave your jealousies too. pray you. Ford. I will never mistrust my wife aga till thou art able to woo her in good English. Fal. Have I laid my brain in the sun 3 dri'd it, that it wants matter to prevent gross o'erreaching as this? Am I ridden w a Welsh goat too? Shall I have a coxcomb of frieze? T is time I were chok'd with piece of toasted cheese. Evans. Seese is not good to give putter: 5 belly is all putter. Fal. Seese" and "putter"! Have I li to stand at the taunt of one that makes i ters of English? This is enough to be decay of lust and late-walking through realm. Mrs. Page. Why, Sir John, do you thi though we would have thrust virtue out our hearts by the head and shoulders, and have given ourselves without scruple to that ever the devil could have made you delight? Ford. What, a hodge-pudding? A baş flax? Mrs. Page. A puff'd man? Page. Old, cold, wither'd, and of int able entrails? Ford. And one that is as slanderous as Sal Page. And as poor as Job? Ford. And as wicked as his wife? Evans. And given to fornications, and to taverns, and sack, and wine, and metheglins, and to drinkings, and swearings and starings, pribbles and prabbles? 160 Fal. Well, I am your theme; you have the start of me. I am dejected; I am not able to answer the Welsh flannel. Ignorance itself is a plummet o'er me. Use me as you will. Ford. Marry, sir, we'll bring you to Windsor, to one Master Brook, that you have cozen'd of money, to whom you should have been a pan- [176 der. Over and above that you have suffer'd, I think to repay that money will be a biting afbetion. Page. Yet be cheerful, knight. Thou shalt eat a posset to-night at my house; where I will desire thee to laugh at my wife, that [180 now laughs at thee. Tell her Master Slender ath married her daughter. Mrs. Page. Aside.] Doctors doubt that. If Anne Page be my daughter, she is, by this, Doctor Caius' wife. Enter SLENDER. Sen. Whoa, ho! ho, father Page! 186 Page. Son, how now! how now, son! have you dispatch'd? 189 Se Dispatch'd! I'll make the best in Glocestershire know on 't. Would I were hug'd, la, else! Po. Of what, son? S. I came yonder at Eton to marry Mistress Anne Page, and she 's a great lubberly boy If it had not been i' the church, I [195 Weald have swing'd him, or he should have wind me. If I did not think it had been Ane Page, would I might never stir! - and is a postmaster's boy. P. Upon my life, then, you took the Page. Why, this is your own folly. Did not you how you should know my daughter yber garments? S. I went to her in white, and cried ." and she cri'd “budget," as Anne . I had appointed; and yet it was not [210 Ase, but a postmaster's boy. Mr. Page. Good George, be not angry. I A of your purpose; turn'd my daughto green; and, indeed, she is now with Letor at the deanery, and there mar દ 216 Fent. You do amaze her. Hear the truth of it. You would have married her most shamefully, Where there was no proportion held in love. 255 The truth is, she and I, long since contracted, Are now so sure that nothing can dissolve us. The offence is holy that she hath committed; And this deceit loses the name of craft, Of disobedience, or unduteous title, Since therein she doth evitate and shun A thousand irreligious cursed hours, Which forced marriage would have brought upon her. 240 Ford. Stand not amaz'd; here is no remedy. In love the heavens themselves do guide the state; 245 Money buys lands, and wives are sold by fate. Fal. I am glad, though you have ta'en a special stand to strike at me, that your arrow hath glanc'd. Page. Well, what remedy? Fenton, heaven give thee joy! 250 What cannot be eschew'd must be embrac’d. Fal. When night-dogs run, all sorts of deer are chas'd. Mrs. Page. Well, I will muse no further. Heaven give you many, many merry days! 255 Let it be so. Sir John, To Master Brook you yet shall hold your word, For he to-night shall lie with Mistress Ford. [Exeunt. Much Ado About Nothing was entered in the Stationers' Register on August 4 and again on August 24, 1600, and the quarto edition of the play appeared in the same year. Unless this comedy be regarded as the Love's Labour's Won of Palladis Tamia, it is not mentioned in Meres's list, and so probably did not exist in 1598. The title-page of the Quarto states that it had been already sundry times publicly acted," so that 1599, the date most generally assigned, is not likely to be more than a year wrong either way. The text of the First Folio was taken from a copy of the Quarto, which, judging from some changes in the stage directions, seems to have been used as a prompter's copy. The present text is based on the Quarto, with some few readings from the Folio and later editions. The story of Hero and Claudio is derived from the twentieth Novel of Bandello, though it is by no means clear that Shakespeare had direct access to this, especially since there is no trace of an English translation. In Bandello the scene is laid in Messina at the close of a successful war; Don Pedro of Arragon appears as King Piero d' Aragona, and Leonato as Lionato de' Lionati: and the thread of the story is the same as in Shakespeare with these main exceptions: the villain is a disappointed lover of Hero's; there is no Margaret, the deceiving of the bridegroom. Timbreo, being accomplished merely by his being led to see a man enter a window in the heroine's home; the scene in the church, where Claudio casts off Hero, is lacking, the Italian lover sending a friend to the father to announce the breaking off of the match; Timbreo repents of his own accord of his hasty inference; and the dénouement is brought about by the remorse of the villain. Thus in Shakespeare's main plot the character and motive of Don John are quite differ ent, the deceiving of Claudio is made more plausible, and the humors of Dogberry and Verges are introduced to undo the tangle. The French version of Bandello by Belleforest supplies nothing that is found in the English but lacking in the Italian, and there is no evidence of Shakespeare's having used the translation any more than the original. But a probable soure for the scene at Hero's window has been found in the story of Ariodante and Ginevra in the fifti book of Ariosto's Orlando Furioso, translated into English in 1591 by Sir John Harington, wh tells us that the incident had been stated to be historical. Further, Spenser narrated it in Th Faerie Queene (book II, canto iv, stanza 17), omitting, however, the window as the scene of th deception; two other English renderings of the episode are recorded; and, finally, a play on th subject was acted before Queen Elizabeth in 158%. There is, therefore, no difficulty in suppos ing Shakespeare to have borrowed this detail. Bandello's story forms the basis of several German and Dutch plays also, only one of which Jacob Ayrer's Die Schoene Phaenicia, need be mentioned here. This version has come throug Belleforest and probably other intermediaries, and varies from both Bandello and Shakespear in that the deception of the hero is accomplished by a man dressed to personate the heroine. has been attempted, but without complete success, to show that both Ayrer's play and Much Ac come from a lost English play. The presence of a humorous underplot in both, upon whic stress has been laid, is deprived of significance by the marked dissimilarity of these plots a their characters. The plot in which Beatrice and Benedick are the chief actors has not so far been found els where. The similarity of their mutual relation to that of Rosaline and Biron in Love's Labour Lost shows that Shakespeare had long had their particular kind of comedy in mind, and he m have invented the underplot to give them scope and to lighten the somewhat sombre story Hero. On the other hand, it is quite possible that their prototypes may have already appear in some play now lost, which Shakespeare recast in the present comedy. Traces of such a pl have been evident to some scholars in the presence of Hero's mother, Innogen, in two sta directions, and in hints of a previous love affair between Beatrice and Benedick. Moreover play called" Benedicke and Betteris " is recorded as having been acted at the Princess Elizabet wedding in 1613, though Much Ado also occurs in the list, and no other play was given tw on that occasion. But these indications afford at most no more than a presumption in favor the theory of an older play. MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING Dos PEDRO, prince of Arragon. BALTHASAR, esquire to Don Pedro. followers of Don John. BRACHIO, FEAR FRANCIS. ACT I [DRAMATIS PERSONÆ DOGBERRY, a constable. VERGES, a headborough. A Sexton. A Boy. HERO, daughter to Leonato. Messengers, Watch, Attendants, etc. gentlewomen attending on Hero. Beat. He set up his bills here in Messina and challeng'd Cupid at the flight; and my un- [40 cle's fool, reading the challenge, subscrib'd for Cupid, and challeng'd him at the bird-bolt. I pray you, how many hath he kill'd and eaten in these wars? But how many hath he kill'd? for indeed I promised to eat all of his killing. 45 Leon. Faith, niece, you tax Signior Benedick too much; but he'll be meet with you, I doubt it not. Mess. He hath done good service, lady, in these wars. Beat. You had musty victual, and he hath [50 holp to eat it. He is a very valiant trencherman; he hath an excellent stomach. Mess. And a good soldier too, lady. Beat. And a good soldier to a lady. But what is he to a lord? 55 Mess. A lord to a lord, a man to a man; stuff'd with all honourable virtues. Beat. It is so, indeed; he is no less than a stuff'd man. But for the stuffing, well, we are all mortal. 60 Leon. You must not, sir, mistake my niece. There is a kind of merry war betwixt Signior Benedick and her. They never meet but there's a skirmish of wit between them. 64 Beat. O Lord, he will hang upon him like a disease. He is sooner caught than the pestilence, and the taker runs presently mad. God help the noble Claudio! If he have caught the Benedick, it will cost him a thousand pounds ere 'a be cur'd. Mess. I will hold friends with you, lady. Leon. You will never run mad, niece. 95 Enter DON PEDRO, CLAUDIO, BENEDICK, BALTHASAR, and JOHN the Bastard. D. Pedro. Good Signior Leonato, are you come to meet your trouble? The fashion of the world is to avoid cost, and you encounter it. Leon. Never came trouble to my house in the likeness of your Grace, for trouble being gone, comfort should remain ; but when you [100 depart from me, sorrow abides and happiness takes his leave. D. Pedro. You embrace your charge too willingly. I think this is your daughter. Leon. Her mother hath many times told me Bene. I would my horse had the speed of your tongue, and so good a continuer. But keep your way, i' God's name; I have done. Beat. You always end with a jade's trick; I know you of old. 140 D. Pedro. That is the sum of all, Leonate, Signior Claudio and Signior Benedick, my dear friend Leonato hath invited you all. I tell him we shall stay here at the least a month; and he heartily prays some occasion may detain us longer. I dare swear he is no hypocrite, but prays from his heart. Leon. If you swear, my lord, you shall not be forsworn. [To Don John.] Let me bid you welcome, my lord. Being reconciled to the Prince your brother, I owe you all duty. D. John. I thank you. I am not of many words, but I thank you. Leon. Please it your Grace lead on? D. Pedro. Your hand, Leonato; we will g together. [Exeunt all except Benedick and Claudio. Claud. Benedick, didst thou note the daugh ter of Signior Leonato? Bene. I noted her not; but I look'd on her. Claud. Is she not a modest young lady? Bene. Do you question me, as an honest ma should do, for my simple true judgement; o would you have me speak after my custom, a being a professed tyrant to their sex? Claud. No; I pray thee speak in sobe judgement. Bene. Why, i' faith, methinks she's too lo for a high praise, too brown for a fair prais and too little for a great praise; only this commendation I can afford her, that were other than she is, she were unhandsome; an being no other but as she is, I do not li her. Claud. Thou thinkest I am in sport. I pr thee tell me truly how thou lik'st her. Bene. Would you buy her, that you inqui after her? Claud. Can the world buy such a jewel?, Bene. Yea, and a case to put it into. E speak you this with a sad brow, or do y play the flouting Jack, to tell us Cupid is a good hare-finder and Vulcan a rare carpente Come, in what key shall a man take you, to in the song? Claud. In mine eye she is the sweetest la that ever I look'd on. Bene. I can see yet without spectacles an see no such matter. There's her cousin, an were not possess'd with a fury, exceeds her much in beauty as the first of May doth the of December. But I hope you have no int to turn husband, have you?" Claud. I would scarce trust myself, tho I had sworn the contrary, if Hero would be wife. Bene. Is 't come to this? In faith, hath the world one man but he will wear his with suspicion? Shall I never see a bachelor |