lap, who then contrived to escape unobserved, and got home safe to her brothers' house.

After a few days Mr. Fox came to dine with them as usual (whether by invitation or of his own accord this deponent saith not). After dinner, when the guests began to amuse each other with extraordinary anecdotes, Lady Mary at length said she would relate to them a remarkable dream she had lately had. I dreamt, said she, that as you, Mr. Fox, had often invited me to your house, I would go there one morning. When I came to the house, I knocked, &c., but no one answered. When I opened the door, over the hall was written, „be bold, be bold, but not too bold. But," said she, turning to Mr. Fox, and smiling, „It is not so, nor it was not so,“ then she pursues the rest of the story, concluding at every turn with „It is not so, nor it was not so," till she comes to the room full of dead bodies, when Mr. Fox took up the burden of the tale, and said, "It is not so, nor it was not so, and God forbid it should be so:" which he continues to repeat at every subsequent turn of the dreadful story, till she came to the circumstance of his cutting off the young lady's hand, when, upon his saying us usual, „It is not so, nor it was not so, and God forbid it should be so," Lady Mary retorts, „But it is so, and it was so, and here the hand I have to show," at the same time producing the hand and bracelet from her lap: whereupon the guests drew their swords, and instantly cut Mr. Fox into a thousand pieces.

MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING.

ACT I.

SCENE I.

Before LEONATO's House.

Enter LEONATO, HERO, BEATRICE, and others, with a Messenger. 1

Leon. I learn in this letter, that Don Pedro 2 of Arragon comes this night to Messina.

Mess. He is very near by this: he was not three leagues off when I left him.

Leon. How many gentlemen have you lost in this action?
Mess. But few of any sort, and none of name.

3

Leon. A victory is twice itself, when the achiever brings home full numbers. I find here, that Don Pedro hath bestowed much honour on a young Florentine, called Claudio.

Mess. Much deserved on his part, and equally remembered by Don Pedro. He hath borne himself beyond the promise of his age, 5 doing in the figure of a lamb the feats of a lion: he hath, indeed, better bettered expectation than you must expect of me to tell you how.

Leon. He hath an uncle here in Messina will be very much glad of it. Mess. I have already delivered him letters, and there appears much joy in him; even so much, that joy could not show itself modest enough without a badge of bitterness.

1) Q. und Fol. haben Enter Leonato, governor of Messina, Innogen his wife, Hero his daughter, and Beatrice his niece, with a messenger. Die Frau des Leonato strich zuerst Theobald, hier und in einer folgenden Scene, mit Recht, da sie weder selbst redet, noch angeredet wird, noch überhaupt von ihrer Existenz im Verlaufe des Dramas eine Spur sich findet.

2) Don Peter in Q. und Fol. hier und in einer folgenden Rede Leonato's. Aber der Bote nennt ihn Don Pedro, wie der Fürst von Arragon auch bei seinem Auftreten bezeichnet wird.

3) sort = Rang, hier in der militärischen Hierarchie. Unter den in der Schlacht gefallenen Herren sind nur Wenige, die im Heere eine bestimmte Charge hatten, und kein einziger namhafter.

*) equally

deserved.

= dem grossen Verdienst gemäss oder entsprechend, bezieht sich auf much

5) er hat sich besser gehalten, mehr geleistet, als seine Jugend versprach.

6) Die Freude, damit sie nicht in ein Uebermass verfiele, musste, um ihre Zurückhaltung und Masshaltung zu zeigen, der Thränen, die sonst nur ein Abzeichen bitterer Empfindungen sind, sich bedienen.