PERSONS REPRESENTED.

DON PEDRO, Prince of Arragon.

JOHN, his bastard Brother.

CLAUDIO, a young Lord of Florence, Į Favouries of

BENEDICK, a young Lord of Padua,

LEONATO, Governor of Messina.
ANTONIO, his Brother.

BALTHAZAR, Servant to Dou Pedro

BORACHIO, Followers of John.

CONRADE, S

DOGBERRY,

VERGES,

Two foolish Officers.

FRANCIS, a Friar.

A Sexton.

Don Pedro.

MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING.

ACT I.

SCENE I. Before LEONATO's House.

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

Leon. I LEARN in this letter, that Don Pedro 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. 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, caired Claudio.

Mess. Much deserv'd on his part, and equally remembered by Don Pedro: He hath borne himself beyond the promise of his age, doing in the figure of a lamb the feats of a lion: he hath, indeed, better better'd 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

Leon. Did he break out into tears?

Mess. In great measure.

Leon. A kind overflow of kindness: There are no faces truer than those that are so wash'd. How much better it is to weep at joy, than to joy at weeping!

2

Beat. I pray you, is signior Montanto return'd from the wars, or no?

Mess. I know none of that name, lady: there was none such in the army of any sort.3

Leon. What is he that you ask for, niece?

Hero. My cousin means signior Benedick of Padua.

Mess. O! he is return'd; and as pleasant as ever he was.

Beat. He set up his bills here in Messina, and challeng'd Cupid at the flight; and my uncle's fool, reading the challenge, subscrib'd for Cupid,

In Chapman's version of the 10th Odyssey, a somewhat similar expression occurs: "Our eyes wore the same wet badge of weak humanity." This is an idea which Shakespeare apparently delighted to introduce. It occurs again in Macbeth: "My plenteous joys, wanton in fulness, seek to hide themselves in drops of

sorrow."

2 Montanto is an old term of the fencing-school, humorously or sarcastically applied here in the sense of a bravado. See The Merry Wives of Windsor, Act. ii. sc. 3, note 2.

H.

3 Sort is here used in the sense of rank. So, in A MidsummerNight's Dream, Act iii. sc. 2: «None of nobler sort would so offend a virgin;" and in Measure for Measure, Act iv. sc. 4: « Give notice to such men of sort and suit, as are to meet him."

H.

4 This phrase was in common use for affixing a printed notice in some public place, long before Shakespeare's time, and long after.

5 That is, dared him to a match with the flight. The flight was a long, slender, sharp arrow, such as Cupid shot with, so called because used for flying long distances, and to distinguish it from the bird-bolt, a short, thick, blunt arrow, used in a lower kind of

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 promis'd to eat all of his killing.

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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 holp to eat it: he is a very valiant trencher-man; he hath an excellent stomach.

Mess. And a good soldier too, lady.

Beat. And a good soldier to a lady ;· is he to a lord?

but what

Mess. A lord to a lord, a man to a man; stuff'd' with all honorable virtues.

Beat. It is so, indeed: he is no less than a stuff'd man; but for the stuffing! - Well, we are all mor tal.

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 skir'mish of wit between them.

Beat. Alas! he gets nothing by that. In our last conflict four of his five wits went halting off, and

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archery, and permitted to fools. "A fool's bolt is soon shot," is an old proverb. See Twelfth Night, Act i. sc. 5, note 5. H. • That is, he'll be even with you; or, as we should say, he'll be up with you.

H.

7 Mede, in his discourses on Scripture, speaking of Adam, says, "He whom God had stuffed with so many excellent qualities." Beatrice starts an idea at the words stuffed man, and prudently checks herself in the pursuit of it. A stuffed man appears to have been one of the many cant phrases for a cuckold.

In Shakespeare's time, the five wits was used to denote both the five senses, and the intellectual powers, which were thought to correspond with the senses in number. Here it of course means the latter; as in the Poet's 141st Sonnet:

now is the whole man govern'd with one: so that if he have wit enough to keep himself warm, let him bear it for a difference between himself and his horse; for it is all the wealth that he bath left, to be known a reasonable creature. Who is his companion now? He hath every month a new sworn brother.

Mess. Is't possible?

Beat. Very easily possible: he wears his faith but as the fashion of his hat; it ever changes with the next block.10

Mess. I see, lady, the gentleman is not in your books."

Beat. No; an he were, I would burn my study. But, I pray you, who is his companion? Is there no young squarer now, that will make a voyage

12

with him to the devil?

Mess. He is most in the company of the right noble Claudio.

Beat. O Lord! he will hang upon him like a disease he is sooner caught than the pestilence,

"But my five wits, nor my five senses can

Dissuade one foolish heart from serving thee."

H.

9 This is an heraldic term. So, in Hamlet, Ophelia says,· "You may wear your rue with a difference."

10 The mould on which a hat is formed. It is here used for shape or fashion.

11 The most probable account derives this phrase from the custom of servants and retainers being entered in the books of those to whom they were attached. To be in one's books was to be in favour. That this was the ancient sense of the phrase, and its origin, appears from Florio: "Casso. Cashier'd, crossed, cancelled, or put out of booke and checke roule."

12 That is, quarreller. To square was to take a posture of defiance or of resistance. So, in A Midsummer-Night's Dream, Act i. sc. 1:

"And now they never meet in grove or green,

By fountain clear, or spangled star-light sheen,
But they do square."

H.