which the ludicrous blends with the tender, and our follies, turning round against themselves, in support of our affections, retain nothing but their humanity.'

Later Versions of the Play. Two plays were founded. upon Much Ado About Nothing-(1) Davenant's Law against Lovers, which Pepys saw on Feb. 18th, 1661, and (2) The Universal Passion, by Rev. James Miller, 1737.

Duration of Action. For a detailed study of the "time" of the play the reader is referred to Mr. Daniel's Time-Analysis," Trans. of New Shaks. Soc. 1877-79, p. 144. He believes that just as the Prince forgets his determination to stay "at least a month" at Messino, so the "just seven-night" to the wedding was also either forgotten or intentionally set aside, and that only four consecutive days are actually included in the action of the drama

I. Act I., and Act II. i. and ii.

2. Act II. iii., and Act III. i.-iii.

3. Act III. iv. and v.; Act IV.; Act V. i. ii., and part of iii.

4 Act V., part of iii., and iv.

Critical Comments.

I.

Argument.

I. Don Pedro, prince of Arragon, comes on a visit to Leonato, governor of Messina, accompanied by Benedick and Claudio, two young noblemen who have been serving with him in the wars. Between Benedick and Beatrice, Leonato's niece, there has been a merry war; so that "they never meet but there's a skirmish of wit between them." On the occasion of this meeting they are true to their reputations for antagonism. Meanwhile, Claudio is attracted once again by Leonato's daughter, Hero. Don Pedro kindly offers to sue to the lady and her father in the young lord's behalf.

II. A masquerade is given by Leonato in honour of visitors. Don Pedro seizes the opportunity to woo Hero, giving her to think that he is Claudio. Don John, an evil-minded natural brother of the prince, seeks to poison Claudio's mind by telling him that Don Pedro is wooing in his own behalf; and Claudio's spirits droop until the lady is actually promised him by her father. Seeing the small piece of villainy come to naught, Don John plots a much larger one. Benedick, on his part,

fares badly at the masquerade. Beatrice flouts him so sadly that he is on the point of forsaking her society henceforth, when their friends, believing them to be well matched, decide upon a ruse to arouse their mutua! affections. Benedick is made to overhear that Beatrice is in love with him.

III. Beatrice is informed in the same fashion that Benedick loves her. Their hearts become more tender

towards each other. Don John's evil plans are maturing against Hero and Claudio. He brings Claudio and Don Pedro beneath her window on the night before her wedding-day, and makes them believe that they are witnessing a meeting between her and some secret lover. The artifice is caused by Borachio, a follower of Don John, who addresses a waiting-maid as Hero; but the night is too dark to reveal the deception, and it would probably never have been discovered had not some blundering watchmen, by a happy chance, overheard Borachio telling of the adventure. They seize him and try to inform Leonato; but the latter, busied with the arrangements for the marriage, does not stop to listen to their rambling narrative.

IV. Claudio believes Hero faithless, and repudiates her at the very moment of the nuptials. Hero swoons, and by the advice of a friar it is given out that she is dead. Beatrice will not believe her cousin guilty, and demands of Benedick-who has avowed his love-a proof of his devotion in the shape of the life of Claudio, his friend.

V. Leonato is in the depths of despair and humiliation over the evil report concerning his daughter. He upbraids Claudio and wishes to fight him. Benedick challenges Claudio. The testimony of the watchmen finally comes to light, revealing the plot of Don John and the innocence of Hero. Claudio sues for forgiveness, which the generous Leonato grants, on condition that Claudio wed a niece who is said to be much like Hero, but whose face he is not permitted to see until after the marriage. ceremony has been performed. Claudio, who had promised any penance, willingly consents to this. His happiness, therefore, is made perfect when the masked lady proves to be Hero, whom he has been mourning as dead. While Beatrice and Benedick, although they find out the trick that has brought them together, are not sorry for it, but stop their bickerings with a kiss.

MCSPADDEN: Shakespearian Synopses.

II.

Beatrice.

Shakspeare has exhibited in Beatrice a spirited and faithful portrait of the fine lady of his own time. The deportment, language, manners and allusions are those of a particular class in a particular age; but the individual and dramatic character which forms the groundwork is strongly discriminated, and being taken from general nature, belongs to every age. In Beatrice, high intellect and high animal spirits meet, and excite each other like fire and air. In her wit (which is brilliant without being imaginative) there is a touch of insolence, not infrequent in women when the wit predominates over reflection and imagination. In her temper, too, there is a slight infusion of the termagant; and her satirical humour plays with such an unrespective levity over all subjects alike, that it required a profound knowledge of women to bring such a character within the pale of our sympathy. But Beatrice, though wilful, is not wayward; she is volatile, not unfeeling. She has not only an exuberance of wit and gayety, but of heart, and soul, and energy of spirit; and is no more like the fine ladies of modern comedy-whose wit consists in a temporary illusion, or a play upon words, and whose petulance is displayed in a toss of the head, a flirt of the fan, or a flourish of the pocket handkerchief;-than one of our modern dandies is like Sir Philip Sidney:

In Beatrice, Shakspeare has contrived that the poetry of the character shall not only soften, but heighten its comic effect. We are not only inclined to forgive Beatrice all her scornful airs, all her biting jests, all her assumption of superiority; but they amuse and delight us the more, when we find her, with all the headlong simplicity of a child, falling at once into the snare laid for her affections; when we see her, who thought a man of God's making not good enough for her, who disdained

to be o'ermastered by "a piece of valiant dust," stooping like the rest of her sex, veiling her proud spirit, and taming her wild heart to the loving hand of him whom she had scorned, flouted, and misused, "past the endurance of a block." And we are yet more completely won by her generous, enthusiastic attachment to her cousin. When the father of Hero believes the tale of her guilt; when Claudio, her lover, without remorse or a lingering doubt, consigns her to shame; when the Friar remains silent, and the generous Benedick himself knows not what to say, Beatrice, confident in her affections, and guided only by the impulses of her own feminine heart, sees through the inconsistency, the impossibility of the charge, and exclaims, without a moment's hesitation,

O, on my soul, my cousin is belied!

A haughty, excitable, and violent temper is another of the characteristics of Beatrice; but there is more of impulse than of passion in her vehemence. In the marriage scene where she has beheld her gentle-spirited cousinwhom she loves the more for those very qualities which are most unlike her own-slandered, deserted, and devoted to public shame, her indignation, and the eagerness with which she hungers and thirsts after revenge, are, like the rest of her character, open, ardent, impetuous, but not deep or implacable. When she bursts into that outrageous speech

Is he not approved in the height a villain, that hath slandered, scorned, dishonoured my kinswoman? O that I were a man! What! bear her in hand until they come to take hands; and then, with public accusation, uncovered slander, unmitigated rancour― O God, that I were a man! I would eat his heart in the marketplace!

And when she commands her lover, as the first proof of his affection, "to kill Claudio," the very consciousness of the exaggeration,-of the contrast between the real good nature of Beatrice and the fierce tenor of her lan