Prov. His name is Barnardine. Duke. I would thou had'st done so by Claudio. Go, fetch him hither; let me look upon him. Exit Provost. Escal. I am sorry, one so learned and so wise As you, lord Angelo, have still appear'd, Should slip so grossly, both in the heat of blood, And lack of temper'd judgment afterward, Ang. I am sorry, that such sorrow I procure: And so deep sticks it in my penitent heart, That I crave death more willingly than mercy; "Tis my deserving, and I do entreat it. Re-enter Provost, BARNARDINE, CLAUDIO, and JULIET. Duke. Which is that Barnardine? Prov. This, my lord. Duke. There was a friar told me of this man:Sirrah, thou art said to have a stubborn soul, That apprehends no further than this world, And squar'st thy life according. demn'd; Thou'rt con But, for those earthly faults, I quit them all; [Unmufles CLAUDIO. Duke. If he be like your brother, [To ISABELLA.] for his sake Is he pardon'd; And, for your lovely sake, I find an apt remission in myself: And yet here's one in place I cannot pardon ;You, sirrah, [To Lucio.] that knew me for a fool, a coward, One all of luxury, an ass, a madman ; Wherein have I so deserved of you, That you extol me thus ? Lucio. 'Faith, my lord, I spoke it but according to the trick: If you will hang me for it, you may, but I had rather it would please you, I might be whipp'd. Duke. Whipp'd first, sir, and hang'd after.Proclaim it, provost, round about the city; If any woman's wrong'd by this lewd fellow, (As I have heard him swear himself, there's one Whom he begot with child,) let her appear, And he shall marry her: the nuptial finished, Let him be whipp'd and hang'd. Lucio. I beseech your highness, do not marry mo to a whore! Your highness said even now, I made you a duke; good my lord, do not recompense me in making me a cuckold. Duke. Upon mine honour thou shalt marry her. Thy slanders I forgive: and therewithal Remit thy other forfeits :-Take him to prison: And see our pleasure herein executed. Lucio. Marrying a punk, my lord, is pressing to death, whipping, and hanging. Duke. Sland'ring a prince deserves it.She, Claudio, that you wrong'd, look you restore. Joy to you, Mariana!-love her, Angelo; I have confess'd her, and I know her virtue. Thanks, good friend Escalus, for thy much good ness: There's more behind, that is more gratulate. [The novel of Giraldi Cinthio, from which Shakspeare is supposed to have borrowed this fable, may be read in Shakspeare Illustrated, elegantly translated, with remarks, which will assist the inquirer to discover how much absurdity Shakspeare has admitted or avoided. I cannot but suspect that some other had new-modelled the novel of Cinthio, or written a story which in some particulars resembled it, and that Cinthio was not the author whom Shakspeare immediately followed. The Emperor in Cinthio is named Maximine: the Duke, in Shakspeare's enumeration of the persons of the drama, is called Vincentio. This appears a very slight remark; but since the Duke has no name in the play, nor is ever mentioned but by his title, why should he be called Vincentio among the persons, but because the name was copied from the story, and placed superfluously at the head of the list by the mere habit of transcription? It is therefore likely that there was then a story of Vincentio, Duke of Vienna, different from that of Maximine, Emperor of the Romans. Of this play, the light or comick part is very natural and pleasing, but the grave scenes, if a few passages bo excepted, have more labour than elegance. The plot is rather intricate than artful. The time of the action is indefinite; some time, we know not how much, must have elapsed between the recess of the Duke and the imprisonment of Claudio; for he must have learned the story of Mariana in his disguise, or he delegated his power to a man already known to be corrupted. The unities of action and place are sufficiently preserved.] Johnson 8 Remit thy other forfeits.' Dr. Johnson says, for. feits mean punishments, but is it not more likely to forfait? Steevens's Note affords instances of the word in this sense. 1 i. e. like the traveller, who dies on his journey, is signify misdoings, transgressions, from the French obscurely interred, and thought of no more: Illum expirantem Obliti ignoto camporum in pulvere linquunt." 21. e. better consideration. K. Henry V. Act ii. Sc. 2. 3 i. e. so far as they are punishable on earth. 4 Requites 5Her worth worth yours; that is, 'her value is equal to yours, the match is not unworthy of you.' 6 Incontinence 7 Thoughtless practice. 9 i. e. more to be rejoiced in. As Steevens rightly explained it. The Duke probably had learnt the story of Marian in some of his former retirements, having ever loved the life removed.' And he had a suspicion that Angelo was but a seemer, and therefore stays to watch him. Blackstone MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING. PRELIMINARY REMARKS. It is said that the main plot of this play is derived | Dogberry and Verges, relieve the serious parts of the from the story of Ariodante and Ginevra, in the fifth play, which might otherwise have seemed too serious hook of Ariosto's Orlando Furioso. Something similar for comedy. There is a deep and touching interest ex. may also be found in the fourth canto of the second cited for the innocent and much injured Hero, whose hook of Spenser's Faerie Queene; but a novel of Ban-justification is brought about by one of those temporary dello's, copied by Belleforest in his Tragical Histories, consignments to the grave, of which, Shakspeare ap seems to have furnished Shakspeare with the fable. It pears to have been fond.' In answer to Steevens's approaches nearer to the play in all particulars than objection to the same artifice being made use of to en any other performance hitherto discovered. No trans-trap both the lovers, Schlegel observes that the drollation of it into English has, however, yet been metlery lies in the very symmetry of the deception. Their with. friends attribute the whole effect to themselves; but the exclusive direction of their raillery against each other is a proof of their growing inclination.' The incidents of this play produce a striking effect on the stage, where it has ever been one of the most popular of Shakspeare's Comedies. The sprightly wit-encounters between Benedick and Beatrice, and the blundering simplicity of those inimitable men in office, This play is supposed to have been written in 1600, in which year it was first published. PERSONS REPRESENTED. DON PEDRO, Prince of Arragon. BENEDICK, a young Lord of Padua, favourite like- LEONATO, Governor of Messina. BALTHAZAR, Servant to Don Pedro. BORACHIO, Followers of Don John. DOGBERRY, Two foolish Officers. A Sexton. HERO, Daughter to Leonato. MARGARET, Gentlewomen attending on Hero, Messengers, Watch, and Attendants. 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 called Claudio, Mess. Much deserved 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 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, with out a badge of bitterness." Leon. Did he break out into tears? Leon. A kind overflow of kindness: There are no faces truer than those that are so washed. How much better it is to weep at joy, than to joy at weeping! Beat. I pray you, is signior Montanto* returned from the wars, or no? Mess. I know none of that name, lady; there Mess. O, he is returned; and as pleasant as ever he was. Beat. He set up his bills here in Messina, and challenged Cupid at the flight and my uncle's fool, reading the challenge, subscribed for Cupid, and challenged him at the bird-bolt. I pray you how many hath he killed and eaten in these wars? But how many hath he killed? for, indeed, I promised to eat all of his killing. Leon. Faith, niece, you tax signior Benedick too much; but he'll be meet with you, I doubt it 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;-But what is he to a lord? Mess. A lord to a lord, a man to a man; stuffed' with all honourable virtues. Beat. It is so, indeed; he is no less than a stuffed man: but for the stuffing,-Well, we are all mortal. 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 is a skirmish of wit between them. Beat. Alas, he gets nothing by that. In our last conflict, four of his five wits went halting off, and now is the whole man governed 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 hath left, to be known a reasonable creature.-Who is his companion now? He hath every month a new sworn brother. Mess. Is it possible? Beat. Very easily possible: he wears his faith. but as the fashion of his hat, it ever changes with the next block.4 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 with him to the devil? Mess. He is most in the company of the right noble Claudio. Beut. 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 pound ere he be cured. Mess. I will hold friends with you, lady. Leon. You will never run mad, niece. Beat. No, not till a hot January. Mess. Don Pedro is approached. Enter DON PEDRO, attended by BALTHAZAR and others, DON JOHN, CLAUDIO, and BENEDICK. D. Pedro. Good signior Leonato, you are 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 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 so. Bene. Were you in doubt, sir, that you asked her? Leon. Signior Benedick, no; for then were you a child. D. Pedro. You have full Benedick: we may guess by this what you are, being a man. Truly, the lady fathers herself:-Be happy, lady! for you are like an honourable father. 1 Stuffed, in this first instance, has no ridiculous meaning. Mede, in his discourses on Scripture, quoted by Edwards, speaking of Adam, says, 'he whom God had stuffed with so many excellent qualities.' And in the Winter's Tale : Of stuff'd sufficiency.' Beatrice starts an idea at the words stuffed men, and prudently checks herself in the pursuit of it. A suffed man appears to have been one of the many cant phrases for a cuckold. 2 In Shakspeare's time wit was the general term for intellectual power. The wits seem to have been reckoned five by analogy to the five senses. So in Lear, Act iii. Sc. 4: Bless thy five wits.' 3 This is an heraldic term. So, in Hamlet, Ophelia Bays, 'You may wear your rue with a difference." Bene. If signior Leonato be her father, she would not have his head on her shoulders, for all Messina, as like him as she is. Beat. I wonder, that you will still be talking, signior Benedick; no body marks you. Bene. What, my dear lady Disdain! are you yet living? Beat. Is it possible disdain should die, while she hath such meet food to feed it, as signior Benedick? Courtesy itself must convert to disdain, if you come in her presence. Bene. Then is courtesy a turn-coat :-But it is certain, I am loved of all ladies, only you excepted: and I would I could find in my heart that I had not a hard heart; for, truly, I love none. Beat. A dear happiness to women; they would else have been troubled with a pernicious suitor. I thank God, and my cold blood, I am of your humour for that; I had rather hear my dog bark at a crow, than a man swear he loves me. Bene. God keep your ladyship still in that mind! so some gentleman or other shall 'scape a predestinate scratched face. Beat. Scratching could not make it worse, an 'twere such a face as yours were. Bene. Well, you are a rare parrot-teacher. Beat. A bird of my tongue is better than a beast of yours. Bene. I would my horse had the speed of your tongue; and so good a continuer: But keep your way o'God's name; I have done. Beat. You always end with a jade's trick; I know you of old. D. Pedro. This is the sum of all: Leonato,-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.-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 go together. [Exeunt all but BENEDICK and CLAUDIO. Claud. Benedick, didst thou note the daughter of signior Leonato? Bene. I noted her not; but I looked on her. Bene. Do you question me, as an honest man should do, for my simple true judgment; or would you have me speak after my custom, as being a professed tyrant to their sex? Claud. No, I pray thee, speak in sober judgment. Bene. Why, i'faith, methinks she is too low for a high praise, too brown for a fair praise, and too little for a great praise: only this commendation I can afford her; that were she other than she is, sho were unhandsome; and being no other but as she is, I do not like her. Claud. Thou thinkest, I am in sport; I pray thee, tell me truly how thou likest her. Bene. Would you buy her, that you inquire after her. 4 The mould on which a hat is formed. It is here used for shape or fashion. See note on Lear, Act iv Sc. 6. 1 5 The origin of this phrase, which is still in common use, has not been clearly explained, though the sense of it is pretty generally understood. The most probable account derives it from the circumstance 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, in V.Casso. Cashier'd, crossed, cancelled, or put out of booke and checke roule.' 6 Quarreller. 7 Burthen, incumbrance. 8 This phrase is common in Dorsetshire. 'Jack Pothers himseb is like his father Claud. Can the world buy such a jewel? humble thanks: but that I will have a recheat' Bene. Yea, and a case to put it into. But speak winded in my forehead, or hang my bugle in an you this with a sad brow? or do you play the flout-invisible baldrick, all women shall pardon me: ing Jack; to tell us Cupid is a good hare-finder, and Vulcan a rare carpenter? Come, in what key shall a man take you to go in the song ?? Claud. In mine eye, she is the sweetest lady that ever I looked on. Because I will not do them the wrong to mistrust any, I will do myself the right to trust none: and the fine" is, (for the which I may go the finer,) I will live a bachelor. D. Pedro. I shall see thee, ere I die, look pale with love. Bene. I can see yet without spectacles, and I see no such matter: there's her cousin, an she were Bene. With anger, with sickness, or with hunger, not possessed with a fury, exceeds her as much in my lord; not with love: prove, that ever I lose more beauty, as the first of May does the last of Decem- blood with love, than I will get again with drinking, ber. But I hope, you have no intent to turn hus-pick out mine eyes with a ballad-maker's pen, and band; have you? D. Pedro. I charge thee on thy allegiance. Bene. You hear, Count Claudio: I can be secret as a dumb man, I would have you think so; but on my allegiance, mark you this, on my allegiance: He is in love. With who?-now that is your grace's part.-Mark, how short his answer is:With Hero, Leonato's short daughter. Claud. If this were so, so were it uttered. Bene. Like the old tale, my lord: it is not so, nor 'twas not so; but, indeed, God forbid it should be so.s Claud. If my passion change not shortly, God forbid it should be otherwise. D. Pedro. Amen, if you love her; for the lady is very well worthy. Claud. You speak this to fetch me in, my lord. D. Pedro. By my troth, I speak my thought. Claud. And, in faith, my lord, I spoke mine. Bene. And, by my two faiths and troths, my lord, I spoke mine. Claud. That I love her, I feel. D. Pedro. That she is worthy, I know. Bene. That I neither feel how she should be loved, nor know how she should be worthy, is the opinion that fire cannot melt out of me; I will die in it at 1 Do you scoff and mock in telling us that Cupid, who is blind, is a good hare-finder; and that Vulcan, a blacksmith, is a good carpenter? Do you mean to amuse us with improbable stories? 21. e. to join in the song. 3 i. e. subject his head to the disquiet of jealousy. hang me up at the door of a brothel-house, for the sign of blind Cupid. D. Pedro. Well, if ever thou dost fall from this faith, thou wilt prove a notable argument."1 Bene. If I do, hang me in a bottle like a cat,12 and shoot at me; and he that hits me, let him be clapped on the shoulder, and called Adam.13 D. Pedro. Well, as time shall try: In time the savage bull doth bear the yoke.14 Bene. The savage bull may; but if ever the sensible Benedick bear it, pluck off the bull's horns, and set them in my forehead: and let me be vilely painted; and in such great letters as they write, Here is good horse to hire, let them signify under my sign-Here you may see Benedick the married man. Claud. If this should ever happen, thou would's: be born-mad. 15 D. Pedro. Nay, if Cupid have not spent all his quiver in Venice, thou wilt quake for this shortly. Bene. I look for an earthquake too then. hours. In the mean time, good signior Benedick, D. Pedro. Well, you will temporize with the repair to Leonato's; commend me to him, and tell him, I will not fail him at supper; for, indeed, he hath made great preparation. Bene. I have almost matter enough in me for such an embassage and so I commit you Claud. To the tuition of God: From my house. (if I had it) D. Pedro. The sixth of July: Your loving friend, Benedick. Bene. Nay, mock not, mock not: The body of your discourse is sometime guarded with fragments, and the guards are but slightly basted on neither; ere you flout old ends any further, exa mine your conscience, and so I leave you. [Exit BENEDICK. Claud. My liege, your highness now may do me good. D. Pedro. My love is thine to teach; teach it but how, And thou shalt see how apt it is to learn Claud. Hath Leonato any son, my lord! Dost thou affect her, Claudio? Claud. 10 The fine is the conclusion. 11 A capital subject for satire. 12 It seems to have been one of the inhuman sports of the time, to enclose a cat in a wooden tub or bottle sus 4 i. e. become sad and serious. Alluding to the man-pended aloft to be shot at. ner in which the Puritans usually spent the Sabbath, with sighs and gruntings, and other hypocritical marks of devotion. 6 The old tale, of which this is the burthen, has been traditionally preserved and recovered by Mr. Blakeway, and is perhaps one of the most happy illustrations of Shakspeare that has ever appeared. 6 Alluding to the definition of a heretic in the schools. 7 That is, wear a horn on my forehead, which the huntsman may blow. A recheat is the sound by which the dogs are called back. 8 i. e. hugle-horn. 9 A belt. The meaning seems to be or that I should be compelled to carry a horn on my forehead where there is nothing visible to support it.' 13 i. e. Adam Bell, a passing good archer,' who, with Clym of the Cloughe and William of Cloudeslie, were outlaws as famous in the north of England, as Ro bin Hood and his fellows were in the midland counties. 14 This line is from The Spanish Tragedy, or Hiero nimo, &c.; and occurs, with a slight variation, in Watson's Sonnets, 1581. 15 Venice is represented in the same light as Cyprus among the ancients, and it is this character of the people that is here alluded to. 16 Trimmed ornamented. 17 Examine if your sarcasms do not touch yourself? Old ends probably means the conclusions of letters, which were frequently couched in the quaint forms used above That lik'd, but had a rougher task in hand D. Pedro. Thou wilt be like a lover presently, Claud. How sweetly do you minister to love, D. Pedro. What need the bridge much broader The fairest grant is the necessity:1 D. John. There is no measure in the occasion that breeds it, therefore the sadness is without limit. Con. You should hear reason. D. John. And when I have heard it, what blessing bringeth it? Con. If not a present remedy, yet a patient sufferance. D. John. I wonder, that thou being (as thou say'st thou art) born under Saturn, goest about to apply a moral medicine to a mortifying mischief. I cannot hide what I am: I must be sad when I have cause, and smile at no man's jests; eat when I have stomach, and wait for no man's leisure; sleep when I am drowsy, and tend to no man's business; laugh when I am merry, and claw' no man in his humour. Con. Yea, but you must not make the full show of this, till you may do it without controlment. You have of late stood out against your brother, and he hath ta'en you newly into his grace; where it is impossible you should take true root, but by the fair Look, what will serve, is fit: 'tis once,2 thou lov'st; weather that you make yourself: it is needful that And I will fit thee with the remedy. I know we shall have revelling to-night; I will assume thy part in some disguise, [Exeunt. Leon. Are they good? Ant. As the event stamps them; but they have a good cover, they show well outward. The prince and Count Claudio, walking in a thick-pleashed' alley in my orchard, were thus much overheard by a man of mine: The prince discovered to Claudio, that he loved my niece your daughter, and meant to acknowledge it this night in a dance; and, if he found her accordant, he meant to take the present time by the top, and instantly break with you of it. Leon. Hath the fellow any wit, that told you this? Ant. A good sharp fellow: I will send for him, and question him yourself. Leon. No, no; we will hold it as a dream, till it appear itself:-but I will acquaint my daughter withal, that she may be the better prepared for an Go answer, if peradventure this be true. you, and tell her of it. [Several persons cross the stage.] Cousins,4 you know what you have to do.-O, I cry you mercy, friend; you go with me, and I will use vour skill:-Good cousins, have a care this busy time. [Exeunt. SCENE III. Another Room in Leonato's House. Enter DoN JOHN and CONRADE. Con. What the good year, my lord! why are you thus out of measure sad? 4 Cousins were formerly enrolled among the dependants, if not the domestics of great families, such as that of Leonato. -Petruchio, while intent on the subjection of Katharine, calls out in terms imperative for his cousin Ferdinand. 5 The commentators say, that the original form of this exclamation was the gougere, i. e. morbus gallicus; \ you frame the season for your own harvest. Con. Can you make no use of your discontent? Enter BORACHIO. Bora. I came yonder from a great supper; the prince, your brother, is royally entertained by Leonato; and I can give you intelligence of an intended marriage. D. John. Will it serve for any model1" to build mischief on? What is he for a fool, that betroths himself to unquietness? Bora. Marry, it is your brother's right hand. D. John. A proper squire! And who, and who? which way looks he? Bora. Marry, on Hero, the daughter and heir of Leonato. D. John. A very forward March chick! How came you to this? Bora. Being entertained for a perfumer, as I was smoking a musty room, comes me the prince and Claudio, hand in hand, in sad12 conference: I whipt me behind the arras; and there heard it agreed up on, that the prince should woo Hero for himself, and having obtained her, give her to count Claudio. D. John. Come, come, let us thither; this may prove food to my displeasure that young start-up hath all the glory of my overthrow; if I can cross him any way, I bless myself every way: You are both sure,13 and will assist me? which ultimately became obscure, and was corrupted 7 Flatter. I had 8 A canker is the canker-rose, or dog-rose. rather be a neglected dog-rose in a hedge, than a gar den-rose if it profited by his culture.' 9 i. e. for I make nothing else my counsellor.' 10 Model is here used in an unusual sense, but Bullokar explains it, Model, the platforme, or form of any thing." 11 The neglect of cleanliness among our ancestors rendered such precautions too often necessary. 12 Serious. 13 i. e. to be depended on. |