Much Ado About Nothing

Tufts College Library. d'6 rr/ -Ui 4. THE ARDEN SHAKESPEARE HAMLET. Edited by Edmund K. Chambers. B. A., Oxford. MACBETH. Edited by Edmund K. Chambers, B. A., Oxford. JULIUS CAESAR. Edited by Arthur D. Innes, M. A., Oxford. THE MERCHANT OF VENICE. Edited by H. L. Withers, B. A., Oxford. TWELFTH NIGHT. Edited by Arthur D. Innes, M. A., Oxford. AS YOU LIKE IT. Edited by J. C. Smith, M. A., Edinburgh. A MIDSUMMER NIGHT’S DREAM. Edited by Edmund K. Chambers, B. A., Oxford. CYMBELINE. Edited by A. Wyatt, M. A., Cambridge. THE TEMPEST.J. Edited by F. S. Boas, M. A., Oxford. KING JOHN. Edited by G. C. Moore Smith, M. A., Cambridge. RICHARD II. Edited by C. H. Herford, L. H. D., Cambridge. RICHARD III. Edited by George Macdonald, M. A., Oxford. HENRY IV — FIRST PART. Edited by F. W. Moorman, B. A., Yorkshire College. HENRY V. Edited by G. C. Moore Smith, M. A., Cambridge. HENRY VIII. Edited by D. Nichol Smith, M. A., Edinburgh. CORIOLANUS. Edited by Edmund K. Chambers, B. A., Oxford. MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING. Edited by J. C. Smith, M. A., Edinburgh. KING LEAR. Edited by D. Nichol Smith, M. A., Edinburgh. The remaining volumes will also be edited. Price, 25 cents per volume TL,PTS COLLEGS WBHary, Ibeatb’s EttgUsb Classics MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING EDITED BY J. C. SMITH, M. A. FORMERLY OF TRINITY COLLEGE, OXFORD. EDITOR OF “AS YOU LIKE IT.” BOSTON, U. S. A. D. C. HEATH & CO., PUBLISHERS 1907 tufts collegs library. GENERAL PREFACE. In this edition of Shakespeare an attempt is made to present the greater plays of the dramatist in their literary aspect, and not merely as material for the study of philology or grammar. Criticism purely verbal and textual has only been included to such an extent as may serve to help the student in the appreciation of the essential poetry. Questions of date and literary history have been fully dealt with in the Introductions, but the larger space has been devoted to the interpretative rather than the matter-of-fact order of scholar- ship. Aesthetic judgments are never final, but the Editors have attempted to suggest points of view from which the analysis of dramatic motive and dramatic character may be profitably undertaken. In the Notes likewise, while it is hoped that all unfamiliar expressions and allusions have been adequately explained, yet it has been thought even more important to consider the dramatic value of each scene, and the part which it plays in relation to the whole. These general principles detail are common to the whole series ; in each Editor is alone responsible for the play or plays that have been intrusted to him. Every volume of the series has been provided with a Glossary, an Essay upon Metre, and an Index and Appen- ; dices have been added upon points of special interest, which could not conveniently be treated in the Introduction or the Notes. The text is based by the several Editors on that of the Globe edition : the only omissions made are those that are unavoidable in an edition likely to be used by young students. By the systematic arrangement of the introductory matter, and by close attention to typographical details, every effort has been made to provide an edition that will prove con- venient in use. Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2016 https://archive.org/details/muchadoaboutnoth00shak_4 CONTENTS Page General Preface - iii Introduction vii I. History of the Play ------ vii II. Date of Composition - ix III. Source of the Plot - xi IV. Criticism xiii Dramatis Persons xxvi Much Ado about Nothing i Notes 73 Appendix A—On the Text 145 Appendix B—Note on Shakespeare’s Prosody - 148 Glossary 158 Index of Words 165 General Index 169 v INTRODUCTION I. HISTORY OF THE PLAY § i. Much Ado About Nothing is first mentioned in the 1 Stationers’ Register under date August 4th, [1600], when it is noted along with As You Like it Henry V, f p and Every Man in his Humour as a book to be •* stayed”, i.e. not printed without further authority. The note (it is not a regular entry) points to an attempted piracy, against which a protest had been lodged. A few weeks later our play was published in a sixpenny quarto by Andrew Wise and William Aspley, being entered to them in the Register under date August 23rd. This Quarto pre- sents a very good text, but was not revised by Shake- speare. It retains the name of a character, Innogen, who never appears. That it frequently marks exits too early, and in one place gives the names of the actors for those of the characters, are signs that it was printed from a play- house copy supplemented by the actors’ parts. 2 The Quarto was not re-issued, and Much Ado next appeared in print in the collected edition of Shakespeare’s works known as the First Folio, 1623. The Folio text of Much Ado is a recen- 2 sion of the Quarto, whose characteristic errors it retains. § 2. The title page of the Quarto bears that the play had already “been sundry times publicly acted” by the Lord Chamberlain’s servants (Shakespeare’s com- pany). The carelessness of printers has pre- Stage served the names of two of the original cast. William Kemp took the part of Dogberry and Richard 1 The year is not given, but is inferred from the preceding entry and the sub- sequent publication of Much Ado. 2 See further the Appendix on the Text. vii : Vlll MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING Cowley that of Verges. Kemp was the most famous low comedian of the day. In the character of Dogberry he was succeeded by Robert Armin, who in the dedication to his Italian Tailor and his Boy (1609) speaks of himself as one “ who hath been writ down for an ass in his time, and pleads underforma pauperis in it still, notwithstanding his constableship and office ”. Thanks to the comic characters, the play was very popular. Several of Dogberry’s “de- rangements of epitaphs ” passed at once into the language. The dramatic literature of the first decade of the seven- teenth century contains many traces of Much Ado. In particular Heywood’s Fair Maid of the Exchange (1607) teems with reminiscences. But the only recorded performance in Shakespeare’s lifetime took place in the spring of 1613, when seven of Shakespeare’s plays were produced at Court to grace the wedding festivities of the Princess Elizabeth. At some date prior to May 20th of that year Much Ado was presented before Prince Charles, the Prin- cess Elizabeth, and the Elector Palatine, and a play called Benedicte and Betteris was presented (apparently) before the king*. Probably this was but another name for Much Ado; two other plays were, for the same occasion, renamed SirJohn Fa Istaff and Hotspur} and long afterwards Charles I entered “Benedick and Beatrice” against the title of Much Ado in his copy of the Second Folio, recalling (it may be) this very performance. The revival of 1613 was under the management of John Heming, who afterwards helped to edit the First Folio. There is reason to think that the recension which he adopted in the First Folio was originally made for these Court performances of 1613. 2 Two famous allusions attest the continued popularity of the play in Charles’s reign. In the third edition of the Anatomy of Melancholy (1628) Burton cited Benedick and Beatrice as an instance of the power of familiarity to over- come dislike. And Leonard Digges declared 1 It has not hitherto been observed that the plays renamed were already in 2 print ; the others were still unpublished. See Appendix on the Text. — MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING ix “ let but Beatrice And Benedick be seen, lo in a trice The cockpit, galleries, boxes all are full These verses, though perhaps written in 1623, were not published till 1640. In 1642 the theatres were closed. § 3. When they were reopened after the Restoration several of Shakespeare’s plays were revived in various mangled forms. Much Ado was one of the first to suffer adaptation. The old favourites Relation Benedick and Beatrice were transferred by Davenant to his Law against Lovers of which Measure/or , Measure supplied the staple. Pepys saw the play on Feb. 28th, 1661/2. Scraps of Much Ado also adorn J. Miller’s Universal Passion (1736/7). But by that time Shake- speare had begun to enjoy his own again. In 1721 Much Ado was revived at Lincoln’s Inn Fields with Ryan, Quin, and Mrs. Seymour in the cast. The statement of the play- bill “ not acted thirty years ” points to an earlier revival, of which no record has been found. Miller’s play seems to have stimulated interest in Much Ado which was acted , three times towards the close of 1737. But it was not till 1748, when Garrick first appeared in his favourite role of Benedick, that the play finally took its place as one of the glories of the English stage. 1 To the German stage it was introduced by Holtei and Devrient, but it has never been quite so popular in Germany as in England. II. DATE OF COMPOSITION § 4 From the Stationers’ Register we know that the play was written before August 1600; as it is not included by Meres in the full list of Shakespeare’s Evi ’ in comedies given his Treasury of Wit, it was presumably written after September 1598. The two plays “stayed” along with it Henry V and As You Like It—belong to the same period.

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