MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING.

ACT I. SCENE I.

P. 188. In the stage-direction at the opening of the scene the manuscript-corrector of the folio, 1632, has expunged the words Innogen, his wife, as if the practice had not then been for her to appear before the audience in this or in any other portion of the comedy; and it is certain that no word ever escapes from her in the dialogue. It has been supposed by some that, though merely a mute, she was seen by the spectators, but in what way she was to be known to them to be the mother of Hero and the wife of Leonato is not stated. Another change in the same stage-direction merits notice: it is that the word "Messenger" is converted into Gentleman, and the manner in which he joins in the conversation shows, that he must have been a person superior in rank to what we now understand by a messenger. Consistently with this notion all the prefixes to what he says are altered from Mes. to Gent. In other dramas Shakespeare gives important parts to persons whom he only calls Messengers; and it requires no proof that in the reign of Elizabeth the Messengers who conveyed news to the Court from abroad were frequently officers whose services were in part rewarded by this distinction. It was in this capacity that Raleigh seems first to have attracted the favour of the Queen.

P. 195. For "he that hits me," the corrector of the folio, 1632, gives "he that first hits me," which supports the notion that the successful marksman was to be called Adam, as the first man. The allusion can hardly be to Adam Bell, because it is William of Cloudesley who, in the ballad, is

the principal archer, and who cleaves the apple on his son's head.

P. 197. There is certainly a misprint in the second line of Don Pedro's speech, where he is adverting to Claudio's reason for loving Hero :

"What need the bridge much broader than the flood?

The fairest grant is the necessity."

Here "grant" has little or no meaning, for Hero has not yet been even sounded upon the point, and the line ought to run in the manner in which the corrector of the folio, 1632, has left it,

"The fairest ground is the necessity."

The fairest ground for Claudio's love was the necessity of the case, which rendered needless any "treatise."

SCENE III.

P. 199. John the Bastard, telling Conrade of his melancholy, says "There is no measure in the occasion that breeds," the pronoun it being wanting after the verb, which is found in the margin of the corrected folio, 1632. Lower, on the same page, Conrade remarks "You have of late stood out against your brother;" but they had been reconciled, and the expression ought to be, as we find it in the same authority, "You have till of late stood out against your brother."

ACT II. SCENE I.

P. 202. The speech of Beatrice requires father in the first clause as well as in the second, but all the folios are without it it is thus added in manuscript in the folio, 1632, "Yes faith; it is my cousin's duty to make courtesy, and say, Father, as it please you," &c.

P. 203. The drollery of Beatrice's description of the difference between "wooing, wedding, and repenting" is much. injured by the omission of a pun just at the conclusion

"The first suit (she says) is hot and hasty, like a Scotch jig, and full as fantastical; the wedding, mannerly, modest, as a measure, full of state and ancientry; and then comes repentance, and with his bad legs falls into the cinque-pace faster and faster, 'till he sink a pace into his grave." The words in Italics are left out in the printed copy, but are added in manuscript in the margin of the folio, 1632.

P. 204. It is just worth observation that the corrector of the folio, 1632, altered love of the folios to "Jove" of the quarto.

P. 206. The last line of Claudio's soliloquy is redundant in measure, by the use of "therefore" instead of then the corrected folio, 1632, has the line

"Which I mistrusted not. Farewell, then, Hero."

P. 207. In the folio, 1632, there are two decided errors of the press in Benedick's soliloquy, where "fowl" is misprinted soul, and "yea" you: both are remedied in manuscript. They do not exist in the folio, 1623.

P. 208. It was proposed by Johnson, in Benedick's long speech to the Prince against Beatrice, to read importable, for "impossible" (of all the printed editions) in the sense of unbearable, insupportable; and "impossible" is converted into importable by the corrector of the folio, 1632. Three lines lower her is properly inserted before "terminations;" but the change made in the next sentence of lent for "left" is of more consequence and quite as evidently right:-"I would not marry her (he exclaims) though she were endowed with all that Adam had lent him before he transgressed." Adam was endowed with every thing "before he transgressed" and Benedick is referring to his state of perfection. The folio, 1623, has also the blunder of "left" for lent.

P. 209. The folios give the latter part of the speech of Beatrice thus-" But civil, Count, civil as an orange, and something of a jealous complexion." The 4to, 1600, has "of that jealous complexion;" but the corrector of the folio, 1632, reads "something of as jealous a complexion," which affords exactly the same point, and seems to prove that he was not guided by the old 4to.

SCENE II.

P. 213. In Borachio's statement of the mode in which he would proceed in tainting the character of Hero, he tells John the Bastard, that if he will bring the Prince and Claudio at night, they shall hear Margaret, disguised as Hero, "term me Claudio," which must be an error, as Claudio was to be one of the spectators. For "Claudio" Theobald wished to substitute Borachio, in order to remove the difficulty, and the abridgment of the name of Borachio is inserted in the margin of the corrected folio, 1632, proving that Theobald was not mistaken.

P. 214. The word "truths" of the folios ought to be proofs, where Borachio says, "There shall appear such seeming truths of Hero's disloyalty." The corrector of the folio, 1632, has it, "There shall appear such seeming proofs of Hero's disloyalty," which is unquestionably what is meant.

SCENE III.

P. 215. For "orthography" of the folios, modern editors have "orthographer," and in this change they are supported by the manuscript-corrector of the folio, 1632.

Stage-directions in this scene, so necessary to the intelligibility of it, are omitted in the old printed copies. When Benedick enters, we are told in manuscript in the folio, 1632, that he has his Boy following; and when at the end of his speech, with the words "I will hide me in the arbour," he withdraws, as Malone expresses it, the corrector of the folio, 1632, has added Retires behind the trees. The name of "Jack Wilson" (who did not sing the song when the folio, 1632, was corrected) is struck out, and Balthazar's entrance is marked in the proper place. When Benedick afterwards comes from his ambush, nothing is said in the printed folios to indicate the fact; but Forward, meaning that he advanced to the front of the stage, is written in the margin of the folio, 1632. Against his speeches to himself, while he is concealed, is written Behind; so that we here see exactly the mode in which the rather complicated business of the scene was anciently conducted.

P. 217. The second verse of Balthazar's song is thus altered in manuscript in the folio, 1632.

It seems right thus to distinguish between ditties and dumps, apparently two distinct species of composition; and the third line is evidently improved by putting "frauds," like the verb it governs, in the plural: the usual mode of printing it has been,

"The fraud of men was ever so."

P. 219. The difference is not very material, but the meaning is heightened by the addition of the word full at the close of the speech of Leonato, "there will she set in her smock, till she have writ a sheet of paper full." The sentence ends at "paper," excepting in the manuscript of the corrector of the folio, 1632. Lower down Claudio has been made to say, "Then, down upon her knees she falls, weeps, sobs, beats her heart, tears her hair, prays, curses ;-O sweet Benedick! God give me patience." For "curses" the corrector of the folio, 1632, substitutes cries; and we are hardly to suppose that Beatrice utters "curses" at all, but especially at the very moment when she exclaims, "O, sweet Benedick!" and when she "prays" that God would "give her patience." For "It were an alms to hang him," put into the mouth of Don Pedro, the corrected folio has, "It were an alms deed to hang him," such being the usual expression.

P. 222. The force of Beatrice's speech is considerably increased by the insertion of a negative. Benedick asks Beatrice whether she takes pleasure in the message to him? and she answers, as the passage has always been printed, "Yea, just so much as you may take upon a knife's point, and choke a daw withal." The corrected folio, 1632, tells us that the pleasure to which Beatrice acknowledged was so little that it might be taken on a knife's point "and not choke a daw withal:" it was not enough even to choke a daw.