Much Ado About Nothing

Much Ado About Nothing
By William Shakespeare.




Imprint

This ebook is the product of many hours of hard work by volunteers for  Standard Ebooks, and builds on the hard work of other literature lovers made possible by the public domain.
This particular ebook is based on a transcription produced for  Project Gutenberg and on digital scans available at the  HathiTrust Digital Library.
The writing and artwork within are believed to be in the  U.S. public domain, and Standard Ebooks releases this ebook edition under the terms in the  CC0 1.0 Universal Public Domain Dedication. For full license information, see the  Uncopyright at the end of this ebook.
Standard Ebooks is a volunteer-driven project that produces ebook editions of public domain literature using modern typography, technology, and editorial standards, and distributes them free of cost. You can download this and other ebooks carefully produced for true book lovers at  standardebooks.org.


Dramatis Personae


Don Pedro, Prince of Arragon


Don John, his bastard brother


Claudio, a young lord of Florence


Benedick, a young lord of Padua


Leonato, governor of Messina


Antonio, his brother


Balthasar, attendant to Don Pedro


Conrade, follower of Don John


Borachio, follower of Don John


Friar Francis


Dogberry, a constable


Verges, a headborough


A sexton


A boy


Hero, daughter to Leonato


Beatrice, niece to Leonato


Margaret, gentlewoman attending on Hero


Ursula, gentlewoman attending on Hero


Messengers, watch, attendants,  etc.


Scene: Messina


Much Ado About Nothing


Act I

Scene I
Before Leonato’s House.




Enter Leonato, Hero, and Beatrice, with a Messenger.


Leonato
I learn in this letter that Don Pedro of Arragon comes this night to Messina.


Messenger
He is very near by this: he was not three leagues off when I left him.


Leonato
How many gentlemen have you lost in this action?


Messenger
But few of any sort, and none of name.


Leonato
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.


Messenger
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.


Leonato
He hath an uncle here in Messina will be very much glad of it.


Messenger
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.


Leonato
Did he break out into tears?


Messenger
In great measure.


Leonato
A kind overflow of kindness: there are no faces truer than those that are so washed. How much better is it to weep at joy than to joy at weeping!


Beatrice
I pray you, is Signior Mountanto returned from the wars or no?


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


Leonato
What is he that you ask for, niece?


Hero
My cousin means Signior Benedick of Padua.


Messenger
O, he’s returned; and as pleasant as ever he was.


Beatrice
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.


Leonato
Faith, niece, you tax Signior Benedick too much; but he’ll be meet with you, I doubt it not.


Messenger
He hath done good service, lady, in these wars.


Beatrice
You had musty victual, and he hath holp to eat it: he is a very valiant trencherman; he hath an excellent stomach.


Messenger
And a good soldier too, lady.


Beatrice
And a good soldier to a lady: but what is he to a lord?


Messenger
A lord to a lord, a man to a man; stuffed with all honourable virtues.


Beatrice
It is so, indeed; he is no less than a stuffed man: but for the stuffing⁠—well, we are all mortal.


Leonato
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 skirmish of wit between them.


Beatrice
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.


Messenger
Is’t possible?


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


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


Beatrice
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?


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


Beatrice
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