34. Markland Taylor, Variety, 388, no. 7 (30 September–6 October 2002), p. 36.
35. Martha Tuck Rozett, Shakespeare Bulletin, 21, no. 3 (Fall 2003), pp. 131–33.
36. Kenneth Branagh, Introduction to Much Ado About Nothing, by William Shakespeare, with Screenplay, Introduction, and Notes on the Making of the Movie (1993), pp. vi–xvi.
37. W. A. Darlington, Daily Telegraph, 5 April 1961.
38. Michael Billington, Guardian, 29 May 1971.
39. Michael Billington, Guardian, 9 April 1976.
40. J. F. Cox, Shakespeare in Production: Much Ado About Nothing (1997), p. 71.
41. Ralph Berry, On Directing Shakespeare: Interviews with Contemporary Directors (1977), p. 78.
42. Michael Coveney, Financial Times, 28 April 1982.
43. Michael Billington, Guardian, 21 April 1982.
44. Michael Billington, Guardian, 12 April 1990.
45. Billington, Guardian, 12 April 1990.
46. Benedict Nightingale, The Times, London, 11 April 1990.
47. Benedict Nightingale, The Times, London, 29 November 1996.
48. Charles Spencer, Daily Telegraph, 29 November 1996.
49. Nicholas de Jongh, Evening Standard, 27 November 1996.
50. De Jongh, Evening Standard, 27 November 1996.
51. Robert Smallwood, Shakespeare Quarterly, 40 (1989), p. 84.
52. Patrick Marmion, Mail on Sunday, 4 August 2002.
53. Kate Bassett, Independent on Sunday, 19 May 2002.
54. Paul Taylor, Independent, 25 May 2006.
55. Michael Billington, Guardian, 19 May 2006.
56. Taylor, Independent, 25 May 2006.
57. The Times, London, 5 April 1961.
58. Cox, Much Ado About Nothing, p. 69.
59. Peter Lewis, Daily Mail, 9 April 1976.
60. Don Chapman, Oxford Mail, 15 October 1968.
61. Chapman, Oxford Mail, 15 October 1968.
62. Maureen Paton, Daily Express, 15 April 1988.
63. Don Chapman, Oxford Mail, 14 April 1988.
64. Irving Wardle, The Times, London, 14 April 1988.
65. Maggie Steed in Players of Shakespeare 3, ed. Russell Jackson and Robert Smallwood (1993), pp. 42–52.
66. Marmion, Mail on Sunday, 4 August 2002.
67. Paul Taylor, Independent, 15 May 2002.
68. Ian Johns, The Times, London, 5 August 2002.
69. Marmion, Mail on Sunday, 4 August 2002.
70. B. A. Young, Financial Times, 15 October 1968.
71. Billington, Guardian, 21 April 1982.
72. Sinead Cusack in Carol Rutter’s Clamorous Voices (1988), p. xvi.
73. Billington, Guardian, 21 April 1982.
74. Alastair Macaulay, Financial Times, 29 November 1996.
75. Charles Spencer, Daily Telegraph, 3 August 1996.
76. Macaulay, Financial Times, 29 November 1996.
77. Susan Fleetwood, interviewed with her Benedick, Roger Allam, Leicester Mercury, 6 April 1990.
78. Billington, Guardian, 19 May 2006.
79. Nicholas de Jongh, Evening Standard, 19 May 2006.
80. Alastair Macaulay, Financial Times, 23 May 2006.
81. Chapman, Oxford Mail, 15 October 1968.
82. Billington, Guardian, 12 April 1990.
83. Michael Billington, Guardian, 10 May 2002.
84. Billington, Guardian, 9 April 1976.
85. Wardle, The Times, 14 April 1988.
86. Spencer, Daily Telegraph, 3 August 2002.
87. Spencer, Daily Telegraph, 3 August 2002.
88. Charles Spencer, Daily Telegraph, 22 May 2006.
89. W. A. Darlington, Daily Telegraph, 5 April 1961.
90. Macaulay, Financial Times, 29 November 1996.
91. De Jongh, Evening Standard, 27 November 1996.
92. Billington, Guardian, 12 April 1990.
93. Billington, Guardian, 21 April 1982.
94. Peter Lewis, Daily Mail, 9 April 1976.
95. Christopher Hart, Sunday Times, London, 21 May 2006.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS AND
PICTURE CREDITS
Preparation of “Much Ado in Performance” was assisted by a generous grant from the CAPITAL Centre (Creativity and Performance in Teaching and Learning) of the University of Warwick for research in the RSC archive at the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust. The Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) funded a term’s research leave that enabled Jonathan Bate to work on “The Director’s Cut.”
Picture research by Michelle Morton. Grateful acknowledgment is made to the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust for assistance with picture research (special thanks to Helen Hargest) and reproduction fees.
Images of RSC productions are supplied by the Shakespeare Centre Library and Archive, Stratford-upon-Avon. This library, maintained by the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust, holds the most important collection of Shakespeare material in the UK, including the Royal Shakespeare Company’s official archive. It is open to the public free of charge.
For more information see www.shakespeare.org.uk.
1. Directed by John Gielgud (1949) Angus McBean © Royal Shakespeare Company
2. Directed by Douglas Seale (1958) Angus McBean © Royal Shakespeare Company
3. Directed by Trevor Nunn (1968) Tom Holte © Shakespeare Birthplace Trust
4. Directed by Terry Hands (1982) Joe Cocks Studio Collection © Shakespeare Birthplace Trust
5. Directed by Di Trevis (1988) Joe Cocks Studio Collection © Shakespeare Birthplace Trust
6. Directed by Nicholas Hytner (2007) © Donald Cooper/photostage.co.uk
7. Directed by Marianne Elliott (2006) Simon Annand © Royal Shakespeare Company
8. Directed by Gregory Doran (2002) Jonathan Dockar-Drysdale © Royal Shakespeare Company
9. Reconstructed Elizabethan playhouse © Charcoalblue
THE MODERN LIBRARY EDITORIAL BOARD
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Richard Howard
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Charles Johnson
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Edmund Morris
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Joyce Carol Oates
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Salman Rushdie
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Oliver Sacks
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Carolyn See
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Gore Vidal
Introduction copyright © 2007, 2009 by The Royal Shakespeare Company
All rights reserved.
Published in the United States by Modern Library, an imprint of The Random House Publishing Group, a division of Random House, Inc., New York.
MODERN LIBRARY and the TORCHBEARER Design are registered trademarks of Random House, Inc.
“Royal Shakespeare Company,” “RSC,” and the RSC logo are trademarks or registered trademarks of The Royal Shakespeare Company.
The version of Much Ado About Nothing and the corresponding footnotes that appear in this volume were originally published in William Shakespeare: Complete Works, edited by Jonathan Bate and Eric Rasmussen, published in 2007 by Modern Library, an imprint of The Random House Publishing Group, a division of Random House, Inc.
eISBN: 978-1-58836-840-9
www.modernlibrary.com
v3.0
Headborough parish officer
Innogen a character who never speaks: she may have been created in the writing and omitted in the performance
Hero named after the loyal lover of Leander who killed herself after he drown
ed swimming the Hellespont to see her
Beatrice from the Latin beatrix meaning “she who blesses”
1 Don Peter i.e. Don Pedro
2 Aragon kingdom in northern Spain
3 leagues a league is about three miles
5 action battle
6 sort high rank
name reputation/distinction/noble status
9 Florentine person from the city of Florence, in northwest Italy
11 remembered rewarded
12 figure form/image
19 badge of bitterness i.e. the uncle’s
tears that demonstrate that his
joy is modest badge badge worn by a nobleman’s servant (a sign of inferiority and humility)
22 kind natural
23 truer more genuine/virtuous/honest
25 Mountanto from the fencing term “montanto,” an upward thrust, suggestive of the verbal dueling Benedick engages in with Beatrice (there may also be a sexual play on “mount on to”)
30 Benedick from the Latin benedictus meaning “blessed”
Padua northern Italian city known for its university
31 pleasant amusing/merry
32 bills notices advertising a public entertainment
33 Cupid god of love who shot love-inducing arrows into people’s hearts
flight archery with flight-arrows (light, well-feathered arrows)
fool probably a professional fool employed by Leonato for entertainment
34 subscribed for took up the challenge on behalf of
35 bird-bolt blunt arrow safe enough to be used by children or fools
38 Faith in faith (i.e. truly)
tax censure/disparage
39 meet even
41 musty victual moldy, stale food
41 holp helped
42 valiant trencherman hearty eater (valiant plays on the sense of “courageous” as Beatrice implies that the only thing Benedick tackles with boldness is food) a trencher is a wooden plate
43 stomach appetite (puns on the sense of “courage”)
45 he to be compared to/faced with
46 stuffed full/replete
48 stuffed man figure stuffed to resemble a man/man sated with food
51 betwixt between
54 five wits five mental faculties (imagination, memory, fantasy, estimation, common sense)
halting limping
56 difference in heraldry the sign that distinguished the junior branch of a family (in this case Benedick)
58 known…creature identified as one in possession of the faculty of reason (i.e. human)
59 sworn brother brother-in-arms (one who swore brotherly loyalty and support in combat to a friend)
61 faith fidelity/oath of brotherhood
62 block mold for shaping new fashions of hats
63 books good books, favor
64 An if
65 squarer brawler/quarrelsome rogue
70 pestilence plague/disease
71 presently immediately
72 ere before
74 hold remain
76 run mad i.e. by catching (falling in love with) the Benedick
107 pernicious ruinous/wicked
135 noted her not did not pay her any special attention
164 wear…suspicion get married and invite suspicion when wearing his cap that it covers horns (signs of being a cuckold — i.e. having an unfaithful wife)
188 my…troths Benedick owes loyalty to both Claudio, his sworn brother, and to Don Pedro, prince and military leader
216 Adam a reference to Adam Bell, a famous archer
240 flout old ends mock (me) with old tags of letters/fragments of cloth
271 what…fit whatever is useful and will suffice is suitable
’tis once once and for all
278 encounter conversational address/military assault
1.2 1 cousin a general term for any relative or close friend
5 they i.e. the news
6 As…them as the outcome (event) determines/proves
stamps prints (the book metaphor continues with cover)
7 show well outward look promising
8 thick-pleached alley walk overarched by densely intertwining branches
9 discovered revealed
12 accordant of the same opinion/agreeable
take…top seize the opportunity
14 wit good sense/acumen
17 hold
appear manifests
18 withal with it
19 peradventure perhaps
21 cry you mercy beg your pardon
22 friend i.e. one of the attendants, a musician
1 What the goodyear what the devil
out of measure immoderately
3 measure proportion/moderation/limit
occasion that breeds circumstances that provoke (my sadness)
7 present immediate
sufferance endurance
9 Saturn those born under the influence of Saturn were thought to be naturally morose and melancholy
10 mortifying mischief fatal disease
13 tend on attend/see to
14 claw soothe/flatter
16 controlment restraint
stood…brother i.e. opposed Don Pedro in the recent war
18 grace favor
20 frame create
21 canker wild rose (puns on the sense of “cancer”)
22 blood disposition/illegitimate status
of by
23 fashion a carriage invent a demeanor/behavior
25 trusted…muzzle like a fierce dog, only trusted when wearing a muzzle
26 enfranchised…clog only given liberty with a heavy block of wood tied to my leg
31 use it only am always discontented/discontent is my only resource
Borachio from the Spanish borracho meaning “drunkard”
37 model architectural plan
38 unquietness i.e. a troubled life
40 exquisite accomplished/perfect
42 proper squire fine lover (the tone is contemptuous)
45 forward precocious/eager/ardent/presumptuous
March-chick very young thing (could apply to Hero or Claudio, though Claudio seems likely)
46 entertained…perfumer employed as burner of sweet-smelling herbs in the rooms of a house
smoking perfuming
48 sad serious
arras large tapestry hung on a wall for insulation (with sufficient space behind it for a man to conceal himself)
52 start-up upstart
53 overthrow i.e. defeat in the war
cross thwart
54 sure reliable, loyal
56 cheer merriment, joy
57 subdued low in spirits/conquered
58 prove put to the test/find out by experience
3 tartly sourly, bitterly
4 am heart-burned suffer heartburn (indigestion)
8 image statue
my…son a widow’s eldest son (traditionally a favored and indulged child), evermore tattling
13 good leg i.e. shapely
17 shrewd mischievous/sharp
18 curst perverse/shrewish
22 horns in her response Beatrice plays on the senses of “cuckold’s horns” and “penis”
23 Just exactly right
26 the woollen rough wool blankets (rather than a husband with a scratchy beard)
29 apparel clothing
33 in earnest as an advance payment
the…hell proverbially, the fate of an old maid was to lead apes in hell
34 bearward keeper of bears (and possibly apes)
39 maids virgins
Saint Peter heaven’s gatekeeper
40 for the heavens a mild exclamation, but also with the sense of “in order to get to heaven” or “away to Saint Peter as one who is in charge of entry to heaven”
bachelors unmarried people of both sexes
48 fitted supplied (with suggestion of a vagina filled with a penis)
50 metal material (puns on “mettle”
meaning “temperament”)
51 earth a reference to the Christian notion that God made man from dust (whereas women were formed from one of Adam’s ribs)
53 wayward marl unreasonable/changeable clay
54 brethren brothers
match…kindred marry a relative
56 solicit entreat/woo
kind manner (i.e. with talk of marriage)
59 in good time soon/in time to the music
important pressing, urgent
60 measure moderation (puns on the dance known as a measure)
62 Scotch jig a lively dance
measure a slow, stately dance
cinque-pace a lively dance involving five (cinque) steps (pas) and pronounced “sink-a-pace” (thus leading to Beatrice’s pun on sink)
suit wooing
hot passionate/vigorous
63 fantastical imaginative/full of wild movements
64 mannerly-modest decorously moderate
state and ancientry ceremonious dignity and old-fashioned formality
65 bad legs tottering or perhaps gout-ridden legs resulting from old age
67 apprehend passing shrewdly interpret things very severely/discern things very sharply
72 friend friend/lover
73 So so long as
79 favour face
80 case a metaphorical reference to Don Pedro’s (apparently unattractive) mask
81 visor mask
Philemon’s…Jove the peasant Philemon entertained a disguised Jove (king of the gods) in his humble cottage
82 thatched. i.e. like Philemon’s cottage — perhaps a suggestion that Don Pedro is bald or balding, or that his mask lacks hair
93 clerk i.e. a parish clerk who led the responses during a church service
96 At a word in brief
97 waggling shaking, either the tremblings of old age or a gesture that accompanied his denial in the previous line
98 counterfeit imitate
99 do…ill-well imitate his inadequacies so well
100 dry hand a result of age
up and down all over/in every respect
104 mum silence
105 Graces attractive personal qualities/virtues
111 ‘Hundred Merry Tales’ a popular collection of crude comic anecdotes
118 only his his only
119 impossible unbelievable
libertines those who disregard moral laws and follow their own inclinations
121 villainy wicked humor/discourtesy/low-minded jesting
pleaseth…them i.e. amuses some with his rudeness but angers those he slanders
122 in the fleet among the dancers
123 boarded tackled/accosted (puns on the sense of “had sex with”)
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