Much Ado About Nothing

by William Shakespeare

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

  Maya Angelou

  •

  A. S. Byatt

  •

  Caleb Carr

  •

  Christopher Cerf

  •

  Harold Evans

  •

  Charles Frazier

  •

  Vartan Gregorian

  •

  Jessica Hagedorn

  •

  Richard Howard

  •

  Charles Johnson

  •

  Jon Krakauer

  •

  Edmund Morris

  •

  Azar Nafisi

  •

  Joyce Carol Oates

  •

  Elaine Pagels

  •

  John Richardson

  •

  Salman Rushdie

  •

  Oliver Sacks

  •

  Carolyn See

  •

  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”)