That you have such a February face, So full of frost, of storm, and cloudiness? Claud. I think he thinks upon the savage bull. [Tush, fear not, man; we'll tip thy horns with gold, And all Europa shall rejoice at thee; As once Europa did at lusty Jove, Bene. Bull Jove, sir, had an amiable low; And some such strange bull leap'd1 your father's cow, And got a calf in that same noble feat 50 Much like to you, for you have just his bleat. Claud.] For this I owe you: here come other reckonings. Re-enter ANTONIO, with HERO, BEATRICE, and the Ladies veiled. Which is the lady I must seize upon? Ant. This same is she, and I do give you her. Claud. Why, then she's mine.-Sweet, let me see your face. Leon. No, that you shall not, till you take her hand Before this friar, and swear to marry her. Claud. Give me your hand before this holy friar: I am your husband, if you like of me. 59 Hero. And when I liv'd, I was your other Why, no; no more than reason. Bene. Why, then your uncle, and the prince, and Claudio have been deceiv'd; they swore you did. Beat. Do not you love me? Bene. Troth, no; no more than reason. Beat. Why, then my cousin, Margaret, and Ursula Are much deceiv'd; for they did swear you did. Bene. They swore that you were almost sick Beat. They swore that you were well-nigh dead for me. Bene. 'Tis no such matter.-Then you do not love me? Beat. No, truly, but in friendly recompense. Leon. Come, cousin, I'm sure you love the gentleman. Claud. And I'll be sworn upon't that he loves her; For here's a paper, written in his hand, Hero. 90 NOTES TO MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING. ACT I. SCENE 1. 1. The stage-direction in both Q and Ff. is "Enter Leonato gouernour of Messina, INNOGEN his wife, Hero his daughter, and Beatrice his neece, with a messenger.” This character, called Innogen, the wife of Leonato and mother of Hero, is not again mentioned throughout the play, nor is any allusion made to her death. It is impossible to believe that Shakespeare would have left the mother of Hero among the characters as a mere dummy. As has been already noted in the Introduction, scarcely any attempt seems to have been made in the Folio to correct the mistakes of the Quarto. The fact that the name of Innogen (probably a misprint for Imogen) was left, by an oversight, in the stage-direction is interesting; as it shows that Shakespeare had, at first, the intention of introducing this character, but that as he worked out the play he found there was no room for her, so he dropped her altogether. In this he showed his usual dramatic tact; for one cannot conceive how Hero's mother could have been introduced in any of the important scenes without diminishing their effect; and the nature of the story would not permit of her being a very subordinate character. 2. Lines 1, 2: Don Pedro of Arragon comes this night to Messina.-None of the commentators seem to have paid any attention to the question as to what is supposed to be the historical period of this play. The Kingdom of The Two Sicilies, including the Island of Sicily and the Kingdom of Naples on the mainland, was first established, in 1131, under Roger, the second Count of Sicily, who took the title of Roger I., King of The Two Sicilies. In 1266 Charles I. of Anjou, brother of Louis IX., became king of The Two Sicilies. In 1282, in consequence of an insurrection known as the Sicilian Vespers, Sicily became independent, and the two kingdoms were again separated; the house of Anjou retaining that of Naples, while that of Sicily went to the house of Arragon. This arrangement continued till 1435, when Alphonso I., king of Sicily, reunited the two crowns. He reigned till 1458, when another separation took place, and a bastard prince of the house of Arragon, whose name was JOHN, assumed the crown of Sicily; under his successor, the celebrated Ferdinand II. of Spain and III. of Naples, the husband of Isabella, Naples and Sicily were again reunited (in 1501) under the crown of Spain; and they continued to be part of the Austro-Spanish Empire established by Charles V. till 1700. Shakespeare did not probably wish to be very particular about the exact historic period of the play; but it would certainly seem that the events here supposed to take place must have occurred when the island was still under the house of Arragon; probably, during some time in the first half of the fifteenth century. It is worth noting that Shakespeare probably took the name of Don John the Bastard from John of Arragon the Bastard, who was King of Sicily from 1458 to 1479. 3. Line 8: But few of any SORT, and none of name.This line, it will be seen, whether intentionally or not, is in perfect blank verse metre. Sort is a word used in several senses. Here perhaps "rank" is the best explanation we can give of it. The word is originally derived from the Latin sortem, the accusative of sors="lot," "destiny." (See Merchant of Venice, note 62.) Thence it naturally came to mean "condition," "class," and so "kind," "species," "manner." For its use = " company," see Mids. Night's Dream, note 171. Wedgwood compares the use of lot in vulgar language. 4. Lines 16, 17: he hath, indeed, better better'd expectation than you must expect of me to tell you how. -This is one of those passages, not a few in this play, in which, as Seymour rightly observes, sense is sacrificed to "the charm of a jingle" (vol. i. p. 72); if, indeed, the word "charm" can be applied to such an annoying trick. 5. Lines 22, 23: joy could not show itself modest enough without a BADGE of bitterness.-Compare Macbeth, i. 4. 33-35: My plenteous joys, In drops of sorrow. Warburton, whose notes are rarely much to the purpose, has a very ingenious criticism on this passage: "Of all the transports of joy, that which is attended with tears is least offensive; because, carrying with it this mark of pain, it allays the envy that usually attends another's happiness" (see Var. Ed. vol. vii. p. 6). This explains the epithet modest; for the figurative use of badge compare Sonnet xliv. 14: "heavy tears, badges of either's woe." Badge originally meant a ring or collar worn as a mark of distinction. In Shakespeare's time it was usually applied to the silver badges worn by the servants of the nobility; and, as livery coats were uniformly of a blue colour, they required some such distinction. Compare Rape of Lucrece, line 1054: A badge of fame to slander's livery. 6. Line 30: Signior Montanto.-The reason why Beatrice chooses this name for Benedick is, perhaps, because it was a term used in the fencing schools. It is the same as that referred to in The Merry Wives, ii. 3. 26, 27: “to see thee pass thy punto, thy stock, thy reverse, thy distance, thy montant;" and in its Spanish form in Ben Jonson's Every Man in his Humour, v. 1: "I would teach these nineteen the special rules, as your punto, your reverso, your stoccata, your imbroccato, your passada, your montanto" (Works, vol. i. p. 121). Montanto, in Spanish, is a twohanded sword, or broadsword, used by fencing masters. The word does not seem to be used in Italian at all. 7. Line 38: as PLEASANT as ever he was.-For the use of pleasant in this sense of "merry" compare Lucrece, Arg. 8: In that pleasant humour they all posted to Rome;" and Love's Labour's Lost, iv. 1. 131: "By my troth, most pleasant." It frequently occurs in the titles of plays, and of books belonging to the class called "Facetiæ.' 8. Line 39: He set up his bills.-It appears to have been the custom for fencing masters, when they first settled in a town, to set up their bills; that is to say, to post up, in public places, printed bills announcing their address and advertising their accomplishments with various weapons. It is most probable that, in these bills, they directly or indirectly challenged anyone who chose to come and have a bout with them, either with the broadsword, or cudgels, or foils. In this sense they might be called challenges; but these bills were more of the nature of advertisements-what we should term "posters." It appears to have been the custom to fix bills of this description in certain parts of St. Paul's Cathedral. In Ben Jonson's Every Man out of his Humour, in a scene laid in The Middle Aisle of St. Paul's (iii. 1) we have: Shift. (coming forward.) This is rare, I have set up my bills without discovery. Later on, in the same scene, these bills are again referred to, some of them being given in full (Works, vol. ii. pp. 91-98) 9 Line 40: challeng'd Cupid AT THE FLIGHT.-There seems to be some difficulty as to ascertaining the exact meaning of this expression. Steevens in his note (Var. Ed. vol. vii. p. 8) says: "Flight (as Mr. Douce observes to me) does not here mean an arrow, but a sort of shooting called roving, or shooting at long lengths." See also several references given by Steevens in his note on this passage. An interesting account of roving, or rural archery, will be found in The Book of Archery. It would appear, however, from the account given there that roving was the highest branch of archery, as it involved shooting at objects "barely within the range of his lightest flight-shaft" (p. 407). This would evidently involve, on the part of the archer, not only perfect practice with his bow, as regards what Ascham calls “fair shooting"-that is to say, sending the arrow from the bow clean and straight-but also the power of judging distance, which, as everyone knows who has practised rifle shooting, is a most difficult thing. Flight was also applied to a certain kind of arrow. The Book of Archery (p. 391) says: "Old English archers carried into the field a sheaf of twentyfour barbed arrows, buckled within their girdles. A portion of these, about six or eight, were longer, lighter, and winged with narrower feathers than the rest. With these fight shafts, as they are termed, they could do execution further than with the remaining heavy sheaf arrows.' 10. Line 42: challeng'd him at the BIRD-BOLT. -- This was a short blunt arrow used for killing birds. Douce gives representations of these bird-bolts (p. 102). In The Book of Archery, plate 16, figure 12, is a more exact representation of such a "blunt arrow;" and in figure 8, same plate, is given "an ornamental case for bird-bolts in the time of Queen Elizabeth." They were about half the length of an ordinary arrow. Such arrows would usually VOL. IV. stun a bird, and not inflict such a wound as to injure it for the purposes of the table. Those who were adepts at the long-bow looked down upon the cross-bow as being so much easier a weapon to handle. Douce says (p.102): that fools, "for obvious reasons were only entrusted with blunt arrows; hence the proverb A fool's bolt is soon shot." This, I think, is decidedly an error, as the proverb only refers to the fact that a fool generally shoots in too great a hurry, and will fire all his arrows and ammunition away without producing much effect. These blunt arrows were only used, apparently, for small birds. Against wild-fowl and herons they would be of no use. In the case of the larger birds the sportsman generally employed barbed and double-headed arrows. 11. Lines 43, 44: I pray you, how many hath he kill'd and eaten in these wars?-Compare Lilly's Endimion, ii. 2: Top.. Let me see, be our enemies fat! Epi. Passing fat: and I would not change this life to be a lord; and yourselfe passeth all comparison, for other captaines kill and beate, and there is nothing you kill, but you also eate. Compare also Henry V. iii. 7. 99, 100: -Works, vol. i p. 24. Ram. He longs to eat the English. Con. I think he will eat all he kills. 12. Line 48: he'll be meet with you.-Steevens says that this is a very common expression in the midland counties. Halliwell, in his Provincial and Archaic Dictionary, says that it is still in use. See Middleton's The Witch, ii. 1: "Now I'll be meet with 'em" (Works, vol. iii. p. 262). Compare also the expression to meet with = "to be even with," e.g. in A Match at Midnight, iii. 1: “I know the old man's gone to meet with an old wench that will meet with him" (Dodsley, vol. xiii. p. 62). 13. Line 56: stuff'd with all honourable virtues.-Compare Romeo and Juliet, iii. 5. 183: Stuff'd, as they say, with honourable parts. Steevens quotes, on the authority of Edwards's MS., from Mede's Discourses on Scripture, referring to Adam, "he whom God had stuffed with so many excellent qualities” (Var. Ed. vol. vii. p. 10). 14. Line 60: but for the stuffing,—well, we are all mortal.-Q. Ff. have stuffing well, a punctuation which renders the passage nonsense. Theobald first made the alteration. The passage, however, is so stopped in Davenant's Law against Lovers, i. 1 (Works, vol. v. p. 120, edn. 1870). Beatrice breaks off abruptly here, apparently because she has used the expression "stuff'd man" in the line above, that being one of the many synonyms of a cuckold; at least so Farmer says, in his note, on the strength of a passage in Lilly's Mydas, v. 1, where Petulus and Licio are going through an inventory of Motto's movables: Pet. Item, one paire of hornes in the bride chamber, on the bed's head. Licio. The beast's head, for Motto is stuft in the head, and these are among unmoveable goods. -Works, vol. ii. p. 58. I cannot find the expression used, in this sense, anywhere else; but if that be the meaning of the phrase here, Beatrice would naturally pull herself up, remembering that, as Benedick was not married, he could scarcely be a cuckold; and the sense of the commonplace end to her 225 100 speech, well, we are all mortal would be that, as he was mortal, he might yet be married. 15. Line 66: four of his FIVE WITS went halting off, and now is the whole man govern'd with one.-Compare Sonnet cxli. 9, 10: But my five wits nor my five senses can Dissuade one foolish heart from serving thee; and Lear, iii. 4. 59: "Bless thy five wits!" In the Interlude of Every Man, which was published in the early part of the reign of Henry VIII., we have the five wits among the characters: and Heywood's Wise-woman of Hogsdon, ii. 1: "You are the Wise-woman, are you? and have wit to keepe your selfe warme enough, I warrant you" (Works, vol. v. p. 295). 17. Lines 69, 70: let him bear it FOR A DIFFERENCE between himself and his horse. -Compare Hamlet, iv. 5. 183: "you must wear your rue with a difference." This word difference is rather loosely defined in ordinary dictionaries. In Sloane-Evans's Grammar of British Heraldry (pp. 43-50) will be found a very full account of Heraldic Differences, which, he says, may be defined as "Extraordinary Additaments, whereby bearers of the same Coat Armour may be distinguished, and their nearness to the representative of the family demonstrated." They were divided into two classes, ancient and modern. The ancient ones were used to distinguish between tribes and nations as well as individual persons, and consisted of various "Bordures" which went round the edge of the shield; of these there were fourteen different kinds. The modern Differences came into use about the time of Richard II., and consisted of nine different signs and marks, of which the first was the label, being the badge of the eldest son and heir during his father's lifetime. The others were the Crescent, Mullet, Martlet, Annulet, Fleur-de-Lis, &c., which were borne by the second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth, &c., sons. 18. Line 73: He hath every month a new SWORN BROTHER. -Compare Richard II. v. 1. 20, 21: I am sworn brother, sweet, and I. Henry IV. ii. 4. 7: "I am sworn brother to a leash of drawers." When two knights became brothers, or companions in arms, they usually recorded their friendship or brotherhood with some semi-barbarous ceremony, such as being bled and mixing their blood together. In his article on this phrase, Nares says: "Robert de Oily, and Roger de Ivery, are recorded as sworn brothers (fratres jurati) in the expedition of the Conqueror to England, and they shared the honours bestowed upon either of them." They were also called fratres conjurati, and the term was sometimes applied to those who were sworn to defend the king against his enemies. 19. Line 77: it ever changes with the next block. That is, the wooden block on which hats are made. The word is still used in this sense. It occurs in Shakespeare in only one other passage, in Lear, iv. 6. 187: "this' a good block." In other senses Shakespeare uses the word frequently. 20. Lines 78, 79: the gentleman is not IN YOUR BOOKS. — The origin of this phrase seems to be doubtful. Some suppose that it is connected with the custom of great men keeping books with the names of their retainers and members of their household. Others, with more probability, suppose that it refers to the memorandum book or tables which it was the custom for everyone to carry. The allusions to this custom are frequent in Shakespeare and other authors, e.g. the well-known passage in Hamlet, i. 5. 107: My tables,-meet it is I set it down. But one would think that these tables or memoranda books would be used more for recording events and engagements, or as a commonplace book, than as records of the names of those with whom the writer of the memoranda was familiar, or on good terms. In the present day we generally say that a person is "in one's good books," or "in one's bad books," and this would certainly seem to refer to the books or ledger of a tradesman; the good books being the pages which recorded the good debts, and therefore trustworthy debtors; the bad books those in which the bad debts were entered. As in Shakespeare's time it was not the custom to give credit, except to those persons who were well known, it is very probable that, after all, this phrase may have had, originally, a commercial origin; and that to say a person was in your books meant merely that he was such a one as you could trust, and to whom you would give credit. It may be worth mentioning that it seems, to judge from some books of Shakespeare's period which have come down to us, to have been the custom for the owner of a book to write or scribble, on the title-page and elsewhere, the name of some friend or some favourite author; in which custom those who prefer a far-fetched derivation may, perhaps, find the origin of the phrase. Beatrice's answer, "No; an he were, I would burn my study," seems to favour some connection between the phrase and the books in one's library. 21. Line 81: young SQUARER-Compare Mids. Night's Dream, note 72. This is the only place where Shakespeare uses the substantive=" quarreller." For the verb compare Antony and Cleopatra, iii. 13. 41: Mine honesty and I begin to square. 22. Line 95: Enter Don Pedro, Don John, &c.-Q. Ff. have "John the Bastard." See above, note 2. 23. Lines 98-102.-This speech of Leonato's is a very graceful compliment. In confirmation of the suggestion made in our Introduction (p. 180) that Shakespeare, while writing the prose portions of this play, had Lilly's style very much in his mind, compare the following speech in Lilly's Endimion, ii. 1: "End. You know (faire Tellus) that the sweet remembrance of your love, is the onely companion of my life, and thy presence, my paradise; so that I am not alone when nobodie is with mee, and in heaven itselfe when thou art with me" (Works, vol. i. |