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Of you my fons, nor, till this present hour,
My heavy burdens are delivered:

The Duke, my husband, and my children both,
And you the calendars of their nativity,
Go to a goffip's feaft and go with me:
Afte fo long grief fuch nativity!addl

Duke. With all my heart, I'll goffip at this feast.

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Manent the two Antipholis's, and two Dromio's.

S. Dro. Mafter, fhall I fetch your ftuff from fhipboad?

E. Ant. Dromio, what stuff of mine haft thou imbark'd? dans

་་ *་*

S. Dro. Your goods, that lay at host, Sir, in the

Centaur.

S. Ant. He fpeaks to me; I am your mafter,

Dromio.

ber here: and therefore I have
ventur❜d to alter it to twenty-five,
upon a Proof, that, I think, a-
mounts to demonstration. The
Number, I prefume, was at first
wrote in figures, and, perhaps,
blindly; and thence the Mistake
might arife. Egeon, in the firft
Scene of the first Act, is precife
as to the Time his Son left him,
in Quest of his Brother:
My youngest Boy, and yet my eldeft
Care,

At eighteen years became inqui-
Jitive

After his Brother, &c.

And how long it was from the Son's thus parting from his Father, to their meeting again at Ephefus, where Egeon, miftakenly, recognizes the Twin bro

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Come, go with us, we'll look to that anon;
Embrace thy brother there, rejoice with him.

[Exeunt Antipholis S. and E.
S. Dro. There is a fat friend at your master's house,
That kitchen'd me for you to day at dinner;
She now fhall be my fifter, not my wife.

E. Dro. Methinks, you are my glass, and not my brother:

I fee by you, I am a fweet-fac'd youth:
Will you walk in to fee ther goffiping?
S. Dro. Not I, Sir; you are my elder.
E. Dro. That's a question:

How fhall I try it?

S. Dro. We'll draw cuts for the senior:

'Till then, lead thou first.

E. Dro. Nay, then thus

[Embracing.

We came into the world, like brother and brother:

And now let's go hand in hand, not one before another.

[Exeunt.

MUCH

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Dramatis Perfonæ.

DON PEDRO, Prince of Arragon.
Leonato, Governor of Meffina.

Don John, Bastard Brother to Don Pedro.

Claudio, a young Lord of Florence, Favourite to Don Pedro.

Benedick, a young Lord of Padua, favour'd likewise by

Don Pedro.

Balthazar, Servant to Don Pedro.
Antonio, Brother to Leonato.
Borachio, Confident to Don John.
Conrade, Friend to Borachio.
Dogberry,

Verges, } two foolish Officers.

Hero, Daughter to Leonato.

Beatrice, Niece to Leonato.

Margaret,

Urfula, } two Gentlewomen, attending on Hero.

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A Friar, "Messenger, Watch, Town-Clerk, Sexton, and

Attendants.

SCENE, Meffina in Sicily.

The Story is from Ariofto, Orl. Fur. B. v.

POPE.

MUCH

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A Court before Leonato's Houfe.

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

I

f

LEONATO.

Learn in this letter, that Don Pedro of Arragon comes this night to Messina.

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

I

Leon. How many gentlemen have you loft in this action?

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Meff. But few of any Sort, and none of Name. Leon. A victory is twice itself, when the atchiever

Much Ado about Nothing.] Innogen, (the Mother of Hero) in the oldeft Quarto that I have feen of this Play, printed in 1600, is mention'd to enter in two feveral Scenes. The fucceeding Editions have all continued her Name in the Dramatis Perfona. But I have ventur'd to expunge it; there being no mention of her through the Play,

no one Speech addrefs'd to her, nor one Syllable spoken by her Neither is there any one Paffage, from which we have any Reason to determine that Hero's Mother was living. It seems, as if the Poet had in his firft Plan de fign'd fuch a Character; which, on a Survey of it, he found would be fuperfluous; and therefore he left it out. THEOBALD

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