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Much Ado About NothingPlease see the bottom of this page for detailed explanatory notes and related resources.
Next: Much Ado About Nothing, Act 1, Scene 2 _________ Explanatory Notes for Act 1, Scene 1 From Much Ado About Nothing. Ed. A. Wilson Verity. London: Rivingtons. Dramatis Personae. — The stage-direction in the Quarto and the Folios is as follows: "Enter Leonato govenor of Messina, Innogen his wife, Hero his daughter, and Beatrice his niece, with a messenger." Here we have an allusion to a character — Innogen — who never appears in the play at all. Probably Shakespeare intended to introduce her on the scene, found that there was no place for her, and so dropped her out of the scheme of the piece; only, through some inadvertence, the name was left in. We might have expected the Folio version to correct the error of the Quarto. Innogen may be a corruption of Imogen, the name, one need scarcely add, of the heroine in Cymbeline. Title. — It may be worth while to note that the title of the play passed into a proverb; or was already one. Thus Cotgrave has, "Une levee de bouclier: Much ado about nothing; a great shew, or much doings to little purpose; mightie preparations for a meane exploit." 7 Sort. 'Rank,' or 'reputation.' So, amongst other passages, Henry V. iv. 7. 142, "His enemy is a gentleman of great sort." Sort is derived, through the French, from Latin sortem. 21 Badge. 'Sign.' So in Sonnet 44 we have, "Heavy tears, badges of either's woe." 25 Kind. 'Natural.' Shakespeare applies the epithet in Lucrece, 1423, to a picture which is true to life — "Much imaginary work was there; Conceit deceitful, so compact, so kind." 28 I pray you. Note that Beatrice's first enquiry is about Benedick, for whom, of course, she has an unacknowledged liking. The sarcastic, ironical tone of her query sounds the keynote of the word-and-wit encounters that subsequently take place betwixt this "happy, happy pair." Montanto. Implying that Benedick was a great fencer, since Montanto was a fencing term, "an upright blow or thrust," as Cotgrave defines it. The form montant occurs in the Merry Wives, ii. 3. 27, in a list of similar technicalities. Montanto is, no doubt, a quasi-Italian formation from this. Cf. coranto, from courant. 34 Pleasant, 'Witty,' 'facetious.' A very common meaning. Cf. the French plaisant, plaisanterie. 36 Set up his bills. When a fencing-master visited a town he posted up bills setting forth his accomplishments, and the reasons why the world should learn fencing from him alone. Probably, too, these notices contained challenges to all who might feel inclined to have a bout with him. Fencers, however, were not the only people who employed this system of reclame. Dr. Faustus asks himself — "Are not thy bills hung up as monuments, Whereby whole cities have escaped the plague?" — Act i. scene i, lines 19-20; where the bills, pretty certainly, are the advertisements with which, as a travelling physician, he had had towns placarded... 37 At the flight. The flight, in archery, signified a special and very difficult kind of shooting. Elsewhere it is called "roving," and the point of the exercise appears to have been that the archer aimed at objects only just within arrow-shot. Clearly, therefore, the skill consisted in accurately judging distances. 39 The bird-bolt. The bird-bolt was a short blunt arrow. These bolts were used by sportsmen in shooting small birds; being flat at the end, they would just stun the bird without damaging its plumage, or spoiling the flesh for eating purposes. Allusions to them are frequent. Cf. Love's Labour's Lost, iv. 3. 23, "Sweet Cupid, thou hast thumped him with thy bird-bolt;" and (to go outside Shakespeare) Lyly's Sapho and Phao, i. I, where the distinction between bolts and ordinary arrows is emphasised: "Hee gives thee bolts, Cupid, in steed of arrowes." From Fletcher's Faithful Shepherdess, ii. 3, it would seem that there were other baser uses to which they came — "Gins to catch him birds, with bow and bolt To shoot at nimble squirrels in the holt." "The birdbolt" is the sign of an inn at Cambridge. 40 Killed, and eaten in these wars. A natural piece of exaggeration. Cf. Henry V. iii. 7. 99-100 — "Ram. He longs to eat the English. "Con. I think he will eat all he kills." 42 Tax. 'Censure.' Cf. As You Like It, i. 2. 91, "You'll be whipped for taxation." 43 Meet with you. 'Even with you.' A provincialism. 51 Stuffed with. 'Full of.' Compare Romeo and Juliet, iii. 5. 183, "Stuffed ... with honourable parts." 60 Five wits. "The wits," says Johnson, "seem to have been reckoned five, by analogy to the five senses, or the inlets of ideas." As a matter of fact the "five wits" are often equivalent to the five senses. This is clear from many passages; e.g. from a quotation which Hunter gives (Illustrations, vol. ii. p. 271) from Henry the Eighth's Primer (1546), "My five wits have I fondly misused and spent, in hearing, seeing, smelling, tasting, and also feeling." Shakespeare has the same reference in Twelfth Night, iv. 2. 92; Sonnet 141; and Lear, iii. 4. 269. Wit, according to Malone, was in Shakespeare's time "the general term for the intellectual power." (Dyce's Glossary to Shakespeare, p. 57. 62 Wit enough to keep himself warm. A proverb. So the Taming of the Shrew, ii. i. 268-69 — "Pet. Am I not wise? "Kath. Yes; keep you warm." 63 Difference. 'To serve as a distinction.' A term from heraldry, too intricate to be explained here. Compare Hamlet, iv. 5. 183, "Wear your rue with a difference." 66 A new sworn brother. That is, 'bosom friend.' Said in allusion to the mediaeval expression, "Frates jurati," or "Fratres conjurati." They were persons, says Hunter, "linked together in small fellowships, perhaps not more than two, who undertook to defend and assist each other in a military expedition under the sanction of some stricter tie than that which binds the individuals composing a whole army to each other. They are found in genuine history, as well as in the romances of chivalry." (Illustrations of Shakespeare, vol. i. p. 244.) Shakespeare has the phrase several times; e.g. in Richard II. v. I. 20-21 — "Sworn brother, sweet, To grim necessity;" and Winter's Tale, iv. 4. 607, "What a fool Honesty is! and Trust, his sworn brother." 70 Block. That is, 'the wooden block on which hats are made.' A term still in use. "This is a good block," says Lear (iv. 6. 187), meaning 'shape.' 71 Not in your books, 'Not one whom you trust, and to whom you give credit.' We still say that a man is in a person's "books," good or bad, and probably the phrase originated in some commercial practice. To be in a tradesman's "good books " meant that he regarded you as a safe customer, whose debts would not, in technical language, prove "bad." 74 No young squarer. That is, 'quarreler.' The noun is not found elsewhere in Shakespeare; the verb he uses several times in this sense, e.g, in Midsummer Night's Dream, ii. I. 28-30— "And now they never meet in grove or green, • • • • • But they do square." "To square up to" a person is still in use, the metaphor of course being from the position of a boxer. 89 To meet your trouble. Said, presumably, in allusion to the proverb, "Don't meet your trouble half way." 95 Charge. 'Burden;' i.e. of entertaining Don Pedro. Mr. Marshall aptly remarks: "The royal progresses in which the Sovereign used to indulge in Shakespeare's time no doubt conferred great honour upon the person her majesty visited; but they were also a source of considerable expense." A famous royal visit was that which Elizabeth made to the Earl of Leicester at Kenilworth. 101 Have it full. 'Now you know all about it;' or perhaps the words imply that Benedick has had the worst of the wit-encounter. 103 Fathers herself. 'Shows by her face who her father was.' 105 If Signior Leonato, &c. Probably Benedick says this to Beatrice, Don Pedro and Leonato having moved away. As to the sense of the sentence. Benedick seems to mean that Hero would not care to change heads with her father; but the repartee leaves something to be desired. 113 Courtesy. We may remember Milton's derivation — correct enough — in Comus, 322-325 — "Thy honest offer'd courtesy, Which oft is sooner found in lowly sheds With smoky rafters, than in tapstry halls In courts of princes, where it first was nam'd." So Spenser, Faerie Queene, vi. I. i; so, too, Skeat. 114 Must convert. 'Convert' = 'change,' used intransitively, is not uncommon. Cf. Lucrece, 592, "Stones dissolv'd to water do convert;" and "convert from" in Sonnet 49, "Love, converted from the thing it was." 116 Only you excepted. When "excepted" and "except" follow the noun they are probably to be regarded as passive participles; when they precede, as prepositions. Contrast the present instance with iii. I. 93, "Always excepted my dear Claudio;" and see Abbot, Shakespearian Grammar, p. 81. 119 A dear happiness. 'What good luck for them.' 128 As yours were. It is tempting to leave out the "were." 129 A rare parrot-teacher. Implying that she has a fine faculty for prattling. 130 Of my tongue. 'Which I have taught;' or, 'A bird with such a tongue as mine.' 159 Too low. 'Too short.' Cf. Midsummer Night's Dream, i. I. 136, "Too high to be enthrall'd to low." 160 Too brown for a fair praise. The quibble is obvious. As to "brown" compare what Beatrice says of herself in act ii. scene I, "I am sun-burned." Doubtless, there is an allusion to the Elizabethan distaste for dark complexions. As we read in Sonnet 127, "Black was not counted fair." So Lovers Labour's Lost, iv. 3. 247-270. 168 Case. 'Jewel-box.' Case sometimes meant 'a suit of clothes.' So "Cases of buckram" in 1 Henry IV. i. 2. 201. 169 with a sad brow, 'In sober earnest,' 'seriously.' Compare As You Like It, iii. 2. 156, "Sad brow and sober maid." "Sad" = 'serious,' 'grave,' is very common in Shakespeare. Play the flouting Jack. As a schoolboy phrases it, "Are you trying to be funny?" So Tempest, iv. 198, "Done little better than played the Jack with us;" i.e, 'made fools of us.' A Jack was the typical saucy, pert fellow. Like the French Jacques, the word had a contemptuous sense, even as early as Chaucer's time: "Go fro the window, Jacke fool, she said" (Canterbury Tales, 3708, "The Miller's Tale.") It has enriched the language with a whole series of compounds, "Jack-an-apes," "Jack-ass," "boot-Jack." With regard to what follows — "Cupid is a good hare-finder," &c. — I suspect Benedick is talking intentional nonsense. 172 To go in. 'Join in.' 176 There's her cousin. Evidently Benedick is not so indifferent about Beatrice as he would have his friends believe. 186 Sigh away Sundays, Why Sundays? Warburton thought that it was a proverbial expression; but it does not occur elsewhere. Perhaps Sunday was only taken as being the day of rest, and there may be a sneer at the Puritan do-nothing Sabbath. 194 He. Claudio. 195 Your grace's part; i.e. 'to ask with whom he is in love.' 198-99 So were it utter'd. Like the old tale. As to the "old tale." The reference is to a popular story of the time, the tale of Mr. Fox, a grisly conte of the "Bluebeard" type, which reappears in different guises in different countries. Cf., for instance, the tale of Jacke of Shrewsberrie in the Ingoldsby Legends, ii. pp. 169-185. Even with the story to guide us the text is difficult, and one is inclined to think with Johnson that something has dropped out of the dialogue. Johnson himself proposed a very neat change: he suggested that Claudio's speech should break off before utter'd, and that utter'd should be assigned to Benedick. The arrangement would then be as follows: "Claud. If this were so, so were it (implying that Benedick's account is incorrect).Taking the text as it stands, I think the words mean, 'Your description would be quite correct — if only it were true,' ... 205 Fetch me in. 'To trick me into an admission that I love her.' 221 Recheat. A hunting term. When the hounds were called off a certain set of notes was sounded on the horn; this was called a recheat; Old French requeste; Modern, requete. No one need be reminded that Shakespeare was familiar with the terminology of all sorts and conditions of crafts and pursuits... 222 Baldrick. 'Belt.' 225 Fine. 'End,' 'conclusion.' "The fine is the crown" (i.e. finis coronat opus) All's Well, iv. 4. 35. Much the same word-quibble occurs in Hamlet, v. I. 115. 235 Argument. A signal proof of the futility of railing at marriage. Argument often = 'theme,' 'subject.' Cf. argument = 'plot of a piece.' 236 Hang me in a bottle like a cat. The domestic cat, placed in a small wooden barrel ("bottle"), or basket, served as an target for the Elizabethan sportsman. To add to the happiness of the animal a quantity of soot was sometimes inserted in the barrel. 238 Call'd Adam. Theobald was certainly right in regarding this as a reference to the famous archer and outlaw whose praises are sung in an old ballad included in Percy's Reliques... 240 In time the savage bull. A quotation, or rather mis-quotation, from Kyd's Spanish Tragedy, which dramatists of the time were never tired of burlesquing and poking fun at. There is a similar hit in the Induction to the Taming of the Shrew, 9. 10. 244 As they write. On the outside of inns and stables. 250 In Venice. Which had a very evil name. Young Englishmen of fashion resorted [there], and returned with manners unimproved... 252 Temporize with the hours. 'Change in course of time.' 259-62 To the tuition of God, &c. This is a hit at the conventional method of ending a letter, especially an epistle dedicatory. The editors quote a good parallel from Barnabv Googe, who finishes the dedication to his Palingenius (1560) on this wise: "And thus committyng your Ladiship with all yours to the tuicion of the moste mercifull God, I ende. From Staple Inne at London, the eighte and twenty of March." Shakespeare sneers at "the dedicated words which writers use" in Sonnet 82, and Timon of Athens, i. i. 19-20; while his own prefaces to the poems are commendably brief. 264 Guarded, 'Ornamented,' 'trimmed.' Guards were strips of velvet, cloth, or whatnot, placed along the edges of clothes to prevent their getting frayed and worn. No doubt, too, they were made to serve as decorations. Compare Merchant of Venice, ii. 2. 163-64 (with Mr. Beeching's note) — "Give him a livery More guarded than his fellows'." In Love's Labour's Lost, iv. 3. 59, when Longaville says that he will abjure poetry, and "write in prose," Biron replies, " O, rhymes are guards on wanton Cupid's hose;" and parallels without number might be quoted, down to Scott's Lay of the Last Minstrel — "A crimson hood, With pearls embroidered and entwined, Guarded with gold, with ermine lined." — Canto vi. stanza 5. 265 Flout old ends. 'Mock at.' By old ends Benedick must mean the hackneyed conclusions of letters which they have just been ridiculing. 274 Affect, 'Love.' 276 When you went onward, &c. 'When you left for the war which has just finished.' 279 And that. 'Now that.' Sometimes now by itself is equivalent to 'now that' or 'when;' e.g. in Midsummer Night's Dream, iv. I. 67, "And now I have the boy, I will undo." (Abbott, Grammar, p. 194.) 283 To wars. The omission of the article in such adverbial phrases is common. Cf. "To cabin," Tempest, i. i. 17; "He foamed at mouth," Julius Ccesar, i. 2. 256. Abbott gives a number of parallels, p. 65. The Globe Edition puts a full-stop after wars; but probably Claudio was interrupted in the middle of his speech by Don Pedro, who dreads a "lover's tale." 285 Book of words. 'A long harangue.' Cf. v. 2. 32. 287 Break with her, 'Disclose the matter to her.' Cf. ii. I. 272, "I have broke with her father." 291 Complexion, Scan as four syllables. 293 Salv'd, 'Palliated.' So Sonnet 35, "Salving thy amiss." Treatise, 'Discourse.' 294-6 What need the bridge, &c. The sense is simple. 'We should dispense with all that is superfluous: best come straight to the point: what will serve is fit.' The difficulty lies in 1. 306, where the meaning would be much clearer if we could read plea with Hanmer, or ground with Collier's MS, Corrector, Taking the verse as it stands, I would interpret, 'Admit that a thing is necessary; that is the fairer, more excellent way;' i.e. grant = 'admission' (concedo). 294 What need. The syntax here is doubtful. What may be the adverb, and need the verb; or the former an adjective, and the latter a noun; i.e. 'What need is there that the bridge be broader?' 296 'Tis once, 'Once for all.' A curious phrase, which Schmidt takes rather differently, "It is a fact past help." See Abbott, p. 47. ___________ How to cite the explanatory notes: ___________ Related Articles
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