Much Ado About Nothing
Please see the bottom of this page for detailed explanatory notes and related resources.
| ACT IV SCENE II | A prison. | |
| | Enter DOGBERRY, VERGES, and Sexton, in gowns; and the Watch, with CONRADE and BORACHIO. | |
| DOGBERRY | Is our whole dissembly appeared? | |
| VERGES | O, a stool and a cushion for the sexton. | |
| Sexton | Which be the malefactors? | |
| DOGBERRY | Marry, that am I and my partner. |
| VERGES | Nay, that's certain; we have the exhibition to examine. | |
| Sexton | But which are the offenders that are to be | |
| | examined? let them come before master constable. | |
| DOGBERRY | Yea, marry, let them come before me. What is your | |
| | name, friend? | 10 |
| BORACHIO | Borachio. | |
| DOGBERRY | Pray, write down, Borachio. Yours, sirrah? | |
| CONRADE | I am a gentleman, sir, and my name is Conrade. | |
| DOGBERRY | Write down, master gentleman Conrade. Masters, do | |
| | you serve God? |
| CONRADE | | | |
| | | Yea, sir, we hope. | |
| BORACHIO | | | |
| DOGBERRY | Write down, that they hope they serve God: and | |
| | write God first; for God defend but God should go |
| | before such villains! Masters, it is proved already | |
| | that you are little better than false knaves; and it | |
| | will go near to be thought so shortly. How answer | |
| | you for yourselves? | 21 | |
| CONRADE | Marry, sir, we say we are none. |
| DOGBERRY | A marvellous witty fellow, I assure you: but I | |
| | will go about with him. Come you hither, sirrah; a | |
| | word in your ear: sir, I say to you, it is thought | |
| | you are false knaves. | |
| BORACHIO | Sir, I say to you we are none. |
| DOGBERRY | Well, stand aside. 'Fore God, they are both in a | |
| | tale. Have you writ down, that they are none? | |
| Sexton | Master constable, you go not the way to examine: | |
| | you must call forth the watch that are their accusers. | 31 | |
| DOGBERRY | Yea, marry, that's the eftest way. Let the watch |
| | come forth. Masters, I charge you, in the prince's | |
| | name, accuse these men. | |
| First Watchman | This man said, sir, that Don John, the prince's | |
| | brother, was a villain. | |
| DOGBERRY | Write down Prince John a villain. Why, this is flat |
| | perjury, to call a prince's brother villain. | |
| BORACHIO | Master constable,-- | |
| DOGBERRY | Pray thee, fellow, peace: I do not like thy look, | |
| | I promise thee. | 41 | |
| Sexton | What heard you him say else? |
| Second Watchman | Marry, that he had received a thousand ducats of | |
| | Don John for accusing the Lady Hero wrongfully. | |
| DOGBERRY | Flat burglary as ever was committed. | |
| VERGES | Yea, by mass, that it is. | |
| Sexton | What else, fellow? |
| First Watchman | And that Count Claudio did mean, upon his words, to | |
| | disgrace Hero before the whole assembly. and not marry her. | 51 | |
| DOGBERRY | O villain! thou wilt be condemned into everlasting | |
| | redemption for this. | |
| Sexton | What else? |
| Watchman | This is all. | |
| Sexton | And this is more, masters, than you can deny. | |
| | Prince John is this morning secretly stolen away; | |
| | Hero was in this manner accused, in this very manner | |
| | refused, and upon the grief of this suddenly died. |
| | Master constable, let these men be bound, and | |
| | brought to Leonato's: I will go before and show | |
| | him their examination. | |
| | Exit | |
| DOGBERRY | Come, let them be opinioned. | 62 | |
| VERGES | Let them be in the hands-- |
| CONRADE | Off, coxcomb! | |
| DOGBERRY | God's my life, where's the sexton? let him write | |
| | down the prince's officer coxcomb. Come, bind them. | |
| | Thou naughty varlet! | |
| CONRADE | Away! you are an ass, you are an ass. |
| DOGBERRY | Dost thou not suspect my place? dost thou not | |
| | suspect my years? O that he were here to write me | |
| | down an ass! But, masters, remember that I am an | |
| | ass; though it be not written down, yet forget not | |
| | that I am an ass. No, thou villain, thou art full of |
| | piety, as shall be proved upon thee by good witness. | |
| | I am a wise fellow, and, which is more, an officer, | |
| | and, which is more, a householder, and, which is | |
| | more, as pretty a piece of flesh as any is in | 76 | |
| | Messina, and one that knows the law, go to; and a |
| | rich fellow enough, go to; and a fellow that hath | |
| | had losses, and one that hath two gowns and every | |
| | thing handsome about him. Bring him away. O that | |
| | I had been writ down an ass! | |
| | Exeunt | |
Next: Much Ado About Nothing, Act 5, Scene 1
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Explanatory Notes for Act 4, Scene 2
From Much Ado About Nothing. Ed. A. Wilson Verity. London: Rivingtons.
In this scene the names of the actors, not of the characters, are prefixed to the different speeches; while the assignment of
the parts is arbitrary and incorrect. The first Folio does not
correct the errors of the Quarto.
4 That am I. "Malefactors" had such a lordly ring, that
Dewberry at once takes it in a complimentary sense. The longer
the word, the more is he impressed; in act iii. 5. 23 "tediousness" touched him deeply. Cf. too the next note.
5-6 Exhibition to examine. A blunder, says Steevens, for
examination to exhibit = 'make an official report of our enquiry.'
Exhibit, in the legal sense, occurs several times; e.g. in Merry
Wives, ii. I. 29. So exhibiter = 'one who presents a bill in
Parliament,' Henry V. i. i. 74. The suggestion seems to me
far-fetched. Much more probably Dogberry uses exhibition because it sounds well.
17-21 Omitted in the Folios, in obedience, no doubt, to the
Act against profanity on the stage. See note on ii. 3. 172.
32 Eftest. 'Most convenient.' Eft = 'quickly' is not uncommon in Spenser; and eftsoons = 'by-and-by' comes in
Pericles, v. I. 256. Deftest, easiest, are needless conjectures.
Even if eftest were more curious than it is, the editors might
remember that the speaker is Dogberry, for whom convention
has no terrors.
63-64 Verg. Let them be in the hands —
Con. Off, coxcomb!
Printed as a single speech in the Quarto and first Folio. Marked as corrupt in Globe Edition. The most probable explanation of
the passage is this: Verges was going to say, "Let them be in the hands of justice" (or "the law," or some such word), and
moved towards Conrade and Borachio; but before he could
touch them, or finish his sentence, Conrade burst in with, "Off,
coxcomb!" and the official command remained an abrupt anacoluthon. That Conrade, and not Borachio, interrupted is
pretty clear firom what follows. Of course there is no lack of
emendations.
76 As pretty a piece. Compare Twelfth Night, i 5. 30- 31,
"As witty a piece of Eve's flesh as any in Illyria." Piece is often
used in this way of persons; e.g. in Troilus and Cressida, iii. i. 62.
___________
How to cite the explanatory notes:
Shakespeare, William. Much Ado About Nothing. Ed. A. Wilson Verity. London: Rivingtons, 1890. Shakespeare Online. 20 Feb. 2010. (date when you accessed the information) < http://www.shakespeare-online.com/plays/much_4_2.html >.
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