Shakespeare-Much Adoabout Nothing

VOLUME I BOOK X

MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING

By William Shakespeare

Dramatis Personae

DON PEDRO prince of Arragon.

VERGES a headborough.

DON JOHN his bastard brother.

A Sexton. (SEXTON)
A Boy. (BOY)

CLAUDIO a young lord of Florence.

HERO daughter to Leonato.

BENEDICK a young lord of Padua.

BEATRICE niece to Leonato.

LEONATO governor of Messina.

MARGARETANTONIO his brother.

URSULA

BALTHASAR attendant on Don Pedro.
CONRADE

followers of
Don John.

BORACHIO
FRIAR FRANCIS.

gentlewomen
attending on Hero.

MESSENGERS, WATCH, ATTENDANTS, &C.
(LORD) (MESSENGER)
(WATCHMAN)
(FIRST WATCHMAN)
(SECOND WATCHMAN)

DOGBERRY a constable.

SCENE Messina.

Much Ado About Nothing

ACT I
SCENE I
Before LEONATO’s house.

MESSSENGER

Akind overflow of kindness: there are no
faces truer than those that are so washed. How much
better is it to weep at joy than to joy at weeping!
LEONATO

[Enter LEONATO, HERO, and BEATRICE, with
a MESSENGER]
I learn in this letter that Don Peter of
Arragon comes this night to Messina.
LEONATO

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

How manygentlemen have you lost in
this action?
LEONATO

MESSENGER

In great measure.

But few of any sort, and none of name.

A victory is twice itself when the achiever
brings home full numbers. I find here that Don Peter
hath bestowed much honour on a young Florentine
called Claudio.
LEONATO

Much deserved on his part and equally
remembered by Don Pedro: he hath borne himself
beyondthe promise of his age, doing, in the figure of a
lamb, the feats of a lion: he hath indeed better bettered
expectation than you must expect of me to tell
you how.
MESSENGER

I pray you, is Signior Mountanto returned
from the wars or no?
BEATRICE

I know none of that name, lady: there was
none such in the army of any sort.
MESSENGER

LEONATO
HERO

What is he that you ask for,niece?

My cousin means Signior Benedick of Padua.

O, he’s returned; and as pleasant as
ever he was.
MESSENGER

He set up his bills here in Messina and
challenged Cupid at the flight; and my uncle’s fool,
reading the challenge, subscribed for Cupid, and
challenged him at the bird-bolt. I pray you, how many
hath he killed and eaten in these wars? But how many
hath he killed? for indeed Ipromised to eat all of
his killing.
BEATRICE

Faith, niece, you tax Signior Benedick too
much; but he’ll be meet with you, I doubt it not.
LEONATO

He hath an uncle here in Messina will be very
much glad of it.

MESSENGER

I have already delivered him letters, and
there appears much joy in him; even so much that joy
could not show itself modest enough without a badge
of bitterness.BEATRICE

LEONATO

MESSSENGER

LEONATO

Did he break out into tears?

He hath done good service, lady, in

these wars.
You had musty victual, and he hath holp to
eat it: he is a very valiant trencherman; he hath an
excellent stomach.
MESSENGER

Volume I Book X

And a good soldier too, lady.

5

Much Ado About Nothing: ACT I
BEATRICE

And a good soldier to a lady:but what is he

to a lord?
MESSENGER A lord to a lord, a man to a man; stuffed
with all honourable virtues.
BEATRICE It is so, indeed; he is no less than a stuffed
man: but for the stuffing,—well, we are all mortal.

You must not, sir, mistake my niece. There is
a kind of merry war betwixt Signior Benedick and her:
they never meet but there’s a skirmish of wit
between them.

LEONATOBEATRICE Alas! he gets nothing by that. In our last
conflict four of his five wits went halting off, and now
is the whole man governed with one: so that if he have
wit enough to keep himself warm, let him bear it for a
difference between himself and his horse; for it is all the
wealth that he hath left, to be known a reasonable
creature. Who is his companion now? He hath every
month a new...