Much ado about nothing E-Book

William Shakespeare

• Herausgeber: William Shakespeare
• Kategorie: Poesie und Drama
• Sprache: Englisch

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2016

Beschreibung

Never came trouble to my house in the likeness of
your grace: for trouble being gone, comfort should
remain; but when you depart from me, sorrow abides
and happiness takes his leave.

Leseprobe

William Shakespeare

Much ado about nothing

UUID: 86c35c0c-12c6-11e6-8a26-0f7870795abd

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Table of contents

Act 1

Act 2

Act 3

Act 4

Act 5

Dramatis Personae DON PEDRO, Prince of Arragon. DON JOHN, his bastard Brother. CLAUDIO, a young Lord of Florence. BENEDICK, a young Lord of Padua. LEONATO, Governor of Messina. ANTONIO, his Brother. BALTHAZAR, Servant to Don Pedro. BORACHIO, follower of Don John. CONRADE, follower of Don John. DOGBERRY, a Constable. VERGES, a Headborough. FRIAR FRANCIS. A Sexton. A Boy. HERO, Daughter to Leonato. BEATRICE, Niece to Leonato. MARGARET, Waiting-gentlewoman attending on Hero. URSULA, Waiting-gentlewoman attending on Hero. Messengers, Watch, Attendants, &c. SCENE. Messina.

Act 1

Scene 1 Before LEONATO'S house. Enter LEONATO, HERO, and BEATRICE, with a Messenger LEONATO I learn in this letter that Don Peter of Arragoncomes this night to Messina. Messenger He is very near by this: he was not three leagues offwhen I left him. LEONATO How many gentlemen have you lost in this action? Messenger But few of any sort, and none of name. LEONATO A victory is twice itself when the achiever bringshome full numbers. I find here that Don Peter hathbestowed much honour on a young Florentine called Claudio. Messenger Much deserved on his part and equally remembered byDon Pedro: he hath borne himself beyond thepromise of his age, doing, in the figure of a lamb,the feats of a lion: he hath indeed betterbettered expectation than you must expect of me totell you how. LEONATO He hath an uncle here in Messina will be very muchglad of it. Messenger I have already delivered him letters, and thereappears much joy in him; even so much that joy couldnot show itself modest enough without a badge ofbitterness. LEONATO Did he break out into tears? Messenger In great measure. LEONATO A kind overflow of kindness: there are no facestruer than those that are so washed. How muchbetter is it to weep at joy than to joy at weeping! BEATRICE I pray you, is Signior Mountanto returned from thewars or no? Messenger I know none of that name, lady: there was none suchin the army of any sort. LEONATO What is he that you ask for, niece? HERO My cousin means Signior Benedick of Padua. Messenger O, he's returned; and as pleasant as ever he was. BEATRICE He set up his bills here in Messina and challengedCupid at the flight; and my uncle's fool, readingthe challenge, subscribed for Cupid, and challengedhim at the bird-bolt. I pray you, how many hath hekilled and eaten in these wars? But how many hathhe killed? for indeed I promised to eat all of his killing. LEONATO Faith, niece, you tax Signior Benedick too much;but he'll be meet with you, I doubt it not. Messenger He hath done good service, lady, in these wars. BEATRICE You had musty victual, and he hath holp to eat it:he is a very valiant trencherman; he hath anexcellent stomach. Messenger And a good soldier too, lady. 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 allhonourable virtues. BEATRICE It is so, indeed; he is no less than a stuffed man:but for the stuffing,--well, we are all mortal. LEONATO You must not, sir, mistake my niece. There is akind of merry war betwixt Signior Benedick and her:they never meet but there's a skirmish of witbetween them. BEATRICE Alas! he gets nothing by that. In our lastconflict four of his five wits went halting off, andnow is the whole man governed with one: so that ifhe have wit enough to keep himself warm, let himbear it for a difference between himself and hishorse; for it is all the wealth that he hath left,to be known a reasonable creature. Who is hiscompanion now? He hath every month a new sworn brother. Messenger Is't possible? BEATRICE Very easily possible: he wears his faith but asthe fashion of his hat; it ever changes with thenext block. Messenger I see, lady, the gentleman is not in your books. BEATRICE No; an he were, I would burn my study. But, I prayyou, who is his companion? Is there no youngsquarer now that will make a voyage with him to the devil? Messenger He is most in the company of the right noble Claudio. BEATRICE O Lord, he will hang upon him like a disease: heis sooner caught than the pestilence, and the takerruns presently mad. God help the noble Claudio! ifhe have caught the Benedick, it will cost him athousand pound ere a' be cured. Messenger I will hold friends with you, lady. BEATRICE Do, good friend. LEONATO You will never run mad, niece. BEATRICE No, not till a hot January. Messenger Don Pedro is approached. Enter DON PEDRO, DON JOHN, CLAUDIO, BENEDICK, and BALTHASAR DON PEDRO Good Signior Leonato, you are come to meet yourtrouble: the fashion of the world is to avoidcost, and you encounter it. LEONATO Never came trouble to my house in the likeness ofyour grace: for trouble being gone, comfort shouldremain; but when you depart from me, sorrow abidesand happiness takes his leave. DON PEDRO You embrace your charge too willingly. I think thisis your daughter. LEONATO Her mother hath many times told me so. BENEDICK Were you in doubt, sir, that you asked her? LEONATO Signior Benedick, no; for then were you a child. DON PEDRO You have it full, Benedick: we may guess by thiswhat you are, being a man. Truly, the lady fathersherself. Be happy, lady; for you are like anhonourable father. BENEDICK If Signior Leonato be her father, she would nothave his head on her shoulders for all Messina, aslike him as she is. BEATRICE I wonder that you will still be talking, SigniorBenedick: nobody marks you. BENEDICK What, my dear Lady Disdain! are you yet living? BEATRICE Is it possible disdain should die while she hathsuch meet food to feed it as Signior Benedick?Courtesy itself must convert to disdain, if you comein her presence. BENEDICK Then is courtesy a turncoat. But it is certain Iam loved of all ladies, only you excepted: and Iwould I could find in my heart that I had not a hardheart; for, truly, I love none. BEATRICE A dear happiness to women: they would else havebeen troubled with a pernicious suitor. I thank Godand my cold blood, I am of your humour for that: Ihad rather hear my dog bark at a crow than a manswear he loves me. BENEDICK God keep your ladyship still in that mind! so somegentleman or other shall 'scape a predestinatescratched face. BEATRICE Scratching could not make it worse, an 'twere sucha face as yours were. BENEDICK Well, you are a rare parrot-teacher. BEATRICE A bird of my tongue is better than a beast of yours. BENEDICK I would my horse had the speed of your tongue, andso good a continuer. But keep your way, i' God'sname; I have done. BEATRICE You always end with a jade's trick: I know you of old. DON PEDRO That is the sum of all, Leonato. Signior Claudioand Signior Benedick, my dear friend Leonato hathinvited you all. I tell him we shall stay here atthe least a month; and he heartily prays someoccasion may detain us longer. I dare swear he is nohypocrite, but prays from his heart. LEONATO If you swear, my lord, you shall not be forsworn. To DON JOHN Let me bid you welcome, my lord: being reconciled tothe prince your brother, I owe you all duty. DON JOHN I thank you: I am not of many words, but I thankyou. LEONATO Please it your grace lead on? DON PEDRO Your hand, Leonato; we will go together. Exeunt all except BENEDICK and CLAUDIO CLAUDIO Benedick, didst thou note the daughter of Signior Leonato? BENEDICK I noted her not; but I looked on her. CLAUDIO Is she not a modest young lady? BENEDICK Do you question me, as an honest man should do, formy simple true judgment; or would you have me speakafter my custom, as being a professed tyrant to their sex? CLAUDIO No; I pray thee speak in sober judgment. BENEDICK Why, i' faith, methinks she's too low for a highpraise, too brown for a fair praise and too littlefor a great praise: only this commendation I canafford her, that were she other than she is, shewere unhandsome; and being no other but as she is, Ido not like her. CLAUDIO Thou thinkest I am in sport: I pray thee tell metruly how thou likest her. BENEDICK Would you buy her, that you inquire after her? CLAUDIO Can the world buy such a jewel? BENEDICK Yea, and a case to put it into. But speak you thiswith a sad brow? or do you play the flouting Jack,to tell us Cupid is a good hare-finder and Vulcan arare carpenter? Come, in what key shall a man takeyou, to go in the song? CLAUDIO In mine eye she is the sweetest lady that ever Ilooked on. BENEDICK I can see yet without spectacles and I see no suchmatter: there's her cousin, an she were notpossessed with a fury, exceeds her as much in beautyas the first of May doth the last of December. But Ihope you have no intent to turn husband, have you? CLAUDIO I would scarce trust myself, though I had sworn thecontrary, if Hero would be my wife. BENEDICK Is't come to this? In faith, hath not the worldone man but he will wear his cap with suspicion?Shall I never see a bachelor of three-score again?Go to, i' faith; an thou wilt needs thrust thy neckinto a yoke, wear the print of it and sigh awaySundays. Look Don Pedro is returned to seek you. Re-enter DON PEDRO DON PEDRO What secret hath held you here, that you followednot to Leonato's? BENEDICK I would your grace would constrain me to tell. DON PEDRO I charge thee on thy allegiance. BENEDICK You hear, Count Claudio: I can be secret as a dumbman; I would have you think so; but, on myallegiance, mark you this, on my allegiance. He isin love. With who? now that is your grace's part.Mark how short his answer is;--With Hero, Leonato'sshort daughter. CLAUDIO If this were so, so were it uttered. BENEDICK Like the old tale, my lord: 'it is not so, nor'twas not so, but, indeed, God forbid it should beso.' CLAUDIO If my passion change not shortly, God forbid itshould be otherwise. DON PEDRO Amen, if you love her; for the lady is very well worthy. CLAUDIO You speak this to fetch me in, my lord. DON PEDRO By my troth, I speak my thought. CLAUDIO And, in faith, my lord, I spoke mine. BENEDICK And, by my two faiths and troths, my lord, I spoke mine. CLAUDIO That I love her, I feel. DON PEDRO That she is worthy, I know. BENEDICK That I neither feel how she should be loved norknow how she should be worthy, is the opinion thatfire cannot melt out of me: I will die in it at the stake. DON PEDRO Thou wast ever an obstinate heretic in the despiteof beauty. CLAUDIO And never could maintain his part but in the forceof his will. BENEDICK That a woman conceived me, I thank her; that shebrought me up, I likewise give her most humblethanks: but that I will have a recheat winded in myforehead, or hang my bugle in an invisible baldrick,all women shall pardon me. Because I will not dothem the wrong to mistrust any, I will do myself theright to trust none; and the fine is, for the whichI may go the finer, I will live a bachelor. DON PEDRO I shall see thee, ere I die, look pale with love. BENEDICK With anger, with sickness, or with hunger, my lord,not with love: prove that ever I lose more bloodwith love than I will get again with drinking, pickout mine eyes with a ballad-maker's pen and hang meup at the door of a brothel-house for the sign ofblind Cupid. DON PEDRO Well, if ever thou dost fall from this faith, thouwilt prove a notable argument. BENEDICK If I do, hang me in a bottle like a cat and shootat me; and he that hits me, let him be clapped onthe shoulder, and called Adam. DON PEDRO Well, as time shall try: 'In time the savage bulldoth bear the yoke.' BENEDICK The savage bull may; but if ever the sensibleBenedick bear it, pluck off the bull's horns and setthem in my forehead: and let me be vilely painted,and in such great letters as they write 'Here isgood horse to hire,' let them signify under my sign'Here you may see Benedick the married man.' CLAUDIO If this should ever happen, thou wouldst be horn-mad. DON PEDRO Nay, if Cupid have not spent all his quiver inVenice, thou wilt quake for this shortly. BENEDICK I look for an earthquake too, then. DON PEDRO Well, you temporize with the hours. In themeantime, good Signior Benedick, repair toLeonato's: commend me to him and tell him I willnot fail him at supper; for indeed he hath madegreat preparation. BENEDICK I have almost matter enough in me for such anembassage; and so I commit you-- CLAUDIO To the tuition of God: From my house, if I had it,-- DON PEDRO The sixth of July: Your loving friend, Benedick. BENEDICK Nay, mock not, mock not. The body of yourdiscourse is sometime guarded with fragments, andthe guards are but slightly basted on neither: ereyou flout old ends any further, examine yourconscience: and so I leave you. Exit CLAUDIO My liege, your highness now may do me good. DON PEDRO My love is thine to teach: teach it but how,And thou shalt see how apt it is to learnAny hard lesson that may do thee good. CLAUDIO Hath Leonato any son, my lord? DON PEDRO No child but Hero; she's his only heir.Dost thou affect her, Claudio? CLAUDIO O, my lord,When you went onward on this ended action,I look'd upon her with a soldier's eye,That liked, but had a rougher task in handThan to drive liking to the name of love:But now I am return'd and that war-thoughtsHave left their places vacant, in their roomsCome thronging soft and delicate desires,All prompting me how fair young Hero is,Saying, I liked her ere I went to wars. DON PEDRO Thou wilt be like a lover presentlyAnd tire the hearer with a book of words.If thou dost love fair Hero, cherish it,And I will break with her and with her father,And thou shalt have her. Was't not to this endThat thou began'st to twist so fine a story? CLAUDIO How sweetly you do minister to love,That know love's grief by his complexion!But lest my liking might too sudden seem,I would have salved it with a longer treatise. DON PEDRO What need the bridge much broader than the flood?The fairest grant is the necessity.Look, what will serve is fit: 'tis once, thou lovest,And I will fit thee with the remedy.I know we shall have revelling to-night:I will assume thy part in some disguiseAnd tell fair Hero I am Claudio,And in her bosom I'll unclasp my heartAnd take her hearing prisoner with the forceAnd strong encounter of my amorous tale:Then after to her father will I break;And the conclusion is, she shall be thine.In practise let us put it presently. Exeunt Scene 2   A room in LEONATO's house. Enter LEONATO and ANTONIO, meeting LEONATO How now, brother! Where is my cousin, your son?hath he provided this music? ANTONIO He is very busy about it. But, brother, I can tellyou strange news that you yet dreamt not of. LEONATO Are they good? ANTONIO As the event stamps them: but they have a goodcover; they show well outward. The prince and CountClaudio, walking in a thick-pleached alley in mineorchard, were thus much overheard by a man of mine:the prince discovered to Claudio that he loved myniece your daughter and meant to acknowledge itthis night in a dance: and if he found heraccordant, he meant to take the present time by thetop and instantly break with you of it. LEONATO Hath the fellow any wit that told you this? ANTONIO A good sharp fellow: I will send for him; andquestion him yourself. LEONATO No, no; we will hold it as a dream till it appearitself: but I will acquaint my daughter withal,that she may be the better prepared for an answer,if peradventure this be true. Go you and tell her of it. Enter Attendants Cousins, you know what you have to do. O, I cry youmercy, friend; go you with me, and I will use yourskill. Good cousin, have a care this busy time. Exeunt Scene 3   The same. Enter DON JOHN and CONRADE CONRADE What the good-year, my lord! why are you thus outof measure sad? DON JOHN There is no measure in the occasion that breeds;therefore the sadness is without limit. CONRADE You should hear reason. DON JOHN And when I have heard it, what blessing brings it? CONRADE If not a present remedy, at least a patientsufferance. DON JOHN I wonder that thou, being, as thou sayest thou art,born under Saturn, goest about to apply a moralmedicine to a mortifying mischief. I cannot hidewhat I am: I must be sad when I have cause and smileat no man's jests, eat when I have stomach and waitfor no man's leisure, sleep when I am drowsy andtend on no man's business, laugh when I am merry andclaw no man in his humour. CONRADE Yea, but you must not make the full show of thistill you may do it without controlment. You have oflate stood out against your brother, and he hathta'en you newly into his grace; where it isimpossible you should take true root but by thefair weather that you make yourself: it is needfulthat you frame the season for your own harvest. DON JOHN I had rather be a canker in a hedge than a rose inhis grace, and it better fits my blood to bedisdained of all than to fashion a carriage to roblove from any: in this, though I cannot be said tobe a flattering honest man, it must not be deniedbut I am a plain-dealing villain. I am trusted witha muzzle and enfranchised with a clog; therefore Ihave decreed not to sing in my cage. If I had mymouth, I would bite; if I had my liberty, I would domy liking: in the meantime let me be that I am andseek not to alter me. CONRADE Can you make no use of your discontent? DON JOHN I make all use of it, for I use it only.Who comes here? Enter BORACHIO What news, Borachio? BORACHIO I came yonder from a great supper: the prince yourbrother is royally entertained by Leonato: and Ican give you intelligence of an intended marriage. DON JOHN Will it serve for any model to build mischief on?What is he for a fool that betroths himself tounquietness? BORACHIO Marry, it is your brother's right hand. DON JOHN Who? the most exquisite Claudio? BORACHIO Even he. DON JOHN A proper squire! And who, and who? which way lookshe? BORACHIO Marry, on Hero, the daughter and heir of Leonato. DON JOHN A very forward March-chick! How came you to this? BORACHIO Being entertained for a perfumer, as I was smoking amusty room, comes me the prince and Claudio, handin hand in sad conference: I whipt me behind thearras; and there heard it agreed upon that theprince should woo Hero for himself, and havingobtained her, give her to Count Claudio. DON JOHN Come, come, let us thither: this may prove food tomy displeasure. That young start-up hath all theglory of my overthrow: if I can cross him any way, Ibless myself every way. You are both sure, and will assist me? CONRADE To the death, my lord. DON JOHN Let us to the great supper: their cheer is thegreater that I am subdued. Would the cook were ofmy mind! Shall we go prove what's to be done? BORACHIO We'll wait upon your lordship. Exeunt