MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING
Act I.
Sc. 1.
"Is it possible Disdain should die while she hath such meet food to feed it as Signior Benedick?"
For 'it' we should probably read her, or rather on.
"Scratching could not make it worse, or 'twere such a face as yours" [were].
The 'were' was probably suggested by the preceding ''twere.'
Sc. 2.
"This be true. Go you and tell her of it."
The metre requires 'should be.'
Sc. 3.
"There is no measure in the occasion that heeds it."
Act II.
Sc. 1.
Bene. "Well I would you did like me."
It should be Balt. here and in the next two speeches.
"Which I mistrusted not. Farewell, therefore, Hero!"
Collier's folio reads needlessly 'then, Hero.'
"It is the base, though bitter disposition of Beatrice."
For 'though,' which can hardly be right, the usual reading is the, the correction of Johnson, which is very good; the words were easily confounded, especially when though was written tho'.
"That I stood like a man at a mark, with a whole army shooting at me."
We should expect him; but 'me' may have been the poet's word. For the first 'at' we might perhaps read as.
"All that Adam had left him before he transgressed."
There must certainly be an error either in 'left' or in 'before.' For the latter we might read after; for the former perhaps lent or about. I think the true reading is lent, in which I had been anticipated by Collier's folio. Lend was constantly used in the sense of give. "I can lend you letters to divers officers," etc. (Jonson, Every Man out, etc. iii. 1.) It is not quite out of use yet.
"County Claudio, when mean you go to church?"
For 'County,' which occurs nowhere else in the play, I read Count, which also suits the metre.
Sc. 2.
"Hear me call Margaret Hero; hear Margaret term me Claudio."
The poet no doubt wrote 'Claudio' here; but from what precedes it certainly should have been Borachio. These slips were not at all unusual with him.
Sc. 3.
"We'll fit the hid fox with a pennyworth."
The originals read 'kid-fox'; but his hiding had just been mentioned, and the name of the game probably alluded to was Hide Fox. Warburton made the correction.
"Since many a lover doth commence his suit thus."
Something seems evidently wanting for the sense.
"Notes, notes, forsooth, and noting!"
Theobald's correction; the old copies have nothing.
"O, ay. Stalk on; stalk on; the fowl sits."
Perhaps for the sake of metre yonder should be added.
"Beats her heart, tears her hair, prays, curses, O sweet Benedick!"
I agree with Collier's folio and Singer in reading cries for 'curses,' which was suggested by 'prays.'
"My lord, will you walk in? dinner is ready."
"And virtuous; 'tis so, I cannot reprove it."
It would perhaps be better to read 'disprove it.'
"And choke a daw withal."
Collier's folio reads 'not choke'; but it is dubious.
Act III.
Sc. 1.
"Good Margaret, run thee in to the parlour."
Pope read 'into.'
"Whisper her ear and tell her I and Ursula."
There has probably been an omission of in before 'her.'
"No, not to be so odd and from all fashions."
The proper word is nor, as Capell also saw.
Sc. 2.
"Well, every one can master a grief, but he that has it."
Both folio and 4to read 'cannot' for 'can,' Pope's correction.
"As a German from the waist downward all slops, and a Spaniard from the hip upward no doublet."
This is only in 4to, 1600. We should probably read, as Mason also did, 'all doublet.'
"He is no fool for fancy as you would have it to appear he is."
For 'fool' we should perhaps read food.
"She shall be buried with her face upwards."
That is, like everybody else. Theobald read heels for face, quoting,
"Whilst I have meat and drink love cannot starve me;
For if I die of the first fit I am unhappy,
And worthy to be buried with my heels upward;"
(Fletcher, Wild-goose Chase, i. 3)
while Mason proposed feet. But Singer says, referring to Winter's Tale, iv. 3, that the meaning is, she shall be buried in her lover's arms; and I think there is a waggish allusion to nuptial joys.
Act IV.
Sc. 1.
"Out on thee, seeming! I will write against it,
You seem to me as Dian in her orb."
For 'thee' we should, I think, read thy or this, as they were pronounced alike, and for 'seem' seem'd, for the same reason.' (See Introd. p. [52].) Pope also read thy, and Hanmer seem'd.
"But if all aim but this be levell'd false."
I would read in; for 'but,' suggested by 'But,' makes nonsense. I have, however, made no change in my Edition.
Act V.
Sc. 1.
"And bid him speak of patience to me."
"And sorrow wag, cry Hem! when he should groan."
For 'wag,' which gives no sense, I would read sway, which gives most excellent sense.
"For Affection,
Mistress of passion, sways it."
Mer. of Ven. iv. 1.
"You sway the motion of Demetrius' heart."
M. N. D. i. 1.
"The will of man is by his reason sway'd."
Ib. ii. 2.
"Our own stars all our fortunes,
Which, as we sway 'em, to abuse or bless us."
Fletch. Chances, ii. 3.
It seems evident that the initial s of sway was effaced, a thing not unusual. As to the change of y to g, I lately read a work on South America, in which the well-known name Almagro was invariably printed Almayro. 'Cry Hem!' may mean, use the language of rakish youths; "Our watch-word was, Hem boys!" (2 Hen. IV. iii. 2).
"Some of us would lie low.—Who is it wrongs him?"
"Gentlemen both, we will not wake your patience."
The meaning of 'wake' is not clear; perhaps we should read task. Hanmer read rack; Talbot waste.
"I cannot bid you bid my daughter live."
A printer's error, probably caused in the usual way. We might better read make, though 'bid' makes sense. 'Can I make men live whe'r they will or no?' (2 Hen. VI. iii. 3.)
"I do embrace your offer, and dispose
From henceforth of poor Claudio."
It would seem that something had been lost at the end, the speech terminates so abruptly. We might supply at your pleasure.
"Have you been deceived; for they swore you did."
Mr. Dyce would read 'for they did swear'; but the two dids rather offend the ear.
"Brave punishments for him. Come, strike up, piper."