Comparison of William Shakespeare Much Ado About Nothing 3.3 to William Shakespeare

But is this true, or is it else your pleasure, [continues next]

[continues previous] But is this true, or is it else your pleasure,

Alas, that’s nothing. Can he write and read too?

The clerk of Chatham. He can write and read and cast accompt.

And I have been all this day to avoid him. He is too disputable for my company. I think of as many matters as he, but I give heaven thanks, and make no boast of them. Come, warble, come.

We charge you, in the Prince’s name, stand!

Call up the right Master Constable. We have here recover’d the most dangerous piece of lechery that ever was known in the commonwealth.

Yea, marry, that’s the eftest way; let the watch come forth. Masters, I charge you in the Prince’s name accuse these men.

There is no need of any such redress,

But God be thank’d, there is no need of me,

Thou art like one of these fellows that, when he enters the confines of a tavern, claps me his sword upon the table, and says, “God send me no need of thee!” and by the operation of the second cup draws him on the drawer, when indeed there is no need.

I charge thee in the Prince’s name, obey.

Let us entreat ye to go call together

The rest of your sad fellows (by the rule

But let him say so then, and let him go;

But let him swear so, and he shall not stay,

Where is Metellus Cimber? Let him go

And presently prefer his suit to Caesar.

Therefore be patient, take no note of him;

True, and they are to meddle with none but the Prince’s subjects. You shall also make no noise in the streets; for, for the watch to babble and to talk, is most tolerable, and not to be endur’d. [continues next]

And they did make no noise, in such a night

[continues previous] If he will not stand when he is bidden, he is none of the Prince’s subjects.

I grieve to hear what torments you endur’d, [continues next]

But we will be reveng’d sufficiently. [continues next]

O, ho, monster! We know what belongs to a frippery. O King Stephano!

[continues previous] But we will be reveng’d sufficiently.

You jack’nape, give-a this letter to Sir Hugh. By gar, it is a shallenge. I will cut his troat in de park; and I will teach a scurvy jack-a-nape priest to meddle or make — You may be gone; it is not good you tarry here. By gar, I will cut all his two stones; by gar, he shall not have a stone to throw at his dog.

How’s that? I charge you all, lay hands on him.

Had answer’d him. Lay hands on him; a dog!

Marry, sir, he hath offended the law; and, sir, we take him to be a thief too, sir, for we have found upon him, sir, a strange picklock, which we have sent to the deputy.

Of the dank morning? What, is Brutus sick?

And will he steal out of his wholesome bed

The Cardinal is the end of this. ’Tis likely, [continues next]

[continues previous] The Cardinal is the end of this. ’Tis likely,

By’r lady, I think oftener.

By’r lady, I think it be so.

Moral? No, by my troth I have no moral meaning, I meant plain holy-thistle. You may think perchance that I think you are in love. Nay, by’r lady, I am not such a fool to think what I list, nor I list not to think what I can, nor indeed I cannot think, if I would think my heart out of thinking, that you are in love, or that you will be in love, or that you can ...

By’r lady, I think oftener.

Nay, by’r lady, that I think ’a cannot.

Moral? No, by my troth I have no moral meaning, I meant plain holy-thistle. You may think perchance that I think you are in love. Nay, by’r lady, I am not such a fool to think what I list, nor I list not to think what I can, nor indeed I cannot think, if I would think my heart out of thinking, that you are in love, or that you will be in love, or that you can be ...

Though this island seem to be desert — [continues next]

So: you’re paid! [continues next]

A goodly portly man, i’ faith, and a corpulent, of a cheerful look, a pleasing eye, and a most noble carriage, and as I think, his age some fifty, or, by’r lady, inclining to threescore; and now I remember me, his name is Falstaff. If that man should be lewdly given, he deceiveth me; for, Harry, I see virtue in his looks. If then the tree may be known by the fruit, as the fruit by the tree, then peremptorily I speak ...

By’r lady, I think ’a be, but goodman Puff of Barson.

Should have gone off. Ha? What, so rank? Ah ha, [continues next]

To bring him in! By’r lady, I could do much —

[continues previous] Ha, ha, ha!

[continues previous] Should have gone off. Ha? What, so rank? Ah ha,

Monday! Ha, ha! Well, We’n’sday is too soon,

And let us presently go sit in council,

Thanks, sweet Lavinia. Romans, let us go;

Ransomless here we set our prisoners free.

What a coil is there, Dromio?

Follow her close, give her good watch, I pray you.

Grow this to what adverse issue it can, I will put it in practice. Be cunning in the working this, and thy fee is a thousand ducats. [continues next]

Marry, that he had receiv’d a thousand ducats of Don John for accusing the Lady Hero wrongfully.

[continues previous] Grow this to what adverse issue it can, I will put it in practice. Be cunning in the working this, and thy fee is a thousand ducats.

Thou shouldst rather ask if it were possible any villainy should be so rich; for when rich villains have need of poor ones, poor ones may make what price they will. [continues next]

If it were possible to be less than nothing, I wake the man you seek for. There’s the kingdom Within yon valley fixed, while I stand here

If it were possible, ten thousand worlds

I had rather thou shouldst live while nature will

[continues previous] Is it possible that any villainy should be so dear?

The Duke shall grant me justice. I do wonder, [continues next]

Villiers, thou knowest, thou art my prisoner,

[continues previous] Thou naughty jailer, that thou art so fond

... known when there was no music with him but the drum and the fife, and now had he rather hear the tabor and the pipe; I have known when he would have walk’d ten mile afoot to see a good armor, and now will he lie ten nights awake carving the fashion of a new doublet; he was wont to speak plain and to the purpose (like an honest man and a soldier), and now is he turn’d orthography — his words are a very fantastical banquet, just so many strange dishes. May I be so converted and see with these eyes? I cannot tell; I ...

Why, Hal! Thou knowest, as thou art but man, I dare, but as thou art Prince, I fear thee as I fear the roaring of the lion’s whelp.

Thy knower, Patroclus. Then tell me, Patroclus, what art thou?

Thou must tell that knowest.

I know that Deformed; ’a has been a vile thief this seven year; ’a goes up and down like a gentleman. I remember his name. [continues next]

Seest thou not, I say, what a deformed thief this fashion is, how giddily ’a turns about all the hot-bloods between fourteen and five-and-thirty, sometimes fashioning them like Pharaoh’s soldiers in the reechy painting, sometime like god Bel’s priests in the old church-window, sometime like the shaven Hercules in the smirch’d worm-eaten tapestry, where his codpiece seems as massy as his club? [continues next]

I am not vex’d more at any thing in th’ earth; a pox on’t! I had rather not be so noble as I am. They dare not fight with me because of the Queen my mother. Every Jack slave hath his bellyful of fighting, and I must go up and down like a cock that nobody can match.

[continues previous] Tush, I may as well say the fool’s the fool. But seest thou not what a deformed thief this fashion is?

[continues previous] Seest thou not, I say, what a deformed thief this fashion is, how giddily ’a turns about all the hot-bloods between fourteen and five-and-thirty, sometimes fashioning them like Pharaoh’s soldiers in the reechy painting, sometime like god Bel’s priests in the old church-window, sometime like the shaven Hercules in the smirch’d worm-eaten tapestry, where his codpiece seems as massy as ...

A fool in good clothes, and something like thee. ’Tis a spirit; sometime’t appears like a lord, sometime like a lawyer, sometime like a philosopher, with two stones more than ’s artificial one. He is very often like a knight; and, generally, in all shapes that man goes up and down in from fourscore to thirteen, this spirit walks in.

Ajax goes up and down the field, asking for himself.

Why, ’a stalks up and down like a peacock — a stride and a stand; ruminates like an hostess that hath no arithmetic but her brain to set down her reckoning; bites his lip with a politic regard, as who should say there were wit in this head and ’twould out — and so there is; but it ...

Didst thou not hear me swear I would not do it?

And bid me give it thee? Didst thou not hear their shouts?

I have done the deed. Didst thou not hear a noise?

Tush, I may as well say the fool’s the fool. But seest thou not what a deformed thief this fashion is?

I know that Deformed; ’a has been a vile thief this seven year; ’a goes up and down like a gentleman. I remember his name.

Thy death, which is no more. Thou art not thyself,

I can, at any unseasonable instant of the night, appoint her to look out at her lady’s chamber-window.

... your brother’s honor, who hath made this match, and his friend’s reputation, who is thus like to be cozen’d with the semblance of a maid — that you have discover’d thus. They will scarcely believe this without trial. Offer them instances, which shall bear no less likelihood than to see me at her chamber-window, hear me call Margaret Hero, hear Margaret term me Claudio; and bring them to see this the very night, before the intended wedding — for in the mean time I will so fashion the matter that Hero shall be absent — and there shall appear such seeming truth of Hero’s ...

Two of them did, the Prince and Claudio, but the devil my master knew she was Margaret; and partly by his oaths, which first possess’d them, partly by the dark night, which did deceive them, but chiefly by my villainy, which did confirm any slander that Don John had made, away went Claudio enrag’d; swore he would meet her as he was appointed ...

Boy, thou hast said to me a thousand times

Sir Eglamour, a thousand times good morrow.

Tomorrow will I send. So thrive my soul —

A thousand times the worse, to want thy light.

Not so neither, but know that I have tonight woo’d Margaret, the Lady Hero’s gentlewoman, by the name of Hero. She leans me out at her mistress’ chamber-window, bids me a thousand times good night — I tell this tale vildly, I should first tell thee how the Prince, Claudio, and my master, planted and plac’d and possess’d by my master Don John, saw afar off in the orchard this amiable encounter.

This man said, sir, that Don John, the Prince’s brother, was a villain. [continues next]

Madam, you must come to your uncle, yonder’s old coil at home. It is prov’d my Lady Hero hath been falsely accus’d, the Prince and Claudio mightily abus’d, and Don John is the author of all, who is fled and gone. Will you come presently?

From Claudio, and the Prince. But what’s your will?

Ay, he, he offer’d to cut a caper at the proclamation, but he made a groan at it, and swore he would see her tomorrow.

Well, well, as for him, he brought his disease hither; here he does but repair it. I know he will come in our shadow, to scatter his crowns in the sun.

And’t please your Majesty, a rascal that swagger’d with me last night; who if alive and ever dare to challenge this glove, I have sworn to take him a box a’ th’ ear; or if I can see my glove in his cap, which he swore, as he was a soldier, he would wear if alive, I will strike it out soundly.

Which the dark night hath so discovered.

... let that appear when there is no need of such vanity. You are thought here to be the most senseless and fit man for the constable of the watch; therefore bear you the lanthorn. This is your charge: you shall comprehend all vagrom men; you are to bid any man stand, in the Prince’s name. [continues next]

[continues previous] Yea, marry, that’s the eftest way; let the watch come forth. Masters, I charge you in the Prince’s name accuse these men.

We charge you, in the name of God, take heed;

We charge you, in God’s name and the King’s,

I charge thee in the Prince’s name, obey.

[continues previous] ... appear when there is no need of such vanity. You are thought here to be the most senseless and fit man for the constable of the watch; therefore bear you the lanthorn. This is your charge: you shall comprehend all vagrom men; you are to bid any man stand, in the Prince’s name.

Which I have here recover’d from the Moor.

Moreover, sir, which indeed is not under white and black, this plaintiff here, the offender, did call me ass. I beseech you let it be rememb’red in his punishment. And also, the watch heard them talk of one Deformed. They say he wears a key in his ear and a lock hanging by it, and borrows money in God’s name, the which he hath us’d so long and never paid that now men grow hard-hearted and will lend nothing for God’s sake.

Ay, lord, she will become thy bed, I warrant,

And bring thee forth brave brood.