dialogue; in no play are stage-directions so little necessary. Take for example: "The ladies follow her and but one visor remains " (11. i. 146); "For look where Beatrice, like a lapwing, runs Close by the ground to hear our conference" (111. i. 24-25). Often the action or gesture is implied in a word : "If you go on thus you will kill yourself " (v. i. 1); "If they speak but truth of her These hands shall tear her " (IV. i. 187-188). "There's for thy pains" (v. i. 310); "Here's that shall drive some of them to a noncome " (III. v. 57-58). Further examples might be found in every scene, almost on every page. They all serve to show how in this, as in every other, respect, Much Ado About Nothing is closely and beautifully constructed for the theatre. Perhaps of all the plays this comedy gains most by representation on the stage and loses least. The following is an analysis of Mr. P. A. Daniel's time scheme, published in the Transactions of the New Shakespeare Society, 1877-9, pp. 140-145: 5. Monday. Act III. iv., v.; Act IV. i., ii.; Act v. i., Mr. Daniel adds: "The first Tuesday even in this scheme might very well be left a blank, and II. ii., be included in the opening Monday. "I believe, however, that just as the Prince forgets his determination to stay at the least a month' at Messina, so the 'just seven-night' to the wedding was also either forgotten or intentionally set aside, and that only four consecutive days are actually included in the action of the drama." compressed the time scheme is given as follows: Day 1. Act I.; Act II., i., ii. Act II., iii.; Act III., i.-iii. Thus Act III., iv., v.; Act IV.; Act v., i., ii., iii. (in part). In preparing this edition I have drawn upon many sources and my care has been to acknowledge them all. I hope that there will not be many omissions from the statement of my debts connected with the use of illustrations, quotations, facts of history and literature, and various kinds of evidence. In larger matters of theory and criticism it is more than likely that I often reproduce the opinions of other people, imagining them my own. Among earlier editions those of the eighteenth century must always be first and most gratefully acknowledged. The labours of Mr. H. H. Furness in The New Variorum Shakespeare have provided later workers with a storehouse of useful illustration and information. I have also used and been greatly helped by the editions of Mr. W. A. Wright (Clarendon Press), Mr. J. C. Smith (The Warwick Shakespeare), Mr. F. S. Boas (Clarendon Press), and Sir A. Quiller-Couch and Mr. J. D. Wilson (Cambridge University Press). To Professor Case, general editor of this series, I owe most grateful thanks for help of every kind; for unwearying patience, for generous contributions from his inexhaustible treasury of Elizabethan learning (the suggestions and illustrations directly attributed to him in the notes represent not a tithe of all he has given me), for advice and sympathy in difficulties, and for encouragement which has extended over many years. |