quial forms (e.g., he for a) tends rather to weaken the language.1 The present edition keeps throughout to the Quarto as closely as possible.

Shakespeare's handling of sources in Much Ado About Nothing offers a more than usually stimulating study. Except for its happy ending' the story he chose seems an unpromising foundation for a comedy. It turns on the stratagem by which a lover is tricked into the belief that his betrothed is false. Before ever the buccaneering genius of Shakespeare laid this theme under contribution, its attractions-such as they are had been turned to account by the writers of other countries. Weichberger 2 mentions the Greek romance of Chariton, called Chaereas and Callirhoe; Dunlop, in his History of Fiction,3 1814, refers to the Spanish story of Tirante el Blanco, one of the books in Don Quixote's library. To neither of these does Shakespeare owe any direct debt. Ariosto's treatment of the story in the Orlando Furioso, Books IV., 51-72; V.; VI., 1-16, must be considered more fully. His poem was translated into English by Sir John Harington in 1591; the Genevra episode had been translated as early as 1565 by Peter Beverley. Shakespeare must, therefore, have been well acquainted with Ariosto's version, the outline of which, told very briefly, is as follows: Rinaldo, a knight of Charlemagne, making his way through wild forest country to the court of the Scottish King at Saint Andrews, is just in time to rescue a damsel from the hands of two murderers, who fly at his approach. He decides to take the maid, Dalinda, with him and she tells her story as they ride along together. For many months, Dalinda says, she-a handmaid of the Scottish princess, Genevra-had been the paramour of Polynesso, the Duke of Alban. In time his love wavered but hers remained true and, when he bade her try to win for him the affections of Genevra, she used all her influence with the princess on her faithless lover's behalf. Genevra, however, had already given her heart to Ariodante, who loved her deeply in return. Polynesso's love, rejected, turning to hatred, he determined to avenge himself on the princess, and to this end he offered to prove to Ariodante that Genevra was false.

He

1See Quarto Facsimile by Praetorius, Introduction by P. A. Daniels, where the variations and corrections of Folio, the errors peculiar to Folio, the omissions in Folio, etc., are conveniently tabulated.

2 Jahrbuch, 1898, vol. xxxiv., p. 339.

Quoted by Furness, New Variorum Edition, p. 345.

bade Dalinda dress herself in the clothes of her mistress and receive him, as of old, at the bedroom window. This she did, having neither reason nor wit, "His shamefull drift (though open) to perceive." The eyes of both Ariodante and his brother, Lucarnio, were deceived, and the former, convinced of Genevra's unfaithfulness, retired broken-hearted. News came that he was drowned and Lucarnio was stung into proclaiming the story of Genevra's supposed unchastity. This, according to the law, meant that she must die unless some champion could be found who would kill her accuser and thus establish her innocence. Meanwhile Polynesso, fearing that Dalinda would betray him, gave orders for her murder; from this fate Rinaldo had saved her. Thus far the maid. Thus far the maid. The two reach Saint Andrews, and Rinaldo, first preventing the duel between Lucarnio and an unknown champion, proclaims the villainy of Polynesso and slays him. The stranger knight is, of course, Ariodante, who marries Genevra and all ends happily.

Ariosto's poem does not, on the whole, offer so close a parallel to Much Ado About Nothing as was discovered by Capell in one of the novels of Matteo Bandello.1 It is worth while to give a summary of his prose story also, as Shakespeare seems to have borrowed from both these Italian versions. The tale opens with the dark tragedy of the Sicilian vespers. Urged by the Pope, King Pedro of Arragon descends upon Sicily and seizes the island. He next defeats King Charles II. of Naples with great slaughter and, the better to protect his interests, moves his Court from Palermo to Messina, where he holds high revel. One of his knights, Don Timbreo di Cardona, a favourite with the king and a gallant soldier, falls in love with Fenicia, daughter of Lionato de' Lionati, a private gentleman of the city. Conscious that she is far below him in birth, but desperate for her love which can only be won on fair terms, Timbreo, through a friend, asks for Fenicia's hand in marriage and is gladly accepted as her betrothed husband. Meanwhile another gallant, Girondo, a great friend of Timbreo, becomes deeply enamoured of Fenicia and determines to break off the match so that he himself may marry her. A base accomplice of Girondo tells Timbreo that one of his friends has for long been the accepted lover of Fenicia. Timbreo asks for proof, which is promised. On a dark still night he is placed in hiding in Lionato's grounds; he hears

1 Translated by John Payne, 1890, vol. i., p. 302, the twentieth story.

incriminating words; he sees a ladder placed against the wall and a man mount and enter a window which he believes to lead to Fenicia's chamber. The plot is skilfully contrived. Timbreo is persuaded of the maiden's unchastity. He sends the same intermediary to tell the parents of Fenicia that their daughter is wanton and not worthy to be his bride. None of Fenicia's friends believes the story. She herself is so overcome with grief that, after long prostration, she lies as one dead; the breath seems to leave her body. It is not until her funeral rites have been appointed that her mother finds that she is still alive. The girl is sent secretly to her uncle's country house and the supposed funeral takes place, all Messina firmly believing in her innocence.

Girondo, grieved beyond measure

at the fatal results of his device, acknowledges the truth to Timbreo, who forgives him. Together they repair to Lionato's home and confess all to him. Timbreo promises to marry none but a bride of Lionato's choosing and, at the end of a year, he once more takes Fenicia as his wife, not recognizing in his new bride the maiden he had previously wooed. At the wedding feast, having declared his unalterable love for the lost Fenicia, he learns the truth. All present are overcome with joy. Girondo is espoused to a younger daughter of Lionato and Timbreo once more is united to Fenicia under her rightful name. Here we find the names, Pedro of Arragon and Lionato; the scene laid in Messina; the young favourite of Pedro who has distinguished himself in the recent fighting; the subordinate who contrives the working of the plot, and the device of the pretended death and funeral. Shakespeare may have read Bandello's story in the original Italian or in some lost English version. Furness seems to be right in his view that he owes nothing to Belle-Forest's French translation, published in 1582, under the name of Histoires Tragiques.1

Thirdly, Shakespeare would find this 'well suited' theme sombrely arrayed by Spenser in the second book of The Faerie Queene, canto iv. Phaon, rescued by Sir Guyon from the savage ill-treatment of Furor and his mother, Occasion, tells the story: how he had loved and been loved by fair Claribell; how Philemon, feigning friendship, had awakened his jealousy by a story of her intrigue with a groom of base degree; how, before his deluded eyes, Pryene, Claribell's maid, in the garments of her mistress, had by night received Philemon,

1 Furness, New Variorum Edition, pp. 326-329.

disguised as a groom; how, mad with jealous rage, he had slain Claribell and then, learning the truth, had poisoned Philemon and sought to murder Pryene. This confession of Phaon's serves Spenser as an illustration of the evils of intemperance.

From these materials Shakespeare chose where he would, and to them he added characters and incidents of his own invention. No other play better reveals his powers of construction, his skill in selection and rejection, in the incorporation of new matter with old, in the transmutation of diverse elements so that the whole is wrought by his magic to the lovely, intricate pattern of his design. On this point, it is true, criticism is not unanimous. Some think that the piece that was taken out of the new garment agreeth not with the old. The problem that remains, in connection with the question of sources, is concerned with the possibility of early dramatic versions of the story that may have been accessible to Shakespeare.

The story of Genevra had been dramatized as early as 1582/3 by Mulcaster in "A historie of Ariodante and Geneuora shewed before her maiestie on Shrovetuesdaie." 1 Earlier still, in 1574/5, there is mention of a "matter of Panecia," showed by "my Lord of Leicester's menne." 2 As several editors have pointed out, Panecia may be a mis-spelled form of Fenicia. Shakespeare may thus have seen, and possibly read, dramatic versions of both Ariosto and Bandello: the latter is, of course, purely a matter of conjecture. Finally, there is the suggestion that in the composition of Much Ado About Nothing Shakespeare was revising some old play (his own work or the production of another dramatist), which must, presumably, have furnished closer parallels to the story as he worked it out than have been traced in any source yet discovered.

3

The ground may be cleared at once of certain unhelpful conjectures. To Jacob Ayrer's play Die Schoene Phaenicia, Shakespeare clearly owes nothing. The German drama follows Belle-Forest's version, rather than Bandello's, as Furness points out, and differs from Much Ado About Nothing both in the management of the plot and in general style and

1 A. Feuillerat.

p. 350.

2 Ibid., p. 238.

Documents relating to the Office of the Revels, 1908,

3 Extracts in verse, translated by Professor Solly, are to be found in A. Cohn's Shakespeare in Germany, 1865, pp. 76-111; extracts in prose, translated by the editor, are given by Furness, in his New Variorum Edition, pp. 329-337.

atmosphere. A second theory has been woven round Ayrer's production. Cohn sees marked similarities between the comic under-plots of the English and German plays, and argues thence in favour of an old drama which must have served as the common source of both.1 It would be difficult for unprejudiced eyes to see any resemblance between the love affair of Benedick and Beatrice, and of Anna Maria and Jahn, the clown. On this ground, at least, the argument in favour of an old play fails completely.

One other frail ghost is still to be laid.

In the accounts of the Lord Treasurer Stanhope, for the twelve months between Michaelmas, 1612, and Michaelmas, 1613, appears the following entry:-2

Item, paid to John Heminges uppon the Cowncells warrant dated att Whitehall xx.o die Maij, 1613, for presentinge before the Princes Highnes, the Lady Elizabeth and the Prince Pallatyne Elector, fowerteene severall playes, viz., one playe called Filaster, one other called the Knott of Fooles, one other Much adoe abowte nothinge, the Mayeds Tragedy, the merye dyvell of Edmonton, the Tempest, A kinge and no kinge, the Twins Tragedie, the Winters Tale, Sir John Falstafe, the Moore of Venice, the Nobleman, Cæsars Tragedye, and one other called Love lyes a bleedinge, all which playes weare played within the tyme of this accompte, viz., paid the some of iiij.** xiij. li. vj. s. viij.d.

"Item, paid to the said John Heminges uppon the lyke warrant, dated att Whitehall xx.° die Maij, 1613, for presentinge sixe severall playes, viz:, one playe called a badd beginininge makes a good endinge, one other called the Capteyne, one other the Alcumist, one other Cardenno, one other the Hotspurr, and one other called Benedicte and Betteris, all played within the tyme of this accompte, viz:, paid fortie powndes, and by waye of his Majesties rewarde twentie powndes. In all, lx. li."

At first sight it certainly seems neither reasonable nor likely that a play should be called Much adoe abowte nothinge in one entry and in the item immediately following should be given a different title. It has therefore been suggested that Benedick and Betteris was the name of an earlier play, the immediate source of Shakespeare's comedy. But, in

1 Shakespeare in Germany, pp. lxxii-lxxiv.

"Outlines of the Life of Shakespeare, Halliwell-Phillipps, ii., 87; given also in Ingleby's Centurie of Prayse, New Shakes. Soc., 1879, p. 103.