A side-by-side translation of Act 4, Scene 1 of Much Ado About Nothing from the original Shakespeare into modern English.
Original Text |
Translated Text |
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| Source: Folger Shakespeare Library | |
Enter Prince, John the Bastard, Leonato, Friar, LEONATO Come, Friar Francis, be brief, only to the FRIAR, to Claudio You come hither, my lord, to marry CLAUDIO No. LEONATO To be married to her.—Friar, you come to FRIAR Lady, you come hither to be married to this HERO I do. FRIAR If either of you know any inward impediment CLAUDIO Know you any, Hero? 15 HERO None, my lord. FRIAR Know you any, count? LEONATO I dare make his answer, none. CLAUDIO O, what men dare do! What men may do! BENEDICK How now, interjections? Why, then, some | Everyone is gathered for the wedding. Leonato recommends they get down to business, and the Friar gets off to a false start when he asks if Claudio has come to marry the lady. Claudio says, "No." Leonato says it's the Friar's job to marry Hero. Claudio is getting married to her. That's clearly what Claudio meant with his "no." He was just being persnickety about the Friar's grammar. Turns out Leonato is wrong, because two seconds later, Claudio freaks out on everyone. |
CLAUDIO LEONATO CLAUDIO PRINCE CLAUDIO LEONATO CLAUDIO Not to be married, LEONATO CLAUDIO | Claudio asks if Leonato is willing to give away his daughter, who is a precious gift. Leonato says he is, and Claudio says, "Don't bother. I won’t take her, because she’s a whore." Hero blushes, naturally, and Claudio says she blushes from guilt, not modesty. Leonato is shocked by the accusation that his daughter is an "approved wanton" (meaning a confirmed adulteress). Leonato asks if Claudio is referring to some effort he might’ve made to take Hero’s virginity before their wedding day. Claudio cuts him off. He knew Leonato would suggest that it's really not that big a deal if Hero slept with Claudio before her wedding day, since she would only be sinning against (and with) her husband-to-be. But that's not what happened. Claudio says didn’t try anything on Hero that a brother wouldn’t try with a sister, which is a really weird way to say he was being patient and not trying to sleep with Hero before their wedding. |
HERO CLAUDIO HERO LEONATO PRINCE What should I 65 LEONATO DON JOHN BENEDICK This looks not like a nuptial. HERO True! O God! CLAUDIO Leonato, stand I here? LEONATO CLAUDIO LEONATO HERO CLAUDIO HERO CLAUDIO Marry, that can Hero! HERO | Hero tries to stand up for herself, asking if she ever seemed less than modest to Claudio. Claudio says that’s the whole point; she’s not what she seems. He even calls her an animal! Leonato asks Prince Don Pedro if he has anything to say about this madness. Don Pedro says he's ashamed that he hooked his friend up with a common slut. Benedick says he doesn't think this is the way a wedding is supposed to go... The madness continues, and Hero asks who could possibly stain her name. Claudio says she stained her own name. Then he asks who it was that Hero was talking to out of her window between midnight and one last night. Hero insists she wasn’t talking to anyone. |
PRINCE DON JOHN CLAUDIO | Don Pedro says that he, Don John, and Claudio clearly witnessed some man "talking" with Hero at her window last night. The man was kind enough to confess the thousand times that he and Hero had "vile encounters" before that. We don’t think he was talking about a friendly game of cribbage. Don John says it would be too offensive to repeat everything they heard. Also, he’s sorry that Hero is such a misguided young girl. Claudio, not to lose his Mr. Melodrama title, laments that Hero would’ve been a great girl if her heart had been as pure as her outward appearance. But she's sleazy, and now he's going to suspect all beautiful things of being faithless. She’s ruined him. |
LEONATO Hero falls. BEATRICE DON JOHN Claudio, Prince, and Don John exit. BENEDICK BEATRICE Dead, I think.—Help, uncle!— LEONATO BEATRICE How now, cousin Hero? Hero stirs. FRIAR, to Hero Have comfort, lady. 125 LEONATO, to Hero FRIAR Yea, wherefore should she not? LEONATO | Leonato asks if anyone has a knife so he can kill himself. Hero faints. Don Pedro, Don John, and Claudio exit while everyone else is tending to the fainting, slandered girl, Hero. Beatrice worries that Hero is dead, and Leonato’s like, "Awesome, being dead would be a good way to hide her shame." Leonato is distraught when it turns out Hero isn't dead. He laments that he had only one child, and that it's Hero. He used to be so proud and full of love for her. Now he wishes she wasn't his biological child. If, instead, she was some beggar he had adopted, he could at least say her behavior wasn't his fault. He could blame it on bad genes. Sweet. |
BENEDICK Sir, sir, be patient. BEATRICE BENEDICK BEATRICE LEONATO | Benedick is speechless. Beatrice, however, knows that her cousin is the victim of a smear campaign. Benedick asks if Beatrice slept with Hero in bed last night. Beatrice admits she didn’t, but says she did share a bed with Hero for all of last year, so presumably she'd know if her cousin had had a thousand vile encounters with some guy. Leonato takes Beatrice’s absence last night as confirmation that the accusations against Hero are true. He's certain that his buddies wouldn’t lie, so the only thing that makes sense if for Hero to be left alone to die. |
FRIAR Hear me a little, LEONATO Friar, it cannot be. 180 FRIAR HERO FRIAR | Friar Francis perks up, and says he’s been silent too long about this madness. He reflects on all of the goodness he’s noted in Hero. The good fire in her eye is evidence enough for him to believe that Don Pedro and Don John were wrong in accusing the girl. He’s willing to bet his friarhood that Hero is innocent. The Friar then questions Hero about what man she’s accused of seeing. Hero points out that she wouldn’t know who the fellow is, because no such man exists. If anyone can prove that she entertained a man at improper hours, she’s willing to be tortured. The Friar says something's up with these princes. |
BENEDICK LEONATO | Benedick points out that of the accusers, Don Pedro and Claudio, are honorable men. If the two of them were misled, they were misled by Don John, who delights in mischief. Hearing this, Leonato becomes as worked up about Hero’s accusers as he was about Hero just five seconds ago. He declares that if Hero’s honor has been wrongly tarnished, even though he’s old, he’ll make her accusers pay. |
FRIAR Pause awhile, LEONATO FRIAR | Friar Francis hatches a devious plan that will turn the whole course of the play. Since Don Pedro, Don John, and Claudio left the church while Hero was believed to be dead, they should pretend that she is. The family should go ahead with all the mourning rituals as if Hero had died, even going so far as to have her buried in the family tomb. Leonato wonders what the this "she’s really dead" ruse is going to accomplish. The Friar says that news of Hero’s death will help change the public’s feeling. Once everyone hears how quickly the girl died after being accused, they’ll all lament and pity her because only an innocent girl would die after an accusation like that. Plus, since people never know what they’ve got ‘til it’s gone, they’ll value Hero more once they think she’s dead. And once Claudio discovers that his accusation caused Hero’s death, he’ll be moved to remember her sweet life, and not dwell on thoughts of her as a scandalous adulteress. The Friar insists that if Claudio really loved Hero, he’ll have no choice but to mourn her death and wish he hadn’t ever accused her. Once they get the plan rolling, the Friar is sure the truth will shake out somehow, and Hero’s name will be cleared. And if it isn't? Leonato can hide her in a nunnery. |
BENEDICK LEONATO Being that I flow in grief, FRIAR All but Beatrice and Benedick exit. BENEDICK Lady Beatrice, have you wept all this while? BEATRICE Yea, and I will weep a while longer. 270 BENEDICK I will not desire that. BEATRICE You have no reason. I do it freely. BENEDICK Surely I do believe your fair cousin is BEATRICE Ah, how much might the man deserve of me 275 BENEDICK Is there any way to show such friendship? BEATRICE A very even way, but no such friend. BENEDICK May a man do it? BEATRICE It is a man’s office, but not yours. 280 BENEDICK I do love nothing in the world so well as BEATRICE As strange as the thing I know not. It were as | Everyone except Benedick and Beatrice leave the church. It’s a totally inappropriate time for them to declare their love considering that everyone’s life was just ruined, but Benedick and Beatrice do have a habit of making everything about themselves sometimes. Benedick approaches Beatrice, who's clearly been crying, and assures her that he considers Hero to be wrongly accused. Beatrice suggests that she'd be in debt to any man who could clear her cousin's name, but alas, there is no such man. Benedick says, "I'm a man," and adds that he loves Beatrice. Isn't that weird? Beatrice says it's no weirder than the fact that she loves him, too. Then she tries to take the words back, embarrassed. |
BENEDICK By my sword, Beatrice, thou lovest me! BEATRICE Do not swear and eat it. BENEDICK I will swear by it that you love me, and I will 290 BEATRICE Will you not eat your word? BENEDICK With no sauce that can be devised to it. I BEATRICE Why then, God forgive me. 295 BENEDICK What offense, sweet Beatrice? BEATRICE You have stayed me in a happy hour. I was BENEDICK And do it with all thy heart. BEATRICE I love you with so much of my heart that 300 BENEDICK Come, bid me do anything for thee. BEATRICE Kill Claudio. BENEDICK Ha! Not for the wide world. BEATRICE You kill me to deny it. Farewell. 305 | Benedick is pysched that Beatrice loves him. They tell each other how much they love each other, and Benedick vows he’d do anything for Beatrice’s love. Beatrice says she actually does need something, and that’s for someone to kill Claudio. Wait...what? Benedick backtracks. He'll do anything for love, but he won't do that. |
She begins to exit. BENEDICK Tarry, sweet Beatrice. BEATRICE I am gone, though I am here. There is no BENEDICK Beatrice— BEATRICE In faith, I will go. 310 BENEDICK We’ll be friends first. BEATRICE You dare easier be friends with me than BENEDICK Is Claudio thine enemy? BEATRICE Is he not approved in the height a villain 315 BENEDICK Hear me, Beatrice— BEATRICE Talk with a man out at a window! A proper BENEDICK Nay, but Beatrice— 325 BEATRICE Sweet Hero, she is wronged, she is slandered, BENEDICK Beat— BEATRICE Princes and counties! Surely a princely testimony, BENEDICK Tarry, good Beatrice. By this hand, I love BEATRICE Use it for my love some other way than BENEDICK Think you in your soul the Count Claudio BEATRICE Yea, as sure as I have a thought or a soul. 345 BENEDICK Enough, I am engaged. I will challenge They exit. | Beatrice starts to leave, but Benedick calls her back. Beatrice says it's obvious Benedick doesn't really love her if he’s not willing to kill the guy who publicly humiliated her poor cousin on what should have been her wedding day. She adds that she wishes she were a man, because then she could kill Claudio herself. And eat his heart in the marketplace. Um. Also, she thinks it's a shame that manhood is such a sham. These days being a man seems to be more about polite fripperies than action and bravery. Benedick asks if Beatrice really believes, deep down, that Claudio has so wronged Hero. Beatrice says yes, and Benedick gives in. He promises to challenge Claudio to a duel and says Claudio will pay dearly for his wrong against Hero. Then he kisses Beatrice’s hand and heads off to spread the rumor that Hero is dead. |