Mr. Daniel analyses the 'Time' as follows (Transactions of N. Shak. Soc., 1877-79):— Day 1. I., II. 1., 2. " 2. II. 3., III. 1.-3. 3. III. 4., 5., IV., V. 1.-2., 3. (part of). INTRODUCTION MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING was entered in the Stationers' Register, 4th August 1600, and the only Quarto edition appeared in the same year. It is very accurate, and probably authentic; the Folio being reprinted from it with, a few omissions and some slight, apparently accidental, variations of no value. Its title runs : Much adoe about Nothing. As it hath been sundrie times publikely acted by the right honourable, the Lord Chamberlaine his seruants. Written by William Shakespeare. | London. | Printed by V. S. for Andrew Wise, and William Aspley. | 1600. Beyond a list of the players, among whom the famous comedian Kemp figured as Dogberry,2 nothing is known of these performances; but the play, which is not mentioned by Meres (1598) and is bound by close affinities of temper and style to As You Like It and Twelfth Night, was undoubtedly, in its finished form, a fruit, like these, of the rich years 1599-1600. Like these, too, it contains no definite traces of earlier work. An interesting oversight in i. 1., where Leonato is said to enter accompanied, not only by Hero his daughter and Beatrice his niece, but by 'Imogen his wife,' tantalises the imagination with visions of a prefixed to most of Dogberry's speeches. 1 Prefixed in the First Folio. In iv. 2., also, Kemp' is 3 |