Page:Much Ado About Nothing (1917) Yale.djvu/140



The definite history of Much Ado about Nothing goes back to the first year of the seventeenth century. On August 23, 1600, this play was licensed for publication, along with the second part of Henry IV, and it appeared in the same year in the only early quarto edition. This version was evidently followed by the publishers of the collected edition of Shakespeare's plays in the 1623 Folio, and the two texts exhibit only trivial differences. It is generally assumed that the comedy was written in 1599, and there is no reason for inferring an earlier date, except the bare possibility that Much Ado about Nothing is identical with a mysterious Love's Labor's Won, listed by Francis Meres as one of Shakespeare's comedies in 1598.

The title-page of the edition of 1600 records that the play 'hath been sundrie times publikely acted by the right honorable, the Lord Chamberlaine his seruants,' i.e. by Shakespeare's company, then acting at the newly built Globe Theatre. A memorandum in the Stationers' Register, dated August 4 (1600), less than three weeks before the official license for publication, notes that Much Ado about Nothing and three other plays performed by Shakespeare's company were 'to be staied,' i.e. withheld from publication. The purpose of this unsuccessful effort to prevent the printing of the comedy was doubtless the actors' fear that circulation of the printed text might detract from the success of their performances. The