# Result number

Work The work is either a play, poem, or sonnet. The sonnets are treated as single work with 154 parts.

Character Indicates who said the line. If it's a play or sonnet, the character name is "Poet."

Line Shows where the line falls within the work.

The numbering is not keyed to any copyrighted numbering system found in a volume of collected works (Arden, Oxford, etc.) The numbering starts at the beginning of the work, and does not restart for each scene.

Text The line's full text, with keywords highlighted within it, unless highlighting has been disabled by the user.

1

Much Ado about Nothing
[I, 1]

Messenger

19

I have already delivered him letters, and there
appears much joy in him; even so much that joy could
not show itself modest enough without a badge of
bitterness.

2

Much Ado about Nothing
[I, 1]

Leonato

25

A kind overflow of kindness: there are no faces
truer than those that are so washed. How much
better is it to weep at joy than to joy at weeping!

3

Much Ado about Nothing
[I, 1]

Beatrice

51

It is so, indeed; he is no less than a stuffed man:
but for the stuffing,—well, we are all mortal.

4

Much Ado about Nothing
[I, 1]

Beatrice

57

Alas! he gets nothing by that. In our last
conflict four of his five wits went halting off, and
now is the whole man governed with one: so that if
he have wit enough to keep himself warm, let him
bear it for a difference between himself and his
horse; for it is all the wealth that he hath left,
to be known a reasonable creature. Who is his
companion now? He hath every month a new sworn brother.

5

Much Ado about Nothing
[I, 1]

Leonato

94

Her mother hath many times told me so.

6

Much Ado about Nothing
[I, 1]

Benedick

120

God keep your ladyship still in that mind! so some
gentleman or other shall 'scape a predestinate
scratched face.

7

Much Ado about Nothing
[I, 1]

Benedick

127

I would my horse had the speed of your tongue, and
so good a continuer. But keep your way, i' God's
name; I have done.

8

Much Ado about Nothing
[I, 1]

Benedick

188

You hear, Count Claudio: I can be secret as a dumb
man; I would have you think so; but, on my
allegiance, mark you this, on my allegiance. He is
in love. With who? now that is your grace's part.
Mark how short his answer is;—With Hero, Leonato's
short daughter.

9

Much Ado about Nothing
[I, 1]

Claudio

194

If this were so, so were it uttered.

10

Much Ado about Nothing
[I, 1]

Benedick

195

Like the old tale, my lord: 'it is not so, nor
'twas not so, but, indeed, God forbid it should be
so.'

11

Much Ado about Nothing
[I, 1]

Benedick

251

I have almost matter enough in me for such an
embassage; and so I commit you—

12

Much Ado about Nothing
[I, 1]

Benedick

255

Nay, mock not, mock not. The body of your
discourse is sometime guarded with fragments, and
the guards are but slightly basted on neither: ere
you flout old ends any further, examine your
conscience: and so I leave you.

13

Much Ado about Nothing
[I, 1]

Don Pedro

278

Thou wilt be like a lover presently
And tire the hearer with a book of words.
If thou dost love fair Hero, cherish it,
And I will break with her and with her father,
And thou shalt have her. Was't not to this end
That thou began'st to twist so fine a story?

14

Much Ado about Nothing
[II, 1]

Leonato

414

By my troth, niece, thou wilt never get thee a
husband, if thou be so shrewd of thy tongue.

15

Much Ado about Nothing
[II, 1]

Leonato

420

So, by being too curst, God will send you no horns.

16

Much Ado about Nothing
[II, 1]

Beatrice

435

No, but to the gate; and there will the devil meet
me, like an old cuckold, with horns on his head, and
say 'Get you to heaven, Beatrice, get you to
heaven; here's no place for you maids:' so deliver
I up my apes, and away to Saint Peter for the
heavens; he shows me where the bachelors sit, and
there live we as merry as the day is long.

17

Much Ado about Nothing
[II, 1]

Beatrice

458

The fault will be in the music, cousin, if you be
not wooed in good time: if the prince be too
important, tell him there is measure in every thing
and so dance out the answer. For, hear me, Hero:
wooing, wedding, and repenting, is as a Scotch jig,
a measure, and a cinque pace: the first suit is hot
and hasty, like a Scotch jig, and full as
fantastical; the wedding, mannerly-modest, as a
measure, full of state and ancientry; and then comes
repentance and, with his bad legs, falls into the
cinque pace faster and faster, till he sink into his grave.

18

Much Ado about Nothing
[II, 1]

Hero

476

So you walk softly and look sweetly and say nothing,
I am yours for the walk; and especially when I walk away.

19

Much Ado about Nothing
[II, 1]

Hero

479

I may say so, when I please.

20

Much Ado about Nothing
[II, 1]

Don Pedro

480

And when please you to say so?