Much Ado About Nothing

1001

A victory is twice itself when the achiever brings home full numbers.

   --- Much Ado About Nothing   I, i, 8

戰勝者帶著全班人馬回朝 可說是雙倍的勝利。  achiever: one who accomplishes, winner, victor

He hath indeed better bettered expectation than you must expect of me to tell you how.

  --- Much Ado About Nothing   I, i, 15

How much better is it to weep at joy than to joy at weeping!

  --- Much Ado About Nothing   I, i, 27

喜極而泣 要比哭的時候私心竊喜好得多！

He is a very valiant trencherman, (he hath an excellent stomach.)

  --- Much Ado About Nothing   I, i, 51

trencherman: good eater

(; they never meet but) there’s a skirmish of wit between them.

  --- Much Ado About Nothing   I, i, 63

skirmish: a fierce argument

He wears his faith but as the fashion of his hat:

  --- Much Ado About Nothing   I, i, 75

faith: loyalty

I see, lady, the gentleman is not in your books.

  --- Much Ado About Nothing   I, i, 78

books: i.e. good books, favor

What, my dear Lady Disdain! are you yet living?

  --- Much Ado About Nothing   I, i, 118

Shall I never see a bachelor of threescore again?

  --- Much Ado About Nothing   I, i, 199

I can be secret as a dumb man;

  --- Much Ado About Nothing   I, i, 209

In time the savage bull doth bear the yoke.

  --- Much Ado About Nothing   I, i, 261

yoke軛

(Here you may see) Benedick the married man.

  --- Much Ado About Nothing   I, i, 267

1010

I could not endure a husband with a beard on his face, I had rather lie in the woollen!

  --- Much Ado About Nothing   II, i, 29

in the woollen: between woollen blankets, without sheets

He that hath a beard is more than a youth, and he that hath no beard is less than a man; and he that is more than a youth is not for me, and he that is less than a man, I am not for him;

   --- Much Ado About Nothing    II, i, 36

(, and there live we) as merry as the day is long.

  --- Much Ado About Nothing   II, i, 49

Would it not grieve a woman to be overmastered with a piece of valiant dust? to make an account of her life to a clod of wayward marl?

  --- Much Ado About Nothing   II, i, 60

marl: clay

For hear me, Hero: wooing, wedding, and repenting, is as a Scotch jig, a measure, and a cinquepace;

  --- Much Ado About Nothing   II, i, 72

Hero, 請聽我說，求婚、結婚、後悔，就像是蘇格蘭急格舞、慢步舞、五步舞；  measure: slow, stately dance.  cinquepace: lively dance, the steps of which were prob. based on the number five

I have a good eye, uncle, I can see a church by daylight.

  --- Much Ado About Nothing   II, i, 82

Speak low if you speak love.

  --- Much Ado About Nothing   II, i, 99

Friendship is constant in all other things

Save in the office and affairs of love;

Therefore all hearts in love use their own tongues.

Let every eye negotiate for itself,

And trust no agent;

  --- Much Ado About Nothing   II, i, 175

office: business.   all: let all

          ; for beauty is a witch

Against whose charms faith melteth into blood.

  --- Much Ado About Nothing   II, i, 179

Against whose charms: in the face of whose spells.   blood: passion

She speaks poniards, and every word stabs.

  --- Much Ado About Nothing   II, i, 247

poniards: daggers

1020

Silence is the perfectest herald of joy; I were but little happy, if I could say how much!

  --- Much Ado About Nothing   II, i, 306

(I thank it—poor fool,) it keeps on the windy side of care.

  --- Much Ado About Nothing   II, i, 314

windy: windward, i.e. safe

, but then there was a star danced, and under that was I born.

  --- Much Ado About Nothing   II, i, 335

Time goes on crutches till love have all his rites.

  --- Much Ado About Nothing   II, i, 357

情人尚未行婚禮前 時間像拄著拐杖走路。

, and I will tell you my drift.

  --- Much Ado About Nothing   II, i, 387

drift: intent

; he was wont to speak plain and to the purpose (like an honest man and a soldier),

  --- Much Ado About Nothing   II, iii, 18

I will not be sworn but love may transform me to an oyster,

  --- Much Ado About Nothing   II, iii, 23

Sigh no more, ladies, sigh no more,

Men were deceivers ever,

One foot in sea, and one on shore,

To one thing constant never.

  --- Much Ado About Nothing   II, iii, 62

Sits the wind in that corner?

  --- Much Ado About Nothing   II, iii, 98

Sit: (of the wind) blow from, be in, a particular direction.   Is that how the wind blows?

Bait the hook well, this fish will bite.

  --- Much Ado About Nothing   II, iii, 108

Shall quips and sentences and these paper bullets of the brain awe a man from the                                                            career of his humour? No, the world must be peopled. When I said I would die a bachelor, I did not think I should live till I were married.

   --- Much Ado About Nothing   II, iii, 240

sentences: maxims.   paper … brain: verbal ammunition.   career … humour: course of his inclination

1030

Some Cupid kills with arrows, some with traps.

  --- Much Ado About Nothing   III, i, 106

(, for) from the crown of his head to the sole of his foot, he is all mirth.

   --- Much Ado About Nothing   III, ii, 8

He hath a heart as sound  as a bell, and his tongue is the clapper, for what his heart thinks, his tongue speaks.

 --- Much Ado About Nothing   III, ii, 12

Well, every one can master a grief but he that has it.

  --- Much Ado About Nothing   III, ii, 28

grief: cause of pain

, as a German from the waist downward, all slops, and a Spaniard from the hip upward, no doublet.

  --- Much Ado About Nothing   III, ii, 35

slops: loose breeches.  no doublet: i.e. with his doublet completely covered by a cloak

Are you good men and true?

  --- Much Ado About Nothing   III, iii, 1

To be a well-favored man is the gift of fortune, but to write and read comes by nature.

  --- Much Ado About Nothing   III, iii, 14

well-favored: good-looking

If they make you not then the better answer, you may say they are not the men you took them for.

  --- Much Ado About Nothing   III, iii, 46

make … answer: those that are drunk don’t then agree to go home

(, but I think) they  that touch pitch will be defiled.

  --- Much Ado About Nothing   III, iii, 57

defile: to make something dirty

(, and I see that) the fashion wears out more apparel than the man.

  --- Much Ado About Nothing   III, iii, 139

fashion … man: i.e. clothes are more often discarded because the fashion has changed than because they are worn-out.

1040

A good old man, sir, he will be talking; as they say, “When the age is in, the wit is out.”

  --- Much Ado About Nothing   III, v, 33

When … out: an adaptation of the proverb “When ale is in, wit is out.”

O, what men dare do! What men may do! What men daily do, not knowing what they do!

  --- Much Ado About Nothing   IV, i, 19

Claudio: Will you with free and unconstrained soul

Give me this maid, your daughter?

Leonato: As freely, son, as God did give her me.

  --- Much Ado About Nothing   IV, i, 24

unconstrained: not imposed against one’s will; (hence) imposing no restraint

O, what authority and show of truth

Can cunning sin cover itself withal!

  --- Much Ado About Nothing   IV, i, 35

authority: authenticity

        ; for it so falls out

That what we have we prize not to the worth

Whiles we enjoy it, but being lacked and lost,

Why then we rack the value; then we find

The virtue that possession would not show us

Whiles it was ours.

  --- Much Ado About Nothing   IV, i, 217

I love you with so much of my heart that none is left to protest.

  --- Much Ado About Nothing   IV, i, 286

protest: declare

Masters, it is proved already that you are little better than false knaves, and it will go near to be thought so shortly.

  --- Much Ado About Nothing   IV, ii, 20

Flat burglary as ever was committed.

  --- Much Ado About Nothing   IV, ii, 50

Flat: absolute, downright

O villain! thou wilt be condemned into everlasting redemption for this.

  --- Much Ado About Nothing   IV, ii, 56

redemption: He means the opposite.

O that he were here to write me down an ass!

  --- Much Ado About Nothing   IV, ii, 75

Patch griefs with proverbs,

  --- Much Ado About Nothing   V, i, 17

Patch: to cover

1050

Charm ache with air, and agony with words.

  --- Much Ado About Nothing   V, i, 26

air: breath, i.e. words

For there was never yet philosopher

That could endure the toothache patiently,

  --- Much Ado About Nothing   V, i, 35

從來沒有 能耐心忍受牙痛

的哲學家，

, or some of us will smart for it.

  --- Much Ado About Nothing   V, i, 108

smart: to feel a sharp pain

In false quarrel there is no true valour.

  --- Much Ado About Nothing   V, i, 120

false: unfair

What though care killed a cat, thou hast mettle enough in thee to kill care.

  --- Much Ado About Nothing   V, i, 132

mettle or metal: courage

I was not born under a rhyming planet,

  --- Much Ado About Nothing   V, ii, 40

Thou and I are too wise to woo peaceably.

  --- Much Ado About Nothing   V, ii, 72

, to be the trumpet of his own virtues,

  --- Much Ado About Nothing   V, ii, 85

trumpet: trumpeter

Done to death by slanderous tongues

Was the Hero that here lies.

  --- Much Ado About Nothing   V, iii, 3

Done: ruined

Peace, I will stop your mouth.   [Kissing her.]

  --- Much Ado About Nothing   V, iv 98

別說了，我要堵住妳的嘴。Peace: be silent

1060

        , get thee a wife, get thee a wife.

There is no staff more reverent than one tipped with horn.

  --- Much Ado About Nothing   V, iv 122

staff: royal staff.   reverent: honorable.   tipped with horn: any mention of “horn” is an allusion to the idea that cuckolds sprouted horns from their head.