# 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

34

O, he's returned; and as pleasant as ever he was.

2

Much Ado about Nothing
[I, 1]

Beatrice

74

O Lord, he will hang upon him like a disease: he
is sooner caught than the pestilence, and the taker
runs presently mad. God help the noble Claudio! if
he have caught the Benedick, it will cost him a
thousand pound ere a' be cured.

3

Much Ado about Nothing
[I, 1]

Claudio

268

O, my lord,
When you went onward on this ended action,
I look'd upon her with a soldier's eye,
That liked, but had a rougher task in hand
Than to drive liking to the name of love:
But now I am return'd and that war-thoughts
Have left their places vacant, in their rooms
Come thronging soft and delicate desires,
All prompting me how fair young Hero is,
Saying, I liked her ere I went to wars.

4

Much Ado about Nothing
[I, 2]

Leonato

320

No, no; we will hold it as a dream till it appear
itself: but I will acquaint my daughter withal,
that she may be the better prepared for an answer,
if peradventure this be true. Go you and tell her of it.
[Enter Attendants]
Cousins, you know what you have to do. O, I cry you
mercy, friend; go you with me, and I will use your
skill. Good cousin, have a care this busy time.

5

Much Ado about Nothing
[II, 1]

Benedick

620

O, she misused me past the endurance of a block!
an oak but with one green leaf on it would have
answered her; my very visor began to assume life and
scold with her. She told me, not thinking I had been
myself, that I was the prince's jester, that I was
duller than a great thaw; huddling jest upon jest
with such impossible conveyance upon me that I stood
like a man at a mark, with a whole army shooting at
me. She speaks poniards, and every word stabs:
if her breath were as terrible as her terminations,
there were no living near her; she would infect to
the north star. I would not marry her, though she
were endowed with all that Adam bad left him before
he transgressed: she would have made Hercules have
turned spit, yea, and have cleft his club to make
the fire too. Come, talk not of her: you shall find
her the infernal Ate in good apparel. I would to God
some scholar would conjure her; for certainly, while
she is here, a man may live as quiet in hell as in a
sanctuary; and people sin upon purpose, because they
would go thither; so, indeed, all disquiet, horror
and perturbation follows her.

6

Much Ado about Nothing
[II, 1]

Benedick

654

O God, sir, here's a dish I love not: I cannot
endure my Lady Tongue.

7

Much Ado about Nothing
[II, 1]

Leonato

723

O, by no means: she mocks all her wooers out of suit.

8

Much Ado about Nothing
[II, 1]

Leonato

725

O Lord, my lord, if they were but a week married,
they would talk themselves mad.

9

Much Ado about Nothing
[II, 3]

Claudio

856

O, very well, my lord: the music ended,
We'll fit the kid-fox with a pennyworth.

10

Much Ado about Nothing
[II, 3]

Balthasar

860

O, good my lord, tax not so bad a voice
To slander music any more than once.

11

Much Ado about Nothing
[II, 3]

Claudio

912

O, ay: stalk on. stalk on; the fowl sits. I did
never think that lady would have loved any man.

12

Much Ado about Nothing
[II, 3]

Leonato

923

O God, counterfeit! There was never counterfeit of
passion came so near the life of passion as she
discovers it.

13

Much Ado about Nothing
[II, 3]

Leonato

951

O, when she had writ it and was reading it over, she
found Benedick and Beatrice between the sheet?

14

Much Ado about Nothing
[II, 3]

Leonato

954

O, she tore the letter into a thousand halfpence;
railed at herself, that she should be so immodest
to write to one that she knew would flout her; 'I
measure him,' says she, 'by my own spirit; for I
should flout him, if he writ to me; yea, though I
love him, I should.'

15

Much Ado about Nothing
[II, 3]

Claudio

960

Then down upon her knees she falls, weeps, sobs,
beats her heart, tears her hair, prays, curses; 'O
sweet Benedick! God give me patience!'

16

Much Ado about Nothing
[II, 3]

Leonato

976

O, my lord, wisdom and blood combating in so tender
a body, we have ten proofs to one that blood hath
the victory. I am sorry for her, as I have just
cause, being her uncle and her guardian.

17

Much Ado about Nothing
[III, 1]

Hero

1124

O god of love! I know he doth deserve
As much as may be yielded to a man:
But Nature never framed a woman's heart
Of prouder stuff than that of Beatrice;
Disdain and scorn ride sparkling in her eyes,
Misprising what they look on, and her wit
Values itself so highly that to her
All matter else seems weak: she cannot love,
Nor take no shape nor project of affection,
She is so self-endeared.

18

Much Ado about Nothing
[III, 1]

Hero

1150

No, not to be so odd and from all fashions
As Beatrice is, cannot be commendable:
But who dare tell her so? If I should speak,
She would mock me into air; O, she would laugh me
Out of myself, press me to death with wit.
Therefore let Benedick, like cover'd fire,
Consume away in sighs, waste inwardly:
It were a better death than die with mocks,
Which is as bad as die with tickling.

19

Much Ado about Nothing
[III, 1]

Ursula

1165

O, do not do your cousin such a wrong.
She cannot be so much without true judgment—
Having so swift and excellent a wit
As she is prized to have—as to refuse
So rare a gentleman as Signior Benedick.

20

Much Ado about Nothing
[III, 2]

Don Pedro

1317

O day untowardly turned!