# 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]

Hero

33

My cousin means Signior Benedick of Padua.

2

Much Ado about Nothing
[I, 1]

Benedick

170

I can see yet without spectacles and I see no such
matter: there's her cousin, an she were not
possessed with a fury, exceeds her as much in beauty
as the first of May doth the last of December. But I
hope you have no intent to turn husband, have you?

3

Much Ado about Nothing
[I, 2]

Leonato

303

How now, brother! Where is my cousin, your son?
hath he provided this music?

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]

Beatrice

444

Yes, faith; it is my cousin's duty to make curtsy
and say 'Father, as it please you.' But yet for all
that, cousin, let him be a handsome fellow, or else
make another curtsy and say 'Father, as it please
me.'

6

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.

7

Much Ado about Nothing
[II, 1]

Leonato

469

Cousin, you apprehend passing shrewdly.

8

Much Ado about Nothing
[II, 1]

Beatrice

688

Speak, cousin; or, if you cannot, stop his mouth
with a kiss, and let not him speak neither.

9

Much Ado about Nothing
[II, 1]

Beatrice

691

Yea, my lord; I thank it, poor fool, it keeps on
the windy side of care. My cousin tells him in his
ear that he is in her heart.

10

Much Ado about Nothing
[II, 1]

Claudio

694

And so she doth, cousin.

11

Much Ado about Nothing
[II, 1]

Hero

746

I will do any modest office, my lord, to help my
cousin to a good husband.

12

Much Ado about Nothing
[II, 1]

Don Pedro

748

And Benedick is not the unhopefullest husband that
I know. Thus far can I praise him; he is of a noble
strain, of approved valour and confirmed honesty. I
will teach you how to humour your cousin, that she
shall fall in love with Benedick; and I, with your
two helps, will so practise on Benedick that, in
despite of his quick wit and his queasy stomach, he
shall fall in love with Beatrice. If we can do this,
Cupid is no longer an archer: his glory shall be
ours, for we are the only love-gods. Go in with me,
and I will tell you my drift.

13

Much Ado about Nothing
[III, 1]

Hero

1073

Good Margaret, run thee to the parlor;
There shalt thou find my cousin Beatrice
Proposing with the prince and Claudio:
Whisper her ear and tell her, I and Ursula
Walk in the orchard and our whole discourse
Is all of her; say that thou overheard'st us;
And bid her steal into the pleached bower,
Where honeysuckles, ripen'd by the sun,
Forbid the sun to enter, like favourites,
Made proud by princes, that advance their pride
Against that power that bred it: there will she hide her,
To listen our purpose. This is thy office;
Bear thee well in it and leave us alone.

14

Much Ado about Nothing
[III, 1]

Hero

1160

No; rather I will go to Benedick
And counsel him to fight against his passion.
And, truly, I'll devise some honest slanders
To stain my cousin with: one doth not know
How much an ill word may empoison liking.

15

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.

16

Much Ado about Nothing
[III, 4]

Hero

1490

Good Ursula, wake my cousin Beatrice, and desire
her to rise.

17

Much Ado about Nothing
[III, 4]

Margaret

1498

By my troth, 's not so good; and I warrant your
cousin will say so.

18

Much Ado about Nothing
[III, 4]

Beatrice

1537

'Tis almost five o'clock, cousin; tis time you were
ready. By my troth, I am exceeding ill: heigh-ho!

19

Much Ado about Nothing
[III, 4]

Beatrice

1547

I am stuffed, cousin; I cannot smell.

20

Much Ado about Nothing
[IV, 1]

Beatrice

1755

Why, how now, cousin! wherefore sink you down?