Much Ado About Nothing Translation in Modern English

This complete, line-by-line translation makes the language of Shakespeare's romantic comedy contemporary while preserving the metrical rhythm, complexity, and poetic qualities of the original. The aim is to capture both sound and sense without the need for glosses or notes—to use contemporary language without simplifying or modernizing the play in any other way. Readers experience this comic exploration of male suspicion and the damage it does with the challenge, comprehension, and delight of audiences 400 years ago—the way Shakespeare intended.

See for yourself. Take a peek at the Much Ado About Nothing excerpt below.

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Excerpt
What is a Verse Translation?
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Much Ado About Nothing

Excerpt from Act 4, Scene 1

LEONATO

[to HERO] You look to heaven?

FRIAR FRANCIS

Yes, why shouldn’t she?

LEONATO

Why shouldn’t she? When every earthly thing

Cries out her shame? Oh, could she now deny

The story that is printed in her cheeks?

Do not live, Hero. Don’t open up your eyes.

For if I thought you would not quickly die,

And thought your spirit stronger than your shame,

I would, hot on the heels of their rebukes,

Strike at your life. Did I grieve at just one?

Did I find fault in nature’s frugal plan?

With you one is too much! Why even one?

Why were you ever lovely in my eyes?

Why didn’t these benevolent hands take in

A beggar’s infant left outside my gates?

If it were soiled and mired in infamy

I then could say, “No part of it is mine;

This shame has drawn itself from unknown loins.”

But mine that I have loved, and mine I’ve praised,

And mine whom I was proud of; mine so much

That I myself have lost myself to mine,

To one so prized. Why she—Oh, she has fallen

Into a pit of ink, and no vast sea

Has drops enough to wash her clean again,

Nor salt enough to disinfect her foul

And tainted flesh!

BENEDICK

Sir, sir, you must be calm.

For my part, I am wrapped in such amazement,

I don’t know what to say.

What is a Verse Translation?

A verse translation maintains as closely as possible the rhythm and line length of the original work. Shakespeare's original lines from Twelfth Night and the ENJOY SHAKESPEARE verse translation are written in a kind of verse meter called iambic pentameter, or blank verse.*

Shakespeare’s Original Iambic Pentameter Lines

There is a fair behavior in thee, captain; (11 syllables)

And though that nature with a beauteous wall (10 syllables)

Doth oft close in pollution, yet of thee (10 syllables)

I will believe though has a mind that suits (10 syllables)

With this thy fair and outward character. (10 syllables)

—Twelfth Night, Act 1, Scene 2

ENJOY SHAKESPEARE Verse Translation

I sense a decent man inside you, captain. (11 syllables)

And although nature often hides what's foul (10 syllables)

Behind a lovely wall, I can have faith (10 syllables)

That you, sir, have a mind that matches well (10 syllables)

This fair and outward character I see. (10 syllables)

Prose translations, on the other hand, focus on capturing the literal meaning, without concern for the rhythm of the original. You will not sense a meter developing, and you will not feel like you are reading Shakespeare.

Prose Translation

You appear to be a decent person, captain, and although nature may hide inner corruption behind a beautiful exterior, I believe that you have a mind the matches your pleasant demeanor.

"Dumbed Down" Prose Translation

Viola said, “You seem to be a decent man, captain. Although awful people can seem nice, I believe that your pleasant behavior means you are nice inside too.”

* For more information on Shakespeare’s use of iambic pentameter, see “Appendix 1: How Iambic Pentameter Works” in Twelfth Night: A Verse Translation in English. For a brief description try this Wikipedia link. Here are two more extensive descriptions of Shakespeare's meter—"Scansion Guide" and "Teaching Meter" at the Interactive Shakespeare Project at the College of the Holy Cross Theater Department.

The ENJOY SHAKESPEARE translations recreate the rhythm, pace, and power of the original plays with all verse passages, songs, and rhymes painstakingly recast in contemporary English.