Essays on Much Ado About Nothing

1600

William Shakespeare

Сomedy play

Benedick, Beatrice, Don Pedro, Don John, Claudio, Leonato, Antonio, Balthasar, Borachio, Conrade, Innogen, Hero, Margaret, Ursula, Dogberry, Verges, Friar Francis

1598-1599, by William Shakespeare

Comedy

The play revolves around two romantic pairings that emerge when a group of soldiers arrive in the town. The first, between Claudio and Hero, is nearly altered by the accusations of the villain, Don John. The second romance, between Claudio's friend Benedick and Hero's cousin Beatrice, takes centre stage as the play goes on, with both characters' wit and banter providing much of the humour. Through "noting" (sounding like "nothing", and meaning gossip, rumour, overhearing), Benedick and Beatrice are tricked into confessing their love for each other, and Claudio is tricked into believing that Hero is not a maiden (virgin).

The play takes an ancient theme — that of a woman falsely accused of unfaithfulness — to brilliant comedic heights. Other important themes include gender roles, infidelity, deception, masks and mistaken identity, "nothing",

Benedick, Beatrice, Don Pedro, Don John, Claudio, Leonato, Antonio, Balthasar, Borachio, Conrade, Innogen, Hero, Margaret, Ursula, Dogberry, Verges, Friar Francis

Shakespeare used as his main source for the Claudio-Hero plot a story from Matteo Bandello’s Novelle (1554–73); he also may have consulted Ludovico Ariosto’s Orlando furioso and Edmund Spenser’s The Faerie Queene. The Beatrice-Benedick plot is essentially Shakespeare’s own, though he must have had in mind his own story of wife taming in The Taming of the Shrew.

“I had rather hear my dog bark at a crow, than a man swear he loves me.”
“Let me be that I am and seek not to alter me.”
“Some Cupid kills with arrows, some with traps.”
“For which of my bad parts didst thou first fall in love with me?”