Much Ado About Nothing

William Shakespeare

Much Ado About Nothing — Shakespeare wrote Much Ado About Nothing toward the middle of his career, sometime between 1598 and 1599. It was first published in quarto in 1600 and later collected in Mr. William Shakespeare’s Comedies, Histories, and Tragedies in 1623. The earliest recorded performance was given for the newly married Princess Elizabeth and Frederick V, Elector Palatine, in 1613. Shakespeare’s sources of inspiration for this play can be found in Italian culture and popular sixteenth-century texts. Stories of lovers deceived into believing each other false circulated throughout northern Italy. Works such as Ludovico Ariosto’s Orlando Furioso and Edmund Spenser’s The Faerie Queene also feature tricked lovers like Claudio and Hero. The idea of tricking a couple like Benedick and Beatrice into falling in love, however, was original and unusual at the time. The play focuses on two couples. After the noblemen return to Messina, Claudio and Hero quickly fall in love and plan to marry within a week, while Benedick and Beatrice resume their verbal war and exchange insults. A plot is set in motion to trick Benedick and Beatrice into falling in love, even as a darker scheme threatens the love and happiness of Hero and Claudio. This text is based on William George Clark and William Aldis Wright’s 1887 Victoria edition, derived from the Globe edition.