MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING

comedy in five acts by William Shakespeare, performed in 159899 and printed in a quarto edition from the author's fair papers in 1600. The play takes an ancient themethat of a woman falsely accused of unfaithfulnessto brilliant comedic heights. Shakespeare was influenced by English translations of Matteo Bandello's Novelle and Ludovico Ariosto's Orlando furioso, as well as Edmund Spenser's The Faerie Queene, in writing this tale of two pairs of lovers. Shakespeare sets up a contrast between the conventional Claudio and Hero, who have the usual expectations of each other, and Beatrice and Benedick, who are highly skeptical of romance and courtship and, seemingly, each other. Claudio is deceived by the jealous Don John into believing that Hero is unfaithful to himand with his friend and mentor Don Pedro. Don John's plot is eventually unveiled by the bumbling constable Dogberry and his sidekicks. Meanwhile, Beatrice and Benedick have a kind of merry war between them, matching wits in clever repartee that anticipates other playfully teasing literary couples. Each is tricked into believing that the other is in love, which allows the true affection between them to grow. At the play's end, both couples are united. While the play is full of deliberate confusions and mistaken identities, the audience is aware of the truth; only the characters remain confused. Shakespeare eschewed devices of obvious magic or disguise of sex, which he employed in other comedies. The wit and ambiguity of the dialogue and the exquisite pacing of the action sustain the play, which remains popular in repertory.