TV has a long tradition of pairing a leading man and leading lady who act like they hate each other’s guts, even though they clearly love each other. Whether it’s Ralph and Alice (“To the moon, Alice!”), Sam and Diane, or some show I don’t have the inclination to watch, those couples are direct descendants of Beatrice and Benedick (not to mention Petruchio and Kate).

The play shows up in the Stationer’s Register in 1600, the first time Shakespeare’s name appears there, so it must have been written sometime before that. It contains plot elements of Orlando Furioso by the Italian writer Ariosto, probably by way of Sir John Harrington’s translation, or Edmund Spenser’s Faerie Queene, in which the two lovers are torn apart by false accusations of infidelity. Another possible English source for the Hero/Claudio plotline was 1585’s Fedele and Fortunio, by an unknown playwright.

However, the subplot of the bickering couple Beatrice and Benedick can be sourced directly to the Bard. For many fans (including me!), these two trading insults, while everybody else understands they are obviously meant for each other, are the actual stars of the show. King Charles I, who crossed out the title on his personal copy and scrawled “Beatrice and Benedick”, and Hector Berlioz, who composed an opera for them, shared this view.

Much Ado About Nothing is one of the best of Shakespeare’s comedies, but at the same time it is unusual in that so little of it is written in poetry. ACT 1 scene 1 begins in prose but ends in verse, ACT 2 scene 3 has some verse and a song in the middle, and ACT 3 scene 1 is entirely in verse. ACT 4 scene 1 is all verse with some prose at the beginning and end, and ACT 5 scene 1 alternates between the two.

It’s quite natural to compare Beatrice to Kate in Taming of the Shrew. Like Kate, she believes that she will never get married, and according to a folk legend, be forced to “lead apes into hell” as a woman who dies unwed.

Other than the two sparring lovers hiding their true feelings behind adroit wordplay, Much Ado is notable for the fantastically inadept Constable Dogberry, who constantly utters malapropisms. This is a trait he shares with Mistress Quickly from the Henriad, and like her, he appears to be entirely of Shakespeare’s invention. These are some words that Dogberry uses by mistake, and the words that he probably meant to use instead:

aspicious – suspicious
decerns – concerns
desartless – deserving
dissembly -assembly
excommunication -communication
odorous – odious
opinioned – pinioned (tied)
piety – impiety
prohibit – permit
redemption – damnation
reformed- informed
suffigance – sufficient
suspect – respect
vagrom -vagrant
vigitant – vigilant

Look for Benedick’s lament in Act 5 that there is no rhyme for “lady” except for “baby” — this is a problem that has haunted songwriters from that day to this!

Other vocabulary:
break with – break the news to
civet – perfume made from the glands of a wild cat
hale – summon, call
harpy – mythical beast with the body of a vulture and the face and voice of a woman
holp – helped
kindred – relative
Prester John – semi-mythical voyager who travelled to China and the Middle East
Saturn – Greek god, famous for his gloominess
sheep’s guts – often used to make the strings of musical instruments

Synopsis

ACT 1
scene1
Don Pedro of Arragon comes home victorious from a war and visits the home of Leonato. He brings with him a young Claudio, who distinguished himself in the war, and the opinionated Benedick. Leonato’s niece Beatrice has a “merry war” of words with Benedick every time they see each other, and she seems to win most of their verbal battles. Claudio confides in Don Pedro and Benedick that he is in love with Leonato’s daughter Hero. Benedick tries to persuade him to remain a bachelor, saying that he himself will never get married, but Don Pedro offers to disguise himself as Claudio at the dance and woo Hero on Claudio’s behalf. He also vows to make Benedick fall in love.

scene2
Leonato is told by his brother Antonio that Don Pedro and Claudio will reveal at the dance that Claudio is in love with Hero. Leonato decides to tell Hero about it so that she can make up her mind.

scene3
Don Pedro’s illegitimate brother Don John learns that Claudio is in love with Hero, and sets out to do some mischief. He is jealous that Claudio is more in his brother’s love than he is (although he was recently reconciled with Don Pedro, there are frequent references to many frictions between them in the past) and he admits freely that he just prefers doing evil to doing good.

ACT 2
scene1
Leonato prepares Hero for being asked by Don Pedro for her hand at the party. He also teases Beatrice for being, like Kate in Taming of the Shrew, too “curst” to ever get a husband.
The party begins. Don Pedro woos Hero in disguise, while Benedick, also in disguise, tries to tease Beatrice but gets the worst of the exchange.
Meanwhile Don John pretends to mistake Claudio in his disguise for Benedick, and plants suspicions in his mind that Don Pedro is in love with Hero. Claudio believes him, and is heartbroken. That is, until Don Pedro seeks him out and tells him that Hero and her father have agreed to the marriage with Claudio.
Don Pedro asks the others to help him in a plan to make Benedick and Beatrice fall in love with each other.

scene2
Don John plots how to sabotage the wedding of Claudio and Hero. His servant Borachio promises to have Hero’s servant Margaret look out of Hero’s window at night and speak words of love to him. Don John will trick Claudio and Don Pedro into believing that Margaret is actually Hero, and thus that she is unfaithful.

scene3
Don Pedro, Claudio and Leonato trick Benedick into thinking that Beatrice is hopelessly in love with Benedick, but doesn’t want anyone to tell him because she’s afraid that he will tease her.
When Beatrice is sent against her will to call Benedick in for dinner, he speaks kindly to her. After she leaves, he makes up his mind that he will respond to Beatrice’s “love”.

ACT 3
scene1
Hero and her servant Ursula trick Beatrice into thinking that Benedick loves her. She also decides that she will return his love.

scene 2
The men notice the change in Benedick’s behavior. Don John tells Don Pedro and Claudio to watch with him and see Hero being unfaithful.

scene3
Dogberry appoints the nightwatchmen, using the opposite words from what he means, and giving them ridiculously bad advice. They overhear Don John’s men bragging about how they had fooled Claudio into thinking that Hero was untrue, and arrest them.

scene4
Hero gets ready for her wedding. Margaret teases Beatrice for being in love.

scene5
Dogberry tries to present the two prisoners to Leonato, but he’s in a hurry to go to the wedding.

ACT 4
scene1
Claudio humiliates Hero by accusing her of infidelity in front of everybody on their wedding day. She faints. The priest persuades them to put out the word that Hero actually died from grief at being falsely accused; this will make Claudio repent of his deeds. Benedick and Beatrice swear their love for one another, and Benedick promises to challenge Claudio to a duel.

scene2
Dogberry and the Sexton question Don John’s two servants. The watch reports on their boast about sabotaging the wedding. The Sexton goes to tell Leonato.

ACT 5
scene1
Leonato yells at Claudio for lying about Hero, telling him that his lies have killed her. Benedick challenges Claudio to a duel. Dogberry brings the prisoners to Don Pedro, and they tell him how Don John paid them to smear Hero’s reputation. Claudio now begs Leonato for forgiveness. Leonato tells him that he can atone by marrying Hero’s “cousin” the following day.

scene2
Benedick reflects how hard it is to write good poetry. While he is talking with Beatrice, Ursula arrives with the news that Hero’s innocence has been proved.

scene3
Claudio reads a poem of how he wronged Hero at the tomb, then goes as he promised to marry Hero’s “cousin”.

scene4
Claudio takes as his wife Hero’s “cousin”, only to learn that it is Hero herself. Benedick and Beatrice get married as well, and the confirmed bachelor now advises Don Pedro to get married too.