Much Ado About Nothing
Written: 1598 Texts: Quarto 1600, First Folio 1623 (Comedy)
Source: Ludovico Ariosto (1474-1533). Orlando Furioso (1516)(The English translation by John Harington in 1591); Bandello, Matteo (1485-1561) Novelle (1554-73) 22th story; Edmund Spenser (c.1552-99). The Faerie Queene (1590); Francois de Belleforest (1530-83). Histories Tragiques (1568) Book 3; Whetstone, George The Roke of Regard (1576) – Clauido's rejuction of Hero at her own wedding; Castiglione, Baldassare (1478-1529) The Book of the Courtier (1528)
Characters: Leonato, Claudio, Don Pedro, Benedick, Hero, Beatrice, Friar Francis, Dogberry, Don John, Borachio, Antonio, Ursala
Setting: Messina
Time: Undetermined
Xxx xxx
Notes on Much Ado About Nothing
Beatrice’s Sonnet
Read the NoteBeatrice closes Act 3 scene 1 of Much Ado About Nothing, speaking a sonnet.* Shakespeare occasionally used sonnets in his plays, for example, in Romeo and Juliet and Richard III, which were examined in previous essays. He didn’t insert these sonnets arbitrarily. He intended to achieve particular effects,
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Appearance and Deception
Read the NoteA recurring theme in many of Shakespeare’s plays, and central to Much Ado About Nothing, explores how easily people are deceived not just by the false testimony of others but even by their own senses. Claudio, believing he was deceived by Don John, learned to place no trust in the words of others. With “Let every eye negotiate for itself,”
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Friars, Friends and Deceivers
Read the NoteFriar Francis in Much Ado About Nothing (4.1.221), like Friar Lawrence in Romeo and Juliet, is a sympathetic character who aids the romantic interests of the young lovers. Both friars fashion a conspiracy whose central conceit is the fake death of the lady. Friars fare better than the Catholic hierarchy in Shakespeare’s plays, even though the friars are as devious in their means as cardinals and archbishops.
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Quotes from Much Ado About Nothing
I find here that Don Pedro hath bestowed much honor
Read the QuoteLeonato
I find here that Don
Pedro hath bestowed much honor on a young
Florentine called Claudio.
Messenger
Much deserved on his part, and equally
remembered by Don Pedro.Anapodoton He hath borne himself
beyond the promise of his age, doing in the figure
of a lamb the feats of a lion.
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Are you come to meet your trouble?
Read the QuoteAre you come to meet your trouble? The fashion of the world is to avoid cost, and you encounter it.
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Benedick, didst thou note the daughter of Signior Leonato?
Read the QuoteClaudio
Benedick, didst thou note the daughter of
Signior Leonato?
Benedick
I noted her not, but I looked on her.
Claudio
Is she not a modest young lady?
Why, i’ faith, methinks she’s too low for a
high praise, too brown for a fair praise, and too
little for a great praise
Benedick
Do you question me as an honest man
should do,
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Speak low if you speak love.
Read the QuoteSpeak low if you speak love.
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Friendship is constant in all other things
Read the QuoteFriendship is constant in all other things
Save in the office and affairs of love.Hendiadys
Therefore all hearts in love use their own tongues.Synecdoche
Let every eye negotiate for itself,Synecdoche
And trust no agent; for beauty is a witch
Against whose charms faith melteth into bloodMetaphor.
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Ho, now you strike like the blind man
Read the QuoteHo, now you strike like the blind man. ‘Twas the boy that stole your meat, and you’ll beat the post.Metaphor
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I have brought Count Claudio
Read the QuoteBeatrice
I have brought Count Claudio, whom you sent me to seek.
Prince
Why, how now, count, wherefore are you sad?
Claudio
Not sad, my lord.
Prince
How then, sick?
No, sure, my lord, my mother cried, but then there
was a star danced, and under that was I born.
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Silence is the perfectest heralt of joy
Read the QuoteSilence is the perfectest heralt of joy; I were but little happy, if I could say how much!
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There’s little of the melancholy element in her
Read the QuoteThere’s little of the melancholy element in
her, my lord. She is never sad but when she sleeps,
and not ever sad then, for I have heard my daughter
say she hath often dreamt of unhappiness and
waked herself with laughing.
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Time goes on crutches till love have all his rites.
Read the Quote Time goes on crutches till love have all his ritesPersonification.
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