Much Ado About Nothing

Much Ado About Nothing, comedy in five acts by William Shakespeare, written probably in 1598–99 and printed in a quarto edition from the authors own manuscript in 1600. The play takes an ancient theme—that of a woman falsely accused of unfaithfulness—to brilliant comedic heights. Shakespeare used as his main source for the Claudio-Hero plot a story from Matteo Bandellos Novelle (1554–73); he also may have consulted Ludovico Ariostos Orlando furioso and Edmund Spensers The Faerie Queene. The Beatrice-Benedick plot is essentially Shakespeares own, though he must have had in mind his own story of wife taming in The Taming of the Shrew.
Leonato, a kindly, respectable nobleman, lives in the idyllic Italian town of Messina. Leonato shares his house with his lovely young daughter, Hero, his playful, clever niece, Beatrice, and his elderly brother, Antonio (who is Beatrices father). As the play begins, Leonato prepares to welcome some friends home from a war. The friends include Don Pedro, a prince who is a close friend of Leonato, and two fellow soldiers: Claudio, a well-respected young nobleman, and Benedick, a clever man who constantly makes witty jokes.