Full Text:
Much Ado About Nothing
Much
Ado About Nothing
Plot
Synopsis
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 Beatrice's
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, often at the
expense of his friends. Don John, Don Pedro’s illegitimate brother, is
part of the crowd as well. Don John is sullen and bitter, and makes trouble for
the others.
When
the soldiers arrive at Leonato’s home, Claudio quickly falls in love with Hero.
Meanwhile, Benedick and Beatrice resume the war of witty insults that they have
carried on with each other in the past. Claudio and Hero pledge their love to
one another and decide to be married. To pass the time in the week before the
wedding, the lovers and their friends decide to play a game. They want to get
Beatrice and Benedick, who are clearly meant for each other, to stop arguing
and fall in love. Their tricks prove successful, and Beatrice and Benedick soon
fall secretly in love with each other.
But
Don John has decided to disrupt everyone’s happiness. He has his companion
Borachio make love to Margaret, Hero’s serving woman, at Hero’s window in the
darkness of the night, and he brings Don Pedro and Claudio to watch. Believing
that he has seen Hero being unfaithful to him, the enraged Claudio humiliates
Hero by suddenly accusing her of lechery on the day of their wedding and
abandoning her at the altar. Hero’s stricken family members decide to pretend
that she died suddenly of shock and grief and to hide her away while they wait
for the truth about her innocence to come to light. In the aftermath of the
rejection, Benedick and Beatrice finally confess their love to one another.
Fortunately, the night watchmen overhear Borachio bragging about his crime.
Dogberry and Verges, the heads of the local police, ultimately arrest both
Borachio and Conrad, another of Don John’s followers. Everyone learns that Hero
is really innocent, and Claudio, who believes she is dead, grieves for her.
Leonato
tells Claudio that, as punishment, he wants Claudio to tell everybody in the
city how innocent Hero was. He also wants Claudio to marry Leonato’s “niece”—a
girl who, he says, looks much like the dead Hero. Claudio goes to church with
the others, preparing to marry the mysterious, masked woman he thinks is Hero’s
cousin. When Hero reveals herself as the masked woman, Claudio is overwhelmed
with joy. Benedick then asks Beatrice if she will marry him, and after some
arguing they agree. The joyful lovers all have a merry dance before they
celebrate their double wedding.
