Written Work

Much Ado About Nothing

by
William Shakespeare






Alejandra Carrin
Jos Palacios
Natalia Sura
Prof.: Hamish I. Stewart
Literatura Inglesa Moderna



Valparaso, octubre de 2011
Introduction

Much Ado About Nothing is one of Shakespeares most frequently
performed comedies. Probably written in the later part of 1598, it was
performed soon afterward by the Lord Chamberlains Men, the theatrical
company in which William Shakespeare had a business interest separate
from his duties as actor and play write.
Much Ado is apparently based on a story in a collection of stories by
Italian writer Matteo Bandello, originally published in 1554 and translated
into English in 1582. Some plot elements and characters may have been
inspired by a lengthy Italian poem, Orlando Furioso by Ludovico Aristo,
originally published in 1532 and translated into English in 1591.
If Much Ado were only a play depicting its characters as products of their
circumstances and the situations they encounter, the play would seem
quite shallow and would probably not be popular today.
Most Shakespeare authorities agree that the word nothing in the plays
title is purposely ambiguous. In Elizabethan times, nothing was
pronounced much like noting, which means not only taking note or
observing, but also overhearing or intentionally eavesdropping actions
around which the plot turns and twists.




Character Information

Don Pedro, Prince of Aragon: A kind, good Prince who helps Claudio win Hero. It was
very common for the superiors of that time to find suitable wives for their men. He
later helps Claudio disgrace Hero when he believes that she is unfaithful and he also
tricks Benedick and Beatrice to fall in love.

Benedick, of Padua; a lord, companion of Don Pedro: A sarcastic, witty bachelor who
swears he will never marry, he later falls in love with Beatrice when he is tricked into
believing that she loves him. He is said to be very good in battle and there is hinting at
a past relationship with Beatrice, though they do nothing but fight when the story
opens.

Claudio, of Florence; a count, companion of Don Pedro

Balthasar, attendant on Don Pedro, a singer: Though Don Pedro praises his singing;
Benedick calls him a "cat who sounds as if someone is killing it."

Don John, "the Bastard Prince," brother of Don Pedro and the main villain: He is surly
and bitter, stirring up trouble with Claudio, Hero, and everyone he can. He is captured
by the end of the play.

Borachio and Conrade, followers of Don John: They are the ones who actually initiate
the plot to frame Hero as an adulteress. Borachio, who is in a relationship with
Margaret, gets her into Hero's clothes and then kisses her on the balcony window, in
full sight of Don Jon, Don Pedro, and Claudio.

Leonato, governor of Messina: He is ready to kill Hero himself when he believes she
has dishonored him, but when he starts to believe her innocence, is ready to turn and
kill Claudio instead.

Hero, Leonato's daughter: Beautiful, sweet, gentle, and demure, she is wrongfully
accused of unfaithfulness and publicly humiliated on her wedding day. Wounded by
Claudio's anger and her love for him, she swoons, and later pretends to be dead to
bring remorse to her beloved. She marries Claudio in the end.

Beatrice, niece of Leonato, orphan: Hero's witty, older cousin, she attacks Benedick
verbally, though she mentions once that "I wish he would have boarded me,"
insinuating that they had a past relationship. She swears never to marry, but after
being tricked into believing that Benedick loves her, falls in love with him. She asks him
to avenge Hero's dishonor and he reluctantly agrees to challenge Claudio to a duel.
Antonio, an old man, brother of Leonato: Offers to fight Claudio after Hero is
pronounced "dead."



Margaret, waiting-gentlewoman attendant on Hero: Borachio's lover, she is tricked
into wearing Hero's clothes and unwittingly taken for her mistress.

Ursula, waiting-gentlewoman attendant on Hero

Friar Francis, a priest: The priest who believes in Hero's innocence and proposes the
plot to pretend that she is dead.

Dogberry, the constable in charge of Messina's night watch: An idiot with a too-large
sense of self-importance, he continuously botches everything he tries to do but is
indirectly responsible for Hero's public redemption from disgrace.

Verges, the Headborough, Dogberrys partner

A Sexton, the judge of the trial of Borachio

The Watch, watchmen of Messina

A Boy, serving Benedick

Attendants and messengers

Innogen, a ghost character









Whats the play all about


L EONATO, 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. 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 Pedros 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 Leonatos 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 everyones happiness. He has his companion
Borachio make love to Margaret, Heros serving woman, at Heros 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. Heros 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 Johns 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 Leonatos niecea 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 Heros 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.







Performance History

The play was very popular in its early decades, as it would be later: in a poem
published in 1640, Leonard Digges wrote "...let but Beatrice / And Benedick be seen, lo
in a trice / The Cockpit galleries, boxes, all are full."
After the theatres re-opened during the Restoration, Sir William Davenant staged The
Law Against Lovers (1662), which inserted Beatrice and Benedick into an adaptation of
Measure for Measure. Another adaptation, The Universal Passion, combined Much
Ado with a play by Molire (1737). Shakespeare's text had been revived by John Rich at
Lincoln's Inn Fields (1721). David Garrick first played Benedick in 1748 and continued to
play him until 1776.[14]
The great nineteenth century stage team Henry Irving and Ellen Terry counted
Benedick and Beatrice as their greatest triumph and Charles Kemble also had a great
success as Benedick. John Gielgud made Benedick one of his signature roles between
1931 and 1959, playing the part opposite the Beatrice of Diana Wynyard, Peggy
Ashcroft and Margaret Leighton. The longest running Broadway production is A. J.
Antoon's 1972 staging starring Sam Waterston, Kathleen Widdoes and Barnard
Hughes, and Derek Jacobi won a Tony Award for playing Benedick in 1984. Jacobi had
also played Benedick in the Royal Shakespeare Company's highly-praised 1982
production. Director Terry Hands produced the play on a stage-length mirror, against
an unchanging backdrop of painted trees. Sinad Cusack played Beatrice.

On stage

In the original production by the Lord Chamberlain's Men, William Kempe played
Dogberry and Richard Cowley played Verges.
1765 David Garrick played Benedick.
1882 Henry Irving and Ellen Terry played Benedick and Beatrice.
1930 John Gielgud played Benedick for the first time at the Old Vic Theatre and it
stayed in his repertory until 1959.
1960 Tony Award Nomination for Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Play:
Margaret Leighton
1973 Tony Award Nomination for Best Featured Actor in a Play: Barnard Hughes as
Dogberry in the New York Shakespeare Festival production
1973 Tony Award Nomination for Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Play:
Kathleen Widdoes
1983 Evening Standard Award: Best Actor: Derek Jacobi
1985 Tony Award Nomination for Best Performance by a Leading Actress in a Play:
Sinad Cusack
1985 Tony Award for Best Performance by a Leading Actor in a Play: Derek Jacobi as
Benedick
1989 Evening Standard Award: Best Actress: Felicity Kendal as Beatrice in Elijah
Moshinsky's production at the Strand Theatre
1994 Laurence Olivier Award: Best Actor: Mark Rylance as Benedick in Matthew
Warchus' production at the Queen's Theatre
2006 Laurence Olivier Award: Best Actress: Tamsin Greig as Beatrice in the Royal
Shakespeare Company's production in the Royal Shakespeare Theatre, directed by
Marianne Elliott
2007 Zo Wanamaker as Beatrice and Simon Russell Beale as Benedick in a National
Theatre production directed by Nicholas Hytner
2011 Eve Best as Beatrice and Charles Edwards as Benedick at Shakespeare's Globe,
directed by Jeremy Herrin.[15]
2011 David Tennant as Benedick alongside Catherine Tate as Beatrice in a production
of the play at the Wyndham's Theatre, directed by Josie Rourke


Themes, motifs and symbols

Themes

Themes are the fundamental and often universal ideas explored in a literary work.

The Ideal of Social Grace
Deception as a Means to an End
The Importance of Honor


Motifs
Motifs are recurring structures, contrasts, and literary devices that can help to develop
and inform the texts major themes.
Public Shaming
Noting
Entertainment
Counterfeiting


Symbols
Symbols are objects, characters, figures, and colors used to represent abstract ideas or
concepts.
The Taming of Wild Animals
War
Heros Death












Important quotations explained


First Quote

The savage bull may, but if ever the sensible Benedick bear it, pluck off the bulls
horns and set them in my forehead, and let me be vilely painted, and in such great
letters as they write Here is good horse to hire let them signify under my sign Here
you may see Benedick, the married man(I.i.215219)

Benedick delivers this speech to Claudio and Don Pedro. Don Pedro has just quoted an
old adage about even the wildest of people eventually calming down enough to submit
to love and marriage, suggesting that in time even a savage bull will bear the yoke of a
womans will. Benedick adamantly refuses to believe this commonplace and decides to
mock it. The sensible Benedick means the rational Benedick, a person too intelligent
to yield to the irrational ways of love. Benedick imagines a fantastical scene here, with
horns clapped on his head and writing practically branded into his forehead. It was
traditional in the Renaissance to imagine that cuckoldsmen whose wives committed
adulteryhad horns on their heads. Benedicks evocation of this image suggests that
any woman he marries is sure to cheat on him. Claudio and Don Pedro continue to
tease Benedick about the bull imagery throughout the play


Second Quote

What should I do with himdress him in my apparel and make him my waiting
gentlewoman? He that hath a beard is more than a youth, and he that hath no beard is
less than a man; and he that is more than a youth is not for me, and he that is less than
a man, I am not for him (II.i.2832)
These lines constitute Beatrices witty explanation for why she must remain an
unmarried woman and eventually an old maid: there is no man who would be a perfect
match for her. Those who possess no facial hair are not manly enough to satisfy her
desires, whereas those who do possess beards are not youthful enough for her. This
conundrum is not particular to Beatrice. In Renaissance literature and culture,
particularly in Shakespeare, youths on the cusp of manhood are often the most
coveted objects of sexual desire.
Although Beatrice jokes that she would dress up a beardless youth as a woman, there
is a hidden double meaning here: in Shakespeares time, the actor playing Beatrice
would have been doing exactly that, since all female roles were played by
prepubescent boys until the late seventeenth century. Indeed, the beardless
adolescent had a special allure that provoked the desires of both men and woman on
the Elizabethan stage. Beatrices desire for a man who is caught between youth and
maturity was in fact the sexual ideal at the time. The plot of the play eventually toys
with her paradoxical sentiments for a man both with and without a beard: during the
course of the play, Benedick will shave his beard once he falls in love with her.


Third Quote

They say the lady is fair. Tis a truth, I can bear them witness. And virtuoustis so, I
cannot reprove it. And wise, but for loving me. By my troth, it is no addition to her wit
nor no great argument of her folly, for I will be horribly in love with her
(II.iii.204208)
Benedick has just overheard Claudio, Leonato, and Don Pedro discussing Beatrices
fabricated love for him. Alone on the stage, he ponders this news and concludes that
the best thing for him to do is to return this love: for I will be horribly in love with her
(II.iii.208). This line produces a comical effect, as it seems preposterous that someone
would fall horribly in love with another person after simply weighing that persons
virtues. The choice of the word horribly accentuates the comic aspects of Benedicks
decision. Not only does he return her love, but he does so to the point of overthrowing
her, and all others in his midst, with love. The choice of horribly could also echo a bit
of the merry war Beatrice and Benedick have been fighting with their wits. There has
always existed an element of competition between them. It is not enough for Benedick
to reciprocate Beatrices passions; he must outdo them, perhaps in order to unseat her
and win the competition. The actor playing Benedick has a number of choices in
performing this soliloquy: he can reveal that he has always been in love with Beatrice
but is in denial about his true feelings and therefore must go through the motions of
weighing the pros and cons of loving her in a rational manner. Or he can simply treat
this moment as one more parry in the thrusts and blows of their merry war and
conclude that the only way to win is to surpass her, even in love.


Fourth Quote

O Hero! What a Hero hadst thou been
If half thy outward graces had been placed
About thy thoughts and counsels of thy heart!
But fare thee well, most foul, most fair, farewell
Thou pure impiety and impious purity.
For thee Ill lock up all the gates of love,
And on my eyelids shall conjecture hang
To turn all beauty into thoughts of harm,
And never shall it more be gracious. (IV.i.98106)

Claudio has just openly rebuked Hero at their wedding ceremony, throwing her back to
Leonato, her father. He believes that she has not only been unfaithful to him but has
lost her virginity, and therefore her purity and innocence, to someone else before her
marriage. Claudios belief is the result of Don Johns evil plot to deceive him and make
him lose Don Pedros goodwill. These lines demonstrate Shakespeares ability to fill a
speech with double meanings and wordplay through repetition. For instance, Hero
appears twice in the first line, changing meaning the second time. The first time,
Claudio addresses his former beloved directly. The second time, Claudio compares
Hero to an ideal conqueror of his heart, as classical heroes conquered and won great
battles. Yet Hero has lost her heroic qualities. Fare thee well most foul, most fair,
farewell plays with repetition and opposites: the sound of the word fair is repeated
three times in the space of one line, underscoring Claudios despair at discovering that
Heros outward beauty or fairness conceals a foul spirit, as he thinks.

There might also be some play on the double meanings of fairas beautiful, and as
balanced and true. In Claudios eyes, Hero is not only no longer fair, meaning
beautiful (she is foul), but she is also no longer fair, meaning truthful, but is its
opposite, false or dissembling. Both the combination of fair and foul in the same
line and pure impiety and impious purity in the following line demonstrate a
rhetorical technique Shakespeare is famous for using in his plays: antithesis, or the
combining of paradoxical opposites in one line for emphasis. Moments in which
characters spout antitheses usually occur at the height of passion. For Claudio to use
these particular opposites to describe his frustration with Heros seemingly fair
exterior and false and foul interior reveals that he is livid with rage and driven to
despair.


Fifth Quote
Dost thou not suspect my place? Dost thou not suspect my years? O that he were here
to write me down an ass! But masters, remember that I am an ass. Though it be not
written down, yet forget not that I am an ass. No, thou villain, thou art full of piety, as
shall be proved upon thee by good witness. I am a wise fellow, and which is more, an
officer, and which is more, a householder, and which is more, as pretty a piece of flesh
as any is in Messina, and one that knows the law, go to . . . and one that hath two
gowns, and everything handsome about him. Bring him away. O that I had been writ
down an ass!...(IV.ii.6778)

Dogberry is the constable and leader of the town night watch in Messina, the town
where the action of the play takes place. Despite his comedic substitutions of incorrect
words for similar-sounding correct words, Dogberry does succeed in apprehending
Conrad and Borachio and unraveling Don Johns plot to deceive Claudio and ruin Hero.
At this moment, he has caught Borachio and brought him before the sexton to record
the events of the evening. Binding the villains together, Dogberry calls Conrad a
naughty varlet (IV.ii.65). Conrad has angrily responded to Dogberry with Away, you
are an ass, you are an ass (IV.ii.66). Dogberry, infuriated that anyone should insult
him, delivers this indignant comic speech filled with verbal misuse, saying suspect
instead of respect and piety instead of impiety. Dogberrys determined
insistence that he be writ down an ass is comical, because instead of asking that the
sexton note that Conrad has insulted Dogberry, Dogberry contributes to his own
slander by insisting that the sexton put in writing that Dogberry is an ass. Dogberry is
most offended by Conrads accusation because the constable interprets Conrads
rudeness as a class criticism, which it most likely is. Dogberry may not be a nobleman,
but he is a good, law-abiding citizen, he owns his own house, and he possesses two
costly pieces of apparel (two gowns), which signifies that though he does not belong to
the court, he is part of the emergent bourgeoisie. He is right to feel insulted by the ill-
behaved noble Conrads invective. Though Dogberrys poor command of the English
language results in hilarity, there is nothing poor or evil about him.