Much Ado About Nothing Thrift Study Edition

By William Shakespeare

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Not only does it feature the complete text of Much Ado About Nothing, it offers a comprehensive study guide that will easily help you understand Shakespeare's classic drama.
You'll make the grade with:
• Complete and unabridged text
• Scene-by-scene summaries
• Explanations and discussions of the plot
• Question-and-answer sections
• Shakespeare biography
• List of characters and more

• Language: English
• Publisher: Dover Publications
• Release date: Mar 2, 2012
• ISBN: 9780486112831

William Shakespeare

William Shakespeare is widely regarded as the greatest playwright the world has seen. He produced an astonishing amount of work; 37 plays, 154 sonnets, and 5 poems. He died on 23rd April 1616, aged 52, and was buried in the Holy Trinity Church, Stratford.

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EDITIONS

Much Ado About Nothing

WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE

Contents

Dramatis Personae

Act I

Scene I

Scene II

Scene III

Act II

Scene I

Scene II

Scene II

Act III

Scene I

Scene II

Scene III

Scene IV

Scene V

Act IV

Scene I

Scene II

Act V

Scene I

Scene II

Scene III

Scene IV

Dramatis Personae

DON PEDRO, prince of Arragon.

DON JOHN, his bastard brother.

CLAUDIO, a young lord of Florence.

BENEDICK, a young lord of Padua.

LEONATO, governor of Messina.

ANTONIO, his brother.

BALTHASAR, attendant on Don Pedro.

FRIAR FRANCIS.

DOGBERRY, a constable.

VERGES, a headborough.¹

A Boy.

HERO, daughter to Leonato.

BEATRICE, niece to Leonato.

Messengers, Watch, Attendants, &c.

Scene—Messina.

ACT I.

SCENE I. Before LEONATO’S house.

Enter LEONATO, HERO, and BEATRICE, with a Messenger.

LEON.

I learn in this letter that Don Pedro of Arragon comes this night to Messina.

MESS.

He is very near by this: he was not three leagues off when I left him.

LEON.

How many gentlemen have you lost in this action?

MESS.

But few of any sort, and none of name.

LEON.

A victory is twice itself when the achiever brings home full numbers. I find here that Don Pedro hath bestowed much honour on a young Florentine called Claudio.

MESS.

Much deserved on his part, and equally remembered by Don in the figure of a lamb, the feats of a lion: he hath indeed better bettered expectation than you must expect of me to tell you how.

LEON.

He hath an uncle here in Messina will be very much glad of it.

MESS.

I have already delivered him letters, and there appears much joy in him; even so much, that joy could not show itself modest enough without a badge of bitterness.

LEON.

Did he break out into tears?

MESS.

In great measure.

LEON.

A kind overflow of kindness: there are no faces truer than those that are so washed. How much better is it to weep at joy than to joy at weeping!

BEAT.

I pray you, is Signior Mountanto² returned from the wars or no?

MESS.

I know none of that name, lady: there was none such in the army of any sort.

LEON.

What is he that you ask for, niece?

HERO.

My cousin means Signior Benedick of Padua.

MESS.

O, he’s returned; and as pleasant as ever he was.

BEAT.

He set up his bills here in Messina and challenged Cupid at the flight;³ and my uncle’s fool, reading the challenge, subscribed for Cupid, and challenged him at the bird-bolt.⁴ I pray you, how many hath he killed and eaten in these wars? But how many hath he killed? for, indeed, I promised to eat all of his killing.

LEON.

Faith, niece, you tax Signior Benedick too much; but he’ll be meet with you, I doubt it not.

MESS.

He hath done good service, lady, in these wars.

BEAT.

You had musty victual, and he hath holp to eat it: he is a very valiant trencher-man;⁵ he hath an excellent stomach.

MESS.

And a good soldier too, lady.

BEAT.

And a good soldier to a lady; but what is he to a lord?

MESS.

A lord to a lord, a man to a man; stuffed with all honourable

BEAT.

It is so, indeed; he is no less than a stuffed man: but for the stuffing,—well, we are all mortal.

LEON.

You must not, sir, mistake my niece. There is a kind of merry war betwixt Signior Benedick and her: they never meet but there’s a skirmish of wit between them.

BEAT.

Alas! he gets nothing by that. In our last conflict four of his five wits⁶ went halting off, and now is the whole man governed with one: so that if he have wit enough to keep himself warm, let him bear it for a difference between himself and his horse; for it is all the wealth that he hath left, to be known a reasonable creature. Who is his companion now? He hath every month a new sworn brother.

MESS.

Is’t possible?

BEAT.

Very easily possible: he wears his faith but as the fashion of his hat; it ever changes with the next block.

MESS.

I see, lady, the gentleman is not in your books.

BEAT.

No; an he were, I would burn my study. But, I pray you, who is his companion? Is there no young squarer⁷ now that will make a voyage with him to the devil?

MESS.

He is most in the company of the right noble Claudio.

BEAT.

O Lord, he will hang upon him like a disease: he is sooner caught than the pestilence, and the taker runs presently mad. God help the noble Claudio! if he have caught the Benedick, it will cost him a thousand pound ere a’ be cured.

MESS.

I will hold friends with you, lady.

BEAT.

Do, good friend.

LEON.

You will never run mad, niece.

BEAT.

No, not till a hot January.

MESS.

Don Pedro is approached.

Enter DON PEDRO, DON JOHN, CLAUDIO, BENEDICK, and BALTHASAR.

D. PEDRO.

Good Signior Leonato, you are come to meet your trouble : the fashion of the world is to avoid cost, and you encounter it.

LEON.

Never came trouble to my house in the likeness of your Grace: for trouble being gone, comfort should remain; but when you depart from me, sorrow abides, and happiness takes his leave.

D. PEDRO.

You embrace your charge too willingly. I think this is your daughter.

LEON.

Her mother hath many times told me so.

BENE.

Were you in doubt, sir, that you asked her?

LEON.

Signior Benedick, no; for then were you a child.

D. PEDRO.

You have it full, Benedick: we may guess by this what you are, being a man. Truly, the lady fathers herself. Be happy, lady; for you are like an honourable father.

BENE.

If Signior Leonato be her father, she would not have his head on her shoulders for all Messina, as like him as she is.

BEAT.

I wonder that you will still be talking, Signior Benedick: nobody marks you.

BENE.

What, my dear Lady Disdain! are you yet living?

BEAT.

Is it possible disdain should die while she hath such meet food to feed it, as Signior Benedick? Courtesy itself must convert to disdain, if you come in her presence.

BENE.

Then is courtesy a turncoat. But it is certain I am loved of all ladies, only you excepted: and I would I could find in my heart that I had not a hard heart; for, truly, I love none.

BEAT.

A dear happiness to women: they would else have been troubled with a pernicious suitor. I thank God and my cold blood, I am of your humour for that: I had rather hear my dog bark at a crow than a man swear he loves me.

BENE.

God keep your ladyship still in that mind! so some gentleman or other shall ’scape a predestinate scratched face.

BEAT.

Scratching could not make it worse, an ’twere such a face as yours were.

BENE.

Well, you are a rare parrot-teacher.

BEAT.

A bird of my tongue is better than a beast of yours.

BENE.

I would my horse had the speed of your tongue, and so good a continuer. But keep your way, i’God’s name; I have done.

BEAT.

You always end with a jade’s trick: I know you of old.

D. PEDRO.

That is the sum of all, Leonato. Signior Claudio and Signior Benedick, my dear friend Leonato hath invited you all. I tell him we shall stay here at the least a month; and he heartily prays some occasion may detain us longer. I dare swear he is no hypocrite, but prays from his heart.

LEON.

If you swear, my lord, you shall not be forsworn. [To DON JOHN] Let me bid you welcome, my lord: being reconciled to the prince your brother, I owe you all duty.

D. JOHN.

I thank you: I am not of many words, but I thank you.

LEON.

Please it your Grace lead on?

D. PEDRO.

Your hand, Leonato; we will go together.

[Exeunt all except BENEDICK and CLAUDIO.]

CLAUD.

Benedick, didst thou note the daughter of Signior Leonato?

BENE.

I noted her not; but I looked on her.

CLAUD.

Is she not a modest young lady?

BENE.

Do you question me, as an honest man should do, for my simple true judgement? or would you have me speak after my custom, as being a professed tyrant to their sex?

CLAUD.

No; I pray thee speak in sober judgement.

BENE.

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: only this commendation I can afford her, that were she other than she is, she were unhandsome; and being no other but as she is, I do not like her.

CLAUD.

Thou thinkest I am in sport: I pray thee tell me truly how thou likest her.

BENE.

Would you buy her, that you inquire after her?

CLAUD.

Can the world buy such a jewel?

BENE.

Yea, and a case to put it into. But speak you this with a sad brow? or do you play the flouting Jack, to tell us Cupid is a good hare-finder,⁸ and Vulcan a rare carpenter? Come, in what key shall a man take you, to go in the song?

CLAUD.

In mine eye she is the sweetest lady that ever I looked on.

BENE.

I can see yet without spectacles, and I see no such matter: there’s her cousin, an she were not possessed with a fury, exceeds her as much in beauty as the first of May doth the last of December. But I hope you have no intent to turn husband, have you?

CLAUD.

I would scarce trust myself, though I had sworn the contrary, if Hero would be my wife.

BENE.

Is’t come to this? In faith, hath not the world one man but he will wear his cap with suspicion? Shall I never see a bachelor of threescore again? Go to, i’faith; an thou wilt needs thrust thy neck into a yoke, wear the print of it, and sigh away Sundays. Look; Don Pedro is returned to seek you.

Re-enter DON PEDRO.

D. PEDRO.

What secret hath held you here, that you followed not to Leonato’s?

BENE.

I would your Grace would constrain me to tell.

D. PEDRO.

I charge thee on thy allegiance.

BENE.

You hear, Count Claudio: I can be secret as a dumb man; I would have you think so; but, on my allegiance, mark you this, on my allegiance. He is in love. With who? now that is your Grace’s part. Mark how short his answer is;—With Hero, Leonato’s short daughter.

CLAUD.

If this were so, so were it uttered.

BENE.

Like the old tale, my lord: ‘it is not so, nor ’twats not so, but, indeed, God forbid it should be so.’

CLAUD.

If my passion change not shortly, God forbid it should be otherwise.

D. PEDRO.

Amen, if you love her; for the lady is very well worthy.

CLAUD.

You speak this to fetch me in, my lord.

D. PEDRO.

By my troth, I speak my thought.

CLAUD.

And, in faith, my lord, I spoke mine.

BENE.

And, by my two faiths and troths, my lord, I spoke mine.

CLAUD.

That I love her, I feel.

D. PEDRO.

That she is worthy, I know.

BENE.

That I neither feel how she should be loved, nor know how she should be worthy, is the opinion that fire cannot melt out of me: I will die in it at the stake.

D. PEDRO.

Thou wast ever an obstinate heretic in the despite of beauty.

CLAUD.

And never could maintain his part but in the force of his will.

BENE.

That a woman conceived me, I thank her; that she brought me up, I likewise give her most humble thanks: but that I will have a recheat winded in my forehead,⁹ or hang my bugle in an invisible baldrick,¹⁰ all women shall pardon me. Because I will not do them the wrong to mistrust any, I will do myself the right to trust none; and the fine is, for the which I may go the finer, I will live a bachelor.

D. PEDRO.

I shall see thee, ere I die, look pale with love.

BENE.

With anger, with sickness, or with hunger, my lord; not with love: prove that ever I lose more blood with love than I will get again with drinking, pick out mine eyes with a ballad-maker’s pen, and hang me up at the door of a brothel-house for the sign of blind Cupid.

D. PEDRO.

Well, if ever thou dost fall from this faith, thou wilt prove a notable argument.

BENE.

If I do, hang me in a bottle like a cat, and shoot at me; and he that hits me, let him be clapped on the shoulder and called Adam.¹¹

D. PEDRO.

Well, as time shall try: ‘In time the savage bull doth bear the yoke.’

BENE.

The savage bull may; but if ever the sensible Benedick bear it, pluck off the bull’s 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.’

CLAUD.

If this should ever happen, thou wouldst be horn-mad.

D. PEDRO.

Nay, if Cupid have not spent all his quiver in Venice, thou wilt quake for this shortly.

BENE.

I look for an earthquake too, then.

D. PEDRO.

Well, you will temporize with the hours. In the meantime, good Signior Benedick, repair to Leonato’s: commend me to him, and tell him I will not fail him at supper; for indeed he hath made great preparation.

BENE.

I have almost matter enough in me for such an embassage; and so I commit you—

CLAUD.

To the tuition of God: From my house, if I had it,—

D. PEDRO.

The sixth of July:¹² Your loving friend, Benedick.

BENE.

Nay, mock not, mock not. The body of your discourse is sometime guarded with fragments, and the guards are but slightly basted on neither: ere you flout old ends any further, examine your conscience: and so I leave you.

[Exit.]

CLAUD.

My liege, your highness now may do

Reviews for Much Ado About Nothing Thrift Study Edition

[aulsmith · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

This isn't one of my favorites. I find the plot convoluted and the word play between Benedick and Beatrice tiresome.

[ron_peters-1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

A delight; we all need love and comedy. The prototype for every book, play or movie since about lovers, initially repulsed by mutual antagonism and distrust, then drawn together by the sheer force of their fast and witty repartee. "Bene. O God, sir, here's a dish I love not! I cannot endure my Lady Tongue." Harold Bloom isn't wild about it; much the worse for Harry.

[aliceanna-1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

A weak story saved by the bickering of Beatrix and Benedick. Their relationship and the scheme to get together was definitely the highlight of the play.

[comfypants · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

It's a perfectly good play, although the humor almost never works. Shakespeare is just not funny.

[kerilynned · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I enjoyed this more than I thought I would, maybe because I read the modern translation of it. It really made the story easier to understand. I think the part I liked the most was Benedick and Beatrice's relationship. It brought some very much needed humor to the play.

[emelymac · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

My favorite love story and my favorite Shakespeare. I love the relationship between Beatrice and Benedick.

[n.t.embe · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

There are some people that absolutely worship Shakespeare as an absolute genius of his time, and therefore find him immortalized for all of time. Personally, I love his work, and at the time time, I don't. I think I adore his tragedies, but find it hard for myself to truly fall in love with any of his other pieces. Are they enjoyable? Yes, yes they very much are. But they just don't wow me like I expect them to.

That was the case with the famous Much Ado About Nothing, which makes the title quite ironic, don't you think? It was a pleasant read. And as one of Shakespeare's comedies, it did have quite the few entertaining parts. I think it's especially the kind of play you'd want to read if you're looking to sit back, relax, and enjoy some nonsense and chaos that winds up in some expected romance.

To be perfectly honest, while mildly entertaining, as a whole the play only had one or two parts that absolutely had me cracking grins and laughing. And those were scenes not involving any of the main characters, but rather a bumbling side character that ironically ends up being the only capable one in the entire play filled with supposed royals and super intelligent, conniving people! His name is even weird! Dogberry! And yet he's so gung-ho about everything that he does, and he's so passionate, he constantly says the wrong thing even though we all know what he meant, that you can't help but have a good time watching him somehow manage to work his way through all this "serious" crap going on around him!

Ah, but besides him, I can't quite find anyone else worth laughing for. Sure there's our main couple that supposedly hate each other but who we all know are gonna end up together at the end. They're kinda entertaining, especially since as usual Shakespeare's words are loaded with wit and bite. *Chuckles*

Either way, I say this is one to try out. Shakespeare isn't everyone's cup of tea. So don't go off buying it just 'cause a ton of people obsess over the author. Try it out first. If you like it, copies are cheap enough to find. Hope you enjoy!

[amerynth · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I really enjoyed reading William Shakespeare's "Much Ado About Nothing." I suspected I would like it, having seen the Kenneth Branaugh movie many years ago... and the play itself did not disappoint.The play is a lot of "he loves me... he loves me not." With the most interesting characters being Beatrice and Benedick, who hate each other enough that it's got to be love. There are good side plots and the well-work Shakespearean disguise, which actually works fairly well here.

[tiffanyak_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This is a Shakespearean Comedy of Manners from before the genre was even really a fully developed thing, featuring love affairs, a revenge plot, some humorous incompetence, a faked death, and much more. I'm not a big comedy fan, but this is certainly a good example of the genre at the time from which it came, and I actually quite enjoyed it. As to the edition itself, I found it to be greatly helpful in understanding the action in the play. It has a layout which places each page of the play opposite a page of notes, definitions, explanations, and other things needed to understand that page more thoroughly. While I didn't always need it, I was certainly glad to have it whenever I ran into a turn of language that was unfamiliar, and I definitely appreciated the scene-by-scene summaries. Really, if you want to or need to read Shakespeare, an edition such as this is really the way to go, especially until you get more accustomed to it.

[aoibhealfae · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Like Neil Gaiman, Shakespeare's drama is best seen and heard rather than read. There were a realm of dramatic wonders and non-verbal interpretations that didn't exist in the text form. Considering the last time I read anything by Shakespeare was high school, its been long overdue for me. Granted, I have a decent cause to fear older plays. Woman in older literature aren't as well-received nor well-written as the male counterpart. Romeo and Juliet -which I read for SPM- never really give me those warm feeling due to the fact that the two children were barely pre-teen and they're willing to die for each other within days after meeting. So, Shakespeare wasn't my kind of love story.

Much Ado About Nothing revolve around the relationship between Hero and Claudio, the characters and family, reputations, lies and trickery that would make Puck proud. Its also consisted of a love story between Benedick and Beatrice who was sworn enemy but was tricked by their relatives and eventually they fall in love with each other and mostly used as a comic humor throughout the scenes. But a large part of the story involve the machination by Don John who are determine to wreck the happiness of the characters in the book.
But it was there were serious terrible overtones of public slut-shaming that made the story painful to be seen without trying to murder somebody. Hated hated words. Apparently these things can be solved by fake deaths and all the dramas and forgiveness and groveling. Pfff. This is also the reason why most production focus on the dynamics between Benedick and Beatrice rather than the actual couple of the story. However, if anyone doing a local production of this story, just ping me up. I want to watch it live.

[renrav · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I primarily wanted to read this for the upcoming Joss Whedon movie. I am terrible at understanding Shakespeare by myself. I think I did okay understanding it, and I enjoyed what I understood. But I'll probably have to reread this before the movie with a different edition. Mine was on the kindle and I kept having to go back and forth on the footnotes.

[coach_of_alva · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I am not surprised that a tragedy could affect people, no matter how old it was, but I am very surprised that so old a comedy could work so well. I was as moved by this play as I have been by his tragedies. How I regret that it took me so long to read this.

[areadingmachine · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Love this play and love the rapport and verbal sparring between Benedict and Beatrice almost more than anything other Shakespearean dialogue

[martinbodek · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

By my troth, 'twas I indeed
That, marry, hath enjoyed much
It filleth in me the need
To enjoyeth puns and such
Romantics of wordplayers
Was virginal territory
Through the speakers and the sayers
of scribesmithery's glory
Appettite is whetted for more from The Bard
How could life without him have not been very hard?

[thassin1991 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Viel Lärm um nichts ist eine Komödie um Liebe und Intrigen von William Shakespeare. Das Buch ist wohl eine der lebendigsten Komödien von William Shakespeare. In dem Intrigenstück geht es vor allem um Wahrheit und Täuschung, Verstellung und Verkleidung, aber auch um Liebe, Freundschaft und Verrat. Auf dem Rückweg von einem siegreichen Kriegszug besuchen Don Pedro, Claudio und Benedikt den Gouverneur von Messina, Leonato. Während sich Benedikt und Leonatos Nichte Beatrice bei jeder Gelegenheit Wortgefechte liefern und sich die gegenseitige Liebe nicht eingestehen, hält Claudio um die Hand der Gouverneurstochter Hero an. Don Pedros Halbbruder Don Juan missgönnt Claudio das Glück und verhindert mit einer Intrige die Hochzeit. Dieser Klassiker ist leicht und flüssig zu lesen und reißt den Leser durch seine witzigen Dialoge mit.

[antao-3 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

The Things and the Nothings: "Much Ado About Nothing" by William Shakespeare, Sylvan Barnet, David L. Stevenson Published 1989.


NB: Read in tandem with the Branagh, Whedon and BBC’s versions. This review draws extensively from my reading of the three movies, as well as from my re-reading of the play.

Let’s get this out of the way first. “Much Ado about Nothing” is one of my favourite Shakespeare’s plays.

Each time I re-read it, I always feel Shakespeare uses it as part of the macho banter in the male-dominated culture of this soldier band of brothers, but it also has a serious side in creating a sense of male insecurity and mistrust of women.

The entire play is underlaid with mistrust of women- Benedick's first line is, "were you in doubt, sir, that you asked her?" Leonato's jest lightly plays with the stereotype of the unfaithful wife and the masculine fear of raising another man's son and Benedick immediately takes him up on it. I think Shakespeare is creating a cast of men who are very much in a male only world and struggle to trust women on any level. It's notable that Don John is a known quantity and yet both Claudio and Don Pedro are quick to believe their eyes and fall for his trap, even though they themselves have just set a similar trap for Benedick and Beatrice and might be expected to stop and think how easily such a thing could be faked. Leonato immediately believes his daughter is corrupt, though only a second's reflection should make him realize that he (and Beatrice) could not have been unaware of a "thousand" midnight meetings between Hero and her imagined swain.

The rest of this review can be found elsewhere.

[bell7_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

In this Shakespeare comedy, we have two pairs to keep track of: Hero and Claudio, and Beatrice and Bernadick. Hero and Claudio seem well on their way to matrimony until Don John, the bastard brother of the prince Don Pedro, decides to make trouble and break them up. Meanwhile, Beatrice and Bernadick seem more interested in trading barbs than anything else, but their friends decide to set them up and make them fall in love.While this play doesn't have many recognizable one liners that are constantly quoted even once we've forgotten they're Shakespeare, I found myself wondering why Much Ado wasn't one of the plays I studied in high school or college. Because for just pure fun, and funny moments, and witticisms galore, this has suddenly become one of my favorite plays. Plus, it's fairly accessible - I truly barely needed the notes, and it's been a few years since I've read Shakespeare. It's worth reading just for the (very minor) characters of Verges and Dogberry, the witless malapropists. Why haven't I read this before now?

[mrslee_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I watched the movie with Kenneth Branagh and Emma Thompson before I read the play. I'm glad I did, because it brought a depth of imagery which enhanced the reading. I enjoy this story very much, so clever, although, my modern sensibilities are quite wounded that Hero would consent so easily to marry Claudio after his great lack of faith in her and his horrible treatment of her. The working of Beatrice and Benedick is a joy to behold.

[howe3488 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

My favourite Shakespeare! I love the interactions between the characters in this book, very witty. Much emphasis placed on how things can become misconstrued when eavesdropping occurs - lots to take into your own life, whilst being very entertaining. Obviously being Shakespeare though not an "easy read".

[cargocontainer · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

I have long held that plays were meant to be performed, not read. This holds true for this play, which is quite a good one. I've seen performance versions before, which significantly helped me follow the play as it was written, but found that without the deliveries of actors, the result largely falls flat compared to the spoken, performed versions. I enjoyed it far more than I would have had I not been familiar with the story through performance.

[yonitdm · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

A fun comedy with love, intrigue, deceit for good and deceit for bad. As a mouthy broad, I love Beatrice and could relate to the hesitation to drop the tough act and be vulnerable.

[choco12kitty · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

For the first time I can actually say that I liked a Shakespeare play! This translation helped me get through the text with it's side and end notes. Much Ado About Nothing was a book that I enjoyed reading.It had all the components I like: drama and romance, yet wasn't focused on just one area. The only thing I didn't like was the ending, I thought Benedick and Beatrice had actually changed, but really hadn't. This book deserves it's stars.

[shuffy2_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

This is one of my favorite Shakespeare plays! The worthy Claudio falls for the beautiful Hero, but will his love hold up when he thinks her unvirtuous? To me the real scene grabber is the word play between the quick witted Beatrice and the glory hound Benedick. Both swear they will never love; Benedick a sworn bachelor and Beatrice finds men, in particular Benedick, a 'stuffed man' equal to 'pestilence'. This book is fun and clever! Don't be afraid of Shakespeare's words- a must read!

[391_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Much Ado is definitely my favorite of Shakespeare's comedies. It's good on its own, and a good performance just makes it incredible.

[the_awesome_opossum · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Much Ado About Nothing is simply a fun play to read. Plenty of banter, wordplay, and just ridiculous situations - and it all reads in a very modern way, not dated or irrelevant at all. There are some more sobering bits about female sexuality and how the society treasures virginity with Hero's storyline, but really, the relationship between Beatrice and Benedick is what keeps this play afloat

[briony_2 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

I loved this play so much that I wrote my thesis on it (partially). If I had known of this play in high school I would not have hated Shakespeare as much as I did.

[cinesnail88 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Since I was a pretty young child, this has been my favorite Shakespeare play, and because of that I chose it for my Shakespeare research project. I am really looking forward to having a lot of fun with it, since I know it ridiculously well.

[mendoza_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

My favourite Shakespeare. i am amazed that a comedy written 500 years ago is still relevant today - as in I still get the sly remarks and subtle humor.Branaughs production was extremely enjoyable.

[multifaceted_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

Had this been written today, I can say it'd probably be one of those dime-a-dozen romance novels you can barely give away, or one of the run-of-the-mill romantic comedy movies. The basic plot of the play is ok (think of any romantic comedy, and you'll most likely think of something with an element similar to this), and it does have its entertaining bits, but really, only Shakespeare's wording and humor save it. Don't get me wrong--Shakespeare is very humorous, and I was laughing at some of his writing ever since I was a kid--but something about combining the humor with a love story just doesn't entertain me.Maybe I just look for more action and less lovey-dovey stuff in my reading...

[misslizzy_1 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Yet another play that I first saw as a production/film, with Kenneth Branagh and, again, Emma Thompson. I loved what I saw, so I decided to read it, in case anything had been left out. But of course, with Branagh doing the screenplay, not much was abandoned. I could never really understand why John the Bastard was so...much of a bastard (perhaps because he was one?), but I really love the humor and the oh-so-cheesy ending--much different from most of Shakespeare's.