Much Ado About Nothing

By William Shakespeare

"Much Ado About Nothing" is the story of Leonato, an Italian nobleman, his daughter, Hero, and his niece, Beatrice. Following a war Leonato welcomes into his house Don Pedro, his good friend; fellow soldiers of Don Pedro, Claudio and Benedick; as well as Don Pedro's illegitimate brother, Don John. Quickly amorous relations develop between Claudio and Hero and later between Benedick and Beatrice. As wedding plans are being made for Claudio and Hero, Don John tricks Claudio into believing that Hero has been unfaithful. The wedding bliss is briefly interrupted until the truth is finally discovered and the play ends in a joyful double wedding.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Digireads.com Publishing
• Release date: Jan 1, 2010
• ISBN: 9781596253704

William Shakespeare

William Shakespeare was born in April 1564 in the town of Stratford-upon-Avon, on England’s Avon River. When he was eighteen, he married Anne Hathaway. The couple had three children—an older daughter Susanna and twins, Judith and Hamnet. Hamnet, Shakespeare’s only son, died in childhood. The bulk of Shakespeare’s working life was spent in the theater world of London, where he established himself professionally by the early 1590s. He enjoyed success not only as a playwright and poet, but also as an actor and shareholder in an acting company. Although some think that sometime between 1610 and 1613 Shakespeare retired from the theater and returned home to Stratford, where he died in 1616, others believe that he may have continued to work in London until close to his death.

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MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING

BY WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE

A Digireads.com Book

Digireads.com Publishing

Print ISBN 13: 978-1-4209-2619-4

Ebook ISBN 13: 978-1-59625-370-4

This edition copyright © 2011

Please visit www.digireads.com

CONTENTS

DRAMATIS PERSONAE

ACT I

SCENE I. Before LEONATO'S house.

SCENE II. A room in LEONATO's house.

SCENE III. The same.

ACT II

SCENE I. A hall in LEONATO'S house.

SCENE II. The same.

SCENE III. LEONATO'S orchard.

ACT III

SCENE I. LEONATO'S garden.

SCENE II. A room in LEONATO'S house

SCENE III. A street.

SCENE IV. HERO's apartment.

SCENE V. Another room in LEONATO'S house.

ACT IV

SCENE I. A church.

SCENE II. A prison.

ACT V

SCENE I. Before LEONATO'S house.

SCENE II. LEONATO'S garden.

SCENE III. A church.

SCENE IV. A room in LEONATO'S house.

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, an old man, his brother.

Balthasar, attendant on Don Pedro.

Borachio, follower of Don John.

Conrade, follower of Don John.

Friar Francis.

Dogberry, a Constable.

Verges, a Headborough.

A Sexton.

A Boy.

Hero, daughter to Leonato.

Beatrice, niece to Leonato.

Margaret, waiting gentlewoman attending on Hero.

Ursula, waiting gentlewoman attending on Hero.

Messengers, Watch, Attendants, etc.

ACT I

SCENE I. Before LEONATO'S house.

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

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

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

LEONATO. How many gentlemen have you lost in this action?

MESSENGER. But few of any sort, and none of name.

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

MESSENGER. Much deserved on his part and equally remembered by Don Pedro: he hath borne himself beyond the promise of his age, doing, 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.

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

MESSENGER. 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.

LEONATO. Did he break out into tears?

MESSENGER. In great measure.

LEONATO. 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!

BEATRICE. I pray you, is Signior Mountanto returned from the wars or no?

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

LEONATO. What is he that you ask for, niece?

HERO. My cousin means Signior Benedick of Padua.

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

BEATRICE. He set up his bills here in Messina and challenged Cupid at the flight; and my uncle's fool, reading the challenge, subscribed for Cupid, and challenged him at the bird-bolt. 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.

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

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

BEATRICE. You had musty victual, and he hath holp to eat it: he is a very valiant trencherman; he hath an excellent stomach.

MESSENGER. And a good soldier too, lady.

BEATRICE. And a good soldier to a lady: but what is he to a lord?

MESSENGER. A lord to a lord, a man to a man; stuffed with all honourable virtues.

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

LEONATO. 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.

BEATRICE. Alas! he gets nothing by that. In our last conflict four of his five wits 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.

MESSENGER. Is't possible?

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

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

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

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

BEATRICE. 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.

MESSENGER. I will hold friends with you, lady.

BEATRICE. Do, good friend.

LEONATO. You will never run mad, niece.

BEATRICE. No, not till a hot January.

MESSENGER. Don Pedro is approached.

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

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

LEONATO. 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.

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

LEONATO. Her mother hath many times told me so.

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

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

DON 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.

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

BEATRICE. I wonder that you will still be talking, Signior Benedick:

Reviews for Much Ado About Nothing

[regularguy5mb · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Much Ado is, by far, my absolute favorite Shakespeare. The humor, the wit, the back and forth (especially between Benedick and Beatrice) just ticks all the boxes for greatness.This particular copy I picked up from a local library sale just before I was supposed to teach Shakespeare to 10th graders as part of my student teaching. I chose Much Ado because it was the lightest of my three choices (the others being Othello and Julius Caesar), but also the play I knew best. As I told my students at the time, Much Ado is a prime example of an early form of the situational comedy, where all the misunderstandings could be easily avoided if only certain parties would talk to one another, but then there really would be Nothing going on.And, always remember, Dogberry is an ass.

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

I'm surprised that I haven't commented on this one after a previous reading, as it's one of my very favorites. Though I'll admit that the Claudio/Hero plot is pretty infuriating, Beatrice and Benedick have more than enough charm to compensate for Claudio's shallow, opportunistic fickleness and Hero's pathetic lack of spunk. B&B are easily my favorite pair of lovers in Shakespeare – witty, sensitive, thoughtful, complex... just utterly delightful. And this time I had Marjorie Garber's excellent piece to point out some things I'd missed up til now. My favorite new tidbit – not important but a fun, “insider” joke (as in, Shakespeare's original audience would have appreciated it) was about the malapropism spouting Dogberry...”The role of Dogberry was originally played by Will Kemp, the same actor who played Bottom in A Midsummer Night's Dream, and we might imagine that spectators would make this connection. Dogberry/Kemp has already be “writ down an ass,”with equal insouciant triumph, in Shakespeare's earlier play.”Garber also explains the connection between “nothing” and “noting,” which I'd previously not “noted.” (the Folger edition also comments on this, saying “There is some evidence that 'nothing' and 'noting' were pronounced alike in Shakespeare's day. If so, this word is yet another pun on 'nothing,' and the title of the play itself could be heard as 'Much Ado about Noting.'”) She elaborates on this a bit, highlighting some of the many places where “noting” is significant. Just another detail that helped me enjoy the play even more. I listened to the Arkangel audio performance while I read, which is, as always, well done, though perhaps lacking the intensity and sparkle that I want with some of this dialogue. Also, I watched (for the umpteenth time) the Tate/Tennant performance, which is my favorite, though the Thompson/Branagh is also brilliant and wonderful (and might be my favorite if I'd just watched it), and I enjoyed the Whedon too. Today I'm planning to watch the Shakespeare Retold version, which I've never seen, but the others in the series have been good, so I have high hopes for this one. Did I mention that this is my favorite of the comedies?

[meditationesmartini · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Charles II wrote "Benedick and Beatrice" beside the title of the play in his copy of the Second Folio, as I have also done where Much Ado is inscribed on my heart.

[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.

[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.

[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".

[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.

[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?

[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.

[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

[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.

[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.

[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.

[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.

[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.

[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...

[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.

[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.

[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.

[nwhyte-2 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

The play itself is genuinely funny, not quite as funny as A Comedy of Errors, but a better play - the characters are better rounded, and the drama frankly more believable. Beatrice is surely one of the most memorable female roles in Shakespeare (I think only Portia is in the same league). I see from IMDB that her role was played by Penelope Keith in the 1978 BBC version, and by Maggie Smith in a 1967 version which also starred Caroline "Liz Shaw" John as Hero. But the overall frame is good too, the contrast between the Claudia/Hero and Beatrice/Benedick romances, neither of which is straightforward, but complicated in different ways. The Dogberry bits are, for once, pretty integral to the plot, though I suspect it is difficult to integrate them with satisfactory unity of style. (If I were staging it, I'd have Dogberry's guards and maybe even Dogberyy himself visible in the background in all the early crowd scenes, so that they don't appear out of nowhere in Act III.)Branagh's version is generally beautiful to watch and listen to. The good points include the general sense of movement on screen; the quite gorgeous Kate Beckinsale, who dropped out of Oxford to make this (and who can dispute that she made the right decision); the brilliance of most of the cast (especially the elders, Richard Briers, Brian Blessed, and, where she is allowed, Phyllida Law); and above all the sparkling chemistry between Branagh himself and Thompson (indeed, they almost seem to like each other too much at the beginning). The most serious misfire is with Keanu Reeves, who doesn't quite seem to understand what he is doing there except being Bad. I didn't object as much to Michael Keaton as Dogberry, perhaps because he kept inflicting senseless violence on Ben Elton, which is never a bad thing. I did, however, feel that the darker passages of Act IV hit the tone unduly; most of Branagh's cuts to the script are from the funny bits earlier in the play, and I think that unbalances Shakespeare's original plot dynamic, and results a darker piece perhaps than was intended perhaps by Branagh and certainly by Shakespeare.

[therebelprince · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

Phenomenal scholarly edition.

[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.

[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.

[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