Much Ado about Nothing

Soldiers return from war to the house of Leonato, governor of Messina, and two love stories begin. The young Claudio falls in love with Leonato's gentle daughter Hero, while Hero's cousin Beatrice and the soldier Benedick, who claim to despise each other, carry on a 'merry war' of insults until their friends trick each of them into believing the other is secretly in love. Meanwhile the villain Don John plots to ruin Hero's wedding with a cruel deception, which is uncovered, comically, by the bumbling constable Dogberry and his night watch.

Written around 1598 or 1599, the play is one of Shakespeare's most popular comedies, and the sparring of Beatrice and Benedick became the model for countless witty couples in literature and film. The play had first been printed in 1600; the text here is the First Folio's of 1623. Read also As You Like It, and see Shakespeare's life.

William Shakespeare (1564–1616), born in Stratford-upon-Avon, actor, playwright and shareholder of a London company, wrote about thirty-seven plays and 154 sonnets.

The tragedies Hamlet, Macbeth, Othello and King Lear, and comedies such as A Midsummer Night's Dream, are here in full, with hundreds of editions and studies from HathiTrust.