The origins of Much Ado About Nothing’s plot are uncertain, but possible sources include The Faerie Queene, an Italian novel by Matteo Bandello, and Orlando Furioso. The romance between Hero and Claudius may have been written earlier, while the witty banter between Beatrice and Benedict is believed to be Shakespeare’s invention.
Much Ado About Nothing is one of William Shakespeare’s best-known plays, even if its origins remain somewhat mysterious. Written around 1598, the play was first published around 1600, most likely after its first performances. The origins of the complicated romance between the chaste Hero and the virtuous Claudius can be traced to several possible earlier histories, including some bearing similar names and devices. The duel of wit between comic heroes Benedict and Beatrice, by contrast, is believed to be Shakespeare’s invention, and is often revered as his best romantic writing.
One possible origin of the central plot of Much Ado About Nothing is the epic poem The Faerie Queene, by the English poet Edmund Spenser. In a small section of the second part of the poem, the hero Guyon meets a young man named Phedon, who tells the knight a tragic story. Like Claudius in Much Ado About Nothing, Phedon is convinced by a traitorous friend that his future wife, Claribell, is unfaithful. To fool Phedon completely, the friend cross-dresses and seduces a maid in Claribell’s bedroom, before getting Phedon to watch the rooms for signs of his bride. The Faerie Queen was published in 1596, giving Shakespeare plenty of time to come across it as a possible source material.
A second potential origin story is found in an Italian novel by author Matteo Bandello. Published in 1554, the story takes place in Messina, the same city in which Much Ado About Nothing is set. In addition to containing a plot that follows Hero and Claudio’s story almost point by point, Bandello’s novel also contains several characters with similar names, including Lionato and Don Pedro.
There is a third such tale, this time in an epic poem, Orlando Furioso by the Italian poet Ludovico Ariosto. Published almost a century before Shakespeare’s play, the poem contains an episode in which a lover is once again misled by a deceptive balcony seduction of his mistress. Although Ariosto’s version differs significantly from Shakespeare’s central plot, it remains possible that Shakespeare had access to both the Orlando Furioso and Bandello tales and that he may have used them to create Much Ado About Nothing.
While the story of Hero and Claudius clearly seems to owe its origins to an earlier source, the more fascinating debate about the story of Much Ado About Nothing revolves around the play’s writing process. The sections of the play dealing with Hero and Claudius are written in a style quite similar to Shakespeare’s early plays, leading some historians to believe that the central plot was written much earlier. Comic book lovers of comedy, Beatrice and Benedict, may have been written completely independently of the main plot, then inserted into the Hero/Claudius story as comic foils. While there is little concrete evidence to support this theory, it remains a tantalizing mystery to Shakespearean scholars.
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