Much Ado About NothingDon John and his henchman Borachio agree on a plan to disrupt the coming marriage: Borachio will convince Claudio that Hero is unfaithful by staging a meeting with Margaret, Hero’s waiting gentlewoman. Margaret will be dressed in Hero’s clothes, and Claudio will think that Borachio is Hero’s lover.
From The Folger Shakespeare Library Edition of Much Ado About Nothing
The primary plot of Much Ado About Nothing turns on the courtship and scandal involving young Hero and her suitor, Claudio, but…
The army of Don Pedro of Aragon arrives in Messina and is welcomed by Leonato, Messina’s governor. Benedick of Padua,…
Leonato is given a garbled account of the conversation between Don Pedro and Claudio, and is led to believe that…
Don John, Don Pedro’s brother, receives a true account of Don Pedro’s plan to woo Hero for Claudio. Resentful of…
Don Pedro and his soldiers, disguised in masks, dance with the ladies of Leonato’s household. While Don Pedro woos Hero,…
Don John and his henchman Borachio agree on a plan to disrupt the coming marriage: Borachio will convince Claudio that…
Leonato, Claudio, and Don Pedro stage a conversation for Benedick to overhear. They talk about Beatrice’s desperate love for Benedick,…
Beatrice is lured into overhearing a staged conversation between Hero and Ursula, a waiting gentlewoman, who talk about Benedick’s desperate…
Benedick appears with his beard shaved off and showing other signs of having fallen in love. When he exits with…
That night, Messina’s master constable, Dogberry, and his assistant, Verges, set the night watch, telling the watchmen to pay particular…
Early the next morning, Hero prepares for the wedding. Beatrice enters, suffering, she says, from a bad cold, but Hero…
Dogberry and Verges try to tell Leonato about the arrest of Borachio and Conrade, but they are so unintelligible that…
At the wedding, Claudio publicly denounces Hero as a lewd woman. He is supported in his story by Don Pedro…
Dogberry ineptly questions Borachio and Conrade about the deception of Claudio and Don Pedro. The Sexton has Borachio and Conrade…
Leonato and his brother tell Claudio and Don Pedro of Hero’s death, and attempt to challenge them to a duel….
Benedick tells Beatrice that he has challenged Claudio. They are summoned to Leonato’s house with the news that Hero’s innocence…
Claudio appears at Leonato’s family tomb, has a song sung for Hero, and hangs a scroll on the tomb.
Claudio and Don Pedro appear for the second wedding. The women enter masked. When Claudio takes the hand of Leonato’s…
