Much Ado About Nothing Act 1 - "But now I am return'd and that war-thoughts have left their places vacant, in their rooms come thronging soft and delicate desires…”

Much Ado About Nothing Act 1 - "But now I am return'd and that war-thoughts
 have left their places vacant, in their rooms
 come thronging soft and delicate desires…” 

Shakespeare must have been thinking much about what makes human nature when he penned ‘Much Ado About Nothing’ in 1598. It may seem like 1598 was a lean year for Shakespeare on paper but the fact of the matter is, he was probably reaping the benefits of revivals of his most successful recent plays ‘Romeo and Juliet’, ‘A Midsummer Night’s Dream’ and the Henry IV plays. He also knew that he must milk the Henry IV plays as much as he could before writing the most anticipated play of this sequence ‘Henry V’. The emergence back in the streets of London of so many soldiers who had been fighting the wars in Ireland meant that he was not lost for stories and background for ‘Henry V’. Rumours abounded about what was really happening in Ireland and also rumours that Elizabeth had started to make political overtures to James VI in Scotland, but Shakespeare knew that he should avoid sailing so close to the wind at these point. On the business front he had also bought a quite large granary in Stratford upon Avon. So he turned to more poetic pursuits and was plugging away at many projects and writing sonnets most days. It is therefore not unlikely, that one day after greeting a bright spring day seeing soldiers in the street and lovers on the doorsteps, that he turned next to a comedy set in the Italian country town of Messina as soldiers return from war. A play with meandering plots dependant on overheard conversations, mischievous plotting and misunderstandings.

In Messina, Leonato and his young daughter, Hero, and her cousin Beatrice, wait for Don Pedro and his soldiers to return from war. Beatrice asks about one of Don Pedro’s men called Benedick who she mocks and berates. It is revealed that she was once romantically involved with Benedick and that in their last war of words and wits Beatrice claims that “… four of his five wits went halting off, and now is the whole man governed with one…”

When Don Pedro and his men arrive, with intentions to stay at least a month, Leonato welcomes them. Don Pedro, Benedick and the new war hero Claudio are welcomed heartily, while Don Pedro’s half brother Don John is ignored while his grievances and distain for his brother and his companions, fester in his heart. Beatrice and Benedick have a bout of banter with balestra and they beat parries mixed with puns and metaphoric moulinets which are punctuated by Benedick final parry that he has never loved a woman and never will and Beatrice's riposte that this is indeed “…a dear happiness to women.”

When Claudio and Benedick are left alone, Claudio admits secretly to Benedick that he has fallen in love with Hero. Benedick bemoans the fact that he seems to have lost another friend to love. Claudio meanders off on melancholic paths. Don Pedro enters again and Benedick tells him Claudio’s secret. Don Pedro thinks that this is wonderful and to help matters along (since he thinks that Claudio’s shyness may prove an impediment), Don Pedro suggests that he should disguise himself as Claudio at the ball that night and profess Claudio’s love for Hero. Don Pedro decides he will also talk to Hero’s father Leonato advocating Claudio as a good match for Hero. Little do they know that servants will hear and mishear this conversation.

Inside Leonato’s large house, a little while later, Leonato is conversing with his eldest brother Antonio who tells him that he has been told by a servant that Don Pedro loves Leonato’s daughter Hero and that he will declare his love for her at the ball tonight and then ask Leonato for her hand in marriage. Obviously, Don Pedro’s statement of his intention to woo Hero, albeit pretending to be Claudio, is the basis for this rumor. This is, of course, where the rumors and half-heard conversations start to wind up the plot, and allow a simple love story to turn into a story of misconception, deception and the meandering course of true love. Leonato is initially skeptical and declares he will not believe the rumor until he sees Don Pedro approach to court Hero.

In another part of the extremely large house, Don John, Don Pedro’s half-brother is telling his servant Conrad that he resents having to put on a happy disposition with Don Pedro so that he can receive economic and social favours. Don John’s other servant, Borachio enters and we hear his more accurate retelling of Claudio’s love for Hero and Don Pedro’s plan to disguise himself as Claudio to help along the course of love. Don John hates Claudio because of his reputation and he decides he will cause trouble for both his half-brother Don Pedro and for Claudio. Indeed, Don John seems to generally hate the world and wants to take revenge on the world for having made him the bastard and his brother Fortune’s golden boy. Shakespeare will return later in 'KIng Lear' to his contemplations that bastards are... well ‘bastards’ by nature, but for the moment, he Don John is his portrait of villainy. Don John’s reasons for causing trouble are given greater gravity by his illegitimacy and Don John's sense of that villainy is in his nature is shown when Don John boastfully declares that:

“… I cannot be said to be a flattering honest man, it must not be denied but I am a plain-dealing villain.”