Understanding Shakespeare: Much Ado about Nothing by Robert A. Albano - HTML preview
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SOURCES
There are sixteen possible sources for Much Ado about Nothing. Most of these sources relate only to the Hero and Claudio plot. In other versions of the Hero-Claudio story, a rival to Claudio causes the deception. Shakespeare, though, used Don John instead since the Hero and Claudio story is not the primary focus of his play.
The most notable of Shakespeare's sources are listed here:
- Orlando Furioso (1516) by Ariosto
Ariosto's epic includes an incident of a man in love who thinks that he sees his girl at her bedroom window with another lover.
- A novella (1554) by Matteo Bendello
This short book contains the same incident that appears in Ariosto's epic.
- The Faerie Queen (II, iv) by Edmund Spenser Spenser has a shorter version of the Ariosto story, but Spenser's female actually does die.
- A Historie of Ariodante and Genevora (1583) This lost play has the same incident and same names used by Ariosto.
- Ariodante and Genevora (1566 poem) by Peter Beverley