Much Ado About Nothing - really!

I vaguely remember having studied a story-form of this play back in the sixth grade. But since I recalled nothing except the name "Pedro" and "Padua", I decided to read it from Cummings.

   Leonato, an Italian noble man, welcomes his friend Don Pedro and his fellow soldiers, Claudio and Benedick, to his home in Messina. Claudio falls in love with Leonato's daughter, Hero, and soon understands that this feeling is not one-sided. On the other hand, Benedick and Beatrice - Leonato's neice - insult each other, but in a jolly mood.

   Claudio and Hero decide to get married, and also decides to bring Benedick and Beatrice together as lovers.

   But the illegitimate brother of Don Pedro, named Don John, had his mind set on ruining everybody's happiness. He orders his Borachio to meet Hero's servant Margaret in Hero's window at night. He then fetches Claudio and Don Pedro to witness the scene in the dark, and they are easily tricked into thinking that it was Hero being unfaithful to Claudio.

   Enraged, Claudio accuses and insults Hero on the wedding day infront of the entire city. Hero stays incognito, while her father tells spreads new that she had died of shock and false accusation.

   Soon, however, Borachio is caught while talking about his crime, and is imprisoned. Claudio now gets convinced of Hero's innocence, and commands his men to send the word out. He then apologizes to Leonato, and grieves for Hero.

   Leonato says that Claudio would be forgiven, only if the latter agrees to marry Leonato's neice, who looks like Hero. Claudio agrees and the wedding day is fixed.

   When the day arrive, Claudio goes to the church, where his about-to-be wife stood masked. She then opened the mask to reveal her true identity - it was actually Hero! Overwhelmed with joy, Claudio gets married to her, and on the same occassion, Benedick marries Beatrice.

   The story ends in a happy note with a dance of the newly weds.

   It indeed was a comedy, and I see no point in denying my enjoyment in reading this story.

   However, I did not understand what happend to Don John in the end, since I found no trace of him being imprisoned or the like.

   All in all, I would like to say that the title of the story perfectly describes the story-line of the play; a lot of troubles were undertaken by all, but it all came back to the same point where it all started. There truly was 'Much Ado About Nothing'.