Source: "'Half a Dozen Dangerous Words'," in Gloriana's Face: Women, Public and Private, in the English Renaissance, edited by S. P. Cerasano and Marion Wynne-Davies, Harvester Wheatsheaf, 1992, pp. 167-83.
[In the essay below, Cerasano focusses on Claudio's treatment of Hero to illustrate how, during the course of Much Ado, "Shakespeare reveals that maintaining one's reputation is more complex than simply managing to avoid slander. " The critic holds that the play "implicitly dramatizes the plight of women and slander within the actual legal structure. " Cerasano also seeks to demonstrate that "the language of slander is shown to be a fabrication of the social and sexual values which are mirrored and married (literally and figuratively) in the cultured discourse of the play. "]
In Act III, scene i of Much Ado About Nothing, Hero tries.....
