Source: ""Much Ado About Nothing'," in The Use of English, Vol. XVII, No.3, Spring, 1966, pp. 223-27.
[In the following excerpt, Crick offers a general discussion of Much Ado, focusing upon the characters, theme, and language of the play. He depicts the playas one concerned primarily about the potential for evil existing in people who have become self-absorbed in a society that reflects and supports that self-absorption.]
'The fable is absurd', wrote Charles Gildon in 1710, and most of us would agree. Yet there is the effervescent presence of Beatrice and Benedick and the engaging stupidity of Dogberry and Verges to assure us that all is not dross. Coleridge was convinced that this central interest was Shakespeare's own, his motive in writing the play, and the 'fable' was merely a means of exhibiting the characters.....
