SOURCE: Prouty, Charles T. “The Play.” In The Sources of Much Ado about Nothing: A Critical Study, pp. 33-64. New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1950.

In the following excerpt, Prouty investigates the sixteenth-century literary sources for the characters in Much Ado about Nothing.

At first glance there seems to be no connection between the two plots [of Much Ado About Nothing] except for the appearance of Hero and Claudio as agents in the tricking of Benedick and Beatrice, and it has been this seeming lack of integration which has been considered a weakness of the play or has led to the suggestion that the quarreling lovers were put in to liven up a rather somber story. If we keep in mind the careful manipulation of plot which has been demonstrated in connection with Dogberry, it should be reasonable to assume that there is some design in the rest...