Much Ado about Nothing is one of Shakespeare’s most commonly staged comedies and one of his most popular plays. It ends with a series of apparently happy weddings and it is possible for the audience to go home reassured as a result – yet the road to those weddings passes through some very dark woods indeed.

The action takes place in the Italian town of Messina – which would immediately alert a member of Shakespeare’s audience to expect a display of courtly behaviour and the kind of flowery language that sophisticated people are supposed to use on a regular basis. In Messina, Leonato lives with his daughter Hero and they welcome to their house a group of other nobles who were returning from one of the many wars that have plagued Italy over many centuries. One of the guests is a certain Claudio and he and Hero swiftly fall in love and resolve to marry. While preparations for the celebration are made, the young couple and their friends resolve to induce Beatrice and Benedick to make a similar commitment to each other. Both Beatrice and Benedick are highly skilled in courtly language and use their wit in an ongoing war of words aimed at each other and anyone else who strays within range. Nevertheless, they appear to be well-suited to each other. Consequently, a simple ruse causes them to promise to wed shortly thereafter.

However, there is one malcontent in the party – Don John (that name again) is a sullen, bitter and illegitimate brother of the urbane and popular Don Pedro. Don John resolves to spoil the fun and contrives to have Claudio believe that Hero is unfaithful to her and so he rejects her at the altar, accusing her of lecherous behaviour. Shocked by this event, which is hardly one of a gentleman, Hero’s family pretend that she has died of shock and in due course induce Claudio to marry a ‘niece,’ who of course is Hero herself in disguise. Meanwhile, the police intervene to discover Don John’s perfidy (not through any great powers of detection, it seems) and Hero’s honour is vindicated. The marriages go ahead and all profess themselves happy and in love as appropriate, even Hero, who might be expected to suffer from some misgivings about her new husband’s behaviour.

This is a play in which the darker side of human society is hidden by courtly language and behaviour. In previous ages, Claudio would have felt himself justified in killing Hero if she had indeed slept with another man (her father would probably also have concurred) and the best she could have expected was to be banished to a nunnery for the rest of her life. The banter between Benedick and Beatrice also brings what would once have been open conflict and the use of violence and force into the language of discourse. Hurtful things are said but, as the saying goes, sticks and stones break bones but names do not cause physical damage. Consequently, Shakespeare in this play suggests that compromise, some measure of restraint and intricate rules of behaviour in society may all be sub-optimal ways of proceeding (and are often contrary to Christian dogma) but they at least allow people to live together without us killing each other.