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Many scholars classify Much Ado about Nothing as one of Shakespeare's more popular comedies, one, at least since the eighteenth century, that is most often staged. It is lighthearted, at least on the surface. Harold C. Goddard, in his The Meaning of Shakespeare, refers to this play as ''a study in the egotism of youth, its sentimental and romantic egotism in Claudio, its antiromantic and intellectual egotism in Beatrice and Benedick.'' The play depicts this egotism but then allows the characters involved to escape from it and to learn through a series of lessons that help the characters to mature and realize that love can be an enriching experience.

In Maurice Charney's book All of Shakespeare, the author comments on various characters. On Benedick, Charney writes, ''Like other reluctant males in Shakespearean comedy, Benedick is carried away against his conscious will to love Beatrice, and Beatrice too loves him in spite of herself. The witty war in the play turns on the conflict between powerful impulse and equally powerful commitment to gender pursuits.'' Charney continues, ''The comedy is designed to show that neither Benedick nor Beatrice can get away with such sacrilegious protests against love.'' Although Charney praises the part of the play that features the verbal sparring between Beatrice and Benedick, he is not so pleased with the subplot that involves Don John, which Charney states, ''leaves something to be desired in the way of psychological credibility, especially in a play where Beatrice and Benedick are such believable characters.'' There are too many holes in the character of Don John. Shakespeare does not explain why Don John is so vengeful, for one. Then Charney points out that much of the villainy in this play is ''set in a comic context of the bumbling watch, incomparably played by Dogberry, Verges, and their officers.'' Charney describes Dogberry as one who ''is always earnest and sincere and never overtly comic, which is the secret of his success.'' It is through Dogberry, Charney claims, that the villainy in this play is undercut and therefore ''renders it harmless. It is as if Don John and his malicious companions are not allowed to appear in their true colors in a comedy. They are rendered impotent by the context.'' This might be what makes Don John a thin character, placing him in a position that ''is only peripherally related to the villains of tragedy. He is isolated in Much Ado about Nothing and deliberately separated from the main action, except as a plot catalyst.''

In the Essential Shakespeare Handbook, coauthored by Leslie Dunton-Downer and Alan Riding, the authors write that ''No Shakespearean lovers enjoy quarrelling more than Beatrice and Benedick.'' They continue: ''Shakespeare is especially careful to balance serious and light layers of action [in this play], preventing the false death of Hero and the rage of her father Leonato from turning the comedy into a more disturbing kind of play.'' Instead, the play is ''skillfully built as characters overhear conversations, often laden with misinformation to trick the eavesdropper.'' Then the authors state: ''Throughout, comical prose exchanges advance the action while keeping it light.'' As they list the attributes of the various characters, Dunton-Downer and Riding write: ''Don John and Borachio are deliciously transparent villainswho enjoy spinning their dastardly plot; and Dogberry and Verges are among Shakespeare's most charmingly comical law enforcement officers.'' Despite the fact that some of the wordplay has ''worn so thin as to be incomprehensible in current English,'' the authors believe that most audience members will ''readily understand that Beatrice and Benedick mock one another because they are too tough-minded to speak comfortably about love.''

Frank Kermode, in his The Age of Shakespeare, describes the plot of Much Ado about Nothing as an old one. ''It will appear to modern audiences that the wicked plotter succeeds in disgracing not the innocent Hero but Claudio, for his condemnation of his bride is coarse and public, and evenwhen he knows her to have been innocent he is apparently unmoved by the report of her death.'' This might be one of the many reasons why the subplot, the relationship between Beatrice and Benedick is so appealing. ''The wit combats of these characters were apparently what always pleased most [audiences].'' Kermode then explains that ''verbal wit, considered an index of intelligence, was highly valued in all the aristocracies of Europe.'' Kermode then adds: ''We need not suppose thatElizabeth's courtiers''were all as witty ''as Beatrice and Benedick; but they doubtless spoke in lithe and resourceful prose, not altogether remote fromwhat Shakespeare made of it in writing Much Ado About Nothing.

In The Friendly Shakespeare, Norrie Epstein describes this play as one that is ''best known for its brilliant lovers, the dazzling Beatrice and Benedick.'' Epstein then states that ''Beatrice is one of Shakespeare's most loquacious--and engaging--heroines.'' Epstein continues: Throughout the play she and Benedick exchange insults when it's obvious to everyone but themselves that they are drawn to each other. As in The Taming of the Shrew [another of Shakespeare's comedies], Shakespeare reveals that those who love deepest are usually those who are most guarded against it. Coolness and witty detachment are the best defense against the confusions of the heart.

References:

Charney, Maurice, All of Shakespeare, Columbia University Press, 1993.

Dunton-Downer, Leslie, and Alan Riding, Essential Shakespeare Handbook, DK Publishing, 2004.

Epstein, Norrie, The Friendly Shakespeare, Penguin Books, 1993.

Goddard, Harold C., The Meaning of Shakespeare, University of Chicago Press, 1951.

Kermode, Frank, The Age of Shakespeare, The Modern Library, 2004.

Shakespeare, William, Much Ado about Nothing, Folger Shakespeare Library edition, Washington Square Press, 1995.

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