Leonato, a kindly, respectable
nobleman, lives in the idyllic Italian town of Messina. Leonato
shares his house with his lovely young daughter, Hero, his playful,
clever niece, Beatrice, and his elderly brother, Antonio (who is Beatrice's father). As the
play begins, Leonato prepares to welcome some friends home from
a war. The friends include Don Pedro, a prince
who is a close friend of Leonato, and two fellow soldiers: Claudio,
a well-respected young nobleman, and Benedick, a clever man who constantly
makes witty jokes, often at the expense of his friends. Don John,
Don Pedro’s illegitimate brother, is part of the crowd as well.
Don John is sullen and bitter, and makes trouble for the others.
When the soldiers arrive at Leonato’s home, Claudio quickly falls
in love with Hero. Meanwhile, Benedick and Beatrice resume the war
of witty insults that they have carried on with each other in the
past. Claudio and Hero pledge their love to one another and decide
to be married. To pass the time in the week before the wedding,
the lovers and their friends decide to play a game. They want to
get Beatrice and Benedick, who are clearly meant for each other, to
stop arguing and fall in love. Their tricks prove successful, and Beatrice
and Benedick soon fall secretly in love with each other.
But Don John has decided to disrupt everyone’s happiness.
He has his companion Borachio make love to Margaret, Hero’s serving woman,
at Hero’s window in the darkness of the night, and he brings Don
Pedro and Claudio to watch. Believing that he has seen Hero being
unfaithful to him, the enraged Claudio humiliates Hero by suddenly
accusing her of lechery on the day of their wedding and abandoning
her at the altar. Hero’s stricken family members decide
to pretend that she died suddenly of shock and grief and to hide
her away while they wait for the truth about her innocence to come
to light. In the aftermath of the rejection, Benedick and Beatrice
finally confess their love to one another. Fortunately, the night
watchmen overhear Borachio bragging about his crime. Dogberry
and Verges, the heads of the local police, ultimately arrest both
Borachio and Conrad, another of Don John’s followers. Everyone learns
that Hero is really innocent, and Claudio, who believes she is dead,
grieves for her.
Leonato tells Claudio that, as punishment, he wants Claudio
to tell everybody in the city how innocent Hero was. He also wants Claudio
to marry Leonato’s “niece”—a girl who, he says, looks much like
the dead Hero. Claudio goes to church with the others, preparing
to marry the mysterious, masked woman he thinks is Hero’s cousin.
When Hero reveals herself as the masked woman, Claudio is overwhelmed
with joy. Benedick then asks Beatrice if she will marry him, and
after some arguing they agree. The joyful lovers all have a merry
dance before they celebrate their double wedding.
