Much Ado About Nothing

Much ado about nothing

Feb.12, 1583 N.S. "a Historie of Ariodante and Geneuora shewed before her maiestie" from Ariosto's "Orlando Furioso"

Don Pedro represents Queen E.
Don John is Henry Howard
Claudio is Philip Sidney, recently disappointed by the marriage of Penelope Devereaux to Lord Rich
Benedick is Oxford
Leonato is Burghley
Antonio is Walsingham
Hero is Walsingham's daughter, Frances
Beatrice is Anne Cecil


“In time the savage bull doth bear the yoke” is a quote from Watson’s “Hekatompathia or the Passionate Century of Love” published March 31, 1582 and dedicated to Oxford
The play catalogs some of the ups and downs of Oxford’s marriage to Anne Cecil
Leonato’s garden is Burghley’s garden
Barnabe Riche’s “Farewell to the Military Profession” of Feb. 1581
“Dogberries” are mentioned in a letter of 1586 from Burghley to Walsingham
Conrado is Charles Arundel
Arundel and Howard were “full of piety”, e.g.: “I protest before God… I call God to witness…As God knows, etc.