Much Ado About Nothingboasts one of Shakespeare's most delightful heroines, most dancing wordplay, & the endearing spectacle of intellectual & social self-importance bested by the desire to love & be loved in return.It offers both the dancing wit of the "merry war" between the sexes, & a sobering vision of the costs of that combat for both men & women.Shakespeare dramatizes a social world in all of its vibrant particulars, in which characters are shaped by the relations between social convention & individual choice.This edition of the play offers in its introduction & commentary an extensive discussion of the materials that informed Shakespeare's compositional choices, both those conventional sources & other contexts, from cuckold jokes to conduct books, which inform the ideas & identities of this play.Particular attention is devoted to Renaissance understandings of gender identity & social rank, as well as to the social valences of Shakespeare's stylistic choices.Among the elements of structure & style discussed are the two concurrent plots, the recurrence of verbal handshakes, & the use of music.A treatment of staging possibilities offers illustrations drawn from the earliest & recent theatrical practices, & a critical history examines the fate of the play in the changing trends of academic scholarship.A casting chart & a list of abbreviations and references are includes as appendices.The Arden Shakespeare has developed a reputation as the pre-eminent critical edition of Shakespeare for its exceptional scholarship... An introduction comprehensively contextualizes the play, chronicling the history & culture that surrounded and influenced Shakespeare at the time of its writing and performance, and closely surveying critical approaches to the work. Detailed appendices address problems like dating and casting, and analyze the differing Quarto and Folio sources...…