Much Ado About Nothing

Anyone who has recently read The Winter's Tale may find that Much Ado has a familiar ring. Jealous man, innocent woman accused, a "resurrection" when her reputation is cleared--it's all there. The only real difference in the primary plots of these twoplays is that Leonato accuses Hermione for no apparent reason, while Claudio was actually misled. So what happened? Did Will get tired of stealing other people's plots and actually start plaigarizing himself? Chances are that Much Ado About Nothing was so popular that he returned to a similar theme in The Winter's Tale ten years later.

Shakespeare does something similar with his characters on occasion. The character of Falstaff ( King Henry IV, Parts I and II) , for example, was so popular that the BArd wrote The Merry Wives of Windsor to show him in love. Don John is an early version of the jealous, malevolent Iago ( Othello), just as Tamora, Queen of the Goths ( Titus Andronicus ), is an early version of Lady Macbeth.

So there you have it, folks: proof that the spinoff series has been around for four hundred years!