Much Ado About Nothing: Shakespeare and The Book of the Courtier

Sep 11, 2024

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In today's episode, we are exploring how Shakespeare was influenced by The Book of the Courtier by Baldassare Castiglione as he was writing Much Ado About Nothing. We'll discuss how close reading of both Shakespeare's play and Castiglione's Renaissance etiquette book uncovers layers of intertextuality and references to The Courtier in Shakespeare's writing.

First, we'll discuss some parallels between The Courtier and Much Ado About Nothing. Then we will dig deeper into Book 3 of The Courtier and how its messages on joking, jesting, and laughter can be read in Much Ado About Nothing. We will also briefly discuss how Hero and Beatrice reflect The Courtier's ideal for Renaissance women.

Finally, we will closely examine the courtiers in Much Ado About Nothing and how the characters of Benedick, Claudio, Don Pedro, and Don John can be read through the lens of good (and bad) courtier behavior as outlined in The Courtier. We will also discuss which of these courtiers comes the closest to Castiglione's ideal courtier, and what early modern English behaviors Shakespeare may have been commenting on through this play.

Shakespeare Anyone? is created and produced by Kourtney Smith and Elyse Sharp.

Music is "Neverending Minute" by Sounds Like Sander.

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Works referenced:

Collington, Philip D. “‘Stuffed with All Honourable Virtues’: ‘Much Ado about Nothing’ and ‘The Book of the Courtier.’” Studies in Philology, vol. 103, no. 3, 2006, pp. 281–312, http://www.jstor.org/stable/4174852.

Ghose, Indira. “Courtliness and Laughter.” Shakespeare and Laughter: A Cultural History, Manchester University Press, 2008, pp. 15–51. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/j.ctt155jd06.5. Accessed 30 Aug. 2024.