William Shakespeare
Much Ado About Nothing
The full script in Final Draft, Word & PDF
Two wary wits are tricked into love while a villain's plot nearly wrecks a wedding, in one of Shakespeare's most performed comedies.
PDFs Only
$4.99
- ✓ Stageplay PDF (106 pp.)
- ✓ Screenplay PDF (93 pp.)
- ✓ Instant download
Full Package
$12.99
- ✓ Final Draft (.fdx)
- ✓ Microsoft Word + RTF
- ✓ Screenplay + Stageplay PDFs
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All 37 plays in every format cost $99, less than 8 single Full Packages. PDFs only: $55 for all 37.
- Genre
- Comedy
- Written
- c. 1598–1599
- Setting
- Messina, Sicily
- Scenes
- 17
- Speaking roles
- 24
- Uncut running time
- ~2h 35m
What happens in Much Ado About Nothing
Don Pedro and his soldiers visit the governor Leonato at Messina after a war. Young Claudio falls for Leonato's daughter Hero and quickly wins her. Meanwhile Benedick and Beatrice, who cannot stop trading insults, are each tricked by friends into believing the other is secretly in love.
Don Pedro's bitter half-brother, Don John, sets out to ruin the match. A staged scene at Hero's window convinces Claudio that she is unfaithful, and he denounces her at the altar. Hero's family announce her dead while the truth comes out, thanks partly to the blundering constable Dogberry and his Watch. Claudio makes amends, and the sparring pair must decide how far they trust what they have been told.
See the formatting
The first page of Act I, exactly as it appears in the files you download.
The biggest roles
Share of the play's spoken words, counted from the script. 24 characters speak; 9 of them have under 1% of the text — natural candidates for doubling.
| Role | Share of the text | Speeches |
|---|---|---|
| Benedick | | 136 |
| Leonato | | 122 |
| Don Pedro | | 137 |
| Beatrice | | 107 |
| Claudio | | 126 |
| Dogberry | | 52 |
| Borachio | | 37 |
| Hero | | 47 |
For directors
Benedick has the largest share at 17.5%, but the text is well spread: Leonato (12.7%), Don Pedro (12.1%), Beatrice (11.5%) and Claudio (9.8%) all carry real weight, with Dogberry at 7.4%. Twenty-four speaking roles across 17 scenes makes this manageable for a mid-sized company, and the watchmen and household staff double easily. Uncut it runs about 2 hours 35 minutes.
Cutting notes
- Dogberry and the Watch are often trimmed for time, though the overheard conversation that exposes Borachio must stay for the plot to work.
- The masked-ball banter in 2.1 and some of the repeated wordplay between Benedick and Beatrice are typically abridged.
- The closing scene at Leonato's tomb in 5.3 is sometimes shortened or folded into the final wedding scene.
For teachers
Students typically study deception and eavesdropping, honour and reputation, gender expectations, and the contrast between the witty prose of Benedick and Beatrice and the verse of the Claudio and Hero plot. Frequently set passages include the gulling scenes (2.3 and 3.1), the church scene in 4.1, and Dogberry's examination of the prisoners in 4.2.
Questions
Is this the complete, uncut text of Much Ado About Nothing?
Yes. Every file contains the full play — 17 scenes and about 20,700 spoken words. Cut it yourself in Word or Final Draft to fit your running time.
What is the difference between the stageplay and screenplay layouts?
The stageplay layout indents stage directions and sets dialogue full-width, like a theatre script. The screenplay layout follows film conventions: scene headings and action flush left, character names centred, dialogue in a narrower column. Both tiers include both layouts as PDFs; the Full Package adds editable Final Draft and Word files of each.
Can I use this Much Ado About Nothing script for a production or a class?
Yes. Shakespeare's plays are in the public domain, so there are no royalties to pay for staging them. Edit, stage, film or teach with these files.
How do I receive the files?
Right after checkout you land on a private download page, and the link is also emailed to you. It keeps working, so you can re-download any time.
