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MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING.

BY

WILLIAM SHAKSPEARE.

VOL. IV.

THOMAS DAVISON, PRINTER, White-Friars.

REMARKS

ON

THE PLOT, THE FABLE, AND CONSTRUCTION

OF

MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING.

THE story is from Ariosto's Orlando Furioso, B. v.

POPE.

It is true, as Mr. Pope has observed, that something resembling the story of this play is to be found in the fifth book of the Orlando Furioso. In Spenser's Fairy Queen, as remote an original may be traced. A novel, however, of Belleforest, copied from another of Bandello, seems to have furnished Shakspeare with his fable, as it approaches nearer in all its circumstances to the play before us, than any other performance known to be extant. I have seen so many translations from this once popular collection, that I entertain no doubt but that the great majority of them have made their appearance in an English dress. Of that particular story which I have just mentioned, viz. the 18th history in the third volume, I have hitherto met with none.

This play may be fairly said to contain two of the

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