Don Pedro, Prince of Aragon brings his train which includes two officers, Claudio and Benedick, and his brother Don John, to visit Leonato, governor of Messina, for a month after a successful battle. Once there, Claudio and Benedick renew their acquaintance with the ladies of the household, Leonato’s daughter, Hero, and his niece, Beatrice. While Claudio is in love with Hero, and becomes engaged to her, Beatrice and Benedick wage a “merry war” bickering and declaring never to never marry anyone – let alone each other.
Plots and deceit abound, both benificent, as the friends of Beatrice and Benedick conspire to bring them together, and malevolent, as the jealous Don John seeks to destroy the happiness of Claudio and Hero. When Don John succeeds, through trickery, in sullying Hero’s reputation, things look black, Beatrice and Benedick set out to reveal the truth. They are assisted unwittingly — and often witlessly — by the local constabulary, led by the inept but well-meaning Dogberry and Verges.
