Spenser copied this and repackaged it as The Faerie Queen. So, next came Much Ado About Nothing from these two plays. In Orlando Furioso, there is the common story of the falsely accused maiden who fakes her death. This time though, the lady falls in love with the gentleman. Orlando Furioso also takes place in Italy. There is a scene similar to one in Much Ado About Nothing where the man in love with the beautiful, chaste woman is beguiled into thinking his lover has been unfaithful by a group of villains. The man now refuses to Bero 5marry this maiden because of what he has seen her do. The evil men try to destroy this man, but their schemes are soon discovered. Orlando Furisio and Much Ado About Nothing have great similarities in plot but not in language.In The Faerie Queen, this similar equation for the plot is devised. This time, a squire falls into a great love with a beautiful lady. Then, he is tricked into believing she is false in her ways. This scheme is also foiled, comparing greatly with Novelle, Orlando Furisio, and Much Ado About Nothing. Again, the plot scheme is not the most important part of these plays. The plays all share threads of the same plot and characters, but they are different in motives, themes, and character development. Shakespeare is extremely conspicuous in his play Much Ado About Nothing. He does not use different characters or a different setting, but not many people seem to care. Harold Bloom wrote, “it would not have shocked Shakespeare, who understood that literature and plagiarism were scarcely to be distinguished. Plagiarism is a legal distinction, not a literary one. Universality is the authentic aspect of only a handful of Western writers”(Bloom 70). This universality is another reason Shakespeare is great. It all comes down to Shakespeare’s use of his astonishing blank verse. I do not believe that Shakespeare was ignoble when he stole the plots for his work...
