Historical Background  The Commedie of much A doo about nothing
a booke was entered in the Stationer's Register, the official
record book of the London Company of Stationers (booksellers and
printers), on August 4, 1600 as a play of My lord chamberlens
men (Shakespeare's acting company) and stayed (not published)
without further permission, to prevent unauthorized publication
of this very popular play. This quarto text, generally regarded
as having been set from Shakespeare's own manuscript, was the
copy used for the First Folio of 1623, which is lightly
annotated, with minimal and mostly typographic emendation. Since
Will Kempe, the great comic actor who played Dogberry, left the
Chamberlain's Men in 1599, it is generally agreed that
Shakespeare completed this play no later than 1598-1599.
Although scholars have attempted to trace the play's roots to
Ariosto's tragedy, Orlando Furioso, to Bandello's twenty-second
story from the Novelle, or to Spenser's poetic work, The Fairie
Queen, in truth, no play ever ex