Act 1, Scene 16 – “A string of bodies in his wake.”

Notes on Frying Tonight

The secret truth that connects Much Ado About Nothing and Romeo and Juliet is revealed in this week’s cartoon.

When I first read Much Ado, I loved the idea that Friar Lawrence and Friar Francis were the same guy, and that his solution to everything was to advise people to fake their own deaths.

I can see him just travelling around Italy, coming to the aid of young lovers in peril, and somehow, no matter what the crisis at hand, the answer is always for the girl to pretend to be dead. It’s quite possible Hero was the only time it actually worked and he’d left a string of bodies in his wake beforehand – but by then, he was almost certain he’d figured out what went wrong before…