Truth, Lies, and the Law of Slander in Much Ado About Nothing

Abstract

In 1593, more than half a decade before William Shakespeare wrote Much Ado About Nothing (1598–99), Anne Davies, “a Virgin of good fame free from all suspicion of incontinency,” brought a defamation action in the Court of King’s Bench against John Gardiner, who proclaimed that she had mothered a bastard. While Anne’s cause is not precisely Hero’s in Much Ado About Nothing, the case’s circumstances, pleadings, and rulings elucidate the complex legal and social dimensions of slander and libel in late Elizabethan England that inform Shakespeare’s play.¹ Claudio’s literally stunning and unwittingly false accusation of Hero, which reenacts and attempts to displace Don John’s assault on his honor, reveals not only how gendered social conventions enable a culture of slander, but also how the law of slander might be exploited and abused. The play, however, is not only about abuse; it is also about remedies, social and legal, available and denied. From Claudio and Hero, to Beatrice and Benedick, to Dogberry and the watch, to Leonato and Don Pedro, the play asks what slander costs, how it is known, and whether law and the courts are a necessary and sufficient recourse for its victims. Like Hero, before she was slandered Anne Davies was regarded as a desirable wife. Anthony Elcock, a wealthy London mercer, was concluding marriage negotiations with Anne’s father.