Shakespeare's immediate source may have been one of Matteo Bandello of Mantua's Novelle ("Tales"), possibly the translation into French by François de Belleforest,[6] which dealt with the tribulations of Sir Timbreo and his betrothed Fenicia Lionata, in Messina, after Peter III of Aragon's defeat of Charles of Anjou.[7][8] Another version, featuring lovers Ariodante and Ginevra, with the servant Dalinda impersonating Ginevra on the balcony, appears in Book V Ludovico Ariosto's Orlando Furioso (published in an English translation in 1591).[9] The character of Benedick has a counterpart in a commentary on marriage in Orlando Furioso.[10] But the witty wooing of Beatrice and Benedick is apparently original and very unusual in style and syncopation.[6] Edmund Spenser tells one version of the Claudio–Hero plot in The Faerie Queene (Book II, Canto iv).[11]
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