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William Shakespeare is arguably the most famous playwright in history. From comedies to tragedies, he has charmed his audience time and time again with his witty dialogue and flowing prose. His characters have ranged from devious to pious, from witty to foolish, from Shylock, Don John, and Edmund to Portia, Hero, and Cordelia. One thing that many of his plays had in common, however, was disguise. "Much Ado About Nothing", "The Merchant of Venice", and "King Lear" are just a few examples of disguise advancing the plot Shakespeare favored using disguise even though it required his audience to suspend disbelief.

The comedy "Much Ado About Nothing", while perhaps not using disguise as much as the other two plays mentioned above, has two major parts in which disguise is used. The first is at the mask in 2.1. While all the dancers are masked, Benedick uses his disguise to his advantage in order to speak to Beatrice. She questions his identity, "will you not tell me who you are?" (2.1.121), and says he must know of Benedick to which he says he does not. "Not I, believe me." (2.1.128) Benedick's goal is ultimately to find out what Beatrice really thinks about him. Though masked balls or dances were common in these times, a mask alone would not fool somebody as intelligent as Beatrice. While he could possibly have disguised his voice, or added padding to change the appearance of his body, it is unlikely that he would have done so in such a way that nobody would discern his identity. This is the first example of Shakespeare requiring his audience to suspend disbelief. We are encouraged to believe that Beatrice cannot identify Benedick even though the audience can. As a result, Benedick is hurt by what Beatrice says about him, and it widens the gulf between them. Benedick will come around eventually, but Beatrice's blunt opinions of him "Why, he is the Prince's jester, a very dull fool. Only his gift is in devising impossible slanders. None but libertines delight in him" (2.1.131-133) delay their reunion which is just what Shakespeare intended.

Secondly, disguise is used to break up Claudio and Hero. Claudio witnesses a woman having sexual relations in Hero's bedroom window in 3.3. "And thought they Margaret was Hero?" asks Conrade. "Two of them did, the Prince and Claudio, but the devil my master knew she was Margaret away went Claudio enraged" Borachio replied (3.3.150-156). Shakespeare's intention was to show what a villain Don John is, and in the process to delay

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