During the conversation with the messenger, Leonato states that Claudio has an uncle in Messina; and the messenger responds that he has already informed this uncle about Claudio's glorious deeds in battle (lines 15-24). Oddly, this uncle is never heard from again and never appears in the play. Perhaps the lines are inserted merely for the purpose of establishing a connection between the people of Messina and the troops serving the Prince of Aragon. Or, equally possible, the lines should have been edited from the play before it was printed. Readers should keep in mind that Shakespeare worked extremely hard and often did not have much time for editing his plays. In 1598 Shakespeare was finishing The Merry Wives of Windsor, writing Henry IV, Part 2 as well as Much Ado about Nothing, and beginning to write Henry V. In addition, he was also actively involved in the business of theater. Moreover, the plays themselves were not written for publication. They were written as working scripts for the actors. Shakespeare could have easily told the actors to remove those references to Claudio's uncle, and the play may have been performed without those lines. Still, the lines continued to exist on the manuscripts. So, when a printer finally did get a hold of a manuscript to set in print, the mysterious lines remained.