Much Ado About Nothing

Introduction

The title of Much Ado About Nothing is a play on words. In Shakespeare’s day ‘nothing’ was slang for the vagina, and the play will examine the psycho-sexual world of several of the main characters in this melodramatic comedy. There is, furthermore, a nihilistic and existential sort of nothingness in the robust suggestion that love itself is much ado about nothing. Indeed, Much Ado is superficially the lightest of the comedies. There are two principle relationships in the play and the Hero / Claudio story proves an excruciatingly troublesome contrast to the witty and humorous relationship between Benedict and Beatrice. We have a villain in Don John, who reeks a jealous havoc on Hero and Claudio, while Benedict and Beatrice do their very best not to fall in love, although it is inevitable that they must. There is no mistaking that this is Beatrice’s play. She may well be the most intelligent and witty representation of a woman in Western literature by Shakespeare’s day. Benedict hangs on for dear life just trying to match her, wit for wit. Beatrice seems genuinely disinterested in marriage and is ruthless toward any suitor who dares try to win her love and when Benedict steps forward she utilizes her dazzle of words to defend herself from her own true feelings until their verbal jousting wins her over to him once and for all. Beatrice and Benedict know each other quite well by the time they agree to be married and Beatrice is finally ready to have her wild heart tamed by Benedict. In contrast, Claudio and Hero do not even speak to each other before their marriage is being arranged by others. So when Don John makes it seems that Hero entertained another man on the night before their wedding Claudio he easily is duped into believing she is promiscuous and wanton. Once her innocence is finally revealed, Claudio just as easily reverts back to his earliest images of her as chaste and pure. Nothing too complicated here.

This is one of Shakespeare’s most staged productions and while it might not rank up there with the quality of his finest comedic works, such as Midsummer Night’s Dream, As You Like It, Merchant of Venice, The Tempest or Twelfth Night, it often delights audiences with the presence of Beatrice and her entertaining war of words with her romantic counterpart in the persistent Benedict.

Act I (3 scenes)

Scene i

Before Leonato’s House

Enter Leonato, Hero, Beatrice and a messenger

Leonato: “I learn in this letter that Don Pedro of Aragon comes this night to Messina.”

Messenger: “He is very near by this.”

Leonato: “A victory is twice itself when the achiever brings home full numbers. I find here that Don Pedro hath bestowed much honour on a young Florentine called Claudio.”

Messenger: “Much deserved on his part. He hath borne himself beyond the promise of his age, doing, in the figure of a lamb, the feats of a lion; he hath, indeed, better bettered expectation than you must expect of me to tell you how.”

Leonato: “He hath an uncle here in Messina will be very much glad of it.”

Messenger: “There appears much joy in him.”

Leonato: “Did he break out into tears?”

Messenger: “In great measure.”

Leonato: “A kind overflow of kindness. There are no faces truer than those that are so washed. How much better is it to weep at joy than to joy at weeping!“

Beatrice: “I pray you, is Signior Mountano (translated: Mr Fancy Fighter) returned from the wars or no?”

Messenger: “I know none of that name, lady.”

Hero: “My cousin means Signoir Benedick.”

Messenger: “O, he’s returned, and as pleasant as ever he was.”

Beatrice: “How many hath he killed and eaten in these wars?”

Leonato: “Faith, niece, you tax Signoir Benedict too much.”

Messenger: “He hath done good service, lady, in these wars.”

Leonato: “You must not, sir, mistake my niece: there is a kind of merry war betwixt Signor Benedick and her; thy never meet but there is a skirmish of wit between them.”

Messenger: “I see, lady, the gentleman is not in your books.”

Beatrice: “No; and if he were, I would burn my study. But, I pray you, who is his companion?”

Messenger: “He is most in the company of the right noble Claudio.”

Beatrice: “God help the noble Claudio.”

Enter Don Pedro, Claudio, Benedick and Don John the Bastard

Don Pedro: “Good Signoir Leonato. I think this is your daughter.”

Leonato: “Her mother hath many times told me so.”

Benedick: Were you in doubt, sir, that you asked her?”

Beatrice: “I wonder that you will still be talking, Signoir Benedict; nobody marks you.”

Benedick: “What, my dear Lady Disdain! Are you yet living?”

Beatrice: “Is it possible disdain should die while she hath such food to feed it as Signoir Benedick? Courtesy itself must convert to disdain if you come in her presence.”

Benedick: “Then is courtesy a turncoat. But it is certain I am loved of all ladies, only you excepted; and I would I could find in my heart that I had not a hard heart, for truly, I love none.”

Beatrice: “A dear happiness to women! I had rather hear my dog bark at a crow than a man swear he loves me.”

Benedick: “Well, you are a rare parrot-teacher.”

Beatrice: “A bird of my tongue is better than a beast of yours.”

Benedick: “I would my horse had the speed of your tongue.”

Leonato: (to Don John) “Let me bid you welcome, my lord – being reconciled to the Prince your brother, I owe you all duty.”

Don John: “I thank you; I am not of many words, but I thank you.”

Don Pedro: “Your hand, Leonato; we will go together.”

Exit all but Benedick and Claudio

Claudio: “Benedick, did thou note the daughter of Signoir Leonato? I pray thee tell me truly how thou like her. In mine eye she is the sweetest lady that ever I looked on.”

Benedick: “I hope you have no intent to turn husband, have you?”

Claudio: “I had sworn the contrary, if Hero would be my wife.”

Benedick: “Is it come to this? Shall I never see a bachelor of threescore again? Look, Don Pedro is returned to seek you.”

Enter Don Pedro

Benedick: “Mark you this – he is in love with Hero, Leonato’s short daughter.”

Don Pedro: “Amen, if you love her; for the lady is very well worthy.”

Claudio: “That I love her, I feel.”

Don Pedro: “That she is worthy, I know.”

Benedick: “That I neither feel how she should be loved, nor know how she should be worthy, is the opinion that fire cannot melt out of me. That a woman conceived me, I thank her; that she brought me up, I likewise give her most humble thanks; but I will do myself the right to trust none and I will live a bachelor.“

Don Pedro: “I shall see thee, ere I die, look pale with love.“

Benedick: “With anger, with sickness, or with hunger, my lord; not with love. If I do, hang me in a bottle, like a cat, and shoot at me; and he that hits me, let him be clapped on the shoulder and called Adam.“

Exit Benedick

Don Pedro: (to Claudio) “If thou dost love fair Hero, cherish it. I will assume thy part in some disguise, and tell fair Hero I am Claudio; and in her bosom I’ll unclasp my heart. Then, after, to her father will I break; and the conclusion is she shall be thine. In practice let us put it presently.”

Analysis

In Act I, scene I we are introduced to all of the principle characters, some of whom have just returned from the wars. Beatrice inquires of Benedict, as they maintain an exchange of caustic wit, which, more the anything else, defines the very play. They play at their mutual disdain for one another and claim to scorn love, but the others realize that behind this show of wit they are a perfect match for one another. On the other hand, Claudio believes he loves Hero, who he hardly knows, as they have not exchanged a single word to date. Claudio is so awkward about expressing his feelings that Don Pedro, the Prince, agrees to woo her on Claudio’s behalf. This opening scene reflects the lightness of this play about love and the relationships it inspires between the sexes.

Act I

Scene ii

Leonato’s house

Enter Leonato and Antonio

Leonato: “How now, brother!”

Antonio: “Brother, I can tell you strange news that you yet dream not of. The Prince discovered to Claudio that he loved my niece your daughter, and meant to acknowledge it this night in a dance.”

Leonato: “I will acquaint my daughter withal, that she may be the better prepared for an answer, if this be true.”

Analysis

A bit of confusion enters the story as Leonato, the governor, learns from his brother Antonio that Don Pedro himself intends to woo Hero. The part he fails to grasp is that he will woo her on behalf of Claudio. In fact, Much Ado About Nothing will have its fair share of eaves droppings and misunderstandings. As we will see in the next scene, friends of the very much disgruntled Don John, Don Pedro’s bastard brother, also overhear this news and come to a very different understanding of its meaning. This simple plot becomes just a bit complicated by these differing interpretations of Don Pedro’s intentions.

Act I

Scene iii

Leonato’s house

Enter Don John and Conrade

Conrade: “Why are you thus out of measure sad?”

Don John: “There is no measure. The sadness is without limit. I cannot hide what I am; I must be sad when I have cause, and smile at no man’s jests.”

Conrade: “You have of late stood out against your brother, and he hath taken you newly into his grace.”

Don John: “I would rather be a canker in a hedge than a rose in his grace; and it better fits my blood to be disdained of all than to fashion a carriage to rob love from any. Let me be that I am, and seek not to alter me.”

Conrade: “Can you make no use of your discontent?”

Don John: “I make all use of it. Who comes here?”

Enter Borachio

Don John: “What news, Borachio?”

Borachio: “The Prince, your brother, royally entertained by Leonato; and I can give you intelligence of an intended marriage.”

Don John: “Will it serve for any model to build mischief on? What is he for a fool who betroths himself to unquietness?”

Borachio: “Marry, it is your brother’s right hand.”

Don John: “Who? The most exquisite Claudio?”

Borachio: “Even he.”

Don John: “Which way looks he?”

Borachio: “Marry, on Hero, the daughter and heir of Leonato.”

Don John: “How came you to this?”

Borachio: “Comes to me the Prince and Claudio hand in hand, in sad conference. I whipped me behind the arras, and there heard it agreed upon that the Prince should woo Hero for himself, and having obtained her, give her to Count Claudio.”

Don John: “Come, come, this may prove food to my displeasure; that young start-up hath all the glory of my overthrow. If I can cross him in any way, I bless myself in every way. You are both sure, and will assist me?”

Conrade: “To the death, my lord.”

Don John: “Shall we go prove what’s to be done?”

Borachio: “We’ll wait upon your lordship.”

Analysis

It is here that we learn of the play’s villain, Don John. When asked why he is so sad he simply responds that he cannot hide what he is and that his sadness has no limit. When he learns of Claudio’s intention to woo and marry Hero he is excited at the prospect of mischief. “If I can cross him in any way, I bless myself in every way.” Yet another Shakespeare villain is set to complicate an otherwise straightforward comedy. Act I has set up nicely what will develop next.

Act II (3 scenes)

Scene i

Leonato’s house

Enter Leonato, Hero and Beatrice

Leonato: “Was not Count John here at supper?”

Beatrice: “I never can see him but I am heart-burned an hour after.”

Hero: “He is of a very melancholy disposition.”

Beatrice: “He were an excellent man that were made just in the mid-way between him and Benedick; the one is too like an image and says nothing, and the other too like my lady’s eldest son, ever tattling.”

Leonato: “Then half Signoir Benedick’s tongue in Count John’s mouth and half Count John’s melancholy in Signoir Benedick’s face -“

Beatrice: “Such a man would win any woman in the world.”

Leonato: “By my troth, niece, thou wilt never get thee a husband if thou be so shrewd of thy tongue.”

Beatrice: “He that hath a beard is more than a youth, and he that hath no beard is less than a man; and he the hath is more than a youth is not for me, and he that is less than a man I am not for him.“

Leonato: “Well, niece, I hope to see you one day fitted with a husband.”

Beatrice: “Not till God make men of some other metal than earth. No, uncle, I’ll none: Adam’s sons are my brethren; and, truly, I hold it a sin to match in my kindred. I have a good eye, uncle; I can see a church by daylight.”

Leonato: “The revellers are entering, brother.”

Antonio masks

Enter Don Pedro, Claudio, Benedick, Don John and Borachio as maskers

Don Pedro: “Lady, will you walk about with your friend?”

Hero: “I am yours for the walk.”

Don Pedro: “Speak low, if you speak love.” (takes her aside)

Beatrice: “Will you not tell me who told you so?”

Benedick: “No.”

Beatrice: “Nor will you not tell me who you are?”

Benedick: “Not now.”

Beatrice: “That I was disdainful, this was Signoir Benedick that said so.”

Benedict: “What’s he?”

Beatrice: “I am sure you know him well enough.”

Benedick: “Not I, believe me. What is he?”

Beatrice: “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, and the commendation is not in his wit but in his villainy; for he both pleases men and angers them, and then they laugh at him and beat him. I am sure he is in the fleet; I would he had boarded me.”

Exit all but Don John, Borachio and Claudio

Don John: “Sure, my brother is amorous on Hero. Are you not Signoir Benedick?”

Claudio: “You know me well; I am he.”

Don John: “Signior, you are very near my brother in his love; he is enamoured on Hero; I pray you dissuade him from her; she is no equal for his birth.”

Claudio: “How know you he loves her?”

Don John: “I heard him swear his affection.”

Borachio: “So did I too.”

Don John: “Come, let us to the banquet.”

Exit Don John and Borachio

Claudio: “Thus answer I in the name of Benedict, but hear these ill news with the ears of Claudio. ‘Tis certain so: the Prince woos for himself. Friendship is constant in all other things save in the office and affairs of love; therefore all hearts in love use their own tongues. Let every eye negotiate for itself and trust no agent. Farewell, therefore, Hero.”

Re-enter Benedick

Benedick: “Count Claudio?”

Claudio: “Yea, the same.”

Benedick: “The Prince hath got your Hero.”

Claudio: “I wish him joy of her.”

Exit Claudio

Benedick: “Alas, poor hurt fowl! But that my Lady Beatrice should know me, and not know me! The Prince’s fool! Ha! It may be I go under that title because I am merry. Yea, but so I am apt to do myself wrong; I am not so reputed; well, I’ll be revenged as I may.”

Re-enter Don Pedro

Don Pedro: “Now, Signor, where’s the Count?”

Benedick: “I found him here as melancholy as a lodge in a warren; I told him, and I think I told him true, that your Grace had got the good will of this young lady.”

Don Pedro “I will but teach them to sing, and restore them to the owner. The Lady Beatrice hath a quarrel to you; the gentleman who danced with her told her she is much wronged by you.”

Benedick: “She told me, not thinking I had been myself, that I was the Prince’s jester, that I was duller than a great thaw. She speaks poniards (daggers) and every word stabs. Come, talk not of her; I would to God some scholar would conjure her; indeed, all disquiet, horror, and perturbation, follows her.”

Re-enter Claudio, Beatrice, Leonato and Hero

Don Pedro: “Look, here she comes.”

Benedick: “O God, sir, here’s a dish I love not; I cannot endure my lady Tongue.”

Exit Benedick

Don Pedro: “Come, lady, come; you have lost the heart of Signior Benedict. You have put him down, lady, you have put him down.”

Beatrice: “I have brought Count Claudio, whom you sent me to seek.”

Don Pedro: “Why, how now, Count! Wherefore are you sad?”

Claudio: “Not sad, my lord.”

Don Pedro: “How then, sick?”

Claudio: “Neither, my lord.”

Don Pedro: “Here, Claudio, I have wooed in thy name, and fair Hero is won. Name the day of marriage, and God give thee joy!”

Leonato: “Count, take of me my daughter, and with her my fortunes; his Grace hath made the match, and all grace say Amen to it!”

Beatrice: “Speak Count, ’tis your cue.”

Claudio: “Lady, as you are mine, I am yours.”

Beatrice: “Speak, cousin; or, if you cannot, stop his mouth with a kiss, and let not him speak neither. Thus goes every one to the world but I; I may sit in the corner and cry ‘Heigh-ho for a husband!”

Don Pedro: “Lady Beatrice, I will get you one. Will you have me, lady?”

Beatrice: “No, my lord, unless I might have another for working days; your Grace is too costly to wear every day.”

Exit Beatrice

Don Pedro: “She cannot endure to hear tell of a husband.”

Leonato: O, by no means; she mocks all her wooers out of suit.”

Don Pedro: “She were an excellent wife for Benedict.”

Leonato: “O Lord, my lord, if they were but a week married, they would talk themselves mad.”

Don Pedro: “I warrant thee, Claudio, I will in the interim undertake one of Hercules’ labours, which is to bring Signior Benedick and the Lady Beatrice into a mountain of affection the one with the other; and I doubt not but to fashion it if you three will but minister such assistance as I shall give you direction.”

Leonato: “My lord, I am for you.”

Claudio: “And I, my lord.”

Don Pedro: “And you too, gentle Hero?”

Hero: “I will do any modest office, my lord, to help my cousin to a new husband.”

Don Pedro: “And Benedick is not the unhopefullest husband that I know. Thus far can I praise him: he is of a noble strain, of approved valour, and confirmed honesty. I will teach you how to humour your cousin that she shall fall in love with Benedick; and I, with your two helps, will so practice on Benedick that, in spite of his quick wit and his queasy stomach, he shall fall in love with Beatrice. Go in with me and I will tell you my drift.”

Analysis

We learn more about the various characters in this lengthy scene. For instance, Beatrice is apparently uninterested in marriage. Adam’s sons, she claims, are her brethren. The mask begins and no one is completely certain who is talking to whom. Beatrice rails against Benedick, not aware that it is Benedict she is speaking to. He takes it hard that she refers to him as the Prince’s jester and a very dull fool who people laugh at. Don John tries to convince Claudio that Don Pedro is wooing Hero for himself. It would seem that Claudio is quite the gullible one, as we shall soon enough confirm. Once Don Pedro professes to have won Hero for Claudio, the betrothed new couple are virtually too shy to even acknowledge one another. So Claudio and Hero are set to marry and the scene ends with Don Pedro plotting to have Benedick and Beatrice fall in love with each other. But this is only act II, and as Shakespeare reminds us in A Midsummer Night’s Dream, ‘never did the course of true love run smooth.’

Act II

Scene ii

Enter Don John and Borachio

Don John: “It is so: the Count Claudio shall marry the daughter of Leonato.”

Borachio: “Yea, my lord, but I can cross it.”

Don John: “Any bar, any cross, any impediment, will be like medicine to me. How can thou cross this marriage?”

Borachio: “Not honestly, my lord; but so covertly that no dishonesty shall appear in me. I am in the favour of Margaret, the gentlewoman to Hero.”

Don John: “I remember.”

Borachio: “I can at any unseasonable instant of the night appoint her to look out at her lady’s chamber window. Go you to the Prince your brother; tell him that he hath wronged his honour in marrying the renowned Claudio to a contaminated stale, such a one as Hero.”

Don John: “What proof shall I make of that?”

Borachio: “Proof enough to misuse the Prince, to vex Claudio, to undo Hero and kill Leonato.”

Don John: “To spite them I will endeavour anything.”

Borachio: “Go then; draw Don Pedro and the Count Claudio alone; tell them that you know that Hero loves me – that you have discovered thus. They will scarcely believe this; offer them instances to see me at her chamber window; hear me call Margaret Hero; and bring them to see this the very night before the intended wedding – and there shall appear such seeming truth of Hero’s disloyalty that jealousy shall be called assurance, and all the preparation overthrown.”

Don John: “I will put it in practice. Be cunning in the working of this.”

Borachio: “Be you constant in the accusation, and my cunning shall not shame me.”

Analysis

Here come the villains! Shakespeare loves a good villain and uses them methodically to shape his plots. The villains really throw a wrench into things and allow Shakespeare to find a way to restore the damage they wrought. Classic Shakespearean villains include Richard III, who has his own play, Tamora and Aaron in Titus Andronicus, Goneral and Regan in King Lear and Iago in Othello. They each have unique motives for their villainous behaviours, but all of them either seem to think they have been wronged somehow and want to exact revenge or they act out of greed and extreme self interest. In Much Ado About Nothing, Don John has been defeated by his brother, Don Pedro, in battle, but has been forgiven and lives amid the court grumbling and discontent, just waiting for an opportunity to upset the court. And his accomplice, Borachio, has come up with just the plan. Borachio will appear amorous with Margaret, Hero’s servant, who will be disguised as Hero. Don John will inform Claudio that Hero is a whore and then ensure that Claudio sees this amorous display, which should derail the wedding plans. Don John and Borachio hope that this scheme will ‘misuse the Prince, vex Claudio, undo Hero and kill Leonato.’ Oh these wretched villains!

Act II

Scene iii

Leonato’s orchard

Enter Benedick

Benedick: “I do much wonder that one man, seeing how much another man is a fool when he dedicates his behaviours to love, will, after he hath laughed at such shallow follies in others, become the argument of his own scorn by falling in love; and such a man is Claudio. I have known when there was no music with him but the drum and the fife; I have known when he would have walked ten miles afoot to see a good armour. He was wont to speak plain and to the purpose, like an honest man and a soldier, and now his words are a very fantastical banquet, just so many strange dishes. May I be so converted, and see with these eyes? I cannot tell, but I think not. One woman is fair, yet I am well; another is wise, yet I am well; another virtuous, yet I am well; but till all graces be in one woman, one woman shall not come in my grace. Rich she shall be, that’s certain; wise, or I’ll none; virtuous, or I’ll never cheapen her; fair, or I’ll never look on her; mild, or come not near me; noble, or not I for an angel; of good discourse, an excellent musician, and her hair shall be of what colour pleaseth God. Ha! Here come the Prince and Monsieur Love! I will hide me in the arbour. (withdraws)

Enter Don Pedro, Leonato and Claudio

Don Pedro: “See where Benedick has hidden himself?”

Claudio: “O, very well, my lord.”

Don Pedro: “Come hither, Leonato. What was it you told me of today – that your niece Beatrice was in love with Signior Benedick?”

Claudio: “O ay; stalk on, stalk on. I did never think that lady would have loved any man.”

Leonato: “No, nor I either; but most wonderful that she should so dote on Signior Benedick, whom she hath in all outward behaviours seemed ever to abhor.”

Benedick: “Is it possible?”

Leonato: “But that she loves him with an enraged affection – it is past the infinite of thought.”

Don Pedro: “I would have thought her spirit had been invincible against all assaults of affection.”

Leonato: “I would have sworn it had, my lord; especially against Benedick.”

Don Pedro: “Has she made her affection known to Benedick?”

Leonato: “No; and swears she never will; that’s her torment.”

Claudio: “‘Tis true, indeed. ‘Shall I’, says she, ‘that have so often encountered him with scorn, write to him that I love him?”

Leonato: “She’ll be up twenty times a night; and there will she sit in her smock till she has written a sheet of paper. My daughter tells us all.”

Claudio: “Then down upon her knees she falls, weeps, sobs, beats her heart, tears her hair, prays, curses, – ‘O sweet Benedick! God give me patience.”

Leonato: “She doth indeed; and the ecstasy has so much overborne her that my daughter is sometimes afeared she will do a desperate outrage to herself. It is very true.”

Don Pedro: “It were good that Benedick knew of it.”

Claudio: “To what end? He would make but a sport of it, and torment the poor lady worse.”

Don Pedro: “She’s an excellent sweet lady, and she is virtuous.”

Claudio: “And she is exceedingly wise.”

Don Pedro: “In everything but in loving Benedick.”

Leonato: “I am sorry for her, as I have just cause, being her uncle and her guardian.”

Don Pedro: “I pray you tell Benedick of it, and hear what he will say.”

Leonato: “Were it good, think you?”

Claudio: “Hero thinks surely she will die; for she says she will die if he love her not.”

Don Pedro: “If she should make tender of her love, ’tis very possible he’ll scorn it; for the man as you all know, has a contemptible spirit.”

Claudio: “He is a very proper man.”

Don Pedro: “He has, indeed, a good outward happiness.”

Claudio: “Before God, and in my mind, very wise.”

Don Pedro: “He does, indeed, show some sparks that are like wit.”

Leonato: “And I take him to be valiant.”

Don Pedro: “As Hector, I assure you. Well I am sorry for your niece. Shall we go seek Benedick, and tell him of her love? I love Benedick well; and I could wish he would modestly examine himself, to see how much he is unworthy so good a lady.”

Exit Don Pedro, Leonato and Claudio

Benedick: “This can be no trick: they have the truth of this from Hero; they seem to pity the lady. Love me! Why, it must be requited. I hear how I am censured: they say I will bear myself proudly if I perceive the love come from her; they say, too, that she will rather die than give any sign of affection. I did never think to marry. I must not seem proud; happy are they who hear their detractions and can put them to mending. They say the lady is fair; ’tis a truth, I can bear them witness; and virtuous; ’tis so, I cannot reprove it; and wise, but for loving me. I will be horribly in love with her. I may chance have some remnants of wit broken on me because I have railed so long against marriage; but does not the appetite alter? The world must be peopled. When I said I would die a bachelor, I did not think I should live till I were married. Here comes Beatrice. By this day, she’s a fair lady; I do spy some marks of love in her.”

Enter Beatrice

Beatrice: “Against my will I am sent to bid you come in to dinner.”

Benedick: “Fair Beatrice, I thank you for your pains.“

Beatrice: “I took no more pains for those thanks than you take pains to thank me; if it had been painful, I would not have come.”

Exit Beatrice

Benedick: “Ha! If I do not take pity of her, I am a villain. I will go get her picture.”

Analysis

So we have complications arising around both sets of lovers. The villains are trying to destroy the marriage between Claudio and Hero, while Benedict’s friends, soon to be joined by Beatrice’s friends as well, are trying to convince each that the other is in love with them. Shakespeare’s genius can allow for multiple plots, without too much confusion on the part of his audience. We see this in virtually every play. In this instance the trick works on Benedick, who, upon hearing his friends declare Beatrice’s love for him, immediately changes his mind entirely regarding not just Beatrice but on the institution of marriage. Since this is a comedy, and a light one at that, we should expect a double wedding in act 5. At least one of the two couples is moving in that direction, as we move into act 3.

Act III (4 scenes)

Scene i

Leonato’s orchard

Enter Hero, Margaret and Ursula

Hero: “Good Margaret, find my cousin Beatrice. Whisper in her ear, and tell her I and Ursula walk in the orchard, and our whole discourse is all of her; say that thou overheard us; and bid her steal into the pleached bower. There will she hide herself, to listen to our purpose.”

Margaret: “I’ll make her come, I warrant you.”

Exit Margaret

Hero: “Now, Ursula, when Beatrice does come, our talk must only be of Benedick. When I do name him, let it be thy part to praise him more than ever man did merit; my talk to thee must be how Benedick is sick in love with Beatrice. Of this matter is little Cupid’s crafty arrow made, that only wounds by hearsay. Now begin, for look where Beatrice runs to hear our conference. Then we go near her, that her ear lose nothing of the false sweet bait that we lay for it.”

Enter Beatrice, hidden

Ursula: “But are you sure that Benedick loves Beatrice so entirely?”

Hero: “So says the Prince and my new-trothed lord.”

Ursula: “And did they bid you tell her of it, madam?”

Hero: “They did entreat me to acquaint her of it; but I persuaded them, if they loved Benedick, to wish him wrestle with affection, and never to let Beatrice know of it.”

Ursula: “Why did you so?”

Hero: “O, god of love! I know he does deserve as much as may be yielded to a man; but nature never framed a woman’s heart of prouder stuff than that of Beatrice. Disdain and scorn ride sparkling in her eyes, misprision what they look upon; and her wit values itself so highly that to her all matter else seems weak. She cannot love, she is so self-endeared.”

Ursula: “And, therefore, certainly, it were not good she knew his love, lest she’ll make sport of it.”

Hero: “Why, you speak truth. I never yet saw a man, but she would spell him backward. She turns every man the wrong side out, and never gives to truth and virtue that which simpleness and merit purchases.”

Ursula: “Sure, sure, such carping is not commendable.”

Hero: “No; not to be so odd and from all fashions, as Beatrice is, cannot be commendable; But who dares tell her so? If I should speak, she would mock me into air; O, she would laugh me out of myself, press me to death with wit! Therefore let Benedick consume away in sighs, waste inwardly. It were a better death than to die with mocks, which is as bad as to die with tickling.”

Ursula: “Yet tell her of it; hear what she will say.”

Hero: “No; rather I will go to Benedick and counsel him to fight against his passion; and, truly, I’ll devise some honest slanders to stain my cousin with.”

Ursula: “O, do not do your cousin such a wrong! She cannot be so much without true judgment – having so swift and excellent a wit as she is prized to have – as to refuse so rare a gentleman as Signior Benedick, who, for shape, for bearing, argument and valour, goes foremost in report through Italy.”

Hero: “Indeed, he has an excellent good name.”

Ursula: “When are you married, madam?”

Hero: “Why, tomorrow.”

Exit Hero and Ursula

Beatrice: “What fire is in my ears? Can this be true? Stand I condemned for pride and scorn so much? Contempt, farewell! And maiden pride, adieu! And Benedick, love on; I will require thee, taming my wild heart to thy loving hand, if thou dost love, my kindness shall incite thee to bind our loves up in a holy band; for others say thou dost deserve, and I believe it better than reportingly.”

Analysis

The trick played on Beatrice here works as well as the trick played on Benedick in the previous scene. Their friends apparently know them well. It is as if they needed to be snapped out of their competitive war of wit just long enough to see each other with fresh eyes. The next time they meet they will be working together as allies to figure out what has happened between Hero and Claudio. Here come those villains again, and mischief is now surely afoot.

Act III

Scene ii

Leonato’s house

Enter Don Pedro, Claudio, Benedick, and Leonato

Benedick: “Gallants, I am not as I have been.”

Leonato:”Methinks you are sadder.”

Claudio: “I hope he be in love.”

Don Pedro: “There’s no true drop of blood in him to be truly touched with love; if he be sad, he wants money.”

Claudio: “Yet, say I, he is in love.”

Leonato: “Indeed, he looks younger than he did.”

Claudio: “That’s as much as to say the sweet youth’s in love.”

Don Pedro: “The greatest note of it is his melancholy. Indeed, conclude, conclude, he is in love.”

Claudio: “Nay, but I know who loves him and his ill conditions; and, in spite of all, dies for him.”

Exit Benedick and Leonato

Claudio: “Hero and Margaret have by this played their parts with Beatrice; and then the two bears will not bite one another when they meet.”

Enter Don John

Don John: “My lord and brother. God save you. I would speak with you.”

Don Pedro: “On private?”

Don John: “If it please you; yet Count Claudio may hear, for what I would speak of concerns him.”

Don Pedro: “What’s the matter?”

Don John: (to Claudio) “Means your lordship to be married tomorrow?”

Don Pedro: “You know he does.”

Don John: “I know not that, when he knows what I know.”

Claudio: “If there be any impediment, I pray you discover it.”

Don John: “I came hither to tell you; the lady is disloyal.”

Claudio: “Who, Hero?”

Don John: “Even she – Leonato’s Hero, your Hero, every man’s Hero.”

Claudio: “Disloyal?”

Don John: “The word is too good to paint out her wickedness; I could say she were worse; think you of a worse title, and I will fit her to it. Go but with me tonight, you shall see her chamber window entered, even the night before her wedding day. If you love her then, tomorrow wed her; but it would better fit your honour to change your mind.”

Claudio: “May this be so?”

Don John: “If you dare not trust that you see, confess not that you know. If you will follow me, I will show you enough.”

Claudio: “If I see anything tonight why I should not marry her, tomorrow in the congregation where I should wed, there will I shame her.”

Don Pedro: “And, as I wood for thee to obtain her, I will join with thee to disgrace her.”

Don John: “I will disparage her no farther till you are my witness; bear it coldly but till midnight, and let the issue show itself.”

Claudio: “O mischief strongly thwarting!”

Don John: “O plague right well prevented! So will you say when you have seen the sequel.”

Analysis

The play suddenly gets very serious and dark, as Don John executes his plan to derail the marriage between Claudio and Hero. It is a bit shocking how quickly Claudio and Don Pedro accept Don John’s claim, although he does promise to offer proof forthcoming. The innocent Hero is about to be accused of the terrible deed of making love to a stranger on the eve of her wedding. And Don John has arranged that Don Pedro and Claudio will see it for themselves, as Borachio and Margaret, dressed to resemble Hero, will engage in their intimacy on Hero’s balcony right before their eyes. It’s a long way still until the act 5 resolution scene, and that’s a good thing, since Shakespeare has a long way to go to resolve this villainous new plot development.

Act III

Scene iii

A street

Enter Dogberry (constable), Verges (his partner) and the watch

Dogberry: “You are thought to be the most senseless and fit man for the constable of the watch; therefore bear you the lantern. This is your charge: you shall comprehend all vagrant men. You shall also make no noise in the streets; for the watch to babble is not to be endured. You are to call at all of the ale houses, and bid those who are drunk get them to bed.

The Watch: “How if they will not?”

Dogberry: “Why, then, let them alone till they are sober. If you meet a thief, you may suspect him, by virtue of your office, to be no true man.”

Verges: “You have always been called a merciful man, partner.”

Dogberry: “Truly, I would not hang a dog by my will, much more a man who has any honesty in him. Well, masters, good night; if there be any matter of weight, call me up.”

Exit Dogberry and Verges

Enter Borachio and Conrade

Borachio: “What, Conrade!”

Conrade: “Here, man, I am at thy elbow.”

Watch: (aside) “Some treason. Yet stand close. “

Borachio: “Know that I have earned of Don John a thousand ducats.”

Watch: (aside) “I know that deformed; he has been a vile thief these seven years.”

Borachio: “Did thou not hear someone? Know that I have tonight wooed Margaret, the lady Hero’s gentlewoman, by the name of Hero; she leans me out at her mistress’ chamber-window, bids me a thousand times good night. I should first tell thee how the Prince, Claudio, and my master Don John, saw afar off in the orchard this amiable encounter.”

Conrade: “And thought that Margaret was Hero?”

Borachio: “Two of them did, the Prince and Claudio; away went Claudio enraged; swore he would meet her next morning at the temple, and there, before the whole congregation, shame her with what he saw, and send her home without a husband.”

Watch: “We charge you in the Prince’s name, stand!”

2 Watch: “Call up the right master constable; we have here recovered the most dangerous piece of lechery that ever was known in the commonwealth.”

Conrade: “Come, we will obey you.”

Analysis

Dogberry and Verges are clearly incompetent but sincere officers, but their watch mates are capable lawmen. When they overhear Borachio explain to Conrade what he has done under Don John’s orders, the two watchmen quickly apprehend them and bring them to Dogberry for interrogation. It will take time to sort this all out and in the interim much havoc will be wreaked, as Claudio and Don Pedro have clearly fallen completely for this ruse.

Act III

Scene iv

Hero’s apartment.

Hero: “God give me joy, for my heart is exceedingly heavy.“

Margaret: “‘Twill be heavier soon, by the weight of a man.“

Hero: “Fie upon thee!”

Margaret: “Is not your lord honourable?”

Enter Beatrice

Hero: “Good morning, Cuz.”

Beatrice: “Good morning, sweet Hero. By my troth, I am sick.”

Margaret: “Get you some of this distilled Carduus Benedictus, and lay it to your heart.”

Beatrice: “Benedictus! Why Benedictus?”

Margaret: “You may think, perchance, that I think you are in love.”

Enter Ursula

Ursula: “Madam, withdraw; the Prince, the Count, Signior Benedick, Don John, and all the gallants of the town are come to fetch you to church.”

Analysis

This tender scene of the women gathered around Hero on the morning of her wedding is mixed with some foreboding that Hero seems to have about this day. ‘My heart is exceedingly heavy.’ It is clearly a foreshadowing of what is to come.

Act III

Scene v

Leonato’s house

Enter Leonato, with Dogberry and Verges

Leonato: “What would you with me?”

Dogberry: “Marry, sir, I would have some confidence with you.”

Leonato: “Brief, I pray you; for you see it is a busy time with me. I would fain know what you have to say.”

Verges: “Marry, sir, our watch tonight has taken a couple of as arrant knaves as any in Messina.”

Leonato: “I must leave you.”

Dogberry: “One word, sir; our watch, sir, have indeed comprehended two auspicious persons, and we would have them this morning examined before your worship.”

Leonato: “Take their examination yourself; I am now in great haste, as it may appear unto you.”

Exit leonato

Dogberry: “Go, good partner; we are now to examine these men.”

Verges: “And we must do it wisely.”

Dogberry: “We will spare for no wit, I warrant you.”

Analysis

Unfortunately, Leonato does not press these unusual officers about the men they have apprehended. Had he done so, the unfortunate and painful next scene in the church might have been avoided. It is because he is off to the church that he leaves this case in the hands of Dogberry and Verges, which will now take some time to resolve. We, the audience, are fully aware of what the officers have uncovered, and the tension rises as we witness Leonato dismiss them to their own devices, knowing that the church scene is next and Claudio is preparing to disgrace Hero before the assembly of guests.

Act IV

Scene i

A Church

Enter Don Pedro, Don John, Leonato, Friar Francis, Claudio, Benedick, Hero and Beatrice.

Friar: “You come hither, my lord, to marry this lady?”

Claudio: “No.”

Leonato: “To be married to her, Friar!”

Friar: “Lady, you come hither to be married to this count?”

Hero: “I do.”

Friar: “If either of you know any inward impediment why you should not be conjoined, I charge you, on your souls, to utter it.”

Claudio: “Know you any, Hero?”

Hero: “None, my lord.”

Friar: “Know you any, count?”

Leonato: “I do make his answer. None.”

Claudio: “O, what men dare do! What men may do! What men daily do, not knowing what they do!”

Benedick: “How now! Interjections?”

Claudio: “Father, will you with free and unconstrained soul give me this maid, your daughter?”

Leonato: “As freely, son, as God did give her me.”

Claudio: “There, Leonato, take her back again; give not this rotten orange to your friend; she’s but the sign and semblance of her honour. Behold how like a maid she blushes here. O, what authority and show of truth can cunning sin cover itself withal! Would you not swear, all you who see her, that she were a maid by these external shows? But she is none: she knows the heat of a luxurious bed; her blush is guiltiness, not modesty.”

Leonato: “What do you mean, my lord?”

Claudio: “Not to be married. Not to knit my soul to an approved wanton.”

Leonato: “Dear, my lord, if you have vanquished the resistance of her youth, and made defeat of her viginity -“

Claudio: “I know what you would say. If I have known her, you will say she did embrace me as a husband. No, Leonato, I never tempted her, but, as a brother to his sister, showed bashful sincerity and comely love.”

Hero: “And seemed I ever otherwise to you?”

Claudio: “Out on thee! Seeming! I will write against it. But you are more intemperate in your blood than Venus, or those pampered animals that rage in savage sensuality.”

Hero: “Is my lord well, that he doth speak so wide?”

Leonato: “Sweet Prince, why speak not you?”

Don Pedro: “Why should I speak? I stand dishonoured who have gone about to link my dear friend to a common stale.”

Leonato: “Are these things spoken, or do I but dream?”

Don John: “Sir, they are spoken, and these things are true.”

Benedick: “This looks not like a nuptial.”

Claudio: “Let me but move one question to your daughter, and bid her answer truly.”

Hero: “O, God defend me! How am I beset!”

Claudio: “What man was he talked with you yester-night out at your window, betwixt twelve and one? Now, if you are a maid, answer to this.”

Hero: “I talked with no man at that hour, my lord.”

Don Pedro: “Why, then you are no maiden. Leonato, I am sorry you must hear: upon mine honour, myself, my brother, and this grieved Count, did see her, hear her, at that hour last night, talk with a ruffian at her chamber window; who hath, indeed, most like a liberal villain, confessed the vile encounters they have had a thousand times in secret.”

Claudio: “O Hero, what a hero hadst thou been, if half thy outward graces had been placed about thy thoughts and counsels of thy heart! But fare thee well, most foul, most fair! Farewell thou pure impiety and impious purity! For thee I’ll lock up all the gates of love, and on my eyelids shall conjecture hang, to turn all beauty into thoughts of harm, and never shall it more be gracious.”

Leonato: “Hath no man’s dagger here a point for me?”

Hero swoons

Beatrice: “Why, how now, cousin! Wherefore sink you down?”

Don John: “Come, let us go. These things, come thus to light, smother her spirits up.”

Exit Don Pedro, Don John and Claudio

Benedick: “How doth the lady?”

Beatrice: “Dead, I think. Help, uncle! Hero! Why, Hero! Uncle! Signior Benedick! Friar!”

Leonato: “O fate! Death is the fairest cover for her shame that may be wished for.”

Beatrice: “How now, cousin Hero!”

Leonato: “Why doth not every earthly thing cry shame upon her? Could she here deny the story that is printed in her blood? Do not live, Hero; do not open thine eyes; for, did I think thou wouldst not quickly die, thought I thy spirits were stronger than thy shames, myself would, on the rearward of reproaches, strike at thy life. Why ever wast thou lovely in my eyes? I might have said ‘No part of it is mine; this shame derives itself from unknown loins’. Oh, she is fall’n into a pit of ink, that the wide sea has drops too few to wash her clean again, and salt too little which may season give to her foul tainted flesh!

Benedick: “Sir, sir, be patient. For my part, I am so attired in wonder, I know not what to say.”

Beatrice: “O, on my soul, my cousin is belied!”

Benedick: “Lady, were you her bedfellow last night?”

Beatrice: “No, truly not, although, until last night, I have this twelvemonth been her bedfellow.”

Leonato: “Confirmed, confirmed! O, would the two princes lie; and Claudio lie, who loved her so, that, speaking of her foulness, washed it with tears? Hence from her! Let her die.”

Friar: “Hear me a little; for I have only been silent so long, by noting of the lady: I have marked a thousand blushing apparitions, a thousand innocent shames in angel whiteness beat away those blushes; and in her eye there hath appeared a fire to burn the errors that these princes hold against her maiden truth. Call me a fool; trust not my reading nor my observations, the tenor of my book; trust not my age, my reverence, calling, nor divinity, if this sweet lady lie not guiltless here under some biting error.”

Leonato: “Friar, it cannot be. Thou seest that all the grace that she hath left is that she will not add to her damnation a sin of perjury.”

Friar: “Lady, what man is he you are accused of?”

Hero: “They know who do accuse me; I know none. If I know more of any man alive than that which maiden modesty doth warrant, let all my sins lack mercy! O my father, prove you that any man with me conversed, or that I yesternight maintained the change of words with any creature, refuse me, hate me, torture me to death.”

Friar: “There is some strange misprision in the princes.”

Benedick: “And if their wisdoms be misled in this, the practice of it lies in John the Bastard, whose spirits toil in frame of villainies.”

Leonato: “I know not. If they speak but truth of her, these hands shall tear her; if they wrong her honour, the proudest of them shall quit me of them thoroughly.”

Friar: “Pause awhile. Your daughter here the princes left for dead; let her awhile be secretly kept in, and publish it that she is dead indeed, and do all rites that appertain unto a burial.”

Leonato: “What shall become of this? What will this do?”

Friar: “Marry, this, well carried, shall on her behalf change slander to remorse. She dying, as it must be so maintained, upon the instant that she was accused, shall be lamented, pitied, and excused of every hearer. So will it fare with Claudio. When he shall hear that she died upon his words, the idea of her life shall sweetly creep into his study of imagination. Then shall he mourn, and wish he had not so accused her – no, though he thought his accusation true. But if all aim be levelled false, the supposition of the lady’s death will quench the wonder of her infamy. And if it sort not well, you may cancel her, as best befits her wounded reputation, in some reclusive and religious life.”

Benedick: “Signior Leonato, let the friar advise you.”

Friar: “Come lady, die to live; this wedding day perhaps is but prolonged; have patience end endure.”

Exit all but Benedick and Beatrice

Benedick: “Lady Beatrice, have you wept all this while?”

Beatrice: “Yea, and I will weep a while longer.”

Benedick: “Surely I do believe your fair cousin is wronged.”

Beatrice: “Ah, how much might the man deserve of me that would right her!”

Benedick: “Is there any way to show such friendship?”

Beatrice: “A very even way.”

Benedick: “May a man do it?”

Beatrice: “It is a man’s office, but not yours.”

Benedick: “I do love nothing in the world so well as you. Is not that strange?”

Beatrice: “It were as possible for me to say I loved nothing so well as you; but believe me not, and yet I lie not; nor I deny nothing. I am sorry for my cousin.”

Benedick: “I protest I love thee.”

Beatrice: “I was about to protest I loved you.”

Benedick: “And do it with all thy heart?”

Beatrice: “I love you with so much of my heart that none is left to protest.”

Benedick: “Come, bid me do anything for thee.”

Beatrice: “Kill Claudio.”

Benedick: “Ha! Not for the wide world.”

Beatrice: “You kill me to deny it. Farewell. There is no love in you; let me go. You dare easier be friends with me than fight with mine enemy.”

Benedick: “Is Claudio thine enemy?”

Beatrice: “Is he not a villain that hath slandered, scorned, and dishonoured my kinswoman? O that I were a man! What! Bear her in hand until they come to take hands, and then with public accusation, uncovered slander, unmitigated rancour – O God, that I were a man! I would eat his heart in the market-place.”

Benedick: “Hear me, Beatrice.”

Beatrice: “Talk with a man out at a window!”

Benedick: “Nay, but, Beatrice -“

Beatrice: “Sweet Hero! She is wronged, she is slandered, she is undone. O that I were a man! Or that I had any friend would be a man for my sake!”

Benedick: “Tarry, good Beatrice. By this hand I love thee. Think you in your soul the Count Claudio hath wronged Hero?”

Beatrice: “Yea, as sure as I have a thought or a soul.”

Benedick: “Enough, I am engaged: I will challenge him; I will kiss your hand, and so I leave you. By this hand, Claudio shall render me a dear account. Go comfort your cousin; and so, farewell.”

Analysis

This is easily the most powerful scene in the entire play, as it suddenly transforms the story from comedy to tragedy. Claudio has already convicted Hero in his mind and proceeds to blow up the wedding proceedings with vile accusations, supported by Don Pedro, who also witnessed what Don John set them up to see. Hero collapses into a faint and Claudio berates Leonato before leaving the church. Beatrice is certain that her cousin has been wronged and after everyone has departed, the friar, who has quietly observed it all, agrees with Beatrice that mischief seems afoot. Benedick reflects that if there is corruption in these accusations that Don John must be at the centre of things. The friar concocts a dramatic plan to announce to the world that Hero has died of grief in order to observe the reactions of those who may have falsely condemned her. This idea will be the gateway to redemption for Hero, who must die in order to eventually resurrect, innocent and righteous. The friar conceals Hero, while Beatrice and Benedick find themselves alone. Benedick did not leave with Hero’s accusers, but finds himself transformed in the presence of Beatrice, during her grief over her cousin’s fate. They finally express their love for one another and when Benedick claims he would do anything for her she tells him to kill Claudio. He eventually agrees to challenge Claudio to account for his treachery. It seems like a whole new play after this one scene. But Shakespeare has already planted the seeds of resolution in the friar’s plan to rescue Hero and the love expressed between Benedick and Beatrice.

Act IV

Scene ii

A Prison

Enter Dogberry and Sexton in gowns, along with the watch, and Conrade and Borachio

Sexton: “Which are the offenders that are to be examined? Let them come before master constable.”

Dogberry: “Yea, marry, let them come before me. What is your name friend?”

Borachio: “Borachio.”

Dogberry: “Yours, sirrah?”

Conrade: “I am a gentleman, sir, and my name is Conrade.”

Dogberry: “Do you serve God?”

Conrade / Borachio: “Yea, sir, we hope.”

Dogberry: “Masters, it is proved already that you are little better than false knaves. How answer you for yourselves?”

Conrade: “Marry, sir, we say we are none.”

Sexton: “Master constable, you must call forth the watch who are their accusers.”

Dogberry: “Yea, marry, let the watch come forth.”

Watch: “This man said, sir, that Don John, the Prince’s brother, was a villain.”

Dogberry: “Why this is flat perjury, to call a prince’s brother villain.”

Sexton: “What heard you him say else?”

2 Watch: “Marry, that he had received a thousand ducats from Don John for accusing the Lady Hero wrongfully.”

Dogberry: “Flat burglary as was ever committed.”

Sexton: “What else, fellow?”

Watch: “That count Claudio did mean, upon his words, to disgrace Hero before the whole assembly, and not marry her.”

Sexton: “What else?”

2 Watch: “This is all.”

Sexton: “Prince John is this morning secretly stolen away; Hero was in this manner accused, in this very manner refused and upon the grief of this suddenly died. Master Constable, let these men be bound and brought to Leonato’s.”

Analysis

Much of the remainder of the play’s resolution is contained in this scene, as the constables and watch present their case to the court, condemning Conrade and Borachio and implicating Don John in the deliberate misrepresentation of Hero’s accusations.

Act V (4 scenes)

Scene i

Before Leonato’s house

Enter Leonato and Antonio, his brother

Antonio: “If you go on thus, you will kill yourself.”

Leonato: “I pray thee cease thy counsel, which falls into my ears as profitless as water into a sieve. Nor let no comforter delight my ear but such a one whose wrongs do suit with mine. Bring me a father who so loved his child, whose joy of her is overwhelmed like mine, and bid him speak of patience; measure his woe the length and breadth of mine. Bring him yet to me, and I of him will gather patience. But there is no such man. For there was never yet philosopher who could endure a toothache patiently.“

Antonio: “Yet bend not all the harm upon yourself; make those who do offend you suffer, too.”

Leonato: “There thou speaks reason; nay, I will do so. My soul doth tell me Hero is belied.”

Antonio: “Here comes the Prince and Claudio hastily.”

Enter Don Pedro and Claudio

Don Pedro: “We have some haste, Leonato.”

Leonato: “Marry, thou dost wrong me; thou dissembler, thou! Know, Claudio, to thy head, thou hast so wronged mine innocent child and me that I am forced to lay my reverence by, and with grey hairs do challenge thee to trial of a man. I say thou hast belied mine innocent child; thy slander hath gone through and through her heart, and she lies buried with her ancestors in a tomb, framed by thy villainy.”

Claudio: “My villainy!”

Leonato: “Thine, Claudio: thine, I say.”

Don Pedro: “You say not right, old man.”

Claudio: “Away! I will not have to do with you.”

Leonato: “Thou hast killed my child.”

Antonio: “God knows I loved my niece; and she is dead, slandered to death by villains.”

Don Pedro: “Gentlemen both, my heart is sorry for your daughter’s death, but, on my honours, she was charged with nothing but what was true, and very full of proof.”

Leonato: “My lord, my lord -“

Don Pedro: “I will not hear you.”

Leonato: “No? Come brother, away, I will be heard.”

Antonio: “And shall, or some of us will smart for it.”

Exit Leonato and Antonio

Enter Benedick

Benedick: “Good day, my lord.”

Don Pedro: “You are almost come to part a fray. Leonato and his brother. What think’st thou?”

Benedick: “In a false quarrel there is no true valour. I came to seek you both.”

Claudio: “We are high-proof melancholy, and would fain have it beaten away. Wilt thou use thy wit?”

Benedick: “It is in my scabbard; shall I draw it?”

Don Pedro: “I think he be angry indeed.”

Benedick: “Shall I speak a word in your ear? (aside to Claudio) You are a villain; I jest not; you have killed a sweet lady, and her death shall fall heavy on you. Let me hear from you.”

Don Pedro: “But when shall we set the savage bull’s horns on the sensible Benedick’s head?”

Claudio: “Yea, and text underneath, ‘Here dwells Benedick, the married man?'”

Benedick: “Fare you well, boy; you know my mind. I will leave you now to your gossip-like humour. I must discontinue your company. Your brother the bastard has fled from Messina. You have among you killed a sweet and innocent lady.”

Exit Benedick

Don Pedro: “He is in earnest.”

Claudio: “In most profound earnest.”

Don Pedro: “And hath challenged thee.”

Claudio: “Most sincerely.”

Don Pedro: “Did he not say my brother has fled?”

Enter Dogberry and the watch, with Conrade and Borachio

Don Pedro: “How now! Two of my brother’s men bound – Borachio one. Officers, what offence have these two men done?”

Dogberry: “Marry, sir, they have committed false report; moreover they have spoken untruths; secondarily, they are slanders; sixth and lastly, they have belied a lady; thirdly, they have verified unjust things; and to conclude they are lying knaves.”

Don Pedro: “First, I ask thee what they have done; thirdly, I ask thee what is their offence; sixth and lastly, why they are committed; and to conclude what you lay to their charge. Who have you offended, masters, that you are thus bound? What’s your offence?”

Borachio: “Sweet Prince, let me go no farther to mine answer. I have decieved even your very eyes. What your wisdoms could not discover, these shallow fools have brought to light; who, in the night, overheard me confessing to this man how Don John your brother incensed me to slander the Lady Hero; how you were brought into the orchard, and saw me court Margaret in Hero’s garments; how you disgraced her, when you should marry her. My villainy they have upon record. The lady is dead upon mine and my master’s accusation; and briefly, I desire nothing but the reward of a villain.”

Don Pedro: “But did my brother set thee on to this?”

Borachio: “Yea, and paid me richly for the practice of it.”

Don Pedro: “He is composed and framed of treachery, and fled he upon this villainy.”

Claudio: “Sweet Hero, now thy image doth appear in the rare semblance that I loved it first.”

Enter Leonato and Antonio

Borachio: “If you would know your wronger, look on me.”

Leonato: “Art thou the slave that with thy breath hast killed my innocent child?”

Borachio: “Yea, even I alone.”

Leonato: “No, not so. A third is fled, that had a hand in it.”

Claudio: “Choose your revenge yourself; impose me to what penance your invention can lay upon my sin; yet sinned I not but in mistaking.”

Don Pedro: “By my soul, nor I; and yet, to satisfy this good old man, I would bend under any heavy weight that he’ll enjoin me to.”

Leonato: “I cannot bid you bid my daughter live – that were impossible; but, I pray you both, possess the people of Messina here how innocent she died; and, hang her an epitaph upon her tomb. And since you could not be my son-in-law, be yet my nephew. My brother hath daughter, almost a copy of my child who is dead; and she alone is heir to both of us. Give her the right you should have given her cousin, and so dies my revenge.”

Claudio: “O noble sir! Your over-kindness doth wring tears from me. I do embrace your offer.”

Leonato: “Tomorrow, then, I will expect your coming.”

Analysis

This is another extremely powerful scene. Leonato is angry and inconsolable, even though he knows that his daughter is not dead. The shock of the public accusations, which may or may not be true, and her possible tarnished reputation, are enough to make him grieve uncontrollably. Not even his brother, Antonio, can alleviate his suffering. And then who arrives on the scene but Claudio and Don Pedro. Leonato forcefully accuses Claudio of lying about Hero and causing her death. He challenges Claudio to a duel before departing, just as Benedick arrives to do the same, declaring Claudio a villain. Before he leaves, Benedick also informs Claudio and Don Pedro that Don John has suddenly fled Messina. They are naturally shocked and confused by this news, and then the next great turning point in the play occurs when Dogberry arrives with Borachio and Conrade in custody and declares that the two villains have committed the false report about Hero, having been paid handsomely by Don John to do so. Claudio immediately realizes that the apparently dead Hero has been innocent all along. He and Don Pedro tell Leonato to choose a terrible punishment for them. Leonato tells Claudio that he must declare Hero’s innocence to the people of Messina, hang an epitaph on her tomb, and marry his brother Antonio’s daughter, their sole remaining heir. Claudio agrees wholeheartedly. Of course we realize that Hero is alive and Leonato is going to present her once again to Claudio, who believes she is dead, and truly expects to marry Antonio’s daughter. A very busy scene indeed.

Act V

Scene ii

Leonato’s orchard

Enter Benedick

Benedick: “Marry, I cannot show it in rhyme; I have tried; I cannot find no rhyme to ‘lady’ but ‘baby’ – for ‘scorn’ ‘horn’ – for ‘school’ ‘fool’ – a babbling rhyme; very ominous endings. No, I was not born under a rhyming planet, nor can I woo in festival terms.”

Enter Beatrice

Benedick: “Sweet Beatrice, wouldst thou come when I call’d thee?”

Beatrice: “Yea, signior, and depart when you bid me.”

Benedick: “O, stay but till then.”

Beatrice: “And yet, ere I go, let me go with what I came, which is with knowing what hath passed between you and Claudio.”

Benedick: “Only foul words; and thereupon I will kiss thee.”

Beatrice: “Foul words is but foul wind, and foul wind is but foul breath and foul breath is noisome; therefore I will depart unkissed.”

Benedick: “I must tell thee plainly, Claudio undergoes my challenge; and either I must shortly hear from him, or I will subscribe him a coward. And, I pray thee now, tell me for which of my bad parts didst thou first fall in love with me?”

Beatrice: “For them all together; which maintained so politic a state of evil that they will not admit any good part to intermingle with them. But for which of my good parts did you first suffer love for me?”

Benedick: “Suffer love – a good epithet! For I love thee against my will.”

Beatrice: “In spite of your heart, I think; alas, poor heart! If you spite it for my sake, I will spite it for yours; for I will never love that which my friend hates.”

Benedick: “Thou and I are too wise to woo peaceably.”

Beatrice: “It appears not in this confession: there’s not one wise man among twenty who will praise himself.”

Benedick: “So much for praising myself, who, I myself will bear witness, is praiseworthy. And now tell me, how doth your cousin?”

Beatrice: “Very ill.”

Benedick: “And how do you?”

Beatrice: “Very ill too.”

Benedick: “Here comes one in haste.”

Enter Ursula

Ursula: “Madam, you must come to your uncle. It is proved my lady Hero hath been falsely accused, the Prince and Claudio mightily abused; and Don John is the author of all, who is fled and gone. Will you come presently?”

Beatrice: “Will you go hear this news, signior?”

Benedick: “I will live in thy heart, die in thy lap and be buried in thy eyes; and, more over, I will go with thee to thy uncle’s.”

Analysis

Closer and closer we get to the play’s complete resolution of Don John’s villainy. Benedick and Beatrice are in love and he has redeemed himself by his challenge of Claudio’s honour. They humorously and sweetly venture into their own romantic relationship in this scene. And then they both become suddenly aware of Hero’s vindication. This is starting to appear once again like the light comedy it is!

Act V

Scene iii

A churchyard

Enter Don Pedro, Claudio and a lord

Claudio: “Is this the monument of Leonato?”

Lord: ” It is, my lord.”

Claudio: (reading from a scroll) “‘Epitaph. Done to death by slanderous tongues was the Hero who here lies. This life that died with shame lives in death with glorious fame.’ Now, unto thy bones good night. Yearly will I do this rite.”

Don Pedro: “Come, let us hence. To Leonato’s we will go.”

Anaylsis

Having fulfilled this part of his promise to Leonato, to place an epitaph on his family tomb, Claudio proceeds to Leonato’s to marry (he thinks) Antonio’s daughter. There remains but one scene and one major revelation, and we know what it is.

Act V

Scene iv

Leonato’s house

Enter Leonato, Antonio, Benedick, Beatrice, Margaret, Ursula, Friar Francis and Hero

Friar: “Did I not tell you she was innocent?”

Leonato: “So are the Prince and Claudio, who accused her upon the error that you heard debated.”

Antonio: “Well, I am glad that all things sort so well.”

Benedick: “And so am I, being else by faith enforced to call young Claudio to a reckoning for it.”

Leonato: “Well, daughter, and you gentlewomen all, withdraw into a chamber by yourselves; and when I send for you, come hither masked. The Prince and Claudio promised by this hour to visit me. You know your office, brother: you must be father to your brother’s daughter, and give her to young Claudio.”

Exit the women

Benedick: “Friar, I must entreat your pains, I think.”

Friar: “To do what, signior?”

Benedick: “To bind me, or undo me – one of them. Signior Leonato, truth it is, your niece regards me with an eye of favour.”

Leonato: “That eye my daughter lent her. ‘Tis most true.”

Benedick: “And I do with an eye of love requite her.”

Leonato: “But what’s your will?”

Benedick: “But, for my will, my will is your good will, this day to be conjoined in the state of honourable marriage; in which, good friar, I shall desire your help.”

Leonato: “My heart is with your liking.”

Friar: “And my help. Here come the Prince and Claudio.”

Enter Don Pedro and Claudio

Don Pedro: “Good morrow.”

Leonato: “Good morrow, Prince; good morrow, Claudio; we here attend you. Are you yet determined today to marry with my brother’s daughter?”

Claudio: ” I’ll hold my mind.”

Leonato: “Call her forth, brother, here’s the friar ready.”

Exit Antonio

Don Pedro: “Good morrow, Benedick. Why, what’s the matter that you have such a February face, so full of frost, of storm and cloudiness?”

Re-enter Antonio with the ladies masked

Claudio: “Which is the lady I must seize upon?”

Antonio: “This same is she, and I do give you her.”

Claudio: “Why, then she’s mine. Sweet, let me see your face.”

Leonato: “No, not till you take her hand before this friar, and swear to marry her.”

Claudio: “Give me your hand; before this holy friar I am your husband, if you like of me.”

Hero: “And when I lived I was your other wife. (unmasking) And when you loved you were my other husband.”

Claudio: “Another Hero!”

Hero: “Nothing more certain. One Hero died defiled; but I do live, and, surely as I live, I am a maid.”

Don Pedro: “The former Hero! Hero that is dead!”

Leonato: “She died, my lord, but while her slander lived.”

Friar: “All this amazement can I qualify, when, after that the holy rites are ended, I’ll tell you largely of fair Hero’s death. Meantime let wonder seem familiar, and to the chapel let us presently.”

Benedick: “Which is Beatrice?”

Beatrice: “I answer to that name. (unmasking). What is your will?”

Benedick: “Do not you love me?”

Beatrice: “Why no, no more than reason.”

Benedick: “Why, then your uncle, and the Prince, and Claudio have been deceived; they swore you did.”

Beatrice: “Do not you love me?”

Benedick: “Troth no; no more than reason.”

Beatrice: “Why, then my cousin, Margaret, and Ursula are much deceived, for they did swear you did.”

Benedick: “They swore that you were almost sick for me.”

Beatrice: “They swore that you were well-nigh dead for me.”

Benedick: “‘Tis no such matter. Then you did not love me?”

Beatrice: “No, truly, but in friendly recompense.”

Leonato: “Come, cousin, I am sure you love the gentleman.”

Claudio: “And I’ll be sworn upon it that he loves her; for here’s a paper written in his hand, a halting sonnet of his own pure brain, fashioned to Beatrice.”

Hero: “And here’s another, written in my cousin’s hand, stolen from her pocket, containing her action unto Benedick.”

Benedick: “A miracle! Here’s our own hands against our hearts. Come, I will have thee, but, by this light, I take thee for pity.”

Beatrice: “I would not deny you; I yield upon great persuasion.”

Benedick: “Peace; I will stop your mouth.” (kissing her)

Don Pedro: “How dost thou, Benedick the married man?”

Benedick: “I’ll tell thee what, Prince: a college of wit crackers cannot flout me out of my humour. In brief, since I do purpose to marry, I will think nothing to any purpose that the world can say against it; and therefore never flout at me for what I have said against it; for man is a giddy, and this is my conclusion. For thy part, Claudio, I did think to have beaten thee; but in that thou art like to be my kinsman, live unbruised, and love my cousin. Come, come, we are friends. Let’s have a dance ere we are married, that we may lighten our own hearts and our wives’ heels. First, play music.”

Enter a messenger

Messenger: “My lord, your brother John is taken in flight, and brought with armed men back to Messina.”

Benedick: “Think not on him till tomorrow. I’ll device thee brave punishments for him. Strike up, pipers.”

Analysis

The play ends as we would expect, with two marriages and the restoration of all of the principal relationships at court other than Don John, who will suffer the consequences for the trouble he caused. Margaret has been determined innocent. She was unawares of Don John’s plot. Benedick and Claudio are now kinsmen and once again friends. Claudio is delighted when Antonio’s daughter he has agreed to marry turn out to be his Hero, seemingly resurrected from the dead. As Leonato tells him, ‘she died, my lord, but while her slander lived.’ Hero takes him back, as he was also a victim of Don John’s scheming. Benedick and Beatrice publicly deny their love to one another and decide that they are merely friends, until their friends step up and produce love poems they have secured from each of them. They readily admit their love and agree to marry, as Benedick prevents Beatrice from further protest by kissing her. This is one of Shakespeare’s finest act 5 resolution scenes, requiring him to apparently bring Hero back from the dead to achieve the required happy ending.

Final Thoughts

Much Ado About Nothing is a light comedy that creates considerable confusion for Shakespeare to resolve. Claudio hardly knows Hero, making it relatively easy for the villainous Don John to make him question her innocence when he makes her appear to be sexually involved with another man. Beatrice and Benedick, on the other hand, know each other all too well, and delight in their combative scenes of wit. It is almost as though their love is inevitable, once they have had enough of their mutually satisfying banter, which is a centrepiece of the play. Beatrice is essentially matchless, but if she will ever marry, it simply must be to Benedick, the witty confirmed bachelor. The complete 1993 film starring Emma Thompson as Beatrice and Kenneth Branagh as Benedick is excellent and available on youtube, as are several other film and theatrical productions and an abundance of shorter clips and analysis.