Much Ado About Nothing

Leonato talks with his brother Antonio, who delivers confused and incorrect information: He has heard through the grapevine about Don Pedro’s plan to woo Hero, but mistakenly believes that Don Pedro plans to ask for Hero’s hand himself, rather than on Claudio’s behalf. Leonato, trying not to get too excited about the prospect of marrying his daughter to a prince, nonetheless says he will warn her that she might receive an impressive proposal.

Don Pedro’s brother, Don John, is in a bad mood. His companion, Conrade, asks him why he is upset, and Don John says that he can’t help showing his gloomy outlook: “I cannot hide what I am” (1.3.11).

Conrade warns him to be cautious: Don John has in the past betrayed or fought with Don Pedro, and Don Pedro has only recently started to trust him again. If Don John knows what is good for him, Conrade insists, he will try to stay in Don Pedro’s good graces. Don John rejects this idea, saying he would rather be the “plain-dealing villain” he feels he truly is than get along by faking goodwill and affection (1.3.28).

At this moment, Don John’s companion Borachio turns up. Like Antonio, he has gotten wind of Don Pedro’s plan, but Borachio has his facts right and understands that Don Pedro is courting Hero for Claudio, not for himself. Don John believes Claudio steals the glory Don John himself deserves, and therefore hates Claudio almost as much as he hates his brother. Don John sees the prince’s plan as the perfect opportunity to make spiteful mischief; Conrade and Borachio swear to assist him in whatever scheme he cooks up.

As the household prepares for the evening’s masked ball, Leonato, Antonio, Beatrice, and Hero chat about Don John, whom they observe is taciturn and sour. Beatrice notes that you could make the perfect man by combining Don John and Benedick: that way, he would talk neither too little nor too much. Leonato and Antonio tease Beatrice about her sharp tongue, and Beatrice tells them that it is a blessing, because it keeps her from having to marry anyone, and her reward for dying unwed will be to party with all the bachelors in Heaven.

Leonato reminds Hero that if Don Pedro asks for her hand in marriage, she must say yes. Before they can talk for long about these plans, masked revelers appear. Don Pedro asks Hero for a dance. A singer named Balthasar dances off with Hero’s lady-in-waiting, Margaret. And Benedick, masked, whisks Beatrice away.

Beatrice seems to know that Benedick is behind the mask, and mocks him to his face, calling Benedick “the prince’s jester, a very dull fool”—and telling her masked partner that, the next time he sees Benedick, he can tell him she said as much (2.1.131).

Don John begins making mischief. He pulls Claudio aside, pretending to think he is Benedick, and tells him that Don Pedro intends to ask Hero for her hand in marriage himself.

Claudio rages until Benedick finds him and tells him that Don Pedro’s mission has been a success. Still confused, Claudio is sullen and angry, and runs away just as Don Pedro appears. Benedick explains that Claudio has misunderstood the situation, but he mostly wants to complain about Beatrice’s insults, and insists again that he would not marry her if she were the last woman on earth.

Beatrice reappears with Hero, Claudio, and Leonato in tow. Benedick runs away so he won’t have to speak to her. Don Pedro teases her about having “lost the heart of Signor Benedick” (2.1.261), and Beatrice replies with a veiled story about their past relationship. Once upon a time, she says, they did indeed lose their hearts to each other, as if in a game of chance—but Benedick won her heart with “false dice” (2.1.265).

Changing the subject quickly, Beatrice succeeds in persuading Claudio to stand still and hear the real story: that Don Pedro successfully wooed Hero on his behalf, and that Leonato has given Hero and Claudio permission to marry. Overjoyed and relieved, Claudio and Hero embrace.

Caught up in the spirit of the match, Don Pedro offers Beatrice his own hand in marriage—maybe seriously, maybe jokingly. Beatrice decides to take it as a joke and refuses him, saying he would be too fancy a husband for her to “wear” every day. With that, she departs.

Don Pedro, Leonato, Claudio, and Hero talk about Beatrice after she leaves, discussing her happy temperament and her past dalliance with Benedick. Feeling that it’s a shame she should remain unmarried, they cook up a scheme: in the mere week before Claudio and Hero’s wedding, they will not only reconcile Beatrice and Benedick but trick them into falling in love with each other.

Don John has heard that Claudio’s marriage to Hero will happen despite his attempt to stoop it, and he is very displeased. His conspirator Borachio has an idea about how Don John can ruin everyone’s happiness: Borachio has been seeing Hero’s lady-in-waiting, Margaret, and will persuade her to meet him one night in Hero’s bedroom and make out with him in full view of the window. Don John can then lead Claudio to this scene and persuade him that the woman he sees is Hero, cheating on him. Borachio even suggests that he should have Margaret call him “Claudio,” as if Hero were mocking her fiancé even while cheating on him.) Don John likes the sound of this plan and offers to pay Borachio handsomely for his part in this scheme.

Benedick wanders in the garden and monologues to himself about how annoyed he is with the lovestruck Claudio. Love makes people into babbling idiots, he says, and he himself will never be such an idiot. Only a woman who unites every possible good quality, he declares, could ever tempt him (though he admits he isn’t picky about his ideal woman’s hair color).

Just as Benedick concludes these observations, Claudio appears in the company of Don Pedro and Leonato. Not wanting to chat with the lovelorn Claudio, Benedick hides, not realizing that all his friends know he is there, and that he is playing right into their hands.

As Benedick lurks nearby, the three friends listen to Balthasar sing a pretty song that describes men as untrustworthy and implores women not to take their infidelities to heart. Benedick isn’t any more impressed by the music than he is by Claudio’s talk about love: “Is it not strange,” he reflects, thinking of the animal intestines used to make stringed instruments, “that sheep’s guts should hale souls out of men’s bodies?” (2.3.57-58).

Benedick grows substantially more interested when his friends begin to have a loud conversation about how Beatrice is deeply in love with him. Though she is too proud to ever admit it, they bellow, she is in torment every day over her passion for Benedick, writing desperate love letters and then tearing them to shreds. They declare her situation a shame, saying that she is a very worthy lady, and that Benedick should take a good look at himself to see if he deserves her love.

Having set a trap for Benedick with their invented conversation, the three friends depart, congratulating themselves on the success of their plan. They are ready to prepare Hero to lay a similar trap for Beatrice.

Benedick stumbles out of his hiding place, gobsmacked, already vowing to requite Beatrice’s love. Thinking aloud in wonder, he takes back everything he said at the beginning of his walk: “When I said I would die a bachelor, I did not think I should live till I were married” (2.3.230-31).

At just that moment, Beatrice appears grudgingly to summon him to dinner. Convinced by his friends’ ruse that she secretly adores him, Benedick interprets her rudeness as a sign of love and rushes off to find a picture of her that he can carry with him everywhere.