Much Ado About Nothing

Don Pedro, Claudio, Benedick, and Leonato appear, discussing their plans. Don Pedro intends to leave town after Claudio is married, leaving Claudio behind to enjoy his honeymoon and taking only Benedick with him—since he knows, the prince declares, that Benedick is immune to love. Benedick, on the verge of confessing his love for Beatrice, says that he has changed a lot lately. His friends immediately begin to tease him, observing jokingly that he looks less ugly and unkempt lately, which must mean he is in love.

Not wanting his friends to be mock him even more, Benedick pulls Leonato aside for a private chat. Separately, Claudio and Don Pedro quietly rejoice over how perfectly their plan to trick Benedick into loving Beatrice has worked.

Don John interrupts the with terrible news: Hero, he declares, has been cheating on Claudio with every man in town. Don John tells Claudio to come and spy on her bedroom window with him that evening to see proof. Claudio, appalled, agrees, and says that if Hero is indeed cheating on him, he will publicly shame her on their wedding day.

Dogberry, chief of the local watch (a small-scale police force), and his second-in-command, Verges, review their troops. A foolish, pompous man, Dogberry often chooses the wrong words for what he means to say (a use of language called malapropism), and the resulting twisted logic of his speeches has absurd consequences.

In a passage laden with ridiculous wordplay, Dogberry tries to counsel his equally idiotic watchmen to do what watchmen do: arrest criminals. However, in giving his advice, he accidentally suggests that the watchmen do a number of counterintuitive things: take naps, since if they are asleep, they won’t be unprofessionally rowdy; let drunks who resist arrest go home and sober up, to see if they will be more reasonable about being arrested later; allow thieves to go free so as not to get involved with criminals; and not arrest anyone who doesn’t agree to be arrested, as it is the watch’s job to prevent offenses, and people get offended when you arrest them.

Dogberry also tells the watch to keep an eye on Leonato’s house, where preparations are underway for Claudio and Hero’s wedding, because in all the bustle, there is rich opportunity for crime.

Dogberry and Verges depart to begin their rounds, and Don John’s henchmen Borachio and Conrade appear. Not seeing the watchmen, Borachio brags to Conrade about the success of Don John’s plan: Borachio made out with Margaret in Hero’s window, and Claudio mistook Margaret for Hero. In this way, Don John persuaded Claudio that his fiancée had been unfaithful to him. Claudio now plans to publicly humiliate Hero.

The remaining watchmen overhear this story, spring out of hiding, and arrest the two schemers.

Ursula and Margaret help Hero get ready for her wedding, fussing over her fancy clothes. When Beatrice arrives, the women exchange a volley of dirty puns, culminating in a remark about an herb, the benedictus. Beatrice correctly perceives a barbed joke in the reference, linking her to Benedick. “Benedictus? Why benedictus?” she asks (3.4.22). Margaret dodges the question but teasingly announces she has heard that Benedick has recently changed his tune about marriage, and no longer declares he will never marry.

Dogberry and Verges accost Leonato as he bustles by getting ready for the wedding. Unable to say a sentence straightforwardly, Dogberry takes many lines to tell Leonato that the watch has apprehended two criminals. Dogberry asks Leonato to come interrogate them. Annoyed, Leonato tells Dogberry and Verges to do the interrogating themselves, as he has a wedding to attend.

Puffed up with the importance of their task, Dogberry and Verges rush off to find the single literate member of the watch, Francis Seacole, who will take notes while they “examination these men” (3.5.56).

Everyone assembles to celebrate Hero and Claudio’s wedding. However, midway through the ceremony, Claudio carries out his cruel revenge for Hero’s supposed infidelity. In the crudest terms, he publicly accuses her of cheating on him: “She knows,” he says, “the heat of a luxurious bed” (4.1.40). Bewildered, Leonato asks if Claudio means that Claudio has already slept with Hero. Claudio says no, and explains what he believes he saw at Hero’s bedroom window: Hero embracing Borachio. Don Pedro backs up Claudio’s story, saying that he saw the same thing. Overcome, Hero vehemently denies these accusations, then passes out from shock.

While Beatrice tries desperately to revive her cousin, Leonato wishes that Hero would go ahead and die: if these reports are true, he says, she has brought permanent shame on his house.

Beatrice cannot believe the accusations are true, and neither can the old friar who was supposed to marry the young couple. He has seen a lot in his time, he says, and Hero’s reaction makes him believe that she is innocent.

Benedick, who knows Claudio and Don Pedro well, voices a theory: that the scheming Don John has tricked those two honest men. Leonato replies that if this theory is true, he will never speak to them again; if, on the other hand, Hero is lying, he says he will tear her apart.

The friar advises patience, and tells Leonato to behave as if Hero has died, then watch to see how Claudio reacts. If, as the friar and Benedick suspect, Claudio has been misled, his grief will lead him to reexamine his evidence and his accusations. Everyone agrees to this plan and Leonato, Hero, and the friar depart.

Only Beatrice and Benedick are left of the wedding party. Benedick tries to console Beatrice, who weeps helplessly, and the two end up declaring their love to each other. “I do love nothing in the world so well as you,” Benedick says to Beatrice; “is not that strange?” (4.1.267-68) Beatrice teases him a little longer, then admits, “I love you with so much of my heart that none is left to protest” (4.1.285-86).

Benedick tells Beatrice to ask him for anything as a love token, but her request is one he cannot face: “Kill Claudio,” she demands (4.1.288). Benedick refuses at first. Beatrice rages that his love is meaningless if he will not act on it to do this one thing that she, as a woman, cannot do. At last, Benedick listens to her and declares that if Beatrice truly believes Claudio has wronged Hero, Benedick will challenge his old friend to a duel over Hero’s honor.

In a comically convoluted scene, Dogberry and Verges attempt to interrogate Borachio and Conrade, taking copious notes on what they say, and thus end up recording the two villains’ claims that they are honest men, and that Dogberry and Verges are knaves. At last, the watchmen who arrested the schemers manage to communicate what they overheard, and Dogberry rushes off to deliver this news to Leonato’s household. Before he leaves, though, he insists that the note-taker record Conrade’s insults: “Masters, remember that I am an ass” (4.2.74).

Following the friar’s plan, Leonato, accompanied by his brother Antonio, tells Claudio that Hero is dead and challenges Claudio to a duel for slandering her. Don Pedro tries to defuse the conflict, telling Leonato that he is sorry Hero has died, but that he himself can confirm that she cheated on Claudio, because he saw it with his own eyes.

Leonato storms away, vowing revenge. Benedick appears, and Claudio and Don Pedro try to joke with him, but he will have none of it: Benedick pulls Claudio aside to tell him, “You are a villain,” and to challenge him to a duel (5.1.143). Claudio does not seem impressed or alarmed by the challenge; he and Don Pedro go back to teasing Benedick about when he and Beatrice plan to marry. In disgust, Benedick tells Don Pedro he is leaving his army, and exits. The prince and Claudio discuss Benedick’s behavior and agree that Beatrice must have put him up to challenging Claudio.

Just then, Dogberry enters with his captives, Borachio and Conrade, in tow. In his usual convoluted style, he tells Claudio and Don Pedro the story of Don John’s deceit. Borachio confirms the truth of the tale in clearer language, and Claudio and Don Pedro are horrified when they realize how wrong they were about Hero. Leonato and Antonio return: They, too, have heard the news, from one of Dogberry’s deputies. Claudio and Don Pedro crumple before them in shame and anguish, and vow to accept any punishment Leonato cares to mete out.

Leonato suggests a peculiar penance: Claudio must come to Hero’s tomb that evening, and write mournful poetry for her epitaph. The next morning he must meet a cousin of hers who looks eerily like her, and marry that cousin. Claudio gratefully accepts this lenient offer.

Don Pedro vows to punish Margaret for her part in the scheme, but Borachio stops him, telling the prince that Margaret had no idea of the role she played in the trick: She thought she was simply kissing Borachio as they often did.

The noblemen thank Dogberry for his efforts, Dogberry reminds them never to forget that he is an ass, and everybody departs.

Benedick tries to write Beatrice a sonnet, but is not able to come up with good rhymes. Margaret appears and the two exchange a few dirty jokes before Margaret goes to fetch Beatrice for him.

When Beatrice arrives, she only wants to know one thing: has Benedick challenged Claudio? He assures her that he has. She is not interested in thanking him with a kiss until she has seen the result of the duel.

Still, the two adopt a flirtatious manner, exchanging another volley of wordplay. Benedick assures Beatrice that suffers with love over her because, as he says, “I love thee against my will” (5.2.64). Beatrice retorts that, since his heart is working against him, she will consider herself that heart’s enemy: “for I will never love that which my friend hates” (5.2.67).

Ursula arrives and shares the news of Don John’s scheme and Claudio’s false accusation. She summons them to meet with Leonato. Beatrice and Benedick go together to see Hero’s name cleared.

Claudio and Don Pedro go to pay their respects at Hero’s tomb. Claudio reads the poem he wrote, which concludes: “So the life that died with same / Lives in death with glorious fame” (5.3.7-8). After mournful music is played, Claudio swears to perform a similar ceremony every year, and he and Don Pedro depart. The sun is rising, and they hope that Claudio’s imminent marriage will heal the wounds of the recent past.

Everyone assembles for Claudio’s marriage to the cousin of Hero’s who supposedly looks exactly like her. Before Claudio arrives, Leonato sends Hero and her ladies off, telling them to disguise themselves behind masks.

While the ladies get ready, Benedick asks Leonato for a favor: He confesses that he has fallen in love with Beatrice, and asks if they can be married while the friar is present for Claudio and Hero’s ceremony. Leonato teases Benedick, hinting that Leonato and Claudio are responsible for Benedick’s imminent wedding, but the joke flies over Benedick’s head.

Claudio and Don Pedro arrive. They, too, tease Benedick, saying that he looks just like a man who is about to get married—that is, as grim as a winter storm.

The masked women arrive, and the disguised Hero insists that Claudio agree to marry her without seeing her face. Once he has consented, she takes off her mask and reveals that she is still alive. Reunited as a couple, they embrace.

Finally, it is Beatrice and Benedick’s turn. At first they spar as usual, claiming to love each other “no more than reason” (5.4.73). Claudio proves that they are understating their affection by producing Benedick’s half-finished (and badly rhymed) love sonnet to Beatrice. Hero waves a similar sonnet that she poached from Beatrice’s pocket: Both of the outwardly unromantic lovers have been trying (and failing) to write the other a poem. Forced to publicly own up to their feelings, Beatrice and Benedick are married.

The play ends with a jolly dance (though Benedick notes that Don Pedro stands apart, looking “sad”), and with a plan to punish Don John after the celebrations. Benedick begs his friends not to tease him for going back on his word that he would never marry: “man is a giddy thing,” he says in his own defense, “and this is my conclusion” (5.4.106-07).