Much Ado About Nothing Act 3 “…then loving goes by haps, some Cupid kills with arrows, some with traps..”

Much Ado About Nothing Act 3  “…then loving goes by haps,

some Cupid kills with arrows, some with traps..”

Shakespeare likes multiple plots and having events within one plot balanced by another event. Just as in Act 2, when Don Pedro and Claudio make sure that Benedick overhears a conversation about Beatrice loving him, Act 3 starts with Beatrice overhearing Hero tell Ursula that she has been told by Claudio and Don Pedro that Benedick is hopelessly in love with Beatrice. When Ursula says that Hero should tell Beatrice, Hero states that Beatrice would mock Benedick and this would break his heart. They end the conversation by praising Benedick’s looks and intellect.

Hero and Ursula exit and Beatrice staggers out, in disbelief at what she has heard and the fact that others would regard her so full of pride and scorn. Beatrice, like Benedick decides that she must take pity on Benedick:

“What fire is in mine ears? Can this be true?

Stand I condemn'd for pride and scorn so much?

Contempt, farewell! and maiden pride, adieu!

No glory lives behind the back of such.

And, Benedick, love on; I will requite 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.”

We switch back to Don Pedro, Claudio, and Leonato who are teasing Benedick about his previous vow to never marry. Benedick rises to the bait and declares that he has changed his opinions and they then tease him with the belief that he is in love. Benedick, for the second time in the play, is lost for words and takes Leonato aside to converse on some matter. Enter Don John.

Don John approaches Don Pedro and Claudio and claims that he wants to save Don Pedro’s reputation and protect Claudio from a huge marital mistake by telling them that Hero is not a virtuous woman and she is not virtuous and is seeing other men besides Claudio. Don John offers to show them proof by taking them to below Hero’s window to see how unfaithful she is to Claudio by catching her with another man in her own bedroom. In fact we know that they will in fact be seeing Borachio call Margaret, Hero’s chambermaid, “Hero” in their loveplay at the window of Hero’s bedchamber while Hero is away. Don Pedro is suspicious of Don John’s ‘honest’ account. but agrees to go along. Don John has, however, feed into Claudio’s insecurities and Claudio wants to see if this is true, and claims that if it is confirmed, that he will publicly disgrace Hero at her own wedding.

By this time in his career, Shakespeare has learnt how to use comedy for poignant dramatic and narrative purposes and to have seemingly discordant scenes and characters crucially link into the progression of his plays. So we switch to a street in the town near Leonato’s house where Dogberry and The Watch are overzealously and pedantically going over their duties. We see that even a simple task like having people stand when Don Pedro passes is beyond their capabilities. In short, it seems the only misdemeanor or crime that Dogberry is insistent on them enforcing is preventing the townspeople from stealing their spears. Their final orders include keeping their eyes out for trouble because of the wedding the next day. Dogberry departs with Verges.

The remaining watchmen are alert enough only to the call of sleep when they overhear Borachio and Conrad (Don John’s co-conspirators) taking about the while of Do John and Borachio’s evil exploits. They overhear that Borachio ravished Margaret, Hero’s chambermaid at hero’s window and that this was seen by Claudio who now thinks that Hero lacks virtue. They arrest Borachio and Conrad for “lechery” even though we know they mean “treachery”.

We then advance to the morning of Hero and Claudio’s wedding, Hero is excited but has a strange unease that something will go terribly wrong – a subtle foreshadowing of the events of the morning still to come. They discuss the wedding and even Beatrice now seems to be in high spirits and positive about the coming wedding. Claudio arrives with everyone else for the wedding to commence.

At the busiest moment, when Leonato is about to enter the church, Dogberry and Verges sidle up to Leonato and try to talk to him about two important criminals that they caught that night that they want Leonato to interrogate. If Leonato had interrogated these captives there and then we would not have a five act drama and a meandering plot that also will bring Beatrice and Benedick into one another’s arms. But Leonato is busy with the wedding and Dogberry and Verges convoluted explanations mean that he passes on the interrogation task to them believing this to be a trivial matter that doesn’t affect him. How wrong this decision will prove.