Scene Profile – At a Glance
- Location: A room in Leonato’s house, the day before the wedding.
- What Happens: The prince and Claudio tease Benedick, who has shaved, perfumed himself and gone quiet, about being in love; he takes Leonato aside to ask for Beatrice. Then Don John tells the prince and Claudio that Hero is disloyal and offers to show them her window entered that night.
- Key Characters: Don Pedro, Claudio, Benedick, Leonato, Don John.
- Dramatic Function: The hinge between the two plots: the benign trick is seen to have worked on Benedick in the first half, and the malicious one is set in motion in the second, with the same two men laughing at the first and believing the second.
- Famous Quote:
"I will not think it."
(Don Pedro, Act 3, Scene 2) - Why It Matters: The scene shows how little it takes. Claudio needs one sentence from a man he knows hates him, and a promise of something to see, and he vows to shame Hero in church before he has seen anything.
Scene Summary
Don Pedro tells Claudio that he will stay only until the wedding is consummated and then leave for Aragon, and that he will take only Benedick for company, since Benedick is all mirth from head to foot, has cut Cupid’s bowstring twice or thrice, and has a heart as sound as a bell with his tongue for the clapper. Benedick answers that he is not as he has been. Leonato thinks he is sadder; Claudio hopes he is in love; the prince says there is no true drop of blood in him to be touched with love, and if he is sad he wants money. Benedick says he has the toothache, and the three of them make the most of it: draw it, hang it, hang it first and draw it afterwards, a humour or a worm. Everyone can master a grief, Benedick says, but he that has it.
Claudio insists that Benedick is in love, and the prince, pretending to disagree, lists the evidence of his fancy for strange disguises, a Dutchman today, a Frenchman tomorrow, a German below and a Spaniard above. Claudio adds the old signs: he brushes his hat of mornings, the barber’s man has been seen with him and his beard has gone to stuff tennis balls, he rubs himself with civet, he washes his face, he paints himself, and his jesting spirit has crept into a lute-string and is governed by stops. The prince concludes that he is in love, and Claudio says he knows who loves him, a woman who knows all his ill conditions and dies for him anyway; the prince says she shall be buried with her face upwards. Benedick, declaring that none of this is a charm for the toothache, takes Leonato aside to speak eight or nine wise words that these hobby-horses must not hear, and the prince and Claudio agree that he means to ask for Beatrice, and that Hero and Margaret must by now have played their parts with her, so the two bears will not bite when they meet.
Don John enters, greets his brother, and asks to speak with him, adding that Claudio may hear since it concerns him. Does Claudio mean to be married tomorrow? The prince says he does; Don John says he knows not that, when Claudio knows what he knows. Claudio asks him to discover any impediment. Don John says that Claudio may think he does not love him, but should judge him by what he is about to reveal: the prince has helped to make this marriage, and the suit is ill spent, because the lady is disloyal. Who, Hero, Claudio asks; even she, the prince says, Leonato’s Hero, your Hero, every man’s Hero. Disloyal is too good a word, Don John says; let Claudio think of a worse, and he will fit her to it. He offers proof: come with him tonight and see her chamber window entered, the night before her wedding, and then marry her tomorrow if he still loves her, though it would better fit his honour to change his mind. Claudio asks whether it can be so; the prince will not think it. Don John tells them that if they dare not trust what they see they should not confess what they know, and that when they have seen and heard more they may proceed accordingly. Claudio swears that if he sees anything tonight he will shame her tomorrow in the congregation where he should have wed her, and the prince swears that, as he wooed to obtain her, he will join to disgrace her. Don John tells them to bear it coldly till midnight. The prince laments the day, Claudio the mischief, and Don John, alone in his meaning, the plague right well prevented.
I Am Not As I Have Been
The scene opens with the prince describing the Benedick of Act 1, the man who cut Cupid’s bowstring and whose tongue is the clapper of his heart, and the real Benedick answering in six words that the description is out of date.
Original
BENEDICK: Gallants, I am not as I have been.
LEONATO: So say I; methinks you are sadder.
(Act 3, Scene 2)
Shakespeare Retold (Modern Verse)
BENEDICK: Gentlemen, I’m not like how I used to be.
LEONATO: I agree; I think you’re sadder than you were.
It is the first time the audience has seen Benedick since the orchard, and the change is visible before he speaks: shaved, perfumed, quiet, and the three men who gulled him take turns pretending not to know why. The toothache is his cover and they pull it apart in four lines, draw it, hang it, a humour or a worm, and his reply, that everyone can master a grief but he that has it, is the one true sentence he manages. The theme of love and romance is being shown in its symptoms, and the symptoms are the old signs Claudio lists: the hat brushed, the beard gone to stuff tennis balls, the civet, the washed face. The comedy depends on the audience knowing that the diagnosis is correct and that the doctors caused it. When Benedick takes Leonato aside to speak eight or nine wise words that these hobby-horses must not hear, the prince guesses at once what the words are, and he is right. The bowstring has been cut the other way.
The Old Ornament of His Cheek
The inventory of Benedick’s symptoms is the scene’s set piece, and it is conducted as a mock trial, with evidence offered, weighed and found conclusive by men who planted it.
Original
If he be not in love with some woman, there is no believing old signs: a' brushes his hat o' mornings; what should that bode?
(Claudio, Act 3, Scene 2)
Shakespeare Retold (Modern Verse)
If he is not in love with some woman, then we cannot believe the old signs of love: he brushes his hat each morning; what does that imply?
Claudio brushes the hat, the prince produces the barber, Claudio the civet, the prince the melancholy, which he calls the greatest note of it. The exchange is a parody of noting, the play’s governing activity, and it is noting done for sport: every sign is real, every inference is correct, and the whole proceeding is a joke at the expense of a man who cannot answer it without admitting the thing. The theme of wit and communication is at its most relaxed here, three friends amusing themselves, and the relaxation is the trap the scene is setting. Within fifty lines the same two men will be offered a sign by Don John and will read it the same way, with the same confidence, and nobody will be laughing. The prince’s joke about the woman who dies for Benedick and will be buried face upwards is the last bawdy line before the scene turns, and the turn is Don John’s good den.
The Lady Is Disloyal
Don John’s approach is a lesson in how to be believed by men who distrust you: admit the distrust, claim to be acting against your own interest, and promise something to see.
Original
DON JOHN: You may think I love you not: let that appear
hereafter, and aim better at me by that I now will
manifest. For my brother, I think he holds you
well, and in dearness of heart hath holp to effect
your ensuing marriage; – surely suit ill spent and
labour ill bestowed.
DON PEDRO: Why, what's the matter?
DON JOHN: I came hither to tell you; and, circumstances
shortened, for she has been too long a talking of,
the lady is disloyal.
(Act 3, Scene 2)
Shakespeare Retold (Modern Verse)
DON JOHN: You might think that I don’t like you: hold that thought
a while, and judge me after I have told you what I’ll now
tell you. For my brother, who, I think, thinks highly of you,
out of his affection has helped to set up
your imminent marriage; but it’s an unsuitable relationship
and wasted effort.
DON PEDRO: Why, what’s the matter?
DON JOHN: I came here to tell you, and, to be brief,
for we’ve already spent too long talking about her,
the lady is disloyal.
He begins by naming Claudio’s suspicion of him and asking to be judged by what follows; he credits the prince with the match, so that the prince has a stake in hearing it was ill spent; and he says the word disloyal and then refuses to say more, because the word is too good for her. The method is the orchard’s. Don John offers no evidence, only a sight to come, and the sight is made more credible by his insistence that they trust their own eyes rather than his word. The theme of deception and noting here depends not on what is shown but on who shows it: a prince’s brother, speaking against a prince’s favourite, at some apparent cost to himself. The prince’s every man’s Hero is the first crack. He means it as praise, Leonato’s and Claudio’s and everyone’s, and the phrase is already doing Don John’s work, since a woman who is every man’s is what Don John is about to call her.
There Will I Shame Her
The scene ends with the vow that the church scene will keep, and it is made before anyone has seen anything.
Original
CLAUDIO: If I see any thing to-night why I should not marry
her to-morrow in the congregation, where I should
wed, there will I shame her.
DON PEDRO: And, as I wooed for thee to obtain her, I will join
with thee to disgrace her.
(Act 3, Scene 2)
Shakespeare Retold (Modern Verse)
CLAUDIO: If I see anything tonight that shows why I shouldn’t marry
her tomorrow in the church where we are due to
be wed, then I will humiliate her there.
DON PEDRO: And as I was the one who wooed her for you, I will join
you in bringing disgrace on her.
Claudio’s condition is an if, and the if is already answered in his mind: he will shame her in the congregation where he should have wed her. The prince’s reply is the more damning, because it is logical: as he wooed for Claudio to obtain her, he will join with him to disgrace her, which treats the disgrace as the obligation that follows the wooing, a matter of a prince’s consistency. Neither man proposes to ask Hero. Neither proposes to go to the window alone and look quietly. The response to a possible wrong is a public shaming planned in advance, and the theme of honour and shame is laid out in its purest form, as a code in which an injury must be answered where it was received and the answer is itself a performance. Don John’s bear it coldly till midnight is the stage manager’s note, and his last line, the plague right well prevented, is spoken to the audience, who know what plague he means. The scene began with the prince praising Benedick’s sound heart; it ends with the prince and Claudio believing a bastard over a bride.
Language and Technique
- The catalogue of symptoms: Hat brushed, beard shaved, civet, washed face, melancholy, a lute-string governed by stops: the lovers’ symptoms are listed as evidence and judged conclusive, a parody of the noting that will go wrong in the second half.
- The toothache: Benedick’s excuse and the friends’ mockery of it, draw it, hang it, a humour or a worm, run through the first half as a small comic refrain; Leonato will use the toothache in Act 5 for grief that cannot be argued with.
- Repetition with variation: Disloyal, says Don John; who, Hero; even she, Leonato’s Hero, your Hero, every man’s Hero; disloyal: the word and the name pass between the three men and change meaning each time.
- Triple exclamation: O day untowardly turned, O mischief strangely thwarting, O plague right well prevented: the scene ends on three matched cries, two of them sincere and the third a villain’s private joke, and the symmetry tells the audience which is which.
- Prose for the trick, verse for the vow: The scene is in prose until Claudio’s vow to shame Hero, which is in verse, as is the prince’s promise to join him; the register rises as the honour code takes over.
Key Quotes from Act 3, Scene 2
Quote 1
Nay, that would be as great a soil in the new gloss of your marriage as to show a child his new coat and forbid him to wear it. I will only be bold with Benedick for his company; for, from the crown of his head to the sole of his foot, he is all mirth: he hath twice or thrice cut Cupid's bow-string and the little hangman dare not shoot at him; he hath a heart as sound as a bell and his tongue is the clapper, for what his heart thinks his tongue speaks.
(Don Pedro, Act 3, Scene 2)
Shakespeare Retold (Modern Verse)
Oh no, that would cast a stain on the sheen of your new marriage, like showing a child his new coat but forbidding him to wear it. I’ll only take the liberty of asking Benedick to join me for his company; for, from the top of his head to the soles of his feet, he is a joker. And on two or three occasions he has cut Cupid’s bow-strings and so now Cupid dare not fire his arrows at him; his heart is as sound as a bell and his tongue is the clapper, for whatever his heart is thinking, his tongue will speak it.
Quote Analysis: The prince on Benedick, as he was: all mirth from crown to sole, Cupid’s bowstring cut, a heart as sound as a bell with his tongue for the clapper. The modern verse keeps the bell. It is an affectionate portrait and it is already obsolete, since the prince himself arranged the change, and the next line is Benedick’s I am not as I have been.
Well, every one can master a grief but he that has it.
(Benedick, Act 3, Scene 2)
Shakespeare Retold (Modern Verse)
Everyone knows how to cure pain except for him that has it.
Quote Analysis: Benedick’s one serious line in the first half, offered as a remark about toothache. Everyone can master a grief except the one who has it. The modern verse keeps the aphorism. It is the sound of a man in love trying to talk about something else, and the friends who hear it have made sure there is nothing else.
Even she; Leonato's Hero, your Hero, every man's Hero.
(Don Pedro, Act 3, Scene 2)
Shakespeare Retold (Modern Verse)
That’s her; Leonato’s daughter Hero; your Hero; everyone’s Hero.
Quote Analysis: The prince’s answer to Claudio’s who, Hero. He means it as a list of her claims on them all, and the phrase every man’s Hero is the slander in miniature, said by her friend before her enemy has said anything. The modern verse keeps the three Heros. Don John lets it stand and builds on it.
If you dare not trust that you see, confess not that you know: if you will follow me, I will show you enough; and when you have seen more and heard more, proceed accordingly.
(Don John, Act 3, Scene 2)
Shakespeare Retold (Modern Verse)
If you can’t trust what you observe, then don’t admit you know about it; if you will come with me, I’ll show you enough to convince you; and when you’ve seen and heard it all, act accordingly.
Quote Analysis: Don John’s challenge: trust your eyes or admit you know nothing, follow me and see enough, then proceed. The modern verse keeps the dare. It is the sentence that makes the window work, since it tells the watchers in advance that what they see will be the truth and that doubting it would be cowardice.
Key Takeaways
- The gulling worked: Benedick is shaved, perfumed and sad, and the men who tricked him diagnose love from the symptoms they produced.
- Noting as sport: The catalogue of Benedick’s signs is a comic trial with correct findings; the same two judges will read Don John’s sign the same way in earnest.
- Disloyal, on no evidence: Don John offers a word, a cost to himself and a sight to come, and the prince and Claudio accept the sight before they have seen it.
- Shame planned in advance: Claudio vows to shame Hero in the congregation and the prince vows to join him, before midnight, before the window, before a question is asked.
Study Questions and Analysis
How has Benedick changed since the orchard scene, and how do his friends know?
He has shaved, washed, perfumed himself with civet, started brushing his hat in the mornings and stopped making jokes; and his friends know because they made it happen. The prince, Claudio and Leonato gulled him in Act 2, Scene 3 with the story that Beatrice loved him, and this scene shows them inspecting the results. Benedick’s own account is six words, Gallants, I am not as I have been, and a toothache; theirs is a catalogue of symptoms that ends with the prince’s verdict, conclude, conclude he is in love. He does not deny it. He takes Leonato aside to ask, as the prince guesses at once, for Beatrice.
No, but the barber's man hath been seen with him, and the old ornament of his cheek hath already stuffed tennis-balls.
(Claudio, Act 3, Scene 2)
Shakespeare Retold (Modern Verse)
No, but he has been seen with the barber, and his old beard has already been cut off to be used as stuffing for tennis balls.
William Hazlitt (1817) thought Benedick’s character as a woman-hater admirably supported and his conversion to matrimony no less happily effected by the pretended story of Beatrice’s love, and this scene is the proof of the conversion, offered as farce. August Wilhelm Schlegel (1808) found the drollery of the play in the very symmetry of the deception, and the symmetry is visible here, since the men inspecting Benedick are about to be inspected by Don John. The theme of love and romance in this play is diagnosed from the outside before it is admitted from within, and Benedick’s eight or nine wise words to Leonato are the admission the audience does not need to hear.
Why do the prince and Claudio believe Don John?
Because he asks them not to. Don John names their distrust of him, offers to be judged by what he reveals, credits the prince with the match so that the prince has reason to care, and then refuses to argue: he will say nothing more, let them come and see. The appeal to their own eyes is the trap, since a man who has been told what he will see tends to see it, and the challenge that follows, if you dare not trust what you see confess you know nothing, makes doubt a kind of cowardice. He also chooses the moment. The two men have just spent fifty lines reading Benedick’s love from his hat and his beard, and are pleased with their skill at noting signs; Don John offers them a sign.
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. Wonder not till further warrant: go but with me to-night, you shall see her chamber-window entered, even the night before her wedding-day: if you love her then, to-morrow wed her; but it would better fit your honour to change your mind.
(Don John, Act 3, Scene 2)
Shakespeare Retold (Modern Verse)
That word is insufficient to describe her wickedness. I’d call her worse than that: think of a worse word and I’ll show it fits her. But don’t be amazed until you have further proof: come with me tonight, and you will see someone enter her bedroom window, even though it’s the night before her wedding day. If you love her after that, then tomorrow you can marry her; but it would be more befitting for you to change your mind.
Gail Kern Paster, in the Folger edition, notes that the play takes pains to construct Claudio as inexperienced, and inexperience is what the scene exploits: a young count among princes, newly engaged, told that the prince’s suit was ill spent. Bertrand Evans (1960) observed that the audience holds an advantage over the characters for most of the play, and here the advantage is painful, since the house watched Borachio devise the window in Act 2, Scene 2 and knows exactly what the prince and Claudio will see. Carol Cook (1986) argued that the men’s honour depends on reading women correctly, and that the possibility of misreading is the real source of their anxiety; Don John’s offer is to resolve the anxiety with a sight. The theme of deception and noting needs no evidence, only a credible deceiver, and a prince’s brother is credible by birth.
Why does Claudio decide to shame Hero publicly before he has seen anything?
Because the honour code he lives by requires that a public engagement be publicly undone, and because he has already decided. His vow is conditional in form, if I see anything tonight, and absolute in substance: he will shame her in the congregation where he should have wed her. The prince’s answer is worse, because it is reasoned: as he wooed to obtain her, he will join to disgrace her, as if the disgrace were the second half of a prince’s service. Neither man proposes to speak to Hero, or to Leonato, or to go to the window quietly and judge. The plan is a performance before the sight that is supposed to justify it.
Carol Cook (1986) read the play’s language as associating the word, the sword and masculine control of representation, and the vow is where that control is exercised: Claudio will answer a private wrong with a public act of speech. Harry Berger Jr. (1982) wrote of the Men’s Club of Messina and the premises of power on which it runs, and the prince’s promise to join in the disgrace is club solidarity, the match-maker standing by his work by unmaking it. Jean E. Howard (1987) saw the play as a struggle over who controls what others see, and the church scene is being scripted here, by its actors, before the window has been visited. The theme of honour and shame explains the publicity, and the publicity is what will nearly kill Hero.
What does the structure of the scene, two halves with the same audience, tell us?
That the play wants the prince and Claudio to be seen doing the same thing twice, once as a game and once as a crime. In the first half they read Benedick’s symptoms and conclude, correctly, that he is in love, having arranged the symptoms themselves; in the second they are offered Hero’s disloyalty by a man who has arranged the proof, and conclude, wrongly, that she is a wanton. The method is identical, a sign noted and a verdict drawn, and the scene puts the two performances side by side so that the audience cannot miss it. The men who are so good at noting when the stakes are a joke are helpless when the stakes are real.
DON PEDRO: O day untowardly turned!
CLAUDIO: O mischief strangely thwarting!
DON JOHN: O plague right well prevented! So will you say when
you have seen the sequel.
(Act 3, Scene 2)
Shakespeare Retold (Modern Verse)
DON PEDRO: Oh, how this day has turned so awful!
CLAUDIO: Oh, what a strange and evil obstruction!
DON JOHN: Oh, what an evil trick has been averted! That’s what you’ll say
when you have seen what happens next.
August Wilhelm Schlegel (1808) located the play’s drollery in the symmetry of its deceptions, and this scene is the symmetry in a single room: the benign trick confirmed, the malicious one begun, the same two faces on both. Gail Kern Paster makes the point structurally, that the actions to make and to break the play’s nuptials employ the same kinds of theatrical means, and Don John’s bear it coldly till midnight is a director’s instruction. The three exclamations that end the scene, the day turned, the mischief thwarting, the plague prevented, are matched in form and opposite in meaning, and only the third speaker knows it. The theme of deception and noting is the scene’s whole subject, and the scene’s whole joke is that nobody on stage notices they are inside it.
What does the toothache mean?
It is Benedick’s cover story, and it does not work for a moment. He says he has the toothache to explain why he is sad; the prince tells him to draw it; he says hang it; Claudio says hang it first and draw it afterwards, which is the sentence for treason; the prince asks whether he sighs for toothache; Leonato suggests a humour or a worm; and Benedick retreats into an aphorism, that everyone can master a grief but he that has it. The joke is that the friends know the real cause and will not let him have the false one, and the aphorism is true of the real cause too: nobody can master love but the one who has it.
BENEDICK: I have the toothache.
DON PEDRO: Draw it.
BENEDICK: Hang it!
CLAUDIO: You must hang it first, and draw it afterwards.
(Act 3, Scene 2)
Shakespeare Retold (Modern Verse)
BENEDICK: I have toothache.
DON PEDRO: Then pull the tooth out.
BENEDICK: Hang it!
CLAUDIO: Like traitors: first you hang them, then draw out their guts.
The toothache returns in Act 5, Scene 1, in Leonato’s mouth, where it is no joke: there was never yet philosopher that could endure the toothache patiently, however they have writ the style of gods. The play uses the same small bodily pain twice, once for a man hiding love and once for a man refusing comfort, and the second use remembers the first. William Hazlitt (1817) praised the way the play’s follies turn round against themselves in support of our affections, and Benedick’s toothache is a folly of that kind, a lie that tells the truth. The theme of wit and communication has here its gentlest moment: three men mocking a friend’s excuse, and the friend too far gone to mock back.
