Scene Profile – At a Glance
- Location: Another room in Leonato’s house, on the morning of the wedding.
- What Happens: Dogberry and Verges come to tell Leonato that the watch have arrested two suspicious persons. Dogberry cannot get to the point, Leonato is called to the church, and he tells them to examine the prisoners themselves.
- Key Characters: Leonato, Dogberry, Verges, the Messenger.
- Dramatic Function: The near miss. The truth that would stop the wedding is in the room and cannot be spoken; the scene ensures the church scene happens, and makes the audience watch the chance go by.
- Famous Quote:
"Comparisons are odorous: palabras, neighbour Verges."
(Dogberry, Act 3, Scene 5) - Why It Matters: It is the play’s hinge disguised as a comic interlude: thirty-five lines in which a tedious constable holds the one fact that matters and a busy father will not stop to hear it.
Scene Summary
Dogberry and Verges have come to Leonato with news, and Dogberry begins by asking for a confidence with him that decerns him nearly. Leonato, who has a daughter to give away that morning, asks him to be brief. Dogberry instead explains that Verges is an old man whose wits are not as blunt as he would wish, but honest as the skin between his brows; Verges agrees that he is as honest as any old man and no honester; Dogberry calls comparisons odorous and tells him palabras. Leonato calls them tedious, and Dogberry takes it as a compliment he would gladly bestow on his worship a thousand pound over, since he hears as good exclamation of Leonato as of any man in the city.
Verges finally says it: the watch have taken a couple of as arrant knaves as any in Messina. Dogberry buries it at once in an apology for the old man, who will be talking, since when the age is in the wit is out, and in the observation that if two men ride of a horse one must ride behind. Leonato says he must leave. Dogberry gets out one more sentence, that the watch have comprehended two aspicious persons whom they would have examined before his worship this morning, and Leonato tells him to take the examination himself and bring it to him, since he is in great haste. A messenger calls Leonato to the church to give his daughter to her husband, and he goes, telling them to drink some wine first. Dogberry sends Verges for Francis Seacole with his pen and inkhorn, so that they can examine the prisoners at the gaol and set down their excommunication.
Some Confidence with You That Decerns You Nearly
The scene is built on one joke repeated until it stops being funny: the constable has something to say and cannot say it, and every time he starts, a wrong word or a digression takes him somewhere else.
Original
Marry, sir, I would have some confidence with you that decerns you nearly.
(Dogberry, Act 3, Scene 5)
Shakespeare Retold (Modern Verse)
Well, sir, I want to have a confidence – I mean ‘conference’ – with you that discerns – I mean ‘concerns’ – you greatly.
Confidence for conference, decerns for concerns: the first sentence has two errors in it and both are the right word’s neighbour, which is how Dogberry’s mistakes work. Then the digressions. Verges speaks a little off the matter; Verges is honest; comparisons are odorous; if he were as tedious as a king he would bestow it all on his worship. Each is a courtesy, and each is a delay, and Leonato’s brief, I pray you, is answered by a man who thinks brevity is a kind of rudeness. The theme of wit and communication in this play has mostly belonged to people who talk brilliantly; the scene gives it to a man who talks badly and at length, and shows that the gap between what is said and what is meant can close a plot as surely as a lie. Dogberry means well, and the audience, who know what the watch heard, can see the news sitting behind every sentence he does not finish.
Neighbours, You Are Tedious
Leonato’s impatience is the scene’s second subject, and the play treats it fairly. He is not cruel to the constables; he gives them wine. He simply has no time, and the thing he has no time for is the thing that would save his daughter.
Original
LEONATO: Neighbours, you are tedious.
DOGBERRY: It pleases your worship to say so, but we are the
poor duke's officers; but truly, for mine own part,
if I were as tedious as a king, I could find it in
my heart to bestow it all of your worship.
(Act 3, Scene 5)
Shakespeare Retold (Modern Verse)
LEONATO: Friends, you are boring me.
DOGBERRY: It may please you to say so, my lord, but we are
merely officers of the duke; but truthfully on my part,
if I was as boring as a king, I would find it in
my heart to give all my tediousness to you, my lord.
Dogberry hears tedious as praise and offers to give Leonato all of it, a thousand pound over, and the misunderstanding is complete on both sides: the constable cannot tell an insult from a compliment, and the governor cannot tell an interruption from news. When Verges does say it, that the watch have taken two knaves, Leonato does not react, because Dogberry has already buried the sentence in an apology for Verges, and when Dogberry himself says it, two aspicious persons to be examined this morning, Leonato delegates it and leaves. The theme of status and class is the scene’s quiet argument. The men with the truth are the poor duke’s officers, as Dogberry calls them, and the man who could act on it is a governor on his way to church; the difference in standing is what decides who gets listened to, and the play lets the decision be made by nothing worse than haste.
Language and Technique
- Malapropism: Confidence for conference, decerns for concerns, blunt for sharp, exclamation for acclamation, comprehended for apprehended, aspicious for suspicious, suffigance for sufficient, examination for examine, excommunication for examination: the scene is the densest run of Dogberry’s wrong words in the play, and the modern text shows each one by letting him correct himself.
- Digression: The news is delayed by an apology for Verges, a proverb about two men on a horse, and an offer to give Leonato his tediousness. Each delay is a courtesy, and the structure of the scene is courtesy preventing information.
- The proverb: When the age is in, the wit is out; if two men ride of a horse, one must ride behind: Dogberry speaks in sayings, and Johnson noticed that the horse proverb is really about Dogberry’s own sense of his superior place.
- Dramatic irony: The audience knows what the watch overheard in the previous scene; every sentence Dogberry fails to finish is a sentence the audience could finish for him, and the comedy is tightened by the clock.
- Prose: The whole scene is prose, as every scene with Dogberry is, and Leonato, who speaks verse at the wedding, drops into it here to talk to his constables.
Key Quotes from Act 3, Scene 5
Quote 1
Yea, an 'twere a thousand pound more than 'tis; for I hear as good exclamation on your worship as of any man in the city; and though I be but a poor man, I am glad to hear it.
(Dogberry, Act 3, Scene 5)
Shakespeare Retold (Modern Verse)
Yes, even if it was worth a thousand pounds more than it is; for I hear you are the most exclaimed – I mean ‘acclaimed’ – man in the city; and though I am only a poor man, I am pleased to hear it.
Quote Analysis: Dogberry’s response to being called tedious: he would give Leonato all of it, a thousand pound over, because he hears his worship so well spoken of in the city, and though he is but a poor man he is glad. The modern verse keeps the deference. It is the sound of a man at the bottom of Messina paying a compliment to the top, and it is the reason he is not heard: he thinks the compliment is the business.
One word, sir: our watch, sir, have indeed comprehended two aspicious persons, and we would have them this morning examined before your worship.
(Dogberry, Act 3, Scene 5)
Shakespeare Retold (Modern Verse)
A final word, sir: on our watch, sir, we did indeed comprehend – I mean ‘apprehend’ – two auspicious – I mean ‘suspicious’ – people who we’d like you to interrogate this morning.
Quote Analysis: The news, at last, in one sentence, with two wrong words in it. Comprehended for apprehended and aspicious for suspicious, and the modern text gives both corrections in Dogberry’s own mouth. Leonato has the fact in front of him and tells the constable to examine the prisoners himself. The scene’s whole tragedy is that the sentence is said and not heard.
Take their examination yourself and bring it me: I am now in great haste, as it may appear unto you.
(Leonato, Act 3, Scene 5)
Shakespeare Retold (Modern Verse)
Interrogate them yourself and let me know the outcome: I am now in a great hurry, which should appear obvious to you.
Quote Analysis: Leonato’s delegation, and the line on which the church scene depends. He is not unkind; he is a father on his wedding morning, and he offers wine on his way out. The modern verse keeps the haste. What he hands to Dogberry is the examination that will, in Act 4, Scene 2, produce the confession that clears his daughter, a scene too late.
Key Takeaways
- The truth is in the room: Dogberry and Verges hold the arrest that would stop the wedding, and the scene is thirty-five lines of them failing to say it.
- Courtesy as obstruction: Every delay is a politeness, an apology for Verges, a proverb, a compliment; Dogberry cannot be brief because brevity seems rude to him.
- Haste, not malice: Leonato is kind to the constables and has no time for them; the play lets the catastrophe turn on a busy man’s impatience.
- Rank decides who is heard: The poor duke’s officers are told to examine the prisoners themselves; the examination they conduct will save Hero, one scene too late.
Study Questions and Analysis
Why can’t Dogberry tell Leonato what the watch have discovered?
Because he does not know how to be brief, and because he thinks the courtesies come first. His opening sentence has two wrong words in it; his second thought is to apologise for Verges, who is old and honest; his third is a proverb; and when Verges does blurt out that the watch have taken two knaves, Dogberry buries it under another apology and the observation that of two men on a horse one must ride behind. The news is delivered twice in the scene, once by Verges and once by Dogberry, and both times it is wrapped in so much deference that Leonato does not hear it as news.
A good old man, sir; he will be talking: as they say, when the age is in, the wit is out: God help us! It is a world to see. Well said, i' faith, neighbour Verges: well, God's a good man; an two men ride of a horse, one must ride behind. An honest...
(Dogberry, Act 3, Scene 5)
Shakespeare Retold (Modern Verse)
He’s a good old man, sir, but he does ramble on: as they say, when someone is old, their mind has gone. God help us! It’s a wonder to witness this. Well said, in truth, my friend Verges. Well, God is a good man; if two men ride on a horse, one has to sit at the back. He’s an honest...
Samuel Johnson (1765) read the horse proverb as a window on the character: Dogberry, in his vanity of superior parts, apologises for his neighbour by observing that of two men on a horse one must ride behind, and Johnson’s gloss is that the first place of rank or understanding can belong only to one, and that happy one ought not to despise his inferior. The vanity is the obstacle. Dogberry is so occupied with being the man in front that he never gets to the matter behind him. William Hazlitt (1817) called Dogberry and Verges inimitable specimens of quaint blundering and misprisions of meaning, and the misprisions here are not only of words but of what a conversation is for. The theme of wit and communication reaches its lowest and most consequential point: a man who cannot say what he means, with the one thing in the play that needed saying.
Is Leonato to blame for not listening?
The play is careful not to say so. Leonato asks for brevity twice, calls the constables tedious once, delegates the examination and leaves, and on his way out offers them wine; nothing in his manner is contemptuous, and his haste has a reason, since a messenger is at the door to call him to his daughter’s wedding. What the scene shows is not a bad man but a busy one, and a system in which the governor’s time is worth more than the constable’s news. Had Leonato stopped for five minutes, Borachio would have confessed before the church rather than after it.
George Bernard Shaw (1898), reviewing a production that cut the scene, called the cut the most audacious of Henry Irving’s treasons against Shakespeare, because without it Verges is almost annihilated and the play loses the moment when the gentry fail to hear. That is the scene’s function: it is not an interlude but the hinge. Jean E. Howard (1987) read the play as returning control of what is believed to the better sort, and this is where the better sort decline to take the information that would have spared everyone the church. The theme of status and class is at its most ordinary and most damaging here; nobody is wicked, and the truth goes down the stairs with the constables.
What is the dramatic effect of placing this scene just before the church?
It makes the audience watch the catastrophe become avoidable and then happen anyway. The previous scene ended with the watch arresting Borachio on the night of the window; this one shows the arrest reaching Leonato’s house on the wedding morning; the next is the wedding. The audience holds the whole truth and sits through thirty-five lines of a man failing to deliver it, and the laughter the scene gets is the laughter of people who know what is at stake. Shakespeare could have let Dogberry arrive after the church; he puts him before it, so that the near miss is felt.
My lord, they stay for you to give your daughter to her husband.
(Messenger, Act 3, Scene 5)
Shakespeare Retold (Modern Verse)
My lord, they are waiting for you to give your daughter away to her husband-to-be.
Bertrand Evans (1960) described the play’s method as discrepant awareness, the audience knowing more than the characters, and this scene is its sharpest use: the gap between what the house knows and what Leonato knows is the whole scene, and the messenger’s summons closes it. Algernon Charles Swinburne (1880) observed that without this particular constable the action and catastrophe of the whole play could never have taken place at all, and the sentence cuts both ways, since Dogberry is the man who caught the villains and the man who could not report the catch in time. The theme of deception and noting is nearly undone here by accident, and the play lets the accident fail.
