Act 3, Scene 1 Summary

At a garden in Leonato’s estate, Hero prepares to launch the second part of the scheme. Margaret, her serving woman, tricks Beatrice into coming to the garden, and when Hero and Ursula see where she is hiding, they begin to talk loudly. Hero claims that Don Pedro and Claudio have told her how much Benedick desires Beatrice. When Ursula suggests that perhaps Beatrice should be told, Hero says that everybody knows that Beatrice is full of mockery, and Beatrice will only mock Hero and Benedick if she is told about this love. It would be better if Benedick suffers in silence. Ursula argues against this and says that Beatrice is too intelligent a woman to reject a man of Benedick’s virtues. After all, he is clever and handsome and is one of the most desirable men in the country. Hero agrees.

When they leave, Beatrice wonders about what she has overheard, and just like Benedick, realizes that it is not too hard to reciprocate and decides to be kind to Benedick after all.

Act 3, Scene 1 Analysis

This scene completes the second half of the proposed plan to make two hostile people fall for each other. Just like Don Pedro is aware of how to persuade Benedick, Hero also knows her cousin intimately, appealing both to Beatrice’s pride and compassion. What the friends are trying to achieve here is to make these two characters realize that they are already in love with each other, which perhaps is true as Beatrice, just like Benedick in the earlier scene, is ready to change her feelings about him. Benedick and Beatrice after all are older and wiser, and they cannot be made to fall for each other if they already have some attraction to one another.

When Hero refers to Beatrice as “But Nature never framed a woman’s heart / Of prouder stuff than that of Beatrice. / Disdain and scorn ride sparkling in her eyes,” this is also an opportunity for the quiet and submissive Hero to tease her cousin, though not directly. However, Hero and Ursula’s act also evokes compassion in Beatrice, and she is ready to save “poor” Benedick at the end of the scene, deciding to allow herself to change her views about marriage to accept Benedick.

Act 3, Scene 2 Summary

Don Pedro, Claudio, Benedick, and Leonato enter. Don Pedro tells his host that he intends to leave after the wedding. Claudio requests to accompany him to Aragon, but Don Pedro says that he will rather take Benedick with him as he is not struck by Cupid but Claudio is, who will suffer in separation. Benedick intervenes now to confess that he is a changed man. His friends tease him about his despondent state. Benedick requests Leonato if he can have a word with him in private. As they leave, Claudio confirms to Don Pedro that Beatrice has already overheard Hero in their staged conversation earlier.

Don John enters and asks Claudio whether he intends to marry the next day. When Claudio asks if there is a reason not to, Don John tells him that Hero is “disloyal.” He suggests that Don Pedro and Claudio meet him at night so he can show them what is happening in Hero’s room, even a night before the wedding. Claudio is upset and vows to shame Hero publicly if Don John is proved right.

Act 3, Scene 2 Analysis

While the scene opens with merriment with the friends teasing Benedick about his sullen appearance, it quickly shifts into a darker space when Don John claims to have “proof” of Hero’s disloyalty. He caustically describes her as “Leonato’s Hero, your Hero, every man’s Hero,” hinting that Hero is indiscriminate in bestowing sexual favors. We also see Don Pedro and Claudio’s disturbingly quick acceptance of Don John’s word about Hero’s unfaithfulness. This is the second instance of Claudio quickly rising to the bait; of always believing the worst in his woman. The first was at the ball when he thought Hero favored Don Pedro. Here too he vows to shame her publicly if he has proof. Don Pedro links himself with Claudio promptly and considering he aided him in obtaining Hero, he says, “I will join with thee to disgrace her.” This scene is a remarkable revelation of how men deeply fear female infidelity. They are quick to believe the accusation, not even pausing once to check the veracity of the claim from a recent enemy. This fear is also expressed in Benedick’s words in Act 1, Scene 1 when he declares himself a bachelor as he is terrified of wearing bull’s horns, a symbol of the cuckold.

Act 3, Scene 3 Summary

The scene opens on a street near Leonato’s estate. The town policemen—or the Watch—have gathered. Dogberry, the head constable, and Verges, his deputy, are in charge of these men. Dogberry and Verges are well intentioned and take their jobs very seriously, but they are also ridiculous. Dogberry is a master of malapropisms, always using the wrong words with a hilarious effect. He gives the watchmen their usual charge, with a special order to be vigilant around the estate considering Leonato’s daughter will be married the next day. Along with Verges, Dogberry departs.

Borachio and Conrad enter now. They do not see the watchmen. Borachio tells Conrad how he has romanced Margaret, dressed in Hero’s clothing, near Hero’s window, and this has now convinced Don Pedro and Claudio, who were there to witness the act, of Hero’s disloyalty. Claudio feels immensely betrayed and has vowed to take revenge by publicly humiliating Hero at the wedding ceremony the next day. The watchmen, who have been eavesdropping all along, now reveal themselves and arrest Borachio and Conrad for “lechery” (by which they mean treachery). They take the two men to Dogberry and Verges for questioning.

Act 3, Scene 3 Analysis

Dogberry provides comic relief in the story, which now is verging toward a dark sense of foreboding. His speeches are marked with malapropisms, and together with his contradictory instructions to his men, this scene almost is a form of slapstick comedy. In Shakespearean comedies, officials, such as Dogberry, have often provided comic relief. He is shown to be serious, taking his duty too seriously, but his officious manner is punctured with his usage of incorrect words contextually. For instance, when he says that the Watch should “comprehend all vagrom men,” he means to apprehend all “vagrant” men. Similarly, as punishment, he suggests “they should suffer salvation body and soul,” when he is meaning suffer damnation. Dogberry expresses a unique philosophy of maintaining security: Let sleeping drunks lie, don’t make noise, don’t meddle with thieves, don’t awaken nurses to shush crying children; the bottom line being—offend no one, and sleep when you can.

Borachio’s account tells us of what has already happened and how Don John’s evil machination has come to pass. When he mentions that Claudio has believed this deception, it troubles the audience again to see how quick he is to believe things about the woman he loves. While the policemen seem quite inept at the beginning of the scene, with the arrest of these men, it will be them who will salvage Hero’s honor, and not her betrothed.

Act 3, Scene 4 Summary

It is the morning of the wedding. Hero wakes up and tells Ursula to wake up Beatrice. Margaret is critical of Hero’s choice of the wedding dress, but when Hero lightly chastises her, she backs off. She then teases her about how Claudio will soon be in her bed. When Beatrice arrives, she says she is feeling unwell. Margaret teases her about how her personality has changed and probably she is sick in love too and offers to get her the herb Carduus benedictus to lay on her heart. Ursula enters to announce that the men have arrived to take Hero to the church.

Act 3, Scene 4 Analysis

This scene of women gathering to dress up the bride is one of the play’s most engaging scenes. It shows the affection among the women with constant banter and raunchy humor. For instance, when Margaret teases that Hero’s heart will “be heavier soon by the weight of a man,” Hero is embarrassed. The bride-to-be is surrounded by all the people she cares for—her cousin and the maids. Beatrice is subdued, and in this scene, the laughs are provided by Margaret who now teases Beatrice about being lovesick. When she teasingly offers her a cure—Carduus benedictus, or the “holy thistle,” a plant considered to have medicinal powers in the Renaissance—Beatrice takes it to hint at Benedick and cries out, “Why Benedictus? You have some moral in this Benedictus”; thus, making it quite evident to the audience that she indeed is pining for Benedick.

However, amidst the merriment, the audience should also remember that Margaret was present in the contrived scene the night earlier on the balcony, and Hero’s unexpected sense of foreboding on the day of her wedding is a sign of the tragedy that is imminent.

Act 3, Scene 5 Summary

Dogberry and Verges arrive to tell Leonato that they have detained two men—Borachio and Conrad—and want him to hold a hearing for them. However, Dogberry’s constant misuse of words confuses Leonato, and he is unsure what this arrest has got to do with him personally. He tells them to interrogate the arrested men and dismisses them impatiently to rush to his daughter’s wedding.

Act 3, Scene 5 Analysis

This scene heightens the tension as the tragedy that is going to befall could have been averted if Dogberry had spoken plainly. However, that doesn’t happen, and Don John’s evil plan is about to become successful. This scene is another splendid example of “Dogberryism.” For example, when Leonato tells him that his effort to explain is “tedious,” he takes it as a compliment and returns the compliment in an even more generous manner! When he says that he has arrested two “auspicious” men, it is hilarious as the audience knows he is trying to say, two suspicious men.