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Much Ado About Nothing READING #6 (FINALE): Act 5 (5.1-5.4)

5.1—The Anger, the Challenge, the Truth

Leonato and Antonio.

  • What is Leonato referring to when he tells his brother, “There thou speak’st reason” (page 64, from Shakespeare: Five Great Comedies, Dover Publications, 2000)?
  • [Note from The Cambridge School Shakespeare: “You will remember how Leonato addressed his guests in the opening scene of the play using the polite you form. Use of the thou form is a sign of friendship, but it can also signal contempt” (130).]
  1. The scene opens with Antonio’s advice to his brother Leonato against over-grieving Hero’s lost reputation (“If you go on thus, you will kill yourself” (63), Read carefully Leonato’s response:
  1. Who is the him in Leonato’s “bring him to me, / And I of him will gather patience” (63)?
  1. Paraphrase: “For there was never yet philosopher, / That could endure the tooth-ache patiently” (64).

Enter Don Pedro and Claudio.

  • How do Leonato and Antonio respond to Don Pedro and Claudio’s arrival, when they say, “I’ll prove it on his body if he dare” (65) [Leonato] and “Come follow me, boy, come, Sir Boy, come follow me, / Sir Boy, I’ll whip you from your foining fence” (65) [Antonio]? As a director, how would you direct Don Pedro and Claudio to respond to these two men?

Exit Leonato and Antonio; enter Benedick.

  • There is joking and seriousness when Claudio and Don Pedro see Benedick. Describe the interaction between Claudio, who asks Benedick, “[W]it thou use thy wit?” and Benedick, who responds, “It is in my scabbard, shall I draw it?” (67).
  • On page (68), Benedick summarizes the important news of his meeting with Don Pedro and Claudio. What is the news about Don John?
  1. Paraphrase and explain Don Pedro’s words to Claudio about Benedick, just after Benedick’s exit: “What a pretty thing man is, when he goes in his doublet and hose, and leaves off his wit!” (68). (What is the implication of doublet and hose—or formal/fancy clothing?)

Exit Benedick; enter Dogberry, with Borachio.

  • What is comical about Dogberry’s list of the six things that Borachio and Conrade are accused of when he responds to Don Pedro’s question, “[W]hat offenses have these men done?” (68-69)?
  1. Note that Borachio’s very serious report follows the comedy of Dogberry. Dogberry’s comic report is followed by the very serious one of Borachio, on whose comments, Claudio responds, “I have drunk poison whiles he uttered it” (69)?
  1. What does Claudio mean just later, when he says later, “Impose me what penance your invention / Can lay upon my sin” (70)?
  1. Then, what is the kindnessfrom Leonato that “doth wring tears from” (71) Claudio?

5.2—Beatrice and Benedick

  • Note the bawdy back-and-forth between Benedick and Margaret that opens the scene. How should we explain their light banter, given that both of them are still “unaware of Borachio’s confession” (146, Cambridge School Shakespeare)?
  • What is the news the Ursula brings to both lovers at the end of the scene?
  1. Benedick and Beatrice. Summarize the conversation between the two that ends with “Thou and I are too wise to woo peaceably” (73). Why does he say this?

5.3—A Hero’s Monument

  • “Death, in guerdon [in consequence] to her wrongs, / Gives her fame which never dies” (75). If this is the epitaph written by Claudio, then what does he see now as Hero’s wrongs?
  • Night turns to day: Explain Don Pedro’s metaphor: the gentle day / Before the wheels of Phoebus, round about / Dapples the drowsy east with spots of grey” (75).

5.4—The Wedding(s)

  • Why does Benedick respond to Leonato’s comments with “Your answer, sir, is enigmatical [confusing]” (76)? What is confusing to Benedick? Then, regardless of confusion, what does Benedick ask of Leonato and the Friar?
  • Claudio upon the unmasking of Hero: “Another Hero!” (78). Why must a new Hero emerge at this point in the play? (Is the answer in Hero’s response?)
  1. Benedick gets the final words of the play, after he tells Beatrice, “Peace I will stop your mouth” (79). Paraphrase these lines: “in brief, since I do propose to marry, and therefore never flout at me, for what I have said against it: for man is a giddy thing, and this is my conclusion” (79).

Critical Thinking—Choose ONE of the following prompts to respond to.

Prompt A: LOGICAL REASONING/MAKING INFERENCES (drawing inferences or conclusions that are supported in or justified by evidence). Why doesn’t Margaret “tell anyone that it was she who was at Hero’s bedroom window? What do you think she might say to Leonato when she’s asked to explain her behavior?” [From Cambridge School Shakespeare] OR

Prompt B: DISCRIMINATING—RANKING (recognizing differences and similarities among things or situations and distinguishing carefully as to category or rank). Choose a line or passage from the reading that stands out for you for ANY reason (maybe it’s puzzling). Be sure to cite its line number(s) and explain why it’s so important either to the story or to you.

RESPONSE: