Much Ado About Nothing - Act III, scene 5
Characters: Leonato, Dogberry, Verges, Messenger
Summary: Dogberry and Verges try to tell a busy Leonato what they have learnt. They waste
time talking about how honest they are, and Leonato finds them tedious. They say they’ve
captured two men and who like to examine them with Leonato. Leonato has more important
things to do so he tells them to do the examination themselves and report back to him later,
as a messenger calls him to his daughter’s wedding. He leaves, and the other two go to their
examination.
A poorly delivered message:
Dogberry and Verges try to speak with Leonato outside the church, heightens the
tension and our anticipation of an approaching disaster. However they are very poor
communicators. Dogberry tries to sound clever and aristocratic by using fancy words,
often incorrectly, and by insulting Verges for being old and dull-witted (Leonato will later be
mocked for the same reason — the old come to seem ridiculous in a play as focused on
youth and love).
→ Dogberry - Goodman Verges, sir, speaks a little off the matter, an old
man sir, and his wits are not so blunt [he means sharp] (...).
Because of this, he never gets around to mentioning the deception he has
uncovered. Ironically, he is trying to impress his superior Leonato, who is the Governor of
Messina, and this prevents him from doing Leonato a real favor: saving his daughter from
slander and humiliation. The message is poorly delivered, Dogberry and Verges are very
obscure without meaning to. They fail to convey how urgent the matter is — and, in fact,
they may not understand its importance themselves.
Therefore, this scene makes heavy use of dramatic irony (the audience knowing
something that some characters do not).
Dogberry’s misuse and misunderstanding of language:
Dogberry thanks Leonato for telling him he was tedious, thinking it was a compliment.
→ Dogberry - (...) if I were as tedious as a king, I could find in my heart to
bestow it all of you worship.
Dogberry always says the opposite of what he means, or mixes up proverbs.
→ Dogberry - Comparisons are odorous [instead of odious] (...).
While Dogberry is always commenting on Verges’ age and how he only speaks
nonsense, Verges is actually the one who passed on some information, and all Dogberry did
was ramble without delivering any information. In fact, Dogberry even prevents further
information to be passed on because he cuts Verges off.
Characters: Leonato, Dogberry, Verges, Messenger
Summary: Dogberry and Verges try to tell a busy Leonato what they have learnt. They waste
time talking about how honest they are, and Leonato finds them tedious. They say they’ve
captured two men and who like to examine them with Leonato. Leonato has more important
things to do so he tells them to do the examination themselves and report back to him later,
as a messenger calls him to his daughter’s wedding. He leaves, and the other two go to their
examination.
A poorly delivered message:
Dogberry and Verges try to speak with Leonato outside the church, heightens the
tension and our anticipation of an approaching disaster. However they are very poor
communicators. Dogberry tries to sound clever and aristocratic by using fancy words,
often incorrectly, and by insulting Verges for being old and dull-witted (Leonato will later be
mocked for the same reason — the old come to seem ridiculous in a play as focused on
youth and love).
→ Dogberry - Goodman Verges, sir, speaks a little off the matter, an old
man sir, and his wits are not so blunt [he means sharp] (...).
Because of this, he never gets around to mentioning the deception he has
uncovered. Ironically, he is trying to impress his superior Leonato, who is the Governor of
Messina, and this prevents him from doing Leonato a real favor: saving his daughter from
slander and humiliation. The message is poorly delivered, Dogberry and Verges are very
obscure without meaning to. They fail to convey how urgent the matter is — and, in fact,
they may not understand its importance themselves.
Therefore, this scene makes heavy use of dramatic irony (the audience knowing
something that some characters do not).
Dogberry’s misuse and misunderstanding of language:
Dogberry thanks Leonato for telling him he was tedious, thinking it was a compliment.
→ Dogberry - (...) if I were as tedious as a king, I could find in my heart to
bestow it all of you worship.
Dogberry always says the opposite of what he means, or mixes up proverbs.
→ Dogberry - Comparisons are odorous [instead of odious] (...).
While Dogberry is always commenting on Verges’ age and how he only speaks
nonsense, Verges is actually the one who passed on some information, and all Dogberry did
was ramble without delivering any information. In fact, Dogberry even prevents further
information to be passed on because he cuts Verges off.
