Much Ado About Nothing

Question 1

Beatrice talks of Benedick to the messenger who brings news of Don Pedro’s approach

Answer 1

• a good soldier to a lady, but what is he to a lord

- merry war…skirmish of wit

Question 2

Leonato talks jokingly of Hero’s parentage(1)

Answer 2

• her mother hath many times told me so

Question 3

Beatrice and Benedick verbally spar

Answer 3

• I would my horse had the speed of your tongue

- You always end with a jade’s trick

Question 4

Leonato welcomes Don John(1)

Answer 4

• being reconciled to the prince your brother: I owe you al duty

Question 5

Claudio declares his love for Heor to Benedick

Answer 5

• would you buy her, that you enquire after her? Can the world buy such a jewel?
• Yea, and a case to put it in

Question 6

Don Pedro chastises Benedick for his obstinate bacherlorhood

Answer 6

• But that I will…hang my bugle in an invisible baldrick, all women shall pardon me
• In time the savage bull doth bear the yoke

Question 7

Don Pedro suggests to Claudio that he woo Hero on his behalf as well as approach Leonato

Answer 7

• But lest my liking might too sudden seem, I would have salved it with a longer treatise
• what needs the bridge much broader than the flood?

Question 8

Leonato dismisses Antonio’s( inaccurate) report of Don Pedro’s conversation with Claudio(1)

Answer 8

• we will hold it as a dream till it appear itself

Question 9

Don John responds to Conrad’s advice that he seek to flatter Don Pedro(3)

Answer 9

• I had rather be a canker in a hedge, than a rose in his grace
• I am trusted with a muzzle
• I am a plain dealing villain

Question 10

Don John responds to Borachio’s(inaccurate) report of Don Pedro’s conversation with Claudio

Answer 10

• That young startup hath all the glory of my overthrow

- If I can cross him any way, I bless myself every way.

Question 11

Leonato, Antonio, Hero and Beatrice discuss Don John’s demonstrable melancholy

Answer 11

Pg27 the one is too like an image and says nothing, and the other too like my lady’s eldest son, evermore tattling
pg27How tartly that gentleman looks, I never can see him but I am heat-burned an hour after

Question 12

Leonato and Antonio admonish Beatrice for being too bad-tempered to marry

Answer 12

2-1 By my troth, niece, thou wilt never get thee a husband, if thou be so shred of thy tongue

Question 13

Beatrice declares she does not ever want a husband and if she had him, she would cuckold him

Answer 13

Pg27 God sends a curst cow short horns, but to a cow too curst, he sends none
Pg27 he that hath a beard is more than a youth: and he that hath no beard is less than a man

Question 14

Beatrice compares romance to a series of three dances, Leonato agrees with her view

Answer 14

Beatrice compares romance to a series of three dances, Leonato agrees with her view
2-5 the first suit is hot and hasty like a Scotch jig
2-5 the wedding mannerly modest (as a measure) full of state and ancestry
2-5 then comes Repentance, and with his bad legs falls into the cinquepace faster and faster

Question 15

Hero is surprisingly witty at the ball

Answer 15

Pg31 and when please you to say so? When I like your favour, for God defend the lute should be like the case

Question 16

Some characters are fooled by the masks at the masked ball, while others are not

Answer 16

Pg31 I know you well enough, you are Signor Antonio

Pg33 He is the prince’s jester, a very dull fool, only his gift id in devising impossible=le slanders

Question 17

Don John does not dissemble and tells Claudio what he thinks is the truth about Don Pedro

Answer 17

Pg33 I pray you dissuade him from her, she is no equal for his birth
Pg33 I heard him swear his affection

Question 18

Claudio responds to the (false) revelation that Don Pedro intends to marry Hero himself

Answer 18

2-8 Friendship is constant in all other things, save in the office and affars of love
2-8 trust no agent: for beauty is a witch

Question 19

Hero and Claudio become engaged

Answer 19

Pg39 I have wooed in thy name, and fair Hero is won

Pg40 dote upon the exchange

Question 20

Don Pedro, on marking how Beatrice avoids any talk of a husband, would be a good match for Benedick

Answer 20

2-27 Stalk on, stalk on, the fowl sits
Pg43 I will in the interim undertake one of Hercules’ labours, to bring Signor Benedick and the Lady Beatrice into a mountain of affection

Question 21

Borachio shares a plan with Don John to undo Claudio’s engagement (4)

Answer 21

Pg46 he hath wronged his honour in marrying the renowned Claudio, whose estimation do you mightily hold up, to a contaminated stale
Pg47 intend a kind of zeal
2-13 the semblance of a maid
Pg47 there shall appear such seeming truth of Hero’s disloyalty, and there shall be called assurance

Question 22

Benedick’s soliloquy about Claudio’s engagement

Answer 22

2-15 fool…laughed at such shallow follies in others, become the argument of his own scorn
2-17 drum and the fife…tabor and the pipe

Question 23

Balthasar’s song

Answer 23

2-25 One foot in sea, and one on shore, to one thing constant never
Pg53 then sigh not so, but let them go

Question 24

Claudio, Don Pedro and Leonato recounts Beatrice’s supposed passion for Benedick to trick Benedick

Answer 24

Pg57 she falls, weeos, sobs, beats her heart, tears her hair, prays, curses
Pg58 proper man…good outward happiness…very wise…valiant
pg58I could wish he would modestly examine himseflf, to see how much he is unworthy so good a lady

Question 25

Hero and Ursula plot to trick Benedick

Answer 25

3-1 honeysuckles ripened by the sun, forbid the sun to enter…adavance their pride against the power that bred it
3-2 the p,easant’st angling is to see the fish cut with her golden oars the silver stream, and greedily devour the treacherous bait

Question 26

Hero and Ursula recount Benedick’s supposed love for Beatrice to trick Beatrice

Answer 26

Pg 69 So odd and from all fashions as Beatrice is cannot be commendable
Pg69 She cannot be so much without true judgement, having so swift and excellent a wit, as she is prized to have, as to refuse so rare a gentleman as Signor Benedick

Question 27

Beatrice is convinced of Benedick’s love(1)

Answer 27

Pg71 Contempt farewell; and maiden pride, adieu. No glory lives behind the back of such

Question 28

Benedick is apprently in love

Answer 28

3-10 the ornament of his cheeks hath already stuffed tennis balls…rubs himself with civet
3-12 two bears will not bite one another when they meet

Question 29

Claudio responds to Don John’s claim of Hero’s infidelity

Answer 29

3-14 for my brother…hath holp to effect your ensuing marriage: sirely suit ill-spent, and labour ill-bestowed
Pg77 If I see anyting tonight, why I should not marry her tomorrow in the congregation… there will I shame her

Question 30

Claudio rejects and shames Hero

Answer 30

4-1 Oh what men dare do! What men may do! What men daily do, not knowing what they do!
4-3 Give not this rotten orange to your friend, she’s but the sign and semblance of her honour

Question 31

Hero is isolated and beset by other male chracters

Answer 31

4-6 Oh God defned me, how am I beset! What kind of catechising call you this
4-8 To make your answer truly to your name

Question 32

Don Pedro worries about how Hero’s infiedlity would affect his friendship (1)

Answer 32

4-5 I stand dishonoured that have gone about to link my friend to a common stale

Question 33

Leonato worries how Hero’s infidelity will affect his reputation

Answer 33

4-13 Death is the fairest cover for her shame

4-16 She is fallen into a pit of ink, that the wide sea hath drops too feq to wash her clean

Question 34

Leonato becomes fully convinced of Hero’s infidelity (1)

Answer 34

4-21 stronger made which was before barred up with ribs of iron

Question 35

Leonato and Antonio confronts Claudio and Don Pedro with news of Hero’s death, each challenge Claudioy

Answer 35

5-7/5-9 challenge thee to trails of a man…despite his nice fence, and his active practice, His May of youth, and blossom of lustihood
5-11 Sir Boy, I’ll whip you from your foining fene

Question 36

Claudio and Don Pedro respond to Benedick’s challenge

Answer 36

5-24 When shall we set the savage bull’s horns on the sensible Benedick’s head?
5-30 What a pretty thing man is, when he goes in his doublet and hoes, and leaves off his wit!

Question 37

Claudio and Don Pedro react to Borachio’s confession(3)

Answer 37

5-33 what your wisdoms could not discover, these shallow fools have brought to light
5-34 Runs not this speech like iron through your blood
5-35 I have drunk poison whiles he uttered it

Question 38

By way of recompense, Leonato suggests that Claudio marry Antonio’s daughter in Hero’s place (a ruse)

Answer 38

5-41 Impose me to what penance your invention can lay upon my sin, yet sinned I not, but in mistaking.
5-42/5-43 My brother hath a daughter, almost the copy of my child’s that’s dead, and she alone is heir to both of us

Question 39

Leonato reveals the conspiracy to bring together Beatrice and Benedick to Benedick

Answer 39

5-48 Your niece regards me with an eye of favour.
That eye my daughter lent her, ‘tis most tru.
And I do with an eye of love requite her.
The sight whereof I think you had from me

Question 40

Hero reveals herself to Claudio (who thinks she is Antonio’s daughter)

Answer 40

Pg159 One Hero dies defiled, but I do live, and surely as I live, I am a maid

Question 41

Benedick notes Don Pedro’s sadness and suggests he get married

Answer 41

Prince, thou art sad, get thee a wife, get thee a wife. There is no stuff more reverend than one tipped with horns

Question 42

A messenger enter with news that Don John has returned, but Benedick demands that the news be ignored tomorrow

Answer 42

Think not on him till tomorrow, I’ll devise thee brave punishments for him

Question 43

Benedick’s second soliloquy about the possibility of marrying Beatrice:

Answer 43

2-30 the white-bearded fellow speaks it: knavery cannot sure hide himself in such reverence
Pg61 they say the lady is fair, ‘tis a truth, I can bear them witness: and virtuous, ‘tis so

Question 44

The friar suggests that Hero pretends death

Answer 44

Pg113 When he shall hear she died upon his words th’ idea of her life shall sweetly creep into his study of imagination

Question 45

After Beatrice and Benedick declare love for each other, Beatrice bids Benedick to kill Claudio

Answer 45

Pg117 You dare easier be friends with me, than fight with mine enemy
Pg119 But manhood is melted into cutsies, valour into compliment

Question 46

Leonatio begins to doubt the truth of the allegation after Benedick and the Frair speak to him

Answer 46

Pg111 if they speak but truth of her, these hands shall tear her
4-24 they shall find…strength of limb, and policy of mind, ability in means, and choice of friends to quit me of them thoroughly

Question 47

Dogberry’s malapropism:

Answer 47

Pg79 you are thought here to be the most senseless men

Question 48

Sexton accuse Dogberry as incompetent

Answer 48

Pg123 You go not the way to examine, you must call forth the watch that are their accusers