Much Ado About Nothing Guided Reading Questions for Act II

Act II/ Scene 1

1.  What seems to be Beatrice’s reason for opposing marriage?  How does it differ from Benedick’s?

2. To what dances does Beatrice compare wooing, wedding and repenting?  Explain each comparison.

3. What do Leonato and Antonio want Hero to do if the Prince proposes?  What does Beatrice advise her to do?

4. Whom does Ursula dance with and how does she recognize him?

5. How does the interchange between Benedick and Beatrice when they dance differ from that of the other couples?  How does he insult her?  How does she insult him?  Which of her insults seems to hurt him the most?  Why?

6. Whom does Don John purposefully mistake for Benedick?  Why?

7. At the party why do you think Claudio pretends to be Benedick when approached by Don John?  What does Claudio believe has happened with Pedro and Hero? 

8. Would Benedick marry Beatrice if she were "endowed with all that Adam had left him before he transgressed"?  What do you think he means by this.

9. Was Don Pedro able to win Hero for Claudio?

10. When will Claudio and Hero's wedding take place?

11. Why does Don Pedro appear to propose marriage to Beatrice?  Why might it be serious?  Why might it be in jest?  How does she treat the proposal? What connection might there be between this proposal and Pedro’s planned deception of Beatrice and Benedick?

12. Whom does Don Pedro think would be an excellent wife for Benedick?

13. Leonato predicts that Benedick and Beatrice, after one week of marriage, will be in what condition?

Act II / Scene 2

1. What is the first thing that Borachio tells Don John?

2. Who is the architect of the plan to slander Hero?

3. What does Don John state would be medicinable to him?

4. What did Borachio tell Don John a year ago?

5. What role has been assigned to Don John in this plan?

6. Who will be mistaken for Hero?

7. What role will Borachio play?

8. What effect do the plotters expect to have on the prince, Claudio, Hero, and Leonato?

9. How is the only way the plan will succeed?

10. How much will Don John pay Borachio for his deceit?

Act II / Scene 3

1. What is orthography? Who has turned orthography? (A dictionary will be helpful here.)

2. What graces does Benedick seek in a woman?

3. To what does Benedick liken Balthasar's singing?

4. When does Shakespeare reference the title of the play?

5. Why does Benedick dismiss the thought that he is being gulled?

6. From whom do the plotters claim to have received their information?

7. Who fears that Beatrice will die and why?

8. How in love with Beatrice does Benedick declare he will be?

9. Did Beatrice call Benedick into dinner on her own initiative?  How do you know?

Quotations for Act II:  Note (a) who said it, (b) to whom did they say it, (c) explain how the quote relates to the events and/or characters in the play

1. “He were an excellent man that were made just in the midway between him and Benedick: the one is too like an image and says nothing, and the other too like my lady’s eldest son, evermore tattling.”

2. “He that hath a beard is more than a youth; and he that hath no beard is less than a man: and he that is more than a youth is not for me; and he that is less than a man, I am not for him”

3. “Why, he is the prince’s jester: a very dull fool; only his gift is in devising impossible slanders: none but libertines delight in him; and the commendation is not in his wit, but in his villany.”

4. “Signoir, you are very near my brother in his love: he is enamoured on Hero; I pray you, dissuade him from her: she is no equal for his birth: you may do the part of an honest man in it.”

5.         Friendship is constant in all things
            Save in the office and affairs of love;
            Therefore all hearts in love use their own tongues;
            Let every eye negotiate for itself,
            And trust no agent; for beauty is a witch,
            Against whose charms faith melteth into blood.

6. “But that my Lady Beatrice should know me, and not know me!  The prince’s fool!  Ha?  It may be I go under that title because I am merry.  Yea, but so I am apt to do myself wrong; I am not so reputed: it is the base, though bitter, disposition of Beatrice that puts the world into her person, and so gives me out.   Well, I’ll be revenged as I may.”

7. “I warrant thee, Claudio, the time shall not go dully by us.  I will, in the interim, undertake one of Hercules’ labours; which is, to bring Signoir Benedick and the Lady Beatrice into a mountain of affection the one with the other.”

9. “If we can do this, Cupid is no longer an archer: his glory shall be ours, for we are the only love-            gods.”

10. “Any bar, any cross, any impediment will be medicinable to me: I am sick in displeasure to him; and whatsoever comes athwart his affection ranges evenly with mine.”

11. “I will fashion the matter that Hero shall be absent, --and there shall appear such seeming truth of Hero’s disloyalty, that jealousy shall be called assurance and all the preparation overthrown.”

12. “ Note this before my notes; / There’s not a note of mine that’s worth the noting.”

13. "…because I have railed so long against marriage: but doth not the appetite alter?  A man loves the meat in his youth that he cannot endure in his age.  Shall quips and sentences and these paper bullets of the brain awe man from the career of his humour?  No, the world must be peopled.  Whe I said I would die a bachelor, I did not think I should live till I were married.”