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Much Ado About Nothing Guided Reading Questions for Act III

Act III/ Scene 1

1. On whom do Hero and Ursula play the gull?

2. Where is Beatrice during this scene?

3. Who told Hero that Benedick was in love with Beatrice?

4. What character defects does Hero ascribe to Beatrice?

5. How would Beatrice treat a fair-faced man?

6. Why does Hero say it is useless to mention these defects of character to Beatrice?

7. What counsel does Hero intend to give to Benedick?

8. Which scene in the play does this one parallel?

9. How does the form of the language in this gulling scene differ from that used in the scene with   Benedick?  Why the difference?

10.  Compare the two gulling scenes- the gulling of Benedick and the gulling of Beatrice.  Note the ways in which they are similar.

11.  What is unusual about the form of the language of last ten lines in this scene?  Why does Shakespeare have Beatrice speak like this?

12. How does Cupid kill?

13. Which faults does Beatrice willingly give up in her soliloquy?
 

Act III/ Scene 2

1. When does this scene take place?

2. What does Benedick say about grief?

3. Don Pedro asks, “Hath any man seen him [Benedick] at the barbers?  To which Claudio replies, “No, but the barber’s man hath been seen with him; and the old ornament of his cheek hath already stuffed tennis balls.”  What do these lines imply?

4. What does Claudio say about Benedick's jesting spirit?

5. What malady does Benedick claim to have?

6. Who shall be buried with her face upwards?

7. Who invites Leonato to walk aside with him?
8. Why does Don John include Claudio in his conversation?

9. What does Don John tell Don Pedro and Claudio?

10. What invitation does Don John extend to Don Pedro and Claudio?

11. What does Claudio say he will do to Hero at the church tomorrow in front of the congregation at the wedding?
 

Act III / Scene 3

1. Who gives the charge to the watch?

2. How does Dogberry instruct: the watch to handle a thief?

3. In what condition is Borachio when he speaks to Conrade?

4. What does Borachio call a thief?

5. From where did Don John, Don Pedro, and Claudio witness Borachio wooing Margaret in Hero's name?

6. Who believed the staged deceit?

7. What did Claudio swear to do and why?

8. Who charges Borachio and Conrade?

9. How does the watch describe Borachio and Conrade?

10. Dogberry utter many malapropisms—misuse of words.  Identify three. 

11.  What seems to be Dogberry’s primary concern in his instructions to the volunteer watchmen?

12.  How are the watchmen able to discover what Borachio has done?  How much do they understand of what they have found?

13.  From what we learn from Borachio’s account of the deception how was he able to fool the Prince and Claudio?
 

Act III / Scene 4 

1. Who does Hero send to wake up Beatrice?

2. What piece of clothing does Margaret try to talk Hero out of wearing?

3. Who does Hero call a fool?

4. Who is not feeling well?

5. Approximately what time is it?

6. What are Beatrice's symptoms?

7. Who attempts to wordspar (match wits) with Beatrice in this scene?

8. Which character provides most of the comic banter in this scene?

9. What remedy does Margaret suggest for Beatrice's malady?

10. What is another name for benedictus?  What does Beatrice think Margaret means by her suggestion that she get some Carduus Benedictus?

11. How has Beatrice changed in this scene from her previous behavior?

12. What announcement does Ursula bring at the end of the scene?
 
ACT III / Scene 5 

1. Where does this scene take place?

2. Who visits Leonato in this scene?

3. Why doesn't Leonato listen to them carefully?

4. When Dogberry describes Verges' wits as not so blunt, what did he really mean?

5. What is Dogberry's response when Leonato tells him he is tedious?

6. What is Leonato's response when he finally understands that they have apprehended two people?

7. What hospitality does Leonato offer Dogberry and Verges before he leaves?

8. What message is brought to Leonato?

9. What direction does Dogberry give to Verges?

10. Why does Dogberry want a learned writer?
 
Quotations for Act III:  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.         My talk to thee must be, how Benedick
            Is sick in love with Beatrice.  Of this matter
            Is little Cupid’s crafty arrow made,
            That only wounds by hearsay
 
2.         The pleasant’st angling is to see the fish
            Cut with her golden oars the silver stream
            And greedily devour the treacherous bait:
            So angle we for Beatrice; who even now
            Is couched in the woodbine coverture.
 
3.         But Nature never framed a woman’s heart
            Of prouder stuff than that of Beatrice:
            Disdain and scorn ride sparkling in her eyes,
            Misprising what they look on; and her wit
            Values itself so highly, that to her
            All matter else seems weak: she can not love
 
4. “Therefore let Benedick, like cover’d fire, / Consume away in sighs, waste inwardly: / It were a better death than die with mocks…”
 
5.         No; rather I will go to Benedick,
            And counsel him to fight against his passion.
            And truly, I’ll devise some honest slanders
            To stain my cousin with: one doth not know
            How much an ill word may empoison liking.
 
6. “If it prove so, then loving goes by haps: / Some Cupid kills with arrows, some with traps.”
 
7.         What fire is in mine ears?  Can this be true?
            Stand I condemn’d for pride and scorn so much?
            Contempt, farewell!  And maiden pride, adieu!
                        No glory lives behind the back of such.
            And, Benedick, love on; I will requite thee,
                        Taming my wild heart to thy loving hand:
            If thou dost love, my kindness shall incite thee
                        To bind our loves up in a holy band:
            For others say thou dost deserve, and I
            Believe it better than reportingly.
 
8. “If you dare not trust that you see, confess not that you know: if you will follow me, I will show you enough; and when you have seen more, and heard more, proceed accordingly.”
 
9. "If I see any thing to-night why I should not marry her tomorrow, in the congregation where I should wed, there will I shame her."
 
10.       ...I have tonight wooed Margaret, the Lady Hero’s gentlewoman, by the name of Hero: she leans me out at her mistress’ chamber-window, bids me a thousand times good night, -- I tell this tale vilely:-- I should first tell the how the prince, Claudio and my master, planted and placed and possessed by my master Don John, saw afar off in the orchard this amiable encounter.