act 2 scene 3
Scene III.

Leonato's orchard.

[Enter Benedick alone.]

Bene.
Boy!

              [Enter Boy.]

Boy.
Signior?

Bene.
In my chamber window lies a book. Bring it hither to me in he
orchard.

Boy.
I am here already, sir.

Bene.
I know that, but I would have thee hence and here again.
 (Exit Boy.) I do much wonder that one man, seeing how much
another man is a fool when he dedicates his behaviours to love,
will, after he hath laugh'd at such shallow follies in others,
become the argument of his own scorn by falling in love; and such
a man is Claudio. I have known when there was no music with him
but the drum and the fife; and now had he rather hear the tabor
and the pipe. I have known when he would have walk'd ten mile
afoot to see a good armour; and now will he lie ten nights awake
carving the fashion of a new doublet. He was wont to speak plain
and to the purpose, like an honest man and a soldier; and now is
he turn'd orthography; his words are a very fantastical
banquet--just so many strange dishes. May I be so converted and
see with these eyes? I cannot tell; I think not. I will not be
sworn but love may transform me to an oyster; but I'll take my
oath on it, till he have made an oyster of me he shall never make
me such a fool. One woman is fair, yet I am well; another is
wise, yet I am well; another virtuous, yet I am well; but till
all graces be in one woman, one woman shall not come in my grace.
Rich she
shall be, that's certain; wise, or I'll none; virtuous, or I'll
never cheapen her; fair, or I'll never look on her; mild, or come
not near me; noble, or not I for an angel; of good discourse, an
excellent musician, and her hair shall be of what colour it
please God. Ha, the Prince and Monsieur Love! I will hide me in
the arbour.                                         [Hides.]

[Enter Don Pedro, Leonato, Claudio.]

                  [Music within.]

Pedro.
Come, shall we hear this music?

Claud.
Yea, my good lord. How still the evening is,
As hush'd on purpose to grace harmony!

Pedro.
See you where Benedick hath hid himself?

Claud.
O, very well, my lord. The music ended,
We'll fit the kid-fox with a pennyworth.

[Enter Balthasar with Music.]

Pedro.
Come, Balthasar, we'll hear that song again.

Balth.
O, good my lord, tax not so bad a voice
To slander music any more than once.

Pedro.
It is the witness still of excellency
To put a strange face on his own perfection.
I pray thee sing, and let me woo no more.

Balth.
Because you talk of wooing, I will sing,
Since many a wooer doth commence his suit
To her he thinks not worthy, yet he wooes,
Yet will he swear he loves.

Pedro.
Nay, pray thee come;
Or if thou wilt hold longer argument,
Do it in notes.

Balth.
Note this before my notes:
There's not a note of mine that's worth the noting.

Pedro.
Why, these are very crotchets that he speaks!
Note notes, forsooth, and nothing!                  [Music.]

Bene.
[aside] Now divine air! Now is his soul ravish'd! Is it not
strange that sheep's guts should hale souls out of men's bodies?
Well, a horn for my money, when all's done.

                                          [Balthasar sings.]

                  The Song.

    Sigh no more, ladies, sigh no more!
      Men were deceivers ever,
    One foot in sea, and one on shore;
      To one thing constant never.
        Then sigh not so,
        But let them go,
      And be you blithe and bonny,
    Converting all your sounds of woe
      Into Hey nonny, nonny.
    Sing no more ditties, sing no moe,
      Of dumps so dull and heavy!
    The fraud of men was ever so,
      Since summer first was leavy.
        Then sigh not so, &c.
Pedro.
By my troth, a good song.

Balth.
And an ill singer, my lord.

Pedro.
Ha, no, no, faith! Thou sing'st well enough for a shift.

Bene.
[aside] An he had been a dog that should have howl'd thus, they
would have hang'd him; and I pray God his bad voice bode no
mischief. I had as live have heard the night raven, come what
plague could have come after it.

Pedro.
Yea, marry. Dost thou hear, Balthasar? I pray thee get us some
excellent music; for to-morrow night we would have it at the Lady
Hero's chamber window.

Balth.
The best I can, my lord.

Pedro.
Do so. Farewell.

                    [Exit Balthasar [with Musicians.]

Come hither, Leonato. What was it you told me of to-day? that
your niece Beatrice was in love with Signior Benedick?

Claud.
O, ay!-[Aside to Pedro] Stalk on, stalk on; the fowl sits. --I
did never think that lady would have loved any man.

Leon.
No, nor I neither; but most wonderful that she should so dote on
Signior Benedick, whom she hath in all outward behaviours seem'd
ever to abhor.

Bene.
[aside] Is't possible? Sits the wind in that corner?

Leon.
By my troth, my lord, I cannot tell what to think of it, but that
she loves him with an enraged affection. It is past the infinite
of thought.

Pedro.
May be she doth but counterfeit.

Claud.
Faith, like enough.

Leon.
O God, counterfeit? There was never counterfeit of passion came
so near the life of passion as she discovers it.

Pedro.
Why, what effects of passion shows she?

Claud.
[aside] Bait the hook well! This fish will bite.

Leon.
What effects, my lord? She will sit you--you heard my daughter
tell you how.

Claud.
She did indeed.

Pedro.
How, how, I pray you? You amaze me. I would have thought her
spirit had been invincible against all assaults of affection.

Leon.
I would have sworn it had, my lord--especially against Benedick.

Bene.
[aside] I should think this a gull but that the white-bearded
fellow speaks it. Knavery cannot, sure, hide himself in such
reverence.

Claud.
[aside] He hath ta'en th' infection. Hold it up.

Pedro.
Hath she made her affection known to Benedick?

Leon.
No, and swears she never will. That's her torment.

Claud.
'Tis true indeed. So your daughter says. 'Shall I,' says she,
'that have so oft encount'red him with scorn, write to him that I
love him?'"

Leon.
This says she now when she is beginning to write to him; for
she'll be up twenty times a night, and there will she sit in her
smock till she have writ a sheet of paper. My daughter tells us
all.

Claud.
Now you talk of a sheet of paper, I remember a pretty jest your
daughter told us of.

Leon.
O, when she had writ it, and was reading it over, she found
'Benedick' and 'Beatrice' between the sheet?

Claud.
That.

Leon.
O, she tore the letter into a thousand halfpence, rail'd at
herself that she should be so immodest to write to one that she
knew would flout her. 'I measure him,' says she, 'by my own
spirit; for I should flout him if he writ to me. Yea, though I
love him, I should.'

Claud.
Then down upon her knees she falls, weeps, sobs, beats her heart,
tears her hair, prays, curses--'O sweet Benedick! God give me
patience!'

Leon.
She doth indeed; my daughter says so. And the ecstasy hath so
much overborne her that my daughter is sometime afeard she will
do a desperate outrage to herself. It is very true.

Pedro.
It were good that Benedick knew of it by some other, if she will
not discover it.

Claud.
To what end? He would make but a sport of it and torment the poor
lady worse.

Pedro.
An he should, it were an alms to hang him! She's an excellent
sweet lady, and (out of all suspicion) she is virtuous.

Claud.
And she is exceeding wise.

Pedro.
In everything but in loving Benedick.

Leon.
O, my lord, wisdom and blood combating in so tender a body, we
have ten proofs to one that blood hath the victory. I am sorry
for her, as I have just cause, being her uncle and her
guardian.

Pedro.
I would she had bestowed this dotage on me. I would have daff'd
all other respects and made her half myself. I pray you tell
Benedick of it and hear what 'a will say.

Leon.
Were it good, think you?

Claud.
Hero thinks surely she will die; for she says she will die if he
love her not, and she will die ere she make her love known, and
she will die, if he woo her, rather than she will bate one
breath of her accustomed crossness.

Pedro.
She doth well. If she should make tender of her love, 'tis very
possible he'll scorn it; for the man (as you know all) hath a
contemptible spirit.

Claud.
He is a very proper man.

Pedro.
He hath indeed a good outward happiness.

Claud.
Before God! and in my mind, very wise.

Pedro.
He doth indeed show some sparks that are like wit.

Claud.
And I take him to be valiant.

Pedro.
As Hector, I assure you; and in the managing of quarrels you may
say he is wise, for either he avoids them with great discretion,
or undertakes them with a most Christianlike fear.

Leon.
If he do fear God, 'a must necessarily keep peace. If he break
the peace, he ought to enter into a quarrel with fear and
trembling.

Pedro.
And so will he do; for the man doth fear God, howsoever it seems
not in him by some large jests he will make. Well, I am sorry for
your niece. Shall we go seek Benedick and tell him of her love?

Claud.
Never tell him, my lord. Let her wear it out with good counsel.

Leon.
Nay, that's impossible; she may wear her heart out first.


Pedro.
Well, we will hear further of it by your daughter. Let it cool
the while. I love Benedick well, and I could wish he would
modestly examine himself to see how much he is unworthy so good a
lady.

Leon.
My lord, will you walk? Dinner is ready.

                                           [They walk away.]

Claud.
If he dote on her upon this, I will never trust my expectation.

Pedro.
Let there be the same net spread for her, and that must your
daughter and her gentlewomen carry. The sport will be, when they
hold one an opinion of another's dotage, and no such matter.
That's the scene that I would see, which will be merely a dumb
show. Let us send her to call him in to dinner.

                   [Exeunt Don Pedro, Claudio, and Leonato.]

            [Benedick advances from the arbour.]

Bene.
This can be no trick. The conference was sadly borne; they have
the truth of this from Hero; they seem to pity the lady.  It
seems her affections have their full bent. Love me? Why, it must
be requited. I hear how I am censur'd. They say I will bear
myself proudly if I perceive the love come from her. They say too
that she will rather die than give any sign of affection. I did
never think to marry. I must not seem proud. Happy are they that
hear their detractions and can put them to mending. They say the
lady is fair--'tis a truth, I can bear them witness; and
virtuous--'tis so, I cannot reprove it; and wise, but for loving
me--by my troth, it is no addition to her wit, nor no great
argument of her folly, for I will be horribly in love with her. I
may chance have some odd quirks and remnants of wit broken on me
because I have railed so long against marriage. But doth not the
appetite alters? 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 a man from the career of his humour? No,
the world must be peopled. When I said I would die a bachelor, I
did not think I should live till I were married.

            [Enter Beatrice.]

Here comes Beatrice. By this day, she's a fair lady! I do spy
some marks of love in her.

Beat.
Against my will I am sent to bid You come in to dinner.

Bene.
Fair Beatrice, I thank you for your pains.

Beat.
I took no more pains for those thanks than you take pains to
thank me. If it had been painful, I would not have come.

Bene.
You take pleasure then in the message?

Beat.
Yea, just so much as you may take upon a knives point, and choke
a daw withal. You have no stomach, signior. Fare you well.
[Exit.]

Bene.
Ha! 'Against my will I am sent to bid you come in to dinner.'
There's a double meaning in that. 'I took no more pains for those
thanks than you took pains to thank me.' That's as much as to
say, 'Any pains that I take for you is as easy as thanks.' If I
do not take pity of her, I am a villain; if I do not love her, I
am a Jew. I will go get her picture.                   [Exit.]








gradesaver
Benedick is walking in Leonato's garden contemplating the change in Claudio since he fell in love with Hero. He decides that he will never fall in love the way Claudio did. He sees Claudio and Don Pedro coming and hides so he can listen to them. Don Pedro arrives with Claudio and Leonato. Don Pedro asks them if they saw where Benedick hid, and Claudio tells him they will give Benedick more than he bargained for. Balthasar is brought onstage to perform a song for them that he duly sings. After the song is over, Don Pedro asks Leonato if it is true that Beatrice is in love with Benedick. Leonato plays along with the lie, saying that he would never have suspected it given the way she treats Benedick in public. Don Pedro continues asking questions about Beatrice's love for Benedick while Benedick listens in the background, slowly becoming convinced that what Leonato is saying must be true. Claudio joins in, telling Don Pedro what he purportedly heard from Hero, and claiming that Hero thinks Beatrice will surely die before she reveals her love. The men leave, with Don Pedro hinting in an aside that the same net must be spread for Beatrice by Hero and Ursula. Benedick comes out of hiding and remarks that he cannot sit idly by and be censured for not returning Beatrice's love. He determines to be kind to Beatrice and consider marrying her. She comes out and bids him come to dinner, unaware that Benedick thinks she loves him. Beatrice is as unflattering as ever, making Benedick's attempts to be polite even more comical
Beatrice is one of the most pleasant characters because of her wit and sharp tongue. However, the audience soon realizes that she is so witty because she is on track to be a true spinster. Leonato tells her "By my troth, niece, thou wilt never get thee a husband if thou be so shrewd of thy tongue" . There is therefore a great deal of ambiguity over whether she will marry or not. Beatrice woefully comments on Hero's engagement, "Thus goes everyone in the world but I, and I am sunburnt" . In spite of her railings against marriage, Beatrice realizes that marriage is a way out of the house and that it represents the only way to escape from Leonato's protection. However, Beatrice is also more than aware that marriage brings many risks with it. "Would it not grieve a woman to be overmastered with a piece of valiant dust?" . Marriage for a woman is to risk her integrity by submitting to a man. A similar fate is seen by Benedick, who views marriage as risk to mens' honor. As a result, he commonly refers to bulls' horns and cuckoldry in the first act. Both Benedick and Beatrice hold a mature awareness of what marriage entails, causing them to shun it. This will show up later in the last act when Benedick remarks, "Thou and I are too wise to woo peaceably" . In fact, it is Beatrice and Benedick alone who pay the most attention to social customs. Ironically they do this while arguing with each other, thereby breaking with social norms. They put on a facade of disregard for social norms, but actually note what is happening around them far more than other people. This is evident when Leonato tells Beatrice, "Cousin, you apprehend passing shrewdly" . The masked ball is one of the more interesting scenes because of the fact that nearly everyone is unmasked before it starts. Leonato and Hero know that Don Pedro will approach her, Beatrice and Benedick, although seemingly unaware of who the other is, could arguably be quite aware of with whom they are speaking, and the other characters all recognize each other as well. Of all the characters present, only the two unmasked people at the ball, namely Borachio and Don John, are actually wearing masks. They pretend not to know Claudio and cause him to think Don Pedro is wooing Hero for himself. Benedick appears to be quite distraught over what Beatrice calls him at the ball, a Prince's jester. In speaking with Don Pedro he gives a wonderful performance in which his mind is wonderfully captured, a piling up of anger and fury but also commingled with his attempts to render the situation comical in order to entertain Don Pedro. This attempt at comedy in spite of his anger ironically confirms Beatrice's charge that he is the Prince's jester: She told me, not thinking I had been myself, that I was the prince's jester, that I was duller than a great thaw; huddling jest upon jest with such impossible conveyance upon me that I stood like a man at a mark, with a whole army shooting at me. She speaks poniards, and every word stabs: if her breath were as terrible as her terminations, there were no living near her; she would infect to the north star. I would not marry her, though she were endowed with all that Adam bad left him before he transgressed: she would have made Hercules have turned spit, yea, and have cleft his club to make the fire too. The quarreling between Benedick and Beatrice has often been marveled at, both within the play itself and by the audience. Many readers of the play try to imagine that they are in fact deeply in love in spite of their quarrels, and Beatrice does indicate that she previously loved Benedick: "Marry, once before he  won it  of me, with false dice" . However, their own words later on belie any sort of deeper love between them, especially in the last scene where they realize they have been tricked into declaring their love for one another. Yet the conspiracy to make them marry is a form of social pressure that they cannot overcome. Benedick, having overheard Leonato say Beatrice loves him, is afraid of being censured: "I hear how I am censured" . He later admits that, "The world must be peopled" . Their constant fight against the pressures of society fail in the end, and we are left thinking that marriage is itself a conspiracy. The specter of silence crops up again in this act, this time between Claudio and Hero. The silence between them will become more dangerous later when Claudio thinks Hero has committed infidelity. In this act he surprisingly cannot speak even once he realizes that she will marry him. He says, "Silence is the perfectest herald of joy" . The irony of course is that silence is no herald at all, but rather implies complete lack of emotion from either Hero or Claudio towards the other person. Language is a significant part of the play and the plot. Much Ado About Nothing has more prose than almost any other Shakespearian play, and it is significant to see how Shakespeare uses this prose. Benedick remarks on the change in Claudio by noting his change in language: "He was wont to speak plain and to the purpose, like an honest man and a soldier, and now is he turned orthography" . This shows the transition from uncluttered military language to stylistic prose, and it is indicative of some of the confusion in the play, specifically, people do not speak plainly. A common theme throughout Shakespearian drama is the role of gardens. Gardens are dangerous places to be because they harbor serpents trying to seduce the senses. Much Ado About Nothing has many garden scenes, all of which are involved in plotting against or confusing other characters. For instance, Don Pedro spread his rumors about Beatrice loving Benedick in the garden where Benedick is hiding. In the first scene Claudio and Don Pedro are overheard in the garden, causing Leonato to think Don Pedro wants to wed Hero. Beatrice will likewise overhear Hero and Ursula in the garden, causing her to think Benedick loves her. Shakespeare was acutely aware of the similarity between the words note, noting, and nothing: Don Pedro:Do it in notes. Balthasar: Note this before my notes: There's not a note of mine that's worth the noting. Don Pedro: Why, these are very crotchets  that he speaks - Note notes, forsooth, and nothing!" The song that Balthasar sings is a song about infidelity. However, the men listening all fail to note this song. Indeed, the song actually foreshadows what will be mis-noted in the near future when Hero is accused of infidelity. The use of the word fashion is deftly invoked by Shakespeare both as a noun and a verb. It represents the social system that all the characters are involved in, and is used to draw a parallel between the evil plots of Don John and the more mild ones of Don Pedro. "I would fain have it a match, and I doubt not but to fashion it" . This comment by Don Pedro is immediately followed by Don John who allows Borachio to fashion his plot as well: "I will so fashion the matter that Hero shall be absent" . The parallel between the two brothers makes their plots actually seem identical in a sense; they both corrupt the social system to achieve their own ends. The fact that society will condemn Don John but not Don Pedro is merely because we as a society think that marriage is not a crime whereas infidelity is. In many ways, the audience becomes guilty of Don Pedro's corruption of the truth while hypocritically condemning Don John's.
cliffnotes
Alone, Benedick talks to himself about how Claudio has changed since his engagement to Hero. Benedick has lost a good friend since Claudio now thinks of nothing but Hero and their approaching wedding. He ponders what perfect combination of qualities a woman must possess before he himself would marry her. When Benedick hears Claudio, Leonato, and Don Pedro approaching, he hides in the arbor to eavesdrop/note what they say. Don Pedro and the others know that Benedick has hidden himself within the sound of their voices. Don Pedro asks the musician Balthasar to sing for them, and he sings a song that begins, "Sigh no more, ladies, sigh no more. Men were deceivers ever." After the singer leaves, Don Pedro, Claudio, and Leonato converse loudly about how much Beatrice really loves Benedick in spite of the way she treats him. She will not show affection toward him for fear that she will be rejected. They agree not to speak of it to Benedick for now, and they leave. Benedick can scarcely believe what he has heard, but because Leonato was part of the group, he does not think it can be a joke. He admits that he did not plan to marry and has been contemptuous of marriage, but maybe he can change for the sake of Beatrice. In fact, he suddenly realizes she has all those qualities he was enumerating earlier. Beatrice reluctantly approaches Benedick to call him for dinner. When he tries to speak kindly to her, she replies unkindly and leaves. He tries to read love into her words and reaffirms to himself that he must try to love her.
This scene is the first of two contrived overhearing/noting scenes in Don Pedro's plan to bring Beatrice and Benedick together. Benedick does not perceive that they have set him up; instead, he eavesdrops/notes the contrived conversation about Beatrice and her love for him and believes it all. The next scene -- Act III, Scene 1 -- is a parallel scene in which Beatrice overhears/notes a conversation about Benedick's love for her. Benedick is first suspicious that this is a "gull" -- a hoax cooked up by his friends -- but Leonato, "the white-bearded fellow speaks it: knavery cannot sure hide himself in such reverence." Therefore, Benedick is inclined to believe what they say about Beatrice's love for him. Benedick's complete change of heart about marriage and about Beatrice is obvious in the comparison of his two monologues -- before and after his eavesdropping -- from his easy talk about the perfection he requires in a woman, to his admission that he "will be horribly in love with her." He recognizes that he is going against his reputation, and others may make fun of him when they find out. But he accepts the fact that he has a right to change his mind: . . . doth not the appetite alter? A man loves the meat in hisyouth, that he cannot endure in his age. He appears to move toward loving and being loved with relief first and then with eagerness. When Beatrice suddenly comes to call Benedick to dinner, he interprets even her insults as veiled expressions of affection. She, of course, has not yet been subjected to the planned eavesdropping/noting treatment by her friends .
pinkmonkey
This scene opens with Benedick alone, declaring again that he will never marry. He hears voices and hides in the bushes. The voices turn out to be those of Don Pedro, Leonato, and Claudio. Unbeknownst to Benedick, they have seen him hiding and know that he can hear them. Don Pedro uses this opportunity to put into action his matchmaking between Benedick and Beatrice. The three men talk amongst themselves about Beatrice's strong feelings for Benedick. They say they will not tell Benedick, since he will only mock poor Beatrice. They proceed to praise Beatrice for all her virtues, then leave to lay a similar trap for Beatrice. From his 'hiding' place, Benedick falls prey to the scheme. He is convinced of Beatrice's passion and is persuaded by the praises of the men that she is an excellent woman. He decides he loves her in return. As he is about to leave, Beatrice comes to ask him to dinner, a task that Hero has sent her to do. She tells Benedick the invitation is offered against her will. Thinking this is just her way of protecting her vulnerable feelings, Benedick accepts graciously. He goes off with Beatrice, having imagined himself in love with her and she with him, having not yet been tricked into falling in love.
Notes The trio of Claudio, Leonato, and Don Pedro are extremely ingenious in executing their plan, originally conceived by Don Pedro. Benedick automatically falls into the trap because of his great respect and trust for Leonato, whom he cannot believe guilty of such deception. Don Pedro's conversation with his friends appeals greatly to Benedick's self-love. That a lady of such an excellent nature as Beatrice should be attracted to him boosts his pride greatly. It increases his opinion of himself. His soliloquy gives ample proof of his thoughts and is one of the best examples of comic irony in the play. His views on marriage have all of a sudden undergone a drastic change. "The world must be peopled," he emphasizes. There is a great deal of audience participation in this scene. The supposed plot gives an additional role to the audience in that its members share in the inside story--the fooling of Benedick. The irony lies in the fact that the plotters know that Benedick is listening to them. Benedick does not 'note' that the conspirators know his hiding place while the audience 'notes' both deceptions.
novelguide
Benedick is taking a leisurely stroll in the park and talking to himself about marriage. He debates its pros and cons and its relevancy to his own life. Don Pedro, Claudio and Leonato enter the park, thereby forcing Benedick into hiding as he wishes to remain solitary. They discuss Beatrice's supposed infatuation with Benedick, fully aware that the man himself is absorbing this shocking information while hiding in the bushes. Leonato says that Beatrice cannot bear to show her affection for Benedick because she fears his sharp tongue. The men pity her and slander Benedick to the high heavens for unknowingly causing such pain. Don Pedro enhances the story with tales of fainting fits and suicide attempts for love. The men retreat to their chambers, leaving Benedick very confused. He is convinced that the men were sincere and that the whole thing is not a trick. Benedick wonders if he has blindly been too harsh to Beatrice, and if it is too late to change his bachelor ways. Beatrice enters the garden at this point, wholly unaware of Benedick's predicament. She informs him that dinner is ready and is startled when Benedick does not act snappish or rude. Beatrice exits with the newly lovestruck Benedick close behind.