Much Ado About Nothing 3.5 - Leonato interrupts Dogberry

Much Ado About Nothing

Please see the bottom of this page for detailed explanatory notes and related resources.

ACT III SCENE V	Another room in LEONATO'S house.
	Enter LEONATO, with DOGBERRY and VERGES.
LEONATO	What would you with me, honest neighbour?
DOGBERRY	Marry, sir, I would have some confidence with you
	that decerns you nearly.
LEONATO	Brief, I pray you; for you see it is a busy time with me.
DOGBERRY	Marry, this it is, sir.
VERGES	Yes, in truth it is, sir.
LEONATO	What is it, my good friends?	8
DOGBERRY	Goodman Verges, sir, speaks a little off the
	matter: an old man, sir, and his wits are not so
	blunt as, God help, I would desire they were; but,
	in faith, honest as the skin between his brows.
VERGES	Yes, I thank God I am as honest as any man living
	that is an old man and no honester than I.
DOGBERRY	Comparisons are odorous: palabras, neighbour Verges.
LEONATO	Neighbours, you are tedious.
DOGBERRY	It pleases your worship to say so, but we are the
	poor duke's officers; but truly, for mine own part,
	if I were as tedious as a king, I could find it in
	my heart to bestow it all of your worship.	21
LEONATO	All thy tediousness on me, ah?
DOGBERRY	Yea, an 'twere a thousand pound more than 'tis; for
	I hear as good exclamation on your worship as of any
	man in the city; and though I be but a poor man, I
	am glad to hear it.
VERGES	And so am I.
LEONATO	I would fain know what you have to say.
VERGES	Marry, sir, our watch to-night, excepting your
	worship's presence, ha' ta'en a couple of as arrant
	knaves as any in Messina.	31
DOGBERRY	A good old man, sir; he will be talking: as they
	say, when the age is in, the wit is out: God help
	us! it is a world to see. Well said, i' faith,
	neighbour Verges: well, God's a good man; an two men
	ride of a horse, one must ride behind. An honest
	soul, i' faith, sir; by my troth he is, as ever
	broke bread; but God is to be worshipped; all men
	are not alike; alas, good neighbour!
LEONATO	Indeed, neighbour, he comes too short of you.
DOGBERRY	Gifts that God gives.	41
LEONATO	I must leave you.
DOGBERRY	One word, sir: our watch, sir, have indeed
	comprehended two aspicious persons, and we would
	have them this morning examined before your worship.
LEONATO	Take their examination yourself and bring it me: I
	am now in great haste, as it may appear unto you.
DOGBERRY	It shall be suffigance.
LEONATO	Drink some wine ere you go: fare you well.
	Enter a Messenger.
Messenger	My lord, they stay for you to give your daughter to
	her husband.	50
LEONATO	I'll wait upon them: I am ready.
	Exeunt LEONATO and Messenger.
DOGBERRY	Go, good partner, go, get you to Francis Seacole;
	bid him bring his pen and inkhorn to the gaol: we
	are now to examination these men.
VERGES	And we must do it wisely.
DOGBERRY	We will spare for no wit, I warrant you; here's
	that shall drive some of them to a non-come: only
	get the learned writer to set down our
	excommunication and meet me at the gaol.
	Exeunt

Next: Much Ado About Nothing, Act 4, Scene 1

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Explanatory Notes for Act 3, Scene 5

From Much Ado About Nothing. Ed. A. Wilson Verity. London: Rivingtons.

12 Honest as the skin, &c. A proverbial expression. The editors quote from Gammer Gurton's Needle, v. 2, "I am as true ... as skin betwene thy brows."

15 Comparisons are odorous. "Every schoolboy" will remember Mrs. Maloprop's "Caparisons are odious."

Palabras. A corruption of the Spanish pocas palabras — 'few words,' an Elizabethan equivalent of "Shut up." No doubt sailors who went out with Drake and Raleigh and the sea-marauders of the time brought back these scraps of foreign slang. This particular phrase occurs very often; e.g. in the Induction to the Taming of the Shrew, line 5. From palabras comes palaver. Same root as parable, parole, &c.

18 It pleases, &c. Evidently Dogberry imagines that tediousness is a valuable possession; hence his flattering readiness to make Leonato a present of it.

19 The poor duke's officers. Meaning 'the duke's poor officers.' "The poor duke's constable," Measure for Measure, ii. I. 48.

29 To-night. Meaning 'last night.' Cf. Merchant of Venice, ii. 4. 17-18 —

"There is some ill a-brewing towards my rest,
For I did dream of money-bags to-night."
See Abbott, p. 126.

Excepting. Like "Saving your reverence" in the last scene, 33; a vulgarism that has survived.

33 When the age. An unauthorised version of the proverb, "When the ale is in the wit is out." The editors quote Heywood's Epigrams and Proverbs —

"When ale is in, wit is out
When ale is out, wit is in.
The first thou showest out of doubt,
The last in thee hath not bin."

34 It is a world. Perhaps a proverbial saying. "It is a world to hear their presumption," Bernard's Translation of Terence, 1598; quoted in the New Shakspere Society's papers (1875-1876), p. 460. Compare Taming of the Shrew, ii. 313. Our phrase would be, "It is a treat."

57 Non-come. Dogberry is probably thinking of the legal phrase non compos mentis. He has heard it somewhere, and drags a fragment in, to the admiration, doubtless, of his brother-officials.

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How to cite the explanatory notes:

Shakespeare, William. Much Ado About Nothing. Ed. A. Wilson Verity. London: Rivingtons, 1890. Shakespeare Online. 20 Feb. 2010. (date when you accessed the information) < http://www.shakespeare-online.com/plays/much_3_5.html >.

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