Chapter Synopsis and Commentary 2 of Much Ado About Nothing - Study Guide by William Shakespeare

Messina; he may be trying to find out whether she loves Benedick (significantly, his plan to make them fall in love is hatched just after he asks Beatrice to marry him); he may be in love with her. If this last is true, then Benedick and Don Pedro are rivals in love. Benedick suggests this in his last remark to Don Pedro:

"Prince, thou art sad; get thee a wife, get thee a wife. There is no staff more reverend than one tipped with horn." (5.4.120-22)

Benedick has the last words of the play. He suggests dancing, over-riding Leonato's protest ("we'll have dancing afterward"), and after the messenger brings the news of Don John's capture, he tells Don Pedro not to "think on" him until the next day. He then commands the pipers to "strike up" (5.4.115-26). Benedick is assuming control; his new status as Beatrice's husband and hence Leonato's nephew allows him to do this. He has succeeded on two counts where Don Pedro has failed. Claudio is now Leonato's son-in- law, which leaves Don Pedro excluded from the family circle. This is a typical Shakespearian device: someone is always excluded from the circle of happy revellers. In As You Like It it is Jacques; in Twelfth Night, Malvolio; in The Winter's Tale, Paulina. This indicates the generic complexity of Shakespeare's work (see below).