THE LORD CHAMBERLAIN’S MAN 161
condenses many of the play’s
concerns about class and gender
conflict, reveals her desire to move
up socially. In the RSC production in
1996, she was caught at this point
by Benedick with one of Hero’s
dresses. Access to these outward
signs of social status makes her a
threat in a society that depends so
much on signs. However, Constable
Dogberry’s efforts to sound like
his betters fail miserably. He
epitomizes a society distracted by
surfaces, where words are easily
divorced from their meaning.
Pairs and frames
The play is structured around pairs:
Leonato and his brother Antonio;
Claudio and Don Pedro; Borachio
and Conrad; Dogberry and Verges.
And Messina is a society where
marriage is the rule. Don Pedro’s
scheme to make Beatrice and
Benedick pair up, therefore, is not
purely comic. It brings firmly into
line two individuals who otherwise
stand out uncomfortably against
Messina’s values in their preference
for the bachelor life. Claudio and
Hero are easily reconciled once her
innocence is proven. But Beatrice
and Benedick seem determined
not to admit their love. In her final
lines, Beatrice hints that she might
yet refuse to be neatly paired off.
Most productions follow the
editorial tradition and attribute
the reply, “Peace! I will stop your
mouth” (5.4.97) to Benedick, as he
kisses Beatrice. But the Quarto and
Folio texts give this line to Leonato,
who may be using his patriarchal
authority to bring Beatrice to heel.
Like The Taming of the Shrew,
there is ambiguity in the ending.
By the end of the play, Don
Pedro is the only single man left.
Without an heir, he leaves his estate
vulnerable to the plotting of others
such as his bastard brother Don
John. A born outsider, John refuses
all efforts to be framed in Messina’s
codes. In a world of wordplay heguards his silence: ”I am not of
many words” (1.1.150). Refusing to
perform, he is what he seems. News
of his recapture darkens the festive
mood. In the 1990 RSC production,
he stood at the edge of the stage,
and stared at Don Pedro as if
reigniting the conflict suggested
at the beginning of the play. ■And when I lived
I was your other wife;
And when you loved
you were my other husband.
Hero
Act 5, Scene 4One Hero died defiled,
but I do live,
And surely as I live,
I am a maid.
Hero
Act 5, Scene 4The banter between Benedick and
Beatrice is central to the play’s charm.
In the 2007 production at London’s
National Theatre, Simon Russell Beale
and Zoe Wanamaker played the pair.