When the messenger reports Don Pedro's return, Beatrice asks about “Signior Mountanto.” Which relationship does her question bring back onstage?

Claudio asks Benedick what he thinks of Hero soon after the soldiers arrive. What does Claudio's question reveal?

Benedick mocks Claudio's interest in Hero instead of praising her. What role does Benedick play in this early courtship plot?

What does Don Pedro mean when he tells Claudio he will “assume thy part in some disguise” at the revel?

Before the revel, which action is Leonato's after hearing a report about Don Pedro and Hero?

After Don Pedro's masked wooing is explained, what is the actual result for Claudio?

Beatrice says she “had rather hear my dog bark at a crow than a man swear he loves me.” What attitude does the boast establish?

Benedick greets Beatrice with “What, my dear Lady Disdain! are you yet living?” What does the greeting show?

Beatrice tells Benedick, “I wonder that you will still be talking, Signior Benedick: nobody marks you.” What is the sting of the insult?

Benedick vows he will live a bachelor. Don Pedro replies, “In time the savage bull doth bear the yoke.” What is Don Pedro predicting?

When Don Pedro tells Beatrice she has lost Benedick's heart, she jokes that he once lent it to her and she gave him a “double heart.” What does this hint at?

At the masked ball, Beatrice calls Benedick “the prince's jester” while speaking to the masked Benedick. Why does the moment matter?

Don John asks the masked Claudio, “Are not you Signior Benedick?” and Claudio answers as if he is. What does the disguise allow?

Claudio concludes, “Friendship is constant in all other things / Save in the office and affairs of love.” What has he just come to believe?

Once Claudio and Hero are matched, Don Pedro takes on “one of Hercules' labours” to fill the week before the wedding. What is it?

Don John says, “I cannot hide what I am” and would rather be “a canker in a hedge” than “a rose” in grace. What does this set up?

What information does Borachio bring Don John in Act 1 that gives Don John his first opening against Claudio?

At the ball, how does Don John's lie threaten Claudio's courtship?

In Act 2, what does Borachio propose to make Claudio and Don Pedro think they witness?

Beatrice and Benedick trade insults in front of others, not only in private. What does the public setting add to their “merry war”?

Beatrice's nickname “Signior Mountanto” borrows a fencing term for Benedick. What does that epithet mainly do?

In the gulling scene, Don Pedro, Claudio, and Leonato stage a conversation for hidden Benedick to overhear. Which dramatic technique drives the scene?