The Pietas Of Dogberry

Summary

A half-century ago, John Allen noted that Dogberry had largely ‘escaped serious critical attention’, which Allen attempted to rectify by suggesting an equivalence between the ‘idiocy of Dogberry’ and ‘the equally irrational actions’ of his social superiors. Allen further described him as ‘pompous’, ‘inordinately self-admiring’ and ‘self-ignoran[t]’.² In Kenneth Branagh’s film of Much Ado about Nothing, Michael Keaton’s portrayal of a demented Dogberry is not far removed from the usual animadversions on his ‘[c]onceited ignorance and vast self-importance’, the ‘stupidity’ that renders him ‘a pure joke’ – not to mention the general Dogberrian ‘asininity’ that the character of Conrade and critics see in him.³ To adapt Beatrice’s comment about Benedick, we ‘laugh at’ Dogberry, but then in our criticism we ‘beat him’.