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Summary
Berowne enters carrying a paper that contains a poem to Rosaline. He hears someone else coming and hides. The King enters in a love-induced swoon and reads a poem he has written. Berowne is surprised to learn that the King is also in love. Then the King hears Longaville approaching and hides. Longaville enters, speaks of his love for Maria, and reads a poem he has written. He hides when he hears another approaching, and Dumaine enters, moaning longingly for Kate. He reads an ode that he has written and laments that his friends do not share his suffering.
Longaville comes out of hiding to chide Dumaine. At this, the King advances and reveals that he has also heard of Longaville’s love for Maria. He scolds the two lords for breaking their oath and asks, “What will Berowne say when that he shall hear / A faith infringed, which such zeal did swear?” (4.3.1). At this, Berowne comes forward and reprimands all three men for breaking their oaths.
Just then, Jaquenetta and Costard enter with a letter, telling the King they bear evidence of treason. Berowne, recognizing this as the letter he wrote to Rosaline, tries to sneak away, but the King stops him and instructs him to read it. Berowne takes the letter and tries to destroy the evidence by tearing it up, but Dumaine recovers a scrap and identifies Berowne’s handwriting as well as his signature. At this, Berowne confesses that he, too, is in love. An argument then ensues about which of their loves is the most beautiful.
The King realizes that they are all in love “and thereby all forsworn” (4.3.303). Eager to avoid the shame of perjury due to the strict constraints of their oath, the King asks Berowne to “prove / Our loving lawful, and our faith not torn” (4.3.304–305). Berowne then makes a long speech in which he argues that to look at a woman is the best way to learn beauty. He concludes, therefore, that their vow to scholarship has in fact led them further away from what should be their true object of study. The King accepts this argument, and the lords resolve to woo the women.
Analysis
In act 4, scene 3, Shakespeare ceases to rely on wordplay as the chief source of humor and instead shifts toward a brilliant use of situational comedy. The first part of the scene is structured by a hilarious sequence in which each lord enters in turn with a love sonnet to read aloud. As each new lover approaches, the one onstage withdraws into hiding, allowing him to eavesdrop on the newcomer. We watch eagerly as the tension builds, and when all four lords are finally onstage, the sequence of concealment reverses itself, with each hidden lord coming out of hiding. The stagecraft of the scene is certainly part of the comedy. But also crucial is the way each lord is shown to be a hypocrite. Despite being ready to act self-righteously when he thinks he’s in the clear, each lord is then forced to walk back their righteousness when called out for his deceit. This sequence of chastening may be interpreted as a corrective to the previous scene, where Holofernes and Nathaniel are allowed to act with righteous superiority without correction.
Another key source of comedy in this scene is the way each of the lords resorts to writing love poems. Unable to maintain their focus on their studies, they’ve each chosen to put pen to paper and wax melancholy about their respective infatuations. As Berowne puts it near the beginning of the scene, “By heaven, I do love, and it hath taught me to rhyme, and to be melancholy” (4.3.12–13). Intriguingly, the presence of so many written poems is frequently linked to the legal concept of perjury—that is, they are “guilty rhymes” (4.3.144) that prove how each lord has broken their vow. Thus, when Longaville enters, probably with several poem drafts pinned to his cap, Berowne proclaims, “Why, he comes in like a perjure, wearing papers!” (4.3.45). Also funny is the way the poems in the scene display the varying talents of their poets. Indeed, the poems seem to get worse as the scene unfolds. But regardless of their uneven quality, it’s clear that all the poems trade in well-trod love tropes, and the humor is always at the lords’ expense.
The lords’ penchant for poetry leads them astray in amusing ways that invite the audience to question whether they truly love the ladies or if they’re simply infatuated with their own ideas about the ladies. For instance, once they’ve all been exposed as oath breakers, they fall into an argument about whose beloved is most beautiful. What’s hilarious, though, is that this argument gets derailed when the King calls Berowne’s love “black as ebony” (4.3.267), meaning this as an insult to Rosaline’s dark hair. But Berowne, in his cleverness, responds as though the King has complimented Rosaline by comparing ebony to her: “Is ebony like her? O word divine!” (4.3.268). This, in turn, leads him to proclaim that “no face is fair that is not full so black” (4.3.473). The paradoxical nature of this pronouncement leads to an argument that, though ostensibly still about the ladies, seems increasingly to be about which of the lords is cleverest with words. Berowne resolves the argument by unfolding a dubious and self-serving argument about women’s eyes being the true source of knowledge. The lords agree that they were right to break their oaths and that they in fact must pursue the ladies if they wish to remain true to the original spirit of their pursuit.
