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Summary
Holofernes and Nathaniel discuss Armado, with whom Nathaniel has been conversing. They mock his inferior intellect, criticizing his pronunciation and saying that they abhor “such rackers of orthography” (5.1.20). Armado, Mote, and Costard enter. Armado tells the learned men that the King has asked him to prepare some entertainment for the Princess and her consort of ladies. He asks Holofernes and Nathaniel for their help in planning this entertainment, and Holofernes suggests that they present a show of the Nine Worthies. The men discuss who will play which role, and Holofernes says that he will play three of the roles himself. They then go off to plan their show.
Later, in the forest, the Princess shows her ladies a jewel that the King has sent her, and the four women discuss love. Katherine mentions her sister, who died of love. Rosaline then tells them that she has received a letter from Berowne with verses and a picture of her. Katherine has likewise received a letter and a single glove from Dumaine, and Maria has received a letter and some pearls from Longaville.
Boyet arrives and tells the ladies that the King and his companions are on their way to court their respective loves, and that they’ve disguised themselves as Russians. The Princess quickly instructs her ladies to mask themselves and to switch favors so that the men will “woo contrary, deceived by these removes” (5.2.142).
The men enter, and Mote makes a speech, during which Boyet interrupts him and Berowne corrects him. Rosaline, pretending to be the Princess, asks what the strangers want, and the King tells her they want to converse with them. Each man takes turns appealing to the woman he thinks is his lady, and each pair converses separately. Eventually, Rosaline tells them it is time to go, and the men leave. Each woman reveals that her respective man has pledged his love to her, and they note happily how gullible the men have turned out to be. They realize that the men will soon return, so they switch their favors back—but not before agreeing to continue with their mockery of the lords.
The men arrive, now dressed as themselves, and the King offers to bring the women to his court. However, the Princess tells him that she does not want him to break his oath, since “nor God, nor I, delights in perjured men” (5.2.379). She then tells him that a group of Russians has recently visited, and Rosaline complains that the Russians were fools. Soon, though, the women reveal that the costumes did not fool them.
The King then confesses that he was just there, in costume, and the Princess asks him what he told his lady. She warns him that he must keep his oath, and he ensures her that he will. She then asks Rosaline what the Russian told her, and she repeats the words of the King. Confused, he says that he knew the Princess by the jewel on her sleeve, but he soon realizes the trick that the women played on them. Berowne laments that “to our perjury to add more terror, / We are again forsworn in will and error” (5.2.516–17).
Analysis
Act 5 opens with another comic scene focused on ridiculing the pretentiousness of the scholarly inclined. In this case, the ridicule is directed at Armado, whose way of speaking becomes a subject of discussion between Holofernes and Nathaniel. Holofernes offers a surprisingly apt critique of Armado’s speech when he says, “He draweth out the thread of his verbosity finer than the staple of his argument” (5.1.17–18). As we in the audience have already experienced, Armado does have a unique way of speaking, at once wordy and strangely formal. Like a second-rate philosopher, he takes far too long to get to his point. Yet it’s also hilariously hypocritical of Holofernes to complain about Armado’s speech when his is equally—if not more—affected and difficult to follow. Shakespeare finds an amusing way to poke fun at Holofernes at the end of the scene, when the pedant draws attention to the fact that Constable Dull hasn’t said a word since arriving. Dull responds: “Nor understood none neither, sir” (5.1.150). Dull is certainly as dull as his name. Yet the conversation between Holofernes and Nathanial also strains the comprehension of the learned. The critique goes both ways.
The epic final scene begins with a lengthy contest of wits between the ladies and the lords, and once again the ladies consistently have the upper hand. They clearly enjoy mocking the men, who seem to misunderstand their personalities and desires. The ladies do appreciate the gifts the lords have sent them—though Katherine is somewhat confused at having received just one glove without its twin. But they all laugh at the poems the lords have written to them. For one thing, the verses are ridiculous in their sheer quantity. As Maria complains: “The letter is too long by half a mile” (5.2.59). For another thing, the poems consistently fail to describe the ladies as they actually are. As Rosaline wryly comments regarding Berowne’s verses: “I am compared to twenty thousand fairs” (5.2.40). The ladies are clearly unimpressed with the lords’ expressions of love, and as the Princess indicates, what they really would have appreciated is more material gifts: “Dost thou not wish in heart / The chain were longer and the letter short?” (5.2.60–61). Clearly, the men and the women are not on the same page.
The battle of wits between the lords and the ladies also extends the play’s overarching emphasis on wordplay and the slippery nature of language. Here, though, Shakespeare transforms this theme into a material phenomenon. When the lords arrive to find the ladies all masked, they must rely on the gifts they sent as signs of which lady is which. However, this way of “reading” the ladies turns out not to work, since the women have all exchanged gifts. There is thus a mismatch between the signifiers and what they signify. Berowne complains about the trick using a similar language of signs, saying that “we, / Following the signs, wooed but the signs of she” (5.2.514–15). After being subjected to such mockery, the lords are beginning to feel a bit raw. Their frustration with the ladies becomes more evident as the long scene approaches the halfway point. For instance, when the Princess persists in taking all his phrases literally, the King begs her: “Construe my speeches better, if you may” (5.2.374). It remains to be seen if and how the contest between the sexes will be resolved as the lords gear up for the pageant of the Nine Worthies.
