In the second Act; Don Pedro, Claudio and Leonato are sitting in the garden discussing how to fool Benedict that Beatrice is in love with him. They start their conversation in loud voices so Benedict could overhear them and they pretend that Benedict is not present. They spoke how Beatrice was deeply in love with him and made up stories about Beatrice how she reacted to Benedict’s refusal to return her love. Benedict after overhearing their conversation begins to feel sorry for Beatrice and promises to return her love. Thus, here he has been set up by his friends to fall in love with Beatrice.
After Don Pedro is successful in his plan; Hero and Ursula decide to do the same on Beatrice. Hero ask Margaret to whisper into Beatrice’s ears that Hero and Ursula are gossiping about her and advices her to hide into “pleached bower where honeysuckles, ripened by the sun”. Hero and Ursula talk loudly how Beatrice refuses to return Benedict’s love and Benedict is scared to inform her about his love because she would start mocking him. Same here, Beatrice feels sorry for what she has done, and promises to return his love. Thus, Don Pedro, Leonato, Claudio, Hero and Ursula are successful in setting up both Benedict and Beatrice to love each other.
Borachio informs Don John about his plan to break up Claudio’s marriage. The plan was to tell Claudio and Don Pedro that Hero has been unfaithful and they saw a man in her chamber after midnight. Don John promises to pay a thousand ducats if he carries out the plan well. So before Claudio’s and Hero’s wedding day, Don John tells Claudio and Don Pedro that Hero has been unfaithful to Claudio and they have seen her talking to a man (who was actually Borachio and only Don John knew about it) in her chamber window after midnight. Claudio and Don Pedro believe them without seeing it and are prepared to embarrass her on the wedding day.
After Borachio is successful in carrying out the plan, he gets paid the promised amount. He gets drunk with his counterpart Conrade and boasts about his marvellous plan which will spoil Claudio’s marriage and how he got paid. Unfortunately, the Watch heard all about it and arrested them.
Before the wedding, Dogberry and Verges go to Leonato to inform him about what Borachio and Don John have done to spoil Hero’s wedding. Verges is on the verge of telling him what happened but Dogberry keeps trying to use fancy words to impress Leonato but makes a fool out of himself because he didn’t know what he was speaking about. Thus, Leonato does not get their message at all. Dogberry used words like “confidence...decerns” where he meant conference...concerns, “blunt” where he meant sharp, “odorous” where he meant odious, “exclamation” where he meant acclamation, “comprehend...aspicious” where he meant apprehended...suspicious, “excommunication” where he meant examination and “suffigance ” where he meant sufficient. Dogberry’s failure of conveying the message improperly shows how foolish and uneducated he is.
After Claudio and Don Pedro embarrass Hero on her wedding day, Leonato gets angry with his daughter and sought to kill her. But the Friar believes Hero’s innocence and asked them to pronounce as if Hero has died which will make Claudio and other sorry for her. This made Borachio tell them the truth about what exactly happened and who was the mastermind behind the plan.
As Hero has died, Leonato will accept his forgiveness only if he marries Antonio’s daughter. Claudio promises to do so and on the wedding day of Claudio to Antonio’s daughter he finds Hero as Antonio’s daughter and is glad to hear that she hasn’t died and soon get married. On the same day, Benedict and Beatrice get married although they have promised never to do so. Don John is arrested. The play ends with a happy yet comical ending.
