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Dogberry is a character created by William Shakespeare for his play Much Ado About Nothing. The Nuttall Encyclopædia describes him as a "self-satisfied night constable" with an inflated view of his own importance as the leader of a group of comically bumbling watchmen. Dogberry is notable for his numerous , sometimes called "dogberryisms" or "dogberrys". The character was created for William Kempe, who played comic roles in Shakespeare's theatre company the Lord Chamberlain's Men.
During their watch, the constables overhear a conversation between two characters, Boraccio and Conrade, one of whom is part of Don John's plot to discredit Hero. They misunderstand the conversation and arrest the two on the spot for acts of "treason" because they called Don John a villain.
They are brought before the governor Leonato, who is at a loss to understand Dogberry's nonsensical description of the alleged crimes, but allows Dogberry to examine them. His absurd pseudo-legal rhetoric confuses matters even more, but when the Prince arrives at the truth about Don John, the plot is revealed and the arrested man confesses. Dogberry is rewarded for his diligence and leaves.
But Dogberry and his crew are also given a thematic function, as they (accidentally) uncover Don John's plot and begin the process of restoration that leads to the play's happy conclusion. In that sense, Dogberry's comic ineptitude is made to serve the sense of a providential force overseeing the fortunate restoration of social and emotional order.
In addition to frequent malapropism, Dogberry provides the list of charges as a numbered list out of order comprising redundant items:
and, in trying to make sure that the criminals' insulting of him is recorded in the evidence against them, Dogberry repeatedly insists that it be written down that "he an donkey." Implying that fact only makes his case worse and adds humour to the story.
While Dogberry is clearly unsuited for his role and a comedic character, he is ultimately a good man trying to do the right thing, however ineptly.
Though the play is nominally set in Sicily, Dogberry's watch appear to be acting under English law of the period, according to which loiterers at night could be arrested under the catch-all charge of vagrancy. Indeed, that would be the legal basis for arresting Boraccio and Conrade: "Though they do not say so, they were in reality arresting the men as vagrants according to Dogberry's injunction".
Dogberry was played by the noted comedy actor Samuel Johnson during the 1880s and 1890s for Henry Irving at the Lyceum Theatre in London. John Martin-Harvey described him as the acknowledged Shakespearean clown of his day, and his portrayal of Dogberry (1882 and 1893) reflects this claim. Productions of Much Ado About Nothing – Shakespeare and the Players website Johnson as Dogberry – Henry Irving Correspondence website J. P. Wearing, The London Stage 1890–1899: A Calendar of Productions, Performers, and Personnel, Bowman & Littlefield (2014) – Google Books p178
In a noted 1976 Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC) production set in India during the British Raj, John Woodvine played Dogberry "as a member of the local constabulary with a Peter Sellers Indian accent".Hattaway, Michael, "I've Processed my Guilt", in Shakespeare and the Twentieth Century: The Selected Proceedings of the International Shakespeare Association World Congress Los Angeles, 1996, University of Delaware Press, 1998, p.202. Christopher Benjamin alternated in the role with Terry Woods in Terry Hands' 1982 production for the RSC.
In the RSC's 2014 production, titled Love's Labour's Won, Nick Haverson played Dogberry. His performance was both praised and criticized for its addition of complexity through playing Dogberry's eccentricities and language errors as a potential side effect of PTSD or shell shock after fighting in the same war that Don Pedro and his soldiers are returned from (in this production, the First World War).
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