Watch

A group responsible for guarding streets and maintaining order at night.

Dogberry is the self-important constable of Messina: an officer responsible for keeping the peace. His partner is Verges, and the watch carries out the night patrol. Dogberry wants others to recognise his wisdom and authority, but his attempts to sound impressive repeatedly reveal his confusion.

Ordinary citizens responsible for patrolling streets and apprehending suspected wrongdoers before the development of a professional police force.

Part (b): distinguish the watch’s actions from Dogberry’s: the watch overhears and arrests the men; Dogberry struggles to communicate the discovery.

Part (b): connect comedy to consequences across the play. Dogberry’s rambling delays the truth before the wedding, but the watch’s evidence makes the resolution possible.

Part (b): link context to your argument. Amateur policing helps explain the watch’s duties and limitations; Kempe’s comic skills help explain Dogberry’s role as an entertaining clown.

A group carrying out night-time policing duties, such as patrolling streets and apprehending offenders.

Dogberry is the self-important constable who directs Messina’s watch, assisted by Verges. They first appear in Act 3 Scene 3, when the threat to Hero’s marriage is already developing. Their police duties make them responsible for public order, but Dogberry seems more interested in sounding authoritative than in explaining how to enforce the law.

A group responsible for guarding streets at night and maintaining public order.

With his fellow officer Verges, he supervises the watch, the men who guard Messina’s streets at night. He considers himself wise, respectable and important. Shakespeare makes him funny by exposing the distance between this self-image and his actual abilities.

Definition

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Edexcel GCSE English Literature · 1ET0

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OCR GCSE English Literature · J352

Eduqas GCSE English Literature · C720