[Some scholarship has suggested this play dates from as early as 1588–1589, when it could have been a play for St. Paul's, and that it was revised circa 1596–1597]
a synoptic, alphabetical character list
ANTHONY DULL
A constable, Dull brings Costard before Ferdinand and gives him into Armado's custody. He is a pragmatist with words. In the pageant of the Nine Worthies, he agrees to dance and play the tabor.
ARMADO, DON
Don Adriano de Armado, a Spaniard sometimes identified as "the braggart", reports that Costard has violated Ferdinand's edict against conversing with women by wooing Jaquenetta. After Costard is imprisoned, Armado begins courting Jaquenetta himself. In the Pageant of the Nine Worthies, Armado plays Hector.
BEROWNE
With Longaville and Dumaine, Berowne is a lord attending King Ferdinand and a member of the Academe that Ferdinand founds as the play opens. As Ferdinand explains, the men of the Academe will achieve an immortality of sorts, living on in the memories of future generations. From the outset, Berowne quibbles about the Academe's regulations, agreeing to be a member for three years but taking issue with Ferdinand's strict regulations governing the academics' eating, sleeping, and socializing habits. Berowne's love-letter to Rosaline miscarries and eventually ends up in Ferdinand's possession, but soon Berowne discovers that he is not the only culprit when all of the academics confess that they have fallen in love. Berowne persuades the others that love is ennobling because it instigates and facilitates the pursuit of wisdom. They resolve to woo the French ladies, but they are initially rebuffed and then promised a better reception in a year's time.
BOYET
Boyet is a lord attending the Princess of France. When the Princess and her coterie arrive in Navarre, Boyet is sent to inform Ferdinand of their arrival. He returns to report that Ferdinand has ordered them lodged in a field in fulfillment of his edict prohibiting women from coming within one mile of his court. Boyet acts as a matchmaker in the play, teasing Rosaline, Maria, and Katherine about Ferdinand's academics Berowne, Dumaine, Longaville, and answering the academics' questions about the ladies. Later, Boyet tells the ladies that he has overheard the men discussing plans to woo them disguised as a Masque of Muscovites. Armed with this information, the ladies don masks and trick each man into wooing the wrong lady.
BRAGGART
An alternative designation for Armado. Armado is not, however, in the mold of the Miles Gloriosus but rather the stock Spanish soldier, the verbose and pompous bore.
COSTARD
Costard is the play's clown and the first to break Ferdinand's regulation prohibiting conversation with women. For courting Jaquenetta, Costard is condemned to a diet of bran and water in prison for one week, far short of the year's penalty prescribed in Ferdinand's edict. Armado offers to release him from the punishment if he will bear a letter to Jaquenetta, and while Costard is fulfilling this mission Berowne asks him to deliver a letter to Rosaline. Instead, Costard inadvertently surrenders Armado's letter to Boyet, who reads it aloud to the Princess of France and her attendants. Jaquenetta, of course, receives Berowne's letter, and Holofernes directs her to take the letter to Ferdinand. In the Pageant of the Nine Worthies, Costard depicts Pompey the Great. Costard has the distinction of uttering the longest word in all ofShakespeare's plays, "Honorificabilitudinitatibus." The word, which appears in other early modern plays, was thought to be the longest known word.
DON ADRIANO DE ARMADO
Armado's full name. See "ARMADO, DON."
DUMAINE
With Longaville and Berowne, Dumaine is a lord attending Navarre's King Ferdinand and a member of the Academe that Ferdinand founds as the play opens. As Ferdinand explains, the men will achieve an immortality of sorts, living on in the memories of future generations. Dumaine agrees to adhere to Ferdinand's statutes, which bind the academics for a period of three years and include a vow to eschew the company of women. When the Princess of France arrives in Navarre, the men's vows are soon forgotten, and Dumaine begins courting the princess' attendant Katherine. At the end of the play, Dumaine, like the other men, is told that he will have to postpone his wooing for one year.
FERDINAND
Ferdinand, king of Navarre, founds the all-male Academe with the goal of achieving the immortality of lasting fame. The academics are bound by strict rules governing their eating, sleeping, and socializing. Ferdinand also prohibits women from coming within one mile of his Academe. First Costard and then Don Armado violate Ferdinand's rules by courting Jaquenetta, then the Princess of France arrives in Navarre with her ladies Maria, Katherine, Rosaline, who prove too irresistible for the men of Ferdinand's academe. Ferdinand and his followers begin to woo the ladies, but when the King of France dies the men promise to wait a year before resuming their courtship.
FORESTER
A forester shows the Princess of France where she and her attendants can hunt deer and observe Ferdinand and his men Berowne, Dumaine, Longaville, unseen.
HECTOR
Armando's role in the Pageant of the Nine Worthies.
HOLOFERNES
Holofernes the pedant is a schoolmaster. He plays Judas Maccabaeus in the Pageant of the Nine Worthies. At the end of the play he rebuffs the others, who have made fun of his pedantry, telling them that they are not gentle.
JAQUENETTA
Jaquenetta is a country wench courted first by Costard and then by Armado.
JOSHUA
One of the Nine Worthies mentioned but not appearing in the pageant before it is interrupted. When Sir Nathaniel asks Holofernes if there are enough men to play the nine worthies, Holofernes begins by naming Joshua. The punctuation could lead to the conclusion that Holofernes is giving Sir Nathaniel the part of Joshua, but later Sir Nathaniel performs the part of Alexander the Great.
KATHERINE
Rosaline, Maria, and Katherine are ladies attending the Princess of France. Katherine had a sister who died for love, and she is consequently resistant to Dumaine's courtship. At the end of the play, when the death of the princess' father, the King of France, summons the ladies back to France, Katherine like the other ladies imposes conditions on her lover. If Dumaine wants to win Katherine, he must wait one year.
KING of FRANCE
A "ghost character." Marcade interrupts the Pageant of Nine Worthies to inform the Princess of France that her father is dead.
LONGAVILLE
With Berowne and Dumaine, Longaville is a lord attending King Ferdinand and a member of the Academe that Ferdinand founds as the play opens. As Ferdinand explains, the men will achieve an immortality of sorts, living on in the memories of future generations. Longaville agrees to adhere to Ferdinand's statutes, which bind the academics for a period of three years and include a vow to eschew the company of women. When the Princess of France arrives in Navarre, the men's vows are soon forgotten, and Longaville begins courting the princess' attendant Maria. At the end of the play Longaville, like the other men, agrees to resume his courtship after a year-long hiatus.
MARCADE
Marcade and Boyet are lords attending the Princess of France. During the Pageant of the Nine Worthies, Marcade arrives with the news that the princess' father, the King of France, is dead.
MARIA
Rosaline, Maria, and Katherine are ladies attending the Princess of France. At the end of the play, when the death of the princess' father, the King of France, summons the ladies back to France, Maria like the other ladies imposes conditions on her lover. If Longaville wants to win Maria, he must wait one year.
MOTH or MOTE
Moth, Armado's page, plays Hercules in the Pageant of the Nine Worthies.
MUSCOVITES
As part of their attempt to woo the Princess of France and her ladies, Rosaline, Maria, and Katherine, Ferdinand and his Academics, Berowne, Longaville, and Dumaine, present a masque in which the men play Muscovites. Boyet overhears the men planning the masque and informs the ladies, who turn the tables by donning masques themselves and tricking the men into wooing the wrong women.
NAVARRE
An alternative designation for Ferdinand.
NINE WORTHIES
The Pageant of the Nine Worthies occurs towards the end of the play. Traditionally the Nine Worthies are Hector (a part taken by Armado); Caesar; Joshua; David; Judas Maccabaeus (Holofernes); Alexander the Great (Sir Nathaniel); King Arthur; Charlemagne; and Godfrey of Bologne. The pageant apparently substitutes some worthies because Moth presents Hercules as a child, and Costard plays Pompey the Great. Ferdinand and his academics, Berowne, Longaville, and Dumaine, mock the pageant, but the Princess of France is a more courteous spectator.
POMPEY the GREAT
Costard's role in the Pageant of the Nine Worthies.
PRINCESS of FRANCE
By the time the princess and her attendants, Rosaline, Maria, Katherine, Boyet, Marcade, and several Lords, arrive in Navarre, Ferdinand and his fellow-academics, Berowne, Dumaine, and Longaville, have made a vow not to speak to women for three years. The vow is quickly forgotten when the men fall in love with the ladies. When the lovers' amusement is cut short by news that the princess' father, the king of France, has died, the princess imposes conditions that Ferdinand must fulfil if he wants to win her. Rosaline, Katherine, and Maria impose similar conditions on their respective lovers, and the play ends with the hope that the courtships will resume their courtship after a year's mourning.
ROSALINE
Rosaline, Maria, and Katherine are ladies attending the Princess of France. At the end of the play, when the death of the princess' father, the King of France, summons the ladies back to France, Rosaline like the other ladies imposes conditions on her lover. If Berowne wants to win Rosaline, he must spend one year telling jokes in a hospital.
SIR NATHANIEL
Sir Nathaniel, a curate, plays Alexander the Great in the Pageant of the Nine Worthies.