In which Shakespeare play does Dogberry appear?
Dogberry Dogberry Dogberry is a character created by William Shakespeare for his play, "Much Ado About Nothing". He is described by The Nuttall Encyclopædia as a "self-satisfied night constable" with an inflated view of his own importance as the leader of a group of comically bumbling police watchmen. Dogberry is notable for his numerous malapropisms, which sometimes are referred to as "dogberryisms" after him. The Dogberry character was created for William Kempe, who played comic roles in Shakespeare's theatre company the Lord Chamberlain's Men. In the play, Dogberry is the chief of the citizen-police in Messina. He is first seen instructing
Dogberry Dogberry's injunction". Dogberry was almost certainly created to be performed by William Kempe, as the names "Kemp" and "Kem" are sometimes accidentally substituted for the character-name in the published version of the play. 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. In a noted 1976 Royal Shakespeare Company (RSC) production set in India during the British Raj, John Woodvine played Dogberry