MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING

BEATRICE

Sign no more, ladies, sign no more,

Men were deceivers ever,

One foot in sea, and one on shore.

To one thing constant never

Then sight no so, but let them go,

And be you blithe and bonny,

Converting all your sounds of woe,

Into Hey, nonny, nonny!.

Sing no more, ditties, sing no more,

Of dumps so dull and heavy,

The fraud of men was ever so,

Since summer first was leavy.

Then sigh not so, but let them go

And be your blithe and bonny

Converting all your sounds of woe

Into Hey, nonny, nonny!

Beatrice starts singing this song at the beginning of the movie by Kenneth Branagh. But later on, we will see the same song with Balthasar singing at the end of the movie. In the play, we have the song only at Act 2, Scene 3, with Balthasar singing. The song is symbolizing the relationship between man and woman from the point of view of Beatrice and her relationship with Benedick (1^st evidence of their relationship). She is telling us that women should not suffer because of a man since they are not trustworthy, and that they should enjoy life. This song catches the spirit of the whole play because it embodies the relationship between men and women.

Beatrice is the niece of Leonato and the cousin of Hero (Leonato´s daughter). Beatrice is sharp, witty, energetic and cynical compared with Hero who is polite, sweet and respectful. Everything Beatrice says in the play marks her as an intelligent and witty woman. Shakespeare portrayed Beatrice as the strongest and heroic woman in the play.

The play starts with Leonato welcoming his royal guest and Beatrice beginning her taunts of Benedick. Beatrice asks for Signor Mountanto to refer to Signior Benedick of Padua.

The main plot is the Hero-Claudio love story, while the Beatrice-Benedick relationship and Don John´s continuos attempts to destroy Hero´s reputation are the two sub-plots.

Act 1 Scene 1

BEATRICE “Is Signior Mountanto returned from the wars or no?”

Mountanto was a fencing term, which Beatriz uses here to imply that Benedick is a flashy swordsman.

BREATICE “How many hath he killed and eaten in these wars?…

I promised to eat all of his killing…

And a good soldier to a lady, but is he to a lord?”

From past amorous experiences with Benedick, she says in an ironic way refering to Benedick-'is he a good soldier to a lady'. When a messenger states that Benedick is 'stuffed with honourable virtues', Beatrice plays on this and reverses what the 'stuffed' signifies towards a more derogrative meaning. She suggests that he is stuffed not with virtue but something unpleasant through the phrase-'we are all mortal. There is a “merry war” between Benedick and Beatriz as Leonato confirmed.

'They never meet but there’s skirmish of wit.'-Leonato describes Beatrice and Benedick’s ‘battle of the sexes’. It is the second piece of evidence suggesting that Beatrice had a previous relationship with Benedick.

Beatrcez and Benedick exchanging insults.

Act 1, Scene 1

Beatrice interrupts the men’s conversation and faces Benedick and the first exchange of insullts between the two begins.

BEATRICE “I wonder that you will still be talking, Signior Benedick’, nobody marks you”.

This is ironic since she is the first one who is paying attention to him, so she herself is marking him. It is a way to reproach him for something that he did in the past.

BENEDICK “What, my dear lady disdain! Are you yet living?”.

Benedick and Beatrice renew their “merry war” of wits, each trying to score points off the other.

BEATRICE “Is it possible disdain should die, while she hath such meet food to feed it as Signior Benedick? Courtesy itself convert to Disdain if you come in her presence.”

BENEDICK Then is courtesy a turn-coat. I am loved of all ladies, you excepted, and I would I had not a hard heart, for truly I love none.

This means that all the ladies love him, except her ( Beatrice).

BEATRICE “A dear happiness to women, they would else have been troubled with a pernicious suitor. I thank God and my cold blood, I am of your humor for that. I‘d rather hear my dog bark than a man swear he loves me.”

In Act 1 Scene 1, lines 97-98, there is an antithesis of ideas, words and phrases. (e.g. “dog bark” in contrast to “man swear”).

BENEDICK “God keep you in that mind, so some gentleman shall escape a predestinate scratched face.”

BEATRICE “Scratching would not make your face worse”

BENEDICK “You are a rare parrot teacher”

BEATRICE “A bird of my tongue’s better than a beast of yours”

BENEDICK Had my horse your tongue’s speed! But keep you away in God’s name, I am done.

BEATRICE “You always end with a jade’s trick. I know you of old.”

In line 107, we realize that they have been together in the past and the reason why she knows him so well. Also Beatrice knows that in “this merry war” he always ends worse than her with a jade´s trick.

Benedick the married men.

In lines 178, 82, Benedick refers to the idea of 'horns and cuckolds'. In Elizabethan time, the cuckold was the favourite object of ridicule. The cuckold {for Elizabethans} was a man whose wife was unfaithful to him. The cuckold grows horns on it's forehead which everybody could see but invisible to itself. In these verses, Benedick remarks that if Claudio marries he will have to wear a cap in suspicion, because he will become a kind of cuckold since his wife will be unfaithful. Benedick does not trust any woman and that is the reason why he will live as a bachelor. And he declares that he will never be so foolish as to be tempted into marriage.

“I will live bachelor.” “With anger, sickness, or hunger, my Lord, not with love” . The bull ma, but if ever Benedick bear it, set the bull’s horns in my forehead. Let me be vilely painted in such great letters: “Here is good horse to hire”, let them signify under my sign: Here you may see Benedick, the married man”.

Benedick says that if he falls in love they will hang him up on the door as a sign of blind Cupid, hang him in a bottle like a cat, and call and write on his forehead “the married man”.. In my opinion, this behaviour is more a mask for his fear of commitment than antagonistic towards women.

Act 2, Scene 1

Beatrice and Benedick are wearing masks. At this moment each woman takes the opportunity to mock her partner, as Beatrice mocks Benedick. She ridicules him by turning his virtues into faults.

BEATRICE “He is the prince’s jester, a very dull fool, only his gift is, in devising impossible slanders: none but libertines delight in him,… for he both pleases men and angers them, and then they laugh at him and beat him…”. She knows that the person with the mask is Benedick, but he thinks she does not recognize him with the mask, so Beatrice starts insulting him, calling him a fool.

After the dialogue between them, we can see how Beatrice’s words have really stung him as he says- “that my lady Beatrice should know me and not know me” ,“The prince’s fool”, “I am not so reputed“. The anger and frustration of Benedick compelled him to call her a “Harpy”. He wants to avoid the company of Beatrice, and sets off on pointless tasks rather than stay with her.

Beatrice is very aggressive in her dialogues

BEATRICE , In line 211-16

“He lent it me a while, and I gave him use for it, a double heart for his single one. Once before he won it of me with false dice, therefore you may well say I’ve lost it. So I would not he should do me, my Lord, lest I prove the mother of fools.”

This is the third evidence that suggests they were in a relationship. Here is displayed the “merry war” of wits. Beatriz speaks in melancholic humour. It refers to a previous encounter with Benedick when he won her heart “with false dice”, a past betrayal which clearly still hurts her. In the first instance, she devotes herself entirely to love him, but Benedick borrows her heart. In the second instance, he won Beatrice´s heart with falseness, using lies.

So now it can be understood why Beatrice holds a cold temperament towards him. She is aggressive, because she does not want Benedick to mistreat her like he did in the past. She fears that she’ll become “a mother of fool”.

Elizabethans love wordplay of all kinds and puns were especially popular. When a word has two or more meanings, utilising that ambiguity, “punning” can surprise, amuse, and hurt. Beatrice enjoys playing with words especially if they have sexual innuendos. For example;

Act 2 Scene 1, line 223 Beatrice says the jealous and resentful Claudio is as “civil as an orange”, punning on the similarities of the two words “civil” and “Seville” {a bitter-tasting orange}.

“Civil count, civil as an orange, and of that jealous complexion”

“Speak cousin, and if you cannot, stop his mouth with a kiss”

“will you have me ? Lady unless I have another for working days. You’ re too costly to wear everyday. I was born to speak all mirth and no matter.”

As Claudio described her, she is a pleasant-spirited lady -‘dama risuena‘.

Don Pedro says that he is sure that Beatriz was born “in a merry hour” and she replies that “No, sure, my Lord, my mother cried” “But then there a star danced, and under that I was born”. It is one of the most beautiful personifications.

Act 3 Scene 2

Beatriz and Benedick speak in intelligent, witty prose. But they sometimes switch between verse and prose, such as Beatrice´s soliloquy when she uses verse. The use of personal pronouns sent very clear social signals in Shakespeare´s time. The use of “you” implied distance, suggesting respect for your superior, or courtesy to your social equal. The use of “Thou” could imply closeness, signal friendship towards an equal or superiority over a servant.

Benedick´s growing love for Beatrice changes the way he addresses her in Act 4 and 5. However, Beatrice still keeps to the “you” form to address him. By doing so, she expresses distance from Benedick while he uses the form of “Thou” to show closeness and at the same time superiority as a soldier.

BENEDICK “Do not you love me? BEATRICE No more than reason.

BENEDICK Why then your uncle, the Prince, and Claudio have been deceived.

BEATRICE Do not you love me? BENEDICK No more than reason.

BEATRICE Then my cousin, Margaret, and Ursula are much deceived, they did swear you did.

BENEDICK They swore that you were almost sick for me.

BEATRICE They swore you were wellnigh dead for me.

BENEDICK Tis no such matter. Then you do not love me?

BEATRICE No truly, but in friendly recompense.”

Although Beatrice´s and Benedick journey from hostility to love is long and difficult , many people can think that their story ends in “a marriage of true minds” thus a union of equals. “No more than reason” can mean that no mas de lo nececesario, no mucho lo sufficiente’-it is to show fear for losing the other´s respect.

Beatrice and Benedick´s final kiss symbolizes the love and harmony which they have learnt to share and to also show that the lady has finally had her mouth shut. Benedick dominates the final moment, as Beatrice kisses him in silence, which is sign of her submission.

Claudio says “Here’s a paper written in his hands, a sonnet of his own pure brain, fashioned to Beatrice.”

Margaret says “And here’s another. Writ in my cousin’s hand, stolen from her pocket, containing her affection unto Benedick.

A miracle! Here’s our own hands against our hearts. Come. I will have thee, but by this light, I take thee for pity.

I would not deny you, but by this good day, I yield upon great persuasion, and to save your life, for I was told you were in a consumption.

Peace, I will stop your mouth.

Don Pedro reminds Benedick of the first words that he said at the beginning of the play in which Benedick said that he will always be a bachelor “How dost thou, Benedick the married men?”.Don Pedro is mocking him, as he predicted Benedick would fall for Beatrice.

‘And I’ll tell thee what, Prince a college of wit-crackers cannot flout me out of my humor. Dost thou think I care for satire or an epigram? No. Since I do purpose to marry, I’ll think nothing to any purpose the world says against it, therefore never flout at me for what I’ve said against it. “For man is a giddy thing and this is my conclusion.’

All human beings make mistakes, since no human is perfect.

Act 2 Scene 1

“The one is too like an image and says nothing, and the other too like my lady’s eldest son, evermore tattling.” Beatrice likes to mock every man she meets. Here, she is referring to Benedick and Count John.

“With a good leg and a good foot, uncle, and money enough in his purse, such a man would win any woman in the world. If he could get her good will”. Beatrice enjoys the game of sexual innuendo which is why she uses “foul language” such as “Will” could mean lust or the sexual organs, and “foot” was a biblical euphemism for the pennies. “Purse”, also has sexual overtones.

“Lord, I could not endure a husband with a beard. I’ rather lie in the woolen. He that hath a beard is more than a youth: and he that hath no beard is less than a man: and he that is more than a youth, is not for me, and he that is less than a man, I am not for him…

“No, but to the gate, and there will the Devil meet me like an old cuckold with horns on his head, and say, get you to heaven Beatrice, get you to heaven , here’s no place for you maids. Away to St. Peter for the heavens, he shows me where the bachelors sit, and there live we, as merry as the day is lond”

BEATRICE “Let him be a handsome fellow and say Father, as it please me”

She recommends that her cousin chooses a handsome man, and makes the suggestion that as women they should have the opportunity to choose. As she said to her cousin when asking permission to choose a husband- “Say Father, as it please me”. Such thoughts were unthinkable in Elizabethan times, as daughters were not allowed to choose men, since only the father had the authority to do so. Beatrice is attempting to change the system.

During the wedding ceremony, Hero had been accused of infidelity by Claudio in front of her father. In Shakespeare´s time, a woman’s honour was based on her virginity. If a woman has an affair before marriage, she will loose her honour and social standing.

In line 139, Beatrice shows that she trusts Hero and knows in her “soul” she is innocent, and in order to avenge Hero´s honor, Beatrice tells Benedick to “Kill Claudio”. In this way, Beatrice risks losing Benedick’s love when she asks him to challenge his friend Claudio. This moment is important also because if Benedick had chosen differently it could change the play from a comedy to a tragedy, and the chance of a happy ending would narrow.

BEATRICE “Oh that I were a man for his sake!”

“Or that I Had any friend would be a man for my sake!”

“I cannot be a man with wishing, therefore I will die a woman with grieving”!

Beatrice is again rebelling against the unequal status of women in Shakespeare´s time. The anger and frustration of Beatrice shows that she found the humiliation of her cousin highly unfair. Hence in this scene Beatrice wishes she were a man, in order to fight against Claudio(to recover the honour of her humiliated cousin), because only men could challenge each other to combat.

Description of Beatrice

- Claudio decribes her as a pleasant-spirited lady.

- Don Leonato describes her as “There’s little of melancholy in her, my Lord. She is never sad but when she sleeps, and not even then. My daughter’s said that she hath dreamt of unhappiness and waked herself laughing.”

- Hero compares Beatrice to a lapwing, a bird which searches for food by flying close to the ground, and looking for insects, before flying off. In lines 24-5. Hero says that Beatrice´s spirits are “as coy (disdainful) and wild as haggards(wild female hawk, which is far more difficult to train than ones reared in captivity)of the rock”.

“Against my will I am sent to bid you come in to dinner” “I took more pains for those thanks than you do to thank me. If it’d been painful, I wouldn’t have come”. This has a double meaning, since at the beginning she implies that she didn‘t want to go to the dinner- ‘against my will‘ , but she ends with the opposite tone, suggesting it was not ‘painful‘ to attend. Her ambiguity is revealing a glint of affection to Benedick.

Beatrice’s Soliloquy

“What fire is in mine ears? Can this be true?

Stand I condemned for pride and scorn so much?

Contempt, farewell, and maiden pride, adieu.

No glory lives behind the back of such.

And, Benedick, love on, I will requite thee,

Taming my wild heart to thy loving hand:

If thou doest love, my kindness shall incite thee

To bind our loves up in a holy band.

For others say thou dost deserve, and I

Believe it, better than reportingly”.

It is hard to believe that a strong, free spirited woman as Beatrice can eventually be reduced to play the role of the obedient Elizabethan wife “Taming her wild heart” to Benedick “loving hand”.

Beatrice´s soliloquy is the first time that she speaks in verse. She is shocked, deeply moved and comically romantic after hearing the conversation between Ursula and Hero. This is evidence that Beatriz finds the comments about her “carping” nature more disturbing than Benedick´s secret love for her.

Women´s fashion

Costumes for both sexes were ornate and very expensive. The way one dressed was an indication of rank. Women´s costumes were more extreme and uncomfortable than mens‘. Beatrice’s corset altered her form to a tiny waist which allowed her upper body to be emphasized.

Language

Everybody laughs when Beatrice and Benedick´s sonnets are produced at the end of the play. Many Elizabethan love sonnets had a rhyme scheme of three quatrains (ABAB/CDCD/EFEF) and a final couplet (GG).

The ideal Elizabethan man was both soldier and poet. Songs, sonnets, and blank verse were traditional ways for a lover to express his love. But in this case, Benedick is not perfect as he is a soldier but not a good poet since he lacks skills in singing and verse-making.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

· Much ado about nothing. Cambridge school Shakespeare edited by Richard Andrew. First published 1992