Video: Love between Beatrice and Benedick

27 10 2010

Love between Beatrice and Benedick

Video of the moment in which love by hearsay appears

These two characters exemplify the expression “the course of true love never did run smooth” (which Lysander says in A Midsummer Night’s Dream, 1.1.134). The two appear to have had an earlier relationship, but the details given by Shakespeare are few indeed*.

The displays of aggression toward one another and the obsession evident for the other in the early scenes of the play suggest that they feel more for each other than simple animosity. The process through which they are tricked to confessing their love for one another is truly delightful, as their strong wits and deep eloquence are overcome by relatively simplistic trickery that suggests that they are only too willing to believe what they hear. Nevertheless, they continue to quarrel throughout the play as they are, as Benedick says, “too wise to woo peaceably” (5.2.61).

When Benedick decides that Beatrice loves him, he decides to be “horribly in love with her” (2.3.231); he then does his best to court her according to the fashion of courtly love, though he says finally that he was not “born under a rhyming planet” (5.1.39).

http://internetshakespeare.uvic.ca/Library/SLT/plays/adobb.html




Beatrice falls in love

27 10 2010

Beatrice falls in love

First of all we must Introduce Beatrice, She is  an entertaining and merry woman, Beatrice is Leonato’s niece. She has determined never to marry, as a husband would only keep her from pursuing her own life. Beatrice delights in lampooning Benedick, as she finds him incredibly foolish.

She thinks men to be childish braggarts, worried about seeming brave and noble, but in reality cowardly. In the beginning of the play, she thinks the warrior mentality of men to be silly and foolish and sees no good reason why their nobility and valor on the battlefield cannot extend into their love of women. Her perception toward the rougher sex changes when she overhears Hero and her servant talk of Benedick’s secret love for Beatrice. Her views toward men shift even more dramatically when she sees Claudio publicly disgrace Hero. She realizes her own limitations within the society. She discovers the need to fight to defend honor and understands she cannot do it without a man. Later in the play, she demands men hold true with action to their claims of strength and courage and discovers she wants a man that can match her wit and fierceness. She finally admits her love for Benedick as he lives up to the talk of defending honor by defending Hero. Throughout the play though, she never changes her scathing, domineering disposition and even her final scene with Benedick has the two parrying words while admitting their love for each other. Beatrice does not change or evolve into something that she is not, her personality and wit stay true, but she does grow to understand that men can live up to the creeds they attest to live by and they men serve a purpose within society that is necessary and cannot be accomplished by her as a woman.

 

Beatrice is contemptuous and snide on the subject of Benedick, she sees him as foolish and without courage beyond the battlefield. She flaunts her linguist mastery over him, saying “In our last conflict, four of his five wits went halting off, and now is the whole man governed with one, let him bear it for a difference between himself and his horse” (1.1.61-65). She views men, in particular Benedick, as unworthy of her wit and cleverness and wants to be recognized for her intellect. She wants to show her independence over men and celebrate the fact that she does not need a husband. She attests to her desire never to marry when questioned by Leonato. Finally, when she meets with Benedick the full extend of her distaste is clear: “Is it possible disdain should die while she hath such meet food to feed it as Signor Benedick? Courtesy itself must convert to disdain, if you come in her presence” (1.1.115-118). The history of their war-like relationship unfolds and it is clear that Beatrice has no respect for Benedick’s achievements as a warrior.

As the play continues, Beatrice’s objections to taking a husband become clearer. Beatrice does not wish to lose what power she has in her life for the sake of something as weak as a man. When Leonato expresses his wish that she one day find a husband, she responds “Not till God make men of some other metal than earth” (2.1.55-56). She wants to marry a man she can consider her equal and expects that man to live up and exceed her own strength of will. At the masquerade ball, she makes a point to tell Benedick, who she recognizes despite his mask, that “he is the Prince’s jester, a very dull fool” (2.1.131-132). Her view of Benedick is her general view toward men. She sees Benedick squandering his wit in slander as indicative of how men wasted what little talents they have without purpose. When she calls on Benedick for dinner, she leaves him with a scathing critique. Benedick asks, under the false impression that Beatrice loves him, whether it was a pleasure to fetch him for dinner and she answers, “Yes, just so much as you may take upon a knife’s point and choke a daw withal. You have no stomach, signor. Fare you well” (2.3.249-251). At this point, she still sees Benedick as a foolish coward incapable of emotional courage.

This changes when Beatrice falls victim to Don Pedro trick on her and Benedick. When Beatrice overhears Hero and her servant Ursula, who are aiding Don Pedro’s scheme of lies to bring together Beatrice and Benedick, talking about Benedick’s love for her and how her condescending nature has broken Benedick’s spirit, she realizes that her preoccupation with disdaining him has made her miss the noble and excellent man that Benedick is. She is impressed with her cousin Hero’s impression that Benedick is a fine man very worthy of Beatrice’s love and appalled at how is viewed as so wrapped up in her own wit that she cannot see virtue in others. After hearing this, Beatrice concludes:

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. (3.1.109-112)

 

TEXT:

 

Enter BEATRICE, behind

Now begin;
For look where Beatrice, like a lapwing, runs
Close by the ground, to hear our conference.

URSULA

The pleasant’st angling is to see the fish
Cut with her golden oars the silver stream,
And greedily devour the treacherous bait:
So angle we for Beatrice; who even now
Is couched in the woodbine coverture.
Fear you not my part of the dialogue.

HERO

Then go we near her, that her ear lose nothing
Of the false sweet bait that we lay for it.

Approaching the bower

No, truly, Ursula, she is too disdainful;
I know her spirits are as coy and wild
As haggerds of the rock.

URSULA

But are you sure
That Benedick loves Beatrice so entirely?

HERO

So says the prince and my new-trothed lord.

URSULA

And did they bid you tell her of it, madam?

HERO

They did entreat me to acquaint her of it;
But I persuaded them, if they loved Benedick,
To wish him wrestle with affection,
And never to let Beatrice know of it.

URSULA

Why did you so? Doth not the gentleman
Deserve as full as fortunate a bed
As ever Beatrice shall couch upon?

HERO

O god of love! I know he doth deserve
As much as may be yielded to a man:
But Nature never framed a woman’s heart
Of prouder stuff than that of Beatrice;
Disdain and scorn ride sparkling in her eyes,
Misprising what they look on, and her wit
Values itself so highly that to her
All matter else seems weak: she cannot love,
Nor take no shape nor project of affection,
She is so self-endeared.

URSULA

Sure, I think so;
And therefore certainly it were not good
She knew his love, lest she make sport at it.

HERO

Why, you speak truth. I never yet saw man,
How wise, how noble, young, how rarely featured,
But she would spell him backward: if fair-faced,
She would swear the gentleman should be her sister;
If black, why, Nature, drawing of an antique,
Made a foul blot; if tall, a lance ill-headed;
If low, an agate very vilely cut;
If speaking, why, a vane blown with all winds;
If silent, why, a block moved with none.
So turns she every man the wrong side out
And never gives to truth and virtue that
Which simpleness and merit purchaseth.

URSULA

Sure, sure, such carping is not commendable.

HERO

No, not to be so odd and from all fashions
As Beatrice is, cannot be commendable:
But who dare tell her so? If I should speak,
She would mock me into air; O, she would laugh me
Out of myself, press me to death with wit.
Therefore let Benedick, like cover’d fire,
Consume away in sighs, waste inwardly:
It were a better death than die with mocks,
Which is as bad as die with tickling.

URSULA

Yet tell her of it: hear what she will say.

HERO

No; rather I will go to Benedick
And counsel him to fight against his passion.
And, truly, I’ll devise some honest slanders
To stain my cousin with: one doth not know
How much an ill word may empoison liking.

URSULA

O, do not do your cousin such a wrong.
She cannot be so much without true judgment–
Having so swift and excellent a wit
As she is prized to have–as to refuse
So rare a gentleman as Signior Benedick.

HERO

He is the only man of Italy.
Always excepted my dear Claudio.

URSULA

I pray you, be not angry with me, madam,
Speaking my fancy: Signior Benedick,
For shape, for bearing, argument and valour,
Goes foremost in report through Italy.

HERO

Indeed, he hath an excellent good name.

URSULA

His excellence did earn it, ere he had it.
When are you married, madam?

HERO

Why, every day, to-morrow. Come, go in:
I’ll show thee some attires, and have thy counsel
Which is the best to furnish me to-morrow.

URSULA

She’s limed, I warrant you: we have caught her, madam.

HERO

If it proves so, then loving goes by haps:
Some Cupid kills with arrows, some with traps.

Exeunt HERO and URSULA

BEATRICE

[Coming forward]
What fire is in mine ears? Can this be true?
Stand I condemn’d 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 dost 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.

Exit




Benedick falls in Love

27 10 2010

 Benedick falls in Love

First of all we must Intro duce Benedick, He is one of Don Pedro’s soldiers. Benedick fancies himself a witty man, and enjoys trading insults with Beatrice, Leonato’s niece. He is exceptionally honorable, and holds everyone to his high standards. Benedick has sworn off love, claiming that he could never find a woman good enough for him.

 

DON PEDRO

Come hither, Leonato. What was it you told me of
to-day, that your niece Beatrice was in love with
Signior Benedick?

CLAUDIO

O, ay: stalk on. stalk on; the fowl sits. I did
never think that lady would have loved any man.

LEONATO

No, nor I neither; but most wonderful that she
should so dote on Signior Benedick, whom she hath in
all outward behaviors seemed ever to abhor.

BENEDICK

Is’t possible? Sits the wind in that corner?

LEONATO

By my troth, my lord, I cannot tell what to think
of it but that she loves him with an enraged
affection: it is past the infinite of thought.

DON PEDRO

May be she doth but counterfeit.

CLAUDIO

Faith, like enough.

LEONATO

O God, counterfeit! There was never counterfeit of
passion came so near the life of passion as she
discovers it.

DON PEDRO

Why, what effects of passion shows she?

CLAUDIO

Bait the hook well; this fish will bite.

LEONATO

What effects, my lord? She will sit you, you heard
my daughter tell you how.

CLAUDIO

She did, indeed.

DON PEDRO

How, how, pray you? You amaze me: I would have I
thought her spirit had been invincible against all
assaults of affection.

LEONATO

I would have sworn it had, my lord; especially
against Benedick.

BENEDICK

I should think this a gull, but that the
white-bearded fellow speaks it: knavery cannot,
sure, hide himself in such reverence.

CLAUDIO

He hath ta’en the infection: hold it up.

DON PEDRO

Hath she made her affection known to Benedick?

LEONATO

No; and swears she never will: that’s her torment.

CLAUDIO

‘Tis true, indeed; so your daughter says: ‘Shall
I,’ says she, ‘that have so oft encountered him
with scorn, write to him that I love him?’

LEONATO

This says she now when she is beginning to write to
him; for she’ll be up twenty times a night, and
there will she sit in her smock till she have writ a
sheet of paper: my daughter tells us all.

CLAUDIO

Now you talk of a sheet of paper, I remember a
pretty jest your daughter told us of.

LEONATO

O, when she had writ it and was reading it over, she
found Benedick and Beatrice between the sheet?

CLAUDIO

That.

LEONATO

O, she tore the letter into a thousand halfpence;
railed at herself, that she should be so immodest
to write to one that she knew would flout her; ‘I
measure him,’ says she, ‘by my own spirit; for I
should flout him, if he writ to me; yea, though I
love him, I should.’

CLAUDIO

Then down upon her knees she falls, weeps, sobs,
beats her heart, tears her hair, prays, curses; ‘O
sweet Benedick! God give me patience!’

LEONATO

She doth indeed; my daughter says so: and the
ecstasy hath so much overborne her that my daughter
is sometime afeared she will do a desperate outrage
to herself: it is very true.

DON PEDRO

It were good that Benedick knew of it by some
other, if she will not discover it.

CLAUDIO

To what end? He would make but a sport of it and
torment the poor lady worse.

DON PEDRO

An he should, it were an alms to hang him. She’s an
excellent sweet lady; and, out of all suspicion,
she is virtuous.

CLAUDIO

And she is exceeding wise.

DON PEDRO

In every thing but in loving Benedick.

LEONATO

O, my lord, wisdom and blood combating in so tender
a body, we have ten proofs to one that blood hath
the victory. I am sorry for her, as I have just
cause, being her uncle and her guardian.

DON PEDRO

I would she had bestowed this dotage on me: I would
have daffed all other respects and made her half
myself. I pray you, tell Benedick of it, and hear
what a’ will say.

LEONATO

Were it good, think you?

CLAUDIO

Hero thinks surely she will die; for she says she
will die, if he love her not, and she will die, ere
she make her love known, and she will die, if he woo
her, rather than she will bate one breath of her
accustomed crossness.

DON PEDRO

She doth well: if she should make tender of her
love, ’tis very possible he’ll scorn it; for the
man, as you know all, hath a contemptible spirit.

CLAUDIO

He is a very proper man.

DON PEDRO

He hath indeed a good outward happiness.

CLAUDIO

Before God! and, in my mind, very wise.

DON PEDRO

He doth indeed show some sparks that are like wit.

CLAUDIO

And I take him to be valiant.

DON PEDRO

As Hector, I assure you: and in the managing of
quarrels you may say he is wise; for either he
avoids them with great discretion, or undertakes
them with a most Christian-like fear.

LEONATO

If he do fear God, a’ must necessarily keep peace:
if he break the peace, he ought to enter into a
quarrel with fear and trembling.

DON PEDRO

And so will he do; for the man doth fear God,
howsoever it seems not in him by some large jests
he will make. Well I am sorry for your niece. Shall
we go seek Benedick, and tell him of her love?

CLAUDIO

Never tell him, my lord: let her wear it out with
good counsel.

LEONATO

Nay, that’s impossible: she may wear her heart out first.

DON PEDRO

Well, we will hear further of it by your daughter:
let it cool the while. I love Benedick well; and I
could wish he would modestly examine himself, to see
how much he is unworthy so good a lady.

LEONATO

My lord, will you walk? dinner is ready.

CLAUDIO

If he do not dote on her upon this, I will never
trust my expectation.

DON PEDRO

Let there be the same net spread for her; and that
must your daughter and her gentlewomen carry. The
sport will be, when they hold one an opinion of
another’s dotage, and no such matter: that’s the
scene that I would see, which will be merely a
dumb-show. Let us send her to call him in to dinner.

Exeunt DON PEDRO, CLAUDIO, and LEONATO

BENEDICK

[Coming forward] This can be no trick: the
conference was sadly borne. They have the truth of
this from Hero. They seem to pity the lady: it
seems her affections have their full bent. Love me!
why, it must be requited. I hear how I am censured:
they say I will bear myself proudly, if I perceive
the love come from her; they say too that she will
rather die than give any sign of affection. I did
never think to marry: I must not seem proud: happy
are they that hear their detractions and can put
them to mending. They say the lady is fair; ’tis a
truth, I can bear them witness; and virtuous; ’tis
so, I cannot reprove it; and wise, but for loving
me; by my troth, it is no addition to her wit, nor
no great argument of her folly, for I will be
horribly in love with her. I may chance have some
odd quirks and remnants of wit broken on me,
because I have railed so long against marriage: but
doth not the appetite alter? a man loves the meat
in his youth that he cannot endure in his age.
Shall quips and sentences and these paper bullets of
the brain awe a man from the career of his humour?
No, the world must be peopled. When I said I would
die a bachelor, I did not think I should live till I
were married. Here comes Beatrice. By this day!
she’s a fair lady: I do spy some marks of love in
her.

Enter BEATRICE