BENEDICK
But I hope you have no intent to turn husband, have
you?
CLAUDIO
I would scarce trust myself, though I had
sworn the contrary, if Hero would be my wife. (1.1.189-192)
This is one of the first times that marriage is spoken of explicitly, and it’s presented as an object of unwitting deception. Claudio apparently has been as anti-marriage as Benedick, but now that he wants to marry Hero, he notes that even he can’t trust his own word.
Quote 2
BENEDICK
Is 't come to this? In faith, hath not the
world one man but he will wear his cap with
suspicion? Shall I never see a bachelor of threescore
again? Go to, i' faith, an thou wilt needs thrust
thy neck into a yoke, wear the print of it, and sigh
away Sundays. (1.1.193-198)
Benedick laments that marriage turns great men into pathetic idiots.
Quote 3
BENEDICK
The savage bull may; but if ever the sensible
Benedick bear it, pluck off the bull's horns and set
them in my forehead, and let me be vilely painted,
and in such great letters as they write "Here is good
horse to hire," let them signify under my sign "Here
you may see Benedick the married man." (1.1.257-262)
Benedick equates marriage with being whipped, tamed, and cuckolded. Marrying would mean sacrificing his independence and breaking his pride, and Benedick finds the prospect of losing either foolish. It’s a strong enough intuition to sour him on marriage altogether.
Quote 4
BENEDICK
I would not marry
her though she were endowed with all that Adam
had left him before he transgressed. (2.1.247-249)
It’s notable that Benedick brings up marrying Beatrice, though no one else has even mentioned it. Stating so passionately that it’s not on his mind shows that, actually, it’s on his mind.
Quote 5
BENEDICK
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. (2.3.244-246)
Benedick provides his first reason that marriage is actually quite necessary. Not for love or honor, but because it’s our duty to procreate.
Quote 6
BENEDICK
Friar, I must entreat your pains, I think.
FRIAR
To do what, signior?
BENEDICK
To bind me, or undo me, one of them.— (5.4.18-20)
Though he loves Beatrice, Benedick still jokes about marriage, saying he’s not sure that their marriage won’t be his "undoing." This hesitation helps to make Benedick seem a believable character—he isn’t suddenly transformed into believing in marriage simply because he realized he’s capable of love. Again, the disconnect between love and marriage is evident.
Quote 7
BENEDICK
Come, come, we are friends. Let's have a
dance ere we are married, that we may lighten our
own hearts and our wives' heels.
LEONATO
We'll have dancing afterward.
BENEDICK
First, of my word! Therefore play, music.— (5.4.121-125)
This is a silly little scene that’s a bit bawdy: note that "light-heeled" is another way to say a woman is morally loose. Benedick teases that he’d like to dance with the women before the wedding, and make them light-heeled. Hence Leonato’s terse "Get married first!"
Benedick, perhaps to show that he’ll be mischievous even as a married man, insists on dancing first anyway. This is especially interesting given that Claudio has just teased that Benedick will have a wandering eye when married unless his wife keeps a close watch on him.
BENEDICK
Why, i' faith, methinks she's too low for a
high praise, too brown for a fair praise, and too
little for a great praise. Only this commendation I
can afford her, that were she other than she is, she
were unhandsome, and being no other but as she is,
I do not like her.
CLAUDIO
Thou thinkest I am in sport. I pray thee tell
me truly how thou lik'st her. (1.1.167-172)
Claudio can’t accept that Benedick has nothing more to say about Hero than that she’s short, dark, and too small. He thinks Benedick is lying about his honest feelings, which supports the notion that Benedick doesn’t often say what he thinks. Benedick prefers to deceive humorously over speaking truthfully.
CLAUDIO
Can the world buy such a jewel?
BENEDICK
Yea, and a case to put it into. But speak you
this with a sad brow? Or do you play the flouting
Jack, to tell us Cupid is a good hare-finder and
Vulcan a rare carpenter? Come, in what key shall a
man take you to go in the song? (1.1.177-182)
Benedick, in turn, can’t believe that Claudio is really being honest either—he wonders whether Claudio can possibly love this girl—maybe because the young man noticed her just ten minutes ago, maybe because Hero’s not attractive.
Quote 10
BENEDICK
That a woman conceived me, I thank her;
that she brought me up, I likewise give her most
humble thanks. But that I will have a recheat
winded in my forehead or hang my bugle in an
invisible baldrick, all women shall pardon me.
Because I will not do them the wrong to mistrust
any, I will do myself the right to trust none. And the
fine is, for the which I may go the finer, I will live a
bachelor. (1.1.234-242)
Benedick says his main obstacle to love is that he’ll never do a lady the disfavor of mistrusting her. At the same time, he’s certain he can’t bring himself to trust a lady, so it looks like he’ll be ladyless. It’s not that he thinks love itself is awful (maybe), but that he finds deception to be inherent to women (and love).
Quote 11
BENEDICK
Signior Leonato, truth it is, good signior,
Your niece regards me with an eye of favor.
LEONATO
That eye my daughter lent her; 'tis most true.
BENEDICK
And I do with an eye of love requite her.
LEONATO
The sight whereof I think you had from me,
From Claudio, and the Prince; but what's your will?
BENEDICK
Your answer, sir, is enigmatical.
But for my will, my will is your good will
May stand with ours, this day to be conjoined
In the state of honorable marriage—
In which, good friar, I shall desire your help. (5.4.21-33)
Though Benedick and Beatrice essentially arrived at loving each other because of the manipulation of others, this is the closest they ever come to discovering Don Pedro’s scheme. However, this "good" deception is ultimately less important than Benedick’s love for Beatrice.
BENEDICK
Do not you love me?
BEATRICE
Why no, no more than reason.
BENEDICK
Why then, your uncle and the Prince and Claudio
Have been deceived. They swore you did.
BEATRICE
Do not you love me?
BENEDICK
Troth, no, no more than reason.
BEATRICE
Why then, my cousin, Margaret, and Ursula
Are much deceived, for they did swear you did.
BENEDICK
They swore that you were almost sick for me.
BEATRICE
They swore that you were well-nigh dead for me. (5.4.76-85)
Benedick and Beatrice quip that everyone around them is very deceived about their love for each other, but they’re only fooling themselves. (Ooooh!)
BENEDICK
I would my horse had the speed of your
tongue, and so good a continuer, but keep your
way, i' God's name, I have done.
BEATRICE
You always end with a jade's trick. I know
you of old. (1.1.139-143)
Benedick drops out of the argument because he can’t keep up with Beatrice. The two characters use their language as weapons, but never seem to be able to end or resolve their fights.
CLAUDIO
Benedick, didst thou note the daughter of
Signior Leonato?
BENEDICK
I noted her not, but I looked on her. (1.1.158-160)
This is the first of many usages of the word "noting" in the play; Benedick teases that he looked on the girl, but she was unremarkable, so he took no particular notice of her. Language is precise here, and communicates that Benedick has some disdain (maybe not particularly for Hero, but for taking note of women).
BENEDICK
I have almost matter enough in me for such
an embassage, and so I commit you—
CLAUDIO
To the tuition of God. From my house, if I had
it—
PEDRO
The sixth of July. Your loving friend,
Benedick.
BENEDICK
Nay, mock not, mock not. The body of your
discourse is sometime guarded with fragments,
and the guards are but slightly basted on neither.
Ere you flout old ends any further, examine your
conscience. And so I leave you. (1.1.273-283)
This is important—Benedick is silly an awful lot, but he's aware that the silliness of his language is often just a ruse to hide his more serious thoughts. He’s not a shallow jester, but more of a John Oliver type. Being funny is both his armor and weaponry.
Quote 16
BENEDICK
She told me, not thinking I
had been myself, that I was the Prince's jester, that I
was duller than a great thaw, huddling jest upon jest
with such impossible conveyance upon me that I
stood like a man at a mark with a whole army
shooting at me. She speaks poniards, and every
word stabs. If her breath were as terrible as her
terminations, there were no living near her; she
would infect to the North Star. (2.1.239-247)
Benedick is undone by Beatrice’s quick tongue before he’s undone by his love for her. (Or maybe it’s her quick tongue that makes him love her.)
Quote 17
BENEDICK
Ha! 'Against my will I am sent to bid you
come in to dinner.' There's a double meaning in
that. 'I took no more pains for those thanks than
you took pains to thank me.' That's as much as to
say 'Any pains that I take for you is as easy as
thanks.' If I do not take pity of her, I am a villain; if I
do not love her, I am a Jew. I will go get her picture. (2.3.259-265)
Benedick convinces himself that there’s underlying romantic meaning in Beatrice’s words, even when that’s obviously not the case. Love has the power to make us see what we want in conversation.
Quote 18
BENEDICK [Sings]
The god of love
That sits above,
And knows me, and knows me,
How pitiful I deserve—
I mean in singing. But in loving Leander the good
swimmer, Troilus the first employer of panders, and
a whole book full of these quondam carpetmongers,
whose names yet run smoothly in the even
road of a blank verse, why, they were never so truly
turned over and over as my poor self in love. Marry,
I cannot show it in rhyme. I have tried. I can find out
no rhyme to 'lady' but 'baby'—an innocent
rhyme; for 'scorn,' 'horn'—a hard rhyme; for
'school', 'fool'—a babbling rhyme: very ominous
endings. No, I was not born under a rhyming
planet, nor cannot woo in festival terms. (5.2.26-41)
Benedick is poetic in his thinking and speech, but he fails in writing. His references are rich, and all he uses wit to refer to the twisted version of love as presented by epic poetry: Leander was the lover of the mythological Hero (probably the namesake of Leonato’s daughter). Leander died by drowning as he was on his way to see his love, swimming across a river to find her. The story is a twisted version of love, and Benedick warps it further by joking that Leander was a good swimmer.
Benedick jokes that Troilus is pandering to his love, Cressida, but Cressida betrays him by loving another. Benedick specifically uses "panders" as a pun on Pandarus, Cressida’s uncle who originally set the couple up.
Finally, "quondam carpet-mongers" (what???) means knights of the old days who avoided military service. It was joked that they earned their keep by lounging around on the court carpets, rather than fighting on the battlefield. These knights exemplify the definitional shift occurring during this time: once, being a gentleman meant being a great warrior, but the term was slowly changing and coming around to signify one who was versed in the arts of the court, including being a great lover (Remember what Beatrice says about manhood in 4.1.319).
Ultimately, this all means that Benedick thinks that the guys who wrote epic love poetry were wusses, and though their stories have been immortalized by great poems, they didn’t love as deeply as he does. Thus, poetry is nothing when love is true. (Phew!)
BENEDICK
Then is courtesy a turncoat. But it is certain
I am loved of all ladies, only you excepted; and
I would I could find in my heart that I had not a
hard heart, for truly I love none.
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 had rather hear my dog bark at a crow
than a man swear he loves me. (1.1.122-130)
Note that both Beatrice and Benedick say they’ll never love anyone. This little spar is likely saying "of course we’ll never love each other." Invulnerability to falling in love is a point of pride for them both.
BENEDICK
That I neither feel how she should be loved
nor know how she should be worthy is the opinion
that fire cannot melt out of me. I will die in it at the
stake.
DON PEDRO
Thou wast ever an obstinate heretic in the
despite of beauty. (1.1.226-231)
Benedick hates love, and he’s known for hating beauty. Beauty can’t move him to love, but perhaps some more meaningful trait in a girl (like how witty she is, and if she’s named Beatrice) could move him.