Benedick

Play

Much Ado About Nothing

Summary

Benedick is a witty, charismatic soldier in Don Pedro's company and Beatrice's perpetual verbal adversary. He affects a confirmed bachelorhood and rails against marriage with elaborate comic energy — until his friends stage a conversation he is meant to overhear, convincing him that Beatrice secretly loves him. He discovers his own love for her with disarming self-awareness. His ultimate test of that love comes when Beatrice asks him to challenge Claudio, his closest friend: he does so, choosing love and justice over male solidarity.

Notable Quotations

"I do much wonder that one man, seeing how much another man is a fool when he dedicates his behaviors to love, will, after he hath laughed at such shallow follies in others, become the argument of his own scorn by falling in love." *(II.iii)*

"I will live in thy heart, die in thy lap, and be buried in thy eyes." *(V.ii)*

"Man is a giddy thing, and this is my conclusion." *(V.iv)*

Cross-references

• Much Ado About Nothing — the play
• Comedies — genre
• character_beatrice — his sparring partner and eventual love
• character_don_pedro — his commander and the orchestrator of his gulling
• character_claudio_muchadov — his young fellow soldier, whom he ultimately challenges
• character_leonato — Beatrice's uncle, whose household he visits