[A]nd 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.”
(See Important Quotations Explained)
Summary: Act I, scene i
In the Italian town of Messina, the wealthy and kindly
Leonato prepares to welcome home some soldier friends who are returning
from a battle. These friends include Don Pedro of Aragon, a highly respected
nobleman, and a brave young soldier named Claudio, who has won much
honor in the fighting. Leonato’s young daughter, Hero, and her cousin,
Beatrice, accompany him. Beatrice asks about the health of another
soldier in Don Pedro’s army, a man named Signor Benedick. Beatrice
cleverly mocks and insults Benedick. A messenger from Don Pedro
defends Benedick as an honorable and virtuous man, but Leonato explains
that Beatrice and Benedick carry on a “merry war” of wits with one
another, trading jibes whenever they meet. Beatrice confirms this
statement, noting that in their most recent conflict, “four of his
five wits went halting off, and now is the whole man governed with
one” (I.i.52–54).
Don Pedro arrives at Leonato’s house with his two friends,
Claudio and Benedick, and they are joyfully welcomed. Also accompanying
Don Pedro is his quiet, sullen, illegitimate brother, Don John “the
Bastard,” with whom Don Pedro has recently become friendly after
a period of mutual hostility. While Leonato and Don Pedro have a
private talk, Beatrice and Benedick take up their war of wits. In
an extremely fast-paced exchange of barbs, they insult one another’s
looks, intelligence, and personality. When Benedick tells Beatrice
proudly that he has never loved a woman and never will, Beatrice
responds that women everywhere ought to rejoice.
Don Pedro tells Benedick, Claudio, and Don John that
Leonato has invited them all to stay with him for a month, and that
Don Pedro has accepted. Everyone goes off together except Claudio
and Benedick. Claudio shyly asks Benedick what he thinks of Hero, announcing
that he has fallen in love with her. Benedick jokingly plays down
Hero’s beauty, teasing Claudio for thinking about becoming a tame
husband. But when Don Pedro returns to look for his friends, Benedick
tells him Claudio’s secret, and Don Pedro approves highly of the
match. Since Claudio is shy and Leonato is Don Pedro’s close friend,
Don Pedro proposes a trick: at the costume ball to be held that
night, Don Pedro will disguise himself as Claudio and declare his
love to Hero. He will then talk with Leonato, her father, which
should enable Claudio to win Hero without difficulty. Full of plans
and excitement, the three friends head off to get ready for the
ball.
Read a translation of
Act I, scene i →
Analysis: Act I, scene i
This opening scene introduces all of the major characters,
as well as the play’s setting—Leonato’s welcoming, friendly house
in Messina. Don Pedro and the others are just returning from a war
in which they have been victorious, seemingly setting the stage
for a relaxed, happy comedy in which the main characters fall in
love and have fun together. While the play opens with a strong feeling
of joy and calm, the harmony of Messina is certainly to be disturbed
later on.
Beatrice and Benedick are perhaps Shakespeare’s most
famously witty characters; neither ever lets the other say anything
without countering it with a pun or criticism. One notable characteristic
of their attacks upon each other is their ability to extend a metaphor throughout
lines of dialogue. When Benedick calls Beatrice a “rare parrot-teacher,”
Beatrice responds, “A bird of my tongue is better than a beast of
yours” (I.i.114). Benedick continues the
reference to animals in his response, saying, “I would my horse
had the speed of your tongue” (I.i.115).
It is as if each anticipates the other’s response. Though their
insults are biting, their ability to maintain such clever, interconnected
sparring seems to illustrate the existence of a strong bond between
them.
Beatrice and Benedick have courted in the past, and Beatrice’s viciousness
stems from the fact that Benedick previously abandoned her. When
she insists that Benedick “set up his bills here in Messina and
challenged Cupid at the flight, and my uncle’s fool, reading the challenge,
subscribed for Cupid,” she describes a “battle” of love between
herself and Benedick that she has lost (I.i.32–34).
The result is what Leonato describes as “a kind of merry war betwixt
Sir Benedick and [Beatrice]. They never meet but there’s a skirmish
of wit between them” (I.i.49–51).
