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Act 2 Scene 3

In this scene, Don Pedro, Claudio, and Leonato discuss Beatrice's unexpected love for Benedick, which surprises them all given her previous disdain for him. They speculate on the nature of her feelings and the possibility of her confessing her love, while also expressing concern for her emotional turmoil. The conversation reveals the complexities of love and the characters' perceptions of each other, particularly regarding Benedick's worthiness of Beatrice's affection.

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16 views2 pages

Act 2 Scene 3

In this scene, Don Pedro, Claudio, and Leonato discuss Beatrice's unexpected love for Benedick, which surprises them all given her previous disdain for him. They speculate on the nature of her feelings and the possibility of her confessing her love, while also expressing concern for her emotional turmoil. The conversation reveals the complexities of love and the characters' perceptions of each other, particularly regarding Benedick's worthiness of Beatrice's affection.

Uploaded by

maha.albalushi51
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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Act 2, Scene 3

DON PEDRO Do so, farewell. Come hither, Leonato. What was it you told me of today, that your
niece Beatrice was in love with Signior Benedick?
CLAUDIO Aside. O ay, stalk on, stalk on, the fowl sits.—I did never think that lady would have
lov’d 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 seem’d 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
enrag’d 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 Aside. Bait the hook well, this fish will bite.
LEONATO What effects, my lord? She will sit you—you heard my daughter tell you how.
CLAUD.CLAUDIO She did indeed.
DON PEDRO How, how, I pray you? You amaze me, I would have 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 Aside. He hath ta’en th’ 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
encount’red 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 half-pence; rail’d 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.”
Act 2, Scene 3

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 afeard 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 And 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 bestow’d this dotage on me, I would have daff’d 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 accustom’d 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.

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