Hero and Ursula Trick Beatrice, Explained

What happens

Earlier, Benedick replayed Beatrice's line "Against my will I am sent to bid you come in to dinner" and decided it hid a double meaning. Now the same trick is turned on Beatrice: in the orchard, Hero lets Ursula argue that Benedick loves her, while Beatrice listens hidden and hears only praise of his worth and blame of her pride.

What's really going on

For all her wit, Beatrice never once suspects that the women are performing for her benefit. The evidence is designed the way it worked on Benedick: Ursula says he "doth deserve as much as may be yielded to a man," then blames Beatrice's own character — "nature never framed a woman's heart of prouder stuff than that of Beatrice." That's the line that gets her, because it's the one accusation she can't dismiss. The scene turns on a quiet joke about eavesdropping: both Benedick and Beatrice are talked into love by words they weren't meant to hear, and both believe they figured it out themselves. As Hero puts it, "Some Cupid kills with arrows, some with traps."

Key lines & what they mean

“There's a double meaning in that.”

Benedick takes Beatrice's ordinary dinner message and decides it secretly declares her love. He's inventing the subtext, which is exactly the joke.

“Some Cupid kills with arrows, some with traps.”

Hero's verdict on the trick: Cupid doesn't only strike with love at first sight. Sometimes people are caught by a scheme — and it works on Beatrice.

“What fire is in mine ears?”

Beatrice, alone, can't cool down what she's just heard. The 'fire' is the sting of being praised and criticized in the same breath, and it moves her toward love.

“I will requite thee, taming my wild heart to thy loving hand.”

She promises to return his love and gives up her independence — the wild heart is hers, and she hands the reins to Benedick.

“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.”

Ursula's description of Beatrice's greatest flaw: contempt in her eyes and a wit that rates itself above everything. It's the precise pride the trick exploits.

“I took no more pains for those thanks than you take pains to thank me.”

Beatrice's answer when thanked for coming: the effort she spent equals the effort he spent thanking her — barely any. A double-edged compliment turned into a small insult.

Theme

• Romance — Beatrice is talked into love by an overheard conversation, then vows to requite Benedick and tame her wild heart.
• Pride — Her pride is the wall the trick has to break; Ursula attacks it directly, and overhearing that attack is what finally moves her.