Capítulo 2 de 24 · 2'48"
At Leonato's house, Beatrice and Benedick resume a private war in public. He calls her "my dear Lady Disdain"; she says she would rather hear her dog bark at a crow than a man swear he loves her. Their insults are courtly, rehearsed and unmistakably fond.
The Soldiers Arrive at Leonato's
Beatrice and Benedick's Battle of Wits
At Leonato's house in Messina, Don Pedro and his men arrive, and Benedick quickly falls into a duel of words with Beatrice. She greets him with "nobody marks you"; he calls her Lady Disdain. They trade barbs about love and marriage until Beatrice ends it with "I know you of old."
The scene is a courtship disguised as combat. Benedick and Beatrice have known each other long enough to have a shared vocabulary—he calls her "Lady Disdain," she says she knows him "of old"; and for all the insults, neither can leave the other alone. Beatrice's line, "I had rather hear my dog bark at a crow than a man swear he loves me," is both a joke and a confession of a rule she lives by. She attacks men who swear love because she is afraid of being fooled by them. Benedick, who insists he loves none, gives as good as he gets, and the insults—parrot, beast, jade—show how closely he is paying attention. Everyone around them, including Don Pedro, treats the exchange as entertainment, which is exactly what the play will later overturn.
A1–C2 es la escala MCER. Las tarjetas por encima del nivel elegido se atenúan y la reproducción no se pausa en ellas.
“The fashion of the world is to avoid cost, and you encounter it.”
It frames hosting as a cost everyone dodges, then teases a host who walks right into it.
Formal
“Is it possible disdain should die, while she hath such meet food as Signior Benedick?”
It treats disdain as a creature that needs feeding and makes Benedick the meal.
literary
“I had rather hear my dog bark at a crow than a man swear he loves me.”
She ranks a dog's barking above a man's vows, a refusal delivered through wit rather than anger.
literary
“A bird of my tongue is better than a beast of yours.”
Bird against beast, the reply turns her own nickname into a pointed insult back at him.
Informal
“I would my horse had the speed of your tongue.”
He wishes his horse were as fast as her tongue, a wry compliment disguised as a complaint.
Informal
Siguiente · 03turn husbandLa escena: Benedick Scorns Hero and MarriageThey are old acquaintances who clearly enjoy the fight. The insults are a way of paying attention to each other without admitting any interest.
It is his mocking nickname for her, meaning "Lady Contempt." He is needling her pride, but the name fits so well that it defines her in the scene.
She means that a man's profession of love is worthless to her—noisy and insincere. The joke hides a real fear of being fooled by men.
Don Pedro and his soldiers, including Benedick, Claudio and Don John, come to stay in Messina after the wars, and Leonato welcomes them.
Beatrice dismisses Benedick with "I know you of old," meaning she has seen through him for years, and leaves him to the others.
