Benedick and Beatrice Woo by Quarrelling, Explained：woo peaceably

What's really going on

The love scene is built as a failed poem that turns into a real conversation. Benedick keeps trying to be a conventional lover and keeps failing — he cannot rhyme 'lady' except with 'baby,' and his attempts at 'scorn' and 'school' land on 'horn' and 'fool,' endings he himself calls ominous. What actually works is the old habit of arguing. Beatrice will not accept his kiss or his sweet talk, turning them into 'foul breath,' and the two only draw closer by attacking each other's faults openly. Their own summary is the best description of the relationship: 'Thou and I are too wise to woo peaceably.' The scene matters because it shows the pair exactly as they are, not as the plot wants them to be — even in love, they need the quarrel.

Theme

このチャプターで学べること

• His failure at rhyme becomes the scene's best joke.
• These two only confess love through insult.
• A pun on horn carried a sharper edge in 1598.
• Being too clever here is a kind of courtship.

発音のポイント

• rhyme to — Blend rhyme and to so they sound like one word.
• against my will — Link against my into one run and stress will at the end.
• too wise — Stress too wise and let woo peaceably answer it in rhythm.