| There’s a skirmish of wit between them. | They have an ongoing battle of wits. |
| She speaks poniards, and every word stabs. | Her words are daggers and they cut deep. |
| “I can see he’s not in your good books,’ said the messenger.’No, and if he were I would burn my library.” | Banter between a messenger and Beatrice about the nature of Benedick’s character. |
| Ha! ‘Against my will I am sent to bid you come into dinner;’ there’s a double meaning in that…” | Benedick muses on Beatrice’s words to him just moments after he overhears that she is apparently in love with him. |
| “Marry, sir, they have committed false report; moreover, they have spoken untruths; secondarily, they are slanders; sixth and lastly, they have belied a lady; thirdly, they have verified unjust things; and, to conclude, they are lying knaves.” | Classic Dogberry-isms |
| “Is it not strange that sheep’s guts could hail souls out of men’s bodies?” | Sheep guts were used to make stringed instruments so Benedick muses on how something so ugly can produce something so beautiful |
| “…once before he won it of me with false dice …” | The revelation that once Beatrice was genuinely in love with Benedick until she realised he was only messing around |
| Friendship is constant in all other thingsSave in the office and affairs of love. | Claudio states that friendship is trustworthy, except when it comes to questions of love and the heart. |
| Neighbours, you are tedious. | Leonato manages to politely ask Dogberry to hurry up with retelling him the narrative of the events of the night’s watch. |
| “I were a man! I would eat his heart in the market-place.” | Beatrice demonstrates her fury at Claudio in this famous line. |
| “I had rather be a canker in a hedge than a rose in his grace …” | Don John reveals his true mind |
| “… hey nonny, nonny …” | A common line from songs in Shakespeare’s time |
Shakespearean Language Quiz Much Ado About Nothing
July 2, 2019