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Hero

Beatrice’s Sonnet

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Beatrice closes Act 3 scene 1 of Much Ado About Nothing, speaking a sonnet.* Shakespeare occasionally used sonnets in his plays, for example, in Romeo and Juliet and Richard III, which were examined in previous essays. He didn’t insert these sonnets arbitrarily. He intended to achieve effects,
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Appearance and Deception

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A recurring theme in many of Shakespeare’s plays, and central to Much Ado About Nothing, explores how easily people are deceived not just by the false testimony of others but even by their own senses. Claudio, believing he was deceived by Don John, learned to place no trust in the words of others. With “Let every eye negotiate for itself,”
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Seasons, Elements and Humors

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The four seasons, the four elements and the four humors were all related. The four seasons spring, summer, autumn and winter paralleled the four humors blood/sanguine, yellow bile/choleric, phlegm/phlegmatic and black bile/melancholic, which in turn paralleled the four elements air, fire, water and earth. Good health and good disposition of character or personality were believed to be a matter of keeping one’s humors in proper balance.
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The revelers are entering, brother

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Leonato 
The revelers are entering, brother. Make good room.
  Leonato and his brother step aside.
  
Enter, with a Drum, Prince Pedro, Claudio and Benedick, Signior Antonio,
  and Balthasar, all in
 masks, with Borachio and Don John.
Princeto Hero
Lady, will you walk a bout with your friend?
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Source:
Act 2
Scene 1
Line 81

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Now, Ursula, when Beatrice doth come

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Hero
Now, Ursula, when Beatrice doth come,
As we do trace this alley up and down,
Our talk must only be of Benedick.
When I do name him, let it be thy part
To praise him more than ever man did merit.

What fire is in mine ears?

My talk to thee must be how Benedick
Is sick in love with Beatrice.
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You come hither, my lord, to marry this lady?

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Friar, to Claudio
You come hither, my lord, to marry this lady?
Claudio
No.
Leonato
To be married to her.—Friar, you come to marry her.
Friar
Lady, you come hither to be married to this count?
Hero
I do.

O, what men dare do!
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Source:
Act 4
Scene 1
Line 4

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O, God defend me, how am I beset!

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Hero
O, God defend me, how am I beset!—
What kind of catechizing call you this?
Claudio
To make you answer truly to your name.
Hero
Is it not Hero? Who can blot that name
With any just reproach?
Claudio
Marry, that can Hero!
Hero itself can blot out Hero’s virtue.
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Source:
Act 4
Scene 1
Line 81

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Hear me a little, For I have only silent been so long

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Hear me a little,
For I have only silent been so long,Hyperbaton
And given way unto this course of fortune,
By noting of the lady. I have marked
A thousand blushing apparitions
To start into her face, a thousand innocent shames
In angel whiteness beat away those blushes,
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Source:
Act 4
Scene 1
Line 164

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Connected Notes:
Appearance and Deception

Good morrow, Benedick

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Prince
Good morrow, Benedick. Why, what’s the matter
That you have such a February face,
So full of frost, of storm, and cloudiness?
Claudio
I think he thinks upon the savage bull.
Tush, fear not, man. We’ll tip thy horns with gold,
And all Europa shall rejoice at thee,
As once Europa did at lusty Jove
When he would play the noble beast in love.
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Source:
Act 5
Scene 4
Line 41

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