Beatrice and Benedict are witty lovers in Shakespeare’s Much Ado About Nothing, providing comic relief to the more serious Hero and Claudio. Their story is derived from Italian Commedia dell’arte theatre, and they are often played by renowned actors, including Emma Thompson and Kenneth Branagh in the 1993 film adaptation.
Beatrice and Benedict are a pair of constantly quarreling lovers in William Shakespeare’s play Much Ado About Nothing. Their witty bickering serves as relief from Hero and Claudio, the more serious and dramatic lovers of the game. The secondary love story of Beatrice and Benedict belongs to a pre-Shakespeare theatrical tradition, used most frequently in Italian Commedia dell’arte theatre. While the name is often heard as “Benedict,” it’s actually spelled correctly “Benedick.”
In Shakespeare’s play, Beatrice is a young woman in the family of a prominent Messina man named Leonato. Beatrice is a cousin of Hero, daughter of Leonato, and is a witty woman famous for her refusal to marry. Beatrice is disdainful of all men, but especially Benedict, a soldier in Prince Don Pedro’s visiting army. Interestingly, Beatrice references an early visit where she and Benedict were romantically involved, but it is never fully explained. Leonato warns the soldier announcing Don Pedro’s company of Beatrice and Benedict’s ongoing quarrel, and his prediction of a “merry war” between them comes true when their first meeting escalates into an explosive verbal duel of wit.
Benedict is no more fond of Beatrice than she is of him. A lifelong bachelor, he flies into a rage when his best friend, Claudio, announces that he wants to marry the virtuous Hero. Benedetto swears to Claudio and Don Pedro that he will never fall in love or marry, especially as regards Beatrice.
After a party that results in the engagement of Claudio and Hero, Don Pedro suggests spending the time before the wedding making Beatrice and Benedict fall in love. By staging conversations to convince themselves that the other is madly in love with them, Don Pedro and his friends achieve the desired result. After a plot against Hero leads to disaster, it is the still-conflicted Beatrice and Benedict who reunite Hero and Claudio, and the play ends with both couples getting married.
The tradition of a comic couple as a contrast to the romantic couple was often used in Italian Renaissance theatre. In the traveling style of the Commedia dell’arte, there were two specific characters who would fill this role. Arlequino, or Harlequin, is usually a servant portrayed as in love with another servant, Columbina, who refuses to marry him and constantly teases him. The main romance of the piece is usually saved by Arlequino and Columbina working together. Shakespeare is likely to have seen performances of this traveling form of theatre, and many critics suggest that Beatrice and Benedict are directly derived from this source.
The roles of Beatrice and Benedict are highly sought after by actors, as they are often considered the funniest and most colorful of Shakespeare’s lovers. Renowned British actors Henry, John Gielgud and Derek Jacobi have all given award-winning performances of Benedict on stage, while Ellen Terry, Peggy Ashcroft and Sinead Cusack have had notable performances of Beatrice. Perhaps the most famous portrayal of Beatrice and Benedict was in the 1993 film version of Much Ado About Nothing. This production, one of the most financially successful film versions of a Shakespeare play, was noted by critics for brilliant performances by Emma Thompson and director Kenneth Branagh as the dueling lovers. Because of its humor and accessibility to the new Shakespeare, the film is often used in Shakespeare lessons as an introduction to the playwright and the subject.
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