Monologue

Benedick Monologue from Much Ado About Nothing

From Much Ado About Nothing by William Shakespeare

male · comedic · 1:15 min

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And therefore will come. (Exit Margaret.) The god of love, That sits above, And knows me, and knows me, How pitiful I deserve,— I mean, in singing: but in loving, Leander the good swimmer, Troilus the first employer of panders, and a whole book full of these quondam carpet-mongers, whose names yet run smoothly in the even road of a blank verse, why, they were never so truly turned over and over as my poor self in love. Marry, I cannot show it in rime; I have tried: I can find out no rime to ‘lady’ but ‘baby’, an innocent rime; for ‘scorn,’ ‘horn’, a hard rime; for ‘school’, ‘fool’, a babbling rime; very ominous endings: no, I was not born under a riming planet, nor I cannot woo in festival terms. Enter Beatrice. Sweet Beatrice, wouldst thou come when I called thee?

About this piece

Benedick reflects on his struggles with love and poetry, humorously lamenting his inability to express his feelings in verse, just as Beatrice enters, prompting a shift in focus.

20s · longing · love · identity · humor

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