Reviews

My favorite Shakespeare read so far!! Starting date estimated. I swear I wrote a review for this already?? Where’d it gO?

PT: Shakespeare/Shakespearean lit, classics reading challenge, classics, books that have been on my TBR for too long

WIL
1) the BANTER. My god??? Beatrice is my hero. Her sharp, sparkling, and often tongue-in-cheek wit is all I aspire towards. IMAGINE BEING SO NATURALLY WITTY.

2) The character duos AKA the variance of relationship dynamics. On the one hand you have Bea and (Bene)dick as the Classic Enemies to Lovers and Fools who suffer pranks at the hands of their friends. They’re just so human and fallible and have such REMARKABLE chemistry. Then on the OTHER hand there’s Hero and Claudio who seem to have a much more temperate case of falling in love with each other at first. Less playful than Beadick’s relationship but perhaps a deeper kind of adoration for each other. I just like that there’s a spectrum of different kinds of relationships here, and the two central relationships are so VASTLY different.

3) Quotes I love:
“in a false quarrel there is no true valor” 5:1:133
“CLAUDIO: That I love her, I feel.
PRINCE: That she is worthy, I know.” 1:1:224
“If not a patient remedy, at least a patient sufferance.” 1:3:8
“Speak low if you speak love” 2:1:97
“Friendship is constant and all other things in the office and affairs of love. Therefore all hearts in love use their own tongues. Let every eye negotiate for itself and trust no agent, for beauty is a witch against whose charms faith melteth into blood. This isn’t an accident of hourly proof, which I mistrusted not. Farewell therefore, Hero.” 2:1:173
“If we can do this, Cupid is no longer an archer; his glory shall be ours, for we are the only love gods. Go in with me, and I will tell you my drift.”
“it is the witness still of excellency to put a strange face on his own perfection. I pray thee, sing, and let me woo no more.” 2:3:46
“what fire is in mine ears? Can you speak true? Stand I condemned for pride and scorn so much? Contempt, farewell, and maiden pride, adieu! No glory lives behind the back of such. And Benedick, love on; I will requite thee, taming my wild heart to thy loving hand. If thou dost love, my kindness shall incite thee to bind our loves up in holy band. For others say thou dost deserve, and I believe it better than reportingly.” 3:2:113
“Conclude, conclude, he is in love” 3:2:57
For when rich villains have need of poor ones, poor ones may make what price they will.” 3:3:112
“O, what men dare do! What men may do! What men daily do, not knowing what they do!” 4:1:19
“For my part, I am so attired in wonder” 4:1:152
“BENEDICK: I do love nothing in the world so well as you. Is not that strange?
BEATRICE: as strange as the thing I know not. It was possible for me to say I loved nothing so well as you, but believe me not, and yet I lie not, I confess nothing, nor I deny nothing… you have stayed me in a happy hour. I was about to protest I loved you.” 4:1:281
“…Men can counsel and speak comfort to that grief which they themselves not feel, but tasting it, their counsel turns to passion, which before would give preceptial med’cine to rage, fetter strong madness in a silken thread, charm ache with air and agony with words. No, no, ‘tis all men’s office to speak patience to those that wring under the load of sorrow, but no man’s virtue nor sufficiency to be so moral when he shall endure the like himself. Therefore give me no counsel. My griefs cry louder than advertisement.” 5:1:22
“BENEDICK: And I pray thee now tell me, for which of my bad parts didst thou first fall in love with me?
BEATRICE: For them all together which maintained so politic a state of evil that they will not admit any good part to intermingle with them.” 5:2:59
“And I do with an eye of love requite her.” 5:4:24

NEUTRAL GROUND
1) I finished this October third, 11:59 PM mere SECONDS before the clock turned to midnight. Ha. That was cool.

2) not explicitly book related but the movie adaptation of this was AWESOME. The Monty Python reference with the horses really got me.

nahret's review against another edition

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adventurous emotional funny inspiring lighthearted fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

After having a bit of a Much Ado marathon - we watched two very different* productions of the play on a Sunday afternoon - I felt inspired to read the play again, because it probably is my favorite Shakespeare play.

While the story is ostensibly about the trials of Hero and Claudio, whose desire to be wed is foiled by the evil machinations of the Prince of Aragon's bastard brother, John, the true stars are Benedick and Beatrice, forever locked in a pointed battle of wits. It is the development between the two of them that carries the whole play. The way they are "tricked" into falling in love with each other is simply genius writing.

I was inclined to take off a star for the piss-poor treatment of Hero, of course. I understand Shakespeare's point; many of his plays are based on people not properly talking to each other. And I make the usual allowances for the time period. But still, both Claudio and the Prince, as well as Leonato, commit the age-old error of believing another man, however untrustworthy they might already know him to be, over the words of a woman they claimed to love. On the other hand, we have Beatrice, who not only believes her cousin, but who laments her station as a woman that prevents her from exacting vengeance upon those who wronged Hero.

Sheldon P. Zitner's introduction does a good job of explaining that Shakespeare not only deliberately painted the three men in an explicitly cruel manner (apparently, their treatment of Hero did not fly with contemporary audiences at the time, either), but follows a pattern of outrage and redemption that was a well-liked formula at the time. Also, the theme of deception comes up time and again, sometimes malignant, sometimes for sport, but occasionally in the name of love itself. As usual with Shakespeare, even this blueprint for romcoms offers layers upon layers of genius.

10/10, would rewatch this very instant.

* The first one was the 2011 Westend theater production, featuring David Tennant as Benedick and Catherine Tate as Beatrice. Its setting is modern, and it errs on the side of slapstick. What got to me was the choice to dress Hero in a wedding gown that looked like a copy of the one Princess Diana wore; much like Hero in the play, Diana, upon her death, turned from whore to saint in the eyes of the British press.
The second one was the 1993 film directed by Kenneth Branagh, who also stars as Benedick, opposite his then-wife, the fabulous Emma Thompson. While hilariously funny, it gives space to the very dramatic moments of the story. Also, the stand-out in the star-studded cast has to be Michael Keaton as Dogberry. Remember: he is an ass!