Much Ado About Nothing quotes run from Leonato’s description of the “merry war” between Beatrice and Benedick to Benedick’s last cry of “Strike up, pipers!” and in between they include two of the best-known words in Shakespeare’s comedies: “Kill Claudio.”
This page explains 40 of the play’s best-known lines, act by act. For each one, you will find who says it, when it comes in the story, and what it means. It ends with a closer look at how, in a play full of talk, it is written words that finally settle the truth. For the plot and the characters, see our full guide to Much Ado About Nothing. For famous lines from all of Shakespeare’s plays, see our Shakespeare quotes hub.
At a Glance
Here are the key facts about the famous lines in Much Ado About Nothing for quick reference.
Act 1 Quotes
Soldiers return from war, an old quarrel resumes, and a young lord falls in love.
“A Kind of Merry War”
Leonato, Act 1, scene 1, explaining his niece to a puzzled messenger: “There is a kind of merry war betwixt Signior Benedick and her. They never meet but there’s a skirmish of wit between them.” The phrase has become the standard description of Beatrice and Benedick, and of any couple who flirt by fighting.
“He Wears His Faith but as the Fashion of His Hat”
Beatrice, Act 1, scene 1, on Benedick’s friendships: “it ever changes with the next block,” meaning the mold a hat was shaped on. He has “every month a new sworn brother,” she says. The charge that men are changeable runs through the whole play.
“What, My Dear Lady Disdain! Are You Yet Living?”
Benedick, Act 1, scene 1, his first words to Beatrice, after she tells him that “nobody marks you.” She answers that disdain cannot die “while she hath such meet food to feed it as Signior Benedick.” The merry war resumes in the first minutes of the play.
“I Had Rather Hear My Dog Bark at a Crow Than a Man Swear He Loves Me”
Beatrice, Act 1, scene 1, agreeing with Benedick that neither of them loves anyone. She thanks God and her “cold blood” for her indifference. The line sets up the joke of the play, since by Act 4 a man will swear exactly that to her, and she will believe him.
“Can the World Buy Such a Jewel?”
Claudio, Act 1, scene 1, confessing his love for Hero to Benedick. Benedick answers, “Yea, and a case to put it into.” The image of Hero as a jewel to be bought is revealing. Later in the scene, Claudio asks the Prince whether Leonato has a son.
“I Will Live a Bachelor”
Benedick, Act 1, scene 1, explaining why he will never marry: “Because I will not do them the wrong to mistrust any, I will do myself the right to trust none.” His fear is being made a cuckold, and he makes a joke of trusting no woman at all.
“In Time the Savage Bull Doth Bear the Yoke”
Don Pedro, Act 1, scene 1, predicting that Benedick will marry in the end. Benedick answers that if he ever bears the yoke, his friends may set the bull’s horns on his head and paint a sign beneath: “Here you may see Benedick the married man.” His friends remember the sign, and they quote it back to him twice before the play is over.
“I Had Rather Be a Canker in a Hedge Than a Rose in His Grace”
Don John, Act 1, scene 3, on his brother the Prince. A canker is a wild dog rose, the kind that grows in hedges. Don John would rather be scorned than earn favor by pretending: “it must not be denied but I am a plain-dealing villain.”
Act 2 Quotes
A masked dance, a match made, and a trick played on a bachelor in a garden.
“He That Hath No Beard Is Less Than a Man”
Beatrice, Act 2, scene 1, explaining why no husband will do. “He that hath a beard is more than a youth, and he that hath no beard is less than a man; and he that is more than a youth is not for me, and he that is less than a man, I am not for him.” The logic is airtight, and it leaves her unmarried.
“Would It Not Grieve a Woman to Be Overmastered with a Piece of Valiant Dust?”
Beatrice, Act 2, scene 1, refusing to marry until “God make men of some other metal than earth.” Man was made from dust, and she will not answer to “a clod of wayward marl.” Beneath the joke is a real objection to being ruled by a husband.
“Wooing, Wedding, and Repenting Is as a Scotch Jig, a Measure, and a Cinquepace”
Beatrice, Act 2, scene 1, advising Hero. Courtship is “hot and hasty” like a jig, the wedding is stately like a formal dance, and then repentance comes, dancing the cinquepace “faster and faster till he sink into his grave.” Leonato admits, “Cousin, you apprehend passing shrewdly.”
“Speak Low If You Speak Love”
Don Pedro, Act 2, scene 1, to Hero at the masked dance, where he woos her on Claudio’s behalf. The whispered courtship is what Don John will twist into a rumor that the Prince is wooing for himself.
“Friendship Is Constant in All Other Things / Save in the Office and Affairs of Love”
Claudio, Act 2, scene 1, after Don John tells him the Prince has won Hero for himself. Claudio believes it at once and decides that lovers should “trust no agent.” It is the first sign of how easily he can be made to doubt.
“She Speaks Poniards, and Every Word Stabs”
Benedick, Act 2, scene 1, complaining to the Prince after Beatrice, apparently not recognizing him behind his mask, called him “the Prince’s jester, a very dull fool.” A poniard is a dagger. He would rather go on an errand to the far end of Asia than talk with “my Lady Tongue.”
“Silence Is the Perfectest Herald of Joy”
Claudio, Act 2, scene 1, when Beatrice prompts him to speak after Hero is given to him: “Speak, count, ’tis your cue.” He goes on, “I were but little happy if I could say how much.” Hero says nothing at all.
“There Was a Star Danced, and Under That Was I Born”
Beatrice, Act 2, scene 1, when Don Pedro says she must have been born in a merry hour. “No, sure, my lord, my mother cried,” she answers, “but then there was a star danced, and under that was I born.” It is one of the loveliest lines Shakespeare gave to any of his witty women.
“Sigh No More, Ladies, Sigh No More, / Men Were Deceivers Ever”
Balthasar’s song, Act 2, scene 3, sung while Benedick hides in the arbor. Men have “One foot in sea and one on shore, / To one thing constant never,” so women should let them go and turn their sorrow into “Hey, nonny nonny.” Benedick, listening, thinks it sounds like a dog howling.
“The World Must Be Peopled”
Benedick, Act 2, scene 3, alone after hearing that Beatrice loves him. He talks himself into loving her in return and explains away his old vows: “When I said I would die a bachelor, I did not think I should live till I were married.”
“These Paper Bullets of the Brain”
Benedick, Act 2, scene 3, in the same speech, on the jokes his friends will make about his change of heart: “Shall quips and sentences and these paper bullets of the brain awe a man from the career of his humor? No!”
Act 3 Quotes
Beatrice is tricked in turn, Don John plots, and the night watch goes on duty.
“Some Cupid Kills with Arrows, Some with Traps”
Hero, Act 3, scene 1, after she and Ursula have tricked Beatrice into overhearing that Benedick loves her. The couplet admits that the love plot is a kind of hunt, and that the hunters are laying traps.
“Contempt, Farewell, and Maiden Pride, Adieu!”
Beatrice, Act 3, scene 1, coming out of her hiding place. In a rare speech of rhymed verse, she gives up her scorn and promises, “Benedick, love on; I will requite thee, / Taming my wild heart to thy loving hand.”
“Everyone Can Master a Grief but He That Has It”
Benedick, Act 3, scene 2, when his friends tease him about looking sad. He claims to have a toothache, and they know he is in love. The saying returns in Act 5, when Leonato, in real grief, says no philosopher “could endure the toothache patiently.”
“They That Touch Pitch Will Be Defiled”
Dogberry, Act 3, scene 3, instructing the watch. The proverb means that contact with evil corrupts. Dogberry uses it to advise the watchmen not to arrest thieves at all, but to “let him show himself what he is and steal out of your company.”
“Comparisons Are Odorous”
Dogberry, Act 3, scene 5, to Verges, in front of Leonato. He means “odious,” from the saying “Comparisons are odious.” The slip is typical of the constable, who uses grand words and gets them wrong.
“When the Age Is In, the Wit Is Out”
Dogberry, Act 3, scene 5, apologizing for his partner Verges, who talks too much. He twists an old saying about drink, that when the ale is in, the wit is out. Leonato, in a hurry to get to the wedding, loses patience with both of them and misses the news that would have saved his daughter.
Act 4 Quotes
A wedding becomes a public shaming, and Beatrice and Benedick finally confess their love.
“O, What Men Dare Do!”
Claudio, Act 4, scene 1, when Leonato answers for him that he knows no impediment to the marriage: “O, what men dare do! What men may do! What men daily do, not knowing what they do!” Benedick, not yet understanding, jokes about his interjections.
“Give Not This Rotten Orange to Your Friend”
Claudio, Act 4, scene 1, handing Hero back to her father at the altar. “She’s but the sign and semblance of her honor,” he says, and he takes her blushes for guilt. Earlier, Beatrice had called Claudio “civil as an orange,” a pun on Seville oranges.
“What We Have We Prize Not to the Worth / Whiles We Enjoy It”
Friar Francis, Act 4, scene 1, explaining his plan to report Hero dead. Once she is lost, Claudio will “rack the value” of what he had, and “Th’ idea of her life shall sweetly creep / Into his study of imagination.”
“I Do Love Nothing in the World So Well as You. Is Not That Strange?”
Benedick, Act 4, scene 1, alone with Beatrice after the wedding. She answers, “As strange as the thing I know not,” and then, after much evasion, admits, “I love you with so much of my heart that none is left to protest.”
“Kill Claudio”
Beatrice, Act 4, scene 1, when Benedick says, “Come, bid me do anything for thee.” He answers, “Ha! Not for the wide world,” and she replies, “You kill me to deny it.” The two words turn the comedy toward danger, and they force Benedick to choose between his friend and the woman he loves.
“O God, That I Were a Man! I Would Eat His Heart in the Marketplace”
Beatrice, Act 4, scene 1, furious at Claudio’s treatment of Hero. She scorns men who talk instead of act (“men are only turned into tongue”) and ends, “I cannot be a man with wishing; therefore I will die a woman with grieving.” Benedick asks one question and then agrees: “Enough, I am engaged. I will challenge him.”
“O, That He Were Here to Write Me Down an Ass!”
Dogberry, Act 4, scene 2, after Conrade calls him an ass during the examination. The Sexton has just left, and Dogberry is outraged that the insult is not on the record: “But masters, remember that I am an ass.”
Act 5 Quotes
A challenge, a confession, a penance, and a double wedding.
“There Was Never Yet Philosopher / That Could Endure the Toothache Patiently”
Leonato, Act 5, scene 1, rejecting his brother’s advice to be patient. Anyone can preach calm about a grief he does not feel, Leonato says: “I will be flesh and blood.”
“In a False Quarrel There Is No True Valor”
Benedick, Act 5, scene 1, when Don Pedro and Claudio joke about nearly fighting Leonato and his brother. Moments later, Benedick challenges Claudio in earnest: “You are a villain. I jest not.”
“I Was Not Born under a Rhyming Planet”
Benedick, Act 5, scene 2, trying and failing to write a love poem. He can find no rhyme for “lady” but “baby,” for “scorn” but “horn,” and for “school” but “fool.” He cannot, he admits, “woo in festival terms.”
“Serve God, Love Me, and Mend”
Benedick, Act 5, scene 2, when Beatrice says she is “Very ill” with worry for her cousin. The five words are his whole advice, and they are the plainest words of love he speaks in the play.
“One Hero Died Defiled, but I Do Live”
Hero, Act 5, scene 4, unmasking at the second wedding: “And surely as I live, I am a maid.” Leonato explains, “She died, my lord, but whiles her slander lived.”
“Peace! I Will Stop Your Mouth”
Benedick, Act 5, scene 4, in most modern editions, ending the last round of the merry war with a kiss. The 1600 Quarto gives the line to Leonato. Beatrice has just claimed she agreed to marry him only “to save your life, for I was told you were in a consumption.”
“For Man Is a Giddy Thing, and This Is My Conclusion”
Benedick, Act 5, scene 4, answering Don Pedro’s mocking “How dost thou, Benedick, the married man?” He will not be laughed out of marrying: “a college of wit-crackers cannot flout me out of my humor.”
“Prince, Thou Art Sad. Get Thee a Wife, Get Thee a Wife”
Benedick, Act 5, scene 4, to Don Pedro, who has made the play’s matches and ends it alone. A messenger then brings word that Don John has been captured, and Benedick calls for music: “Strike up, pipers!”
A Closer Reading: “Our Own Hands Against Our Hearts”
Much Ado About Nothing is a play of talk, and nearly all its trouble comes from spoken words: a whisper at a dance, a staged conversation in a garden, a boast in the street. Spoken words in Messina are easy to overhear and easy to twist. What finally settles the truth, again and again, is something written down.
Dogberry understands this better than anyone, though for the wrong reasons. At the examination, he keeps telling the Sexton to “write down” what is said, and when Conrade calls him an ass after the Sexton has gone, he is less upset by the insult than by the lack of a record: “O, that he were here to write me down an ass!” Yet the Sexton’s written examination is what reaches Leonato, and Borachio, confessing, admits that “My villainy they have upon record.” The fools’ paperwork succeeds where the princes’ eyes failed.
The rest of the ending runs on writing too. Leonato’s penance for Claudio is to “Hang her an epitaph upon her tomb.” And when Beatrice and Benedick, face to face at the second wedding, deny that they love each other beyond “reason,” their friends produce two papers: “a halting sonnet” in Benedick’s hand, and another “Writ in my cousin’s hand, stol’n from her pocket.” Benedick gives up at once:
A miracle! Here’s our own hands against our hearts.
The joke is that their handwriting testifies against what their hearts, or rather their tongues, are claiming. The two great talkers of the play, who could win any argument, lose this one to their own bad poetry. Benedick had admitted he “was not born under a rhyming planet,” and it hardly matters: the verses do not need to be good to be true. In a play where talk can make a woman seem guilty and a quarrel seem like love, the written word is the evidence that finally holds. Benedick sees the point and stops arguing. “Peace! I will stop your mouth.”
Common Questions
The questions readers ask most often about the famous lines in Much Ado About Nothing, answered briefly.
What Is the Most Famous Quote from Much Ado About Nothing?
Beatrice’s “Kill Claudio” is among the most famous moments, and Balthasar’s song “Sigh no more, ladies, sigh no more, / Men were deceivers ever” is the best-known verse. Leonato’s “a kind of merry war” is also widely quoted.
Who Says “Kill Claudio”?
Beatrice, in Act 4, scene 1, after Benedick declares his love and offers to do anything for her. She wants him to challenge Claudio for shaming her cousin Hero at the altar.
What Does “a Merry War” Mean?
It describes the witty, combative relationship between Beatrice and Benedick, who trade insults whenever they meet. Leonato uses the phrase in Act 1, scene 1, and it now describes any affectionate rivalry.
What Does “Comparisons Are Odorous” Mean?
It is Dogberry’s mistake for the saying “Comparisons are odious,” meaning that comparing people is unpleasant. His version says comparisons smell. The slip is typical of his habit of using the wrong word.
Who Sings “Sigh No More, Ladies”?
Balthasar, Don Pedro’s musician, in Act 2, scene 3, while Benedick hides in the arbor. The song tells women not to grieve over men, who “were deceivers ever.”
Related Reading
Three pages that take Much Ado About Nothing further.