Sally Kilpatrick's Blog - Posts Tagged "benedick"
My Deleted Scene from Shakespeare
In honor of #ShakespeareWeek here at goodreads, I give you a deleted scene from my favorite play, Much Ado:
Much Ado About Nothing
Act 5, Scene 5
An epilogue that gives us but a brief glimpse at the honeymoon of Beatrice and Benedick.
Crow caws and a dog answers.
BEATRICE: Soft! What sound is that beyond our marriage bed?
BENEDICK: (leans out window and pulls up a cage with a crow) ‘Tis as you requested, your dog barking at a crow. Marked I well when you said it.
BEATRICE: Said I such a thing? Thou speakest of another Beatrice. Say you love me so we may return to our Scotch jig.
BENEDICK: Troth, I cannot.
BEATRICE: Ah, the cinquepace so soon? Or perchance your potent regiment hath retreated?
BENEDICK: (sputters)
BEATRICE: Your bauble broken? Your needle lacking thread?
BENEDICK: Woman, I have an abundance of thread. Say you love me first, my Lady Disdain.
BEATRICE: That name of old? O sweet Benedick. God give me patience.
BENEDICK: God give you patience! May He grant me more. I fancy a journey to the Netherlands. Now say it.
BEATRICE: Nay.
BENEDICK: (assaults her with kisses)
BEATRICE: {sighs) I fear *I* have caught the Benedick. By my troth, I love thee.
BENEDICK: And I love thee at least ‘til Claudio hangs me up at the door of a brothel house for the sign of blind Cupid.
BEATRICE: What?
BENEDICK: Fret not. He is with his Hero. (sings as he takes her hand to kiss it) Sigh not so, but let them go.
BEATRICE: And be I blithe and bonny?
BENEDICK: (kisses her knuckles and starts working his way up her arm) Aye.
BEATRICE: (sighs anyway, but happily) Hey nonny nonny.
Much Ado About Nothing
Act 5, Scene 5
An epilogue that gives us but a brief glimpse at the honeymoon of Beatrice and Benedick.
Crow caws and a dog answers.
BEATRICE: Soft! What sound is that beyond our marriage bed?
BENEDICK: (leans out window and pulls up a cage with a crow) ‘Tis as you requested, your dog barking at a crow. Marked I well when you said it.
BEATRICE: Said I such a thing? Thou speakest of another Beatrice. Say you love me so we may return to our Scotch jig.
BENEDICK: Troth, I cannot.
BEATRICE: Ah, the cinquepace so soon? Or perchance your potent regiment hath retreated?
BENEDICK: (sputters)
BEATRICE: Your bauble broken? Your needle lacking thread?
BENEDICK: Woman, I have an abundance of thread. Say you love me first, my Lady Disdain.
BEATRICE: That name of old? O sweet Benedick. God give me patience.
BENEDICK: God give you patience! May He grant me more. I fancy a journey to the Netherlands. Now say it.
BEATRICE: Nay.
BENEDICK: (assaults her with kisses)
BEATRICE: {sighs) I fear *I* have caught the Benedick. By my troth, I love thee.
BENEDICK: And I love thee at least ‘til Claudio hangs me up at the door of a brothel house for the sign of blind Cupid.
BEATRICE: What?
BENEDICK: Fret not. He is with his Hero. (sings as he takes her hand to kiss it) Sigh not so, but let them go.
BEATRICE: And be I blithe and bonny?
BENEDICK: (kisses her knuckles and starts working his way up her arm) Aye.
BEATRICE: (sighs anyway, but happily) Hey nonny nonny.
