Original artwork, not a still
Much Ado About Nothing • 1600
That a woman conceived me, I thank her; that she brought me up, I likewise give her most humble thanks: but that I will have a recheat winded in my forehead, or hang my bugle in an invisible baldrick, all women shall pardon me.
Behind the line
What it means
Our interpretation.
Benedick thanks his mother for bearing and raising him but rejects marriage through a joke about horns, the traditional emblem of a betrayed husband. The linked next lines say he will remain a bachelor. This is his comic fear of betrayal, not proof that women cannot be trusted.
Sources (1)
- Folger Shakespeare Library: Much Ado About NothingAct I, scene IReference checked
Context reviewed
