1.133). Benedick continues the reference to animals in his response, "I would my horse had the speed of your tongue" (1.1.135). It is as if each anticipates the other's response. Though their insults are cruel, their ability to sustain such clever, consistent brutality seems to illustrate the existence of a strong bond between them. Beatrice's viciousness is not misplaced, however, and stems from the fact that the two have courted in the past and Benedick abandoned her. When Beatrice insists that Benedick "set up his bills here in Messina and challenged Cupid at the flight, and my uncle's fool, reading the challenge, subscribed for Cupid," she describes a "battle" of love between herself and Benedick that she has lost (1.1.36-38). The result is what Leonato describes as "a kind of merry war betwixt Sir Benedick and (Beatrice).They never meet but there's a skirmish of wit between them" (1.1.56-59).
Although Benedick and Beatrice carefully hide anything that could resemble feeling, Benedick appears to be quite upset over what Beatrice calls him at the ball, a Prince's jester. In speaking with Don Pedro he gives a wonderful performance in which .
3.
his mind is brilliantly captured, a piling up of anger and fury but also with his attempts to make the situation sound comical in order to amuse Don Pedro. This attempt at comedy in spite of his anger ironically confirms Beatrice's charge that he is the Prince's jester. There seems to be some deeper emotion below the surface of the camaraderie between Beatrice and Benedick that his friends pick up on and as a result, form a conspiracy to make them marry. When Benedick overhears Claudio, Leonato and Don Pedro discussing Beatrice's secret desire for him, Benedick decides to be "horribly in love with her," which serves to continue their competition by outdoing her in love and courtship (2.3.223). Benedick's own refusal to marry changes when he decides to fall in love with Beatrice.
