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Much Ado About Nothing: Kill Claudio

Beatrice asks Benedick to make his declaration of love count by challenging the friend who has publicly shamed Hero.

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Casting range: Beatrice 25-40; Benedick 28-40.
Duration: 2.92 min
Difficulty: Intermediate
Relationship: Lovers divided by loyalty to friends and family
Role balance: Beatrice has the longer speeches; Benedick’s interrupted replies lead to his decision.
Setting: Inside the church after Hero’s interrupted wedding. Beatrice and Benedick have been left alone.
Scene heading: INT. CHURCH - DAY
Content notes: Threats of violence, Public shaming, & Sexual accusations
Language: English

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Scene work

What is playable here

Objective: Turn a declaration of love into a decision about loyalty.
Obstacle: Benedick’s friendship with Claudio conflicts with what Beatrice needs from him.
Relationship: Their first open admission of love immediately acquires a cost.
Stakes: Hero’s reputation and the possibility of a future together depend on whether Benedick acts.
Turn: Benedick stops trying to calm Beatrice and asks whether she truly believes Claudio wronged Hero.

Playing age 25-40

Beatrice

Wants: Make Benedick take action to defend Hero.

Up against: He wants to keep his friendship with Claudio separate from his love for her.

Choice prompts

Let the confession of love be possible before you make the demand.
Find who each interrupted appeal is aimed at: Benedick, Claudio, or the men who stood and watched.

Playing age 28-40

Benedick

Wants: Keep Beatrice’s trust without accepting that his friend is guilty.

Up against: She treats his hesitation as another betrayal of Hero.

Choice prompts

Try to finish the interrupted sentences. Know what you would say if she let you.
Make the final question about Hero a real question whose answer changes what you do.

Full script

Much Ado About Nothing: Kill Claudio

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INT. CHURCH - DAY

Exeunt Friar, Hero and Leonato.

Beatrice

I love you with so much of my heart that none is left to protest.

Benedick

Come, bid me do anything for thee.

Beatrice

Kill Claudio.

Benedick

Ha! not for the wide world.

Beatrice

You kill me to deny it. Farewell.

Benedick

Tarry, sweet Beatrice.

Beatrice

I am gone, though I am here: there is no love in you: nay, I pray you, let me go.

Benedick

Beatrice,—

Beatrice

In faith, I will go.

Benedick

We’ll be friends first.

Beatrice

You dare easier be friends with me than fight with mine enemy.

Benedick

Is Claudio thine enemy?

Beatrice

Is he not approved in the height a villain, that hath slandered, scorned, dishonoured my kinswoman? O! that I were a man. What! bear her in hand until they come to take hands, and then, with public accusation, uncovered slander, unmitigated rancour,—O God, that I were a man! I would eat his heart in the market-place.

Benedick

Hear me, Beatrice,—

Beatrice

Talk with a man out at a window! a proper saying!

Benedick

Nay, but Beatrice,—

Beatrice

Sweet Hero! she is wronged, she is slandered, she is undone.

Benedick

Beat—

Beatrice

Princes and Counties! Surely, a princely testimony, a goodly Count Comfect; a sweet gallant, surely! O! that I were a man for his sake, or that I had any friend would be a man for my sake! But manhood is melted into curtsies, valour into compliment, and men are only turned into tongue, and trim ones too: he is now as valiant as Hercules, that only tells a lie and swears it. I cannot be a man with wishing, therefore I will die a woman with grieving.

Benedick

Tarry, good Beatrice. By this hand, I love thee.

Beatrice

Use it for my love some other way than swearing by it.

Benedick

Think you in your soul the Count Claudio hath wronged Hero?

Beatrice

Yea, as sure is I have a thought or a soul.

Benedick

Enough! I am engaged, I will challenge him. I will kiss your hand, and so leave you. By this hand, Claudio shall render me a dear account. As you hear of me, so think of me. Go, comfort your cousin: I must say she is dead; and so, farewell.

Public domain

William Shakespeare

Much Ado About Nothing · Act 4, Scene 1; cut by blablabla · Project Gutenberg #1519, 1998 public-domain composite transcription

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