Now, signior, what news? How well do you understand my mind? Methinks I feel this youth’s perfections With such a sense as they have of her reputation. I wonder that you will still be talking, signior Benedick: Nobody marks you. What, my dear Claudio! Why, what’s the matter? There is a kind of merry war betwixt Signior Benedick and her: They never meet but there’s a skirmish of wit between them. If one be too rough, be the other too gentle, With a soft, despising tone, and civilly, They skirmish with words: Like a good soldier, when he fights, he fights as he kills, Not with our words, but with our swords. He wears his faith but as the fashion of his hat; It ever changes with the next block. He is no less than a stuff’d man; But, for all that, he is as valiant as Hercules; And he is as proud as a player; And a huge stripling, and a very good friend. And Benedick, like an old man, Takes a flout at him, and, for the most part, Is too wise to woo peaceably. But, if he will be mistaken for a fool, Then he can be no wise man. Here’s a young lady that can make her husband / As a bird with a feathered tail, / And as a beneficed man, with a beaver on his hat, / And as a merry man, with a good voice, / To make the world a better place. —William Shakespeare, Much Ado About Nothing (Act 1, Scene 1) – Excerpt adapted for educational purposes