Ever have to do close reading for a literature class and did you find it kind of fun or incredibly painful? Maybe you just spun some masterful BS to hit the word count.

Today we’re going to be approaching Shakespeare much in the same way, thinking about why we do close reading and then giving it a try. It’s probably not surprising that as an English major, I usually ended up finding close reading to be a useful or interesting exercise and it’s not a muscle I often have to flex now that I’ve been out of a school for…awhile.

With the use of some randomizer tools to help me land on a play and an act, I landed on a passage spoken by Beatrice in Much Ado About Nothing, which is perfect for being a play I enjoy and also because she is a delightful character who you might want to hear more about! I try to dig all I can out of about 20 lines of dialogue to determine what it can tell us about Beatrice, the structure of the play, and some cool new things to say to people who ask you when you’re getting married.

If you’d like to follow along while you listen, here is the passage I used:

BEATRICE

Just, if he send me no husband; for the which
blessing I am at him upon my knees every morning and
evening. Lord, I could not endure a husband with a
beard on his face: I had rather lie in the woollen.

LEONATO

You may light on a husband that hath no beard.

BEATRICE

What should I do with him? dress him in my apparel
and make him my waiting-gentlewoman? He that hath a
beard is more than a youth, and he that hath no
beard is less than a man: and he that is more than
a youth is not for me, and he that is less than a
man, I am not for him: therefore, I will even take
sixpence in earnest of the bear-ward, and lead his
apes into hell.

LEONATO

Well, then, go you into hell?

BEATRICE

No, but to the gate; and there will the devil meet
me, like an old cuckold, with horns on his head, and
say ‘Get you to heaven, Beatrice, get you to
heaven; here’s no place for you maids:’ so deliver
I up my apes, and away to Saint Peter for the
heavens; he shows me where the bachelors sit, and
there live we as merry as the day is long.

Listen to this episode here or wherever you find your podcasts:

Credit where credit is due

Podcast art by ⁠Halie Branson⁠

Music recording by ⁠josdvg⁠