Student Question
Provide a quote with a pun from Much Ado About Nothing.
Quick answer:
A pun from Much Ado About Nothing is in Act 1, Scene 1, when Benedick says, "What my dear Lady Disdain! Are you yet living?" Here, "disdain" serves both as a name for Beatrice and a description of her scornful attitude. Another example is Leonato's line about finding Benedick and Beatrice "between the sheet," playing on the words "sheet" of paper and bed sheet.
"Claudio: Now you talk of a sheet of paper, I remember a pretty jest your daughter told us of.
Leonato: O, when she had writ it and was reading it over, she found Benedick and Beatrice between the sheet.
The word sheet is used to refer to a piece of paper and used to refer to a bed sheet, with an innuendo placed in between about Beatrice and Benedick.
From Act 1, sc. 1, when Benedick and Beatrice are exchanging insults, one example of a pun is: "What my dear Lady Disdain! Are you yet living?" spoken by Benedick to Beatrice. He uses the word "disdain" both as a name for Beatrice and as a description of her attitude toward him. She shows him scorn, or disdain.
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