A war of words
Lucy noted in our conversation that more than 70% of the play’s lines are in prose rather than verse. She pointed out that prose enables a speed of wit, which we certainly see in the ongoing repartee between Beatrice and Benedick. As one critic described it: “repartee is a way of life for Beatrice and Benedick.”

Their dialogue consists of alternating, competitive ripostes, like a game of verbal tennis. In fact specific rhetorical devices are at work in their interplay, with each of them picking up on a word or image from the other, then twisting it and sending it back in a new form. This back and forth is particularly evident in their first encounter in Act 1, Scene 1, 112-139, where they exchange such targeted returns until Benedick runs out of ideas and reverts to simply calling her names.

In general the style of speech in the play is socially sophisticated, where conversation is a form of debate and the intent is to argue an antithetical position. The 3rd Arden edition of the text identifies this idiom as “euphuism”, which it defines as “eloquence in the service of persuasion.”
One of its characteristics is that the speaker is able to go on at length – perhaps simply to tire their opponent out. As Benedick says of Beatrice in their first extended exchange: “I would my horse had the speed of your tongue, and so good a continuer.” (1.1 135). The Arden’s observation that “conversation is both a dance and a form of combat”, describes the formal and elegant nature of the dialogue very well.

Lucy Phelps as Beatrice
Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre 2022
c. Manuel Harlan