The governor's niece, Beatrice, then asks a question of the messenger. She says, "I pray you, is Signor Montanto returned from the wars, or no?" (lines 25-26). There is no one named Montanto in Don Pedro's army, and Beatrice knows that. This is her own private joke: Beatrice is really asking about Benedick. As the editors of the Norton text indicate in a footnote, the word montanto refers to an upward blow or thrust with a sword in fencing. However, the word also has another meaning: the word also suggests a man's penis and sexual activity. Thus, Beatrice is making a joke about Benedick's sexuality and ability. She is implying that he only thinks about sex; or, perhaps, that he is capable of only ineffective thrusts -- sexually or on the battlefield.
Although Beatrice criticizes Benedick constantly and seems to scorn and ridicule him every chance she gets, the cautious reader should note that she really seems to be obsessed about him. She thinks about him all of the time. Her criticism becomes a mask -- a way of hiding her feelings. She really likes Benedick, but she pretends to dislike him because, as later lines reveal, she has had a relationship with him in the past. But that relationship did not work out, and she was hurt as a result.
The past relationship between Beatrice and Benedick is cryptically hinted at in the following lines:
He set up his bills here in Messina, and challenged
Cupid at the flight; and my uncle's fool, reading the challenge, subscribed for Cupid and challenged him at the birdbolt.
(32-35)
The word bills refers to advertisements. Cupid, of course, is the Roman God of Love; and he is usually depicted as a young boy armed with a bow and arrow. Cupid shoots gold-tipped arrows that cause the person who is shot to fall immediately in love. In this complex metaphor, Beatrice is saying that Benedick challenged Love. Benedick, in this sense, is claiming that he is superior to Love.
In the second part of the quote, Beatrice refers to her "uncle's fool." A fool is a court jester who entertains a king. But Leonato is not a king, and he does not have a jester. Beatrice is actually referring to herself. She is the fool who "subscribed for Cupid." In other words, she was a fool who took the side of love against Benedick (or fell in love with Benedick).
Beatrice had thought that love could conquer Benedick. The word birdbolt refers to soft or blunt arrows used for shooting birds. Thus, Beatrice supported Love in the archery contest against Benedick; but Love lost. And Beatrice lost. Thus, these lines explain why Beatrice hates Benedick; but she also secretly continues to love him. In the lines that follow, Beatrice continues to criticize Benedick.
For example, she tells the messenger that she had "promised to eat all of his killing" (36-37). Beatrice is implying that Benedick is a poor soldier who would be incapable of killing any of the enemy. In hunting, a good hunter only kills animals that he will eat. In her sarcastic lines, Beatrice is implying that she does not have to worry about keeping her promise, for she is confident that Benedick cannot kill anything. She is criticizing his ability and potency. She is criticizing his manhood.
Beatrice also refers to Benedick as a "stuffed man" (47). She is suggesting that he is like a scarecrow. She is suggesting that there is nothing of value or substance within him.
The messenger does not quite understand Beatrice, so Leonato attempts to explain:
There is a kind of merry war betwixt Signor Benedick and her. They never meet but there's a skirmish of wit between them. (49-51)
Thus, Leonato informs the messenger -- and the audience -- that this conflict between Beatrice and Benedick has been going on for some time. Beatrice and Benedick always ridicule each other and make jokes about one another. This war of wits is funny to Leonato, but actually the conflict is quite serious to Beatrice even though she pretends that she does not care.
Many generations later, this conflict between man and woman was referred to as a Battle of the Sexes. A man and woman may actually care very much for each other, but they do not fully understand each other. A lack of communication or a misunderstanding then leads to arguments and fighting. Such appears to be the case between Beatrice and Benedick.
One of the prized characteristics in Renaissance comedy -- and in Renaissance society -- was wit. Wit involves being humorous in a clever and original way. Wit was a sign of intelligence, and even the members of the court wanted to display their intelligence by showing off their wit. Unfortunately, not everyone in the court was clever, witty, or intelligent.
Beatrice, however, is quite witty and intelligent; and these qualities make her one of Shakespeare's most delightful heroines. Oddly, one of the traditions of wit is to make fun of the wit of others. In other words, the man -- or woman -- of wit would criticize the intelligence of his opponent or enemy. And Beatrice does just that.
Beatrice claims that in her last battle of wits against Benedick, she was victorious:
In our last conflict four of his five wits went halting off, and now is the whole man governed with one, so that if he have wit enough to keep
himself warm, let him bear it for a difference between himself
and his horse, for it is all the wealth that he hath left to be known a reasonable creature. (52-57)
Although the five wits is sometimes a reference to the five senses (seeing, hearing, tasting, touching, smelling), here, as the Norton editors indicate, it is a reference to the five mental abilities highly prized by the wits of the Renaissance: memory, imagination, judgment, fantasy, and common sense. In her joking lines, Beatrice personifies the five wits of Benedick. She asserts that four of them became wounded during the "battle" and so had to leave the battlefield, halting or limping off. Beatrice is claiming that Benedick became witless or stupefied in their encounter, that he could not think of anything witty to say in response to her own witty jokes about him. Beatrice jokes that Benedick has become so witless that he is little better than a dumb animal. An old expression is appropriate here: "he does not have the sense to come out of the rain." A person of even a little intelligence knows enough to come out of the cold rain to avoid getting sick. But a person lacking in intelligence stays out in the rain like an animal. Beatrice thus jokes that there is only a small degree of difference between Benedick and a witless animal.
Beatrice makes another joke to the messenger that also has a double meaning in it. She asks the messenger to tell her who is Benedick's new friend or companion at the present time because he always appears to be have a new friend -- his old friends always leave him. When the messenger asks if this is true, Beatrice responds with the following: "he wears his faith but as the fashion of his hat" (60-61). Literally, Beatrice is implying that Benedick changes his friends as often as he changes his hat. She is indicating that he never remains true or loyal to his friends. As the reader or audience will soon discover, there is some truth to Beatrice's statement. Benedick does often get new friends. Benedick is at the age when most of his friends are getting married, and so he finds a new bachelor to serve as a friend when an older friend leaves him to settle down in married life. However, the way Beatrice states this situation, she is implying that Benedick is disloyal and unfaithful to his friends. But Benedick's disloyalty and infidelity to his friends is not what is really bothering Beatrice. What is truly bothering her is that Benedick had been disloyal and unfaithful to her.
Beatrice learns from the messenger that Benedick does have a new friend, Claudio. And Beatrice soon sees this new friend herself; for at this point in the scene Don Pedro, along with Claudio, Benedick and others, arrives in Messina.