Leonato worries that Beatrice's expectations are too high and comments that she will never get married because she speaks in a "shrewd" manner (line 17). Leonato's adjective implies that Beatrice is a shrew (a nasty, scolding, angry, and even violent woman). No man wanted to marry a shrew. The word, though, may remind readers of another Shakespeare comedy, The Taming of the Shrew. In that play Shakespeare also had a shrewish heroine named Katherine who, as the play concluded, turned out to be a good woman and good wife. Katherine shares many qualities with Beatrice; and, indeed, Katherine is even a prototype (an earlier version or example) for Beatrice.
After Leonato makes his comment, Antonio adds that Beatrice is "too curst" (18). Antonio is suggesting that Beatrice is "very cursed" or unfortunate in having such a sharp and vicious tongue. But the clever Beatrice plays on the expression, suggesting that "too curst" means excessively cursed or more than cursed:
Too curst is more than curst. I shall lessen God's
sending that way, for it is said God sends a curst cow short horns, but to a cow too curst he sends none. (19-21)
Beatrice plays upon the superstition that a cow with short horns must be cursed because it does not have long horns to protect itself. Expanding upon this idea, Beatrice suggests that a cow which is too cursed would not have any horns at all. What the witty Beatrice is really implying here is that she will never have a man with horns (that is, a husband who is a cuckold) because she will never have a husband at all. Beatrice also brings up another old superstition: old maids (women who never marry) lead apes into hell. Beatrice suggests that her fate is to lead apes into hell (line 33): she believes that she will never get married. So then Antonio asks her if she plans on spending eternity in hell; but Beatrice, always ready with a witty response, says "No." She'll only deliver the apes to the gate of hell and hand them over to the devil, who, she claims, is also a cuckold because he has horns on his head. Then she will go to heaven and live happily with all of the other "bachelors" (unmarried men and women: line 40). Beatrice may joke and sound happy about never getting married, but she is actually disguising her true feelings.
Beatrice makes one more joke before the dance begins. Leonato reminds his daughter Hero about how she should respond when the prince begins to woo her (to woo means to seek the affection of another with the intention of getting married). But Beatrice then comments that Hero should not be in such a rush. Just as a dance should follow the timing of the music, so too should wooing follow an unhurried pace (line 59). Then Beatrice adds a triple simile: "wooing, wedding, and repenting is as a scotch jig, a measure, and a cinquepace" (60-61):
Beatrice is continuing to rail against (or criticize) marriage. Although the wedding itself may be stately and dignified, the wedding only lasts one day. All of the time before it (the wooing) and after it happens much too quickly. During the time before the wedding, the man and woman are much too emotional to think clearly. But after the wedding, the man and woman are in a constant state of being sorry that they got married. They regret their actions, but the time moves so quickly to the end of their lives that they cannot find a remedy for their regret. This simile is a splendid example of Shakespearean wit because not only is it clever, but it also makes a universal truth regarding the quick passage of time and the decisions and regrets that many people make in life.