Nostalgia

Themes:

From the moment the messenger informs Leonato of Claudio's glorious feats in the recent war, Much Ado abounds in references to the past and passing of time. This creates a lingering nostalgia for another and better age, which the prominent contrast between the elderly and youthful characters strengthens, making the reconciliations of the final act more momentous.

Beatrice and Benedick dwell on the past, recent and remote, actual and legendary. She inveighs against the hypocrisy of men who swagger like classical heroes and pretend to an honour their action does not support. Her prejudice is confirmed when Hero is denounced. Her oxymoron 'valiant dust' juxtaposes pretence and reality. Benedick's recollection of his military past contains a spark of antique glory. He contrasts its manly simplicity with effeminate romantic love: 'he was wont to speak plain and to the purpose (like an honest man and a soldier) and now he is turned orthography'. Contrasted with a soldier's freedom and adventure - the hunt, womanising, target shooting, drinking - are domestic boredom and servitude, 'thrust thy neck into a yoke, wear the print of it, and sigh away Sunday's'.
Beatrice and Benedick are energetic social critics. They yearn for past glory, which is the standpoint of their cutting satiric humour. Through the Watch wider satiric comment is made on the degeneracy of the age - the worship of fashion, the arrogance of power, the decay of morals. 

The 'merry war' between Beatrice and Benedick is playful and diverting, unlike the real pain which Claudio inflicts upon Hero in the name of honour. In their witty phrases, insults and ripostes a delight in the shaping of the language takes the sting from its tail. Their language roots them firmly in the present. When they confess their love for each other Benedick begins ironically, unable to make himself entirely seriously as a lover: is not a lover a fictional construction, he appears to inquire, required to behave in absurd, predictable ways? Therefore, he asks Beatrice, only half seriously, what wonders he, as gallant lover, can perform for her. Her 'kill Claudio' takes him aback, therefore, as it exacts commitment to an heroic ideal - protection of the weak by the strong, avenging dishonour. Both, through their nostalgia for the whole-heartedness of the past, commit themselves to action in the present, which gives their love vitality and their commitment to each other meaning.

The roughness in which Beatrice exacts the promise and Benedick challenges Claudio and repudiates Don Pedro bespeaks their sincerity. Otherwise, their language has the wit and style of those removed from the stresses of life, steeped in the literature of the past. 'Is not that strange?' Benedick asks rhetorically as he confesses his love and 'for which of my bad parts didst thou first fall in love with me?' he inquires once they are betrothed. He savours her metaphor when she in turn asks, 'for which of my good parts did you first suffer love for me?'. They agree finally to love each other 'no more than reason' reconciled to the changes of time and nature, since 'man is a giddy thing'.

Their wit has been softened, not lost. Although the code of honour has not entirely been rejected, since the romantic lovers do in the end marry once Hero is vindicated, it has been challenged and renewed. Claudio's and Leonato's insensitivity has exposed the destructiveness of a nostalgic adherence to an archaic code. Beatrice and Benedick love with an intensity they imagined was an aspect of former times. Although their literary style both establishes a continuity with the past and detaches them from their own passions, their involvement in the present is enhanced.

Definitions:
NOSTALGIA: a sentimental longing or wistful affection for a period in the past.
INVEIGH: to protest strongly or attack vehemently with words
EFFEMINATE: (of man or boy) having traits, tastes, habits etc., traditionally considered feminine, as softness or delicacy.
ORTHOGRAPHY:  the art of writing words with the proper letters, according to accepted usage: correct spelling.
ADHERENCE: the quality of adhering; steady devotion, support, allegiance, or attachment.
ARCHAIC: marked by characteristics if an earlier period.

YORK NOTES.

'Much Ado is concerned with the 'mundane' in love and that it is the first play in which the differences of male and female worlds are prominent and the female predominates.'