Sonnet VIII and Don Pedro

Lucia Palazzo

Dr. Lay

WSC 002

30 September 2011

Music, Marriage, and Mating: Don Pedro and Shakespeare’s Eight Sonnet

In Shakespearean England, marriage was on everyone’s minds. Human lifespans were drastically shorter, so settling down and producing offspring was a primary concern. For this reason it is not surprising that if you read enough of Shakespeare’s work, you’ll be bound to notice a common theme: wedded love and procreation. Essentially all of Shakespeare’s comedies end in one or more marriages, and many of the characters in his tragedies desire to be married, even if they never quite succeed. In his sonnets, too, you can see what appears to be a downright obsession with what he preaches as the natural cycle of life. The Bard wants you to have babies, and he uses the characters in his dramas and the speakers in his poems to let you know. Don Pedro is one of these characters, and Much Ado About Nothing is one of these plays. An examination of Don Pedro and Shakespeare’s Sonnet VIII reveals that both the prince and the speaker of the poem express similar sentiments.

To understand why Don Pedro is reminiscent of the speaker of the sonnet, one must first examine the poem itself. It reads:

Music to hear, why hear'st thou music sadly?
Sweets with sweets war not, joy delights in joy.
Why lovest thou that which thou receivest not gladly,
Or else receivest with pleasure thine annoy?
If the true concord of well-tuned sounds,
By unions married, do offend thine ear,
They do but sweetly chide thee, who confounds
In singleness the parts that thou shouldst bear.
Mark how one string, sweet husband to another,
Strikes each in each by mutual ordering,
Resembling sire and child and happy mother
Who all in one, one pleasing note do sing:
Whose speechless song, being many, seeming one,
Sings this to thee: 'thou single wilt prove none.

            The speaker first compares his listener to music, and asks him why, if he is sweet to hear, that hearing music makes him sad? He says that sweet, joyful things complement each other, and asks why it is then, that his listener loves things that are no good for him—things that only upset him? The speaker says that if well-tuned music, or in other words, the true unity of marriage, offend you, it is only because it reminds you of all the things you must bear alone. He then says that married people strike harmonious chords in one another, and that a father, child, and mother make a beautiful harmony because they all sing or play their part. He concludes by saying that this family joins together to sing a warning that being alone will get you nowhere.

It is easy to picture Don Pedro reciting these lines. He is the character heading the attempt to get the quarrelsome Beatrice and Benedick to recognize the true feelings that lie beneath their verbal sparring. Though they protest, he is determined to make them realize that marriage is inescapable, even if he has to resort to trickery. In the very beginning of the play, Benedick says, “…prove that I will get again with drinking, pick out mine eyes with a ballad-maker’s pen, and hang me up at the door of a brothel house for the sign of blind Cupid.” (I.i.230-235) Don Pedro responds, “Well, if ever thou dost fall from this faith, thou wilt prove a notable argument.” (I.i.236-237) This is a hint that he will indeed be attempting to make an example of Benedick. He insists that “In time the savage bull doth bear the yoke.” (I.i.241-242) When Benedick protests again, he replies, “Nay, if Cupid have not spent all his quiver in Venice, thou wilt quake for this shortly.” (I.i.251-252) He is essentially telling Benedick that he will have to answer to love itself for all his remonstrations.

Don Pedro and the speaker of Sonnet VIII share more than just a belief in the inevitability of coupling down. A common metaphor or theme is present in both cases: music. Just as the speaker of Sonnet VIII uses music as a metaphor for harmonious love, so Don Pedro seems preoccupied with musical imagery. When he, Leonato, Claudio, and Balthasar stage a conversation to trick Benedick into hearing of Beatrice’s “love” for him, they incorporate song into the performance. Don Pedro says to Balthasar, “I pray thee sing, and let me woo no more,” (II.iii.47) and “Nay pray thee, come, or if thou wilt hold longer argument, do it in notes.” (II.iii.54-55.) Just like the speaker of Sonnet VIII suggested that an argument for the harmony of a family could be made through music, so Don Pedro believes in the swaying power of song.

Aside from the obvious mentions of music while a song is taking place, the prince utilizes musical symbolism elsewhere. He says of Benedick, “He hath twice or thrice cut Cupid’s bow string, and the little hangman dare not shoot at him. He hath a heart as sound as a bell, and his tongue is the clapper; for what his heart thinks his tongue speaks.” (III.ii.9-13) Here is an example of a clanging rather than harmonious instrument, Benedick, that works against love.

            Shakespeare uses both Don Pedro and Sonnet VIII to voice his opinions. The Much Ado About Nothing prince and the anonymous narrator share a taste for the musical, but more importantly, the obsession with love and marriage present in so many of Shakespeare’s works.