I.i.121
"I would rather hear my dog bark at a crow than hear a man tell me he loves me."
This quote carries out one of the many reoccurring themes Shakespeare uses throughout this play. In this case it is animalistic qualities. Beatrice finds it so irritating for a man, especially Benedick, to tell her that they love her. Most women long for those three words, where as Beatrice loathes these very words and finds more comfort in the loud, earsplitting sounds coming from her dog.
Did you note (NOTE!) that there are other dogs mentioned in the play? The character Dogberry is one. But you can troll through an online Shakespeare concordance and spot all of them.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.opensourceshakespeare.org/search/search-results.php?link=con&searchtype=exact&works[]=muchado&keyword1=dog&sortby=WorkName&pleasewait=1&msg=sr
There are also cats. Does Shakespeare opine about domesticated animals? Perhaps this notion contributes to the trapping/catching/taming theme of Act 3?