The Bard Blender

I was rewatching Much Ado this evening and I got to thinking that I've never seen a single version that I really really liked. I have enjoyed different adaptations over the years and seen a good stage performance, but something always falls short. And, largely, I believe it is Claudio.

M once told me that Claudio is a two-dimensional character. He's not supposed to have depth. But I've never thought of him that way. For me there is one line that marks Claudio's depth. That is in the scene where he and the Prince find out that they have been duped. At hearing the confession of Don John's man, the prince says, “Runs not this speech like iron through your blood?” Claudio responds with “I have drunk poison whiles he utter'd it.” (V.i)

I have always thought this line was the most profound of all his lines. It shows the love he truly bared for Hero and it allies him with a lot of Shakespeare's other characters. He, who is already like Othello in his jealousy, could in this line join in his same self imposed fate. He could be Romeo in a moment, fleeing to the death bed of his beloved to join her fake death with a real one, except that Leonato sentences him to another marriage. He could be Horatio staring at the poisoned cup as though the last person alive trying to wrestle with his own since of justice. The mere mention of poison invokes all these comparisons.

None of that works, however, if the character doesn't get across the grief which has just flooded over this character. Branagh didn't even include the line in his adaptation of the play to film. That just doesn't make sense to me, because I feel that this line makes or break that character. If you don't feel that he truly is ready to take any punishment from Leonato, wishing with all his heart to undo what is done. You can't feel that he deserves to win Hero back in the end. That is a flat character.

Next time someone reveals that you've been lied to, in all earnestness quote Claudio's line. See if they don't do a double take. If the scene were ever to be done with the force of emotion that that one line warrants, I guarantee Benedick and Beatrice wouldn't be able to steal the show (as much).