Key Quote
“"Sigh no more, ladies, sigh no more, Men were deceivers ever"”
Balthasar's Song · Act 2, Scene 3
Focus: “deceivers”
This song, performed before Benedick's gulling scene, functions as a thematic chorus warning about male deception — ironically just before the men deceive Benedick himself.
Technique 1 — PROLEPTIC IRONY
The song operates as a proleptic (foreshadowing, anticipatory) device, prefiguring (hinting at in advance) the devastating deception of Hero by Claudio and Don Pedro in Act 4. The word 'deceivers' carries a polysemic (having multiple meanings) weight — referring both to romantic fickleness and the more sinister, malicious (intentionally harmful) deception orchestrated by Don John.
The imperative 'sigh no more' is both a consolation and a resignation — women should not waste emotion on men because male deception is presented as immutable (unchangeable). This creates a tone of fatalistic (accepting that events are predetermined) acceptance that contrasts sharply with Beatrice's active resistance to patriarchal norms.
Key Words
RAD — STAGNATE
The song suggests a cyclical stagnation — that male deception is an eternal pattern that will never change. The phrase 'Men were deceivers ever' implies a timeless quality to male dishonesty, suggesting that society has failed to progress beyond this fundamental inequality. This fatalism reflects the play's broader anxiety about whether genuine trust is possible between men and women.
Key Words
Technique 2 — CHORIC FUNCTION
The song performs a choric (chorus-like) function reminiscent of Greek tragedy, where the chorus comments on the action and warns of consequences. By embedding this warning within a seemingly light-hearted musical interlude, Shakespeare creates tonal dissonance (a mismatch between mood and meaning), as the serious message of male perfidy (deceitfulness, treachery) is delivered in an entertaining, easily dismissible form.
The repetition of 'sigh no more' creates a lilting (gentle, rhythmic) musicality that masks the gravity of the warning — mirroring how the play's comic surface conceals its darker examination of trust, honour, and gender dynamics (forces of interaction).
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Context (AO3)
ELIZABETHAN MUSIC & THEATRE
Songs in Shakespeare's plays were not merely entertainment — they functioned as thematic commentaries. Elizabethan audiences would have recognised the song's warning as a conventional trope, but Shakespeare weaponises it by placing it immediately before the gulling scene, creating layers of ironic resonance (meaning that echoes and deepens throughout the play).
GENDER & POWER
The song's acceptance that men 'were deceivers ever' reflects the normalisation of male dishonesty in Elizabethan society. Women were expected to endure male infidelity while maintaining their own absolute sexual purity — a double standard that Shakespeare exposes through the contrasting treatment of Claudio's cruelty (forgiven) and Hero's alleged impurity (punished with social death).
Key Words
WOW — METATHEATRICAL COMMENTARY
The song functions as a metatheatrical (theatre about theatre) moment where Shakespeare draws attention to the play's own acts of deception. The audience watching the gulling of Benedick are themselves watching a performance — a play within a play. Shakespeare invites the audience to consider their own complicity (shared involvement) in enjoying deception as entertainment, while the song simultaneously warns that deception has corrosive (gradually destructive) real-world consequences. This creates a sophisticated mise en abyme (a story within a story; infinite regression), where layers of performance and reality blur, foreshadowing the devastating moment when 'noting' (observing, but also 'nothing') leads to Hero's near-destruction.
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