I am having students read aloud in two of my classes (in the third they are parsing grammar aloud). Last night we had three lovely readings in NightShakes. One student read a passage from Much Ado About Nothing. BeAtrice has been listening covertly as Hero and Ursula speak of Benedick’s love for her and her own shrewish attitude. Here is the passage:
BEATRICE
What fire is in mine ears? Can this be true?
Stand I condemn’d for pride and scorn so much?
Contempt, farewell! and maiden pride, adieu!
No glory lives behind the back of such.
And, Benedick, love on; I will requite thee,
Taming my wild heart to thy loving hand:
If thou dost love, my kindness shall incite thee
To bind our loves up in a holy band;
For others say thou dost deserve, and I
Believe it better than reportingly.
The student read the passage three times, beautifully, and on the third substituted “eyes” for “ears” in the first line:
“What fire is in my eyes?”
It is a lovely, telling mistake. In Petrarchan sonnet making (or Spenser, Sidney, even Shakespeare’s sonnet making), fire might well be described as dwelling within or shooting from the loved-one’s eyes. And back in Much Ado, BeAtrice surely has the spark (the pepper) to have firey eyes. But she has been listening in a bower, seemingly hidden from the speakers. The flashing truth — about herself — is overheard, and thus it is “ears” rather than “eyes” that receive the fire.