In a soliloquy in the first scene of Act 3, Berowne half-jokingly laments his love for Rosaline. He uses a slew of oxymorons to describe Cupid, the physical embodiment of love:
This wimpled, whining, purblind, wayward boy,
This Signior Junior, giant dwarf, Dan Cupid,
Regent of love rhymes, lord of folded arms,
Th' anointed sovereign of sighs and groans,
Liege of all loiterers and malcontents,
[...]—O my little heart!
Berowne is never without a joke, even when talking to himself. In this scene, he caricatures love as a blind, whining, stubborn child. Love is also presented as a study in contradiction. Cupid is a “Signior Junior,” or an old god who remains a boy forever. He is also a "giant dwarf," small but towering over men. He is the master of poetry (“love rhymes”) as well as the source of sobs and discontent (“folded arms,” “sighs and groans”). The lord finishes by happily complaining about his condition, lamenting, “oh my little heart!”
This passage reflects the play’s difficulty in fundamentally defining love, or even conclusively describing its effect on the men of Navarre. Berowne seems caught halfway between happiness and anxiety throughout the scene, joyful at love’s arrival but uncertain of the future. He deals with this uncertainty through humor. The play, similarly, seems unsure where to come down on the question of love—what it is, how it comes about, whether it has a net positive or negative effect on our lives. The play must content itself with asking this question with a sense of humor, as Berowne does (“What? I love, I sue, I seek a wife?”).
Near the end of Act 4, Berowne has a moment alone on stage to reflect on his situation in a soliloquy:
The King, he is hunting the deer; I am
coursing myself. They have pitched a toil; I am
toiling in a pitch—pitch that defiles. [....]
By the Lord, this love is as mad as Ajax.
It kills sheep, it keeps me, I a sheep. [....]
Well, I do nothing in the world but lie, and lie in my
throat. By heaven, I do love, and it hath taught me to
rhyme, and to be melancholy.
While the king and the other lords are supposed to be hunting, Berowne “courses” (curses) himself. While they lay their traps for game, Berowne reflects on the trap he is caught in, the “pitch” of love that “defiles” him.
He compares his emotions to Ajax, the Greek hero who fought at Troy. After losing a contest with Odysseus, Ajax was said to have lost his mind with rage and killed a flock of sheep. Berowne compares himself to the sheep (that is to say, love is killing him). Berowne goes on to admit that he is, by nature, a liar. But love has taught him how to write poetry and feel deeper emotions, like melancholy.
This soliloquy does several things at once. It lets the audience know that Berowne is truly in love with Rosaline. Berowne identifies himself as a bit of a liar in this scene, and the audience knows that he has a tendency to exaggerate. But the inner conflict displayed in this scene speaks to the reality of his feelings.
The ambivalence Berowne feels toward his bond with Rosaline reflects the play’s own confusion around the nature of love. Berowne describes love as something that “defiles” him, that is uncontrollable and destructive (“mad as Ajax”). By the same token, he recognizes how love has given him abilities and emotional dimension he didn’t have before. Love has given him inspiration; he is writing poetry for the first time. It has taught him “melancholy,” something likely foreign to the joking, upbeat nobleman.
Much like the play itself, the only thing Berowne can definitely say about love is that it is powerful. Berowne acknowledges that love both gives him new experiences and takes away some elements of his previous identity. It compromises his former sense of self and freedom as a single man, while also taking him to new emotional and creative heights and depths. But ultimately, both Shakespeare and Berowne have a hard time describing love as good or evil on its own.
