Benedick

in Shakespeare's comedy, Much Ado about Nothing, a young gentleman of Padua. He ridicules love and marriage, but, after a "courtship which is a contest of wit and raillery," he marries Beatrice. The name Benedick, spelled also Benedict, comes from the Latin and signifies a happy man. It was sometimes applied in sport to the monks of the order of St. Benedict, noted for their ascetic habits, and who were, of course, vowed to celibacy. Shakespeare may have had this jest in mind when he gave the name to the lover of Beatrice. It is Shakespeare's Benedick, and not the jest, that is to be remembered when we hear a newly wedded man called a "benedick."

When I said I would die a bachelor, I did not think I should live till I were married.-Much Ado about Nothing.