SHAKESPEARE knew all about the battle of the sexes. CHRISTINE CHAPMAN sees sparks fly in Much Ado About Nothing and The Taming of the Shrew.

IF either of you know any inward impediment why you should not be conjoined, I charge you on your souls to utter it, says Friar Francis in Much Ado About Nothing at the one point in a wedding ceremony when nobody wants to hear the words “I do”.

The dramatic potential of this moment was not lost on Shakespeare. A broken nuptial appears at the heart of the comedy charting the courtship of two contrasting couples.

An earlier comedy, The Taming of the Shrew, has an eventful wedding, too.

Many Shakespearean comedies end in marriage, but all the playwright’s lovers face barriers to bliss. In Much Ado About Nothing, the wedding of Hero and Count Claudio is aborted because of Don John's malevolence. Only a faked funeral reunites the couple.

The impediment preventing the play's mature lovers achieving happiness lies in their own emotional make-up, however.

The play humorously explores the battle of the sexes. Its text contains the proverb “If two ride a horse, one must ride behind”, which perfectly describes the merry war waged by Benedick and Beatrice.

In the presence of the soldier Benedick, Beatrice becomes “My Lady Tongue”. Her every word stabs.

In defence, Benedick becomes a joker and a professed tyrant of the female sex. Trusting no female but the woman who conceived him, Benedick has sworn to live a bachelor. Likewise, Beatrice cannot endure talk of a husband and mocks all her wooers out of suit.

The pair are expert verbal duelists. They are also a well-matched couple. Noting this, friends and family hatch plots that lead them to the altar.

Their giddy mouths are stopped with a kiss and the play ends in happy alliance.

The raging war of courtship in The Taming of the Shrew, however, has a much darker tone. Jarring notes remain at the end of this play.

Gender relations were different in Shakespeare's time. Rebellious women were a concern for men and punishments such as the scold's bridle were devised to suppress their speech. Nagging, bad-tempered females were known as shrews. Yet then, as now, to be shrewd also implied keen intelligence.

Beatrice's family fear she will never get a husband if she remains too shrewd of ... tongue.

Katherine Minola is even more waspish. If no husband can be found “to curb her mad and headstrong humour”, she is destined to be left on the shelf.

Each outspoken woman alludes to the proverb “Old maids lead apes into hell”. Happily, finding a husband saves them from themselves.

The Taming of the Shrew is actually a play within a play teaching a drunken tinker how to tame a shrewish wife: “I'll not budge an inch,” says Christopher Sly in the Induction scene. Nonetheless, many respond angrily to the Taming School scenes, taking them as Shakespeare's views on women.

Here Kate meets her match in Petruchio, a blunt ex-soldier upon whom scolding has no effect.

Driven initially by money, Petruchio is happy to become madly mated. Dressed as a madcap ruffian, he arrives late for their wedding and drags his bride off before the reception meal.

Once home, an even harsher regime prevails: no food, no sleep, oaths and brawling. Kate eventually learns how to please her husband, gaining a spirited soul-mate along the way.

Apologising for her “mad mistaking”, she ends the play lecturing other wives not to battle with their men. For Petruchio, the field is won. His obedient wife wins him his wager.

American diplomat Henry Kissinger once said: “Nobody will ever win the battle of the sexes. There's too much fraternising with the enemy.”

Could the attempts of Kate or Beatrice to match their macho men possibly attract your vote this week?

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THE TAMING OF THE SHREW: Katherine: The hot-tempered daughter of a nobleman who has sworn that his more pliant younger daughter, Bianca, can’t be married until Katherine is off his hands.

Petruchio: As rival suitors plot to woo Bianca, Petruchio marries Katherine before seeking to “tame” her.

Christopher Sly: A drunken tinker who is duped into believing he is a lord. The story unfolds before him – and us – as a play within the play.

MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING:

Beatrice: Orphan and niece of Leonato, governor of Messina, who really can’t stand Benedick ... until she falls for him.

Benedick: A lord of Padua who swears he will never marry, especially not Beatrice ... until he falls for her.

Don John: The villain who tries to wreck the marriage plans of Hero, Leonato’s daughter, and Count Claudio.

The Theatre Royal reports a spike of voting activity in the search for the region’s favourite Shakespeare character and play, run in conjunction with The Journal.

So which shortlisted characters have benefited from this?

Beatrice, who features in today’s coverage, is now a close second to Hamlet as the character most likely to be cast in bronze and put on a plinth at the Theatre Royal.

Could this have anything to do with the fact that Catherine Tate is to play the shrewish lady, opposite David Tennant as Benedick, in a new production of Much Ado About Nothing at Wyndhams Theatre in London?

Maybe. So will it be a dithering prince or a feisty spouse who will win the competition on April 23?

:: To vote for your favourite character click here