"Engaged" is a new word and idea in Much Ado. Benedick, Josha Crowley; Beatrice, Courtney Levine.

U.C. Berkeley, 1996. The amusing progression of Benedick and Beatrice from seeming aversion to open love in this relationship became normative in many later love stories. Both their names have positive associations: Beatrice was Dante's celestial guide to heaven in The Divine Comedy, and the name Benedict means "blessed.".