Biron: The Wit Who Falls First

Biron is the play's dominant voice and its most self-aware character. He knows the oath to avoid women is absurd when he takes it. He knows he will fall in love. When he does, he writes terrible poetry and suffers accordingly.

His great speech in Act 4, defending love as the source of all knowledge, is the best argument in the play. He delivers it while standing in a bush having just listened to his friends confess the same feelings he has.

At the end he is given a hard task by Rosaline: spend a year visiting the sick and making them laugh. She wants to find out whether his wit is genuine or just performance. It is the play's cleverest penalty.