The first references to food appear in the beginning of the play with Beatrice, who gorges herself intellectually throughout the play. Beatrice is doubtful of her ‘friend’s’ efforts at war, and implies that she doubted he would kill anyone for if he did “[she] promised to eat all of his killing” (9). Obviously Beatrice was not planning to literally eat the number of men Benedick may have killed at war, but she wants him to eat her words. This is seen when it she mentioned that “[Benedick] hath an excellent stomach,” or more literally, has the strength to swallow his pride and receive the blows she deals him verbally. This occurs throughout the play, and encapsulates the “merry war betwixt” them, and both Beatrice and Benedick’s constant need