Note to Much Ado About Nothing, 5.2.38: "for 'scorn', 'horn', a hard rhyme"

for 'scorn', 'horn', a hard rhyme: —In the popular love poetry of Shakespeare's time, the lady is often scornful (as Beatrice is), and in the folklore of Shakespeare's time, any married man is likely to acquire the horns of a cuckold. Therefore the rhyme is harsh ("hard") because it suggests that the (male) lover, after wooing and winning the scornful lady, will be rewarded with the agony of being a cuckold.