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Much Ado About Nothing (Quarto 1, 1600)

Author: William Shakespeare
Editor: Grechen Minton
Not Peer Reviewed
Much adoe
1435Bor. Therefore know, I haue earned of Dun Iohn a thou-
sand ducates.
Con. Is it possible that any villanie should be so deare?
Bor. Thou shouldst rather aske if it were possible any vil-
lanie shuld be so rich? for when rich villains haue need of poor
1440ones, poore ones may make what price they will.
Con. I wonder at it.
Bor. That shewes thou art vnconfirm'd, thou knowest
that the fashion of a dublet, or a hat, or a cloake, is nothing to a
1445man.
Con. Yes it is apparell.
Bor. I meane the fashion.
Con. Yes the fashion is the fashion.
Bor. Tush, I may as well say the foole's the foole, but seest
1450thou not what a deformed theefe this fashion is?
Watch I know that deformed, a has bin a vile theefe, this
vij. yeere, a goes vp and downe like a gentle man: I remember
his name.
Bor. Didst thou not heare some body?
1455Con. No, twas the vane on the house.
Bor. Seest thou not (I say) what a deformed thiefe this fashi-
on is, how giddily a turnes about all the Hot-blouds, between
foureteene and fiue and thirtie, sometimes fashioning them
like Pharaoes souldiours in the rechie painting, sometime like
1460god Bels priests in the old church window, sometime like the
shauen Hercules in the smircht worm-eaten tapestry, where
his cod-peece seemes as massie as his club.
Con. Al this I see, and I see that the fashion weares out more
1465apparrell then the man, but art not thou thy selfe giddy with
the fashion too, that thou hast shifted out of thy tale into telling
me of the fashion?
Bor. Not so neither, but know that I haue to night wooed
Margaret the Lady Heroes gentle-woman, by the name of
1470Hero, she leanes me out at her mistris chamber window, bids
me a thousand times good night: I tell this tale vildly. I should
first tel thee how the prince Claudio and my master planted,
and placed, and possessed, by my master Don Iohn, saw a farre
off