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  • Title: Much Ado About Nothing (Quarto 1, 1600)
  • Editor: Gretchen Minton
  • ISBN: 978-1-55058-516-2

    Copyright Gretchen Minton. This text may be freely used for educational, non-profit purposes; for all other uses contact the Editor.
    Author: William Shakespeare
    Editor: Gretchen Minton
    Not Peer Reviewed

    Much Ado About Nothing (Quarto 1, 1600)

    Enter Iohn and Borachio.
    Iohn It is so, the Counte Claudio shall marry the daughter
    of Leonato.
    Bora. Yea my lord, but I can crosse it.
    Iohn
    about Nothing.
    785Iohn Any barre, any crosse, any impediment, will be med-
    cinable to me, I am sicke in displeasure to him, and whatsoeuer
    comes athwart his affection, ranges euenly with mine, how
    canst thou crosse this marriage?
    Bor. Not honestly my lord, but so couertly, that no disho-
    790nesty shall appeare in me.
    Iohn Shew me briefely how.
    Bor. I thinke I told your lordship a yeere since, how much
    I am in the fauour of Margaret, the waiting gentlewoman to
    Hero.
    795Iohn I remember.
    Bor. I can at any vnseasonable instant of the night, appoint
    her to looke out at her ladies chamber window.
    Iohn What life is in that to be the death of this mariage?
    800Bor. The poison of that lies in you to temper, goe you to
    the prince your brother, spare not to tell him, that he hath
    wronged his honor in marrying the renowned Claudio, whose
    estimation do you mightily hold vp, to a contaminated stale,
    such a one as Hero.
    805Iohn What proofe shall I make of that?
    Bor. Proofe enough, to misuse the prince, to vexe Claudio,
    to vndoe Hero, and kill Leonato, looke you for any other
    issue?
    Iohn Onely to dispight them I will endeuour any thing.
    Bor. Go then, find me a meet houre, to draw don Pedro and
    the Counte Claudio alone, tell them that you know that Hero
    loues me, intend a kind of zeale both to the prince & Claudio
    (as in loue of your brothers honor who hath made this match)
    815and his friends reputation, who is thus like to bee cosen'd with
    the semblance of a maid, that you haue discouer'd thus: they wil
    scarcely beleeue this without triall: offer them instances which
    shall beare no lesse likelihood, than to see me at her chamber
    820window, heare me call Margaret Hero, heare Marg. terme me
    Claudio, & bring them to see this the very night before the in-
    tended wedding, for in the mean time, I wil so fashion the mat-
    ter, that Hero shal be absent and there shal appeere such seeming
    truth of Heroes disloyaltie, that iealousie shal be cald assu-
    C4 rance
    Much adoe
    825rance, and al the preparation ouerthrowne.
    Iohn Grow this to what aduerse issue it can, I will put it in
    practise: be cunning in the working this, and thy fee is a thou-
    sand ducates.
    830Bor. Be you constant in the accusation, and my cunning
    shall not shame me.
    Iohn I will presently go learne their day of marriage. exit