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- $Unique_ID{SSP00905}
- $Title{Much Ado About Nothing: Act II, Scene II}
- $Author{Shakespeare, William}
- $Subject{}
- $Log{Dramatis Personae*00900.txt}
-
- Portions copyright (c) CMC ReSearch, Inc., 1989
-
- The Complete Works of William Shakespeare
-
- MUCH ADO ABOUT NOTHING
-
-
- ACT II
- ................................................................................
-
-
- SCENE II: The same.
- . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
-
- {Enter DON JOHN and BORACHIO.}
-
- DON JOHN: It is so; the Count Claudio shall marry the
- daughter of Leonato.
-
- BORACHIO: Yea, my lord; but I can cross it.
-
- DON JOHN: Any bar, any cross, any impediment will be
- medicinable to me: I am sick in displeasure to him,
- and whatsoever comes athwart his affection ranges
- evenly with mine. How canst thou cross this
- marriage?
-
- BORACHIO: Not honestly, my lord; but so covertly that no
- dishonesty shall appear in me. 10
-
- DON JOHN: Show me briefly how.
-
- BORACHIO: I think I told your lordship a year since, how much
- I am in the favor of Margaret, the waiting
- gentlewoman to Hero.
-
- DON JOHN: I remember.
-
- BORACHIO: I can, at any unseasonable instant of the night,
- appoint her to look out at her lady's chamber
- window.
-
- DON JOHN: What life is in that, to be the death of this
- marriage? 20
-
- BORACHIO: The poison of that lies in you to temper. Go 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
- up--to a contaminated stale, such a one as Hero.
-
- DON JOHN: What proof shall I make of that?
-
- BORACHIO: Proof enough to misuse the prince, to vex Claudio,
- to undo Hero and kill Leonato. Look you for any
- other issue?
-
- DON JOHN: Only to despite them, I will endeavor any thing. 30
-
- BORACHIO: Go, then; find me a meet hour to draw Don Pedro and
- the Count Claudio alone: tell them that you know
- that Hero loves me; intend a kind of zeal both to the
- prince and Claudio, as,--in love of your brother's
- honor, who hath made this match, and his friend's
- reputation, who is thus like to be cozened with the
- semblance of a maid,--that you have discovered
- thus. They will scarcely believe this without trial:
- offer them instances; which shall bear no less
- likelihood than to see me at her chamber-window, 40
- hear me call Margaret Hero, hear Margaret term me
- Claudio; and bring them to see this the very night
- before the intended wedding,--for in the meantime I
- will so fashion the matter that Hero shall be
- absent,--and there shall appear such seeming truth
- of Hero's disloyalty that jealousy shall be called
- assurance and all the preparation overthrown.
-
- DON JOHN: Grow this to what adverse issue it can, I will put
- it in practice. Be cunning in the working this, and
- thy fee is a thousand ducats. 50
-
- BORACHIO: Be you constant in the accusation, and my cunning
- shall not shame me.
-
- DON JOHN: I will presently go learn their day of marriage.
-
- [Exeunt.]
-