Home > Much Ado About Nothing Text > Act III, Scene III - Page 2

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BORACHIO:

Didst thou not hear somebody?

CONRADE:

No, 'twas the vane on the house.

BORACHIO:

Seest thou not, I say, what a deformed thief this
fashion is, how giddily he turns about all the hot bloods(120)
between fourteen and five-and-thirty, sometimes fashioning
them like Pharaoh's soldiers in the reechy painting,
sometimes like god Bel's priests in the old church window,
sometimes like the shaven Hercules in the
smirched worm-eaten tapestry, where his codpiece(125)
seems as massy as his club?

CONRADE:

All this I see; and I see that the fashion wears out
more apparel than the man. But art not thou thyself giddy
with the fashion too, that thou hast shifted out of thy tale
into telling me of the fashion?(130)

BORACHIO:

Not so neither. But know that I have to-night
wooed Margaret, the Lady Hero's gentlewoman, by the
name of Hero. She leans me out at her mistress' chamber
window, bids me a thousand times good night—I tell this
tale vilely; I should first tell thee how the prince, Claudio(135)
and my master, planted and placed and possessed by my
master Don John, saw afar off in the orchard this amiable
encounter.

CONRADE:

And thought they Margaret was Hero?

BORACHIO:

Two of them did, the prince and Claudio; but the(140)
devil my master knew she was Margaret; and partly by his
oaths, which first possessed them, partly by the dark
night, which did deceive them, but chiefly by my villainy,
which did confirm any slander that Don John had made,
away went Claudio enraged; swore he would meet her, as(145)
he was appointed, next morning at the temple, and there,
before the whole congregation, shame her with what he
saw o'ernight and send her home again without a husband.

FIRST WATCHMAN:

We charge you in the prince's name stand!

SECOND WATCHMAN:

Call up the right master constable. We have(150)
here recovered the most dangerous piece of lechery that ever
was known in the commonwealth.

FIRST WATCHMAN:

And one Deformed is one of them. I know
him; a' wears a lock.

CONRADE:

Masters, masters—(155)

SECOND WATCHMAN:

You'll be made bring Deformed forth, I
warrant you.

CONRADE:

Masters—

SECOND WATCHMAN:

Never speak; we charge you, let us obey you
to go with us.(160)

BORACHIO:

We are like to prove a goodly commodity, being taken
up of these men's bills.

CONRADE:

A commodity in question, I warrant you. Come, we'll
obey you.

Exeunt.

• grimy
• the god Baal (see glossary)
• Borachio makes a reference to a book from the Apocrypha called “Bel and the Dragon.” (The Apocrypha is a collection of books that some Christians consider Scripture and others believe should be excluded from the Bible). The window portraying Bel (actually the Phoenician god Baal), along with the other pictures that Borachio mentions, gives us an idea of fashion as somewhat dirty and effeminate.
• soiled
• case on the front of a man's pants
• long strand of hair

1. Strategies for Understanding Shakespeare's Language
2. Reading Pointers for Sharper Insight
3. Dramatis Personae
4. Act I
   1. Scene I
   2. Scene II
   3. Scene III
5. Act II
   1. Scene I
   2. Scene II
   3. Scene III
6. Act III
   1. Scene I
   2. Scene II
   3. Scene III
   4. Scene IV
   5. Scene V
7. Act IV
   1. Scene I
   2. Scene II
8. Act V
   1. Scene I
   2. Scene II
   3. Scene III
   4. Scene IV
9. Copyright