Much Ado About Nothing
Act II, Scene 2
Another room in Leonato’s house.
Only to despite them, I will endeavor any thing.
Louis Rhead, 1918
- Enter Don John and Borachio.
Don John
1 - 2- It is so, the Count Claudio shall marry the daughter of
- Leonato.
Borachio
3- Yea, my lord, but I can cross it.
Don John
4 - 7- Any bar, any cross, any impediment will be med’cinable 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
8 - 9- Not honestly, my lord, but so covertly that no dishonesty
- shall appear in me.
Don John
10- Show me briefly how.
Borachio
11 - 12- 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
13- I remember.
Borachio
14 - 15- I can, at any unseasonable instant of the night, appoint her
- to look out at her lady’s chamber-window.
Don John
16- What life is in that, to be the death of this marriage?
Borachio
17 - 21- The poison of that lies in you to temper. Go you to the
- Prince your brother; spare not to tell him that he hath
- wrong’d his honor in marrying the renown’d Claudio—whose
- estimation do you mightily hold up—to a contaminated stale,
- such a one as Hero.
Don John
22- What proof shall I make of that?
Borachio
23 - 24- Proof enough to misuse the Prince, to vex Claudio, to undo
- Hero, and kill Leonato. Look you for any other issue?
Don John
25- Only to despite them, I will endeavor any thing.
Borachio
26 - 40- 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 cozen’d with
- the semblance of a maid—that you have discover’d 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, 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 mean time
- 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 call’d assurance, and all the
- preparation overthrown.
Don John
41 - 43- 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.
Borachio
44 - 45- Be you constant in the accusation, and my cunning shall not
- shame me.
Don John
46- I will presently go learn their day of marriage.
- Exeunt.
Be cunning in the working this
Edwin Austin Abbey, 1890