Much Ado About Nothing

by: William Shakespeare

Act 2 Scene 2

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Original Text	Modern Text
Enter DON JOHN andBORACHIO	Enter DON JOHN andBORACHIO
DON JOHN It is so. The Count Claudio shall marry the daughter of Leonato.	DON JOHN It’s arranged. The Count Claudio will marry Leonato’s daughter.
BORACHIO Yea, my lord, but I can cross it.	BORACHIO Yes, my lord, but I can spoil it.
DON JOHN Any bar, any cross, any impediment will be med'cinable to 5me. I am sick in displeasure to him, and whatsoever comes athwart his affection ranges evenly with mine. How canst thou cross this marriage?	DON JOHN Any obstacle or barrier to Claudio’s happiness will be like medicine to me. I hate him so much it makes me sick, and whoever can ruin his happiness will make me happy. How will you wreck this marriage?
BORACHIO Not honestly, my lord, but so covertly that no dishonesty shall appear in me.	BORACHIO I can only do it by lying, my lord, but I can do it so secretly that no one will suspect me.
DON JOHN 10Show me briefly how.	DON JOHN Quickly, tell me 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.	BORACHIO I think it was a year ago that I told you how much Margaret, Hero’s servant woman, likes me.
DON JOHN I remember.	DON JOHN I remember.
BORACHIO I can, at any unseasonable instant of the night, appoint her 15to look out at her lady’s chamber window.	BORACHIO I can arrange it so that at some indecent hour of the night, she looks out Hero’s bedroom window.
DON JOHN What life is in that to be the death of this marriage?	DON JOHN How will that kill this marriage?
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, 20whose estimation do you mightily hold up, to a contaminated stale, such a one as Hero.	BORACHIO That part is up to you. Go to the Prince, your brother, and tell him that he has done a terrible thing by matching the renowned Claudio—whom you greatly admire—with such a tainted whore as Hero.

Read the Summary of Act II, scenes ii–iii

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