Page 1360 - Shakespeare - Vol. 2

evenly with mine. How canst thou cross this marriage?

BORACHIO
Not honestly, my lord; but so covertly that no dishonesty shall appear in me.

DON JOHN
Show me briefly how. [10]

BORACHIO
I think I told your lordship a year since, how much I am in the favour of
Margaret, the waiting gentlewoman to Hero.

DON JOHN
I remember.

BORACHIO
I can, at any unseasonable instant of the night, [15] 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?

BORACHIO
The poison of that lies in you to temper. Go you to the Prince your brother;
spare not to tell him that [20] he hath wronged his honour 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 [25] Claudio, to undo Hero and kill
Leonato. Look you for any other issue?

DON JOHN
Only to despite them I will endeavour anything.