| Castiglione | Italian who wrote _The Book of the Courtier_ a well known book of advice for Renaissance men and women who frequented the king’s court |
| Sprezzatura | the ability to accomplish a task so skillfully as to mask the effort put into it; in Sidney’s words, it is “the ability to write a sonnet while falling off a horse.” |
| cuckold | a man whose wife cheats on him and who figuratively speaking grows horns |
| bastard brother of Don Pedro | Don John |
| What three meanings can “nothing” have in the title “Much Ado about Nothing” | nothing meaning 0; nothing meaning no thing (= no penis–much ado about a woman’s chastity, her vagina); and nothing meaning noting as in observing or watching others |
| Who is the constable who cannot get his words straight in _Much Ado_ | Dogberry |
| Who says to Beatrice, “Why, my dear Lady Disdain! Are you yet living?” | Benedick |
| What does it mean for a woman to lead apes into hell? | that she is an old maid |
| Explain the double meaning when Beatrice asks the messenger referring to Benedick whether Signor Montanto returned from the wars or no. | Montanto means an upward thrust. She’s referring to his hautiness but also making a sexual reference. |
| How is Hero made to look like an unchaste woman the night before her wedding? | Borachio woos her servant Margaret beneath her bedroom window. |
| Who says the following: “O that he were here to write me down an ass! But masters, remember that I am an ass. Though it be not written down, yet forget not that I am an ass.” | Dogberry |
| Who demands of whom on whose behalf: “Hand her an epitaph upon her tomb / And sing it to her bones, sing it tonight.” | Leonato of Claudio for Hero. |
| Who claims, “I was not born under a rhyming planet, nor I cannot woo in festival terms.” | Benedick |
| Who self-righteously proclaims;”Give not this rotten orange to your friend.She’s but the sign and semblance of her honour.Behold how like a maid she blushes here!O, what authority and show of truthCan cunning sin cover itself withal!” | Claudio |
| Who says, “Comparisons are odorous.” | Dogberry |
A Few Cards On Much Ado
July 10, 2019