Much Ado About Nothing: Act 5

by William Shakespeare
Tired of their constant bickering, Beatrice and Benedick's friends hatch a plan to get the two to fall in love. Learn these words from Shakespeare's comedy about fidelity and deception. Read the full text here.

Here are links to our lists for the play: Act 1, Act 2, Act 3, Act 4, Act 5
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Full list of words from this list:

words only definitions & notes
  1. sieve
    a strainer for separating lumps from powdered material
    I pray thee, cease thy counsel,
    Which falls into mine ears as profitless
    As water in a sieve.
  2. woe
    intense mournfulness
    Measure his woe the length and breadth of mine,
    And let it answer every strain for strain,
    As thus for thus, and such a grief for such,
    In every lineament, branch, shape, and form.
  3. breadth
    the extent of something from side to side
    Measure his woe the length and breadth of mine,
    And let it answer every strain for strain,
    As thus for thus, and such a grief for such,
    In every lineament, branch, shape, and form.
  4. lineament
    a property that defines the individual nature of something
    Measure his woe the length and breadth of mine,
    And let it answer every strain for strain,
    As thus for thus, and such a grief for such,
    In every lineament, branch, shape, and form.
  5. precept
    a rule of personal conduct
    For, brother, men
    Can counsel and speak comfort to that grief
    Which they themselves not feel, but tasting it,
    Their counsel turns to passion, which before
    Would give preceptial med’cine to rage,
    Fetter strong madness in a silken thread,
    Charm ache with air and agony with words.
  6. fetter
    restrain with shackles
    For, brother, men
    Can counsel and speak comfort to that grief
    Which they themselves not feel, but tasting it,
    Their counsel turns to passion, which before
    Would give preceptial med’cine to rage,
    Fetter strong madness in a silken thread,
    Charm ache with air and agony with words.
    Similar to the image of water in a sieve, this image of tying up madness with a piece of thread emphasizes uselessness. Leonato uses these images to tell his brother that his pain cannot be soothed with words of comfort or counsel. Despite wanting to disown and kill Hero when he thought she was guilty, and despite knowing that Hero is not really dead, Leonato now insists that their father-daughter bond is so great that he must cry out with grief over what happened to her.
  7. endure
    undergo or be subjected to
    No, no, ’tis all men’s office to speak patience
    To those that wring under the load of sorrow,
    But no man’s virtue nor sufficiency
    To be so moral when he shall endure
    The like himself.
  8. dissemble
    make believe with the intent to deceive
    Marry, thou dost wrong me, thou dissembler, thou.
  9. dotard
    someone whose age has impaired his or her intellect
    Tush, tush, man, never fleer and jest at me.
    I speak not like a dotard nor a fool,
    As under privilege of age to brag
    What I have done being young, or what would do
    Were I not old.
  10. antic
    act as or like a clown
    What, man! I know them, yea,
    And what they weigh, even to the utmost scruple—
    Scambling, outfacing, fashionmonging boys,
    That lie and cog and flout, deprave and slander,
    Go anticly and show outward hideousness,
    And speak off half a dozen dang’rous words
    How they might hurt their enemies, if they durst,
    And this is all.
  11. meddle
    intrude in other people's affairs or business
    Do not you meddle. Let me deal in this.
    According to the definition, this line sounds odd coming from Antonio, since he is the brother and uncle of the people involved. But here, meddle simply means "mix, engage in." Antonio is trying to prevent Leonato (who is just as old) from getting mixed up in the fight he's about to have with Claudio and Pedro (two soldiers who just returned from a war). Antonio does not know that Hero is not dead, so Leonato tries to stop him from meddling and muddling up the plan.
  12. fray
    a noisy fight
    Welcome, signior. You are almost come to part almost a fray.
  13. minstrel
    a singer of folk songs
    I will bid thee draw, as we do the minstrels: draw to pleasure us.
  14. mettle
    the courage to carry on
    What, courage, man! What though care killed a cat? Thou hast mettle enough in thee to kill care.
    Claudio puns on mettle which sounds like the metal of a sword. But here, he is just joking and telling Benedick to find the courage to be happy and to help make them happy. But the audience knows that when Benedick draws upon his mettle and metal, it would not be to kill care but to kill Claudio.
  15. amble
    walk leisurely
    Sir, your wit ambles well; it goes easily.
  16. forswear
    formally reject or disavow
    “That I believe,” said she, “for he swore a thing to me on Monday night which he forswore on Tuesday morning; there’s a double tongue, there’s two tongues.”
  17. impose
    inflict something unpleasant
    Impose me to what penance your invention
    Can lay upon my sin. Yet sinned I not
    But in mistaking.
  18. penance
    voluntary self-punishment in order to atone for something
    Impose me to what penance your invention
    Can lay upon my sin. Yet sinned I not
    But in mistaking.
  19. enjoin
    give instructions to or direct somebody to do something
    By my soul, nor I,
    And yet to satisfy this good old man
    I would bend under any heavy weight
    That he’ll enjoin me to.
  20. beseech
    ask for or request earnestly
    I leave an arrant knave with your Worship, which I beseech your Worship to correct yourself, for the example of others.
  21. quondam
    belonging to some prior time
    But in loving, Leander the good swimmer, Troilus the first employer of panders, and a whole book full of these quondam carpetmongers,
    whose names yet run smoothly in the even road of a blank verse, why, they were never so truly turned over and over as my poor self in love.
  22. blank verse
    unrhymed poetry, usually in iambic pentameter
    But in loving, Leander the good swimmer, Troilus the first employer of panders, and a whole book full of these quondam carpetmongers,
    whose names yet run smoothly in the even road of a blank verse, why, they were never so truly turned over and over as my poor self in love.
  23. ominous
    threatening or foreshadowing evil or tragic developments
    I can find out no rhyme to “lady” but “baby”—an innocent rhyme; for “scorn,” “horn”—a hard rhyme; for “school,” “fool”—a babbling rhyme; very ominous endings.
  24. noisome
    offensively malodorous
    Foul words is but foul wind, and foul wind is but foul breath, and foul breath is noisome.
  25. politic
    marked by artful prudence, expedience, and shrewdness
    For them all together, which maintained so politic a state of evil that they will not admit any good part to intermingle with them.
  26. epithet
    descriptive word or phrase
    Suffer love!—a good epithet.
  27. rheum
    a watery discharge from the mucous membranes
    Question: why, an hour in clamor and a quarter in rheum.
  28. expedient
    serving to promote your interest
    Therefore is it most expedient for the wise, if Don Worm, his conscience, find no impediment to the contrary, to be the trumpet of his own virtues, as I am to myself.
  29. taper
    stick of wax with a wick in the middle
    Enter Claudio, Prince, and three or four Lords with tapers, and Musicians.
  30. guerdon
    a reward or payment
    Done to death by slanderous tongues
    Was the Hero that here lies.
    Death, in guerdon of her wrongs,
    Gives her fame which never dies.
  31. dapple
    color with streaks or blotches of different shades
    Good morrow, masters. Put your torches out.
    The wolves have preyed, and look, the gentle day
    Before the wheels of Phoebus, round about
    Dapples the drowsy east with spots of gray.
  32. friar
    male member of a religious order originally relying on alms
    Enter Leonato, Benedick, Beatrice, Margaret, Ursula, Leonato’s brother, Friar, Hero.
  33. enigmatic
    not clear to the understanding
    Your answer, sir, is enigmatical.
  34. conjoined
    consisting of two or more associated entities
    But for my will, my will is your goodwill
    May stand with ours, this day to be conjoined
    In the state of honorable marriage—
    In which, good friar, I shall desire your help.
  35. nigh
    slightly short of or not quite accomplished; all but
    They swore that you were well- nigh dead for me.
  36. recompense
    payment or reward, as for service rendered
    BENEDICK: ’Tis no such matter. Then you do not love me?
    BEATRICE: No, truly, but in friendly recompense.
  37. deny
    refuse to let have
    I would not deny you, but by this good day, I yield upon great persuasion, and partly to save your life, for I was told you were in a consumption.
  38. epigram
    a witty saying
    I’ll tell thee what, prince: a college of wit-crackers cannot flout me out of my humor. Dost thou think I care for a satire or an epigram?
  39. giddy
    lacking seriousness; given to frivolity
    In brief, since I do purpose to marry, I will think nothing to any purpose that the world can say against it, and therefore never flout at me for what I have said against it. For man is a giddy thing, and this is my conclusion.
  40. kinsman
    a male relative
    For thy part, Claudio, I did think to have beaten thee, but in that thou art like to be my kinsman, live unbruised, and love my cousin.
Created on Tue Apr 28 15:57:50 EDT 2015 (updated Tue Jun 21 13:11:39 EDT 2022)

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