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Friar Francis

Appearance and Deception

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A recurring theme in many of Shakespeare’s plays, and central to Much Ado About Nothing, explores how easily people are deceived not just by the false testimony of others but even by their own senses. Claudio, believing he was deceived by Don John, learned to place no trust in the words of others. With “Let every eye negotiate for itself,”
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Friars, Friends and Deceivers

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Friar Francis in Much Ado About Nothing (4.1.221), like Friar Lawrence in Romeo and Juliet, is a sympathetic character who aids the romantic interests of the young lovers. Both friars fashion a conspiracy whose central conceit is the fake death of the lady. Friars fare better than the Catholic hierarchy in Shakespeare’s plays, even though the friars are as devious in their means as cardinals and archbishops.
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You come hither, my lord, to marry this lady?

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Friar, to Claudio
You come hither, my lord, to marry this lady?
Claudio
No.
Leonato
To be married to her.—Friar, you come to marry her.
Friar
Lady, you come hither to be married to this count?
Hero
I do.

O, what men dare do!
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Source:
Act 4
Scene 1
Line 4

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O Fate, take not away thy heavy hand!

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Leonato
O Fate, take not away thy heavy hand!
Death is the fairest cover for her shame
That may be wished for.
Beatrice
How now, cousin Hero?
  Hero stirs.
Friar, to Hero
Have comfort, lady.

But mine, and mine I loved, and mine I praised,
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Source:
Act 4
Scene 1
Line 120

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Seasons, Elements and Humors

Hear me a little, For I have only silent been so long

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Hear me a little,
For I have only silent been so long,Hyperbaton
And given way unto this course of fortune,
By noting of the lady. I have marked
A thousand blushing apparitions
To start into her face, a thousand innocent shames
In angel whiteness beat away those blushes,
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Source:
Act 4
Scene 1
Line 164

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Appearance and Deception

There is some strange misprision in the princes

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Friar
There is some strange misprision in the princes.
Benedick
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Two of them have the very bent of honor,
And if their wisdoms be misled in this,
The practice of it lives in John the Bastard,
Whose spirits toil in frame of villainies.

That what we have we prize not to the worth
Whiles we enjoy it,

Source:
Act 4
Scene 1
Line 195

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Friars, Friends and Deceivers

Friar, I must entreat your pains, I think

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Benedick
Friar, I must entreat your pains, I think.
Friar
To do what, signior?

But for my will, my will is your goodwill
May stand with ours, this day to be conjoined
In the state of honorable marriage

Benedick
To bind me, or undo me, one of them.—
Signior Leonato,
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Source:
Act 5
Scene 4
Line 18

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Good morrow, Benedick

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Prince
Good morrow, Benedick. Why, what’s the matter
That you have such a February face,
So full of frost, of storm, and cloudiness?
Claudio
I think he thinks upon the savage bull.
Tush, fear not, man. We’ll tip thy horns with gold,
And all Europa shall rejoice at thee,
As once Europa did at lusty Jove
When he would play the noble beast in love.
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Source:
Act 5
Scene 4
Line 41

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