ther, who came from the wars along with him to
Messina. This brother (his name was Don John) was a melancholy,
discontented man, whose spirits seemed to labour in the contriving of
villanies. He hated the prince his brother, and he hated Claudio,
because he was the prince's friend, and determined to prevent Claudio's
marriage with Hero, only for the malicious pleasure of making Claudio
and the prince unhappy; for he knew the prince had set his heart upon
this marriage, almost as much as Claudio himself; and to effect this
wicked purpose, he employed one Borachio, a man as bad as himself, whom
he encouraged with the offer of a great reward. This Borachio paid his
court to Margaret, Hero's attendant; and Don John, knowing this,
prevailed upon him to make Margaret promise to talk with him from her
lady's chamber window that night, after Hero was asleep, and also to
dress herself in Hero's clothes, the better to deceive Claudio into the
belief that it was Hero; for that was the end he meant to compass by
this wicked plot.

Don John then went to the prince and Claudio, and told them that Hero
was an imprudent lady, and that she talked with men from her chamber
window at midnight. Now this was the evening before the wedding, and he
offered to take them that night, where they should themselves hear Hero
discoursing with a man from her window; and they consented to go along
with him, and Claudio said, "If I see anything to-night why I should not
marry her, to-morrow in the congregation, where I intended to wed her,
there will I shame her." The prince also said, "And as I assisted you to
obtain her, I will join with you to disgrace her."

When Don John brought them near Hero's chamber that night, they saw
Borachio standing under the window, and they saw Margaret looking out of
Hero's window, and heard her talking with Borachio: and Margaret being
dressed in the same clothes they had seen Hero wear, the prince and
Claudio believed it was the lady Hero herself.

Nothing could equal the anger of Claudio, when he had made (as he
thought) this discovery. All his love for the innocent Hero was at once
converted into hatred, and he resolved to expose her in the church, as
he had said he would, the next day; and the prince agreed to this,
thinking no punishment could be too severe for the naughty lady, who
talked with a man from her window the very night before she was going to
be married to the noble Claudio.

The next day, when th