Word: borachio
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Dates: during 1960-1969
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...high comedy of Beatrice and Benedick and the low comedy of Dogberry and Verges. The evil bastard Don John is a foil to his genial legitimate brother Don Pedro; and these young brothers contrast with the older-generation brothers Antonio and Leonato. Don John's two male attendants (Borachio and Conrade) balance. Hero's female ones (Margaret and Ursula). Claudio and Hero, on one hand, and Beatrice and Benedick, on the other, both find a rocky road to the wedding altar; and the two plots involving these pairs both hinge on deception and credulousness...
...apparently by false analogy with Pinocchio. The Italian name is properly spelled Petruccio, and the Shakespeare Folio made it Petruchio precisely to provide a phonetic spelling for English-speaking actors. Thus it should be pronounced with a ch-sound as in "church." (The identical situation obtains with the name Borachio in Much Ado About Nothing.) Furthermore, Shrew's verse requires, except in three or four lines, that Petruchio be trisyllabic (just as it is in Italian...
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