Moth
Play
Summary
Moth is Armado's diminutive, lightning-quick page — his name a pun on "mote" (a speck of dust) and the insect, both suggesting smallness and swift movement. He is the most agile wit in the play, running verbal rings around both his pompous master and the pedant Holofernes. His quick intelligence contrasts with the ponderous elaboration of Armado's speech, and he plays one of the Nine Worthies — Hercules as a baby — in the pageant, a casting joke on his size.
Notable Quotations
"They have been at a great feast of languages and stolen the scraps." *(5.1)*
"Master, will you win your love with a French brawl?" *(3.1)*
Cross-references
- Love's Labour's Lost — the play
- Comedies
- character_armado — his master, whom he outpaces in wit
- character_holofernes — the pedant he mocks
- character_costard — fellow performer in the pageant