Speaking to a small group of assembled Viennese gentlemen, Lucio uses an idiom common in Shakespeare’s day: a French crown.
LUCIO
Behold, behold, where Madam Mitigation
comes! I have purchased as many diseases under
her roof as come to—SECOND GENTLEMAN
To what, I pray?LUCIO
Judge.SECOND GENTLEMAN
To three thousand dolors a year.FIRST GENTLEMAN
Ay, and more.LUCIO
A French crown more.
Lucio and the gentleman speak of their own personal experiences at a brothel run by Mistress Overdone, referred to sarcastically here as “madam Mitigation.” Stating that he has “purchased” many “diseases” at the brothel, he claims to have spent as much as a “French crown” at the establishment. Here, Lucio uses an informal idiom that would have been familiar to audiences in Early Modern London: a “French crown” is both an actual coin used in France, and also a euphemism for syphilis, a sexually transmitted disease also known as the “French pox” in Shakespeare's England. As England and France were enemy nations for many years, divided by both political and religious conflicts, outbreaks of disease in London were often blamed on foreign immigrants, particularly those from France. Lucio’s use of this slang affirms his negative view of the French, and establishes an important connection in this play between money and sex.
