An Honest Woman

Honest means “not lying”.

An honest person does not lie.
He does not only lie, but also straightforward, frank, healthy, sweet, good, trustworthy and all the other good aspects you can imagine.

Shakespeare thinks that a person who is honest is very rare.
Especially, a woman can rarely be honest.

Salerno gossips that Antonio’s ships have been wrecked, and he says;

“If my gossip Report be an honest woman of her word”

And Solanio his friend answers;

“I would she were as lying a gossip in that as ever knapp’d ginger or made her neighbors believe she wept for the death of a third husband.”

Which means that this lady who gets married third times must have received vast amount of treasure and money from her former husbands.
How come she could weep when she could get more treasure and money on a third husband’s death.

Her neighbors who have been watching all know about her and would never believe she wept at her third husband’s death.

An actor must convey the visual images of this kind of backstories immediately as Solanio speaks.

What would you do if you are a stage performer?

++ Live Interaction of the Day ++
Try to convey the visual images of the line above.