'Take heed, there's giants keep 'em': 'The Changeling' III.iii.178 and its context. (play by Thomas Middleton)

In Act III, scene iii of Middleton and Rowley's The Changeling, Isabella, locked up in the asylum of her jealous husband, Alibius, and guarded by his 'man' Lollio, receives sexual attention first from Lollio, then Franciscus (disguised as a madman), and then Antonio (disguised as a fool). She rejects the advances of the first two would-be lovers, but in a minor way succumbs to Antonio's charms. Her interest in sexually attractive males had already been made obvious to us when she asked Lollio to show her Franciscus in III.iii.20-8 (a speech featuring suggestive phrases, such as 'the pleasure of your bedlam' (21), and 'a proper / Body' (23-4).(1) She does not see through Franciscus's disguise, however; and, although she finds him 'A proper gentleman' (61), she asks Lollio to remove him when he 'grows dangerous' (89).

It seems likely that one reason why she does find Antonio attractive is that she realizes that he is acting a part. We, the audience, learn about Antonio's role-playing from Lollio's reaction to Antonio's behaviour in I.ii, when he is first brought in as a 'patient' (Alibius's word, I.ii.85) by Pedro. Pedro explains that, as a member of 'a great family' (111), Antonio will be well worth looking after, assuring Lollio that he is 'a gentleman' (114). Lollio says at once: 'Nay, there's nobody doubted that; at first sight I knew him for a gentleman - he looks no other yet' (115-16).

In other words, given time and practice, Antonio may come to look like a fool, but at present his play-acting is not yet successful enough to take in those he is trying to deceive, including, it seems, the main target of his device, Isabella. In III.iii, when she is introduced to him, Isabella asks: 'How long hast thou been a fool?' (105) - a question she would be unlikely to ask someone she takes to be a congenital idiot. Nor does Antonio answer like a 'real' fool when he says 'Ever since I came hither, cousin' (106). Presumably Isabella wants Lollio out of the way when she says to him a few lines later: 'Hark you, your …