Remuneration and Guerdon

 

re·mu·ner·a·tion

noun

1.

the act of remunerating.

2.

something that remunerates;  reward; pay: He received little remuneration for his services.

guer·don

noun

1.

a reward, recompense, or requital.

When asked to deliver letters for Armado and Berowne, Costard receives payments from each of these men.  When Armado gives remuneration, Costard decides that must be Latin for three farthings.  When Berowne gives Costard guerdon, Costard also takes this to describe the particular amount of money.  

Costard does not quite understand the level of language used by some of the other characters, which is a language of metaphoric discourse.  Costard believes that the amount of money has the particular names of remuneration and guerdon.  Costard's poor understanding of language is used as a foil to Berowne, who has impressive language skills.  This play highlights the importance of language, which is one of the reasons I am loving reading the work.