The phrase you are asking about is in Act I, scene 1 of
Much Ado About Nothing. Leonato, the governor of Messina, reads in
a letter that Don Pedro is coming to visit Messina that night. The messenger who brought
him the letter confirms what Leonato says and states, "He is very near by this. He was
not three leagues off when I left him."
A league is a
measure of distance. On land, it is usually considered to be three miles. So if Don
Pedro is traveling by land and is "not three leagues off," then he is roughly nine miles
from Messina. If he is traveling by sea, however, he is slightly farther away. A
nautical mile is about 5.6km. Since there are 1.6 kilometers in a mile, and a league is
three nautical miles, then "not three leagues off" by sea would be about 14 miles. I'm
not a math whiz, so you might want to check my
multiplication!
I hope this helps
you.
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