would set me to't: But they say the duke will be here to-morrow. By my troth, Isabel, I lov'd thy brother: if the old fantastical duke of dark corners 26) had been at home, he had lived. [Exit ISABELLA. Duke. Sir, the duke is marvellous little beholden to your reports; but the best is, he lives not in them. 27) Lucio. Friar, thou knowest not the duke so well as I do: he's a better woodman 28) than thou takest him for. Duke. Well, you'll answer this one day. ye well. Lucio. Nay, tarry; I'll go along with thee; tell thee pretty tales of the duke. Fare I can Duke. You have told me too many of him already, sir, if they be true: if not true, none were enough. Lucio. I was once before him for getting a wench with child. Duke. Did you such a thing? Lucio. Yes, marry, did I: but was fain to forswear it; they would else have married me to the rotten medlar. Duke. Sir, your company is fairer than honest: Rest you well. Lucio. By my troth, I'll go with thee to the lane's end: If bawdy talk offend you, we'll have very little of it; Nay, friar, I am a kind of burr, I shall stick. SCENE IV. A Room in Angelo's House. Enter ANGELO and ESCALUS. [Exeunt. Escal. Every letter he hath writ hath disvouch'd other. Ang. In most uneven and distracted manner. His actions show much like to madness: pray heaven, his wisdom be not tainted! And why meet him at the gates, and re-deliver our authorities there? Escal. I guess not. Ang. And why should we proclaim it in an hour before his entering, that, if any crave redress of injustice, they should exhibit their petitions in the streets? Escal. He shows his reason for that: to have a despatch of complaints; and to deliver us from devices hereafter, which shall then have no power to stand against us. Ang. Well, I beseech you, let it be proclaim'd: Betimes i' the morn, I'll call you at your house: Give notice to such men of sort and suit, 29) As are to meet him. Escal. I shall, sir: fare you well. [Exit. Ang. Good night. This deed unshapes me quite, makes me unpregnant, And dull to all proceedings. A deflower'd maid! And by an eminent body, that enforc'd The law against it! But that her tender shame Will not proclaim against her maiden loss, How might she tongue me? Yet reason dares her? ho: 30) SCENE V. Fields without the Town. Enter DUKE in his own habit, and Friar PETER. Duke. These letters at fit time deliver me. [Giving letters. The matter being afoot, keep your instruction, The provost knows our purpose, and our plot. And hold you ever to our special drift; Though sometimes you do blench 32) from this to that, As cause doth minister. Go, call at Flavius' house, And tell him where I stay: give the like notice To Valentinus, Rowland, and to Crassus, But send me Flavius first. And bid them bring the trumpets to the gate; F. Peter. It shall be speeded well. [Exit Friar. Enter VARRIUS. Duke. I thank thee, Varrius; thou hast made good haste: Come, we will walk: There's other of our friends Will greet us here anon, my gentle Varrius. [Exeunt. SCENE VI. Street near the City-gate. Enter ISABELLA and MARIANA. Isab. To speak so indirectly, I am loath; I would say the truth; but to accuse him so, That is your part: yet I'm advis'd to do it; He says, to veil full purpose. Mari. Be rul'd by him, Isab. Besides, he tells me, that, if peradventure He speak against me on the adverse side, I should not think it strange; for 'tis a physic, That's bitter to sweet end. Mari. I would, friar Peter Isab. SCENE I. A public Place near the City-gate. MARIANA (veil'd), ISABELLA, and Peter, at a distance. Enter at opposite doors, DUKE, VARRIUS, Lords; ANGELO, ESCALUS, Lucio, Provost, Officers, and Citizens. Duke. My very worthy cousin, fairly met: Our old and faithful friend, we are glad to see you. Ang. and Escal. Happy return be to your royal grace! Duke. Many and hearty thankings to you both. We have made inquiry of you; and we hear Such goodness of your justice, that our soul Cannot but yield you forth to public thanks, Forerunning more requital. Ang. You make my bonds still greater. Duke. O, your desert speaks loud; and I should wrong it, PETER and ISABELLA come forward. F. Peter. Now is your time; speak loud, and kneel Isab. Justice, O royal duke! Vail your regard 1) Till you have heard me in my true complaint, Here is lord Angelo shall give you justice! Isab. Or wring redress from you: hear me, O, hear I went Pardon it; Proceed. The phrase is to the matter. Ang. My lord, her wits, I fear me, are not firm: Isab. It is not truer he is Angelo, In all his dressings, characts, titles, forms, Duke. By mine honesty, Isab. I am sister of one Claudio, Duke. Or else thou art suborn'd against his honour, And is this all? Then, oh, you blessed ministers above, from woe, An officer! As I, thus wrong'd, hence unbelieved go! Lucio. My lord, I know him; 'tis a medling friar; Duke. Words against me? This a good friar belike! And to set on this wretched woman here Against our substitute! Let this friar be found! Lucio. But yesternight, my lord, she and that friar I saw them at the prison: a saucy friar, A very scurvy fellow. F. Peter. Blessed be your royal grace! Of a strange fever: Upon his mere request, 10) Good friar, let's hear it. [ISABELLA is carried off, guarded; and MARIANA comes forward. Do you not smile at this, lord Angelo? O heaven! the vanity of wretched fools! Give us some seats. Come, cousin Angelo, In this I'll be impartial; 13) be you judge What, are you married? Are you a maid? Mari. Duke. A widow then? Mari. Duke. No, my lord. Neither, my lord. Why, you Are nothing then: : - Neither maid, widow, nor wife? Lucio. My lord, she may be a punk; for many of them are neither maid, widow, nor wife. Duke. Silence that fellow: I would, he had some cause To prattle for himself. Lucio. Well, my lord. Mari. My lord, I do confess I ne'er was married; And, I confess, besides, I am no maid: I have known my husband; yet my husband knows not, That ever he knew me. Lucio. He was drunk then, my lord: it can be no better. Duke. For the benefit of silence, 'would thou wert Bo too. Lucio. Well, my lord. Duke. This is no witness for lord Angelo. Mari. Now I come to't, my lord: She, that accuses him of fornication, In self-same manner doth accuse my husband; And charges him, my lord, with such a time, When I'll depose I had him in mine arms, With all the effect of love. Ang. Charges she more than me? Mari. Not that I know. This is that face, thou cruel Angelo, Lucio. Carnally, she says. Duke. Sirrah, no more. Lucio. Enough, my lord. Betwixt myself and her; which was broke off, I never spake with her, saw her, nor heard from her, Mari. As there comes light from heaven, and words from breath, As there is sense in truth, and truth in virtue, Though they would swear down each particular saint, F. Peter. Would he were here, my lord; for he, indeed, Hath set the women on to this complaint: Duke. Go, do it instantly. Signior Lucio, did not you say, you knew that friar Lodowick to be a dishonest person? Lucio. Cucullus non facit monachum: honest in nothing, but in his clothes; and one that hath spoke most villainous speeches of the duke. Escal. We shall entreat you to abide here till he come, and enforce them against him: we shall find this friar a notable fellow. Lucio. As any in Vienna, on my word. Escal. Call that same Isabel here once again; [to an Attendant] I would speak with her: Pray you, my lord, give me leave to question; you shall see how I'll handle her. Lucio. Not better than he, by her own report. Lucio. Marry, sir, I think, if you handled her privately, she would sooner confess; perchance, publicly she'll be ashamed. Duke. I remember you, sir, by the sound of your voice: I met you at the prison, in the absence of the duke. Lucio. O, did you so? And do you remember what you said of the duke? Duke. Most notedly, sir. Lucio. Do you so, sir? And was the duke a fleshmonger, a fool, and a coward, as you then reported him to be? Duke. You must, sir, change persons with me, ere you make that my report: you, indeed, spoke so of him; and much more, much worse. Lucio. O thou damnable fellow! Did not I pluck thee by the nose, for thy speeches? Duke. I protest, I love the duke, as I love myself. Ang. Hark! how the villain would close now, after his treasonable abuses. Escal. Such a fellow is not to be talk'd withal; Away with him to prison:- Where is the provost? Re-enter Officers, with ISABELLA; the DUKB, in Away with him to prison; lay bolts enough upon him: the Friar's habit, and Provost. Escal. I will go darkly to work with her. Lucio. That's the way; for women are light at mid-night. Escal. Come on, mistress: [to ISABELLA] here's a gentlewoman denies all that you have said. Lucio. My lord, here comes the rascal I spoke of; here with the provost. Escal. In very good time: him, till we call upon you. Lucio. Mum. speak not you to Escal. Come, sir; Did you set these women on to slander lord Angelo? they have confess'd you did. Duke. "Tis false. Escal. How! know you where you are? Duke. Respect to your great place! and let the devil Be sometime honour'd for his burning throne: Where is the duke? 'tis he should hear me speak. Escal. The duke's in us; and we will hear you speak: Look, you speak justly. Duke. Boldly, at least: But, O, poor souls, Come you to seek the lamb here of the fox? Good night to your redress. Is the duke gone? Then is your cause gone too. The duke's unjust, Thus to retort your manifest appeal, 16) And put your trial in the villain's mouth, Which here you come to accuse. Lucio. This is the rascal; this is he I spoke of. Escal. Why, thou unreverend and unhallow'd friar! Is't not enough, thou hast suborn'd these women To accuse this worthy man; but, in foul mouth, And in the witness of his proper ear, To call him villain? And then to glance from him to the duke himself; Dare no more stretch this finger of mine, than he Escal. Slander to the state! Away with him to prison. Is this the man that you did tell us of? Lucio. "Tis he, my lord. Come hither, good-man bald-pate: Do you know me? let him speak no more: Away with those giglots too, 19) and with the other confederate companion. [The Provost lays hands on the DUKE. Duke. Stay, sir; stay a while! Ang. What! resists he! Help him, Lucio. Lucio. Come, sir; come, sir; come, sir; foh, sir: Why, you bald-pated, lying rascal! you must be hooded, must you? Show your knave's visage, with a pox to you! show your sheep-biting face, and be hang'd an hour! Will't not off? [Pulls off the Friar's hood, and discovers the DUKE. Duke. Thou art the first knave, that e'er made a duke. First, Provost, let me bail these gentle three: down. We'll borrow place of him: I pardon; sit you [TO ESCALUS. Sir, by your leave: [To ANGELO. Hast thou or word, or wit, or impudence, O my dread lord, Duke. Duke. Go take her hence, and marry her instantly. -Do you the office, friar; which consummate, Return him here again: Go with him, provost. [Exeunt ANGELO, MARIANA, PETER, and Provost. Escal. My lord, I am more amaz'd at his dishonour, Than at the strangeness of it. Duke. Come hither, Isabel: Your friar is now your prince: As I was then Advértising, and holy 22) to your business, Not changing heart with habit, I am still Attorney'd at your service. Isab. O, give me pardon, That I, your vassal, have employ'd and pain'd Your unknown sovereignty. Duke. You are pardon'd, Isabel: And now, dear maid, be you as free to us. 23) Your brother's death, I know, sits at your heart; Re-enter ANGELO, MARIANA, PETER, and Provost. Of sacred chastity, and of promise-breach, We do condemn thee to the very block Mari. O, my dear lord, I crave no other, nor no better man. Duke. Never crave him; we are definitive. Mari. Gentle, my liege, [Kneeling. Duke. You do but lose your labour; Away with him to death. Now, sir, [to LUCIO] to you. Mari. O, my good lord! Sweet Isabel, take my part; Lend me your knees, and all my life to come I'll lend you, all my life to do you service. Duke. Against all sense you do importune her: Should she kneel down, in mercy of this fact, Her brother's ghost his paved bed would break, And take her hence in horror. Sweet Isabel, do yet but kneel by me; Hold up your hands, say nothing, I'll speak all. A due sincerity govern'd his deeds, Prov. His name is Barnardine. Duke. I would thou had'st done so by Claudio. Go, fetch him hither; let me look upon him. [Exit Provost. Escal. I am sorry, one so learned and so wise As you, lord Angelo, have still appear'd, Should slip so grossly, both in the heat of blood, And lack of temper'd judgment afterward. Ang. I am sorry, that such sorrow I procure, Re-enter Provost, BARNARDINE, CLAUDIO, Duke. Which is that Barnardine? This, my lord. Friar, advise him; I leave him to your hand. — What muffled fellow's that? Prov. This is another prisoner, that I sav'd, That should have died when Claudio lost his head; As like almost to Claudio, as himself. [Unmuffles CLAUDIO. Duke. If he be like your brother, [to ISABELLA] for his sake Is he pardon'd; And, for your lovely sake, Look that you love your wife; her worth, worth yours. I find an apt remission in myself: And yet here's one in place I cannot pardon: One all of luxury, an ass, a madman; Lucio. 'Faith, my lord, I spoke it but according to the trick: 27) If you will hang me for it, you may, but I had rather it would please you, I might be whipp'd. Duke. Whipp'd first, sir, and hang'd after. Proclaim it, provost, round about the city; If any woman's wrong'd by this lewd fellow, |