I am combined by a sacred vow, Lucio. Duke. Good even! Enter Lucio. Not within, sir. Friar, where is the provost? The law against it!-But that her tender shame For my authority bears a credents bulk, Lucio. O, pretty Isabella, I am pale at mine With ransom of such shame. 'Would yet he had liv'd! heart, to see thine eyes so red: thou must be pa tient: I am fain to dine and sup with water and Alack, when once our grace we have forgot, I lov'd thy brother: if the old fantastical duke of SCENE V.-Fields without the town. [Exit Isabella. [Exit. Enter [Giving letters. Duke. Sir, the duke is marvellous little beholden to your reports; but the best is, he lives not in them. The provost knows our purpose, and our plot. Lucio. Friar, thou knowest not the duke so well The matter being afoot, keep your instruction, as I do: he's a better woodman than thou takest And hold you ever to our special drift; him for. Duke. Well, you'll answer this one day. ye well. Though sometimes you do blench' from this to that Lucio. Nay, tarry; I'll go along with thee; can tell thee pretty tales of the duke. Duke. You have told me too many of him ready, 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? F. Peter. It shall be speeded well. [Exit Friar. Enter Varrius. Duke. I thank thee, Varrius; thou hast made good haste; Lucio. Yes, marry, did I but was fain to for- Come, we will walk: There's other of our friends swear it; they would else have married me to the Will greet us here anon, my gentle Varrius. [Exe. rotten medlar. Duke. Sir, your company is fairer than honest: SCENE VI.-Street near the city gate. Enter Isabella and Mariana. Rest you well. I 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, shall stick. [Exeunt. SCENE IV.A room in Angelo's house. Enter Angelo and Escalus. 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 injus- Where you may have such vantage on the duke," tice, they should exhibit their petitions in the street? He shall not pass you: Twice have the trumpets Escal. He shows his reason for that: to have a sounded; despatch of complaints; and to deliver us from The generous and gravest citizens devices hereafter, which shall then have no power Have hent" the gates, and very near upon to stand against us. The duke is ent'ring; therefore hence, away. [Exe. Ang. Well, I beseech you, let it be proclaim'd: Escal. I shall, sir: fare you well. [Exit. This deed unshapes me quite, makes me unpreg nant, And dull to all proceedings. A deflower'd maid! Go. (2) Contradicted. (3) Figure and rank. Credit unquestionable. (6) Utterer. ACT V. SCENE I-A public place near the city gate. Duke. My very worthy cousin, fairly met :- Jur old and faithful friend, we are glad to see you. In all his dressings, characts, titles, forms, 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, To lock it in the wards of covert bosom, Friar Peter and Isabella come forward. F. Peter. Now is your time; speak loud, and kneel before him. Isab. Justice, 0, royal duke! Vail' your regard Here is lord Angelo shall give you justice; Isab. O, worthy duke, You bid me seek redemption of the devil: Hear me yourself; for that which I must speak Must either punish me, not being believ'd, Or wring redress from you: hear me, O, hear me, here. Ang. My lord, her wits, I fear me, are not firm: Isab. Isab. Most strange, but yet most truly, will I speak: That Angelo's forsworn; is it not strange? A hypocrite, a virgin-violator; Be an arch-villain: believe it, royal prince, If she be mad (as I believe no other,) Isab. O, gracious duke, Harp not on that; nor do not banish reason For inequality: but let your reason serve To make the truth appear, where it seems hid; And hide the false, seems true. Duke. Isab: I am the sister of one Claudio, I That's I, an't like your grace: came to her from Claudio, and desir'd her To try her gracious fortune with lord Angelo, For her poor brother's pardon. Isab. That's he indeed. To this pernicious caitiff deputy. The phrase is to the matter. Pardon it; Duke. Mended again: the matter:-Proceed. Nay, ten times strange. To his concupiscible intemperate lust, Isab. It is not truer he is Angelo, Away with her:-Poor soul, That which but seems unlike: 'tis not impossible. But one, the wicked'st caitiff on the ground, Lower. (2) Habits and characters of office. Release my brother; and, after much debatement, Duke. This is most likely! Or else thou art suborn'd against his honour, (6) Conspiracy. P wo, As I, thus wrong'd, hence unbelieved go! Duke. I know, you'd fain be gone:-An officer! Lucio. My lord, I know him; 'tis a meddling friar; And to set on this wretched woman here I saw them at the prison: a saucy friar, Blessed be your royal grace!! Duke. We did believe no less. Know you that friar Lodowick, that she speaks of? Lucio. My lord, most villanously; believe it. But at this instant he is sick, my lord, To speak, as from his mouth, what he doth know So vulgarly and personally accus'd,) Good friar, let's hear it. Do you not smile at this, lord Angelo?- What, are you married? (2) Simple, (3) Convened. | Mari. Duke. Are nothing then: -Neither maid, widow, nor wife? Lucio. Well, my lord. Duke. This is no witness for lord Angelo. She, that accuses him of fornication, Ang. Charges she more than me? Mari. Not that I know. Ang. This is a strange abuse:-Let's see thy Mari. My husband bids me; now I will unmask. This is the hand, which, with a vow'd contract, Duke. Know you this woman? Lucio. Carnally, she says. Lucio. Enough, my lord. Sirrah, no more. Ang. My lord, I must confess, I know this wo Or else for ever be confixed here, I did but smile till now; Ang. Duke. Though they would swear down each particular saint, Were testimonies against his worth and credit, Look, you speak justly. Duke. Boldly, at least:-But, O, poor souls, Lucio. This is the rascal; this is he I spoke of. Is't not enough, thou hast suborn'd these women Te call him villain? F. Peter. Would he were here, my lord; for he, And then to glance from him to the duke himself; indeed, Hath set the women on to this complaint: And he may fetch him. [Exit Provost. Duke. Go, do it instantly. Whom it concerns to hear this matter forth,3 And you, my noble and well-warranted cousin, Do with your injuries as seems you best, In any chastisement: I for a while To tax him with injustice ?-Take him hence; joint, But we will know this purpose :-What! unjust? Dare no more stretch this finger of mine, than he Nor here provincial: My business in this state Will leave you; but stir not you, till you have Where I have seen corruption boil and bubble, well Determined upon these slanderers. Escal. My lord, we'll do it thoroughly.-[Exit Duke. 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 villanous 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. 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. Till it o'er-run the stew: laws, for all faults; Is Escal. Slander to the state! Away with him to prison. Ang. What can you vouch against him, signior Lucio?. this the man that you did tell us of? Lucio. 'Tis he, my lord.-Come hither, goodman bald-pate: Do you know me? 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 Re-enter Officers, with Isabella; the Duke, in the 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 ? Away with him to prison; lay bolts enough upon him; let him speak no more. Away with those giglots too, 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, (1) Crazy. (2) Conspiracy, (3) To the end. 4) Refer back. (5) Accountable, (6) Wantons, with a pox to you! show your sheep-biting face, |Of sacred chastity, and of promise-breach, and be hang'd an hour!. Will't not off? Pulls off the friar's hood, and discovers Duke. Thou art the first knave, that e'er made First, provost, let me bail these gentle three :—— Must have a word anon:-lay hold on him. Hast thou or word, or wit, or impudence, If thou hast, Rely upon it till my tale be heard, Ang. O my dread lord, Duke. Come hither, Mariana :Say, wast thou e'er contracted to this woman? Ang. I was, my lord. Duke. Go, take her hence, and marry her in- Do you the office, friar; which consummate, Than at the strangeness of it. Isab. O, give me pardon, That I, your vassal, have employ'd and pain'd Your unknown sovereignty. Duke. You are pardon'd, Isabel Re-enter Angelo, Mariana, Peter, and Provost. Isab. :| Duke. For this new-married man, approaching Whose salt imagination yet hath wrong'd (Being criminal, in double violation (1) Service. (2) Devices. (3) Following. Attentive, (5) Angelo's own tongue. Thereon dependant, for your brother's life,) We do condemn thee to the very block I Consenting to the safeguard of your honour, Mari. O, my dear lord, Mari. O, my good lord!-Sweet Isabel, take Lend me your knees, and all my life to come Duke. Against all sense do you impórtune her: Mari. Most bounteous sir, His act did not o'ertake his bad intent, Mari. At an unusual hour? |