Though sometimes you do blench from this to that, | That is your part: yet I'm advis'd to do it ; As cause doth minister. Go, call at Flavius' house, And tell him where I stay: give the like notice 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 physick, That's bitter to sweet end. Mari. I would, friar Peter Isab. O, peace; the friar is come. Enter Friar PETER. F. Peter. Come, I have found you out a stand most fit, Where you may have such vantage on the duke, He shall not pass you; Twice have the trumpets sounded; The generous and gravest citizens Have hent the gates, and very near upon The duke is ent'ring; therefore hence, away. [Exeunt. ACT V. SCENE I. - A publick Place near the City Gate. MARIANA (veiled), 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, To lock it in the wards of covert bosom, PETER and ISABELLA come forward. F. Peter. Now is your time; speak loud, and kneel before him. Isab. Justice, O royal duke! Vail your regard Here is lord Angelo shall give you justice! Isab. Duke. Mended again: the matter; - Proceed. Lab. In brief,-to set the needless process by, How I persuaded, how I pray'd, and kneel'd, How he refell'd me, and how I reply'd; (For this was of much length,) the vile conclusion I now begin with grief and shame to utter: He would not, but by gift of my chaste body To his concupiscible intemperate lust, Release my brother; and, after much debatement, My sisterly remorse confutes mine honour, And I did yield to him: But the next morn betimes, His purpose surfeiting, he sends a warrant For my poor brother's head. Duke. This is most likely! Or else thou art suborn'd against his honour, Confess the truth, and say by whose advice Isab Blessed be your royal grace! I have stood by, my lord, and I have heard Your royal ear abus'd: First, hath this woman Most wrongfully accus'd your substitute; Who is as free from touch or soil with her, As she from one ungot. Duke. We did believe no less. Know you that friar Lodowick, that she speaks of? F. Peter. I know him for a man divine and holy; Not scurvy, nor a temporary meddler, As he's reported by this gentleman; And, on my trust, a man that never yet Did, as he vouches, misreport your grace. Lucio. My lord, most villainously; believe it. F. Peter. Well, he in time may come to clear himself; But at this instant he is sick, my lord, Of a strange fever: Upon his mere request, Good friar, let's hear it. [ISABELLA is carried off, guarded; and MARIANA comes forward. Do you not smile at this, lord Angelo? — Duke. What, are you married? And is this all? Duke. A widow then? Mari. No, my lord. Neither, my lord. Then, oh, you blessed ministers above, As I, thus wrong'd, hence unbelieved go! Duke. I know, you'd fain be gone: - An officer! Te prison with her :- Shall we thus permit A blasting and a scandalous breath to fall On him so near us? This needs must be a practice. -Who knew of your intent, and coming hither? Duke. 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 I have known my husband; yet my husband knows | That's seal'd in approbation?— You, lord Escalus, That ever he knew me. Lucio. He was drunk then, my lord; it can be There is another friar that set them on; no better. Duke. For the benefit of silence, would thou wert so 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. Aug. Charges she more than me? Mari. Not that I know. Duke. No? you say, your husband. Mari. Why, just, my lord, and that is Angelo, Who thinks, he knows, that he ne'er knew my body, But knows, he thinks, that he knows Isabel's. Ang. This is a strange abuse:-Let's see thy face. Mari. My husband bids me; now I will unmask. [Unveiling. This is that face, thou cruel Angelo, Duke. Know you this woman? Lucio. Carnally, she says. Duke. Lucio. Enough, my lord. Sirrah, no more. Ang. My lord, I must confess, I know this Ang. I did but smile till now; Now, good my lord, give me the scope of justice; My patience here is touch'd: I do perceive, These poor informal women are no more But instruments of some more mightier member, That sets them on: Let me have way, my lord, To find this practice out. Duke. Ay, with my heart; And punish them unto your height of pleasure. Thou foolish friar; and thou pernicious woman, Compact with her that's gone! think'st thou, thy oaths, Though they would swear down each particular saint, Were testimonies against his worth and credit, Let him be sent for. F. Peter. Would he were here, my lord; for he indeed, Hath set the women on to this complaint: Duke. Go, do it instantly. - [Exit Provost. Will leave you; but stir not you, till you have 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 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, publickly she'll be ashamed. Re-enter Officers, with ISABELLA; the DUKE, in 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 midnight. 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 Is't not enough, thou hast suborn'd these women, I should be guiltier than my guiltiness, To think I can be undiscernible, 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; Te tax him with injustice? Take him hence; To the rack with him:- We'll touze you joint by joint, But we will know this purpose:-What! unjust? Dare no more stretch this finger of mine, than he Where I have seen corruption boil and bubble, As much in mock as mark. Escal. Slander to the state! Away with him to prison. Ang, What can you vouch against him, signior Lucio? 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? Duke. I remember you, sir, by the sound of your voice. I met you at the prison, in the absence of Duke. Most notedly, sir. Lucio. Do you, so, sir? And was the duke a fest-monger, a fool, and a coward, as you then reparted him to be? Dake. You must,, sir, change persons with me, ere you make that my report: you, indeed, spoke se of him; and much more, much worse. Luris. O thou damnable fellow! Did not I pluck thee by the nose, for thy speeches? Dube. I protest, I love the duke, as I love myself. dag. Hark! how the villain would close now, after Lis treasonable abuses. El 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 ggles too, and with the other confederate compasion. [The Provost lays hands on the DUKE. Duke. Stay, sir; stay awhile. Aug. What! resists he! Help him, Lucio. Lacio. 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 hung'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: Lucio. This may prove worse than hanging. Duke. What you have spoke, I pardon; sit you down. [TO ESCALUS. We'll borrow place of him- Sir, by your leave: [To ANGELO. Hast thou or word, or wit, or impudence, And hold no longer out. O my dread lord, When I perceive, your grace, like power divine, 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, instantly. Do you the office, friar; which consummate, Than at the strangeness of it. Come hither, Isabel: 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. Whose salt imagination yet hath wrong'd (Being criminal, in double violation We do condemn thee to the very block Mari. Consenting to the safeguard of your honour, And choke your good to come: for his possessions, To buy you a better husband. Mari. O, my dear lord, [Kneeling. 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 Lend me your knees, and all my life to come Duke. Against all sense you do impórtune her: Mari. Isabel, Duke. Prov. What's he? His name is Barnardine. 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 Lucio. I beseech your highness, do not marry me to a whore! Your highness said even now, I made you a duke; good my lord, do not recompense me, in making me a cuckold. Duke. Upon mine honour, thou shalt marry her - Lucio. Marrying a punk, my lord, is pressing to death, whipping, and hanging. Duke. Slandering a prince deserves it. I have confess'd her, and I know her virtue, Thanks, good friend Escalus, for thy much goodness: Duke. I would thou had'st done so by Claudio,-There's more behind, that is more gratulate. Go, fetch him hither; let me look upon him. [Erit 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: Thanks, provost, for thy care, and secrecy ; |