Ifab. Nay, but it is not fo..

Duke. It is no other.

Shew your wisdom, daughter, in your closest patience.
Ifab. Oh, I will to him, and pluck out his eyes.
Duke. You fhall not be admitted to his fight.
Ifab. Unhappy Claudio, wretched Isabel!
Injurious world, moft damned Angelo !

Duke. This nor hurts him, nor profits you a jot :
Forbear it therefore, give your caufe to heav'n ;
Mark, what I fay; which you fhall furely find
By ev'ry fyllable a faithful verity.

The Duke comes home to-morrow; dry your eyes ; One of our convent, and his confeffor,

Gives me this inftance: already he hath carry'd

Notice to Efcalus and Angelo,

Who do prepare to meet him at the gates,

There to give up their pow'r. If you can, pace your wifdom,

In that good path that I would wish it go,

And you fhall have your bofom on this wretch,
Grace of the Duke, revenges to your heart,
And gen'ral honour.

Ifab. I'm directed by you.

Duke. This letter then to Friar Peter give;
Tis that he fent me of the Duke's return:
Say, by this token, I defire his company

At Mariana's houfe to-night. Her caufe and yours.
I'll perfect him withal, and he fhall bring you
Before the Duke; and to the head of Angelo
Accufe him home, and home. For my poor felf,
I am combined by a fecret vow,

And fhall be abfent. Wend you with this letter:
Command thefe fretting waters from your eyes
With a light heart; truft not my holy order,
If I pervert your courfe.

Lucio. Good even;

Who's here?

Enter Lucio.

Friar, where's the Provost?

Duke. Not withip, Sir.

Lucio. Oh, pretty Ifabella, I am pale at mine heart to fee thine eyes fo red; thou must be patient; I am fain to dine and fup with water and bran; I dare not for my head fill my belly: one fruitful meal would fet me to't. But, they fay, the Duke will be here toBy my troth, Ifabel, I lov'd thy brother: if the old fantastical Duke of dark corners had been at home, he had lived. [Exit Ifabella.. Duke. Sir, the Duke is marvellous little beholden to your reports; but the beft is, he lives not in them.

morrow.

Lucio. Friar, thou knowest not the Duke so well as I do; he's a better woodman, than thou tak'ft him for. Duke. Well; you'll answer this one day. Fare ye well.

Lucio. Nay, tarry, I'll go along with thee: I can tell thee pretty tales of the Duke.

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 fuch a thing?

Lucio. Yes, marry, did I; but I was fain to forfwear it; they would elfe have marry'd me to the rotten medlar.

Duke. Sir, your company is fairer than honeft: reft 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 bur, I shall stick. [Exeunt.

SCENE changes to the Palace.

Enter Angelo and Escalus.

Efcal. Very letter, he hath writ, hath difvouch'd other.

His

Ang. In most uneven and distracted manner. actions fhew much like to madness: pray heav'n, his wisdom be not tainted: and why meet him at the gates, and deliver our authorities there?

Efcal.

Efcal. I guess not.

Ang. And why should we proclaim it in an hour before his entring, that if any crave redress of injuftice, they should exhibit their petitions in the ftreet?

Efcal. He fhews his reafon for that; to have a difpatch of complaints, and to deliver us from devices hereafter, which fhall then have no power to ftand against us.

Ang. Well; I befeech you, let it be proclaimed betimes i'the morn; I'll call you at your houfe: give notice to fuch men of fort and fuit, as are to meet him. Efcal. I fhall, Sir: fare you well.' [Exit. Ang. Good night.

This deed unfhapes me quite, makes me unpregnant, And dull to all proceedings. A defloured maid!

And by an eminent body, that enforc'd

The law against it! but that her tender shame
Will not proclaim against her maiden lofs,

How might the tongue me? yet reafon dares her: (25)
For my authority bears a credent bulk;

That no particular fcandal once can touch,

But it confounds the breather. He fhould have liv'd,
Save that his riotous youth, with dangerous fenfe,
Might in the times to come have ta’en revenge ;
By to receiving a dishonour'd life,

With ranfom of fuch fhame. Would yet, he had liv'd!
A'ack, when once our grace we have forgot,

Nothing goes right; we would, and we would not.

[Exit.

(25) yet reaf n dares her :] The old folio impreffions read, ye reafen dares her no: — perhaps, dares her note: i. e. ftifles her voice; frights her from fpeaking. In this fenfe, our Author ufis the word dare, again, in his Henry VIII.

Farewel, nobility! let his Grace go forward,
And dare us with his cap, like larks.

SCENE

SCENE changes to the Fields without the Town.

Enter Duke in his own babit; and Friar Peter.

Hefe letters at fit time deliver me.

Duke. The Provod knows our purpofe, and our plot:
The matter being afoot, keep your infiruction,
And hold you ever to our fpecial drift;

Tho' fometimes you do blench from this to that,
As caufe doth minifter: go, call at Flavius' house,
And tell him, where I ftay; give the like notice
Unto Valentius, Rowland, and to Craffus,

-And bid them bring the trumpets to the gate:
But fend me Flavius firft.

Peter. It thall be fpeeded well.

Enter Varrius.

Duke. I thank thee,

hafte:

Come, we will walk.

[Exit Friar

Varrius; thou haft made good

There's other of our friends

Will greet us here anon, my gentle Varrius. [Exeunt. Cus

brgo Enter Ifabella and Mariana,

Ifab. To fpeak fo indirectly, I am lóth: I'll fay the truth; but to accufe him fo, That is your part; yet I'm advis'd to do it, He fays, 'availful purpose. (26)

Mari. Be rul'd by him.

Ifab. Befides, he tells me, that if peradventure
He fpeak against me on the adverse fide,

I should not think it ftrange; for 'tis a phyfic
That's bitter to fweet end.

Mari. I would, Friar Peter

Ifab. Oh, peace; the Friar is come.

(26) He fays to vail full purpose.] Thus the old copies. I don't know, what idea our Editors form'd to themfelves, of vailing full purpofe; but, I'm perfuaded, the Poet meant, as I have reftor'd; viz. to a purpofe that will fand us in ftead, that will profit us.

Enter

Enter Peter.

Peter. Come, I have found you out a stand nioft fit, Where you may have fuch vantage on the Duke, He shall not pass you. Twice have the trumpets

founded:

The generous and graveft citizens

Have hent the gates, and very near upon (27)
The Duke is entring: therefore hence, away. [Exeunt.

SCENE, a public Place near the City. Enter Duke, Varrius, Lords, Angelo, Efcalus, Lucio, and Citizens at Several Doors.

M

DUKE.

'Y very worthy coufin, fairly met ;

Our old and faithful friend, we're glad to fee you. Ang. and Efcal. Happy return be to your royal Grace!

(27) Have hent the gates,-] An anonymous correspondent advis'd me to read;

Have bemm'd the gates,

But, I apprehend, there is no occafion for any change. To bend, SKINNER and fome other gloffaries tell us, fignifies, to feize, lay hold on with the hand; but we find by Spenfer, in his Colin Clout, that it likewife fignifies, to furround, encircle; (in which senses it is used here.)

From thence another world of land we ken'd,

Floating amid the fea in jeopardy;

And round about with mighty white rocks bend,

Against the fea's encroaching cruelty.

We meet with the word again, in its firft acceptation, in our Author's Winter's Tale.

Jog on, jog on, the foot-path way,

And merrily bent the ftile-a :

A merry heart goes all the day,
Your fad tires in a mile-a..

Duke.