I humbly thank you. To sue to live, I find, I seek to die; And seeking death, find life: Let it come on. Enter ISABELLA. offence, So to offend him still: This night's the time, Isab. What, ho! Peace here; grace and good Or else thou diest to-morrow. company! Prov. Who's there? come in: the wish deserves a welcome. Duke. Dear sir, ere long I'll visit you again. Claud. Most holy sir, I thank you. Isab. My business is a word or two with Claudio. Prov. And very welcome. Look, signior, here's your sister. Duke. Provost, a word with you. Prov. As many as you please. Duke. Bring them to speak, where I may be conceal'd, Yet hear them. [Exeunt Duke and Provost. Claud. Now, sister, what's the comfort? Isab. Why, as all comforts are; most good indeed: Lord Angelo, having affairs to heaven, Intends you for his swift ambassador, Where you shall be an everlasting lieger: Therefore your best appointment make with speed; To-morrow you set on. Is there no remedy? Claud. Lab. None, but such a remedy, as to save a head, To cleave a heart in twain. Claud. But is there any? Isab. Yes, brother, you may live; There is a devilish merty in the judge, If you'll implore it, that will free your life, But fetter you till death. Claud. Perpetual durance? Isab. Ay, just, perpetual durance; a restraint, Though all the world's vastidity you had, To a determined scope. Claud. But in what nature? Isab. And shamed life a hateful. Isab. Alas! alas! Isab. O, you beast! From thine own sister's shame? What should I think? Heaven shield, my mother pl'd my father fair! Claud. Nay, hear me, Isabel. O, fye, fye, fye! Thy sin's not accidental, but a trade: Mercy to thee would prove itself a bawd: In base appliances. This outward-sainted deputy,-"Tis best that thou diest quickly. Whose settled visage and deliberate word Nips youth 'i the head, and follies doth enmew, As falcon doth the fowl,-is yet a devil; * Resident. Isab. What is your will? Duke. Might you dispense with your leisure, I would by and by have some speech with you: the satisfaction I would require, is likewise your own benefit. Isab. I have no superfluous leisure; my stay must be stolen out of other affairs; but I will attend you awhile. Duke. [To CLAUDIO, aside.] Son, I have overheard what hath passed between you and your sister. Angelo had never the purpose to corrupt her; only he hath made an essay of her virtue, to practise his judgment with the disposition of natures; she, having the truth of honor in her, hath made him that gracious denial which he is most glad to receive: I am confessor to Angelo, and I know this to be true; therefore prepare yourself to death: Do not satisfy your resolution with hopes that are fallible: to-morrow you must die; go to your knees, and make ready. Claud. Let me ask my sister pardon. I am so out of love with life, that I will sue to be rid of it. Duke. Hold you there: Farewell. [Exit CLAUDIO. Re-enter Provost. Provost, a word with you. Prov. What's your will, father? Duke. That now you are come you will be gone. Leave me awhile with the maid; my mind promises with my habit, no loss shall touch her by my company. Prov. In good time. [Exit Provost. Duke. The hand that hath made you fair, hath made you good: the goodness that is cheap in beauty, makes beauty brief in goodness: but grace, being the soul of your complexion, should keep the body of it ever fair. The assault that Angelo hath made to you, fortune hath convey'd to my understanding; and, but that frailty hath examples for his falling, I should wonder at Angelo. How would you do to content this substitute, and to save your brother? Isab. I am now going to resolve him: I had rather my brother die by the law, than my son should be unlawfully born. But O, how much is the good duke deceived in Angelo! If ever he return, and I can speak to him, I will open my lips in vain, or discover his government. Duke. That shall not be much amiss: Yet, as the matter now stands, he will avoid your accusation; he made trial of you only. Therefore, fasten your ear on my advisings: to the love I have in doing good, a remedy presents itself. I do make myself believe, that you may most uprighteously do a poor wronged lady a merited benefit; redeem your brother from the angry law; do no stain to your own gracious person; and much please the absent duke, if, peradventure, he shall ever return to have hearing of this business. Isab. Let me hear you speak further; I have spirit to do any thing that appears not foul in the truth of my spirit. Duke. Virtue is bold, and goodness never fearful. Have you not heard speak of Mariana the sister of Frederick, the great soldier, who miscarried at sea? Isab. I have heard of the lady, and good words went with her name. Duke. Her should this Angelo have married; was affianced to her by oath, and the nuptial appointed: between which time of the contract, and limit of the solemnity, her brother Frederick was wrecked at sea, having in that perished vessel the dowry of his sister. But mark, how heavily this befel to the poor gentlewoman: there she lost a noble and renowned brother, in his love toward her ever most kind and natural; with him, the portion and sinew of her fortune, her marriage-dowry; with both, her combinate husband, this well-seeming Angelo. Isab. Can this be so? Did Angelo so leave her? Duke. Left her in her tears, and dry'd not one of them with his comfort; swallowed his vows whole, pretending in her discoveries of dishonor: in few, bestowed her on her own lamentation, which she yet wears for his sake; and he, a marble to her tears, is washed with them, but relents not. Isab. What a merit were it in death, to take this poor maiden from the world! What corruption in this life, that it will let this man live!—but how out of this can she avail? Duke. It is a rupture that you may easily heal: and the cure of it not only saves your brother, but keeps you from dishonor in doing it. Isab. Show me how, good father. Duke. This fore-named maid hath yet in her the continuance of her first affection; his unjust unkindness, that in all reason should have quenched her love, hath, like an impediment in the current, made it more violent and unruly. Go you to Angelo; answer his requiring with a plausible obedience; agree with his demands to the point: only refer yourself to this advantage, first, that your stay with him may not be long; that the time may have all shadow and silence in it; and the place answer to convenience: this being granted in course, now follows all. We shall advise this wronged maid to stead up your appointment, go in your place; if the encounter acknowledge itself hereafter, it may compel him to her recompense: and here, by this, is your brother saved, your honor untainted, the poor Mariana advantaged, and the corrupt deputyscaled. The maid will I frame, and make fit for his attempt. If you think well to carry this as you may, the doubleness of the benefit defends the deceit from reproof. What think you of it? Isab. The image of it gives me content already; and I trust it will grow to a most prosperous perfection. Duke. It lies much in your holding up: Haste you speedily to Angelo; if for this night he entreat you to his bed, give him promise of satisfaction. I will presently to St. Luke's; there, at the moated grange, resides this dejected Mariana: At that place call upon me; and dispatch with Angelo, that it may be quickly. Isab. I thank you for this comfort: Fare you well, good father. [Exeunt severally. SCENE II.-The Street before the Prison. Enter Duke, as a friar; to him ELBOW, Clown, and Officers. Elb. Nay, if there be no remedy of it, but that you will needs buy and sell men and women like beasts, we shall have all the world drink brown and white bastard." Duke. O, heavens! what stuff is here? Clo. 'Twas never merry world, since, of two usuries, the merriest was put down, and the worser allow'd by order of law a furr'd gown to keep him warm; and furr'd with fox and lamb skins too, to signify, that craft, being richer than innocency, stands for the facing. Elb. Come your way, sir;-Bless you, good father friar. Duke. And you, good brother father: What offence hath this man made you, sir? • Over-reached. Betrothed. SA sweet wine. Elb. Marry, sir, he hath offended the law; and, sir, we take him to be a thief too, sir: for we have found upon him, sir, a strange pick-lock, which we have sent to the deputy. Duke. Fye, sirrah; a bawd, a wicked bawd! So stinkingly depending? Go, mend, go, mend. yet, sir, I would prove -What news Clo. You will not bail me then, sir? Elb. Come your ways, sir; come. [Exeunt ELBOW, Clown, and Officers. What news, friar, of the duke? Duke. I know none: Can you tell me of any? Lucio. Some say, he is with the emperor of Russia; other some, he is in Rome: But where is he, think you? Duke. I know not where: But wheresoever, 1 wish him well. Lucio. It was a mad fantastical trick of him, to steal from the state, and usurp the beggary he was Duke. Nay, if the devil have given thee proofs never born to. Lord Angelo dukes it well in his for sin, Thou wilt prove his. Take him to prison, officer; Elb. He must before the deputy, sir; he has given him warning: the deputy cannot abide a whoremaster: if he be a whoremonger, and comes before him, he were as good go a mile on his errand. Duke. That we were all, as some would seem to be, Free from our faults, as faults from seeming free! Enter Lucio. Elb. His neck will come to your waist, a cord, sir. Clo. I spy comfort; I cry bail: Here's a gentleman, and a friend of mine. Lucio. How now, noble Pompey? What, at the heels of Cæsar? Art thou led in triumph? What, is there none of Pygmalion's images, newly made woman, to be had now, for putting the hand in the pocket, and extracting it clutch'd? What reply? Ha? What say'st thou to this tune, matter, and method? Is't not drown'd i' the last rain? Ha? What say'st thou, trot? Is the world as it was, man? Which is the way? Is it sad, and few words Or how? The trick of it? Duke. Still thus, and thus! still worse! Clo. Troth, sir, she hath eaten up all her beef, and she is herself in the tub. Lucio. Why, 'tis good; it is the right of it; it must be so: ever your fresh whore, and your powder'd bawd: an unshunn'd consequence; it must be so: art going to prison, Pompey? Clo. Yes, faith, sir. Lucio. Why, 'tis not amiss, Pompey : Farewell: Go; say, I sent thee thither. For debt, Pompey? Or how? Elb. For being a bawd, for being a bawd. Lucio. Well, then imprison him: if imprisonment be the due of a bawd, why, 'tis his right: bawd is he, doubtless, and of antiquity too; bawdborn. Farewell, good Pompey: commend me to the prison, Pompey: you will turn good husband now, Pompey; you will keep the house." Clo. I hope, sir, your good worship will be my bail. Lucio. No, indeed, will I not, Pompey; it is not the wear. I will pray, Pompey, to increase your bondage: if you take it not patiently, why your mettle is the more: Adieu, trusty Pompey.-Bless you, friar. Duke. And you. absence; he puts transgression to 't. Duke. He does well in 't. Lucio. A little more lenity to lechery would do no harm in him: something too crabbed that way, friar. Duke. It is too general a vice, and severity must cure it. Lucio. Yes, in good sooth, the vice is of a great kindred; it is well allied: but it is impossible to extirp it quite, friar, till eating and drinking be put down. They say, this Angelo was not made by man and woman, after the downright way of creation: is it true, think you? Duke. How should he be made then? Lucio. Some report, a sea-maid spawn'd him :Some, that he was begot between two-stock-fishes: but it is certain, that when he makes water, his urine is congeal'd ice; that I know to be true: and he is a motion" ungenerative, that's infallible. Duke. You are pleasant, sir; and speak apace. Lucio. Why, what a ruthless thing is this in him, for the rebellion of a cod-piece, to take away the life of a man? Would the duke, that is absent, have done this? Ere he would have hang'd a man for the getting a hundred bastards, he would have paid for the nursing a thousand: he had some feeling of the sport; he knew the service, and that instructed him to mercy. Duke. I never heard the absent duke much Lucio. Who? not the duke? yes, your beggar of Lucio. Sir, I was an inward of his: a shy fellow was the duke and I believe I know the cause of his withdrawing. Duke. What, I pr'ythee, might be the cause? Lucio. No, pardon;-'tis a secret must be lock'd within the teeth and the lips: but this I can let you understand,-The greater file of the subject held the duke to be wise. Duke. Wise? why, no question but he was. Lucio. A very superficial, ignorant, unweighing fellow. Duke. Either this is envy in you, folly, or mistaking; the very stream of his life, and the business he hath helmed,' must, upon a warranted need, give him a better proclamation. Let him be but testi Puppet. • Clack-dish: The beggars, two or three centuries ago, Lucio. Does Bridget paint still, Pompey? Ha? used to proclaim their want by a wooden dish with a Elb. Come your ways, sir; come. • Powdering tub. 1 Stay at home. moveable cover, which they clacked, to show that their vessel was empty. 1 Guided. monied in his own bringings forth, and he shall appear to the envious, a scholar, a statesman, and a soldier: Therefore, you speak unskilfully; or, if your knowledge be more, it is much darken'd in your malice. Lucio. Sir, I know him, and I love him. Duke. Love talks with better knowledge, and knowledge with dearer love. Lucio. Come, sir, I know what I know. Duke. I can hardly believe that, since you know not what you speak. But, if ever the duke return, (as our prayers are he may,) let me desire you to make your answer before him: If it be honest you have spoke, you have courage to maintain it: I am bound to call upon you: and, I pray you, your name? Lucio. Sir, my name is Lucio, well known to the duke. Duke. He shall know you better, sir, if I may live to report you. Lucio. I fear you not. Duke. O, you hope the duke will return no more; or you imagine me too unhurtful an opposite. But, indeed, I can do you little harm: you'll forswear this again. Lucio. I'll be hanged first: thou art deceived in me, friar. But no more of this: can'st thou tell, if Claudio die to-morrow, or no? Duke. Why should he die, sir? Lucio. Why? for filling a bottle with a tun-dish. I would, the duke, we talk of, were return'd again: this ungenitur'd agent will unpeople the province with continency; sparrows must not build in his house-eaves, because they are lecherous. The duke yet would have dark deeds darkly answer'd; he would never bring them to light: would he were return'd! Marry, this Claudio is condemned for untrussing. Farewell, good friar: I pr'ythee pray for me. The duke, I say to thee again, would eat mutton on Fridays. He's now past it; yet, and I say to thee, he would mouth with a beggar, though she smelt brown bread and garlic: say, that I said so. Farewell. [Exit. Duke. No might nor greatness in mortality Can censure 'scape; back-wounding calumny The whitest virtue strikes: What king so strong, Can tie the gall up in the slanderous tongue? But who comes here? Enter ESCALUs, Provost, Bawd, and Officers. Escal. Go, away with her to prison. Bawd. Good my lord, be good to me; your honor is accounted a merciful man: good my lord. Escal. Double and treble admonition, and still forfeit in the same kind! This would make mercy swear, and play the tyrant. Prov. A bawd of eleven years continuance, may it please your honor. Bawd. My lord, this is one Lucio's information against me: mistress Kate Keep-down was with child by him in the duke's time, he promised her marriage; his child is a year and a quarter old, come Philip and Jacob: I have kept it myself; and see how he goes about to abuse me. Escal. That fellow is a fellow of much license: -let him be called before us.-Away with her to prison: Go to; no more words. [Exeunt Bawd and Officers.] Provost, my brother Angelo will not be altered; Claudio must die to-morrow: let him be furnished with divines, and have all charitable preparation if my brother wrought by my pity, it should not be so with him. Prov. So please you, this friar hath been with him, and advised him for the entertainment of death. Escal. Good even, good father. Duke. Bliss and goodness on you! Escal. Of whence are you? Duke. Not of this country, though my chance is now To use it for my time: I am a brother Escal. What news abroad i' the world? Duke. None, but that there is so great a fever on goodness that the dissolution of it must cure it: novelty is only in request; and it is as dangerous to be aged in any kind of course, as it is virtuous to be constant in any undertaking. There is scarce truth enough alive, to make societies secure; but security enough, to make fellowship accurs'd: much upon this riddle runs the wisdom of the world. This news is old enough, yet it is every day's news. I pray you, sir, of what disposition was the duke? Escal. One that, above all other strifes, contended especially to know himself. Duke. What pleasure was he given to? Escal. Rather rejoicing to see another merry, than merry at any thing which profess'd to make him rejoice: a gentleman of all temperance. But leave we him to his events, with a prayer they may prove prosperous: and let me desire to know how you find Claudio prepared. I am made to understand, that you have lent him visitation. Duke. He professes to have received no sinister measure from his judge, but most willingly humbles himself to the determination of justice: yet had he framed to himself, by the instruction of his frailty, many deceiving promises of life; which I, by my good leisure, have discredited to him, and now is he resolved to die. Escal. You have paid the heavens your function, and the prisoner the very debt of your calling. I have labor'd for the poor gentleman, to the extremest shore of my modesty; but my brother justice have I found so severe, that he hath forced me to tell him, he is indeed-justice. Duke. If his own life answer the straitness of his proceeding, it shall become him well; wherein, if he chance to fail, he hath sentenced himself. Escal. I am going to visit the prisoner: Fare you well. Duke. Peace be with you! Exeunt ESCALUS and Provost. He, who the sword of heaven would bear, Should be as holy as severe; Pattern in himself to know, Grace to stand, and virtue go; More nor less to others paying, Than by self-offences weighing. Shame to him, whose cruel striking Kills for faults of his own liking! Twice treble shame on Angelo, To weed my vice and let his grow! O, what may man within him hide, Though angel on the outward side! How may likeness, made in crimes, Making practice on the times, Draw with idle spiders' strings Most pond'rous and substantial things! Craft against vice I must apply: With Angelo to-night shall lie His old betrothed, but despis'd; So disguise shall, by the disguis'd, Pay with falsehood false exacting, And perform an old contracting. [Exit. ACT IV. SCENE I.-A Room in Mariana's House. MARIANA discovered sitting; a Boy singing. SONG. Take, oh take those lips away, That so sweetly were forsworn; And those eyes, the break of day, Lights that do mislead the morn; But my kisses bring again, bring again, Seals of love, but seal'd in vain, seal'd in vain. Mari. Break off thy song, and haste thee quick Duke. I do constantly believe you :-The time is come even now. I shall crave your forbearance a little may be, I will call upon you anon, for some advantage to yourself. Mari. I am always bound to you. [Exit. Isab. He hath a garden circummur'd' with brick, Whose western side is with a vineyard back'd; And to that vineyard is a planched gate, That makes his opening with this bigger key: This other doth command a little door, Which from the vineyard to the garden leads; There have I made my promise to call on him, Upon the heavy middle of the night. Duke. But shall you on your knowledge find this way! Isab. I have ta'en a due and wary note upon't; With whispering and most guilty diligence, In action all of precept, he did show me The way twice o'er. Duke. Are there no other tokens Between you 'greed, concerning her observance? Isab. No, none, but only a repair i' the dark; And that I have possess'd him, my most stay Can be but brief: for I have made him know, I have a servant comes with me along, That stays upon me; whose persuasion is, I come about my brother. Duke. "Tis well borne up. I have not yet made known to Mariana A word of this:-What ho! within! come forth! Who hath a story ready for your ear: I shall attend your leisure; but make haste; Will't please you walk aside? And rack thee in their fancies!-Welcome! How agreed? Re-enter MARIANA, and ISABELLA. Isab. She'll take the enterprise upon her, father, If you advise it. Duke. It is not my consent, When you depart from him, but soft and low, Little have you to say, Mari. Fear me not. Duke. Nor, gentle daughter, fear you not at all: He is your husband on a pre-contract: To bring you thus together, 'tis no sin; Sith that the justice of your title to him Doth flourish the deceit. Come, let us go; Our corn's to reap, for yet our tithe's to sow. [Exeunt. SCENE II-A Room in the Prison. Enter Provost and Clown. Prov. Come hither, sirrah: Can you cut off a man's head? Clo. If the man be a batchelor, sir, I can: but if he be a married man, he is his wife's head, and I can never cut off a woman's head? Prov. Come, sir, leave me your snatches, and yield me a direct answer. To-morrow morning are to die Claudio and Barnardine: here is in our prison a common executioner, who in his office lacks a helper: if you will take it on you to assist him, it shall redeem you from your gyves; if not, you shall have your full time of imprisonment, and your deliverance with an unpitied whipping; for you have been a notorious bawd. Clo. Sir, I have been an unlawful bawd, time out of mind; but yet I will be content to be a lawful hangman. I would be glad to receive some instruction from my fellow-partner. Prov. What ho, Abhorson! Where's Abhorson, there? |