SCENE IV.-A Nunnery.

Enter ISABELLA and FRANCISCA.

[Exeunt.

ISAB. And have you nuns no farther privileges? FRAN. Are not these large enough? ISAB. Yes, truly; I speak not as desiring more, But rather wishing a more strict restraint Upon the sisterhood, the votarists of Saint Clare. LUCIO. [Without.] Ho! peace be in this place! ISAB. Who's that which calls?

FRAN. It is a man's voice. Gentle Isabella, Turn you the key, and know his business of him; You may, I may not; you are yet unsworn. When you have vow'd, you must not speak with men, But in the presence of the prioress:

Then, if you speak, you must not show your face;

(*) Old text, Moe.

Sir, make me not your story.] Davenant in his play, "A Law against Lovers," reads here scorne for story, and Mr. Collier's annotator adopts the same alteration. We retain the old lection,

Or, if you show your face, you must not speak. He calls again; I pray you, answer him. [Exit. ISAB. Peace and prosperity! Who is 't that calls?

Enter LUCIO.

LUCIO. Hail, virgin, if you be,-as those cheek

roses

Proclaim you are no less! Can you so stead me,
As bring me to the sight of Isabella,

A novice of this place, and the fair sister
To her unhappy brother Claudio?

ISAB. Why her unhappy brother? let me ask;
The rather, for I now must make you know
I am that Isabella and his sister.

LUCIO. Gentle and fair, your brother kindly
greets you.

Not to be weary with you, he's in prison.
ISAB. Woe me! for what?

LUCIO. For that which, if myself might be his judge,

He should receive his punishment in thanks:
He hath got his friend with child.

ISAB. Sir, make me not your story.
LUCIO. 'Tis true. I would not-though 'tis my
familiar sin

not for the reason assigned by Steevens, that make me, according to a common mode of phraseology in the poet's day, might mean, "invent not your story," but because story may without much licence be used to signify jest or laughing-stock.

With maids to seem the lapwing, and to jest,
Tongue far from heart-play with all virgins so:
I hold you as a thing enskied and sainted;
By your renouncement, an immortal spirit;
And to be talk'd with in sincerity,

As with a saint.

He-to give fear to use and liberty,
Which have for long run by the hideous law,
As mice by lions-hath pick'd out an act,
Under whose heavy sense your brother's life
Falls into forfeit: he arrests him on it,
And follows close the rigour of the statute,

ISAB. O, let him marry her! LUCIO. This is the point. The duke is very strangely gone from hence, Bore many gentlemen, myself being one, In hand, and hope of action; but we do learn, By those that know the very nerves of state, His givings-out were of an infinite distance From his true-meant design. Upon his place, And with full line of his authority, Governs lord Angelo; a man whose blood Is very snow-broth; one who never feels The wanton stings and motions of the sense, But doth rebate and blunt his natural edge With profits of the mind, study and fast.

(*) Old text, giving out.

a Fewness and truth.-] That is, in few words and true. b Foison,-] Foison, as signifying plenty, abundance, was used

Unless you have the grace by your fair prayer To soften Angelo; and that's my pith of business "Twixt you and your poor brother.

ISAB. Doth he so seek his life?
LUCIO.
Has censur'd him already:
And, as I hear, the provost hath a warrant
For his execution.

ISAB. Alas! what poor ability's in me
To do him good?
LUCIO.

Assay the power you
ISAB. My power! Alas, I doubt,-

have.

Our doubts are traitors,

LUCIO.
And make us lose the good we oft might win,
By fearing to attempt. Go to lord Angelo,
And let him learn to know, when maidens sue,
Men give like gods; but when they weep and
kneel,

All their petitions are as freely theirs
As they themselves would owed them.
ISAB. I'll see what I can do.
LUCIO.

But speedily.
ISAB. I will about it straight;
No longer staying but to give the mother
Notice of my affair. I humbly thank you:
Commend me to my brother; soon at night
I'll send him certain word of my success.
LUCIO. I take my leave of you.
ISAB.

metaphorically for Autumn.

Good sir, adieu. [Exeunt severally.

e Censur'd him-] Pronounced judgment on him. Judged

him.

d Would owe them.] That is, would have or possess them.

Let but your honour know,-
Whom I believe to be most straight in virtue,-
That, in the working of your own affections,
Had time coher'd with place or place with
wishing,

Or that the resolute acting of your* blood
Could have attain'd the effect of your own pur-
pose,

Whether you had not some time in your life, Err'd in this point which now you censure him,a And pull'd the law upon you.

ANG. 'Tis one thing to be tempted, Escalus, Another thing to fall. I not deny, The jury, passing on the prisoner's life, May in the sworn twelve have a thief or two Guiltier than him they try. What 's open made to

justice,

That justice seizes: what know the laws,

That thieves do pass on thieves? 'Tis very

pregnant,

The jewel that we find, we stoop and take't,
Because we see it; but what we do not see
We tread upon, and never think of it.
You may not so extenuate his offence

For I have had such faults; but rather tell me
When I, that censure him, do so offend,
Let mine own judgment pattern out my death,
And nothing come in partial. Sir, he must die.
ESCAL. Be it as your wisdom will.
ANG.
Where is the provost ?
PROV. Here, if it like your honour.
ANG.
Be executed by nine to-morrow morning:
Bring him his confessor, let him be prepar'd,
For that's the utmost of his pilgrimage.

See that Claudio

[Exit Provost. ESCAL. Well, heaven forgive him! and forgive

us all!

Some rise by sin, and some by virtue fall:
Some run from brakes of vice, and answer none;
And some condemned for a fault alone.

Enter ELBOW and Officers, with FROTH and POMPEY.

ELB. Come, bring them away: if these be good people in a common-weal that do nothing but use their abuses in common houses, I know no law : bring them away.

(*) Old text, our.

a Which now you censure him,-] Here for must be understood:-"for which now you censure him."

b Pass on-] As Malone observes, To pass on is a forensic term; it occurs again in " King Lear," Act II. Sc. 7:"Though well we may not pass upon his life Without the form of justice."

ANG. How now, sir! What's your name? and what's the matter?

ELB. If it please your honour, I am the poor duke's constable, and my name is Elbow; I do lean upon justice, sir, and do bring in here before your good honour two notorious benefactors.

ANG. Benefactors! Well; what benefactors are they? are they not malefactors?

ELB. If it please your honour, I know not well what they are; but precise villains they are, that I am sure of, and void of all profanation in the world that good Christians ought to have.

ESCAL. This comes off well: here's a wise officer.

ANG. Go to: what quality are they of? Elbow is your name? why dost thou not speak, Elbow? Pом. He cannot, sir: he's out at elbow. ANG. What are you, sir?

ELB. He, sir! a tapster, sir; parcel-bawd; one that serves a bad woman, whose house, sir, was, as they say, plucked down in the suburbs; and now she professes a hot-house, which, I think, is a very ill house too.

ESCAL. How know you that?

ELB. My wife, sir, whom I detest before heaven and your honour,—

ESCAL. HOW! thy wife?

ELB. Ay, sir;-whom, I thank heaven, is an honest woman,

ESCAL. Dost thou detest her therefore?

ELB. I say, sir, I will detest myself also, as well as she, that this house, if it be not a bawd's house, it is pity of her life, for it is a naughty house.

ESCAL. How dost thou know that, constable? ELB. Marry, sir, by my wife; who, if she had been a woman cardinally given, might have been accused in fornication, adultery, and all unclean

liness there.

ESCAL. By the woman's means?

ELB. Ay, sir, by mistress Overdone's means; but as she spit in his face, so she defied him. POм. Sir, if it please your honour, this is not so. ELB. Prove it before these varlets here, thou honourable man; prove it.

ESCAL. [TO ANGELO.] Do you hear how he misplaces?

POM. Sir, she came in great with child, and longing-saving your honour's reverence-for stewed prunes :-sir, we had but two in the house, which at that very distant time stood, as it were,

e For-] That is, Because.

d Some run from brakes of vice,-] The old text has, "brakes of Ice:" vice is an emendation of Rowe. If this be the true word, the allusion may be either to the instrument of torture termed a "brake;" or by "brakes of vice" may be meant, as Steevens conjectured, a number, a thicket of vices. It is by no means certain, however, that we have yet got either the poet's expression or meaning in this difficult passage.

in a fruit-dish, a dish of some three-pence,-your honours have seen such dishes; they are not China dishes, but very good dishes,—

ESCAL. Go to, go to: no matter for the dish, sir. POм. No, indeed, sir, not of a pin; you are therein in the right;--but to the point. As I say, this mistress Elbow, being, as I say, with child, and being great bellied, and longing, as I said, for prunes, and having but two in the dish, as I said, master Froth here, this very man, having eaten the rest, as I said, and, as I say, paying for them very honestly ;-for, as you know, master Froth, I could not give you three-pence again,—

FROTH. No, indeed.

POм. Very well;-you being then, if you be remembered, cracking the stones of the foresaid

prunes,

FROTH. Ay, so I did indeed.

POм. Why very well;-I telling you then, if you be remembered, that such a one and such a one, were past cure of the thing you wot of, unless they kept very good diet, as I told you,—

FROTH. All this is true.

POм. Why, very well then,—

ESCAL. Come, you are a tedious fool to the purpose. What was done to Elbow's wife, that he hath cause to complain of? Come me to what was done to her.

Poм. Sir, your honour cannot come to that yet. ESCAL. No, sir, nor I mean it not.

Poм. Sir, but you shall come to it, by your honour's leave. And, I beseech you, look into master Froth here, sir; a man of fourscore pound a year, whose father died at Hallowmas :-was't not at Hallowmas, master Froth?

FROTH. All-hallownd eve.

Poм. Why, very well; I hope here be truths. He, sir, sitting, as I say, in a lower chair, sir ;'twas in the Bunch of Grapes, where, indeed, you have a delight to sit, have you not ?—

FROTH. I have so: because it is an open room, and good for winter."

Ром. Why, very well, then I hope here be

truths.

:

ANG. This will last out a night in Russia, When nights are longest there: I'll take my leave,

And leave you to the hearing of the cause; Hoping you'll find good cause to whip them all. ESCAL. I think no less; good morrow to your lordship. [Exit ANGELO. Now, sir, come on: what was done to Elbow's wife, once more?

Poм. Once, sir! there was nothing done to her

once.

a An open room, and good for winter.] Master Froth may have been intended to blunder, otherwise we should have suspected for was a misprint.

ELB. I beseech you, sir, ask him what this man did to my wife.

POм. I beseech your honour, ask me. ESCAL. Well, sir, what did this gentleman to her?

POм. I beseech you, sir, look in this gentleman's face.-Good master Froth, look upon his honour; 'tis for a good purpose.-Doth your honour mark his face?

ESCAL. Ay, sir, very well.

POм. Nay, I beseech you, mark it well.
ESCAL. Well, I do so.

POм. Doth your honour see any harm in his face?
ESCAL. Why, no.

POм. I'll be supposed upon a book, his face is the worst thing about him. Good, then; if his face be the worst thing about him, how could master Froth do the constable's wife any harm? I would know that of your honour.

ESCAL. He's in the right.--Constable, what say you to it?

ELB. First, an it like you, the house is a respected house; next, this is a respected fellow; and his mistress is a respected woman.

Ром. By this hand, sir, his wife is a more respected person than any of us all.

ELB. Varlet, thou liest! thou liest, wicked varlet the time is yet to come that she was ever respected with man, woman, or child.

POм. Sir, she was respected with him before he married with her.

ESCAL. Which is the wiser here? Justice, or Iniquity? Is this true?

b

ELB. O thou caitiff! O thou varlet! O thou wicked Hannibal! I respected with her before I was married to her!-If ever I was respected with her, or she with me, let not your worship think me the poor duke's officer.-Prove this, thou wicked Hannibal, or I'll have mine action of battery on thee.

ESCAL. If he took you a box o' the ear, you might have your action of slander too.

ELB. Marry, I thank your good worship for it. What is't your worship's pleasure I shall do with this wicked caitiff?

ESCAL. Truly, officer, because he hath some offences in him that thou wouldst discover if thou couldst, let him continue in his courses till thou knowest what they are.

ELB. Marry, I thank your worship for it.-Thou seest, thou wicked varlet, now, what's come upon thee thou art to continue now, thou varlet; thou art to continue.

:

ESCAL. [TO FROTH.] Where were you born, friend?

b Justice, or Iniquity ?] Justice and Iniquity were characters in the old Moralities.