William Shakespeare - The Complete Works/William Shakespeare - The Complete Works on CD-ROM.iso/library/text/mm/mm.txt

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   0  <O 210><H MM><D 1603><K play><A Shakespeare>
   0  <T title>Measure for Measure
   0  <X 1> <Y 1> <T dsd> {Enter the Duke, Escalus, and other lords}
   1A <S DUKE> <T verse> Escalus.
   2A <S ESCALUS> My lord.
   3  <S DUKE> Of government the properties to unfold
   4  Would seem in me t' affect speech and discourse,
   5  Since I am put to know that your own science
   6  Exceeds in that the lists of all advice
   7  My strength can give you. Then no more remains
   8  But this: to your sufficiency, as your worth is able,
   9  And let them work. The nature of our people,
  10  Our city's institutions and the terms
  11  For common justice, you're as pregnant in
  12  As art and practice hath enriche\d any
  13B That we remember.<T dsd> {He gives Escalus papers}<T verse> There is     +
  13B our commission,
  14B From which we would not have you warp.<T asd> {(To a lord)}<T verse>     +
  14B Call hither,
  15  I say bid come before us, Angelo.<T esd> {Exit lord}
  16  <T asd> {(To Escalus)}<T verse> What figure of us think you he will      +
  16  bear?_
  17  For you must know we have with special soul
  18  Elected him our absence to supply,
  19  Lent him our terror, dressed him with our love,
  20  And given his deputation all the organs
  21  Of our own power. What think you of it?
  22  <S ESCALUS> If any in Vienna be of worth
  23  To undergo such ample grace and honour,
  24B It is Lord Angelo.<T dsd> {Enter Angelo}<S DUKE> <T verse> Look where    +
  24B he comes.
  25  <S ANGELO> Always obedient to your grace's will,
  26B I come to know your pleasure.<S DUKE> Angelo,
  27  There is a kind of character in thy life
  28  That to th' observer doth thy history
  29  Fully unfold. Thyself and thy belongings
  30  Are not thine own so proper as to waste
  31  Thyself upon thy virtues, they on thee.
  32  Heaven doth with us as we with torches do,
  33  Not light them for themselves; for if our virtues
  34  Did not go forth of us, 'twere all alike
  35  As if we had them not. Spirits are not finely touched
  36  But to fine issues; nor nature never lends
  37  The smallest scruple of her excellence
  38  But, like a thrifty goddess, she determines
  39  Herself the glory of a creditor,
  40  Both thanks and use. But I do bend my speech
  41  To one that can my part in him advertise.
  42  Hold therefore, Angelo.
  43  In our remove be thou at full ourself.
  44  Mortality and mercy in Vienna
  45  Live in thy tongue and heart. Old Escalus,
  46  Though first in question, is thy secondary.
  47B Take thy commission.<S ANGELO> Now good my lord,
  48  Let there be some more test made of my metal
  49  Before so noble and so great a figure
  50B Be stamped upon it.<S DUKE> No more evasion.
  51  We have with leavened and prepare\d choice
  52  Proceeded to you; therefore take your honours.<T dsd> {[Angelo takes     +
  52  his commission]}
  53  <T verse> Our haste from hence is of so quick condition
  54  That it prefers itself, and leaves unquestioned
  55  Matters of needful value. We shall write to you
  56  As time and our concernings shall importune,
  57  How it goes with us; and do look to know
  58  What doth befall you here. So fare you well.
  59  To th' hopeful execution do I leave you
  60B Of your commissions.<S ANGELO> Yet give leave, my lord,
  61  That we may bring you something on the way.
  62A <S DUKE> My haste may not admit it;
  63  Nor need you, on mine honour, have to do
  64  With any scruple. Your scope is as mine own,
  65  So to enforce or qualify the laws
  66  As to your soul seems good. Give me your hand.
  67  I'll privily away. I love the people,
  68  But do not like to stage me to their eyes.
  69  Though it do well, I do not relish well
  70  Their loud applause and {aves} vehement;
  71  Nor do I think the man of safe discretion
  72  That does affect it. Once more, fare you well.
  73  <S ANGELO> The heavens give safety to your purposes!
  74  <S ESCALUS> Lead forth and bring you back in happiness!
  75A <S DUKE> I thank you. Fare you well.<T esd> {Exit}
  76  <S ESCALUS> <T verse> I shall desire you, sir, to give me leave
  77  To have free speech with you; and it concerns me
  78  To look into the bottom of my place.
  79  A power I have, but of what strength and nature
  80  I am not yet instructed.
  81  <S ANGELO> 'Tis so with me. Let us withdraw together,
  82  And we may soon our satisfaction have
  83B Touching that point.<S ESCALUS> I'll wait upon your honour.<T esd>       +
  83B {Exeunt}
   0  <A Middleton>
   0  <Y 2> <T dsd> {Enter Lucio, and two other Gentlemen}
   1  <S LUCIO> <T prose> If the Duke with the other dukes come not to
   2  composition with the King of Hungary, why then, all
   3  the dukes fall upon the King.
   4  <S FIRST GENTLEMAN> Heaven grant us its peace, but not the
   5  King of Hungary's!
   6  <S SECOND GENTLEMAN> Amen.
   7  <S LUCIO> Thou concludest like the sanctimonious pirate, that
   8  went to sea with the Ten Commandments, but scraped
   9  one out of the table.
  10  <S SECOND GENTLEMAN> `Thou shalt not steal"?
  11  <S LUCIO> Ay, that he razed.
  12  <S FIRST GENTLEMAN> Why, 'twas a commandment to command
  13  the captain and all the rest from their functions:
  14  they put forth to steal. There's not a soldier of us all
  15  that in the thanksgiving before meat do relish the
  16  petition well that prays for peace.
  17  <S SECOND GENTLEMAN> I never heard any soldier dislike it.
  18  <S LUCIO> I believe thee, for I think thou never wast where
  19  grace was said.
  20  <S SECOND GENTLEMAN> No? A dozen times at least.
  21  <S FIRST GENTLEMAN> What, in metre?
  22  <S LUCIO> In any proportion, or in any language.
  23  <S FIRST GENTLEMAN> I think, or in any religion.
  24  <S LUCIO> Ay, why not? Grace is grace despite of all
  25  controversy; as for example, thou thyself art a wicked
  26  villain despite of all grace.
  27  <S FIRST GENTLEMAN> Well, there went but a pair of shears
  28  between us.
  29  <S LUCIO> I grant_as there may between the lists and the
  30  velvet. Thou art the list.
  31  <S FIRST GENTLEMAN> And thou the velvet. Thou art good
  32  velvet, thou'rt a three-piled piece, I warrant thee. I had
  33  as lief be a list of an English kersey as be piled as thou
  34  art pilled, for a French velvet. Do I speak feelingly now?
  35  <S LUCIO> I think thou dost, and indeed with most painful
  36  feeling of thy speech. I will out of thine own confession
  37  learn to begin thy health, but whilst I live forget to
  38  drink after thee.
  39  <S FIRST GENTLEMAN> I think I have done myself wrong, have
  40  I not?
  41  <S SECOND GENTLEMAN> Yes, that thou hast, whether thou art
  42  tainted or free.<T dsd> {Enter Mistress Overdone}
  43  <S LUCIO> <T prose> Behold, behold, where Madam Mitigation comes! I
  44  have purchased as many diseases under her roof as
  45  come to_
  46  <S SECOND GENTLEMAN> To what, I pray?
  47  <S LUCIO> Judge.
  48  <S SECOND GENTLEMAN> To three thousand dolours a year?
  49  <S FIRST GENTLEMAN> Ay, and more.
  50  <S LUCIO> A French crown more.
  51  <S FIRST GENTLEMAN> Thou art always figuring diseases in
  52  me, but thou art full of error_I am sound.
  53  <S LUCIO> Nay not, as one would say, healthy, but so sound
  54  as things that are hollow_thy bones are hollow,
  55  impiety has made a feast of thee.
  56  <S FIRST GENTLEMAN> <T asd> {(to Mistress Overdone)}<T prose> How now,   +
  56  which
  57  of your hips has the most profound sciatica?
  58  <S MISTRESS OVERDONE> Well, well! There's one yonder
  59  arrested and carried to prison was worth five thousand
  60  of you all.
  61  <S SECOND GENTLEMAN> Who's that, I pray thee?
  62  <S MISTRESS OVERDONE> Marry sir, that's Claudio, Signor
  63  Claudio.
  64  <S FIRST GENTLEMAN> Claudio to prison? 'Tis not so.
  65  <S MISTRESS OVERDONE> Nay, but I know 'tis so. I saw him
  66  arrested, saw him carried away; and, which is more,
  67  within these three days his head to be chopped off.
  68  <S LUCIO> But after all this fooling, I would not have it so.
  69  Art thou sure of this?
  70  <S MISTRESS OVERDONE> I am too sure of it, and it is for getting
  71  Madame Julietta with child.
  72  <S LUCIO> Believe me, this may be. He promised to meet me
  73  two hours since and he was ever precise in promise-
  74  keeping.
  75  <S SECOND GENTLEMAN> Besides, you know, it draws something
  76  near to the speech we had to such a purpose.
  77  <S FIRST GENTLEMAN> But most of all agreeing with the
  78  proclamation.
  79  <S LUCIO> Away; let's go learn the truth of it.<T esd> {Exeunt Lucio     +
  79  and Gentlemen}
  80  <S MISTRESS OVERDONE> <T prose> Thus, what with the war, what with
  81  the sweat, what with the gallows, and what with
  82  poverty, I am custom-shrunk.                                             +
  82  <A Shakespeare>                                                          +
  82  <T dsd> {Enter Pompey}
  83  <T prose> How now, what's the news with you?
  84  <S POMPEY> You have not heard of the proclamation, have
  85  you?
  86  <S MISTRESS OVERDONE> What proclamation, man?
  87  <S POMPEY> All houses in the suburbs of Vienna must be
  88  plucked down.
  89  <S MISTRESS OVERDONE> And what shall become of those in
  90  the city?
  91  <S POMPEY> They shall stand for seed. They had gone down
  92  too, but that a wise burgher put in for them.
  93  <S MISTRESS OVERDONE> But shall all our houses of resort in
  94  the suburbs be pulled down?
  95  <S POMPEY> To the ground, mistress.
  96  <S MISTRESS OVERDONE> Why, here's a change indeed in the
  97  commonwealth. What shall become of me?
  98  <S POMPEY> Come, fear not you. Good counsellors lack no
  99  clients. Though you change your place, you need not
 100  change your trade. I'll be your tapster still. Courage,
 101  there will be pity taken on you. You that have worn
 102  your eyes almost out in the service, you will be
 103  considered.<T dsd> {[A noise within]}
 104  <S MISTRESS OVERDONE> <T prose> What's to do here, Thomas Tapster?
 105  Let's withdraw!<T dsd> {Enter the Provost, Claudio,                      +
 105  <A Middleton>                                                            +
 105  Juliet, and officers; Lucio and the two Gentlemen}
 106  <A Shakespeare>                                                          +
 106  <S POMPEY> <T prose> Here comes Signor Claudio, led by the Provost to
 107  prison;                                                                  +
 107  <A Middleton>                                                            +
 107  and there's Madame Juliet.                                               +
 107  <A Shakespeare>                                                          +
 107  <T esd> {Exeunt Mistress Overdone and Pompey}
 108  <S CLAUDIO> <T asd> {(to the Provost)}<T verse> Fellow, why dost thou    +
 108  show me thus to th' world?
 109  Bear me to prison, where I am committed.
 110  <S PROVOST> I do it not in evil disposition,
 111  But from Lord Angelo by special charge.
 112  <S CLAUDIO> Thus can the demigod Authority
 113  Make us pay down for our offence, by weight,
 114  The bonds of heaven. On whom it will, it will;
 115  On whom it will not, so; yet still 'tis just.
 116  <S LUCIO> Why, how now, Claudio? Whence comes this restraint?
 117  <S CLAUDIO> From too much liberty, my Lucio, liberty.
 118  As surfeit is the father of much fast,
 119  So every scope, by the immoderate use,
 120  Turns to restraint. Our natures do pursue,
 121  Like rats that raven down their proper bane,
 122  A thirsty evil; and when we drink, we die.
 123  <S LUCIO> <T prose> If I could speak so wisely under an arrest, I would
 124  send for certain of my creditors. And yet, to say the
 125  truth, I had as lief have the foppery of freedom as the
 126  morality of imprisonment. What's thy offence, Claudio?
 127  <S CLAUDIO> <T verse> What but to speak of would offend again.
 128B <S LUCIO> What, is 't murder?<S CLAUDIO> No.<S LUCIO> Lechery?           +
 128B  <S CLAUDIO> Call it so.
 129  <S PROVOST> <T prose> Away, sir; you must go.
 130B <S CLAUDIO> <T verse> One word, good friend.<T dsd> {[The Provost shows  +
 130B assent]}<T verse> Lucio, a word with you.
 131  <S LUCIO> <T prose> A hundred, if they'll do you any good.<T dsd>        +
 131  {[Claudio and Lucio speak apart]}
 132  <T prose> Is lechery so looked after?
 133  <S CLAUDIO> <T verse> Thus stands it with me. Upon a true contract,
 134  I got possession of Julietta's bed.
 135  You know the lady; she is fast my wife,
 136  Save that we do the denunciation lack
 137  Of outward order. This we came not to
 138  Only for propagation of a dower
 139  Remaining in the coffer of her friends,
 140  From whom we thought it meet to hide our love
 141  Till time had made them for us. But it chances
 142  The stealth of our most mutual entertainment
 143  With character too gross is writ on Juliet.
 144B <S LUCIO> With child, perhaps?<S CLAUDIO> Unhapp'ly even so.
 145  And the new deputy now for the Duke_
 146  Whether it be the fault and glimpse of newness,
 147  Or whether that the body public be
 148  A horse whereon the governor doth ride,
 149  Who, newly in the seat, that it may know
 150  He can command, lets it straight feel the spur_
 151  Whether the tyranny be in his place,
 152  Or in his eminence that fills it up_
 153  I stagger in. But this new governor
 154  Awakes me all the enrolle\d penalties
 155  Which have, like unscoured armour, hung by th' wall
 156  So long that fourteen zodiacs have gone round,
 157  And none of them been worn; and, for a name,
 158  Now puts the drowsy and neglected act
 159  Freshly on me. 'Tis surely for a name.
 160  <S LUCIO> <T prose> I warrant it is; and thy head stands so tickle on
 161  thy shoulders that a milkmaid, if she be in love, may
 162  sigh it off. Send after the Duke, and appeal to him.
 163  <S CLAUDIO> <T verse> I have done so, but he's not to be found.
 164  I prithee, Lucio, do me this kind service.
 165  This day my sister should the cloister enter,
 166  And there receive her approbation.
 167  Acquaint her with the danger of my state.
 168  Implore her in my voice that she make friends
 169  To the strict deputy. Bid herself assay him.
 170  I have great hope in that, for in her youth
 171  There is a prone and speechless dialect
 172  Such as move men; beside, she hath prosperous art
 173  When she will play with reason and discourse,
 174  And well she can persuade.
 175  <S LUCIO> <T prose> I pray she may_as well for the encouragement of
 176  thy like, which else would stand under grievous
 177  imposition, as for the enjoying of thy life, who I would
 178  be sorry should be thus foolishly lost at a game of tick-
 179  tack. I'll to her.
 180  <S CLAUDIO> I thank you, good friend Lucio.
 181  <S LUCIO> Within two hours.
 182  <S CLAUDIO> Come, officer; away.<T esd> {Exeunt [Lucio and gentlemen at  +
 182  one door; Claudio, Juliet, Provost, and officers at another]}
   0  <Y 3> <T dsd> {Enter the Duke and a Friar}
   1  <S DUKE> <T verse> No, holy father, throw away that thought.
   2  Believe not that the dribbling dart of love
   3  Can pierce a complete bosom. Why I desire thee
   4  To give me secret harbour hath a purpose
   5  More grave and wrinkled than the aims and ends
   6B Of burning youth.<S FRIAR> May your grace speak of it?
   7  <S DUKE> My holy sir, none better knows than you
   8  How I have ever loved the life removed,
   9  And held in idle price to haunt assemblies
  10  Where youth and cost a witless bravery keeps.
  11  I have delivered to Lord Angelo_
  12  A man of stricture and firm abstinence_
  13  My absolute power and place here in Vienna;
  14  And he supposes me travelled to Poland_
  15  For so I have strewed it in the common ear,
  16  And so it is received. Now, pious sir,
  17  You will demand of me why I do this.
  18A <S FRIAR> Gladly, my lord.
  19  <S DUKE> We have strict statutes and most biting laws,
  20  The needful bits and curbs to headstrong weeds,
  21  Which for this fourteen years we have let slip;
  22  Even like an o'ergrown lion in a cave
  23  That goes not out to prey. Now, as fond fathers,
  24  Having bound up the threat'ning twigs of birch
  25  Only to stick it in their children's sight
  26  For terror, not to use, in time the rod
  27  More mocked becomes than feared: so our decrees,
  28  Dead to infliction, to themselves are dead;
  29  And Liberty plucks Justice by the nose,
  30  The baby beats the nurse, and quite athwart
  31B Goes all decorum.<S FRIAR> It rested in your grace
  32  To unloose this tied-up Justice when you pleased,
  33  And it in you more dreadful would have seemed
  34B Than in Lord Angelo.<S DUKE> I do fear, too dreadful.
  35  Sith 'twas my fault to give the people scope,
  36  'Twould be my tyranny to strike and gall them
  37  For what I bid them do_for we bid this be done
  38  When evil deeds have their permissive pass,
  39  And not the punishment. Therefore indeed, my father,
  40  I have on Angelo imposed the office,
  41  Who may in th' ambush of my name strike home,
  42  And yet my nature never in the fight
  43  T' allow in slander. And to behold his sway,
  44  I will as 'twere a brother of your order
  45  Visit both prince and people. Therefore, I prithee,
  46  Supply me with the habit, and instruct me
  47  How I may formally in person bear
  48  Like a true friar. More reasons for this action
  49  At our more leisure shall I render you.
  50  Only this one: Lord Angelo is precise,
  51  Stands at a guard with envy, scarce confesses
  52  That his blood flows, or that his appetite
  53  Is more to bread than stone. Hence shall we see
  54  If power change purpose, what our seemers be.<T esd> {Exeunt}
   0  <Y 4> <T dsd> {Enter Isabella, and Francesca, a nun}
   1  <S ISABELLA> <T verse> And have you nuns no farther privileges?
   2A <S FRANCESCA> Are not these large enough?
   3  <S ISABELLA> Yes, truly. I speak not as desiring more,
   4  But rather wishing a more strict restraint
   5  Upon the sisterhood, the votarists of Saint Clare.
   6B <S LUCIO> <T asd> {(within)}<T verse> Ho, peace be in this               +
   6B place!<S ISABELLA> <T asd> {[to Francesca]}<T verse> Who's that which    +
   6B calls?
   7  <S FRANCESCA> It is a man's voice. Gentle Isabella.
   8  Turn you the key, and know his business of him.
   9  You may, I may not; you are yet unsworn.
  10  When you have vowed, you must not speak with men
  11  But in the presence of the prioress.
  12  Then if you speak, you must not show your face;
  13  Or if you show your face, you must not speak.<T dsd> {Lucio calls        +
  13  within}
  14  <T verse> He calls again. I pray you answer him.<T dsd> {[She stands     +
  14  aside]}
  15  <S ISABELLA> <T verse> Peace and prosperity! Who is 't that calls?       +
  15   <T dsd> {She opens the door.}
  16  {Enter Lucio}<S LUCIO> <T verse> Hail, virgin, if you be_as those        +
  16  cheek-roses
  17  Proclaim you are no less. Can you so stead me
  18  As bring me to the sight of Isabella,
  19  A novice of this place, and the fair sister
  20  To her unhappy brother Claudio?
  21  <S ISABELLA> Why her unhappy brother? Let me ask,
  22  The rather for I now must make you know
  23  I am that Isabella, and his sister.
  24  <S LUCIO> Gentle and fair, your brother kindly greets you.
  25  Not to be weary with you, he's in prison.
  26A <S ISABELLA> Woe me! For what?
  27  <S LUCIO> For that which, if myself might be his judge,
  28  He should receive his punishment in thanks.
  29B He hath got his friend with child.<S ISABELLA> Sir, make me not your     +
  29B story.
  30  <S LUCIO> 'Tis true. I would not_though 'tis my familiar sin
  31  With maids to seem the lapwing, and to jest
  32  Tongue far from heart_play with all virgins so.
  33  I hold you as a thing enskied and sainted
  34  By your renouncement, an immortal spirit,
  35  And to be talked with in sincerity
  36  As with a saint.
  37  <S ISABELLA> You do blaspheme the good in mocking me.
  38  <S LUCIO> Do not believe it. Fewness and truth, 'tis thus:
  39  Your brother and his lover have embraced.
  40  As those that feed grow full, as blossoming time
  41  That from the seedness the bare fallow brings
  42  To teeming foison, even so her plenteous womb
  43  Expresseth his full tilth and husbandry.
  44  <S ISABELLA> Someone with child by him? My cousin Juliet?
  45A <S LUCIO> Is she your cousin?
  46  <S ISABELLA> Adoptedly, as schoolmaids change their names
  47B By vain though apt affection.<S LUCIO> She it is.
  48B <S ISABELLA> O, let him marry her!<S LUCIO> This is the point.
  49  The Duke is very strangely gone from hence;
  50  Bore many gentlemen_myself being one_
  51  In hand and hope of action; but we do learn,
  52  By those that know the very nerves of state,
  53  His giving out were of an infinite distance
  54  From his true-meant design. Upon his place,
  55  And with full line of his authority,
  56  Governs Lord Angelo_a man whose blood
  57  Is very snow-broth; one who never feels
  58  The wanton stings and motions of the sense,
  59  But doth rebate and blunt his natural edge
  60  With profits of the mind, study, and fast.
  61  He, to give fear to use and liberty,
  62  Which have for long run by the hideous law
  63  As mice by lions, hath picked out an act
  64  Under whose heavy sense your brother's life
  65  Falls into forfeit. He arrests him on it,
  66  And follows close the rigour of the statute
  67  To make him an example. All hope is gone,
  68  Unless you have the grace by your fair prayer
  69  To soften Angelo. And that's my pith
  70  Of business 'twixt you and your poor brother.
  71B <S ISABELLA> Doth he so seek his life?<S LUCIO> Has censured him         +
  71B already,
  72  And, as I hear, the Provost hath a warrant
  73B For 's execution.<S ISABELLA> Alas, what poor
  74  Ability's in me to do him good?
  75A <S LUCIO> Assay the power you have.
  76A <S ISABELLA> My power? Alas, I doubt.
  77A <S LUCIO> Our doubts are traitors,
  78  And makes us lose the good we oft might win,
  79  By fearing to attempt. Go to Lord Angelo;
  80  And let him learn to know, when maidens sue,
  81  Men give like gods, but when they weep and kneel,
  82  All their petitions are as freely theirs
  83B As they themselves would owe them.<S ISABELLA> I'll see what I can do.
  84B <S LUCIO> But speedily.<S ISABELLA> I will about it straight,
  85  No longer staying but to give the Mother
  86  Notice of my affair. I humbly thank you.
  87  Commend me to my brother. Soon at night
  88  I'll send him certain word of my success.
  89B <S LUCIO> I take my leave of you.<S ISABELLA> Good sir, adieu.<T esd>    +
  89B {Exeunt [Isabella and Francesca at one door, Lucio at another door]}
  89  [[ACT INTERVAL]]
   0  <X 2> <Y 1> <T dsd> {Enter Angelo, Escalus, and servants; a Justice}
   1  <S ANGELO> <T verse> We must not make a scarecrow of the law,
   2  Setting it up to fear the birds of prey,
   3  And let it keep one shape till custom make it
   4B Their perch, and not their terror.<S ESCALUS> Ay, but yet
   5  Let us be keen, and rather cut a little
   6  Than fall and bruise to death. Alas, this gentleman
   7  Whom I would save had a most noble father.
   8  Let but your honour know_
   9  Whom I believe to be most strait in virtue_
  10  That in the working of your own affections,
  11  Had time cohered with place, or place with wishing,
  12  Or that the resolute acting of your blood
  13  Could have attained th' effect of your own purpose_
  14  Whether you had not sometime in your life
  15  Erred in this point which now you censure him,
  16  And pulled the law upon you.
  17  <S ANGELO> 'Tis one thing to be tempted, Escalus,
  18  Another thing to fall. I not deny
  19  The jury passing on the prisoner's life
  20  May in the sworn twelve have a thief or two
  21  Guiltier than him they try. What knows the law
  22  That thieves do pass on thieves? What's open made to justice,
  23  That justice seizes. 'Tis very pregnant:
  24  The jewel that we find, we stoop and take 't
  25  Because we see it, but what we do not see
  26  We tread upon and never think of it.
  27  You may not so extenuate his offence
  28  For I have had such faults; but rather tell me,
  29  When I that censure him do so offend,
  30  Let mine own judgement pattern out my death,
  31  And nothing come in partial. Sir, he must die.
  32B <S ESCALUS> Be it as your wisdom will.<S ANGELO> Where is the            +
  32B Provost?<T dsd> {Enter Provost}
  33B <S PROVOST> <T verse> Here, if it like your honour.<S ANGELO> See that   +
  33B Claudio
  34  Be execute by nine tomorrow morning.
  35  Bring him his confessor, let him be prepared,
  36  For that's the utmost of his pilgrimage.<T esd> {Exit Provost}
  37  <S ESCALUS> <T verse> Well, heaven forgive him, and forgive us all!
  38  Some rise by sin, and some by virtue fall.
  39  Some run from brakes of vice, and answer none;
  40  And some condemne\d for a fault alone.<T dsd> {Enter Elbow, Froth,       +
  40  Pompey, and officers}
  41  <S ELBOW> <T prose> Come, bring them away. If these be good people
  42  in a commonweal, that do nothing but use their abuses
  43  in common houses, I know no law. Bring them away.
  44  <S ANGELO> <T verse> How now, sir? What's your name? And what's the      +
  44  matter?
  45  <S ELBOW> <T prose> If it please your honour, I am the poor Duke's
  46  constable, and my name is Elbow. I do lean upon
  47  justice, sir; and do bring in here before your good
  48  honour two notorious benefactors.
  49  <S ANGELO> <T verse> Benefactors? Well! What benefactors are they?
  50  Are they not malefactors?
  51  <S ELBOW> <T prose> If it please your honour, I know not well what
  52  they are; but precise villains they are, that I am sure
  53  of, and void of all profanation in the world that good
  54  Christians ought to have.
  55  <S ESCALUS> <T asd> {(to Angelo)}<T verse> This comes off well; here's   +
  55  a wise officer!
  56  <S ANGELO> <T prose> Go to, what quality are they of? Elbow is your
  57  name? Why dost thou not speak, Elbow?
  58  <S POMPEY> He cannot, sir; he's out at elbow.
  59  <S ANGELO> What are you, sir?
  60  <S ELBOW> He, sir? A tapster, sir, parcel bawd; one that
  61  serves a bad woman whose house, sir, was, as they
  62  say, plucked down in the suburbs; and now she
  63  professes a hot-house, which I think is a very ill house
  64  too.
  65  <S ESCALUS> How know you that?
  66  <S ELBOW> My wife, sir, whom I detest before heaven and
  67  your honour_
  68  <S ESCALUS> How, thy wife?
  69  <S ELBOW> Ay, sir, whom I thank heaven is an honest
  70  woman_
  71  <S ESCALUS> Dost thou detest her therefor?
  72  <S ELBOW> I say, sir, I will detest myself also, as well as she,
  73  that this house, if it be not a bawd's house, it is pity
  74  of her life, for it is a naughty house.
  75  <S ESCALUS> How dost thou know that, constable?
  76  <S ELBOW> Marry, sir, by my wife, who, if she had been a
  77  woman cardinally given, might have been accused in
  78  fornication, adultery, and all uncleanliness there.
  79  <S ESCALUS> By the woman's means?
  80  <S ELBOW> Ay, sir, by Mistress Overdone's means. But as she
  81  spit in his face, so she defied him.
  82  <S POMPEY> <T asd> {(to Escalus)}<T prose> Sir, if it please your        +
  82  honour, this is
  83  not so.
  84  <S ELBOW> Prove it before these varlets here, thou honourable
  85  man, prove it.
  86  <S ESCALUS> <T asd> {(to Angelo)}<T prose> Do you hear how he            +
  86  misplaces?
  87  <S POMPEY> Sir, she came in great with child, and longing_
  88  saving your honour's reverence_for stewed prunes.
  89  Sir, we had but two in the house, which at that very
  90  distant time stood, as it were, in a fruit dish_a dish
  91  of some threepence; your honours have seen such
  92  dishes; they are not china dishes, but very good dishes.
  93  <S ESCALUS> Go to, go to, no matter for the dish, sir.
  94  <S POMPEY> No, indeed, sir, not of a pin; you are therein in
  95  the right. But to the point. As I say, this Mistress Elbow,
  96  being, as I say, with child, and being great-bellied, and
  97  longing, as I said, for prunes; and having but two in
  98  the dish, as I said, Master Froth here, this very man,
  99  having eaten the rest, as I said, and, as I say, paying
 100  for them very honestly; for, as you know, Master Froth,
 101  I could not give you threepence again.
 102  <S FROTH> No, indeed.
 103  <S POMPEY> Very well. You being, then, if you be remembered,
 104  cracking the stones of the foresaid prunes_
 105  <S FROTH> Ay, so I did indeed.
 106  <S POMPEY> Why, very well._I telling you then, if you be
 107  remembered, that such a one and such a one were past
 108  cure of the thing you wot of, unless they kept very
 109  good diet, as I told you_
 110  <S FROTH> All this is true.
 111  <S POMPEY> Why, very well then_
 112  <S ESCALUS> Come, you are a tedious fool. To the purpose.
 113  What was done to Elbow's wife that he hath cause to
 114  complain of? Come me to what was done to her.
 115  <S POMPEY> Sir, your honour cannot come to that yet.
 116  <S ESCALUS> No, sir, nor I mean it not.
 117  <S POMPEY> Sir, but you shall come to it, by your honour's
 118  leave. And I beseech you, look into Master Froth here,
 119  sir, a man of fourscore pound a year, whose father died
 120  at Hallowmas_was 't not at Hallowmas, Master Froth?
 121  <S FROTH> All Hallow Eve.
 122  <S POMPEY> Why, very well. I hope here be truths. He, sir,
 123  sitting, as I say, in a lower chair, sir_'twas in the
 124  Bunch of Grapes, where indeed you have a delight to
 125  sit, have you not?
 126  <S FROTH> I have so, because it is an open room, and good
 127  for winter.
 128  <S POMPEY> Why, very well then. I hope here be truths.
 129  <S ANGELO> <T verse> This will last out a night in Russia,
 130  When nights are longest there.<T asd> {(To Escalus)}<T verse> I'll take  +
 130  my leave,
 131  And leave you to the hearing of the cause,
 132  Hoping you'll find good cause to whip them all.
 133  <S ESCALUS> I think no less. Good morrow to your lordship.<T esd> {Exit  +
 133  Angelo}
 134  <T prose> Now, sir, come on, what was done to Elbow's wife,
 135  once more?
 136  <S POMPEY> Once, sir? There was nothing done to her once.
 137  <S ELBOW> I beseech you, sir, ask him what this man did to
 138  my wife.
 139  <S POMPEY> I beseech your honour, ask me.
 140  <S ESCALUS> Well, sir, what did this gentleman to her?
 141  <S POMPEY> I beseech you, sir, look in this gentleman's face.
 142  Good Master Froth, look upon his honour. 'Tis for a
 143  good purpose. Doth your honour mark his face?
 144  <S ESCALUS> Ay, sir, very well.
 145  <S POMPEY> Nay, I beseech you, mark it well.
 146  <S ESCALUS> Well, I do so.
 147  <S POMPEY> Doth your honour see any harm in his face?
 148  <S ESCALUS> Why, no.
 149  <S POMPEY> I'll be supposed upon a book his face is the worst
 150  thing about him. Good, then_if his face be the worst
 151  thing about him, how could Master Froth do the
 152  constable's wife any harm? I would know that of your
 153  honour.
 154  <S ESCALUS> He's in the right, constable; what say you to it?
 155  <S ELBOW> First, an it like you, the house is a respected
 156  house; next, this is a respected fellow; and his mistress
 157  is a respected woman.
 158  <S POMPEY> <T asd> {(to Escalus)}<T prose> By this hand, sir, his wife   +
 158  is a more
 159  respected person than any of us all.
 160  <S ELBOW> Varlet, thou liest; thou liest, wicked varlet. The
 161  time is yet to come that she was ever respected with
 162  man, woman, or child.
 163  <S POMPEY> Sir, she was respected with him before he married
 164  with her.
 165  <S ESCALUS> Which is the wiser here, justice or iniquity?<T asd> {(To}
 166  {Elbow)}<T prose> Is this true?
 167  <S ELBOW> <T asd> {(to Pompey)}<T prose> O thou caitiff, O thou varlet,  +
 167  O thou
 168  wicked Hannibal! I respected with her before I was
 169  married to her?<T asd> {(To Escalus)}<T prose> If ever I was respected
 170  with her, or she with me, let not your worship think
 171  me the poor Duke's officer.<T asd> {(To Pompey)}<T prose> Prove this,
 172  thou wicked Hannibal, or I'll have mine action of
 173  battery on thee.
 174  <S ESCALUS> If he took you a box o' th' ear you might have
 175  your action of slander too.
 176  <S ELBOW> Marry, I thank your good worship for it. What
 177  is 't your worship's pleasure I shall do with this wicked
 178  caitiff?
 179  <S ESCALUS> Truly, officer, because he hath some offences in
 180  him that thou wouldst discover if thou couldst, let him
 181  continue in his courses till thou knowest what they
 182  are.
 183  <S ELBOW> Marry, I thank your worship for it._Thou seest,
 184  thou wicked varlet now, what's come upon thee. Thou
 185  art to continue now, thou varlet, thou art to continue.
 186  <S ESCALUS> <T asd> {(to Froth)}<T prose> Where were you born, friend?
 187  <S FROTH> Here in Vienna, sir.
 188  <S ESCALUS> Are you of fourscore pounds a year?
 189  <S FROTH> Yes, an 't please you, sir.
 190  <S ESCALUS> So.<T asd> {(To Pompey)}<T prose> What trade are you of,     +
 190  sir?
 191  <S POMPEY> A tapster, a poor widow's tapster.
 192  <S ESCALUS> Your mistress's name?
 193  <S POMPEY> Mistress Overdone.
 194  <S ESCALUS> Hath she had any more than one husband?
 195  <S POMPEY> Nine, sir_Overdone by the last.
 196  <S ESCALUS> Nine?_Come hither to me, Master Froth. Master
 197  Froth, I would not have you acquainted with tapsters.
 198  They will draw you, Master Froth, and you will hang
 199  them. Get you gone, and let me hear no more of you.
 200  <S FROTH> I thank your worship. For mine own part, I never
 201  come into any room in a tap-house but I am drawn in.
 202  <S ESCALUS> Well, no more of it, Master Froth. Farewell.<T esd> {Exit    +
 202  Froth}
 203  <T prose> Come you hither to me, Master Tapster. What's your
 204  name, Master Tapster?
 205  <S POMPEY> Pompey.
 206  <S ESCALUS> What else?
 207  <S POMPEY> Bum, sir.
 208  <S ESCALUS> Troth, and your bum is the greatest thing about
 209  you; so that, in the beastliest sense, you are Pompey
 210  the Great. Pompey, you are partly a bawd, Pompey,
 211  howsoever you colour it in being a tapster, are you
 212  not? Come, tell me true; it shall be the better for you.
 213  <S POMPEY> Truly, sir, I am a poor fellow that would live.
 214  <S ESCALUS> How would you live, Pompey? By being a bawd?
 215  What do you think of the trade, Pompey? Is it a lawful
 216  trade?
 217  <S POMPEY> If the law would allow it, sir.
 218  <S ESCALUS> But the law will not allow it, Pompey; nor it
 219  shall not be allowed in Vienna.
 220  <S POMPEY> Does your worship mean to geld and spay all the
 221  youth of the city?
 222  <S ESCALUS> No, Pompey.
 223  <S POMPEY> Truly, sir, in my poor opinion they will to 't then.
 224  If your worship will take order for the drabs and the
 225  knaves, you need not to fear the bawds.
 226  <S ESCALUS> There is pretty orders beginning, I can tell you.
 227  It is but heading and hanging.
 228  <S POMPEY> If you head and hang all that offend that way
 229  but for ten year together, you'll be glad to give out a
 230  commission for more heads. If this law hold in Vienna
 231  ten year, I'll rent the fairest house in it after threepence
 232  a bay. If you live to see this come to pass, say Pompey
 233  told you so.
 234  <S ESCALUS> Thank you, good Pompey; and in requital of
 235  your prophecy, hark you. I advise you, let me not find
 236  you before me again upon any complaint whatsoever;
 237  no, not for dwelling where you do. If I do, Pompey, I
 238  shall beat you to your tent, and prove a shrewd Caesar
 239  to you; in plain dealing, Pompey, I shall have you
 240  whipped. So for this time, Pompey, fare you well.
 241  <S POMPEY> I thank your worship for your good counsel;
 242  <T asd> {[aside]}<T prose> but I shall follow it as the flesh and        +
 242  fortune shall
 243  better determine.
 244  <T verse> Whip me? No, no; let carman whip his jade.
 245  The valiant heart's not whipped out of his trade.<T esd> {Exit}
 246  <S ESCALUS> <T prose> Come hither to me, Master Elbow; come hither,
 247  Master Constable. How long have you been in this
 248  place of constable?
 249  <S ELBOW> Seven year and a half, sir.
 250  <S ESCALUS> I thought, by the readiness in the office, you had
 251  continued in it some time. You say seven years
 252  together?
 253  <S ELBOW> And a half, sir.
 254  <S ESCALUS> Alas, it hath been great pains to you. They do
 255  you wrong to put you so oft upon 't. Are there not men
 256  in your ward sufficient to serve it?
 257  <S ELBOW> Faith, sir, few of any wit in such matters. As they
 258  are chosen, they are glad to choose me for them. I do
 259  it for some piece of money, and go through with all.
 260  <S ESCALUS> Look you bring me in the names of some six or
 261  seven, the most sufficient of your parish.
 262  <S ELBOW> To your worship's house, sir?
 263  <S ESCALUS> To my house. Fare you well.<T esd> {Exit Elbow with          +
 263  officers}
 264  <T prose> What's o'clock, think you?
 265  <S JUSTICE> Eleven, sir.
 266  <S ESCALUS> I pray you home to dinner with me.
 267  <S JUSTICE> I humbly thank you.
 268  <S ESCALUS> <T verse> It grieves me for the death of Claudio,
 269  But there's no remedy.
 270A <S JUSTICE> Lord Angelo is severe.
 271A <S ESCALUS> It is but needful.
 272  Mercy is not itself that oft looks so.
 273  Pardon is still the nurse of second woe.
 274  But yet, poor Claudio! There is no remedy.
 275  Come, sir.<T esd> {Exeunt}
   0  <Y 2> <T dsd> {Enter the Provost and a Servant}
   1  <S SERVANT> <T verse> He's hearing of a cause; he will come straight.
   2B I'll tell him of you.<S PROVOST> Pray you do.<T esd> {Exit               +
   2B Servant}<T verse> I'll know
   3  His pleasure; maybe he will relent. Alas,
   4  He hath but as offended in a dream.
   5  All sects, all ages, smack of this vice; and he
   6B To die for 't!<T dsd> {Enter Angelo}<S ANGELO> <T verse> Now, what's     +
   6B the matter, Provost?
   7  <S PROVOST> Is it your will Claudio shall die tomorrow?
   8  <S ANGELO> Did not I tell thee yea? Hadst thou not order?
   9B Why dost thou ask again?<S PROVOST> Lest I might be too rash.
  10  Under your good correction, I have seen
  11  When after execution judgement hath
  12B Repented o'er his doom.<S ANGELO> Go to; let that be mine.
  13  Do you your office, or give up your place,
  14B And you shall well be spared.<S PROVOST> I crave your honour's pardon.
  15  What shall be done, sir, with the groaning Juliet?
  16B She's very near her hour.<S ANGELO> Dispose of her
  17  To some more fitter place, and that with speed.<T dsd> {Enter Servant}
  18  <S SERVANT> <T verse> Here is the sister of the man condemned
  19B Desires access to you.<S ANGELO> Hath he a sister?
  20  <S PROVOST> Ay, my good lord; a very virtuous maid,
  21  And to be shortly of a sisterhood,
  22B If not already.<S ANGELO> Well, let her be admitted.<T esd> {Exit        +
  22B Servant}
  23  <T verse> See you the fornicatress be removed.
  24  Let her have needful but not lavish means.
  25B There shall be order for 't.<T dsd> {Enter Lucio and Isabella}           +
  25B  <S PROVOST> <T verse> God save your honour.
  26  <S ANGELO> Stay a little while.<T asd> {(To Isabella)}<T verse> You're   +
  26  welcome. What's your will?
  27  <S ISABELLA> I am a woeful suitor to your honour.
  28B Please but your honour hear me.<S ANGELO> Well, what's your suit?
  29  <S ISABELLA> There is a vice that most I do abhor,
  30  And most desire should meet the blow of justice,
  31  For which I would not plead, but that I must;
  32  For which I must not plead, but that I am
  33B At war 'twixt will and will not.<S ANGELO> Well, the matter?
  34  <S ISABELLA> I have a brother is condemned to die.
  35  I do beseech you, let it be his fault,
  36B And not my brother.<S PROVOST> <T asd> {(aside)}<T verse> Heaven give    +
  36B thee moving graces!
  37  <S ANGELO> Condemn the fault, and not the actor of it?
  38  Why, every fault's condemned ere it be done.
  39  Mine were the very cipher of a function,
  40  To fine the faults whose fine stands in record,
  41B And let go by the actor.<S ISABELLA> O just but severe law!
  42  I had a brother, then. Heaven keep your honour.
  43  <S LUCIO> <T asd> {(aside to Isabella)}<T verse> Give 't not o'er so.    +
  43  To him again; entreat him.
  44  Kneel down before him; hang upon his gown.
  45  You are too cold. If you should need a pin,
  46  You could not with more tame a tongue desire it.
  47  To him, I say!
  48A <S ISABELLA> <T asd> {(to Angelo)}<T verse> Must he needs die?
  49A <S ANGELO> Maiden, no remedy.
  50  <S ISABELLA> Yes, I do think that you might pardon him,
  51  And neither heaven nor man grieve at the mercy.
  52B <S ANGELO> I will not do 't.<S ISABELLA> But can you if you would?
  53  <S ANGELO> Look what I will not, that I cannot do.
  54  <S ISABELLA> But might you do 't, and do the world no wrong,
  55  If so your heart were touched with that remorse
  56  As mine is to him?
  57A <S ANGELO> He's sentenced; 'tis too late.
  58A <S LUCIO> <T asd> {(aside to Isabella)}<T verse> You are too cold.
  59  <S ISABELLA> Too late? Why, no; I that do speak a word
  60  May call it again. Well, believe this,
  61  No ceremony that to great ones 'longs,
  62  Not the king's crown, nor the deputed sword,
  63  The marshal's truncheon, nor the judge's robe,
  64  Become them with one half so good a grace
  65  As mercy does.
  66  If he had been as you and you as he,
  67  You would have slipped like him, but he, like you,
  68B Would not have been so stern.<S ANGELO> Pray you be gone.
  69  <S ISABELLA> I would to heaven I had your potency,
  70  And you were Isabel! Should it then be thus?
  71  No; I would tell what 'twere to be a judge,
  72B And what a prisoner.<S LUCIO> <T asd> {(aside to Isabella)}<T verse>     +
  72B Ay, touch him; there's the vein.
  73  <S ANGELO> Your brother is a forfeit of the law,
  74B And you but waste your words.<S ISABELLA> Alas, alas!
  75  Why, all the souls that were were forfeit once,
  76  And He that might the vantage best have took
  77  Found out the remedy. How would you be
  78  If He which is the top of judgement should
  79  But judge you as you are? O, think on that,
  80  And mercy then will breathe within your lips,
  81B Like man new made.<S ANGELO> Be you content, fair maid.
  82  It is the law, not I, condemn your brother.
  83  Were he my kinsman, brother, or my son,
  84  It should be thus with him. He must die tomorrow.
  85  <S ISABELLA> Tomorrow? O, that's sudden! Spare him, spare him!
  86  He's not prepared for death. Even for our kitchens
  87  We kill the fowl of season. Shall we serve heaven
  88  With less respect than we do minister
  89  To our gross selves? Good good my lord, bethink you:
  90  Who is it that hath died for this offence?
  91B There's many have committed it.<S LUCIO> <T asd> {(aside)}<T verse> Ay,  +
  91B well said.
  92  <S ANGELO> The law hath not been dead, though it hath slept.
  93  Those many had not dared to do that evil
  94  If the first that did th' edict infringe
  95  Had answered for his deed. Now 'tis awake,
  96  Takes note of what is done, and, like a prophet,
  97  Looks in a glass that shows what future evils,
  98  Either raw, or by remissness new conceived
  99  And so in progress to be hatched and born,
 100  Are now to have no successive degrees,
 101B But ere they live, to end.<S ISABELLA> Yet show some pity.
 102  <S ANGELO> I show it most of all when I show justice,
 103  For then I pity those I do not know
 104  Which a dismissed offence would after gall,
 105  And do him right that, answering one foul wrong,
 106  Lives not to act another. Be satisfied.
 107  Your brother dies tomorrow. Be content.
 108  <S ISABELLA> So you must be the first that gives this sentence,
 109  And he that suffers. O, it is excellent
 110  To have a giant's strength, but it is tyrannous
 111  To use it like a giant.
 112A <S LUCIO> <T asd> {(aside to Isabella)}<T verse> That's well said.
 113A <S ISABELLA> Could great men thunder
 114  As Jove himself does, Jove would never be quiet,
 115  For every pelting petty officer
 116  Would use his heaven for thunder, nothing but thunder.
 117  Merciful heaven,
 118  Thou rather with thy sharp and sulphurous bolt
 119  Split'st the unwedgeable and gnarle\d oak
 120  Than the soft myrtle. But man, proud man,
 121  Dressed in a little brief authority,
 122  Most ignorant of what he's most assured,
 123  His glassy essence, like an angry ape
 124  Plays such fantastic tricks before high heaven
 125  As makes the angels weep, who, with our spleens,
 126  Would all themselves laugh mortal.
 127  <S LUCIO> <T asd> {(aside to Isabella)}<T verse> O, to him, to him,      +
 127  wench! He will relent.
 128B He's coming; I perceive 't.<S PROVOST> <T asd> {(aside)}<T verse> Pray   +
 128B heaven she win him!
 129  <S ISABELLA> We cannot weigh our brother with ourself.
 130  Great men may jest with saints; 'tis wit in them,
 131  But in the less, foul profanation.
 132  <S LUCIO> <T asd> {(aside to Isabella)}<T prose> Thou'rt i' th' right,   +
 132  girl. More o'
 133  that.
 134  <S ISABELLA> <T verse> That in the captain's but a choleric word,
 135  Which in the soldier is flat blasphemy.
 136A <S LUCIO> <T asd> {(aside to Isabella)}<T verse> Art advised o' that?    +
 136A More on 't.
 137  <S ANGELO> Why do you put these sayings upon me?
 138  <S ISABELLA> Because authority, though it err like others,
 139  Hath yet a kind of medicine in itself
 140  That skins the vice o' th' top. Go to your bosom;
 141  Knock there, and ask your heart what it doth know
 142  That's like my brother's fault. If it confess
 143  A natural guiltiness, such as is his,
 144  Let it not sound a thought upon your tongue
 145B Against my brother's life.<S ANGELO> <T asd> {(aside)}<T verse> She      +
 145B speaks, and 'tis such sense
 146  That my sense breeds with it.<T asd> {(To Isabella)}<T verse> Fare you   +
 146  well.
 147A <S ISABELLA> Gentle my lord, turn back.
 148  <S ANGELO> I will bethink me. Come again tomorrow.
 149  <S ISABELLA> Hark how I'll bribe you; good my lord, turn back.
 150A <S ANGELO> How, bribe me?
 151  <S ISABELLA> Ay, with such gifts that heaven shall share with you.
 152A <S LUCIO> <T asd> {(aside to Isabella)}<T verse> You had marred all      +
 152A else.
 153  <S ISABELLA> Not with fond shekels of the tested gold,
 154  Or stones, whose rate are either rich or poor
 155  As fancy values them; but with true prayers,
 156  That shall be up at heaven and enter there
 157  Ere sunrise, prayers from preserve\d souls,
 158  From fasting maids whose minds are dedicate
 159  To nothing temporal.
 160A <S ANGELO> Well, come to me tomorrow.
 161  <S LUCIO> <T asd> {(aside to Isabella)}<T prose> Go to; 'tis well;       +
 161  away.
 162A <S ISABELLA> <T verse> Heaven keep your honour safe.
 163A <S ANGELO> <T asd> {(aside)}<T verse> Amen;
 164  For I am that way going to temptation,
 165B Where prayer is crossed.<S ISABELLA> At what hour tomorrow
 166B Shall I attend your lordship?<S ANGELO> At any time fore noon.
 167B <S ISABELLA> God save your honour.<S ANGELO> <T asd> {(aside)}<T verse>  +
 167B From thee; even from thy virtue.<T esd> {Exeunt Isabella, Lucio, and     +
 167B Provost}
 168  <T verse> What's this? What's this? Is this her fault or mine?
 169  The tempter or the tempted, who sins most, ha?
 170  Not she; nor doth she tempt; but it is I
 171  That, lying by the violet in the sun,
 172  Do, as the carrion does, not as the flower,
 173  Corrupt with virtuous season. Can it be
 174  That modesty may more betray our sense
 175  Than woman's lightness? Having waste ground enough,
 176  Shall we desire to raze the sanctuary,
 177  And pitch our evils there? O, fie, fie, fie!
 178  What dost thou, or what art thou, Angelo?
 179  Dost thou desire her foully for those things
 180  That make her good? O, let her brother live!
 181  Thieves for their robbery have authority,
 182  When judges steal themselves. What, do I love her,
 183  That I desire to hear her speak again,
 184  And feast upon her eyes? What is 't I dream on?
 185  O cunning enemy, that, to catch a saint,
 186  With saints dost bait thy hook! Most dangerous
 187  Is that temptation that doth goad us on
 188  To sin in loving virtue. Never could the strumpet,
 189  With all her double vigour_art and nature_
 190  Once stir my temper; but this virtuous maid
 191  Subdues me quite. Ever till now
 192  When men were fond, I smiled, and wondered how.<T esd> {Exit}
   0  <Y 3> <T dsd> {Enter [at one door] the Duke, disguised as a friar, and   +
   0  [at another door] the Provost}
   1  <S DUKE> <T verse> Hail to you, Provost!_so I think you are.
   2  <S PROVOST> I am the Provost. What's your will, good friar?
   3  <S DUKE> Bound by my charity and my blest order,
   4  I come to visit the afflicted spirits
   5  Here in the prison. Do me the common right
   6  To let me see them, and to make me know
   7  The nature of their crimes, that I may minister
   8  To them accordingly.
   9  <S PROVOST> I would do more than that, if more were needful.<T dsd>      +
   9  {Enter Juliet}
  10  <T verse> Look, here comes one, a gentlewoman of mine,
  11  Who, falling in the flaws of her own youth,
  12  Hath blistered her report. She is with child,
  13  And he that got it, sentenced_a young man
  14  More fit to do another such offence
  15  Than die for this.
  16A <S DUKE> When must he die?
  17A <S PROVOST> As I do think, tomorrow.
  18  <T asd> {(To Juliet)}<T verse> I have provided for you. Stay a while,
  19  And you shall be conducted.
  20  <S DUKE> Repent you, fair one, of the sin you carry?
  21  <S JULIET> I do, and bear the shame most patiently.
  22  <S DUKE> I'll teach you how you shall arraign your conscience,
  23  And try your penitence if it be sound
  24  Or hollowly put on.
  25A <S JULIET> I'll gladly learn.
  26A <S DUKE> Love you the man that wronged you?
  27  <S JULIET> Yes, as I love the woman that wronged him.
  28  <S DUKE> So then it seems your most offenceful act
  29B Was mutually committed?<S JULIET> Mutually.
  30  <S DUKE> Then was your sin of heavier kind than his.
  31  <S JULIET> I do confess it and repent it, father.
  32  <S DUKE> 'Tis meet so, daughter. But lest you do repent
  33  As that the sin hath brought you to this shame_
  34  Which sorrow is always toward ourselves, not heaven,
  35  Showing we would not spare heaven as we love it,
  36  But as we stand in fear_
  37  <S JULIET> I do repent me as it is an evil,
  38B And take the shame with joy.<S DUKE> There rest.
  39  Your partner, as I hear, must die tomorrow,
  40  And I am going with instruction to him.
  41  Grace go with you. {Benedicite!}<T esd> {Exit}
  42  <S JULIET> <T verse> Must die tomorrow? O injurious law,
  43  That respites me a life whose very comfort
  44B Is still a dying horror!<S PROVOST> 'Tis pity of him.<T esd> {Exeunt}
   0  <Y 4> <T dsd> {Enter Angelo}
   1  <S ANGELO> <T verse> When I would pray and think, I think and pray
   2  To several subjects: heaven hath my empty words,
   3  Whilst my invention, hearing not my tongue,
   4  Anchors on Isabel; God in my mouth,
   5  As if I did but only chew his name,
   6  And in my heart the strong and swelling evil
   7  Of my conception. The state whereon I studied
   8  Is like a good thing, being often read,
   9  Grown seared and tedious. Yea, my gravity,
  10  Wherein_let no man hear me_I take pride,
  11  Could I with boot change for an idle plume
  12  Which the air beats in vain. O place, O form,
  13  How often dost thou with thy case, thy habit,
  14  Wrench awe from fools, and tie the wiser souls
  15  To thy false seeming! Blood, thou art blood.
  16  Let's write `good angel" on the devil's horn_
  17B 'Tis now the devil's crest.<T dsd> {Enter Servant}<T verse> How now?     +
  17B Who's there?
  18  <S SERVANT> <T prose> One Isabel, a sister, desires access to you.
  19B <S ANGELO> <T verse> Teach her the way.<T esd> {Exit Servant}<T verse>   +
  19B O heavens,
  20  Why does my blood thus muster to my heart,
  21  Making both it unable for itself,
  22  And dispossessing all my other parts
  23  Of necessary fitness?
  24  So play the foolish throngs with one that swoons_
  25  Come all to help him, and so stop the air
  26  By which he should revive_and even so
  27  The general subject to a well-wished king
  28  Quit their own part and, in obsequious fondness,
  29  Crowd to his presence, where their untaught love
  30B Must needs appear offence.<T dsd> {Enter Isabella}<T verse> How now,     +
  30B fair maid?
  31A <S ISABELLA> I am come to know your pleasure.
  32  <S ANGELO> <T asd> {(aside)}<T verse> That you might know it would much  +
  32  better please me
  33  Than to demand what 'tis.<T asd> {(To Isabella)}<T verse> Your brother   +
  33  cannot live.
  34A <S ISABELLA> Even so. Heaven keep your honour.
  35  <S ANGELO> Yet may he live a while, and it may be
  36  As long as you or I. Yet he must die.
  37A <S ISABELLA> Under your sentence?
  38A <S ANGELO> Yea.
  39  <S ISABELLA> When, I beseech you?_that in his reprieve,
  40  Longer or shorter, he may be so fitted
  41  That his soul sicken not.
  42  <S ANGELO> Ha, fie, these filthy vices! It were as good
  43  To pardon him that hath from nature stolen
  44  A man already made, as to remit
  45  Their saucy sweetness that do coin God's image
  46  In stamps that are forbid. 'Tis all as easy
  47  Falsely to take away a life true made
  48  As to put metal in restraine\d moulds,
  49  To make a false one.
  50  <S ISABELLA> 'Tis set down so in heaven, but not in earth.
  51  <S ANGELO> Say you so? Then I shall pose you quickly.
  52  Which had you rather: that the most just law
  53  Now took your brother's life, or, to redeem him,
  54  Give up your body to such sweet uncleanness
  55B As she that he hath stained?<S ISABELLA> Sir, believe this.
  56  I had rather give my body than my soul.
  57  <S ANGELO> I talk not of your soul. Our compelled sins
  58B Stand more for number than for account.<S ISABELLA> How say you?
  59  <S ANGELO> Nay, I'll not warrant that, for I can speak
  60  Against the thing I say. Answer to this.
  61  I now, the voice of the recorded law,
  62  Pronounce a sentence on your brother's life.
  63  Might there not be a charity in sin
  64B To save this brother's life?<S ISABELLA> Please you to do 't,
  65  I'll take it as a peril to my soul
  66  It is no sin at all, but charity.
  67  <S ANGELO> Pleased you to do 't at peril of your soul
  68  Were equal poise of sin and charity.
  69  <S ISABELLA> That I do beg his life, if it be sin,
  70  Heaven let me bear it. You granting of my suit,
  71  If that be sin, I'll make it my morn prayer
  72  To have it added to the faults of mine,
  73B And nothing of your answer.<S ANGELO> Nay, but hear me.
  74  Your sense pursues not mine. Either you are ignorant,
  75  Or seem so craftily, and that's not good.
  76  <S ISABELLA> Let me be ignorant, and in nothing good
  77  But graciously to know I am no better.
  78  <S ANGELO> Thus wisdom wishes to appear most bright
  79  When it doth tax itself: as these black masks
  80  Proclaim an enshield beauty ten times louder
  81  Than beauty could, displayed. But mark me.
  82  To be receive\d plain, I'll speak more gross.
  83  Your brother is to die.
  84A <S ISABELLA> So.
  85  <S ANGELO> And his offence is so, as it appears,
  86  Accountant to the law upon that pain.
  87A <S ISABELLA> True.
  88  <S ANGELO> Admit no other way to save his life_
  89  As I subscribe not that nor any other_
  90  But, in the loss of question, that you his sister,
  91  Finding yourself desired of such a person
  92  Whose credit with the judge, or own great place,
  93  Could fetch your brother from the manacles
  94  Of the all-binding law, and that there were
  95  No earthly mean to save him, but that either
  96  You must lay down the treasures of your body
  97  To this supposed, or else to let him suffer_
  98  What would you do?
  99  <S ISABELLA> As much for my poor brother as myself.
 100  That is, were I under the terms of death,
 101  Th' impression of keen whips I'd wear as rubies,
 102  And strip myself to death as to a bed
 103  That longing have been sick for, ere I'd yield
 104  My body up to shame.
 105A <S ANGELO> Then must your brother die.
 106A <S ISABELLA> And 'twere the cheaper way.
 107  Better it were a brother died at once
 108  Than that a sister, by redeeming him,
 109  Should die for ever.
 110  <S ANGELO> Were not you then as cruel as the sentence
 111  That you have slandered so?
 112  <S ISABELLA> Ignominy in ransom and free pardon
 113  Are of two houses; lawful mercy
 114  Is nothing kin to foul redemption.
 115  <S ANGELO> You seemed of late to make the law a tyrant,
 116  And rather proved the sliding of your brother
 117  A merriment than a vice.
 118  <S ISABELLA> O pardon me, my lord. It oft falls out
 119  To have what we would have, we speak not what we mean.
 120  I something do excuse the thing I hate
 121  For his advantage that I dearly love.
 122B <S ANGELO> We are all frail.<S ISABELLA> Else let my brother die_
 123  If not a federy, but only he,
 124B Owe and succeed thy weakness.<S ANGELO> Nay, women are frail too.
 125  <S ISABELLA> Ay, as the glasses where they view themselves,
 126  Which are as easy broke as they make forms.
 127  Women? Help, heaven! Men their creation mar
 128  In profiting by them. Nay, call us ten times frail,
 129  For we are soft as our complexions are,
 130B And credulous to false prints.<S ANGELO> I think it well,
 131  And from this testimony of your own sex,
 132  Since I suppose we are made to be no stronger
 133  Than faults may shake our frames, let me be bold.
 134  I do arrest your words. Be that you are;
 135  That is, a woman. If you be more, you're none.
 136  If you be one, as you are well expressed
 137  By all external warrants, show it now,
 138  By putting on the destined livery.
 139  <S ISABELLA> I have no tongue but one. Gentle my lord,
 140  Let me entreat you speak the former language.
 141A <S ANGELO> Plainly conceive, I love you.
 142  <S ISABELLA> My brother did love Juliet,
 143  And you tell me that he shall die for it.
 144  <S ANGELO> He shall not, Isabel, if you give me love.
 145  <S ISABELLA> I know your virtue hath a licence in 't,
 146  Which seems a little fouler than it is,
 147B To pluck on others.<S ANGELO> Believe me, on mine honour,
 148  My words express my purpose.
 149  <S ISABELLA> Ha, little honour to be much believed,
 150  And most pernicious purpose! Seeming, seeming!
 151  I will proclaim thee, Angelo; look for 't.
 152  Sign me a present pardon for my brother,
 153  Or with an outstretched throat I'll tell the world aloud
 154B What man thou art.<S ANGELO> Who will believe thee, Isabel?
 155  My unsoiled name, th' austereness of my life,
 156  My vouch against you, and my place i' th' state,
 157  Will so your accusation overweigh
 158  That you shall stifle in your own report,
 159  And smell of calumny. I have begun,
 160  And now I give my sensual race the rein.
 161  Fit thy consent to my sharp appetite.
 162  Lay by all nicety and prolixious blushes
 163  That banish what they sue for. Redeem thy brother
 164  By yielding up thy body to my will,
 165  Or else he must not only die the death,
 166  But thy unkindness shall his death draw out
 167  To ling'ring sufferance. Answer me tomorrow,
 168  Or by the affection that now guides me most,
 169  I'll prove a tyrant to him. As for you,
 170  Say what you can, my false o'erweighs your true.<T esd> {Exit}
 171  <S ISABELLA> <T verse> To whom should I complain? Did I tell this,
 172  Who would believe me? O perilous mouths,
 173  That bear in them one and the selfsame tongue
 174  Either of condemnation or approof,
 175  Bidding the law make curtsy to their will,
 176  Hooking both right and wrong to th' appetite,
 177  To follow as it draws! I'll to my brother.
 178  Though he hath fall'n by prompture of the blood,
 179  Yet hath he in him such a mind of honour
 180  That had he twenty heads to tender down
 181  On twenty bloody blocks, he'd yield them up
 182  Before his sister should her body stoop
 183  To such abhorred pollution.
 184  Then Isabel live chaste, and brother die:
 185  More than our brother is our chastity.
 186  I'll tell him yet of Angelo's request,
 187  And fit his mind to death, for his soul's rest.<T esd> {Exit}
 187  [[ACT INTERVAL]]
   0  <X 3> <Y 1> <T dsd> {Enter the Duke, disguised as a friar, Claudio, and  +
   0  the Provost}
   1  <S DUKE> <T verse> So then you hope of pardon from Lord Angelo?
   2  <S CLAUDIO> The miserable have no other medicine
   3  But only hope.
   4  I've hope to live, and am prepared to die.
   5  <S DUKE> Be absolute for death. Either death or life
   6  Shall thereby be the sweeter. Reason thus with life.
   7  If I do lose thee, I do lose a thing
   8  That none but fools would keep. A breath thou art,
   9  Servile to all the skyey influences
  10  That dost this habitation where thou keep'st
  11  Hourly afflict. Merely thou art death's fool,
  12  For him thou labour'st by thy flight to shun,
  13  And yet runn'st toward him still. Thou art not noble,
  14  For all th' accommodations that thou bear'st
  15  Are nursed by baseness. Thou'rt by no means valiant,
  16  For thou dost fear the soft and tender fork
  17  Of a poor worm. Thy best of rest is sleep,
  18  And that thou oft provok'st, yet grossly fear'st
  19  Thy death, which is no more. Thou art not thyself,
  20  For thou exist'st on many a thousand grains
  21  That issue out of dust. Happy thou art not,
  22  For what thou hast not, still thou striv'st to get,
  23  And what thou hast, forget'st. Thou art not certain,
  24  For thy complexion shifts to strange effects
  25  After the moon. If thou art rich, thou'rt poor,
  26  For like an ass whose back with ingots bows,
  27  Thou bear'st thy heavy riches but a journey,
  28  And death unloads thee. Friend hast thou none,
  29  For thine own bowels, which do call thee sire,
  30  The mere effusion of thy proper loins,
  31  Do curse the gout, serpigo, and the rheum,
  32  For ending thee no sooner. Thou hast nor youth nor age,
  33  But as it were an after-dinner's sleep
  34  Dreaming on both; for all thy blesse\d youth
  35  Becomes as age\d, and doth beg the alms
  36  Of palsied eld; and when thou art old and rich,
  37  Thou hast neither heat, affection, limb, nor beauty,
  38  To make thy riches pleasant. What's in this
  39  That bears the name of life? Yet in this life
  40  Lie hid more thousand deaths; yet death we fear
  41B That makes these odds all even.<S CLAUDIO> I humbly thank you.
  42  To sue to live, I find I seek to die,
  43  And seeking death, find life. Let it come on.
  44  <S ISABELLA> <T asd> {(within)}<T verse> What ho! Peace here, grace,     +
  44  and good company!
  45  <S PROVOST> Who's there? Come in; the wish deserves a welcome.
  46  <S DUKE> <T asd> {(to Claudio)}<T verse> Dear sir, ere long I'll visit   +
  46  you again.
  47A <S CLAUDIO> Most holy sir, I thank you.<T dsd> {Enter Isabella}
  48  <S ISABELLA> <T verse> My business is a word or two with Claudio.
  49  <S PROVOST> And very welcome. Look, signor, here's your sister.
  50B <S DUKE> Provost, a word with you.<S PROVOST> As many as you             +
  50B please.<T dsd> {The Duke and Provost draw aside}
  51  <S DUKE> <T verse> Bring me to hear them speak where I may be            +
  51  concealed.<T dsd> {They conceal themselves}
  52A <S CLAUDIO> <T verse> Now sister, what's the comfort?
  53  <S ISABELLA> Why, as all comforts are: most good, most good indeed.
  54  Lord Angelo, having affairs to heaven,
  55  Intends you for his swift ambassador,
  56  Where you shall be an everlasting leiger.
  57  Therefore your best appointment make with speed.
  58B Tomorrow you set on.<S CLAUDIO> Is there no remedy?
  59  <S ISABELLA> None but such remedy as, to save a head,
  60  To cleave a heart in twain.
  61A <S CLAUDIO> But is there any?
  62A <S ISABELLA> Yes, brother, you may live.
  63  There is a devilish mercy in the judge,
  64  If you'll implore it, that will free your life,
  65B But fetter you till death.<S CLAUDIO> Perpetual durance?
  66  <S ISABELLA> Ay, just, perpetual durance; a restraint,
  67  Though all the world's vastidity you had,
  68B To a determined scope.<S CLAUDIO> But in what nature?
  69  <S ISABELLA> In such a one as you consenting to 't
  70  Would bark your honour from that trunk you bear,
  71B And leave you naked.<S CLAUDIO> Let me know the point.
  72  <S ISABELLA> O, I do fear thee, Claudio, and I quake
  73  Lest thou a feverous life shouldst entertain,
  74  And six or seven winters more respect
  75  Than a perpetual honour. Dar'st thou die?
  76  The sense of death is most in apprehension,
  77  And the poor beetle that we tread upon
  78  In corporal sufferance finds a pang as great
  79B As when a giant dies.<S CLAUDIO> Why give you me this shame?
  80  Think you I can a resolution fetch
  81  From flow'ry tenderness? If I must die,
  82  I will encounter darkness as a bride,
  83  And hug it in mine arms.
  84  <S ISABELLA> There spake my brother; there my father's grave
  85  Did utter forth a voice. Yes, thou must die.
  86  Thou art too noble to conserve a life
  87  In base appliances. This outward-sainted deputy,
  88  Whose settled visage and deliberate word
  89  Nips youth i' th' head and follies doth enew
  90  As falcon doth the fowl, is yet a devil.
  91  His filth within being cast, he would appear
  92B A pond as deep as hell.<S CLAUDIO> The precise Angelo?
  93  <S ISABELLA> O, 'tis the cunning livery of hell
  94  The damnedest body to invest and cover
  95  In precise guards! Dost thou think, Claudio:
  96  If I would yield him my virginity,
  97B Thou might'st be freed!<S CLAUDIO> O heavens, it cannot be!
  98  <S ISABELLA> Yes, he would give 't thee, from this rank offence,
  99  So to offend him still. This night's the time
 100  That I should do what I abhor to name,
 101  Or else thou diest tomorrow.
 102A <S CLAUDIO> Thou shalt not do 't.
 103A <S ISABELLA> O, were it but my life,
 104  I'd throw it down for your deliverance
 105B As frankly as a pin.<S CLAUDIO> Thanks, dear Isabel.
 106  <S ISABELLA> Be ready, Claudio, for your death tomorrow.
 107  <S CLAUDIO> Yes. Has he affections in him
 108  That thus can make him bite the law by th' nose
 109  When he would force it? Sure it is no sin,
 110  Or of the deadly seven it is the least.
 111A <S ISABELLA> Which is the least?
 112  <S CLAUDIO> If it were damnable, he being so wise,
 113  Why would he for the momentary trick
 114  Be perdurably fined? O Isabel!
 115A <S ISABELLA> What says my brother?
 116A <S CLAUDIO> Death is a fearful thing.
 117A <S ISABELLA> And shame\d life a hateful.
 118  <S CLAUDIO> Ay, but to die, and go we know not where;
 119  To lie in cold obstruction, and to rot;
 120  This sensible warm motion to become
 121  A kneaded clod, and the dilated spirit
 122  To bathe in fiery floods, or to reside
 123  In thrilling region of thick-ribbe\d ice;
 124  To be imprisoned in the viewless winds,
 125  And blown with restless violence round about
 126  The pendent world; or to be worse than worst
 127  Of those that lawless and incertain thought
 128  Imagine howling_'tis too horrible!
 129  The weariest and most loathe\d worldly life
 130  That age, ache, penury, and imprisonment
 131  Can lay on nature is a paradise
 132  To what we fear of death.
 133A <S ISABELLA> Alas, alas!
 134A <S CLAUDIO> Sweet sister, let me live.
 135  What sin you do to save a brother's life,
 136  Nature dispenses with the deed so far
 137B That it becomes a virtue.<S ISABELLA> O, you beast!
 138  O faithless coward, O dishonest wretch,
 139  Wilt thou be made a man out of my vice?
 140  Is 't not a kind of incest to take life
 141  From thine own sister's shame? What should I think?
 142  Heaven shield my mother played my father fair,
 143  For such a warpe\d slip of wilderness
 144  Ne'er issued from his blood. Take my defiance,
 145  Die, perish! Might but my bending down
 146  Reprieve thee from thy fate, it should proceed.
 147  I'll pray a thousand prayers for thy death,
 148  No word to save thee.
 149A <S CLAUDIO> Nay, hear me, Isabel.
 150A <S ISABELLA> O fie, fie, fie!
 151  Thy sin's not accidental, but a trade.
 152  Mercy to thee would prove itself a bawd.
 153  'Tis best that thou diest quickly.<T dsd> {[She parts from Claudio]}
 154A <S CLAUDIO> <T verse> O hear me, Isabella.
 155  <S DUKE> <T asd> {(coming forward to Isabella)}<T verse> Vouchsafe a     +
 155  word, young sister, but one word.
 156A <S ISABELLA> What is your will?
 157  <S DUKE> <T prose> Might you dispense with your leisure, I would by
 158  and by have some speech with you. The satisfaction I
 159  would require is likewise your own benefit.
 160  <S ISABELLA> I have no superfluous leisure; my stay must be
 161  stolen out of other affairs; but I will attend you a while.
 162  <S DUKE> <T asd> {[standing aside with Claudio]}<T prose> Son, I have    +
 162  overheard
 163  what hath passed between you and your sister. Angelo
 164  had never the purpose to corrupt her; only he hath
 165  made an assay of her virtue, to practise his judgement
 166  with the disposition of natures. She, having the truth
 167  of honour in her, hath made him that gracious denial
 168  which he is most glad to receive. I am confessor to
 169  Angelo, and I know this to be true. Therefore prepare
 170  yourself to death. Do not falsify your resolution with
 171  hopes that are fallible. Tomorrow you must die. Go to
 172  your knees and make ready.
 173  <S CLAUDIO> Let me ask my sister pardon. I am so out of love
 174  with life that I will sue to be rid of it.
 175  <S DUKE> Hold you there. Farewell.<T dsd> {[Claudio joins Isabella]}
 176  <T prose> Provost, a word with you.
 177  <S PROVOST> <T asd> {(coming forward)}<T prose> What's your will,        +
 177  father?
 178  <S DUKE> That now you are come, you will be gone. Leave
 179  me a while with the maid. My mind promises with my
 180  habit no loss shall touch her by my company.
 181  <S PROVOST> In good time.<T esd> {Exit [with Claudio]}
 182  <S DUKE> <T prose> The hand that hath made you fair hath made you
 183  good. The goodness that is cheap in beauty makes
 184  beauty brief in goodness; but grace, being the soul of
 185  your complexion, shall keep the body of it ever fair.
 186  The assault that Angelo hath made to you fortune hath
 187  conveyed to my understanding; and but that frailty
 188  hath examples for his falling, I should wonder at
 189  Angelo. How will you do to content this substitute, and
 190  to save your brother?
 191  <S ISABELLA> I am now going to resolve him. I had rather
 192  my brother die by the law than my son should be
 193  unlawfully born. But O, how much is the good Duke
 194  deceived in Angelo! If ever he return and I can speak
 195  to him, I will open my lips in vain, or discover his
 196  government.
 197  <S DUKE> That shall not be much amiss. Yet as the matter
 198  now stands, he will avoid your accusation: he made
 199  trial of you only. Therefore fasten your ear on my
 200  advisings. To the love I have in doing good, a remedy
 201  presents itself. I do make myself believe that you may
 202  most uprighteously do a poor wronged lady a merited
 203  benefit, redeem your brother from the angry law, do
 204  no stain to your own gracious person, and much please
 205  the absent Duke, if peradventure he shall ever return
 206  to have hearing of this business.
 207  <S ISABELLA> Let me hear you speak farther. I have spirit to
 208  do anything that appears not foul in the truth of my
 209  spirit.
 210  <S DUKE> Virtue is bold, and goodness never fearful. Have you
 211  not heard speak of Mariana, the sister of Frederick, the
 212  great soldier who miscarried at sea?
 213  <S ISABELLA> I have heard of the lady, and good words went
 214  with her name.
 215  <S DUKE> She should this Angelo have married, was affianced
 216  to her oath, and the nuptial appointed; between which
 217  time of the contract and limit of the solemnity, her
 218  brother Frederick was wrecked at sea, having in that
 219  perished vessel the dowry of his sister. But mark how
 220  heavily this befell to the poor gentlewoman. There she
 221  lost a noble and renowned brother, in his love toward
 222  her ever most kind and natural; with him, the portion
 223  and sinew of her fortune, her marriage dowry; with
 224  both, her combinate husband, this well-seeming
 225  Angelo.
 226  <S ISABELLA> Can this be so? Did Angelo so leave her?
 227  <S DUKE> Left her in her tears, and dried not one of them
 228  with his comfort; swallowed his vows whole, pretending
 229  in her discoveries of dishonour; in few,
 230  bestowed her on her own lamentation, which she yet
 231  wears for his sake; and he, a marble to her tears, is
 232  washed with them, but relents not.
 233  <S ISABELLA> What a merit were it in death to take this poor
 234  maid from the world! What corruption in this life, that
 235  it will let this man live! But how out of this can she
 236  avail?
 237  <S DUKE> It is a rupture that you may easily heal, and the
 238  cure of it not only saves your brother, but keeps you
 239  from dishonour in doing it.
 240  <S ISABELLA> Show me how, good father.
 241  <S DUKE> This forenamed maid hath yet in her the
 242  continuance of her first affection. His unjust unkindness,
 243  that in all reason should have quenched her love,
 244  hath, like an impediment in the current, made it more
 245  violent and unruly. Go you to Angelo, answer his
 246  requiring with a plausible obedience, agree with his
 247  demands to the point; only refer yourself to this
 248  advantage: first, that your stay with him may not be
 249  long; that the time may have all shadow and silence
 250  in it; and the place answer to convenience. This being
 251  granted in course, and now follows all. We shall advise
 252  this wronged maid to stead up your appointment, go
 253  in your place. If the encounter acknowledge itself
 254  hereafter, it may compel him to her recompense; and
 255  hear, by this is your brother saved, your honour
 256  untainted, the poor Mariana advantaged, and the
 257  corrupt deputy scaled. The maid will I frame and make
 258  fit for his attempt. If you think well to carry this, as
 259  you may, the doubleness of the benefit defends the
 260  deceit from reproof. What think you of it?
 261  <S ISABELLA> The image of it gives me content already, and
 262  I trust it will grow to a most prosperous perfection.
 263  <S DUKE> It lies much in your holding up. Haste you speedily
 264  to Angelo. If for this night he entreat you to his bed,
 265  give him promise of satisfaction. I will presently to
 266  Saint Luke's; there at the moated grange resides this
 267  dejected Mariana. At that place call upon me; and
 268  dispatch with Angelo, that it may be quickly.
 269  <S ISABELLA> I thank you for this comfort. Fare you well,
 270  good father.<T esd> {Exit}
 271  <T dsd> {Enter Elbow, Clown, and officers}<S ELBOW> <T prose> Nay, if    +
 271  there be no remedy for it but that you will
 272  needs buy and sell men and women like beasts, we
 273  shall have all the world drink brown and white bastard.
 274  <S DUKE> O heavens, what stuff is here?
 275  <S POMPEY> 'Twas never merry world since, of two usuries,
 276  the merriest was put down, and the worser allowed by
 277  order of law, a furred gown to keep him warm_and
 278  furred with fox on lambskins too, to signify that craft,
 279  being richer than innocency, stands for the facing.
 280  <S ELBOW> Come your way, sir._Bless you, good father friar.
 281  <S DUKE> And you, good brother father. What offence hath
 282  this man made you, sir?
 283  <S ELBOW> Marry, sir, he hath offended the law; and, sir, we
 284  take him to be a thief, too, sir, for we have found upon
 285  him, sir, a strange picklock, which we have sent to the
 286  deputy.
 287  <S DUKE> <T asd> {(to Pompey)}<T verse> Fie, sirrah, a bawd, a wicked    +
 287  bawd!
 288  The evil that thou causest to be done,
 289  That is thy means to live. Do thou but think
 290  What 'tis to cram a maw or clothe a back
 291  From such a filthy vice. Say to thyself,
 292  `From their abominable and beastly touches
 293  I drink, I eat, array myself, and live".
 294  Canst thou believe thy living is a life,
 295  So stinkingly depending? Go mend, go mend.
 296  <S POMPEY> <T prose> Indeed it does stink in some sort, sir. But yet,    +
 296  sir,
 297  I would prove_
 298  <S DUKE> <T verse> Nay, if the devil have given thee proofs for sin,
 299  Thou wilt prove his._Take him to prison, officer.
 300  Correction and instruction must both work
 301  Ere this rude beast will profit.
 302  <S ELBOW> <T prose> He must before the deputy, sir; he has given him
 303  warning. The deputy cannot abide a whoremaster. If
 304  he be a whoremonger and comes before him, he were
 305  as good go a mile on his errand.
 306  <S DUKE> <T verse> That we were all as some would seem to be_
 307  Free from our faults, or faults from seeming free.
 308  <S ELBOW> <T prose> His neck will come to your waist: a cord,            +
 308  sir.<T dsd> {Enter Lucio}
 309  <S POMPEY> <T prose> I spy comfort, I cry bail. Here's a gentleman, and
 310  a friend of mine.
 311  <S LUCIO> How now, noble Pompey? What, at the wheels of
 312  Caesar? Art thou led in triumph? What, is there none
 313  of Pygmalion's images newly made woman to be had
 314  now, for putting the hand in the pocket and extracting
 315  clutched? What reply, ha? What sayst thou to this
 316  tune, matter, and method? Is 't not drowned i' th' last
 317  rain, ha? What sayst thou, trot? Is the world as it was,
 318  man? Which is the way? Is it sad and few words? Or
 319  how? The trick of it?
 320  <S DUKE> Still thus and thus; still worse!
 321  <S LUCIO> How doth my dear morsel thy mistress? Procures
 322  she still, ha?
 323  <S POMPEY> Troth, sir, she hath eaten up all her beef, and
 324  she is herself in the tub.
 325  <S LUCIO> Why, 'tis good, it is the right of it, it must be so.
 326  Ever your fresh whore and your powdered bawd; an
 327  unshunned consequence, it must be so. Art going to
 328  prison, Pompey?
 329  <S POMPEY> Yes, faith, sir.
 330  <S LUCIO> Why 'tis not amiss, Pompey. Farewell. Go; say I
 331  sent thee thither. For debt, Pompey, or how?
 332  <S ELBOW> For being a bawd, for being a bawd.
 333  <S LUCIO> Well then, imprison him. If imprisonment be the
 334  due of a bawd, why, 'tis his right. Bawd is he doubtless,
 335  and of antiquity too_bawd born. Farewell, good
 336  Pompey. Commend me to the prison, Pompey. You will
 337  turn good husband now, Pompey; you will keep the
 338  house.
 339  <S POMPEY> I hope, sir, your good worship will be my bail?
 340  <S LUCIO> No, indeed, will I not, Pompey; it is not the wear.
 341  I will pray, Pompey, to increase your bondage. If you
 342  take it not patiently, why, your mettle is the more.
 343  Adieu, trusty Pompey._Bless you, friar.
 344  <S DUKE> And you.
 345  <S LUCIO> Does Bridget paint still, Pompey, ha?
 346  <S ELBOW> <T asd> {(to Pompey)}<T prose> Come your ways, sir, come.
 347  <S POMPEY> <T asd> {(to Lucio)}<T prose> You will not bail me then,      +
 347  sir?
 348  <S LUCIO> Then, Pompey, nor now._What news abroad,
 349  friar, what news?
 350  <S ELBOW> <T asd> {(to Pompey)}<T prose> Come your ways, sir, come.
 351  <S LUCIO> Go to kennel, Pompey, go.<T esd> {Exeunt Elbow, Pompey, and    +
 351  officers}
 352  <T prose> What news, friar, of the Duke?
 353  <S DUKE> I know none. Can you tell me of any?
 354  <S LUCIO> Some say he is with the Emperor of Russia; other
 355  some, he is in Rome. But where is he, think you?
 356  <S DUKE> I know not where; but wheresoever, I wish him
 357  well.
 358  <S LUCIO> It was a mad, fantastical trick of him to steal from
 359  the state, and usurp the beggary he was never born
 360  to. Lord Angelo dukes it well in his absence; he puts
 361  transgression to 't.
 362  <S DUKE> He does well in 't.
 363  <S LUCIO> A little more lenity to lechery would do no harm
 364  in him. Something too crabbed that way, friar.
 365  <S DUKE> It is too general a vice, and severity must cure it.
 366  <S LUCIO> Yes, in good sooth, the vice is of a great kindred,
 367  it is well allied. But it is impossible to extirp it quite,
 368  friar, till eating and drinking be put down. They say
 369  this Angelo was not made by man and woman, after
 370  this downright way of creation. Is it true, think you?
 371  <S DUKE> How should he be made, then?
 372  <S LUCIO> Some report a sea-maid spawned him, some that
 373  he was begot between two stockfishes. But it is certain
 374  that when he makes water his urine is congealed ice;
 375  that I know to be true. And he is a motion ungenerative;
 376  that's infallible.
 377  <S DUKE> You are pleasant, sir, and speak apace.
 378  <S LUCIO> Why, what a ruthless thing is this in him, for the
 379  rebellion of a codpiece to take away the life of a man!
 380  Would the Duke that is absent have done this? Ere he
 381  would have hanged a man for the getting a hundred
 382  bastards, he would have paid for the nursing a
 383  thousand. He had some feeling of the sport, he knew
 384  the service, and that instructed him to mercy.
 385  <S DUKE> I never heard the absent Duke much detected for
 386  women; he was not inclined that way.
 387  <S LUCIO> O sir, you are deceived.
 388  <S DUKE> 'Tis not possible.
 389  <S LUCIO> Who, not the Duke? Yes, your beggar of fifty; and
 390  his use was to put a ducat in her clack-dish. The Duke
 391  had crochets in him. He would be drunk too, that let
 392  me inform you.
 393  <S DUKE> You do him wrong, surely.
 394  <S LUCIO> Sir, I was an inward of his. A shy fellow was the
 395  Duke, and I believe I know the cause of his withdrawing.
 396  <S DUKE> What, I prithee, might be the cause?
 397  <S LUCIO> No, pardon, 'tis a secret must be locked within the
 398  teeth and the lips. But this I can let you understand.
 399  The greater file of the subject held the Duke to be wise.
 400  <S DUKE> Wise? Why, no question but he was.
 401  <S LUCIO> A very superficial, ignorant, unweighing fellow.
 402  <S DUKE> Either this is envy in you, folly, or mistaking. The
 403  very stream of his life, and the business he hath helmed,
 404  must, upon a warranted need, give him a better
 405  proclamation. Let him be but testimonied in his own
 406  bringings-forth, and he shall appear to the envious a
 407  scholar, a statesman, and a soldier. Therefore you speak
 408  unskilfully, or, if your knowledge be more, it is much
 409  darkened in your malice.
 410  <S LUCIO> Sir, I know him and I love him.
 411  <S DUKE> Love talks with better knowledge, and knowledge
 412  with dearer love.
 413  <S LUCIO> Come, sir, I know what I know.
 414  <S DUKE> I can hardly believe that, since you know not what
 415  you speak. But if ever the Duke return, as our prayers
 416  are he may, let me desire you to make your answer
 417  before him. If it be honest you have spoke, you have
 418  courage to maintain it. I am bound to call upon you;
 419  and I pray you, your name?
 420  <S LUCIO> Sir, my name is Lucio, well known to the Duke.
 421  <S DUKE> He shall know you better, sir, if I may live to report
 422  you.
 423  <S LUCIO> I fear you not.
 424  <S DUKE> O, you hope the Duke will return no more, or you
 425  imagine me too unhurtful an opposite. But indeed I
 426  can do you little harm; you'll forswear this again.
 427  <S LUCIO> I'll be hanged first. Thou art deceived in me, friar.
 428  But no more of this. Canst thou tell if Claudio die
 429  tomorrow or no?
 430  <S DUKE> Why should he die, sir?
 431  <S LUCIO> Why? For filling a bottle with a tundish. I would
 432  the Duke we talk of were returned again; this
 433  ungenitured agent will unpeople the province with
 434  continency. Sparrows must not build in his house-
 435  eaves, because they are lecherous. The Duke yet would
 436  have dark deeds darkly answered: he would never
 437  bring them to light. Would he were returned. Marry,
 438  this Claudio is condemned for untrussing. Farewell,
 439  good friar. I prithee pray for me. The Duke, I say to
 440  thee again, would eat mutton on Fridays. He's not past
 441  it yet, and, I say to thee, he would mouth with a
 442  beggar, though she smelt brown bread and garlic. Say
 443  that I said so. Farewell.<T esd> {Exit}
 444  <S DUKE> <T verse> No might nor greatness in mortality
 445  Can censure scape; back-wounding calumny
 446  The whitest virtue strikes. What king so strong
 447  Can tie the gall up in the slanderous tongue?<T dsd> {Enter Escalus,     +
 447  the Provost, and Mistress Overdone}
 448  <T verse> But who comes here?
 449  <S ESCALUS> <T asd> {(to the Provost)}<T prose> Go, away with her to     +
 449  prison.
 450  <S MISTRESS OVERDONE> Good my lord, be good to me. Your
 451  honour is accounted a merciful man, good my lord.
 452  <S ESCALUS> Double and treble admonition, and still forfeit in
 453  the same kind! This would make mercy swear and play
 454  the tyrant.
 455  <S PROVOST> A bawd of eleven years' continuance, may it
 456  please your honour.
 457  <S MISTRESS OVERDONE> My lord, this is one Lucio's information
 458  against me. Mistress Kate Keepdown was
 459  with child by him in the Duke's time; he promised her
 460  marriage. His child is a year and a quarter old come
 461  Philip and Jacob. I have kept it myself; and see how
 462  he goes about to abuse me.
 463  <S ESCALUS> That fellow is a fellow of much licence. Let him
 464  be called before us. Away with her to prison. Go to, no
 465  more words. Provost, my brother Angelo will not be
 466  altered; Claudio must die tomorrow. Let him be
 467  furnished with divines, and have all charitable
 468  preparation. If my brother wrought by my pity, it
 469  should not be so with him.
 470  <S PROVOST> So please you, this friar hath been with him and
 471  advised him for th' entertainment of death.<T esd> {[Exeunt Provost and  +
 471  Mistress Overdone]}
 472A <S ESCALUS> <T verse> Good even, good father.
 473A <S DUKE> Bliss and goodness on you.
 474A <S ESCALUS> Of whence are you?
 475  <S DUKE> Not of this country, though my chance is now
 476  To use it for my time. I am a brother
 477  Of gracious order, late come from the See
 478  In special business from his Holiness.
 479  <S ESCALUS> <T prose> What news abroad i' th' world?
 480  <S DUKE> None, but that there is so great a fever on goodness
 481  that the dissolution of it must cure it. Novelty is only
 482  in request, and it is as dangerous to be aged in any
 483  kind of course as it is virtuous to be inconstant in any
 484  undertaking. There is scarce truth enough alive to
 485  make societies secure, but security enough to make
 486  fellowships accursed. Much upon this riddle runs the
 487  wisdom of the world. This news is old enough, yet it
 488  is every day's news. I pray you, sir, of what disposition
 489  was the Duke?
 490  <S ESCALUS> One that, above all other strifes, contended
 491  especially to know himself.
 492  <S DUKE> What pleasure was he given to?
 493  <S ESCALUS> Rather rejoicing to see another merry than merry
 494  at anything which professed to make him rejoice; a
 495  gentleman of all temperance. But leave we him to his
 496  events, with a prayer they may prove prosperous, and
 497  let me desire to know how you find Claudio prepared.
 498  I am made to understand that you have lent him
 499  visitation.
 500  <S DUKE> He professes to have received no sinister measure
 501  from his judge, but most willingly humbles himself to
 502  the determination of justice. Yet had he framed to
 503  himself, by the instruction of his frailty, many deceiving
 504  promises of life, which I, by my good leisure, have
 505  discredited to him; and now is he resolved to die.
 506  <S ESCALUS> You have paid the heavens your function, and
 507  the prisoner the very debt of your calling. I have
 508  laboured for the poor gentleman to the extremest shore
 509  of my modesty, but my brother-justice have I found so
 510  severe that he hath forced me to tell him he is indeed
 511  Justice.
 512  <S DUKE> If his own life answer the straitness of his proceeding,
 513  it shall become him well; wherein if he chance
 514  to fail, he hath sentenced himself.
 515  <S ESCALUS> I am going to visit the prisoner. Fare you well.
 516A <S DUKE> <T verse> Peace be with you.<T esd> {Exit Escalus}
 517  <T verse> He who the sword of heaven will bear
 518  Should be as holy as severe,
 519  Pattern in himself to know,
 520  Grace to stand, and virtue go,
 521  More nor less to others paying
 522  Than by self-offences weighing.
 523  Shame to him whose cruel striking
 524  Kills for faults of his own liking!
 525  Twice treble shame on Angelo,
 526  To weed my vice, and let his grow!
 527  O, what may man within him hide,
 528  Though angel on the outward side!
 529  How may likeness made in crimes
 530  Make my practice on the times
 531  To draw with idle spiders' strings
 532  Most ponderous and substantial things?
 533  Craft against vice I must apply.
 534  With Angelo tonight shall lie
 535  His old betrothe\d but despise\d.
 536  So disguise shall, by th' disguise\d,
 537  Pay with falsehood false exacting,
 538  And perform an old contracting.                                          +
 538  <A Middleton>                                                            +
 538  <T esd> {Exit}
 538  [[ACT INTERVAL]]
   0  <X 4> <Y 1> <T dsd> {Mariana [discovered] with a Boy singing}
   1  <A uncertain>
   1  <S BOY> <T song> Take, O take those lips away
   2  That so sweetly were forsworn,
   3  And those eyes, the break of day
   4  Lights that do mislead the morn;
   5  But my kisses bring again, bring again,
   6  Seals of love, though sealed in vain, sealed in vain.                    +
   6  <A Middleton>                                                            +
   6  <T dsd> {Enter the Duke, disguised as a friar}
   7  <S MARIANA> <T verse> Break off thy song, and haste thee quick away.
   8  Here comes a man of comfort, whose advice
   9  Hath often stilled my brawling discontent.<T esd> {Exit Boy}
  10  <T verse> I cry you mercy, sir, and well could wish
  11  You had not found me here so musical.
  12  Let me excuse me, and believe me so:
  13  My mirth it much displeased, but pleased my woe.
  14  <S DUKE> 'Tis good; though music oft hath such a charm
  15  To make bad good, and good provoke to harm.
  16  <T prose> I pray you tell me, hath anybody enquired for me here
  17  today? Much upon this time have I promised here to
  18  meet.
  19  <S MARIANA> You have not been enquired after; I have sat
  20  here all day.<T dsd> {Enter Isabella}
  21  <S DUKE> <T prose> I do constantly believe you; the time is come even
  22  now. I shall crave your forbearance a little. Maybe I
  23  will call upon you anon, for some advantage to yourself.
  24  <S MARIANA> I am always bound to you.<T esd> {Exit}
  25A <A Shakespeare>                                                          +
  25A <S DUKE> <T verse> Very well met,
  25A <A Middleton>                                                            +
  25A and welcome.
  26  <A Shakespeare>
  26  What is the news from this good deputy?
  27  <S ISABELLA> He hath a garden circummured with brick,
  28  Whose western side is with a vineyard backed;
  29  And to that vineyard is a planke\d gate,
  30  That makes his opening with this bigger key.
  31  This other doth command a little door
  32  Which from the vineyard to the garden leads.
  33  There have I made my promise
  34  Upon the heavy middle of the night
  35  To call upon him.
  36  <S DUKE> But shall you on your knowledge find this way?
  37  <S ISABELLA> I have ta'en a due and wary note upon 't.
  38  With whispering and most guilty diligence,
  39  In action all of precept, he did show me
  40B The way twice o'er.<S DUKE> Are there no other tokens
  41  Between you 'greed concerning her observance?
  42  <S ISABELLA> No, none, but only a repair i' th' dark,
  43  And that I have possessed him my most stay
  44  Can be but brief, for I have made him know
  45  I have a servant comes with me along
  46  That stays upon me, whose persuasion is
  47B I come about my brother.<S DUKE> 'Tis well borne up.
  48  I have not yet made known to Mariana
  49  A word of this._What ho, within! Come forth!<T dsd> {Enter Mariana}
  50  <T asd> {(To Mariana)}<T verse> I pray you be acquainted with this       +
  50  maid.
  51B She comes to do you good.<S ISABELLA> I do desire the like.
  52  <S DUKE> <T asd> {(to Mariana)}<T verse> Do you persuade yourself that   +
  52  I respect you?
  53  <S MARIANA> Good friar, I know you do, and so have found it.
  54  <S DUKE> Take then this your companion by the hand,
  55  Who hath a story ready for your ear.
  56  I shall attend your leisure; but make haste,
  57B The vaporous night approaches.<S MARIANA> <T asd> {(to                   +
  57B Isabella)}<T verse> Will 't please you walk aside?<T esd> {[Exeunt       +
  57B Mariana and Isabella]}
  58  <S DUKE> <T verse> O place and greatness, millions of false eyes
  59  Are stuck upon thee; volumes of report
  60  Run with their false and most contrarious quest
  61  Upon thy doings; thousand escapes of wit
  62  Make thee the father of their idle dream,
  63B And rack thee in their fancies.<T dsd> {[Enter Mariana and               +
  63B Isabella]}<T verse> Welcome. How agreed?
  64  <S ISABELLA> She'll take the enterprise upon her, father,
  65B If you advise it.<S DUKE> It is not my consent,
  66B But my entreaty too.<S ISABELLA> <T asd> {(to Mariana)}<T verse> Little  +
  66B have you to say
  67  When you depart from him but, soft and low,
  68B `Remember now my brother".<S MARIANA> Fear me not.
  69  <S DUKE> Nor, gentle daughter, fear you not at all.
  70  He is your husband on a pre-contract.
  71  To bring you thus together 'tis no sin,
  72  Sith that the justice of your title to him
  73  Doth flourish the deceit. Come, let us go.
  74  Our corn's to reap, for yet our tilth's to sow.<T esd> {Exeunt}
   0  <Y 2> <T dsd> {Enter the Provost and Pompey}
   1  <S PROVOST> <T prose> Come hither, sirrah. Can you cut off a man's
   2  head?
   3  <S POMPEY> If the man be a bachelor, sir, I can; but if he be
   4  a married man, he's his wife's head, and I can never
   5  cut off a woman's head.
   6  <S PROVOST> Come, sir, leave me your snatches, and yield me
   7  a direct answer. Tomorrow morning are to die Claudio
   8  and Barnardine. Here is in our prison a common
   9  executioner, who in his office lacks a helper. If you will
  10  take it on you to assist him, it shall redeem you from
  11  your gyves; if not, you shall have your full time of
  12  imprisonment, and your deliverance with an unpitied
  13  whipping; for you have been a notorious bawd.
  14  <S POMPEY> Sir, I have been an unlawful bawd time out of
  15  mind, but yet I will be content to be a lawful hangman.
  16  I would be glad to receive some instruction from my
  17  fellow partner.
  18  <S PROVOST> What ho, Abhorson! Where's Abhorson there?<T dsd> {Enter     +
  18  Abhorson}
  19  <S ABHORSON> <T prose> Do you call, sir?
  20  <S PROVOST> Sirrah, here's a fellow will help you tomorrow
  21  in your execution. If you think it meet, compound with
  22  him by the year, and let him abide here with you; if
  23  not, use him for the present, and dismiss him. He
  24  cannot plead his estimation with you; he hath been a
  25  bawd.
  26  <S ABHORSON> A bawd, sir? Fie upon him, he will discredit
  27  our mystery.
  28  <S PROVOST> Go to, sir, you weigh equally; a feather will turn
  29  the scale.<T esd> {Exit}
  30  <S POMPEY> <T prose> Pray, sir, by your good favour_for surely, sir, a
  31  good favour you have, but that you have a hanging
  32  look_do you call, sir, your occupation a mystery?
  33  <S ABHORSON> Ay, sir, a mystery.
  34  <S POMPEY> Painting, sir, I have heard say is a mystery; and
  35  your whores, sir, being members of my occupation,
  36  using painting, do prove my occupation a mystery. But
  37  what mystery there should be in hanging, if I should
  38  be hanged I cannot imagine.
  39  <S ABHORSON> Sir, it is a mystery.
  40  <S POMPEY> Proof.
  41  <S ABHORSON> Every true man's apparel fits your thief_
  42  <S POMPEY> If it be too little for your thief, your true man
  43  thinks it big enough. If it be too big for your thief, your
  44  thief thinks it little enough. So every true man's apparel
  45  fits your thief.<T dsd> {Enter Provost}
  46  <S PROVOST> <T prose> Are you agreed?
  47  <S POMPEY> Sir, I will serve him, for I do find your hangman
  48  is a more penitent trade than your bawd_he doth
  49  oftener ask forgiveness.
  50  <S PROVOST> <T asd> {(to Abhorson)}<T prose> You, sirrah, provide your   +
  50  block and
  51  your axe tomorrow, four o'clock.
  52  <S ABHORSON> <T asd> {(to Pompey)}<T prose> Come on, bawd, I will        +
  52  instruct thee
  53  in my trade. Follow.
  54  <S POMPEY> I do desire to learn, sir, and I hope, if you have
  55  occasion to use me for your own turn, you shall find
  56  me yare. For truly, sir, for your kindness I owe you a
  57  good turn.
  58  <S PROVOST> <T verse> Call hither Barnardine and Claudio.<T esd>         +
  58  {Exeunt Abhorson and Pompey}
  59  <T verse> Th' one has my pity; not a jot the other,
  60  Being a murderer, though he were my brother.<T dsd> {Enter Claudio}
  61  <T verse> Look, here's the warrant, Claudio, for thy death.
  62  'Tis now dead midnight, and by eight tomorrow
  63  Thou must be made immortal. Where's Barnardine?
  64  <S CLAUDIO> As fast locked up in sleep as guiltless labour
  65  When it lies starkly in the travailer's bones.
  66B He will not wake.<S PROVOST> Who can do good on him?
  67B Well, go prepare yourself.<T dsd> {Knocking within}<T verse> But hark,   +
  67B what noise?
  68B Heaven give your spirits comfort!<T esd> {Exit Claudio}<T dsd>           +
  68B {[Knocking again]}<T verse> By and by!
  69  I hope it is some pardon or reprieve
  70B For the most gentle Claudio.<T dsd> {Enter the Duke, disguised as a      +
  70B friar}<T verse> Welcome, father.
  71  <S DUKE> The best and wholesom'st spirits of the night
  72  Envelop you, good Provost! Who called here of late?
  73A <S PROVOST> None since the curfew rung.
  74A <S DUKE> Not Isabel?
  75A <S PROVOST> No.
  76A <S DUKE> They will then, ere 't be long.
  77A <S PROVOST> What comfort is for Claudio?
  78A <S DUKE> There's some in hope.
  79A <S PROVOST> It is a bitter deputy.
  80  <S DUKE> Not so, not so; his life is paralleled
  81  Even with the stroke and line of his great justice.
  82  He doth with holy abstinence subdue
  83  That in himself which he spurs on his power
  84  To qualify in others. Were he mealed with that
  85  Which he corrects, then were he tyrannous;
  86B But this being so, he's just.<T dsd> {Knocking within}<T verse> Now are  +
  86B they come.<T dsd> {[The Provost goes to a door]}
  87  <T verse> This is a gentle Provost. Seldom when
  88  The steele\d jailer is the friend of men.<T dsd> {Knocking within}
  89  <T asd> {(To Provost)}<T verse> How now, what noise? That spirit's       +
  89  possessed with haste
  90  That wounds th' unlisting postern with these strokes.
  91  <S PROVOST> There he must stay until the officer
  92  Arise to let him in. He is called up.
  93  <S DUKE> Have you no countermand for Claudio yet,
  94B But he must die tomorrow?<S PROVOST> None, sir, none.
  95  <S DUKE> As near the dawning, Provost, as it is,
  96B You shall hear more ere morning.<S PROVOST> Happily
  97  You something know, yet I believe there comes
  98  No countermand. No such example have we;
  99  Besides, upon the very siege of justice
 100  Lord Angelo hath to the public ear
 101  Professed the contrary.<T dsd> {Enter a Messenger}
 102A <T verse> This is his lordship's man.
 103A <S [DUKE]> And here comes Claudio's pardon.
 104  <S MESSENGER> <T asd> {(giving a paper to Provost)}<T prose> My lord     +
 104  hath sent
 105  you this note, and by me this further charge: that you
 106  swerve not from the smallest article of it, neither in
 107  time, matter, or other circumstance. Good morrow;
 108  for, as I take it, it is almost day.
 109  <S PROVOST> I shall obey him.<T esd> {Exit Messenger}
 110  <S DUKE> <T asd> {(aside)}<T verse> This is his pardon, purchased by     +
 110  such sin
 111  For which the pardoner himself is in.
 112  Hence hath offence his quick celerity,
 113  When it is borne in high authority.
 114  When vice makes mercy, mercy's so extended
 115  That for the fault's love is th' offender friended._
 116  Now sir, what news?
 117  <S PROVOST> <T prose> I told you: Lord Angelo, belike thinking me
 118  remiss in mine office, awakens me with this unwonted
 119  putting-on; methinks strangely, for he hath not used
 120  it before.
 121  <S DUKE> Pray you let's hear.
 122  <S [PROVOST]> <T asd> {(reading the letter)}<T prose> `Whatsoever you    +
 122  may hear
 123  to the contrary, let Claudio be executed by four of the
 124  clock, and in the afternoon Barnardine. For my better
 125  satisfaction, let me have Claudio's head sent me by five.
 126  Let this be duly performed, with a thought that more
 127  depends on it than we must yet deliver. Thus fail not
 128  to do your office, as you will answer it at your peril."
 129  <T verse> What say you to this, sir?
 130  <S DUKE> <T prose> What is that Barnardine, who is to be executed in
 131  th' afternoon?
 132  <S PROVOST> A Bohemian born, but here nursed up and bred;
 133  one that is a prisoner nine years old.
 134  <S DUKE> How came it that the absent Duke had not either
 135  delivered him to his liberty or executed him? I have
 136  heard it was ever his manner to do so.
 137  <S PROVOST> His friends still wrought reprieves for him; and
 138  indeed his fact, till now in the government of Lord
 139  Angelo, came not to an undoubtful proof.
 140  <S DUKE> It is now apparent?
 141  <S PROVOST> Most manifest, and not denied by himself.
 142  <S DUKE> Hath he borne himself penitently in prison? How
 143  seems he to be touched?
 144  <S PROVOST> A man that apprehends death no more dreadfully
 145  but as a drunken sleep; careless, reckless, and fearless
 146  of what's past, present, or to come; insensible of
 147  mortality, and desperately mortal.
 148  <S DUKE> He wants advice.
 149  <S PROVOST> He will hear none. He hath evermore had the
 150  liberty of the prison. Give him leave to escape hence,
 151  he would not. Drunk many times a day, if not many
 152  days entirely drunk. We have very oft awaked him as
 153  if to carry him to execution, and showed him a seeming
 154  warrant for it; it hath not moved him at all.
 155  <S DUKE> More of him anon. There is written in your brow,
 156  Provost, honesty and constancy. If I read it not truly,
 157  my ancient skill beguiles me. But in the boldness of my
 158  cunning, I will lay myself in hazard. Claudio, whom
 159  here you have warrant to execute, is no greater forfeit
 160  to the law than Angelo who hath sentenced him. To
 161  make you understand this in a manifested effect, I crave
 162  but four days' respite, for the which you are to do me
 163  both a present and a dangerous courtesy.
 164  <S PROVOST> Pray sir, in what?
 165  <S DUKE> In the delaying death.
 166  <S PROVOST> Alack, how may I do it, having the hour limited,
 167  and an express command under penalty to deliver his
 168  head in the view of Angelo? I may make my case as
 169  Claudio's to cross this in the smallest.
 170  <S DUKE> By the vow of mine order, I warrant you, if my
 171  instructions may be your guide, let this Barnardine be
 172  this morning executed, and his head borne to Angelo.
 173  <S PROVOST> Angelo hath seen them both, and will discover
 174  the favour.
 175  <S DUKE> O, death's a great disguiser, and you may add to
 176  it. Shave the head and tie the beard, and say it was
 177  the desire of the penitent to be so bared before his
 178  death; you know the course is common. If anything
 179  fall to you upon this more than thanks and good
 180  fortune, by the saint whom I profess, I will plead against
 181  it with my life.
 182  <S PROVOST> Pardon me, good father, it is against my oath.
 183  <S DUKE> Were you sworn to the Duke or to the deputy?
 184  <S PROVOST> To him and to his substitutes.
 185  <S DUKE> You will think you have made no offence if the
 186  Duke avouch the justice of your dealing?
 187  <S PROVOST> But what likelihood is in that?
 188  <S DUKE> Not a resemblance, but a certainty. Yet since I see
 189  you fearful, that neither my coat, integrity, nor
 190  persuasion can with ease attempt you, I will go further
 191  than I meant, to pluck all fears out of you.<T asd> {(Showing a}
 192  {letter)}<T prose> Look you, sir, here is the hand and seal of the
 193  Duke. You know the character, I doubt not, and the
 194  signet is not strange to you?
 195  <S PROVOST> I know them both.
 196  <S DUKE> The contents of this is the return of the Duke. You
 197  shall anon over-read it at your pleasure, where you
 198  shall find within these two days he will be here. This
 199  is a thing that Angelo knows not, for he this very day
 200  receives letters of strange tenor, perchance of the Duke's
 201  death, perchance entering into some monastery; but
 202  by chance nothing of what is writ. Look, th' unfolding
 203  star calls up the shepherd. Put not yourself into
 204  amazement how these things should be. All difficulties
 205  are but easy when they are known. Call your
 206  executioner, and off with Barnardine's head. I will give
 207  him a present shrift, and advise him for a better place.
 208  Yet you are amazed; but this shall absolutely resolve
 209  you. Come away, it is almost clear dawn.<T esd> {Exeunt}
   0  <Y 3> <T dsd> {Enter Pompey}
   1  <S POMPEY> <T prose> I am as well acquainted here as I was in our
   2  house of profession. One would think it were Mistress
   3  Overdone's own house, for here be many of her old
   4  customers. First, here's young Master Rash; he's in for
   5  a commodity of brown paper and old ginger, nine score
   6  and seventeen pounds, of which he made five marks
   7  ready money. Marry, then ginger was not much in
   8  request, for the old women were all dead. Then is there
   9  here one Master Caper, at the suit of Master Threepile
  10  the mercer, for some four suits of peach-coloured satin,
  11  which now peaches him a beggar. Then have we here
  12  young Dizzy, and young Master Deepvow, and Master
  13  Copperspur and Master Starve-lackey the rapier and
  14  dagger man, and young Drop-hair that killed lusty
  15  Pudding, and Master Forthright the tilter, and brave
  16  Master Shoe-tie the great traveller, and wild Half-can
  17  that stabbed Pots, and I think forty more, all great
  18  doers in our trade, and are now `for the Lord's sake".<T dsd> {Enter     +
  18  Abhorson}
  19  <S ABHORSON> <T prose> Sirrah, bring Barnardine hither.
  20  <S POMPEY> Master Barnardine! You must rise and be hanged,
  21  Master Barnardine!
  22  <S ABHORSON> What ho, Barnardine!
  23  <S BARNARDINE> <T asd> {(within)}<T prose> A pox o' your throats! Who    +
  23  makes
  24  that noise there? What are you?
  25  <S POMPEY> Your friends, sir; the hangman. You must be so
  26  good, sir, to rise and be put to death.
  27  <S BARNARDINE> Away, you rogue, away! I am sleepy.
  28  <S ABHORSON> Tell him he must awake, and that quickly too.
  29  <S POMPEY> Pray, Master Barnardine, awake till you are
  30  executed, and sleep afterwards.
  31  <S ABHORSON> Go in to him and fetch him out.
  32  <S POMPEY> He is coming, sir, he is coming. I hear his straw
  33  rustle.
  34  <S ABHORSON> Is the axe upon the block, sirrah?
  35  <S POMPEY> Very ready, sir.<T dsd> {Enter Barnardine}
  36  <S BARNARDINE> <T prose> How now, Abhorson, what's the news with
  37  you?
  38  <S ABHORSON> Truly, sir, I would desire you to clap into your
  39  prayers, for, look you, the warrant's come.
  40  <S BARNARDINE> You rogue, I have been drinking all night. I
  41  am not fitted for 't.
  42  <S POMPEY> O, the better, sir; for he that drinks all night,
  43  and is hanged betimes in the morning, may sleep the
  44  sounder all the next day.<T dsd> {Enter the Duke, disguised as a friar}
  45  <S ABHORSON> <T asd> {(to Barnardine)}<T prose> Look you, sir, here      +
  45  comes your
  46  ghostly father. Do we jest now, think you?
  47  <S DUKE> <T asd> {(to Barnardine)}<T prose> Sir, induced by my charity,  +
  47  and
  48  hearing how hastily you are to depart, I am come to
  49  advise you, comfort you, and pray with you.
  50  <S BARNARDINE> Friar, not I. I have been drinking hard all
  51  night, and I will have more time to prepare me, or
  52  they shall beat out my brains with billets. I will not
  53  consent to die this day, that's certain.
  54  <S DUKE> <T verse> O sir, you must; and therefore, I beseech you,
  55  Look forward on the journey you shall go.
  56  <S BARNARDINE> <T prose> I swear I will not die today, for any man's
  57  persuasion.
  58  <S DUKE> But hear you_
  59  <S BARNARDINE> Not a word. If you have anything to say to
  60  me, come to my ward, for thence will not I today.<T esd> {Exit}
  61  <S DUKE> <T verse> Unfit to live or die. O gravel heart!
  62  After him, fellows; bring him to the block.<T esd> {Exeunt Abhorson and  +
  62  Pompey}
  63  <T dsd> {Enter Provost}<S PROVOST> <T verse> Now, sir, how do you find   +
  63  the prisoner?
  64  <S DUKE> A creature unprepared, unmeet for death;
  65  And to transport him in the mind he is
  66B Were damnable.<S PROVOST> Here in the prison, father,
  67  There died this morning of a cruel fever
  68  One Ragusine, a most notorious pirate,
  69  A man of Claudio's years, his beard and head
  70  Just of his colour. What if we do omit
  71  This reprobate till he were well inclined,
  72  And satisfy the deputy with the visage
  73  Of Ragusine, more like to Claudio?
  74  <S DUKE> O, 'tis an accident that heaven provides.
  75  Dispatch it presently; the hour draws on
  76  Prefixed by Angelo. See this be done,
  77  And sent according to command, whiles I
  78  Persuade this rude wretch willingly to die.
  79  <S PROVOST> This shall be done, good father, presently.
  80  But Barnardine must die this afternoon;
  81  And how shall we continue Claudio,
  82  To save me from the danger that might come
  83B If he were known alive?<S DUKE> Let this be done:
  84  Put them in secret holds, both Barnardine and Claudio.
  85  Ere twice the sun hath made his journal greeting
  86  To yonder generation, you shall find
  87B Your safety manifested.<S PROVOST> I am your free dependant.
  88  <S DUKE> Quick, dispatch, and send the head to Angelo.<T esd> {Exit      +
  88  Provost}
  89  <T verse> Now will I write letters to Angelo_
  90  The Provost, he shall bear them_whose contents
  91  Shall witness to him I am near at home,
  92  And that by great injunctions I am bound
  93  To enter publicly. Him I'll desire
  94  To meet me at the consecrated fount
  95  A league below the city, and from thence,
  96  By cold gradation and well-balanced form,
  97  We shall proceed with Angelo.<T dsd> {Enter the Provost, with            +
  97  Ragusine's head}
  98  <S PROVOST> <T verse> Here is the head; I'll carry it myself.
  99  <S DUKE> Convenient is it. Make a swift return,
 100  For I would commune with you of such things
 101  That want no ear but yours.
 102A <S PROVOST> I'll make all speed.<T esd> {Exit}
 103A <S ISABELLA> <T asd> {(within)}<T verse> Peace, ho, be here!
 104  <S DUKE> The tongue of Isabel. She's come to know
 105  If yet her brother's pardon be come hither;
 106  But I will keep her ignorant of her good,
 107  To make her heavenly comforts of despair
 108B When it is least expected.<S ISABELLA> <T asd> {[within]}<T verse> Ho,   +
 108B by your leave!<T dsd> {[Enter Isabella]}
 109  <S DUKE> <T verse> Good morning to you, fair and gracious daughter.
 110  <S ISABELLA> The better, given me by so holy a man.
 111  Hath yet the deputy sent my brother's pardon?
 112  <S DUKE> He hath released him, Isabel, from the world.
 113  His head is off and sent to Angelo.
 114B <S ISABELLA> Nay, but it is not so.<S DUKE> It is no other.
 115  Show your wisdom, daughter, in your close patience.
 116  <S ISABELLA> O, I will to him and pluck out his eyes!
 117  <S DUKE> You shall not be admitted to his sight.
 118  <S ISABELLA> <T asd> {(weeping)}<T verse> Unhappy Claudio! Wretched      +
 118  Isabel!
 119  Injurious world! Most damne\d Angelo!
 120  <S DUKE> This nor hurts him, nor profits you a jot.
 121  Forbear it, therefore; give your cause to heaven.
 122  Mark what I say, which you shall find
 123  By every syllable a faithful verity.
 124  The Duke comes home tomorrow_nay, dry your eyes_
 125  One of our convent, and his confessor,
 126  Gives me this instance. Already he hath carried
 127  Notice to Escalus and Angelo,
 128  Who do prepare to meet him at the gates,
 129  There to give up their power. If you can pace your wisdom
 130  In that good path that I would wish it go,
 131  And you shall have your bosom on this wretch,
 132  Grace of the Duke, revenges to your heart,
 133B And general honour.<S ISABELLA> I am directed by you.
 134  <S DUKE> This letter, then, to Friar Peter give.
 135  'Tis that he sent me of the Duke's return.
 136  Say by this token I desire his company
 137  At Mariana's house tonight. Her cause and yours
 138  I'll perfect him withal, and he shall bring you
 139  Before the Duke, and to the head of Angelo
 140  Accuse him home and home. For my poor self,
 141  I am combine\d by a sacred vow,
 142  And shall be absent.<T asd> {(Giving the letter)}<T verse> Wend you      +
 142  with this letter.
 143  Command these fretting waters from your eyes
 144  With a light heart. Trust not my holy order
 145B If I pervert your course.<T dsd> {Enter Lucio}<T verse> Who's            +
 145B here?<S LUCIO> Good even.
 146B Friar, where's the Provost?<S DUKE> Not within, sir.
 147  <S LUCIO> <T prose> O pretty Isabella, I am pale at mine heart to see
 148  thine eyes so red. Thou must be patient. I am fain to
 149  dine and sup with water and bran; I dare not for my
 150  head fill my belly; one fruitful meal would set me to 't.
 151  But they say the Duke will be here tomorrow. By my
 152  troth, Isabel, I loved thy brother. If the old fantastical
 153  Duke of dark corners had been at home, he had lived.<T esd> {[Exit       +
 153  Isabella]}
 154  <S DUKE> <T prose> Sir, the Duke is marvellous little beholden to your
 155  reports; but the best is, he lives not in them.
 156  <S LUCIO> Friar, thou knowest not the Duke so well as I do.
 157  He's a better woodman than thou tak'st him for.
 158  <S DUKE> Well, you'll answer this one day. Fare ye well.
 159  <S LUCIO> Nay, tarry, I'll go along with thee. I can tell thee
 160  pretty tales of the Duke.
 161  <S DUKE> You have told me too many of him already, sir, if
 162  they be true; if not true, none were enough.
 163  <S LUCIO> I was once before him for getting a wench with
 164  child.
 165  <S DUKE> Did you such a thing?
 166  <S LUCIO> Yes, marry, did I; but I was fain to forswear it.
 167  They would else have married me to the rotten medlar.
 168  <S DUKE> Sir, your company is fairer than honest. Rest you
 169  well.
 170  <S LUCIO> By my troth, I'll go with thee to the lane's end. If
 171  bawdy talk offend you, we'll have very little of it. Nay,
 172  friar, I am a kind of burr; I shall stick.<T esd> {Exeunt}
   0  <Y 4> <T dsd> {Enter Angelo and Escalus}
   1  <S ESCALUS> <T prose> Every letter he hath writ hath disvouched other.
   2  <S ANGELO> In most uneven and distracted manner. His
   3  actions show much like to madness. Pray heaven his
   4  wisdom be not tainted. And why meet him at the gates,
   5  and redeliver our authorities there?
   6  <S ESCALUS> I guess not.
   7  <S ANGELO> And why should we proclaim it in an hour before
   8  his entering, that if any crave redress of injustice, they
   9  should exhibit their petitions in the street?
  10  <S ESCALUS> He shows his reason for that_to have a dispatch
  11  of complaints, and to deliver us from devices hereafter,
  12  which shall then have no power to stand against us.
  13  <S ANGELO> <T verse> Well, I beseech you let it be proclaimed.
  14  Betimes i' th' morn I'll call you at your house.
  15  Give notice to such men of sort and suit
  16  As are to meet him.
  17A <S ESCALUS> I shall, sir. Fare you well.
  18A <S ANGELO> Good night.<T esd> {Exit Escalus}
  19  <T verse> This deed unshapes me quite, makes me unpregnant
  20  And dull to all proceedings. A deflowered maid,
  21  And by an eminent body that enforced
  22  The law against it! But that her tender shame
  23  Will not proclaim against her maiden loss,
  24  How might she tongue me! Yet reason dares her no,
  25  For my authority bears off a credent bulk,
  26  That no particular scandal once can touch
  27  But it confounds the breather. He should have lived,
  28  Save that his riotous youth, with dangerous sense,
  29  Might in the times to come have ta'en revenge
  30  By so receiving a dishonoured life
  31  With ransom of such shame. Would yet he had lived.
  32  Alack, when once our grace we have forgot,
  33  Nothing goes right; we would, and we would not.<T esd> {Exit}
   0  <Y 5> <T dsd> {Enter the Duke, in his own habit, and Friar Peter}
   1  <S DUKE> <T verse> These letters at fit time deliver me.
   2  The Provost knows our purpose and our plot.
   3  The matter being afoot, keep your instruction,
   4  And hold you ever to our special drift,
   5  Though sometimes you do blench from this to that
   6  As cause doth minister. Go call at Flavio's house,
   7  And tell him where I stay. Give the like notice
   8  To Valentinus, Rowland, and to Crassus,
   9  And bid them bring the trumpets to the gate.
  10B But send me Flavius first.<S FRIAR> It shall be speeded well.<T esd>     +
  10B {Exit}
  11  <T dsd> {Enter Varrius}<S DUKE> <T verse> I thank thee, Varrius; thou    +
  11  hast made good haste.
  12  Come, we will walk. There's other of our friends
  13  Will greet us here anon. My gentle Varrius!<T esd> {Exeunt}
   0  <Y 6> <T dsd> {Enter Isabella and Mariana}
   1  <S ISABELLA> <T verse> To speak so indirectly I am loath_
   2  I would say the truth, but to accuse him so,
   3  That is your part_yet I am advised to do it,
   4B He says, to veil full purpose.<S MARIANA> Be ruled by him.
   5  <S ISABELLA> Besides, he tells me that if peradventure
   6  He speak against me on the adverse side,
   7  I should not think it strange, for 'tis a physic
   8  That's bitter to sweet end.<T dsd> {Enter Friar Peter}
   9A <S MARIANA> <T verse> I would Friar Peter_
  10A <S ISABELLA> O, peace; the friar is come.
  11  <S FRIAR PETER> Come, I have found you out a stand most fit,
  12  Where you may have such vantage on the Duke
  13  He shall not pass you. Twice have the trumpets sounded.
  14  The generous and gravest citizens
  15  Have hent the gates, and very near upon
  16  The Duke is ent'ring; therefore hence, away.<T esd> {Exeunt}
  16  [[ACT INTERVAL]]
   0  <X 5> <Y 1> <T dsd> {Enter [at one door] the Duke, Varrius, and lords,   +
   0  [at another door] Angelo, Escalus, Lucio, citizens, [and officers]}
   1  <S DUKE> <T asd> {(to Angelo)}<T verse> My very worthy cousin, fairly    +
   1  met.
   2  <T asd> {(To Escalus)}<T verse> Our old and faithful friend, we are      +
   2  glad to see you.
   3  <S ANGELO {AND} ESCALUS> Happy return be to your royal grace.
   4  <S DUKE> Many and hearty thankings to you both.
   5  We have made enquiry of you, and we hear
   6  Such goodness of your justice that our soul
   7  Cannot but yield you forth to public thanks,
   8B Forerunning more requital.<S ANGELO> You make my bonds still greater.
   9  <S DUKE> O, your desert speaks loud, and I should wrong it
  10  To lock it in the wards of covert bosom,
  11  When it deserves with characters of brass
  12  A forted residence 'gainst the tooth of time
  13  And razure of oblivion. Give me your hand,
  14  And let the subject see, to make them know
  15  That outward courtesies would fain proclaim
  16  Favours that keep within. Come, Escalus,
  17  You must walk by us on our other hand,
  18  And good supporters are you.<T dsd> {[They walk forward.]}
  19  {Enter Friar Peter and Isabella}<S FRIAR PETER> <T verse> Now is your    +
  19  time. Speak loud, and kneel before him.
  20  <S ISABELLA> <T asd> {(kneeling)}<T verse> Justice, O royal Duke! Vail   +
  20  your regard
  21  Upon a wronged_I would fain have said, a maid.
  22  O worthy prince, dishonour not your eye
  23  By throwing it on any other object,
  24  Till you have heard me in my true complaint,
  25  And given me justice, justice, justice, justice!
  26  <S DUKE> Relate your wrongs. In what? By whom? Be brief.
  27  Here is Lord Angelo shall give you justice.
  28B Reveal yourself to him.<S ISABELLA> O worthy Duke,
  29  You bid me seek redemption of the devil.
  30  Hear me yourself, for that which I must speak
  31  Must either punish me, not being believed,
  32  Or wring redress from you. Hear me, O hear me, hear!
  33  <S ANGELO> My lord, her wits, I fear me, are not firm.
  34  She hath been a suitor to me for her brother,
  35B Cut off by course of justice.<S ISABELLA> <T asd> {[standing]}<T verse>  +
  35B By course of justice!
  36  <S ANGELO> And she will speak most bitterly and strange.
  37  <S ISABELLA> Most strange, but yet most truly, will I speak.
  38  That Angelo's forsworn, is it not strange?
  39  That Angelo's a murderer, is 't not strange?
  40  That Angelo is an adulterous thief,
  41  An hypocrite, a virgin-violator,
  42B Is it not strange, and strange?<S DUKE> Nay, it is ten times strange!
  43  <S ISABELLA> It is not truer he is Angelo
  44  Than this is all as true as it is strange.
  45  Nay, it is ten times true, for truth is truth
  46B To th' end of reck'ning.<S DUKE> Away with her. Poor soul,
  47  She speaks this in th' infirmity of sense.
  48  <S ISABELLA> O prince, I conjure thee, as thou believ'st
  49  There is another comfort than this world,
  50  That thou neglect me not with that opinion
  51  That I am touched with madness. Make not impossible
  52  That which but seems unlike. 'Tis not impossible
  53  But one, the wicked'st caitiff on the ground,
  54  May seem as shy, as grave, as just, as absolute,
  55  As Angelo; even so may Angelo,
  56  In all his dressings, characts, titles, forms,
  57  Be an arch-villain. Believe it, royal prince,
  58  If he be less, he's nothing; but he's more,
  59B Had I more name for badness.<S DUKE> By mine honesty,
  60  If she be mad, as I believe no other,
  61  Her madness hath the oddest frame of sense,
  62  Such a dependency of thing on thing
  63B As e'er I heard in madness.<S ISABELLA> O gracious Duke,
  64  Harp not on that, nor do not banish reason
  65  For inequality; but let your reason serve
  66  To make the truth appear where it seems hid,
  67B And hide the false seems true.<S DUKE> Many that are not mad
  68  Have sure more lack of reason. What would you say?
  69  <S ISABELLA> I am the sister of one Claudio,
  70  Condemned upon the act of fornication
  71  To lose his head, condemned by Angelo.
  72  I, in probation of a sisterhood,
  73  Was sent to by my brother, one Lucio
  74B As then the messenger.<S LUCIO> That's I, an 't like your grace.
  75  I came to her from Claudio, and desired her
  76  To try her gracious fortune with Lord Angelo
  77B For her poor brother's pardon.<S ISABELLA> That's he indeed.
  78B <S DUKE> <T asd> {(to Lucio)}<T verse> You were not bid to               +
  78B speak.<S LUCIO> No, my good lord,
  79  Nor wished to hold my peace.
  80  <S DUKE> I wish you now, then. Pray you take note of it;
  81  And when you have a business for yourself,
  82B Pray heaven you then be perfect.<S LUCIO> I warrant your honour.
  83  <S DUKE> The warrant's for yourself; take heed to 't.
  84  <S ISABELLA> This gentleman told somewhat of my tale_
  85A <S LUCIO> Right.
  86  <S DUKE> It may be right, but you are i' the wrong
  87B To speak before your time.<T asd> {(To Isabella)}<T verse>               +
  87B Proceed.<S ISABELLA> I went
  88  To this pernicious caitiff deputy_
  89B <S DUKE> That's somewhat madly spoken.<S ISABELLA> Pardon it;
  90B The phrase is to the matter.<S DUKE> Mended again.
  91  The matter; proceed.
  92  <S ISABELLA> In brief, to set the needless process by,
  93  How I persuaded, how I prayed and kneeled,
  94  How he refelled me, and how I replied_
  95  For this was of much length_the vile conclusion
  96  I now begin with grief and shame to utter.
  97  He would not, but by gift of my chaste body
  98  To his concupiscible intemperate lust,
  99  Release my brother; and after much debatement,
 100  My sisterly remorse confutes mine honour,
 101  And I did yield to him. But the next morn betimes,
 102  His purpose surfeiting, he sends a warrant
 103B For my poor brother's head.<S DUKE> This is most likely!
 104  <S ISABELLA> O, that it were as like as it is true!
 105  <S DUKE> By heaven, fond wretch, thou know'st not what thou speak'st,
 106  Or else thou art suborned against his honour
 107  In hateful practice. First, his integrity
 108  Stands without blemish. Next, it imports no reason
 109  That with such vehemency he should pursue
 110  Faults proper to himself. If he had so offended,
 111  He would have weighed thy brother by himself,
 112  And not have cut him off. Someone hath set you on.
 113  Confess the truth, and say by whose advice
 114B Thou cam'st here to complain.<S ISABELLA> And is this all?
 115  Then, O you blesse\d ministers above,
 116  Keep me in patience, and with ripened time
 117  Unfold the evil which is here wrapped up
 118  In countenance! Heaven shield your grace from woe,
 119  As I, thus wronged, hence unbelieve\d go.
 120  <S DUKE> I know you'd fain be gone. An officer!
 121B To prison with her.<T dsd> {An officer guards Isabella}<T verse> Shall   +
 121B we thus permit
 122  A blasting and a scandalous breath to fall
 123  On him so near us? This needs must be a practice.
 124  Who knew of your intent and coming hither?
 125  <S ISABELLA> One that I would were here, Friar Lodowick.<T esd> {[Exit,  +
 125  guarded]}
 126  <S DUKE> <T verse> A ghostly father, belike. Who knows that Lodowick?
 127  <S LUCIO> My lord, I know him. 'Tis a meddling friar;
 128  I do not like the man. Had he been lay, my lord,
 129  For certain words he spake against your grace
 130  In your retirement, I had swinged him soundly.
 131  <S DUKE> Words against me? This' a good friar, belike!
 132  And to set on this wretched woman here
 133  Against our substitute! Let this friar be found.<T esd> {[Exit one or    +
 133  more]}
 134  <S LUCIO> <T verse> But yesternight, my lord, she and that friar,
 135  I saw them at the prison. A saucy friar,
 136B A very scurvy fellow.<S FRIAR PETER> Blessed be your royal grace!
 137  I have stood by, my lord, and I have heard
 138  Your royal ear abused. First hath this woman
 139  Most wrongfully accused your substitute,
 140  Who is as free from touch or soil with her
 141B As she from one ungot.<S DUKE> We did believe no less.
 142  Know you that Friar Lodowick that she speaks of?
 143  <S FRIAR PETER> I know him for a man divine and holy,
 144  Not scurvy, nor a temporary meddler,
 145  As he's reported by this gentleman;
 146  And, on my trust, a man that never yet
 147  Did, as he vouches, misreport your grace.
 148  <S LUCIO> <T prose> My lord, most villainously; believe it.
 149  <S FRIAR PETER> <T verse> Well, he in time may come to clear himself;
 150  But at this instant he is sick, my lord,
 151  Of a strange fever. Upon his mere request,
 152  Being come to knowledge that there was complaint
 153  Intended 'gainst Lord Angelo, came I hither
 154  To speak, as from his mouth, what he doth know
 155  Is true and false, and what he with his oath
 156  And all probation will make up full clear
 157  Whensoever he's convented. First, for this woman:
 158  To justify this worthy nobleman,
 159  So vulgarly and personally accused,
 160  Her shall you hear disprove\d to her eyes,
 161B Till she herself confess it.<S DUKE> Good friar, let's hear it.<T esd>   +
 161B {[Exit Friar Peter]}
 162  <T verse> Do you not smile at this, Lord Angelo?
 163  O heaven, the vanity of wretched fools!
 164B Give us some seats.<T dsd> {[Seats are brought in]}<T verse> Come,       +
 164B cousin Angelo,
 165  In this I'll be impartial; be you judge
 166B Of your own cause.<T dsd> {The Duke and Angelo sit. Enter [Friar         +
 166B Peter, and] Mariana, veiled}<T verse> Is this the witness, friar?
 167  First let her show her face, and after speak.
 168  <S MARIANA> Pardon, my lord, I will not show my face
 169  Until my husband bid me.
 170  <S DUKE> <T prose> What, are you married?
 171  <S MARIANA> No, my lord.
 172  <S DUKE> Are you a maid?
 173  <S MARIANA> No, my lord.
 174  <S DUKE> A widow then?
 175  <S MARIANA> Neither, my lord.
 176  <S DUKE> Why, you are nothing then; neither maid, widow,
 177  nor wife!
 178  <S LUCIO> My lord, she may be a punk, for many of them are
 179  neither maid, widow, nor wife.
 180  <S DUKE> Silence that fellow. I would he had some cause to
 181  prattle for himself.
 182  <S LUCIO> Well, my lord.
 183  <S MARIANA> <T verse> My lord, I do confess I ne'er was married,
 184  And I confess besides, I am no maid.
 185  I have known my husband, yet my husband
 186  Knows not that ever he knew me.
 187  <S LUCIO> <T prose> He was drunk then, my lord, it can be no better.
 188  <S DUKE> For the benefit of silence, would thou wert so too.
 189  <S LUCIO> Well, my lord.
 190  <S DUKE> <T verse> This is no witness for Lord Angelo.
 191A <S MARIANA> Now I come to 't, my lord.
 192  She that accuses him of fornication
 193  In self-same manner doth accuse my husband,
 194  And charges him, my lord, with such a time
 195  When I'll depose I had him in mine arms
 196B With all th' effect of love.<S ANGELO> Charges she more than me?
 197B <S MARIANA> Not that I know.<S DUKE> No? You say your husband.
 198  <S MARIANA> Why just, my lord, and that is Angelo,
 199  Who thinks he knows that he ne'er knew my body,
 200  But knows, he thinks, that he knows Isabel's.
 201  <S ANGELO> This is a strange abuse. Let's see thy face.
 202  <S MARIANA> <T asd> {(unveiling)}<T verse> My husband bids me; now I     +
 202  will unmask.
 203  This is that face, thou cruel Angelo,
 204  Which once thou swor'st was worth the looking on.
 205  This is the hand which, with a vowed contract,
 206  Was fast belocked in thine. This is the body
 207  That took away the match from Isabel,
 208  And did supply thee at thy garden-house
 209  In her imagined person.
 210A <S DUKE> <T asd> {(to Angelo)}<T verse> Know you this woman?
 211A <S LUCIO> Carnally, she says.
 212A <S DUKE> Sirrah, no more!
 213A <S LUCIO> Enough, my lord.
 214  <S ANGELO> My lord, I must confess I know this woman;
 215  And five years since there was some speech of marriage
 216  Betwixt myself and her, which was broke off,
 217  Partly for that her promise\d proportions
 218  Came short of composition, but in chief
 219  For that her reputation was disvalued
 220  In levity; since which time of five years
 221  I never spake with her, saw her, nor heard from her,
 222B Upon my faith and honour.<S MARIANA> <T asd> {[kneeling before the       +
 222B Duke]}<T verse> Noble prince,
 223  As there comes light from heaven, and words from breath,
 224  As there is sense in truth, and truth in virtue,
 225  I am affianced this man's wife, as strongly
 226  As words could make up vows. And, my good lord,
 227  But Tuesday night last gone, in 's garden-house,
 228  He knew me as a wife. As this is true,
 229  Let me in safety raise me from my knees,
 230  Or else forever be confixe\d here,
 231B A marble monument.<S ANGELO> I did but smile till now.
 232  Now, good my lord, give me the scope of justice.
 233  My patience here is touched. I do perceive
 234  These poor informal women are no more
 235  But instruments of some more mightier member
 236  That sets them on. Let me have way, my lord,
 237B To find this practice out.<S DUKE> <T asd> {(standing)}<T verse> Ay,     +
 237B with my heart,
 238  And punish them even to your height of pleasure._
 239  Thou foolish friar, and thou pernicious woman
 240  Compact with her that's gone, think'st thou thy oaths,
 241  Though they would swear down each particular saint,
 242  Were testimonies against his worth and credit
 243  That's sealed in approbation? You, Lord Escalus,
 244  Sit with my cousin; lend him your kind pains
 245  To find out this abuse, whence 'tis derived.
 246  There is another friar that set them on.
 247  Let him be sent for.<T dsd> {Escalus sits}
 248  <S FRIAR PETER> <T verse> Would he were here, my lord, for he indeed
 249  Hath set the women on to this complaint.
 250  Your Provost knows the place where he abides,
 251B And he may fetch him.<S DUKE> <T asd> {(to one or more)}<T verse> Go,    +
 251B do it instantly.<T esd> {Exit one or more}
 252  <T asd> {(To Angelo)}<T verse> And you, my noble and well-warranted      +
 252  cousin,
 253  Whom it concerns to hear this matter forth,
 254  Do with your injuries as seems you best
 255  In any chastisement. I for a while will leave you,
 256  But stir not you till you have well determined
 257B Upon these slanderers.<S ESCALUS> My lord, we'll do it throughly.<T esd>+
 257B  {Exit Duke}
 258  <T prose> Signor Lucio, did not you say you knew that Friar
 259  Lodowick to be a dishonest person?
 260  <S LUCIO> {Cucullus non facit monachum}: honest in nothing but
 261  in his clothes; and one that hath spoke most villainous
 262  speeches of the Duke.
 263  <S ESCALUS> We shall entreat you to abide here till he come,
 264  and enforce them against him. We shall find this friar
 265  a notable fellow.
 266  <S LUCIO> As any in Vienna, on my word.
 267  <S ESCALUS> Call that same Isabel here once again; I would
 268  speak with her.<T esd> {Exit one or more}
 269  <T asd> {(To Angelo)}<T prose> Pray you, my lord, give me leave to       +
 269  question.
 270  You shall see how I'll handle her.
 271  <S LUCIO> Not better than he, by her own report.
 272  <S ESCALUS> Say you?
 273  <S LUCIO> Marry, sir, I think if you handled her privately, she
 274  would sooner confess; perchance publicly she'll be
 275  ashamed.
 276  <S ESCALUS> I will go darkly to work with her.
 277  <S LUCIO> That's the way, for women are light at midnight.<T dsd>        +
 277  {Enter Isabella, guarded}
 278  <S ESCALUS> <T asd> {(to Isabella)}<T prose> Come on, mistress, here's   +
 278  a gentlewoman
 279  denies all that you have said.<T dsd> {Enter the Duke, disguised as a    +
 279  friar, hooded, and the Provost}
 280  <S LUCIO> <T prose> My lord, here comes the rascal I spoke of, here
 281  with the Provost.
 282  <S ESCALUS> In very good time. Speak not you to him till we
 283  call upon you.
 284  <S LUCIO> Mum.
 285  <S ESCALUS> <T asd> {(to the Duke)}<T prose> Come, sir, did you set      +
 285  these women
 286  on to slander Lord Angelo? They have confessed you
 287  did.
 288  <S DUKE> 'Tis false.
 289  <S ESCALUS> How! Know you where you are?
 290  <S DUKE> <T verse> Respect to your great place, and let the devil
 291  Be sometime honoured fore his burning throne.
 292  Where is the Duke? 'Tis he should hear me speak.
 293  <S ESCALUS> The Duke's in us, and we will hear you speak.
 294B Look you speak justly.<S DUKE> Boldly at least.<T asd> {(To Isabella     +
 294B and Mariana)}<T verse> But O, poor souls,
 295  Come you to seek the lamb here of the fox,
 296  Good night to your redress! Is the Duke gone?
 297  Then is your cause gone too. The Duke's unjust
 298  Thus to retort your manifest appeal,
 299  And put your trial in the villain's mouth
 300  Which here you come to accuse.
 301  <S LUCIO> This is the rascal, this is he I spoke of.
 302  <S ESCALUS> Why, thou unreverend and unhallowed friar,
 303  Is 't not enough thou hast suborned these women
 304  To accuse this worthy man but, in foul mouth,
 305  And in the witness of his proper ear,
 306  To call him villain, and then to glance from him
 307  To th' Duke himself, to tax him with injustice?
 308  Take him hence; to th' rack with him. We'll touse you
 309  Joint by joint_but we will know his purpose.
 310B What, `unjust"?<S DUKE> Be not so hot. The Duke
 311  Dare no more stretch this finger of mine than he
 312  Dare rack his own. His subject am I not,
 313  Nor here provincial. My business in this state
 314  Made me a looker-on here in Vienna,
 315  Where I have seen corruption boil and bubble
 316  Till it o'errun the stew; laws for all faults,
 317  But faults so countenanced that the strong statutes
 318  Stand like the forfeits in a barber's shop,
 319  As much in mock as mark.
 320A <S ESCALUS> Slander to th' state!
 321  Away with him to prison.
 322  <S ANGELO> What can you vouch against him, Signor Lucio?
 323  Is this the man that you did tell us of?
 324  <S LUCIO> <T prose> 'Tis he, my lord._Come hither, goodman Bald-
 325  pate. Do you know me?
 326  <S DUKE> I remember you, sir, by the sound of your voice. I
 327  met you at the prison, in the absence of the Duke.
 328  <S LUCIO> O, did you so? And do you remember what you
 329  said of the Duke?
 330  <S DUKE> Most notedly, sir.
 331  <S LUCIO> Do you so, sir? And was the Duke a fleshmonger,
 332  a fool, and a coward, as you then reported him to be?
 333  <S DUKE> You must, sir, change persons with me ere you
 334  make that my report. You indeed spoke so of him, and
 335  much more, much worse.
 336  <S LUCIO> O, thou damnable fellow! Did not I pluck thee by
 337  the nose for thy speeches?
 338  <S DUKE> I protest I love the Duke as I love myself.
 339  <S ANGELO> Hark how the villain would close now, after his
 340  treasonable abuses.
 341  <S ESCALUS> Such a fellow is not to be talked withal. Away
 342  with him to prison. Where is the Provost? Away with
 343  him to prison. Lay bolts enough upon him. Let him
 344  speak no more. Away with those giglets too, and with
 345  the other confederate companion.<T dsd> {[Mariana is raised to her       +
 345  feet, and is guarded.]}
 346  {The Provost makes to seize the Duke}<S DUKE> <T prose> Stay, sir, stay  +
 346  a while.
 347  <S ANGELO> What, resists he? Help him, Lucio.
 348  <S LUCIO> <T asd> {(to the Duke)}<T prose> Come, sir; come, sir; come,   +
 348  sir! Foh,
 349  sir! Why, you bald-pated lying rascal, you must be
 350  hooded, must you? Show your knave's visage, with a
 351  pox to you! Show your sheep-biting face, and be hanged
 352  an hour! Will 't not off?<T dsd> {He pulls off the friar's hood, and     +
 352  discovers the Duke. [Angelo and Escalus rise]}
 353  <S DUKE> <T verse> Thou art the first knave that e'er madest a duke.
 354  First, Provost, let me bail these gentle three.
 355  <T asd> {(To Lucio)}<T verse> Sneak not away, sir, for the friar and     +
 355  you
 356  Must have a word anon.<T asd> {(To one or more)}<T verse> Lay hold on    +
 356  him.
 357  <S LUCIO> <T prose> This may prove worse than hanging.
 358  <S DUKE> <T asd> {(to Escalus)}<T verse> What you have spoke, I pardon.  +
 358  Sit you down.
 359B We'll borrow place of him.<T dsd> {[Escalus sits]}<T asd> {(To           +
 359B Angelo)}<T verse> Sir, by your leave.<T dsd> {[He takes Angelo's seat]}
 360  <T verse> Hast thou or word or wit or impudence
 361  That yet can do thee office? If thou hast,
 362  Rely upon it till my tale be heard,
 363B And hold no longer out.<S ANGELO> O my dread lord,
 364  I should be guiltier than my guiltiness
 365  To think I can be undiscernible,
 366  When I perceive your grace, like power divine,
 367  Hath looked upon my passes. Then, good prince,
 368  No longer session hold upon my shame,
 369  But let my trial be mine own confession.
 370  Immediate sentence then, and sequent death,
 371B Is all the grace I beg.<S DUKE> Come hither, Mariana.
 372  <T asd> {(To Angelo)}<T verse> Say, wast thou e'er contracted to this    +
 372  woman?
 373A <S ANGELO> I was, my lord.
 374  <S DUKE> Go, take her hence and marry her instantly.
 375  Do you the office, friar; which consummate,
 376  Return him here again. Go with him, Provost.<T esd> {Exeunt Angelo,      +
 376  Mariana, Friar Peter, and the Provost}
 377  <S ESCALUS> <T verse> My lord, I am more amazed at his dishonour
 378B Than at the strangeness of it.<S DUKE> Come hither, Isabel.
 379  Your friar is now your prince. As I was then
 380  Advertising and holy to your business,
 381  Not changing heart with habit I am still
 382B Attorneyed at your service.<S ISABELLA> O, give me pardon,
 383  That I, your vassal, have employed and pained
 384B Your unknown sovereignty.<S DUKE> You are pardoned, Isabel.
 385  And now, dear maid, be you as free to us.
 386  Your brother's death I know sits at your heart,
 387  And you may marvel why I obscured myself,
 388  Labouring to save his life, and would not rather
 389  Make rash remonstrance of my hidden power
 390  Than let him so be lost. O most kind maid,
 391  It was the swift celerity of his death,
 392  Which I did think with slower foot came on,
 393  That brained my purpose. But peace be with him!
 394  That life is better life, past fearing death,
 395  Than that which lives to fear. Make it your comfort,
 396B So happy is your brother.<S ISABELLA> I do, my lord.<T dsd> {Enter       +
 396B Angelo, Mariana, Friar Peter, and the Provost}
 397  <S DUKE> <T verse> For this new-married man approaching here,
 398  Whose salt imagination yet hath wronged
 399  Your well-defended honour, you must pardon
 400  For Mariana's sake; but as he adjudged your brother_
 401  Being criminal in double violation
 402  Of sacred chastity and of promise-breach,
 403  Thereon dependent, for your brother's life_
 404  The very mercy of the law cries out
 405  Most audible, even from his proper tongue,
 406  `An Angelo for Claudio, death for death".
 407  Haste still pays haste, and leisure answers leisure;
 408  Like doth quit like, and measure still for measure.
 409  Then, Angelo, thy fault's thus manifested,
 410  Which, though thou wouldst deny, denies thee vantage.
 411  We do condemn thee to the very block
 412  Where Claudio stooped to death, and with like haste.
 413B Away with him.<S MARIANA> O my most gracious lord,
 414  I hope you will not mock me with a husband!
 415  <S DUKE> It is your husband mocked you with a husband.
 416  Consenting to the safeguard of your honour,
 417  I thought your marriage fit; else imputation,
 418  For that he knew you, might reproach your life,
 419  And choke your good to come. For his possessions,
 420  Although by confiscation they are ours,
 421  We do enstate and widow you with all,
 422B To buy you a better husband.<S MARIANA> O my dear lord,
 423  I crave no other, nor no better man.
 424  <S DUKE> Never crave him; we are definitive.
 425B <S MARIANA> Gentle my liege_<S DUKE> You do but lose your labour._
 426  Away with him to death.<T asd> {(To Lucio)}<T verse> Now, sir, to you.
 427  <S MARIANA> <T asd> {(kneeling)}<T verse> O my good lord!_Sweet Isabel,  +
 427  take my part;
 428  Lend me your knees, and all my life to come
 429  I'll lend you all my life to do you service.
 430  <S DUKE> Against all sense you do importune her.
 431  Should she kneel down in mercy of this fact,
 432  Her brother's ghost his pave\d bed would break,
 433B And take her hence in horror.<S MARIANA> Isabel,
 434  Sweet Isabel, do yet but kneel by me.
 435  Hold up your hands; say nothing; I'll speak all.
 436  They say best men are moulded out of faults,
 437  And, for the most, become much more the better
 438  For being a little bad. So may my husband.
 439  O Isabel, will you not lend a knee?
 440B <S DUKE> He dies for Claudio's death.<S ISABELLA> <T asd>                +
 440B {(kneeling)}<T verse> Most bounteous sir,
 441  Look, if it please you, on this man condemned
 442  As if my brother lived. I partly think
 443  A due sincerity governed his deeds,
 444  Till he did look on me. Since it is so,
 445  Let him not die. My brother had but justice,
 446  In that he did the thing for which he died.
 447  For Angelo,
 448  His act did not o'ertake his bad intent,
 449  And must be buried but as an intent
 450  That perished by the way. Thoughts are no subjects,
 451B Intents but merely thoughts.<S MARIANA> Merely, my lord.
 452  <S DUKE> Your suit's unprofitable. Stand up, I say.<T dsd> {[Mariana     +
 452  and Isabella stand]}
 453  <T verse> I have bethought me of another fault.
 454  Provost, how came it Claudio was beheaded
 455B At an unusual hour?<S PROVOST> It was commanded so.
 456  <S DUKE> Had you a special warrant for the deed?
 457  <S PROVOST> No, my good lord, it was by private message.
 458  <S DUKE> For which I do discharge you of your office.
 459B Give up your keys.<S PROVOST> Pardon me, noble lord.
 460  I thought it was a fault, but knew it not,
 461  Yet did repent me after more advice;
 462  For testimony whereof one in the prison
 463  That should by private order else have died
 464  I have reserved alive.
 465A <S DUKE> What's he?
 466A <S PROVOST> His name is Barnardine.
 467  <S DUKE> I would thou hadst done so by Claudio.
 468  Go fetch him hither. Let me look upon him.<T esd> {Exit Provost}
 469  <S ESCALUS> <T verse> I am sorry one so learned and so wise
 470  As you, Lord Angelo, have still appeared,
 471  Should slip so grossly, both in the heat of blood
 472  And lack of tempered judgement afterward.
 473  <S ANGELO> I am sorry that such sorrow I procure,
 474  And so deep sticks it in my penitent heart
 475  That I crave death more willingly than mercy.
 476  'Tis my deserving, and I do entreat it.<T dsd> {Enter Barnardine and     +
 476  the Provost; Claudio, muffled,                                           +
 476  <A Middleton>                                                            +
 476  and Juliet}
 477B <A Shakespeare>
 477B <S DUKE> <T verse> Which is that Barnardine?<S PROVOST> This, my lord.
 478  <S DUKE> There was a friar told me of this man.
 479  <T asd> {(To Barnardine)}<T verse> Sirrah, thou art said to have a       +
 479  stubborn soul
 480  That apprehends no further than this world,
 481  And squar'st thy life according. Thou'rt condemned;
 482  But, for those earthly faults, I quit them all,
 483  And pray thee take this mercy to provide
 484  For better times to come._Friar, advise him.
 485  I leave him to your hand.<T asd> {(To Provost)}<T verse> What muffled    +
 485  fellow's that?
 486  <S PROVOST> This is another prisoner that I saved,
 487  Who should have died when Claudio lost his head,
 488  As like almost to Claudio as himself.<T dsd> {He unmuffles Claudio}
 489  <S DUKE> <T asd> {(to Isabella)}<T verse> If he be like your brother,    +
 489  for his sake
 490  Is he pardoned; and for your lovely sake
 491  Give me your hand, and say you will be mine.
 492  He is my brother too. But fitter time for that.
 493  By this Lord Angelo perceives he's safe.
 494  Methinks I see a quick'ning in his eye.
 495  Well, Angelo, your evil quits you well.
 496  Look that you love your wife, her worth worth yours.
 497  I find an apt remission in myself;
 498  And yet here's one in place I cannot pardon.
 499  <T asd> {(To Lucio)}<T verse> You, sirrah, that knew me for a fool, a    +
 499  coward,
 500  One all of luxury, an ass, a madman,
 501  Wherein have I so deserved of you
 502  That you extol me thus?
 503  <S LUCIO> <T prose> Faith, my lord, I spoke it but according to the      +
 503  trick.
 504  If you will hang me for it, you may; but I had rather
 505  it would please you I might be whipped.
 506A <S DUKE> <T verse> Whipped first, sir, and hanged after.
 507  Proclaim it, Provost, round about the city,
 508  If any woman wronged by this lewd fellow,
 509  As I have heard him swear himself there's one
 510  Whom he begot with child, let her appear,
 511  And he shall marry her. The nuptial finished,
 512  Let him be whipped and hanged.
 513  <S LUCIO> <T prose> I beseech your highness, do not marry me to a
 514  whore. Your highness said even now I made you a
 515  duke; good my lord, do not recompense me in making
 516  me a cuckold.
 517  <S DUKE> <T verse> Upon mine honour, thou shalt marry her.
 518  Thy slanders I forgive, and therewithal
 519  Remit thy other forfeits._Take him to prison,
 520  And see our pleasure herein executed.
 521  <S LUCIO> <T prose> Marrying a punk, my lord, is pressing to death,
 522  whipping, and hanging.
 523A <S DUKE> <T verse> Slandering a prince deserves it.<T esd> {[Exit Lucio  +
 523A guarded]}
 524  <T verse> She, Claudio, that you wronged, look you restore.
 525  Joy to you, Mariana. Love her, Angelo.
 526  I have confessed her, and I know her virtue.
 527  Thanks, good friend Escalus, for thy much goodness.
 528  There's more behind that is more gratulate.
 529  Thanks, Provost, for thy care and secrecy.
 530  We shall employ thee in a worthier place.
 531  Forgive him, Angelo, that brought you home
 532  The head of Ragusine for Claudio's.
 533  Th' offence pardons itself. Dear Isabel,
 534  I have a motion much imports your good,
 535  Whereto, if you'll a willing ear incline,
 536  What's mine is yours, and what is yours is mine.
 537  <T asd> {(To all)}<T verse> So bring us to our palace, where we'll show
 538  What's yet behind that's meet you all should know.<T esd> {Exeunt}
   0  <X AP><Y ><T ><S >
   0  [[The text of {Measure for Measure} given in this edition is probably
   0  that of an adapted version made for Shakespeare's company after his
   0  death. Adaptation seems to have affected two passages, printed below as
   0  we believe Shakespeare to have written them.]]
   0  <Y A>
   0  [[1.2.0.1-116]]
   0  [[Lines 2-9 of Additional Passage A (`. . . by him") are lines which the
   0  adapter (whom we believe to be Thomas Middleton) evidently intended
   0  to be replaced by 1.2.56-79 of the play as we print it. The adapter must
   0  have contributed all of 1.2.0.1-83, which in the earliest and subsequent
   0  printed texts precede the discussion between the Clown (Pompey) and the
   0  Bawd (Mistress Overdone) about Claudio's arrest. Lucio's entry alone at]]
   0  [[line 40.1 below, some eleven lines after his re-entry with the two
   0  Gentlemen and the Provost's party in the adapted text, probably represents
   0  Shakespeare's original intention. In his version, Juliet, present but
   0  silent in the adapted text both in 1.2 and 5.1, probably did not appear
   0  in either scene; accordingly, the words `and there's Madam Juliet"
   0  (1.2.107) must also be the reviser's work, and do not appear below.]]
   0  <T dsd> {Enter Pompey and Mistress Overdone, [meeting]}
   1  <S MISTRESS OVERDONE> <T prose> How now, what's the news with you?
   2  <S POMPEY> Yonder man is carried to prison.
   3  <S MISTRESS OVERDONE> Well! What has he done?
   4  <S POMPEY> A woman.
   5  <S MISTRESS OVERDONE> But what's his offence?
   6  <S POMPEY> Groping for trouts in a peculiar river.
   7  <S MISTRESS OVERDONE> What, is there a maid with child by
   8  him?
   9  <S POMPEY> No, but there's a woman with maid by him: you
  10  have not heard of the proclamation, have you?
  11  <S MISTRESS OVERDONE> What proclamation, man?
  12  <S POMPEY> All houses in the suburbs of Vienna must be
  13  plucked down.
  14  <S MISTRESS OVERDONE> And what shall become of those in
  15  the city?
  16  <S POMPEY> They shall stand for seed. They had gone down
  17  too, but that a wise burgher put in for them.
  18  <S MISTRESS OVERDONE> But shall all our houses of resort in
  19  the suburbs be pulled down?
  20  <S POMPEY> To the ground, mistress.
  21  <S MISTRESS OVERDONE> Why, here's a change indeed in the
  22  commonwealth. What shall become of me?
  23  <S POMPEY> Come, fear not you. Good counsellors lack no
  24  clients. Though you change your place, you need not
  25  change your trade. I'll be your tapster still. Courage,
  26  there will be pity taken on you. You that have worn
  27  your eyes almost out in the service, you will be
  28  considered. <T dsd> {[A noise within]}
  29  <S MISTRESS OVERDONE> <T prose> What's to do here, Thomas Tapster?
  30  Let's withdraw! <T dsd> {Enter the Provost and Claudio}
  31  <S POMPEY> <T prose> Here comes Signor Claudio, led by the Provost to
  32  prison. <T esd> {Exeunt Mistress Overdone and Pompey}
  33  <S CLAUDIO> <T verse> Fellow, why dost thou show me thus to th' world?
  34  Bear me to prison, where I am committed.
  35  <S PROVOST> I do it not in evil disposition,
  36  But from Lord Angelo by special charge.
  37  <S CLAUDIO> Thus can the demigod Authority
  38  Make us pay down for our offence, by weight,
  39  The bonds of heaven. On whom it will, it will;
  40  On whom it will not, so; yet still 'tis just. <T dsd> {[Enter Lucio]}
  41  <S LUCIO> <T verse> Why, how now, Claudio? Whence comes this restraint?
   0  <Y B><T ><S >
   0  [[3.1.515-4.1.65]]
   0  [[Before revision there would have been no act-break and no song; the lines
   0  immediately following the song would also have been absent. The Duke's
   0  soliloquies `He who the sword of heaven will bear" and `O place and
   0  greatness" have evidently been transposed in revision; in the original,
   0  the end of `O place and greatness" would have led straight on to the
   0  Duke's meeting with Isabella and then Mariana.]]
   1  <S ESCALUS> <T prose> I am going to visit the prisoner. Fare you well.
   2  <S DUKE> Peace be with you.<T esd> {Exit Escalus}
   3  <T verse> O place and greatness, millions of false eyes
   4  Are stuck upon thee; volumes of report
   5  Run with their false and most contrarious quest
   6  Upon thy doings; thousand escapes of wit
   7  Make thee the father of their idle dream,
   8  And rack thee in their fancies. <T dsd> {Enter Isabella} <T verse> Very  +
   8  well met.
   9  What is the news from this good deputy?
  10  <S ISABELLA> He hath a garden circummured with brick,
  11  Whose western side is with a vineyard backed;
  12  And to that vineyard is a plancke\d gate,
  13  That makes his opening with this bigger key.
  14  This other doth command a little door
  15  Which from the vineyard to the garden leads.
  16  There have I made my promise
  17  Upon the heavy middle of the night
  18  To call upon him.
  19  <S DUKE> But shall you on your knowledge find this way?
  20  <S ISABELLA> I have ta'en a due and wary note upon 't.
  21  With whispering and most guilty diligence,
  22  In action all of precept, he did show me
  23B The way twice o'er.<S DUKE> Are there no other tokens
  24  Between you 'greed concerning her observance?
  25  <S ISABELLA> No, none, but only a repair i' th' dark,
  26  And that I have possessed him my most stay
  27  Can be but brief, for I have made him know
  28  I have a servant comes with me along
  29  That stays upon me, whose persuasion is
  30B I come about my brother.<S DUKE> 'Tis well borne up.
  31  I have not yet made known to Mariana
  32  A word of this._What ho, within! Come forth! <T dsd> {Enter Mariana}
  33  <T asd> {(To Mariana)} <T verse> I pray you be acquainted with this maid.
  34B She comes to do you good. <S ISABELLA> I do desire the like.
  35  <S DUKE> <T asd> {(to Mariana)} <T verse> Do you persuade yourself that  +
  35  I respect you?
  36  <S MARIANA> Good friar, I know you do, and so have found it.
  37  <S DUKE> Take then this your companion by the hand,
  38  Who hath a story ready for your ear.
  39  I shall attend your leisure; but make haste,
  40B The vaporous night approaches.                                           +
  40B <S MARIANA> Will 't please you walk aside. <T esd> {[Exeunt Mariana and  +
  40B Isabella]}
  41  <S DUKE> <T verse> He who the sword of heaven will bear
  42  Should be as holy as severe,
  43  Pattern in himself to know,
  44  Grace to stand, and virtue go,
  45  More nor less to others paying
  46  Than by self-offences weighing.
  47  Shame to him whose cruel striking
  48  Kills for faults of his own liking!
  49  Twice treble shame on Angelo,
  50  To weed my vice, and let his grow!
  51  O, what may man within him hide,
  52  Though angel on the outward side!
  53  How may likeness made in crimes
  54  Make my practice on the times
  55  To draw with idle spiders' strings
  56  Most ponderous and substantial things?
  57  Craft against vice I must apply.
  58  With Angelo tonight shall lie
  59  His old betrothed but despise\d.
  60  So disguise shall, by th' disguise\d,
  61  Pay with falsehood false exacting,
  62  And perform an old contracting. <T dsd> {[Enter Mariana and Isabella]}
  63  <T verse> Welcome. How agreed?
  64  <S ISABELLA> She'll take the enterprise upon her, father,
  65  If you advise it.
      <T characters><X ><Y ><S ><A >
      ABHORSON
      ANGELO
      ANGELO {AND} ESCALUS
      BARNARDINE
      BOY
      CLAUDIO
      DUKE
      ELBOW
      ESCALUS
      FIRST GENTLEMAN
      FRANCESCA
      FRIAR
      FRIAR PETER
      FROTH
      ISABELLA
      JULIET
      JUSTICE
      LUCIO
      MARIANA
      MESSENGER
      MISTRESS OVERDONE
      POMPEY
      PROVOST
      SECOND GENTLEMAN
      SERVANT
      [DUKE]
      [PROVOST]
      <A ><D ><H ><K ><O ><S ><T ><X ><Y >