<?xml version="1.0"?>
<!DOCTYPE PLAY SYSTEM "play.dtd">

<PLAY>
<TITLE>Measure for Measure</TITLE>

<FM>
<P>ASCII text placed in the public domain by Moby Lexical Tools, 1992.</P>
<P>SGML markup by Jon Bosak, 1992-1994.</P>
<P>XML version by Jon Bosak, 1996-1999.</P>
<P>The XML markup in this version is Copyright &#169; 1999 Jon Bosak.
This work may freely be distributed on condition that it not be
modified or altered in any way.</P>
</FM>

<PERSONAE>
<TITLE>Dramatis Personae</TITLE>

<PERSONA>VINCENTIO, the Duke. </PERSONA>
<PERSONA>ANGELO, Deputy.</PERSONA>
<PERSONA>ESCALUS, an ancient Lord.</PERSONA>
<PERSONA>CLAUDIO, a young gentleman.</PERSONA>
<PERSONA>LUCIO, a fantastic.</PERSONA>
<PERSONA>Two other gentlemen.</PERSONA>
<PERSONA>Provost.</PERSONA>

<PGROUP>
<PERSONA>PETER</PERSONA>
<PERSONA>THOMAS</PERSONA>
<GRPDESCR>two friars.</GRPDESCR>
</PGROUP>

<PERSONA>A Justice.</PERSONA>
<PERSONA>VARRIUS</PERSONA>
<PERSONA>ELBOW, a simple constable.</PERSONA>
<PERSONA>FROTH, a foolish gentleman.</PERSONA>
<PERSONA>POMPEY, servant to Mistress Overdone.</PERSONA>
<PERSONA>ABHORSON, an executioner.</PERSONA>
<PERSONA>BARNARDINE, a dissolute prisoner.</PERSONA>
<PERSONA>ISABELLA, sister to Claudio.</PERSONA>
<PERSONA>MARIANA, betrothed to Angelo.</PERSONA>
<PERSONA>JULIET, beloved of Claudio.</PERSONA>
<PERSONA>FRANCISCA, a nun.</PERSONA>
<PERSONA>MISTRESS OVERDONE, a bawd.</PERSONA>
<PERSONA>Lords, Officers, Citizens, Boy, and Attendant.</PERSONA>
</PERSONAE>

<SCNDESCR>SCENE  Vienna.</SCNDESCR>

<PLAYSUBT>MEASURE FOR MEASURE</PLAYSUBT>

<ACT><TITLE>ACT I</TITLE>

<SCENE><TITLE>SCENE I.  An apartment in the DUKE'S palace.</TITLE>
<STAGEDIR>Enter DUKE VINCENTIO, ESCALUS, Lords and
Attendants</STAGEDIR>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>DUKE VINCENTIO</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Escalus.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>ESCALUS</SPEAKER>
<LINE>My lord.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>DUKE VINCENTIO</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Of government the properties to unfold,</LINE>
<LINE>Would seem in me to affect speech and discourse;</LINE>
<LINE>Since I am put to know that your own science</LINE>
<LINE>Exceeds, in that, the lists of all advice</LINE>
<LINE>My strength can give you: then no more remains,</LINE>
<LINE>But that to your sufficiency, as your Worth is able,</LINE>
<LINE>And let them work. The nature of our people,</LINE>
<LINE>Our city's institutions, and the terms</LINE>
<LINE>For common justice, you're as pregnant in</LINE>
<LINE>As art and practise hath enriched any</LINE>
<LINE>That we remember. There is our commission,</LINE>
<LINE>From which we would not have you warp. Call hither,</LINE>
<LINE>I say, bid come before us Angelo.</LINE>
<STAGEDIR>Exit an Attendant</STAGEDIR>
<LINE>What figure of us think you he will bear?</LINE>
<LINE>For you must know, we have with special soul</LINE>
<LINE>Elected him our absence to supply,</LINE>
<LINE>Lent him our terror, dress'd him with our love,</LINE>
<LINE>And given his deputation all the organs</LINE>
<LINE>Of our own power: what think you of it?</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>ESCALUS</SPEAKER>
<LINE>If any in Vienna be of worth</LINE>
<LINE>To undergo such ample grace and honour,</LINE>
<LINE>It is Lord Angelo.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>DUKE VINCENTIO</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Look where he comes.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<STAGEDIR>Enter ANGELO</STAGEDIR>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>ANGELO</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Always obedient to your grace's will,</LINE>
<LINE>I come to know your pleasure.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>DUKE VINCENTIO</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Angelo,</LINE>
<LINE>There is a kind of character in thy life,</LINE>
<LINE>That to the observer doth thy history</LINE>
<LINE>Fully unfold. Thyself and thy belongings</LINE>
<LINE>Are not thine own so proper as to waste</LINE>
<LINE>Thyself upon thy virtues, they on thee.</LINE>
<LINE>Heaven doth with us as we with torches do,</LINE>
<LINE>Not light them for themselves; for if our virtues</LINE>
<LINE>Did not go forth of us, 'twere all alike</LINE>
<LINE>As if we had them not. Spirits are not finely touch'd</LINE>
<LINE>But to fine issues, nor Nature never lends</LINE>
<LINE>The smallest scruple of her excellence</LINE>
<LINE>But, like a thrifty goddess, she determines</LINE>
<LINE>Herself the glory of a creditor,</LINE>
<LINE>Both thanks and use. But I do bend my speech</LINE>
<LINE>To one that can my part in him advertise;</LINE>
<LINE>Hold therefore, Angelo:--</LINE>
<LINE>In our remove be thou at full ourself;</LINE>
<LINE>Mortality and mercy in Vienna</LINE>
<LINE>Live in thy tongue and heart: old Escalus,</LINE>
<LINE>Though first in question, is thy secondary.</LINE>
<LINE>Take thy commission.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>ANGELO</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Now, good my lord,</LINE>
<LINE>Let there be some more test made of my metal,</LINE>
<LINE>Before so noble and so great a figure</LINE>
<LINE>Be stamp'd upon it.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>DUKE VINCENTIO</SPEAKER>
<LINE>No more evasion:</LINE>
<LINE>We have with a leaven'd and prepared choice</LINE>
<LINE>Proceeded to you; therefore take your honours.</LINE>
<LINE>Our haste from hence is of so quick condition</LINE>
<LINE>That it prefers itself and leaves unquestion'd</LINE>
<LINE>Matters of needful value. We shall write to you,</LINE>
<LINE>As time and our concernings shall importune,</LINE>
<LINE>How it goes with us, and do look to know</LINE>
<LINE>What doth befall you here. So, fare you well;</LINE>
<LINE>To the hopeful execution do I leave you</LINE>
<LINE>Of your commissions.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>ANGELO</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Yet give leave, my lord,</LINE>
<LINE>That we may bring you something on the way.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>DUKE VINCENTIO</SPEAKER>
<LINE>My haste may not admit it;</LINE>
<LINE>Nor need you, on mine honour, have to do</LINE>
<LINE>With any scruple; your scope is as mine own</LINE>
<LINE>So to enforce or qualify the laws</LINE>
<LINE>As to your soul seems good. Give me your hand:</LINE>
<LINE>I'll privily away. I love the people,</LINE>
<LINE>But do not like to stage me to their eyes:</LINE>
<LINE>Through it do well, I do not relish well</LINE>
<LINE>Their loud applause and Aves vehement;</LINE>
<LINE>Nor do I think the man of safe discretion</LINE>
<LINE>That does affect it. Once more, fare you well.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>ANGELO</SPEAKER>
<LINE>The heavens give safety to your purposes!</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>ESCALUS</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Lead forth and bring you back in happiness!</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>DUKE</SPEAKER>
<LINE>I thank you. Fare you well.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<STAGEDIR>Exit</STAGEDIR>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>ESCALUS</SPEAKER>
<LINE>I shall desire you, sir, to give me leave</LINE>
<LINE>To have free speech with you; and it concerns me</LINE>
<LINE>To look into the bottom of my place:</LINE>
<LINE>A power I have, but of what strength and nature</LINE>
<LINE>I am not yet instructed.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>ANGELO</SPEAKER>
<LINE>'Tis so with me. Let us withdraw together,</LINE>
<LINE>And we may soon our satisfaction have</LINE>
<LINE>Touching that point.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>ESCALUS</SPEAKER>
<LINE>I'll wait upon your honour.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<STAGEDIR>Exeunt</STAGEDIR>
</SCENE>

<SCENE><TITLE>SCENE II.  A Street.</TITLE>
<STAGEDIR>Enter LUCIO and two Gentlemen</STAGEDIR>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>LUCIO</SPEAKER>
<LINE>If the duke with the other dukes come not to</LINE>
<LINE>composition with the King of Hungary, why then all</LINE>
<LINE>the dukes fall upon the king.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>First Gentleman</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Heaven grant us its peace, but not the King of</LINE>
<LINE>Hungary's!</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>Second Gentleman</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Amen.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>LUCIO</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Thou concludest like the sanctimonious pirate, that</LINE>
<LINE>went to sea with the Ten Commandments, but scraped</LINE>
<LINE>one out of the table.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>Second Gentleman</SPEAKER>
<LINE>'Thou shalt not steal'?</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>LUCIO</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Ay, that he razed.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>First Gentleman</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Why, 'twas a commandment to command the captain and</LINE>
<LINE>all the rest from their functions: they put forth</LINE>
<LINE>to steal. There's not a soldier of us all, that, in</LINE>
<LINE>the thanksgiving before meat, do relish the petition</LINE>
<LINE>well that prays for peace.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>Second Gentleman</SPEAKER>
<LINE>I never heard any soldier dislike it.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>LUCIO</SPEAKER>
<LINE>I believe thee; for I think thou never wast where</LINE>
<LINE>grace was said.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>Second Gentleman</SPEAKER>
<LINE>No? a dozen times at least.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>First Gentleman</SPEAKER>
<LINE>What, in metre?</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>LUCIO</SPEAKER>
<LINE>In any proportion or in any language.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>First Gentleman</SPEAKER>
<LINE>I think, or in any religion.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>LUCIO</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Ay, why not? Grace is grace, despite of all</LINE>
<LINE>controversy: as, for example, thou thyself art a</LINE>
<LINE>wicked villain, despite of all grace.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>First Gentleman</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Well, there went but a pair of shears between us.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>LUCIO</SPEAKER>
<LINE>I grant; as there may between the lists and the</LINE>
<LINE>velvet. Thou art the list.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>First Gentleman</SPEAKER>
<LINE>And thou the velvet: thou art good velvet; thou'rt</LINE>
<LINE>a three-piled piece, I warrant thee: I had as lief</LINE>
<LINE>be a list of an English kersey as be piled, as thou</LINE>
<LINE>art piled, for a French velvet. Do I speak</LINE>
<LINE>feelingly now?</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>LUCIO</SPEAKER>
<LINE>I think thou dost; and, indeed, with most painful</LINE>
<LINE>feeling of thy speech: I will, out of thine own</LINE>
<LINE>confession, learn to begin thy health; but, whilst I</LINE>
<LINE>live, forget to drink after thee.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>First Gentleman</SPEAKER>
<LINE>I think I have done myself wrong, have I not?</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>Second Gentleman</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Yes, that thou hast, whether thou art tainted or free.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>LUCIO</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Behold, behold. where Madam Mitigation comes! I</LINE>
<LINE>have purchased as many diseases under her roof as come to--</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>Second Gentleman</SPEAKER>
<LINE>To what, I pray?</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>LUCIO</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Judge.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>Second Gentleman</SPEAKER>
<LINE>To three thousand dolours a year.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>First Gentleman</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Ay, and more.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>LUCIO</SPEAKER>
<LINE>A French crown more.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>First Gentleman</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Thou art always figuring diseases in me; but thou</LINE>
<LINE>art full of error; I am sound.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>LUCIO</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Nay, not as one would say, healthy; but so sound as</LINE>
<LINE>things that are hollow: thy bones are hollow;</LINE>
<LINE>impiety has made a feast of thee.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<STAGEDIR>Enter MISTRESS OVERDONE</STAGEDIR>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>First Gentleman</SPEAKER>
<LINE>How now! which of your hips has the most profound sciatica?</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>MISTRESS OVERDONE</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Well, well; there's one yonder arrested and carried</LINE>
<LINE>to prison was worth five thousand of you all.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>Second Gentleman</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Who's that, I pray thee?</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>MISTRESS OVERDONE</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Marry, sir, that's Claudio, Signior Claudio.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>First Gentleman</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Claudio to prison? 'tis not so.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>MISTRESS OVERDONE</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Nay, but I know 'tis so: I saw him arrested, saw</LINE>
<LINE>him carried away; and, which is more, within these</LINE>
<LINE>three days his head to be chopped off.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>LUCIO</SPEAKER>
<LINE>But, after all this fooling, I would not have it so.</LINE>
<LINE>Art thou sure of this?</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>MISTRESS OVERDONE</SPEAKER>
<LINE>I am too sure of it: and it is for getting Madam</LINE>
<LINE>Julietta with child.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>LUCIO</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Believe me, this may be: he promised to meet me two</LINE>
<LINE>hours since, and he was ever precise in</LINE>
<LINE>promise-keeping.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>Second Gentleman</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Besides, you know, it draws something near to the</LINE>
<LINE>speech we had to such a purpose.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>First Gentleman</SPEAKER>
<LINE>But, most of all, agreeing with the proclamation.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>LUCIO</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Away! let's go learn the truth of it.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<STAGEDIR>Exeunt LUCIO and Gentlemen</STAGEDIR>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>MISTRESS OVERDONE</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Thus, what with the war, what with the sweat, what</LINE>
<LINE>with the gallows and what with poverty, I am</LINE>
<LINE>custom-shrunk.</LINE>
<STAGEDIR>Enter POMPEY</STAGEDIR>
<LINE>How now! what's the news with you?</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>POMPEY</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Yonder man is carried to prison.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>MISTRESS OVERDONE</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Well; what has he done?</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>POMPEY</SPEAKER>
<LINE>A woman.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>MISTRESS OVERDONE</SPEAKER>
<LINE>But what's his offence?</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>POMPEY</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Groping for trouts in a peculiar river.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>MISTRESS OVERDONE</SPEAKER>
<LINE>What, is there a maid with child by him?</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>POMPEY</SPEAKER>
<LINE>No, but there's a woman with maid by him. You have</LINE>
<LINE>not heard of the proclamation, have you?</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>MISTRESS OVERDONE</SPEAKER>
<LINE>What proclamation, man?</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>POMPEY</SPEAKER>
<LINE>All houses in the suburbs of Vienna must be plucked down.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>MISTRESS OVERDONE</SPEAKER>
<LINE>And what shall become of those in the city?</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>POMPEY</SPEAKER>
<LINE>They shall stand for seed: they had gone down too,</LINE>
<LINE>but that a wise burgher put in for them.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>MISTRESS OVERDONE</SPEAKER>
<LINE>But shall all our houses of resort in the suburbs be</LINE>
<LINE>pulled down?</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>POMPEY</SPEAKER>
<LINE>To the ground, mistress.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>MISTRESS OVERDONE</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Why, here's a change indeed in the commonwealth!</LINE>
<LINE>What shall become of me?</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>POMPEY</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Come; fear you not: good counsellors lack no</LINE>
<LINE>clients: though you change your place, you need not</LINE>
<LINE>change your trade; I'll be your tapster still.</LINE>
<LINE>Courage! there will be pity taken on you: you that</LINE>
<LINE>have worn your eyes almost out in the service, you</LINE>
<LINE>will be considered.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>MISTRESS OVERDONE</SPEAKER>
<LINE>What's to do here, Thomas tapster? let's withdraw.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>POMPEY</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Here comes Signior Claudio, led by the provost to</LINE>
<LINE>prison; and there's Madam Juliet.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<STAGEDIR>Exeunt</STAGEDIR>
<STAGEDIR>Enter Provost, CLAUDIO, JULIET, and Officers</STAGEDIR>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>CLAUDIO</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Fellow, why dost thou show me thus to the world?</LINE>
<LINE>Bear me to prison, where I am committed.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>Provost</SPEAKER>
<LINE>I do it not in evil disposition,</LINE>
<LINE>But from Lord Angelo by special charge.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>CLAUDIO</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Thus can the demigod Authority</LINE>
<LINE>Make us pay down for our offence by weight</LINE>
<LINE>The words of heaven; on whom it will, it will;</LINE>
<LINE>On whom it will not, so; yet still 'tis just.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<STAGEDIR>Re-enter LUCIO and two Gentlemen</STAGEDIR>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>LUCIO</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Why, how now, Claudio! whence comes this restraint?</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>CLAUDIO</SPEAKER>
<LINE>From too much liberty, my Lucio, liberty:</LINE>
<LINE>As surfeit is the father of much fast,</LINE>
<LINE>So every scope by the immoderate use</LINE>
<LINE>Turns to restraint. Our natures do pursue,</LINE>
<LINE>Like rats that ravin down their proper bane,</LINE>
<LINE>A thirsty evil; and when we drink we die.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>LUCIO</SPEAKER>
<LINE>If could speak so wisely under an arrest, I would</LINE>
<LINE>send for certain of my creditors: and yet, to say</LINE>
<LINE>the truth, I had as lief have the foppery of freedom</LINE>
<LINE>as the morality of imprisonment. What's thy</LINE>
<LINE>offence, Claudio?</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>CLAUDIO</SPEAKER>
<LINE>What but to speak of would offend again.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>LUCIO</SPEAKER>
<LINE>What, is't murder?</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>CLAUDIO</SPEAKER>
<LINE>No.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>LUCIO</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Lechery?</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>CLAUDIO</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Call it so.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>Provost</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Away, sir! you must go.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>CLAUDIO</SPEAKER>
<LINE>One word, good friend. Lucio, a word with you.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>LUCIO</SPEAKER>
<LINE>A hundred, if they'll do you any good.</LINE>
<LINE>Is lechery so look'd after?</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>CLAUDIO</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Thus stands it with me: upon a true contract</LINE>
<LINE>I got possession of Julietta's bed:</LINE>
<LINE>You know the lady; she is fast my wife,</LINE>
<LINE>Save that we do the denunciation lack</LINE>
<LINE>Of outward order: this we came not to,</LINE>
<LINE>Only for propagation of a dower</LINE>
<LINE>Remaining in the coffer of her friends,</LINE>
<LINE>From whom we thought it meet to hide our love</LINE>
<LINE>Till time had made them for us. But it chances</LINE>
<LINE>The stealth of our most mutual entertainment</LINE>
<LINE>With character too gross is writ on Juliet.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>LUCIO</SPEAKER>
<LINE>With child, perhaps?</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>CLAUDIO</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Unhappily, even so.</LINE>
<LINE>And the new deputy now for the duke--</LINE>
<LINE>Whether it be the fault and glimpse of newness,</LINE>
<LINE>Or whether that the body public be</LINE>
<LINE>A horse whereon the governor doth ride,</LINE>
<LINE>Who, newly in the seat, that it may know</LINE>
<LINE>He can command, lets it straight feel the spur;</LINE>
<LINE>Whether the tyranny be in his place,</LINE>
<LINE>Or in his emmence that fills it up,</LINE>
<LINE>I stagger in:--but this new governor</LINE>
<LINE>Awakes me all the enrolled penalties</LINE>
<LINE>Which have, like unscour'd armour, hung by the wall</LINE>
<LINE>So long that nineteen zodiacs have gone round</LINE>
<LINE>And none of them been worn; and, for a name,</LINE>
<LINE>Now puts the drowsy and neglected act</LINE>
<LINE>Freshly on me: 'tis surely for a name.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>LUCIO</SPEAKER>
<LINE>I warrant it is: and thy head stands so tickle on</LINE>
<LINE>thy shoulders that a milkmaid, if she be in love,</LINE>
<LINE>may sigh it off. Send after the duke and appeal to</LINE>
<LINE>him.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>CLAUDIO</SPEAKER>
<LINE>I have done so, but he's not to be found.</LINE>
<LINE>I prithee, Lucio, do me this kind service:</LINE>
<LINE>This day my sister should the cloister enter</LINE>
<LINE>And there receive her approbation:</LINE>
<LINE>Acquaint her with the danger of my state:</LINE>
<LINE>Implore her, in my voice, that she make friends</LINE>
<LINE>To the strict deputy; bid herself assay him:</LINE>
<LINE>I have great hope in that; for in her youth</LINE>
<LINE>There is a prone and speechless dialect,</LINE>
<LINE>Such as move men; beside, she hath prosperous art</LINE>
<LINE>When she will play with reason and discourse,</LINE>
<LINE>And well she can persuade.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>LUCIO</SPEAKER>
<LINE>I pray she may; as well for the encouragement of the</LINE>
<LINE>like, which else would stand under grievous</LINE>
<LINE>imposition, as for the enjoying of thy life, who I</LINE>
<LINE>would be sorry should be thus foolishly lost at a</LINE>
<LINE>game of tick-tack. I'll to her.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>CLAUDIO</SPEAKER>
<LINE>I thank you, good friend Lucio.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>LUCIO</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Within two hours.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>CLAUDIO</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Come, officer, away!</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<STAGEDIR>Exeunt</STAGEDIR>
</SCENE>

<SCENE><TITLE>SCENE III.  A monastery.</TITLE>
<STAGEDIR>Enter DUKE VINCENTIO and FRIAR THOMAS</STAGEDIR>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>DUKE VINCENTIO</SPEAKER>
<LINE>No, holy father; throw away that thought;</LINE>
<LINE>Believe not that the dribbling dart of love</LINE>
<LINE>Can pierce a complete bosom. Why I desire thee</LINE>
<LINE>To give me secret harbour, hath a purpose</LINE>
<LINE>More grave and wrinkled than the aims and ends</LINE>
<LINE>Of burning youth.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>FRIAR THOMAS</SPEAKER>
<LINE>May your grace speak of it?</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>DUKE VINCENTIO</SPEAKER>
<LINE>My holy sir, none better knows than you</LINE>
<LINE>How I have ever loved the life removed</LINE>
<LINE>And held in idle price to haunt assemblies</LINE>
<LINE>Where youth, and cost, and witless bravery keeps.</LINE>
<LINE>I have deliver'd to Lord Angelo,</LINE>
<LINE>A man of stricture and firm abstinence,</LINE>
<LINE>My absolute power and place here in Vienna,</LINE>
<LINE>And he supposes me travell'd to Poland;</LINE>
<LINE>For so I have strew'd it in the common ear,</LINE>
<LINE>And so it is received. Now, pious sir,</LINE>
<LINE>You will demand of me why I do this?</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>FRIAR THOMAS</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Gladly, my lord.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>DUKE VINCENTIO</SPEAKER>
<LINE>We have strict statutes and most biting laws.</LINE>
<LINE>The needful bits and curbs to headstrong weeds,</LINE>
<LINE>Which for this nineteen years we have let slip;</LINE>
<LINE>Even like an o'ergrown lion in a cave,</LINE>
<LINE>That goes not out to prey. Now, as fond fathers,</LINE>
<LINE>Having bound up the threatening twigs of birch,</LINE>
<LINE>Only to stick it in their children's sight</LINE>
<LINE>For terror, not to use, in time the rod</LINE>
<LINE>Becomes more mock'd than fear'd; so our decrees,</LINE>
<LINE>Dead to infliction, to themselves are dead;</LINE>
<LINE>And liberty plucks justice by the nose;</LINE>
<LINE>The baby beats the nurse, and quite athwart</LINE>
<LINE>Goes all decorum.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>FRIAR THOMAS</SPEAKER>
<LINE>It rested in your grace</LINE>
<LINE>To unloose this tied-up justice when you pleased:</LINE>
<LINE>And it in you more dreadful would have seem'd</LINE>
<LINE>Than in Lord Angelo.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>DUKE VINCENTIO</SPEAKER>
<LINE>I do fear, too dreadful:</LINE>
<LINE>Sith 'twas my fault to give the people scope,</LINE>
<LINE>'Twould be my tyranny to strike and gall them</LINE>
<LINE>For what I bid them do: for we bid this be done,</LINE>
<LINE>When evil deeds have their permissive pass</LINE>
<LINE>And not the punishment. Therefore indeed, my father,</LINE>
<LINE>I have on Angelo imposed the office;</LINE>
<LINE>Who may, in the ambush of my name, strike home,</LINE>
<LINE>And yet my nature never in the fight</LINE>
<LINE>To do in slander. And to behold his sway,</LINE>
<LINE>I will, as 'twere a brother of your order,</LINE>
<LINE>Visit both prince and people: therefore, I prithee,</LINE>
<LINE>Supply me with the habit and instruct me</LINE>
<LINE>How I may formally in person bear me</LINE>
<LINE>Like a true friar. More reasons for this action</LINE>
<LINE>At our more leisure shall I render you;</LINE>
<LINE>Only, this one: Lord Angelo is precise;</LINE>
<LINE>Stands at a guard with envy; scarce confesses</LINE>
<LINE>That his blood flows, or that his appetite</LINE>
<LINE>Is more to bread than stone: hence shall we see,</LINE>
<LINE>If power change purpose, what our seemers be.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<STAGEDIR>Exeunt</STAGEDIR>
</SCENE>

<SCENE><TITLE>SCENE IV.  A nunnery.</TITLE>
<STAGEDIR>Enter ISABELLA and FRANCISCA</STAGEDIR>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>ISABELLA</SPEAKER>
<LINE>And have you nuns no farther privileges?</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>FRANCISCA</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Are not these large enough?</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>ISABELLA</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Yes, truly; I speak not as desiring more;</LINE>
<LINE>But rather wishing a more strict restraint</LINE>
<LINE>Upon the sisterhood, the votarists of Saint Clare.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>LUCIO</SPEAKER>
<LINE><STAGEDIR>Within</STAGEDIR>  Ho! Peace be in this place!</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>ISABELLA</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Who's that which calls?</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>FRANCISCA</SPEAKER>
<LINE>It is a man's voice. Gentle Isabella,</LINE>
<LINE>Turn you the key, and know his business of him;</LINE>
<LINE>You may, I may not; you are yet unsworn.</LINE>
<LINE>When you have vow'd, you must not speak with men</LINE>
<LINE>But in the presence of the prioress:</LINE>
<LINE>Then, if you speak, you must not show your face,</LINE>
<LINE>Or, if you show your face, you must not speak.</LINE>
<LINE>He calls again; I pray you, answer him.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<STAGEDIR>Exit</STAGEDIR>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>ISABELLA</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Peace and prosperity! Who is't that calls</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<STAGEDIR>Enter LUCIO</STAGEDIR>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>LUCIO</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Hail, virgin, if you be, as those cheek-roses</LINE>
<LINE>Proclaim you are no less! Can you so stead me</LINE>
<LINE>As bring me to the sight of Isabella,</LINE>
<LINE>A novice of this place and the fair sister</LINE>
<LINE>To her unhappy brother Claudio?</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>ISABELLA</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Why 'her unhappy brother'? let me ask,</LINE>
<LINE>The rather for I now must make you know</LINE>
<LINE>I am that Isabella and his sister.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>LUCIO</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Gentle and fair, your brother kindly greets you:</LINE>
<LINE>Not to be weary with you, he's in prison.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>ISABELLA</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Woe me! for what?</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>LUCIO</SPEAKER>
<LINE>For that which, if myself might be his judge,</LINE>
<LINE>He should receive his punishment in thanks:</LINE>
<LINE>He hath got his friend with child.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>ISABELLA</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Sir, make me not your story.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>LUCIO</SPEAKER>
<LINE>It is true.</LINE>
<LINE>I would not--though 'tis my familiar sin</LINE>
<LINE>With maids to seem the lapwing and to jest,</LINE>
<LINE>Tongue far from heart--play with all virgins so:</LINE>
<LINE>I hold you as a thing ensky'd and sainted.</LINE>
<LINE>By your renouncement an immortal spirit,</LINE>
<LINE>And to be talk'd with in sincerity,</LINE>
<LINE>As with a saint.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>ISABELLA</SPEAKER>
<LINE>You do blaspheme the good in mocking me.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>LUCIO</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Do not believe it. Fewness and truth, 'tis thus:</LINE>
<LINE>Your brother and his lover have embraced:</LINE>
<LINE>As those that feed grow full, as blossoming time</LINE>
<LINE>That from the seedness the bare fallow brings</LINE>
<LINE>To teeming foison, even so her plenteous womb</LINE>
<LINE>Expresseth his full tilth and husbandry.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>ISABELLA</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Some one with child by him? My cousin Juliet?</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>LUCIO</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Is she your cousin?</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>ISABELLA</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Adoptedly; as school-maids change their names</LINE>
<LINE>By vain though apt affection.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>LUCIO</SPEAKER>
<LINE>She it is.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>ISABELLA</SPEAKER>
<LINE>O, let him marry her.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>LUCIO</SPEAKER>
<LINE>This is the point.</LINE>
<LINE>The duke is very strangely gone from hence;</LINE>
<LINE>Bore many gentlemen, myself being one,</LINE>
<LINE>In hand and hope of action: but we do learn</LINE>
<LINE>By those that know the very nerves of state,</LINE>
<LINE>His givings-out were of an infinite distance</LINE>
<LINE>From his true-meant design. Upon his place,</LINE>
<LINE>And with full line of his authority,</LINE>
<LINE>Governs Lord Angelo; a man whose blood</LINE>
<LINE>Is very snow-broth; one who never feels</LINE>
<LINE>The wanton stings and motions of the sense,</LINE>
<LINE>But doth rebate and blunt his natural edge</LINE>
<LINE>With profits of the mind, study and fast.</LINE>
<LINE>He--to give fear to use and liberty,</LINE>
<LINE>Which have for long run by the hideous law,</LINE>
<LINE>As mice by lions--hath pick'd out an act,</LINE>
<LINE>Under whose heavy sense your brother's life</LINE>
<LINE>Falls into forfeit: he arrests him on it;</LINE>
<LINE>And follows close the rigour of the statute,</LINE>
<LINE>To make him an example. All hope is gone,</LINE>
<LINE>Unless you have the grace by your fair prayer</LINE>
<LINE>To soften Angelo: and that's my pith of business</LINE>
<LINE>'Twixt you and your poor brother.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>ISABELLA</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Doth he so seek his life?</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>LUCIO</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Has censured him</LINE>
<LINE>Already; and, as I hear, the provost hath</LINE>
<LINE>A warrant for his execution.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>ISABELLA</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Alas! what poor ability's in me</LINE>
<LINE>To do him good?</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>LUCIO</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Assay the power you have.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>ISABELLA</SPEAKER>
<LINE>My power? Alas, I doubt--</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>LUCIO</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Our doubts are traitors</LINE>
<LINE>And make us lose the good we oft might win</LINE>
<LINE>By fearing to attempt. Go to Lord Angelo,</LINE>
<LINE>And let him learn to know, when maidens sue,</LINE>
<LINE>Men give like gods; but when they weep and kneel,</LINE>
<LINE>All their petitions are as freely theirs</LINE>
<LINE>As they themselves would owe them.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>ISABELLA</SPEAKER>
<LINE>I'll see what I can do.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>LUCIO</SPEAKER>
<LINE>But speedily.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>ISABELLA</SPEAKER>
<LINE>I will about it straight;</LINE>
<LINE>No longer staying but to give the mother</LINE>
<LINE>Notice of my affair. I humbly thank you:</LINE>
<LINE>Commend me to my brother: soon at night</LINE>
<LINE>I'll send him certain word of my success.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>LUCIO</SPEAKER>
<LINE>I take my leave of you.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>ISABELLA</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Good sir, adieu.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<STAGEDIR>Exeunt</STAGEDIR>
</SCENE>

</ACT>

<ACT><TITLE>ACT II</TITLE>

<SCENE><TITLE>SCENE I.  A hall In ANGELO's house.</TITLE>
<STAGEDIR>Enter ANGELO, ESCALUS, and a Justice, Provost,
Officers, and other Attendants, behind</STAGEDIR>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>ANGELO</SPEAKER>
<LINE>We must not make a scarecrow of the law,</LINE>
<LINE>Setting it up to fear the birds of prey,</LINE>
<LINE>And let it keep one shape, till custom make it</LINE>
<LINE>Their perch and not their terror.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>ESCALUS</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Ay, but yet</LINE>
<LINE>Let us be keen, and rather cut a little,</LINE>
<LINE>Than fall, and bruise to death. Alas, this gentleman</LINE>
<LINE>Whom I would save, had a most noble father!</LINE>
<LINE>Let but your honour know,</LINE>
<LINE>Whom I believe to be most strait in virtue,</LINE>
<LINE>That, in the working of your own affections,</LINE>
<LINE>Had time cohered with place or place with wishing,</LINE>
<LINE>Or that the resolute acting of your blood</LINE>
<LINE>Could have attain'd the effect of your own purpose,</LINE>
<LINE>Whether you had not sometime in your life</LINE>
<LINE>Err'd in this point which now you censure him,</LINE>
<LINE>And pull'd the law upon you.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>ANGELO</SPEAKER>
<LINE>'Tis one thing to be tempted, Escalus,</LINE>
<LINE>Another thing to fall. I not deny,</LINE>
<LINE>The jury, passing on the prisoner's life,</LINE>
<LINE>May in the sworn twelve have a thief or two</LINE>
<LINE>Guiltier than him they try. What's open made to justice,</LINE>
<LINE>That justice seizes: what know the laws</LINE>
<LINE>That thieves do pass on thieves? 'Tis very pregnant,</LINE>
<LINE>The jewel that we find, we stoop and take't</LINE>
<LINE>Because we see it; but what we do not see</LINE>
<LINE>We tread upon, and never think of it.</LINE>
<LINE>You may not so extenuate his offence</LINE>
<LINE>For I have had such faults; but rather tell me,</LINE>
<LINE>When I, that censure him, do so offend,</LINE>
<LINE>Let mine own judgment pattern out my death,</LINE>
<LINE>And nothing come in partial. Sir, he must die.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>ESCALUS</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Be it as your wisdom will.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>ANGELO</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Where is the provost?</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>Provost</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Here, if it like your honour.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>ANGELO</SPEAKER>
<LINE>See that Claudio</LINE>
<LINE>Be executed by nine to-morrow morning:</LINE>
<LINE>Bring him his confessor, let him be prepared;</LINE>
<LINE>For that's the utmost of his pilgrimage.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<STAGEDIR>Exit Provost</STAGEDIR>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>ESCALUS</SPEAKER>
<LINE><STAGEDIR>Aside</STAGEDIR>  Well, heaven forgive him! and forgive us all!</LINE>
<LINE>Some rise by sin, and some by virtue fall:</LINE>
<LINE>Some run from brakes of ice, and answer none:</LINE>
<LINE>And some condemned for a fault alone.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<STAGEDIR>Enter ELBOW, and Officers with FROTH and POMPEY</STAGEDIR>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>ELBOW</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Come, bring them away: if these be good people in</LINE>
<LINE>a commonweal that do nothing but use their abuses in</LINE>
<LINE>common houses, I know no law: bring them away.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>ANGELO</SPEAKER>
<LINE>How now, sir! What's your name? and what's the matter?</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>ELBOW</SPEAKER>
<LINE>If it Please your honour, I am the poor duke's</LINE>
<LINE>constable, and my name is Elbow: I do lean upon</LINE>
<LINE>justice, sir, and do bring in here before your good</LINE>
<LINE>honour two notorious benefactors.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>ANGELO</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Benefactors? Well; what benefactors are they? are</LINE>
<LINE>they not malefactors?</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>ELBOW</SPEAKER>
<LINE>If it? please your honour, I know not well what they</LINE>
<LINE>are: but precise villains they are, that I am sure</LINE>
<LINE>of; and void of all profanation in the world that</LINE>
<LINE>good Christians ought to have.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>ESCALUS</SPEAKER>
<LINE>This comes off well; here's a wise officer.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>ANGELO</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Go to: what quality are they of? Elbow is your</LINE>
<LINE>name? why dost thou not speak, Elbow?</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>POMPEY</SPEAKER>
<LINE>He cannot, sir; he's out at elbow.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>ANGELO</SPEAKER>
<LINE>What are you, sir?</LINE>
</SPEECH>

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

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>ESCALUS</SPEAKER>
<LINE>How know you that?</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>ELBOW</SPEAKER>
<LINE>My wife, sir, whom I detest before heaven and your honour,--</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>ESCALUS</SPEAKER>
<LINE>How? thy wife?</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>ELBOW</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Ay, sir; whom, I thank heaven, is an honest woman,--</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>ESCALUS</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Dost thou detest her therefore?</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>ELBOW</SPEAKER>
<LINE>I say, sir, I will detest myself also, as well as</LINE>
<LINE>she, that this house, if it be not a bawd's house,</LINE>
<LINE>it is pity of her life, for it is a naughty house.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>ESCALUS</SPEAKER>
<LINE>How dost thou know that, constable?</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>ELBOW</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Marry, sir, by my wife; who, if she had been a woman</LINE>
<LINE>cardinally given, might have been accused in</LINE>
<LINE>fornication, adultery, and all uncleanliness there.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>ESCALUS</SPEAKER>
<LINE>By the woman's means?</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>ELBOW</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Ay, sir, by Mistress Overdone's means: but as she</LINE>
<LINE>spit in his face, so she defied him.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>POMPEY</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Sir, if it please your honour, this is not so.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>ELBOW</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Prove it before these varlets here, thou honourable</LINE>
<LINE>man; prove it.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>ESCALUS</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Do you hear how he misplaces?</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>POMPEY</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Sir, she came in great with child; and longing,</LINE>
<LINE>saving your honour's reverence, for stewed prunes;</LINE>
<LINE>sir, we had but two in the house, which at that very</LINE>
<LINE>distant time stood, as it were, in a fruit-dish, a</LINE>
<LINE>dish of some three-pence; your honours have seen</LINE>
<LINE>such dishes; they are not China dishes, but very</LINE>
<LINE>good dishes,--</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>ESCALUS</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Go to, go to: no matter for the dish, sir.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>POMPEY</SPEAKER>
<LINE>No, indeed, sir, not of a pin; you are therein in</LINE>
<LINE>the right: but to the point. As I say, this</LINE>
<LINE>Mistress Elbow, being, as I say, with child, and</LINE>
<LINE>being great-bellied, and longing, as I said, for</LINE>
<LINE>prunes; and having but two in the dish, as I said,</LINE>
<LINE>Master Froth here, this very man, having eaten the</LINE>
<LINE>rest, as I said, and, as I say, paying for them very</LINE>
<LINE>honestly; for, as you know, Master Froth, I could</LINE>
<LINE>not give you three-pence again.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>FROTH</SPEAKER>
<LINE>No, indeed.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>POMPEY</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Very well: you being then, if you be remembered,</LINE>
<LINE>cracking the stones of the foresaid prunes,--</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>FROTH</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Ay, so I did indeed.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>POMPEY</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Why, very well; I telling you then, if you be</LINE>
<LINE>remembered, that such a one and such a one were past</LINE>
<LINE>cure of the thing you wot of, unless they kept very</LINE>
<LINE>good diet, as I told you,--</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>FROTH</SPEAKER>
<LINE>All this is true.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>POMPEY</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Why, very well, then,--</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>ESCALUS</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Come, you are a tedious fool: to the purpose. What</LINE>
<LINE>was done to Elbow's wife, that he hath cause to</LINE>
<LINE>complain of? Come me to what was done to her.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>POMPEY</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Sir, your honour cannot come to that yet.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>ESCALUS</SPEAKER>
<LINE>No, sir, nor I mean it not.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>POMPEY</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Sir, but you shall come to it, by your honour's</LINE>
<LINE>leave. And, I beseech you, look into Master Froth</LINE>
<LINE>here, sir; a man of four-score pound a year; whose</LINE>
<LINE>father died at Hallowmas: was't not at Hallowmas,</LINE>
<LINE>Master Froth?</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>FROTH</SPEAKER>
<LINE>All-hallond eve.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>POMPEY</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Why, very well; I hope here be truths. He, sir,</LINE>
<LINE>sitting, as I say, in a lower chair, sir; 'twas in</LINE>
<LINE>the Bunch of Grapes, where indeed you have a delight</LINE>
<LINE>to sit, have you not?</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>FROTH</SPEAKER>
<LINE>I have so; because it is an open room and good for winter.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>POMPEY</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Why, very well, then; I hope here be truths.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>ANGELO</SPEAKER>
<LINE>This will last out a night in Russia,</LINE>
<LINE>When nights are longest there: I'll take my leave.</LINE>
<LINE>And leave you to the hearing of the cause;</LINE>
<LINE>Hoping you'll find good cause to whip them all.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>ESCALUS</SPEAKER>
<LINE>I think no less. Good morrow to your lordship.</LINE>
<STAGEDIR>Exit ANGELO</STAGEDIR>
<LINE>Now, sir, come on: what was done to Elbow's wife, once more?</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>POMPEY</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Once, sir? there was nothing done to her once.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>ELBOW</SPEAKER>
<LINE>I beseech you, sir, ask him what this man did to my wife.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>POMPEY</SPEAKER>
<LINE>I beseech your honour, ask me.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>ESCALUS</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Well, sir; what did this gentleman to her?</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>POMPEY</SPEAKER>
<LINE>I beseech you, sir, look in this gentleman's face.</LINE>
<LINE>Good Master Froth, look upon his honour; 'tis for a</LINE>
<LINE>good purpose. Doth your honour mark his face?</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>ESCALUS</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Ay, sir, very well.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>POMPEY</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Nay; I beseech you, mark it well.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>ESCALUS</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Well, I do so.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>POMPEY</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Doth your honour see any harm in his face?</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>ESCALUS</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Why, no.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>POMPEY</SPEAKER>
<LINE>I'll be supposed upon a book, his face is the worst</LINE>
<LINE>thing about him. Good, then; if his face be the</LINE>
<LINE>worst thing about him, how could Master Froth do the</LINE>
<LINE>constable's wife any harm? I would know that of</LINE>
<LINE>your honour.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>ESCALUS</SPEAKER>
<LINE>He's in the right. Constable, what say you to it?</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>ELBOW</SPEAKER>
<LINE>First, an it like you, the house is a respected</LINE>
<LINE>house; next, this is a respected fellow; and his</LINE>
<LINE>mistress is a respected woman.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>POMPEY</SPEAKER>
<LINE>By this hand, sir, his wife is a more respected</LINE>
<LINE>person than any of us all.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>ELBOW</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Varlet, thou liest; thou liest, wicked varlet! the</LINE>
<LINE>time has yet to come that she was ever respected</LINE>
<LINE>with man, woman, or child.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>POMPEY</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Sir, she was respected with him before he married with her.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>ESCALUS</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Which is the wiser here? Justice or Iniquity? Is</LINE>
<LINE>this true?</LINE>
</SPEECH>

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

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>ESCALUS</SPEAKER>
<LINE>If he took you a box o' the ear, you might have your</LINE>
<LINE>action of slander too.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>ELBOW</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Marry, I thank your good worship for it. What is't</LINE>
<LINE>your worship's pleasure I shall do with this wicked caitiff?</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>ESCALUS</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Truly, officer, because he hath some offences in him</LINE>
<LINE>that thou wouldst discover if thou couldst, let him</LINE>
<LINE>continue in his courses till thou knowest what they</LINE>
<LINE>are.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>ELBOW</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Marry, I thank your worship for it. Thou seest, thou</LINE>
<LINE>wicked varlet, now, what's come upon thee: thou art</LINE>
<LINE>to continue now, thou varlet; thou art to continue.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>ESCALUS</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Where were you born, friend?</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>FROTH</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Here in Vienna, sir.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>ESCALUS</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Are you of fourscore pounds a year?</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>FROTH</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Yes, an't please you, sir.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>ESCALUS</SPEAKER>
<LINE>So. What trade are you of, sir?</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>POMPHEY</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Tapster; a poor widow's tapster.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>ESCALUS</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Your mistress' name?</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>POMPHEY</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Mistress Overdone.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>ESCALUS</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Hath she had any more than one husband?</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>POMPEY</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Nine, sir; Overdone by the last.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>ESCALUS</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Nine! Come hither to me, Master Froth. Master</LINE>
<LINE>Froth, I would not have you acquainted with</LINE>
<LINE>tapsters: they will draw you, Master Froth, and you</LINE>
<LINE>will hang them. Get you gone, and let me hear no</LINE>
<LINE>more of you.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>FROTH</SPEAKER>
<LINE>I thank your worship. For mine own part, I never</LINE>
<LINE>come into any room in a tap-house, but I am drawn</LINE>
<LINE>in.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>ESCALUS</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Well, no more of it, Master Froth: farewell.</LINE>
<STAGEDIR>Exit FROTH</STAGEDIR>
<LINE>Come you hither to me, Master tapster. What's your</LINE>
<LINE>name, Master tapster?</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>POMPEY</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Pompey.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>ESCALUS</SPEAKER>
<LINE>What else?</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>POMPEY</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Bum, sir.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>ESCALUS</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Troth, and your bum is the greatest thing about you;</LINE>
<LINE>so that in the beastliest sense you are Pompey the</LINE>
<LINE>Great. Pompey, you are partly a bawd, Pompey,</LINE>
<LINE>howsoever you colour it in being a tapster, are you</LINE>
<LINE>not? come, tell me true: it shall be the better for you.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>POMPEY</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Truly, sir, I am a poor fellow that would live.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>ESCALUS</SPEAKER>
<LINE>How would you live, Pompey? by being a bawd? What</LINE>
<LINE>do you think of the trade, Pompey? is it a lawful trade?</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>POMPEY</SPEAKER>
<LINE>If the law would allow it, sir.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>ESCALUS</SPEAKER>
<LINE>But the law will not allow it, Pompey; nor it shall</LINE>
<LINE>not be allowed in Vienna.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>POMPEY</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Does your worship mean to geld and splay all the</LINE>
<LINE>youth of the city?</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>ESCALUS</SPEAKER>
<LINE>No, Pompey.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>POMPEY</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Truly, sir, in my poor opinion, they will to't then.</LINE>
<LINE>If your worship will take order for the drabs and</LINE>
<LINE>the knaves, you need not to fear the bawds.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>ESCALUS</SPEAKER>
<LINE>There are pretty orders beginning, I can tell you:</LINE>
<LINE>it is but heading and hanging.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>POMPEY</SPEAKER>
<LINE>If you head and hang all that offend that way but</LINE>
<LINE>for ten year together, you'll be glad to give out a</LINE>
<LINE>commission for more heads: if this law hold in</LINE>
<LINE>Vienna ten year, I'll rent the fairest house in it</LINE>
<LINE>after three-pence a bay: if you live to see this</LINE>
<LINE>come to pass, say Pompey told you so.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>ESCALUS</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Thank you, good Pompey; and, in requital of your</LINE>
<LINE>prophecy, hark you: I advise you, let me not find</LINE>
<LINE>you before me again upon any complaint whatsoever;</LINE>
<LINE>no, not for dwelling where you do: if I do, Pompey,</LINE>
<LINE>I shall beat you to your tent, and prove a shrewd</LINE>
<LINE>Caesar to you; in plain dealing, Pompey, I shall</LINE>
<LINE>have you whipt: so, for this time, Pompey, fare you well.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>POMPEY</SPEAKER>
<LINE>I thank your worship for your good counsel:</LINE>
<STAGEDIR>Aside</STAGEDIR>
<LINE>but I shall follow it as the flesh and fortune shall</LINE>
<LINE>better determine.</LINE>
<LINE>Whip me? No, no; let carman whip his jade:</LINE>
<LINE>The valiant heart is not whipt out of his trade.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<STAGEDIR>Exit</STAGEDIR>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>ESCALUS</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Come hither to me, Master Elbow; come hither, Master</LINE>
<LINE>constable. How long have you been in this place of constable?</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>ELBOW</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Seven year and a half, sir.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>ESCALUS</SPEAKER>
<LINE>I thought, by your readiness in the office, you had</LINE>
<LINE>continued in it some time. You say, seven years together?</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>ELBOW</SPEAKER>
<LINE>And a half, sir.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>ESCALUS</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Alas, it hath been great pains to you. They do you</LINE>
<LINE>wrong to put you so oft upon 't: are there not men</LINE>
<LINE>in your ward sufficient to serve it?</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>ELBOW</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Faith, sir, few of any wit in such matters: as they</LINE>
<LINE>are chosen, they are glad to choose me for them; I</LINE>
<LINE>do it for some piece of money, and go through with</LINE>
<LINE>all.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>ESCALUS</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Look you bring me in the names of some six or seven,</LINE>
<LINE>the most sufficient of your parish.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>ELBOW</SPEAKER>
<LINE>To your worship's house, sir?</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>ESCALUS</SPEAKER>
<LINE>To my house. Fare you well.</LINE>
<STAGEDIR>Exit ELBOW</STAGEDIR>
<LINE>What's o'clock, think you?</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>Justice</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Eleven, sir.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>ESCALUS</SPEAKER>
<LINE>I pray you home to dinner with me.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>Justice</SPEAKER>
<LINE>I humbly thank you.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>ESCALUS</SPEAKER>
<LINE>It grieves me for the death of Claudio;</LINE>
<LINE>But there's no remedy.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>Justice</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Lord Angelo is severe.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>ESCALUS</SPEAKER>
<LINE>It is but needful:</LINE>
<LINE>Mercy is not itself, that oft looks so;</LINE>
<LINE>Pardon is still the nurse of second woe:</LINE>
<LINE>But yet,--poor Claudio! There is no remedy.</LINE>
<LINE>Come, sir.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<STAGEDIR>Exeunt</STAGEDIR>
</SCENE>

<SCENE><TITLE>SCENE II.  Another room in the same.</TITLE>
<STAGEDIR>Enter Provost and a Servant</STAGEDIR>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>Servant</SPEAKER>
<LINE>He's hearing of a cause; he will come straight</LINE>
<LINE>I'll tell him of you.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>Provost</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Pray you, do.</LINE>
<STAGEDIR>Exit Servant</STAGEDIR>
<LINE>I'll know</LINE>
<LINE>His pleasure; may be he will relent. Alas,</LINE>
<LINE>He hath but as offended in a dream!</LINE>
<LINE>All sects, all ages smack of this vice; and he</LINE>
<LINE>To die for't!</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<STAGEDIR>Enter ANGELO</STAGEDIR>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>ANGELO</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Now, what's the matter. Provost?</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>Provost</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Is it your will Claudio shall die tomorrow?</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>ANGELO</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Did not I tell thee yea? hadst thou not order?</LINE>
<LINE>Why dost thou ask again?</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>Provost</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Lest I might be too rash:</LINE>
<LINE>Under your good correction, I have seen,</LINE>
<LINE>When, after execution, judgment hath</LINE>
<LINE>Repented o'er his doom.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>ANGELO</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Go to; let that be mine:</LINE>
<LINE>Do you your office, or give up your place,</LINE>
<LINE>And you shall well be spared.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>Provost</SPEAKER>
<LINE>I crave your honour's pardon.</LINE>
<LINE>What shall be done, sir, with the groaning Juliet?</LINE>
<LINE>She's very near her hour.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>ANGELO</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Dispose of her</LINE>
<LINE>To some more fitter place, and that with speed.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<STAGEDIR>Re-enter Servant</STAGEDIR>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>Servant</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Here is the sister of the man condemn'd</LINE>
<LINE>Desires access to you.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>ANGELO</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Hath he a sister?</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>Provost</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Ay, my good lord; a very virtuous maid,</LINE>
<LINE>And to be shortly of a sisterhood,</LINE>
<LINE>If not already.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>ANGELO</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Well, let her be admitted.</LINE>
<STAGEDIR>Exit Servant</STAGEDIR>
<LINE>See you the fornicatress be removed:</LINE>
<LINE>Let have needful, but not lavish, means;</LINE>
<LINE>There shall be order for't.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<STAGEDIR>Enter ISABELLA and LUCIO</STAGEDIR>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>Provost</SPEAKER>
<LINE>God save your honour!</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>ANGELO</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Stay a little while.</LINE>
<STAGEDIR>To ISABELLA</STAGEDIR>
<LINE>You're welcome: what's your will?</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>ISABELLA</SPEAKER>
<LINE>I am a woeful suitor to your honour,</LINE>
<LINE>Please but your honour hear me.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>ANGELO</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Well; what's your suit?</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>ISABELLA</SPEAKER>
<LINE>There is a vice that most I do abhor,</LINE>
<LINE>And most desire should meet the blow of justice;</LINE>
<LINE>For which I would not plead, but that I must;</LINE>
<LINE>For which I must not plead, but that I am</LINE>
<LINE>At war 'twixt will and will not.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>ANGELO</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Well; the matter?</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>ISABELLA</SPEAKER>
<LINE>I have a brother is condemn'd to die:</LINE>
<LINE>I do beseech you, let it be his fault,</LINE>
<LINE>And not my brother.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>Provost</SPEAKER>
<LINE><STAGEDIR>Aside</STAGEDIR>  Heaven give thee moving graces!</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>ANGELO</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Condemn the fault and not the actor of it?</LINE>
<LINE>Why, every fault's condemn'd ere it be done:</LINE>
<LINE>Mine were the very cipher of a function,</LINE>
<LINE>To fine the faults whose fine stands in record,</LINE>
<LINE>And let go by the actor.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>ISABELLA</SPEAKER>
<LINE>O just but severe law!</LINE>
<LINE>I had a brother, then. Heaven keep your honour!</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>LUCIO</SPEAKER>
<LINE><STAGEDIR>Aside to ISABELLA</STAGEDIR>  Give't not o'er so: to him</LINE>
<LINE>again, entreat him;</LINE>
<LINE>Kneel down before him, hang upon his gown:</LINE>
<LINE>You are too cold; if you should need a pin,</LINE>
<LINE>You could not with more tame a tongue desire it:</LINE>
<LINE>To him, I say!</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>ISABELLA</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Must he needs die?</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>ANGELO</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Maiden, no remedy.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>ISABELLA</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Yes; I do think that you might pardon him,</LINE>
<LINE>And neither heaven nor man grieve at the mercy.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>ANGELO</SPEAKER>
<LINE>I will not do't.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>ISABELLA</SPEAKER>
<LINE>But can you, if you would?</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>ANGELO</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Look, what I will not, that I cannot do.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>ISABELLA</SPEAKER>
<LINE>But might you do't, and do the world no wrong,</LINE>
<LINE>If so your heart were touch'd with that remorse</LINE>
<LINE>As mine is to him?</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>ANGELO</SPEAKER>
<LINE>He's sentenced; 'tis too late.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>LUCIO</SPEAKER>
<LINE><STAGEDIR>Aside to ISABELLA</STAGEDIR>  You are too cold.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>ISABELLA</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Too late? why, no; I, that do speak a word.</LINE>
<LINE>May call it back again. Well, believe this,</LINE>
<LINE>No ceremony that to great ones 'longs,</LINE>
<LINE>Not the king's crown, nor the deputed sword,</LINE>
<LINE>The marshal's truncheon, nor the judge's robe,</LINE>
<LINE>Become them with one half so good a grace</LINE>
<LINE>As mercy does.</LINE>
<LINE>If he had been as you and you as he,</LINE>
<LINE>You would have slipt like him; but he, like you,</LINE>
<LINE>Would not have been so stern.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>ANGELO</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Pray you, be gone.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>ISABELLA</SPEAKER>
<LINE>I would to heaven I had your potency,</LINE>
<LINE>And you were Isabel! should it then be thus?</LINE>
<LINE>No; I would tell what 'twere to be a judge,</LINE>
<LINE>And what a prisoner.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>LUCIO</SPEAKER>
<LINE><STAGEDIR>Aside to ISABELLA</STAGEDIR></LINE>
<LINE>Ay, touch him; there's the vein.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>ANGELO</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Your brother is a forfeit of the law,</LINE>
<LINE>And you but waste your words.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>ISABELLA</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Alas, alas!</LINE>
<LINE>Why, all the souls that were were forfeit once;</LINE>
<LINE>And He that might the vantage best have took</LINE>
<LINE>Found out the remedy. How would you be,</LINE>
<LINE>If He, which is the top of judgment, should</LINE>
<LINE>But judge you as you are? O, think on that;</LINE>
<LINE>And mercy then will breathe within your lips,</LINE>
<LINE>Like man new made.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>ANGELO</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Be you content, fair maid;</LINE>
<LINE>It is the law, not I condemn your brother:</LINE>
<LINE>Were he my kinsman, brother, or my son,</LINE>
<LINE>It should be thus with him: he must die tomorrow.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>ISABELLA</SPEAKER>
<LINE>To-morrow! O, that's sudden! Spare him, spare him!</LINE>
<LINE>He's not prepared for death. Even for our kitchens</LINE>
<LINE>We kill the fowl of season: shall we serve heaven</LINE>
<LINE>With less respect than we do minister</LINE>
<LINE>To our gross selves? Good, good my lord, bethink you;</LINE>
<LINE>Who is it that hath died for this offence?</LINE>
<LINE>There's many have committed it.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>LUCIO</SPEAKER>
<LINE><STAGEDIR>Aside to ISABELLA</STAGEDIR>           Ay, well said.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>ANGELO</SPEAKER>
<LINE>The law hath not been dead, though it hath slept:</LINE>
<LINE>Those many had not dared to do that evil,</LINE>
<LINE>If the first that did the edict infringe</LINE>
<LINE>Had answer'd for his deed: now 'tis awake</LINE>
<LINE>Takes note of what is done; and, like a prophet,</LINE>
<LINE>Looks in a glass, that shows what future evils,</LINE>
<LINE>Either new, or by remissness new-conceived,</LINE>
<LINE>And so in progress to be hatch'd and born,</LINE>
<LINE>Are now to have no successive degrees,</LINE>
<LINE>But, ere they live, to end.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>ISABELLA</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Yet show some pity.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>ANGELO</SPEAKER>
<LINE>I show it most of all when I show justice;</LINE>
<LINE>For then I pity those I do not know,</LINE>
<LINE>Which a dismiss'd offence would after gall;</LINE>
<LINE>And do him right that, answering one foul wrong,</LINE>
<LINE>Lives not to act another. Be satisfied;</LINE>
<LINE>Your brother dies to-morrow; be content.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>ISABELLA</SPEAKER>
<LINE>So you must be the first that gives this sentence,</LINE>
<LINE>And he, that suffer's. O, it is excellent</LINE>
<LINE>To have a giant's strength; but it is tyrannous</LINE>
<LINE>To use it like a giant.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>LUCIO</SPEAKER>
<LINE><STAGEDIR>Aside to ISABELLA</STAGEDIR>   That's well said.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>ISABELLA</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Could great men thunder</LINE>
<LINE>As Jove himself does, Jove would ne'er be quiet,</LINE>
<LINE>For every pelting, petty officer</LINE>
<LINE>Would use his heaven for thunder;</LINE>
<LINE>Nothing but thunder! Merciful Heaven,</LINE>
<LINE>Thou rather with thy sharp and sulphurous bolt</LINE>
<LINE>Split'st the unwedgeable and gnarled oak</LINE>
<LINE>Than the soft myrtle: but man, proud man,</LINE>
<LINE>Drest in a little brief authority,</LINE>
<LINE>Most ignorant of what he's most assured,</LINE>
<LINE>His glassy essence, like an angry ape,</LINE>
<LINE>Plays such fantastic tricks before high heaven</LINE>
<LINE>As make the angels weep; who, with our spleens,</LINE>
<LINE>Would all themselves laugh mortal.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>LUCIO</SPEAKER>
<LINE><STAGEDIR>Aside to ISABELLA</STAGEDIR>  O, to him, to him, wench! he</LINE>
<LINE>will relent;</LINE>
<LINE>He's coming; I perceive 't.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>Provost</SPEAKER>
<LINE><STAGEDIR>Aside</STAGEDIR>  Pray heaven she win him!</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>ISABELLA</SPEAKER>
<LINE>We cannot weigh our brother with ourself:</LINE>
<LINE>Great men may jest with saints; 'tis wit in them,</LINE>
<LINE>But in the less foul profanation.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>LUCIO</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Thou'rt i' the right, girl; more o, that.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>ISABELLA</SPEAKER>
<LINE>That in the captain's but a choleric word,</LINE>
<LINE>Which in the soldier is flat blasphemy.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>LUCIO</SPEAKER>
<LINE><STAGEDIR>Aside to ISABELLA</STAGEDIR>  Art avised o' that? more on 't.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>ANGELO</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Why do you put these sayings upon me?</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>ISABELLA</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Because authority, though it err like others,</LINE>
<LINE>Hath yet a kind of medicine in itself,</LINE>
<LINE>That skins the vice o' the top. Go to your bosom;</LINE>
<LINE>Knock there, and ask your heart what it doth know</LINE>
<LINE>That's like my brother's fault: if it confess</LINE>
<LINE>A natural guiltiness such as is his,</LINE>
<LINE>Let it not sound a thought upon your tongue</LINE>
<LINE>Against my brother's life.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>ANGELO</SPEAKER>
<LINE><STAGEDIR>Aside</STAGEDIR>                  She speaks, and 'tis</LINE>
<LINE>Such sense, that my sense breeds with it. Fare you well.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>ISABELLA</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Gentle my lord, turn back.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>ANGELO</SPEAKER>
<LINE>I will bethink me: come again tomorrow.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>ISABELLA</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Hark how I'll bribe you: good my lord, turn back.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>ANGELO</SPEAKER>
<LINE>How! bribe me?</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>ISABELLA</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Ay, with such gifts that heaven shall share with you.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>LUCIO</SPEAKER>
<LINE><STAGEDIR>Aside to ISABELLA</STAGEDIR>  You had marr'd all else.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>ISABELLA</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Not with fond shekels of the tested gold,</LINE>
<LINE>Or stones whose rates are either rich or poor</LINE>
<LINE>As fancy values them; but with true prayers</LINE>
<LINE>That shall be up at heaven and enter there</LINE>
<LINE>Ere sun-rise, prayers from preserved souls,</LINE>
<LINE>From fasting maids whose minds are dedicate</LINE>
<LINE>To nothing temporal.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>ANGELO</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Well; come to me to-morrow.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>LUCIO</SPEAKER>
<LINE><STAGEDIR>Aside to ISABELLA</STAGEDIR>  Go to; 'tis well; away!</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>ISABELLA</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Heaven keep your honour safe!</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>ANGELO</SPEAKER>
<LINE><STAGEDIR>Aside</STAGEDIR> Amen:</LINE>
<LINE>For I am that way going to temptation,</LINE>
<LINE>Where prayers cross.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>ISABELLA</SPEAKER>
<LINE>At what hour to-morrow</LINE>
<LINE>Shall I attend your lordship?</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>ANGELO</SPEAKER>
<LINE>At any time 'fore noon.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>ISABELLA</SPEAKER>
<LINE>'Save your honour!</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<STAGEDIR>Exeunt ISABELLA, LUCIO, and Provost</STAGEDIR>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>ANGELO</SPEAKER>
<LINE>From thee, even from thy virtue!</LINE>
<LINE>What's this, what's this? Is this her fault or mine?</LINE>
<LINE>The tempter or the tempted, who sins most?</LINE>
<LINE>Ha!</LINE>
<LINE>Not she: nor doth she tempt: but it is I</LINE>
<LINE>That, lying by the violet in the sun,</LINE>
<LINE>Do as the carrion does, not as the flower,</LINE>
<LINE>Corrupt with virtuous season. Can it be</LINE>
<LINE>That modesty may more betray our sense</LINE>
<LINE>Than woman's lightness? Having waste ground enough,</LINE>
<LINE>Shall we desire to raze the sanctuary</LINE>
<LINE>And pitch our evils there? O, fie, fie, fie!</LINE>
<LINE>What dost thou, or what art thou, Angelo?</LINE>
<LINE>Dost thou desire her foully for those things</LINE>
<LINE>That make her good? O, let her brother live!</LINE>
<LINE>Thieves for their robbery have authority</LINE>
<LINE>When judges steal themselves. What, do I love her,</LINE>
<LINE>That I desire to hear her speak again,</LINE>
<LINE>And feast upon her eyes? What is't I dream on?</LINE>
<LINE>O cunning enemy, that, to catch a saint,</LINE>
<LINE>With saints dost bait thy hook! Most dangerous</LINE>
<LINE>Is that temptation that doth goad us on</LINE>
<LINE>To sin in loving virtue: never could the strumpet,</LINE>
<LINE>With all her double vigour, art and nature,</LINE>
<LINE>Once stir my temper; but this virtuous maid</LINE>
<LINE>Subdues me quite. Even till now,</LINE>
<LINE>When men were fond, I smiled and wonder'd how.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<STAGEDIR>Exit</STAGEDIR>
</SCENE>

<SCENE><TITLE>SCENE III.  A room in a prison.</TITLE>
<STAGEDIR>Enter, severally, DUKE VINCENTIO disguised as a
friar, and Provost</STAGEDIR>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>DUKE VINCENTIO</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Hail to you, provost! so I think you are.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>Provost</SPEAKER>
<LINE>I am the provost. What's your will, good friar?</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>DUKE VINCENTIO</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Bound by my charity and my blest order,</LINE>
<LINE>I come to visit the afflicted spirits</LINE>
<LINE>Here in the prison. Do me the common right</LINE>
<LINE>To let me see them and to make me know</LINE>
<LINE>The nature of their crimes, that I may minister</LINE>
<LINE>To them accordingly.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>Provost</SPEAKER>
<LINE>I would do more than that, if more were needful.</LINE>
<STAGEDIR>Enter JULIET</STAGEDIR>
<LINE>Look, here comes one: a gentlewoman of mine,</LINE>
<LINE>Who, falling in the flaws of her own youth,</LINE>
<LINE>Hath blister'd her report: she is with child;</LINE>
<LINE>And he that got it, sentenced; a young man</LINE>
<LINE>More fit to do another such offence</LINE>
<LINE>Than die for this.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>DUKE VINCENTIO</SPEAKER>
<LINE>When must he die?</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>Provost</SPEAKER>
<LINE>As I do think, to-morrow.</LINE>
<LINE>I have provided for you: stay awhile,</LINE>
<STAGEDIR>To JULIET</STAGEDIR>
<LINE>And you shall be conducted.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>DUKE VINCENTIO</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Repent you, fair one, of the sin you carry?</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>JULIET</SPEAKER>
<LINE>I do; and bear the shame most patiently.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>DUKE VINCENTIO</SPEAKER>
<LINE>I'll teach you how you shall arraign your conscience,</LINE>
<LINE>And try your penitence, if it be sound,</LINE>
<LINE>Or hollowly put on.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>JULIET</SPEAKER>
<LINE>I'll gladly learn.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>DUKE VINCENTIO</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Love you the man that wrong'd you?</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>JULIET</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Yes, as I love the woman that wrong'd him.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>DUKE VINCENTIO</SPEAKER>
<LINE>So then it seems your most offenceful act</LINE>
<LINE>Was mutually committed?</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>JULIET</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Mutually.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>DUKE VINCENTIO</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Then was your sin of heavier kind than his.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>JULIET</SPEAKER>
<LINE>I do confess it, and repent it, father.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>DUKE VINCENTIO</SPEAKER>
<LINE>'Tis meet so, daughter: but lest you do repent,</LINE>
<LINE>As that the sin hath brought you to this shame,</LINE>
<LINE>Which sorrow is always towards ourselves, not heaven,</LINE>
<LINE>Showing we would not spare heaven as we love it,</LINE>
<LINE>But as we stand in fear,--</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>JULIET</SPEAKER>
<LINE>I do repent me, as it is an evil,</LINE>
<LINE>And take the shame with joy.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>DUKE VINCENTIO</SPEAKER>
<LINE>There rest.</LINE>
<LINE>Your partner, as I hear, must die to-morrow,</LINE>
<LINE>And I am going with instruction to him.</LINE>
<LINE>Grace go with you, Benedicite!</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<STAGEDIR>Exit</STAGEDIR>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>JULIET</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Must die to-morrow! O injurious love,</LINE>
<LINE>That respites me a life, whose very comfort</LINE>
<LINE>Is still a dying horror!</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>Provost</SPEAKER>
<LINE>'Tis pity of him.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<STAGEDIR>Exeunt</STAGEDIR>
</SCENE>

<SCENE><TITLE>SCENE IV.  A room in ANGELO's house.</TITLE>
<STAGEDIR>Enter ANGELO</STAGEDIR>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>ANGELO</SPEAKER>
<LINE>When I would pray and think, I think and pray</LINE>
<LINE>To several subjects. Heaven hath my empty words;</LINE>
<LINE>Whilst my invention, hearing not my tongue,</LINE>
<LINE>Anchors on Isabel: Heaven in my mouth,</LINE>
<LINE>As if I did but only chew his name;</LINE>
<LINE>And in my heart the strong and swelling evil</LINE>
<LINE>Of my conception. The state, whereon I studied</LINE>
<LINE>Is like a good thing, being often read,</LINE>
<LINE>Grown fear'd and tedious; yea, my gravity,</LINE>
<LINE>Wherein--let no man hear me--I take pride,</LINE>
<LINE>Could I with boot change for an idle plume,</LINE>
<LINE>Which the air beats for vain. O place, O form,</LINE>
<LINE>How often dost thou with thy case, thy habit,</LINE>
<LINE>Wrench awe from fools and tie the wiser souls</LINE>
<LINE>To thy false seeming! Blood, thou art blood:</LINE>
<LINE>Let's write good angel on the devil's horn:</LINE>
<LINE>'Tis not the devil's crest.</LINE>
<STAGEDIR>Enter a Servant</STAGEDIR>
<LINE>How now! who's there?</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>Servant</SPEAKER>
<LINE>One Isabel, a sister, desires access to you.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>ANGELO</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Teach her the way.</LINE>
<STAGEDIR>Exit Servant</STAGEDIR>
<LINE>O heavens!</LINE>
<LINE>Why does my blood thus muster to my heart,</LINE>
<LINE>Making both it unable for itself,</LINE>
<LINE>And dispossessing all my other parts</LINE>
<LINE>Of necessary fitness?</LINE>
<LINE>So play the foolish throngs with one that swoons;</LINE>
<LINE>Come all to help him, and so stop the air</LINE>
<LINE>By which he should revive: and even so</LINE>
<LINE>The general, subject to a well-wish'd king,</LINE>
<LINE>Quit their own part, and in obsequious fondness</LINE>
<LINE>Crowd to his presence, where their untaught love</LINE>
<LINE>Must needs appear offence.</LINE>
<STAGEDIR>Enter ISABELLA</STAGEDIR>
<LINE>How now, fair maid?</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>ISABELLA</SPEAKER>
<LINE>I am come to know your pleasure.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>ANGELO</SPEAKER>
<LINE>That you might know it, would much better please me</LINE>
<LINE>Than to demand what 'tis. Your brother cannot live.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>ISABELLA</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Even so. Heaven keep your honour!</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>ANGELO</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Yet may he live awhile; and, it may be,</LINE>
<LINE>As long as you or I yet he must die.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>ISABELLA</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Under your sentence?</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>ANGELO</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Yea.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>ISABELLA</SPEAKER>
<LINE>When, I beseech you? that in his reprieve,</LINE>
<LINE>Longer or shorter, he may be so fitted</LINE>
<LINE>That his soul sicken not.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>ANGELO</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Ha! fie, these filthy vices! It were as good</LINE>
<LINE>To pardon him that hath from nature stolen</LINE>
<LINE>A man already made, as to remit</LINE>
<LINE>Their saucy sweetness that do coin heaven's image</LINE>
<LINE>In stamps that are forbid: 'tis all as easy</LINE>
<LINE>Falsely to take away a life true made</LINE>
<LINE>As to put metal in restrained means</LINE>
<LINE>To make a false one.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>ISABELLA</SPEAKER>
<LINE>'Tis set down so in heaven, but not in earth.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>ANGELO</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Say you so? then I shall pose you quickly.</LINE>
<LINE>Which had you rather, that the most just law</LINE>
<LINE>Now took your brother's life; or, to redeem him,</LINE>
<LINE>Give up your body to such sweet uncleanness</LINE>
<LINE>As she that he hath stain'd?</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>ISABELLA</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Sir, believe this,</LINE>
<LINE>I had rather give my body than my soul.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>ANGELO</SPEAKER>
<LINE>I talk not of your soul: our compell'd sins</LINE>
<LINE>Stand more for number than for accompt.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>ISABELLA</SPEAKER>
<LINE>How say you?</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>ANGELO</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Nay, I'll not warrant that; for I can speak</LINE>
<LINE>Against the thing I say. Answer to this:</LINE>
<LINE>I, now the voice of the recorded law,</LINE>
<LINE>Pronounce a sentence on your brother's life:</LINE>
<LINE>Might there not be a charity in sin</LINE>
<LINE>To save this brother's life?</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>ISABELLA</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Please you to do't,</LINE>
<LINE>I'll take it as a peril to my soul,</LINE>
<LINE>It is no sin at all, but charity.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>ANGELO</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Pleased you to do't at peril of your soul,</LINE>
<LINE>Were equal poise of sin and charity.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>ISABELLA</SPEAKER>
<LINE>That I do beg his life, if it be sin,</LINE>
<LINE>Heaven let me bear it! you granting of my suit,</LINE>
<LINE>If that be sin, I'll make it my morn prayer</LINE>
<LINE>To have it added to the faults of mine,</LINE>
<LINE>And nothing of your answer.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>ANGELO</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Nay, but hear me.</LINE>
<LINE>Your sense pursues not mine: either you are ignorant,</LINE>
<LINE>Or seem so craftily; and that's not good.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>ISABELLA</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Let me be ignorant, and in nothing good,</LINE>
<LINE>But graciously to know I am no better.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>ANGELO</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Thus wisdom wishes to appear most bright</LINE>
<LINE>When it doth tax itself; as these black masks</LINE>
<LINE>Proclaim an enshield beauty ten times louder</LINE>
<LINE>Than beauty could, display'd. But mark me;</LINE>
<LINE>To be received plain, I'll speak more gross:</LINE>
<LINE>Your brother is to die.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>ISABELLA</SPEAKER>
<LINE>So.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>ANGELO</SPEAKER>
<LINE>And his offence is so, as it appears,</LINE>
<LINE>Accountant to the law upon that pain.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>ISABELLA</SPEAKER>
<LINE>True.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>ANGELO</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Admit no other way to save his life,--</LINE>
<LINE>As I subscribe not that, nor any other,</LINE>
<LINE>But in the loss of question,--that you, his sister,</LINE>
<LINE>Finding yourself desired of such a person,</LINE>
<LINE>Whose credit with the judge, or own great place,</LINE>
<LINE>Could fetch your brother from the manacles</LINE>
<LINE>Of the all-building law; and that there were</LINE>
<LINE>No earthly mean to save him, but that either</LINE>
<LINE>You must lay down the treasures of your body</LINE>
<LINE>To this supposed, or else to let him suffer;</LINE>
<LINE>What would you do?</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>ISABELLA</SPEAKER>
<LINE>As much for my poor brother as myself:</LINE>
<LINE>That is, were I under the terms of death,</LINE>
<LINE>The impression of keen whips I'ld wear as rubies,</LINE>
<LINE>And strip myself to death, as to a bed</LINE>
<LINE>That longing have been sick for, ere I'ld yield</LINE>
<LINE>My body up to shame.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>ANGELO</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Then must your brother die.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>ISABELLA</SPEAKER>
<LINE>And 'twere the cheaper way:</LINE>
<LINE>Better it were a brother died at once,</LINE>
<LINE>Than that a sister, by redeeming him,</LINE>
<LINE>Should die for ever.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>ANGELO</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Were not you then as cruel as the sentence</LINE>
<LINE>That you have slander'd so?</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>ISABELLA</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Ignomy in ransom and free pardon</LINE>
<LINE>Are of two houses: lawful mercy</LINE>
<LINE>Is nothing kin to foul redemption.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>ANGELO</SPEAKER>
<LINE>You seem'd of late to make the law a tyrant;</LINE>
<LINE>And rather proved the sliding of your brother</LINE>
<LINE>A merriment than a vice.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>ISABELLA</SPEAKER>
<LINE>O, pardon me, my lord; it oft falls out,</LINE>
<LINE>To have what we would have, we speak not what we mean:</LINE>
<LINE>I something do excuse the thing I hate,</LINE>
<LINE>For his advantage that I dearly love.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>ANGELO</SPEAKER>
<LINE>We are all frail.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>ISABELLA</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Else let my brother die,</LINE>
<LINE>If not a feodary, but only he</LINE>
<LINE>Owe and succeed thy weakness.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>ANGELO</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Nay, women are frail too.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>ISABELLA</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Ay, as the glasses where they view themselves;</LINE>
<LINE>Which are as easy broke as they make forms.</LINE>
<LINE>Women! Help Heaven! men their creation mar</LINE>
<LINE>In profiting by them. Nay, call us ten times frail;</LINE>
<LINE>For we are soft as our complexions are,</LINE>
<LINE>And credulous to false prints.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>ANGELO</SPEAKER>
<LINE>I think it well:</LINE>
<LINE>And from this testimony of your own sex,--</LINE>
<LINE>Since I suppose we are made to be no stronger</LINE>
<LINE>Than faults may shake our frames,--let me be bold;</LINE>
<LINE>I do arrest your words. Be that you are,</LINE>
<LINE>That is, a woman; if you be more, you're none;</LINE>
<LINE>If you be one, as you are well express'd</LINE>
<LINE>By all external warrants, show it now,</LINE>
<LINE>By putting on the destined livery.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>ISABELLA</SPEAKER>
<LINE>I have no tongue but one: gentle my lord,</LINE>
<LINE>Let me entreat you speak the former language.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>ANGELO</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Plainly conceive, I love you.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>ISABELLA</SPEAKER>
<LINE>My brother did love Juliet,</LINE>
<LINE>And you tell me that he shall die for it.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>ANGELO</SPEAKER>
<LINE>He shall not, Isabel, if you give me love.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>ISABELLA</SPEAKER>
<LINE>I know your virtue hath a licence in't,</LINE>
<LINE>Which seems a little fouler than it is,</LINE>
<LINE>To pluck on others.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>ANGELO</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Believe me, on mine honour,</LINE>
<LINE>My words express my purpose.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>ISABELLA</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Ha! little honour to be much believed,</LINE>
<LINE>And most pernicious purpose! Seeming, seeming!</LINE>
<LINE>I will proclaim thee, Angelo; look for't:</LINE>
<LINE>Sign me a present pardon for my brother,</LINE>
<LINE>Or with an outstretch'd throat I'll tell the world aloud</LINE>
<LINE>What man thou art.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>ANGELO</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Who will believe thee, Isabel?</LINE>
<LINE>My unsoil'd name, the austereness of my life,</LINE>
<LINE>My vouch against you, and my place i' the state,</LINE>
<LINE>Will so your accusation overweigh,</LINE>
<LINE>That you shall stifle in your own report</LINE>
<LINE>And smell of calumny. I have begun,</LINE>
<LINE>And now I give my sensual race the rein:</LINE>
<LINE>Fit thy consent to my sharp appetite;</LINE>
<LINE>Lay by all nicety and prolixious blushes,</LINE>
<LINE>That banish what they sue for; redeem thy brother</LINE>
<LINE>By yielding up thy body to my will;</LINE>
<LINE>Or else he must not only die the death,</LINE>
<LINE>But thy unkindness shall his death draw out</LINE>
<LINE>To lingering sufferance. Answer me to-morrow,</LINE>
<LINE>Or, by the affection that now guides me most,</LINE>
<LINE>I'll prove a tyrant to him. As for you,</LINE>
<LINE>Say what you can, my false o'erweighs your true.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<STAGEDIR>Exit</STAGEDIR>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>ISABELLA</SPEAKER>
<LINE>To whom should I complain? Did I tell this,</LINE>
<LINE>Who would believe me? O perilous mouths,</LINE>
<LINE>That bear in them one and the self-same tongue,</LINE>
<LINE>Either of condemnation or approof;</LINE>
<LINE>Bidding the law make court'sy to their will:</LINE>
<LINE>Hooking both right and wrong to the appetite,</LINE>
<LINE>To follow as it draws! I'll to my brother:</LINE>
<LINE>Though he hath fallen by prompture of the blood,</LINE>
<LINE>Yet hath he in him such a mind of honour.</LINE>
<LINE>That, had he twenty heads to tender down</LINE>
<LINE>On twenty bloody blocks, he'ld yield them up,</LINE>
<LINE>Before his sister should her body stoop</LINE>
<LINE>To such abhorr'd pollution.</LINE>
<LINE>Then, Isabel, live chaste, and, brother, die:</LINE>
<LINE>More than our brother is our chastity.</LINE>
<LINE>I'll tell him yet of Angelo's request,</LINE>
<LINE>And fit his mind to death, for his soul's rest.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<STAGEDIR>Exit</STAGEDIR>
</SCENE>

</ACT>

<ACT><TITLE>ACT III</TITLE>

<SCENE><TITLE>SCENE I.  A room in the prison.</TITLE>
<STAGEDIR>Enter DUKE VINCENTIO disguised as before, CLAUDIO,
and Provost</STAGEDIR>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>DUKE VINCENTIO</SPEAKER>
<LINE>So then you hope of pardon from Lord Angelo?</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>CLAUDIO</SPEAKER>
<LINE>The miserable have no other medicine</LINE>
<LINE>But only hope:</LINE>
<LINE>I've hope to live, and am prepared to die.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>DUKE VINCENTIO</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Be absolute for death; either death or life</LINE>
<LINE>Shall thereby be the sweeter. Reason thus with life:</LINE>
<LINE>If I do lose thee, I do lose a thing</LINE>
<LINE>That none but fools would keep: a breath thou art,</LINE>
<LINE>Servile to all the skyey influences,</LINE>
<LINE>That dost this habitation, where thou keep'st,</LINE>
<LINE>Hourly afflict: merely, thou art death's fool;</LINE>
<LINE>For him thou labour'st by thy flight to shun</LINE>
<LINE>And yet runn'st toward him still. Thou art not noble;</LINE>
<LINE>For all the accommodations that thou bear'st</LINE>
<LINE>Are nursed by baseness. Thou'rt by no means valiant;</LINE>
<LINE>For thou dost fear the soft and tender fork</LINE>
<LINE>Of a poor worm. Thy best of rest is sleep,</LINE>
<LINE>And that thou oft provokest; yet grossly fear'st</LINE>
<LINE>Thy death, which is no more. Thou art not thyself;</LINE>
<LINE>For thou exist'st on many a thousand grains</LINE>
<LINE>That issue out of dust. Happy thou art not;</LINE>
<LINE>For what thou hast not, still thou strivest to get,</LINE>
<LINE>And what thou hast, forget'st. Thou art not certain;</LINE>
<LINE>For thy complexion shifts to strange effects,</LINE>
<LINE>After the moon. If thou art rich, thou'rt poor;</LINE>
<LINE>For, like an ass whose back with ingots bows,</LINE>
<LINE>Thou bear's thy heavy riches but a journey,</LINE>
<LINE>And death unloads thee. Friend hast thou none;</LINE>
<LINE>For thine own bowels, which do call thee sire,</LINE>
<LINE>The mere effusion of thy proper loins,</LINE>
<LINE>Do curse the gout, serpigo, and the rheum,</LINE>
<LINE>For ending thee no sooner. Thou hast nor youth nor age,</LINE>
<LINE>But, as it were, an after-dinner's sleep,</LINE>
<LINE>Dreaming on both; for all thy blessed youth</LINE>
<LINE>Becomes as aged, and doth beg the alms</LINE>
<LINE>Of palsied eld; and when thou art old and rich,</LINE>
<LINE>Thou hast neither heat, affection, limb, nor beauty,</LINE>
<LINE>To make thy riches pleasant. What's yet in this</LINE>
<LINE>That bears the name of life? Yet in this life</LINE>
<LINE>Lie hid moe thousand deaths: yet death we fear,</LINE>
<LINE>That makes these odds all even.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>CLAUDIO</SPEAKER>
<LINE>I humbly thank you.</LINE>
<LINE>To sue to live, I find I seek to die;</LINE>
<LINE>And, seeking death, find life: let it come on.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>ISABELLA</SPEAKER>
<LINE><STAGEDIR>Within</STAGEDIR>  What, ho! Peace here; grace and good company!</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>Provost</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Who's there? come in: the wish deserves a welcome.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>DUKE VINCENTIO</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Dear sir, ere long I'll visit you again.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>CLAUDIO</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Most holy sir, I thank you.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<STAGEDIR>Enter ISABELLA</STAGEDIR>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>ISABELLA</SPEAKER>
<LINE>My business is a word or two with Claudio.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>Provost</SPEAKER>
<LINE>And very welcome. Look, signior, here's your sister.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>DUKE VINCENTIO</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Provost, a word with you.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>Provost</SPEAKER>
<LINE>As many as you please.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>DUKE VINCENTIO</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Bring me to hear them speak, where I may be concealed.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<STAGEDIR>Exeunt DUKE VINCENTIO and Provost</STAGEDIR>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>CLAUDIO</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Now, sister, what's the comfort?</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>ISABELLA</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Why,</LINE>
<LINE>As all comforts are; most good, most good indeed.</LINE>
<LINE>Lord Angelo, having affairs to heaven,</LINE>
<LINE>Intends you for his swift ambassador,</LINE>
<LINE>Where you shall be an everlasting leiger:</LINE>
<LINE>Therefore your best appointment make with speed;</LINE>
<LINE>To-morrow you set on.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>CLAUDIO</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Is there no remedy?</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>ISABELLA</SPEAKER>
<LINE>None, but such remedy as, to save a head,</LINE>
<LINE>To cleave a heart in twain.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>CLAUDIO</SPEAKER>
<LINE>But is there any?</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>ISABELLA</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Yes, brother, you may live:</LINE>
<LINE>There is a devilish mercy in the judge,</LINE>
<LINE>If you'll implore it, that will free your life,</LINE>
<LINE>But fetter you till death.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>CLAUDIO</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Perpetual durance?</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>ISABELLA</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Ay, just; perpetual durance, a restraint,</LINE>
<LINE>Though all the world's vastidity you had,</LINE>
<LINE>To a determined scope.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>CLAUDIO</SPEAKER>
<LINE>But in what nature?</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>ISABELLA</SPEAKER>
<LINE>In such a one as, you consenting to't,</LINE>
<LINE>Would bark your honour from that trunk you bear,</LINE>
<LINE>And leave you naked.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>CLAUDIO</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Let me know the point.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>ISABELLA</SPEAKER>
<LINE>O, I do fear thee, Claudio; and I quake,</LINE>
<LINE>Lest thou a feverous life shouldst entertain,</LINE>
<LINE>And six or seven winters more respect</LINE>
<LINE>Than a perpetual honour. Darest thou die?</LINE>
<LINE>The sense of death is most in apprehension;</LINE>
<LINE>And the poor beetle, that we tread upon,</LINE>
<LINE>In corporal sufferance finds a pang as great</LINE>
<LINE>As when a giant dies.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>CLAUDIO</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Why give you me this shame?</LINE>
<LINE>Think you I can a resolution fetch</LINE>
<LINE>From flowery tenderness? If I must die,</LINE>
<LINE>I will encounter darkness as a bride,</LINE>
<LINE>And hug it in mine arms.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>ISABELLA</SPEAKER>
<LINE>There spake my brother; there my father's grave</LINE>
<LINE>Did utter forth a voice. Yes, thou must die:</LINE>
<LINE>Thou art too noble to conserve a life</LINE>
<LINE>In base appliances. This outward-sainted deputy,</LINE>
<LINE>Whose settled visage and deliberate word</LINE>
<LINE>Nips youth i' the head and follies doth emmew</LINE>
<LINE>As falcon doth the fowl, is yet a devil</LINE>
<LINE>His filth within being cast, he would appear</LINE>
<LINE>A pond as deep as hell.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>CLAUDIO</SPEAKER>
<LINE>The prenzie Angelo!</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>ISABELLA</SPEAKER>
<LINE>O, 'tis the cunning livery of hell,</LINE>
<LINE>The damned'st body to invest and cover</LINE>
<LINE>In prenzie guards! Dost thou think, Claudio?</LINE>
<LINE>If I would yield him my virginity,</LINE>
<LINE>Thou mightst be freed.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>CLAUDIO</SPEAKER>
<LINE>O heavens! it cannot be.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>ISABELLA</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Yes, he would give't thee, from this rank offence,</LINE>
<LINE>So to offend him still. This night's the time</LINE>
<LINE>That I should do what I abhor to name,</LINE>
<LINE>Or else thou diest to-morrow.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>CLAUDIO</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Thou shalt not do't.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>ISABELLA</SPEAKER>
<LINE>O, were it but my life,</LINE>
<LINE>I'ld throw it down for your deliverance</LINE>
<LINE>As frankly as a pin.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>CLAUDIO</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Thanks, dear Isabel.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>ISABELLA</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Be ready, Claudio, for your death tomorrow.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>CLAUDIO</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Yes. Has he affections in him,</LINE>
<LINE>That thus can make him bite the law by the nose,</LINE>
<LINE>When he would force it? Sure, it is no sin,</LINE>
<LINE>Or of the deadly seven, it is the least.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>ISABELLA</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Which is the least?</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>CLAUDIO</SPEAKER>
<LINE>If it were damnable, he being so wise,</LINE>
<LINE>Why would he for the momentary trick</LINE>
<LINE>Be perdurably fined? O Isabel!</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>ISABELLA</SPEAKER>
<LINE>What says my brother?</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>CLAUDIO</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Death is a fearful thing.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>ISABELLA</SPEAKER>
<LINE>And shamed life a hateful.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>CLAUDIO</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Ay, but to die, and go we know not where;</LINE>
<LINE>To lie in cold obstruction and to rot;</LINE>
<LINE>This sensible warm motion to become</LINE>
<LINE>A kneaded clod; and the delighted spirit</LINE>
<LINE>To bathe in fiery floods, or to reside</LINE>
<LINE>In thrilling region of thick-ribbed ice;</LINE>
<LINE>To be imprison'd in the viewless winds,</LINE>
<LINE>And blown with restless violence round about</LINE>
<LINE>The pendent world; or to be worse than worst</LINE>
<LINE>Of those that lawless and incertain thought</LINE>
<LINE>Imagine howling: 'tis too horrible!</LINE>
<LINE>The weariest and most loathed worldly life</LINE>
<LINE>That age, ache, penury and imprisonment</LINE>
<LINE>Can lay on nature is a paradise</LINE>
<LINE>To what we fear of death.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>ISABELLA</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Alas, alas!</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>CLAUDIO</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Sweet sister, let me live:</LINE>
<LINE>What sin you do to save a brother's life,</LINE>
<LINE>Nature dispenses with the deed so far</LINE>
<LINE>That it becomes a virtue.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>ISABELLA</SPEAKER>
<LINE>O you beast!</LINE>
<LINE>O faithless coward! O dishonest wretch!</LINE>
<LINE>Wilt thou be made a man out of my vice?</LINE>
<LINE>Is't not a kind of incest, to take life</LINE>
<LINE>From thine own sister's shame? What should I think?</LINE>
<LINE>Heaven shield my mother play'd my father fair!</LINE>
<LINE>For such a warped slip of wilderness</LINE>
<LINE>Ne'er issued from his blood. Take my defiance!</LINE>
<LINE>Die, perish! Might but my bending down</LINE>
<LINE>Reprieve thee from thy fate, it should proceed:</LINE>
<LINE>I'll pray a thousand prayers for thy death,</LINE>
<LINE>No word to save thee.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>CLAUDIO</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Nay, hear me, Isabel.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>ISABELLA</SPEAKER>
<LINE>O, fie, fie, fie!</LINE>
<LINE>Thy sin's not accidental, but a trade.</LINE>
<LINE>Mercy to thee would prove itself a bawd:</LINE>
<LINE>'Tis best thou diest quickly.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>CLAUDIO</SPEAKER>
<LINE>O hear me, Isabella!</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<STAGEDIR>Re-enter DUKE VINCENTIO</STAGEDIR>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>DUKE VINCENTIO</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Vouchsafe a word, young sister, but one word.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>ISABELLA</SPEAKER>
<LINE>What is your will?</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>DUKE VINCENTIO</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Might you dispense with your leisure, I would by and</LINE>
<LINE>by have some speech with you: the satisfaction I</LINE>
<LINE>would require is likewise your own benefit.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>ISABELLA</SPEAKER>
<LINE>I have no superfluous leisure; my stay must be</LINE>
<LINE>stolen out of other affairs; but I will attend you awhile.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<STAGEDIR>Walks apart</STAGEDIR>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>DUKE VINCENTIO</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Son, I have overheard what hath passed between you</LINE>
<LINE>and your sister. Angelo had never the purpose to</LINE>
<LINE>corrupt her; only he hath made an essay of her</LINE>
<LINE>virtue to practise his judgment with the disposition</LINE>
<LINE>of natures: she, having the truth of honour in her,</LINE>
<LINE>hath made him that gracious denial which he is most</LINE>
<LINE>glad to receive. I am confessor to Angelo, and I</LINE>
<LINE>know this to be true; therefore prepare yourself to</LINE>
<LINE>death: do not satisfy your resolution with hopes</LINE>
<LINE>that are fallible: tomorrow you must die; go to</LINE>
<LINE>your knees and make ready.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>CLAUDIO</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Let me ask my sister pardon. I am so out of love</LINE>
<LINE>with life that I will sue to be rid of it.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>DUKE VINCENTIO</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Hold you there: farewell.</LINE>
<STAGEDIR>Exit CLAUDIO</STAGEDIR>
<LINE>Provost, a word with you!</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<STAGEDIR>Re-enter Provost</STAGEDIR>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>Provost</SPEAKER>
<LINE>What's your will, father</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>DUKE VINCENTIO</SPEAKER>
<LINE>That now you are come, you will be gone. Leave me</LINE>
<LINE>awhile with the maid: my mind promises with my</LINE>
<LINE>habit no loss shall touch her by my company.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>Provost</SPEAKER>
<LINE>In good time.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<STAGEDIR>Exit Provost. ISABELLA comes forward</STAGEDIR>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>DUKE VINCENTIO</SPEAKER>
<LINE>The hand that hath made you fair hath made you good:</LINE>
<LINE>the goodness that is cheap in beauty makes beauty</LINE>
<LINE>brief in goodness; but grace, being the soul of</LINE>
<LINE>your complexion, shall keep the body of it ever</LINE>
<LINE>fair. The assault that Angelo hath made to you,</LINE>
<LINE>fortune hath conveyed to my understanding; and, but</LINE>
<LINE>that frailty hath examples for his falling, I should</LINE>
<LINE>wonder at Angelo. How will you do to content this</LINE>
<LINE>substitute, and to save your brother?</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>ISABELLA</SPEAKER>
<LINE>I am now going to resolve him: I had rather my</LINE>
<LINE>brother die by the law than my son should be</LINE>
<LINE>unlawfully born. But, O, how much is the good duke</LINE>
<LINE>deceived in Angelo! If ever he return and I can</LINE>
<LINE>speak to him, I will open my lips in vain, or</LINE>
<LINE>discover his government.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>DUKE VINCENTIO</SPEAKER>
<LINE>That shall not be much amiss: Yet, as the matter</LINE>
<LINE>now stands, he will avoid your accusation; he made</LINE>
<LINE>trial of you only. Therefore fasten your ear on my</LINE>
<LINE>advisings: to the love I have in doing good a</LINE>
<LINE>remedy presents itself. I do make myself believe</LINE>
<LINE>that you may most uprighteously do a poor wronged</LINE>
<LINE>lady a merited benefit; redeem your brother from</LINE>
<LINE>the angry law; do no stain to your own gracious</LINE>
<LINE>person; and much please the absent duke, if</LINE>
<LINE>peradventure he shall ever return to have hearing of</LINE>
<LINE>this business.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>ISABELLA</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Let me hear you speak farther. I have spirit to do</LINE>
<LINE>anything that appears not foul in the truth of my spirit.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>DUKE VINCENTIO</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Virtue is bold, and goodness never fearful. Have</LINE>
<LINE>you not heard speak of Mariana, the sister of</LINE>
<LINE>Frederick the great soldier who miscarried at sea?</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>ISABELLA</SPEAKER>
<LINE>I have heard of the lady, and good words went with her name.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>DUKE VINCENTIO</SPEAKER>
<LINE>She should this Angelo have married; was affianced</LINE>
<LINE>to her by oath, and the nuptial appointed: between</LINE>
<LINE>which time of the contract and limit of the</LINE>
<LINE>solemnity, her brother Frederick was wrecked at sea,</LINE>
<LINE>having in that perished vessel the dowry of his</LINE>
<LINE>sister. But mark how heavily this befell to the</LINE>
<LINE>poor gentlewoman: there she lost a noble and</LINE>
<LINE>renowned brother, in his love toward her ever most</LINE>
<LINE>kind and natural; with him, the portion and sinew of</LINE>
<LINE>her fortune, her marriage-dowry; with both, her</LINE>
<LINE>combinate husband, this well-seeming Angelo.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>ISABELLA</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Can this be so? did Angelo so leave her?</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>DUKE VINCENTIO</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Left her in her tears, and dried not one of them</LINE>
<LINE>with his comfort; swallowed his vows whole,</LINE>
<LINE>pretending in her discoveries of dishonour: in few,</LINE>
<LINE>bestowed her on her own lamentation, which she yet</LINE>
<LINE>wears for his sake; and he, a marble to her tears,</LINE>
<LINE>is washed with them, but relents not.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>ISABELLA</SPEAKER>
<LINE>What a merit were it in death to take this poor maid</LINE>
<LINE>from the world! What corruption in this life, that</LINE>
<LINE>it will let this man live! But how out of this can she avail?</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>DUKE VINCENTIO</SPEAKER>
<LINE>It is a rupture that you may easily heal: and the</LINE>
<LINE>cure of it not only saves your brother, but keeps</LINE>
<LINE>you from dishonour in doing it.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>ISABELLA</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Show me how, good father.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>DUKE VINCENTIO</SPEAKER>
<LINE>This forenamed maid hath yet in her the continuance</LINE>
<LINE>of her first affection: his unjust unkindness, that</LINE>
<LINE>in all reason should have quenched her love, hath,</LINE>
<LINE>like an impediment in the current, made it more</LINE>
<LINE>violent and unruly. Go you to Angelo; answer his</LINE>
<LINE>requiring with a plausible obedience; agree with</LINE>
<LINE>his demands to the point; only refer yourself to</LINE>
<LINE>this advantage, first, that your stay with him may</LINE>
<LINE>not be long; that the time may have all shadow and</LINE>
<LINE>silence in it; and the place answer to convenience.</LINE>
<LINE>This being granted in course,--and now follows</LINE>
<LINE>all,--we shall advise this wronged maid to stead up</LINE>
<LINE>your appointment, go in your place; if the encounter</LINE>
<LINE>acknowledge itself hereafter, it may compel him to</LINE>
<LINE>her recompense: and here, by this, is your brother</LINE>
<LINE>saved, your honour untainted, the poor Mariana</LINE>
<LINE>advantaged, and the corrupt deputy scaled. The maid</LINE>
<LINE>will I frame and make fit for his attempt. If you</LINE>
<LINE>think well to carry this as you may, the doubleness</LINE>
<LINE>of the benefit defends the deceit from reproof.</LINE>
<LINE>What think you of it?</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>ISABELLA</SPEAKER>
<LINE>The image of it gives me content already; and I</LINE>
<LINE>trust it will grow to a most prosperous perfection.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>DUKE VINCENTIO</SPEAKER>
<LINE>It lies much in your holding up. Haste you speedily</LINE>
<LINE>to Angelo: if for this night he entreat you to his</LINE>
<LINE>bed, give him promise of satisfaction. I will</LINE>
<LINE>presently to Saint Luke's: there, at the moated</LINE>
<LINE>grange, resides this dejected Mariana. At that</LINE>
<LINE>place call upon me; and dispatch with Angelo, that</LINE>
<LINE>it may be quickly.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>ISABELLA</SPEAKER>
<LINE>I thank you for this comfort. Fare you well, good father.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<STAGEDIR>Exeunt severally</STAGEDIR>
</SCENE>

<SCENE><TITLE>SCENE II.  The street before the prison.</TITLE>
<STAGEDIR>Enter, on one side, DUKE VINCENTIO disguised as
before; on the other, ELBOW, and Officers with POMPEY</STAGEDIR>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>ELBOW</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Nay, if there be no remedy for it, but that you will</LINE>
<LINE>needs buy and sell men and women like beasts, we</LINE>
<LINE>shall have all the world drink brown and white bastard.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>DUKE VINCENTIO</SPEAKER>
<LINE>O heavens! what stuff is here</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>POMPEY</SPEAKER>
<LINE>'Twas never merry world since, of two usuries, the</LINE>
<LINE>merriest was put down, and the worser allowed by</LINE>
<LINE>order of law a furred gown to keep him warm; and</LINE>
<LINE>furred with fox and lamb-skins too, to signify, that</LINE>
<LINE>craft, being richer than innocency, stands for the facing.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>ELBOW</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Come your way, sir. 'Bless you, good father friar.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>DUKE VINCENTIO</SPEAKER>
<LINE>And you, good brother father. What offence hath</LINE>
<LINE>this man made you, sir?</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>ELBOW</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Marry, sir, he hath offended the law: and, sir, we</LINE>
<LINE>take him to be a thief too, sir; for we have found</LINE>
<LINE>upon him, sir, a strange picklock, which we have</LINE>
<LINE>sent to the deputy.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>DUKE VINCENTIO</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Fie, sirrah! a bawd, a wicked bawd!</LINE>
<LINE>The evil that thou causest to be done,</LINE>
<LINE>That is thy means to live. Do thou but think</LINE>
<LINE>What 'tis to cram a maw or clothe a back</LINE>
<LINE>From such a filthy vice: say to thyself,</LINE>
<LINE>From their abominable and beastly touches</LINE>
<LINE>I drink, I eat, array myself, and live.</LINE>
<LINE>Canst thou believe thy living is a life,</LINE>
<LINE>So stinkingly depending? Go mend, go mend.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>POMPEY</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Indeed, it does stink in some sort, sir; but yet,</LINE>
<LINE>sir, I would prove--</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>DUKE VINCENTIO</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Nay, if the devil have given thee proofs for sin,</LINE>
<LINE>Thou wilt prove his. Take him to prison, officer:</LINE>
<LINE>Correction and instruction must both work</LINE>
<LINE>Ere this rude beast will profit.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>ELBOW</SPEAKER>
<LINE>He must before the deputy, sir; he has given him</LINE>
<LINE>warning: the deputy cannot abide a whoremaster: if</LINE>
<LINE>he be a whoremonger, and comes before him, he were</LINE>
<LINE>as good go a mile on his errand.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>DUKE VINCENTIO</SPEAKER>
<LINE>That we were all, as some would seem to be,</LINE>
<LINE>From our faults, as faults from seeming, free!</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>ELBOW</SPEAKER>
<LINE>His neck will come to your waist,--a cord, sir.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>POMPEY</SPEAKER>
<LINE>I spy comfort; I cry bail. Here's a gentleman and a</LINE>
<LINE>friend of mine.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<STAGEDIR>Enter LUCIO</STAGEDIR>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>LUCIO</SPEAKER>
<LINE>How now, noble Pompey! What, at the wheels of</LINE>
<LINE>Caesar? art thou led in triumph? What, is there</LINE>
<LINE>none of Pygmalion's images, newly made woman, to be</LINE>
<LINE>had now, for putting the hand in the pocket and</LINE>
<LINE>extracting it clutch'd? What reply, ha? What</LINE>
<LINE>sayest thou to this tune, matter and method? Is't</LINE>
<LINE>not drowned i' the last rain, ha? What sayest</LINE>
<LINE>thou, Trot? Is the world as it was, man? Which is</LINE>
<LINE>the way? Is it sad, and few words? or how? The</LINE>
<LINE>trick of it?</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>DUKE VINCENTIO</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Still thus, and thus; still worse!</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>LUCIO</SPEAKER>
<LINE>How doth my dear morsel, thy mistress? Procures she</LINE>
<LINE>still, ha?</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>POMPEY</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Troth, sir, she hath eaten up all her beef, and she</LINE>
<LINE>is herself in the tub.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>LUCIO</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Why, 'tis good; it is the right of it; it must be</LINE>
<LINE>so: ever your fresh whore and your powdered bawd:</LINE>
<LINE>an unshunned consequence; it must be so. Art going</LINE>
<LINE>to prison, Pompey?</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>POMPEY</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Yes, faith, sir.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>LUCIO</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Why, 'tis not amiss, Pompey. Farewell: go, say I</LINE>
<LINE>sent thee thither. For debt, Pompey? or how?</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>ELBOW</SPEAKER>
<LINE>For being a bawd, for being a bawd.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>LUCIO</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Well, then, imprison him: if imprisonment be the</LINE>
<LINE>due of a bawd, why, 'tis his right: bawd is he</LINE>
<LINE>doubtless, and of antiquity too; bawd-born.</LINE>
<LINE>Farewell, good Pompey. Commend me to the prison,</LINE>
<LINE>Pompey: you will turn good husband now, Pompey; you</LINE>
<LINE>will keep the house.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>POMPEY</SPEAKER>
<LINE>I hope, sir, your good worship will be my bail.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>LUCIO</SPEAKER>
<LINE>No, indeed, will I not, Pompey; it is not the wear.</LINE>
<LINE>I will pray, Pompey, to increase your bondage: If</LINE>
<LINE>you take it not patiently, why, your mettle is the</LINE>
<LINE>more. Adieu, trusty Pompey. 'Bless you, friar.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>DUKE VINCENTIO</SPEAKER>
<LINE>And you.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>LUCIO</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Does Bridget paint still, Pompey, ha?</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>ELBOW</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Come your ways, sir; come.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>POMPEY</SPEAKER>
<LINE>You will not bail me, then, sir?</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>LUCIO</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Then, Pompey, nor now. What news abroad, friar?</LINE>
<LINE>what news?</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>ELBOW</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Come your ways, sir; come.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>LUCIO</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Go to kennel, Pompey; go.</LINE>
<STAGEDIR>Exeunt ELBOW, POMPEY and Officers</STAGEDIR>
<LINE>What news, friar, of the duke?</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>DUKE VINCENTIO</SPEAKER>
<LINE>I know none. Can you tell me of any?</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>LUCIO</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Some say he is with the Emperor of Russia; other</LINE>
<LINE>some, he is in Rome: but where is he, think you?</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>DUKE VINCENTIO</SPEAKER>
<LINE>I know not where; but wheresoever, I wish him well.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>LUCIO</SPEAKER>
<LINE>It was a mad fantastical trick of him to steal from</LINE>
<LINE>the state, and usurp the beggary he was never born</LINE>
<LINE>to. Lord Angelo dukes it well in his absence; he</LINE>
<LINE>puts transgression to 't.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>DUKE VINCENTIO</SPEAKER>
<LINE>He does well in 't.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>LUCIO</SPEAKER>
<LINE>A little more lenity to lechery would do no harm in</LINE>
<LINE>him: something too crabbed that way, friar.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>DUKE VINCENTIO</SPEAKER>
<LINE>It is too general a vice, and severity must cure it.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>LUCIO</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Yes, in good sooth, the vice is of a great kindred;</LINE>
<LINE>it is well allied: but it is impossible to extirp</LINE>
<LINE>it quite, friar, till eating and drinking be put</LINE>
<LINE>down. They say this Angelo was not made by man and</LINE>
<LINE>woman after this downright way of creation: is it</LINE>
<LINE>true, think you?</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>DUKE VINCENTIO</SPEAKER>
<LINE>How should he be made, then?</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>LUCIO</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Some report a sea-maid spawned him; some, that he</LINE>
<LINE>was begot between two stock-fishes. But it is</LINE>
<LINE>certain that when he makes water his urine is</LINE>
<LINE>congealed ice; that I know to be true: and he is a</LINE>
<LINE>motion generative; that's infallible.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>DUKE VINCENTIO</SPEAKER>
<LINE>You are pleasant, sir, and speak apace.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>LUCIO</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Why, what a ruthless thing is this in him, for the</LINE>
<LINE>rebellion of a codpiece to take away the life of a</LINE>
<LINE>man! Would the duke that is absent have done this?</LINE>
<LINE>Ere he would have hanged a man for the getting a</LINE>
<LINE>hundred bastards, he would have paid for the nursing</LINE>
<LINE>a thousand: he had some feeling of the sport: he</LINE>
<LINE>knew the service, and that instructed him to mercy.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>DUKE VINCENTIO</SPEAKER>
<LINE>I never heard the absent duke much detected for</LINE>
<LINE>women; he was not inclined that way.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>LUCIO</SPEAKER>
<LINE>O, sir, you are deceived.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>DUKE VINCENTIO</SPEAKER>
<LINE>'Tis not possible.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>LUCIO</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Who, not the duke? yes, your beggar of fifty; and</LINE>
<LINE>his use was to put a ducat in her clack-dish: the</LINE>
<LINE>duke had crotchets in him. He would be drunk too;</LINE>
<LINE>that let me inform you.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>DUKE VINCENTIO</SPEAKER>
<LINE>You do him wrong, surely.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>LUCIO</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Sir, I was an inward of his. A shy fellow was the</LINE>
<LINE>duke: and I believe I know the cause of his</LINE>
<LINE>withdrawing.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>DUKE VINCENTIO</SPEAKER>
<LINE>What, I prithee, might be the cause?</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>LUCIO</SPEAKER>
<LINE>No, pardon; 'tis a secret must be locked within the</LINE>
<LINE>teeth and the lips: but this I can let you</LINE>
<LINE>understand, the greater file of the subject held the</LINE>
<LINE>duke to be wise.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>DUKE VINCENTIO</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Wise! why, no question but he was.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>LUCIO</SPEAKER>
<LINE>A very superficial, ignorant, unweighing fellow.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>DUKE VINCENTIO</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Either this is the envy in you, folly, or mistaking:</LINE>
<LINE>the very stream of his life and the business he hath</LINE>
<LINE>helmed must upon a warranted need give him a better</LINE>
<LINE>proclamation. Let him be but testimonied in his own</LINE>
<LINE>bringings-forth, and he shall appear to the</LINE>
<LINE>envious a scholar, a statesman and a soldier.</LINE>
<LINE>Therefore you speak unskilfully: or if your</LINE>
<LINE>knowledge be more it is much darkened in your malice.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>LUCIO</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Sir, I know him, and I love him.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>DUKE VINCENTIO</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Love talks with better knowledge, and knowledge with</LINE>
<LINE>dearer love.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>LUCIO</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Come, sir, I know what I know.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>DUKE VINCENTIO</SPEAKER>
<LINE>I can hardly believe that, since you know not what</LINE>
<LINE>you speak. But, if ever the duke return, as our</LINE>
<LINE>prayers are he may, let me desire you to make your</LINE>
<LINE>answer before him. If it be honest you have spoke,</LINE>
<LINE>you have courage to maintain it: I am bound to call</LINE>
<LINE>upon you; and, I pray you, your name?</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>LUCIO</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Sir, my name is Lucio; well known to the duke.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>DUKE VINCENTIO</SPEAKER>
<LINE>He shall know you better, sir, if I may live to</LINE>
<LINE>report you.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>LUCIO</SPEAKER>
<LINE>I fear you not.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>DUKE VINCENTIO</SPEAKER>
<LINE>O, you hope the duke will return no more; or you</LINE>
<LINE>imagine me too unhurtful an opposite. But indeed I</LINE>
<LINE>can do you little harm; you'll forswear this again.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>LUCIO</SPEAKER>
<LINE>I'll be hanged first: thou art deceived in me,</LINE>
<LINE>friar. But no more of this. Canst thou tell if</LINE>
<LINE>Claudio die to-morrow or no?</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>DUKE VINCENTIO</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Why should he die, sir?</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>LUCIO</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Why? For filling a bottle with a tundish. I would</LINE>
<LINE>the duke we talk of were returned again: the</LINE>
<LINE>ungenitured agent will unpeople the province with</LINE>
<LINE>continency; sparrows must not build in his</LINE>
<LINE>house-eaves, because they are lecherous. The duke</LINE>
<LINE>yet would have dark deeds darkly answered; he would</LINE>
<LINE>never bring them to light: would he were returned!</LINE>
<LINE>Marry, this Claudio is condemned for untrussing.</LINE>
<LINE>Farewell, good friar: I prithee, pray for me. The</LINE>
<LINE>duke, I say to thee again, would eat mutton on</LINE>
<LINE>Fridays. He's not past it yet, and I say to thee,</LINE>
<LINE>he would mouth with a beggar, though she smelt brown</LINE>
<LINE>bread and garlic: say that I said so. Farewell.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<STAGEDIR>Exit</STAGEDIR>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>DUKE VINCENTIO</SPEAKER>
<LINE>No might nor greatness in mortality</LINE>
<LINE>Can censure 'scape; back-wounding calumny</LINE>
<LINE>The whitest virtue strikes. What king so strong</LINE>
<LINE>Can tie the gall up in the slanderous tongue?</LINE>
<LINE>But who comes here?</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<STAGEDIR>Enter ESCALUS, Provost, and Officers with MISTRESS OVERDONE</STAGEDIR>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>ESCALUS</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Go; away with her to prison!</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>MISTRESS OVERDONE</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Good my lord, be good to me; your honour is accounted</LINE>
<LINE>a merciful man; good my lord.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>ESCALUS</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Double and treble admonition, and still forfeit in</LINE>
<LINE>the same kind! This would make mercy swear and play</LINE>
<LINE>the tyrant.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>Provost</SPEAKER>
<LINE>A bawd of eleven years' continuance, may it please</LINE>
<LINE>your honour.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>MISTRESS OVERDONE</SPEAKER>
<LINE>My lord, this is one Lucio's information against me.</LINE>
<LINE>Mistress Kate Keepdown was with child by him in the</LINE>
<LINE>duke's time; he promised her marriage: his child</LINE>
<LINE>is a year and a quarter old, come Philip and Jacob:</LINE>
<LINE>I have kept it myself; and see how he goes about to abuse me!</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>ESCALUS</SPEAKER>
<LINE>That fellow is a fellow of much licence: let him be</LINE>
<LINE>called before us. Away with her to prison! Go to;</LINE>
<LINE>no more words.</LINE>
<STAGEDIR>Exeunt Officers with MISTRESS OVERDONE</STAGEDIR>
<LINE>Provost, my brother Angelo will not be altered;</LINE>
<LINE>Claudio must die to-morrow: let him be furnished</LINE>
<LINE>with divines, and have all charitable preparation.</LINE>
<LINE>if my brother wrought by my pity, it should not be</LINE>
<LINE>so with him.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>Provost</SPEAKER>
<LINE>So please you, this friar hath been with him, and</LINE>
<LINE>advised him for the entertainment of death.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>ESCALUS</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Good even, good father.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>DUKE VINCENTIO</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Bliss and goodness on you!</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>ESCALUS</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Of whence are you?</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>DUKE VINCENTIO</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Not of this country, though my chance is now</LINE>
<LINE>To use it for my time: I am a brother</LINE>
<LINE>Of gracious order, late come from the See</LINE>
<LINE>In special business from his holiness.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>ESCALUS</SPEAKER>
<LINE>What news abroad i' the world?</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>DUKE VINCENTIO</SPEAKER>
<LINE>None, but that there is so great a fever on</LINE>
<LINE>goodness, that the dissolution of it must cure it:</LINE>
<LINE>novelty is only in request; and it is as dangerous</LINE>
<LINE>to be aged in any kind of course, as it is virtuous</LINE>
<LINE>to be constant in any undertaking. There is scarce</LINE>
<LINE>truth enough alive to make societies secure; but</LINE>
<LINE>security enough to make fellowships accurst: much</LINE>
<LINE>upon this riddle runs the wisdom of the world. This</LINE>
<LINE>news is old enough, yet it is every day's news. I</LINE>
<LINE>pray you, sir, of what disposition was the duke?</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>ESCALUS</SPEAKER>
<LINE>One that, above all other strifes, contended</LINE>
<LINE>especially to know himself.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>DUKE VINCENTIO</SPEAKER>
<LINE>What pleasure was he given to?</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>ESCALUS</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Rather rejoicing to see another merry, than merry at</LINE>
<LINE>any thing which professed to make him rejoice: a</LINE>
<LINE>gentleman of all temperance. But leave we him to</LINE>
<LINE>his events, with a prayer they may prove prosperous;</LINE>
<LINE>and let me desire to know how you find Claudio</LINE>
<LINE>prepared. I am made to understand that you have</LINE>
<LINE>lent him visitation.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>DUKE VINCENTIO</SPEAKER>
<LINE>He professes to have received no sinister measure</LINE>
<LINE>from his judge, but most willingly humbles himself</LINE>
<LINE>to the determination of justice: yet had he framed</LINE>
<LINE>to himself, by the instruction of his frailty, many</LINE>
<LINE>deceiving promises of life; which I by my good</LINE>
<LINE>leisure have discredited to him, and now is he</LINE>
<LINE>resolved to die.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>ESCALUS</SPEAKER>
<LINE>You have paid the heavens your function, and the</LINE>
<LINE>prisoner the very debt of your calling. I have</LINE>
<LINE>laboured for the poor gentleman to the extremest</LINE>
<LINE>shore of my modesty: but my brother justice have I</LINE>
<LINE>found so severe, that he hath forced me to tell him</LINE>
<LINE>he is indeed Justice.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>DUKE VINCENTIO</SPEAKER>
<LINE>If his own life answer the straitness of his</LINE>
<LINE>proceeding, it shall become him well; wherein if he</LINE>
<LINE>chance to fail, he hath sentenced himself.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>ESCALUS</SPEAKER>
<LINE>I am going to visit the prisoner. Fare you well.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>DUKE VINCENTIO</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Peace be with you!</LINE>
<STAGEDIR>Exeunt ESCALUS and Provost</STAGEDIR>
<LINE>He who the sword of heaven will bear</LINE>
<LINE>Should be as holy as severe;</LINE>
<LINE>Pattern in himself to know,</LINE>
<LINE>Grace to stand, and virtue go;</LINE>
<LINE>More nor less to others paying</LINE>
<LINE>Than by self-offences weighing.</LINE>
<LINE>Shame to him whose cruel striking</LINE>
<LINE>Kills for faults of his own liking!</LINE>
<LINE>Twice treble shame on Angelo,</LINE>
<LINE>To weed my vice and let his grow!</LINE>
<LINE>O, what may man within him hide,</LINE>
<LINE>Though angel on the outward side!</LINE>
<LINE>How may likeness made in crimes,</LINE>
<LINE>Making practise on the times,</LINE>
<LINE>To draw with idle spiders' strings</LINE>
<LINE>Most ponderous and substantial things!</LINE>
<LINE>Craft against vice I must apply:</LINE>
<LINE>With Angelo to-night shall lie</LINE>
<LINE>His old betrothed but despised;</LINE>
<LINE>So disguise shall, by the disguised,</LINE>
<LINE>Pay with falsehood false exacting,</LINE>
<LINE>And perform an old contracting.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<STAGEDIR>Exit</STAGEDIR>
</SCENE>

</ACT>

<ACT><TITLE>ACT IV</TITLE>

<SCENE><TITLE>SCENE I.  The moated grange at ST. LUKE's.</TITLE>
<STAGEDIR>Enter MARIANA and a Boy</STAGEDIR>
<STAGEDIR>Boy sings</STAGEDIR>
<SPEECH><SPEAKER></SPEAKER>
<LINE>Take, O, take those lips away,</LINE>
<LINE>That so sweetly were forsworn;</LINE>
<LINE>And those eyes, the break of day,</LINE>
<LINE>Lights that do mislead the morn:</LINE>
<LINE>But my kisses bring again, bring again;</LINE>
<LINE>Seals of love, but sealed in vain, sealed in vain.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>MARIANA</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Break off thy song, and haste thee quick away:</LINE>
<LINE>Here comes a man of comfort, whose advice</LINE>
<LINE>Hath often still'd my brawling discontent.</LINE>
<STAGEDIR>Exit Boy</STAGEDIR>
<STAGEDIR>Enter DUKE VINCENTIO disguised as before</STAGEDIR>
<LINE>I cry you mercy, sir; and well could wish</LINE>
<LINE>You had not found me here so musical:</LINE>
<LINE>Let me excuse me, and believe me so,</LINE>
<LINE>My mirth it much displeased, but pleased my woe.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>DUKE VINCENTIO</SPEAKER>
<LINE>'Tis good; though music oft hath such a charm</LINE>
<LINE>To make bad good, and good provoke to harm.</LINE>
<LINE>I pray, you, tell me, hath any body inquired</LINE>
<LINE>for me here to-day? much upon this time have</LINE>
<LINE>I promised here to meet.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>MARIANA</SPEAKER>
<LINE>You have not been inquired after:</LINE>
<LINE>I have sat here all day.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<STAGEDIR>Enter ISABELLA</STAGEDIR>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>DUKE VINCENTIO</SPEAKER>
<LINE>I do constantly believe you. The time is come even</LINE>
<LINE>now. I shall crave your forbearance a little: may</LINE>
<LINE>be I will call upon you anon, for some advantage to yourself.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>MARIANA</SPEAKER>
<LINE>I am always bound to you.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<STAGEDIR>Exit</STAGEDIR>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>DUKE VINCENTIO</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Very well met, and well come.</LINE>
<LINE>What is the news from this good deputy?</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>ISABELLA</SPEAKER>
<LINE>He hath a garden circummured with brick,</LINE>
<LINE>Whose western side is with a vineyard back'd;</LINE>
<LINE>And to that vineyard is a planched gate,</LINE>
<LINE>That makes his opening with this bigger key:</LINE>
<LINE>This other doth command a little door</LINE>
<LINE>Which from the vineyard to the garden leads;</LINE>
<LINE>There have I made my promise</LINE>
<LINE>Upon the heavy middle of the night</LINE>
<LINE>To call upon him.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>DUKE VINCENTIO</SPEAKER>
<LINE>But shall you on your knowledge find this way?</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>ISABELLA</SPEAKER>
<LINE>I have ta'en a due and wary note upon't:</LINE>
<LINE>With whispering and most guilty diligence,</LINE>
<LINE>In action all of precept, he did show me</LINE>
<LINE>The way twice o'er.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>DUKE VINCENTIO</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Are there no other tokens</LINE>
<LINE>Between you 'greed concerning her observance?</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>ISABELLA</SPEAKER>
<LINE>No, none, but only a repair i' the dark;</LINE>
<LINE>And that I have possess'd him my most stay</LINE>
<LINE>Can be but brief; for I have made him know</LINE>
<LINE>I have a servant comes with me along,</LINE>
<LINE>That stays upon me, whose persuasion is</LINE>
<LINE>I come about my brother.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>DUKE VINCENTIO</SPEAKER>
<LINE>'Tis well borne up.</LINE>
<LINE>I have not yet made known to Mariana</LINE>
<LINE>A word of this. What, ho! within! come forth!</LINE>
<STAGEDIR>Re-enter MARIANA</STAGEDIR>
<LINE>I pray you, be acquainted with this maid;</LINE>
<LINE>She comes to do you good.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>ISABELLA</SPEAKER>
<LINE>I do desire the like.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>DUKE VINCENTIO</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Do you persuade yourself that I respect you?</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>MARIANA</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Good friar, I know you do, and have found it.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>DUKE VINCENTIO</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Take, then, this your companion by the hand,</LINE>
<LINE>Who hath a story ready for your ear.</LINE>
<LINE>I shall attend your leisure: but make haste;</LINE>
<LINE>The vaporous night approaches.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>MARIANA</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Will't please you walk aside?</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<STAGEDIR>Exeunt MARIANA and ISABELLA</STAGEDIR>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>DUKE VINCENTIO</SPEAKER>
<LINE>O place and greatness! millions of false eyes</LINE>
<LINE>Are stuck upon thee: volumes of report</LINE>
<LINE>Run with these false and most contrarious quests</LINE>
<LINE>Upon thy doings: thousand escapes of wit</LINE>
<LINE>Make thee the father of their idle dreams</LINE>
<LINE>And rack thee in their fancies.</LINE>
<STAGEDIR>Re-enter MARIANA and ISABELLA</STAGEDIR>
<LINE>Welcome, how agreed?</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>ISABELLA</SPEAKER>
<LINE>She'll take the enterprise upon her, father,</LINE>
<LINE>If you advise it.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>DUKE VINCENTIO</SPEAKER>
<LINE>It is not my consent,</LINE>
<LINE>But my entreaty too.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>ISABELLA</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Little have you to say</LINE>
<LINE>When you depart from him, but, soft and low,</LINE>
<LINE>'Remember now my brother.'</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>MARIANA</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Fear me not.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>DUKE VINCENTIO</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Nor, gentle daughter, fear you not at all.</LINE>
<LINE>He is your husband on a pre-contract:</LINE>
<LINE>To bring you thus together, 'tis no sin,</LINE>
<LINE>Sith that the justice of your title to him</LINE>
<LINE>Doth flourish the deceit. Come, let us go:</LINE>
<LINE>Our corn's to reap, for yet our tithe's to sow.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<STAGEDIR>Exeunt</STAGEDIR>
</SCENE>

<SCENE><TITLE>SCENE II.  A room in the prison.</TITLE>
<STAGEDIR>Enter Provost and POMPEY</STAGEDIR>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>Provost</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Come hither, sirrah. Can you cut off a man's head?</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>POMPEY</SPEAKER>
<LINE>If the man be a bachelor, sir, I can; but if he be a</LINE>
<LINE>married man, he's his wife's head, and I can never</LINE>
<LINE>cut off a woman's head.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>Provost</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Come, sir, leave me your snatches, and yield me a</LINE>
<LINE>direct answer. To-morrow morning are to die Claudio</LINE>
<LINE>and Barnardine. Here is in our prison a common</LINE>
<LINE>executioner, who in his office lacks a helper: if</LINE>
<LINE>you will take it on you to assist him, it shall</LINE>
<LINE>redeem you from your gyves; if not, you shall have</LINE>
<LINE>your full time of imprisonment and your deliverance</LINE>
<LINE>with an unpitied whipping, for you have been a</LINE>
<LINE>notorious bawd.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>POMPEY</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Sir, I have been an unlawful bawd time out of mind;</LINE>
<LINE>but yet I will be content to be a lawful hangman. I</LINE>
<LINE>would be glad to receive some instruction from my</LINE>
<LINE>fellow partner.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>Provost</SPEAKER>
<LINE>What, ho! Abhorson! Where's Abhorson, there?</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<STAGEDIR>Enter ABHORSON</STAGEDIR>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>ABHORSON</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Do you call, sir?</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>Provost</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Sirrah, here's a fellow will help you to-morrow in</LINE>
<LINE>your execution. If you think it meet, compound with</LINE>
<LINE>him by the year, and let him abide here with you; if</LINE>
<LINE>not, use him for the present and dismiss him. He</LINE>
<LINE>cannot plead his estimation with you; he hath been a bawd.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>ABHORSON</SPEAKER>
<LINE>A bawd, sir? fie upon him! he will discredit our mystery.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>Provost</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Go to, sir; you weigh equally; a feather will turn</LINE>
<LINE>the scale.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<STAGEDIR>Exit</STAGEDIR>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>POMPEY</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Pray, sir, by your good favour,--for surely, sir, a</LINE>
<LINE>good favour you have, but that you have a hanging</LINE>
<LINE>look,--do you call, sir, your occupation a mystery?</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>ABHORSON</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Ay, sir; a mystery</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>POMPEY</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Painting, sir, I have heard say, is a mystery; and</LINE>
<LINE>your whores, sir, being members of my occupation,</LINE>
<LINE>using painting, do prove my occupation a mystery:</LINE>
<LINE>but what mystery there should be in hanging, if I</LINE>
<LINE>should be hanged, I cannot imagine.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>ABHORSON</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Sir, it is a mystery.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>POMPEY</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Proof?</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>ABHORSON</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Every true man's apparel fits your thief: if it be</LINE>
<LINE>too little for your thief, your true man thinks it</LINE>
<LINE>big enough; if it be too big for your thief, your</LINE>
<LINE>thief thinks it little enough: so every true man's</LINE>
<LINE>apparel fits your thief.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<STAGEDIR>Re-enter Provost</STAGEDIR>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>Provost</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Are you agreed?</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>POMPEY</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Sir, I will serve him; for I do find your hangman is</LINE>
<LINE>a more penitent trade than your bawd; he doth</LINE>
<LINE>oftener ask forgiveness.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>Provost</SPEAKER>
<LINE>You, sirrah, provide your block and your axe</LINE>
<LINE>to-morrow four o'clock.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>ABHORSON</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Come on, bawd; I will instruct thee in my trade; follow.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>POMPEY</SPEAKER>
<LINE>I do desire to learn, sir: and I hope, if you have</LINE>
<LINE>occasion to use me for your own turn, you shall find</LINE>
<LINE>me yare; for truly, sir, for your kindness I owe you</LINE>
<LINE>a good turn.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>Provost</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Call hither Barnardine and Claudio:</LINE>
<STAGEDIR>Exeunt POMPEY and ABHORSON</STAGEDIR>
<LINE>The one has my pity; not a jot the other,</LINE>
<LINE>Being a murderer, though he were my brother.</LINE>
<STAGEDIR>Enter CLAUDIO</STAGEDIR>
<LINE>Look, here's the warrant, Claudio, for thy death:</LINE>
<LINE>'Tis now dead midnight, and by eight to-morrow</LINE>
<LINE>Thou must be made immortal. Where's Barnardine?</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>CLAUDIO</SPEAKER>
<LINE>As fast lock'd up in sleep as guiltless labour</LINE>
<LINE>When it lies starkly in the traveller's bones:</LINE>
<LINE>He will not wake.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>Provost</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Who can do good on him?</LINE>
<LINE>Well, go, prepare yourself.</LINE>
<STAGEDIR>Knocking within</STAGEDIR>
<LINE>But, hark, what noise?</LINE>
<LINE>Heaven give your spirits comfort!</LINE>
<STAGEDIR>Exit CLAUDIO</STAGEDIR>
<LINE>By and by.</LINE>
<LINE>I hope it is some pardon or reprieve</LINE>
<LINE>For the most gentle Claudio.</LINE>
<STAGEDIR>Enter DUKE VINCENTIO disguised as before</STAGEDIR>
<LINE>Welcome father.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>DUKE VINCENTIO</SPEAKER>
<LINE>The best and wholesomest spirts of the night</LINE>
<LINE>Envelope you, good Provost! Who call'd here of late?</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>Provost</SPEAKER>
<LINE>None, since the curfew rung.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>DUKE VINCENTIO</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Not Isabel?</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>Provost</SPEAKER>
<LINE>No.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>DUKE VINCENTIO</SPEAKER>
<LINE>They will, then, ere't be long.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>Provost</SPEAKER>
<LINE>What comfort is for Claudio?</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>DUKE VINCENTIO</SPEAKER>
<LINE>There's some in hope.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>Provost</SPEAKER>
<LINE>It is a bitter deputy.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>DUKE VINCENTIO</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Not so, not so; his life is parallel'd</LINE>
<LINE>Even with the stroke and line of his great justice:</LINE>
<LINE>He doth with holy abstinence subdue</LINE>
<LINE>That in himself which he spurs on his power</LINE>
<LINE>To qualify in others: were he meal'd with that</LINE>
<LINE>Which he corrects, then were he tyrannous;</LINE>
<LINE>But this being so, he's just.</LINE>
<STAGEDIR>Knocking within</STAGEDIR>
<LINE>Now are they come.</LINE>
<STAGEDIR>Exit Provost</STAGEDIR>
<LINE>This is a gentle provost: seldom when</LINE>
<LINE>The steeled gaoler is the friend of men.</LINE>
<STAGEDIR>Knocking within</STAGEDIR>
<LINE>How now! what noise? That spirit's possessed with haste</LINE>
<LINE>That wounds the unsisting postern with these strokes.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<STAGEDIR>Re-enter Provost</STAGEDIR>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>Provost</SPEAKER>
<LINE>There he must stay until the officer</LINE>
<LINE>Arise to let him in: he is call'd up.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>DUKE VINCENTIO</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Have you no countermand for Claudio yet,</LINE>
<LINE>But he must die to-morrow?</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>Provost</SPEAKER>
<LINE>None, sir, none.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>DUKE VINCENTIO</SPEAKER>
<LINE>As near the dawning, provost, as it is,</LINE>
<LINE>You shall hear more ere morning.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>Provost</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Happily</LINE>
<LINE>You something know; yet I believe there comes</LINE>
<LINE>No countermand; no such example have we:</LINE>
<LINE>Besides, upon the very siege of justice</LINE>
<LINE>Lord Angelo hath to the public ear</LINE>
<LINE>Profess'd the contrary.</LINE>
<STAGEDIR>Enter a Messenger</STAGEDIR>
<LINE>This is his lordship's man.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>DUKE VINCENTIO</SPEAKER>
<LINE>And here comes Claudio's pardon.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>Messenger</SPEAKER>
<LINE><STAGEDIR>Giving a paper</STAGEDIR></LINE>
<LINE>My lord hath sent you this note; and by me this</LINE>
<LINE>further charge, that you swerve not from the</LINE>
<LINE>smallest article of it, neither in time, matter, or</LINE>
<LINE>other circumstance. Good morrow; for, as I take it,</LINE>
<LINE>it is almost day.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>Provost</SPEAKER>
<LINE>I shall obey him.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<STAGEDIR>Exit Messenger</STAGEDIR>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>DUKE VINCENTIO</SPEAKER>
<LINE><STAGEDIR>Aside</STAGEDIR>  This is his pardon, purchased by such sin</LINE>
<LINE>For which the pardoner himself is in.</LINE>
<LINE>Hence hath offence his quick celerity,</LINE>
<LINE>When it is born in high authority:</LINE>
<LINE>When vice makes mercy, mercy's so extended,</LINE>
<LINE>That for the fault's love is the offender friended.</LINE>
<LINE>Now, sir, what news?</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>Provost</SPEAKER>
<LINE>I told you. Lord Angelo, belike thinking me remiss</LINE>
<LINE>in mine office, awakens me with this unwonted</LINE>
<LINE>putting-on; methinks strangely, for he hath not used it before.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>DUKE VINCENTIO</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Pray you, let's hear.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>Provost</SPEAKER>
<LINE><STAGEDIR>Reads</STAGEDIR></LINE>
<LINE>'Whatsoever you may hear to the contrary, let</LINE>
<LINE>Claudio be executed by four of the clock; and in the</LINE>
<LINE>afternoon Barnardine: for my better satisfaction,</LINE>
<LINE>let me have Claudio's head sent me by five. Let</LINE>
<LINE>this be duly performed; with a thought that more</LINE>
<LINE>depends on it than we must yet deliver. Thus fail</LINE>
<LINE>not to do your office, as you will answer it at your peril.'</LINE>
<LINE>What say you to this, sir?</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>DUKE VINCENTIO</SPEAKER>
<LINE>What is that Barnardine who is to be executed in the</LINE>
<LINE>afternoon?</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>Provost</SPEAKER>
<LINE>A Bohemian born, but here nursed un and bred; one</LINE>
<LINE>that is a prisoner nine years old.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>DUKE VINCENTIO</SPEAKER>
<LINE>How came it that the absent duke had not either</LINE>
<LINE>delivered him to his liberty or executed him? I</LINE>
<LINE>have heard it was ever his manner to do so.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>Provost</SPEAKER>
<LINE>His friends still wrought reprieves for him: and,</LINE>
<LINE>indeed, his fact, till now in the government of Lord</LINE>
<LINE>Angelo, came not to an undoubtful proof.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>DUKE VINCENTIO</SPEAKER>
<LINE>It is now apparent?</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>Provost</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Most manifest, and not denied by himself.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>DUKE VINCENTIO</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Hath he born himself penitently in prison? how</LINE>
<LINE>seems he to be touched?</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>Provost</SPEAKER>
<LINE>A man that apprehends death no more dreadfully but</LINE>
<LINE>as a drunken sleep; careless, reckless, and fearless</LINE>
<LINE>of what's past, present, or to come; insensible of</LINE>
<LINE>mortality, and desperately mortal.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>DUKE VINCENTIO</SPEAKER>
<LINE>He wants advice.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>Provost</SPEAKER>
<LINE>He will hear none: he hath evermore had the liberty</LINE>
<LINE>of the prison; give him leave to escape hence, he</LINE>
<LINE>would not: drunk many times a day, if not many days</LINE>
<LINE>entirely drunk. We have very oft awaked him, as if</LINE>
<LINE>to carry him to execution, and showed him a seeming</LINE>
<LINE>warrant for it: it hath not moved him at all.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>DUKE VINCENTIO</SPEAKER>
<LINE>More of him anon. There is written in your brow,</LINE>
<LINE>provost, honesty and constancy: if I read it not</LINE>
<LINE>truly, my ancient skill beguiles me; but, in the</LINE>
<LINE>boldness of my cunning, I will lay myself in hazard.</LINE>
<LINE>Claudio, whom here you have warrant to execute, is</LINE>
<LINE>no greater forfeit to the law than Angelo who hath</LINE>
<LINE>sentenced him. To make you understand this in a</LINE>
<LINE>manifested effect, I crave but four days' respite;</LINE>
<LINE>for the which you are to do me both a present and a</LINE>
<LINE>dangerous courtesy.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>Provost</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Pray, sir, in what?</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>DUKE VINCENTIO</SPEAKER>
<LINE>In the delaying death.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>Provost</SPEAKER>
<LINE>A lack, how may I do it, having the hour limited,</LINE>
<LINE>and an express command, under penalty, to deliver</LINE>
<LINE>his head in the view of Angelo? I may make my case</LINE>
<LINE>as Claudio's, to cross this in the smallest.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>DUKE VINCENTIO</SPEAKER>
<LINE>By the vow of mine order I warrant you, if my</LINE>
<LINE>instructions may be your guide. Let this Barnardine</LINE>
<LINE>be this morning executed, and his head born to Angelo.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>Provost</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Angelo hath seen them both, and will discover the favour.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>DUKE VINCENTIO</SPEAKER>
<LINE>O, death's a great disguiser; and you may add to it.</LINE>
<LINE>Shave the head, and tie the beard; and say it was</LINE>
<LINE>the desire of the penitent to be so bared before his</LINE>
<LINE>death: you know the course is common. If any thing</LINE>
<LINE>fall to you upon this, more than thanks and good</LINE>
<LINE>fortune, by the saint whom I profess, I will plead</LINE>
<LINE>against it with my life.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>Provost</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Pardon me, good father; it is against my oath.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>DUKE VINCENTIO</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Were you sworn to the duke, or to the deputy?</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>Provost</SPEAKER>
<LINE>To him, and to his substitutes.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>DUKE VINCENTIO</SPEAKER>
<LINE>You will think you have made no offence, if the duke</LINE>
<LINE>avouch the justice of your dealing?</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>Provost</SPEAKER>
<LINE>But what likelihood is in that?</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>DUKE VINCENTIO</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Not a resemblance, but a certainty. Yet since I see</LINE>
<LINE>you fearful, that neither my coat, integrity, nor</LINE>
<LINE>persuasion can with ease attempt you, I will go</LINE>
<LINE>further than I meant, to pluck all fears out of you.</LINE>
<LINE>Look you, sir, here is the hand and seal of the</LINE>
<LINE>duke: you know the character, I doubt not; and the</LINE>
<LINE>signet is not strange to you.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>Provost</SPEAKER>
<LINE>I know them both.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>DUKE VINCENTIO</SPEAKER>
<LINE>The contents of this is the return of the duke: you</LINE>
<LINE>shall anon over-read it at your pleasure; where you</LINE>
<LINE>shall find, within these two days he will be here.</LINE>
<LINE>This is a thing that Angelo knows not; for he this</LINE>
<LINE>very day receives letters of strange tenor;</LINE>
<LINE>perchance of the duke's death; perchance entering</LINE>
<LINE>into some monastery; but, by chance, nothing of what</LINE>
<LINE>is writ. Look, the unfolding star calls up the</LINE>
<LINE>shepherd. Put not yourself into amazement how these</LINE>
<LINE>things should be: all difficulties are but easy</LINE>
<LINE>when they are known. Call your executioner, and off</LINE>
<LINE>with Barnardine's head: I will give him a present</LINE>
<LINE>shrift and advise him for a better place. Yet you</LINE>
<LINE>are amazed; but this shall absolutely resolve you.</LINE>
<LINE>Come away; it is almost clear dawn.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<STAGEDIR>Exeunt</STAGEDIR>
</SCENE>

<SCENE><TITLE>SCENE III.  Another room in the same.</TITLE>
<STAGEDIR>Enter POMPEY</STAGEDIR>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>POMPEY</SPEAKER>
<LINE>I am as well acquainted here as I was in our house</LINE>
<LINE>of profession: one would think it were Mistress</LINE>
<LINE>Overdone's own house, for here be many of her old</LINE>
<LINE>customers. First, here's young Master Rash; he's in</LINE>
<LINE>for a commodity of brown paper and old ginger,</LINE>
<LINE>ninescore and seventeen pounds; of which he made</LINE>
<LINE>five marks, ready money: marry, then ginger was not</LINE>
<LINE>much in request, for the old women were all dead.</LINE>
<LINE>Then is there here one Master Caper, at the suit of</LINE>
<LINE>Master Three-pile the mercer, for some four suits of</LINE>
<LINE>peach-coloured satin, which now peaches him a</LINE>
<LINE>beggar. Then have we here young Dizy, and young</LINE>
<LINE>Master Deep-vow, and Master Copperspur, and Master</LINE>
<LINE>Starve-lackey the rapier and dagger man, and young</LINE>
<LINE>Drop-heir that killed lusty Pudding, and Master</LINE>
<LINE>Forthlight the tilter, and brave Master Shooty the</LINE>
<LINE>great traveller, and wild Half-can that stabbed</LINE>
<LINE>Pots, and, I think, forty more; all great doers in</LINE>
<LINE>our trade, and are now 'for the Lord's sake.'</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<STAGEDIR>Enter ABHORSON</STAGEDIR>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>ABHORSON</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Sirrah, bring Barnardine hither.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>POMPEY</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Master Barnardine! you must rise and be hanged.</LINE>
<LINE>Master Barnardine!</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>ABHORSON</SPEAKER>
<LINE>What, ho, Barnardine!</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>BARNARDINE</SPEAKER>
<LINE><STAGEDIR>Within</STAGEDIR>  A pox o' your throats! Who makes that</LINE>
<LINE>noise there? What are you?</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>POMPEY</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Your friends, sir; the hangman. You must be so</LINE>
<LINE>good, sir, to rise and be put to death.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>BARNARDINE</SPEAKER>
<LINE><STAGEDIR>Within</STAGEDIR>  Away, you rogue, away! I am sleepy.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>ABHORSON</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Tell him he must awake, and that quickly too.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>POMPEY</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Pray, Master Barnardine, awake till you are</LINE>
<LINE>executed, and sleep afterwards.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>ABHORSON</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Go in to him, and fetch him out.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>POMPEY</SPEAKER>
<LINE>He is coming, sir, he is coming; I hear his straw rustle.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>ABHORSON</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Is the axe upon the block, sirrah?</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>POMPEY</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Very ready, sir.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<STAGEDIR>Enter BARNARDINE</STAGEDIR>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>BARNARDINE</SPEAKER>
<LINE>How now, Abhorson? what's the news with you?</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>ABHORSON</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Truly, sir, I would desire you to clap into your</LINE>
<LINE>prayers; for, look you, the warrant's come.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>BARNARDINE</SPEAKER>
<LINE>You rogue, I have been drinking all night; I am not</LINE>
<LINE>fitted for 't.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>POMPEY</SPEAKER>
<LINE>O, the better, sir; for he that drinks all night,</LINE>
<LINE>and is hanged betimes in the morning, may sleep the</LINE>
<LINE>sounder all the next day.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>ABHORSON</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Look you, sir; here comes your ghostly father: do</LINE>
<LINE>we jest now, think you?</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<STAGEDIR>Enter DUKE VINCENTIO disguised as before</STAGEDIR>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>DUKE VINCENTIO</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Sir, induced by my charity, and hearing how hastily</LINE>
<LINE>you are to depart, I am come to advise you, comfort</LINE>
<LINE>you and pray with you.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>BARNARDINE</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Friar, not I I have been drinking hard all night,</LINE>
<LINE>and I will have more time to prepare me, or they</LINE>
<LINE>shall beat out my brains with billets: I will not</LINE>
<LINE>consent to die this day, that's certain.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>DUKE VINCENTIO</SPEAKER>
<LINE>O, sir, you must: and therefore I beseech you</LINE>
<LINE>Look forward on the journey you shall go.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>BARNARDINE</SPEAKER>
<LINE>I swear I will not die to-day for any man's</LINE>
<LINE>persuasion.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>DUKE VINCENTIO</SPEAKER>
<LINE>But hear you.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>BARNARDINE</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Not a word: if you have any thing to say to me,</LINE>
<LINE>come to my ward; for thence will not I to-day.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<STAGEDIR>Exit</STAGEDIR>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>DUKE VINCENTIO</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Unfit to live or die: O gravel heart!</LINE>
<LINE>After him, fellows; bring him to the block.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<STAGEDIR>Exeunt ABHORSON and POMPEY</STAGEDIR>
<STAGEDIR>Re-enter Provost</STAGEDIR>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>Provost</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Now, sir, how do you find the prisoner?</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>DUKE VINCENTIO</SPEAKER>
<LINE>A creature unprepared, unmeet for death;</LINE>
<LINE>And to transport him in the mind he is</LINE>
<LINE>Were damnable.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>Provost</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Here in the prison, father,</LINE>
<LINE>There died this morning of a cruel fever</LINE>
<LINE>One Ragozine, a most notorious pirate,</LINE>
<LINE>A man of Claudio's years; his beard and head</LINE>
<LINE>Just of his colour. What if we do omit</LINE>
<LINE>This reprobate till he were well inclined;</LINE>
<LINE>And satisfy the deputy with the visage</LINE>
<LINE>Of Ragozine, more like to Claudio?</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>DUKE VINCENTIO</SPEAKER>
<LINE>O, 'tis an accident that heaven provides!</LINE>
<LINE>Dispatch it presently; the hour draws on</LINE>
<LINE>Prefix'd by Angelo: see this be done,</LINE>
<LINE>And sent according to command; whiles I</LINE>
<LINE>Persuade this rude wretch willingly to die.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>Provost</SPEAKER>
<LINE>This shall be done, good father, presently.</LINE>
<LINE>But Barnardine must die this afternoon:</LINE>
<LINE>And how shall we continue Claudio,</LINE>
<LINE>To save me from the danger that might come</LINE>
<LINE>If he were known alive?</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>DUKE VINCENTIO</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Let this be done.</LINE>
<LINE>Put them in secret holds, both Barnardine and Claudio:</LINE>
<LINE>Ere twice the sun hath made his journal greeting</LINE>
<LINE>To the under generation, you shall find</LINE>
<LINE>Your safety manifested.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>Provost</SPEAKER>
<LINE>I am your free dependant.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>DUKE VINCENTIO</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Quick, dispatch, and send the head to Angelo.</LINE>
<STAGEDIR>Exit Provost</STAGEDIR>
<LINE>Now will I write letters to Angelo,--</LINE>
<LINE>The provost, he shall bear them, whose contents</LINE>
<LINE>Shall witness to him I am near at home,</LINE>
<LINE>And that, by great injunctions, I am bound</LINE>
<LINE>To enter publicly: him I'll desire</LINE>
<LINE>To meet me at the consecrated fount</LINE>
<LINE>A league below the city; and from thence,</LINE>
<LINE>By cold gradation and well-balanced form,</LINE>
<LINE>We shall proceed with Angelo.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<STAGEDIR>Re-enter Provost</STAGEDIR>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>Provost</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Here is the head; I'll carry it myself.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>DUKE VINCENTIO</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Convenient is it. Make a swift return;</LINE>
<LINE>For I would commune with you of such things</LINE>
<LINE>That want no ear but yours.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>Provost</SPEAKER>
<LINE>I'll make all speed.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<STAGEDIR>Exit</STAGEDIR>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>ISABELLA</SPEAKER>
<LINE><STAGEDIR>Within</STAGEDIR>  Peace, ho, be here!</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>DUKE VINCENTIO</SPEAKER>
<LINE>The tongue of Isabel. She's come to know</LINE>
<LINE>If yet her brother's pardon be come hither:</LINE>
<LINE>But I will keep her ignorant of her good,</LINE>
<LINE>To make her heavenly comforts of despair,</LINE>
<LINE>When it is least expected.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<STAGEDIR>Enter ISABELLA</STAGEDIR>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>ISABELLA</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Ho, by your leave!</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>DUKE VINCENTIO</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Good morning to you, fair and gracious daughter.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>ISABELLA</SPEAKER>
<LINE>The better, given me by so holy a man.</LINE>
<LINE>Hath yet the deputy sent my brother's pardon?</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>DUKE VINCENTIO</SPEAKER>
<LINE>He hath released him, Isabel, from the world:</LINE>
<LINE>His head is off and sent to Angelo.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>ISABELLA</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Nay, but it is not so.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>DUKE VINCENTIO</SPEAKER>
<LINE>It is no other: show your wisdom, daughter,</LINE>
<LINE>In your close patience.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>ISABELLA</SPEAKER>
<LINE>O, I will to him and pluck out his eyes!</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>DUKE VINCENTIO</SPEAKER>
<LINE>You shall not be admitted to his sight.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>ISABELLA</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Unhappy Claudio! wretched Isabel!</LINE>
<LINE>Injurious world! most damned Angelo!</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>DUKE VINCENTIO</SPEAKER>
<LINE>This nor hurts him nor profits you a jot;</LINE>
<LINE>Forbear it therefore; give your cause to heaven.</LINE>
<LINE>Mark what I say, which you shall find</LINE>
<LINE>By every syllable a faithful verity:</LINE>
<LINE>The duke comes home to-morrow; nay, dry your eyes;</LINE>
<LINE>One of our convent, and his confessor,</LINE>
<LINE>Gives me this instance: already he hath carried</LINE>
<LINE>Notice to Escalus and Angelo,</LINE>
<LINE>Who do prepare to meet him at the gates,</LINE>
<LINE>There to give up their power. If you can, pace your wisdom</LINE>
<LINE>In that good path that I would wish it go,</LINE>
<LINE>And you shall have your bosom on this wretch,</LINE>
<LINE>Grace of the duke, revenges to your heart,</LINE>
<LINE>And general honour.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>ISABELLA</SPEAKER>
<LINE>I am directed by you.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>DUKE VINCENTIO</SPEAKER>
<LINE>This letter, then, to Friar Peter give;</LINE>
<LINE>'Tis that he sent me of the duke's return:</LINE>
<LINE>Say, by this token, I desire his company</LINE>
<LINE>At Mariana's house to-night. Her cause and yours</LINE>
<LINE>I'll perfect him withal, and he shall bring you</LINE>
<LINE>Before the duke, and to the head of Angelo</LINE>
<LINE>Accuse him home and home. For my poor self,</LINE>
<LINE>I am combined by a sacred vow</LINE>
<LINE>And shall be absent. Wend you with this letter:</LINE>
<LINE>Command these fretting waters from your eyes</LINE>
<LINE>With a light heart; trust not my holy order,</LINE>
<LINE>If I pervert your course. Who's here?</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<STAGEDIR>Enter LUCIO</STAGEDIR>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>LUCIO</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Good even. Friar, where's the provost?</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>DUKE VINCENTIO</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Not within, sir.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>LUCIO</SPEAKER>
<LINE>O pretty Isabella, I am pale at mine heart to see</LINE>
<LINE>thine eyes so red: thou must be patient. I am fain</LINE>
<LINE>to dine and sup with water and bran; I dare not for</LINE>
<LINE>my head fill my belly; one fruitful meal would set</LINE>
<LINE>me to 't. But they say the duke will be here</LINE>
<LINE>to-morrow. By my troth, Isabel, I loved thy brother:</LINE>
<LINE>if the old fantastical duke of dark corners had been</LINE>
<LINE>at home, he had lived.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<STAGEDIR>Exit ISABELLA</STAGEDIR>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>DUKE VINCENTIO</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Sir, the duke is marvellous little beholding to your</LINE>
<LINE>reports; but the best is, he lives not in them.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>LUCIO</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Friar, thou knowest not the duke so well as I do:</LINE>
<LINE>he's a better woodman than thou takest him for.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>DUKE VINCENTIO</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Well, you'll answer this one day. Fare ye well.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>LUCIO</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Nay, tarry; I'll go along with thee</LINE>
<LINE>I can tell thee pretty tales of the duke.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>DUKE VINCENTIO</SPEAKER>
<LINE>You have told me too many of him already, sir, if</LINE>
<LINE>they be true; if not true, none were enough.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>LUCIO</SPEAKER>
<LINE>I was once before him for getting a wench with child.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>DUKE VINCENTIO</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Did you such a thing?</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>LUCIO</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Yes, marry, did I but I was fain to forswear it;</LINE>
<LINE>they would else have married me to the rotten medlar.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>DUKE VINCENTIO</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Sir, your company is fairer than honest. Rest you well.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>LUCIO</SPEAKER>
<LINE>By my troth, I'll go with thee to the lane's end:</LINE>
<LINE>if bawdy talk offend you, we'll have very little of</LINE>
<LINE>it. Nay, friar, I am a kind of burr; I shall stick.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<STAGEDIR>Exeunt</STAGEDIR>
</SCENE>

<SCENE><TITLE>SCENE IV.  A room in ANGELO's house.</TITLE>
<STAGEDIR>Enter ANGELO and ESCALUS</STAGEDIR>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>ESCALUS</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Every letter he hath writ hath disvouched other.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>ANGELO</SPEAKER>
<LINE>In most uneven and distracted manner. His actions</LINE>
<LINE>show much like to madness: pray heaven his wisdom be</LINE>
<LINE>not tainted! And why meet him at the gates, and</LINE>
<LINE>redeliver our authorities there</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>ESCALUS</SPEAKER>
<LINE>I guess not.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>ANGELO</SPEAKER>
<LINE>And why should we proclaim it in an hour before his</LINE>
<LINE>entering, that if any crave redress of injustice,</LINE>
<LINE>they should exhibit their petitions in the street?</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>ESCALUS</SPEAKER>
<LINE>He shows his reason for that: to have a dispatch of</LINE>
<LINE>complaints, and to deliver us from devices</LINE>
<LINE>hereafter, which shall then have no power to stand</LINE>
<LINE>against us.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>ANGELO</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Well, I beseech you, let it be proclaimed betimes</LINE>
<LINE>i' the morn; I'll call you at your house: give</LINE>
<LINE>notice to such men of sort and suit as are to meet</LINE>
<LINE>him.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>ESCALUS</SPEAKER>
<LINE>I shall, sir. Fare you well.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>ANGELO</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Good night.</LINE>
<STAGEDIR>Exit ESCALUS</STAGEDIR>
<LINE>This deed unshapes me quite, makes me unpregnant</LINE>
<LINE>And dull to all proceedings. A deflower'd maid!</LINE>
<LINE>And by an eminent body that enforced</LINE>
<LINE>The law against it! But that her tender shame</LINE>
<LINE>Will not proclaim against her maiden loss,</LINE>
<LINE>How might she tongue me! Yet reason dares her no;</LINE>
<LINE>For my authority bears of a credent bulk,</LINE>
<LINE>That no particular scandal once can touch</LINE>
<LINE>But it confounds the breather. He should have lived,</LINE>
<LINE>Save that riotous youth, with dangerous sense,</LINE>
<LINE>Might in the times to come have ta'en revenge,</LINE>
<LINE>By so receiving a dishonour'd life</LINE>
<LINE>With ransom of such shame. Would yet he had lived!</LINE>
<LINE>A lack, when once our grace we have forgot,</LINE>
<LINE>Nothing goes right: we would, and we would not.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<STAGEDIR>Exit</STAGEDIR>
</SCENE>

<SCENE><TITLE>SCENE V.  Fields without the town.</TITLE>
<STAGEDIR>Enter DUKE VINCENTIO in his own habit, and FRIAR PETER</STAGEDIR>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>DUKE VINCENTIO</SPEAKER>
<LINE>These letters at fit time deliver me</LINE>
<STAGEDIR>Giving letters</STAGEDIR>
<LINE>The provost knows our purpose and our plot.</LINE>
<LINE>The matter being afoot, keep your instruction,</LINE>
<LINE>And hold you ever to our special drift;</LINE>
<LINE>Though sometimes you do blench from this to that,</LINE>
<LINE>As cause doth minister. Go call at Flavius' house,</LINE>
<LINE>And tell him where I stay: give the like notice</LINE>
<LINE>To Valentinus, Rowland, and to Crassus,</LINE>
<LINE>And bid them bring the trumpets to the gate;</LINE>
<LINE>But send me Flavius first.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>FRIAR PETER</SPEAKER>
<LINE>It shall be speeded well.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<STAGEDIR>Exit</STAGEDIR>
<STAGEDIR>Enter VARRIUS</STAGEDIR>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>DUKE VINCENTIO</SPEAKER>
<LINE>I thank thee, Varrius; thou hast made good haste:</LINE>
<LINE>Come, we will walk. There's other of our friends</LINE>
<LINE>Will greet us here anon, my gentle Varrius.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<STAGEDIR>Exeunt</STAGEDIR>
</SCENE>

<SCENE><TITLE>SCENE VI.  Street near the city gate.</TITLE>
<STAGEDIR>Enter ISABELLA and MARIANA</STAGEDIR>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>ISABELLA</SPEAKER>
<LINE>To speak so indirectly I am loath:</LINE>
<LINE>I would say the truth; but to accuse him so,</LINE>
<LINE>That is your part: yet I am advised to do it;</LINE>
<LINE>He says, to veil full purpose.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>MARIANA</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Be ruled by him.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>ISABELLA</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Besides, he tells me that, if peradventure</LINE>
<LINE>He speak against me on the adverse side,</LINE>
<LINE>I should not think it strange; for 'tis a physic</LINE>
<LINE>That's bitter to sweet end.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>MARIANA</SPEAKER>
<LINE>I would Friar Peter--</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>ISABELLA</SPEAKER>
<LINE>O, peace! the friar is come.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<STAGEDIR>Enter FRIAR PETER</STAGEDIR>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>FRIAR PETER</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Come, I have found you out a stand most fit,</LINE>
<LINE>Where you may have such vantage on the duke,</LINE>
<LINE>He shall not pass you. Twice have the trumpets sounded;</LINE>
<LINE>The generous and gravest citizens</LINE>
<LINE>Have hent the gates, and very near upon</LINE>
<LINE>The duke is entering: therefore, hence, away!</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<STAGEDIR>Exeunt</STAGEDIR>
</SCENE>

</ACT>

<ACT><TITLE>ACT V</TITLE>

<SCENE><TITLE>SCENE I.  The city gate.</TITLE>
<STAGEDIR>MARIANA veiled, ISABELLA, and FRIAR PETER, at their
stand. Enter DUKE VINCENTIO, VARRIUS, Lords,
ANGELO, ESCALUS, LUCIO, Provost, Officers, and
Citizens, at several doors</STAGEDIR>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>DUKE VINCENTIO</SPEAKER>
<LINE>My very worthy cousin, fairly met!</LINE>
<LINE>Our old and faithful friend, we are glad to see you.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>ANGELO</SPEAKER>
<SPEAKER>ESCALUS</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Happy return be to your royal grace!</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>DUKE VINCENTIO</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Many and hearty thankings to you both.</LINE>
<LINE>We have made inquiry of you; and we hear</LINE>
<LINE>Such goodness of your justice, that our soul</LINE>
<LINE>Cannot but yield you forth to public thanks,</LINE>
<LINE>Forerunning more requital.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>ANGELO</SPEAKER>
<LINE>You make my bonds still greater.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>DUKE VINCENTIO</SPEAKER>
<LINE>O, your desert speaks loud; and I should wrong it,</LINE>
<LINE>To lock it in the wards of covert bosom,</LINE>
<LINE>When it deserves, with characters of brass,</LINE>
<LINE>A forted residence 'gainst the tooth of time</LINE>
<LINE>And razure of oblivion. Give me your hand,</LINE>
<LINE>And let the subject see, to make them know</LINE>
<LINE>That outward courtesies would fain proclaim</LINE>
<LINE>Favours that keep within. Come, Escalus,</LINE>
<LINE>You must walk by us on our other hand;</LINE>
<LINE>And good supporters are you.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<STAGEDIR>FRIAR PETER and ISABELLA come forward</STAGEDIR>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>FRIAR PETER</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Now is your time: speak loud and kneel before him.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>ISABELLA</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Justice, O royal duke! Vail your regard</LINE>
<LINE>Upon a wrong'd, I would fain have said, a maid!</LINE>
<LINE>O worthy prince, dishonour not your eye</LINE>
<LINE>By throwing it on any other object</LINE>
<LINE>Till you have heard me in my true complaint</LINE>
<LINE>And given me justice, justice, justice, justice!</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>DUKE VINCENTIO</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Relate your wrongs; in what? by whom? be brief.</LINE>
<LINE>Here is Lord Angelo shall give you justice:</LINE>
<LINE>Reveal yourself to him.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>ISABELLA</SPEAKER>
<LINE>O worthy duke,</LINE>
<LINE>You bid me seek redemption of the devil:</LINE>
<LINE>Hear me yourself; for that which I must speak</LINE>
<LINE>Must either punish me, not being believed,</LINE>
<LINE>Or wring redress from you. Hear me, O hear me, here!</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>ANGELO</SPEAKER>
<LINE>My lord, her wits, I fear me, are not firm:</LINE>
<LINE>She hath been a suitor to me for her brother</LINE>
<LINE>Cut off by course of justice,--</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>ISABELLA</SPEAKER>
<LINE>By course of justice!</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>ANGELO</SPEAKER>
<LINE>And she will speak most bitterly and strange.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>ISABELLA</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Most strange, but yet most truly, will I speak:</LINE>
<LINE>That Angelo's forsworn; is it not strange?</LINE>
<LINE>That Angelo's a murderer; is 't not strange?</LINE>
<LINE>That Angelo is an adulterous thief,</LINE>
<LINE>An hypocrite, a virgin-violator;</LINE>
<LINE>Is it not strange and strange?</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>DUKE VINCENTIO</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Nay, it is ten times strange.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>ISABELLA</SPEAKER>
<LINE>It is not truer he is Angelo</LINE>
<LINE>Than this is all as true as it is strange:</LINE>
<LINE>Nay, it is ten times true; for truth is truth</LINE>
<LINE>To the end of reckoning.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>DUKE VINCENTIO</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Away with her! Poor soul,</LINE>
<LINE>She speaks this in the infirmity of sense.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>ISABELLA</SPEAKER>
<LINE>O prince, I conjure thee, as thou believest</LINE>
<LINE>There is another comfort than this world,</LINE>
<LINE>That thou neglect me not, with that opinion</LINE>
<LINE>That I am touch'd with madness! Make not impossible</LINE>
<LINE>That which but seems unlike: 'tis not impossible</LINE>
<LINE>But one, the wicked'st caitiff on the ground,</LINE>
<LINE>May seem as shy, as grave, as just, as absolute</LINE>
<LINE>As Angelo; even so may Angelo,</LINE>
<LINE>In all his dressings, characts, titles, forms,</LINE>
<LINE>Be an arch-villain; believe it, royal prince:</LINE>
<LINE>If he be less, he's nothing; but he's more,</LINE>
<LINE>Had I more name for badness.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>DUKE VINCENTIO</SPEAKER>
<LINE>By mine honesty,</LINE>
<LINE>If she be mad,--as I believe no other,--</LINE>
<LINE>Her madness hath the oddest frame of sense,</LINE>
<LINE>Such a dependency of thing on thing,</LINE>
<LINE>As e'er I heard in madness.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>ISABELLA</SPEAKER>
<LINE>O gracious duke,</LINE>
<LINE>Harp not on that, nor do not banish reason</LINE>
<LINE>For inequality; but let your reason serve</LINE>
<LINE>To make the truth appear where it seems hid,</LINE>
<LINE>And hide the false seems true.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>DUKE VINCENTIO</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Many that are not mad</LINE>
<LINE>Have, sure, more lack of reason. What would you say?</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>ISABELLA</SPEAKER>
<LINE>I am the sister of one Claudio,</LINE>
<LINE>Condemn'd upon the act of fornication</LINE>
<LINE>To lose his head; condemn'd by Angelo:</LINE>
<LINE>I, in probation of a sisterhood,</LINE>
<LINE>Was sent to by my brother; one Lucio</LINE>
<LINE>As then the messenger,--</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>LUCIO</SPEAKER>
<LINE>That's I, an't like your grace:</LINE>
<LINE>I came to her from Claudio, and desired her</LINE>
<LINE>To try her gracious fortune with Lord Angelo</LINE>
<LINE>For her poor brother's pardon.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>ISABELLA</SPEAKER>
<LINE>That's he indeed.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>DUKE VINCENTIO</SPEAKER>
<LINE>You were not bid to speak.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>LUCIO</SPEAKER>
<LINE>No, my good lord;</LINE>
<LINE>Nor wish'd to hold my peace.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>DUKE VINCENTIO</SPEAKER>
<LINE>I wish you now, then;</LINE>
<LINE>Pray you, take note of it: and when you have</LINE>
<LINE>A business for yourself, pray heaven you then</LINE>
<LINE>Be perfect.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>LUCIO</SPEAKER>
<LINE>I warrant your honour.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>DUKE VINCENTIO</SPEAKER>
<LINE>The warrants for yourself; take heed to't.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>ISABELLA</SPEAKER>
<LINE>This gentleman told somewhat of my tale,--</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>LUCIO</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Right.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>DUKE VINCENTIO</SPEAKER>
<LINE>It may be right; but you are i' the wrong</LINE>
<LINE>To speak before your time. Proceed.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>ISABELLA</SPEAKER>
<LINE>I went</LINE>
<LINE>To this pernicious caitiff deputy,--</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>DUKE VINCENTIO</SPEAKER>
<LINE>That's somewhat madly spoken.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>ISABELLA</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Pardon it;</LINE>
<LINE>The phrase is to the matter.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>DUKE VINCENTIO</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Mended again. The matter; proceed.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>ISABELLA</SPEAKER>
<LINE>In brief, to set the needless process by,</LINE>
<LINE>How I persuaded, how I pray'd, and kneel'd,</LINE>
<LINE>How he refell'd me, and how I replied,--</LINE>
<LINE>For this was of much length,--the vile conclusion</LINE>
<LINE>I now begin with grief and shame to utter:</LINE>
<LINE>He would not, but by gift of my chaste body</LINE>
<LINE>To his concupiscible intemperate lust,</LINE>
<LINE>Release my brother; and, after much debatement,</LINE>
<LINE>My sisterly remorse confutes mine honour,</LINE>
<LINE>And I did yield to him: but the next morn betimes,</LINE>
<LINE>His purpose surfeiting, he sends a warrant</LINE>
<LINE>For my poor brother's head.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>DUKE VINCENTIO</SPEAKER>
<LINE>This is most likely!</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>ISABELLA</SPEAKER>
<LINE>O, that it were as like as it is true!</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>DUKE VINCENTIO</SPEAKER>
<LINE>By heaven, fond wretch, thou knowist not what thou speak'st,</LINE>
<LINE>Or else thou art suborn'd against his honour</LINE>
<LINE>In hateful practise. First, his integrity</LINE>
<LINE>Stands without blemish. Next, it imports no reason</LINE>
<LINE>That with such vehemency he should pursue</LINE>
<LINE>Faults proper to himself: if he had so offended,</LINE>
<LINE>He would have weigh'd thy brother by himself</LINE>
<LINE>And not have cut him off. Some one hath set you on:</LINE>
<LINE>Confess the truth, and say by whose advice</LINE>
<LINE>Thou camest here to complain.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>ISABELLA</SPEAKER>
<LINE>And is this all?</LINE>
<LINE>Then, O you blessed ministers above,</LINE>
<LINE>Keep me in patience, and with ripen'd time</LINE>
<LINE>Unfold the evil which is here wrapt up</LINE>
<LINE>In countenance! Heaven shield your grace from woe,</LINE>
<LINE>As I, thus wrong'd, hence unbelieved go!</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>DUKE VINCENTIO</SPEAKER>
<LINE>I know you'ld fain be gone. An officer!</LINE>
<LINE>To prison with her! Shall we thus permit</LINE>
<LINE>A blasting and a scandalous breath to fall</LINE>
<LINE>On him so near us? This needs must be a practise.</LINE>
<LINE>Who knew of Your intent and coming hither?</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>ISABELLA</SPEAKER>
<LINE>One that I would were here, Friar Lodowick.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>DUKE VINCENTIO</SPEAKER>
<LINE>A ghostly father, belike. Who knows that Lodowick?</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>LUCIO</SPEAKER>
<LINE>My lord, I know him; 'tis a meddling friar;</LINE>
<LINE>I do not like the man: had he been lay, my lord</LINE>
<LINE>For certain words he spake against your grace</LINE>
<LINE>In your retirement, I had swinged him soundly.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>DUKE VINCENTIO</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Words against me? this is a good friar, belike!</LINE>
<LINE>And to set on this wretched woman here</LINE>
<LINE>Against our substitute! Let this friar be found.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>LUCIO</SPEAKER>
<LINE>But yesternight, my lord, she and that friar,</LINE>
<LINE>I saw them at the prison: a saucy friar,</LINE>
<LINE>A very scurvy fellow.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>FRIAR PETER</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Blessed be your royal grace!</LINE>
<LINE>I have stood by, my lord, and I have heard</LINE>
<LINE>Your royal ear abused. First, hath this woman</LINE>
<LINE>Most wrongfully accused your substitute,</LINE>
<LINE>Who is as free from touch or soil with her</LINE>
<LINE>As she from one ungot.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>DUKE VINCENTIO</SPEAKER>
<LINE>We did believe no less.</LINE>
<LINE>Know you that Friar Lodowick that she speaks of?</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>FRIAR PETER</SPEAKER>
<LINE>I know him for a man divine and holy;</LINE>
<LINE>Not scurvy, nor a temporary meddler,</LINE>
<LINE>As he's reported by this gentleman;</LINE>
<LINE>And, on my trust, a man that never yet</LINE>
<LINE>Did, as he vouches, misreport your grace.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>LUCIO</SPEAKER>
<LINE>My lord, most villanously; believe it.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>FRIAR PETER</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Well, he in time may come to clear himself;</LINE>
<LINE>But at this instant he is sick my lord,</LINE>
<LINE>Of a strange fever. Upon his mere request,</LINE>
<LINE>Being come to knowledge that there was complaint</LINE>
<LINE>Intended 'gainst Lord Angelo, came I hither,</LINE>
<LINE>To speak, as from his mouth, what he doth know</LINE>
<LINE>Is true and false; and what he with his oath</LINE>
<LINE>And all probation will make up full clear,</LINE>
<LINE>Whensoever he's convented. First, for this woman.</LINE>
<LINE>To justify this worthy nobleman,</LINE>
<LINE>So vulgarly and personally accused,</LINE>
<LINE>Her shall you hear disproved to her eyes,</LINE>
<LINE>Till she herself confess it.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>DUKE VINCENTIO</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Good friar, let's hear it.</LINE>
<STAGEDIR>ISABELLA is carried off guarded; and MARIANA comes forward</STAGEDIR>
<LINE>Do you not smile at this, Lord Angelo?</LINE>
<LINE>O heaven, the vanity of wretched fools!</LINE>
<LINE>Give us some seats. Come, cousin Angelo;</LINE>
<LINE>In this I'll be impartial; be you judge</LINE>
<LINE>Of your own cause. Is this the witness, friar?</LINE>
<LINE>First, let her show her face, and after speak.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>MARIANA</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Pardon, my lord; I will not show my face</LINE>
<LINE>Until my husband bid me.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>DUKE VINCENTIO</SPEAKER>
<LINE>What, are you married?</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>MARIANA</SPEAKER>
<LINE>No, my lord.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>DUKE VINCENTIO</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Are you a maid?</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>MARIANA</SPEAKER>
<LINE>No, my lord.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>DUKE VINCENTIO</SPEAKER>
<LINE>A widow, then?</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>MARIANA</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Neither, my lord.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>DUKE VINCENTIO</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Why, you are nothing then: neither maid, widow, nor wife?</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>LUCIO</SPEAKER>
<LINE>My lord, she may be a punk; for many of them are</LINE>
<LINE>neither maid, widow, nor wife.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>DUKE VINCENTIO</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Silence that fellow: I would he had some cause</LINE>
<LINE>To prattle for himself.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>LUCIO</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Well, my lord.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>MARIANA</SPEAKER>
<LINE>My lord; I do confess I ne'er was married;</LINE>
<LINE>And I confess besides I am no maid:</LINE>
<LINE>I have known my husband; yet my husband</LINE>
<LINE>Knows not that ever he knew me.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>LUCIO</SPEAKER>
<LINE>He was drunk then, my lord: it can be no better.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>DUKE VINCENTIO</SPEAKER>
<LINE>For the benefit of silence, would thou wert so too!</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>LUCIO</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Well, my lord.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>DUKE VINCENTIO</SPEAKER>
<LINE>This is no witness for Lord Angelo.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>MARIANA</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Now I come to't my lord</LINE>
<LINE>She that accuses him of fornication,</LINE>
<LINE>In self-same manner doth accuse my husband,</LINE>
<LINE>And charges him my lord, with such a time</LINE>
<LINE>When I'll depose I had him in mine arms</LINE>
<LINE>With all the effect of love.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>ANGELO</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Charges she more than me?</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>MARIANA</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Not that I know.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>DUKE VINCENTIO</SPEAKER>
<LINE>No? you say your husband.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>MARIANA</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Why, just, my lord, and that is Angelo,</LINE>
<LINE>Who thinks he knows that he ne'er knew my body,</LINE>
<LINE>But knows he thinks that he knows Isabel's.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>ANGELO</SPEAKER>
<LINE>This is a strange abuse. Let's see thy face.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>MARIANA</SPEAKER>
<LINE>My husband bids me; now I will unmask.</LINE>
<STAGEDIR>Unveiling</STAGEDIR>
<LINE>This is that face, thou cruel Angelo,</LINE>
<LINE>Which once thou sworest was worth the looking on;</LINE>
<LINE>This is the hand which, with a vow'd contract,</LINE>
<LINE>Was fast belock'd in thine; this is the body</LINE>
<LINE>That took away the match from Isabel,</LINE>
<LINE>And did supply thee at thy garden-house</LINE>
<LINE>In her imagined person.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>DUKE VINCENTIO</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Know you this woman?</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>LUCIO</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Carnally, she says.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>DUKE VINCENTIO</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Sirrah, no more!</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>LUCIO</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Enough, my lord.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>ANGELO</SPEAKER>
<LINE>My lord, I must confess I know this woman:</LINE>
<LINE>And five years since there was some speech of marriage</LINE>
<LINE>Betwixt myself and her; which was broke off,</LINE>
<LINE>Partly for that her promised proportions</LINE>
<LINE>Came short of composition, but in chief</LINE>
<LINE>For that her reputation was disvalued</LINE>
<LINE>In levity: since which time of five years</LINE>
<LINE>I never spake with her, saw her, nor heard from her,</LINE>
<LINE>Upon my faith and honour.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>MARIANA</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Noble prince,</LINE>
<LINE>As there comes light from heaven and words from breath,</LINE>
<LINE>As there is sense in truth and truth in virtue,</LINE>
<LINE>I am affianced this man's wife as strongly</LINE>
<LINE>As words could make up vows: and, my good lord,</LINE>
<LINE>But Tuesday night last gone in's garden-house</LINE>
<LINE>He knew me as a wife. As this is true,</LINE>
<LINE>Let me in safety raise me from my knees</LINE>
<LINE>Or else for ever be confixed here,</LINE>
<LINE>A marble monument!</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>ANGELO</SPEAKER>
<LINE>I did but smile till now:</LINE>
<LINE>Now, good my lord, give me the scope of justice</LINE>
<LINE>My patience here is touch'd. I do perceive</LINE>
<LINE>These poor informal women are no more</LINE>
<LINE>But instruments of some more mightier member</LINE>
<LINE>That sets them on: let me have way, my lord,</LINE>
<LINE>To find this practise out.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>DUKE VINCENTIO</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Ay, with my heart</LINE>
<LINE>And punish them to your height of pleasure.</LINE>
<LINE>Thou foolish friar, and thou pernicious woman,</LINE>
<LINE>Compact with her that's gone, think'st thou thy oaths,</LINE>
<LINE>Though they would swear down each particular saint,</LINE>
<LINE>Were testimonies against his worth and credit</LINE>
<LINE>That's seal'd in approbation? You, Lord Escalus,</LINE>
<LINE>Sit with my cousin; lend him your kind pains</LINE>
<LINE>To find out this abuse, whence 'tis derived.</LINE>
<LINE>There is another friar that set them on;</LINE>
<LINE>Let him be sent for.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>FRIAR PETER</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Would he were here, my lord! for he indeed</LINE>
<LINE>Hath set the women on to this complaint:</LINE>
<LINE>Your provost knows the place where he abides</LINE>
<LINE>And he may fetch him.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>DUKE VINCENTIO</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Go do it instantly.</LINE>
<STAGEDIR>Exit Provost</STAGEDIR>
<LINE>And you, my noble and well-warranted cousin,</LINE>
<LINE>Whom it concerns to hear this matter forth,</LINE>
<LINE>Do with your injuries as seems you best,</LINE>
<LINE>In any chastisement: I for a while will leave you;</LINE>
<LINE>But stir not you till you have well determined</LINE>
<LINE>Upon these slanderers.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>ESCALUS</SPEAKER>
<LINE>My lord, we'll do it throughly.</LINE>
<STAGEDIR>Exit DUKE</STAGEDIR>
<LINE>Signior Lucio, did not you say you knew that</LINE>
<LINE>Friar Lodowick to be a dishonest person?</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>LUCIO</SPEAKER>
<LINE>'Cucullus non facit monachum:' honest in nothing</LINE>
<LINE>but in his clothes; and one that hath spoke most</LINE>
<LINE>villanous speeches of the duke.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>ESCALUS</SPEAKER>
<LINE>We shall entreat you to abide here till he come and</LINE>
<LINE>enforce them against him: we shall find this friar a</LINE>
<LINE>notable fellow.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>LUCIO</SPEAKER>
<LINE>As any in Vienna, on my word.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>ESCALUS</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Call that same Isabel here once again; I would speak with her.</LINE>
<STAGEDIR>Exit an Attendant</STAGEDIR>
<LINE>Pray you, my lord, give me leave to question; you</LINE>
<LINE>shall see how I'll handle her.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>LUCIO</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Not better than he, by her own report.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>ESCALUS</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Say you?</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>LUCIO</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Marry, sir, I think, if you handled her privately,</LINE>
<LINE>she would sooner confess: perchance, publicly,</LINE>
<LINE>she'll be ashamed.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>ESCALUS</SPEAKER>
<LINE>I will go darkly to work with her.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>LUCIO</SPEAKER>
<LINE>That's the way; for women are light at midnight.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<STAGEDIR>Re-enter Officers with ISABELLA; and Provost with
the DUKE VINCENTIO in his friar's habit</STAGEDIR>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>ESCALUS</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Come on, mistress: here's a gentlewoman denies all</LINE>
<LINE>that you have said.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>LUCIO</SPEAKER>
<LINE>My lord, here comes the rascal I spoke of; here with</LINE>
<LINE>the provost.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>ESCALUS</SPEAKER>
<LINE>In very good time: speak not you to him till we</LINE>
<LINE>call upon you.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>LUCIO</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Mum.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>ESCALUS</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Come, sir: did you set these women on to slander</LINE>
<LINE>Lord Angelo? they have confessed you did.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>DUKE VINCENTIO</SPEAKER>
<LINE>'Tis false.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>ESCALUS</SPEAKER>
<LINE>How! know you where you are?</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>DUKE VINCENTIO</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Respect to your great place! and let the devil</LINE>
<LINE>Be sometime honour'd for his burning throne!</LINE>
<LINE>Where is the duke? 'tis he should hear me speak.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>ESCALUS</SPEAKER>
<LINE>The duke's in us; and we will hear you speak:</LINE>
<LINE>Look you speak justly.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>DUKE VINCENTIO</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Boldly, at least. But, O, poor souls,</LINE>
<LINE>Come you to seek the lamb here of the fox?</LINE>
<LINE>Good night to your redress! Is the duke gone?</LINE>
<LINE>Then is your cause gone too. The duke's unjust,</LINE>
<LINE>Thus to retort your manifest appeal,</LINE>
<LINE>And put your trial in the villain's mouth</LINE>
<LINE>Which here you come to accuse.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>LUCIO</SPEAKER>
<LINE>This is the rascal; this is he I spoke of.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>ESCALUS</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Why, thou unreverend and unhallow'd friar,</LINE>
<LINE>Is't not enough thou hast suborn'd these women</LINE>
<LINE>To accuse this worthy man, but, in foul mouth</LINE>
<LINE>And in the witness of his proper ear,</LINE>
<LINE>To call him villain? and then to glance from him</LINE>
<LINE>To the duke himself, to tax him with injustice?</LINE>
<LINE>Take him hence; to the rack with him! We'll touse you</LINE>
<LINE>Joint by joint, but we will know his purpose.</LINE>
<LINE>What 'unjust'!</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>DUKE VINCENTIO</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Be not so hot; the duke</LINE>
<LINE>Dare no more stretch this finger of mine than he</LINE>
<LINE>Dare rack his own: his subject am I not,</LINE>
<LINE>Nor here provincial. My business in this state</LINE>
<LINE>Made me a looker on here in Vienna,</LINE>
<LINE>Where I have seen corruption boil and bubble</LINE>
<LINE>Till it o'er-run the stew; laws for all faults,</LINE>
<LINE>But faults so countenanced, that the strong statutes</LINE>
<LINE>Stand like the forfeits in a barber's shop,</LINE>
<LINE>As much in mock as mark.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>ESCALUS</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Slander to the state! Away with him to prison!</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>ANGELO</SPEAKER>
<LINE>What can you vouch against him, Signior Lucio?</LINE>
<LINE>Is this the man that you did tell us of?</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>LUCIO</SPEAKER>
<LINE>'Tis he, my lord. Come hither, goodman baldpate:</LINE>
<LINE>do you know me?</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>DUKE VINCENTIO</SPEAKER>
<LINE>I remember you, sir, by the sound of your voice: I</LINE>
<LINE>met you at the prison, in the absence of the duke.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>LUCIO</SPEAKER>
<LINE>O, did you so? And do you remember what you said of the duke?</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>DUKE VINCENTIO</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Most notedly, sir.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>LUCIO</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Do you so, sir? And was the duke a fleshmonger, a</LINE>
<LINE>fool, and a coward, as you then reported him to be?</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>DUKE VINCENTIO</SPEAKER>
<LINE>You must, sir, change persons with me, ere you make</LINE>
<LINE>that my report: you, indeed, spoke so of him; and</LINE>
<LINE>much more, much worse.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>LUCIO</SPEAKER>
<LINE>O thou damnable fellow! Did not I pluck thee by the</LINE>
<LINE>nose for thy speeches?</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>DUKE VINCENTIO</SPEAKER>
<LINE>I protest I love the duke as I love myself.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>ANGELO</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Hark, how the villain would close now, after his</LINE>
<LINE>treasonable abuses!</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>ESCALUS</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Such a fellow is not to be talked withal. Away with</LINE>
<LINE>him to prison! Where is the provost? Away with him</LINE>
<LINE>to prison! lay bolts enough upon him: let him</LINE>
<LINE>speak no more. Away with those giglots too, and</LINE>
<LINE>with the other confederate companion!</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>DUKE VINCENTIO</SPEAKER>
<LINE><STAGEDIR>To Provost</STAGEDIR>  Stay, sir; stay awhile.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>ANGELO</SPEAKER>
<LINE>What, resists he? Help him, Lucio.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>LUCIO</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Come, sir; come, sir; come, sir; foh, sir! Why, you</LINE>
<LINE>bald-pated, lying rascal, you must be hooded, must</LINE>
<LINE>you? Show your knave's visage, with a pox to you!</LINE>
<LINE>show your sheep-biting face, and be hanged an hour!</LINE>
<LINE>Will't not off?</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<STAGEDIR>Pulls off the friar's hood, and discovers DUKE
VINCENTIO</STAGEDIR>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>DUKE VINCENTIO</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Thou art the first knave that e'er madest a duke.</LINE>
<LINE>First, provost, let me bail these gentle three.</LINE>
<STAGEDIR>To LUCIO</STAGEDIR>
<LINE>Sneak not away, sir; for the friar and you</LINE>
<LINE>Must have a word anon. Lay hold on him.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>LUCIO</SPEAKER>
<LINE>This may prove worse than hanging.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>DUKE VINCENTIO</SPEAKER>
<LINE><STAGEDIR>To ESCALUS</STAGEDIR>  What you have spoke I pardon: sit you down:</LINE>
<LINE>We'll borrow place of him.</LINE>
<STAGEDIR>To ANGELO</STAGEDIR>
<LINE>Sir, by your leave.</LINE>
<LINE>Hast thou or word, or wit, or impudence,</LINE>
<LINE>That yet can do thee office? If thou hast,</LINE>
<LINE>Rely upon it till my tale be heard,</LINE>
<LINE>And hold no longer out.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>ANGELO</SPEAKER>
<LINE>O my dread lord,</LINE>
<LINE>I should be guiltier than my guiltiness,</LINE>
<LINE>To think I can be undiscernible,</LINE>
<LINE>When I perceive your grace, like power divine,</LINE>
<LINE>Hath look'd upon my passes. Then, good prince,</LINE>
<LINE>No longer session hold upon my shame,</LINE>
<LINE>But let my trial be mine own confession:</LINE>
<LINE>Immediate sentence then and sequent death</LINE>
<LINE>Is all the grace I beg.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>DUKE VINCENTIO</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Come hither, Mariana.</LINE>
<LINE>Say, wast thou e'er contracted to this woman?</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>ANGELO</SPEAKER>
<LINE>I was, my lord.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>DUKE VINCENTIO</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Go take her hence, and marry her instantly.</LINE>
<LINE>Do you the office, friar; which consummate,</LINE>
<LINE>Return him here again. Go with him, provost.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<STAGEDIR>Exeunt ANGELO, MARIANA, FRIAR PETER and Provost</STAGEDIR>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>ESCALUS</SPEAKER>
<LINE>My lord, I am more amazed at his dishonour</LINE>
<LINE>Than at the strangeness of it.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>DUKE VINCENTIO</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Come hither, Isabel.</LINE>
<LINE>Your friar is now your prince: as I was then</LINE>
<LINE>Advertising and holy to your business,</LINE>
<LINE>Not changing heart with habit, I am still</LINE>
<LINE>Attorney'd at your service.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>ISABELLA</SPEAKER>
<LINE>O, give me pardon,</LINE>
<LINE>That I, your vassal, have employ'd and pain'd</LINE>
<LINE>Your unknown sovereignty!</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>DUKE VINCENTIO</SPEAKER>
<LINE>You are pardon'd, Isabel:</LINE>
<LINE>And now, dear maid, be you as free to us.</LINE>
<LINE>Your brother's death, I know, sits at your heart;</LINE>
<LINE>And you may marvel why I obscured myself,</LINE>
<LINE>Labouring to save his life, and would not rather</LINE>
<LINE>Make rash remonstrance of my hidden power</LINE>
<LINE>Than let him so be lost. O most kind maid,</LINE>
<LINE>It was the swift celerity of his death,</LINE>
<LINE>Which I did think with slower foot came on,</LINE>
<LINE>That brain'd my purpose. But, peace be with him!</LINE>
<LINE>That life is better life, past fearing death,</LINE>
<LINE>Than that which lives to fear: make it your comfort,</LINE>
<LINE>So happy is your brother.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>ISABELLA</SPEAKER>
<LINE>I do, my lord.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<STAGEDIR>Re-enter ANGELO, MARIANA, FRIAR PETER, and Provost</STAGEDIR>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>DUKE VINCENTIO</SPEAKER>
<LINE>For this new-married man approaching here,</LINE>
<LINE>Whose salt imagination yet hath wrong'd</LINE>
<LINE>Your well defended honour, you must pardon</LINE>
<LINE>For Mariana's sake: but as he adjudged your brother,--</LINE>
<LINE>Being criminal, in double violation</LINE>
<LINE>Of sacred chastity and of promise-breach</LINE>
<LINE>Thereon dependent, for your brother's life,--</LINE>
<LINE>The very mercy of the law cries out</LINE>
<LINE>Most audible, even from his proper tongue,</LINE>
<LINE>'An Angelo for Claudio, death for death!'</LINE>
<LINE>Haste still pays haste, and leisure answers leisure;</LINE>
<LINE>Like doth quit like, and MEASURE still FOR MEASURE.</LINE>
<LINE>Then, Angelo, thy fault's thus manifested;</LINE>
<LINE>Which, though thou wouldst deny, denies thee vantage.</LINE>
<LINE>We do condemn thee to the very block</LINE>
<LINE>Where Claudio stoop'd to death, and with like haste.</LINE>
<LINE>Away with him!</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>MARIANA</SPEAKER>
<LINE>O my most gracious lord,</LINE>
<LINE>I hope you will not mock me with a husband.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>DUKE VINCENTIO</SPEAKER>
<LINE>It is your husband mock'd you with a husband.</LINE>
<LINE>Consenting to the safeguard of your honour,</LINE>
<LINE>I thought your marriage fit; else imputation,</LINE>
<LINE>For that he knew you, might reproach your life</LINE>
<LINE>And choke your good to come; for his possessions,</LINE>
<LINE>Although by confiscation they are ours,</LINE>
<LINE>We do instate and widow you withal,</LINE>
<LINE>To buy you a better husband.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>MARIANA</SPEAKER>
<LINE>O my dear lord,</LINE>
<LINE>I crave no other, nor no better man.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>DUKE VINCENTIO</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Never crave him; we are definitive.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>MARIANA</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Gentle my liege,--</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<STAGEDIR>Kneeling</STAGEDIR>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>DUKE VINCENTIO</SPEAKER>
<LINE>You do but lose your labour.</LINE>
<LINE>Away with him to death!</LINE>
<STAGEDIR>To LUCIO</STAGEDIR>
<LINE>Now, sir, to you.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>MARIANA</SPEAKER>
<LINE>O my good lord! Sweet Isabel, take my part;</LINE>
<LINE>Lend me your knees, and all my life to come</LINE>
<LINE>I'll lend you all my life to do you service.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>DUKE VINCENTIO</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Against all sense you do importune her:</LINE>
<LINE>Should she kneel down in mercy of this fact,</LINE>
<LINE>Her brother's ghost his paved bed would break,</LINE>
<LINE>And take her hence in horror.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>MARIANA</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Isabel,</LINE>
<LINE>Sweet Isabel, do yet but kneel by me;</LINE>
<LINE>Hold up your hands, say nothing; I'll speak all.</LINE>
<LINE>They say, best men are moulded out of faults;</LINE>
<LINE>And, for the most, become much more the better</LINE>
<LINE>For being a little bad: so may my husband.</LINE>
<LINE>O Isabel, will you not lend a knee?</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>DUKE VINCENTIO</SPEAKER>
<LINE>He dies for Claudio's death.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>ISABELLA</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Most bounteous sir,</LINE>
<STAGEDIR>Kneeling</STAGEDIR>
<LINE>Look, if it please you, on this man condemn'd,</LINE>
<LINE>As if my brother lived: I partly think</LINE>
<LINE>A due sincerity govern'd his deeds,</LINE>
<LINE>Till he did look on me: since it is so,</LINE>
<LINE>Let him not die. My brother had but justice,</LINE>
<LINE>In that he did the thing for which he died:</LINE>
<LINE>For Angelo,</LINE>
<LINE>His act did not o'ertake his bad intent,</LINE>
<LINE>And must be buried but as an intent</LINE>
<LINE>That perish'd by the way: thoughts are no subjects;</LINE>
<LINE>Intents but merely thoughts.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>MARIANA</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Merely, my lord.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>DUKE VINCENTIO</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Your suit's unprofitable; stand up, I say.</LINE>
<LINE>I have bethought me of another fault.</LINE>
<LINE>Provost, how came it Claudio was beheaded</LINE>
<LINE>At an unusual hour?</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>Provost</SPEAKER>
<LINE>It was commanded so.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>DUKE VINCENTIO</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Had you a special warrant for the deed?</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>Provost</SPEAKER>
<LINE>No, my good lord; it was by private message.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>DUKE VINCENTIO</SPEAKER>
<LINE>For which I do discharge you of your office:</LINE>
<LINE>Give up your keys.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>Provost</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Pardon me, noble lord:</LINE>
<LINE>I thought it was a fault, but knew it not;</LINE>
<LINE>Yet did repent me, after more advice;</LINE>
<LINE>For testimony whereof, one in the prison,</LINE>
<LINE>That should by private order else have died,</LINE>
<LINE>I have reserved alive.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>DUKE VINCENTIO</SPEAKER>
<LINE>What's he?</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>Provost</SPEAKER>
<LINE>His name is Barnardine.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>DUKE VINCENTIO</SPEAKER>
<LINE>I would thou hadst done so by Claudio.</LINE>
<LINE>Go fetch him hither; let me look upon him.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<STAGEDIR>Exit Provost</STAGEDIR>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>ESCALUS</SPEAKER>
<LINE>I am sorry, one so learned and so wise</LINE>
<LINE>As you, Lord Angelo, have still appear'd,</LINE>
<LINE>Should slip so grossly, both in the heat of blood.</LINE>
<LINE>And lack of temper'd judgment afterward.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>ANGELO</SPEAKER>
<LINE>I am sorry that such sorrow I procure:</LINE>
<LINE>And so deep sticks it in my penitent heart</LINE>
<LINE>That I crave death more willingly than mercy;</LINE>
<LINE>'Tis my deserving, and I do entreat it.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<STAGEDIR>Re-enter Provost, with BARNARDINE, CLAUDIO muffled,
and JULIET</STAGEDIR>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>DUKE VINCENTIO</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Which is that Barnardine?</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>Provost</SPEAKER>
<LINE>This, my lord.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>DUKE VINCENTIO</SPEAKER>
<LINE>There was a friar told me of this man.</LINE>
<LINE>Sirrah, thou art said to have a stubborn soul.</LINE>
<LINE>That apprehends no further than this world,</LINE>
<LINE>And squarest thy life according. Thou'rt condemn'd:</LINE>
<LINE>But, for those earthly faults, I quit them all;</LINE>
<LINE>And pray thee take this mercy to provide</LINE>
<LINE>For better times to come. Friar, advise him;</LINE>
<LINE>I leave him to your hand. What muffled fellow's that?</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>Provost</SPEAKER>
<LINE>This is another prisoner that I saved.</LINE>
<LINE>Who should have died when Claudio lost his head;</LINE>
<LINE>As like almost to Claudio as himself.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<STAGEDIR>Unmuffles CLAUDIO</STAGEDIR>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>DUKE VINCENTIO</SPEAKER>
<LINE><STAGEDIR>To ISABELLA</STAGEDIR>  If he be like your brother, for his sake</LINE>
<LINE>Is he pardon'd; and, for your lovely sake,</LINE>
<LINE>Give me your hand and say you will be mine.</LINE>
<LINE>He is my brother too: but fitter time for that.</LINE>
<LINE>By this Lord Angelo perceives he's safe;</LINE>
<LINE>Methinks I see a quickening in his eye.</LINE>
<LINE>Well, Angelo, your evil quits you well:</LINE>
<LINE>Look that you love your wife; her worth worth yours.</LINE>
<LINE>I find an apt remission in myself;</LINE>
<LINE>And yet here's one in place I cannot pardon.</LINE>
<STAGEDIR>To LUCIO</STAGEDIR>
<LINE>You, sirrah, that knew me for a fool, a coward,</LINE>
<LINE>One all of luxury, an ass, a madman;</LINE>
<LINE>Wherein have I so deserved of you,</LINE>
<LINE>That you extol me thus?</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>LUCIO</SPEAKER>
<LINE>'Faith, my lord. I spoke it but according to the</LINE>
<LINE>trick. If you will hang me for it, you may; but I</LINE>
<LINE>had rather it would please you I might be whipt.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>DUKE VINCENTIO</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Whipt first, sir, and hanged after.</LINE>
<LINE>Proclaim it, provost, round about the city.</LINE>
<LINE>Is any woman wrong'd by this lewd fellow,</LINE>
<LINE>As I have heard him swear himself there's one</LINE>
<LINE>Whom he begot with child, let her appear,</LINE>
<LINE>And he shall marry her: the nuptial finish'd,</LINE>
<LINE>Let him be whipt and hang'd.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>LUCIO</SPEAKER>
<LINE>I beseech your highness, do not marry me to a whore.</LINE>
<LINE>Your highness said even now, I made you a duke:</LINE>
<LINE>good my lord, do not recompense me in making me a cuckold.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>DUKE VINCENTIO</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Upon mine honour, thou shalt marry her.</LINE>
<LINE>Thy slanders I forgive; and therewithal</LINE>
<LINE>Remit thy other forfeits. Take him to prison;</LINE>
<LINE>And see our pleasure herein executed.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>LUCIO</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Marrying a punk, my lord, is pressing to death,</LINE>
<LINE>whipping, and hanging.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<SPEECH>
<SPEAKER>DUKE VINCENTIO</SPEAKER>
<LINE>Slandering a prince deserves it.</LINE>
<STAGEDIR>Exit Officers with LUCIO</STAGEDIR>
<LINE>She, Claudio, that you wrong'd, look you restore.</LINE>
<LINE>Joy to you, Mariana! Love her, Angelo:</LINE>
<LINE>I have confess'd her and I know her virtue.</LINE>
<LINE>Thanks, good friend Escalus, for thy much goodness:</LINE>
<LINE>There's more behind that is more gratulate.</LINE>
<LINE>Thanks, provost, for thy care and secrecy:</LINE>
<LINE>We shill employ thee in a worthier place.</LINE>
<LINE>Forgive him, Angelo, that brought you home</LINE>
<LINE>The head of Ragozine for Claudio's:</LINE>
<LINE>The offence pardons itself. Dear Isabel,</LINE>
<LINE>I have a motion much imports your good;</LINE>
<LINE>Whereto if you'll a willing ear incline,</LINE>
<LINE>What's mine is yours and what is yours is mine.</LINE>
<LINE>So, bring us to our palace; where we'll show</LINE>
<LINE>What's yet behind, that's meet you all should know.</LINE>
</SPEECH>

<STAGEDIR>Exeunt</STAGEDIR>
</SCENE>
</ACT>
</PLAY>
