The First Web Folio Edition of Shakespeare's Works
| The city gate. |
| [MARIANA veiled, ISABELLA, and FRIAR PETER, at their | ||
| stand. Enter DUKE VINCENTIO, VARRIUS, Lords, | ||
| ANGELO, ESCALUS, LUCIO, Provost, Officers, and | ||
| Citizens, at several doors] |
| DUKE VINCENTIO | My very worthy cousin, fairly met! | ||
| Our old and faithful friend, we are glad to see you. |
| ANGELO, ESCALUS | |Happy return be to your royal grace! |
| DUKE VINCENTIO | Many and hearty thankings to you both. | ||
| We have made inquiry of you; and we hear | 5 | ||
| Such goodness of your justice, that our soul | |||
| Cannot but yield you forth to public thanks, | |||
| Forerunning more requital. |
| ANGELO | You make my bonds still greater. |
| DUKE VINCENTIO | O, your desert speaks loud; and I should wrong it, | 10 | |
| To lock it in the wards of covert bosom, | |||
| When it deserves, with characters of brass, | |||
| A forted residence 'gainst the tooth of time | |||
| And razure of oblivion. Give me your hand, | |||
| And let the subject see, to make them know | 15 | ||
| That outward courtesies would fain proclaim | |||
| Favours that keep within. Come, Escalus, | |||
| You must walk by us on our other hand; | |||
| And good supporters are you. | |||
| [FRIAR PETER and ISABELLA come forward] |
| FRIAR PETER | Now is your time: speak loud and kneel before him. | 20 |
| ISABELLA | Justice, O royal duke! Vail your regard | ||
| Upon a wrong'd, I would fain have said, a maid! | |||
| O worthy prince, dishonour not your eye | |||
| By throwing it on any other object | |||
| Till you have heard me in my true complaint | 25 | ||
| And given me justice, justice, justice, justice! |
| DUKE VINCENTIO | Relate your wrongs; in what? by whom? be brief. | ||
| Here is Lord Angelo shall give you justice: | |||
| Reveal yourself to him. |
| ISABELLA | O worthy duke, | 30 | |
| You bid me seek redemption of the devil: | |||
| Hear me yourself; for that which I must speak | |||
| Must either punish me, not being believed, | |||
| Or wring redress from you. Hear me, O hear me, here! |
| ANGELO | My lord, her wits, I fear me, are not firm: | 35 | |
| She hath been a suitor to me for her brother | |||
| Cut off by course of justice,-- |
| ISABELLA | By course of justice! |
| ANGELO | And she will speak most bitterly and strange. |
| ISABELLA | Most strange, but yet most truly, will I speak: | 40 | |
| That Angelo's forsworn; is it not strange? | |||
| That Angelo's a murderer; is 't not strange? | |||
| That Angelo is an adulterous thief, | |||
| An hypocrite, a virgin-violator; | |||
| Is it not strange and strange? | 45 |
| DUKE VINCENTIO | Nay, it is ten times strange. |
| ISABELLA | It is not truer he is Angelo | ||
| Than this is all as true as it is strange: | |||
| Nay, it is ten times true; for truth is truth | |||
| To the end of reckoning. | 50 |
| DUKE VINCENTIO | Away with her! Poor soul, | ||
| She speaks this in the infirmity of sense. |
| ISABELLA | O prince, I conjure thee, as thou believest | ||
| There is another comfort than this world, | |||
| That thou neglect me not, with that opinion | 55 | ||
| That I am touch'd with madness! Make not impossible | |||
| That which but seems unlike: 'tis not impossible | |||
| But one, the wicked'st caitiff on the ground, | |||
| May seem as shy, as grave, as just, as absolute | |||
| As Angelo; even so may Angelo, | 60 | ||
| In all his dressings, characts, titles, forms, | |||
| Be an arch-villain; believe it, royal prince: | |||
| If he be less, he's nothing; but he's more, | |||
| Had I more name for badness. |
| DUKE VINCENTIO | By mine honesty, | 65 | |
| If she be mad,--as I believe no other,-- | |||
| Her madness hath the oddest frame of sense, | |||
| Such a dependency of thing on thing, | |||
| As e'er I heard in madness. |
| ISABELLA | O gracious duke, | 70 | |
| Harp not on that, nor do not banish reason | |||
| For inequality; but let your reason serve | |||
| To make the truth appear where it seems hid, | |||
| And hide the false seems true. |
| DUKE VINCENTIO | Many that are not mad | 75 | |
| Have, sure, more lack of reason. What would you say? |
| ISABELLA | I am the sister of one Claudio, | ||
| Condemn'd upon the act of fornication | |||
| To lose his head; condemn'd by Angelo: | |||
| I, in probation of a sisterhood, | 80 | ||
| Was sent to by my brother; one Lucio | |||
| As then the messenger,-- |
| LUCIO | That's I, an't like your grace: | ||
| I came to her from Claudio, and desired her | |||
| To try her gracious fortune with Lord Angelo | 85 | ||
| For her poor brother's pardon. |
| ISABELLA | That's he indeed. |
| DUKE VINCENTIO | You were not bid to speak. |
| LUCIO | No, my good lord; | ||
| Nor wish'd to hold my peace. | 90 |
| DUKE VINCENTIO | I wish you now, then; | ||
| Pray you, take note of it: and when you have | |||
| A business for yourself, pray heaven you then | |||
| Be perfect. |
| LUCIO | I warrant your honour. | 95 |
| DUKE VINCENTIO | The warrants for yourself; take heed to't. |
| ISABELLA | This gentleman told somewhat of my tale,-- |
| LUCIO | Right. |
| DUKE VINCENTIO | It may be right; but you are i' the wrong | ||
| To speak before your time. Proceed. | 100 |
| ISABELLA | I went | ||
| To this pernicious caitiff deputy,-- |
| DUKE VINCENTIO | That's somewhat madly spoken. |
| ISABELLA | Pardon it; | ||
| The phrase is to the matter. | 105 |
| DUKE VINCENTIO | Mended again. The matter; proceed. |
| ISABELLA | In brief, to set the needless process by, | ||
| How I persuaded, how I pray'd, and kneel'd, | |||
| How he refell'd me, and how I replied,-- | |||
| For this was of much length,--the vile conclusion | 110 | ||
| I now begin with grief and shame to utter: | |||
| He would not, but by gift of my chaste body | |||
| To his concupiscible intemperate lust, | |||
| Release my brother; and, after much debatement, | |||
| My sisterly remorse confutes mine honour, | 115 | ||
| And I did yield to him: but the next morn betimes, | |||
| His purpose surfeiting, he sends a warrant | |||
| For my poor brother's head. |
| DUKE VINCENTIO | This is most likely! |
| ISABELLA | O, that it were as like as it is true! | 120 |
| DUKE VINCENTIO | By heaven, fond wretch, thou knowist not what thou speak'st, | ||
| Or else thou art suborn'd against his honour | |||
| In hateful practise. First, his integrity | |||
| Stands without blemish. Next, it imports no reason | |||
| That with such vehemency he should pursue | 125 | ||
| Faults proper to himself: if he had so offended, | |||
| He would have weigh'd thy brother by himself | |||
| And not have cut him off. Some one hath set you on: | |||
| Confess the truth, and say by whose advice | |||
| Thou camest here to complain. | 130 |
| ISABELLA | And is this all? | ||
| Then, O you blessed ministers above, | |||
| Keep me in patience, and with ripen'd time | |||
| Unfold the evil which is here wrapt up | |||
| In countenance! Heaven shield your grace from woe, | 135 | ||
| As I, thus wrong'd, hence unbelieved go! |
| DUKE VINCENTIO | I know you'ld fain be gone. An officer! | ||
| To prison with her! Shall we thus permit | |||
| A blasting and a scandalous breath to fall | |||
| On him so near us? This needs must be a practise. | 140 | ||
| Who knew of Your intent and coming hither? |
| ISABELLA | One that I would were here, Friar Lodowick. |
| DUKE VINCENTIO | A ghostly father, belike. Who knows that Lodowick? |
| LUCIO | My lord, I know him; 'tis a meddling friar; | ||
| I do not like the man: had he been lay, my lord | 145 | ||
| For certain words he spake against your grace | |||
| In your retirement, I had swinged him soundly. |
| DUKE VINCENTIO | Words against me? this is a good friar, belike! | ||
| And to set on this wretched woman here | |||
| Against our substitute! Let this friar be found. | 150 |
| LUCIO | But yesternight, my lord, she and that friar, | ||
| I saw them at the prison: a saucy friar, | |||
| A very scurvy fellow. |
| FRIAR PETER | Blessed be your royal grace! | ||
| I have stood by, my lord, and I have heard | 155 | ||
| Your royal ear abused. First, hath this woman | |||
| Most wrongfully accused your substitute, | |||
| Who is as free from touch or soil with her | |||
| As she from one ungot. |
| DUKE VINCENTIO | We did believe no less. | 160 | |
| Know you that Friar Lodowick that she speaks of? |
| FRIAR PETER | I know him for a man divine and holy; | ||
| Not scurvy, nor a temporary meddler, | |||
| As he's reported by this gentleman; | |||
| And, on my trust, a man that never yet | 165 | ||
| Did, as he vouches, misreport your grace. |
| LUCIO | My lord, most villanously; believe it. |
| FRIAR PETER | Well, he in time may come to clear himself; | ||
| But at this instant he is sick my lord, | |||
| Of a strange fever. Upon his mere request, | 170 | ||
| Being come to knowledge that there was complaint | |||
| Intended 'gainst Lord Angelo, came I hither, | |||
| To speak, as from his mouth, what he doth know | |||
| Is true and false; and what he with his oath | |||
| And all probation will make up full clear, | 175 | ||
| Whensoever he's convented. First, for this woman. | |||
| To justify this worthy nobleman, | |||
| So vulgarly and personally accused, | |||
| Her shall you hear disproved to her eyes, | |||
| Till she herself confess it. | 180 |
| DUKE VINCENTIO | Good friar, let's hear it. | ||
| [ISABELLA is carried off guarded; and MARIANA comes forward] | |||
| Do you not smile at this, Lord Angelo? | |||
| O heaven, the vanity of wretched fools! | |||
| Give us some seats. Come, cousin Angelo; | |||
| In this I'll be impartial; be you judge | 185 | ||
| Of your own cause. Is this the witness, friar? | |||
| First, let her show her face, and after speak. |
| MARIANA | Pardon, my lord; I will not show my face | ||
| Until my husband bid me. |
| DUKE VINCENTIO | What, are you married? | 190 |
| MARIANA | No, my lord. |
| DUKE VINCENTIO | Are you a maid? |
| MARIANA | No, my lord. |
| DUKE VINCENTIO | A widow, then? |
| MARIANA | Neither, my lord. | 195 |
| DUKE VINCENTIO | Why, you are nothing then: neither maid, widow, nor wife? |
| LUCIO | My lord, she may be a punk; for many of them are | ||
| neither maid, widow, nor wife. |
| DUKE VINCENTIO | Silence that fellow: I would he had some cause | ||
| To prattle for himself. | 200 |
| LUCIO | Well, my lord. |
| MARIANA | My lord; I do confess I ne'er was married; | ||
| And I confess besides I am no maid: | |||
| I have known my husband; yet my husband | |||
| Knows not that ever he knew me. | 205 |
| LUCIO | He was drunk then, my lord: it can be no better. |
| DUKE VINCENTIO | For the benefit of silence, would thou wert so too! |
| LUCIO | Well, my lord. |
| DUKE VINCENTIO | This is no witness for Lord Angelo. |
| MARIANA | Now I come to't my lord | 210 | |
| She that accuses him of fornication, | |||
| In self-same manner doth accuse my husband, | |||
| And charges him my lord, with such a time | |||
| When I'll depose I had him in mine arms | |||
| With all the effect of love. | 215 |
| ANGELO | Charges she more than me? |
| MARIANA | Not that I know. |
| DUKE VINCENTIO | No? you say your husband. |
| MARIANA | Why, just, my lord, and that is Angelo, | ||
| Who thinks he knows that he ne'er knew my body, | 220 | ||
| But knows he thinks that he knows Isabel's. |
| ANGELO | This is a strange abuse. Let's see thy face. |
| MARIANA | My husband bids me; now I will unmask. | ||
| [Unveiling] | |||
| This is that face, thou cruel Angelo, | |||
| Which once thou sworest was worth the looking on; | 225 | ||
| This is the hand which, with a vow'd contract, | |||
| Was fast belock'd in thine; this is the body | |||
| That took away the match from Isabel, | |||
| And did supply thee at thy garden-house | |||
| In her imagined person. | 230 |
| DUKE VINCENTIO | Know you this woman? |
| LUCIO | Carnally, she says. |
| DUKE VINCENTIO | Sirrah, no more! |
| LUCIO | Enough, my lord. |
| ANGELO | My lord, I must confess I know this woman: | 235 | |
| And five years since there was some speech of marriage | |||
| Betwixt myself and her; which was broke off, | |||
| Partly for that her promised proportions | |||
| Came short of composition, but in chief | |||
| For that her reputation was disvalued | 240 | ||
| In levity: since which time of five years | |||
| I never spake with her, saw her, nor heard from her, | |||
| Upon my faith and honour. |
| MARIANA | Noble prince, | ||
| As there comes light from heaven and words from breath, | 245 | ||
| As there is sense in truth and truth in virtue, | |||
| I am affianced this man's wife as strongly | |||
| As words could make up vows: and, my good lord, | |||
| But Tuesday night last gone in's garden-house | |||
| He knew me as a wife. As this is true, | 250 | ||
| Let me in safety raise me from my knees | |||
| Or else for ever be confixed here, | |||
| A marble monument! |
| ANGELO | I did but smile till now: | ||
| Now, good my lord, give me the scope of justice | |||
| My patience here is touch'd. I do perceive | 255 | ||
| These poor informal women are no more | |||
| But instruments of some more mightier member | |||
| That sets them on: let me have way, my lord, | |||
| To find this practise out. |
| DUKE VINCENTIO | Ay, with my heart | 260 | |
| And punish them to your height of pleasure. | |||
| Thou foolish friar, and thou pernicious woman, | |||
| Compact with her that's gone, think'st thou thy oaths, | |||
| Though they would swear down each particular saint, | |||
| Were testimonies against his worth and credit | 265 | ||
| That's seal'd in approbation? You, Lord Escalus, | |||
| Sit with my cousin; lend him your kind pains | |||
| To find out this abuse, whence 'tis derived. | |||
| There is another friar that set them on; | |||
| Let him be sent for. | 270 |
| FRIAR PETER | Would he were here, my lord! for he indeed | ||
| Hath set the women on to this complaint: | |||
| Your provost knows the place where he abides | |||
| And he may fetch him. |
| DUKE VINCENTIO | Go do it instantly. | 275 | |
| [Exit Provost] | |||
| And you, my noble and well-warranted cousin, | |||
| Whom it concerns to hear this matter forth, | |||
| Do with your injuries as seems you best, | |||
| In any chastisement: I for a while will leave you; | |||
| But stir not you till you have well determined | 280 | ||
| Upon these slanderers. |
| ESCALUS | My lord, we'll do it throughly. | ||
| [Exit DUKE] | |||
| Signior Lucio, did not you say you knew that | |||
| Friar Lodowick to be a dishonest person? |
| LUCIO | 'Cucullus non facit monachum:' honest in nothing | 285 | |
| but in his clothes; and one that hath spoke most | |||
| villanous speeches of the duke. |
| ESCALUS | We shall entreat you to abide here till he come and | ||
| enforce them against him: we shall find this friar a | |||
| notable fellow. | 290 |
| LUCIO | As any in Vienna, on my word. |
| ESCALUS | Call that same Isabel here once again; I would speak with her. | ||
| [Exit an Attendant] | |||
| Pray you, my lord, give me leave to question; you | |||
| shall see how I'll handle her. |
| LUCIO | Not better than he, by her own report. | 295 |
| ESCALUS | Say you? |
| LUCIO | Marry, sir, I think, if you handled her privately, | ||
| she would sooner confess: perchance, publicly, | |||
| she'll be ashamed. |
| ESCALUS | I will go darkly to work with her. | 300 |
| LUCIO | That's the way; for women are light at midnight. | ||
| [Re-enter Officers with ISABELLA; and Provost with | |||
| the DUKE VINCENTIO in his friar's habit] |
| ESCALUS | Come on, mistress: here's a gentlewoman denies all | ||
| that you have said. |
| LUCIO | My lord, here comes the rascal I spoke of; here with | ||
| the provost. | 305 |
| ESCALUS | In very good time: speak not you to him till we | ||
| call upon you. |
| LUCIO | Mum. |
| ESCALUS | Come, sir: did you set these women on to slander | ||
| Lord Angelo? they have confessed you did. | 310 |
| DUKE VINCENTIO | 'Tis false. |
| ESCALUS | How! know you where you are? |
| DUKE VINCENTIO | Respect to your great place! and let the devil | ||
| Be sometime honour'd for his burning throne! | |||
| Where is the duke? 'tis he should hear me speak. | 315 |
| ESCALUS | The duke's in us; and we will hear you speak: | ||
| Look you speak justly. |
| DUKE VINCENTIO | Boldly, at least. But, O, poor souls, | ||
| Come you to seek the lamb here of the fox? | |||
| Good night to your redress! Is the duke gone? | 320 | ||
| Then is your cause gone too. The duke's unjust, | |||
| Thus to retort your manifest appeal, | |||
| And put your trial in the villain's mouth | |||
| Which here you come to accuse. |
| LUCIO | This is the rascal; this is he I spoke of. | 325 |
| ESCALUS | Why, thou unreverend and unhallow'd friar, | ||
| Is't not enough thou hast suborn'd these women | |||
| To accuse this worthy man, but, in foul mouth | |||
| And in the witness of his proper ear, | |||
| To call him villain? and then to glance from him | 330 | ||
| To the duke himself, to tax him with injustice? | |||
| Take him hence; to the rack with him! We'll touse you | |||
| Joint by joint, but we will know his purpose. | |||
| What 'unjust'! |
| DUKE VINCENTIO | Be not so hot; the duke | ||
| Dare no more stretch this finger of mine than he | 335 | ||
| Dare rack his own: his subject am I not, | |||
| Nor here provincial. My business in this state | |||
| Made me a looker on here in Vienna, | |||
| Where I have seen corruption boil and bubble | |||
| Till it o'er-run the stew; laws for all faults, | 340 | ||
| But faults so countenanced, that the strong statutes | |||
| Stand like the forfeits in a barber's shop, | |||
| As much in mock as mark. |
| ESCALUS | Slander to the state! Away with him to prison! |
| ANGELO | What can you vouch against him, Signior Lucio? | 345 | |
| Is this the man that you did tell us of? |
| LUCIO | 'Tis he, my lord. Come hither, goodman baldpate: | ||
| do you know me? |
| DUKE VINCENTIO | I remember you, sir, by the sound of your voice: I | ||
| met you at the prison, in the absence of the duke. | 350 |
| LUCIO | O, did you so? And do you remember what you said of the duke? |
| DUKE VINCENTIO | Most notedly, sir. |
| LUCIO | Do you so, sir? And was the duke a fleshmonger, a | ||
| fool, and a coward, as you then reported him to be? |
| DUKE VINCENTIO | You must, sir, change persons with me, ere you make | 355 | |
| that my report: you, indeed, spoke so of him; and | |||
| much more, much worse. |
| LUCIO | O thou damnable fellow! Did not I pluck thee by the | ||
| nose for thy speeches? |
| DUKE VINCENTIO | I protest I love the duke as I love myself. | 360 |
| ANGELO | Hark, how the villain would close now, after his | ||
| treasonable abuses! |
| ESCALUS | Such a fellow is not to be talked withal. Away with | ||
| him to prison! Where is the provost? Away with him | |||
| to prison! lay bolts enough upon him: let him | 365 | ||
| speak no more. Away with those giglots too, and | |||
| with the other confederate companion! |
| DUKE VINCENTIO | [To Provost] Stay, sir; stay awhile. |
| ANGELO | What, resists he? Help him, Lucio. |
| LUCIO | Come, sir; come, sir; come, sir; foh, sir! Why, you | 370 | |
| bald-pated, lying rascal, you must be hooded, must | |||
| you? Show your knave's visage, with a pox to you! | |||
| show your sheep-biting face, and be hanged an hour! | |||
| Will't not off? | |||
| [Pulls off the friar's hood, and discovers DUKE | |||
| VINCENTIO] |
| DUKE VINCENTIO | Thou art the first knave that e'er madest a duke. | 375 | |
| First, provost, let me bail these gentle three. | |||
| [To LUCIO] | |||
| Sneak not away, sir; for the friar and you | |||
| Must have a word anon. Lay hold on him. |
| LUCIO | This may prove worse than hanging. |
| DUKE VINCENTIO | [To ESCALUS] What you have spoke I pardon: sit you down: | 380 | |
| We'll borrow place of him. | |||
| [To ANGELO] | |||
| Sir, by your leave. | |||
| Hast thou or word, or wit, or impudence, | |||
| That yet can do thee office? If thou hast, | |||
| Rely upon it till my tale be heard, | 385 | ||
| And hold no longer out. |
| ANGELO | O my dread lord, | ||
| I should be guiltier than my guiltiness, | |||
| To think I can be undiscernible, | |||
| When I perceive your grace, like power divine, | 390 | ||
| Hath look'd upon my passes. Then, good prince, | |||
| No longer session hold upon my shame, | |||
| But let my trial be mine own confession: | |||
| Immediate sentence then and sequent death | |||
| Is all the grace I beg. | 395 |
| DUKE VINCENTIO | Come hither, Mariana. | ||
| Say, wast thou e'er contracted to this woman? |
| ANGELO | I was, my lord. |
| DUKE VINCENTIO | Go take her hence, and marry her instantly. | ||
| Do you the office, friar; which consummate, | 400 | ||
| Return him here again. Go with him, provost. | |||
| [Exeunt ANGELO, MARIANA, FRIAR PETER and Provost] |
| ESCALUS | My lord, I am more amazed at his dishonour | ||
| Than at the strangeness of it. |
| DUKE VINCENTIO | Come hither, Isabel. | ||
| Your friar is now your prince: as I was then | 405 | ||
| Advertising and holy to your business, | |||
| Not changing heart with habit, I am still | |||
| Attorney'd at your service. |
| ISABELLA | O, give me pardon, | ||
| That I, your vassal, have employ'd and pain'd | 410 | ||
| Your unknown sovereignty! |
| DUKE VINCENTIO | You are pardon'd, Isabel: | ||
| And now, dear maid, be you as free to us. | |||
| Your brother's death, I know, sits at your heart; | |||
| And you may marvel why I obscured myself, | 415 | ||
| Labouring to save his life, and would not rather | |||
| Make rash remonstrance of my hidden power | |||
| Than let him so be lost. O most kind maid, | |||
| It was the swift celerity of his death, | |||
| Which I did think with slower foot came on, | 420 | ||
| That brain'd my purpose. But, peace be with him! | |||
| That life is better life, past fearing death, | |||
| Than that which lives to fear: make it your comfort, | |||
| So happy is your brother. |
| ISABELLA | I do, my lord. | 425 | |
| [Re-enter ANGELO, MARIANA, FRIAR PETER, and Provost] |
| DUKE VINCENTIO | For this new-married man approaching here, | ||
| Whose salt imagination yet hath wrong'd | |||
| Your well defended honour, you must pardon | |||
| For Mariana's sake: but as he adjudged your brother,-- | |||
| Being criminal, in double violation | 430 | ||
| Of sacred chastity and of promise-breach | |||
| Thereon dependent, for your brother's life,-- | |||
| The very mercy of the law cries out | |||
| Most audible, even from his proper tongue, | |||
| 'An Angelo for Claudio, death for death!' | 435 | ||
| Haste still pays haste, and leisure answers leisure; | |||
| Like doth quit like, and MEASURE still FOR MEASURE. | |||
| Then, Angelo, thy fault's thus manifested; | |||
| Which, though thou wouldst deny, denies thee vantage. | |||
| We do condemn thee to the very block | 440 | ||
| Where Claudio stoop'd to death, and with like haste. | |||
| Away with him! |
| MARIANA | O my most gracious lord, | ||
| I hope you will not mock me with a husband. |
| DUKE VINCENTIO | It is your husband mock'd you with a husband. | ||
| Consenting to the safeguard of your honour, | 445 | ||
| I thought your marriage fit; else imputation, | |||
| For that he knew you, might reproach your life | |||
| And choke your good to come; for his possessions, | |||
| Although by confiscation they are ours, | |||
| We do instate and widow you withal, | 450 | ||
| To buy you a better husband. |
| MARIANA | O my dear lord, | ||
| I crave no other, nor no better man. |
| DUKE VINCENTIO | Never crave him; we are definitive. |
| MARIANA | Gentle my liege,-- | 455 | |
| [Kneeling] |
| DUKE VINCENTIO | You do but lose your labour. | ||
| Away with him to death! | |||
| [To LUCIO] | |||
| Now, sir, to you. |
| MARIANA | O my good lord! Sweet Isabel, take my part; | ||
| Lend me your knees, and all my life to come | |||
| I'll lend you all my life to do you service. | 460 |
| DUKE VINCENTIO | Against all sense you do importune her: | ||
| Should she kneel down in mercy of this fact, | |||
| Her brother's ghost his paved bed would break, | |||
| And take her hence in horror. |
| MARIANA | Isabel, | 465 | |
| Sweet Isabel, do yet but kneel by me; | |||
| Hold up your hands, say nothing; I'll speak all. | |||
| They say, best men are moulded out of faults; | |||
| And, for the most, become much more the better | |||
| For being a little bad: so may my husband. | 470 | ||
| O Isabel, will you not lend a knee? |
| DUKE VINCENTIO | He dies for Claudio's death. |
| ISABELLA | Most bounteous sir, | ||
| [Kneeling] | |||
| Look, if it please you, on this man condemn'd, | |||
| As if my brother lived: I partly think | 475 | ||
| A due sincerity govern'd his deeds, | |||
| Till he did look on me: since it is so, | |||
| Let him not die. My brother had but justice, | |||
| In that he did the thing for which he died: | |||
| For Angelo, | 480 | ||
| His act did not o'ertake his bad intent, | |||
| And must be buried but as an intent | |||
| That perish'd by the way: thoughts are no subjects; | |||
| Intents but merely thoughts. |
| MARIANA | Merely, my lord. | 485 |
| DUKE VINCENTIO | Your suit's unprofitable; stand up, I say. | ||
| I have bethought me of another fault. | |||
| Provost, how came it Claudio was beheaded | |||
| At an unusual hour? |
| Provost | It was commanded so. | 490 |
| DUKE VINCENTIO | Had you a special warrant for the deed? |
| Provost | No, my good lord; it was by private message. |
| DUKE VINCENTIO | For which I do discharge you of your office: | ||
| Give up your keys. |
| Provost | Pardon me, noble lord: | ||
| I thought it was a fault, but knew it not; | 495 | ||
| Yet did repent me, after more advice; | |||
| For testimony whereof, one in the prison, | |||
| That should by private order else have died, | |||
| I have reserved alive. |
| DUKE VINCENTIO | What's he? | 500 |
| Provost | His name is Barnardine. |
| DUKE VINCENTIO | I would thou hadst done so by Claudio. | ||
| Go fetch him hither; let me look upon him. | |||
| [Exit Provost] |
| ESCALUS | I am sorry, one so learned and so wise | ||
| As you, Lord Angelo, have still appear'd, | 505 | ||
| Should slip so grossly, both in the heat of blood. | |||
| And lack of temper'd judgment afterward. |
| ANGELO | I am sorry that such sorrow I procure: | ||
| And so deep sticks it in my penitent heart | |||
| That I crave death more willingly than mercy; | 510 | ||
| 'Tis my deserving, and I do entreat it. | |||
| [Re-enter Provost, with BARNARDINE, CLAUDIO muffled, | |||
| and JULIET] |
| DUKE VINCENTIO | Which is that Barnardine? |
| Provost | This, my lord. |
| DUKE VINCENTIO | There was a friar told me of this man. | ||
| Sirrah, thou art said to have a stubborn soul. | 515 | ||
| That apprehends no further than this world, | |||
| And squarest thy life according. Thou'rt condemn'd: | |||
| But, for those earthly faults, I quit them all; | |||
| And pray thee take this mercy to provide | |||
| For better times to come. Friar, advise him; | 520 | ||
| I leave him to your hand. What muffled fellow's that? |
| Provost | This is another prisoner that I saved. | ||
| Who should have died when Claudio lost his head; | |||
| As like almost to Claudio as himself. | |||
| [Unmuffles CLAUDIO] |
| DUKE VINCENTIO | [To ISABELLA] If he be like your brother, for his sake | 525 | |
| Is he pardon'd; and, for your lovely sake, | |||
| Give me your hand and say you will be mine. | |||
| He is my brother too: but fitter time for that. | |||
| By this Lord Angelo perceives he's safe; | |||
| Methinks I see a quickening in his eye. | 530 | ||
| Well, Angelo, your evil quits you well: | |||
| Look that you love your wife; her worth worth yours. | |||
| I find an apt remission in myself; | |||
| And yet here's one in place I cannot pardon. | |||
| [To LUCIO] | |||
| You, sirrah, that knew me for a fool, a coward, | 535 | ||
| One all of luxury, an ass, a madman; | |||
| Wherein have I so deserved of you, | |||
| That you extol me thus? |
| LUCIO | 'Faith, my lord. I spoke it but according to the | ||
| trick. If you will hang me for it, you may; but I | 540 | ||
| had rather it would please you I might be whipt. |
| DUKE VINCENTIO | Whipt first, sir, and hanged after. | ||
| Proclaim it, provost, round about the city. | |||
| Is any woman wrong'd by this lewd fellow, | |||
| As I have heard him swear himself there's one | 545 | ||
| Whom he begot with child, let her appear, | |||
| And he shall marry her: the nuptial finish'd, | |||
| Let him be whipt and hang'd. |
| LUCIO | I beseech your highness, do not marry me to a whore. | ||
| Your highness said even now, I made you a duke: | 550 | ||
| good my lord, do not recompense me in making me a cuckold. |
| DUKE VINCENTIO | Upon mine honour, thou shalt marry her. | ||
| Thy slanders I forgive; and therewithal | |||
| Remit thy other forfeits. Take him to prison; | |||
| And see our pleasure herein executed. | 555 |
| LUCIO | Marrying a punk, my lord, is pressing to death, | ||
| whipping, and hanging. |
| DUKE VINCENTIO | Slandering a prince deserves it. | ||
| [Exit Officers with LUCIO] | |||
| She, Claudio, that you wrong'd, look you restore. | |||
| Joy to you, Mariana! Love her, Angelo: | 560 | ||
| I have confess'd her and I know her virtue. | |||
| Thanks, good friend Escalus, for thy much goodness: | |||
| There's more behind that is more gratulate. | |||
| Thanks, provost, for thy care and secrecy: | |||
| We shill employ thee in a worthier place. | 565 | ||
| Forgive him, Angelo, that brought you home | |||
| The head of Ragozine for Claudio's: | |||
| The offence pardons itself. Dear Isabel, | |||
| I have a motion much imports your good; | |||
| Whereto if you'll a willing ear incline, | 570 | ||
| What's mine is yours and what is yours is mine. | |||
| So, bring us to our palace; where we'll show | |||
| What's yet behind, that's meet you all should know. | |||
| [Exeunt] |
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