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 practice.
This needs must be a practice.
Who knew of your intent, and coming hither?
Isab. One that I would were here, friar Lodowick.
Duke. A ghostly father, belike. Who knows that
Lodowick?
Lucio. My lord, I know him: 't is a meddling friar:
I do not like the man: had he been lay, my lord,
For certain words he spake against your grace,
In your retirement, I had swing'd him soundly.
Duke. Words against me? This a good friar, belike.
And to set on this wretched woman here
Against our substitute !-Let this friar be found.
Lucio. But yesternight, my lord, she and that friar
I saw them at the prison. A saucy friar,
A very scurvy fellow.
Blessed be your royal grace!
I have stood by, my lord, and I have heard
Your royal ear abus'd. First, hath this woman
Most wrongfully accus'd your substitute,
Who is as free from touch or soil with her,
As she from one ungot.
Duke.
We did believe no less.
Know you that friar Lodowick, that she speaks of?
F. 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 truth', a man that never yet
Did, as he vouches, misreport your grace.
Lucio. My lord, most villainously: believe it.
F. Peter. Well; he in time may come to clear him-
self,
But at this instant he is sick, my lord,
Of a strange fever. Upon his mere request,
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,
Whensoever he's convented. First, for this woman,
To justify this worthy nobleman,
So vulgarly and personally accus'd,
Her shall you hear disproved to her eyes,
Till she herself confess it.
Duke.
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 impartial2: be you judge
Of your own cause.-Is this the witness, friar?
First, let her show her face, and after speak.
Mari. Pardon, my lord, I will not show my face,
Until my husband bid me.
Mari. 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.
Lucio. He was drunk, then, my lord: it can be no better.
Duke. For the benefit of silence, 'would thou wert so too!
Lucio. Well, my lord.
Duke. This is no witness for lord Angelo.
Mari. Now I come to 't, my lord.
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 th' effect of love.
Mari. Not that I know.
Duke.
Charges she more than me?
No? you say, your husband.
Mari. Why, just my lord, and that is Angelo,
Who thinks, he knows, that he ne 'er knew my body,
But knows, he thinks, that he knows Isabel's.
Ang. This is a strange abuse.-Let's see thy face.
Mari. My husband bids me; now I will unmask.
[Unveiling.
This is that face, thou cruel Angelo,
Which once, thou swor'st, was worth the looking on :
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-house3
In her imagin'd person.
Noble prince, [Kneeling. As there comes light from heaven, and words from breath,
As there is sense in truth, and truth in virtue,
I am affianc'd 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
Let me in safety raise me from my knees,
Or else for ever be confixed here,
A marble monument.
I did but smile till now:
Now, good my lord, give me the scope of justice;
No, my lord. My patience here is touch'd. I do perceive,
These poor informal5 women are no more
But instruments of some more mightier member,
That sets them on. Let me have way, my lord,
To find this practice out.
Duke.
Ay, with my heart;
And punish them unto 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,
Duke.
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. Silence that fellow: I would, he had some
1 trust in f. e 2 Im, that is, very partial, a common use of the prefix. 3 Summer-house. 4 Not in f. e. 5 Senseless.
Were testimonies against his worth and credit,
That's sealed in approbation ?—You, lord Escalus,
Sit with my cousin : lend him your kind pains
To find out this abuse, whence 't is deriv'd.-
There is another friar that set them on;
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 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 your2 purpose.—
F. Peter. Would he were here, my lord; for he, What! unjust? indeed,
Hath set the women on to this complaint.
Your provost knows the place where he abides,
And he may fetch him.
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Will leave you; but stir not you, till you have well Determined upon these slanderers.
[Exit DUKE. Escal. My lord, we'll do it thoroughly.-Signior Lucio, did not you say, you knew that friar Lodowick to be a dishonest person?
Lucio. Cucullus non facit monachum: honest in nothing, but in his clothes; and one that hath spoke most villainous speeches of the duke.
Escal. We shall entreat you to abide here till he come, and enforce them against him. We shall find this friar a notable fellow.
Lucio. As any in Vienna, on my word.
Escal. Call that same Isabel here once again: [To an Attendant.] I would speak with her. 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.
Escal. Say you?
Lucio. Marry, sir, I think, if you handled her privately, she would sooner confess: perchance, publicly she 'll be ashamed.
Re-enter Officers, with ISABELLA: the DUKE, in a Friar's habit, and Provost.
Escal. I will go darkly to work with her. Lucio. That's the way; for women are light at midnight.
Escal. Come on, mistress. [To ISABELLA.] Here's a gentlewoman denies all that you have said.
Lucio. My lord, here comes the rascal I spoke of; here, with the provost.
Escal. In very good time-speak not you to him, till we call upon you.
Escal. Come, sir. Did you set these women on to slander lord Angelo? they have confess'd you did. Duke. 'T is false.
Escal. How! know you where you are?
Duke. Respect to your great place! then let the devil Be sometime honour'd for his burning throne.Where is the duke? 't is he should hear me speak. Escal. The duke's in us, and we will hear you speak: Look, you speak justly.
Duke. 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? Then is your cause gone too. The duke's unjust, Thus to reject1 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. Escal. Why, thou unreverend and unhallow'd friar! Is 't not enough, thou hast suborn'd these women
Duke. Be not so hot; the duke dare3
No more stretch this finger of mine, than he
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,
But faults so countenanc'd, that the strong statutes
Stand like the forfeits in a barber's shop,
As much in mock as mark.
Escal. Slander to the state! Away with him to prison. Ang. What can you vouch against him, signior Lucio?
Is this the man that you did tell us of?
Lucio. 'Tis he, my lord.-Come hither, goodman bald-pate; do you know me?
Duke. I remember you, sir, by the sound of your voice: I met you at the prison in the absence of the duke.
Lucio. O, did you so? you said of the duke?
Duke. 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. You must, sir, change persons with me, ere you make 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. I protest, I love the duke as I love myself. Ang. Hark how the villain would gloze now, after his treasonable abuses.
Escal. Such a fellow is not to be talk'd withal:Away with him to prison.-Where is the provost ?Away with him to prison. Lay bolts enough upon him, let him speak no more.-Away with those giglots* too, and with the other confederate companion.
[The Provost lays hand on the DUKE. Duke. Stay, sir; stay a while. Ang. What! resists he? Help him, Lucio. Lucio. Come, sir; come, sir; come, sir; foh! sir. Why, you 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 hang'd an hour. Will 't not off?
[Pulling off the DUKE's disguise.5 Duke. Thou art the first knave, that e'er made a duke.[All start and stand. First, provost, let me hail these gentle three.Sneak not away, sir; [To LUCIO.] for the friar and you Must have a word anon.-Lay hold on him.
Lucio. This may prove worse than hanging. Duke. What you have spoke, I pardon; sit you down. [To ESCALUS. We'll borrow place of him :-Sir, by your leave. TO ANGELO.
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,
And hold no longer out.
1 retort in f. e. 2 his in f. e. : 3 Knight transfers this word to the beginning of the next line. hood, and discovers the DUKE : in f. e. 6 Not in f. e.
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,
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.
Duke.
Come hither, Mariana.—
Say, wast thou e'er contracted to this woman ?
Ang. I was, my lord.
Duke. Go take her hence, and marry her instantly.-
Do you the office, friar; which consummate,
Return him here again.-Go with him, provost.
[Exeunt ANGELO, MARIANA, PETER, and Provost. Escal. My lord, I am more amaz'd at his dishonour, Than at the strangeness of it.
Come hither, Isabel.
Your friar is now your prince as I was then
Advertising and holy to your business,
Not changing heart with habit, I am still
Attorney'd at your service.
O, give me pardon, That I, your vassal, have employ'd and pain'd Your unknown sovereignty!
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 obscur'd myself,
Labouring to save his life, and would not rather
Make rash demonstrance 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,
That brain'd my purpose: but all 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.
Re-enter ANGELO, MARIANA, PETER, and Provost.
Isab.
I do, my lord.
Duke. 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 adjudg'd your brother,
(Being criminal, in double violation
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!"
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 would'st deny, denies thee vantage.
We do condemn thee to the very block
Where Claudio stoop'd to death, and with like haste.
Away with him.
O, my most gracious lord!
I hope you will not mock me with a husband.
Duke. It is your husband mock'd you with
husband.
Consenting to the safeguard of your honour,
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,
To buy you a better husband.
I crave no other, nor no better man.
Duke. Never crave him: we are definitive.
Mari. Gentle my liege,-
Duke.
You do but lose your labour.
Away with him to death.-Now, sir, [To Lucio.] to you.
Mari. 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.
Duke. 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.
Mari.
Isabel,
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.
O, Isabel! will you not lend a knee?
Duke. He dies for Claudio's death.
Isab.
Most bounteous sir, [Kneeling.
Look, if it please you, on this man condemn'd,
As if my brother liv'd. I partly think,
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,
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.
Mari.
Merely, my lord.
Duke. 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?
Prov.
It was commanded so.
Duke. Had you a special warrant for the deed?
Prov. No, my good lord: it was by private message.
Duke. For which I do discharge you of your office:
Give up your keys.
Pardon me, noble lord :
I thought it was a fault, but knew it not,
Yet did repent me, after more advice ;
For testimony whereof, one in the prison,
That should by private order else have died,
I have reserv'd alive.
Duke.
Prov.
His name is Barnardine.
Duke. I would thou had'st done so by Claudio.-
Go, fetch him hither: let me look upon him.
[Exit Provost.
Escal. I am sorry, one so learned and so wise
As you, lord Angelo, have still appear'd,
Should slip so grossly, both in the heat of blood,
And lack of temper'd judgment afterward.
Ang. I am sorry that such sorrow I procure ;
a And so deep sticks it in my penitent heart,
That I crave death more willingly than mercy :
'T is my deserving, and I do entreat it.
Re-enter Provost, BARNARDINE, CLAUDIO (muffled*),
and JULIET.
Duke. Which is that Barnardine?
Prov.
This, my lord. Duke. There was a friar told me of this man. Sirrah, thou art said to have a stubborn soul,
That apprehends no farther than this world,
And squar'st thy life according. Thou'rt condemned;
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 :
(As I have heard him swear himself there's one
Whom he begot with child,) let her appear,
And he shall marry her: the nuptial finish'd,
Let him be whipp'd and hang'd.
Lucio. I beseech your highness, do not marry me to
duke: good my lord, do not recompense me in making me a cuckold.
I leave him to your hand.-What muffled fellow's that? a whore! Your highness said even now I made you a
Prov. This is another prisoner that I sav'd,
That should have died when Claudio lost his head,
As like almost to Claudio as himself. [Unmuffles him.
Duke. If he be like your brother, [To ISABELLA,]
for his sake,
[CLAUDIO and Isabella embrace.1
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 quick'ning in his eye.-
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.
Duke. 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.
Lucio. Marrying a punk, my lord, is pressing to death, whipping, and hanging.
Duke. Slandering a prince deserves it.—
She, Claudio, that you wrong'd, look you restore.—
Joy to you, Mariana !-love her, Angelo:
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;
You, sirrah, [To Lucio,] that knew me for a fool, a We shall employ thee in a worthier place.
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Forgive him, Angelo, that brought you home
The head of Ragozine for Claudio's :
Th' offence pardons itself.-Dear Isabel,
I have a motion much imports your good;
Whereto if you'll a willing ear incline,
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.
[Curtain drawn.2
SCENE I-A Hall in the DUKE's Palace.
Enter SOLINUS, Duke of Ephesus, EGEON, a Merchant
of Syracusa, Jailor, Officers, and other Attendants.
Ege. Proceed, Solinus, to procure my fall,
And by the doom of death end woes and all.
Duke. Merchant of Syracusa, plead no more.
I am not partial, to infringe our laws:
The enmity and discord, which of late
Sprung from the rancorous outrage of your duke
To merchants, our well-de-ling countrymen,—
Who, wanting gilders to re 'eem their lives,
Have seal'd his rigorous statutes with their bloods,
Excludes all pity from our threat'ning looks.
For, since the mortal and intestine jars
'Twixt thy seditious countrymen and us,
It hath in solemn synods been decreed,
Both by the Syracusians and ourselves,
To admit no traffic to our adverse towns:
Nay, more, if any, born at Ephesus,
Be seen at Syracusian marts and fairs;
Again, if any Syracusian born
Come to the bay of Ephesus, he dies;
His goods confiscate to the duke's dispose,
Unless a thousand marks be levied,
To quit the penalty, and to ransom him.
Thy substance, valued at the highest rate,
Cannot amount unto a hundred marks;
Therefore, by law thou art condemn'd to die.
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In Syracu
and wed
Unto a woman, happy but for me,
And by me too, had not our hap been bad.
With her I liv'd in joy: our wealth increas'd,
By prosperous voyages I often made
To Epidamnum: till my factor's death,
And the great care of goods at random left
Drew me from kind embracements of my spouse:
From whom my absence was not six months old,
Before herself (almost at fainting under
The pleasing punishment that women bear)
Had made provision for her following me,
And soon, and safe, arrived where I was.
There had she not been long, but she became
A joyful mother of two goodly sons;
And, which was strange, the one so like the other,
As could not be distinguish'd but by names.
That very hour, and in the self-same inn,
poor mean woman was delivered
Of such a burden, male twins, both alike.
Those, for their parents were exceeding poor,
I bought, and brought up to attend my sons.
My wife, not meanly proud of two such boys,
Made daily motions for our home return :
Unwilling I agreed. Alas, too soon we came aboard !2 A league from Epidamnum had we sail'd,
Before the always-wind-obeying deep
Gave any tragic instance of our harm:
But longer did we not retain much hope;
Ege. Yet this my comfort; when your words are For what obscured light the heavens did grant
My woes end likewise with the evening sun.
Duke. Well, Syracusian; say, in brief, the cause Why thou departedst from thy native home, And for what cause thou cam'st to Ephesus.
Ege. A heavier task could not have been impos'd, Than I to speak my griefs unspeakable; Yet, that the world may witness, that my end Was wrought by fortune', not by vile offence, I'll utter what my sorrow gives me leave.
Did but convey unto our fearful minds
A doubtful warrant of immediate death;
Which, though myself would gently3 have embrac'd,
Yet the incessant weepings of my wife,
Weeping before for what she saw must come,
And piteous plainings of the pretty babes,
That mourn'd for fashion, ignorant what to fear,
Forc'd me to seek delays for them and me.
And this it was,-for other means were none.-
The sailors sought for safety by our boat,
1 nature: in f. e. 2 Malone makes a separate line of the last three words. 3 gladly.
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