You will demand of me, why I do this?
Fri. Gladly, my lord.

Duke. We have ftrict ftatutes, and moft biting laws, (The needful bits and curbs for head-strong steeds) Which for these fourteen years we have let sleep; Even like an o'er-grown lion in a cave,

That goes not out to prey: Now, as fond fathers
Having bound up the threat'ning twigs of birch,
Only to stick it in their children's fight,
For terror, not to use; in time the rod

Becomes more mock'd, than feared; fo our decrees,
Dead to infliction, to themselves are dead;
And liberty plucks juftice by the nose;
The baby beats the nurse, and quite athwart
Goes all decorum.

Fri. It refted in your grace

To unloose this ty'd-up justice, when you pleas'd:
And it in you more dreadful would have feem'd,
Than in lord Angelo.

Duke. I do fear, too dreadful:

Sith 'twas, my fault to give the people scope,
'Twould be my tyranny to strike, and gall them,
For what I bid them do: For we bid this be done,
When evil deeds have their permiffive pass,

And not the punishment. Therefore, indeed, my father,
I have on Angelo impos'd the office;

Who may, in the ambush of my name, strike home,
And yet, my nature never in the fight

To do it flander: And to behold his fway,

I will, as 'twere a brother of your order,

Vifit both prince and people: therefore, I pr'ythee,

&ave have let fleep-let flip.-fuffered to pafs unobferved.

in the fight to do it flander :-fight-to incur flander by engaging perfonally, or exerting any open acts of severity.

T 4

Supply

Supply me with the habit, and instruct me
How I may formally in perfon bear me
Like a true friar. More reafons for this action,
At our more leifure fhall I render you;
Only, this one :-Lord Angelo is precife;
iStands at a guard with envy; fcarce confeffes
That his blood flows, or that his appetite
Is more to bread than ftone: Hence fhall we fee,
If power change purpose, what our feemers be.

SCENE V.

A Nunnery.

Enter Ifabella and Francifca.

Ijab. And have you nuns no farther privileges?
Nun. Are not thefe large enough?

Ifab. Yes truly: I speak not as defiring more;
But rather wishing a more ftrict restraint
Upon the fifter-hood, the votarists of faint Clare.
Lucio. [Within] Ho! Peace be in this place!
Ifab. Who's that which calls?

Nun. It is a man's voice: Gentle Isabella,

Turn you the key, and know his bufinefs of him;

You may, I may not; you are yet unfworn:

When you have vow'd, you must not fpeak with men,
But in the presence of the prioress :

Then, if you speak, you must not fhew your face;
Or, if

you fhew your face, you must not speak.

He calls again; I pray you, anfwer him. [Exit Franc. Ifab. Peace and profperity! Who is't that calls?

Stands at a guard with envy ;]-defies malicious cenfure ;—is careful to ward off its attacks.

Enter

Enter Lucio.

Lucio. Hail, virgin, if you be; as those cheek-rofes
Proclaim you, are no lefs! Can you fo ftead me,
As bring me to the fight of Isabella,

A novice of this place, and the fair fifter

To her unhappy brother Claudio?

Ifab. Why her unhappy brother? let me afk; The rather, for I now must make you know

I am that Isabella, and his fifter.

Lucio. Gentle and fair, your brother kindly greets you: Not to be weary with you, he's in prison.

Ifab. Woe me! For what?

k

Lucio. That, for which, if myself might be his judge, He should receive his punishment in thanks:

He hath

got his friend with child.

Ifab. Sir, make me not your ftory.

Lucio. 'Tis true:-I would not (though 'tis my familiar fin

m

With maids to feem " the lapwing, and to jeft,

Tongue far from heart) play with all virgins fo:
I hold you as a thing enfky'd, and fainted;
By your renouncement, an immortal spirit;
And to be talked with in fincerity,

As with a faint.

Ifab. You do blafpheme the good, in mocking me. Lucio. Do not believe it. Fewness and truth, 'tis thus: Your brother and his lover have embrac'd:

For that, which.

I make me not your story.]—make not a jeft of me ; do not divert your

Ielf at my expence.

the lapwing,]

"The Lapwing cries most farthest from her neft." Prov. "Far from her neft the Lapwing cries away."

COMEDY OF ERRORS, Act IV, S. 2. Adr.

As

"as

As those that feed grow full; " as bloffoming time
That from the feednefs the bare fallow brings
To teeming foyfon; fo her plenteous womb
Expreffeth his full tilth and husbandry.

Ifab. Some one with child by him?-My coufin Juliet?
Lucio. Is fhe your coufin?

Ifab. Adoptedly as school-maids change their names, By vain though apt affection.

Lucio. She it is.

Ifab. Then let him marry her!
Lucio. This is the point.

The duke is very ftrangely gone from hence;

• Bore many gentlemen, myself being one,

In hand, and hope of action: but we do learn
By thofe that know the very nerves of state,
His givings-out were of an infinite distance
From his true-meant defign. Upon his place,
And with full line of his authority,

Governs lord Angelo; A man whose blood
Is very fnow-broth; one who never feels
The wanton ftings and motions of the sense;
But doth rebate and blunt his natural edge
With profits of the mind, ftudy and fast.
He (to give fear to use and liberty,
Which have, for long, run by the hideous law,
As mice by lions) hath pick'd out an act,
Under whofe heavy fenfe your brother's life
Falls into forfeit: he arrefts him on it;

And follows clofe the rigour of the statute,

Doth from the feednefs the bare fallow bring.-As a well eared crop of corn fhews the good tillage of the farmer, fo Juliet's pregnancy is a proof of Claudio's intimacy with her.

• Bore many gentlemen,]-Amufed them with the expectation of fome employment with hope.

P full line]-the whole length, to the utmost extent.

(to give fear to uje]-to difcourage practices fanctioned by cuftom.

To

To make him an example: all hope is gone,
Unless you have 'the grace by your

fair prayer To foften Angelo: and that's my pith

Of business 'twixt you and your poor brother.
Ifab. Doth he fo feek his life?

t

Lucio. H'as cenfur'd him

Already; and, as I hear, the provost hath

A warrant for his execution.

Ifab. Alas! what poor ability's in me

To do him good?

Lucio. Affay the power you have.
Jab. My power! Alas! I doubt,-

Lucio. Our doubts are traitors,

and kneel,

And make us lofe the good we oft might win,
By fearing to attempt: Go to lord Angelo,
And let him learn to know, when maidens fue,
Men give like gods; but when they weep
All their petitions are as truly theirs
As they themselves would "owe them.
Ifab. I'll fee what I can do.

Lucio. But, fpeedily.
Ifab. I will about it strait;

W

No longer staying but to give the mother
Notice of my affair. I humbly thank you :
Commend me to my brother: foon at night
I'll fend him certain word of my success.
Lucio. I take my leave of you.

Ifab. Good fir, adieu.

the grace]-the prevailing influence.

my pith]-the main drift of my embassy.

'H'as cenfur'd him already ;]-He has already paffed fentence on him.

"To you, lord governor,

"Remains the cenfure of this hellish villain.”

bowe]-have.

OTHELLO, A& V, S. 2.

Lod.