Teis.

Lucio. My lord, I know him ; 'tis a medling 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 foundly.

Duke. 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.

Lucio. But yesternight, my lord, she and that Frier,
I saw them at the prison: a fawcy Friar,
A very scurvy fellow.

Peter. 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 the from one ungot.

Duke. We did believe no less.
Know you that Friar Lodowick, which she speaks of?

Peter. I know him for a man divine and holy;
Not fcurvy, nor a temporary medler,
As he's reported by this gentleman ;
And, on my Truft, a man that never yet
Did, as he vouches, misreport your Grace.

Lucio. My lord, most villainously ; believe it.

Peter. Well; he in time may come to clear himself; But at this instant he is sick, my lord, Of a strange fever. On his meer 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 By all Probation will make up full clear, * Whenever he's convented. First, for this woman;

To 4 Whenever he's CONVEN’D.] The firft Folio reads CONVENTED, and ihis is right: for to convene signifies to assemble ; bui convert, to cite, or summons. Yet, because convented hurts the measure, the Oxford Editor flicks to conven'd, tho it be non sense, and fig. nifies, Whenever be is a bembled together. Bus thus it will be, wier

the

To justifie 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.
Do you not smile at this, lord Angelo ?
O heav'n! the vanity of wretched fools!
Give us some seats ; come, Cousin Angelo,
In this I'll be impartial: be you judge
Of your own Cause. Is this the witness, Friar?

[Isabella is carried off, guarded. S C Ε Ν Ε ΙΙΙ.

Enter Mariana veil d.
First let her Thew her face; and, after, speak.

Mari. Pardon, my lord, I will not shew my face,
Until my husband bid me.

Duke. What, are you marry'd ?
Mari. No, my lord.
Duke. Are you a maid ?
Mari. No, my lord.
Duke. A widow then ?
Mari. Neither, my lord.

Duke. Why, are you 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 cause to prattle for himself.

Lucio. Well, my lord.

Mari. My lord, 'I do confess, I ne'er was marry'd; And, I confess, besides, I ain no maid ; the author is thinking of one thing and his critic of another. The poet was attentive to his sense, and the Editor, quite throughout his periormance, to nothing but the measure: which Shakespear having entirely neglected, like all the dramatic writers of that age, he has spruced him up with all the exactness of a modern measurer of Syllables. This being here taken notice of once for all, Ihall, for the future, be forgot, as if it had never been.

I've 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 thouwert fo 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-fame 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.

Ang. Charges she more than me?
Mari. Not that I know.
Duke. No? you say, your husband. [To Mariana.

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 house
In her imagin'd person.

Duke. Know you this woman?
Lucio, Carnally, she says.
Duke. Sirrah, no more.
Lucio. Enough, my lord.

Ang. My lord, I must confess, I know this woman;
And five years since there was some speech of marriage
Betwixt my self and her; which was broke off,
Partly, for that her promised proportions
Came short of composition ; but, in chief,
For that her Reputation was disvalu'd
In levity; since which time of five years

I never fpake with her, saw her, nor heard from her,
Upon my faith and honour.
Mari. Noble Prince,

[breath,
As there comes light from heav'n, and words from
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 !

Ang. 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,

These poor s 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 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,
Tho' they would swear down each particular Saint,
Were testimonies 'gainst his worth and credit,
That's seald in approbation? You, lord Escalus,
Sit with my cousin ; lend him your kind pains
To find out this abuse, whence 'tis deriv’d.
There is another Friar, that set them on;
Let him be sent for.

[deed, Peter. Would he were here, my lord; for he, inHath set the women on to this complaint: Your Provost knows the place, where he abides;

5 informal women] i. e. women who have ill concerted their story. Formal signifies frequently, in our author, a thing put into form or method : so informal, out of method, ill concerted. How easy is it to say, that Shakespear might better have wrote informing, i. e. accufing. Bat he who (as the Oxford Editor) thinks he did write ío, knows nothing of the character of his file.

And

And he may fetch him.

Luke. Go, do it instantly. And you, my noble and well-warranted cousin, Whom it concerns to hear this matter forth; Do with your injuries, as seems you beft, In any chastisement : I for a while Will leave you ; but stir not you, 'till you have well Determined upon these Nanderers.

[Exit. S CE N E IV. Escal. My lord, we'll do it throughly. Signior Lxcio, 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 cloaths; and one that hath spoke most villanous speeches of the Duke.

Escal. We shall intreat you to abide here 'till he come, and inforce 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: 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 should sooner confess; perchance, publickly she'll be asham'd. Enter Duke in the Friar's babit, and Provost; Isabella

is brought in.
Escal. I will go darkly to work with her.

Lucio. That's the way ; for women are light at midnight.

Escal. 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.

Escal. In very good time: speak not you to him, till we call upon you.

Lucio,