Duke. Not within, sir. Lucio. O, pretty Isabella, I am pale at mine heart, to see thine eyes so red: thou must be patient: I am fain to dine and sup with water and bran; I dare not for my head fill my belly; one fruitful meal would set me to't: But they say the duke will be here to-morrow. By my troth, Isabel, I lov'd thy brother: if the old fantastical duke of dark corners had been at home, he had lived. [Erit ISABELLA. Duke. Sir, the duke is marvellous little beholden to your reports; but the best is he lives not in them.' Lucio. Friar, thou knowest not the duke so well as I do: he's a better woodman2 than thou takest him for. Duke. Well, you'll answer this one day. Fare ye well. Lucio. Nay, tarry; I'll go along with thee; I can tell thee pretty tales of the duke. Duke. You have told me too many of him already, sir, if they be true; if not true, none were enough. Lucio. I was once before him for getting a wench with child. Duke. Did you such a thing? Lucio. Yes, marry, did I; but was fain to forswear it; they would else have married me to the rotten meddlar. Duke. Sir, your company is fairer than honest: Rest you well. Lucio. By my troth, I'll go with thee to the lane's end: If bawdy talk offend you, we'll have very little of it: Nay, friar I am a kind of burr, I shall stick. [Exeunt. SCENE IV. A Room in Angelo's House. Enter ANGELO and ESCALUS. Escal. Every letter he hath writ hath disvouch'd' other. Alack, when once our grace we have forgot, Nothing goes right; we would and we would not, [Exit.10 SCENE V. Fields without the Town. Enter Duke Duke. These letters at fit time deliver me. It shall be speeded well. [Exit. Friar Enter VARRIUS. Duke. I thank thee, Varrius; thou hast made Come we will walk: There's other of our friends [Exeunt. SCENE VI. Street near the City Gate. Enter ISABELLA and MARIANA. Isab. To speak so indirectly, I am loath; Ang. In most uneven and distracted manner. I would say the truth; but to accuse him so, His actions show much like to madness: pray hea-That is your part: Yet I'm advis'd to do it; ven, his wisdom he not tainted! And why meet him He says, to 'vailful12 purpose. at the gates, and redeliver our authorities there? Mari. Be rul'd by him. Escal. I guess not. Isab. Besides, he tells me, that, if peradventure He speak against me on the adverse side, I should not think it strange; for 'tis a physic, That's bitter to sweet end. Ang. And why should we proclaim it in an hour before his entering, that, if any crave redress of injustice, they should exhibit their petitions in the street? Escal. He shows his reason for that: to have a despatch of complaints; and to deliver us from devices hereafter, which shall then have no power to stand against us. Ang. Well, I beseech you, let it be proclaim'd: I shall, sir: fare you well. [Exit. Ang. Good night.- And dull to all proceeding. A deflower'd maid! The law against it!-But that her tender shame Mari. I would, friar Peter- O, peace; the friar is come. F. Peter. Come, I have found you out a stand most fit, Where you may have such vantage on the duke, The generous14 and the gravest citizens, ACT V. SCENE I. A public Place near the City Gate. MARIANA (veil'd,) ISABELLA, and PETER, at a distance. Enter at opposite doors,, Duke, VARRIUS, Lords; ANGELO, ESCALUS, LUCIO, Provost, Officers, and Citizens. This passage will therefore bear two interpretations, between which the reader must choose. 7 Credent, creditable, not questionable. 8 Particular is private: a French sense of the word. 9 i. e. utterer. 10 Dr. Johnson thought the fourth Act should end here, 'for here is properly a cessation of action, a night intervenes, and the place is changed between the passages of this scene and those of the next. The fifth Act, be ginning with the following scene, would proceed without any interruption of time or place.' 11 To blench, to start off, to fly off. 12 Availful. Duke. My very worthy cousin, fairly met:Our old and faithful friend, we are glad to see you. Ang. and Escal. Happy return be to your royal grace! Duke. Many and hearty thankings to you both. We have made inquiry of you; and we hear Such goodness of your justice, that our soul Cannot but yield you forth to public thanks, Forerunning more requital. Ang. You make my bonds still greater. Duke. O, your desert speaks loud; and I should wrong it, To lock it in the wards of covert bosom, A forted residence, 'gainst the tooth of time, PETER and ISABELLA come forward. F. Peter. Now is your time; speak loud, and kneel before him. Isab. Justice, O royal duke! Vail' your regard, Here is Lord Angelo shall give you justice! Isab. here. me, Ang. My lord, her wits, I fear me, are not firm: She hath been a suitor to me for her brother, Cut off by course of justice. Isab. By course of justice! Ang. And she will speak most bitterly and strange. [speak: Isab. Most strange, but yet most truly, will I 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? Duke. By mine honesty If she be mad (as I believe no other,) O, gracious duke, Duke. you say? Isab. I am the sister of one Claudio, Was sent to by my brother: One Lucio That's I, an't like your grace' Duke. You were not bid to Nor wish'd to hold my peace. Duke. That's he, indeed speak. No, my good lord; 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. Duke. The warrant's for yourself; take heed to it. Isab. This gentleman told somewhat of my tale. Lucio. Right. Duke. It may be right; but you are in the wrong To speak before your time.-Proceed. Isab. I went To this pernicious caitiff deputy. Pardon it. Duke. Mended again: the matter;-Proceed. Nay, ten times strange. To his concupiscible intemperate lust, Isab. 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. Duke. Away with her :-Poor soul. She speaks this in the infirmity of sense. Isab. O prince, I conjure thee, as thou believ'st That which but seems unlike: 'tis not impossible 1 To vail is to lower, to let fall, to cast down. 2-1. e. habiliments of office. 3 Characts are distinctive marks or characters. A statute of Edward VI. directs the seals of office of every bishop to have certain characts under the king's arms for the knowledge of the diocess.' 4 The meaning appears to be 'do not suppose me mad because I speak inconsistently or unequally. 5 I must say with Mr. Steevens that I do not profess to understand these words. Mr. Phelps proposes to read And hid, the false seems true.' . e. The truth being hid, not discovered or made known, what is false seems true.' Release my brother; and, after much debatement, Duke. Or else thou art suborn'd against his honour, Then, oh, you blessed ministers above, In countenance!'-Heaven shield your grace from woe, As I, thus wrong'd, hence unbelieved go! Duke. I know, you'd 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 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; 'tis a meddling friar; And to set on this wretched woman here F. 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 she from one ungot. We did believe no less. Duke. 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,2 As he's reported by this gentleman: And, on my trust, a man that never yet Did, as he vouches, misreport your grace. Lucio. My lord, most villanously; believe it. But at this instant he is sick, my lord, Good friar, let's hear it. [ISABELLA is carried off, guarded; and MARIANA comes forward. Do you not smile at this, lord Angelo!- 1 i. e. false appearance. 2 It is hard to know what is meant by a temporary meddler, perhaps it was intended to signify one who introduced himself as often as he could find opportunity into other men's concerns.' 3 Mere here means absolute. 4 Convented, cited, summoned. 5 i. c. publicly. 6 Impartial was used sometimes in the sense of partial; and that appears to be the sense here. In the language of the time, im was frequently used as an intensive or augmentative particle. Unpartial was sometimes used in the modern sense of impartial. Yet Shakspeare uses the word in its proper sense in Richard II. Act i. Sc. 2. Mowbray, impartial are our eyes and ears,' &c. Should nothing privilege him nor partialize.' 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 cause But knows, he thinks, that he knew 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, Duke. Know you this woman? Lucio. Carnally, she says. Duke. Lucio. Enough, my lord. Sirrah, no more. Ang. My lord, I must confess, I know this wo 7 Abuse stands in this place for deception or puzzle. So in Macbeth: -My strange and self abuse,' means this strange deception of myself. 9 Garden houses were formerly much in fashion, and often used as places of clandestine meeting and intrigue. They were chiefly such buildings as we should now call summer houses, standing in a walled or enclosed garden in the suburbs of London. See Stubb's Anatomie of Abuses, p. 57. 4to. 1597, or Reed's Old Plays, Vol. V. p. 84. 9 Her fortune which was promised proportionate to mine fell short of the composition, i. e. contract or bar gain. As there is sense in truth, and truth in virtue, As words could make up vows: and, my good lord, 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 informa¡1 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, Were testimonies against his worth and credit, 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 retorts 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 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; F. Peter. Would he were here, my lord; for he, To the rack with him:-We'll touze you joint by indeed, Hath set the women on to this complaint: Duke. Go, do it instantly.- [Exit Provost. Escal. My lord, we'll do it thoroughly.-[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, but in his clothes; and one that hath spoke most villanous 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 the 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. 1 Informal signifies out of their senses. Comedy of Errors, Act. v. Sc. 1. joint, But we will know this purpose:-What! unjust? Dare no more stretch this finger of mine, than he 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 cf? 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? And do you remember what you said of the duke? Duke. Most notedly, sir. Lucio. Do you so, sir? And was the duke a flesh-monger, 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 close 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? 6 His subject am I not; nor here provincial. Pro vincial is pertaining to a province; most usually taken So in the for the circuit of an ecclesiastical jurisdiction. The chief or head of any religious order in such a province was called the provincial, to whom alone the members of that order were accountable. To make of him a formal man again.' The speaker had just before said that she would keep Antipholis of Syracuse, who is behaving like a mad. man, 'till she had brought him to his right wits again. 2 Stamped or sealed, as tried and approved. 8 i. e. out, to the end. 4 This is one of the words on which Shakspeare delights to quibble. Thus Portia, in the Merchant of Venice, Let me give light, but let me not be light.' 6 To retort is to refer back. 7 Barbers' shops were anciently places of great resort for passing away time in an idle manner. By way of enforcing some kind of regularity, and perhaps, at least as much to promote drinking, certain laws were usually hung up, the transgression of which was to be punished by specific forfeits; which were as much in mock as mark, because the harber had no authority of himself to enforce them, and also because they were of a ludicrous nature. 146 -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 hands 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 pox to you! show your sheep-biting face, and be hang'd an hour!2 Wilt not off? [Pulls off the Friar's hood, and discovers Duke. Thou art the first knave that e'er made a First, Provost, let me bail these gentle three:- 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 [To ESCALUS. down.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. Ang. O my dread lord, Come hither, Mariana;- Duke, Go take her hence, and marry her in- Do you the office, friar; which consummate, Than at the strangeness of it. Come hither, Isabel: Isab. O, give me pardon, You are pardon'd, Isabel: 1 Giglots are wantons. young Talbot was not born To be the pillage of a giglot wench.' 2 Dr. Johnson goes seriously to work to prove that he did not understand this piece of vulgar humour; and Henley thinks the collistrigium, or original pillory, was alluded to! What Piper ho! be hang'd awhile,' is a line in an old madrigal. And in Ben Jonson's Bartholomew Fair, we have Leave the bottle behind you, and be curst awhile.' In short, they are petty and familiar maledictions, rightly explained, a plague or a mischief on you.' 3 i. e. do thee service. Passes, probably put for trespasses; or it may mean courses, from passes, Fr. 5 Advertising and holy, attentive and faithful. That brain'd my purpose: But, peace be with That life is better life, past fearing death, Re-enter ANGELO, MARIANA, PETER, and Isab. Whose salt imagination yet hath wrong'd We do condemn thee to the very block Away with him. Mari. O, my most gracious lord, I hope you will not mock me with a husband! Consenting to the safeguard of your honour, O, my dear lord, to you. Mari. O, my good lord!-Sweet Isabel, take Lend me your knees, and, all my life to come, my you Duke. Against all sense13 do importune her: Mari. Isabel, Sweet Isabel, do yet but kneel by me; Most bounteous sir, [Kneeling. Look, if it please you, on this man condemn'd, 6 i. e. generous ;--pardon us as we have pardoned you. 7 Rash remonstrance; that is, a premature display of it, perhaps we should read demonstrance, out the word may be formed from remonstrer, French-to show again. 8 That brain'd my purpose. We still use in conver. sation a like phrase that knocked my design on the head.' 9 Promise-breach. It should be promise, breach is superfluous. io i. e. Angelo's own tongue. 11 Measure still for measure. This appears to have been a current expression for retributive justice. Equivalent to like for like. So, in the 3d part of Henry VI Measure for measure must be answered.' 12 i. e. to deny which will avail thee nothing.' 13 i. e. against reason and affection |