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MEASURE FOR MEASURE.

ACT THE FIRST.

SCENE I.

The DUKE'S Palace.

The DUKE, ESCALUS, FREDERICK, and LEOPOLD,
discovered.

Duke. Escalus

Esca. My lord.

Duke. Of government the properties to unfold,
Would seem in me to affect speech and discourse
Since I am put to know, that your own science
Exceeds, in that, the lists of all advice
My strength can give you:

The nature of our people,

Our city's institutions, and the terms

-full of

For common justice, you are as pregnant in
As art and practice hath enriched any

That we remember: There is our commission,
From which we would not have you warp.—

Call hither,

say,

toliticion

[ESCALUS kneels, and takes his commission.

bid come before us, Angelo. [Exit LEOPOLD What figure of us, think you, he will bear? preg For, you must know, we have, with special soul,

Duke. My haste may not admit it:

I'll privily away.

[Exeunt LEOPOLD and FREDERICK.

Nor need you, on mine honour, have to do

With any scruple: your scope is as mine own,
So to inforce, or qualify the laws,

As to your soul seems good.

Once more, fare you well.

Ang. The Heavens give safety to your purposes. Esca. Lead forth, and bring you back in happi

ness!

Duke. I thank you :—]
-Fare you well.

[Exit DUKE.
Esca. I shall desire you, sir, to give me leave
To have free speech with you; and it concerns me
To look into the bottom of my place:

A power I have; but of what strength and nature I am not yet instructed.

Ang. 'Tis so with me:-Let us withdraw together, And we may soon our satisfaction have

Touching that point.

Esca. I'll wait upon your honour.

[Exeunt ANGELO and ESCALUS.

SCENE 11.

The Garden of a Monastery.

Enter FRIAR PETER and the DUKE.

Duke. No, holy father; throw away that thought: Believe not, that the dribbling dart of love

Can pierce a complete bosom: why I desire thee
To give me secret harbour, hath a purpose
More grave and wrinkled than the aims and ends
Of burning youth.

Peter. May your grace speak of it?

I will, as 'twere a brother of

your order,

Visit both prince and people: therefore, I pr'ythee,
Supply me with the habit, and instruct me
How I may formally in person bear me

Like a true friar.-More reasons for this action,
At our more leisure, shall I render you;
Only this one :-Lord Angelo is precise;
Stands at a guard with envy; scarce confesses,
That his blood flows, or that his appetite

Is more to bread than stone: Hence shall we see,
If power change purpose, what our seemers be.

[Exeunt the DUKE and FRIAR PETER,

Lucio. If the Duke, with the other Dukes, come not to composition with the King of Hungary, why, then all the Dukes fall upon the King.

Fred. Heaven grant us its peace, but not the King of Hungary's!

Leo. Amen.

Lucio. Thou concludest, like the sanctimonious pirate, that went to sea with the Ten Commandments, but scraped one out of the table.

Eco. Thou shalt not steal?
Lucio. Ay, that he razed.

Fred. Why, 'twas a commandment to command the captain and all the rest from their functions; they put forth to steal there's not a soldier of us all, that in the thanksgiving before meat, doth relish the petition well that prays for peace.

Leo. I never heard any soldier dislike it.