Be sometime honour'd for his burning throne : — Where is the Duke? 'tis he should hear me speak. Escal. The Duke's in us; and he 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. Then is your cause gone too. 24 Is the Duke gone? The Duke's unjust, Thus to retort your manifest appeal, Lucio. This is the rascal: this is he I spoke of. friar! Is't not enough, thou hast suborn'd these women To call him villain? And then to glance from him Joint by joint, What! unjust? but we will know his purpose :— Duke. Be not so hot; the Duke dare No more stretch this finger of mine, than he 25 Nor here provincial : My business in this state Where I have seen corruption boil and bubble, 24 To retort is to refer back. 25 Provincial is pertaining to a province; most usually taken 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. But faults so countenanc'd, that the strong statutes Stand like the forfeits in a barber's shop, As much in mock as mark.26 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? And do you remember Lucio. O! did you so ? what you said of the Duke? Duke. Most notedly, sir. Lucio. Do you so, sir? flesh-monger, a fool, and a coward, as you then reported him to be? And was the Duke a 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: 26 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 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 barber had no authority of himself to enforce them, and also because they were of a ludicrous nature. 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 27 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 a pox to you! show your sheep-biting face, and be hang'd an hour! 28 Wilt not off? [Pulls off the Friar's hood, and discovers the DUKE. Duke. Thou art the first knave that e'er made a First, provost, let me bail these gentle three: [To LUCIO.] Sneak not away, sir; for the friar and Lucio. This may prove worse than hanging. Duke. [To ESCALUS.] What you have spoke, I pardon; sit you down. We'll borrow place of him:-[To ANGELO.] Sir, by your leave: Hast thou or word, or wit, or impudence, And hold no longer out. 27 Giglots are wantons. So, in 1 Henry VI., Act iv. sc. 7: "Young Talbot was not born to be the pillage of a giglot wench." 28 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." That is, be hang'd, be curst; awhile being, like an hour in the text, merely a vulgar expletive. 29 That is, do thee service. H. I should be guiltier than my guiltiness, To think I can be undiscernible, When I perceive your grace, like power divine, But let my trial be mine own confession : Duke. Come hither, Mariana: Say, wast thou e'er contracted to this woman? Do Duke. Go take her hence, and marry her in stantly.. 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 dis honour, Than at the strangeness of it. Duke. Come hither, Isabel: Your friar is now your prince: As I was then Isab. O, give me pardon, That I, your vassal, have employ'd and pain'd Duke. You are pardon'd, Isabel: 32 And now, dear maid, be you as free to us. 30 Passes probably put for trespasses; or it may mean courses, from passeés, Fr. Les passeés d'un cerf is the track or passages of a stag, his courses. 31 Advértising and holy, attentive and faithful. 32 That is, generous ;— - pardon us as we have pardoned you. Your brother's death, I know, sits at your heart; be with him! Re-enter ANGELO, MARIANA, Friar PETER, and Isab. Provost. 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,3 36 35 Most audible, even from his proper tongue, "An Angelo for Claudio, death for death!" Haste still pays haste, and leisure answers leisure ; 33 Rash remonstrance; that is," a premature display” of it. Perhaps we should read demonstrance; but the word may be formed from remonstrer, French, to show again. 34 That brain'd my purpose. We still use in conversation a like phrase: "that knocked my design on the head." 35 Promise-breach. It should be promise; breach is superfluous. 36 Angelo's own tongue. |