And you shall have your bosom on this wretch, And general honor. Isab. I am directed by you. At Mariana's house to-night. Her cause and yours And shall be absent. Wend you with this letter; Lucio. Enter LUCIO. Friar, where is the provost? Good even! 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 loved thy brother: if the old fantastical duke of dark corners had been at home, he had lived. [Exit 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 woodman 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 medlar. 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 disvouched other. Ang. In most uneven and distracted manner. His actions show much like to madness: pray Heaven, his wisdom be not tainted! and why meet him at the gates, and redeliver our authorities there? Escal. I guess not. Ang. And why should we proclaim it 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 proclaimed: Betimes i' the morn, I'll call you at your house: Give notice to such men of sort and suit, As are to meet him. Escal. I shall, sir: fare you well. [Exit. Ang. Good night. This deed unshapes me quite, makes me unpregnant, The law against it!-But that her tender shame How might she tongue me! Yet reason dares her? That no particular scandal once can touch, no: But it confounds the breather. He should have lived! With ransom of such shame. 'Would yet he had lived! Nothing goes right; we would and we would not. [Exit. SCENE V. Fields without the Town. Enter Duke in his own habit, and Friar PETER. Duke. These letters at fit time deliver me. [Giving letters The provost knows our purpose, and our plot. The matter being afoot, keep your ir ruction, And hold you ever to our special dritt; Though sometimes you do blench from this to that, F. Peter. It shall be speeded well. [Exit Friar Enter VARRIUS. Duke. I thank thee, Varrius; thou hast made good haste: Come, we will walk: there's other of our friends Will greet us here anon, my gentle Varrius. [Exeunt. SCENE VI. Street near the City Gate. Enter ISABELLA and MARIANA. Isab. To speak so indirectly, I am loath; Mari. Be ruled by him. I should not think it strange; for 'tis a physic Mari. I would, friar Peter Isab. O, peace; the friar is come. Enter Friar PETER. F. Peer. Come, I have found you out a stand most fit, Where you may have such vantage on the duke, He shall not pass you: twice have the trumpets sounded; The generous and the gravest citizens Have hent the gates, and very near upon The duke is entering; therefore, hence, away. [Exeunt. ACT V. SCENE I. A public Place near the City Gate. MARIANA (veiled), ISABELLA, and PETER, at a distance Enter, at opposite doors, Duke, VARRIUS, Lords; Angelo ESCALUS, LUCIO, Provost, Officers, and Citizens. 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, When it deserves with characters of brass 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, Upon a wronged, I'd fain have said, a maid! By throwing it on any other object, Till you have heard me in my true complaint, And given me, justice, justice, justice, justice! Duke. Relate your wrongs: In what? By whom? Be brief: Here is lord Angelo shall give you justice! Reveal yourself to him. Isab. O, worthy duke, You bid me seek redemption of the devil: Hear me yourself; for that which I must speak Must either punish me, not being believed, Or wring redress from you; hear me, O, hear me, here |