Duke. You will think you have made no offence, if the Duke avouch the justice of your dealing. Prov. But what likelihood is in that? Duke. Not a resemblance, but a certainty. Yet since I see you fearful, that neither my coat, integrity, nor my persuasion, can with ease attempt you, I will go farther than I meant, to pluck all fears out of you. Look you, sir; here is the hand and seal of the Duke: you know the character, I doubt not, and the signet is not strange to you. Prov. I know them both. Duke. The contents of this is the return of the Duke: you shall anon' over-read it at your pleasure, where you shall find, within these two days he will be here. This is a thing that Angelo knows not, for he this very day receives letters of strange tenor; perchance, of the Duke's death; perchance, entering into some monastery; but, by chance, nothing of what is writ. Look, the unfolding star calls up the shepherd. Put not yourself into amazement how these things should be all difficulties are but easy when they are known. Call your executioner, and off with Barnardine's head: I will give him a present shrift, and advise him for a better place. Yet you are amazed, but this shall absolutely resolve you. Come away; it [Exeunt. is almost clear dawn. SCENE III.-Another Room in the Same. Enter Clown. Clo. I am as well acquainted here, as I was in our house of profession: one would think, it were mistress Over-done's own house, for here be many of her old customers. First, here's young Mr. Rash; he's in for a commodity of brown paper and old ginger, ninescore and seventeen pounds, of which he made five marks, ready money: marry, then, ginger was not much in request, for the old women were all dead. Then is there here one Mr. Caper, at the suit of master Threepile the mercer, for some four suits of peach-colour'd | satin, which now peaches him a beggar. Then have we here young Dicy, and young Mr. Deep-vow, and Mr. Copper-spur, and Mr. Starve-lackey, the rapier and dagger-man, and young Drop-heir that kill'd Lusty Pudding, and Mr. Forthright the tilter, and brave Mr. Shoe-tie the great traveller, and wild Half-can that stabb'd Pots, and, I think, forty more, all great doers in our trade, and are now in for the Lord's sake. Enter ABHORSON. Abhor. Sirrah, bring Barnardine hither. Abhor. Truly, sir, I would desire you to clap into your prayers; for, look you, the warrant's come. Barnar. You rogue, I have been drinking all night: I am not fitted for't. Clo. O! the better, sir; for he that drinks all night, and is hang'd betimes in the morning, may sleep the sounder all the next day. Enter DUKE. Abhor. Look you, sir; here comes your ghostly father. Do we jest now, think you? Duke. Sir, induced by my charity, and hearing how hastily you are to depart, I am come to advise you, comfort you, and pray with you. Barnar. Friar, not I: I have been drinking hard all night, and I will have more time to prepare me, or they shall beat out my brains with billets. I will not consent to die this day, that's certain. Duke. O, sir, you must; and therefore, I beseech you, Look forward on the journey you shall go. Duke. But hear you,— Barnar. Not a word: if you have any thing to say to me, come to my ward; for thence will not I to-day. [Exit. Enter Provost. [Exeunt ABHORSON and Clown. Prov. Here in the prison, father, Duke. O, 'tis an accident that heaven provides! Cio. Mr. Barnardine! you must rise and be hang'd, And how shall we continue Claudio, Abhor. What, ho, Barnardine! Barnar. [Within.] A pox o' your throats! Who makes that noise there? What are you? To save me from the danger that might come, Duke. Let this be done.-Put them in secret Clo. Your friends, sir; the hangman. You must Both Barnardine and Claudio : be so good, sir, to rise and be put to death. Barnar. [Within.] Away, you rogue, away! I am sleepy. too. Abhor. Tell him, he must awake, and that quickly Clo. Pray, master Barnardine, awake till you are executed, and sleep afterwards. Abhor. Go in to him, and fetch him out. Ere twice the sun hath made his journal greeting Prov. I am your free dependant. Duke. Quick, despatch, and send the head to Angelo. Now will I write letters to Angelo, Clo. He is coming, sir, he is coming: I hear his Shall witness to him, I am near at home, Enter BARNARDINE. Abhor. Is the axe upon the block, sirrah? ¦ Clo. Very ready, sir. And that by great injunctions I am bound To meet me at the consecrated fount, A league below the city; and from thence, | Barnar. How now, Abhorson? what's the news with By cold gradation and well-balanc'd form, you? We shall proceed with Angelo. Enter ISABELLA. Isab. Ho! by your leave. Duke. Good morning to you, fair and gracious daughter. Isab. The better, given me by so holy a man. Duke. This nor hurts him, nor profits you a jot: The duke comes home to-morrow;-nay, dry your eyes: Gives me this instance. Already he hath carried Who do prepare to meet him at the gates, There to give up their power. If you can, pace your wisdom go, In that good path that I would wish it 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. Friar, where is the provost? Good even. 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 tomorrow. 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 beholding 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. [Going. 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 I 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. [Going. 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. Escal. Every letter he hath writ hath disvouch'd other. Ang. In most uneven and distracted manner. And why meet him at the gates, and re-deliver no; For my authority bears such a credent bulk With ransom of such shame. Would yet he had liv'd! [Giving them. Though sometimes you do blench from this to that, F. Peter. It shall be speeded well. [Exit Peter. Duke. I thank thee, Varrius; thou hast made good haste. Come, we will walk there's other of our friends Isab. To speak so indirectly, I am loath: ACT V. SCENE I.—A public Place near the City Gate. Duke. Many and hearty thankings to you both. Ang. To lock it in the wards of covert bosom, Friar 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 She hath been a suitor to me for her brother, Isab. Nay, it is ten times strange. 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 th' end of reckoning. Duke. Away with her.-Poor soul! She speaks this in th' infirmity of sense. Isab. O prince, I conjure thee, as thou believ'st There is another comfort than this world, That thou neglect me not, with that opinion That I am touch'd with madness: make not impossible That which but seems unlike. "Tis not impossible, But one, the wicked'st caitiff on the ground, May seem as shy, as grave, as just, as absolute, As Angelo; even so may Angelo, In all his dressings, characts, titles, forms, Be an arch-villain. Believe it, royal prince: | If he be less, he's nothing; but he's more, Had I more name for badness. Duke. By mine honesty, As e'er I heard in madness. Isab. Duke. Was sent to by my brother; one Lucio Duke. Mended again: the matter?—Now proceed. Isab. In brief,-to set the needless process by, How I persuaded, how I pray'd, and kneel'd, How he refell'd me, and how I replied, (For this was of much length) the vile conclusion I now begin with grief and shame to utter. He would not, but by gift of my chaste body To his concupiscible intemperate lust, Release my brother; and, after much debatement, And I did yield to him. But the next morn betimes, This is most likely. 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, As he's reported by this gentleman; And, on my truth, a man that never yet Did, as he vouches, misreport your grace. Lucio. My lord, most villainously: believe it. F. Peter. Well; he in time may come to clear himself, But at this instant he is sick, my lord, Of a strange fever. Upon his mere request, So vulgarly and personally accus'd, Good friar, let's hear it. Do you not smile at this, lord Angelo?— not Of your own cause.-Is this the witness, friar? First, let her show her face, and after speak. Or else thou art suborn'd against his honour, Isab. And is this all? Then, O! you blessed ministers above, Keep me in patience; and, with ripen'd time, In countenance !-Heaven shield your grace from woe, Duke. I know, you'd fain be gone.—An officer! To prison with her.-Shall we thus permit On him so near us? This needs must be a practice. 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; 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 soundly. Duke. Words against me? This a good friar, belike. And to set on this wretched woman here Against our substitute !-Let this friar be found. Noble prince, [Kneeling. As there comes light from heaven, and words from breath, As there is sense in truth, and truth in virtue, Let me in safety raise me from my knees, Or else for ever be confixed here, I did but smile till now: Now, good my lord, give me the scope of justice; Duke. Let him be sent for. Will leave you; but stir not you, till you have well Determined upon these slanderers. [Exit DUKE. Escal. My lord, we'll do it thoroughly.-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 villainous 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. 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 a Friar's habit, and Provost. Escal. I will go darkly to work with her. Lucio. That's the way; for women are light at midnight. 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. Lucio. Mum. Escal. Come, sir. Did you set these women on to slander lord Angelo? they have confess'd you did. Duke. "Tis false. Escal. How! know you where you are? Duke. Respect to your great place! then let the devil 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 we 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. Is the duke gone? Then is your cause gone too. The duke's unjust, Thus to reject 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. To call him villain? And then to glance from him Duke. Be not so hot; the duke dare F. Peter. Would he were here, my lord; for he, No more stretch this finger of mine, than he Dare rack his own: his subject am I not, Where I have seen corruption boil and bubble, As much in mock as mark. Escal. Slander to the state! Away with him to prison. |