tue; with mental energies of a very superior kind, she is placed in a situation to make trial of them all, and the firmness with which her virtue resists the appeal of natural affection has something in it heroically sublime. The passages in which she encourages her brother to meet death with firmness rather than dishonour, his burst of indignant passion on learning the price at which his life might be redeemed, and his subsequent clinging to life, and desire that she would make the sacrifice required, are among the finest dramatic passages of Shakspeare. What heightens the effect is that this scene follows the fine exhortation of the Duke in the character of the Friar about the little value of life, which had almost made Claudio resolved to die.' The comic

parts of the play are lively and amusing, and the reckless Barnardine, fearless of what's past, present, and to come,' is in fine contrast to the sentimentality of the other characters. Shakspeare "was a moralist in the same sense in which nature is one. He taught what he had learnt from her. He showed the greatest know. ledge of humanity with the greatest fellow feeling for it."*

Malone supposes this play to have been written about the close of the year 1603.

*Characters of Shakspeare's Plays, 2d ed. London, 1818, p. 120.

.PERSONS

VINCENTIO, Duke of Vienna.

ANGELO, Lord Deputy in the Duke's absence.

the Deputation.

CLAUDIO, a young Gentleman.

LUCIO, a Fantastic.

Two other like Gentlemen.

VARRIUS, a Gentleman, Servant to the Duke.

Provost.

SCENE I. An Apartment in the Duke's Palace.
Enter DUKE, ESCALUS, Lords and Attendants.
Duke. Escalus,-
Escal. 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: Then no more remains But that to your sufficiency,' as your worth is able,

And let them work. The nature of our people,
Our city's institutions, and the terms

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,

I say, bid come before us, Angelo.

[Exit an Attendant. What figure of us think you he will bear? For you must know, we have with special soul Elected him our absence to supply; Lent him our terror, drest him with our love; And given his deputation all the organs Of our own power: What think you of it? Escal. If any in Vienna be of worth To undergo such ample grace and honour, It is lord Angelo.

BARNARDINE, a dissolute Prisoner.

ISABELLA, Sister to Claudio.
MARIANA, betrothed to Angelo.
JULIET, beloved by Claudio.
FRANCISCA, a Nun.

MISTRESS OVER-DONE, a Bawd.

Lords, Gentlemen, Guards, Officers, and other

Attendants.

SCENE, Vienna.

Ang. Always obedient to your grace's will, I come to know your pleasure.

Duke. Angelo, There is a kind of character in thy life, That, to the observer doth thy history Fully unfold: Thyself and thy belongings Are not thine own so proper, as to waste Thyself upon thy virtues, them on thee. Heaven doth with us, as we with torches do; Not light them for themselves: for if our virtues Did not go forth of us, 'twere all alike

As if we had them not. Spirits are not finely

touch'd,

8 i. e. Nature requires and allots to herself the same advantages that creditors usually enjoy-thanks for the endowments she has bestowed, and extraordinary exertions in those whom she has favoured; by way of use (i. e. interest) for what she has lent.

9 i. e. to one who is already sufficiently conversant with the nature and duties of my office ;-of that office which I have now delegated to him.

10 i. e. I delegate to thy tongue the power of pronouncing sentence of death, and to thy heart the privi lege of exercising mercy.

11 A choice mature, concocted, fermented; i. e. not hasty, but considerate.

well;

As time and our concernings shall importune,
How it goes with us; and do look to know
What doth befall you here. So, fare
To the hopeful execution do I leave you
Of your commissions.

you

Ang. Yet, give leave, my lord, That we may bring you something on the way. Duke. My haste may not admit it;

Nor need you on mine honour have to do

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

As to your soul seems good. Give me your hand;
I'll privily away; I love the people,
But do not like to stage me to their eyes;
Though it do well, I do not relish well
Their loud applause, and aves vehement;
Nor do I think the man of safe discretion,
That does affect it. Once more, fare you well.
Ang. The heavens give safety to your purposes!
Escal. Lead forth, and bring you back in hap-
piness.

[Exit.

Duke. I thank you: Fare you well. Escal. 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.

Escal.

I'll wait upon your honour.

[Exeunt.

off.

Lucio. But, after all this fooling, I would not have it so: art thou sure of this?

Bawd. I am too sure of it: and it is for getting madam Julietta with child.

Lucio. Believe me, this may be: he promised to meet me two hours since; and he was ever precise in promise-keeping.

2 Gent. Besides, you know, it draws something near to the speech we had to such a purpose. 1 Gent. But most of all, agreeing with the proclamation.

Lucio. Away; let's go learn the truth of it. [Exeunt Lucio and Gentlemen. Bawd. Thus, what with the war, what with the

6

dier of us all, that, in the thanksgiving before meat,

doth relish the petition well that prays for peace. 2 Gent. I never heard any soldier dislike it.

Lucio. I believe thee; for I think, thou never

wast where grace was said.

2 Gent. No? a dozen times at least.

1 Gent. What? in metre?

Lucio. In any proportion, or in any language. 1 Gent. I think, or in any religion. Lucio. Ay! why not? Grace is grace, despite of all controversy: As for example; Thou thyself art a wicked villain, despite of all grace.

1 Gent. Well, there went but a pair of shears between us.4

Lucio. grant; as there may between the lists

and the velvet: Thou art the list.

1 Gent. And thou the velvet: thou art good velvet; thou art a three-pil'd piece, I warrant thee: I had as lief be a list of an English kersey, as be pil'd, as thou art pil'd, for a French velvet. Do I speak feelingly now?

Lucio. I think thou dost; and, indeed, with most painful feeling of thy speech: I will, out of thine

1 Scope is extent of power. 2 Aves are hailings. 3 i. e. measure. 4 We are both of the same piece. 5 Pild, for a French velvet.'-Velvet was esteemed according to the richness of the pile; three-pil'd was the richest. But pil'd also means bald. The jest alludes to the loss of hair in the French disease. Lucio, finding the Gentleman understands the distemper so well, and mentions it so feelingly, promises to remem ber to drink his health, but to forget to drink after him.

Enter Clown.

Clo. Yonder man is carried to prison.
Bawd. Well; what has he done?
Clo. A woman.

Bawd. But what's his offence?

Clo. Groping for trouts in a peculiar river.

Bawd. What, is there a maid with child by him? Clo. No; but there's a woman with maid by him: You have not heard of the proclamation, have you?

Bawd. What proclamation, man?

Clo. All houses in the suburbs of Vienna must be plucked down.

Bawd. And what shall become of those in the city?

Clo. They shall stand for seed: they had gone down too, but that a wise burgher put in for them.

Bawd. But shall all our houses of resort in the

suburbs be pulled down?"

Clo. To the ground, mistress.

Bawd. Why, here's a change, indeed, in the commonwealth! What shall become of me? In old times the cup of an infected person was thought to be contagious.

6 The sweat; the consequences of the curative process then used for a certain disease

7 In one of the Scotch Laws of James it is ordered, 'that common women be put at the utmost endes of townes, queire least peril of fire is.-It is remarkable that the licensed houses of resort at Vienna, are at this time all in the suburbs, under the permission of the I Committee of Chastity.

Clo. Come, fear not you; good counsellors lack no clients: though you change your place, you need not change your trade; I'll be your tapster still. Courage; there will be pity taken on you: you that have worn your eyes almost out in the service, you will be considered.

Bawd. What's to do here, Thomas Tapster? Let's withdraw.

Clo. Here comes signior Claudio, led by the provost to prison: and there's madam Juliet. [Exeunt.

He can command, lets it straight feel the spur:
Whether the tyranny be in his place,
Or in his eminence that fills it up,
I stagger in:-But this new governor
Awakes me all the enrolled penalties,
Which have, like unscour'd armour, hung by the wall
So long, that nineteen zodiacks' have gone round,
And none of them been worn; and, for a name,
Now puts the drowsy and neglected act
Freshly on me :-'tis surely, for a name.

tlemen.

Claud. Fellow, why dost thou show me thus to the world?

Bear me to prison where I am committed.

Prov. I do it not in evil disposition, But from lord Angelo by special charge.

Claud. Thus can the demi-god, Authority, Make us pay down for our offence by weight.The words of heaven;-on whom it will, it will; On whom it will not, so; yet still 'tis just.2 Lucio. Why, how now, Claudio? whence comes this restraint?

Claud. From too much liberty, my Lucio, liberty; As surfeit is the father of much fast, So every scope by the immoderate use Turns to restraint: Our natures do pursue, (Like rats that ravin3 down their proper bane) A thirsty evil; and when we drink, we die.1

Lucio. If I could speak so wisely under an arrest, I would send for certain of my creditors: And yet, to say the truth, I had as lief have the foppery of freedom, as the morality of imprisonment.-What's thy offence, Claudio?

Claud. What, but to speak of, would offend again.
Lucio. What is it? murder?
Claud. No.

Lucio. Lechery?

Claud. Call it so.

Prov. Away, sir; you must go.

Claud. One word, good friend:-Luoio, a word with you. [Takes him aside. Lucio. A hundred if they'll do you any good.Is lechery so look'd after?

Claud. Thus stands it with me:-Upon a true

contract,

I got possession of Julietta's bed;"
You know the lady; she is fast my wife,
Save that we do the denunciation lack

Of outward order: this we came not to,
Only for propagation of a dower
Remaining in the coffer of her friends;
From whom we thought it meet to hide our love,
Till time had made them for us. But it chances,
The stealth of our most mutual entertainment,
With character too gross, is writ on Juliet.
Lucio. With child, perhaps?

Claud. Unhappily, even so.

And the new deputy now for the duke,-
Whether it be the fault and glimpse of newness;
Or whether that the body public be
A horse whereon the governor doth ride,
Who, newly in the seat, that it may know

1 i. e.' gaoler.

2 Authority being absolute in Angelo, is finely styled by Claudio, the demigod, whose decrees are as little to be questioned as the words of heaven. The poet alludes to a passage in St. Paul's Epist. to the Romans, ch. ix. v. 15-18: 'I will have mercy on whom I will have mercy.'

3 To ravin is to voraciously devour.

4 So, in Chapman's Revenge for Honour: 'Like poison'd rats, which, when they've swallowed The pleasing bane, rest not until they drink, And can rest then much less, until they burst.

5 This speech is surely too indelicate to be spoken concerning Juliet before her face. Claudio may therefore be supposed to speak to Lucio apart.

6 This singular mode of expression has not been satisfactorily explained. The old sense of the word is 'promoting, inlarging, increasing, spreading.' It appears that Claudio would say: 'for the sake of promot

Claud. I have done so, but he's not to be found. I pr'ythee, Lucio, do me this kind service: This day my sister should the cloister enter, And there receive her approbation :" Acquaint her with the danger of my state; Implore her, in my voice, that she make friends To the strict deputy; bid herself assay him; I have great hope in that: for in her youth There is a prone10 and speechless dialect, Such as moves men; besides, she hath prosperous

art

SCENE IV. A Monastery. Enter DUKE and Friar Thomas.

Duke. No; holy Father; throw away that thought; Believe not that the dribbling dart of love Can pierce a complete bosom:12 why I desire thee To give me secret harbour, hath a purpose More grave and wrinkled than the aims and ends Of burning youth.

13

Fri. May your grace speak of it? Duke. My holy sir, none better knows than you How I have ever lov'd the life remov'd ;13 And held in idle price to haunt assemblies, Where youth, and cost, and witless bravery keeps.14 I have delivered to lord Angelo

(A man of stricture's and firm abstinence,)

My absolute power and place here in Vienna,
And he supposes me travell'd to Poland;
For so I have strew'd it in the common ear,
And so it is receiv'd: Now, pious sir,
You will demand of me, why I do this?
Fri. Gladly, my lord.

Duke. We have strict statutes and most biting

laws,

(The needful bits and curbs for headstrong steeds,) Which for these fourteen years we have let sleep; Even like an o'ergrown lion in a cave,

That goes not out to prey: Now, as fond fathers, Having bound up the threat'ning twigs of birch, Only to stick it in their children's sight,

ing such a dower as her friends might heareafter be stow on her, when time had reconciled them to her clandestine marriage.' The verb is as obscurely used by Chapman in the Sixteenth book of the Odyssey: -'to try if we

Alone may propagate to victory

Our bold encounters.'

Shakspeare uses 'To propagate their states,' for to improve or promote their conditions, in Timon of Athens, Act i. Sc. 1.

7 Zodiacs, yearly circles. 8 Tickle, for ticklish.

9 i. e. enter on her noviciate or probation.

10 Prone, is prompt or ready.

11 Jouer au tric trac is used in French in a wanton

sense.

12 A complete bosom' is a bosom completely armed, 13 i. e. retired.

14 Bravery is showy dress. Keeps, i. e. resides. 15 Stricture; strictness.

For terror, not to use; in time the rod
Becomes more mock'd than fear'd: so our decrees,
Dead to infliction, to themselves are dead;
And liberty plucks justice by the nose;
The baby beats the nurse, and quite athwart
Goes all decorum.

Fri.

It rested in your grace

To unloose this tied-up justice, when you pleas'd: And it in you more dreadful would have seem'd, Than in Lord Angelo.

Duke.
I do fear, too dreadful:
Sith 'twas my fault to give the people scope,
"Twould be my tyranny to strike, and gall them
For what I bid them do: For we bid this be done,
When evil deeds have their permissive pass,
And not the punishment. Therefore, indeed, my
father,

I have on Angelo impos'd the office;
Who may, in the ambush of my name, strike home,
And yet my nature never in the sight,

To do it slander: And to behold his sway,
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.
SCENE V. A Nunnery. Enter ISABELLA and

Isab.

FRANCISCA.

Isab. And have you nuns no further privileges? Fran. Are not these large enough? Isab. Yes truly; I speak not as desiring more; But rather wishing a more strict restraint Upon the sisterhood, the votarists of Saint Clare. Lucio. Ho! Peace be in this place? [Within. Who's that which calls? Fran. It is a man's voice: Gentle Isabella, Turn you the key, and know his business of him; I may not; you are yet unsworn: When you have vow'd, you must not speak with men, But in the presence of the prioress: Then, if you speak, you must not show your face; Or, if you show your face, you must not speak. He calls again; I pray you, answer him. [Exit FRANCISCA. Isab. Peace and prosperity! Who is't that calls?

You may,

Enter LUCIO.

Lucio. Hail, virgin, if you be; as those cheek-roses Proclaim you are no less! Can you so stead me, As bring me to the sight of Isabella, A novice of this place, and the fair sister To her unhappy brother Claudio?

Isab. Why her unhappy brother? let me ask; The rather, for I now must make you know I am that Isabella, and his sister.

Lucio. Gentle and fair, your brother kindly greets

you:

Not to be weary with you, he's in prison.
Isab. Woe me! For what?

Lucio. For that, which, if myself might be his judge,

1 i. e. on his defence.

2 The old copy reads:

Sir, make me not your story.' The emendation is Mr. Malone's.

3 This bird is said to draw pursuers from her nest by erying in other places. This was formerly the subject of a proverb, "The lapwing cries most, farthest from her nest, i. e. tongue far from heart. So, in The Comedy of Errors:

Adr. Far from her nest the lapwing cries away; My heart prays for him, though my tongue do curse.' 4 Fewness and truth, in few and true words.

5 i. e. his mistress.

6 Teeming foison is abundant produce.

7 Tilth is tillage. So in Shakspeare's third Sonnet:

As with a saint.

Isab. You do blaspheme the good, in mocking me. Lucio. Do not believe it. Fewness and truth, 'tis thus:

Your brother and his lovers have embrac'd:
As those that feed grow full; as blossoming time,
That from the seedness the bare fallow brings
To teeming foison; even so her plenteous womb
Expresseth his full tilth and husbandry.
Isab. Some one with child by him -My cousin
Juliet?

Lucio. Is she your cousin?

Isab. Adoptedly; as school-maids change their

names,
By vain though apt affection.
Lucio.

Isab. O let him marry her!
Lucio.

She it is.

This is the point.

The duke is very strangely gone from hence;
Bore many gentlemen, myself being one,
In hand, and hope of action: but we do learn
By those that know the very nerves of state,
His givings out were of an infinite distance
From his true-meant design. Upon his place,
And with full line of his authority,

Is very snow-broth; one who never feels
Governs Lord Angelo; a man, whose blood
The wanton stings and motions of the sense;
But doth rebate and blunt his natural edge
With profits of the mind, study and fast.
Which have, for long, run by the hideous law,
He (to give fear to use1 and liberty,
As mice by lions,) hath pick'd out an act,
Under whose heavy sense your brother's life
Falls into forfeit: he arrests him on it;
And follows close the rigour of the statute,
To make him an example: all hope is gone,
Unless you have the gracell by your fair prayer
To soften Angelo: And that's my pith

Of business 'twixt you and your poor brother.
Isab. Doth he so seek his life?

Lucio.

Has censur'd1 him

Already; and, as I hear, the provost hath

A warrant for his execution.

Isab. Alas! what poor ability's in me
To do him good?
Lucio.

Assay the power you have.
Isab. My power! Alas! I'doubt,-
Lucio.
Our doubts are traitors,
And make us lose the good we oft might win,
By fearing to attempt: Go to Lord Angelo,
And let him learn to know, when maidens sue,
Men give like gods; but when they weep and kneel,
All their petitions are as freely theirs
As they themselves would owe13 them.
Isab. I'll see what I can do.
Lucio.

Isab. I will about it straight;

But speedily.

'For who is she so fair, whose unrear'd womb Disdains the tillage of thy husbandry?'

8 Full line, extent.

9 To rebate is to make dull: Aciem ferri hebetare.Baret.

10 i. e. to intimidate use, or practices long countenanced by custom.

11 i. e. power of gaining favour.

12 To censure is to judge. This is the poet's general meaning for the word, but the editors have given him several others. Here they interpret it censured, sentenced. We have it again in the next scene:

When I that censure him do so offend, Let mine own judgment pattern out my death.' 13 To owe is to have, to possess.

man,

Whom I would save, had a most noble father.
Let but your honour know,5

(Whom I believe to be most strait in virtue,)
That, in the working of your own affections,
Had time coher'de with place, or place with wishing,
Or that the resolute acting of your blood
Could have attain'd the effect of your own purpose,
Whether you had not sometime in your life
Err'd in this point which now you censure him,"
And pull'd the law upon you.

Ang. "Tis one thing to be tempted, Escalus,
Another thing to fall. I not deny,

The jury, passing on the prisoner's life,

May, in the sworn twelve, have a thief or two

their abuses in common houses, I know no law; bring them away.

Ang. How now, sir! What's your name? and what's the matter?

Elb. If it please your honour, I am the poor duke's constable, and my name is Elbow; I do lean upon justice, sir, and do bring in here before your good honour two notorious benefactors.

Ang. Benefactors! Well; what benefactors are they are they not malefactors?

Elb. If it please your honour, I know not well what they are: but precise villains they are, that I am sure of; and void of all profanation in the world, that good christians ought to have.

Escal. This comes off well; 13 here's a wise officer. Ang. Go to: What quality are they of? Elbow is your name? Why dost thou not speak, Elbow? Clo. He cannot, sir; he's out at elbow.. Ang. What are you, sir?

Elb. He, sir? a tapster, sir; parcel-bawd; one that serves a bad woman; whose house, sir, was as they say, plucked down in the suburbs; and now she professes1 a hot-house, which, I think, is a very ill house too.

4

Escal. Dost thou detest her therefore?

Elb. I say, sir, I will detest myself also, as wel as she, that this house, if it be not a bawd's house, it is pity of her life, for it is a naughty house. Escal. How dost thou know that constable? Elb. Marry, sir, by my wife; who, if she had

justice,

That justice seizes. What know the laws,

That thieves do pass on thieves? "Tis very preg

nant,9

The jewel that we find, we stoop and take it,
Because we see it; but what we do not see,
We tread upon, and never think of it.
You may not so extenuate his offence,

For10 I have had such faults; but rather tell me,
When I, that censure him, do so offend,
Let mine own judgment pattern out my death,
And nothing come in partial. Sir, he must die.
Escal. Be it as your wisdom will.
Ang.

Where is the provost
Prov. Here, if it like your honour.
Ang.

?

See that Claudio Be executed by nine to-morrow morning: Bring him his confessor, let him be prepared; For that's the utmost of his pilgrimage.

[Exit Provost. Escal. Well, heaven forgive him; and forgive us all!

Some rise by sin, and some by virtue fall:11
Some run from brakes12 of vice, and answer none;
And some condemned for a fault alone.

Enter ELBOW, FROTH, Clown, Officers, &c. Elb. Come, bring them away; if these be good people in a common-weal, that do nothing but use

1 i. e. the abbess.

accused in fornication, adultery, and all uncleanliness there.

Escal. By the woman's means?

Elb. Ay, sir, by mistress Over-done's means.

but as she spit in his face, so she defied him.

Clo. Sir, if it please your honour, this is not so. Elb. Prove it before these varlets here, thou honourable man, prove it.

Escal. Do you hear how he misplaces? [To ANGELO. Clo. Sir, she came in great with child; and longing (saving your honour's reverence,) for stew'd prunes: 16 sir, we had but two in the house, which at that very distant time stood, as it were, in a fruitdish, a dish of some three pence; your honours have seen such dishes; they are not China dishes. but very good dishes.

Escal. Go to, go to: no matter for the dish, sir. Clo. No indeed, sir, not of a pin; you are therein in the right but to the point: As I say, this mistress Elbow, being, as I say, with child, and being great belly'd, and longing, as I said, for prunes; and having but two in a dish, as I said, master I said, and, as I say, paying for them very honestFroth here, this very man having eaten the rest, as ly;-for, as you know, master Froth, I cou'd not give you three pence again.

Froth. No, indeed.

tries.

brake was also used to signify a trap or snare. Thus in Skelton's Ellinour Rummin:

'It was a stale to take-the devil in a brake.' And in Holland's Leaguer, a Comedy, by Sh. Marmion. -her I'll make

9 Full of force or conviction, or full of proof in self. So, in Othello, Act ii. Sc. 1, As it is a most preg. nant and unforc'd position.'

10 i. e. cause I have had such faults.

11 This line is printed in Italics as a quotation in the first folio.

14 Professes a hot house, i. e. keeps a bagnio. 15 Detest, for protest, or attest.

16 A favourite dish, anciently common in brothels