The Plays of Shakespeare

Duke. Good morning to you, fair and gracious daughter.

Isab. The better, given me by so holy a man. Hath yet the deputy sent my brother's pardon?

Duke. He hath releas'd him, Isabel, from the world.
His head is off, and sent to Angelo.
Isab. Nay, but it is not so.
Duke.
It is no other. [Catching her.
Show your wisdom, daughter, in your close patience.
Isab. O! I will to him, and pluck out his eyes.
Duke. You shall not be admitted to his sight.
Isab. Unhappy Claudio! Wretched Isabel!
Perjurious world! Most damned Angelo!

Duke. This nor hurts him, nor profits you a jot:
Forbear it therefore; give your cause to heaven.
Mark what I say to you, which you shall find
By every syllable a faithful verity.

The duke comes home to-morrow;-nay, dry your eyes:
One of our convent, and his confessor,

Gives me this instance. Already he hath carried
Notice to Escalus and Angelo,

Who do prepare to meet him at the gates,

There to give up their power. If you can, pace your

wisdom

In that good path that I would wish it go,

you

And shall have your bosom on this wretch,
Grace of the duke, revenges to your heart,
And general honour.

Isab.

I am directed by you.
Duke. This letter, then, to friar Peter give;
'Tis that he sent me of the duke's return:
Say, by this token, I desire his company
At Mariana's house to-night. Her cause, and yours
I'll perfect him withal, and he shall bring you
Before the duke; and to the head of Angelo
Accuse him home, and home. For my poor self,
I am confined by a sacred vow,

And shall be absent. Wend you with this letter.
Command these fretting waters from your eyes
With a light heart: trust not my holy order,
If I pervert your course.- -Who's here?
Enter LUCIO.

Lucio.

Friar, where is the provost ?

Duke.

I do: he's a better woodman than thou takest him
for.
Fare ye

[Going.

Duke. Well, you'll answer this one day. 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 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.

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 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

SCENE IV.-A Room in ANGELO'S House.
Enter ANGELO and ESCALUS.

Escal. Every letter he hath writ hath disvouch'd 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 re-deliver
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 proclaim'd:
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,
And dull to all proceedings. A deflowered maid,
And by an eminent body, that enforc'd

The law against it!-But that her tender shame
Will not proclaim against her maiden loss,

How might she tongue me! Yet reason dares her:

no;

For my authority bears such a credent bulk
That no particular scandal once can touch,
But it confounds the breather. He should have liv'd,
Save that his riotous youth, with dangerous sense,
Might in the times to come have ta'en revenge,
For so receiving a dishonour'd life
With ransom of such shame. Would yet he had liv'd!
Alack! when once our grace we have forgot,
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 them.
The provost knows our purpose, and our plot.
The matter being afoot, keep your instruction,
And hold you ever to our special drift,

Though sometimes you do blench from this to that,
As cause doth minister. Go, call at Flavius' house,
And tell him where I stay: give the like notice
Unto Valentius, Rowland, and to Crassus,
And bid them bring the trumpets to the gate;
But send me Flavius first.

F. Peter.

It shall be speeded well. [Exit Peter.
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 :
I would say the truth; but to accuse him so,
That is your part; yet I'm advis'd to do it,

ACT V.

SCENE I.-A public Place near the City Gate.
MARIANA, (veil'd,) ISABELLA, and PETER, at a distance.
Enter at several doors, DUKE, VARRIUS, Lords; AN-
GELO, 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
A forted residence 'gainst the tooth of time,
And razure of oblivion. Give me your hand,
And let the subject see, to make them know
That outward courtesies would fain proclaim
Favours that keep within.-Come, Escalus;
You must walk by us on our other hand,
And good supporters are you.

Friar PETER and ISABELLA come forward.
F. Peter. Now is your time. Speak loud, and kneel

before him.

She hath been a suitor to me for her brother,
Cut off by course of justice.

Isab.
By course of justice! [Rising.
Ang. And she will speak most bitterly, and strangely.
Isab. Most strangely, yet most truly, will I speak.
That Angelo's forsworn, is it not strange?
That Angelo's a murderer, is't not strange?
That Angelo is an adulterous thief,
An hypocrite, a virgin-violator,
Is it not strange, and strange?
Duke.

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,
If she be mad, as I believe no other,
Her madness hath the oddest frame of sense,
Such a dependency of thing on thing,

As e'er I heard in madness.

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,
My sisterly remorse confutes mine honour,

And I did yield to him. But the next morn betimes,
His purpose surfeiting, he sends a warrant
For my poor brother's head.

Duke.

This is most likely.
Isab. O, that it were as like, as it is true!
Duke. By heaven, fond wretch! thou know'st
what thou speak'st,

not

Or else thou art suborn'd against his honour,
In hateful practice. First, his integrity
Stands without blemish: next, it imports no reason,
That with such vehemency he should pursue
Faults proper to himself: if he had so offended,
He would have weigh'd thy brother by himself,
And not have cut him off. Some one hath set you on:
Confess the truth, and say by whose advice
Thou cam'st here to complain.

Isab.

[ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small]

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,
Being come to knowledge that there was complaint
Intended 'gainst lord Angelo, came I hither,
To speak, as from his mouth, what he doth know
Is true, and false; and what he with his oath,
And all probation, will make up full clear,
Whensoever he's convented. First, for this woman,
To justify this worthy nobleman,

So vulgarly and personally accus'd,
Her shall you hear disproved to her eyes,
Till she herself confess it.
Duke.

Good friar, let's hear it.
[ISABELLA is carried off guarded; and MARINA
comes forward.

Do you not smile at this, lord Angelo?—
O heaven, the vanity of wretched fools!-
Give us some seats.-Come, cousin Angelo;
In this I'll be impartial: be you judge
Of your own cause.-Is this the witness, friar?
First, let her show her face, and after speak.

Mari. Pardon, my lord, I will not show my face,
Until my husband bid me.

lord.

What, are you married? Are you a maid?

Duke. A widow then?
Mari.

Duke.

And is this all?

Are nothing then

Then, O! you blessed ministers above,

Keep me in patience; and, with ripen'd time,
Unfold the evil which is here wrapt up

In countenance !-Heaven shield your grace from woe,
As I, thus wrong'd, hence unbelieved go!

Duke. I know, you'd fain be gone.-An officer!

To prison with her.-Shall we thus permit
A blasting and a scandalous breath to fall
On him so near us? This needs must be a practice.
Who knew of your intent, and coming hither?

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.

No, my lord.

Neither, my lord. Why, you neither maid, widow, nor wife? Lucio. My lord, she may be a punk; for many of them are neither maid, widow, nor wife.

Duke. Silence that fellow: I would, he had some

When, I'll depose, I had him in mine arms,
With all th' effect of love.
Ang.

Mari. Not that I know.
Duke.

Charges she more than me?

No? you say, your husband.
Mari. Why, just, my lord, and that is Angelo,
Who thinks, he knows, that he ne'er knew my body,
But knows, he thinks, that he knows Isabel's.
Ang. This is a strange abuse.-Let's see thy face.
Mari. My husband bids me; now I will unmask.
[Unveiling.

This is that face, thou cruel Angelo,
Which once,
thou swor'st, was worth the looking on:
This is the hand, which, with a vow'd contract,
Was fast belock'd in thine: this is the body
That took away the match from Isabel,
And did supply thee at thy garden-house

In her imagin'd person.

Duke.

Know you this woman?

Lucio. Carnally, she says. Duke.

Lucio. Enough, my lord.

Sirrah, no more.

Ang. My lord, I must confess, I know this woman;
And five years since there was some speech of marriage
Betwixt myself and her, which was broke off,
Partly, for that her promised proportions
Came short of composition; but, in chief,

For that her reputation was disvalued

In levity since which time of five years

I never spake with her, saw her, nor heard from her, Upon my faith and honour.

[Kneeling.

Mari.
Noble prince,
As there comes light from heaven, and words from
breath,

As there is sense in truth, and truth in virtue,
I am affianc'd this man's wife, as strongly

As words could make up vows: and, my good lord,
But Tuesday night last gone, in's garden-house,
He knew me as a wife. As this is true

Let me in safety raise me from my knees,

Or else for ever be confixed here,
A marble monument.

Ang.

I did but smile till now:

Now, good my lord, give me the scope of justice; My patience here is touch'd. I do perceive, These poor informal women are no more But instruments of some more mightier member, That sets them on. Let me have way, my lord, To find this practice out. Duke. Ay, with my heart; And punish them unto your height of pleasure.— Thou foolish friar, and thou pernicious woman, Compact with her that's gone, think'st thou, thy oaths, Though they would swear down each particular saint, Were testimonies against his worth and credit, That's seal'd in approbation ?-You, lord Escalus, Sit with my cousin : lend him your kind pains To find out this abuse, whence 'tis deriv'd.There is another friar that set them on;

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.
Escal. Say you?

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.
Escal. Why, thou unreverend and unhallow'd friar!
To accuse this worthy man, but, in foul mouth,
Is't not enough, thou hast suborn'd these women
And in the witness of his proper ear,

To call him villain? And then to glance from him
To the duke himself, to tax him with injustice?-
Take him hence; to the rack with him.-We'll touze you
Joint by joint, but we will know your purpose.—
What! unjust?

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

indeed,

Hath set the women on to this complaint.

Your provost knows the place where he abides,

And he may fetch him.

Duke. Go, do it instantly.

[Exit Provost.

And you, my noble and well-warranted cousin,

Whom it concerns to hear this matter forth,
Do with your injuries as seems you best,
In any chastisement: I for a while

Dare rack his own: his subject am I not,
Nor here provincial. My business in this state
Made me a looker-on here in Vienna,

Where I have seen corruption boil and bubble,
Till it o'er-run the stew: laws for all faults,
But faults so countenanc'd, that the strong statutes
Stand like the forfeits in a barber's shop,

As much in mock as mark.

Escal. Slander to the state! Away with him to prison.

Lucio?

Ang. What can you vouch against him, signior Advertising and holy to your business,
Not changing heart with habit, I am still
Attorney'd at your service.
Isab.

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. 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 gloze now, after his treasonable abuses.

Escal. Such a fellow is not to be talk'd withal: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 too, and with the other confederate companion.

[The Provost lays hand 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. Will't not off?

[Pulling off the DUKE's disguise. Duke. Thou art the first knave, that e'er made a duke.[All start and stand. First, provost, let me bail these gentle three.Sneak not away, sir; [To Lucio.] for the friar and you Must have a word anon.-Lay hold on him.

Lucio. This may prove worse than hanging. Duke. What you have spoke, I pardon; sit you down. [To ESCALUS. We'll borrow place of him :-Sir, by your leave.

[TO ANGELO.

Hast thou or word, or wit, or impudence, That yet can do thee office? If thou hast, Rely upon it till my tale be heard,

And hold no longer out.

Ang.

O, my dread lord!

I should be guiltier than my guiltiness,
To think I can be undiscernible,
When I perceive your grace, like power divine,
Hath look'd upon my passes. Then, good prince,
No longer session hold upon my shame,
But let my trial be mine own confession :
Immediate sentence then, and sequent death,
Is all the grace I beg.

Duke.
Come hither, Mariana.—
Say, wast thou e'er contracted to this woman?
Ang. I was, my lord.

Duke. Go take her hence, and marry her instantly.
Do
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 dishonour, Than at the strangeness of it.

Duke. Come hither, Isabel. Your friar is now your prince: as I was then

O, give me pardon, That I, your vassal, have employ'd and pain'd Your unknown sovereignty!

Duke.

You are pardon'd, Isabel : And now, dear maid, be you as free to us. Your brother's death, I know, sits at your heart; And you may marvel, why I obscur'd myself, Labouring to save his life, and would not rather Make rash demonstrance of my hidden power, Than let him so be lost. O, most kind maid! It was the swift celerity of his death, Which I did think with slower foot came on, That brain'd my purpose: but all peace be with him! That life is better life, past fearing death, Than that which lives to fear. Make it your comfort, So happy is your brother.

Re-enter ANGELO, MARIANA, PETER, and Provost.
Isab.
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,
Thereon dependent, for your brother's life,)
The very mercy of the law cries out
Most audible, even from his proper tongue,
"An Angelo for Claudio, death for death!"
Haste still pays haste, and leisure answers leisure,
Like doth quit like, and Measure still for Measure.
Then, Angelo, thy fault's thus manifested,
Which, though thou would'st deny, denies thee vantage.
We do condemn thee to the very block
Where Claudio stoop'd to death, and with like haste.-
Away with him.

Mari.

O, my most gracious lord!

I hope you will not mock me with a husband.
Duke. It is your husband mock'd you with a husband.
Consenting to the safeguard of your honour,
I thought your marriage fit; else imputation,
For that he knew you, might reproach your life,
And choke your good to come. For his possessions,
Although by confiscation they are ours,
We do instate and widow you withal,
To buy you a better husband.

Mari.

O, my dear lord!

your

I crave no other, nor no better man.
Duke. Never crave him: we are definitive.
Mari. Gentle my liege,—
[Kneeling.
Duke.
You do but lose labour.
Away with him to death.-Now, sir, [To Lucio.] to you.
Mari. O, my good lord!-Sweet Isabel, take my part:
Lend me your knees, and all my life to come,
I'll lend you all my life to do you service.
Duke. Against all sense you do importune her:
Should she kneel down in mercy of this fact,
Her brother's ghost his paved bed would break,
And take her hence in horror.

« Předchozí Pokračovat »

Knihy

The Plays of Shakespeare: The Text Regulated by the Old Copies, and by the ...