SCENE V.

A nunnery.

Enter ISABELLA and FRANCISCA.

Isa. And have you nuns no farther privileges?
Fran. Are not these large enough?

Isa. 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!

Isa.

[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 : You may, 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. Isa. Peace and prosperity! Who is 't that calls?

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?

Isa. 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.

Isa. Woe me! For what?

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

He should receive his punishment in thanks:
He hath got his friend with child. -

Isa. Sir, mock me not:-your story.

Lucio. "Tis true. I would not.1 Though 'tis my familiar sin

With maids to seem the lapwing, and to jest,
Tongue far from heart,-play with all virgins so:
I hold you as a thing ensky'd, and sainted;
By your renouncement, an immortal spirit ;
And to be talk'd with in sincerity,

As with a saint.

Isa. You do blaspheme the good, in mocking me. Lucio. Do not believe it. Fewness and truth, 2 'tis thus:

Your brother and his lover have embraced :
As those that feed grow full; as blossoming time,
That from the seedness the bare fallow brings
To teeming foison; 3 even so her plenteous womb

I would not mock you. 3 Abundant produce.

2 In few and true words.

Expresseth his full tilth and husbandry.

Isa. Some one with child by him?-My cousin

Juliet?

Lucio. Is she your cousin?

Isa. Adoptedly; as school-maids change their

names,

By vain though apt affection.

Lucio.

She it is.

This is the point.

Isa. O, let him marry her!
Lucio.

The duke is very strangely gone from hence;
Bore many gentlemen, myself being one,
In hand,1 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,

Governs lord Angelo; a man, whose blood
Is very snow-broth; one who never feels
The wanton stings and motions of the sense;
But doth rebate3 and blunt his natural edge
With profits of the mind, study and fast.
He (to give fear to use and liberty,

Which have, for long, run by the hideous law,
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;

1 Kept many gentlemen in expectation. › Repress.

2 Extent.

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

Guiltier than him they try. What's open made to justice,

That justice seizes.

What know the laws,

That thieves do pass on thieves? 'Tis very pregnant,1
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,

For 2 I have had such faults; but rather tell me,
When I, that censure 3 him, do so offend,
Let mine own judgment pattern out my death,
And nothing come in partial. Sir, he must die.
Esc. Be it as your wisdom will.
Ang.

Where is the provost ?

Pro. Here, if it like your honor.

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.

Esc. Well, Heaven forgive him, and forgive

us all!

Some rise by sin, and some by virtue fall:

1 Plain.

2 Because.

3 Sentence.

Some run from brakes 1 of vice, and answer none; And some condemned for a fault alone.

Enter ELBOW, FROTH, CLOWN, Officers, &c.

Elbow. Come, bring them away: if these be good people in a commonweal, that do nothing but use 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?

Elbow. If it please your honor, 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 honor two notorious benefactors.

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

Elbow. If it please your honor, 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.

Esc. This comes off well; 2 here's a wise officer. Ang. Go to. What quality are they of? Elbow is your name? Why dost thou not speak, Elbow? Clown. He cannot, sir; he's out at elbow. Ang. What are you, sir?

Elbow. He, sir? a tapster, sir; parcel3 bawd; one that serves a bad woman; whose house, sir,

Thickets, thorny paths.

2 This is well told.

3 Partly.