prayer

And follows close the rigor of the statute,
To make him an example: all hope is gone,
Unless you have the grace 1 by your fair
To soften Angelo: and that's my pith
Of business 'twixt you and your poor brother.

Isa. Doth he so seek his life?

Lucio.

Has censured 2 him

Already; and, as I hear, the provost hath

A warrant for his execution.

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

Lucio.

Assay the power you have.

Isa. 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 owe3 them.
Isa. I'll see what I can do.

Lucio.

But, speedily.
Isa. I will about it straight;

No longer staying but to give the mother♦
Notice of my affair. I humbly thank you :
Commend me to my brother: soon at night
I'll send him certain word of my success.

1 Power of gaining favor. 3 Possess.

2 Sentenced.

4 The abbess or prioress.

Enter ANGELO, ESCALUS, A JUSTICE, PROVOST, Officers, and other Attendants.

Ang. We must not make a scare-crow of the law, Setting it up to fear 1 the birds of prey,

And let it keep one shape, till custom make it

Their perch, and not their terror.

Esc.

Ay, but yet

Let us be keen, and rather cut a little,

Than fall, and bruise to death. Alas! this gentle

man,

Whom I would save, had a most noble father.

Let but your honor know,2

(Whom I believe to be most strait in virtue)
That, in the working of your own affections,
Had time cohered 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,

was, as they say, plucked down in the suburbs; and now she professes a hot-house,1 which, I think, is a very ill house too.

Esc. How know you that?

Elbow. My wife, sir, whom I detest before Heaven and your honor,

Esc. How! thy wife?

Elbow. Ay, sir; whom, I thank Heaven, is an honest woman ;

Esc. Dost thou detest her therefore?

Elbow. I say, sir, I will detest myself also, as well 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.

Esc. How dost thou know that, constable ?

Elbow. Marry, sir, by my wife; who, if she had been a woman cardinally given, might have been accused in fornication, adultery, and all uncleanliness there.

Esc. By the woman's means?

Elbow. Ay, sir, by mistress Over-done's means: but as she spit in his face, so she defied him.

Clown. Sir, if it please your honor, this is not so. Elbow. Prove it before these varlets here, thou honorable man, prove it.

Esc. Do you hear how he misplaces? [to Angelo. Clown. Sir, she came in great with child; and longing (saving your honor's reverence) for stewed

prunes; 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 threepence; your honors have seen such dishes: they are not China dishes, but very good dishes.

Esc. Go to, go to; no matter for the dish, sir.

Clown. 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 bellied, and longing, as I said, for prunes; and having but two in the dish, as I said, master Froth here, this very man, having eaten the rest, as I said, and, as I say, paying for them very honestly;-for, as you know, master Froth, I could not give you threepence again.

Froth. No, indeed.

Clown. Very well: you being then, if you be remembered, cracking the stones of the foresaid prunes.

Froth. Ay, so I did, indeed.

Clown. Why, very well: I telling you then, if you be remembered, that such a one, and such a one, were past cure of the thing you wot of, unless they kept very good diet, as I told you.

Froth. All this is true.

Clown. Why, very well then.

Esc. Come, you are a tedious fool: to the purpose. What was done to Elbow's wife, that he hath cause to complain of? Come me to what was done to her.

Clown. Sir, your honor cannot come to that yet.

Esc. No, sir, nor I mean it not.

Clown. Sir, but you shall come to it, by your honor's leave and, I beseech you, look into master Froth here, sir; a man of fourscore pound a year; whose father died at Hallowmas.1-Was 't not at Hallowmas, master Froth?

Froth. All-hallownd eve.2

Clown. Why, very well; I hope here be truths. He, sir, sitting, as I say, in a lower 3 chair, sir ;— 'twas in the Bunch of Grapes, where, indeed, you have a delight to sit. Have you not?

Froth. I have so;

good for winter.

because it is an open room, and

Clown. Why, very well then;-I hope here be truths.

Ang. This will last out a night in Russia,

When nights are longest there. I'll take my leave,
And leave you to the hearing of the cause;
Hoping, you'll find good cause to whip them all.
Esc. I think no less. Good morrow to your lord-

ship.

Now, sir, come on. wife, once more?

[Exit Angelo.

What was done to Elbow's

Clown. Once, sir? there was nothing done to her

once.

Elbow. I beseech you, sir, ask him what this man did to my wife.

Clown. I beseech your honor, ask me.

1 All Souls day. 2 Eve of All Saints day.

3 Easy.