Claud. I have done so, but he's not to be found. I pr'y thee, 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 prone and speechless dialect, Such as moves men: beside, she hath prosperous art,

When she will play with reason and discourse, And well she can persuade.

Lucio. I pray she may as well for the encouragement of the like, which else would stand under grievous imposition, as for the enjoying of thy life, who I would be sorry should be thus foolishly lost at a game of tick-tack. I'll to her. Claud. I thank you, good friend Lucio. Lucio. Within two hours,

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: why I desire thee To give me secret harbour, hath a purpose More grave and wrinkled than the aims and ends Of burning youth.

Friar.

May your grace speak of it?

Duke. My holy sir, none better knows than you How I have ever loved the life removed; And held in idle price to haunt assemblies, Where youth, and cost, and witless bravery keeps. I have delivered to Lord Angelo (A man of stricture and firm abstinence) My absolute power and place here in Vienna, And he supposes me travelled to Poland; For so I have strewed it in the common ear, And so it is received: Now, pious sir, You will demand of me, why I do this? Friar. 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 threatening twigs of birch,
Only to stick it in their children's sight
For terror, not to use; in time the rod
Becomes more mocked than feared: so our decrees,

Duke.

I do fear, too dreadful: Sith 't was 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 imposed 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 't were a brother of your order,
Visit both prince and people; therefore, I pr'y thee
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 FRANCISCA.

Isab. And have you nuns no farther 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. [within.] Ho! peace be in this place! Isab. 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 vowed, you must not speak with

men

But in the presence of the prioress :
Then if you speak, you must not shew your face;
Or if you shew your face, you must not speak.
He calls again; I pray you answer him. [Exit.
Isab. 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?

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

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,

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 rebate 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 picked 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 grace 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.

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 owe them.
Isab. I'll see what I can do.
Lucio. But speedily.

Isab. 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.
Lucio. I take my leave of you.
Good sir, adieu.

Isab.

[Exeunt.

Let us be keen, and rather cut a little,

Than fall, and bruise to death: Alas! this gentleman,

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

(Whom I believe to be most straight 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 attained the effect of your own purpose,
Whether you had not, sometime in your life,
Erred in this point which now you censure him,
And pulled 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,

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 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.

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

Escal. How know you that?

Elb. My wife, sir, whom I detest before heaven and your honour—

Escal. How! thy wife?

Elb. Ay, sir; whom, I thank heaven, is an honest woman—

Escal. Dost thou detest her therefore?

Elb. 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.

Escal. How dost thou know that, constable? Elb. 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.

Escal. By the woman's means?

Elb. Ay, sir, by Mistress Overdone'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 stewed prunes; sir, we had but two in the house, which at that very distant time stood, as it were, in a fruit-dish, 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-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 three

pence again.

Froth. No, indeed.

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

Froth. Ay, so I did, indeed.

Clo. 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.

Clo. Why, very well, then.

purpose.

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

Clo. Sir, your honour cannot come to that yet. Escal. No, sir, nor I mean it not.

Clo. Sir, but you shall come to it, by your honour's leave: And, I beseech you, look into Master Froth here, sir; a man of fourscore pound a-year; whose father died at Hallowmas -Was 't not at Hallowmas, Master Froth? Froth. All-hollond eve.

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

Froth. I have so; because it is an open room, and good for winter.

Clo. 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. Escal. I think no less: Good morrow to your lordship. [Exit ANGELO. Now, sir, come on: what was done to Elbow's wife, once more?

Clo. Once, sir? there was nothing done to her once.

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

Clo. I beseech your honour, ask me.

Escal. Well, sir: What did this gentleman to her?

Clo. I beseech you, sir, look in this gentleman's face: Good Master Froth, look upon his honour; 't is for a good purpose: Doth your honour mark his face?

Escal. Ay, sir, very well.

Clo. Nay, I beseech you, mark it well.
Escal. Well, I do so.

Clo. Doth your honour see any harm in his face?
Escal. Why, no.

Clo. I'll be supposed upon a book, his face is the worst thing about him: good then; if his face be the worst thing about him, how could Master Froth do the constable's wife any harm? I would know that of your honour.

Escal. He's in the right: Constable, what say you to it?

Elb. First, an it like you, the house is a respected house; next, this is a respected fellow; and his mistress is a respected woman.

Clo. By this hand, sir, his wife is a more respected person than any of us all.

Elb. Varlet, thou liest; thou liest, wicked varlet the time is yet to come that she was ever respected with man, woman, or child.

Clo. Sir, she was respected with him before he married with her.

Escal. Which is the wiser here? Justice or Iniquity? Is this true?

Elb. O thou caitiff! O thou varlet! O thou wicked Hannibal! I respected with her, before I was married to her! If ever I was respected with her, or she with me, let not your worship think me the poor Duke's officer. Prove this, thou wicked Hannibal, or I'll have mine action of battery on thee.

Escal. If he took you a box o' th' ear, you might have your action of slander too.

Elb. Marry, I thank your good worship for it: What is 't your worship's pleasure I should do with this wicked caitiff?

Escal. Truly, officer, because he hath some offences in him that thou wouldst discover if thou couldst, let him continue in his courses till thou know'st what they are.