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In that good path that I would wish it go; And you 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 combined 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. Good even!

Friar, where is the Provost?

Duke. 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 to-morrow. 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 beholden to your reports; but the best is, he lives not in them.

Lucio. Friar, thou knowest not the Duke so

well as I do he's a better woodman than thou takest him for.

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

ye 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 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.

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 bur, I shall stick. [Exeunt.

SCENE IV.-A Room in ANGELO'S House.

Enter ANGELO and ESCALUS. Escal. Every letter he hath writ hath disvouched other.

Ang. In most uneven and distracted manner. His actions shew 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 in an hour before his entering, that if any crave redress of injustice, they should exhibit their petitions in the street?

Escal. He shews 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 proclaimed: 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 unpreg

nant

And dull to all proceedings. A deflowered maid!
And by an eminent body that enforced
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:

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Enter DUKE in his own habit, and Friar PETER.
Duke. These letters at fit time deliver me.
[Giving letters.
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
To Valentinus, Rowland, and to Crassus,
And bid them bring the trumpets to the gate;
But send me Flavius first.

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Isab. Besides, he tells me that, if peradventure He speak against me on the adverse side,

I should not think it strange; for 't is a physic
That's bitter to sweet end.

Mari. I would Friar Peter-
Isab.

O, peace; the friar is come.

Enter Friar Peter.

F. Peter. Come, I have found you out a stand most fit,

Where you may have such vantage on the Duke He shall not pass you. Twice have the trumpets

sounded;

The generous and gravest citizens

Have hent the gates, and very near upon
The Duke is entering; therefore hence, away.

[Exeunt.

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SCENE I.-A public Place near the City Gate.

MARIANA (veiled), ISABELLA, and PETER, at a distance. Enter at opposite doors, DUKE, VARRIUS, Lords; ANGELO, 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. 1

Escal.

} Happy return be to your royal grace ! Duke. Many and hearty thankings to you both. We have made enquiry 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.

PETER and ISABELLA come forward.

F. Peter. Now is your time; speak loud, and kneel before him.

Isab. Justice, O royal Duke! Vail your regard Upon a wronged-I'd fain have said, a maid!

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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, 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 the end of reckoning.

Duke. Away with her.-Poor soul, She speaks this in the infirmity of sense.

Isab. O prince, I cónjure thee, as thou believest There is another comfort than this world, That thou neglect me not, with that opinion That I am touched with madness: make not impossible

That which but seems unlike. "Tis not impossible
But one, the wickedest 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.

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Isab. In brief-to set the needless process by, How I persuaded, how I prayed and kneeled, How he refelled 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!

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Your royal ear abused. First, hath this woman
Most wrongfully accused your substitute;
Who is as free from touch or soil with her,
As she from one ungot.

Duke. We did believe no less.

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 trust, a man that never yet
Did, as he vouches, misreport your grace.

Lucio. My lord, most villanously; 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 com-
plaint

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
Whenever he's convented. First, for this woman
(To justify this worthy nobleman,
So vulgarly and personally accused),
Her shall you hear disprovéd to her eyes,
Till she herself confess it.

Do

Duke.

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

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 shew her face; and after, speak.
Mari. Pardon, my lord; I will not shew my face
Until my husband bid me.

Duke. What, are you married?
Mari. No, my lord.

Duke. Are you a maid?

Mari. No, my lord.

Duke. A widow, then?

Mari. Neither, my lord.

Duke. Why you are nothing then:

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 cause

To prattle for himself.

Lucio. Well, my lord.

Mari. My lord, I do confess I ne'er was married; And I confess besides, I am no maid:

I have known my husband; yet my husband knows not

That ever he knew me.

Lucio. He was drunk then, my lord; it can be no better.

Duke. For the benefit of silence, 'would thou wert so too.

Lucio. Well, my lord.

Duke. This is no witness for Lord Angelo. Mari. Now come I to 't, my lord:

She that accuses him of fornication,

In self-same manner doth accuse my husband;
And charges him, my lord, with such a time,
When I'll depose I had him in mine arms
With all the effect of love.

Ang. Charges she more than me?
Mari. Not that I know.

Duke. 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 un-
mask.
[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 vowed contract,
Was fast belocked in thine: this is the body
That took away the match from Isabel,
And did supply thee at thy garden-house,
In her imagined person.

Duke. Know you this woman?

Lucio. Carnally, she says.

Duke. Sirrah, no more.

Lucio. Enough, my lord.

Ang. My lord, I must confess I know this

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