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, publickly, she'll be ashamed.

Re-enter Officers, with ISABELLA, the Duke, in the Friar's habit, and Provost.

Escal. I will go darkly to work with her. Lucio. That's the way; for women are light 24 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.

did.

Escal. Come, sir: Did you set these women on to slander lord Angelo? they have confess'd you Duke. "Tis false.

Escal. How! know you where you are?

Duke. Respect to your great place! and let the

devil

Be sometimes honour'd for his burning throne: Where is the duke? 'tis he should hear me speak.

24 This is one of the words on which Shakspeare delights to quibble. Thus Portia, in the Merchant of Venice,

'Let me give light, but let me not be light.

Escal. The duke's in us; and he 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 retort 25 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!

Is't not enough, thou hast suborn'd these women To accuse this worthy man; but, in foul mouth, 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 this purpose:—

Duke. Be not so hot; the duke

-What! unjust?

Dare no more stretch this finger of mine, than he
Dare rack his own; his subject am I not,
Nor here provincial 26: My business in this state
Made me a looker-on here in Vienna,

Where I have seen corruption boil and bubble,
Till it o'errun the stew: laws, for all faults;
But faults so countenanc'd, that the strong statutes

25 To retort is to refer back.

26 His subject am I not; nor here provincial? Provincial is pertaining to a province; most usually taken for the circuit of an ecclesiastical jurisdiction. The chief or head of any religious order in such a province was called the provincial, to whom alone the members of that order were accountable.

Stand like the forfeits in a barber's shop,
As much in mock as mark 27.

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

Ang. What can you vouch against him, signior Lucio?

Is this the man that you did tell us of?

Lucio. "Tis he, my lord.. Come hither, good-. man bald-pate: Do you know me?

Duke. I remember you, sir, by the sound of your voice: I met you at the prison in the absence of the duke.

Lucio. O, did you so? And do you remember what you said of the duke?

Duke. Most notedly, sir.

Lucio. Do you so, sir? And was the duke a flesh-monger, a fool, and a coward, as you then reported him to be?

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 close 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

27 Barbers' shops were anciently places of great resort for passing away time in an idle manner. By way of enforcing some kind of regularity, and perhaps, at least as much to promote drinking, certain laws were usually hung up, the transgression of which was to be punished by specific forfeits; which were as much in mock as mark, because the barber had no authority of himself to enforce them, and also because they were of a lu dicrous nature.

28

him :-Let him speak no more:-Away with those giglots too, and with the other confederate companion. [The Provost lays hands 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 29! Wilt not off?

[Pulls off the Friar's hood, and discovers the Duke.

Duke. Thou art the first knave that e'er made a duke.

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 30? If thou hast,

28 Giglots are wantons.

young Talbot was not born To be the pillage of a giglot wench.'

K. Henry VI. P. i.

29 Dr. Johnson goes seriously to work to prove that he did not understand this piece of vulgar humour; and Henley thinks the collistrigium, or original pillory, was alluded to! What Piper ho! be hang'd awhile,' is a line in an old madrigal. And in Ben Jonson's Bartholomew Fair, we have

'Leave the bottle behind you, and be curst awhile.'

In short, they are petty and familiar maledictions rightly explained' a plague or a mischief on you.'

30 i. e. do thee service.

Rely upon it till my tale be heard,

And hold no longer out.

Ang.

0 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 31: 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?

Do

Ang. I was, my lord.

Duke. Go take her hence, and marry her instantly.

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 dis

honour,

Than at the strangeness of it.

Duke.

Come hither, Isabel:

Your friar is now your prince: As I was then
Advértising, and holy 32 to your business,
Not changing heart with habit, I am still
Attorney'd at your service.

O, give me pardon,

Isab.
That I, your vassal, have employed and pain'd
Your unknown sovereignty.

31 Passes probably put for trespasses; or it may mean courses from passées, Fr. Les passées d'un cerf is the track or passages of a stag, his courses. I cannot think the word has any rela tion to the forced explanation of artful devices, deceitful contrivance. From Tours de passe passée.'

32 Advertising and holy, attentive and faithful.