Your royal ear abus'd: First, hath this woman,
Most wrongfully accus'd 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 medler 13,
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,

14

Of a strange fever: Upon his mere 14 request
(Being come to knowledge that there was complaint
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,
Whensoever he's convented 15.

man

(To justify this worthy nobleman,

First, for this wo

So vulgarly 16 and personally accused);
Her shall you hear disproved to her eyes,
Till she herself confess it.

Duke.

Good friar, let's hear it.

[ISABELLA is carried off, guarded; and MARIANA comes forward,

Do you not smile at this, lord Angelo !—

O heaven! the vanity of wretched fools!

6

13 It is hard to know what is meant by a temporary medler, perhaps it was intended to signify one who introduced himself as often as he could find opportunity into other's men's concerns.'

14 Mere here means absolute.

15 Convented, cited, summoned.

16 i. e. publicly.

Give us some seats.-Come, cousin Angelo;
In this I'll be impartial 17; be you judge

Of
your own cause.-Is this the witness, friar?
First, let her show her face; and, after, speak.
Mari. Pardon, my lord; I will not show my
Until my husband bid me.

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

face

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.

17 Impartial was used sometimes in the sense of partial; and that appears to be the sense here. In the language of the time, im was frequently used as an intensive or augmentative particle. Unpartial was sometimes used in the modern sense of impartial. Yet Shakspeare uses the word in its proper sense in Richard II. Act i. Sc. 2.

'Mowbray, impartial are our eyes and ears,' &c.

Should nothing privilege him nor partialize.'

Lucio. Well, my lord.

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

She, that accuses him of fornication,

In selfsame 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 knew Isabel's.

Ang. This is a strange abuse 18:-Let's see thy face.

Mari. My husband bids me; now I will unmask. [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 vow'd contract,,
Was fast belock'd in thine: this is the body
That took away the match from Isabel,
And did supply thee at thy garden-house 19,
In her imagin'd person.

Duke.

Know you this woman?

Lucio. Carnally, she says.

18 Abuse stands in this place for deception or puzzle. So in Macbeth:

-My strange and self abuse,'

means this strange deception of myself.

19 Garden houses were formerly much in fashion, and often used as places of clandestine meeting and intrigue. They were chiefly such buildings as we should now call summer houses, standing in a walled or enclosed garden in the suburbs of London. See Stubb's Anatomie of Abuses, p. 57. 4to. 1597, or Reed's Old Plays, Vol. V. p. 84.

Duke.

Lucio. Enough, my lord.

Sirrah, no more.

Ang. My lord, I must confess, I know this woman; And, five years since, there was some speech of marriage

Betwixt myself and her; which was broke off,
Partly, for that her promised proportions
Came short of composition 20; but, in chief,
For that her reputation was disvalued
In levity since which time of five

years, I never spake with her, saw her, nor heard from her, Upon my faith and honour.

Mari.

Noble prince,

As there comes light from heaven, and words from breath,

As there is sense in truth, and truth in virtue,
I am affianc'd this man's wife, as strongly

As words could make up vows: and, my good lord,
But Tuesday night last gone, in his garden-house,
He knew me as a wife: As this is true

Let me in safety raise me from my knees;
Or else for ever be confixed here,

A marble monument!

I did but smile till now;

Ang.
Now, good my lord, give me the scope of justice;
My patience here is touch'd: I do perceive,

These poor informal 21 women are no more
But instruments of some more mightier member,

20 Her fortune which was promised proportionate to mine fell short of the composition, i. e. contract or bargain.

21 Informal signifies out of their senses. So in the Comedy of Errors, Act v. Sc. 1.

To make of him a formal man again.'

The speaker had just before said that she would keep Antipholis of Syracuse, who is behaving like a madman, 'till she had brought him to his right wits again.

That sets them on: Let me have way, my lord,
To find this practice out.

Duke.
Ay, with my heart;
And punish them unto your height of pleasure.-
Thou foolish friar; and thou pernicious woman,
Compact with her that's gone! think'st thou, thy
oaths,

Though they would swear down each particular saint,
Were testimonies against his worth and credit,
That's seal'd in approbation?-You, lord Escalus,
Sit with my cousin; lend him your kind pains
To find out this abuse, whence 'tis deriv'd.
There is another friar that set them on;

Let him be sent for.

F. Peter. Would he were here, my lord; for he, indeed,

Hath set the women on to this complaint:
Your provost knows the place where he abides,
And he may fetch him.

Duke. Go, do it instantly.

[Exit Provost.

And you, my noble and well-warranted cousin,
Whom it concerns to hear this matter forth 23,
Do with your injuries as seems you best,

In

any chastisement: I for a while Will leave you; but stir not you, till you Determined upon these slanderers.

have well

Escal. My lord, we'll do it thoroughly.-[Exit Duke.] Signior Lucio, did not you say, you knew that friar Lodowick to be a dishonest person?

Lucio. Cucullus non facit monachum: honest in nothing, but in his clothes; and one that hath spoke most villanous speeches of the duke.

Escal. We shall entreat you to abide here till he

22 Stamped or sealed, as tried and approved.

23 i. e. out, to the end.