SCENE IV. A Room in ANGELO'S House.

Enter ANGELO and ESCALUS.

Escal. Every letter he hath writ hath dis youch'd' other.

Ang. In most uneven and distracted manner. His actions show 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 shows 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 proclaim'd: Betimes i'the morn I'll call you at your house. Give notice to such men of sort and suit,2 As are to meet him.

Escal.

I shall, sir fare you well. [Exit. Ang. Good night.

This deed unshapes me quite, makes me unpregnant,3 And dull to all proceedings. A deflowered maid! And by an eminent body, that enforc'd

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;1

1 Disvouch'd is contradicted.

2 Figure and rank.

3 Unready, unprepared; the contrary to pregnant in its sense of ready, apprehensive.

This is commonly printed thus: "Yet reason dares her?

For my authority here's of a credent5 bulk,

6

That no particular scandal once can touch,

But it confounds the breather." He should have liv'd
Save that his riotous youth, with dangerous sense,
Might, in the times to come, have ta'en revenge,
By so receiving a dishonour'd life,

With ransom of such shame.

liv'd!

'Would yet he had

Alack! when once our grace we have forgot, Nothing goes right: we would, and we would not. [Exit.

no for my authority," &c.; in which case dares has the sense of prompt, challenge, or call forth, as in 1 Henry IV. Act v. sc. 2: "Unless a brother should a brother dare

To gentle exercise and proof of arms."

"Does reason move her to expose me?—No; the drawings of reason are all the other way;" which certainly yields an apt and clear meaning enough. Yet we give the passage as it stands in the original. Nor is the sense much less clear and apt as there printed. For dare, used transitively, may well have, and often has, the effect to keep or dissuade one from doing a thing; as if one should say, -"I dared him to strike me, and he durst not do it." So, in the text as we give it, the sense plainly is,-"Yet reason bids her not expose me;" the effect of that bidding be ing expressed by no; reason threatens and overawes her, so that she dare not do it. Thus, in Beaumont and Fletcher's play, The Chances, Act iii. sc. 4:

"His sister that you nam'd 'tis true I have long lov'd,

As true, I have enjoy'd her; no less truth,

I have a child by her but that she, or he,

Or any of that family, are tainted,

Suffer disgrace, or ruin, by my pleasures,
I wear a sword to satisfy the world no."

That is, to satisfy the world that 'tis not so. So, also, in A Wife for

a Month, by the same authors: "I'm sure he him no;" that is, charged him not to do it. of no is not uncommon in the old writers.

did not, for I charg'd But indeed this use The of after bears, in

the next line, seems to have a partitive sense: "For my authority carries so much of weight," &c.

5 Credent, creditable, not questionable.

Particular is private; a French sense of the word. 7 That is, utterer.

H

SCENE V. Fields without the Town

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.

F. Peter. It shall be speeded well. [Exit Friar.

Enter VARRIUS.

Duke. I thank thee, Varrius; thou hast made good haste :

Come, we will walk : There's other of our friends Will greet us here anon, my gentle Varrius.

[Exeunt.

SCENE VI. Street near the City Gate.

Enter ISABELLA and MARIANA.

Isab. To speak so indirectly, I am loth:
I would say the truth; but to accuse him so,
That is your part: Yet I'm advis'd to do it;
He says, to vailful purpose.

Mari. Be rul'd by him.

Isab. Besides, he tells me, that, if peradventuro

To blench, to start off, to fly off.

H.

He speak against me on the adverse side,

I should not think it strange; for 'tis 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:

2

The generous and gravest citizens

3

Have hent the gates, and very near upon

The Duke is entering: therefore hence, away.

[Exeunt.

ACT V.

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. and Escal. Happy return be to your royal grace!

Duke. Many and hearty thankings to you both.

2 Generous, for most noble, or those of rank; generosi, Lat. That is, seized. laid hold on: from the Anglo-Saxon.

We have made inquiry of you; and we hear
Such goodness of your justice, that our soul
Cannot but yield forth to you 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.

Friar 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 wrong'd, I would fain have said, a maid!
O worthy prince! dishonour not your eye
By throwing it on any other object,

Till you have heard me in my true complaint,
And given me, justice, justice, justice, justice!
Duke. Relate your wrongs: In what? By whom?
Be brief:

Here is lord Angelo shall give you justice :

Reveal yourself to him.

Isab.

O! worthy Duke,

You bid me seek redemption of the devil:
Hear me yourself; for that which I must speak

To vait is to lower. to let fall, to cast down.