Having bound up the threat'ning twigs of birch,
Only to stick it in their children's sight,
For terror, not to use ; in time the rod

Becomes more mock'd, than fear'd : so our decrees,
Dead to infliction, to themselves are dead;

And liberty plucks justice by the nose;
The baby beats the nurse, and quite athwart
Goes all decorum.

Fri. It rested in your grace

To unloose this tied-up justice, when you pleas'd:
And it in you more dreadful would have seem'd,
Than in lord Angelo.

Duke. I do fear, too dreadful:

Sith 'twas 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 impos'd 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 'twere a brother of your order,

Visit both prince and people: therefore, I pr'ythee,
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.

SCENE V.

[Exe.

A Nunnery. Enter ISABELLA and FRANCISCA.
Isab. And have you nuns no further 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 vow'd, you must not speak with men,
But in the presence of the prioress:

Then, if you speak, you must not show your face;
Or, if you show your face, you must not speak.—
He calls again; I pray you, answer him. [Exit FRAN.
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 judge, He should receive his punishment in thanks : He hath got his friend with child.

Isab. Sir, make me not your story.

Lucio. It is true.

I would not, though 'tis my familiar sin
With maids to seem the lapwing, and to jest,
Tongue far from heart,-play with all virgins so:
I hold you as a thing ensky'd, and sainted;

By your renouncement, an immortal spirit ;
And to be talked with in sincerity,

As with a saint.

Isab. You do blaspheme the good, in mocking me. Lucio. Do not believe it. Fewness and truth, 'tis thus: Your brother and his lover have embrac'd :

As those that feed grow full; as blossoming time,
That from the seedness the bare fallow brings
To teeming foison; even so her plenteous womb

[9] It is a quality of the lapwing, that is here alluded to, perpetually to fly so low and so near the passenger, that he thinks he has it, and then is suddenly gone again. This made it a proverbial expression to signify a lover's falsehood; and it seems to be a very old one. WARBURTON.

[1] i.e. Be assured, I would not mock you. So afterwards: "Do not believe it:" i.e. Do not suppose that I would mock you. MALONE.

Expresseth his full tilth and husbandry.

Isab. Some one with child by him?-My cousin Juliet? Lucio. Is she your cousin?

Isab. Adoptedly; as school-maids change their names, By vain though apt affection.

Lucio. She it is.

Isab. O, let him marry her!
Lucio. This is the point.

The duke is very strangely gone from hence;
Bore many gentlemen, myself being one,

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 pick'd 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. Has censur'd him

Already; and, as I hear, the provost hath
A warrant for his execution.

Isab. Alas! what poor ability's in me

To do him good?

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

28* VOL. I.

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.
Isab. Good sir, adieu.

ACT II.

[Exeunt.

SCENE I-A Hall in ANGELO's House. Enter ANGELO, ESCALUS, a Justice, Provost, Officers, and other Attendants.

Angelo.

WE must not make a scare-crow of the law,

Setting it up to fear the birds of prey,

And let it keep one shape, till custom make it
Their perch, and not their terror.

Escal. Ay, but yet

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 strait in virtue,) That, in the working of your own affections,

Had time coher'd 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

Err'd in this point which now you censure him,

And pull'd 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 theives do pass on thieves? 'Tis very pregnant, The jewel that we find, we stoop and take it,

[2] The abbess, or prioress. JOHNSON.

Because we see it ;3 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 ;4 but rather tell me,
When I, that censuse 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 ?

Pro. Here, if it like your honour.
Ang. See that Claudio

Be executed by nine to-morrow morning :

Bring him his confessor, let him be prepar'd ;
For that's the utmost of his pilgrimage.

[Exit Prov.

Escal. Well, heaven forgive him! and forgive us all!

Some rise by sin, and some by virtue fall:

Some run from brakes of vice, and answer none;
And some condemned for a fault alone.

Enter ELBOW, FROTH, Clown, Officers, &c.

Elb. Come, bring them away: if these be good people in a common-weal, that do nothing but use their abuse in common houses, I know no law; bring them away.

Ang. How now, sir! What's your name? and what's the matter?

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 ?

Clown. He cannot, sir; he's out at elbow.

Ang. What are you, sir?

Elb. He, sir? a tapster, sir; parcel-bawd; one that

[3] 'Tis plain that we must act with bad, as with good; we punish the faults, as we take the advantages that lie in our way, and what we do not see we cannot note. JOHNSON.

[4] i.e. because, by reason that I have had such faults.

JOHNSON.