When you have vow'd, you must not speak with men Then, if you speak, you must not show your face; 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. [Exit. 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 scorn. (15) Lucio. 'Tis 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; 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 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. Isab. O, let him marry her. Lucio. Governs Lord Angelo; a man whose blood 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. Our doubts are traitors, Isab. My power! Alas, I doubt,— And let him learn to know, when maidens sue, Men give like gods; but when they weep and kneel, As they themselves would owe them. Lucio. But speedily. Isab. I will about it straight; Isab. Good sir, adieu. [Exeunt. ACT II. SCENE I. A hall in ANGELO's house. Enter ANGELO, ESCALUS, a Justice, Provost, Officers, and other Attendants. Ang. We must not make a scarecrow 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, Ang. 'Tis one thing to be tempted, Escalus, The jury, passing on the prisoner's life, For I have had such faults; but rather tell me, Where is the provost ? Prov. Here, if it like your honour. See that Claudio Be executed by nine to-morrow morning: [Exit Provost. Escal. Well, heaven forgive him! and forgive us all! Some rise by sin, and some by virtue fall: Some run from brakes of vice,(17) and answer none; And some condemnèd for a fault alone. Enter ELBOW, and Officers with FROTH and POMPEY. Elb. Come, bring them away: if these be good people in a commonweal that do nothing but use their abuses 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 ? Pom. He cannot, sir; he's out at elbow. Ang. What are you, sir? Elb. He, sir! a tapster, sir; parcel-bawd; one that serves a bad woman; whose house, sir, was, as they say, plucked down in the suburbs; and now she professes a hot-house, which, I think, is a very ill house too. Escal. How know you that? Elb. My wife, sir, whom I detest before heaven and your honour, Escal. How! thy wife! Elb. Ay, sir;-whom, I thank heaven, is an honest wo man, Escal. Dost thou detest her therefore? Elb. I say, sir, I will detest myself also, as well as she, that this house, if it be not a bawd's house, it is pity of her life, for it is a naughty house. Escal. How dost thou know that, constable? Elb. Marry, sir, by my wife; who, if she had been a woman cardinally given, might have been accused in fornication, adultery, and all uncleanliness there. Escal. By the woman's means? Elb. Ay, sir, by Mistress Overdone's means: but as she spit in his face, so she defied him. Pom. Sir, if it please your honour, this is not so. Elb. Prove it before these varlets here, thou honourable man; prove it. Escal. [to Angelo] Do you hear how he misplaces? Pom. Sir, she came in great with child; and longing— saving your honour's reverence-for stewed prunes, sir;-we had but two in the house, which at that very distant(18) time stood, as it were, in a fruit-dish, a dish of some three-pence; |