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.

Escal. Come, sir: did you set these women on to slander lord Angelo? They have confessed you did. Duke. 'Tis false.

Escal. How! know you where you are?

Duke. Respect to your great place! and let the devil

Be sometimes honored for his burning throne :-
Where is the duke? 'Tis he should hear me speak.
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' 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 unhallowed friar! Is't not enough, thou hast suborned 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 :--what! unjust?
Duke. Be not so hot; the duke

Dare no more stretch this finger of mine, than he
Dare rack his own; his subject am I not,

1 To retort is to refer back.

Nor here provincial: 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 countenanced, that the strong statutes
Stand like the forfeits in a barber's shop,

As much in mock as mark.2

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

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

Is this the man that you did tell us of?

Lucio. 'Tis he, my lord. Come hither, goodman 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? what you said of the duke? Duke. Most notedly, sir.

And do you remember

Lucio. Do you so, sir? And was the duke a fleshmonger, 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.

1 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.

2 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 ludicrous nature.

Escal. Such a fellow is not to be talked withal:away with him to prison:-Where is the provost ?Away with him to prison; lay bolts enough upon him: -Let him speak no more :-Away with those giglots1 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 hanged an hour! 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
Must have a word anon :-lay hold on him.

you

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? If thou hast,
Rely upon it till my tale be heard,

And hold no longer out.

Ang.

O 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 looked upon my passes: 2 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.

1 Giglots are wantons.

2 Passes, probably put for trespasses; or it may mean courses, from

passes (Fr.).

Duke.

Come hither, Mariana ;

Say, wast thou e'er contracted to this woman?
Ang. I was, my lord.

Duke. Go take her hence, and marry her instantly.—
Do 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 amazed at his dishonor, Than at the strangeness of it.

Duke. Come hither, Isabel: Your friar is now your prince: as I was then Advértising, and holy to your business, Not changing heart with habit, I am still Attorneyed at your service.

Isab.

O, give me pardon, That I, your vassal, have employed and pained Your unknown sovereignty.

Duke.

You are pardoned, Isabel:

And now, dear maid, be you as free to us.
Your brother's death, I know, sits at your heart;
And you may marvel why I obscured myself,
Laboring to safe his life; and would not rather
Make rash remonstrance 2 of my hidden power,
Than let him so be lost: O, most kind maid,
It was the swift celerity of his death,
Which I did think with slower foot came on,
That brained my purpose: but peace be with him!
That life is better life, past fearing death,

Than that which lives to fear: make it your comfort,
So happy is your brother.

Re-enter ANGELO, MARIANA, PETER, and Provost.

Isab.

I do, my lord.

Duke. For this new-married man, approaching here, Whose salt imagination yet hath wronged

Your well-defended honor, you must pardon

For Mariana's sake; but as he adjudged your brother,

1 Advertising and holy, attentive and faithful.

2 Perhaps we should read demonstrance.

(Being criminal, in double violation
Of sacred chastity, and of promise-breach,
Thereon dependent for your brother's life,)
The very mercy of the law cries out

Most audible, even from his proper tongue,
Angelo for Claudio, death for death.

Haste still pays haste, and leisure answers leisure;
Like doth quit like, and Measure still for Measure.
Then, Angelo, thy fault's thus manifested;

Which, though thou would'st deny, denies thee vantage: 1

We do condemn thee to the very block

Where Claudio stooped to death, and with like haste;— Away with him.

Mari.

O, my most gracious lord,
I hope you will not mock me with a husband!

Duke. It is your husband mocked you with a husband:

Consenting to the safeguard of your honor,

I thought your marriage fit; else imputation,
For that he knew you, might reproach your life,
And choke your good to come; for his possessions,
Although by confiscation they are ours,

We do instate and widow you withal,

To buy you a better husband.

Mari.

O, my dear lord,
I crave no other, nor no better man.
Duke. Never crave him; we are definitive.
Mari. Gentle, my liege,—

[Kneeling.

Duke. Away with him to death.-Now, sir, [To LUCIO.]

You do but lose your labor;

to you.

Mari. O, my good lord!-Sweet Isabel, take my

part;

Lend me your knees, and, all my life to come,
I'll lend you all my life to do you service.

Duke. Against all sense you do impórtune her:
Should she kneel down, in mercy of this fact,

VOL. I.

1 i. e. "to deny which will avail thee nothing."

53