Mrs Ov. I am too sure of it: and it is for getting

Madam Julietta with child.

Pom. No, but there’s a woman with maid by him.

You have not heard of the proclamation, have you?

110 Claud. Fellow, why dost thou show me thus to the world?

Bear me to prison, where I am committed.

Prov. I do it not in evil disposition,

But from Lord Angelo by special charge.

Claud. Thus can the demigod Authority

115 Make us pay down for our offence by weight

The words of heaven;—on whom it will, it will;

On whom it will not, so; yet still ’tis just .

Claud. From too much liberty, my Lucio, liberty:

120 As surfeit is the father of much fast,

So every scope by the immoderate use

Turns to restraint. Our natures do pursue,

Like rats that ravin down their proper bane,

A thirsty evil ; and when we drink we die.

Lucio. A hundred, if they’ll do you any good.

Is lechery so look’d after?

Claud. Thus stands it with me:—upon a true contract

I got possession of Julietta’s bed:

140 You know the lady ; she is fast my wife,

Save that we do the denunciation lack

Of outward order: this we came not to,

Only for propagation of a dower

Remaining in the coffer of her friends;

145 From whom we thought it meet to hide our love

Till time had made them for us. But it chances

The stealth of our most mutual entertainment

With character too gross is writ on Juliet.

Claud.

Unhappily, even so.

I. 2.
150 And the new Deputy now for the Duke,—

Whether it be the fault and glimpse of newness,

Or whether that the body public be

A horse whereon the governor doth ride,

Who, newly in the seat, that it may know

155 He can command, lets it straight feel the spur;

Whether the tyranny be in his place,

Or in his eminence that fills it up.

I stagger in:—but this new governor

Awakes me all the enrolled penalties

160 Which have, like unscour’d armour, hung by the wall

So long, that nineteen zodiacs have gone round,

And none of them been worn; and, for a name,

Now puts the drowsy and neglected act

Freshly on me: ’tis surely for a name.

Claud. I have done so, but he’s not to be found.

I prithee, Lucio, do me this kind service:

170 This day my sister should the cloister enter

And there receive her approbation:

Acquaint her with the danger of my state;

Implore her, in my voice , that she make friends

To the strict deputy; bid herself assay him:

I. 2.
175 I have great hope in that; for in her youth

There is a prone and speechless dialect,

Such as move men; beside , she hath prosperous art

When she will play with reason and discourse,

And well she can persuade.

Duke. No, holy father; throw away that thought;

Believe not that the dribbling dart of love

Can pierce a complete bosom . Why I desire thee

To give me secret harbour, hath a purpose

5 More grave and wrinkled than the aims and ends

Of burning youth.

Duke. My holy sir, none better knows than you

How I have ever loved the life removed,

And held in idle price to haunt assemblies

10 Where youth, and cost, and witless bravery keeps .

I have deliver’d to Lord Angelo,

A man of stricture and firm abstinence,

My absolute power and place here in Vienna,

And he supposes me travell’d to Poland;

15 For so I have strew’d it in the common ear,

And so it is received. Now, pious sir,

You will demand of me why I do this?

Duke. We have strict statutes and most biting laws,

20 The needful bits and curbs to headstrong weeds ,

Which for this fourteen years we have let slip ;

Even like an o’ergrown lion in a cave,

That goes not out to prey. Now, as fond fathers,

Having bound up the threatening twigs of birch,

I. 3.
25 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;

30 The baby beats the nurse, and quite athwart

Goes all decorum.

Fri. T.

It rested in your Grace

To unloose this tied-up justice when you pleased:

And it in you more dreadful would have seem’d

Than in Lord Angelo.

Duke.

I do fear, too dreadful:

35 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,

40 I have on Angelo imposed the office;

Who may, in the ambush of my name, strike home,

And yet my nature never in the fight

To do in slander . And to behold his sway,

I will, as ’twere a brother of your order,

45 Visit both prince and people: therefore, I prithee,

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;

I. 3.
50 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.

Isab. Yes, truly: I speak not as desiring more;

But rather wishing a more strict restraint

5 Upon the sisterhood, the votarists of Saint Clare.

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.

10 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.

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

20 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:

I. 4.
25 Not to be weary with you, he’s in prison.

Lucio. For that which , if myself might be his judge,

He should receive his punishment in thanks:

He hath got his friend with child.

30 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;

35 By your renouncement, an immortal spirit;

And to be talk’d with in sincerity,

As with a saint.

Lucio. Do not believe it. Fewness and truth, ’tis thus:—

40 Your brother and his lover have embraced:

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. Adoptedly; as school-maids change their names

By vain, though apt, affection.

Lucio.

This is the point.

I. 4.
50 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

55 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,

60 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,

65 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

70 To soften Angelo: and that’s my pith of business

’ Twixt you and your poor brother.

Lucio.

Has censured him

Already; and, as I hear, the provost hath

A warrant for his execution.

I. 4.
75 Isab. Alas! what poor ability’s in me

To do him good?

Lucio.

Our doubts are traitors,

And make us lose the good we oft might win

By fearing to attempt. Go to Lord Angelo,

80 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

As they themselves would owe them.

85 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.