[Exit CLAUDIO. with life, that I will sue to be rid of it. Duke. Hold you there: farewell. Re-enter Provost. Provost, a word with you. Prov. What's your will, father? Duke. That now you are come, you will be gone. Leave me a while with the maid: my mind promises with my habit no loss shall touch her by my company. Prov. In good time. [Exit Provost. Duke. The hand that hath made you fair hath made you good: the goodness that is cheap in beauty makes beauty brief in goodness; but grace, being the soul of your complexion, shall keep the body of it ever fair. The assault that Angelo hath made to you, fortune hath convey'd to my understanding; and, but that frailty hath examples for his falling, I should wonder at Angelo. How will you do to content this substitute, and to save your brother? Isab. I am now going to resolve him. I had rather my brother die by the law, than my son should be unlawfully born. But oh, how much is the good duke deceived in Angelo! If ever he return, and I can speak to him, I will open my lips in vain, or discover his government. Duke. That shall not be much amiss; yet, as the matter now stands, he will avoid your accusation: he made trial of you only. Therefore, fasten your ear on my advisings: to the love I have in doing good a remedy presents itself. I do make myself believe, that you may most uprighteously do a poor wronged lady a merited benefit, redeem your brother from the angry law, do no stain to your own gracious person, and much please the absent duke; if, peradventure, he shall ever return to have hearing of this business. Isab. Let me hear you speak farther. I have spirit to do any thing that appears not foul in the truth of my spirit. 2 the goodness that is CHEAP in beauty] We do not here introduce the alteration of the corr. fo. 1632, chief for "cheap," because sense may be made out of the original words: the whole passage is erased in the corr. fo. 1632, but still chief, instead of " cheap," is written in the margin. If we adopted the emendation, the effect of it would be to make the poet say, that goodness, which consisted chiefly in external appearance, would be short-lived, but when it consisted in grace it would be eternal. We are, by no means, confident that this is not the true construction of a rather difficult passage. 3 he made trial of you only.] i. e. He will avoid your accusation by alleging that "he made trial of you only." Duke. Virtue is bold, and goodness never fearful. Have you not heard speak of Mariana, the sister of Frederick, the great soldier who miscarried at sea? Isab. I have heard of the lady, and good words went with her name. Duke. Her should this Angelo have married': he was affianced to her by oath, and the nuptial appointed; between which time of the contract, and limit of the solemnity, her brother Frederick was wrecked at sea, having in that perish'd vessel the dowry of his sister. But mark how heavily this befel to the poor gentlewoman: there she lost a noble and renowned brother, in his love toward her ever most kind and natural; with him the portion and sinew of her fortune, her marriage-dowry; with both, her combinate husband', this well-seeming Angelo. Isab. Can this be so? Did Angelo so leave her? Duke. Left her in her tears, and dried not one of them with his comfort; swallowed his vows whole, pretending in her discoveries of dishonour: in few, bestowed her on her own lamentation, which she yet wears for his sake, and he, a marble to her tears, is washed with them, but relents not. Isab. What a merit were it in death to take this poor maid from the world! what corruption in this life, that it will let this man live!-But how out of this can she avail? Duke. It is a rupture that you may easily heal; and the cure of it not only saves your brother, but keeps you from dishonour in doing it. Isab. Show me how, good father. Duke. This fore-named maid hath yet in her the continuance of her first affection: his unjust unkindness, that in all reason should have quenched her love, hath, like an impediment in the current, made it more violent and unruly. Go you to Angelo: answer his requiring with a plausible obedience; agree with his demands to the point; only refer yourself to this advantage,-first, that your stay with him may not be long, that the time may have all shadow and HER should this Angelo have married:] "Her" is she in the old copies, and we formerly preserved it, taking the, somewhat contorted, construction to be "She should have married this Angelo, who was affianced to her by oath ;" but the corr. fo. 1632 puts she in the accusative case, making Angelo the nominative to the verb, and making who or he (which last we prefer) understood. The preposition "by," omitted in the first folio, was added in the second. 5 - COMBINATE husband,] i. e. Contracted or elected husband. This silence in it, and the place answer to convenience. being granted in course, and now follows all: we shall advise this wronged maid to stead up your appointment, go in your place; if the encounter acknowledge itself hereafter, it may compel him to her recompense; and here by this is your brother saved, your honour untainted, the poor Mariana advantaged, and the corrupt deputy scaled'. The maid will I frame, and make fit for his attempt. If you think well to carry this, as you may, the doubleness of the benefit defends the deceit from reproof. What think you of it ? Isab. The image of it gives me content already, and, I trust, it will grow to a most prosperous perfection. Duke. It lies much in your holding up. Haste you speedily to Angelo if for this night he entreat you to his bed, give him promise of satisfaction. I will presently to St. Luke's; there, at the moated grange, resides this dejected Mariana: at that place call upon me, and dispatch with Angelo, that it may be quickly. Isab. I thank you for this comfort. Fare you well, good father. [Exeunt. SCENE II." The Street before the Prison. Enter DUKE, as a Friar; to him ELBOW, Clown, and Officers. Elb. Nay, if there be no remedy for it, but that you will needs buy and sell men and women like beasts, we shall have all the world drink brown and white bastard'. Duke. Oh, heavens! what stuff is here? This being granted in course, AND now follows all:] So the folios. The modern editors omit the conjunction, which, though not absolutely necessary, ought not to be left out,-least of all without notice. 7 - and the corrupt deputy SCALED.] i. e. Exposed, or stripped, by removing the scales which cover him. We agree with Mr. Singer that "scaled " here ought not to be taken in the sense of weighed; although in "Coriolanus," A. ii. sc. 3 (Vol. iv. p. 652), we have "scaling" unquestionably used for weighing. Scene II.] In the original copies the place is not changed, but Elbow, the Clown, and officers join the Duke where he has been talking with Claudio and Isabella. This is evidently improper. 9 BASTARD.] A kind of sweet wine made of raisins, then much used: from the Italian bastardo-often, as here, punned upon. Clo. 'Twas never merry world, since, of two usuries', the merriest was put down, and the worser allow'd, by order of law, a furr'd gown to keep him warm; and furr'd with fox and lamb-skins too, to signify that craft, being richer than innocency, stands for the facing. Elb. Come your way, sir.-Bless you, good father friar. Duke. And you, good brother father. What offence hath this man made you, sir? Elb. Marry, sir, he hath offended the law: and, sir, we take him to be a thief too, sir; for we have found upon him, sir, a strange pick-lock, which we have sent to the deputy. Duke. Fie, sirrah: a bawd, a wicked bawd! The evil that thou causest to be done, That is thy means to live. Do thou but think So stinkingly depending? Go mend, go mend. Clo. Indeed, it does stink in some sort, sir; but yet, sir, I would prove Duke. Nay, if the devil have given thee proofs for sin, Thou wilt prove his.-Take him to prison, officer: Correction and instruction must both work, Ere this rude beast will profit. . Elb. He must before the deputy, sir; he has given him warning. The deputy cannot abide a whoremaster: if he be a whoremonger, and comes before him, he were as good go a mile on his errand. Duke. That we were all, as some would seem to be, Free from our faults", as faults from seeming, free! 1 Enter LUCIO. Elb. His neck will come to your waist, a cord, sir. of two USURIES,] Usances might be more proper, and it is the word in the corr. fo. 1632; but the necessity of the change is not so obvious as to induce us to make it. 2 I drink, I eat, ARRAY myself, and live.] The old copies have away myself; an easy misprint, and a self-evident emendation by Theobald; also, as may be supposed, found in the corr. fo. 1632. 3 FREE from our faults,] "Free" is from the second folio: it is omitted in the first folio, and is necessary to the verse, though not, perhaps, so absolutely required by the sense. Clo. I spy comfort: I cry, bail. Here's a gentleman, and a friend of mine. Lucio. How now, noble Pompey! What, at the wheels of Cæsar? Art thou led in triumph? What, is there none of Pygmalion's images, newly made woman, to be had now, for putting the hand in the pocket and extracting it clutch'd'? What reply? Ha! What say'st thou to this tune, matter, and method? Is't not drown'd i' the last rain? Ha! What say'st thou, troth"? Is the world as it was, man? Which is the way? Is it sad, and few words, or how? The trick of it? Duke. Still thus, and thus: still worse! Lucio. How doth my dear morsel, thy mistress? Procures she still? Ha! Clo. Troth, sir, she hath eaten up all her beef, and she is herself in the tub. Lucio. Why, 'tis good; it is the right of it: it must be so; ever your fresh whore, and your powder'd bawd: an unshunn'd consequence; it must be so. Art going to prison, Pompey? Clo. Yes, faith, sir. Lucio. Why 'tis not amiss, Pompey. Farewell. Go; say, I sent thee thither. For debt, Pompey, or how? Elb. For being a bawd, for being a bawd. Lucio. Well, then, imprison him. If imprisonment be the due of a bawd, why, 'tis his right: bawd is he, doubtless, and of antiquity too; bawd-born.-Farewell, good Pompey: commend me to the prison, Pompey. You will turn good husband now, Pompey; you will keep the house. Clo. I hope, sir, your good worship will be my bail. What, at the WHEELS of Cæsar?] All the ancient editions read, "What, at the wheels of Cæsar?" and Malone and Steevens, "What, at the heels of Cæsar ?" Why that change was made, is no where explained: the allusion, of course, is to Cæsar's triumphant chariot wheels. 5 and extracting IT clutch'd?] The old copies omit "it," which is necessary to the sense, and is found in the corr. fo. 1632. Ha! What say'st thou, TROTH?] The conjecture in our first edition that trot of the folios ought to be "troth" is fully confirmed by the corr. fo. 1632: "troth" is here a mere expletive; but Grey suggested "What say'st thou to't," to which there might be little objection. The h in "troth" had certainly dropped out in the press. 7 Which is the WAY?] Johnson explains this question, "What is the mode now?" but Lucio is referring to old ballads and ballad-tunes, and "the new way" was sometimes added to the directions as to tunes at the head of old ballads, and it is to this that Lucio alludes. |