Enter a Messenger. Duke. This is his lordship's man. For which the pardoner himself is in: Prov. I told you: Lord Angelo, belike thinking me remiss in mine office, awakens me with this unwonted aputting on; methinks strangely, for he hath not used it before. Duke. Pray you, let's hear. | limited, and an express command, under penalty, to deliver his head in the view of Angelo? I may make my case as Claudio's, to cross this in the smallest. Duke. By the vow of mine order, I warrant you: if my instructions may be your guide, let this Barnardine be this morning executed, and his head borne to Angelo. Prov. Angelo hath seen them both, and will discover the favor. Duke. O! death's a great disguiser, and you may add to it. Shave the head, and tie the beard; and say, it was the desire of the penitent to be so bared before his death: you know, the course is common. If any thing fall to you upon this, more than thanks and good fortune, by the saint whom I profess, I will plead against it with my life. Prov. Pardon me, good father: it is against my oath. Duke. Were you sworn to the Duke, or to the deputy? Yet Prov. To him, and to his substitutes. Duke. You will think you have made no offence, Prov. [Reads.] Whatsoever you may hear to if the Duke Bavouch the justice of your dealing. the contrary, let Claudio be executed by four of the Prov. But what likelihood is in that? clock; and, in the afternoon, Barnardine. For my Duke. Not a resemblance, but a certainty. better satisfaction, let me have Claudio's head sent since I see you fearful, that neither my coat, integ me by five. Let this be duly perform'd; with arity, nor my persuasion, can with ease attempt you, thought, that more depends on it than we must yet deliver. Thus fail not to do your office, as you will answer it at your peril."-What say you to this, sir? Duke. What is that Barnardine, who is to be executed in the afternoon? Prov. A Bohemian born; but here nursed up and bred: one that is a prisoner nine years old. Duke. How came it, that the absent Duke had not either deliver'd him to his liberty, or executed him? I have heard, it was ever his manner to do so. Prov. His friends still wrought reprieves for him: and, indeed, his ©fact, till now in the government of Lord Angelo, came not to an undoubtful proof. I will go farther than I meant, to pluck all fears out of you. Look you, sir; here is the hand and seal of the Duke: you know the character, I doubt not, and the signet is not strange to you. Prov. I know them both. Duke. The contents of this is the return of the Duke you shall anon 'over-read it at your pleasure, where you shall find, within these two days he will be here. This is a thing that Angelo knows not, for he this very day receives letters of strange tenor; perchance, of the Duke's death; perchance, entering into some monastery; but, by chance, nothing of what is writ. Look, the unfolding star calls up the shepherd. Put not yourself into amazement how these things "should be: all difficulties are but easy when they are known. Call your executioner, and off with Barnardine's head: I will give him a Prov. A man that apprehends death no more present shrift, and advise him for a better place. dreadfully, but as a drunken sleep; careless, reck-Yet you are amazed, but this shall absolutely P resolve less, and fearless of what's past, present, or to come: insensible of mortality, and desperately mortal. Duke. It is now apparent? Prov. Most manifest, and not denied by himself. Duke. Hath he borne himself penitently in prison? How seems he to be touch'd? Duke. He wants advice. Prov. He will hear none. He hath evermore had the liberty of the prison: give him leave to escape hence, he would not: drunk many times a day, if not many days entirely drunk. We have very oft awaked him, as if to carry him to execution, and show'd him a seeming warrant for it: it hath not moved him at all. d Duke. More of him anon. There is written in your brow, provost, honesty and constancy: if I read . it not truly, my ancient skill beguiles me; but in the boldness of my cunning I will lay myself in hazard. Claudio, whom here you have warrant to execute, is no greater forfeit to the law, than Angelo who hath sentenced him. To make you understand this in a manifested effect, I crave but four days' respite, for the which you are to do me both a present and a dangerous courtesy. e Prov. Pray, sir, in what? Prov. Alack! how may I do it, having the hour "Putting on," i. e., spur; incitement. Nine years in prison-Crime; offenced" In the boldness of my cunning," i. e., in confidence of my sagacity.-"In a manifested effect," i.e., by manifest proof. you. Come away; it is almost clear dawn. [Exeunt. SCENE III.-Another Room in the Same. Enter Clown. Clo. I am as well acquainted here, as I was in our house of profession; one would think, it were mistress Over-done's own house, for here be many of her old customers. First, here's young Mr. Rash; he's in for a commodity of brown paper and old ginger, ninescore and seventeen pounds, of which he made five marks, ready money: marry, then, ginger was not much in request, for the old women were all dead. Then is there here one Mr. Caper, at the suit of master Three-pile the mercer, for some four suits of peach-color'd satin, which now peaches him a beggar. Then have we here young Dicy, and young Mr. Deep-vow, and Mr. Copper-spur, and Mr. Starve-lackey, the rapier and dagger-man, and young f Countenance. - Practice. Vindicate.-"Fearful," i e., so fearful; so apprehensive.-k" Attempt," i. e., tempt; induce.-"Over-read it," i. e., read it over.-m "What is writ," i. e., what is here written (the Duke pointing to the letter in his hand).- "Should be," i. e., can be. A present shrift," i. e., an immediate confession.-P Convince. An allusion to the practice of money-lenders, who make advan ces partly in unsalable goods-such as brown paper and old ginger, and partly in cash.- Impeaches. Abhor. Is the axe upon the block, sirrah? Barnar. How now, Abhorson? what's the news with you? Abhor. Truly, sir, I would desire you to clap into your prayers; for, look you, the warrant's come. Barnar. You rogue, I have been drinking all night: I am not fitted for't. Clo. O the better, sir; for he that drinks all night, and is hang'd betimes in the morning, may sleep the sounder all the next day. Enter DUKE. b Abhor. Look you, sir; here comes your ghostly father. Do we jest now, think you? Duke. Sir, induced by my charity, and hearing how hastily you are to depart, I am come to advise you, comfort you, and pray with you. Barnar. Friar, not I: I have been drinking hard all night, and I will have more time to prepare me, or they shall beat out my brains with billets. I will not consent to die this day, that's certain. [you, Duke. O, sir, you must; and therefore, I beseech Look forward on the journey you shall go. Barnar. I swear, I will not die to-day for any man's persuasion. Duke. But hear you, Barnar. Not a word: if you have any thing to say to me, come to my ward; for thence will not I to-day. [Exit. Enter Provost. Duke. Unfit to live, or die. O,1grovelling beast!After him, fellows: bring him to the block. [Exeunt ABHORSON and Clown. Prov. Now, sir; how do you find the prisoner? Duke. A creature unprepar'd, unmeet for death; And, to transport him in the mind he is, Were damnable. | Of Ragozine, more like to Claudio? Prov. This shall be done, good father, presently. To save me from the danger that might come, Duke. Let this be done.-Put them in secret holds Both Barnardine and Claudio: Ere twice the sun hath made his journal greeting To yonder generation, you shall find Your safety manifest. Prov. I am your free dependant. Duke. Quick, despatch, and send the head to (The provost, he shall bear them) whose contents To meet me at the consecrated fount, Re-enter Provost. Prov. Here is the head; I'll carry it myself. For I would commune with you of such things, Duke. Convenient is it. Make a swift return, That want no ear but yours. Prov. I'll make all speed. [Exit. Isab. [Within.] Peace, ho, be here! Duke. The tongue of Isabel.-She's come to know, If yet her brother's pardon be come hither; But I will keep her ignorant of her good, To make her heavenly comforts of despair, When it is least expected. Enter ISABElla. Isab. Ho! by your leave. [daughter. Duke. Good morning to you, fair and gracious Hath yet the deputy sent my brother's pardon? Isab. The better, given me by so holy a man. His head is off, and sent to Angelo. Duke. He hath releas'd him, Isabel, from the world. Isab. Nay, but it is not so. Duke. It is no other. [Catching her. Show your wisdom, daughter, in your close patience. Isab. O! I will to him, and pluck out his eyes. Duke. You shall not be admitted to his sight. Isab. Unhappy Claudio! Wretched Isabel! 4 Perjurous world! Most damned Angelo! Duke. This nor hurts him nor profits you a jot: Forbear it therefore; give your cause to heaven. Mark what I say to you, which you shall find By every syllable a faithful verity. The duke comes home to-morrow;-nay, dry your One of our convent, and his confessor, [eyes:. Gives me this instance. Already he hath carried Who do prepare to meet him at the gates, [wisdom h Daily (from the French journalier).—e" Yonder generation," i. e., the antipodes. Information.- Direct Your bosom," i. e., your heart's desire; your wish. yours Duke. This letter, then, to friar Peter give; And shall be absent. Wend you with this letter. Lucio. Enter LUCIO. Friar, where is the provost? Duke. Good even. Not within, sir. Lucio. O, pretty Isabella! I am pale at mine heart, to see thine eyes so red: thou must be patient. I am fain to dine and sup with water and bran; I dare not for my head fill my belly: one fruitful meal would set me to't. But, they say, the duke will be here to-morrow. By my troth, Isabel, I loved thy brother: if the old fantastical duke of dark corners had been at home, he had lived. [Exit ISABELLA. Duke. Sir, the duke is marvellous little beholding to your reports; but the best is, he lives not in them. Lucio. Friar, thou knowest not the duke so well as I do: he's a better woodman than thou takest him for. Duke. Well, you'll answer this one day. Fare ye well. 2[Going. Lucio. Nay, tarry; I'll go along with thee. I can tell thee pretty tales of the duke. Duke. You have told me too many of him already, sir, if they be true; if not true, none were enough. Lucio. I was once before him for getting a wench with child. Duke. Did you such a thing? Lucio. Yes, marry, did I; but I was fain to forswear it: they would else have married me to the rotten medlar. Duke. Sir, your company is fairer than honest. Rest you well. [Going. Lucio. By my troth, I'll go with thee to the lane's end. If bawdy talk offend you, we'll have very little of it. Nay, friar, I am a kind of burr; I shall stick. [Exeunt. SCENE IV.-A Room in ANGELO'S House. Enter ANGELO and ESCALUS. Which shall then have no power to stand against us. Ang. Well, I beseech you, let it be proclaim'd: Betimes i' the morn, I'll call you at your house. Give notice to such men of sort and 'suit, As are to meet him. Escal. [no; I shall, sir: fare you well. [Exit. Ang. Good night.— This deed unshapes me quite, makes me & unpregnant, And dull to all proceedings. A deflowered maid, And by an eminent body, that enforc'd The law against it!-But that her tender shame Will not proclaim against her maiden loss, How might she tongue me! Yet reason dares her: For my authority bears such a credent bulk That no particular scandal once can touch, But it confounds the "breather. He should have liv'd, Save that his riotous youth, with dangerous sense, Might in the times to come have ta'en revenge, With ransom of such shame. Would yet he had liv'd! For so receiving a dishonor'd life Alack! when once our grace we have forgot, Nothing goes right: we would, and we would not. [Exit. SCENE V.-Fields without the Town. Enter DUKE, in his own habit, and Friar PETER. Duke. These letters at fit time deliver me. [Giving them. 6 The provost knows our purpose, and our plot. F. Peter. It shall be speeded well. [Exit Peter. Duke. I thank thee, Varrius; thou hast made good haste. Come, we will walk there's other of our friends Will greet us here anon, my gentle Varrius. [Exeunt. SCENE VI.-Street near the City Gate. Enter ISABELLA and MARIANA. Isab. To speak so indirectly, I am loath: I would say the truth; but to accuse him so, That is your part; yet I'm advis'd to do it, He says, to 'vailful purpose. Mari. Be rul'd by him. Isab. Besides, he tells me, that if peradventure He speak against me on the adverse side, I should not think it strange; for 'tis a physic, Mari. I would, friar Peter- O, peace! the friar is come. F. Peter. Come; I have found you out a stand "Sort and suit," i. e., figure and rank.- Unready; unprepared.- Personage. Challenges; incites.- Credita"Perfect him," i. e., instruct him fully of.- Go.- ble; unquestionable.-1 Private.- Utterer.- "Blench," "Lives not in them," i. e., depends not on them.-d" Wood-i. e., start off; fly off- Availful; available.-p" Generous man," i, e., one who hunted after women, as the woodman and gravest," i, e., noblest, highest in rank, and most respect. hunts after deer. Contradicted. ed." Hent," i, e., taken possession of. G Duke. My very worthy cousin, fairly met.- Duke. Many and hearty thankings to you both. Ang. Friar PETER and ISABELLA come forward. kneel before him. Vail your regard 1 [Kneeling. me, Isab. By course of justice! [Rising. 5 strangely. Isab. Most strangely, yet most truly, will I speak. An hypocrite, a virgin-violator, Duke. Mended again: the matter?- Now proceed. (For this was of much length) the vile conclusion How he refell'd me, and how I replied, Nay, it is ten times strange. And I did yield to him. But the next morn betimes, Isab. It is not truer he is Angelo, Away with her.-Poor soul! "Forerunning more requital," i. e., as an earnest of further recompense."To lock it in the wards of covert bosom," i. e., to conceal it in my heart.-Fortified. "Vail," i. e., lower; let fall. His purpose surfeiting, he sends a warrant Duke. m "Dressings," i. e., habiliments of office.-"Characts," i. e., characters; distinctive marks. "The false seems true," i. c., the falsity which now seems true.h" To the matter," i. e., suited to the matter. Refuted. Pity.-lie, "O that it had as much of the likeness as it has of the reality of truth."- Foolish. [woe, Then, O! you blessed ministers above, Duke. I know, you'd fain be gone.-An officer! Isab. One that I would were here, friar Lodowick. Duke. A ghostly father, belike.-Who knows that Lodowick? Lucio. My lord, I know him: 'tis a meddling friar; I do not like the man: had he been lay, my lord, For certain words he spake against your grace In your retirement, I had 'swing'd him soundly. Duke. Words against me? This a good friar, belike. And to set on this wretched woman here Against our substitute !-Let this friar be found. Lucio. But yesternight, my lord, she and that friar I saw them at the prison. A saucy friar, A very scurvy fellow. F. Peter. Blessed be your royal grace! I have stood by, my lord, and I have heard Your royal ear abus'd. First, hath this woman Most wrongfully accus'd your substitute, Who is as free from touch or soil with her, As she from one ungot. e Duke. We did believe no less. Know you that friar Lodowick, that she speaks of? F. Peter. I know him for a man divine and holy; Not scurvy, nor a temporary meddler, As he's reported by this gentleman; And, on my truth, a man that never yet Did, as he vouches, misreport your grace. [self, Lucio. My lord, most villainously: believe it. F. Peter. Well; he in time may come to clear himBut at this instant he is sick, my lord, Of a strange fever. Upon his 'mere request, Being come to knowledge that there was complaint Intended 'gainst lord Angelo, came I hither, To speak, as from his mouth, what he doth know Is true, and false; and what he with his oath, And all probation, will make up full clear, When soever he's & convented. First, for this woman, To justify this worthy nobleman, So vulgarly and personally accus'd, Her shall you hear disproved to her eyes, Till she herself confess it. Duke. Good friar, let's hear it. [ISABELLA is carried off guarded; and MARIANA Do you not smile at this, lord Angelo?— Of your own cause.-Is this the witness, friar? a" In hateful practice," i, e., by hateful stratagem. False appearance.Conspiracy.-Whipped. - -Temporary meddler," i. c., a meddler in temporal matters. Absolute. - Cited; summoned. Publicly. Are nothing then: neither maid, widow, nor wife? Lucio. My lord, she may be a punk; for many of them are neither maid, widow, nor wife. [cause Duke. Silence that fellow: I would, he had some To prattle for himself. Lucio. Well, my lord. Mari. My lord, I do confess I ne'er was married; And, I confess, besides, I am no maid: I have known my husband, yet my husband knows not That ever he knew me. Lucio. He was drunk then, my lord: it can be no better. Duke. For the benefit of silence, 'would thou wert so too! Lucio. Well, my lord. Duke. This is no witness for lord Angelo. Mari. Now I come to't, my lord. She that accuses him of fornication, In self-same manner doth accuse my husband; And charges him, my lord, with such a time, When, I'll depose, I had him in mine arms, With all th' effect of love. Mari. Not that I know. Duke. No? you say, your husband. This is that face, thou cruel Angelo, Duke. Know you this woman? Lucio. Carnally, she says. Duke. Lucio. Enough, my lord. Sirrah, no more. Ang. My lord, I must confess, I know this woman; And five years since there was some speech of marriage Betwixt myself and her, which was broke off, Partly, for that her promised proportions Came short of composition; but, in chief, For that her reputation was disvalued In levity: since which time of five years I never spake with her, saw her, nor heard from her, Upon my faith and honor. Mari. As there comes light from heaven, and words from Noble prince, [Kneeling. breath, As there is sense in truth, and truth in virtue, I am affianc'd this man's wife, as strongly Summer-house. Her fortune, which was promised proportionate to mine, fell short of the composition, i. e., contract or bargain. |