Fri. May your grace speak of it?

Duke. My holy fir, none better knows than you
How I have ever lov'd the life remov'd;

And held in idle price to haunt affemblies,
Where youth and coft and witless bravery keep.
I have deliver'd to lord Angelo

(A man of stricture, and firm abstinence)
My abfolute pow'r and place here in Vienna,
And he supposes me travell❜d to Poland;
For fo I've ftrew'd it in the common ear,
And fo it is receiv'd: now, pious fir,
You will demand of me, why I do this?
Fri. Gladly, my lord.

Duke. We have ftrict ftatutes, and most biting laws,
(The needful bits and curbs for head-strong steeds)
Which for this nineteen years we have let fleep;
Even like an o'er-grown lion in a cave,

That goes not out to prey: now, as fond fathers
Having bound up the threat'ning twigs of birch,
Only to stick it in their childrens fight,

For terror, not to use; in time the rod

Becomes more mock'd than fear'd: fo our decrees,
Dead to infliction, to themselves are dead,

And liberty plucks justice by the nose;
The baby beats the nurse, and quite athwart
Goes all decorum.

Fri. It rested in your grace

T'unloose this ty❜d-up juftice, when you pleas'd:
And it in you more dreadful would have feem'd
Than in lord Angelo.

Duke. I fear, too dreadful.

Sith 'twas my fault to give the people scope,
'Twould be my tyranny to ftrike and gall them
For what I bid them do. For we bid this
When evil deeds have their permissive pass,
And not the punishment. Therefore, my father,

I have on Angelo impos'd the office :

Who may in th' ambush of my name strike home,
And yet, my nature never in the fight
To do it flander: to behold his fway,

I will, as 'twere a brother of your order,
Vifit both prince and people; therefore, pr'ythee,
Supply me with the habit, and instruct me
How I may formally my perfon bear

Like a true friar. More reasons for this action
At your more leisure shall I render you;
Only this one: lord Angelo is precife,
Stands at a guard with envy, scarce confeffes
That his blood flows, or that his appetite

Is more to bread than ftone: hence fhall we see,

If power change purpose, what our feemers be.

[Exeunt.

Ijab. A

SCENE VIII.

A Nunnery.

Enter Ifabella, and Francifca.

ND have you nuns no farther privileges?
Nun. Are not these large enough?

Ifab. Yes, truly; I fpeak not as defiring more,
But rather wishing a more strict restraint

Upon the fifter votarifts of faint Clare.

Lucio within.

Lucio. Hoa! peace be in this place!
Ifab. Who's that which calls?

Nun. It is a man's voice: gentle Ifabella,

Turn you the key, and know his business of him;

You may; I may not; you are yet unfworn:

When you have vow'd, you must not speak with men
But in the prefence of the priorefs;

VOL. I.

Qq

Then

Then if you speak, you must not show your face;
Or, if you fhow your face, you
must not speak.

He calls again; I pray you, answer him.

Ifab. Peace and profperity! who is't that calls?

Enter Lucio.

[Exit Franc.

Lucio. Hail, virgin, if you be, as those cheek-rofes
Proclaim you are no lefs; can you so stead me,
As bring me to the fight of Isabella,

A novice of this place, and the fair sister

To her unhappy brother Claudio?

Ifab. Why her unhappy brother? let me ask The rather, for I now must make you know

I am that Ifabella, and his fifter.

Lucio. Gentle and fair, your brother kindly greets you; Not to be weary with you, he's in prison.

Ifab. Wo 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.

Ifab. Sir, make me not your story.

Lucio. I would not, though 'tis my familiar fin
With maids to feem the lapwing, and to jeft,
Tongue far from heart, play with all virgins so.
I hold you as a thing ensky'd and fainted,

By your renouncement an immortal spirit,
And to be talk'd with in fincerity,

As with a faint.

Ifab. You do blafpheme the good, in mocking me. Lucio. Do not believe it. Fewness and truth, 'tis thus ; Your brother and his lover having embrac❜d,

As those that feed grow full, as bloffoming time

Doth from the feedness the bare fallow bring

To teeming foison; fo her plenteous womb

* The lapwings fly with feeming fright and anxiety far from their nefts to deceive those who seek their

young.

Expreffeth

Expreffeth its full tilth and husbandry.

Ifab. Some one with child by him? my coufin Juliet ?
Lucio. Is fhe your cousin ?

Ifab. Adoptedly, as school-maids change their names,
By vain, though apt, affection.

Lucio. She it is.

Ifab. Let him then marry her.
Lucio. This is the point.

The duke is very ftrangely gone from hence;
Bore many gentlemen, myself being one,
In hand and hope of action; but we learn,
By those that know the very nerves of state,
His givings-out were of an infinite distance
From his true-meant defign. Upon his place,
And with full line of his authority,
Governs lord Angelo; a man whose blood
Is very fnow-broth, one who never feels
The wanton ftings and motions of the sense;
But doth rebate and blunt his natural edge
With profits of the mind, ftudy and fast.
He, to give fear to use and liberty,
Which have long time run by the hideous law
As mice by lions, hath pick'd out an act,
Under whofe heavy sense your brother's life
Falls into forfeit; he arrefts him on it,
And follows close the rigour of the statute,
To make him an example; all hope's gone,
Unless you have the grace by your fair prayer
To foften Angelo; and that's my pith
Of bufinefs betwixt you and your poor brother.
Ifab. Doth he fo feek his life?

Lucio. H'as cenfur'd him

Already, and, I hear, the provoft hath

A warrant for his execution.

Ifab. Alas! what poor ability's in me

To do him good?

Lucio. Affay the power you have.

Ifab. My power alas! I doubt.

Lucio. Our doubts are traitors,

And make us lofe the good we oft might win,
By fearing to attempt. Go to lord Angelo,
And let him learn to know, when maidens fue
Men give like gods; but when they weep and kneel,
All their petitions are as truly theirs,

As they themselves would owe them.
Ifab. I'll fee what I can do.
Lucio. But fpeedily.

Ifab. I will about it ftraight;

No longer staying, but to give the mother
Notice of my affair. I humbly thank you;
Commend me to my brother: foon at night
I'll fend him certain word of
my fuccefs.
Lucio. I take my leave of you.
Ifab. Good fir, adieu.

ACT II.

******

SCENE I.

The Palace.

Enter Angelo, Escalus, a Justice, and Attendants.

ANGELO.

E muft not make a scare-crow of the law,

WE
W 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.

Efcal. Ay, but yet

Let us be keen, and rather cut a little,

Than fall, and bruise to death. Alas! this gentleman,
Whom I would fave, had a most noble father;

Let but your honour know, whom I believe

To