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Accuse him home and home. For my poor self,
I am combined by a facred vow,

And shall be abfent. Wend you with this letter:
Command these fretting waters from your eyes
With a light heart; truft not my holy order
If I pervert your courfe. Who's here?

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Lucio. O pretty Ifabella, I am pale at mine heart to fee thine eyes fo 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 fet me to't. But, they fay, the duke will be here to-morrow. By my troth, Ifabel, I lov'd thy brother; if the old fantastical duke of dark corners had been at home, he had lived. Duke. Sir, the duke is marvellous little beholden to your reports; but the beft is, he lives not in them.

Lucio. Friar, thou knoweft not the duke fo well as I do; he's a better woodman than thou tak'ft him for.

Duke. Well; you'll answer this one day. Fare ye well. 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, fir, if they be true; if not, none were enough.

Lucio. I was once before him for getting a wench with child. Duke. Did you fuch a thing?

Lucio. Yes, marry, did I; but I was fain to forfwear it; they would elfe have marry'd me to the rotten medlar.

Duke. Sir, your company is fairer than honest: rest you well. 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 bur, I fhall stick.

[Exeunt. SCENE

Efcal.

SCENE XII.

The Palace.

Enter Angelo, and Escalus.

VERY letter he hath writ hath difvouch'd other.

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Ang. In most uneven and distracted manner. His actions show much like to madness: pray heav'n, his wisdom be not tainted! and why meet him at the gates, and deliver our authorities there?

Efcal. I guess not.

Ang, And why should we proclaim it in an hour before his entring, that, if any crave redress of injuftice, they should exhibit their petitions in the street?

Efcal. He fhows his reason for that; to have a dispatch of complaints, and to deliver us from devices hereafter, which shall then have no power to stand against us.

Ang. Well; I beseech you, let it be proclaim❜d betimes i̇' th’ morn; I'll call you at your house: give notice to fuch men of fort and fuit as are to meet him.

Escal. I fhall, fir: fare you well.

Ang. Good night. This deed

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Unfhapes me quite, makes me unpregnant, dull

To all proceedings. A defloured 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 reafon dares her: no,
For my authority bears off all credence;

That no particular scandal once can touch,

But it confounds the breather. He fhould have liv'd,
Save that his riotous youth, with dang'rous sense,
Might in the times to come have taʼn revenge
By so receiving a dishonour'd life,

[Exit.

With ransom of such shame. Would yet he had liv'd!
Alack, when once our grace we have forgot,
Nothing goes right; we would, and we would not.

[Exit.

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Duke.

The fields without the town.

Enter Duke in his own habit, and friar Peter.
HESE letters at fit time deliver me.

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The provost knows our purpose, and our plot:
The matter being afoot, keep your inftruction,
And hold you ever to our fpecial drift,

Though fometimes you do blench from this to that,
As cause doth minifter: call at Flavius' house,
And tell him where I ftay; give the like notice
Unto Valentius, Rowland, and to Craffus,
And bid them bring the trumpets to the gate:
But fend me Flavius firft.

Peter. It fhall be speeded well.

Enter Varrius.

Duke. I thank thee, Varrius; thou haft made good haste:

Come, we will walk. There's other of our friends

Will greet us here anon, my gentle Varrius.

[Exeunt.

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Enter Ifabella, and Mariana.

Ifab. To fpeak fo indirectly I am loath:

I'd say the truth; but to accuse him so,

That is your part; yet I'm advis'd to do it ;
He fays, to 'vailful purpose.

Mari. Be rul'd by him.

Ifab. Befides, he tells me, that, if peradventure

VOL. I.

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He

He speak against me on the adverse fide,

I should not think it strange; for 'tis a phyfick

That's bitter to fweet end.

Mari. I would, friar Peter

Ifab. O, peace; the friar is come.

Enter Peter.

Peter. Come, I have found you out a stand most fit,
Where you may have fuch vantage on the duke,

He shall not pass you. Twice have the trumpets founded:
The generous and graveft citizens

Have hent the gates, and very near upon

The duke is entring: therefore hence, away.

[Exeunt.

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Enter Duke, Varrius, Lords, Angelo, Efcalus, Lucio, and Citizens, at feveral doors.

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DUKE.

very worthy coufin, fairly met;

Our old and faithful friend, we're glad to see

you.

Ang and Efc. Happy return be to your royal grace!
Duke. Many and hearty thanks be to you both;

We've made inquiry of you, and we hear

Such goodness of your justice, that our foul
Cannot but yield you forth to publick thanks,
Fore-running more requital.

Ang. You make bonds ftill greater.

my

Duke. O, your defert speaks loud; and I should wrong it To lock it in the wards of covert bofom,

When it deferves with characters of brafs

A forted refidence, 'gainst the tooth of time

And

And razure of oblivion. Give me your hand,
And let the fubjects fee, to make them know
That outward courtefies would fain proclaim
Favours that keep within. Come, Efcalus,
You must walk by us on our other hand:
And good fupporters are you.

SCENE II.

Enter Peter, and Ifabella.

Peter. Now is your time: speak loud, and kneel before him.
Ifab. Juftice, o royal duke! vail your regard

Upon a wrong'd, I'd fain have faid, a maid:
Oworthy prince, difhonour not your eye

By throwing it on any other object,

'Till you have heard me in my true complaint,

And give me juftice, justice, justice, justice.

Duke. Relate your wrongs; in what? by whom? be brief:

Here is lord Angelo fhall give you justice;

Reveal yourself to him.

Ifab. O worthy duke,

You bid me feek redemption of the devil:

Hear me yourself; for that which I must speak

Must either punish me, not being believ'd,

Or wring redrefs from you: o, hear me here!

Ang. My lord, her wits, I fear me, are not firm: She hath been a fuitor to me for her brother,

Cut off by course of juftice.

Ifab. Course of justice!

Ang. And fhe will speak most bitterly, and strange. Ifab. Moft ftrange but yet most truly will I speak; That Angelo's forfworn: is it not strange?

That Angelo's a murth'rer: is't not strange?

That Angelo is an adult'rous thief,

An hypocrite, a virgin-violater:
Is it not strange, and strange?

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Duke.

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