DUKE. It is no other: shew your wisdom, Daughter, In your close patience. ISAB. O, I will to him, and pluck out his eyes! By every syllable a faithful verity. 120 The Duke comes home to-morrow-nay, dry your eyes! One of our Convent, and his Confessor, Gives me this instance.1 Already he hath carried Who do prepare to meet him at the gates, 130 There to give up their power. If you can, pace your wisdom In that good path that I would wish it go, And you shall have your bosom2 on this wretch, Grace of the Duke, revenges to your heart, DUKE. This letter then to Friar Peter give: At Mariana's house to-night. Her cause and your's And shall be absent. Wend you with this letter; 140 ACT IV Sc. III LUCIO. O, pretty Isabella, I am pale at mine heart to see ACT IV 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 lov'd thy brother: if the old fantastical Duke of dark corners had been at home, he had liv'd. [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 woodman1 than thou takest 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. 160 DUKE. You have told me too many of him already, Sir, DUKE. Did you such a thing? 170 LUCIO. Yes, marry, did I; but I was fain to forswear it: they would else have married me to the rotten medlar.2 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 burr, I shall stick. [exeunt. SCENE IV. A Room in ANGELO's House. Enter ANGELO and ESCALUS. ESCAL. Every letter he hath writ hath disvouch'd' other. ANG. In most uneven and distracted manner. His actions shew much like to madness: pray Heaven his wisdom be not tainted! And why meet him at the gates, and re-deliver our authorities there? ANG. And why should we proclaim it in an hour before his entering that, if any crave redress of injustice, they should exhibit their petitions in the street? ESCAL. He shews his reason for that: to have a dispatch 1 (slang) expert in venery, 'striker of does.' 282 name of the fruit. 2 harlot. Cf. the old slang 3 contradicted. Sc. IV of complaints, and to deliver us from devices hereafter, ACT IV 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 suit1 as are to meet him. ESCAL. I shall, Sir: fare you well. ANG. Good night.— [exit. This deed unshapes me quite, makes me unpregnant2 The law against it!-But that her tender shame How might she tongue me! Yet reason dares her no: That no particular* scandal once can touch But it confounds the breather. He should have liv'd, 20 With ransom of such shame. Would yet he had liv'd! SCENE V. Fields without the Town. Enter DUKE, in his own habit, and FRIAR PETER. DUKE. These letters at fit time deliver me. And hold you ever to our special drift; Though sometimes you do blench from this to that, FRI. P. It shall be speeded well. Enter VARRIUS. 31 ΤΟ [Exit Friar. DUKE. I thank thee, Varrius: thou hast made good haste! ACT IV Come, we will walk there's other of our friends SCENE VI. Street near the City Gate. Enter ISABELLA and MARIANA. ISAB. To speak so indirectly1 I am loth : I would say the truth; but to accuse him so, 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 That's bitter to sweet end. MARI. I would, Friar Peter [exeunt. ISAB. O, peace! the Friar is come. Enter FRIAR PETER. FRI. P. Come, I have found you out a stand most fit, He shall not pass you. sounded; IO Twice have the trumpets The generous and gravest citizens Have hentR the Gates, and very near upon The Duke is ent'ring; therefore, hence, away! [exeunt. ACT V SCENE I. A Public Place near the City Gate. MARIANA (veiled), ISABELLA, and PETER, at a distance. DUKE. My very worthy Cousin, fairly met! Our old and faithful friend, we are glad to see you. ANG. ESCAL. Happy return be to your royal Grace! DUKE. Many and hearty thankings to you both. ANG. You make my bonds still greater. To lock it in the wards of covert bosom, PETER and ISABELLA come forward. FRI. P. Now is your time: speak loud, and kneel ISAB. Justice, O royal Duke! Vail your regard O worthy Prince-dishonour not your eye By throwing it on any other object, Till you have heard me in my true complaint, And given me justice, justice, justice, justice! ΤΟ 20 DUKE. Relate your wrongs: in what? by whom? Be brief: Here is Lord Angelo shall give you justice! Reveal yourself to him. You bid me seek redemption of the Devil: Hear me yourself; for that which I must speak 30 Or wring redress from you. Hear me, O, hear me, here! ANG. My Lord, her wits, I fear me, are not firm: She hath been a suitor to me for her brother Cut off by course of justice.— 1 fortified. 2 stoop. ACT V Sc. I |