Isab. I thank you for this comfort. Fare you well, good father.

[Exeunt severally.

Scene II.

The street before the prison.
Enter, on one side, Duke disguised as before ; on the

other, Elbow, and Officers with Pompey.
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. O heavens! what stuff is here ?
Pom. 'Twas never merry world since, of two usuries,

the merriest was put down, and the worser
allowed by order of law a furred gown to keep
him warm; and furred with fox and lamb-skins
too, to signify, that craft, being richer than inno-

cency, 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 picklock, 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

Ιο

20

What 'tis to cram a maw or clothe a back
From such a filthy vice : say to thyself,
From their abominable and beastly touches
I drink, I eat, array myself, and live.
Canst thou believe thy living is a life,

So stinkingly depending ? Go mend, go mend. Pom. Indeed, it does stink in some sort, sir ; but yet, sir, I would prove

30 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 whore-
master: 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, 40

Free from our faults, as faults from seeming free! Elb. His neck will come to your waist,

-a cord, sir. Pom. I spy comfort; I cry bail. Here's a gentleman

and a friend of mine.

:

a

Enter Lucio.
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 clutched?
What reply, ha ? What sayest thou to this tune,
matter and method ? Is 't not drowned i’ the last
rain, ha? What sayest thou, Trot? Is the world

50

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 ?
Pom. 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 60

be so: ever your fresh whore and your powdered
bawd: an unshunned consequence; it must be

Art going to prison, Pompey?
Pom. 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.
Pom. I hope, sir, your good worship will be my

bail. Lucio. No, indeed, will I not, Pompey; it is not the

I will pray, Pompey, to increase your bondage : if you take it not patiently, why, your mettle is the more. Adieu, trusty Pompey. 80

'Bless you, friar.
Duke. And you.
Lucio. Does Bridget paint still, Pompey, ha ?
Elb. Come your ways, sir ; come.

70

wear.

Pom. You will not bail me, then, sir ?
Lucio. Then, Pompey, nor now.

What news abroad,
friar? what news ?
Elb. Come your ways, sir ; come.
Lucio. Go to kennel, Pompey; go. [Exeunt Elbow,

Pompey and Officers.] What news, friar, of the 90

Duke?
Duke. I know none. Can you tell me of any ?
Lucio. Some say he is with the Emperor of Russia;

other some, he is in Rome: but where is he,

think you? Duke. I know not where; but wheresoever, I wish

him well.
Lucio. It was a mad fantastical trick of him to steal

from the state, and usurp the beggary he was
never born to. Lord Angelo dukes it well in 100

his absence; he puts transgression to't.
Duke. He does well in 't.
Lucio. A little more lenity to lechery would do no

harm in him: something too crabbed that way,

friar. Duke. It is too general a vice, and severity must cure

it.
Lucio. Yes, in good sooth, the vice is of a great kin-

dred; it is well allied : but it is impossible to
extirp it quite, friar, till eating and drinking be 110
put down. They say this Angelo was not made
by man and woman after this downright way of

creation : is it true, think you 1 ?
Duke. How should he be made, then ?
Lucio. Some report a sea-maid spawned him; some,

that he was begot between two stock-fishes. But

abroad

a

Elbeu

. of the

a

is be

I wish

stea

he was

well in 1

it is certain that, when he makes water, his urine
is congealed ice; that I know to be true: and

he is a motion generative; that's infallible.
Duke. You are pleasant, sir, and speak apace.

I 20
Lucio. Why, what a ruthless thing is this in him, for

the rebellion of a codpiece to take away the life
of a man! Would the Duke that is absent have
done this ? Ere he would have hanged a man
for the getting a hundred bastards, he would
have paid for the nursing a thousand: he had
some feeling of the sport; he knew the service,

and that instructed him to mercy.
Duke. I never heard the absent Duke much detected

for women; he was not inclined that way. 130
Lucio. O, sir, you are deceived.
Duke. 'Tis not possible.
Lucio. Who, not the Duke? yes, your beggar of fifty;

and his use was to put a ducat in her clack-dish :
the Duke had crotchets in him. He would be
drunk too; that let me inform

you.
Duke. You do him wrong, surely.
Lucio. Sir, I was an inward of his. A shy fellow

was the Duke: and I believe I know the cause
of his withdrawing.

140
Duke. What, I prithee, might be the cause?
Lucio. No, pardon ; 'tis a secret must be locked within

the teeth and the lips : but this I can let you
understand, the greater file of the subject held

the Duke to be wise.
Duke. Wise! why, no question but he was.
Lucio. A very superficial, ignorant, unweighing

fellow.