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! Duke. Good morning to you, fair and gracious daughter. Isab. The better, given me by so holy a man.
Hath yet the Deputy sent my brother's pardon ?
Duke. He hath released him, Isabel, from the world :
His head is off, and sent to Angelo.
Isab. Nay, but it is not so.
Duke. It is no other : 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 !
Injurious 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, which you shall find
By every syllable a faithful verity :
The Duke comes home to-morrow ;—nay, dry your
eyes ;
130
One of our covent, and his confessor,
Gives me this instance : already he hath carried
Notice to Escalus and Angelo;
Who do prepare to meet him at the gates,
There to give up their power. If you can, pace your
In that good path that I would wish it go;
And you shall have your bosom on this wretch,
Grace of the Duke, revenges to your heart,
And general honour.
Isab.
I am directed by you.
Duke. This letter, then, to Friar Peter give:
140
'Tis that he sent me of the Duke's return :
Say, by this token, I desire his company
At Mariana's house to-night. Her cause and yours
I'll perfect him withal; and he shall bring you
Before the Duke; and to the head of Angelo
Accuse him home and home. For my poor self,
I am combined by a sacred vow,
And shall be absent. Wend you with this letter :
Command these fretting waters from your eyes
With a light heart; trust not my holy order, 150
If I pervert your course.—Who's here?
Enter Lucio.
Lucio. Good even. Friar, where's the provost?
Duke. 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 fruit-
ful 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 fantasti- 160
cal 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. Lucio. Nay, tarry; I'll go along with thee: I can 170
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 for-
swear it; they would else have married me to
the rotten medlar.
180 Duke. Sir, your company is fairer than honest. Rest
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.
A room in Angelo's house.
Enter Angelo and Escalus.
Escal. Every letter he hath writ hath disvouched
other.
Ang. In most uneven and distracted manner. His
actions show much like to madness : pray
heaven his wisdom be not tainted! And why
meet him at the gates, and redeliver our authori
ties there? Escal. I
guess not. Ang. And why should we proclaim it in an hour before
his entering, that if any crave redress of injustice, 10
they should exhibit their petitions in the street ? Escal. He shows 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 proclaimed be-
times 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. I shall, sir. Fare
Fare you well.
20 Ang. Good night.
[Exit Escalus.
This deed unshapes me quite, makes me unpregnant,
And dull to all proceedings. A deflower'd maid !
And by an eminent body that enforced
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 no;
For my authority bears of a credent bulk,
That no particular scandal once can touch
But it confounds the breather. He should have lived,
Save that his riotous youth, with dangerous sense, 31
Might in the times to come have ta'en revenge,
By so receiving a dishonour'd life
With ransom of such shame. Would yet he had lived!
Alack, when once our grace we have forgot,
Nothing goes right; we would, and we would not.
[Exit.
Fields without the town.
Enter Duke in his own habit, and Friar Peter.
Duke. These letters at fit time deliver me: [Giving letters.
The provost knows our purpose and our plot.
The matter being afoot, keep your instruction,
And hold you ever to our special drift;
Though sometimes you do blench from this to that,
As cause doth minister. Go call at Flavius' house,
And tell him where I stay: give the like notice
To Valentius, Rowland, and to Crassus,
And bid them bring the trumpets to the gate ;
But send me Flavius first.
Fri. P.
It shall be speeded well. [Exit. 10
Enter Varrius.
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.
Street near the city-gate.
Enter Isabella and Mariana.
Isab. To speak so indirectly I am loath :
I
I would say the truth; but to accuse him so,
That is your part : yet I am advised to do it;
He says, to veil full purpose.
Mari.
Be ruled by him. Isab. Besides, he tells me that, if peradventure
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