VINCENTIO, Duke of Vienna.

the deputation.

CLAUDIO, a young Gentleman.

Lucio, a Fantastic.

Two other like Gentlemen.

VARRIUS, a Gentleman, Servant to the Duke.

Provost.

THOMAS, Two

PETER,

A Justice.

Friars.

ELBOW, a simple Constable.

FROTH, a foolish gentlemen. CLOWN, Servant to Mrs. Overdone.

BARNARDINE, a dissolute Prisoner.

Enter Duke, ESCALUS, and Lords.

Duke. Escalus,

Esc. My lord.

Duke. Of government the properties to unfold, Would seem in me t'affect speech and discourse, Since I am put to know, that your own science Exceeds in that the lists of all advice

My strength can give you: Then no more remains But that to your sufficiency,

your worth is as

able,

And let them work. The nature of our people, Our city's institutions, and the terms

For common justice, y'are as pregnant in

As art and practice hath enriched any

That we remember: There is our commission,

Heaven doth with us, as we with torches do, Not light them for themselves: for if our virtues Did not go forth of us, 'twere all alike

As if we had them not. Spirits are not finely touch'd But to fine issues: nor nature never lends

The smallest scruple of her excellence,

But, like a thrifty goddess, she determines
Herself the glory of a creditor,

Both thanks and use; but I do bend my speech
To one that can my part in him advértise;
Hold, therefore, Angelo:

In our remove, be thou at full ourself;
Mortality and mercy in Vienna

Live in thy tongue and heart: Old Escalus,

hither,

I say, bid come before us, Angelo.

What figure of us think you he will bear?

For you must know, we have with special soul
Elected him our absence to supply;

Lent him our terror, drest him with our love,
And given his deputations all the organs
Of our own power: What think you of it?
Esc. If any in Vienna be of worth
To undergo such ample grace and honor,
It is lord Angelo.

So to enforce or qualify the laws

As to your soul seems good:- Give me your hand:
I'll privily away; I love the people,
But do not like to stage me to their eyes:
Though it do well, I do not relish well
Their loud applause, and aves vehement:
Nor do I think the man of safe discretion

That does affect it. Once more, fare you well.

Ang. The heavens give safety to your purposes!
Esc. Lead forth, and bring you back in happiness!
Duke. I thank you.-Fare you well.
[Exit.

Esc. I shall desire you, sir, to give me leave
To have free speech with you; and it concerns me
To look into the bottom of my place:

A power I have, but of what strength and nature, I am not yet instructed.

Ang. "Tis so with me:- Let us withdraw together, And we may soon our satisfaction have Touching that point. Esc.

I'll wait upon your honor.

SCENE II.-A Street.

[Exeunt.

Enter Lucio, and two Gentlemen. Lucio. If the duke, with the other dukes, come not to composition with the king of Hungary, why then all the dukes fall upon the king.

1 Gent. Heaven grant us its peace; but not the king of Hungary's!

2 Gent. Amen.

Lucio. Thou concludest like the sanctimonious pirate, that went to sea with the ten commandments, but scraped one out of the table. 2 Gent. Thou shalt not steal?

Lucio. Ay, that he razed.

1 Gent. Why, 'twas a commandment to command the captain and all the rest from their func

1 Gent. Judge.

2 Gent. To three thousand dollars a year. 1 Gent. Ay, and more.

Lucio. A French crown more.

1 Gent. Thou art always figuring diseases in

me: but thou art full of error; I am sound.

Lucio. Nay, not as one would say, healthy, but so sound, as things that are hollow: thy bones are hollow; impiety has made a feast of thee.

Enter Bawd.

1 Gent. How now? Which of your hips has the most profound sciatica?

Bawd. Well, well; there's one yonder, arrested, and carried to prison, was worth five thousand of you all.

1 Gent. Who's that, I pray thee? Bawd. Marry sir, that's Claudio, Signior Claudio. 1 Gent. Claudio to prison! 'tis not so.

Bawd. Nay, but I know 'tis so: I saw him arrested; saw him carried away; and, which is more, within these three days his head's to be chopped off.

Lucio. But, after all this fooling, I would not have it so: art thou sure of this?

Bawd. I am too sure of it; and it is for getting Madam Julietta with child.

Lucio. Believe me, this may be: he promised to meet me two hours since; and he was ever precise in promise-keeping.

2 Gent. Besides, you know, it draws something near to the speech we had to such a purpose.

1 Gent. But most of all, agreeing with the proclamation.

Lucio. Away; let's go learn the truth of it.

[Exeunt Lucio and Gentlemen. Bawd. Thus, what with the war, what with the sweat; what with the gallows, and what with

of us all, that, in the thanksgiving before meat,

doth relish the petition well that prays for peace.

2 Gent. I never heard any soldier dislike it. Lucio. I believe thee; for, I think, thou never wast where grace was said.

2 Gent. No? a dozen times at least.

1 Gent. What? in metre?

Lucio. In any proportion, or in any language. 1 Gent. I think, or in any religion.

Lucio. Ay! why not? Grace is grace, despite of all controversy: as, for example, thou thyself art a wicked villain, despite of all grace.

1 Gent. Well, there went but a pair of sheers between us."

Lucio. I grant; as there may between the lists and the velvet: thou art the list.

1 Gent. And thou the velvet: thou art good velvet; thou art a three-pil'd piece, I warrant thee: I had as lief be a list of an English kersey, as be pil'd, as thou art pil'd, for a French velvet. Do I speak feelingly now?

Lucio. I think thou dost; and, indeed, with most painful feeling of thy speech: I will, out of thine own confession, learn to begin thy health; but, whilst I live, forget to drink after thee.

1 Gent. I think I have done myself wrong; have I not?

2 Gent. Yes, that thou hast; whether thou art tainted, or free.

Lucio. Behold, behold, where Madam Mitigation comes! I have purchased as many diseases under her roof, as come to

2 Gent. To what, I pray?

A cut of the same cloth. A jest on the loss of hair by the French disease.

the news with you?

Enter Clown.

Clown. Yonder man is carried to prison.
Buwd. Well; what has he done?
Clown. A woman.

Bawd. But what's his offence?

Clown. Groping for trouts in a peculiar river. Bawd. What, is there a maid with child by him? Clown. No; but there's a woman with maid by him: you have not heard of the proclamation, have you?

Bawd. What proclamation, man? Clown. All houses in the suburbs of Vienna must be pluck'd down.

Bawd. And what shall become of those in the city? Clown. They shall stand for seed: they had gone down too, but that a wise burgher put in for them.

Bawd. But, shall all our houses of resort in the suburbs be pulled down?

Clown. To the ground, mistress.

Bawd. Why, here's a change indeed in the commonwealth: what shall become of me?

Clown. Come, fear not you; good counsellors lack no clients. Though you change your place, you need not change your trade; I'll be your tapster still. Courage; there will be pity taken on you: you that have worn your eyes almost out in the service, you will be considered.

Bawd. What's to do here? Thomas Tapster, let's withdraw.

Clown. Here comes Signior Claudio, led by the provost to prison: and there's Madam Juliet.

• Corona Veneris.

[Exeunt.

The sweating sickness.

SCENE III. - The same.

Enter Provost, CLAUDIO, JULIET, and Officers. Claud. Fellow, why dost thou show me thus to the world. Bear me to prison, where I am committed.

Prov. I do it not in evil disposition, But from lord Angelo by special charge.

Claud. Thus can the demi-god, Authority, Make us pay down for our offence by weight.The words of heaven; on whom it will, it will; On whom it will not, so; yet still 'tis just.

Enter LUCIO.

Lucio. Why, how now, Claudio? whence comes this restraint ?

Claud. From too much liberty, my Lucio, liberty:

As surfeit is the father of much fast,
So every scope by the immoderate use
Turns to restraint: Our natures do pursue
(Like rats that ravin down their proper bane)
A thirsty evil; and when we drink, we die.

Lucio. If I could speak so wisely under an arrest, I would send for certain of my creditors: And yet, to say the truth, I had as lief have the foppery of freedom, as the morality of imprisonment.-What's thy offence, Claudio ?

Claud. What, but to speak of would offend again. Lucio. What is it? murder?

contract,

I got possession of Julietta's bed;
You know the lady; she is fast my wife,
Save that we do the denunciation lack

Of outward order: this we came not to,
Only for propagation of a dower

Remaining in the coffer of her friends;
From whom we thought it meet to hide our love,
Till time had made them for us. But it chances,
The stealth of our most mutual intercourse,
With character too gross, is writ on Juliet.
Lucio. With child, perhaps?

Claud. Unhappily, even so.

And the new deputy now for the duke,-
Whether it be the fault and glimpse of newness;
Or whether that the body public be

A horse whereon the governor doth ride,
Who newly in the seat, that it may know
He can command, let's it straight feel the spur:
Whether the tyranny be in his place,
Or in his eminence that fills it up,
I stagger in:-But this new governor
Awakes me all the enrolled penalties,

Which have, like unscour'd armor, hung by the

wall

So long, that nineteen zodiacs have gone round, And none of them been worn; and for a name, Now puts the drowsy and neglected act

| Freshly on me:-'tis, surely, for a name.

Lucio. I warrant, it is: and thy head stands

tickle on thy shoulders, that a milk-maid, if she be in love, may sigh it off. Send after the duke, and appeal to him.

Claud. I have done so, but he's not to be found.

I pr'ythee, Lucio, do me this kind service:
This day my sister should the cloister enter,
And there receive her approbation:
Acquaint her with the danger of my state;
Implore her, in my voice, that she make friends
To the strict deputy: bid herself assay him;
I have great hope in that: for in her youth
There is a prone and speechless dialect,
Such as moves men: beside, she hath prosperous art
When she will play with reason and discourse,
And well she can persuade..

Lucio. I pray, she may: as well for the encouragement of the like, which else would stand under grievous imposition; as for the enjoying of thy life, who I would be sorry should be thus foolishly lost at a game of tick-tack. I'll to her.

Claud. I thank you, good friend Lucio.
Lucio. Within two hours, -
Claud. Come, officer, away.

[Exeunt.

SCENE IV-A Monastery.
Enter Duke and Friar THOMAS.

Duke. No; holy father; throw away that thought;
Believe not that the dribbling dart of love
Can pierce a complete bosom: why I desire thee
To give me secret harbor, hath a purpose
More grave and wrinkled than the aims and ends
Of burning youth.

Fri.

May your grace speak of it?

Duke. My holy sir, none better knows than you
How I have ever lov'd the life remov'd;
And held in idle price to haunt assemblies,
Where youth and cost, and witless bravery keeps.
I have deliver'd to lord Angelo

(A man of stricture and firm abstinence)
My absolute power and place here in Vienna,
And he supposes me travell'd to Poland;
For so I have strew'd it in the common ear,
And so it is receiv'd: Now, pious sir,
You will demand of me, why I do this?
Fri. Gladly, my lord.

Duke. We have strict statutes, and most biting laws,

(The needful bits and curbs for head-strong steeds,) Which for these fourteen years we have let sleep; 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 children's sight,
For terror, not to use; in time the rod

Becomes more mock'd than fear'd: so 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.

Your brother and his lover have embraced:

As those that feed grow full; as blossoming time,
That from the seedness the bare fallow brings
To teeming foison; even so her plenteous womb
Expresseth his full tilth and husbandry.

Isab. Some one with child by him?-My cousin Juliet?

Lucio. Is she your cousin?

Isab. Adoptedly: as school-maids change their

names,

By vain though apt affection.
Lucio.

Isab. O, let him marry her!
Lucio.

She it is.

This is the point.
The duke is very strangely gone from hence;
Bore many gentlemen, myself being one,
In hand, and hope of action: but we do learn
By those that know the very nerves of state,
His givings-out were of an infinite distance
From his true-meant design. Upon his place,

And with full line of his authority,
Governs lord Angelo; a man, whose blood
Is very snow-broth; one who never feels

The wanton stings and motions of the sense;
But doth rebate and blunt his natural edge
With profits of the mind, study and fast.
He (to give fear to use and liberty,
Which have, for long, run by the hideous law,
As mice by lions) hath pick'd out an act,
Under whose heavy sense your brother's life
Falls into forfeit! he arrests him on it;
And follows close the rigor of the statute,
To make him an example: all hope is gone,
Unless you have the grace by your fair prayer
To soften Angelo: And that's my pith

Of business 'twixt you and your poor brother.
Isab. Doth he so seek his life?
Lucio.

Has censur'd' him
Already; and, as I hear, the provost hath
A warrant for his execution.

Isab. Alas! what poor ability's in me

you:

Not to be weary with you, he's in prison.

Isab. Woe me! For what?

Lucio.

Assay the power you have.

Isab. My power! Alas! I doubt,-
Lucio.

Our doubts are traitors,

judge,

By fearing to attempt: Go to lord Angelo,

And let him learn to know, when maidens sue,

Men give like gods; but when they weep and kneel,

All their petitions are as freely theirs

As they themselves would owe them.

Isab. I'll see what I can do.
Lucio.

Isab. I will about it straight;

But speedily.

SCENE I-A Hall in Angelo's House. Enter ANGELO, ESCALUS, Provost, Officers, and other Attendants.

And let it keep one shape, till custom make it
Their perch and not their terror.
Escal.
Ay, but yet
Let us be keen, and rather cut a little,

law,

Setting it up to fear the birds of prey,

• Do not make a jest of me. In few and true words.

Whom I would save, had a most noble father. Let but your honor know,

• Breeding plenty. Sentenced.

• Tilling. Have.