| ACT IV SCENE IV | A room in ANGELO's house. | |
| | Enter ANGELO and ESCALUS | |
| ESCALUS | Every letter he hath writ hath disvouched other. | |
| ANGELO | 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 | 5 |
| | redeliver our authorities there | |
| ESCALUS | I guess not. | |
| ANGELO | 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? | 10 |
| ESCALUS | 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. | |
| ANGELO | Well, I beseech you, let it be proclaimed betimes | 15 |
| | i' the morn; I'll call you at your house: give | |
| | notice to such men of sort and suit as are to meet | |
| | him. | |
| ESCALUS | I shall, sir. Fare you well. | |
| ANGELO | Good night. | 20 |
| | 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, | 25 |
| | 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 riotous youth, with dangerous sense, | 30 |
| | 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! | |
| | A lack, when once our grace we have forgot, | |
| | Nothing goes right: we would, and we would not. | 35 |
| | Exit | |