| ACT V SCENE I | The city gate. | |
| | MARIANA veiled, ISABELLA, and FRIAR PETER, at their stand. Enter DUKE VINCENTIO, VARRIUS, Lords, ANGELO, ESCALUS, LUCIO, Provost, Officers, and Citizens, at several doors. | |
| DUKE VINCENTIO | My very worthy cousin, fairly met! | |
| | Our old and faithful friend, we are glad to see you. | |
| ANGELO | | | |
| | | Happy return be to your royal grace! | 5 |
| ESCALUS | | | |
| DUKE VINCENTIO | Many and hearty thankings to you both. | |
| | We have made inquiry of you; and we hear | |
| | Such goodness of your justice, that our soul | |
| | Cannot but yield you forth to public thanks, | 10 |
| | Forerunning more requital. | |
| ANGELO | You make my bonds still greater. | |
| DUKE VINCENTIO | O, your desert speaks loud; and I should wrong it, | |
| | To lock it in the wards of covert bosom, | |
| | When it deserves, with characters of brass, | 15 |
| | A forted residence 'gainst the tooth of time | |
| | And razure of oblivion. Give me your hand, | |
| | And let the subject see, to make them know | |
| | That outward courtesies would fain proclaim | |
| | Favours that keep within. Come, Escalus, | 20 |
| | You must walk by us on our other hand; | |
| | And good supporters are you. | |
| | FRIAR PETER and ISABELLA come forward. | |
| FRIAR PETER | Now is your time: speak loud and kneel before him. | |
| ISABELLA | Justice, O royal duke! Vail your regard | |
| | Upon a wrong'd, I would fain have said, a maid! | 25 |
| | 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! | |
| DUKE VINCENTIO | Relate your wrongs; in what? by whom? be brief. | 30 |
| | Here is Lord Angelo shall give you justice: | |
| | Reveal yourself to him. | |
| ISABELLA | O worthy duke, | |
| | You bid me seek redemption of the devil: | |
| | Hear me yourself; for that which I must speak | 35 |
| | Must either punish me, not being believed, | |
| | Or wring redress from you. Hear me, O hear me, here! | |
| ANGELO | 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,-- | 40 |
| ISABELLA | By course of justice! | |
| ANGELO | And she will speak most bitterly and strange. | |
| ISABELLA | Most strange, but yet most truly, will I speak: | |
| | That Angelo's forsworn; is it not strange? | |
| | That Angelo's a murderer; is 't not strange? | 45 |
| | That Angelo is an adulterous thief, | |
| | An hypocrite, a virgin-violator; | |
| | Is it not strange and strange? | |
| DUKE VINCENTIO | Nay, it is ten times strange. | |
| ISABELLA | It is not truer he is Angelo | 50 |
| | Than this is all as true as it is strange: | |
| | Nay, it is ten times true; for truth is truth | |
| | To the end of reckoning. | |
| DUKE VINCENTIO | Away with her! Poor soul, | |
| | She speaks this in the infirmity of sense. | 55 |
| ISABELLA | O prince, I conjure thee, as thou believest | |
| | There is another comfort than this world, | |
| | That thou neglect me not, with that opinion | |
| | That I am touch'd with madness! Make not impossible | |
| | That which but seems unlike: 'tis not impossible | 60 |
| | But one, the wicked'st caitiff on the ground, | |
| | May seem as shy, as grave, as just, as absolute | |
| | As Angelo; even so may Angelo, | |
| | In all his dressings, characts, titles, forms, | |
| | Be an arch-villain; believe it, royal prince: | 65 |
| | If he be less, he's nothing; but he's more, | |
| | Had I more name for badness. | |
| DUKE VINCENTIO | By mine honesty, | |
| | If she be mad,--as I believe no other,-- | |
| | Her madness hath the oddest frame of sense, | 70 |
| | Such a dependency of thing on thing, | |
| | As e'er I heard in madness. | |
| ISABELLA | O gracious duke, | |
| | Harp not on that, nor do not banish reason | |
| | For inequality; but let your reason serve | 75 |
| | To make the truth appear where it seems hid, | |
| | And hide the false seems true. | |
| DUKE VINCENTIO | Many that are not mad | |
| | Have, sure, more lack of reason. What would you say? | |
| ISABELLA | I am the sister of one Claudio, | 80 |
| | Condemn'd upon the act of fornication | |
| | To lose his head; condemn'd by Angelo: | |
| | I, in probation of a sisterhood, | |
| | Was sent to by my brother; one Lucio | |
| | As then the messenger,-- | 85 |
| LUCIO | That's I, an't like your grace: | |
| | I came to her from Claudio, and desired her | |
| | To try her gracious fortune with Lord Angelo | |
| | For her poor brother's pardon. | |
| ISABELLA | That's he indeed. | 90 |
| DUKE VINCENTIO | You were not bid to speak. | |
| LUCIO | No, my good lord; | |
| | Nor wish'd to hold my peace. | |
| DUKE VINCENTIO | I wish you now, then; | |
| | Pray you, take note of it: and when you have | 95 |
| | A business for yourself, pray heaven you then | |
| | Be perfect. | |
| LUCIO | I warrant your honour. | |
| DUKE VINCENTIO | The warrants for yourself; take heed to't. | |
| ISABELLA | This gentleman told somewhat of my tale,-- | 100 |
| LUCIO | Right. | |
| DUKE VINCENTIO | It may be right; but you are i' the wrong | |
| | To speak before your time. Proceed. | |
| ISABELLA | I went | |
| | To this pernicious caitiff deputy,-- | 105 |
| DUKE VINCENTIO | That's somewhat madly spoken. | |
| ISABELLA | Pardon it; | |
| | The phrase is to the matter. | |
| DUKE VINCENTIO | Mended again. The matter; proceed. | |
| ISABELLA | In brief, to set the needless process by, | 110 |
| | How I persuaded, how I pray'd, and kneel'd, | |
| | How he refell'd me, and how I replied,-- | |
| | For this was of much length,--the vile conclusion | |
| | I now begin with grief and shame to utter: | |
| | He would not, but by gift of my chaste body | 115 |
| | To his concupiscible intemperate lust, | |
| | Release my brother; and, after much debatement, | |
| | My sisterly remorse confutes mine honour, | |
| | And I did yield to him: but the next morn betimes, | |
| | His purpose surfeiting, he sends a warrant | 120 |
| | For my poor brother's head. | |
| DUKE VINCENTIO | This is most likely! | |
| ISABELLA | O, that it were as like as it is true! | |
| DUKE VINCENTIO | By heaven, fond wretch, thou knowist not what thou speak'st, | |
| | Or else thou art suborn'd against his honour | 125 |
| | In hateful practise. First, his integrity | |
| | Stands without blemish. Next, it imports no reason | |
| | That with such vehemency he should pursue | |
| | Faults proper to himself: if he had so offended, | |
| | He would have weigh'd thy brother by himself | 130 |
| | And not have cut him off. Some one hath set you on: | |
| | Confess the truth, and say by whose advice | |
| | Thou camest here to complain. | |
| ISABELLA | And is this all? | |
| | Then, O you blessed ministers above, | 135 |
| | Keep me in patience, and with ripen'd time | |
| | Unfold the evil which is here wrapt up | |
| | In countenance! Heaven shield your grace from woe, | |
| | As I, thus wrong'd, hence unbelieved go! | |
| DUKE VINCENTIO | I know you'ld fain be gone. An officer! | 140 |
| | To prison with her! Shall we thus permit | |
| | A blasting and a scandalous breath to fall | |
| | On him so near us? This needs must be a practise. | |
| | Who knew of Your intent and coming hither? | |
| ISABELLA | One that I would were here, Friar Lodowick. | 145 |
| DUKE VINCENTIO | A ghostly father, belike. Who knows that Lodowick? | |
| LUCIO | My lord, I know him; 'tis a meddling friar; | |
| | I do not like the man: had he been lay, my lord | |
| | For certain words he spake against your grace | |
| | In your retirement, I had swinged him soundly. | 150 |
| DUKE VINCENTIO | Words against me? this is a good friar, belike! | |
| | And to set on this wretched woman here | |
| | Against our substitute! Let this friar be found. | |
| LUCIO | But yesternight, my lord, she and that friar, | |
| | I saw them at the prison: a saucy friar, | 155 |
| | A very scurvy fellow. | |
| FRIAR PETER | Blessed be your royal grace! | |
| | I have stood by, my lord, and I have heard | |
| | Your royal ear abused. First, hath this woman | |
| | Most wrongfully accused your substitute, | 160 |
| | Who is as free from touch or soil with her | |
| | As she from one ungot. | |
| DUKE VINCENTIO | We did believe no less. | |
| | Know you that Friar Lodowick that she speaks of? | |
| FRIAR PETER | I know him for a man divine and holy; | 165 |
| | Not scurvy, nor a temporary meddler, | |
| | As he's reported by this gentleman; | |
| | And, on my trust, a man that never yet | |
| | Did, as he vouches, misreport your grace. | |
| LUCIO | My lord, most villanously; believe it. | 170 |
| FRIAR PETER | Well, he in time may come to clear himself; | |
| | But at this instant he is sick my lord, | |
| | Of a strange fever. Upon his mere request, | |
| | Being come to knowledge that there was complaint | |
| | Intended 'gainst Lord Angelo, came I hither, | 175 |
| | To speak, as from his mouth, what he doth know | |
| | Is true and false; and what he with his oath | |
| | And all probation will make up full clear, | |
| | Whensoever he's convented. First, for this woman. | |
| | To justify this worthy nobleman, | 180 |
| | So vulgarly and personally accused, | |
| | Her shall you hear disproved to her eyes, | |
| | Till she herself confess it. | |
| DUKE VINCENTIO | Good friar, let's hear it. | |
| | ISABELLA is carried off guarded; and MARIANA comes forward. | |
| | Do you not smile at this, Lord Angelo? | 185 |
| | O heaven, the vanity of wretched fools! | |
| | Give us some seats. Come, cousin Angelo; | |
| | In this I'll be impartial; be you judge | |
| | Of your own cause. Is this the witness, friar? | |
| | First, let her show her face, and after speak. | 190 |
| MARIANA | Pardon, my lord; I will not show my face | |
| | Until my husband bid me. | |
| DUKE VINCENTIO | What, are you married? | |
| MARIANA | No, my lord. | |
| DUKE VINCENTIO | Are you a maid? | 195 |
| MARIANA | No, my lord. | |
| DUKE VINCENTIO | A widow, then? | |
| MARIANA | Neither, my lord. | |
| DUKE VINCENTIO | Why, you are nothing then: neither maid, widow, nor wife? | |
| LUCIO | My lord, she may be a punk; for many of them are | 200 |
| | neither maid, widow, nor wife. | |
| DUKE VINCENTIO | Silence that fellow: I would he had some cause | |
| | To prattle for himself. | |
| LUCIO | Well, my lord. | |
| MARIANA | My lord; I do confess I ne'er was married; | 205 |
| | And I confess besides I am no maid: | |
| | I have known my husband; yet my husband | |
| | Knows not that ever he knew me. | |
| LUCIO | He was drunk then, my lord: it can be no better. | |
| DUKE VINCENTIO | For the benefit of silence, would thou wert so too! | 210 |
| LUCIO | Well, my lord. | |
| DUKE VINCENTIO | This is no witness for Lord Angelo. | |
| MARIANA | Now I come to't my lord | |
| | She that accuses him of fornication, | |
| | In self-same manner doth accuse my husband, | 215 |
| | And charges him my lord, with such a time | |
| | When I'll depose I had him in mine arms | |
| | With all the effect of love. | |
| ANGELO | Charges she more than me? | |
| MARIANA | Not that I know. | 220 |
| DUKE VINCENTIO | No? you say your husband. | |
| MARIANA | Why, just, my lord, and that is Angelo, | |
| | Who thinks he knows that he ne'er knew my body, | |
| | But knows he thinks that he knows Isabel's. | |
| ANGELO | This is a strange abuse. Let's see thy face. | 225 |
| MARIANA | My husband bids me; now I will unmask. | |
| | Unveiling. | |
| | This is that face, thou cruel Angelo, | |
| | Which once thou sworest was worth the looking on; | |
| | This is the hand which, with a vow'd contract, | |
| | Was fast belock'd in thine; this is the body | 230 |
| | That took away the match from Isabel, | |
| | And did supply thee at thy garden-house | |
| | In her imagined person. | |
| DUKE VINCENTIO | Know you this woman? | |
| LUCIO | Carnally, she says. | 235 |
| DUKE VINCENTIO | Sirrah, no more! | |
| LUCIO | Enough, my lord. | |
| ANGELO | My lord, I must confess I know this woman: | |
| | And five years since there was some speech of marriage | |
| | Betwixt myself and her; which was broke off, | 240 |
| | Partly for that her promised proportions | |
| | Came short of composition, but in chief | |
| | For that her reputation was disvalued | |
| | In levity: since which time of five years | |
| | I never spake with her, saw her, nor heard from her, | 245 |
| | Upon my faith and honour. | |
| MARIANA | Noble prince, | |
| | As there comes light from heaven and words from breath, | |
| | As there is sense in truth and truth in virtue, | |
| | I am affianced this man's wife as strongly | 250 |
| | As words could make up vows: and, my good lord, | |
| | But Tuesday night last gone in's garden-house | |
| | He knew me as a wife. As this is true, | |
| | Let me in safety raise me from my knees | |
| | Or else for ever be confixed here, | 255 |
| | A marble monument! | |
| ANGELO | I did but smile till now: | |
| | Now, good my lord, give me the scope of justice | |
| | My patience here is touch'd. I do perceive | |
| | These poor informal women are no more | 260 |
| | But instruments of some more mightier member | |
| | That sets them on: let me have way, my lord, | |
| | To find this practise out. | |
| DUKE VINCENTIO | Ay, with my heart | |
| | And punish them to your height of pleasure. | 265 |
| | Thou foolish friar, and thou pernicious woman, | |
| | Compact with her that's gone, think'st thou thy oaths, | |
| | Though they would swear down each particular saint, | |
| | Were testimonies against his worth and credit | |
| | That's seal'd in approbation? You, Lord Escalus, | 270 |
| | Sit with my cousin; lend him your kind pains | |
| | To find out this abuse, whence 'tis derived. | |
| | There is another friar that set them on; | |
| | Let him be sent for. | |
| FRIAR PETER | Would he were here, my lord! for he indeed | 275 |
| | Hath set the women on to this complaint: | |
| | Your provost knows the place where he abides | |
| | And he may fetch him. | |
| DUKE VINCENTIO | Go do it instantly. | |
| | Exit Provost. | |
| | And you, my noble and well-warranted cousin, | 280 |
| | Whom it concerns to hear this matter forth, | |
| | Do with your injuries as seems you best, | |
| | In any chastisement: I for a while will leave you; | |
| | But stir not you till you have well determined | |
| | Upon these slanderers. | 285 |
| ESCALUS | My lord, we'll do it throughly. | |
| | Exit DUKE. | |
| | Signior Lucio, did not you say you knew that | |
| | Friar Lodowick to be a dishonest person? | |
| LUCIO | 'Cucullus non facit monachum:' honest in nothing | |
| | but in his clothes; and one that hath spoke most | 290 |
| | villanous speeches of the duke. | |
| ESCALUS | We shall entreat you to abide here till he come and | |
| | enforce them against him: we shall find this friar a | |
| | notable fellow. | |
| LUCIO | As any in Vienna, on my word. | 295 |
| ESCALUS | Call that same Isabel here once again; I would speak with her. | |
| | Exit an Attendant. | |
| | Pray you, my lord, give me leave to question; you | |
| | shall see how I'll handle her. | |
| LUCIO | Not better than he, by her own report. | |
| ESCALUS | Say you? | 300 |
| LUCIO | Marry, sir, I think, if you handled her privately, | |
| | she would sooner confess: perchance, publicly, | |
| | she'll be ashamed. | |
| ESCALUS | I will go darkly to work with her. | |
| LUCIO | That's the way; for women are light at midnight. | 305 |
| | Re-enter Officers with ISABELLA; and Provost with DUKE VINCENTIO in his friar's habit. | |
| ESCALUS | Come on, mistress: here's a gentlewoman denies all | |
| | that you have said. | |
| LUCIO | My lord, here comes the rascal I spoke of; here with | |
| | the provost. | |
| ESCALUS | In very good time: speak not you to him till we | 310 |
| | call upon you. | |
| LUCIO | Mum. | |
| ESCALUS | Come, sir: did you set these women on to slander | |
| | Lord Angelo? they have confessed you did. | |
| DUKE VINCENTIO | 'Tis false. | 315 |
| ESCALUS | How! know you where you are? | |
| DUKE VINCENTIO | Respect to your great place! and let the devil | |
| | Be sometime honour'd for his burning throne! | |
| | Where is the duke? 'tis he should hear me speak. | |
| ESCALUS | The duke's in us; and we will hear you speak: | 320 |
| | Look you speak justly. | |
| DUKE VINCENTIO | Boldly, at least. But, O, poor souls, | |
| | Come you to seek the lamb here of the fox? | |
| | Good night to your redress! Is the duke gone? | |
| | Then is your cause gone too. The duke's unjust, | 325 |
| | Thus to retort your manifest appeal, | |
| | And put your trial in the villain's mouth | |
| | Which here you come to accuse. | |
| LUCIO | This is the rascal; this is he I spoke of. | |
| ESCALUS | Why, thou unreverend and unhallow'd friar, | 330 |
| | Is't not enough thou hast suborn'd these women | |
| | To accuse this worthy man, but, in foul mouth | |
| | And in the witness of his proper ear, | |
| | To call him villain? and then to glance from him | |
| | To the duke himself, to tax him with injustice? | 335 |
| | Take him hence; to the rack with him! We'll touse you | |
| | Joint by joint, but we will know his purpose. | |
| | What 'unjust'! | |
| DUKE VINCENTIO | Be not so hot; the duke | |
| | Dare no more stretch this finger of mine than he | 340 |
| | Dare rack his own: his subject am I not, | |
| | Nor here provincial. My business in this state | |
| | Made me a looker on here in Vienna, | |
| | Where I have seen corruption boil and bubble | |
| | Till it o'er-run the stew; laws for all faults, | 345 |
| | But faults so countenanced, that the strong statutes | |
| | Stand like the forfeits in a barber's shop, | |
| | As much in mock as mark. | |
| ESCALUS | Slander to the state! Away with him to prison! | |
| ANGELO | What can you vouch against him, Signior Lucio? | 350 |
| | Is this the man that you did tell us of? | |
| LUCIO | 'Tis he, my lord. Come hither, goodman baldpate: | |
| | do you know me? | |
| DUKE VINCENTIO | I remember you, sir, by the sound of your voice: I | |
| | met you at the prison, in the absence of the duke. | 355 |
| LUCIO | O, did you so? And do you remember what you said of the duke? | |
| DUKE VINCENTIO | Most notedly, sir. | |
| LUCIO | Do you so, sir? And was the duke a fleshmonger, a | |
| | fool, and a coward, as you then reported him to be? | |
| DUKE VINCENTIO | You must, sir, change persons with me, ere you make | 360 |
| | that my report: you, indeed, spoke so of him; and | |
| | much more, much worse. | |
| LUCIO | O thou damnable fellow! Did not I pluck thee by the | |
| | nose for thy speeches? | |
| DUKE VINCENTIO | I protest I love the duke as I love myself. | 365 |
| ANGELO | Hark, how the villain would close now, after his | |
| | treasonable abuses! | |
| ESCALUS | Such a fellow is not to be talked withal. Away with | |
| | him to prison! Where is the provost? Away with him | |
| | to prison! lay bolts enough upon him: let him | 370 |
| | speak no more. Away with those giglots too, and | |
| | with the other confederate companion! | |
| DUKE VINCENTIO | To Provost | |
| ANGELO | What, resists he? Help him, Lucio. | |
| LUCIO | Come, sir; come, sir; come, sir; foh, sir! Why, you | |
| | bald-pated, lying rascal, you must be hooded, must | 375 |
| | you? Show your knave's visage, with a pox to you! | |
| | show your sheep-biting face, and be hanged an hour! | |
| | Will't not off? | |
| | Pulls off the friar's hood, and discovers DUKEVINCENTIO | |
| DUKE VINCENTIO | Thou art the first knave that e'er madest a duke. | |
| | First, provost, let me bail these gentle three. | 380 |
| | To LUCIO. | |
| | Sneak not away, sir; for the friar and you | |
| | Must have a word anon. Lay hold on him. | |
| LUCIO | This may prove worse than hanging. | |
| DUKE VINCENTIO | To ESCALUS. | |
| | We'll borrow place of him. | |
| | To ANGELO. | |
| | Sir, by your leave. | 385 |
| | Hast thou or word, or wit, or impudence, | |
| | That yet can do thee office? If thou hast, | |
| | Rely upon it till my tale be heard, | |
| | And hold no longer out. | |
| ANGELO | O my dread lord, | 390 |
| | I should be guiltier than my guiltiness, | |
| | To think I can be undiscernible, | |
| | When I perceive your grace, like power divine, | |
| | Hath look'd upon my passes. Then, good prince, | |
| | No longer session hold upon my shame, | 395 |
| | But let my trial be mine own confession: | |
| | Immediate sentence then and sequent death | |
| | Is all the grace I beg. | |
| DUKE VINCENTIO | Come hither, Mariana. | |
| | Say, wast thou e'er contracted to this woman? | 400 |
| ANGELO | I was, my lord. | |
| DUKE VINCENTIO | Go take her hence, and marry her instantly. | |
| | Do you the office, friar; which consummate, | |
| | Return him here again. Go with him, provost. | |
| | Exeunt ANGELO, MARIANA, FRIAR PETER and Provost. | |
| ESCALUS | My lord, I am more amazed at his dishonour | 405 |
| | Than at the strangeness of it. | |
| DUKE VINCENTIO | Come hither, Isabel. | |
| | Your friar is now your prince: as I was then | |
| | Advertising and holy to your business, | |
| | Not changing heart with habit, I am still | 410 |
| | Attorney'd at your service. | |
| ISABELLA | O, give me pardon, | |
| | That I, your vassal, have employ'd and pain'd | |
| | Your unknown sovereignty! | |
| DUKE VINCENTIO | You are pardon'd, Isabel: | 415 |
| | And now, dear maid, be you as free to us. | |
| | Your brother's death, I know, sits at your heart; | |
| | And you may marvel why I obscured myself, | |
| | Labouring to save his life, and would not rather | |
| | Make rash remonstrance of my hidden power | 420 |
| | Than let him so be lost. O most kind maid, | |
| | It was the swift celerity of his death, | |
| | Which I did think with slower foot came on, | |
| | That brain'd my purpose. But, peace be with him! | |
| | That life is better life, past fearing death, | 425 |
| | Than that which lives to fear: make it your comfort, | |
| | So happy is your brother. | |
| ISABELLA | I do, my lord. | |
| | Re-enter ANGELO, MARIANA, FRIAR PETER, and Provost. | |
| DUKE VINCENTIO | For this new-married man approaching here, | |
| | Whose salt imagination yet hath wrong'd | 430 |
| | Your well defended honour, you must pardon | |
| | For Mariana's sake: but as he adjudged your brother,-- | |
| | Being criminal, in double violation | |
| | Of sacred chastity and of promise-breach | |
| | Thereon dependent, for your brother's life,-- | 435 |
| | The very mercy of the law cries out | |
| | Most audible, even from his proper tongue, | |
| | 'An Angelo for Claudio, death for death!' | |
| | Haste still pays haste, and leisure answers leisure; | |
| | Like doth quit like, and MEASURE still FOR MEASURE. | 440 |
| | Then, Angelo, thy fault's thus manifested; | |
| | Which, though thou wouldst deny, denies thee vantage. | |
| | We do condemn thee to the very block | |
| | Where Claudio stoop'd to death, and with like haste. | |
| | Away with him! | 445 |
| MARIANA | O my most gracious lord, | |
| | I hope you will not mock me with a husband. | |
| DUKE VINCENTIO | It is your husband mock'd you with a husband. | |
| | Consenting to the safeguard of your honour, | |
| | I thought your marriage fit; else imputation, | 450 |
| | For that he knew you, might reproach your life | |
| | And choke your good to come; for his possessions, | |
| | Although by confiscation they are ours, | |
| | We do instate and widow you withal, | |
| | To buy you a better husband. | 455 |
| MARIANA | O my dear lord, | |
| | I crave no other, nor no better man. | |
| DUKE VINCENTIO | Never crave him; we are definitive. | |
| MARIANA | Gentle my liege,-- | |
| | Kneeling | |
| DUKE VINCENTIO | You do but lose your labour. | 460 |
| | Away with him to death! | |
| | To LUCIO | |
| | Now, sir, to you. | |
| MARIANA | O my good lord! Sweet Isabel, take my part; | |
| | Lend me your knees, and all my life to come | |
| | I'll lend you all my life to do you service. | 465 |
| DUKE VINCENTIO | Against all sense you do importune her: | |
| | Should she kneel down in mercy of this fact, | |
| | Her brother's ghost his paved bed would break, | |
| | And take her hence in horror. | |
| MARIANA | Isabel, | 470 |
| | Sweet Isabel, do yet but kneel by me; | |
| | Hold up your hands, say nothing; I'll speak all. | |
| | They say, best men are moulded out of faults; | |
| | And, for the most, become much more the better | |
| | For being a little bad: so may my husband. | 475 |
| | O Isabel, will you not lend a knee? | |
| DUKE VINCENTIO | He dies for Claudio's death. | |
| ISABELLA | Most bounteous sir, | |
| | Kneeling | |
| | Look, if it please you, on this man condemn'd, | |
| | As if my brother lived: I partly think | 480 |
| | A due sincerity govern'd his deeds, | |
| | Till he did look on me: since it is so, | |
| | Let him not die. My brother had but justice, | |
| | In that he did the thing for which he died: | |
| | For Angelo, | 485 |
| | His act did not o'ertake his bad intent, | |
| | And must be buried but as an intent | |
| | That perish'd by the way: thoughts are no subjects; | |
| | Intents but merely thoughts. | |
| MARIANA | Merely, my lord. | 490 |
| DUKE VINCENTIO | Your suit's unprofitable; stand up, I say. | |
| | I have bethought me of another fault. | |
| | Provost, how came it Claudio was beheaded | |
| | At an unusual hour? | |
| Provost | It was commanded so. | 495 |
| DUKE VINCENTIO | Had you a special warrant for the deed? | |
| Provost | No, my good lord; it was by private message. | |
| DUKE VINCENTIO | For which I do discharge you of your office: | |
| | Give up your keys. | |
| Provost | Pardon me, noble lord: | 500 |
| | I thought it was a fault, but knew it not; | |
| | Yet did repent me, after more advice; | |
| | For testimony whereof, one in the prison, | |
| | That should by private order else have died, | |
| | I have reserved alive. | 505 |
| DUKE VINCENTIO | What's he? | |
| Provost | His name is Barnardine. | |
| DUKE VINCENTIO | I would thou hadst done so by Claudio. | |
| | Go fetch him hither; let me look upon him. | |
| | Exit Provost | |
| ESCALUS | I am sorry, one so learned and so wise | 510 |
| | As you, Lord Angelo, have still appear'd, | |
| | Should slip so grossly, both in the heat of blood. | |
| | And lack of temper'd judgment afterward. | |
| ANGELO | I am sorry that such sorrow I procure: | |
| | And so deep sticks it in my penitent heart | 515 |
| | That I crave death more willingly than mercy; | |
| | 'Tis my deserving, and I do entreat it. | |
| | Re-enter Provost, with BARNARDINE, CLAUDIO muffled,and JULIET | |
| DUKE VINCENTIO | Which is that Barnardine? | |
| Provost | This, my lord. | |
| DUKE VINCENTIO | There was a friar told me of this man. | 520 |
| | Sirrah, thou art said to have a stubborn soul. | |
| | That apprehends no further than this world, | |
| | And squarest thy life according. Thou'rt condemn'd: | |
| | But, for those earthly faults, I quit them all; | |
| | And pray thee take this mercy to provide | 525 |
| | For better times to come. Friar, advise him; | |
| | I leave him to your hand. What muffled fellow's that? | |
| Provost | This is another prisoner that I saved. | |
| | Who should have died when Claudio lost his head; | |
| | As like almost to Claudio as himself. | 530 |
| | Unmuffles CLAUDIO. | |
| DUKE VINCENTIO | To ISABELLA. | |
| | Is he pardon'd; and, for your lovely sake, | |
| | Give me your hand and say you will be mine. | |
| | He is my brother too: but fitter time for that. | |
| | By this Lord Angelo perceives he's safe; | |
| | Methinks I see a quickening in his eye. | 535 |
| | Well, Angelo, your evil quits you well: | |
| | Look that you love your wife; her worth worth yours. | |
| | I find an apt remission in myself; | |
| | And yet here's one in place I cannot pardon. | |
| | To LUCIO. | |
| | You, sirrah, that knew me for a fool, a coward, | 540 |
| | One all of luxury, an ass, a madman; | |
| | Wherein have I so deserved of you, | |
| | That you extol me thus? | |
| LUCIO | 'Faith, my lord. I spoke it but according to the | |
| | trick. If you will hang me for it, you may; but I | 545 |
| | had rather it would please you I might be whipt. | |
| DUKE VINCENTIO | Whipt first, sir, and hanged after. | |
| | Proclaim it, provost, round about the city. | |
| | Is any woman wrong'd by this lewd fellow, | |
| | As I have heard him swear himself there's one | 550 |
| | Whom he begot with child, let her appear, | |
| | And he shall marry her: the nuptial finish'd, | |
| | Let him be whipt and hang'd. | |
| LUCIO | I beseech your highness, do not marry me to a whore. | |
| | Your highness said even now, I made you a duke: | 555 |
| | good my lord, do not recompense me in making me a cuckold. | |
| DUKE VINCENTIO | Upon mine honour, thou shalt marry her. | |
| | Thy slanders I forgive; and therewithal | |
| | Remit thy other forfeits. Take him to prison; | |
| | And see our pleasure herein executed. | 560 |
| LUCIO | Marrying a punk, my lord, is pressing to death, | |
| | whipping, and hanging. | |
| DUKE VINCENTIO | Slandering a prince deserves it. | |
| | Exit Officers with LUCIO. | |
| | She, Claudio, that you wrong'd, look you restore. | |
| | Joy to you, Mariana! Love her, Angelo: | 565 |
| | I have confess'd her and I know her virtue. | |
| | Thanks, good friend Escalus, for thy much goodness: | |
| | There's more behind that is more gratulate. | |
| | Thanks, provost, for thy care and secrecy: | |
| | We shill employ thee in a worthier place. | 570 |
| | Forgive him, Angelo, that brought you home | |
| | The head of Ragozine for Claudio's: | |
| | The offence pardons itself. Dear Isabel, | |
| | I have a motion much imports your good; | |
| | Whereto if you'll a willing ear incline, | 575 |
| | What's mine is yours and what is yours is mine. | |
| | So, bring us to our palace; where we'll show | |
| | What's yet behind, that's meet you all should know. | |
| | Exeunt. | |
