Enter Lucio.
Lucio. Good even !
Friar, where is 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 fruitful meal would set me to’t. But, they say, the duke will be here to-morrow. By my troth, Isabel, I lov’d thy brother; if the old fantastical duke of dark corners had been at home, he had lived.

Duke. Sir, the duke is marvellous little beholden 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 tak’ft him for.

Duke. Well; you'll answer this one day. Fare ye well. Lucio. Nay, tarry, I'll go along with thee: I can tell thee pretty tales of the duke.

Duke. You have told me too many of him already, fir, if they be true; if not, 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 forswear it;
they would else have marry’d me to the rotten medlar.
Duke. Sir, your company is fairer than honeft: rest

you

well. 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 bur, I shall stick.

[Exeunt. SCENE

WIE

AL

SCENE

XII.

The Palace.

Enter Angelo, and Escalus.
Escal. "VERY letter he hath writ hath disvouch'd other.

Ang. In most uneven and distracted manner. His actions Thow much like to madness: pray heav'n, his wisdom be not tainted! and why meet him at the gates, and deliver our authorities there?

Escal. I guess not.

Ang. And why should we proclaim it in an hour before his entring, that, if any crave redress of injustice, 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 proclaim'd betimes i'th' morn; I'll call you at your house: give notice to such men of fort and suit as are to meet him. Escal. I shall, fir: fare you well.

[Exit

.
Ang. Good night. This deed
Unshapes me quite, makes me unpregnant, dull
To all proceedings. A defloured maid !
And by an eminent body, that enforc'd
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 off all credence;
That no particular scandal once can touch,
But it confounds the breather. He should have liy'd,
Save that his riotous youth, with dang’rous fense,
Might in the times to come have ta’n revenge
By so receiving a dishonour'd life,

With ransom of such shame. Would yet he had liv’d!
Alack, when once our grace we have forgot,
Nothing goes right; we would, and we would not.

[Exit.

The fields without the town.
Enter Duke in his own habit, and friar Peter.
Duke. THESE letters at fit time deliver me.

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 : call at Flavius' house,
And tell him where I stay; give the like notice
Unto Valentius, Rowland, and to Crassus,
And bid them bring the trumpets to the gate:
But send me Flavius first.
Peter. It shall be speeded well.

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.

S CE N E XIV.

Enter Isabella, and Mariana.
Isab. To speak so indirectly I am loath :
I'd say the truth; but to accuse him so,
That is your part; yet I'm advis’d to do it;
He says, to 'vailful purpose.

Mari. Be ruld by him.
Isab. Besides, he tells me, that, if peradventure

Vol. I.

Zz

He

An
AP

He speak against me on the adverse side,
I should not think it ftrange; for ’tis a physick
That's bitter to sweet end.

Mari. I would, friar Peter
Isab. O, peace; the friar is come.

Enter. Peter.
Peter. Come, I have found you out a stand most fit,
Where you may have such vantage on the duke,
He shall not pass you. Twice have the trumpets founded:
The generous and gravest citizens
Have hent the gates, and very near upon
The duke is entring: therefore hence, away. [Exeunt.

B

F

ACT V. SCENE I.

The Street.
Enter Duke, Varrius, Lords, Angelo, Escalus, Lucio,
and Citizens, at several doors.

DU K E.
Y very worthy cousin, fairly met;

Our old and faithful friend, we're glad to see you.
Ang. and Esc. Happy return be to your royal grace !

Duke. Many and hearty thanks be to you both:
We've made inquiry of you,

and we hear
Such goodness of your justice, that our soul
Cannot but yield you forth to publick thanks,
Fore-running more requital.
Ang. You make

my

bonds still greater.
Duke. 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
A forted residence, 'gainst the tooth of time

And

And razure of oblivion. Give me your hand,
And let the subjects fee, to make them know
That outward courtesies would fain proclaim
Favours that keep within. Come, Escalus,
You must walk by us on our other hand:
And good supporters are you.

SCENE II.

Enter Peter, and Isabella.
Peter. Now is your time: speak loud, and kneel before him.

Isab. Justice, o royal dukel vail your regard
Upon a wrong’d, I'd fain have said, a maid:
O worthy prince, dishonour not your eye
By throwing it on any other object,
'Till you have heard me in my true complaint,
And give me justice, justice, justice, justice.

Duke. Relate your wrongs; in what? by whom? be brief:
Here is lord Angelo Thall give you justice;
Reveal yourself to him.

Isab. O worthy duke,
You bid me feek redemption of the devil:
Hear me yourself; for that which I must speak
Must either punish me, not being believ'd,
Or wring redress from you: 0, hear me here !

Ang. 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.

Isab. Course of justice !
Ang. And she will speak most bitterly, and strange.

Isab. Most strange but yet most truly will I speak;
That Angelo's forsworn: is it not strange ?
That Angelo's a murth’rer : is't not strange?
That Angelo is an adult’rous thief,
An hypocrite, a virgin-violater :
Is it not strange, and strange?

Z z 2

Duke.