Isab. [Within.] Peace, ho, be here! 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, 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 releas'd 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. Duke. This nor hurts him, nor profits you a jot: By every syllable, a faithful verity: The duke comes home to-morrow:-nay, dry your eyes ; One of our convent, 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 wisdom In that good path that I would wish it go; And you shall have your bosom on this wretch,' Isab. I am directed by you. Duke. This letter then to friar Peter give; '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, And shall be absent. Wend you with this letter: 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. [Exit ISAB 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 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 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 forswear it ; they would else have married me to the rotten medlar. Duke. Sir, your company is fairer than honest: 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 burr, I shall stick. [Exeunt. [3] To wend is to go.-An obsolete word. STEEVENS. 32* SCENE IV. A Room in ANGELO's House. Enter ANGELO and ESCALUS Escal. Every letter he hath writ hath disvouch'd 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 re-deliver our authorities 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, they should exhibit their petitions in the street?* Escal. He shows his reason for that: to have a despatch 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 Give notice to such men of sort and suit,' As are to meet him. Escal. I shall, sir: fare you well. Ang. Good night. house : [Exit This deed unshapes me quite, makes me unpregnant, And dull to all proceedings. A deflower'd 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 a credent bulk, That no particular scandal once can touch, But it confounds the breather. He should have liv'd, 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. [4] It is the conscious guilt of Angelo that prompts this question. The reply of Escalus is such as arises from an undisturbed mind, that only considers the mysterious conduct of the Duke in a political point of view. STEEVENS. [5] In the feudal times all vassals were bound to hold suit and service to their over-lord; i. e. to be ready at all times to attend and serve him, either when summoned to his courts, or to his standard in war. STEEVENS. [6] Credent is creditable, inforcing credit, not questionable. The old English writers often confound the active and passive adjectives. JOHNSON Fields without the town. SCENE V. 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. Though sometimes you do blench from this to that," And bid them bring the trumpets to the gate; Peter. It shall be speeded well. Enter VARRIUS. [Exit Friar. 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. SCENE VI. [Exeunt Street near the City Gate. Enter ISABELLA and MARIANA. Isab. To speak so indirectly, I am loth; I would say the truth: but to accuse him so, Mari. Be rul'd by him. Isab. Besides, he tells me, that, if peradventure He speak against me on the adverse side, I should not think it strange; for 'tis a physic, That's bitter to sweet end. Mari. I would, friar Peter Isab. O, peace; the friar is come. Enter Friar 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 sounded; [7] To blench is to start off, to fly off. STEEVENS. The generous and gravest citizens Have hent the gates, and very near upon The duke is ent'ring: therefore hence, away. [Exe. ACT V. SCENE I.-A public Place near the City Gate. MARIANA (veil'd), ISABELLA, and PETER, at a distance. Enter at opposite doors, Duke, VARRIUS, Lords; ANGELO, ESCALUS, LUCIO, Provost, Officers, and Citizens. Duke. MY very worthy cousin, fairly met : Our old and faithful friend, we are glad to see you. We have made inquiry of you; and we hear 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, PETER and ISABELLA come forward. Pet. Now is your time; speak loud, and kneel before him. Isab. Justice, O royal duke! 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, [8] i. e. the most noble, &c. Generous is here used in its Latin sense. et generosa et nobilis."-Cicero. STEEVENS. [9] Have seized or taken possession of the gates JOHNSON. "Virgo That is, withdraw your thoughts from higher things, let your notice de→ scend upon a wronged woman. To vail is to lower. JOHNSON. |