Duke. Of government the properties to unfold, Would seen in me to 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, 4 3 Limits. This passage But that your sufficiency, as your worth is able, 25 And let them work. The nature of our people, Our city's institutions, and the terms 30 5 For common justice, you are as pregnant ' in, That we reinember: There is our commission, [hither, I say, bid come before us Angelo.— Meaning, I am obliged The story of this play is taken from the Promos and Cassandra of George Whetstone, published in 1578, and which was probably originally borrowed from Cinthio's Novels. has much exercised the sagacity of different editors. to acknowledge. Theobald is of opinion, that either from the impertinence of the actors, or the negligence of the copyists, it has come mutilated to us by a line being accidentally left out, and proposes to read thus: Then no more remains, But that to your sufficiency you add Sir Tho. IIanmer endeavours to supyly the deficiency as follows: -Then no more remains, But that to your sufficiency you join A will to serve us, as your worth is able. governing (says the duke) to the Dr. Johnson, however, approves That is, ready, or knowing in. Dr. Warburton is for reading, instead of But that, Put to your sufficiency, which he says here means authority, and then the sense will be as follows: Put your skill in power which I give you to exercise it, and let them work together. neither of Theobald's conjecture, nor of Warburton's amendment. That is, of special favour or affection. Lent Lent him our terror, drest him with our love; Enter Angelo. Duke. Look where he comes. Ang. Always obedient to your grace's will, I come to know your pleasure. Duke. Angelo, There is a kind of character in thy life, Both thanks and use. But I do bend my speech In our remove, be thou at full ourself: Take thy commission. Ang. Now, good my lord, Though it do well, I do no not relish well 10 To look into the bottom of my place: A power I have; but of what strength and nature [ther, 20 Escal. I'll wait upon your honour. [Exeunt. The Street. 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 25 king of Hungary's! 30 2 Gent. Amen. Lucio. Thou conclud'st like the sanctimonious pirate, that went to sea with the ten commandnients, but scrap'd one out of the table. 2 Gent. Thou shalt not steal? Lucio. Ay, that he raz❜d. 1 Gent. Why, 'twas a commandment to command the captain and all the rest from their functions; they put forth to steal: There's not a sol Let there be some more test made of my metal, 35 dier of us all, that, in the thanksgiving before meat, Before so noble and so great a figure Be stamp'd upon it. Duke. No more evasion: We have with a leaven'd' and prepared choice Ang. Yet, give leave, my lord, 8 doth relish the petition well that prays for peace. 2 Gent. No? a dozen times at least. 10 Lucio. In any proportion 1, or in any language. 1 Gent. I think, or in any religion. Lucio. Ay! why not? Grace is grace, despight 45 of all controversy: As for example; Thou thyself art a wicked villain, despight of all grace. 1 Gent. Well, there went but a pair of shears between us". Lucio. I grant; as there may between the lists 50 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 That is, are not so much thy own property. 2 To great consequences. 3 Two negatives not used to make an affirmative, are common in Shakspeare's plays. 4 That is, one that can inform himself of that which otherwise it would be my part to tell him. "That is, continue to be Angelo. • That is, first appointed. 'A leavened choice means a choice not hasty, but considerate. • That is, Your fullness of power. 'There are metrical graces in the Primers, which probably were used 11 in Shakspeare's time. 10 That is, in any form. Meaning, we are both of the same piece. own 1 Gent. Thou art alwaysfiguring diseases in me: 15 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 pr'ythee? Bawd. Nay, but I know 'tis so: I saw him 20 25 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. {city? Bawd. And what shall become of those in the Clown. They shall stand for seed: they had gone down too, but that a wise burgher put in for thein. Bawd. But shall all our houses of resort in the suburbs be pull'd down? 5 Clown. To the ground, mistress. Bard. 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. [Exeunt Bawd and Clown. SCENE III arrested; saw him carry'd away; and, which is 30 Enter Provost, Claudio, Juliet, and Oficers; more, within these three days his head is to be chopp'd off. Lucio. But, after all this fooling, I would not have it so: Art thou sure of this? Buwd. I am too sure of it: and it is for getting 35 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 40 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. Manet Bard. Lucio and two Gentlemen. Claud. Fellow, why dost thou show me thus to Claud. From too much liberty, my Lucio, liberty: Lucio. If I could speak so wisely under an arrest, A quibble intended between dollars and dolours. 2 Lucio means here not the piece of money so called, but that cenereal scab, which among the surgeons is styled corona Veneris. Alluding probably to the method of cure then used for the diseases contracted in brothels. The verb to do, is here used in a sense now obsolete, but which the reader will easily guess at from the modern application of the phrase of "undoing a woman," or " a woman's being undone." Hence the name of Over-done, which Shakspeare has in this play appropriated to the batıd. Meaning all bawdy-houses. tine is an obsolete word for prey. • Ra Claud. Claud. No. Lucio. Lechery? Claud. Call it so. Prov. Away, sir; you must go. Claud. One word, good friend:-Lucio, a word 5 with you. Lucio. Ahundred, if they'll do you any good.Is lechery so look'd after? [contract, Claud. Thus stands it with me.-Upon a true 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, From whom we thought it meet to hide our love, But it chances, The stealth of our most mutual entertainment, With character too gross, is writ on Juliet. Lucio. With child, perhaps? Claud. Unhappily, even so. And the new deputy now for the duke,- [wall Lucio. I warrant, it is: and thy head stands so 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. 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 compleat bosom: why I desire thee 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'd1; 15 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, 20 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. 25 30 35 [laws, Duke. We have strict statutes, and most biting That goes not out to prey: Now, as fond fathers For terror, not to use; in time the rod Becomes more mock'd, than fear'd: so our decrees, The baby beats the nurse, and quite athwart Fri. It rested in your grace To unloose this ty'd-up justice, when you pleas'd: 40 And it in you more dreadful would have seem'd, Than in lord Angelo. Claud. I have done so, but he's not to be found. Duke. I do fear, too dreadful: Sith 'twas my fault to give the people scope, 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 55 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. Claud. Come, officer, away. That is, whether it be the seeming enormity of the action, or the glare of new authority. The fault and glimpse is the same as the fault or glimpse, i. e. a fault arising from the mind being dazzled by a novel authority. That is, ticklish. Prone here seems to mean humble. Meaning a life of retirement. Stricture is probably here used for strictness. That is, stands on terms of defiance. 5 4 Is Is more to bread than stone: Hence shall we see, If power change purpose, what our seemers be. SCENE V. Enter Isabella and Francisca. Isab. And have you nuns no farther privileges? Nun. Are not these large enough? Isab. Yes, truly: I speak not as desiring more; But rather wishing a more strict restraint Upon the sister-hood, the votarists of saint Clare. Lucio. [Within.] Ho! Peace be in this place! Isub. Who's that which calls? Nun. It is a man's voice: Gentle Isabella, Turn you the key, and know his business of him ; You may, I may not; you are yet unsworn: When you have vow'd, you must not speak with But in the presence of the prioress: Then, if you speak, you must not shew your face; Or, if you shew your face, you must not speak. He calls again; I pray you, answer him. [men, [Exit Franc. Isab. Peace and prosperity! Who is't that calls? Enter Lucio. Expresseth his full tilth and husbandry. [Juliet? İsab. Some one with child by him?—My cousin Lucio. Is she your cousin? [names, Isab. Adoptedly; as school-maids change their 5 By vain though apt affection. Lucio. She it is. Isab. O, let him marry her! Lucio. This is the point. The duke is very strangely gone from hence; 10 Bore many gentlemen, myself being one, 15 20 In hand, and hope of action: but we do learn 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 rigour of the statute, To make him an example: all hope is gone, Unless you have the grace' by your fair To soften Angelo: and that's my pith 30 Of business 'twixt you and your poor brother. Isab. Doth he so seek his life? Lucio. Hail, virgin, if you be; as those cheek 25 roses Proclaim you are no less! Can you so stead me, Isab. Why her unhappy brother? let me ask, Isab. Sir, make me not your story. familiar sin my 35 Lucio. Has censur'd' him 8 Already; and, as I hear, the provost hath A warrant for his execution. Isab. Alas! what poor ability's in me To do him good? Lucio. Assay the power you have. prayer 40 And make us lose the good we oft might win, 45 As they themselves would owe 10 them. Isab. You do blaspheme the good, in mocking 4 Isab. I will about it strait; No longer staying but to give the mother 11 That is, in few words. 2 For that, we should probably read doth; and instead of brings, bring. That is, plenty, abundance. The meaning is, he kept many gentlemen in expectation and dependance. That is, full extent. That is, to intimidate practices long countenanced by custom. That is, the power of gaining favour. The principal part of my message. That is, has sentenced him. 19 To owe, here signifies, to possess, to have. "The abbess, |