By vain, tho' apt, affection.
Lucio. She it is.

Ijab. O, let him marry her!
Lucio. This is the point.

The Duke is very strangely gone from hence;
Bore many gentlemen, * myself being one,
In hand and hope of action; but we learn,
By those that know the very nerves of state,
His givings out were of an infinite distance
From his true meant design. Upon his place,
And with full line 9 of his authority,
Governs lord Angelo; a man whose blood
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 faft.
He, to give fear to * use and liberty,
Which have long time run by the hideous law,
As mice by lions, hath pickt out an act,
Under whose heavy fense 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's gone,
Unless you have the grace by your fair prayer
To soften Angelo; and that's my pith of business

1

'Twixt you and your poor brother.

Ifab. Doth he so

Seek for his life?

Lucio. H'as censur'd him already;
And, as I hear, the Provost hath a warrant

* Bore many gentlemen

In hand and hope of action;-) To bear in hand is a common phrase for to keep in expectation and dependance, but we should read,

2

-give fear to us.] To in timidate use, that is, practices long countenanced by custom.

Unless you have the grace-] That is, the acceptableness, the power of gaining favour.

2

pith of business.] The inmost part, the main of my message.

For's For's execution.

Ifab. Alas! what poor

Ability's in ine, to do him good?

Lucio. Affay the power you have.
Ifab. My power? Alas! I doubt.
Lucio. Our doubts are traitors;

And made us lose the good, we oft might win,
By fearing to attempt. Go to lord Angelo,
And let him learn to know, when maidens sue,
Men give like Gods; but when they weep and kneel,
All their petitions are as truly theirs,

As they themselves would owe them.

Ifab. I'll fee what I can do.
Lucio. But, speedily.

Ifab. I will about it strait;

No longer staying, but to give the mother
Notice of my affair. I humbly thank you;
Commend me to my brother: soon at night
I'll fend him certain word of my success.
Lucio. I take my leave of you.
Ifab. Good Sir, adieu.

ACT II.

[Exeunt.

SCENE I.

The PALACE.

Enter Angelo, Escalus, a Justice, and Attendants.

ANGELO.

E must not make a scare-crow of the law,

W Setting it

up to fear the birds of prey,

And let it keep one shape, 'till custom make it

Their perch, and not their terror.

Efcal. Ay, but yet

Let us be keen, and rather cut a little,

3

Than fall, and bruise to death. Alas! this gentleman,
Whom I would save, had a most noble father;
Let but your Honour know, s
Whom I believe to be most strait in virtue,
That, in the working of your own affections,
Had time coher'd with place, or place with wishing,
Or that the refolute acting of your blood
Could have attain'd th' effect of your own purpose;
Whether you had not sometime in your life
Err'd in this point, which now you censure him,
And pull'd the law upon you.

Ang. 'Tis one thing to be tempted, Escalus,
Another thing to fall. I not deny,
The jury, passing on the prisoner's life,
May in the fworn twelve have a thief or two,
Guiltier than him they try. What's open made to

justice,

That justice seizes on. What know the laws,
That thieves do pass on thieves? ''tis very pregnant,
The jewel that we find, we stoop and take't,
Because we fee it; but what we do not fee,
We tread upon, and never think of it.
You may not so extenuate his offence,
7 For 1 have had fuch faults; but rather tell me,
When I, that cenfure him, do fo offend,
Let mine own judgment pattern out my death,
And nothing come in partial. Sir, he must die.
Enter Provost.

Escal. Be't, as your wisdom will.

4 Than FALL, and bruise to death.] I should rather read FELL, i, e. ftrike down. So in Timon of Athens,

Ang.

Know of your youth, examine

6

well your blood.

-tis very pregnant.] 'Tis plain that we must not act with bad as with good; we punish the faults, as we take the advantages, that lie in our way, and what we do not see we cannot note.

Ang. Where is the Provoft ?
Prov. Here, if it like your Honour.

Ang. See, that Claudio

Be executed by nine to morrow morning.
Bring him his confessor, let him be prepar'd;
For that's the utmost of his pilgrimage. - [Exit Prov.

Efcal. Well, heav'n forgive him! and forgive us all!
• Some rife by fin, and some by virtue fall:
Some run through brakes of vice, and answer none;
And fome condemned for a fault alone.

Enter Elbow, Froth, Clown, and Officers.

Elb. Come, bring them away; if these be good people in a common-weal, that do nothing but use their abuses in common houses, I know no law; bring them away.

Ang. How now, Sir, what's your name? and what's the matter?

Elb. If it please your Honour, I am the poor Duke's conftable, and my name is Elbow; I do lean upon justice, Sir, and do bring in here before your good Honour two notorious benefactors ?

Ang. Benefactors? well; what benefactors are they? are they not malefactors ?

Elb. If it please your Honour, I know not well what they are; but precise villains they are, that I am fure of; and void of all profanation in the world, that good chriftians ought to have.

Efcal. * This comes off well; here's a wise officer.
Ang. Go to: what quality are they of? Elbow is

your name? why dost thou not speak, Elbow ?
Clown. He cannot, Sir; he's out at elbow.

* Some vise, &c.] This line is in the first folio printed in Italicks as, a quotation. All the folios read in the next line,

Some run from brakes of ice, and
answer none.

* This comes off well.] This
is nimbly spoken; this is volu-
bly uttered,

:

Ang.

!

Ang. What are you, Sir?

Elb. He, Sir? a tapster, Sir; parcel-bawd; one that serves a bad woman; whose house, Sir, was, as they say, pluckt down in the fuburbs; and now she professes a hot-house; 9 which, I think, is a very ill house too.

Efcal. How know you that?

Elo. My wife, Sir, whom I detest before heav'n and your Honour,

Efcal. How! thy wife?

Elb. Ay, Sir; whom, I thank heav'n, is an honest

woman;

Efcal. Dost thou deteft her therefore?

Elb. I fay, Sir, I will deteft myself also, as well as she, that this house, if it be not a bawd's house, it is pity of her life, for it is a naughty house.

Efcal. How dost thou know that, conftable?

Elb. Marry, Sir, by my wife, who, if she had been a woman cardinally given, might have been accused in fornication, adultery, and all uncleanness there. Efcal. By the woman's means?

Elb. Ay, Sir, by mistress Over-done's means, * but as she spit in his face, so she defy'd him.

Clown. Sir, if it please your Honour, this is not fo. Elb. Prove it before these varlets here, thou honourable man, prove it.

Efcal. Do you hear how he misplaces ?

Clown. Sir, she came in great with child; and longing (faving your Honour's reverence) for stew'd prunes;