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Hooking both right and wrong to the appetite,

But, as it were, an after-dinner's sleep,
Dreaming on both; 10 for all thy blessed youth
Becomes as aged, and doth beg the alms

To follow as it draws! I'll to my brother:
Though he hath fallen by prompture2 of the blood,
Yet hath he in him such a mind of honour,
That had he twenty heads to tender down
On twenty bloody blocks, he'd yield them up,
Before his sister should her body stoop

To such abhorr'd pollution.

Then Isabel, live chaste, and, brother, die:
More than our brother is our chastity.

I'll tell him yet of Angelo's request,

And fit his mind to death, for his soul's rest.

АСТ III.

[Erit.

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If I do lose thee, I do lose a thing

That none but fools would keep: 4 a breath thou art,

(Servile to all the skiey influences,)

That dost this habitation, where thou keep'st,s

Hourly afflict: merely, thou art death's fool;

For him thou labour'st by thy flight to shun,

Of palsied eld;11 and when thou art old, and rich,
Thou hast neither heat, affection, limb, nor beauty,
To make thy riches pleasant. What's yet in this
That bears the name of life? Yet in this life

Lie hid more thousand deaths; yet death we fear,
That makes these odds all even.

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a welcome.

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As many as you please. Duke. Bring me to hear them speak, where I may be conceal'd, 12 [Exeunt Duke and Provost.

Yet hear them.
Claud.

Now, sister, what's the comfort ?
Isab. Why, as all comforts are, most good indeed:

Lord Angelo, having affairs to heaven,
Intends you for his swift embassador,
Where you shall be an everlasting leiger: 13

Therefore your best appointment1 4 make with speed;

And yet runn'st toward him still: Thou art not To-morrow you set on.

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valiant;

For thou dost fear the soft and tender fork

Of a poor worm: Thy best of rest is sleep,

And that thou oft provok'st; yet grossly fear'st

Thy death, which is no more. Thou art not thyself;

For thou exist'st on many a thousand grains

That issue out of dust: Happy thou art not;

For what thou hast not, still thou striv'st to get;

1 The death. This phrase seems originally to have been a mistaken translation of the French La mort. Chaucer uses it frequently, and it is common to all writers of Shakspeare's age. 21. e. temptation, instigation. 3 i. e. determined. 4 Keep here means care for, a common acceptation of the word in Chaucer and later writers.

5 Le. dwellest. So, in Henry IV. Part i:

Claud.

Is there no remedy?

Isab. None, but such remedy, as to save a head,

To cleave a heart in twain.

Claud.

But is there any?

Isab. Yes, brother, you may live;
There is a devilish mercy in the judge,
If you'll implore it, that will free your life,
But fetter you till death.

Claud.

Perpetual durance?

Isab. Ay, just, perpetual durance; a restraint,
Though all the world's vastidity1 you had,
To a determined scope.16

9 Serpigo, is a leprous eruption.

10 This is exquisitely imagined. When we are young, we busy ourselves in forming schemes for succeeding time, and miss the gratifications that are before us; when we are old, we amuse the languor of age with the recollection of youthful pleasures or performances; so that our life, of which no part is filled with the business of the present time, resembles our dreams after dinner, when the events of the morning are mingled with the designs of the evening.

"Twas where the madcap duke his uncle kept. 6 Shakspeare here meant to observe, that a minute analysis of life at once destroys that splendour which dazzles the imagination. Whatever grandeur can displav, or luxury enjoy, is procured by baseness, by offices of which the mind shrinks from the contemplation. he could enjoy, he is dependent on palsied eld; must All the delicacies of the table may be traced back to the beg alms from the coffers of heary avarice; and being shambles and the dunghill, all magnificence of building very niggardly supplied, becomes as aged, looks like an was hewn from the quarry, and all the pomp of orna- old man on happiness beyond his reach. And when he ment from among the damps and darkness of the mine. is old and rich, when he has wealth enough for the 7 Worm is put for any creeping thing or serpent. purchase of all that formerly excited his desires, he has Shakspeare adopts the vulgar error, that a serpent no longer the powers of enjoyment.

11 Old age. In youth, which is or ought to be the happiest time, man commonly wants means to obtain what

weueds with his tongue, and that his tongue is forked. la old tapestries and paintings the tongues of serpents and dragons always appear barbed like the point of an

arrow.

8 The old copy reads effects. We should read affects, i e. affections, passions of the mind. See Hamlet, Act

12 The first folio reads, bring them to hear me speak, &c. the second folio reads, 'bring them to speak. The emendation is by Steevens. 13 A leiger is a resident.

i. Sc. 4.

14 i. e. preparation.

15 i. e. vastness of extent.

16 To a determin'd scope. A confinement of your

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To lie in cold obstruction, and to rot:
This sensible warm motion to become
A kneaded clod; and the delighted spirit
To bathe in fiery floods, or to reside
In thrilling regions of thick-ribbed ice;
To be imprison'd in the viewless10 winds,
And blown with restless violence round about
The pendent world; or to be worse than worst
Of those, that lawless and incertain thoughts
Imagine howling!-'tis too horrible!

The weariest and most loathed worldly life,
That age, ach, penury, imprisonment
Can lay on nature, is a paradise

To what we fear of death.

Isab. Alas! alas!
Claud.

Sweet sister, let me live:

What sin you do to save a brother's life,
Nature dispenses with the deed so far,
That it becomes a virtue.
Isab.

O, you beast!
O, faithless coward! O, dishonest wretch!
Wilt thou be made a man out of my vice ?

From thine own sister's shame? What should I

think?

In base appliances. This outward-sainted deputy, - Is't not a kind of incest, to take life

Whose settled visage and deliberate word

Nips youth i' the head, and follies doth enmew,

As falcon doth the fowl, is yet a devil;

His filth within being cast, he would appear

A pond as deep as hell.

Claud.

The princely Angelo?

Isab. O, 'tis the cunning livery of hell, The damned'st body to invest and cover

In princely guards! Dost thou think, Claudio, If I would yield him my virginity,

Thou might'st be freed?

Claud.

O, heavens! it cannot be.

Isab. Yes, he would give it thee, from this rank offence,

So to offend him still: This night's the time

That I should do what I abhor to name,

Or else thou diest to-morrow.

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Claud.

Thanks, my dear Isabel.

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word.

[Going. O hear me, Isabella.

Re-enter Duke.

Duke. Vouchsafe a word, young sister, but one Isab. What is your will?

Duke. Might you dispense with your leisure, I

Isab. Be ready, Claudio, for your death to- would by and by have some speech with you: the

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mind to one painful idea to ignominy, of which the
remembrance can neither be suppressed nor escaped.
1 A metaphor, from stripping trees of their bark.
2 And the poor beetle that we tread upon

In corporal sufferance finds a pang as great
As when a giant dies.'

This beautiful passage is in all our minds and memories, but it most frequently stands in quotation detached from the antecedent line: The sense of death is most in apprehension, without which it is liable to an opposite construction. The meaning is:-fear is the prin cipal sensation in death, which has no pain; and the giant when he dies feels no greater pain than the beetle??

3 'In whose presence the follies of youth are afraid to show themselves, as the fowl is afraid to flutter while the falcon hovers over it. To enmow is a term in Falconry, signifying to restrain, to keep in a mew or cage either by force or terror.

4 Guards were trimmings, facings, or other ornaments applied upon a dress. It here stands, by synecdoche, for dress.

5 i. e. From the time of my committing this offence, you might persist in sinning with safety. 6 Frankly, freely.

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Isab. I have no superfluous leisure; my stay must be stolen out of other affairs; but I will attend you awhile.

Duke. [TO CLAUDIO, aside.] Son, I have overheard what hath passed between you and your sister. Angelo had never the purpose to corrupt her; only he hath made an essay of her virtue, to practise his judgment with the disposition of natures: she, having the truth of honour in her, hath made him that gracious denial which he is most glad to receive: I am confessor to Angelo, and I know this to be true; therefore prepare yourself to death:

7 Has he passions that impel him to transgress the law at the very moment that he is enforcing it against others? Surely then it cannot be a sin so very heinous, since Angelo, who is so wise, will venture it? Shakspeare shows his knowledge of human nature in the conduct of Claudio.

8 Delighted, is occasionally used by Shakspeare for delightful, or causing delight; delighted in. So, in Othello, Act ii. Sc. 3;

'If virtue no delighted beauty lack."

And Cymbeline, Act v. Sc. 4:

Whom best I love, I cross, to make my gift
The more delayed, delighted.

9 Jonson, in his Cataline, Act ii. Sc. 4, has a similar expression: We're spirits bound in ribs of ice? Shakspeare returns to the various destinations of the disembodied Spirit, in that pathetic speech of Othello in the fifth Act. Milton seems to have had Shakspeare before him when he wrote the second book of Paradise Lost, v. 595-603.

10 Viewless, invisible, unseen.

11 Wilderness, for wildness. 12 i. e. my refusal.

13 Trade, an established habit, a custom, a practice.

Do not satisfy your resolution' with hopes that are | them with his comfort; swallowed his vows whole,

fallible: to-morrow you must die; go to your knees, and make ready.

Claud. Let me ask my sister pardon. I am so out of love with life, that I will sue to be rid of it. Duke. Hold you there: Farewell.

Re-enter Provost.

Provost, a word with you.

Prov. What's your will, father?

[Exit CLAUDIO.

Duke. That now you are come, you will be gone: Leave me awhile with the maid; my mind promises with my habit, no loss shall touch her by my com.

pany.

Prou. In good time.

[Ezit Provost.

Duke. The hand that hath made you fair, hath made you good: the goodness, that is cheap in beauty, makes beauty brief in goodness; but grace, being the soul of your complexion, should keep the body of it ever fair. The assault that Angelo hath made to you, fortune hath convey'd to my understanding; and, but that frailty hath examples for his falling, I should wonder at Angelo. How would you do to contend this substitute, and to save your brother?

Isab. I am now going to resolve him: I had rather my brother die by the law, than my son should be unlawfully born. But O, how much is the good duke deceived in Angelo! If ever he return, and I can speak to him, I will open my lips in vain, or discover his government.

Duke. That shall not be much amiss: Yet, as the matter now stands, he will avoid your accusation; he made trial of you only. Therefore fasten your ear on my advisings; to the love I have in doing good, a remedy presents itself. I do make myself believe, that you may most uprighteously do a poor wronged lady a merited benefit; redeem your brother from the angry law; do no stain to your own gracious person; and much please the absent duke, if, peradventure, he shall ever return to have hearing of this business.

Isab. Let me hear you speak further; I have spirit to do any thing that appears not foul in the truth of my spirit.

Duke. Virtue is bold, and goodness never fearful. Have you not heard speak of Mariana the sister of Frederick, the great soldier, who miscarried at sea ?

Isab. I have heard of the lady, and good words went with her name.

Duke. Her should this Angelo have married: was affianced to her by oath, and the nuptial appointed: between which time of the contract, and limit of the solemnity, her brother Frederick was wrecked at sea, having in that perished vessel the dowry of his sister. But mark how heavily this befell to the poor gentlewoman: there she lost a noble and renowned brother, in his love toward her ever most kind and natural: with him the portion and sinew of her fortune, her marriage dowry; with both, her combinates husband, this well-seeming Angelo.

Isab. Can this be so? Did Angelo so leave her?
Duke. Left her in her tears, and dry'd not one of

pretending, in her, discoveries of dishonour: in few, bestowed her on her own lamentation, which she yet wears for his sake; and he, a marble to her tears, is washed with them, but relents not.

Isab. What a merit were it in death, to take this poor maid from the world! What corruption in this life, that it will let this man live!-But how out of this can she avail?

Duke. It is a rupture that you may easily heal: and the cure of it not only saves your brother, but keeps you from dishonour in doing it.

Isab. Show me how, good father.

Duke. This forenamed maid hath yet in her the continuance of her first affection; his unjust unkindness, that in all reason should have quenched her love, hath, like an impediment in the current, made it more violent and unruly. Go you to Angelo: answer his requiring with a plausible obedience; agree with his demands to the point: only refer yourself to this advantage, first, that your stay with him may not be long; that the time may have all shadow and silence in it; and the place answer to convenience: this being granted in course, now follows all. We shall advise this wronged maid to stead up your appointment, go in your place; if the encounter acknowledge itself hereafter, it may compel him to her recompense: and here, by this, is your brother saved, your honour untainted, the poor Mariana advantaged, and the corrupt deputy scaled. The maid will I frame, and make fit for his attempt. If you think well to carry this as you may, the doubleness of the benefit defends the deceit from reproof. What think you of it?

Isab. The image of it gives me content already; and, I trust, it will grow to a most prosperous perfection.

Duke. It lies much in your holding up: Haste you speedily to Angelo; if for this night he entreat you to his bed give him promise of satisfaction. I will presently to St. Luke's; there at the moated grange, resides this dejected Mariana: At that place call upon me; and despatch with Angelo, that it may be quickly.

Isab. I thank you for this comfort: Fare you
well, good father.
[Exeunt severally.

SCENE II. The street before the prison. Enter
Duke, as a friar; to him ELBOW, Clown, and
Officers.

Elb. Nay, if there be no remedy for it, but that you will needs buy and sell men and women like beasts, we shall have all the world drink brown and white bastard.10

Duke. O, heavens! what stuff is here?

Clo. "Twas never merry world, since, of two usuries, the merriest was put down, and the worser allow'd, by order of law, a furr'd gown to keep him warm; and furr'd with fox and lamb-skins11 too, to signify, that craft, being richer than innocency, stands for the facing.

Elb. Come your way, sir; -Bless you, good father friar.

Duke. And you, good brother father: 12 What offence hath this man made you, sir?

Elb. Marry, sir, he hath offended the law; and, Lucio. Who? not the duke? yes, your beggar of fifty; and his use was, to put a ducat in her clackdish: 11 the duke had crotchets in him: He would

1 Do not satisfy your resolution, appears to signify

do not quench or extinguish your resolution with falli- lar nature has before occurred in this play, taken from

ble hopes. Satisfy was used by old writers in the sense of to stay, stop, quench, or stint: as in the phrase Sorrow is satisfied with tears: Dolor expletur lachrymis. To satisfy or stint hunger: Famem explere. To quench or satisfy thirst: Sitem explere! A conjecture of the Hon. Charles Yorke's on this passage will be found in Warburton's Letters, p. 500, 8vo. ed.

2 Hold you there: continue in that resolution.

3 i. e, a la bonne heure, so be it, very well.

4 i. e. appointed time.

5 i. e, betrothed.

the barking, peeling, or stripping of trees. I cannot convince myself that it means weighed, unless we could imagine that counterpoised was intended.

9 Grange, a solitary farm-house.

10 Bastard. A sweet wine, Raisin wine, according to Minshew.

11 It is probable we should read 'fox on lambskins, otherwise craft will not stand for the facing. Fox-skins and lamb-skins were both used as facings according to the statute of apparel, 24 Hen. 8. c. 13. So, in Characterismi, or Lenton's Leasures, &c. 1631 :- An usurer

6 Bestowed her on her own lamentation, gave her is an old fox clad in lamb-skin."

up to her sorrows.

7 Refer yourself, have recourse to.

8 i. e. stripped of his covering or disguise, his affectation of virtue; desquamatus. A metaphor of a simi

12 The Duke humorously calls him brother father, because he had called him father friar, which is equivalent to father brother, friar being derived from frere. Fr.

sir, we take him to be a thief, too, sir; for we have found upon him, sir, a strange pick-lock, which we have sent to the deputy.

Duke. Fye, sirrah; a bawd, a wicked bawd!
The evil that thou causest to be done,
That is thy means to live: Do thou but think
What 'tis to cram a maw, or clothe a back,
From such a filthy vice: say to thyself,-
From their abominable and beastly touches
I drink, I eat, array myself, and live.
Canst thou believe thy living is a life,

So stinkingly depending? Go, mend, go, mend.

Clo. Indeed, it does stink in some sort, sir; but yet, sir, I would prove

Duke. Nay, if the devil have given thee proofs

for sin, Thou wilt prove his. Take him to prison, officer; Correction and instruction must both work, Ere this rude beast will profit.

Elb. He must before the deputy, sir; he has given him warning; the deputy cannot abide a whoremaster: if he be a whoremonger, and comes before him, he were as good go a mile on his errand.

Duke. That we were all, as some would seem to be

Free from our faults, as faults from seeming, free!2

Enter LUCIO.

Elb. His neck will come to your waist, a cord,3 sir.

Clo. I spy comfort; I cry, bail: Here's a gentleman, and a friend of mine.

Lucio. How now, noble Pompey? What, at the heels of Cæsar? Art thou led in triumph? What, is there none of Pygmalion's images, newly made woman, to be had now, for putting the hand in the pocket and extracting it clutch'd? What reply? Ha? What say'st thou to this tune, matter, and method? Is't not drown'd i'the last rain? Ha? What say'st thou, trot? Is the world as it was, man? Which is the way? Is it sad, and few words? Or how? The trick of it?

Duke. Still thus, and thus! still worse!

Lucio. How doth my dear morsel, thy mistress? Procures she still? Ha?

Clo. Troth, sir, she hath eaten up all her beef, and she is herself in the tub.5

Lucio. Why, 'tis good; it is the right of it; it must be so: Ever your fresh whore, and your powder'd bawd: An unshun'd consequence; it must be so: Art going to prison, Pompey?

Clo. Yes, faith, sir.

Lucio. Why, 'tis not amiss, Pompey: Farewell: Go; say, I sent thee thither. For debt, Pompey? Or how?

Elb. For being a bawd, for being a bawd.

bondage: if you take it not patiently, why your mettle is the more: Adieu, trusty Pompey.-Bless you, friar.

Duke. And you.

Lucio. Does Bridget paint still, Pompey? Ha?
Elb. Come your ways, sir; come.
Clo. You will not bail me then, sir?

Lucio. Then, Pompey? nor now. What news

abroad, friar? What news?

Elb. Come your ways, sir; come.
Lucio. Go, to kennel, Pompey, go;

[Ereunt ELBOW, Clown, and Officers.

What news, friar, of the duke?

Duke. I know none: Can you tell me of any? Lucio. Some say, he is with the emperor of Russia; other some, he is in Rome: But where is he, think you?

Duke. I know not where: But wheresoever, I wish him well.

Lucio. It was a mad fantastical trick of him, to steal from the state, and usurp the beggary he was never born to. Lord Angelo dukes it well in his absence; he puts transgression to't.

Duke. He does well in't.

Lucio. A little more lenity to lechery would do no harm in him: something too crabbed that way, friar. Duke. It is too general a vice, and severity must cure it.

Lucio. Yes, in good sooth, the vice is of a great kindred; it is well ally'd: but it is impossible to extirp it quite, friar, till eating and drinking be put down. They say, this Angelo was not made by man and woman, after the downright way of creation: Is it true think you ?

Duke. How should he be made then?

Lucio. Some report a sea-maid spawn'd him :Some that he was begot between two stock-fishes: - But it is certain, that when he makes water, his urine is congeal'd ice; that I know to be true: and he is a motion ungenerative, that's infallible.

Duke. You are pleasant, sir; and speak apace. Lucio. Why, what a ruthless thing is this in him, for the rebellion of a cod-piece, to take away the life of a man? Would the duke, that is absent, have done this? Ere he would have hang'd a man for the getting a hundred bastards, he would have paid for the nursing of a thousand: He had some feeling of the sport; he knew the service, and that instructed him to mercy.

Duke. I never heard the absent duke much detected for women; he was not inclined that way. Lucio. O, sir, you are deceived.

Duke. 'Tis not possible.

Lucio. Well, then imprison him: If imprison- be drunk too; and let me inform you.

ment be the due of a bawd, why, 'tis his right: Bawd is he, doubtless, and of antiquity too; bawdborn. Farewell, good Pompey: Commend me to the prison, Pompey; You will turn good husband now, Pompey; you will keep the house."

Clo. I hope, sir, your good worship will be my

bail.

8

Lucio. No, indeed, will I not, Pompey; it is not the wear. I will pray, Pompey, to increase your 1 It is not neccessary to take honest Pompey for a housebreaker, the locks he had occasion to pick were Spanish padlocks. In Jonson's Volpone, Corvino threatens to make his wife wear one of these strange contrivances.

Duke. You do him wrong, surely.

Lucio. Sir, I was an inward1 of his: A shy fellow was the duke: and, I believe, I know the cause of his withdrawing.

Duke. What, I pr'ythee, might be the cause? Lucio. No, pardon;-'tis a secret must be lock'd within the teeth and the lips: but this I can let you understand,-The greater file of the subject held the duke to be wise.

Duke. Wise? why, no question but he was.

2 i. e. As faults are free from or destitute of all comeliness or seeming."

3 His neck will be tied, like your waist, with a cord. The friar wore a rope for a girdle.

4 i. e. Have you no new courtesans to recommend to your customers.

5 The method of cure for a certain disease was grossly called the powdering tub. See the notes on the tub fast and the diet, in Timon of Athens, Act iv. in the Variorum of Shakspeare.

6 i. e. inevitable.

7 i. e. stay at home, alluding to the etymology of husband.

8 i. e. fashion.

9 i. e. a puppet, or moving body, without the power of

generation.

10 Detected for suspected.

11 A wooden dish with a moveable cover, formerly carried by beggars, which they clacked and clattered to show that it was empty. In this they received the alms. It was one mode of attracting attention. Lepers and other paupers deemed infectious, originally used it, that the sound might give warning not to approach too near, and alms be given without touching the object. The custom of clacking at Easter is not yet quite disused in some counties. Lucio's meaning is too evident, to want explanation.

12 i. e. intimate.

13 The greater file, the majority of his subjects.

Lucio. A very superficial, ignorant, unweighing1 Escal. That fellow is a fellow of much licence:fellow. let him be called before us. Away with her to priDuke. Either this is envy in you, folly, or mis-son: Goto; no more words. [Exeunt Bawd and taking; the very stream of his life, and the business Officers.] Provost, my brother Angelo will not be be hath helmed, must, upon a warranted need, alter'd, Claudio must die to-morrow: let him be give him a better proclamation. Let him be but furnished with divines, and have all charitable pretestimonied in his own bringings forth, and he shall appear to the envious, a scholar, a statesman, and a soldier: Therefore, you speak unskilfully; or, if your knowledge be more, it is much darkened in your malice.

Lazio. Sir, I know him, and I love him. Date. Love talks with better knowledge, and knowledge with dearer love.

Lucio. Come, sir, I know what I know.

Duke. I can hardly believe that, since you know not what you speak. But, if ever the duke return (as our prayers are he mav,) let me desire you to make your answer before him: If it be honest you bave spoke, you have courage to maintain it: I am bound to call upon you; and, I pray you, your

name?

Lucio. Sir, my name is Lucio; well known to the

duke.

Duke. He shall know you better, sir, if I live to report you.

Lucio. I fear you not.

may

Duke. O, you hope the duke will return no more; or you imagine me too unhurtful an opposite. But, indeed, I can do you little harm; you'll forswear this again.

Lucio. I'll be hang'd first thou art deceived in me, friar. But no more of this; Canst thou tell if Claudio die to-morrow, or no?

Duke. Why should he die, sir?

Lacio. Why? for filling a bottle with a tun-dish. I would, the duke, we talk of, were return'd again: this ungenitur'd agent will unpeople the province with continency; sparrows must not build in his house-eaves, because they are lecherous. The duke yet would have dark deeds darkly answered; he would never bring them to light: would he were return'd! Marry, this Claudio is condemn'd for untrussing. Farewell, good friar; I pry'thee, pray for me. The duke, I say to thee again, would eat mutton' on Fridays. He's now past it; yet, and I say to thee, he would mouth with a beggar, though sae smelt brown bread and garlick: say, that said so. Farewell.

[Exit.

Dake. No might nor greatness in mortality
Can censure 'scape; back-wounding calumny
The whitest virtue strikes: What king so strong,
Can tie the gall up in the slanderous tongue?
But who comes here?

- Enter ESCALUS, Provost, Bawd, and Officers.
Escal. Go, away with her to prison.
Bawd. Good my lord, be good to me; your ho-
nour is accounted a merciful man: good my lord.
Escal. Double and treble admonition, and still
forfeit' in the same kind? This would make mercy
swear, and play the tyrant.

Prou. A bawd of eleven years continuance, may it please your honour.

Bawd. My lord, this is one Lucio's information against me: mistress Kate Keep-down was with child by him in the duke's time, he promised her marriage; his child is a year and a quarter old, ome Philip and Jacob: I have kept it myself; and see how he goes about to abuse me.

1 i. e. inconsiderate.

I

paration: if my brother wrought by my pity, it should not be so with him.

Prov. So please you, this friar hath been with him, and advised him for the entertainment of death. Escal. Good even, good father.

Duke. Bliss and goodness on you?
Escal. Of whence are you?

Duke. Not of this country, though my chance is

now

To use it for my time: I am a brother
Of gracious order, late come from the see,
In special business from his holiness.

Escal. What news abroad i' the world?

Duke. None, but that there is so great a fever on goodness, that the dissolution of it must cure it: novelty is only in request; and it is as dangerous to be aged in any kind of course, as it is virtuous to be constant in any undertaking. There is scarce truth enough alive, to make societies secure; but security enough, to make fellowships accurs'd: much upon this riddle runs the wisdom of the world. This news is old enough, yet it is every day's news. I pray you, sir, of what disposition was the duke?

Escal. One, that, above all other strifes, contended especially to know himself.

Duke. What pleasure was he given to ?

Escal. Rather rejoicing to see another merry, than merry at any thing which professed to make him rejoice: a gentleman of all temperance. But leave we him to his events, with a prayer they may prove prosperous; and let me desire to know how you find Claudio prepared. I am made to understand, that you have lent him visitation.

Duke. He professes to have received no sinister measure from his judge, but most willingly humbles himself to the determination of justice: yet had he framed to himself, by the instruction of his frailty, many deceiving promises of life; which I, by my good leisure, have discredited to him, and now is he resolved to die.

Escal. You have paid the heavens your function, and the prisoner the very debt of your calling. I have labour'd for the poor gentleman, to the extremest shore of my modesty; but my brother justice have I found so severe, that he hath forced me to tell him, he is indeed-justice, 10

Duke. If his own life answer the straitness of his proceeding, it shall become him well; wherein, if he chance to fail, he hath sentenced himself.

Escal. I am going to visit the prisoner: Fare you well.

Duke. Peace be with you!

[Exeunt ESCALUS and Provost.

He, who the sword of heaven will bear,
Should be as holy as severe;
Pattern in himself to know,

More nor less to others paying,
Grace to stand, and virtue go;11
Than by self-offences weighing.
Shame to him, whose cruel striking
Kills for faults of his own liking!
Twice treble shame on Angelo,

8 The allusion is to those legal securities into which He that fellowship leads men to enter for each other. For this

2 Guided, steered through, a metaphor from navi- quibble Shakspeare has high authority,

3 Opposite, opponent.

4 Ungenitur'd. This word seems to be formed from genitoirs, a word which occurs several times in Holland's Pliny, vol. ii. p. 321, 560, 589, and comes from the French genitoires.

5 A wench was called a laced mutton. In Doctor Faustus, 1604, Lechery says, 'I am one that loves an och of raw mutton better than an ell of stock-fish. 6 Smelt, for smelt of.

1 Forfeit, transgress, offend, from forfaire. Fr.

hateth suretiship is sure. Prov. xi. 15.

to decision or resolution.
9 i. e. satisfied; probably because conviction leads

10 Summum jus, summa injuria.

11 This passage is very obscure, nor can it be cleared may be willing to allow. without a more licentious paraphase than the reader heaven should be not less holy than severe; should be He that bears the sword of able to discover in himself a pattern of such grace as can avoid temptation, and such virtue as may go abroad into the world without danger of soduction."

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