SCENE V.

Fields without the Town. Enter Duke in his own hab

it, and Friar PETER.

Duke. These letters at fit time deliver me.

[Giving letters.

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. Go, call at Flavius' house,
And tell him where I stay: give the like notice
To Valentinus, 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.

7

[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. [Exeunt.

SCENE VI.

Street near the City Gate.

MARIANA.

Enter ISABELLA and

Isab. To speak so indirectly, I am loth;
I would say the truth: but to accuse him so,
That is your part: yet I'm advis'd to do it;
He says, to veil full purpose.

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. 32*

VOL. I.

The generous 8 and gravest citizens
Have hent the gates, and very near upon
The duke is entering: therefore hence, away.

ACT V.

[Exe.

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.

Ang. & Escal. Happy return be to your royal grace !
Duke. Many and hearty thankings to you both.

We have made inquiry of you; and we hear
Such goodness of your justice, that our soul
Cannot but yield you forth to public thanks,
Forerunning 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 razure of oblivion : Give me your hand,
And let the subject see, 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.

PETER and ISABELLA come forward.

Pet. Now is your time; speak loud, and kneel before him.

Isab. Justice, O royal duke! Vail your regardı

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.

"Virgo et generosa et nobilis."-Cicero. STEEVENS.

[9] Have seized or taken possession of the gates. JOHNSON.

[1] That is, withdraw your thoughts from higher things, let your notice

descend upon a wronged woman. To vail is to lower, JOHNSON.

Till you have heard me in my true complaint,
And given me, justice, justice, justice, justice !

Duke. Relate your wrongs: In what? By whom? Be

brief:

Here is lord Angelo shall give you justice;

Reveal yourself to him.

Isab. O, worthy duke,

You bid me seek 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: hear me, O, hear me, here.
Ang. My lord, her wits, I fear me, are not firm:

She hath beeen a suitor to me for her brother,
Cut off by course of justice.

Isab. By 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 murderer; is't not strange?
That Angelo is an adulterous thief,

An hypocrite, a virgin-violator;
Is it not strange, and strange ?
Duke. Nay, ten times strange.

Isab. It is not truer he is Angelo,
Than this is all as true as it is strange :
Nay, it is ten times true; for truth is truth
To the end of reckoning.2

Duke. Away with her :-Poor soul,
She speaks this in the infirmity of sense.

Isab. O prince, I cónjure thee, as thou believ'st

There is another comfort than this world,
That thou neglect me not, with that opinion
That I am touch'd with madness: make not impossible
That which but seems unlike: 'tis not impossible,
But one, the wicked'st caitiff on the ground,

May seem as shy, as grave, as just, as absolute, 3
As Angelo; even so may Angelo,

In all his dressings, characts, titles, forms,

Be an arch-villain: believe it, royal prince,

[2] That is, truth has no gradations; nothing which admits of increase can be so much what it is, as truth is truth. There may be a strange thing, and a thing more strange, but if a proposition be true, there can be none more true. JOHNSON.

[3] As shy, as reserved, as abstracted: as just, -as nice, as exact: as absolute, -as complete in all the round of duty. JOHNSON.

If he be less, he's nothing; but he's more,
Had I more name for badness.

Duke. By mine honesty,

If she be mad, (as I believe no other,)
Her madness hath the oddest frame of sense,
Such a dependency of thing on thing,
As e'er I heard in madness.

Isab. O, gracious duke,

Harp not on that; nor do not banish reason
For inequality: but let your reason serve
To make the truth appear, where it seems hid;
And hide the false, seems true.

Duke. Many that are not mad,

Have, sure, more lack of reason. -What would you say?

Isab. I am the sister of one Claudio,
Condemn'd upon the act of fornication
To lose his head; condemn'd by Angelo:
I, in probation of a sisterhood,
Was sent to by my brother: One Lucio
As then the messenger;

Lucio. That's I, an't like your grace:
I came to her from Claudio, and desir'd her
To try her gracious fortune with lord Angelo,
For her poor brother's pardon.
Isab. That's he, indeed.

Duke. You were not bid to speak.

Lucio. No, my good lord;

Nor wish'd to hold my peace.

Duke. I wish you now then;

Pray you, take note of it: and when you have
A business for yourself, pray heaven, you then
Be perfect.

Lucio. I warrant your honour.

Duke. The warrant's for yourself; take heed to it. Isab. This gentleman told somewhat of my tale.

Lucio. Right.

Duke. It may be right; but you are in the wrong

To speak before your time.-Proceed.

Isab. I went

To this pernicious caitiff deputy

Duke. That's somewhat madly spoken.

Isab. Pardon it;

The phrase is to the matter.

Duke. Mended again: the matter;-Proceed.

Isab. In brief, -to set the needless process by,

How I persuaded, how I pray'd, and kneel'd,
How he refell'd me, and how I reply'd;
(For this was of much length,) the vile conclusion
I now begin with grief and shame to utter:
He would not, but by gift of my chaste body
To his concupiscible intemperate lust,
Release my brother; and, after much debatement,
My sisterly remorse confutes mine honour,
And I did yield to him: But the next morn betimes,
His purpose surfeiting, he sends a warrant
For my poor brother's head.

Duke. This is most likely!

Isab. O, that it were as like, as it is true!

Duke. By heaven, fond wretch, 4 thou know'st not what

thou speak'st;

Or else thou art suborn'd against his honour,
In hateful practice: First, his integrity

Stands without blemish :-next, it imports no reason,
That with such vehemency he should pursue
Faults proper to himself: if he had so offended,
He would have weigh'd thy brother by himself,
And not have cut him off: Some one hath set you on;
Confess the truth, and say by whose advice
Thou cam'st here to complain?

Isab. And is this all?

Then, oh, you blessed ministers above,
Keep me in patience; and, with ripen'd time,
Unfold the evil which is here wrapt up
In countenance!-Heaven shield your grace from woe,
As I, thus wrong'd, hence unbelieved go!

Duke. I know, you'd fain be gone :-- An officer!
To prison with her :- Shall we thus permit
A blasting and a scandalous breath to fall
On him so near us? This needs must be a practice.5
-Who knew of your intent, and coming hither?

Isab. One that I would were here, friar Lodowick.
Duke. A ghostly father, belike:-Who knows that

Lodowick?

Lucio. My lord, I know him; 'tis a meddling friar; I do not like the man: had he been lay, my lord,

[4] Fond wretch is foolish wretch.

STEEVENS.

[5] Practice was used by the old writers for any unlawful or insidious stratagem. JOHNSON.