To give me secret harbour4 hath a purpose
More grave and wrinkled5 than the aims and ends
Of burning youth.
FRIAR THOMAS May your grace speak of it?
DUKE My holy sir, none better knows than you
How I have ever loved the life removed9,
And held in idle price10 to haunt assemblies
Where youth and cost11 and witless bravery keeps.
I have delivered to Lord Angelo --
A man of stricture13 and firm abstinence --
My absolute power and place here in Vienna,
And he supposes me travelled to Poland,
For so I have strewed16 it in the common ear,
And so it is received. Now, pious sir,
You will demand18 of me why I do this.
FRIAR THOMAS Gladly, my lord.
DUKE We have strict statutes and most biting laws,
The needful bits and curbs21 to headstrong weeds,
Which for this fourteen years we have let slip22,
Even like an o'ergrown23 lion in a cave
That goes not out to prey. Now, as fond24 fathers,
Having bound up the threat'ning twigs of birch25,
Only to stick it in their children's sight
For terror, not to use, in time the rod27
Becomes more mocked than feared: so our decrees,
Dead29 to infliction, to themselves are dead,
And liberty plucks justice by the nose30,
The baby beats the nurse, and quite athwart31
Goes all decorum32.
FRIAR THOMAS It rested in your grace
To unloose this tied-up justice when you pleased:
And it in you more dreadful35 would have seemed
Than in Lord Angelo.
DUKE I do fear, too dreadful.
Sith38 'twas my fault to give the people scope,
'Twould be my tyranny to strike and gall39 them
For what I bid them do, for we bid this be done,
When evil deeds have their permissive pass41
And not the punishment. Therefore indeed, my father,
I have on Angelo imposed the office43,
Who may in th'ambush44 of my name strike home,
And yet my nature never in the fight
To do in slander45. And to behold his sway46,
I will, as 'twere a brother of your order47,
Visit both prince48 and people: therefore, I prithee,
Supply me with the habit49 and instruct me
How I may formally50 in person bear me
Like a true friar. More reasons for this action
At our more leisure shall I render you;
Only, this one: Lord Angelo is precise53,
Stands at a guard with54 envy, scarce confesses
That his blood flows, or that his appetite
Is more to bread than stone. Hence shall we see,
If power change purpose57, what our seemers be.
Exeunt
Act 1 Scene 5
running scene 4
Enter Isabella and Francisca, a nun
ISABELLA And have you nuns no further privileges?
FRANCISCA Are not these large enough?
ISABELLA Yes, truly. I speak not as desiring more,
But rather wishing a more strict restraint
Upon the sisterhood, the votarists5 of Saint Clare.
LUCIO Ho? Peace be in this place!
Within
ISABELLA Who's that which calls?
FRANCISCA 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 unsworn10.
When you have vowed, you must not speak with men
But in the presence of the prioress12.
Then, if you speak, you must not show your face,
Or, if you show your face, you must not speak.
He calls again. I pray you, answer him.
[Exit]
ISABELLA Peace and prosperity! Who is't that calls?
[Enter Lucio]
LUCIO Hail, virgin, if you be, as those cheek-roses17
Proclaim you are no less. Can you so stead18 me
As bring me to the sight of Isabella,
A novice20 of this place and the fair sister
To her unhappy21 brother Claudio?
ISABELLA Why her unhappy brother? Let me ask,
The rather for23 I now must make you know
I am that Isabella and his sister.
LUCIO Gentle and fair, your brother kindly25 greets you.
Not to be weary26 with you, he's in prison.
ISABELLA Woe me! For what?
LUCIO For that which, if myself might be his judge,
He should receive his punishment in thanks29:
He hath got his friend30 with child.
ISABELLA Sir, make me not your story31.
LUCIO 'Tis true.
I would not, though 'tis my familiar33 sin
With maids to seem the lapwing34 and to jest,
Tongue far from heart35, play with all virgins so.
I hold you as a thing enskied36 and sainted
By your renouncement37, an immortal spirit,
And to be talked with in sincerity,
As with a saint.
ISABELLA You do blaspheme40 the good in mocking me.
LUCIO Do not believe it. Fewness41 and truth, 'tis thus:
Your brother and his lover have embraced42.
As those that feed grow full, as blossoming time
That from the seedness44 the bare fallow brings
To teeming foison45, even so her plenteous womb
Expresseth46 his full tilth and husbandry.
ISABELLA Someone with child by him? My cousin47 Juliet?
LUCIO Is she your cousin?
ISABELLA Adoptedly, as school-maids change their names
By vain though apt affection50.
LUCIO She it is.
ISABELLA 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 hand55 and hope of action: but we do learn
By those that know the very nerves of state,
His giving-out58 were of an infinite distance
From his true-meant design59. Upon his place,
And with full line60 of his authority,
Governs Lord Angelo, a man whose blood
Is very snow-broth62: one who never feels
The wanton63 stings and motions of the sense,
But doth rebate64 and blunt his natural edge
With profits65 of the mind, study and fast.
He -- to give fear to use66 and liberty,
Which have for long run by the hideous67 law,
As mice by lions -- hath picked out an act,
Under whose heavy sense69 your brother's life
Falls into forfeit70. 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 grace73 by your fair prayer
To soften Angelo: and that's my pith74 of business
'Twixt you and your poor brother.
ISABELLA Doth he so seek his life?
LUCIO Has censured77 him already,
And, as I hear, the provost hath a warrant
For's execution.
ISABELLA Alas, what poor ability's in me
To do him good?
LUCIO Assay82 the power you have.
ISABELLA My power? Alas, I doubt--
LUCIO Our doubts are traitors,
And make us lose the good we oft might win
By fearing to attempt. Go to Lord Angelo,
And let him learn to know, when maidens sue87,
Men give88 like gods: but when they weep and kneel,
All their petitions are as freely theirs
> As they themselves would owe them89.
ISABELLA I'll see what I can do.
LUCIO But speedily.
ISABELLA I will about it straight,
No longer staying but to give the mother94
Notice of my affair. I humbly thank you:
Commend me to my brother. Soon at night96
I'll send him certain word of my success97.
LUCIO I take my leave of you.
ISABELLA Good sir, adieu.
Exeunt [separately]
Act 2 Scene 1
running scene 5
Enter Angelo, Escalus, Servants, [and a] Justice
ANGELO We must not make a scarecrow of the law,
Setting it up to fear2 the birds of prey,
And let it keep one shape, till custom3 make it
Their perch and not their terror.
ESCALUS Ay, but yet
Let us be keen6, and rather cut a little
Than fall7 and bruise to death. Alas, this gentleman
Whom I would save had a most noble father.
Let but your honour know --
Whom I believe to be most strait10 in virtue --
That, in the working of your own affections11,
Had time cohered with place or place with wishing,
Or that the resolute acting of your blood
Could have attained th'effect of your own purpose13,
Whether you had not sometime in your life
Erred in this point which16 now you censure him,
And pulled the law upon you.
ANGELO 'Tis one thing to be tempted, Escalus,
Another thing to fall. I not deny,
The jury passing20 on the prisoner's life,
May in the sworn twelve21 have a thief or two
Guiltier than him they try. What's open made22 to justice,
That justice seizes. What23 knows the laws
That thieves do pass on thieves? 'Tis very pregnant24,
The jewel that we find, we stoop and take't
Because we see it, but what we do not see
We tread upon, and never think of it.
You may not so extenuate28 his offence
For29 I have had such faults, but rather tell me,
When I, that censure him, do so offend,
Let mine own judgement pattern out31 my death,
And nothing come in partial32. Sir, he must die.
Enter Provost
ESCALUS Be it as your wisdom will.
ANGELO Where is the provost?
PROVOST Here, if it like35 your honour.
ANGELO See that Claudio
Be executed by nine tomorrow morning.
Bring him his confessor, let him be prepared38,
For that's the utmost of his pilgrimage39.
[Exit Provost]
ESCALUS Well, heaven forgive him, and forgive us all.
Aside
Some rise by sin, and some by virtue fall.
Some run from breaks of ice42, and answer none,
And some condemned for a fault alone43.
Enter Elbow [and] Officers [with] Froth [and] Clown [Pompey]
ELBOW Come, bring them away: if these be good people in
a commonweal that do nothing but use their abuses in
common houses45, I know no law. Bring them away.
ANGELO How now, sir, what's your name? And what's the
matter?
ELBOW If it please your honour, I am the poor duke's49
constable, and my name is Elbow: I do lean50 upon justice, sir,
and do bring in here before your good honour two notorious
benefactors52.
ANGELO Benefactors? Well, what benefactors are they? Are
they not malefactors?
ELBOW If it please your honour, I know not well what they
are, but precise56 villains they are, that I am sure of, and void
of all profanation57 in the world that good Christians ought
to have.
ESCALUS This comes off well59: here's a wise officer.
To Angelo
ANGELO Go to60, what quality are they of? Elbow is your
name? Why dost thou not speak, Elbow?
POMPEY He cannot, sir: he's out at elbow62.
ANGELO What are you, sir?
ELBOW He, sir? A tapster, sir, parcel-bawd64, one that serves a
bad woman, whose house65, sir, was, as they say, plucked
down in the suburbs: and now she professes66 a hot-house,
which, I think, is a very ill house too.
ESCALUS How know you that?
ELBOW My wife, sir, whom I detest69 before heaven and your
honour--
ESCALUS How? Thy wife?
ELBOW Ay, sir: whom, I thank heaven, is an honest woman--
ESCALUS Dost thou detest her therefore?
ELBOW I say, sir, I will detest myself also, as well as she, that
this house, if it be not a bawd's house, it is pity of her life75, for
it is a naughty76 house.
ESCALUS How dost thou know that, constable?
ELBOW Marry, sir, by my wife, who, if she had been a woman
cardinally79 given, might have been accused in fornication,
adultery and all uncleanliness80 there.
ESCALUS By the woman's means81?
ELBOW Ay, sir, by Mistress Overdone's means: but as she spit
in his83 face, so she defied him.
POMPEY Sir, if it please your honour, this is not so.
ELBOW Prove it before these varlets here, thou honourable85
man, prove it.
ESCALUS Do you hear how he misplaces87?
Aside to Angelo
POMPEY Sir, she came in great with child, and longing --
saving your honour's reverence89 -- for stewed prunes. Sir, we
had but two in the house, which at that very distant90 time
stood91, as it were, in a fruit-dish, a dish of some three-pence
-- your honours have seen such dishes, they are not China
dishes, but very good dishes--
ESCALUS Go to, go to: no matter for the dish, sir.
POMPEY No, indeed, sir, not of a pin95: you are therein in the
right. But to the point96. As I say, this Mistress Elbow, being, as
I say, with child, and being great-bellied, and longing, as I
said, for prunes, and having but two in the dish, as I said,
Master Froth here, this very man, having eaten the rest, as I
said, and, as I say, paying for them very honestly, for, as you
know, Master Froth, I could not give you three-pence again101.
FROTH No, indeed.
POMPEY Very well: you being then, if you be remembered,
cracking the stones104 of the foresaid prunes--
FROTH Ay, so I did indeed.
POMPEY Why, very well: I telling you then, if you be
remembered, that such a one and such a one were past cure
of the thing you wot of108, unless they kept very good diet, as I
told you--
FROTH All this is true.
POMPEY Why, very well, then--
ESCALUS Come, you are a tedious fool. To the purpose: what
was done to Elbow's wife, that he hath cause to complain of?
Come me114 to what was done to her.
POMPEY Sir, your honour cannot come to that yet.
ESCALUS No, sir, nor I mean it not.
POMPEY Sir, but you shall come to it, by your honour's leave.
And, I beseech you, look into118 Master Froth here, sir, a man of
fourscore pound119 a year, whose father died at Hallowmas.
Was't not at Hallowmas, Master Froth?
FROTH All-hallond eve121.
POMPEY Why, very well, I hope here be truths. He, sir, sitting,
as I say, in a lower chair123, sir, 'twas in the Bunch of Grapes,
where indeed you have a
delight to sit, have you not?
FROTH I have so, because it is an open125 room and good for
winter.
POMPEY Why, very well, then. I hope here be truths.
ANGELO This will last out a night in Russia128,
When nights are longest there. I'll take my leave
And leave you to the hearing of the cause130,
Hoping you'll find good cause131 to whip them all.
Exit [Angelo]
ESCALUS I think no less. Good morrow to your lordship.--
Now, sir, come on: what was done to Elbow's wife, once more?
POMPEY Once, sir? There was nothing done134 to her once.
ELBOW I beseech you, sir, ask him what this man did to my
wife.
POMPEY I beseech your honour, ask me.
ESCALUS Well, sir, what did this gentleman to her?
POMPEY I beseech you, sir, look in this gentleman's face.
Good Master Froth, look upon his honour, 'tis for a good
purpose. Doth your honour mark141 his face?
ESCALUS Ay, sir, very well.
POMPEY Nay, I beseech you, mark it well.
ESCALUS Well, I do so.
POMPEY Doth your honour see any harm in his face?
ESCALUS Why, no.
POMPEY I'll be supposed147 upon a book, his face is the worst
thing about him. Good, then, if his face be the worst thing
about him, how could Master Froth do the constable's wife
any harm148? I would know that of your honour.
ESCALUS He's in the right. Constable, what say you to it?
ELBOW First, an it like152 you, the house is a respected house;
next, this is a respected fellow, and his mistress is a respected
woman.
POMPEY By this hand, sir, his wife is a more respected person
than any of us all.
ELBOW Varlet, thou liest, thou liest, wicked varlet! The time
is yet to come that she was ever respected158 with man, woman
or child.
POMPEY Sir, she was respected with him before he married
with her.
ESCALUS Which is the wiser here? Justice or Iniquity162? Is this
true?
ELBOW O thou caitiff164! O thou varlet! O thou wicked
Hannibal165! I respected with her before I was married to her? If
ever I was respected with her, or she with me, let not your
worship think me the poor duke's officer. Prove this, thou
wicked Hannibal, or I'll have mine action of battery168 on thee.
ESCALUS If he took169 you a box o'th'ear, you might have your
action of slander too.
ELBOW Marry, I thank your good worship for it. What is't
your worship's pleasure I shall do with this wicked caitiff?
ESCALUS Truly, officer, because he hath some offences in him
that thou wouldst discover174 if thou couldst, let him continue
in his courses175 till thou know'st what they are.
ELBOW Marry, I thank your worship for it.--
To Pompey
Thou see'st, thou wicked varlet, now, what's come upon thee:
thou art to continue178 now, thou varlet, thou art to continue.
ESCALUS Where were you born, friend?
FROTH Here in Vienna, sir.
ESCALUS Are you of fourscore pounds a year?
FROTH Yes, an't182 please you, sir.
ESCALUS So. What trade are you of, sir?
POMPEY A tapster, a poor widow's tapster.