Measure for Measure
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ACT V SCENE I | The city gate. | |
MARIANA veiled, ISABELLA, and FRIAR PETER, at their stand. Enter DUKE VINCENTIO, VARRIUS, Lords, ANGELO, ESCALUS, LUCIO, Provost, Officers, and Citizens, at several doors. | ||
DUKE VINCENTIO | My very worthy cousin, fairly met! | |
Our old and faithful friend, we are glad to see you. | ||
ANGELO | | | |
| Happy return be to your royal grace! | 5 | |
ESCALUS | | | |
DUKE VINCENTIO | 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, | 10 | |
Forerunning more requital. | ||
ANGELO | You make my bonds still greater. | |
DUKE VINCENTIO | 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, | 15 | |
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, | 20 | |
You must walk by us on our other hand; | ||
And good supporters are you. | ||
FRIAR PETER and ISABELLA come forward. | ||
FRIAR PETER | Now is your time: speak loud and kneel before him. | |
ISABELLA | Justice, O royal duke! Vail your regard | |
Upon a wrong’d, I would fain have said, a maid! | 25 | |
O worthy prince, dishonour not your eye | ||
By throwing it on any other object | ||
Till you have heard me in my true complaint | ||
And given me justice, justice, justice, justice! | ||
DUKE VINCENTIO | Relate your wrongs; in what? by whom? be brief. | 30 |
Here is Lord Angelo shall give you justice: | ||
Reveal yourself to him. | ||
ISABELLA | O worthy duke, | |
You bid me seek redemption of the devil: | ||
Hear me yourself; for that which I must speak | 35 | |
Must either punish me, not being believed, | ||
Or wring redress from you. Hear me, O hear me, here! | ||
ANGELO | My lord, her wits, I fear me, are not firm: | |
She hath been a suitor to me for her brother | ||
Cut off by course of justice,– | 40 | |
ISABELLA | By course of justice! | |
ANGELO | And she will speak most bitterly and strange. | |
ISABELLA | 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? | 45 | |
That Angelo is an adulterous thief, | ||
An hypocrite, a virgin-violator; | ||
Is it not strange and strange? | ||
DUKE VINCENTIO | Nay, it is ten times strange. | |
ISABELLA | It is not truer he is Angelo | 50 |
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. | ||
DUKE VINCENTIO | Away with her! Poor soul, | |
She speaks this in the infirmity of sense. | 55 | |
ISABELLA | O prince, I conjure thee, as thou believest | |
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 | 60 | |
But one, the wicked’st caitiff on the ground, | ||
May seem as shy, as grave, as just, as absolute | ||
As Angelo; even so may Angelo, | ||
In all his dressings, characts, titles, forms, | ||
Be an arch-villain; believe it, royal prince: | 65 | |
If he be less, he’s nothing; but he’s more, | ||
Had I more name for badness. | ||
DUKE VINCENTIO | By mine honesty, | |
If she be mad,–as I believe no other,– | ||
Her madness hath the oddest frame of sense, | 70 | |
Such a dependency of thing on thing, | ||
As e’er I heard in madness. | ||
ISABELLA | O gracious duke, | |
Harp not on that, nor do not banish reason | ||
For inequality; but let your reason serve | 75 | |
To make the truth appear where it seems hid, | ||
And hide the false seems true. | ||
DUKE VINCENTIO | Many that are not mad | |
Have, sure, more lack of reason. What would you say? | ||
ISABELLA | I am the sister of one Claudio, | 80 |
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,– | 85 | |
LUCIO | That’s I, an’t like your grace: | |
I came to her from Claudio, and desired her | ||
To try her gracious fortune with Lord Angelo | ||
For her poor brother’s pardon. | ||
ISABELLA | That’s he indeed. | 90 |
DUKE VINCENTIO | You were not bid to speak. | |
LUCIO | No, my good lord; | |
Nor wish’d to hold my peace. | ||
DUKE VINCENTIO | I wish you now, then; | |
Pray you, take note of it: and when you have | 95 | |
A business for yourself, pray heaven you then | ||
Be perfect. | ||
LUCIO | I warrant your honour. | |
DUKE VINCENTIO | The warrants for yourself; take heed to’t. | |
ISABELLA | This gentleman told somewhat of my tale,– | 100 |
LUCIO | Right. | |
DUKE VINCENTIO | It may be right; but you are i’ the wrong | |
To speak before your time. Proceed. | ||
ISABELLA | I went | |
To this pernicious caitiff deputy,– | 105 | |
DUKE VINCENTIO | That’s somewhat madly spoken. | |
ISABELLA | Pardon it; | |
The phrase is to the matter. | ||
DUKE VINCENTIO | Mended again. The matter; proceed. | |
ISABELLA | In brief, to set the needless process by, | 110 |
How I persuaded, how I pray’d, and kneel’d, | ||
How he refell’d me, and how I replied,– | ||
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 | 115 | |
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 | 120 | |
For my poor brother’s head. | ||
DUKE VINCENTIO | This is most likely! | |
ISABELLA | O, that it were as like as it is true! | |
DUKE VINCENTIO | By heaven, fond wretch, thou knowist not what thou speak’st, | |
Or else thou art suborn’d against his honour | 125 | |
In hateful practise. 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 | 130 | |
And not have cut him off. Some one hath set you on: | ||
Confess the truth, and say by whose advice | ||
Thou camest here to complain. | ||
ISABELLA | And is this all? | |
Then, O you blessed ministers above, | 135 | |
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 VINCENTIO | I know you’ld fain be gone. An officer! | 140 |
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 practise. | ||
Who knew of Your intent and coming hither? | ||
ISABELLA | One that I would were here, Friar Lodowick. | 145 |
DUKE VINCENTIO | 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 | ||
For certain words he spake against your grace | ||
In your retirement, I had swinged him soundly. | 150 | |
DUKE VINCENTIO | Words against me? this is a good friar, belike! | |
And to set on this wretched woman here | ||
Against our substitute! Let this friar be found. | ||
LUCIO | But yesternight, my lord, she and that friar, | |
I saw them at the prison: a saucy friar, | 155 | |
A very scurvy fellow. | ||
FRIAR PETER | Blessed be your royal grace! | |
I have stood by, my lord, and I have heard | ||
Your royal ear abused. First, hath this woman | ||
Most wrongfully accused your substitute, | 160 | |
Who is as free from touch or soil with her | ||
As she from one ungot. | ||
DUKE VINCENTIO | We did believe no less. | |
Know you that Friar Lodowick that she speaks of? | ||
FRIAR PETER | I know him for a man divine and holy; | 165 |
Not scurvy, nor a temporary meddler, | ||
As he’s reported by this gentleman; | ||
And, on my trust, a man that never yet | ||
Did, as he vouches, misreport your grace. | ||
LUCIO | My lord, most villanously; believe it. | 170 |
FRIAR PETER | Well, he in time may come to clear himself; | |
But at this instant he is sick my lord, | ||
Of a strange fever. Upon his mere request, | ||
Being come to knowledge that there was complaint | ||
Intended ‘gainst Lord Angelo, came I hither, | 175 | |
To speak, as from his mouth, what he doth know | ||
Is true and false; and what he with his oath | ||
And all probation will make up full clear, | ||
Whensoever he’s convented. First, for this woman. | ||
To justify this worthy nobleman, | 180 | |
So vulgarly and personally accused, | ||
Her shall you hear disproved to her eyes, | ||
Till she herself confess it. | ||
DUKE VINCENTIO | Good friar, let’s hear it. | |
ISABELLA is carried off guarded; and MARIANA comes forward. | ||
Do you not smile at this, Lord Angelo? | 185 | |
O heaven, the vanity of wretched fools! | ||
Give us some seats. Come, cousin Angelo; | ||
In this I’ll be impartial; be you judge | ||
Of your own cause. Is this the witness, friar? | ||
First, let her show her face, and after speak. | 190 | |
MARIANA | Pardon, my lord; I will not show my face | |
Until my husband bid me. | ||
DUKE VINCENTIO | What, are you married? | |
MARIANA | No, my lord. | |
DUKE VINCENTIO | Are you a maid? | 195 |
MARIANA | No, my lord. | |
DUKE VINCENTIO | A widow, then? | |
MARIANA | Neither, my lord. | |
DUKE VINCENTIO | Why, you are nothing then: neither maid, widow, nor wife? | |
LUCIO | My lord, she may be a punk; for many of them are | 200 |
neither maid, widow, nor wife. | ||
DUKE VINCENTIO | Silence that fellow: I would he had some cause | |
To prattle for himself. | ||
LUCIO | Well, my lord. | |
MARIANA | My lord; I do confess I ne’er was married; | 205 |
And I confess besides I am no maid: | ||
I have known my husband; yet my husband | ||
Knows not that ever he knew me. | ||
LUCIO | He was drunk then, my lord: it can be no better. | |
DUKE VINCENTIO | For the benefit of silence, would thou wert so too! | 210 |
LUCIO | Well, my lord. | |
DUKE VINCENTIO | This is no witness for Lord Angelo. | |
MARIANA | Now I come to’t my lord | |
She that accuses him of fornication, | ||
In self-same manner doth accuse my husband, | 215 | |
And charges him my lord, with such a time | ||
When I’ll depose I had him in mine arms | ||
With all the effect of love. | ||
ANGELO | Charges she more than me? | |
MARIANA | Not that I know. | 220 |
DUKE VINCENTIO | No? you say your husband. | |
MARIANA | Why, just, my lord, and that is Angelo, | |
Who thinks he knows that he ne’er knew my body, | ||
But knows he thinks that he knows Isabel’s. | ||
ANGELO | This is a strange abuse. Let’s see thy face. | 225 |
MARIANA | My husband bids me; now I will unmask. | |
Unveiling. | ||
This is that face, thou cruel Angelo, | ||
Which once thou sworest was worth the looking on; | ||
This is the hand which, with a vow’d contract, | ||
Was fast belock’d in thine; this is the body | 230 | |
That took away the match from Isabel, | ||
And did supply thee at thy garden-house | ||
In her imagined person. | ||
DUKE VINCENTIO | Know you this woman? | |
LUCIO | Carnally, she says. | 235 |
DUKE VINCENTIO | Sirrah, no more! | |
LUCIO | Enough, my lord. | |
ANGELO | My lord, I must confess I know this woman: | |
And five years since there was some speech of marriage | ||
Betwixt myself and her; which was broke off, | 240 | |
Partly for that her promised proportions | ||
Came short of composition, but in chief | ||
For that her reputation was disvalued | ||
In levity: since which time of five years | ||
I never spake with her, saw her, nor heard from her, | 245 | |
Upon my faith and honour. | ||
MARIANA | Noble prince, | |
As there comes light from heaven and words from breath, | ||
As there is sense in truth and truth in virtue, | ||
I am affianced this man’s wife as strongly | 250 | |
As words could make up vows: and, my good lord, | ||
But Tuesday night last gone in’s garden-house | ||
He knew me as a wife. As this is true, | ||
Let me in safety raise me from my knees | ||
Or else for ever be confixed here, | 255 | |
A marble monument! | ||
ANGELO | I did but smile till now: | |
Now, good my lord, give me the scope of justice | ||
My patience here is touch’d. I do perceive | ||
These poor informal women are no more | 260 | |
But instruments of some more mightier member | ||
That sets them on: let me have way, my lord, | ||
To find this practise out. | ||
DUKE VINCENTIO | Ay, with my heart | |
And punish them to your height of pleasure. | 265 | |
Thou foolish friar, and thou pernicious woman, | ||
Compact with her that’s gone, think’st thou thy oaths, | ||
Though they would swear down each particular saint, | ||
Were testimonies against his worth and credit | ||
That’s seal’d in approbation? You, Lord Escalus, | 270 | |
Sit with my cousin; lend him your kind pains | ||
To find out this abuse, whence ’tis derived. | ||
There is another friar that set them on; | ||
Let him be sent for. | ||
FRIAR PETER | Would he were here, my lord! for he indeed | 275 |
Hath set the women on to this complaint: | ||
Your provost knows the place where he abides | ||
And he may fetch him. | ||
DUKE VINCENTIO | Go do it instantly. | |
Exit Provost. | ||
And you, my noble and well-warranted cousin, | 280 | |
Whom it concerns to hear this matter forth, | ||
Do with your injuries as seems you best, | ||
In any chastisement: I for a while will leave you; | ||
But stir not you till you have well determined | ||
Upon these slanderers. | 285 | |
ESCALUS | My lord, we’ll do it throughly. | |
Exit DUKE. | ||
Signior Lucio, did not you say you knew that | ||
Friar Lodowick to be a dishonest person? | ||
LUCIO | ‘Cucullus non facit monachum:’ honest in nothing | |
but in his clothes; and one that hath spoke most | 290 | |
villanous speeches of the duke. | ||
ESCALUS | We shall entreat you to abide here till he come and | |
enforce them against him: we shall find this friar a | ||
notable fellow. | ||
LUCIO | As any in Vienna, on my word. | 295 |
ESCALUS | Call that same Isabel here once again; I would speak with her. | |
Exit an Attendant. | ||
Pray you, my lord, give me leave to question; you | ||
shall see how I’ll handle her. | ||
LUCIO | Not better than he, by her own report. | |
ESCALUS | Say you? | 300 |
LUCIO | Marry, sir, I think, if you handled her privately, | |
she would sooner confess: perchance, publicly, | ||
she’ll be ashamed. | ||
ESCALUS | I will go darkly to work with her. | |
LUCIO | That’s the way; for women are light at midnight. | 305 |
Re-enter Officers with ISABELLA; and Provost with DUKE VINCENTIO in his friar’s habit. | ||
ESCALUS | Come on, mistress: here’s a gentlewoman denies all | |
that you have said. | ||
LUCIO | My lord, here comes the rascal I spoke of; here with | |
the provost. | ||
ESCALUS | In very good time: speak not you to him till we | 310 |
call upon you. | ||
LUCIO | Mum. | |
ESCALUS | Come, sir: did you set these women on to slander | |
Lord Angelo? they have confessed you did. | ||
DUKE VINCENTIO | ‘Tis false. | 315 |
ESCALUS | How! know you where you are? | |
DUKE VINCENTIO | Respect to your great place! and let the devil | |
Be sometime honour’d for his burning throne! | ||
Where is the duke? ’tis he should hear me speak. | ||
ESCALUS | The duke’s in us; and we will hear you speak: | 320 |
Look you speak justly. | ||
DUKE VINCENTIO | Boldly, at least. But, O, poor souls, | |
Come you to seek the lamb here of the fox? | ||
Good night to your redress! Is the duke gone? | ||
Then is your cause gone too. The duke’s unjust, | 325 | |
Thus to retort your manifest appeal, | ||
And put your trial in the villain’s mouth | ||
Which here you come to accuse. | ||
LUCIO | This is the rascal; this is he I spoke of. | |
ESCALUS | Why, thou unreverend and unhallow’d friar, | 330 |
Is’t not enough thou hast suborn’d these women | ||
To accuse this worthy man, but, in foul mouth | ||
And in the witness of his proper ear, | ||
To call him villain? and then to glance from him | ||
To the duke himself, to tax him with injustice? | 335 | |
Take him hence; to the rack with him! We’ll touse you | ||
Joint by joint, but we will know his purpose. | ||
What ‘unjust’! | ||
DUKE VINCENTIO | Be not so hot; the duke | |
Dare no more stretch this finger of mine than he | 340 | |
Dare rack his own: his subject am I not, | ||
Nor here provincial. My business in this state | ||
Made me a looker on here in Vienna, | ||
Where I have seen corruption boil and bubble | ||
Till it o’er-run the stew; laws for all faults, | 345 | |
But faults so countenanced, that the strong statutes | ||
Stand like the forfeits in a barber’s shop, | ||
As much in mock as mark. | ||
ESCALUS | Slander to the state! Away with him to prison! | |
ANGELO | What can you vouch against him, Signior Lucio? | 350 |
Is this the man that you did tell us of? | ||
LUCIO | ‘Tis he, my lord. Come hither, goodman baldpate: | |
do you know me? | ||
DUKE VINCENTIO | I remember you, sir, by the sound of your voice: I | |
met you at the prison, in the absence of the duke. | 355 | |
LUCIO | O, did you so? And do you remember what you said of the duke? | |
DUKE VINCENTIO | Most notedly, sir. | |
LUCIO | Do you so, sir? And was the duke a fleshmonger, a | |
fool, and a coward, as you then reported him to be? | ||
DUKE VINCENTIO | You must, sir, change persons with me, ere you make | 360 |
that my report: you, indeed, spoke so of him; and | ||
much more, much worse. | ||
LUCIO | O thou damnable fellow! Did not I pluck thee by the | |
nose for thy speeches? | ||
DUKE VINCENTIO | I protest I love the duke as I love myself. | 365 |
ANGELO | Hark, how the villain would close now, after his | |
treasonable abuses! | ||
ESCALUS | Such a fellow is not to be talked withal. Away with | |
him to prison! Where is the provost? Away with him | ||
to prison! lay bolts enough upon him: let him | 370 | |
speak no more. Away with those giglots too, and | ||
with the other confederate companion! | ||
DUKE VINCENTIO | To Provost | |
ANGELO | What, resists he? Help him, Lucio. | |
LUCIO | Come, sir; come, sir; come, sir; foh, sir! Why, you | |
bald-pated, lying rascal, you must be hooded, must | 375 | |
you? Show your knave’s visage, with a pox to you! | ||
show your sheep-biting face, and be hanged an hour! | ||
Will’t not off? | ||
Pulls off the friar’s hood, and discovers DUKEVINCENTIO | ||
DUKE VINCENTIO | Thou art the first knave that e’er madest a duke. | |
First, provost, let me bail these gentle three. | 380 | |
To LUCIO. | ||
Sneak not away, sir; for the friar and you | ||
Must have a word anon. Lay hold on him. | ||
LUCIO | This may prove worse than hanging. | |
DUKE VINCENTIO | To ESCALUS. | |
We’ll borrow place of him. | ||
To ANGELO. | ||
Sir, by your leave. | 385 | |
Hast thou or word, or wit, or impudence, | ||
That yet can do thee office? If thou hast, | ||
Rely upon it till my tale be heard, | ||
And hold no longer out. | ||
ANGELO | O my dread lord, | 390 |
I should be guiltier than my guiltiness, | ||
To think I can be undiscernible, | ||
When I perceive your grace, like power divine, | ||
Hath look’d upon my passes. Then, good prince, | ||
No longer session hold upon my shame, | 395 | |
But let my trial be mine own confession: | ||
Immediate sentence then and sequent death | ||
Is all the grace I beg. | ||
DUKE VINCENTIO | Come hither, Mariana. | |
Say, wast thou e’er contracted to this woman? | 400 | |
ANGELO | I was, my lord. | |
DUKE VINCENTIO | Go take her hence, and marry her instantly. | |
Do you the office, friar; which consummate, | ||
Return him here again. Go with him, provost. | ||
Exeunt ANGELO, MARIANA, FRIAR PETER and Provost. | ||
ESCALUS | My lord, I am more amazed at his dishonour | 405 |
Than at the strangeness of it. | ||
DUKE VINCENTIO | Come hither, Isabel. | |
Your friar is now your prince: as I was then | ||
Advertising and holy to your business, | ||
Not changing heart with habit, I am still | 410 | |
Attorney’d at your service. | ||
ISABELLA | O, give me pardon, | |
That I, your vassal, have employ’d and pain’d | ||
Your unknown sovereignty! | ||
DUKE VINCENTIO | You are pardon’d, Isabel: | 415 |
And now, dear maid, be you as free to us. | ||
Your brother’s death, I know, sits at your heart; | ||
And you may marvel why I obscured myself, | ||
Labouring to save his life, and would not rather | ||
Make rash remonstrance of my hidden power | 420 | |
Than let him so be lost. O most kind maid, | ||
It was the swift celerity of his death, | ||
Which I did think with slower foot came on, | ||
That brain’d my purpose. But, peace be with him! | ||
That life is better life, past fearing death, | 425 | |
Than that which lives to fear: make it your comfort, | ||
So happy is your brother. | ||
ISABELLA | I do, my lord. | |
Re-enter ANGELO, MARIANA, FRIAR PETER, and Provost. | ||
DUKE VINCENTIO | For this new-married man approaching here, | |
Whose salt imagination yet hath wrong’d | 430 | |
Your well defended honour, you must pardon | ||
For Mariana’s sake: but as he adjudged your brother,– | ||
Being criminal, in double violation | ||
Of sacred chastity and of promise-breach | ||
Thereon dependent, for your brother’s life,– | 435 | |
The very mercy of the law cries out | ||
Most audible, even from his proper tongue, | ||
‘An Angelo for Claudio, death for death!’ | ||
Haste still pays haste, and leisure answers leisure; | ||
Like doth quit like, and MEASURE still FOR MEASURE. | 440 | |
Then, Angelo, thy fault’s thus manifested; | ||
Which, though thou wouldst deny, denies thee vantage. | ||
We do condemn thee to the very block | ||
Where Claudio stoop’d to death, and with like haste. | ||
Away with him! | 445 | |
MARIANA | O my most gracious lord, | |
I hope you will not mock me with a husband. | ||
DUKE VINCENTIO | It is your husband mock’d you with a husband. | |
Consenting to the safeguard of your honour, | ||
I thought your marriage fit; else imputation, | 450 | |
For that he knew you, might reproach your life | ||
And choke your good to come; for his possessions, | ||
Although by confiscation they are ours, | ||
We do instate and widow you withal, | ||
To buy you a better husband. | 455 | |
MARIANA | O my dear lord, | |
I crave no other, nor no better man. | ||
DUKE VINCENTIO | Never crave him; we are definitive. | |
MARIANA | Gentle my liege,– | |
Kneeling | ||
DUKE VINCENTIO | You do but lose your labour. | 460 |
Away with him to death! | ||
To LUCIO | ||
Now, sir, to you. | ||
MARIANA | O my good lord! Sweet Isabel, take my part; | |
Lend me your knees, and all my life to come | ||
I’ll lend you all my life to do you service. | 465 | |
DUKE VINCENTIO | Against all sense you do importune her: | |
Should she kneel down in mercy of this fact, | ||
Her brother’s ghost his paved bed would break, | ||
And take her hence in horror. | ||
MARIANA | Isabel, | 470 |
Sweet Isabel, do yet but kneel by me; | ||
Hold up your hands, say nothing; I’ll speak all. | ||
They say, best men are moulded out of faults; | ||
And, for the most, become much more the better | ||
For being a little bad: so may my husband. | 475 | |
O Isabel, will you not lend a knee? | ||
DUKE VINCENTIO | He dies for Claudio’s death. | |
ISABELLA | Most bounteous sir, | |
Kneeling | ||
Look, if it please you, on this man condemn’d, | ||
As if my brother lived: I partly think | 480 | |
A due sincerity govern’d his deeds, | ||
Till he did look on me: since it is so, | ||
Let him not die. My brother had but justice, | ||
In that he did the thing for which he died: | ||
For Angelo, | 485 | |
His act did not o’ertake his bad intent, | ||
And must be buried but as an intent | ||
That perish’d by the way: thoughts are no subjects; | ||
Intents but merely thoughts. | ||
MARIANA | Merely, my lord. | 490 |
DUKE VINCENTIO | Your suit’s unprofitable; stand up, I say. | |
I have bethought me of another fault. | ||
Provost, how came it Claudio was beheaded | ||
At an unusual hour? | ||
Provost | It was commanded so. | 495 |
DUKE VINCENTIO | Had you a special warrant for the deed? | |
Provost | No, my good lord; it was by private message. | |
DUKE VINCENTIO | For which I do discharge you of your office: | |
Give up your keys. | ||
Provost | Pardon me, noble lord: | 500 |
I thought it was a fault, but knew it not; | ||
Yet did repent me, after more advice; | ||
For testimony whereof, one in the prison, | ||
That should by private order else have died, | ||
I have reserved alive. | 505 | |
DUKE VINCENTIO | What’s he? | |
Provost | His name is Barnardine. | |
DUKE VINCENTIO | I would thou hadst done so by Claudio. | |
Go fetch him hither; let me look upon him. | ||
Exit Provost | ||
ESCALUS | I am sorry, one so learned and so wise | 510 |
As you, Lord Angelo, have still appear’d, | ||
Should slip so grossly, both in the heat of blood. | ||
And lack of temper’d judgment afterward. | ||
ANGELO | I am sorry that such sorrow I procure: | |
And so deep sticks it in my penitent heart | 515 | |
That I crave death more willingly than mercy; | ||
‘Tis my deserving, and I do entreat it. | ||
Re-enter Provost, with BARNARDINE, CLAUDIO muffled,and JULIET | ||
DUKE VINCENTIO | Which is that Barnardine? | |
Provost | This, my lord. | |
DUKE VINCENTIO | There was a friar told me of this man. | 520 |
Sirrah, thou art said to have a stubborn soul. | ||
That apprehends no further than this world, | ||
And squarest thy life according. Thou’rt condemn’d: | ||
But, for those earthly faults, I quit them all; | ||
And pray thee take this mercy to provide | 525 | |
For better times to come. Friar, advise him; | ||
I leave him to your hand. What muffled fellow’s that? | ||
Provost | This is another prisoner that I saved. | |
Who should have died when Claudio lost his head; | ||
As like almost to Claudio as himself. | 530 | |
Unmuffles CLAUDIO. | ||
DUKE VINCENTIO | To ISABELLA. | |
Is he pardon’d; and, for your lovely sake, | ||
Give me your hand and say you will be mine. | ||
He is my brother too: but fitter time for that. | ||
By this Lord Angelo perceives he’s safe; | ||
Methinks I see a quickening in his eye. | 535 | |
Well, Angelo, your evil quits you well: | ||
Look that you love your wife; her worth worth yours. | ||
I find an apt remission in myself; | ||
And yet here’s one in place I cannot pardon. | ||
To LUCIO. | ||
You, sirrah, that knew me for a fool, a coward, | 540 | |
One all of luxury, an ass, a madman; | ||
Wherein have I so deserved of you, | ||
That you extol me thus? | ||
LUCIO | ‘Faith, my lord. I spoke it but according to the | |
trick. If you will hang me for it, you may; but I | 545 | |
had rather it would please you I might be whipt. | ||
DUKE VINCENTIO | Whipt first, sir, and hanged after. | |
Proclaim it, provost, round about the city. | ||
Is any woman wrong’d by this lewd fellow, | ||
As I have heard him swear himself there’s one | 550 | |
Whom he begot with child, let her appear, | ||
And he shall marry her: the nuptial finish’d, | ||
Let him be whipt and hang’d. | ||
LUCIO | I beseech your highness, do not marry me to a whore. | |
Your highness said even now, I made you a duke: | 555 | |
good my lord, do not recompense me in making me a cuckold. | ||
DUKE VINCENTIO | Upon mine honour, thou shalt marry her. | |
Thy slanders I forgive; and therewithal | ||
Remit thy other forfeits. Take him to prison; | ||
And see our pleasure herein executed. | 560 | |
LUCIO | Marrying a punk, my lord, is pressing to death, | |
whipping, and hanging. | ||
DUKE VINCENTIO | Slandering a prince deserves it. | |
Exit Officers with LUCIO. | ||
She, Claudio, that you wrong’d, look you restore. | ||
Joy to you, Mariana! Love her, Angelo: | 565 | |
I have confess’d her and I know her virtue. | ||
Thanks, good friend Escalus, for thy much goodness: | ||
There’s more behind that is more gratulate. | ||
Thanks, provost, for thy care and secrecy: | ||
We shill employ thee in a worthier place. | 570 | |
Forgive him, Angelo, that brought you home | ||
The head of Ragozine for Claudio’s: | ||
The offence pardons itself. Dear Isabel, | ||
I have a motion much imports your good; | ||
Whereto if you’ll a willing ear incline, | 575 | |
What’s mine is yours and what is yours is mine. | ||
So, bring us to our palace; where we’ll show | ||
What’s yet behind, that’s meet you all should know. | ||
Exeunt. |