as he spit in his face, so she defied him.

Clo. Sir, if it please your honor, this is not so. E. Prove it before these varlets here, thou honorable man, prove it.

Excal. Do you hear how he misplaces?

[TO ANGELO. Clo. Sir, she came in great with child; and longing (saving your honors reverence) for stew'd prunes; sir, we had but two in the house, which at that very distant time stood as it were, in a fruitdish, a dish of some three-pence: your honors have seen such dishes; they are not china dishes, but very good dishes.

Escal. Go to, go to: no matter for the dish, sir. Cla. No, indeed, sir, not of a pin; you are therefore in the right; but, to the point: as I say, this mistress Elbow, being, as I say, with child, and being great belly'd, 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; -tor, as you know, master Froth, I could not give you three-pence again.

Froth. No, indeed.

Froth. All-hollond' eve.

Clo. Why, very well: I hope here be truths: he. <r, sitting, as I say, in a lower chair, 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 open room, and good for winter.

Clo. Why, very well then;-I hope here be truths.

Ang. This will last out a night in Russia, When nights are longest there: I'll take my leave, And leave you to the hearing of the cause; Hoping, you'll find good cause to whip them all. Excal. I think no less: good morrow to your lordship. [Exit ANGELO. Now, sir, come on: what was done to Elbow's wife, eace more?

(lo. Once, sir? there was nothing done to her

Escal. Ay, sir, very well.

Clo. Nav. I beseech you, mark it well.
Ercal Well, I do so.

Clo. Doth your honor see any harm in his face?
Escal. Why, no.

Clo. I'll be suppos'da upon a book, his face is he worst thing about him: good then; if his face Se the worst thing about him, how could master Froth do the constable's wife any harm? I would Anow that of your honor.

Farat. He's in the right: constable, what say you

Co. By this hand, sir, his wife is a more res pected person than any of us all.

Elb. Varlet, thou liest; thou liest, wicked varlet. the time is yet to come, that she was ever respect ed with man, woman, or child.

Clo. Sir, she was respected with him before he married with her.

Escal. Which is the wiser here? justice or ini. quity? Is this true?

Elb. O thou caitiff! O thou varlet! O thou wicked Hannibal! 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 battery on thee. Escal. If he took you a box o' the ear, you might have your action of slander too.

Elb. Marry, I thank your good worship for it: what is't your worship's pleasure I should do with this wicked caitiff?

Excal. Truly, officer, because he hath some of fences in him, that thou wouldst discover if thou couldst, let him continue in his courses, till thou know'st what they are.

Elb. Marry, I thank your worship for it:-thou seest, thou wicked varlet now, what's come upon thee; thou art to continue now, thou varlet; thou art to continue.

Escal. Where were you born, friend?

[TO FROTH.

Froth. Here, in Vienna, sir.
Escal. Are you of fourscore pounds a year?
Froth. Yes, and 't please you, sir.
Escal. So.-What trade are you of, sir?

[To the Clown.

Clo. A tapster: a poor widow's tapster.
Escal. Your mistress's name?
Clo. Mistress Over-done.

Escal. Hath she had any more than one husband?

Clo. Nine, sir; Over-done by the last.

Escal. Nine!-Come hither to me, master Froth, Master Froth, I would not have you acquainted with tapsters; they will draw you, master Froth, and you will hang them: get you gone, and let me hear no more of you.

Froth. I thank your worship: for mine own part, I never come into any room in a taphouse, but I am drawn in.

Escal. Well; no more of it, master Froth: farewell. [Exit FROTH.- Come you hither to me master tapster; what's your name, master tapster? Clo. Pompey.

Escal. What else?

Clo. Bum, sir.

Escal. How would you live, Pompey? by being a bawd? What do you think of the trade, Pompey? is it a lawful trade?

Clo. If the law would allow it, sir. Escal. But the law will not allow it, Pompey; nor it shall not be allowed in Vienna.

Clo. Does your worship mean to geld and spay all the youth in the city?"

Escal. No, Pompey.

Clo Truly, sir, in my poor opinion, they will to 't then if your worship will take orders for the drabs and the knaves, you need not to fear the bawds.

Escal. There are pretty orders beginning, I can tell you: it is but heading and hanging.

Cio. If you head and hang all that offend that way but for ten years together, you'll be glad to give out a commission for more heads. If this law hold in Vienna ten years, I'll rent the fairest house in it, after three-pence a day: if you live to see this come to pass, say Pompey told you so.

Escal. Thank you, good Pompey: and, in requital of your prophecy, hark you.- I advise you, let me not find you before me again upon any con 4 Constable or Clown. For cannibal.

• Measures.

plaint whatsoever no, not for dwelling where you! do: If I do, Pompey, I shall beat you to your tent, and prove a shrewd Cæsar to you; in plain dealing, Pon pey, I shall have you whipt: so for this time, Poripey, fare you well.

Clo. I thank your worship for your good counsel; but I shall follow it as the flesh and fortune shall better determine.

Whip me! No, no; let carman whip his jade;
The valiant heart's not whipt out of his trade.

[Exit. Escal. Come hither to me, master Elbow; come hither, master Constable. How long have you been in this place of constable?

Elb. Seven years and a half, sir.

Escal. I thought, by your readiness in the office, you had continued in it some time: You say, seven ears together?

Elb. And a half, sir.

Escal. Alas! it hath been great pains to you! They do you wrong to put you so oft upon 't: Are there not men in your ward sufficient to serve it!

Elb. Faith, sir, few of any wit in such matters: as they are chosen, they are glad to choose me for them. I do it for some piece of money, and go through with all. Escal. Look you, bring me in the names of some six or seven of the most sufficient of your parish. Elb. To your worship's house, sir!

Escal. To my house: Fare you well. [Exit. ELBOW. What's o'clock, think you.

Mercy is not itself that oft looks su,
Pardon is still the nurse of second woe.
But yet, poor Claudio!-There's no remedy.
Come, sir.

[Exit.

SCENE II.-Another Room in the same.

Enter Provost and a Servant.

Ang. Stay a little while.-[To ISAB. You are welcome: What's your will? Isab. I am a woeful suitor to your honor: Please but your honor hear me. Ang. Well; what's your suit Isub. There is a vice that most I do abhor, And most desire should meet the blow of justice, For which I would not plead, but that I must; For which I must not piead, but that I am At war, 'twixt will, and will not. Ang. Well; the matter! Isub. I have a brother is condemned to die: I do beseech you, let it be his fault, And not my brother.

Prov. Heaven give thee moving graces! Ang. Condemn the fault and not the actor of it! Why, every fault's condemned, ere it be done: Mine were the very cipher of a function, To fine the faults, whose fine stands in record, And let go by the actor. Isab.

O just, but severe law! I had a brother then.- Heaven keep your honor! [Retiring. Lucio. [To ISAB] Give 't not o'er so: to Jun again, intreat him;

Kneel down before him, hang upon his gown;
You are too cold; if you should need a pin
You could not with more tame a tongue desire it:
To him, I say.

Isab. Must he needs die?
Ang.

Maiden, no remedy. Isub. Yes; I do think that you might pardon him, And neither heaven, nor man, grieve at the mercy. Ang. I will not do't.

Isab.
But you can, if you would!
Ang. Look, what I will not, that I cannot do.
Isab. But might you do 't, and do the world no
wrong!

If so, your heart were touch'd with that remorse
As mine is to him.

Ang.

I'll tell him of you.

Prov. Pray you do. [Exit. Servant.] I'll know
His pleasure; may be, he will relent: Alas,
He hath but as offended in a dream!

All sects, all ages, smack of this vice; and he
To die for it!

Ang.

Enter ANGELO.

Now what's the matter, Provost? Prov. Is it your will Claudio shall die to-morrow?

Ang. Did not tell thee, yea? hadst thou not order?

Why dost thou ask again?

Prov.

Become them with one half so good a grace,
As mercy does. If he had been as you,
And you as he, you would have slipt like him;
But he, like you, would not have been so stern.
Ang. Pray you, begone.

Isub. I would to heaven I had your potency,
And you were Isabel! should it then be thus?
No; I would tell what 'twere to be a judge,
And what a prisoner.

Lucio. Ay, touch him: there's the vein, [Aside Ang. Your brother is a forfeit of the law, And you but waste your words. Isab.

Alas! alas!

Under your good correction, I have seen, When, after execution, judgment hath Repented o'er his doom.

Ang.

If He, which is the top of judgment, should But judge you as you are? O, think on that; And mercy then will breathe within your lips,

Do your office, or give up your place,
And you shall well be spar'd.

Prov. I crave your honor's pardon.—
What shall be done, sir, with the groaning Juliet?
She's very near her hour.
Dispose of her

Ang.

To some more fitter place; and that with speed.

Ang. Be you content, fair maid; It is the law, not I, condemns your brother: Were he my kinsman, brother, or my son, It should be thus with him:- he must die to-mor

And so in progress to be hatch'd and born)
Are now to have no súccessive degrees,
But, where they live, to end.
bus.

Yet show some pity.
Ang. I show it most of all, when I show justice;
For then I pity those I do not know,
Which a dismiss'd offence would after gall;

And do him right, that answering one foul wrong, Lives not to act another. Be satisfied;

Your brother dies to-morrow: be content.

Isab so you must be the first that gives this sentence;

And he, that suffers: 0, it is excellent

To have a giant's strength; but it is tyrannous
To use it like a giant.
Lucia,

That's well said.

Isa. Could great men thunder

As Jove himself does, Jove would ne'er be quiet, For every pelting, petty officer,

Would use his heaven for thunder; nothing but thunder.

Merciful heaven!

Toou rather, with thy sharp and sulphurous bolt,
Spitst the unwedgeable and knarled oak,
Than the soft myrtle;-0, but man, proud man!
Dres in a little brief authority,

Most ignorant of what he's most assur'd,
H's glassy essence,-like an angry ape,
Plays such fantastic tricks before high heaven,

As nase the angels weep: who, with our spleens,
Would all themselves laugh mortal.
Lio. . to him, to him, wench: he will relent;
He's coming, I perceive t.
Prov.

Pray heaven, she win him! . We cannot weigh our brother with ourself: Great men may jest with saints: 'tis wit in them; bat, in the less, foul profanation.

Lucie Thou'rt in the right, girl; more o' that. I. That in the captain's but a choleric word, Which in the soldier is flat blasphemy. Lirio. Art advis'd o' that? more on't.

Ang. Why do you put these sayings upon me? b. Because authority, though it err like others, Hath yet a kind of medicine in itself,

That skins the vice o the top: Go to your bosom; Kork there; and ask your heart, what it doth know That's like my brother's fault: if it confess

A natural guiltiness, such as is his,

Let it not sound a thought upon your tongue
Agost my brother's life.

She speaks, and 'tis

Such sense, that my sense breeds with it.- Fare

you well.

Lab. Sare your honor!

At any time forenoon.

[Exeunt Lucio, ISABELLA, and Provost. Ang. From thee; even from thy virtue!What's this? what's this? Is this her fault or mine? The tempter, or the tempted, who sins most? ha!

Not she; nor doth she tempt: But it is 1,

Tut lying by the violet, in the sun,
D2, as the carrion does, not as the flower,
Curupt with virtuous season. Can it be,

· Paltry.
• Knotted.
⚫ Stamped.
Preserved from the corruption of the world.

That modesty may more betray our sense
Than woman's lightness? Having waste ground
enougn,

Shall we desire to raze the sanctuary,
And piten our evils there! O, fye, iye, fye
What dost thou? or what art thou, Ange.o!
Dost thou desire her foully, for those things
That make her good? 0, let her brother live:
Thieves for their robbery have authority,
When judges steal themselves. What! do I love her,
That I desire to hear her speak again,
And feast upon her eyes! What is 't I dream on?
O cunning enemy, that to caten a saint,
With saints dost bait thy hcok! Most dangerous
Is that temptation, that doth goad us on

To sin in loving virtue; never could the strumpet
With all her double vigor, art, and nature
Once stir my temper; but this virtuous maid
Subdues me quité;- Ever, till now,

When men were fond, I smil'd, and wonder'd how.

[Exit.

SCENE III.- A Room in a Prison. Enter DUKE, habited like a Friar, and Provost. Duke. Hail to you, provost! so I think you are. Prov. I am the provost: What's your will, good friar?

Duke. Bound by my charity, and my bless'd order, Here in the prison: do me the common right I come to visit the afflicted spirits To let me see them; and to make me know The nature of their crimes, that I may minister To the accordingly.

Pro i would do inore than that, if more were needful.

Prov. As I do think, to-morrow. I have provided for you; stay awhile, [To JULIET And you shall be conducted.

Duke. Repent you, fair one, of the sin you carry
Juliet. I do; and bear the shame most patiently
Duke. I'll teach you how you shall arraign your
conscience,

And try your penitence, if it be sound,
Or hollowly put on.

Juliet.

I'll gladly learn.

Duke. Love you the man that wrong'd you? Juliet. Yes, as I love the woman that wrong'd him. Duke. So then, it seems, your most offenceful act Was mutually committed!

Juliet.

Mutually.

Duke. Then was your sin of heavier kind than his. Juliet. I do confess it, and repent it, father. Duke. Tis meet so, daughter: But lest you do

repent,

As that the sin hath brought you to this shame,Which sorrow is always toward ourselves, no

heaven;

Showing, we'd not spare heaven, as we love it, But as we stand in fear.

Juliet. I do repent me, as it is an evil; And take the shame with joy.

Duke.

There rest.

Your partner, as I hear, must die to-morrow, And I am going with instruction to him.Grace go with you! Benedicite!

[Exit.

Juliet. Must die to-morrow! O, injurious love, That respites me a life, whose very comfort Is still a dying horror! Prov.

'Tis pity of him. [Exeunt.

SCENE IV.- A Room in Angelo's House.

And smell of calumny. I have begun;
And now I give my sensual race the rein:
Fit thy consent to my sharp appetite;
Lav by all nicety, and prolixious blushes,

That banish what they sue for; redeem thy brother
By yielding up thy body to my will;
Or else he must not only die the death,

But thy unkindness shall his death draw out
To lingering sufferance: answer me to-morrow,
Or, by the affection that now guides me most,
I'll prove a tyrant to him: As for you,
Say what you can, my false o'erweighs your true.

[Exit.

Lab. To whom shall I complain? Did I tell this, Who would believe me? O perilous mouths,

That bear in them one and the self-same tongue.
Either of condemnation or approof!
Bidding the law make court'sy to their will;
Hooking both right and wrong to the appetite,
To follow as it draws! I'll to my brother:
Though he hath fallen by prompture of the blood,
Yet hath he in him such a mind of honor,
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. [Exit

SCENE L-A Room in the Prison. Enter Duke, CLAUDIO, and Provost. Duke. So, then you hope of pardon from lord

Angelo!

Claud. The miserable have no other medicine, But only hope:

I have hope to live, and am prepar'd to die.

Duke. Be absolute for death: 'either death, or life, Shall thereby be the sweeter. Reason thus with life,If I do lose thee. I do lose a thing

That none but fools would keep: a breath thou art, (Servile to all the skiey influences,)

That dost this habitation, where thou keep'st,
Hourly afflict: merely, thou art death's fool;
For him thou labor'st by thy flight to shun.

And yet run'st toward him still: Thou art not noble;
For all the accommodations that thou bear'st,

Are nurs'd by baseness: Thou art by no means 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 thousand grains
That issue out of dust: Happy thou art not;
For what thou hast not, still thou striv'st to get;
And what thou hast. forget'st: Thou art not certain;
For thy complexion shifts to strange effects,"
After the moon: If thou art rich, thou art poor;
For, like an ass, whose back with ingots bows,
Thou bear'st thy heavy riches but a journey,
And death unloads thee: Friend hast thou none;
For thine own bowels, which do call thee sire,
The mere effusion of thy proper loins,
Do curse the gout, serpigo, and the rheum.

for ending thee no sooner: Thou hast nor youth,

nor age:

But, as it were, an after-dinner's sleep,
reaming on both: for all thy blessed youth
Becomes as azed, and doth beg the alms
Of palsied eld; 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
Lehid more thousand deaths. yet death we fear.
That makes these odds all even.
Claud.

I humbly thank you.
To sue to live. I find. I seek to die;
And seeking death, find life: Let it come on.
Enter ISABELLA.

Isab. What, ho! Peace here; grace and good

company!

Pror. Who's there? come in: the wish deserves

Prov.

As many as you please.

Yet hear them.
[Exeunt Duke and Provost
Claud.
Now, sister, what's the comfort?
Isab. Why, as all comforts are; most good indeed.
Lord Angelo, having atlairs to heaven,"
Intends you for his swift ambassador,
Where you shall be an everlasting lieger:
Therefore your best appointment make with speed;
To-morrow you set on.

Claud.
Is there no remedy?
Isab. None, but such a remedy, as to save a hear,
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 vastidity you had, To a determined scope.

Claud.

But in what nature? Isab. In such a one as (you consenting to 't) And leave you naked. Would bark your honor from that trunk you bear

Claud. Let me know the point. Isb. O, I do fear thee, Claudio; and I quake, Lest thou a feverous life shouldst entertain, And six or seven winters more respect Than a perpetual honor. Dar'st thou die? The sense of death is most in apprehension; And the poor beetle that we tread upon, In corporal sufferance finds a pang as great As when a giant dies. Claud.

Why give you me this shame? Think you I can a resolution fetch From flowery tenderness? If I must die, I will encounter darkness as a bride,

And hug it in mine arms.

Isab. There spake my brother; there my father's

grave

Did utter forth a voice! Yes, thou must die:
Thou art too noble to conserve a life

In base appliances. This outward-sainted deputy,-
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.
The princely Angelo?
Isab. O, 'tis the cunning livery of hell,"
The vilest body to invest and cover

Claud.

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 I to offend him still: This night's the time,
That I should do what I abhor to name,

Or else thou diest to-morrow.
Claud.

Thou shalt not do't.

conceal'd,

Isab. O, were it but my life, As frankly as a pin. Claud.

Thanks, dear Isabel.

s Resident.