To make him an example. All hope is gone, Of business 'twixt you and your poor brother. Has censur'd him Lucio. Isab. Alas! what poor ability's in me Lucio. Assay the power you have. Isab. My power! Alas! I doubt, Lucio. And make us lose the By fearing to attempt. Our doubts are traitors, good we oft might win, Go to Lord Angelo, And let him learn to know, when maidens sue, As they themselves would owe them. But speedily. Isab. I will about it straight, Isab. Good sir, adieu. [Exeunt. ACT II. SCENE I.-A Hall in ANGELO's House. Enter ANGELO, ESCALUS, a Justice, Officers, and other Attendants. WE ANGELO. E must not make a scare-crow of the law, Setting it up to fear the birds of prey, And let it keep one shape, till custom make it Their perch, and not their terror. Escal. Ay, but yet Let us be keen, and rather cut a little, Than fall and bruise to death. Alas! this gentle man Whom I would save had a most noble father. Let but your honour know, (Whom I believe to be most strait in virtue,) Could have attain'd th' effect of your own purpose, Ang. 'Tis one thing to be tempted, Escalus, The jury, passing on the prisoner's life, The jewel that we find, we stoop and take't, For I have had such faults; but rather tell me, Let mine own judgment pattern out my death, Where is the Provost? Enter Provost. See that Claudio Prov. Here, if it like your honour. [Exit Provost. Escal. Well, Heaven forgive him, and forgive us all! Some rise by sin, and some by virtue fall : Some run from brakes of vice and answer none; And some condemned for a fault alone. Enter ELBOW, FROTH, Clown, Officers, &c. Elbow. Come, bring them away. If these be good people in a common-weal, that do nothing but use their abuses in common houses, I know no law: bring them away. Ang. How now, sir! What's your name, and what's the matter? Elb. If it please your honour, I am the poor Duke's constable, and my name is Elbow: I do lean upon justice, sir; and do bring in here before your good honour two notorious benefactors. Ang. Benefactors! Well; what benefactors are they are they not malefactors? Elb. If it please your honour, I know not well what they are; but precise villains they are, that I am sure of, and void of all profanation in the world, that good Christians ought to have. Escal. This comes off well: here's a wise officer. Ang. Go to: what quality are they of? Elbow is your name: why dost thou not speak, Elbow? Clo. He cannot, sir: he's out at elbow. Ang. What are you, sir? Elb. He, sir? a tapster, sir-parcel-bawd; one that serves a bad woman, whose house, sir, was, as they say, pluck'd down in the suburbs; and now she professes a hot-house, which, I think, is a very ill house too. Escal. How know you that? Elb. My wife, sir, whom I detest before Heaven and your honour, Escal. How! thy wife? Elb. Ay, sir; whom, I thank Heaven, is an honest woman, Escal. Dost thou detest her therefore? Elb. 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 life, for it is a naughty house. Escal. How dost thou know that, Constable? Elb. Marry, sir, by my wife; who, if she had been a woman cardinally given, might have been accus'd in fornication, adultery, and all uncleanliness there. Escal. By the woman's means? Elb. Ay, sir, by Mistress Over-done's means; but as she spit in his face, so she defi'd him. Clo. Sir, if it please your honour, this is not so. Elb. Prove it before these varlets here, thou honourable man; prove it. Escal. [To ANGELO.] Do you hear how he misplaces? Clo. Sir, she came in great with child, and longing (saving your honour's 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 honours have seen such dishes; they are not China dishes, but very good dishes. Escal. Go to, go to: no matter for the dish, sir. Clo. No, indeed, sir, not of a pin; you are therein 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; — for, as you know, Master Froth, I could not give you three pence again. Froth. No, indeed. Clo. Very well: you being then, if you be remember'd, cracking the stones of the 'foresaid prunes. Froth. Ay, so I did, indeed. Clo. Why, very well: I telling you then, if you be remember'd, that such a one, and such a one, were past cure of the thing you wot of, unless they kept very good diet, as I told you. Froth. All this is true. Clo. Why, very well then. Escal. Come; you are a tedious fool: to the purpose. What was done to Elbow's wife, that he hath cause to complain of? Come we to what was done to her. |