I will, as 'twere a Brother of your Order,
Vifit both prince and people; therefore, pr'ythee,
Supply me with the habit, and instruct me
How I may formally in perfon bear,

Like a true Friar. More reasons for this action
At our more leisure fhall I render you;
Only, this one :-Lord Angelo is precife ;
"Stands at a guard with envy; fcarce confeffes
"That his blood flows, or that his appetite
"Is more to bread than stone: hence fhall we see,
If pow'r change purpose, what our feemers be. [Exe.

SCENE VIII.

A Nunnery.

Enter Ifabella and Francifca.

Ifab. AND have you Nuns no further privileges?

Nun. Are not these large enough?

Ifab. Yes, truly; I fpeak not as defiring more;
But rather wishing a more strict restraint

Upon the fifter-hood, the votarifts of Saint Clare.
Lucio. [within.] Hoa! Peace be in this place!
Ifab. Who's that, which calls?

Nun. It is a man's voice: gentle Ifabella,
Turn you the key, and know his bufinefs of him;
You may; I may not; you are yet unfworn:

* When you have vow'd, you must not speak with men, But in the presence of the Priorefs;

Then, if you fpeak, you must not fhew your face; Or, if you fhew your face, you must not speak.

8 When you bave vow'd, you must not speak with men,
But in the prefence of the Priorefs;

He

Then, if you fpeak, you must not fhew your face; Or, if you fhew your face, you must not speak.] This is a very artful preparation for the effects that Ifabel's folicitation had on Angelo in the following Scene, as it fhews the mischiefs of

beauty

He calls again; I pray you, answer him. [Exit Franc,
Ifab. Peace and profperity! who is't that calls?
Enter Lucio.

Lucio. Hail, virgin, (if you be) as those cheek-rofes
Proclaim you are no lefs; can you so stead me,
As bring me to the fight of Isabella,

A novice of this place, and the fair fifter
To her unhappy brother Claudio?

Ifab. Why her unhappy brother? let me ask
The rather, for I now muft make you know
I am that Ifabella, and his fifter.

[you;

Lucio. Gentle and fair, your brother kindly greets

Not to be weary with you, he's in prison,

Ifab. Wo me! for what?

Lucia. For that, which, if myself might be his judge,
He should receive his punishment in thanks;
He hath got his friend with child.

[liar fin

my fami

Ifab. Sir, make me not your story.
Lucio. 'Tis true:- I would not (tho' 9 'tis
With maids to seem the lapwing, and to jeft,
Tongue far from heart) play with all virgins fo.
I hold you as a thing en-sky'd, and fainted

beauty to be fo great, that the Religious had laid down rules and
regulations to prevent its inordinate influence, which leffens our
furprise at Angelo's weakness.

9

-'tis my familiar fin

With maids to feem the lapwing,-] The Oxford Editor's note, on this paffage, is in these words. The lapwings fly with feeming fright and anxiety far from their nefts, to deceive thofe who feek their young. And do not all other birds do the fame? But what has this to do with the infidelity of a general lover, to whom this bird is compared. It is another quality of the lapwing, that is here alluded to, viz. its perpetually flying fo low and fo near the paffenger, that he thinks he has it, and then is fuddenly gone again. This made it a proverbial expreffion to fignify a lover's falfhood and it feems to be a very old one; for Chaucer, in his Plowman's Tale, fays And lapwings that well conith lie.

By

By your renouncement, an immortal Spirit;
And to be talk'd with in fincerity,

As with a Saint.

Ifab. You do blafpheme the good, in mocking me. Lucio. Do not believe it. Fewness and truth, 'tis thus; Your brother and his lover having embrac'd, As those that feed grow full, as bloffoming time • That from the feedness the bare fallow brings To teeming foyfon; so her plenteous womb Expreffeth his full tilth and husbandry. [Fuliet? İfab. Some one with child by him?-my coufin Lucio. Is fhe your cousin ?

2

Ifab. Adoptedly, as fchool-maids change their names, By vain, tho' apt, affection.

Lucio. She it is.

Ifab. O, let him marry her!
Lucio. This is the point.

The Duke is very strangely gone from hence;
Bore many gentlemen, myfelf being one,
In hand and hope of action; but we learn,
By thofe that know the very nerves of ftate,
His givings out were of an infinite distance
From his true-meant defign. Upon his place,
And with full line of his authority,

Governs lord Angelo; a man whofe blood,
Is very fnow-broth; one who never feels
The wanton ftings and motions of the sense;
But doth rebate and blunt his natural edge
With profits of the mind, ftudy and faft.
He, (to give fear to use and liberty,
Which have long time run by the hideous law,
As mice by lyons ;) hath pickt out an act,
Under whofe heavy fenfe

your brother's life

1 That from the feednefs-] An old word for feed-time. So the lawyers tranflate femen hyemale & quadragefimale, by winter feedness, and lent feedness.

2foyson ;] Harveft.

Mr. Pope.

Falls

Falls into forfeit; he arrefts him on it;
And follows close the rigour of the statute,
To make him an example; all hope's gone,
Unless you have the grace by your fair prayer
To foften Angelo; and that's my pith of business
'Twixt you and your poor brother.

Ifab. Doth he fo

Seek for his life?

Lucio. H'as cenfur'd him already;
And, as I hear, the Provoft hath a warrant
For's execution.

Ifab. Alas! what poor

Ability's in me, to do him good?
Lucio. Affay the power you have.
Ifab. My power? Alas! I doubt.
Lucio. Our doubts are traitors;

And make us lofe the good, we oft might win,
By fearing to attempt. Go to lord Angelo,
And let him learn to know, when maidens fue,
Men give like Gods; but when they weep and kneel,
All their petitions are as truly theirs,

As they themselves would owe them.
Ifab. I'll fee what I can do.

Lucio. But, fpeedily..

Ifab. I will about it ftrait;

No longer staying, but to give the mother
Notice of my affair. I humbly thank you;
Commend me to my brother: foon at night
I'll fend him certain word of my fuccefs.
Lucio. I take my leave of you.
Ifab. Good Sir, adieu.

[Exeunt

ACT II. SCENE I.

The PALACE.

Enter Angelo, Efcalus, a Justice, and Attendants.

W

ANGEL O.

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 pearch, and not their terror.

Efcal. Ay, but yet

Let us be keen, and rather cut a little,

Than fall, and bruise to death. Alas! this gentleman,
Whom I would fave, had a most noble father;
Let but your Honour know,

Whom I believe to be most strait in virtue,
That, in the working of your own affections,
Had time coher'd with place, or place with wifhing,
Or that the refolute acting of your blood

Could have attain'd th' effect of your own purpose
Whether you had not fometime in your life

Err'd in this point, which now you cenfure him,
And pull'd the law upon you.

Ang. 'Tis one thing to be tempted, Efcalus,
Another thing to fall. I not deny,

The jury, paffing on the prifoner's life,

May in the fworn twelve have a thief or two,

Guiltier than him they try; what's open made to

juftice,

That justice seizes on.

That thieves do pass on

What know the laws,

thieves? 'tis very pregnant,

The jewel that we find, we ftoop and take't,

1 Than F ALL, and bruise to death.] I should rather read FELL,. e. ftrike down. So in Timon of Athens,

"All, fave thee, "I FELL with curfes.

Because