When she will play with reafon and discourse,
And well fhe can perfuade.

Lucio. I pray, the may; as well for the encourage ment of the like, which elfe would stand under grievous impofition; as for the enjoying of thy life, who I would be forry fhould be thus foolishly loft at a game of tick-tack. I'll to her.

Claud. I thank you, good friend Lucio.
Lucio. Within two hours,-

Claud. Come, officer, away.

SCENE

[Exeunt,

VII.

A MONASTERY.

Enter Duke, and Friar Thomas.

Duke. N Believe not, that the dribbling dart of love

O; holy father, throw away that thought;

Can pierce a compleat bofom: why I defire thee
To give me fecret harbour, hath a purpose

More grave, and wrinkled, than the aims and ends
Of burning youth.

Fri. May your Grace speak of it?

Duke. My holy Sir, none better knows than you,
How I have ever lov'd the life remov'd;
And held in idle price to haunt Affemblies,
Where youth, and coft, and witlefs bravery keeps
I have deliver'd to lord Angelo

5 (A man of ftrict ure and firm abftinence)
My abfolute Pow'r and Place here in Vienna;
And he supposes me travell'd to Poland;
For fo I've ftrew'd it in the common ear,

5 A man of STRICTURE and firm abftinence】 ftri&ture makes no fenfe in this place. We should read,

A man of STRICT URE and firm abftinence.

i. e. a man of the exacteft conduct, and practifed in the fabdual of his paffions. Ure an old word for ufe, practice, fo enur'd, habituated to.

And

And fo it is receiv'd: now, pious Sir,
You will demand of me, why I do this?
Fri. Gladly, my lord.

Duke. We have ftrict Statutes and most biting Laws, 6 (The needful bits and curbs for head-strong Steeds,) Which for these nineteen years 7 we have let sleep; Even like an o'er-grown lion in a cave,

That goes not out to prey: now, as fond fathers
Having bound up the threat'ning twigs of birch,
Only to stick it in their children's fight,
For terror, not to use; in time the rod
Becomes more mock'd, than fear'd: fo our Decrees,
Dead to infliction, to themselves are dead;
And Liberty plucks Juftice by the nose;
The baby beats the nurfe and quite athwart
Goes all decorum.

Fri. It refted in your Grace

T'unloofe this ty'd up juftice, when you pleas'd:
And it in you more dreadful would have feem'd,
Than in lord Angelo.

Duke. I do fear, too dreadful.

Sith 'twas my fault to give the people scope,
'Twould be my tyranny to ftrike, and gall them,
For what I bid them do. For we bid this be done,
When evil deeds have their permiffive pass,

And not the punishment. Therefore, indeed, my father,
I have on Angelo impos'd the office :

Who may in th' ambush of my name ftrike home,
And yet, my nature never in the fight

To do in flander: And to behold his fway,

6 The needful bits and curbs for headftrong WEEDS,] Common fenfe, and the integrity of the metaphor, fhews that Shakespear wrote beadftrong STEEDS.

Even like an o'er-grown lion in a cave,] The fimilitude fhews that Shakespear wrote,

we have let SLEEP.

I will,

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

Like a true Friar. More reafons for this action
At our more leifure 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 fee,
If pow'r change purpose, what our feemers be.

SCENE VIII.

A Nunnery.

Enter Ifabella and Francifca.

ND have

[Exe.

Nuns no further privileges?

Ifab. A Num. Are not these large enough?

Ifab. Yes, truly; I fpeak not as defiring more;
But rather wifhing 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 business 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 prefence of the Priorefs;

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

Then, if you fpeak, you must not fhew your face;

He

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

beauty

I

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

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

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 must 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 punifhment in thanks; He hath got his friend with child.

Ifab. Sir, make me not your ftory.

Eliar fin

Lucio. 'Tis true:-I would not (tho' 'tis my famiWith maids to feem 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 seems to be a very old one; for Chaucer, in his Plowman's Tale, faysAnd lapwings that

well conith lie.

VOL. I.

:

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,

3

As thofe that feed grow full, as bloffoming time
That from the feednefs the bare fallow brings
To teeming foyfon; fo her plenteous womb
Expreffeth his full tilth and husbandry.

[Fuliet? İfab. Some one with child by him?-my coufin Lucio. Is fhe your coufin?

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 ftrangely gone from hence;
Bore many gentlemen, myfelf being one,
In hand and hope of action; but we learn,
By those 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 fenfe;
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.

2foyfon;] Harveft.

Mr. Pope.

Falls