Plays and Poems

No more evasion:
We have with a leaven'd and prepared choice
Proceeded to you; therefore take your honours.
Our haste from hence is of so quick condition
That it prefers itself, and leaves unquestion'd
Matters of needful value. We shall write to you,
As time and our concernings shall importune,
How it goes with us; and do look to know
What doth befall you here. So, fare you well:
To the hopeful execution do I leave you

Of your commissions.

Ang.

Yet give leave, my lord, co
That we may bring you something on the way.
Duke. My haste may not admit it;
Nor need you, on mine honour, have to do
With any scruple: your scope is as mine own,
So to enforce or qualify the laws

As to your soul seems good. Give me your

hand;

wast where grace was said.

Second Gent. No? a dozen times at least.
First Gent. What, in metre?

Lucio. In any proportion or in any language.
First Gent. I think, or in any religion.

Lucio. Ay, why not? Grace is grace, despite of all controversy: as for example, thou thyself art a wicked villain, despite of all grace.

First Gnt. Well, there went but a pair of shears between us.

Lucio. I grant; as there may between the lists and the velvet: thou art the list.

First Gent. And thou the velvet: thou art good velvet; thou 'rt a three-piled piece, I warrant thee. I had as lief be a list of an English kersey as be piled, as thou art piled, for a French velvet. Do I speak feelingly now?

Lucio. I think thou dost; and, indeed, with most painful feeling of thy speech: I will, out of thine own confession, learn to begin thy health; but, whilst I live, forget to drink after

Exit.

To have free speech with you; and it con.

cerns me

First Gent. Thou art always figuring diseases in me; but thou art full of error: I am sound. Lucio. Nay, not as one would say, healthy; but so sound as things that are hollow: thy bones are hollow; impiety has made a feast of thee. Enter Mistress OVERDONE.

Overdone. Marry, sir, that's Claudio, Signior | The words of heaven; on whom it will, it will ; Claudio.

First Gent. Claudio to prison! 'tis not so. Overdone. Nay, but I know 'tis so: I saw him arrested, saw him carried away; and, which is more, within these three days his head to be chopped off.

Lucio. But, after all this fooling, I would not have it so. Art thou sure of this?

Orerdone. I am too sure of it; and it is for getting Madam Julietta with child.

Lucio. Believe me, this may be he promised to meet me two hours since, and he was ever precise in promise-keeping.

Second Gent. Besides, you know, it draws something near to the speech we had to such a purpose. First Gent. But most of all agreeing with the proclamation. 83

Lucio. Away! let's go learn the truth of it. Exeunt LUCIO and Gentlemen,

Overdone. Thus, what with the war, what with the sweat, what with the gallows and what with poverty, I am custom-shrunk.

Enter POMPEY,

How now! what's the news with you ?

Pompey. Yonder man is carried to prison. Overdone. Well: what has he done?

Pompey. A woman.

Overdone. But what's his offence?

On whom it will not, so: yet still 'tis just.
Re-enter LUCIO and two Gentlemen.

Lucio. Why, how now, Claudio! whence comes this restraint!

13)

Claud. From too much liberty, my Lucio, liberty:

As surfeit is the father of much fast,
So every scope by the immoderate use
Turns to restraint. Our natures do pursue,
Like rats that ravin down their proper bane,
A thirsty evil, and when we drink we die.

Lucio. If I could speak so wisely under an arrest, I would send for certain of my creditors. And yet, to say the truth, I had as lief have the foppery of freedom as the morality of imprisonment. What's thy offence, Claudio?

141

Claud. What but to speak of would offend again. Lucio, What, is it murder?

Claud. No.

Lucio. Lechery?

Claud. Call it so.

Prov. Away, sir! you must go.

Claud. One word, good friend. Lucio, a word with you.

Lucio. A hundred, if they 'll do you any good.

90 Is lechery so looked after?

Pompey. Groping for trouts in a peculiar river. Overdone. What, is there a maid with child by him?

Pompey. No, but there's a woman with maid by him. You have not heard of the proclama tion, have you?

Overdone. What proclamation, man? Pompey. All houses in the suburbs of Vienna must be plucked down.

101

Overdone. And what shall become of those in the city?

Pompey. They shall stand for seed: they had gone down too, but that a wise burgher put in for them.

Overdone. But shall all our houses of resort in the suburbs be pulled down?

Pompey. To the ground, mistress.

Overdone. Why, here's a change indeed in the commonwealth! What shall become of me? 1 Pompey. Come; fear not you: good counsellors lack no clients: though you change your place, you need not change your trade; I'll be your tapster still. Courage! there will be pity taken on you; you that have worn your eyes almost out in the service, you will be considered.

Overdone. What's to do here, Thomas tapster? Let's withdraw.

Pompey. Here comes Signior Claudio, led by the provost to prison; and there's Madam Juliet. Exeunt.

Enter Provost, CLAUDIO, JULIET, and
Officers.

150

Claud. Thus stands it with me: upon a true contract

I got possession of Julietta's bed:
You know the lady; she is fast my wife,
Save that we do the annunciation lack
Of outward order: this we came not to,
Only for procuration of a dower
Remaining in the coffer of her friends,
From whom we thought it meet to hide our love
Till time had made them for us. But it chances
The stealth of our most mutual entertainment 16)
With character too gross is writ on Juliet.

Lucio. With child, perhaps?
Claud.

Unhappily, even so.

And the new deputy now for the duke,
Whether it be the fault and glimpse of newness,
Or whether that the body public be
A horse whereon the governor doth ride,
Who, newly in the seat, that it may know
He can command, lets it straight feel the spur;

170

Whether the tyranny be in his place,
Or in his eminence that fills it up,
I stagger in :-but this new governor
Awakes me all the enrolled penalties
Which have, like unscour'd armour, hung by the

wall

So long that nineteen zodiacs have gone round,
And none of them been worn; and, for a name,
Now puts the drowsy and neglected act
Freshly on me: 'tis surely for a name.

Lucio. I warrant it is: and thy head stands so tickle on thy shoulders that a milkmaid, if she be in love, may sigh it off. Send after the duke and appeal to him.

181

Claud. I have done so, but he's not to be found.

Cland. Fellow, why dost thou show me thus I prithee, Lucio, do me this kind service: to the world?

Bear me to prison, where I am committed.
Prov. I do it not in evil disposition,
But from Lord Angelo by special charge.
Claud. Thus can the demi-god Authority
Make us pay down for our offence by weight.

192

This day my sister should the cloister enter,
And there receive her approbation:
Acquaint her with the danger of my state;
Implore her, in my voice, that she make friends
To the strict deputy; bid herself assay him:
I have great hope in that; for in her youth

When she will play with reason and discourse, And well she can persuade.

Lucio. I pray she may as well for the en. couragement of the like, which else would stand under grievous imposition, as for the enjoying of thy life, who I would be sorry should be thus foolishly lost 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! 200
Exeunt.

SCENE III.-A Monastery.
Enter DUKE and Friar THOMAS.

Duke. No, holy father; throw away that
thought:
Believe not that the dribbling dart of love
Can pierce a complete bosom. Why I desire thee
To give me secret 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 assemblies Where youth, and cost, and witless bravery keeps. I have deliver'd to Lord Angelo, A man of stricture and firm abstinence, My absolute power and place here in Vienna, And he supposes me travell'd to Poland; For so I have strew'd it in the common ear, And so it is receiv'd. Now, pious sir, You will demand of me why I do this?

Fri. Gladly, my lord.

Duke. We have strict statutes and most biting laws,

The needful bits and curbs to headstrong steeds, Which for this fourteen years 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 sight
For terror, not to use, in time the rod
Becomes more mock'd than fear'd; so our decrees,
Dead to infliction, to themselves are dead,
And liberty plucks justice by the nose;

The baby beats the nurse, and quite athwart so
Goes all decorum.

Like a true friar. More reasons for this action
At our more leisure shall I render you;
Only, this one: Lord Angelo is precise;
Stands at a guard with envy; scarce confesses
That his blood flows, or that his appetite
Is more to bread than stone: hence shall we see,
If power change purpose, what our seemers be.
Exeunt,

SCENE IV.-A Nunnery.
Enter ISABELLA and FRANCISCA.

Isab. And have you nuns no further privileges?
Fran. Are not these large enough?

Isab. Yes, truly: I speak not as desiring more,
But rather wishing a more strict restraint
Upon the sisterhood, the votarists of Saint Clare.
Lucio. Within. Ho! Peace be in this place!
Isab.
Who's that which calls ?

Fran. It is a man's voice. Gentle Isabella, Turn you the key, and know his business of him: You may, I may not; you are yet unsworn. When you have vow'd, you must not speak with

Proclaim you are no less! Can you so stead me
As bring me to the sight of Isabella,

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

Isab. Why her unhappy brother'? let me ask,
The rather for I now must make you know
I am that Isabella and his sister.

Lucio. Gentle and fair, your brother kindly
greets you.

Not to be weary with you, he's in prison.
Isab. Woe me! for what?

Lucio. For that which, if myself might be his
judge,

He should receive his punishment in thanks:
He hath got his friend with child.

Isab. Sir, make me not your story.
Lucio.

It is true. 20

I would not, though 'tis my familiar sin
With maids to seem the lapwing and to jest,
Tongue far from heart, play with all virgins so:
I hold you as a thing ensky'd and sainted;
By your renouncement an immortal spirit,
And to be talk'd with in sincerity,
As with a saint.

Isab. You do blaspheme the good in mocking

me.

Lucio. Do not believe it. Fewness and truth, 'tis thus:

Your brother and his lover have embrac'd:
As those that feed grow full, as blossoming time
That from the seedness the bare fallow brings
To teeming foison, even so her plenteous womb
Expresseth his full tilth and husbandry.

Isab. Some one with child by him? My cousin

Julict?

Lucio. Is she your cousin?

Isab. Adoptedly; as school-maids change their

names

This is the point. The duke is very strangely gone from hence; 50 Bore many gentlemen, myself being one,

In hand and hope of action; but we do learn
By those that know the very nerves of state,
His givings-out were of an infinite distance
From his true-meant design. Upon his place,
And with full line of his authority,
Governs Lord Angelo; a man whose blood
Is very snow-broth; one who never feels
The wanton stings and motions of the sense,
But doth rebate and blunt his natural edge
With profits of the mind, study and fast.
He, to give fear to use and liberty,
Which have for long run by the hideous law,
As mice by lions, hath pick'd out an act,
Under whose heavy sense your brother's life
Falls into forfeit: he arrests him on it,
And follows close the rigour of the statute,
To make him an example. All hope is gone,
Unless you have the grace by your fair prayer
To soften Angelo; and that's my pith of business
Twixt you and your poor brother.

Isab. Doth he so seek his life?
Lucio.

Has censur'd him

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, and Officers with FROTH and
POMPEY.

Elb. Come, bring them away: if these be good people in a commonweal 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'm 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. 50 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. Goto: what quality are they of? Elbow is your name? why dost thou not speak, Elbow? Pompey. He cannot, sir: he's out at elbow. co 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, plucked 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,

140

Escal. How! thy wife? 70 Ang. This will last out a night in Russia, Eib. Ay, sir; whom, I thank heaven, is an Whennights are longest there: I'll take my leave, 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 accused in fornication, adultery, and all uncleanliness there.

Escal. By the woman's means?
Elb. Ay, sir, by Mistress Overdone's means;
but as she spit in his face, so she defied him.
Pompey. 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?

Pompey. Sir, she came in great with child, and longing, saving your honour's reverence, for stewed prunes. Sir, we had but two in the house, which at that very distant time stood, as it were, in a fruit-dish, a dish of some threepence; 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. Pompey. 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-bellied, 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.

Pompey. Very well: you being then, if you be remembered, cracking the stones of the foresaid prunes,

111

Froth. Ay, so I did, indeed. Pompcy. Why, very well: I telling you then, if you be remembered, 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.

Pompey. 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 me to what was done to her.

122

And leave you to the hearing of the cause,
Hoping you 'll find good cause to whip them all.
Escal. I think no less. Good morrow to your
lordship.
Exit ANGELO,
Now, sir, come on: what was done to Elbow's
wife, once more?

Pompey. Once, sir? there was nothing done to her once.

15)

Elb. I beseech you, sir, ask him what this man did to my wife. Pompey. I beseech your honour, ask me. Escal. Well, sir, what did this gentleman to her? Pompey. I beseech you, sir, look in this gentleman's face. Good Master Froth, look upon his honour; 'tis for a good purpose. Doth your honour mark his face?

Escal. Ay, sir, very well.

Pompey. Nay, I beseech you, mark it well.
Escal. Well, I do so.

Pompey. Doth your honour see any harm in his face?

Escal. Why, no.

161

Elb. Marry, I thank your good worship for it. What is 't your worship's pleasure I shall do with

this wicked caitiff?

Escal. Truly, officer, because he hath some offences in him that thou would'st discover if thou couldst, let him continue in his courses till thou knowest 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?
Froth. Here in Vienna, sir.

Escal. Are you of fourscore pounds a year?
Froth. Yes, an't please you, sir.
Escal. So. What trade are you of, sir?
Pompey. A tapster; a poor widow's tapster.
Escal. Your mistress' name?

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