2. props and sets noted in bold

3. lights and music underlined

enter from down right, Attendant to down left,

Officer 2 and 1

stand to left and right of throne, Escalus to right, Duke sits down with truncheon and stamps it

bow

false humility

snap fingers; take commission from left officer and give to Escalus

sharp tone to attendant

down left

confidentially

from down left

bow

pointed gaze, long pauses

to everybody

snap, take commission from left lord, stand

point with commission

dub both shoulders with truncheon

hand commission with left hand

Escalus move down two steps

take with right hand and open it and read first

left palm up, take left hand palm up, place truncheon in it

to Escalus

to audience while heading down left

sits in throne

from down left; exit; A and E exit up right with officers and throne back

2 Gentlemen enter up right with Lucy Layalot, slowly cross up left, joking and fondling.

Lucio and Kate Keepdown enter up right, move down center. Lucio whispers to Kate, she slaps him and storms up to Lucy, grabs her and they exit down left. Gentlemen come together center and look after them puzzled.

mock pious

laugh

looking upward; false piety

posing riddle

after both are puzzled

laughter

righteous and boisterous

laughter

points up right

turns back to audience, makes as if opening pants, the gentleman stare and say oooh.

grabbing crotch and groaning as if kicked

pulling a hair out of his head looking at it

mock righeousness

knocking on his skull

from up right, swaying hips

swivelling her hips from behind

pointing down right

down left

from up right

to him

irritable, she already knows

grabbing her posterior and laughing

V gesture beckoning toward her V

gently moving his hand away

turning away going tee hee

turning back with serious expression

Comforting her with arm around shoulder, speaking slow direct to audience

scooting out up left

get on stage before they leave

from down right, Claudio mancled in front, Juliet in back

shamed, hands over face

down center to audience

hands over head

lower

look up

head down

from down left

showing manacles

to gentlemen

Lucio dont check out Juliet yet

now checking out Juliet

coming forward, hand on shoulder

to Provost, then Lucio

walking forward with Claudio, looking back at Juliet

walking towards Juliet

tenderly touching her belly

serious

and then teasing

serious again

Provost instructs officer to pull Claudio up left

exit down left

as he’s pulled out

from down left

very slow and serious

doubtful

to audience

incredulous

walk down right

Thomas signals pleased comprehension

urgent, touching his robe,

Thomas exits down left

Thomas returns from down left with monk’s robe both exit with it delighted, up left

from up right in nun’s habits

following

turning to her, testing

taken aback and covering herself

from down right

fearful

disapproving

Lucio calls

up right

from down right

looking her over

she shies back

gesture to keep her from shying away

approach him

turns her back

addresses her back

walking left away from him

following her

turn to look at him

step down left

from behind her

getting close to her, earnestly and charming

walk right, agitated

she follows

turns and takes her hand

kiss her hand...hanging on

taking hand away; exit down right

exit down left

from up right in furred gown and necklace

sits on throne with truncheon, Escalus stands right, officer left, Provost furthest left

bangs truncheon for attention

thump truncheon

coming forward

exit Provost up left with Officer 1

Escalus and officer 2 exit up right

from up left

up right and go around to down right

from up right in furred gown; sits

from down right

down right

to Provost

remaining down right

turning to leave

pointing

quiet and respectful

approach

sarcastic

turns to leave down right

grabbing her hand

pushing her one step

at a distance

two steps closer

two steps closer

standing still

pushing her closer

close enought to point to truncheon and robe

closer yet and insinuating

loud and abrupt

retreats, pauses and strong

move in and touch robe

to audience; getting heated

long pause

moving closer, pointing up,

point to chest

and lips--hand in his face

ecstatic tone

moves her hand away and holds it gently

pulls hand away

addressing others

back to him--gimme a break tone

defensive

angry and frustrated

snaps back

truncheon

sarcastic

getting up a head of steam, moving down left

bitter laugh and turn to Angelo

scornful, crossing left

approaching from down left

accusatory

stand and cross down left, back to her addressing audience

turning to her, turning to go

following behind him--soft but not smiling

disconcerted and again starting to leave

touches him from behind, pulls him center

desperate

kneeling and taking his hand

his hand to her heart

thrilled

pulling her away right

friendly

to audience

sweet

triumphant

down right

up left

walking after her

looking down at himself

hits himself

to seat

addressing her where she left

provost from down right, Duke from down left

from up right and remains

they regard her

hand on provost

brings her forward

kneeling

making sign over her

turning his back to her

turning to her

walking to her

standing emphatically and interrupting him

down right

alone to audience

going to her; then escorting her off up right

on knees in prayer, then shaking head

looking up

hand on crotch

excited, demonic, cynical

sits on couch

Officer 1

from up right, coughing for his attention

turning

up right

hand on heart

up right, in white dress and shawl

from behind

to audience

turning to her

turns to leave

she stops

she approaches couch

comes down to his right

approaches

her hand reaching to him

pulls her next to him on bench

turns away from him

pause before "Give"

still looking away

charitably

turning to him, incredulous

stand up, step down left

turn back to her

stand and take his hand

smiling then sitting down with her

beseeching

reassuring

standing

sanctimoniously and turning away

step down left--to himself, cynically

turn to her

no move

approach her

like an exam question

sitting, touching her

pause to think of the right answer

stand up, one step down right

turn to him

stand and turn down left

quick response

pause

to audience

slyly

quick and steadfast to him

two steps down right, to audience

sitting down

turning to him

admitting she was dishonest

turning away embarrassed

walking out up right

conciliating

down center--righteously

pleading to him

touching face

turning forward

approaching from behind

takes her by shoulders

turns her to him

holding her shawl

one step back right, shawl stays with him, she covers self with arms

folding shawl to heart, one step back

pause, stares at him, hand to head

reaching toward her

turn away laughing bitterly

one step toward her

one step down

looking up

pointing at him

walking toward him

both arms out facing audience

grab her left wrist and twist behind her

in her ear

arching her back; she screams

turn her around; kiss; push her onto the ground left, walk up right

on ground

weep

slowly get up

wiping mouth in disgust

exit up right

from up right

Claudio shivering and manacled, Provost gives him coat, leads him down center

from behind

miserably and sarcastically

resigned

directs Provost to unshackle him and sit himshivering on bench and withdraw up left. From down right

sit next to Claudio

get up walk down right

standing up

cross to down right and exit

Sits down. Exit Duke down left, fade up left, staying on stage

from down left wearing cloak

leads her to him, they hold hands; Provost goes behind bench to exit up left and is intercepted by Duke who walks him down left

this is very quick

Provost leads him up left and exits up left, Duke remains

Sitting

uncomfortable, turning away from him

turn to him

turn away

touches her shoulder

turn back, irritated

stand, two steps down right

facing forward

persistent

still not facing him

coming to her

stepping backward right

stopped. He steps back left

She follows him left

Back to bench

Sitting down, hugging self

Standing right of bench--to him

Sits down

To audience

Stands, walk down right

Turn to him

Follows her

hand to face

holds her

hugs him relieved

to audience over her shoulder

break embrace--to him

hesitantly

walk down left, thinking to himself

Turns to her with question

goes back to seat

head in hands

not moving

build up to climax

not moving

going to her quickly

hugging her knees

push him away

running behind bench

pointing at him

around bench left

hit him; he hides his head in crouch

walk down right

sprawled [not on knees]

approach from right

pass in front and try to exit down left, cant find way out

he’s prostrate on ground

she heads up left

from up left

abrupt

polite

cold

remains up left

crouching down to Claudio

Claudio reacts--no more hope, therefore no more fear; sits up

slowly

lifting him to knees

stand and exit up right alone

from up left

up right

stares at her, takes her hand

down left

back to her

down right

close behind her, smiling

down left

back to her, then pacing excitedly

sitting on left side of bench

sitting next to him

She stands in repulsion and walks down right; he follows holding her back

he lets go of her

cross him, exit down [right?]. he stays

Lucio enter from down right, playing with Kate Keepdown’s garter. Sees Duke as Friar enter down left, and hastily tucks in his tights. Then looks at him with suspicion

Duke sees Lucio and turns away to hide face.

checking him out

coming in close

turning and going down left

to his back

come down left behind duke

non-commital

turn away, walk center

back in friar’s ear

thoughtful, walk down right

to audience

back to center

turn to Lucio

walk right

stop turn to Friar, hold up fingers in V, then turn down and place over wiggling index finger

turn away, uncomfortable

to his back

moving center

confidential, and pull back right

stress on never and much; turning back to L.

two steps to center

strong, jumping L’s line

pause and smile

another indecent gesture

walk down right

prim

three steps left

walk up right

stop

to him from down left

walk toward Duke

walk foward center to meet him, Lucio left, Duke right

two fingers into fist

Duke heads down right

heading down left; starting and stopping

Exit down left

to audience from center

hides down left

from up right

Overdone manacled to left

Officer 1 behind her, E.center stage, Provost to right of Overdone

disgusted

to officer

up left

Provost brings Friar from down left

testing

move down right

up right

down center, hood off

exit down right

from up left

languishing on couch

up left

from down right, breathless

from down right

pushes her up left

up left

takes her hands and sits on bench to her left

goes up left

up left

to audience

from up left

to right of Duke, Mariana to left

talking across Duke

down left, arm in arm

enter from up right with warrant

officer 1 exit up right

from up right with Officer 2

strong

from down left

up left with Officer 2

from down left

walking down right and looking

fist in palm

excited

from down right, crossing Officer giving warrant to Provost

down right

pacing and punching his head

to audience

beckons provost close to him

takes scroll out of robe

look at Friar with reverence

Provost exit up right; Duke down right lights down

with warrant from up right

from up left

hung over big time

shaking him

belching, seasick, lying down on bench

pick him up from left and he flops. Pompey exit up left

from down right

going to sleep, snoring

shaking him

push him away; back to sleep

From up right

B. snoring

ironic, standing up from sleeping Barnardine

Gentle kick to sleeping Barnardine

pointing up; reverent

provost exit up right.

Hood off; to audience

Hood up

from up right, with head, by hair

Check out head closely

Exit, crossing to down left

from down right

hood off to audience

hood up, hid up left

surprised at seeing Barnardine

comes out hands out

holding hands in front of B.

shriek and go down right

comforting, from behind

closing her eyes and flexing her claws

calmly

to center and pounding on the floor and crying

To her left and crouching

Gives her hanky from robe

Lifts her and walks her right then left

she exits down right, he down left

Pompey comes in and drags out Barnardine.

enter from top right

Angelo takes seat, Escalus stands to right, both carrying warrants

up right

jump up--guilty

Cross--fearful

smiling--reassured

back to seat--touching back

step out

sitting down.

English 510 Players script abridged

by Jason Manville and Steven Marx

An apartment in the DUKE'S palace.

Enter DUKE VINCENTIO, ESCALUS, Lords and Attendants

DUKE VINCENTIO

Escalus.

ESCALUS

My lord.

DUKE VINCENTIO

Of government the properties to unfold,

Would seem in me to affect speech and discourse;

Since I know that your own proper knowledge

Exceeds, in that, the lists of all advice

My strength can give you:

There is our commission,

From which we would not have you warp.

Call hither,

I say, bid come before us Angelo.

Exit an Attendant

What figure of us think you he will bear?

ESCALUS

If any in Vienna be of worth

To undergo such ample grace and honour,

It is Lord Angelo.

DUKE VINCENTIO

Look where he comes.

Enter ANGELO

ANGELO

Always obedient to your grace's will,

I come to know your pleasure.

DUKE VINCENTIO

Angelo,

There is a kind of character in thy life,

That to the observer doth thy history

Fully unfold.

Heaven doth with us as we with torches do,

Not light them for themselves; for if our virtues

Did not go forth of us, 'twere all alike

As if we had them not.

Hold therefore, Angelo

In our remove be thou at full ourself;

Mortality and mercy in Vienna.

Old Escalus is thy secondary.

Take thy commission.

ANGELO

Now, good my lord,

Let there be some more test made of my metal,

Before so noble and so great a figure

Be stamp'd upon it.

DUKE VINCENTIO

No more evasion:

Give me your hand:

I'll privily away.

I love the people,

But do not like to stage me to their eyes:

ANGELO

The heavens give safety to your purposes!

ESCALUS

Lead forth and bring you back in happiness!

DUKE

I thank you. Fare you well.

A Street.

Enter LUCIO and two Gentlemen

LUCIO

If the duke with the other dukes come not to

agreement with the King of Hungary, why then all

the dukes fall upon the king.

First Gentleman

Heaven grant us its peace,

but not the King of

Hungary's!

Second Gentleman

Amen.

LUCIO

Thou concludest like the sanctimonious pirate, that

went to sea with the Ten Commandments, but scraped

one from the tablet.

Second Gentleman

'Thou shalt not steal'?

LUCIO

Ay, that he [e]razed.

First Gentleman

Why, 'twas a commandment to command the captain and

all the rest from their functions: they put forth

to steal.

LUCIO

Behold, behold. where Madam Mitigation comes! I

have purchased as many diseases under her roof as come to...

Second Gentleman

To what, I pray?

LUCIO

Judge.

Second Gentleman

To three thousand dolores a year.

First Gentleman

Ay, and more.

LUCIO

A French crown more.

First Gentleman

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

First Gentleman

How now! which of your hips has the most profound sciatica?

MISTRESS OVERDONE

Well, well; there's one yonder arrested and carried

to prison was worth five thousand of you all.

Second Gentleman

Who's that, I pray thee?

MISTRESS OVERDONE

Marry, sir, that's Claudio, Signior Claudio.

First Gentleman

Claudio to prison? 'tis not so.

MISTRESS 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?

MISTRESS OVERDONE

I am too sure of it.

LUCIO

Away! let's go learn the truth of it.

Exeunt LUCIO and Gentlemen

MISTRESS 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.

MISTRESS OVERDONE

Well; what has he done?

POMPEY

A woman.

MISTRESS OVERDONE

But what's his offence?

POMPEY

Groping for trouts in a peculiar river.

MISTRESS 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 proclamation, have you?

MISTRESS OVERDONE

What proclamation, man?

POMPEY

All houses in the city of Vienna must be plucked down.

To the ground, mistress.

MISTRESS OVERDONE

Why, here's a change indeed in the commonwealth!

What shall become of me?

POMPEY

Come; fear you not: good counsellors lack no

clients:

Here comes Signior Claudio, led by the provost to

prison; and there's Madam Juliet.

Exeunt

Enter Provost, Officers, CLAUDIO, JULIET,

CLAUDIO

Fellow, why dost thou show me thus to the world?

Bear me to prison, where I am committed.

Provost

I do it not in evil disposition,

But from Lord Angelo by special charge.

CLAUDIO

Thus can the demigod Authority

Make us pay down for our offence by weight

The words of heaven; on whom it will, it will;

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?

CLAUDIO

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?

CLAUDIO

What but to speak of would offend again.

LUCIO

What, is't murder?

CLAUDIO

No.

LUCIO

Lechery?

CLAUDIO

Call it so.

Provost

Away, sir! you must go.

CLAUDIO

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

LUCIO

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

Is lechery so look'd after?

CLAUDIO

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 denunciation lack

Of outward order: this we came not to,

Only for propagation 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

With character too gross is writ on Juliet.

LUCIO

With child, perhaps?

CLAUDIO

Unhappily, even so.

And the new deputy now for the duke--

Awakes me all the enrolled penalties

Which have, like unscour'd armour, hung by the wall

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.

CLAUDIO

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

I prithee, Lucio, do me this kind service:

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:

LUCIO

I'll to her.

CLAUDIO

I thank you, good friend Lucio.

A monastery.

Enter DUKE VINCENTIO and FRIAR THOMAS

DUKE VINCENTIO

Why I desire thee

To give me secret harbour, hath a purpose

More grave and wrinkled than the aims and ends

Of burning youth.

FRIAR THOMAS

May your grace speak of it?

DUKE VINCENTIO

We have strict statutes and most biting laws.

Which for this nineteen years we have let slip;

Now, as fond fathers,

Having bound up the threatening twigs of birch,

in time the rod

Becomes more mock'd than fear'd; so our decrees,

are dead;

And liberty plucks justice by the nose;

The baby beats the nurse.

FRIAR THOMAS

It rested in your grace

To unloose this tied-up justice when you pleased:

And it in you more dreadful would have seem'd

Than in Lord Angelo.

DUKE VINCENTIO

I do fear, too dreadful:

Sith 'twas my fault to give the people scope,

'Twould be my tyranny to strike and gall them

For what I bid them do:

Therefore indeed, my father,

I have on Angelo imposed the office;

Who may, in the ambush of my name, strike home,

And yet my nature never in the fight

To do in slander.

And to behold his sway,

I will, as 'twere a brother of your order,

Visit both prince and people:

therefore, I prithee,

Supply me with the habit

and instruct me

How I may bear me

Like a true friar.

Lord Angelo is precise;

scarce confesses

That his blood flows,

hence shall we see,

If power change purpose, what our seemers be.

A nunnery.

Enter FRANCISCA and ISABELLA

ISABELLA

And have you nuns no farther privileges?

FRANCISCA

Are not these large enough?

ISABELLA

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!

ISABELLA

Who's that which calls?

FRANCISCA

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 men

But in the presence of the prioress:

Then, if you speak, you must not show your face,

Or, if you show your face, you must not speak.

He calls again; I pray you, answer him.

Exit

ISABELLA

Peace and prosperity! Who is't that calls

Enter LUCIO

LUCIO

Hail, virgin,

Can you bring me to the sight of Isabella,

A novice of this place and the fair sister

To her unhappy brother Claudio?

ISABELLA

Why 'her unhappy brother'? let me ask,

I am that Isabella and his sister.

LUCIO

he's in prison.

ISABELLA

Woe me! for what?

LUCIO

He hath got his friend with child.

ISABELLA

Sir, make me not your story.

LUCIO

It is true.

I would not--though 'tis my familiar sin

With maids to seem the lapwing and to jest,

I hold you as a thing ensky'd and sainted.

By your renouncement an immortal spirit

ISABELLA

You do blaspheme the good in mocking me.

LUCIO

Do not believe it.

Your brother and his lover have embraced:

even so her plenteous womb

Expresseth his full tilth and husbandry.

ISABELLA

Some one with child by him? My cousin Juliet?

LUCIO

She it is.

ISABELLA

O, let him marry her.

LUCIO

This is the point.

The duke is very strangely gone from hence;

Upon his place,

Governs Lord Angelo; a man whose blood

Is very snow-broth;

He--to give fear to use and liberty,

Which have for long run by the hideous law,

As mice by lions--hath arrested him

To make him an example.

All hope is gone,

Unless you have the grace by your fair prayer

To soften Angelo:

ISABELLA

Doth he so seek his life?

LUCIO

Already; as I hear, the provost hath

A warrant for his execution.

ISABELLA

Alas! what poor ability's in me

To do him good?

LUCIO

Go to Lord Angelo,

And let him learn to know, when maidens sue,

Men give like gods;

ISABELLA

I'll see what I can do.

LUCIO

But speedily.

A hall In ANGELO's house.

Enter Provost, Officers ANGELO, ESCALUS,

ANGELO

We must not make a scarecrow 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.

ESCALUS

Ay, but yet

Let us be keen, and rather cut a little,

Than fall, and bruise to death.

Had time cohered with place or place with wishing,

Or that the resolute acting of your blood

Could have attain'd the effect of your own purpose,

Would you not sometime in your life have

Err'd in this point which now you censure him,

And pull'd the law upon you.

ANGELO

'Tis one thing to be tempted, Escalus,

Another thing to fall. Sir, he must die.

ESCALUS

Be it as your wisdom will.

ANGELO

Where is the provost?

Provost

Here, if it like your honour.

ANGELO

See that Claudio

Be executed by nine to-morrow morning:

Bring him his confessor, let him be prepared;

For that's the utmost of his pilgrimage.

ESCALUS

[Aside] Well, heaven forgive him! and forgive us all!

Enter Provost and Officer 1

Officer

he will come straight

I'll tell him of you.

Provost

Pray you, do.

Exit Officer 1

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't!

Enter ANGELO

ANGELO

Now, what's the matter. Provost?

Provost

Is it your will Claudio shall die tomorrow?

ANGELO

Did not I tell thee yea? hadst thou not order?

Why dost thou ask again?

Provost

Lest I might be too rash:

Under your good correction, I have seen,

When, after execution, judgment hath

Repented o'er his doom.

ANGELO

Go to; let that be mine:

Do you your office, or give up your place,

And you shall well be spared.

Provost

I crave your honour's pardon.

What shall be done, sir, with the groaning Juliet?

She's very near her hour.

ANGELO

Dispose of her

To some more fitter place, and that with speed.

Enter Officer 1

Officer 1

Here is the sister of the man condemn'd

Desires access to you.

ANGELO

Well, let her be admitted.

Exit Servant

See you the fornicatress be removed:

Let have needful, but not lavish, means;

There shall be order for't.

Enter ISABELLA and LUCIO

Provost

God save your honour!

ANGELO

Stay a little while.

To ISABELLA

You're welcome: what's your will?

ISABELLA

I am a woeful suitor to your honour,

Please but your honour hear me.

ANGELO

Well; what's your suit?

ISABELLA

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 plead, but that I am

At war 'twixt will and will not.

ANGELO

Well; the matter?

ISABELLA

I have a brother is condemn'd to die:

I do beseech you, let it be his fault,

And not my brother.

Provost

[Aside] Heaven give thee moving graces!

ANGELO

Condemn the fault and not the actor of it?

Why, every fault's condemn'd 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.

ISABELLA

O just but severe law!

I had a brother, then. Heaven keep your honour!

LUCIO

[Aside to ISABELLA] Give't not o'er so: to him

again, entreat 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!

ISABELLA

Must he needs die?

ANGELO

Maiden, no remedy.

ISABELLA

Yes; I do think that you might pardon him,

And neither heaven nor man grieve at the mercy.

ANGELO

I will not do't.

ISABELLA

But can you, if you would?

ANGELO

Look, what I will not, that I cannot do.

ISABELLA

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?

ANGELO

He's sentenced; 'tis too late.

LUCIO

[Aside to ISABELLA] You are too cold.

ISABELLA

Too late? why, no; I, that do speak a word.

May call it back again. Well, believe this,

No ceremony that to great ones 'longs,

Not the king's crown, nor the deputed sword,

The marshal's truncheon, nor the judge's robe,

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.

ANGELO

Pray you, be gone.

ISABELLA

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

[Aside to ISABELLA]

Ay, touch him; there's the vein.

ANGELO

Your brother is a forfeit of the law,

And you but waste your words.

ISABELLA

Alas, alas!

Why, all the souls that were were forfeit once;

And He that might the vantage best have took

Found out the remedy.

How would you be,

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,

Like man new made.

ANGELO

Be you content, fair maid;

It is the law, not I condemn your brother:

Were he my kinsman, brother, or my son,

It should be thus with him: he must die tomorrow.

ISABELLA

To-morrow! O, that's sudden! Spare him, spare him!

He's not prepared for death.

Even for our kitchens

We kill the fowl of season: shall we serve heaven

With less respect than we do minister

To our gross selves? Good, good my lord, bethink you;

Who is it that hath died for this offence?

There's many have committed it.

LUCIO

[Aside to ISABELLA] Ay, well said.

ANGELO

The law hath not been dead, though it hath slept:

Those many had not dared to do that evil,

If the first that did the edict infringe

Had answer'd for his deed: now 'tis awake

ISABELLA

Yet show some pity.

ANGELO

I show it most of all when I show justice;

For then I pity those I do not know,

Be satisfied;

Your brother dies to-morrow; be content.

ISABELLA

So you must be the first that gives this sentence,

And he, that suffer's. O, it is excellent

To have a giant's strength; but it is tyrannous

To use it like a giant.

LUCIO

[Aside to ISABELLA] That's well said.

ISABELLA

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,

Thou rather with thy sharp and sulphurous bolt

Split'st the unwedgeable and gnarled oak

Than the soft myrtle: but man, proud man,

Drest in a little brief authority,

Most ignorant of what he's most assured,

His glassy essence, like an angry ape,

Plays such fantastic tricks before high heaven

As make the angels weep; who, with our spleens,

Would all themselves laugh mortal.

LUCIO

[Aside to ISABELLA] O, to him, to him, wench! he

will relent;

He's coming; I perceive 't.

Provost

[Aside] Pray heaven she win him!

ANGELO

Why do you put these sayings upon me?

ISABELLA

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;

Knock 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

Against my brother's life.

ANGELO

[Aside] She speaks, and 'tis

Such sense, that my sense breeds with it.

Fare you well.

ISABELLA

Gentle my lord, turn back.

ANGELO

I will bethink me: come again tomorrow.

ISABELLA

Hark how I'll bribe you: good my lord, turn back.

ANGELO

How! bribe me?

ISABELLA

Ay, with such gifts that heaven shall share with you.

LUCIO

[Aside to ISABELLA] You had marr'd all else.

ISABELLA

Not with fond shekels of the tested gold,

but with true prayers

That shall be up at heaven and enter there

Ere sun-rise, prayers from preserved souls,

From fasting maids whose minds are dedicate

To nothing temporal.

ANGELO

Well; come to me to-morrow.

LUCIO

[Aside to ISABELLA] Go to; 'tis well; away!

ISABELLA

Heaven keep your honour safe!

ANGELO [Aside]

Amen:

For I am that way going to temptation,

Where prayers cross.

ISABELLA

At what hour to-morrow

Shall I attend your lordship?

ANGELO

At any time 'fore noon.

ISABELLA

'Save your honour!

Exeunt ISABELLA, LUCIO,

Exit Provost

ANGELO

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: Can it be

That modesty may more betray our sense

Than woman's lightness? O, fie, fie, fie!

What dost thou, or what art thou, Angelo?

Dost thou desire her foully for those things

That make her good?

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 catch a saint,

With saints dost bait thy hook! Most dangerous

Is that temptation that doth goad us on

To sin in loving virtue: Even till now,

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

A room in a prison.

Enter, severally, DUKE VINCENTIO disguised as a friar, and Provost

Provost

What's your will, good friar?

DUKE VINCENTIO

Bound by my charity and my blest order,

I come to visit the afflicted spirits

Here in the prison.

PROVOST

Enter JULIET

Look, here comes one: a gentlewoman of mine,

Who, falling in the flaws of her own youth,

Hath blister'd her report: she is with child;

And he that got it, sentenced; a young man

More fit to do another such offence

Than die for this.

DUKE VINCENTIO

When must he die?

Provost

As I do think, to-morrow.

I have provided for you: stay awhile,

To JULIET

And you shall be conducted.

DUKE VINCENTIO

Repent you, fair one, of the sin you carry?

JULIET

I do; and bear the shame most patiently.

DUKE VINCENTIO

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 VINCENTIO

Love you the man that wrong'd you?

JULIET

Yes, as I love the woman that wrong'd him.

DUKE VINCENTIO

So then it seems your most offenceful act

Was mutually committed?

JULIET

Mutually.

DUKE VINCENTIO

Then was your sin of heavier kind than his.

JULIET

I do confess it, and repent it, father.

DUKE VINCENTIO

'Tis meet so, daughter, but lest you do repent

But as we stand in fear--

JULIET

I do repent me, as it is an evil,

And take the shame with joy.

DUKE VINCENTIO

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 law,

That respites me a life, whose very comfort

Is still a dying horror!

PROVOST

'Tis pity of him.

ANGELO

When I would pray and think, I think and pray

To several subjects.

Heaven hath my empty words;

Whilst my invention, hearing not my tongue,

Anchors on Isabel:

Blood, thou art blood:

Let's write good angel on the devil's horn:

'Tis not the devil's crest.

Enter Officer 1

How now! who's there?

Officer 1

One Isabel, a sister, desires access to you.

ANGELO

Teach her the way.

Exit Servant

O heavens!

Why does my blood thus muster to my heart,

Enter ISABELLA

How now, fair maid?

ISABELLA

I am come to know your pleasure.

ANGELO

That you might know it, would much better please me

Than to demand what 'tis.

Your brother cannot live.

ISABELLA

Even so. Heaven keep your honour!

ANGELO

Yet...

he may he live awhile; and, it may be,

As long as you or I

yet he must die.

ISABELLA

Under your sentence?

ANGELO

Yea.

ISABELLA

When, I beseech you? that in his reprieve,

Longer or shorter, he may be so fitted

That his soul sicken not.

ANGELO

Ha! fie, these filthy vices! It were as good

To pardon him that hath from nature stolen

A man already made, as to forgive

Their saucy sweetness that do coin heaven's image

In stamps that are forbid:

ISABELLA

'Tis set down so in heaven, but not in earth.

ANGELO

Say you so?

then I shall pose you quickly.

Which had you rather, that the most just law

Now took your brother's life; or, to redeem him,

Give up your body to such sweet uncleanness

As she that he hath stain'd?

ISABELLA

Sir, believe this,

I had rather give my body than my soul.

ANGELO

I talk not of your soul;

we are not held

accountable for our compell'd sins

ISABELLA

How say you?

ANGELO

Nay, I'll not warrant that; for I can speak

Against the thing I say.

Answer to this:

I, now the voice of the recorded law,

Pronounce a sentence on your brother's life:

Might there not be a charity in sin

To save this brother's life?

ISABELLA

Please you to do't,

I'll take it as a peril to my soul,

It is no sin at all, but charity.

ANGELO

Pleased you to do't at peril of your soul,

Were equal poise of sin and charity.

ISABELLA

That I do beg his life, if it be sin,

Heaven let me bear it!

you granting of my suit,

If that be sin, I'll make it my morn prayer

To have it added to the faults of mine,

And nothing of your answer.

ANGELO

Nay, but hear me.

Your sense pursues not mine: either you are ignorant,

Or seem so craftily; and that's not good.

ISABELLA

Let me be ignorant, and in nothing good,

But graciously to know I am no better.

ANGELO

Thus wisdom wishes to appear most bright

When it doth tax itself;

But mark me;

To be received plain, I'll speak more gross:

Your brother is to die.

ISABELLA

So.

ANGELO

Admit no other way to save his life,--

but for the sake of argument--

that you, his sister,

Finding yourself desired of such a person,

Whose credit with the judge or own great place

Could fetch your brother from the manacles

Of the all-building law; and that there were

No earthly way to save him but that either

You must lay down the treasures of your body

To this supposed, or else to let him suffer;

What would you do?

ISABELLA

As much for my poor brother as myself:

That is, were I under the terms of death,

The impression of keen whips I'ld wear as rubies,

And strip myself to death, as to a bed

That longing have been sick for,

before I'ld yield

My body up to shame.

ANGELO

Then must your brother die.

ISABELLA

And 'twere the cheaper way:

Better it were a brother died at once,

Than that a sister, by redeeming him,

Should die for ever.

ANGELO

Were not you then as cruel as the sentence

That you have slander'd so?

ISABELLA

Ignomy in ransom and free pardon

Are of two houses:

lawful mercy

Is nothing kin to foul redemption.

ANGELO

You seem'd of late to make the law a tyrant;

And rather proved the sliding of your brother

A merriment than a vice.

ISABELLA

O, pardon me, my lord; it oft falls out,

To have what we would have, we speak not what we mean:

I something do excuse the thing I hate,

For his advantage that I dearly love.

ANGELO

We are all frail.

ISABELLA

Then let my brother die,

ANGELO

Nay, women are frail too.

ISABELLA

Women! Help Heaven! men their creation mar

In profiting by them.

Nay, call us ten times frail;

For we are soft as our complexions are,

And credulous to false prints.

ANGELO

I think it well:

And from this testimony of your own sex,--

Since I suppose we are made to be no stronger

Than faults may shake our frames,

--let me be bold;

I do arrest your words. Be that you are,

That is, a woman; if you be more, you're none;

If you be one, as you are well express'd

By all external warrants, show it now,

By putting on the destined livery.

ISABELLA

I have no tongue but one: gentle my lord,

Let me entreat you speak the former language.

ANGELO

Plainly conceive, I love you.

ISABELLA

My brother did love Juliet,

And you tell me that he shall die for it.

ANGELO

He shall not, Isabel, if you give me love.

ISABELLA

I know your virtue hath a licence in't,

Which seems a little fouler than it is,

To pluck on others.

ANGELO

Believe me, on mine honour,

My words express my purpose.

ISABELLA

Ha! little honour to be much believed,

And most pernicious purpose!

Seeming, seeming!

I will proclaim thee, Angelo; look for't:

Sign me a present pardon for my brother,

Or with an outstretch'd throat I'll tell the world aloud

What man thou art.

ANGELO

Who will believe thee, Isabel?

My unsoil'd name, and my place i' the state,

Will so your accusation overweigh,

That you shall stifle in your own report.

I have begun,

And now I give my sensual race the rein:

Fit thy consent to my sharp appetite;

Lay 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. [Exit]

ISABELLA

To whom should I complain? Did I tell this,

Who would believe me?

I'll to my brother:

Though he hath fallen by prompture of the blood,

Yet hath he in him such a mind of honour.

That, had he twenty heads to tender down

On twenty bloody blocks, he'ld 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.

A room in the prison.

Enter CLAUDIO, and Provost, DUKE VINCENTIO disguised as before,

DUKE VINCENTIO

So then you hope of pardon from Lord Angelo?

CLAUDIO

The miserable have no other medicine

But only hope:

I've hope to live, and am prepared to die.

DUKE VINCENTIO

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 skyey influences,

That dost this habitation, where thou keep'st,

Hourly afflict: merely, thou art death's fool;

For him thou labour'st by thy flight to shun

And yet runn'st toward him still. ...

Thou hast nor youth nor age,

But, as it were, an after-dinner's sleep,

Dreaming on both; for all thy blessed youth

Becomes as aged, 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

Lie hid moe thousand deaths: yet death we fear,

That makes these odds all even.

CLAUDIO

I humbly thank you.

To sue to live, I find I seek to die;

And, seeking death, find life: let it come on.

ISABELLA

[Within] What, ho! Peace here; grace and good company!

Provost

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

DUKE VINCENTIO

Dear sir, ere long I'll visit you again.

CLAUDIO

Most holy sir, I thank you.

Enter ISABELLA led by PROVOST

ISABELLA

My business is a word or two with Claudio.

Provost

And very welcome. Look, signior, here's your sister.

DUKE VINCENTIO

Provost, a word with you.

Provost

As many as you please.

DUKE VINCENTIO

Bring me to hear them speak, where I may be concealed.

Exeunt DUKE VINCENTIO and Provost

CLAUDIO

Now, sister, what's the comfort?

ISABELLA

Why,

As all comforts are; most good, most good indeed.

Lord Angelo, having affairs to heaven,

Intends you for his swift ambassador,

Where you shall be an everlasting leiger:

Therefore your best appointment make with speed;

To-morrow you set on.

CLAUDIO

Is there no remedy?

ISABELLA

None, but such remedy as, to save a head,

To cleave a heart in twain.

CLAUDIO

But is there any?

ISABELLA

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.

CLAUDIO

Perpetual durance?

ISABELLA

Ay, just; perpetual durance, a restraint,

Though all the world's vastidity you had,

To a determined scope.

CLAUDIO

But in what nature?

ISABELLA

In such a one as, you consenting to't,

Would bark your honour from that trunk you bear,

And leave you naked.

CLAUDIO

Let me know the point.

ISABELLA

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 honour.

Darest 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.

CLAUDIO

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.

ISABELLA

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 emmew

As falcon doth the fowl, is yet a devil

His filth within being cast, he would appear

A pond as deep as hell.

CLAUDIO

The prenzie Angelo!

ISABELLA

O, 'tis the cunning livery of hell,

The damned'st body to invest and cover

In prenzie guards!

Dost thou think, Claudio?

If I would yield him my virginity,

Thou mightst be freed.

CLAUDIO

O heavens! it cannot be.

ISABELLA

Yes, he would give't thee, from this rank offence,

This night's the time

That I should do what I abhor to name,

Or else thou diest to-morrow.

CLAUDIO

Thou shalt not do't.

ISABELLA

O, were it but my life,

I'ld throw it down for your deliverance

As frankly as a pin.

CLAUDIO

Thanks, dear Isabel.

ISABELLA

Be ready, Claudio, for your death tomorrow.

CLAUDIO

Yes.

Has he affections in him,

That thus can make him bite the law by the nose,

When he would force it?

Sure, it is no sin,

Or of the deadly seven, it is the least.

ISABELLA

Which is the least?

CLAUDIO

If it were damnable, he being so wise,

Why would he for the momentary trick

Be perdurably fined?

O Isabel!

ISABELLA

What says my brother?

CLAUDIO

Death is a fearful thing.

ISABELLA

And shamed life a hateful.

CLAUDIO

Ay, but to die, and go we know not where;

To lie in cold obstruction and to rot;

This sensible warm motion to become

A kneaded clod; and the delighted spirit

To bathe in fiery floods, or to reside

In thrilling region of thick-ribbed ice;

To be imprison'd in the viewless winds,

And blown with restless violence round about

The pendent world; or to be worse than worst

Imagine howling: 'tis too horrible!

The weariest and most loathed worldly life

That age, ache, penury and imprisonment

Can lay on nature is a paradise

To what we fear of death.

ISABELLA

Alas, alas!

CLAUDIO

Sweet sister, let me live:

What sin you do to save a brother's life,

Nature dispenses with the deed so far

That it becomes a virtue.

ISABELLA

O you beast!

O faithless coward! O dishonest wretch!

Wilt thou be made a man out of my vice?

Is't not a kind of incest, to take life

From thine own sister's shame? What should I think?

Heaven shield my mother play'd my father fair!

For such a warped slip of wilderness

Ne'er issued from his blood.

Take my defiance!

Die, perish! Might but my bending down

Reprieve thee from thy fate, it should proceed:

I'll pray a thousand prayers for thy death,

No word to save thee.

CLAUDIO

Nay, hear me, Isabel.

ISABELLA

O, fie, fie, fie!

Thy sin's not accidental, but a trade.

Mercy to thee would prove itself a bawd:

'Tis best thou diest quickly.

CLAUDIO

O hear me, Isabella!

Re-enter DUKE VINCENTIO

DUKE VINCENTIO

Vouchsafe a word, young sister, but one word.

ISABELLA

What is your will?

DUKE VINCENTIO

Might you dispense with your leisure, I would by and

by have some speech with you: the satisfaction I

would require is likewise your own benefit.

ISABELLA

I have no superfluous leisure; my stay must be

stolen out of other affairs; but I will attend you awhile.

Walks apart

DUKE VINCENTIO

Son, I have overheard what hath passed between you

and your sister.

Angelo had never the purpose to

corrupt her; only he hath made an essay of her

virtue to practise his judgment with the disposition

of natures: she, having the truth of honour in her,

hath made him that gracious denial which he is most

glad to receive.

I am confessor to Angelo, and I

know this to be true;

therefore prepare yourself to

death: do not satisfy your resolution with hopes

that are fallible: tomorrow you must die; go to

your knees and make ready.

CLAUDIO

Let me ask my sister pardon. I am so out of love

with life that I will sue to be rid of it.

DUKE VINCENTIO

Hold you there: farewell.

Exit CLAUDIO

Provost, a word with you!

Re-enter Provost

Provost

What's your will, father

DUKE VINCENTIO

That now you are come, you will be gone. Leave me

awhile with the maid: my mind promises with my

habit no loss shall touch her by my company.

Provost

In good time.

Exit Provost. ISABELLA comes forward

DUKE VINCENTIO

The hand that hath made you fair hath made you good:

the goodness that is cheap in beauty makes beauty

brief in goodness; but grace, being the soul of

your complexion, shall keep the body of it ever

fair.

The assault that Angelo hath made to you,

fortune hath conveyed to my understanding; and, but

that frailty hath examples for his falling, I should

wonder at Angelo.

How will you do to content this

substitute, and to save your brother?

ISABELLA

I am now going to resolve him: I had rather my

brother die by the law than my son should be

unlawfully born.

But, O, how much is the good duke

deceived in Angelo! If ever he return and I can

speak to him, I will open my lips in vain, or

discover his government.

DUKE VINCENTIO

That shall not be much amiss:

Yet, as the matter

now stands, he will avoid your accusation; he made

trial of you only.

Therefore fasten your ear on my

advisings: to the love I have in doing good a

remedy presents itself. I do make myself believe

that you may most uprighteously do a poor wronged

lady a merited benefit; redeem your brother from

the angry law; do no stain to your own gracious

person; and much please the absent duke, if

peradventure he shall ever return to have hearing of

this business.

ISABELLA

Let me hear you speak farther. I have spirit to do

anything that appears not foul in the truth of my spirit.

DUKE VINCENTIO

Virtue is bold, and goodness never fearful. Have

you not heard speak of Mariana, the sister of

Frederick the great soldier who miscarried at sea?

ISABELLA

I have heard of the lady, and good words went with her name.

DUKE VINCENTIO

She should this Angelo have married; was affianced

to her by oath, and the nuptial appointed: between

which time of the contract and limit of the

solemnity, her brother Frederick was wrecked at sea,

having in that perished vessel the dowry of his

sister.

ISABELLA

Can this be so? did Angelo so leave her?

DUKE VINCENTIO

Left her in her tears, and dried not one of them

with his comfort; swallowed his vows whole,

pretending in her discoveries of dishonour:

ISABELLA

What a merit were it in death to take this poor maid

from the world! What corruption in this life, that

it will let this man live! But how out of this can she avail?

DUKE VINCENTIO

It is a rupture that you may easily heal: and the

cure of it not only saves your brother, but keeps

you from dishonour in doing it.

ISABELLA

Show me how, good father.

DUKE VINCENTIO

This forenamed maid hath yet in her the continuance

of her first affection: his unjust unkindness hath,

made it more violent and unruly....

Go you to Angelo; answer

his requiring with a plausible obedience; agree with

his demands to the point...that your stay with him may

not be long; that the time may have all shadow and

silence in it...This being granted in course,

--and now follows all,--

we shall advise this wronged maid to stead up

your appointment, go in your place... and here, by this, is

your brother saved, your honour untainted, the poor Mariana advantaged, and the corrupt deputy scaled.

The doubleness

of the benefit defends the deceit from reproof.

What think you of it?

ISABELLA

The image of it gives me content already; and I

trust it will grow to a most prosperous perfection.

DUKE VINCENTIO

It lies much in your holding up. Haste you speedily

to Angelo.

ISABELLA

I thank you for this comfort. Fare you well, good father.

LUCIO

What news, friar, of the duke?

DUKE VINCENTIO

I know none. Can you tell me of any?

LUCIO

Some say he is with the Emperor of Russia; other

some, he is in Rome: but where is he, think you?

DUKE VINCENTIO

I know not where; but wheresoever, I wish him well.

LUCIO

It was a mad fantastical trick of him to steal from

the state, and usurp the beggary he was never born

to. Lord Angelo dukes it well in his absence; he

puts transgression to 't.

DUKE VINCENTIO

He does well in 't.

LUCIO

A little more lenity to lechery would do no harm in

him: something too crabbed that way, friar.

DUKE VINCENTIO

It is too general a vice, and severity must cure it.

LUCIO

Yes, in good sooth, the vice is of a great kindred;

it is well allied: but it is impossible to extirp

it quite, friar, till eating and drinking be put

down. They say this Angelo was not made by man and

woman after this downright way of creation: is it

true, think you?

DUKE VINCENTIO

How should he be made, then?

LUCIO

Some report a sea-maid spawned him; some, that he

was begot between two stock-fishes. But it is

certain that when he makes water his urine is

congealed ice

DUKE VINCENTIO

You are pleasant, sir, and speak apace.

LUCIO

Would the duke that is absent have done this?

Ere he would have hanged a man for the getting a

hundred bastards, he would have paid for the nursing

a thousand: he had some feeling of the sport: he

knew the service, and that instructed him to mercy.

DUKE VINCENTIO

I never heard the absent duke much detected for

women; he was not inclined that way.

LUCIO

O, sir, you are deceived.

DUKE VINCENTIO

'Tis not possible.

LUCIO

Who, not the duke? yes, your beggar of fifty; and

his use was to put a ducat in her clack-dish: the

duke had crotchets in him.

He would be drunk too;

that let me inform you.

DUKE VINCENTIO

Love talks with better knowledge, and knowledge with

dearer love.

LUCIO

Come, sir, I know what I know.

DUKE VINCENTIO

I can hardly believe that, since you know not what

you speak.... I pray you, your name?

LUCIO

Sir, my name is Lucio; well known to the duke.

DUKE VINCENTIO

He shall know you better, sir, if I may live to

report you.

LUCIO

I fear you not. But no more of this. Canst thou tell if

Claudio die to-morrow or no?

DUKE VINCENTIO

Why should he die, sir?

LUCIO

Why? For filling a bottle with a tundish...

Marry, this Claudio is condemned for untrussing.

Farewell, good friar: I prithee, pray for me. The

duke, I say to thee again, would eat mutton on

Fridays. He's not past it yet, and I say to thee,

he would mouth with a beggar, though she smelt brown

bread and garlic: say that I said so. Farewell.

Exit

DUKE VINCENTIO

No might nor greatness in mortality

Can censure 'scape; back-wounding calumny

The whitest virtue strikes. What king so strong

Can tie the gall up in the slanderous tongue?

But who comes here?

Enter ESCALUS, Provost, and Officer with MISTRESS OVERDONE

ESCALUS

Go; away with her to prison!

MISTRESS OVERDONE

Good my lord, be good to me; your honour is accounted

a merciful man; good my lord.

ESCALUS

Double and treble admonition, and still forfeit in

the same kind! This would make mercy swear and play

the tyrant.

Provost

A bawd of eleven years' continuance, may it please

your honour.

MISTRESS OVERDONE

My lord, this is one Lucio's information against me.

Mistress Kate Keepdown was with child by him in the

duke's time; he promised her marriage: his child

is a year and a quarter old, come Philip and Jacob:

I have kept it myself; and see how he goes about to abuse me!

ESCALUS

That fellow is a fellow of much licence: let him be

called before us.

Away with her to prison! Go to;

no more words.

Exit Officer 1 with MISTRESS OVERDONE

Provost, my brother Angelo will not be altered;

Claudio must die to-morrow:

Provost

So please you, this friar hath been with him, and

advised him for the entertainment of death.

ESCALUS

Good even, good father.

DUKE VINCENTIO

Bliss and goodness on you!

ESCALUS

Of whence are you?

DUKE VINCENTIO

Not of this country, I am a brother

Of gracious order, late come from the See

In special business from his holiness...

I pray you, sir, of what disposition was the duke?

ESCALUS

One that, above all other strifes, contended

especially to know himself.

DUKE VINCENTIO

What pleasure was he given to?

ESCALUS

Rather rejoicing to see another merry, than merry at

any thing which professed to make him rejoice: a

gentleman of all temperance.

But leave we him to

his events, with a prayer they may prove prosperous;

and let me desire to know how you find Claudio

prepared. I am made to understand that you have

lent him visitation.

DUKE VINCENTIO

He professes to have received no sinister measure

from his judge, but most willingly humbles himself

to the determination of justice: now is he

resolved to die.

ESCALUS

You have paid the heavens your function

I am going to visit the prisoner. Fare you well.

DUKE VINCENTIO

Peace be with you!

Exeunt ESCALUS and Provost

He who the sword of heaven will bear

Should be as holy as severe;

Pattern in himself to know,

Grace to stand, and virtue go;

How may likeness made in crimes,

Making practise on the times,

To draw with idle spiders' strings

Most ponderous and substantial things!

Craft against vice I must apply:

With Angelo to-night shall lie

His old betrothed but despised;

So disguise shall, by the disguised,

Pay with falsehood false exacting,

And perform an old contracting.

The moated grange at ST. LUKE's.

Enter MARIANA and a Boy

Boy sings

Take, O, take those lips away,

That so sweetly were forsworn;

And those eyes, the break of day,

Lights that do mislead the morn:

But my kisses bring again, bring again;

Seals of love, but sealed in vain, sealed in vain.

MARIANA

Break off thy song, and haste thee quick away:

Here comes a man of comfort, whose advice

Hath often still'd my brawling discontent.

Exit Boy

Enter DUKE VINCENTIO disguised as before

I cry you mercy, sir; and well could wish

You had not found me here so musical:

Let me excuse me, and believe me so,

My mirth it much displeased, but pleased my woe.

DUKE VINCENTIO

'Tis good; though music oft hath such a charm

To make bad good, and good provoke to harm.

I pray, you, tell me, hath any body inquired

for me here to-day?

MARIANA

You have not been inquired after:

I have sat here all day.

Enter ISABELLA

DUKE VINCENTIO

I do constantly believe you. The time is come even

now. I shall crave your forbearance a little: may

be I will call upon you anon, for some advantage to yourself.

MARIANA

I am always bound to you.

Exit

DUKE VINCENTIO

Very well met, and well come.

What is the news from this good deputy?

ISABELLA

He hath a garden circummured with brick,

Whose western side is with a vineyard back'd;

There have I made my promise

Upon the heavy middle of the night

To call upon him.

I have possess'd him my most stay

Can be but brief;

DUKE VINCENTIO

'Tis well borne up.

I have not yet made known to Mariana

A word of this.

What, ho! within! come forth!

Re-enter MARIANA

I pray you, be acquainted with this maid;

She comes to do you good.

ISABELLA

I do desire the like.

DUKE VINCENTIO

Do you persuade yourself that I respect you?

MARIANA

Good friar, I know you do, and have found it.

DUKE VINCENTIO

Take, then, this your companion by the hand,

Who hath a story ready for your ear.

I shall attend your leisure: but make haste;

The vaporous night approaches.

MARIANA

Will't please you walk aside?

Exeunt MARIANA and ISABELLA

DUKE VINCENTIO

O place and greatness! millions of false eyes

Are stuck upon thee: volumes of report

Run with these false and most contrarious quests

Upon thy doings:

Re-enter MARIANA and ISABELLA

Welcome, how agreed?

ISABELLA

She'll take the enterprise upon her, father,

If you advise it.

DUKE VINCENTIO

It is not my consent,

But my entreaty too.

ISABELLA

Little have you to say

When you depart from him, but, soft and low,

'Remember now my brother.'

MARIANA

Fear me not.

DUKE VINCENTIO

Nor, gentle daughter, fear you not at all.

He is your husband on a pre-contract:

To bring you thus together, 'tis no sin,

Sith that the justice of your title to him

Doth flourish the deceit. Come, let us go:

Our corn's to reap, for yet our tithe's to sow.

Exeunt

Act 4, Scene 2 A room in the prison.

Provost and Officer 1

Call hither Barnardine and Claudio:

The one has my pity; not a jot the other,

Being a murderer, though he were my brother.

Enter CLAUDIO

Look, here's the warrant, Claudio, for thy death:

'Tis now dead midnight, and by eight to-morrow

Thou must be made immortal. Where's Barnardine?

CLAUDIO

As fast lock'd up in sleep as guiltless labour

When it lies starkly in the traveller's bones:

He will not wake.

Provost

Who can do good on him?

Well, go, prepare yourself.

Knocking within

But, hark, what noise?

Heaven give your spirits comfort!

Exit CLAUDIO

By and by.

I hope it is some pardon or reprieve

For the most gentle Claudio.

Enter DUKE VINCENTIO disguised as before

Welcome father.

DUKE VINCENTIO

The best and wholesomest spirts of the night

Envelope you, good Provost! Who call'd here of late?

Provost

None, since the curfew rung.

DUKE VINCENTIO

Not Isabel?

Provost

No.

DUKE VINCENTIO

They will, then, ere't be long.

Provost

What comfort is for Claudio?

DUKE VINCENTIO

There's some in hope.

Provost

It is a bitter deputy.

DUKE VINCENTIO

And here comes Claudio's pardon.

OFFICER 1

My lord hath sent you this note; and by me this

further charge, that you swerve not from the

smallest article of it, neither in time, matter, or

other circumstance. Good morrow; for, as I take it,

it is almost day.

Provost

I shall obey him.

Exit Messenger

DUKE VINCENTIO

[Aside] This is his pardon, purchased by such sin

For which the pardoner himself is in.

.... Now, sir, what news?

Provost

[Reads]

'Whatsoever you may hear to the contrary, let

Claudio be executed by four of the clock; and in the

afternoon Barnardine: for my better satisfaction,

let me have Claudio's head sent me by five. Let

this be duly performed; with a thought that more

depends on it than we must yet deliver. Thus fail

not to do your office, as you will answer it at your peril.'

What say you to this, sir?

DUKE VINCENTIO [PAUSE]

What is that Barnardine who is to be executed in the

afternoon?

Provost

A Bohemian born, but here nursed un and bred; one

that is a prisoner nine years old...

A man that apprehends death no more dreadfully but

as a drunken sleep; careless, reckless, and fearless

of what's past, present, or to come; insensible of

mortality, and desperately mortal.

DUKE VINCENTIO

He wants advice.

Provost

He will hear none: he hath evermore had the liberty

of the prison; give him leave to escape hence, he

would not: drunk many times a day, if not many days

entirely drunk.

DUKE VINCENTIO

By the vow of mine order I warrant you, if my

instructions may be your guide. Let this Barnardine

be this morning executed, and his head born to Angelo.

Provost

Angelo hath seen them both, and will discover the favour.

DUKE VINCENTIO

O, death's a great disguiser; and you may add to it.

Shave the head, and tie the beard;

Look you, sir, here is the hand and seal of the

duke: you know the character, I doubt not; and the

signet is not strange to you.

Provost

I know them both.

DUKE VINCENTIO

Put not yourself into amazement how these

things should be: all difficulties are but easy

when they are known. Call your executioner, and off

with Barnardine's head.

POMPEY

Master Barnardine! you must rise and be hanged.

Master Barnardine!

BARNARDINE

[Within] A pox o' your throats! Who makes that

noise there? What are you?

POMPEY

Your friends, sir; the hangman. You must be so

good, sir, to rise and be put to death.

BARNARDINE

[Within] Away, you rogue, away! I am sleepy.

POMPEY

Pray, Master Barnardine, awake till you are

executed, and sleep afterwards. [Enter BARNARDINE]

BARNARDINE

How now, POMPEY? what's the news with you?

POMPEY

Truly, sir, I would desire you to clap into your

prayers; for, look you, the warrant's come.

BARNARDINE

You rogue, I have been drinking all night; I am not

fitted for 't.

POMPEY

O, the better, sir; for he that drinks all night,

and is hanged betimes in the morning, may sleep the

sounder all the next day.

Enter DUKE VINCENTIO disguised as before

DUKE VINCENTIO

Sir, induced by my charity, and hearing how hastily

you are to depart, I am come to advise you, comfort

you and pray with you.

BARNARDINE

Friar, not I

I have been drinking hard all night,

and I will have more time to prepare me, or they

shall beat out my brains with billets: I will not

consent to die this day, that's certain.

DUKE VINCENTIO

O, sir, you must: and therefore I beseech you

Look forward on the journey you shall go.

BARNARDINE

I swear I will not die to-day for any man's

persuasion.

DUKE VINCENTIO

Unfit to live or die: O gravel heart!

Enter Provost

PROVOST

Now, sir, how do you find the prisoner?

DUKE VINCENTIO

A creature unprepared, unmeet for death;

And to transport him in the mind he is

Were damnable.

Provost

Here in the prison, father,

There died this morning of a cruel fever

One Ragozine, a most notorious pirate,

A man of Claudio's years; his beard and head

Just of his colour.

What if we do omit

This reprobate till he were well inclined;

And satisfy the deputy with the visage

Of Ragozine, more like to Claudio?

DUKE VINCENTIO

O, 'tis an accident that heaven provides!

Dispatch it presently; the hour draws on

Now will I write letters to Angelo,--

whose contents

Shall witness to him I am near at home,

And that, by great injunctions, I am bound

To enter publicly: him I'll desire

To meet me at the consecrated fount

A league below the city;

By cold gradation and well balanced form

We shall proceed with Angelo

Re-enter Provost:

Here is the head; I'll carry it myself.

DUKE VINCENTIO

Convenient it is. Make a swift return.

PROVOST

I’ll make all speed

ISABELLA

[Within] Peace, ho, be here!

DUKE VINCENTIO

The tongue of Isabel. She's come to know

If yet her brother's pardon be come hither:

But I will keep her ignorant of her good,

ISABELLA

Ho, by your leave!

DUKE VINCENTIO

Good morning to you, fair and gracious daughter.

ISABELLA

The better, given me by so holy a man.

Hath yet the deputy sent my brother's pardon?

DUKE VINCENTIO

He hath released him, Isabel, from the world:

His head is off and sent to Angelo.

ISABELLA

Nay, but it is not so.

DUKE VINCENTIO

It is no other: show your wisdom, daughter,

In your close patience.

ISABELLA

O, I will to him and pluck out his eyes!

DUKE VINCENTIO

You shall not be admitted to his sight.

ISABELLA

Unhappy Claudio! wretched Isabel!

Injurious world! most damned Angelo!

DUKE VINCENTIO

This nor hurts him nor profits you a jot;

Forbear it therefore; give your cause to heaven.

Mark what I say, ...

The duke comes home to-morrow; nay, dry your eyes;

... If you can, pace your wisdom

In that good path that I would wish it go,

And you shall have your bosom on this wretch,

Grace of the duke, revenges to your heart,

And general honour.

ISABELLA

I am directed by you.

Exit

[Enter Pompey and drag out Barnardine up left]

ESCALUS

Every letter he hath writ hath disvouched other.

ANGELO

In most uneven and distracted manner. His actions

show much like to madness: pray heaven his wisdom be

not tainted! And why meet him at the gates, and

redeliver our authorities there

ESCALUS

I guess not.

ANGELO

And why should we proclaim it in an hour before his

entering, that if any crave redress of injustice,

they should exhibit their petitions in the street?

ESCALUS

He shows his reason for that: to have a dispatch of

complaints, and to deliver us from devices

hereafter, which shall then have no power to stand

against us.

ANGELO

Good night. [Exit ESCALUS]

This deed unshapes me quite, makes me unpregnant

And dull to all proceedings.

A deflower'd maid!

And by an eminent body that enforced

The law against it!

But that her tender shame

Will not proclaim against her maiden loss,

How might she tongue me!

Yet reason dares her no;

For my authority bears of a credent bulk,

That no particular scandal once can touch

But it confounds the breather.

He should have lived,

Save that riotous youth, with dangerous sense,

Might in the times to come have ta'en revenge,

By so receiving a dishonour'd life

With ransom of such shame. Would yet he had lived!

Alack, when once our grace we have forgot,

Nothing goes right; we would, and we would not.